2008 Miscellaneous Mop-Up

/

As for big changes in 2009, I don't have too many planned. Not yet anyway.

Expect a few more course design project videos, perhaps no longer opening story links in new windows (only because that seems to be a web standard now) and yes, there might be advertising (contemplating joining an ad network devoted to golf sites).

Unique visitors and page views were up over last year, which is amazing considering the expected traffic drop off after Tiger went on leave. That was compounded by the economic crisis where the markets most tumultuous days definitely impacted visits here (and surely all other non-banking websites).

As always, the strength of this site remains the quality of the comments you all leave. I'm quite lucky to have such a diverse readership and it's always fascinating how many golf industry people are obsessed with comments made. That's a tribute to you all.

Please use this opportunity not to heap glowing praise but to offer any and all constructive criticism you'd like to share to help make this site better. And finally, while there really is no good reason I can think of to share this,  maybe someone out there will get a kick out of knowing this about the GeoffShackelford.com readership...

Operating System Preference:

WinXP 66.08%
MacOSX  14.78%
WinVista 6.6% (ouch!)
Unknown  6.38%
Win2000 2.77%
Win2003 1.56%
Win98  0.51%
Linux 0.48%
iPhone 0.35% (it's a start)
WinNT  0.14%
Win9x  0.1%
WinNT4  0.06%
WinMobile0.05%
Win95 0.05%
MacOS 0.01%
WinME 0.01%
Win310.01%
SunOS  0%
PlaystationPortable  0%
NintendoWii 0%
Playstation3 0%
Symbian 0%
NintendoDS  0%


Browser Analysis

IE6  30.36%
IE7  28.23%
Gecko(Firefox)  23.36%
Safari 9.77%
Unknown  6.37%
Opera9  0.44%
IE5  0.3%
Gecko  0.29%
Gecko(Camino)  0.19%
Gecko(NS7)  0.13%
Chrome  0.13%
KHTML 0.1%
Opera8  0.06%
IE  0.06%
Opera7 0.05%
IE4 0.04%
NS  0.04%
Opera6  0.01%
KHTML(Konqueror)  0.01%
Gecko(NS)  0.01%
Gecko(Phoenix)  0.01%
Gecko(Firebird)  0.01%
Gecko(Galeon)  0.01%

TheGolfWatch.com Interview Parts 1-3 **

/

TheGolfWatch.com's Richard Simon interviewed me today and has broken it up into three parts. Because I know that the entire collection of my spellbinding comments to a variety of intelligent questions could keep you from the family Christmas gift opening, I'm only going to post part 1 of 3 today.

Merry Christmas!

The Making Of The Horse Course, Volume 1

/

Now that we have a week off from the playoff excitement, I have posted my first 4-minute "video diary" from the site of a golf course project. In this case, it's Volume 1 from the Prairie Club where Gil Hanse, Jim Wagner and I have layed out a par-3 course called "The Horse Course." You can read more on the Prairie Club on the page I've devoted to it (with some early construction images posted), or at the Destination Golf Ventures website.

Volume 1 centers around our trip (Gil, Jimand yours truly) to work with developer Paul Schock and his team on the clubhouse area land plan. You can view a slightly wider angle version here or hit the play button on the embedded version below.

And as you will soon see, I'm no Steven Spielberg in the editing bay and certainly no Morgan Freeman in the voiceover booth. But hopefully you'll enjoy the images and great music, which in this case appears courtesy of Lloyd Cole from his excellent album, Antidepressant.


The Making of the Horse Course Vol. 1 from Geoff Shackelford on Vimeo.

"There was a very strong response from people who don't believe in global warming. I was surprised by that, because global warming was actually a very minor part of the piece..."

/

In the July Golfdom, I pen a column/essay on the importance of Golf Digest redefining their conditioning category. Along with the piece was a column that surprisingly hasn't elicited surprisingly nice emails from superintendents.

Online, Golfdom offered editor Larry Aylward pens a column taking issue with Barton's tone toward superintendents.

I also interviewed Barton, who had plenty of great stuff to say about his research and the surprising reaction Golf Digest received.

The entire package of Golf Digest stories can be viewed here.

Light Posting This Week, Possible Disruptions

/

I'll be on the road and checking in from a place where the Internet is better at night than during the day (yes, there are still places with connections like that). But it's awfully pretty and will be a great place for golf.

That said, I have several Open Championship issues that we must chew on, so it'll be a good week for posing questions and hearing what you all have to say.

Also, my web host Squarespace is uploading a new version of its software so the site will be down and possibly going through a few hiccups Sunday night into Monday morning. Apologies for any disruptions this might bring to your blog reading.

Masters Week Coverage

/

DatelineAugustaThe blog here will have the usual Masters stuff like posts, links to sites and live blogs of the four tournament rounds. However, I'm pleased to announce one change.

In the past I've done a daily "clippings" breakdown highlighting the media coverage from Augusta National.  However, as part of its Masters coverage GolfDigest.com has provided me a page titled Dateline Augusta where I will be offering a daily breakdown of the most important reading and reminders about television coverage.

My introductory post is up and full coverage will start early Monday morning.

Posting here at GS.com will be light Friday and Saturday as I'll be remembering a friend and watching the Final Four.