This weekend I finally got back to working on my first day cover project. I uploaded about 100 new covers and decided to re-work the structure of the collection online. Instead of a huge text listing on one page, I’ve divided it into yearly pages with thumbnail pictures that can be clicked to view a close-up of the stamp.

There are still literally hundreds left to enter, but I like the framework much better now.

Check out the new pages here:

2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999

The current issue of Mpls St Paul magazine has a special advertising section produced in association with the MGA. Usually these sections are just a cover for a bunch of ads, but the 2007 edition has some good stories.

Jon Roe writes about Adam Riddering, a Nationwide Tour golfer from Maple Grove. John Mugford has a story about golf mentor programs, such Braemar’s Tee It Up program and the those offered by the Minnesota Metro Chapter of the Executive Women’s Golf Association. A brief, two-page metro area course guide was also included.

My favorite story, however, was written by Joe Bissen, who interviews eight people associated with Minnesota golf to ask how they define golf bliss in our state (frequent answers: Minneapolis Golf Club, Minikahda and Windsong Farm). The eight respondents are:

• Matt Anderson, Stillwater High School golf coach
• Bud Chapman, artist
• Rick Shefchik, writer
• Peter Wong, photographer
• Kevin Norby, golf course architect
• James Bade, Somerset superintendent
• Jim Manthis, instructor
• Brenda Williams, amateur

This special advertising section does not appear to be online.

Tanner’s Brook in Forest Lake is finishing work on a new clubhouse. The old one was torn down and the new one is going up in the same spot. Scheduled to open in July, they are currently operating out of the barn next to the eighteenth green.

Slowest. Get in Gear. Ever.

• 2002 – 1:07:04 (10:48 pace)
• 2003 – 1:00:32 (9:45)
• 2004 – 0:55:41 (8:58)
• 2005 – 0:57:43 (9:18)
• 2006 – 0:55:28 (8:56)
• 2007 – 1:07:49 (10:55)

It was a beautiful day, though–sunny and about 65 degrees with a light breeze. This was my first outdoor run of the year, so I can’t be too disappointed with the time. These days, just finishing without injury is a success.

I ran with my Nike+iPod setup (sans headphones). The distances were off by about one tenth of a mile, so I’ll need to recalibrate that soon. When I uploaded the data afterwards, I received a nice surprise:

This race is well-run, but they still had a couple of recurring issues. Water at the finish line is still located too far away and the lines for food take forever to get through. The addition of “hero pops,” though, more than made up for those things–they tasted great after a hot run!

FORE! Minnesota, on Saturday, April 28, 2007 (9 am on KSTC-45):

• Course Tour: Mount Frontenac (Lake City)
• Great Moments in MN Golf: Tom Lehman’s British Open 1996
• Stories of Golf: Harmon Killebrew & the Killebrew Classic
• Unplayable Lies with Common: “Playing Through”
• Tad Reeve’s Dream 18: Minneapolis #10
• Pro Strategies:Eric Chiles (The Wilds)

The 2007 edition of the City Pages Best of the Twin Cities is out and their selection for Best Golf Course was a bit of a surprise:

Best Golf Course : Meadowbrook
Reader’s Choice: Theodore Wirth

Out of all of the Minneapolis public golf courses, I do like Meadowbrook the best. Theodore Wirth has a nice layout and overall environment, but the conditioning always seems suspect.

Meadowbrook is better in that respect and the parkland setting with few houses is nice. I don’t like a few of the blind tee shots, but it is a challenging course. Plus the views of Interlachen bring out the golf lust in me…

Does Tom Lehman want you to join his club? I’ve received these letters for several years and finally decided to look into who was really behind this. The return address listed Minnetonka, Minnesota and they do have the “official” PGA TOUR logo, so I was curious to see what was up.

From the club website, I found out it’s actually part of a larger organization:

North American Membership Group Inc. (NAMG)
12301 Whitewater Drive
Minnetonka, MN 55343
www.namginc.com

Who We Are:

North American Membership Group Inc. (NAMG) is the world’s largest lifestyle affinity
membership organization, which successfully combines membership, publishing and
merchandise marketing into one business. NAMG operates ten special-interest Clubs
(North American Hunting Club, North American Fishing Club, Handyman Club of America,
National Home Gardening Club, PGATOUR Partners Club, Cooking Club of America,
National Health & Wellness Club, Creative Home Arts Club, The History Channel Club and
National Street Machine Club) with a combined membership of nearly 5 million Members!
NAMG is wholly-owned by Doughty Hanson & Company Ltd., Europe’s largest private equity
fund manager.

I had never heard of this foreign-owned Minnesota company, but it sounds like it’s a large, successful organization. Anyone out there who has accepted Tom’s invitation care to comment on membership?