Small-Time Golf: End of the Week Odds and Ends

by Craig Small

I received some interesting news this week. Many of you will remember my recent Monster Card Monday post in which I profiled Phil Mickelson’s 2005 APBA Golf card. I put particular focus on the fact that the card featured a 36:12 result in the I column, a 12 being the best possible result for an iron shot. I pointed out that the 36:12 is one of two 12 Iron results for Mickelson, a real rarity. The 12 is an especially incredible result considering that for almost all other golfer cards a roll of 36 results in a poor shot.

I was contacted soon after by Bill Staffa who had done quite a bit of research and discovered that other than the new Jason Dufner 2012 Ryder Cup card, there has never been another instance of a player having two 12 Iron results on their card. So the Mickelson card really is a monster, right? Wrong. Bill did some more research and discovered that no player should ever have two 12 Iron results on their card and that the 2005 Mickelson card is, in fact, an error. The card should read 36:14 in the I column. APBA has since posted the announcement on their website and has promised that the card will be reprinted. I’m not sure what this means for the Dufner card.

So much for Mickelson’s Monster Card Monday selection. Thanks for all of you efforts, Bill. Great work.

In other news, I have a new Facebook friend from Brazil named Felipe Betschart. He got in contact with me because he is a fellow APBA Golf fan and read some of my posts on the various APBA Golf Facebook pages. One day about a week ago I received a message from Felipe while I was on Facebook during my lunch break at work. He had a question about the game and a particularly difficult shot he was trying to figure out. We bounced a few ideas back and forth and he said he would give our ideas a try. I thought about it afterward and was struck by what had happened. I was in New Hampshire on my lunch break having a “conversation” with a guy in Brazil on a little handheld computer about APBA Golf. Here was a guy half the world away that I never would have been acquainted with if it hadn’t been for our shared interest in this wonderful little golf game. It really was the essence of sports and how it can bring people from all different areas and backgrounds together in friendship. I’ve also been struck by how pleasant and helpful everyone has been on all of the different APBA blogs and Facebook pages I’ve encountered. It’s sportsmanship at its best.

If you follow Tom’s APBA Blog Facebook page you may want to make some changes based on some information I’ve just learned about. Apparently, Facebook has recently made it more difficult for posts from pages like the APBA Blog to reach the fans who have liked the page. I’ve read that in some cases the posts reach only about 15% of the target audience. This is a major money grab by Facebook. They are now telling people like Tom that if the pay a promotion fee they can be sure that everyone who “likes” the page will receive all of the posts.

Word is getting around that if you go to the pages you “like” and hold your cursor over the box that says “liked” a box will pop up that gives you some option. One of the options is to create a “new list.” You can put your liked pages onto different lists or one list. The list or lists then appear on your Facebook page under “interests.” When you click on your interests you will then be assured of receiving ALL of the posts that people like Tom and APBA are trying to share with you without them having to pay a promotion fee.

Have a great weekend. I’m getting ready for Sandy to hit. It shouldn’t be too bad where I am but, who knows?