630 yards. Par 3.

YouTube link.

The "Extreme 19th" is a supplemental golf hole at the Legend Golf and Safari Resort in South Africa.  The tee - accessed by way of a helicopter ride - is at the top of a mountain, 430 meters above the green. 

Different sources cite a "time for the ball to land" between 20-30 seconds, which seems way excessive for a 430 meter fall, assuming 9.8 m/s/s applies in South Africa.  Top professionals have hang times of about 7 seconds on level ground, so this hole requires an additional 13-23 seconds.  Presumably terminal velocity and perhaps updraft air currents muddy the pure math.

The leaderboard for the hole currently shows 8 birdies and about 100 pars.

Via Neatorama.

Cheerleading has evolved

YouTube link.

It seems to have incorporated Olympic (and video game) moves.  These are not without hazard, as Miss Cellania notes in her Neatorama post:

You are about to watch young men and women perform stunts that were once only seen in circuses. This is a music video from CheerSounds, a company that produces custom music for cheerleading squads, with video recorded at StuntFest 2013. The song is called "Decitona."

Oh, these gymnasts are impressive, but also frightening from a parent's perspective. A recent study in the Journal of Pediatrics confirmed a trend that cheerleading is the most dangerous sport for female Americans. So I feel I must say, "Don't try this at home." You have to wonder about the stunts that didn't make the cut.

Those who enjoy watching youngsters getting hurt can search YouTube for cheerleading +  injury.

Advances in logrolling

YouTube link.

Meet Wisconsinite Abby Hoeschler, who is the boom running world record holder.

“I’m the current boom running world champion and world record holder. There are two events: In logrolling, you’re trying to dislodge your competitor from the log (or just be the last one on the log) in a three-out-of-five-round match. In boom running, a course of eight logs tied end to end is attached to two docks, and you sprint across and back. The fastest time wins.”

“It uses a lot of core ... and a lot of butt, because you’re in the squat position — really digging in. It’s kind of like chair pose in yoga. You keep your shoulders up, with a strong core. It’s an all-body workout."

More about her and the sport in the StarTribune.  In the video she is promoting a synthetic log she developed and is marketing to help popularize (and standardize) the sport.  To overcome the logistic problem of transporting 500-pound logs, the synthetic ones are hollow, made of polyethylene, then filled with water at the site of use to bring them up to mass.

Here's a video of the women's  boom-running competition at the Lumberjack World Championships. And this one of the finals of the men's logrolling competition in 2011:

YouTube link.

Surfer catches wave - and vice versa

"I dropped Sean at the top of the reef, and the ocean went flat, like someone had turned off the tap. It takes a big set to light this slab up, and as Sean sat patiently I saw a big lump coming. I started yelling, but he had no reference as to where he was on the reef so he waited and paddled for this first wave of the set. He just missed it, and when I looked back, this deep blue lump just started draining out, almost sucking him under the wave. He took one big duckdive and got under the breaking lip. On a normal wave this is fine but this thing didn't have a back -- the reef drops to 200m out the back of this place so when it breaks it really folds. The wave had just too much power and sucked him back over the falls, it's pretty much a surfer's worst nightmare position, so many people claim this is photoshopped, but it certainly is not!" 

From The Atlantic.  The image was a winning entry in the Red Bull Illume Image Quest photography competition.

A world-class sprinter decides to play rugby sevens

YouTube link.

Snowshoes softball

At Snowshoe Park, the infield is covered in pine wood chips from a local lumber company, and athletes routinely stumble around the base paths in their 36-inch-long, wooden Bear Paw snowshoes...

The game has been played here [Lake Tomahawk, Wisconsin] for 52 years, bases are 55 feet apart instead of the traditional 60 feet, and which team scores the most runs rarely matters. The crowd topped 2,000 for the July 4 game but averages 1,200 to 1,500 on any given summer Monday night. Admission is free, but a butterfly net is passed during the game to help offset costs and raise money for local nonprofits.

“This is not about hardcore competition,” said Craig Holmquist, 39, a pitcher for the Snowhawks who has been playing snowshoe baseball for eight seasons. “It’s our community playing together. It’s not about winning.” Some of the crowd arrived two hours before game time.

The early birds came for two reasons: to throw blankets over sections of bleachers so they’d have a good seat for the game and to make sure they don’t miss out on a piece of pie, which can sell out 30 minutes before the 7:30 p.m. game time. 

More details at the Wisconsin State Journal, and an enjoyable, brief, video at this link.
 

Photo: John Hart/State Journal.

Nine traditions lost from baseball

From a column by Patrick Reusse in the StarTribune:

The Sunday doubleheader
Fungoes and infield
Pepper
Oldtimers Day
The Bullpen Car
Keeping Score
Averages in the Sunday paper
The Sporting News ("The Baseball Bible")
Collecting baseball cards

Discussion at the link.

Nuns vs. Monks in medieval "baseball"

"Rivalry in sports is not just something of our time. Nor is baseball. Both date back to at least the fourteenth century, when this image was made. What is less likely encountered in a baseball game today are the teams: monks vs nuns. The scene is from the margin of a medieval page, the location used to make fun of people. The manuscript contains a romance, popular among the medieval nobility. Somewhere, someone in a castle had a good laugh about these religious men and women playing ball. "

Found at Erik Kwakkel's remarkable tumblr about medieval books.

The marginal illustration comes from a 14th century book in Oxford's Bodleian Library (MS Bodley 264).  It has many hundreds of these marginal cartoons, which you can view at this link. 

(fols. 3r-208r) The Romance of Alexander in French verse, with miniatures illustrating legends of Alexander the Great and with marginal scenes of everyday life, by the Flemish illuminator Jehan de Grise and his workshop, 1338-44; with two sections added in England c. 1400, (fols. 209r-215v, with fol. 1r) Alexander and Dindimus (Alexander Fragment B) in Middle English verse, with coarser miniatures, and (fols. 218r- 71v, with fol. 2v) Marco Polo, Li Livres du Graunt Caam, in French prose, with miniatures by Johannes and his school. 

During a brief perusal, I found these images:

I'm at a loss to explain why the illuminator chose to depict hematochezia in that last vignette.  But the one that interested me most was this one, depicting beggars wielding scabella -

- which I blogged in 2011 (discussion at the link).

The NFL has banned purses at football games

The NFL announced a change to its bag policy Thursday and beginning with the 2013 season, only clear plastic, vinyl or PVC bags will be permitted inside NFL stadiums.  Under the new policy, fans will be allowed to bring one bag into stadiums and that bag must be clear and not exceed 12 inches by six inches by 12 inches...

Here's a list of items from the NFL that you will not be allowed to bring into stadiums: purses larger than a clutch bag, coolers, briefcases, backpacks, fanny packs, cinch bags, seat cushions, luggage of any kind, computer bags and camera bags or any bag larger than the permissible size.

Discussed at Reddit, including "Kind of nice for those of us who travel to stadiums by public transportation. Let me just flash everyone on the bus everything I am carrying, including my wallet and phone."

Sand-greens golf

A column in today's online Wall Street Journal brought back a lot of pleasant memories.  It reported on the "sand-greens" division of the Kansas high school golf championships.

Back in the 1950s, one of the courses where my family played golf (Tianna Country Club, Walker, Minnesota) had sand greens.  They were a cheaper alternative to the manicured grass used in conventional golf courses; greens fees could be substantially lower than on grass-greens courses, and courses could be constructed in communities that couldn't otherwise afford a golf course.

The sand would sometimes be moistened with vegetable or motor oil.  After completing play on a hole, it was the responsibility of the golfers to drag the green in a spiral fashion from the center to the edge with a piece of carpet to restore the smoothness of the sand for the next players.  I don't remember ever using a roller to flatten a path between one's ball and the cup, and suspect that is a more modern intervention.

I'm delighted to learn that sand-green golf still exists.  For the golfers out there, here are links to a Sports Illustrated history of sand-greens golf,  and to Pasture Golf, which "features golf courses that have the distinction of not being excessively manicured but which are fun and affordable to play. These courses are a surviving link to the original Scottish links courses, golf’s historical grassroots."

Top photo credit: John Paul Newport/The Wall Street Journal.  Right embed via Pasture Golf.

A Segway for golfers

YouTube link.

The video is a promotional one by the company.  At their website they offer data suggesting that the two-wheeled Segway is gentler on turf than the 4-wheeled conventional carts.  At $6K, they won't be widely bought by the general public, but perhaps they will find their way into the rental business.

Things you might not know about golf

The longest drive ever was 515 yards.

The longest putt ever was a monstrous 375 feet.

The longest golf course in the world is the par 77 International Golf Club in Massachusetts which measures a fearsome 8325 yards.

The longest golf hole in the world is the 7th hole (par 7) of the Sano Course at the Satsuki Golf Club in Japan. It measures an incredible 909 yards.

125,000 golf balls a year are hit into the water at the famous 17th hole of the Stadium Course at Sawgrass.

It is thought the word golf comes from the Dutch word "kolf" or "kolve", meaning "club". Historians believe this was passed on to the Scottish, whose own dialect changed this to "golve," "gowl" or "gouf". 

Found at The First Tee.

Clever pommel horse routine

YouTube link.

Some YouTube commenters think this is FAKE! (allcaps with exclamation point), while another asks why he has a face on his chest. *sigh*

Via Neatorama.

Rhythmic gymnastics performance

YouTube link.

Bulgaria's Boyanka Angelova, at Torino, 2008.

One wonders how many tens of thousands of times she has tossed that ball into the air.

Sports teams whose names don't end in the letter "S"

This question came up for me last fall (I believe while watching a Stanford CARDINAL (not Cardinals) game.  There are only 27 Division I schools whose official school nickname doesn't end with a plural "s".  A few are well-known or commonly in the news (Alabama Crimson Tide, Navy Midshipmen, Illinois Illini, Harvard Crimson).  The rest (and also lists of Div II and Div III schools) are at this 2006 link.

Mental Floss has a quiz about professional teams whose names don't end in "S".

A unique hole-in-one at The Masters

YouTube link.

The Masters golf tournament begins this week in Augusta (my invitation to play seems to have been lost in the mail for the 40th year in a row).  One of the traditions of the tournament is that during the practice rounds, players at the 16th hole try to bounce a ball off the water and onto the green.  In 2010 Vijay Singh showed everyone how to do it properly.

The upper video shows the view from the side; the one below is filmed from behind the tee.

YouTube link.

The "Sporting Statues Project"

The Sporting Statues Project records and researches statues of sportsmen and women around the world. Since 2010 we have published academic papers and magazine articles, and collected information on over 600 statues. 

The embed above is a screencap from a larger interactive map at their website, depicting the location of statues of baseball players in the United States.  

They have a similar map of UK Sports Statues.

Feel-good story of the day

YouTube link.

The cheerful category for this blog needs more entries.  This goes there.

Via Neatorama.

Frisbee trick shots

YouTube link.

I still have on my office wall a souvenir Frisbee from a 1977 National Championship Series event held in Dallas, when I competed (unsuccessfully) in the accuracy competition.  I know these stunts are the best of hundreds of efforts, but they are still awesome.

Via The Dish.

How to fly a kite (in style) indoors, without wind

YouTube link.

Filmed at "the 12th Annual Windless Kite Festival, January 18, 19, and 20 2013. AKA Open Individual Indoor Unlimited competition with Spencer Watson."

From Metafilter, where the thread includes some information on this history and technology of the competition, via Neatorama.