OMG, You DIDN'T just ask that!

Results should be ...most ...interesting.

Pretty "uppety" yourself to be basically calling an entire class of people "some middle-aged 16-handicapper with a paunch who's eating a frozen dinner in his boxer shorts in front of his computer."

If you spent some time on some of these boards, you'll find that it's similar to walking down a busy city street: some wackos, some in need of help, some idiots, but mostly a bunch of reasonably intelligent people with some very qualified, professional people there. In other words, stop generalizing - how offensive would you find it if someone blogged about all women ruining pace of play on the golf course? That's not true, either.

You're falling victim to two things here:

1. The age-old practice of using one or two examples to extrapolate a trend and applying it without relevant data to an entire system.

and

2. "confirmation bias" - Where you use the SLIGHTEST evidence to confirm something you already believe to be 100% true, thereby detouring you from objectively evaluating something.

I hope people treat your blog with more respect than you are treating this subject matter.

P.S. Spend more time on BSG - you'll learn something new all the time, and you'll actually be a better qualified equipment "professional" for it. Get rid of your bias and use your professional knowledge to figure out what is helpful and what is not amongst the content - you'll find both, and it's pretty easy to spot the qualified people that post. Surely your experience will allow you to easily do that, and it's a cheap way for professional education enhancement.

Wow you got some big ones Ms.Sternberg...you just opened up a huge can of "im gonna get in your grill"...i hope this blog or whatever gets notice by the boys of BSG and GolfWRX...they will definitely let you know how they feel and how they have come to know so much.....SuperFonzie....GOLF GEEK !!!

I agree with your general assessment. It's easy to hide behind a computer and make people believe you are more than you are. Everyone on the internet hits it 320 yards. What's worse is that these golf sites (one in particular) promote equipment that is over-rated, over-priced, and fit by internet evaluations and telephone calls. People get misled into thinking they can buy a game with rare (and often) bogus tour-only gear and in the end it's only the greedy sellers that benefit. The sad part is they keep coming back for more.

Were everywere Stina.....;)

Tyler Durden

Oh yeah, 1 more thing.

Were better than www.golfdiscussions.com. If you really want to see some dorks, go there.

http://bigstealergolf.blogspot.com/

You should be careful what you wish for Stina....

Here are a couple of my more dazzling pix.

[IMG]http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h231/NYKnuckleballer/KennyXtremeCruiser.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h231/NYKnuckleballer/KennyXtremeCruiser2.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h231/NYKnuckleballer/KennyXtremeCruiser3.jpg[/IMG]

XOXOXO,
Kenny

Let's try this again. I may be a golf techno geek but that doesn't make me internet saavy. ;)

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h231/NYKnuckleballer/KennyXtremeCruiser.jpg
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h231/NYKnuckleballer/KennyXtremeCruiser2.jpg
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h231/NYKnuckleballer/KennyXtremeCruiser3.jpg

Stina,

If you're interesting and play for that team, you can look me up at my blog: www.golfdiscussions.com

Be talking to ya soon,
Infatuated Kenny

Stina
Perhaps your comments were to create a controversy among equipment geeks. If so, well done. If not I am disappointed in your sweeping generalizations of the "uppety bloggers." How often have you been irked by the stereotypes that women are assessed in the golf world? Based on your GD columns and your statements on the Golf Channel, quite often. I would venture to guess that if you contacted any of the "boxer-clad 16 year-olds" they would be happy to answer any questions that you might have regarding their time and occupations. I have visited several golf forums. While I post rarely, I find the forums entertaining. And that puts them in the same category as you Ms. Sternburg. You may consider yourself a journalist or a professional in the golf industry but when you go on television or write an article in GD or online, you are writing for someone's entertainment - nothing more. Perhaps you are threatened by the forums and you feel that classing the members and/or owners of the forums as losers will somehow give you more credibility. Perhaps you are jealous that you can't show the "paparazzi photos" that the forums are able to obtain. Regardless of your feelings towards the forums you should have more class than to call names and attempt to discredit the information contained in said forums. I look forward to any response you might care to give to my or any of the other comments to your blog entry. BTW I am a 31 year old male, I have a wife and 4 kids. I am a commercial real estate broker. I stand 6' tall and weigh 185 LBS. If you require a picture to prove this information, I would be happy to email you a family photo. Oh and I am wearing pants lest you conjure up an inappropriate image in your head about my appearance.

Since you obviously didn't read much of the forums you claimed to visit, you probably won't bother to read this feedback either.

We can't all be washed up pro-golfers, so most of us manage to work fulltime while having a passion for the sport. This passion leads us to do the type of research you seem to be bothered by. Many of us are also amateur club builders (with a fair amount of professional in the mix to) that like to assemble our own gear so we can get custom fit clubs and are not stuck playing with the off-the-rack crap the big names push on the public and your buddies at the hot-list get paid to shill.

You claim to have club fitting in your past - would fit a 16-capper off the street into a 46" Ping/Callaway/Adams driver with hook-inducing 2* closed face? Sorry, am I typing too fast for you?

Sadly, you seem to have no clue about the average member of these golf forums you are making fun of. Surprising that a so-called editor of magazine would do such little research herself.

Stina,

A picture of myself and Mrs. Green doing what we like to do the best is on the way.

D. Green

What irritates me most is the big name golf magazines who sometimes don't know what they are talking about.

Take the latest issue of Golf Magazine...page , where 'Dr. Tom' from Hotstix provides a lot of innacurate information in a small blurb relating to name brand vs. component (and also clone or knock off clubs, which he incorrectly lumps together):
ASK DR. TOM
Dr. Tom Mase, EVP of R&D and Innovation for Hot Stix Golf and Bently Endowed Professor, Cal Poly State Univ. answers your questions.

Q: Are component clubs as good as "name-brand" equipment?
In general, component or knock-off clubs don't perform as well as name-brand clubs, particularly in drivers. Name brands use sophisticated design and manufacturing methods to construct 460cc heads with inertia properties upwards of 5,000 g/cm2. The companies do extensive studies of internal weighting and rib structures that impacts performance. You'll notice a difference in length when you mis-hit a knock-off.

Send Dr. Tom questions to
golfletters@golf.com

My response:

To whom it may concern:

I have never written a letter to any golf magazine, even when it has been obvious that the writer has been misinformed or just plain wrong. With this short blurb above in your most recent issue, I just couldn't let the egregious errors be further perpetuated.

Dr. Tom needs to realize that there is a distinct difference between component golf clubs and knock-off (or otherwise commonly referred to as clone) golf clubs. Knock-offs are exactly that, clubs often illegally or unethically copied and marketed to fool the consumer into thinking that he is buying the real 'name brand' thing (or an exact copy there of). These clubs are often given a similar name to the original name brand club, in order to fool the consumer. Yes, knock-offs are often cheap imitations, maybe using inferior materials or having less than perfect engineering. For some golfers, these are the equipment ticket to get them started into the game, but due to the quality of the club most golfers will soon move on from these cheap knock-offs. Obviously these knock-offs are illegal and unethical as they are clubs being sold using another company's designs and hard work in the R&D department; essentially this is stealing and patent or copyright infringement.

The real irritant with me is that Dr. Tom lumped component clubs in with cheap and obviously illegal knock-off clubs. Component clubs are just that, clubs sold and either custom built by a clubmaker to a golfer's requirements or sold as separate parts (shafts, heads, etc.) for assembly by the golfer. These component manufacturers almost always have their own R&D departments, put out their own clubhead designs, and will custom build a club for you due to your personal height, arm length and swing requirements. Some well respected component manufacturers, like Wishon clubs or Snake Eyes / Golfsmith clubs, make your magazine competitor's "Hot List" . DO NOT CONFUSE WELL DESIGNED AND FITTED COMPONENT CLUBS AND MANUFACTURERS WITH CHEAP AND ILLEGAL KNOCK-OFF OR CLONE CLUBS!

Too much is often made about whether the club has Taylor Made or Titleist on the clubhead. I carry both name brand clubs (driver, putter, woods and hybrids) and also well made component clubs (irons) and couldn't be happier.

Please get your information correct before you publish.

Sometimes those of us on golf forums aren't as stupid as all of you at the golf magazine think that we are. And many of us aren't complete shills for the big few golf companies (Taylor Made, Titleist, Callaway, etc.)as the magazines are, beholden to the ad dolar as magazines are.

Stina,

You comments are quite funny. I don't take offense to anything that you have said, as I don't have thin skinned and feel it necessary to pump up my abilities. I am in no way an expert when it comes to equipment. I appreciate your candor. I know that you are going to get bombarded by negative comments and mudslinging between different message board participants. Since you have said that you frequented some of these boards, I am sure that you can draw your own conclusion about what each board has to offer.

I will send you a picture of me showing that I am not the fat, bald guy sitting at his computer in his boxers. Not that it has any difference whether I can hit a golfball or not. For a quick description, I am 5'9" and 183 pounds as per my last Physical Training test. I am on active duty in the U.S. Army and participate in Physical Training 5 times a week. I am not the fat guy, but I am bald as I shave my head because it is much cooler when I am in the desert on deployments.

Thanks,

Jim

Stina,

I thought you were married. What are you doing trolling for men on your blog. If you want a pic that bad, I will send you one.

Also, BSG is the biggest ripoff on the net. If you want to be ripped off, go there. "Tour" gear can be had for a lot less. The truth is out there.

IB

If the intent was to rile up the natives, Ms. Stina here did her job. If the intent was for her to have her own version of Match.com and have guys send her pictures. Then she needs to stop trolling the message boards and find a guy who has the same interests.

She was right on one account, the tools at Bombsquad Golf who push these "exotic" overpriced clubs that only the tour players use to "the 16 handicapper" are robbing them blind.

Bravo Ms Hottie, your article made the Jonestown followers over at BSG very angry. Watch it, you may be banned until 2034 now.

There are two camps on sites such as Bombsquadgolf.com and golfwrx.com. The first is the 16 index who says he is a 7 and bombs the ball 320 (in reality 240 or less because he plays a shaft that is way to stiff for him).

Though there is also another group and that is club pros, assitants and other in the industry. I would say that at least 60% of the club pros/asst pros (I would say based on 30-40 that I know or have played in local tourns with) that I know go to a golf forum at least 20 times or more per year.

I am sure that somewhere down the line you will hear from what many call "the lemmings" from over at BSG (those are the 16 handicappers that are the techno geeks) as well as the so called "owners" of the site (who from time to time also think they own the internet)who push "high end shafts" that most of these guys have no business using other that wasting their money. But this guy has created such a following that these guys will buy a shaft because it is pretty (literaly pretty like neon candy lime green with little sparkles in the paint, that will cost you an extra $200-300 per shaft).

As far as where do I get the time to be on the golf blogs all the time (I am in the industry, part time at least). I gave up TV, because there is no entertainment like seeing some fo these fanatics go at it. I rarely post but love to "lurk".

Another positive service these forums provide is a cheaper alternative to sell clubs raqther than using ebay.

I would love to send my picture of me golfing with my beautiful daughter and show your readership that some of us are normal. I can also send you a few pictures of the owner of BSG that he posted on his site of him flexing in a thread about his workout routine and lifting program (you will get a good laugh out of that one).

You learn about gear on these sites months before you would otherwise see it. You then poke fun at and belittle the people who provide this content to you free of charge? Ever heard of the phrase, "Don't bite the hand that feeds you?" You are one pompous, self-righteous individual Stina. You are an ice queen. I like that. Is that weird? Spine me, flo me. Won't you SST pure me? Which way do you swing(weight) Stina?

http://bigstealergolf.blogspot.com/2007/01/welcome_02.html

Greetings Stina,

I would recommend that you try playing a much stiffer shaft than the one you are currently playing. If you need any help with the insertion, please feel free to email me.

Cheers,
SBR67

Dear Stina,
I like the use of generalizations and stereotypes in your blog commentary. On these boards, you can find a blend of people that play well to those that are just beginning the game but we all share a keen interest in the game of golf. Equipment is a big part of the game and seeing what technological advancements are coming down the line are interesting. I think you might find many of those on these boards quite interesting people in real life and might even like them. We might even change your condescending view of us all.

Stina --

It's simple as to why guys spend time on golf websites -- their passion for the game takes precedence over an unexciting job; or they're taking a break from the work day.

As to women on golf websites, please ask your female readers to participate -- it's always advantageous to obtain a different viewpoint and the guys are usually respectful of female members.

As to what type of guys inhabit golf websites -- they run the gamut. Truth be told, I haven't seen a TV dinner since my mother prepared them infrequently during the '60's.

And don't forget www.golfdiscussions.com where you can find the truth about bombsquadgolf.

Keep on reading the sites, Stina, and enjoy.

Stina:

I've watched you on TGC and read some of your articles, but after reading this I think you're off your rocker here.

So, you wonder where we get off saying anything about golf equipment, well I guess I could go on about my background or intelligence, but none of that would matter to you, you already have a preconceived idea of who we are, facts withstanding.

You performed one of the most lazy maneuvers in journalism, and that is to generalize a group based on a few minority members of that group, don't get me wrong, you have a right to say what you please, and I defended that right while I was in the military, so put your foot in your mouth as you please.

Just keep in mind, it's dedicated, passionate golfers like myself that keep you employed on TGC and in your magazine, it's golfers like me that spend money on the equipment that companies that buy advertising space in your magazine and on TGC.

So if you're going to flame a group, please make sure you know who you're flaming, yeah, were the people that help to keep you employed.

If you like, I would gladly discuss golf equipment and technology with you, but make sure you know what you're talking about, I've heard some of your recommendations and found them quite funny since you also generalized there, which isn't a good idea.

http://bigstealergolf.blogspot.com/2007/06/plain-stupidity-rant.html

Stina, just wanted to give you a heads up that Todd and Derek are officially dating so don't get any crazy ideas ;)

I demand a publick applogy BSG and WRX are businesses, we are not a free open forum like www.golfdiscussions.com .
We have hidden agendas, thats all for now, its time for my lean beef snack.
I am thinking arbys

As an experienced club fitter I'd bet on the 20 handicap with a low end set properly fit versus the same handicap with the latest $2,500 whiz bangs that were ill fit.

So do I think tons of golfers are "pleasuring" themselves over gear talk and minute technical differences. Absolutely, golf is their hobby and passion. The sport and it's associated trickle down would be lots lesser without them.

FYI, I built a set of clubs for a girlfriend a few years back. She had a great natural swing and showed real promise. After the fitting was done I showed her what her new clubs would look like. She was less than thrilled. She wanted blue ones.

http://averagegolfer1.blogspot.com

Ok, I had my lean beef snack, I love arbys
Let me say it again.

I demand a publick applogy BSG and WRX are businesses, we are not a free open forum like http://www.golfdiscussions.com

We have hidden agendas, all forums that run as a business do, bottom line.

ok Stieny, all female golfers are lesbians, italians are in the mob and blacks are bad people. Offensive stuff? You bet. just like your ignorant spout. Many can hide behind the computer while some of us have no need to hide. Bring your game and your cash down south and you will leave with out the one thing that you may have-$$$-the other I have not been impressed by. What have you ever won??? You narrow minded foreign bafoon. Most of the blogs are are packed with good info and pictures that golf freaks enjoy. I don't think you have done more than be a club pro-golf worker-cum laude reporter schmoo. Many of us are educated very wealthy and have the time and resources to experiment with equipment. The tools at BSG selling the thousand dollar shaft are brilliant in that they have found some suckers to rip off in a semi legal way though I have heard they are really an exstenssion of the chinease counterfit mafia. Care to elaborate on your relationship with the shinease at BSG there stieny?

Stina,

Rock on, most of these equipment gurus are way out of balance in life. First of all spending a fortune on clubs isn't going to make you a great golfer. There are golfers on websites that act like they are better than everyone else because they were stupid enough to spend a small fortune on their clubs. I'm talking BSG. Then they ban together and belittle anyone who disagrees with them. They can have their own fantasy world! They are the joke of the golfing internet world. The owner of the site lies about his golf abilities. What does that tell you about his site? We are all in search of a better game. Good for you for bringing a point that this club issue is way out of control. I can shoot low numbers with practically any set I get my hands on. "Tour" equipment is overrated. We all deep down know that but we still buy it, Stina you have to understand it is a disease we are dealing with. So I am not perfect either, but I've learned a lot about equipment. Keep in mind, these websites also talk about more than clubs. They talk about just about everything there is about golf. Most of them are informative and objective.

Apparently the same guys who visit those sites, scoff at my cavity back game-improvement irons, and watch me take their money have time to cruise the "GOLF FOR WOMEN" site and bash anyone who doesn't agree with their elitist opinions. Enough with the anger. Golf is supposed to be fun.

P.S. Marry me Stina.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f267/venturebros/starstruckstephen.jpg

Stina --

After reading many of the comments above, I can see why you think many of those who frequent golf websites are overweight, belly-scratching, belly button lint-picking, potato couch beings dining on TV dinners who live with their parents and reside in the basement.

It's evident that at the least they are judgmental beings who type before the brain engages.

"After reading many of the comments above, I can see why you think many of those who frequent golf websites are overweight, belly-scratching, belly button lint-picking, potato couch beings dining on TV dinners who live with their parents and reside in the basement.

It's evident that at the least they are judgmental beings who type before the brain engages."

And Stina, it's painfully obvious that the above is trying to come across as the patron saint of the golf message board forums who wants you to believe that he is the one you are seeking to father your children.

He can weave his web anyway he would like, but in the end, it all comes down to two things;

1. He'll never have a shot with you no matter how much he engages the Thesaurus into his impotent retorts.
2. He's a BSG lemming who is trying so hard to prove the masses wrong about the practices of said forum.

One day, he will see the light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully though, he isn't the type you described and will be thin enough to wiggle his way through that tunnel.

My, that is an illogical leap.

It's no wonder you carry that handle.

It must be such a burden.

You want my photo? That's so hawt!
Face or whole body? I just need to know if I need to chub up before I take a picture.

I love people who 'stir the pot'.