JOURNEY TO ST. ANDREWS

Musings from Doyle

2011-08-08T11:28:00.008-07:00

I asked each member of the "World Of" to provide a guest post about his favorite golf course or experience on the "Journey to St. Andrews". These are stream of consciousness musings from Doyle, formerly known as the Natural (see Editor's Note below on the change of pseudonym):

The joy in my friends' faces.

People ... George. the Scots, Sam the starter. Did I mention George?

Hitting the Postage Stamp. The Lighthouse. Making birdie for 79. Scoring 75. Low liners into the wind. 5 birds and an eagle in one round. The goat shot. 83 at Muirfield. Hitting the house. Missing the bus (barely). Salvaging a 50 on the front. Brothers in law. Longest putt in history.
USGA (You Suck Go Again).

Views. Appetizers. Vodka tonic, vodka soda. Playing gin. Bad pancakes, great mussels. Stout. The force field. Lost luggage. Bed and Brunch. Mexican food?

The sharing of successes. Children at Princeton, Harvard, Davidson, (even Furman). med school and law school and travelling the world. We went back in time and spent 9 days together just like old times.

Turtle having the strength to make it.

I am blessed.

Editor's Note: "Doyle" is a self-proclaimed moniker based on Doyle Brunson, one of the all-time great poker and gin rummy players. While riding the bus, Doyle gave us a blow-by-blow description of his gin rummy acumen as he whipped Alice into submission.

The Journey Completed

2011-08-05T16:39:00.015-07:00

At 7:00 a.m. on Friday, July 29, I stepped to the first tee on the Old Course at St. Andrews, the birthplace of golf. My 4-ball partners were Smooth, Stinger (formerly High Right) and Arnie. The sky was a bit overcast and there was the slightest of breezes. The course looked immaculate and the first fairway (and the adjacent 18th fairway) are wider than two football fields (but who can forget Ian Baker-Finch's infamous snap-hook at the 1995 Open Championship). There were golfers and spectators milling all about and joggers and walkers crossing the 1st and 18th fairways on Granny Clark's Wynd. My caddy Phil handed me my driver and I striped my drive right down the middle of the fairway toward the Swilcan Burn and we were off.

About 3 1/2 hours later, we approached the famous 17th hole known as the "Road Hole". The Road Hole is a 436 yard, par-4 dogleg right with the Old Course Hotel on the right. The tee shot is blind and you have to hit over the railway sheds attached to the Old Course Hotel that have the inscription "Old Course Hotel" and a lion insignia (see link - this is not me). Phil handed me my driver and told me that we were going to take an aggressive line and draw the ball back into the fairway. I hit a low draw that barely cleared the sheds just over the word "Old" and perilously close to the hotel and my ball landed on the right hand side of the fairway near The Jigger Inn about 180 yards from the flagstick. From this location, I did not have to hit over the dreaded Road Hole bunker. I hit a nice 4-hybrid shot to the front right corner of the green, but I landed on the lower tier of the putting surface and the ball did not release over the mound in the green. The flagstick was in the middle to back of the green on the upper tier and I 3-putted for a bogey. While I was a little disappointed, I did avoid disaster in the Road Hole bunker and along the wall adjacent to the road (see link for Miguel Jimenez shot off of the Road Hole wall at the 2010 Open Championship).

The 18th hole shares a fairway with the 1st hole. It is a 361 yard, par-4 hole with little trouble until you reach the green. I aimed at Martyrs' Monument and drove the ball right down the heart of the fairway over Granny Clark's Wynd. We walked over the famous Swilcan Bridge and stopped for a picture (see above) where Palmer, Nicklaus and Watson all waved their farewells when they played their final Open Championships at St. Andrews. I only had about 100 yards to the flagstick, but the wind had picked up a wee bit and my caddie recommended that I hit my 9 iron. I struck it perfectly and ball drew toward the flagstick and landed pin high about 12 feet left. Phil and I surveyed the putt and agreed on the line. I struck the birdie putt just right and I knew it was in the hole from the moment it left my putter. The spectators above the 18th green politely applauded. The birdie on No. 18 gave me a 79 for the round and the Journey was completed.

The Final Leg of The Journey to St. Andrews

2011-07-24T17:03:00.011-07:00

It has been over a month since my last post. Life has been extremely busy. We had a one-week family vacation in Montauk, which is on the tip of Long Island in New York. We rented a house on VRBO.com right on the Montauk Downs golf course. Montauk Downs is a New York public golf course that is one of the top 50 public courses in the United States. We were on the 13th fairway, which is a par-5. We had a few balls land in the pool and one or two hit on the rocks close to the patio, but we did sustain any injuries. The weather was unbelievably great. The high temperature ranged between 75 and 78 degrees the entire week and we hardly saw a cloud in the sky. The two weeks before we arrived were hot and rainy and since we left, New York and the rest of the East Coast is experiencing a very severe heat wave. It was over 100 degrees a couple of days ago.

I played two rounds at Montauk Downs. The first round I almost ran out of golf balls and quit after the 16th hole, which is in easy walking distance of the house. A lot of the lost golf balls would have fallen under the "lost in plain sight" rule, but I also lost quite a few in the woods and water. I played from the black tees, which are just under 7,000 yards with a course rating of 75.3 and a slope rating of 141. It was clearly too much golf course for me. The second round was much better. I moved up to the blue tees, which were about 6,600 yards with a course rating of 73.2 and a slope rating of 132. I did not keep my score because I hit some extra shots but I only lost one golf ball and I had two birdies! The guy I played with was a slower player than even me.

As soon as I got home, I started to get ready for Scotland. The "World Of" is traveling across the pond for 13 rounds of links golf in 9 days, including 4 Open Championship courses -- St. Andrews Old Course, Turnberry Ailsa, Royal Troon Old Course and Muirfield. We are also playing a lot of other great links courses, including, Western Gailes Links, Royal Troon Portland Course, Gullane Golf Club and 3 of the other courses in the St. Andrews Links Trust golf complex. In addition to the cold weather, rain and wind (all of which are part of the links golf experience), the biggest issue for me is footwear. We will be walking 18 or 36 holes each day. I am trying out my four pairs of golf shoes to determine which are the most comfortable. You have to take at least two pairs because of all the rain. I also read at least one memo that said playing some golf in sneakers is not a bad idea. So I am keeping that in mind. SO bought me so much paraphernalia for my feet that it will take me about an hour to get ready each morning -- socks with extra padding, spray-on blister protector, callous remover, callous protectors, refreshing peppermint foot cream, Dr. Scholl's gel inner soles, and on-and-on. Everything else is ready. Of course there will be no shorts on this trip and because I am such a weather wimp, I will be wearing my Under Armour ColdGear shirt, then my long-sleeve rugby shirt, then a sleeveless wind jacket and much of the time, my hopefully waterproof (not water resistant,Mrs. Pavin) rain gear.

I have delegated most of my work to Chad Feldheimer and I am hoping that I will still have clients when I return from Scotland. I am ready to go!

On the Reservation

2011-06-20T19:50:00.006-07:00

It is starting to get hot in Phoenix. I had to cajole Chad Feldheimer into playing golf this weekend. He wanted to tee off at 5:30 in the morning, but I eventually talked him into playing late in the afternoon. We were joined by the Gardener for a 3:30 Saturday afternoon tee time at Talking Stick Golf Club - North Course. Talking Stick Golf Club is owned by the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and operated by Troon Golf. It is part of the Talking Stick Resort and Casino complex in Scottsdale on the Indian reservation.

The North Course is 7,133 yards from the black tees and plays to a par 70, which means there are only two par-5 holes, instead of the normal four par-5 holes. The course rating is 72.7, which is high in relation to par, but the slope rating is only 125, which is low given the length of the course. There are six par-4 holes over 445 yards and the par-5 holes are 552 and 582 yards. The fairways are wide open and there are not a lot of greenside bunkers, which partially explains the low slope rating. The course was in relatively good shape and the greens were very fast, although bumpy because it was so late in the day. Some of the greens were burnt out because there was a water main break and the greens were not watered for a couple of days in early June.

I started off with three pars and shot a 39 on the front 9 with one birdie on No. 8, 4 pars, 3 bogeys and one double-bogey when I lost my ball in the desert. I parred the first hole on the back 9. No. 11 was a 261-yard par 3! I hit my driver right of the green past pin high and the ball trickled into the desert for an unplayable lie. If the shot had been 3 yards shorter it would have ended up in the collection area and I may have been able to chip on the green and make par. Instead I made a double-bogey. I started to leak a little oil at that point and was not driving the ball well, but I was hitting my irons straight and long to save par or bogey. On the 194-yard par-3 16th hole I knocked the tee shot to about 2' and had a gimme birdie. The final two holes are the 582-yard par 5 and a 471-yard par 4. I bogeyed 17 and needed a par on No. 18 to shoot 79. I hit a good drive and a pudgy 3-hybrid and made a good bogey to shoot an even 80. It is really hard to complain about an 80 so I won't.

The Gardener has been kicking my butt the last few rounds. He had an off day and shot bogey golf, but it should not hurt his handicap index because you only count your best 10 scores from your last 20 scores. Chad Feldheimer was hot and cold and shot his normal 78. I think he was a little worried that I might beat him the way I was playing. Chad hit a couple of shots that embarrassed him, including rolling a 3-wood about 80 yards, chunking a wedge and pulling a 9-iron about 20 yards off-line, but he also made some great par saves along the way (and a few of those 8' rakes on the green).

Next week I am going on vacation to Montauk on Long Island with SO and all of my family that lives back in New York. We rented a house on the Montauk Downs public golf course that looks great so I am looking forward to playing some golf on vacation. St. Andrews is only a month away and my game is rounding into shape.

A Stately Raven of the Saintly Days of Yore

2011-06-14T19:34:00.006-07:00

After playing well on Saturday, I was excited about playing Sunday with the Gardener. We had a late afternoon tee time at the Raven Golf Club at South Mountain. The golfnow.com rate was $30 per person! The Raven was well-known in Phoenix for its desert flowers and landscaping and its unbelievable customer service, but it fell on some hard times during the recession and is now under new management. OB Sports took over management of the course a week ago. Although the fairways were very green and the putting surfaces were in good shape, the course suffered some frost damage this winter and was showing some signs of neglect and lack of funds. The course does not have any ball washers because it had ball washers on the golf carts. The temporary golf carts were very spartan and did not include GPS, ball washers or club washers. We did have a cooler with ice that I used to clean my golf balls and clubs. Hopefully, OB Sports will be able to bring the course back to the standards set previously.

The Gardener has been playing really good golf recently. His handicap index is down to 9.6! He is consistently shooting in the low 80s. He hits these soaring drives that seem to fly forever (and he is generally pretty accurate off the tees). We played from the tournament tees, which are 7,078 yards with a course rating of 72.8 and a slope rating of 130. On the front 9, we were both hitting our drivers really well. I was matching him drive for drive, although his tee shots were more majestic and my tee shots were low draws with a lot of run. However, the comparison ended after the drives. The Gardener was hitting laser approach shots and I was either missing the green or hitting it so far from the flagstick that I need a five iron instead of a putter to get the ball to the hole. I three-putted at least 3 holes on the front 9 and ended up with a 47! The Gardener shot a pretty steady 41. I thought I played better than a 47, but the scorecard does not lie.

Then lightning struck! On the back 9 I continued to drive the ball straight and long. While I will admit that the summer fairways in Arizona can be pretty hard, I was hitting my drives about 260-270 yards and had 2 or 3 300-yard drives! I was still not as accurate as I would have liked with my irons, but I was stroking my putts well and leaving myself with tap-in par putts. On the 179-yard par 3 14th hole into the wind, I hit a 4-hybrid with a baby draw that landed and stopped about 5 feet from the cup and I made the putt for birdie.

Nos. 16, 17 and 18 are a 453-yard par 4, followed by a 593-yard par 5 and a 428-yard par 4 finishing hole. I parred 16 and 17 and I was even par on the back 9 going into the 18th hole. I pushed my drive a little right on No. 18 and I was about 190 yards from the hole and partially blocked by some trees with water to the right of the green. I thought about trying to fade in my 3-hybrid and then decided (in a moment of golf maturity) just to hit the ball straight and left of the green taking the water out of play and hoping that I could chip up and make the putt for my par. I chipped to about 6 feet but choked on the putt and left it short for a bogey and a one-over 37 on the back 9 for your normal 47-37 score of 84. My playing partner continued his steady play and shot a 41 on the back 9 for an 82.

Leaving the course, I was thrilled and the Gardener pointed out that it was a good thing that I shot the 37 on the back 9. That was a really interesting point. If I shot the 37 on the front and followed that with the 47 I would have been kicking myself all of the way home. This way I saved my round and ended with a great back 9 that has me all excited and wanting to get back on the course as soon as I can.

Back on Course

2011-06-14T18:32:00.010-07:00

As you can imagine, when I do not blog it is because I am not playing well. On May 15, my handicap index was an even 10 and I was dreaming about a single digit handicap index. My next three rounds were 93, 92 and 91 and my handicap index jumped to 10.6. Although my scores were not very good, I was hitting the ball much longer, but I was hooking the ball pretty badly. I think that my club face was open previously but I had learned to compensate and hit the ball straight, although the open club face caused me to lose distance. I have now "squared" the club face so I am hitting it longer, but I have to re-learn how to hit it straight with a square club face.

On Saturday, I played with Digger at Moon Valley Country Club. I have to come up with a new nickname for Digger because he is no longer taking pro-size divots and pissing off the course superintendent. Digger has also lost about 45 pounds, is exercising religiously and is looking very svelte. I am thinking that "Grinder" is a good nickname, not because of his golf game, but because of his day job. Grinder is one of those clients that can wear down the other side in a negotiation through sheer will power and stamina; when Grinder digs in on an issue, there is no changing his mind and ultimately the other side just folds.

Grinder and I both played really well, hitting fairways and greens. We walked the front 9, but Grinder developed a blister on his foot and we took the cart for the back 9 (good call because it was getting hot!). Grinder broke 90 for the first time in a long time (or maybe forever) and I shot an 83 with a consistent 41 on the front 9 and 42 on the back 9. Although the Moon Valley course is not in great shape, the greens were really fast and true. I was rolling my putts really well. I did not leave as many putts short of the hole and actually was rolling the ball a foot or two past the hole when I did not make the putt. I moved the ball back to the middle of my putting stance so that I am accelerating through the ball and hitting it more crisply. Before, I was playing the ball off of my front instep and by the time my putter got to the ball I was either decelerating or just plain "yipping". I still need to be careful to make sure that the putter head is aligned properly, but I see the square face better when the ball is aligned in the middle of my putting stance.

Every round is an adventure on the golf course and I am never sure which player will show up at the first tee on any given day, but at least today some of the adjustments I have been making were working. But tomorrow is another day.

Chad Feldheimer

2011-05-24T10:53:00.013-07:00

Ever since I scared the pants off of Chad Feldheimer shooting a 79 and tying his score, Chad has been on a tear. He has been striping the ball and shooting in the mid-70s and flirting with par golf. Chad's pseudonym is based on the stumbling, bumbling Brad Pitt character in the movie "Burn After Reading", but I promised Chad that if he shoots par I will change his moniker to a more suave and debonair secret agent.

For some unknown reason, Chad subjects himself to my golf game every two weeks or so. I think he just likes making fun of me. Given his taunts and barbs, he must know that I have no swag on partnership decisions at my law firm.

Chad claims he is 5' 6" tall and weighs exactly 151.5 pounds. I am not buying it. But he hits the ball a country mile and generally straight down the middle. He is also very good around the greens and putting, although he has taken to the Kramer "in the grip" rule based on the full length of a long putter and sometimes even stretches that a bit. I have recently shamed Chad into walking the course and carrying his golf bag -- the way golf is supposed to be played. He is almost 25 years younger than me and it was embarrassing to see him riding in a cart while I was walking.

This weekend Chad and I played at Southern Dunes in Maricopa, Arizona. The course was set up for U.S. Open conditions because it hosted a U.S. Open sectional qualifier 3 days earlier. I carried Chad around the golf course helping with club selection, distances, pin locations and wind (I might as well have hit the shots for him). He was one over par heading to the par-4, 435-yard 18th hole. He needed a birdie to shake the Chad Feldheimer nom de plume. I instructed him to "hit it straight" on the tee box. His drive was bombed down the middle of the fairway about 165 yards from the flagstick. The approach shot is to a green surrounded on two sides with water with the pin tucked into the corner. Chad had to shoot at the flagstick and make birdie. He pulled out a 6-iron. I tossed some grass in the air and noted that the wind had picked up ever so slightly. Chad then choked and pulled his approach shot left over the cart path into the desert area and made a double-bogey for a 75, thus keeping his ignominious title for another two weeks.

Unfinished Business

2011-05-09T17:25:00.008-07:00

This weekend Chad Feldheimer, the Gardener and I headed back to our old standby, Stonecreek Golf Club. The course is in great shape and on Mother's day the internet special was $45 per person and included a sleeve of Titleist ProV golf balls and a drink ticket. The last time I played at Stonecreek I shot my career round of 79 finishing double-bogey, double-bogey and bogey so there was some unfinished business between me and the finishing holes.

Recently, I have been hitting a lot of shots off of the toe of the club. In my last round at Hilton Head, I moved a little closer to the ball and was hitting the ball better. I continued to tinker with my swing this week and I squared my clubface and was making great contact in the middle of the club. I thought my club was square before and now it looks to me like it is hooded in, but I think that is because I was used to the open clubhead. When I hit the ball it was making that nice sound and there was no vibration from off-center hits. My ball was flying at least 10 to 15 yards farther than before and the grass ball marks on my irons were dead center. I hit a number of balls on the very back of the green or over the green that would have come up short before, and on the par-5 13th hole I hit my 1-hybrid from 225 yards and it was 10 yards past the flagstick!

I started the round bogey-bogey-bogey with two 3-putt greens. I parred 3 of the last 6 holes on the front side for a 41 (the front is a par 35). I was never in danger of a double-bogey. Chad Feldheimer shot a 37 and the Gardener shot a 41. There was no one in front of us so it was easy to keep in rhythm. We did have two women golfers behind us who were pretty good players and kept us moving along at a good pace. On the back 9 I heated up and made 5 pars and 4 bogeys for a 40. I did not make any birdies but I was never in danger of a double-bogey. I played my nemesis, holes 15, 16, 17 and 18, in two-over par. It was a rather ho-hum 81, driving the ball in the fairway (or at least on the grass), hitting the greens or fairly close, and two-putting. One area of improvement could have been the par-5 holes. There are three par-5 holes and I bogeyed each of them. Overall, it is really difficult to complain about an 81. Chad shot a 75 with two birdies. He hit his tee shot on the par-3, 227 yard 15th hole into the water and double-bogeyed the hole. The Gardener played reasonably well and shot an 84 with 3 double-bogeys. He made back-to-back birdies on Nos. 9 and 10, dropping two long putts (right after bad-mouthing his long putter and threatening to go back to his short putter).

The Jewish Mafia

2011-05-04T17:43:00.020-07:00

A few months' ago, my cousin invited me to participate in his Boys' Golf Weekend at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina in late April. For purposes of my blog, my cousin's pseudonym will be "Mensch", which roughly means in yiddish "a good person," but really means a person with the qualities one would hope for in a dear friend or trusted colleague. Mensch's baby brother's pseudonym could be "Baby Mensch", but instead will be "Jerusalem", which is kind of a play on words of his real first name with a Southern drawl. Mensch took care of all of the logistics for the golf trip. He booked a great house and all of the golf and, most importantly, was in charge of all social gambling, golf and cards. He was open to advice from all comers (and I am sure he received a lot of suggestions) and herded all of the cats from the house to the courses and back again. And he did it all with great humor and a smile on his face.

Mensch and Jerusalem's grandfather and my grandfather came over from Russia in the early 1900s and started a clothing (Schmatta in yiddish) business in New York City. The business was then passed down to our respective fathers. At some point, our fathers decided that someone needed to move down to Mississippi to be in charge of the garment factories and Mensch and Jerusalem's dad drew the short straw. Our families stayed in touch and we always knew what was going on with the other family, but we rarely saw each other while we were growing up. Maybe we would see each other at a wedding or bar mitzvah. Mensch and I went to summer school/camp together one year. But to us sophisticated New Yorkers, Mensch and Jerusalem and their two sisters were always those odd cousins from Mississippi that you could barely understand.

I took the red-eye on Thursday night and met the "Jewish Mafia" at the turn during the Friday morning golf round. There were eight of us, including me (how strange, the correct number for a boys' golf weekend). The group included Mensch's relatives (Jerusalem and me), fraternity brothers and other assorted close friends. The one common denominator was that everyone was Jewish. It was funny listening to good ole boys from Mississippi and Louisiana using yiddish words with a Southern accent (most of which I did not know).

Mensch is the best golfer in the group. He has a handicap index of 8 (although the way he played early in the trip he is closer to a 5!). The rest of the group ranged from a handicap of 12+/- to infinity (a sideways 8). We played 36 holes on Friday (I played 27), 36 holes on Saturday, 36 holes on Sunday and 18 holes on Monday. In the morning rounds we typically played our own ball and in the afternoon rounds we played some type of scramble format. I have no idea what I shot, but I did not play to my handicap. In Arizona, I am used to wide fairways with desert. If you hit into the desert you still may be able to advance the ball toward the green and save your par. These courses are all tree-lined and if you hit into the trees you are typically in "jail" and all you can do is punch the ball out into the fairway. I got pretty good at hitting the punch shot during this trip.

On Friday, we played two rounds at Hilton Head National, right outside of Hilton Head Island. National is a Gary Player-designed course that is very nicely manicured with generally wide open fairways and very playable. We played from the blue tees, which are only 6,160 yards with a course rating of 69.7 and a slope rating of 126. I drove the ball really well and was able to hit a lot of short irons into the greens because of the length of the course. The morning half-round was a warm-up and in the afternoon we played a two-man scramble and my partner and I ended up two-over par and won some of the betting games.

In the evenings we got home around 7:30, cooked dinner on the grill, played cards and watched playoff hockey. I tried to "fit in" and play cards on the first night and I bought my $20 of chips. The other guys knew they had a patsy and their eyes lit up when I asked them to explain the rules of each game we played. On the first hand, which was poker like you see on ESPN when nothing else is on television, I actually had some idea of the general rules. I lost $16! The next hand was complicated but half of the pot went to the person with the highest spade. I so happened to get the ace of spades and won back some of my money. The next game was something like 3/33 and I never did quite get all of the rules. Within another 30 minutes or so I lost all my money and went to watch the hockey game.

On Saturday, we played the Robert Cupp course at Palmetto Hall Plantation (as you can see the course goes all out on its website). The Cupp course is a great layout meandering through the wetlands with fairly generous fairways. If you hit a ball into the wetlands you risk your life trying to retrieve the ball because the alligators are lurking in the weeds (or come right up on the bank). We played from the blue tees in the morning, which are only 6,500 yards, but the course rating is 72.2 and the slope rating is 136 (it is 7.056 yards with a course rating/slope of 75.2/147 from the gold tees)! I shot a 90 in the morning with a couple of triple-bogey maximum holes and two birdies. I was very pleased with my score even though I played like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; half the time I hit the ball in the fairway and was dreaming of birdies and pars and half the time I drove the ball into the trees and was fighting to make bogeys and double-bogeys. In the afternoon, we played a 4-man scramble and I talked my team into playing from the gold tees. That was a big mistake! On the first tee we smelled something burning and it turned out to be one of our golfers burning the morning scorecard. The other foursome played from the blue tees and there were times that we were hitting from 100 yards behind the blue tees. It was a very long afternoon and we staggered home losing all bets.

On Sunday, we played the Arthur Hills course at Palmetto Hall Plantation (ditto for this course website). This course was also a very nice layout playing about 6,600 yards from the blue tees with a course rating of 72.7 and a slope rating of 139 (from the gold tees it is 6,900 yards with a course/slope rating of 74.2/145). The course was not in great condition supposedly due to some infestation, although someone said that the infestation may have been a lack of funds. I continued to falter with my balky driver and was feeling the effects of not enough sleep and not enough game. I went through at least 12 golf balls over the 36 holes. I was hitting everything off of the toe of the club. I lost track of my score in the morning and the afternoon was a disaster for our entire foursome in the best ball scramble. I hate to admit it, but it is the first time I have ever been over par in a 4-man scramble. Among the four of us we did not hit one par-3 green. By the 18th hole we were dragging so badly that we simply dropped a ball in the fairway and tried to played in and still may have bogeyed the hole if we did not take a 12-foot gimme. We lost the 2 nine hole nassaus, the 18 hole nassau and all four of the par-3 closest-to-the pin contests. I tried to shame the other team members into paying for dinner with their winnings without success.

On Monday, I felt refreshed and ready to go. We played Oyster Reef Golf Club. This course was substantially easier than the two Palmetto Hall Plantation courses. We played from the blue tees, which measure 6,440 yards with a course rating of 72.6 and a slope rating of 124. From the gold tees, the course measures 7,018 yards with a course rating of 74.7 and a slope rating of 137. I decided that simple physics dictated that if I move a tiny bit closer to the ball at address, I am more likely to hit the ball in the middle of the clubhead, rather than on the toe. This approach actually worked wonders, although there are always problems when you try to make a swing change on the fly. I hit a lot of really great shots and a few really poor shots. Many of the poor shots were with my sand wedge from tight lies in the fairway and the club bounced into the ball and I hit it thin over the green. I hit a lot of long, straight drives and hit some great approach shots. On the par-3, 168-yard signature hole, there was a 2 club wind and I hit a beautiful 3-hybrid that landed on the green and rolled into the fringe. I made a nice up-and-down for a par. On the 400-yard par-4 8th hole I hit a short drive that stayed in the fairway but the green was blocked by tree limbs. I decided to lay up with a 4-hybrid while our other group was on the green and I hit the hybrid on the screws with a nice draw about 210 yards landing on the green as our fellow Jewish Mafia group was putting. I felt terrible hitting into our other group, but I was psyched about the shot I hit! On the par-3, 165-yard 16th hole, I hit my 6-iron to about 12 feet and sunk the birdie putt. On 18, I hit a great 1-hybrid onto the green from about 210 yards out and made a ho-hum par. My scorecard was schizophrenic. I had two birdies and three exes that were generously scored as double-bogeys. I never did get my final score for the round. I was itching to play more golf, but we had planes to catch.

The trip home was long and tiring (I flew through Detroit!), but I had a great time and hope that Mensch, Jerusalem and the rest of the Jewish Mafia invite me back for next year's Boys' Golf Weekend.

Martin Hall Acolyte

2011-04-27T19:18:00.007-07:00

After shooting a 79 last week, I decided it was time to retool my swing (good thinking!). My new golf guru is Martin Hall, the host of School of Golf Extra Credit on the Golf Channel. Hall was talking about making a better turn to increase your power and distance. He said that moving your back foot a little further away from the golf ball (a closed stance) would permit you to better turn your hips and increase your power and distance. I tried this and it worked on the practice range, but it caused me to pull the ball a little bit. But I decided to take this tip out to course with me.

Chad Feldheimer and I played Legend Trail Golf Club in Scottsdale. I had never played the course previously, although I had heard good things about it for a long time. It is about 40 minutes from central Phoenix near Cave Creek/Carefree up in the foothills. At this time of year, it is a very pretty drive through the desert. The course is 6,845 yards from the black tees with a course rating of 71.8 and a slope rating of 138, which is one of the higher slope ratings that I have played. The course is pretty and very playable with wide fairways and a lot of room if you miss the elevated greens.

Using my new swing, I did drive the ball a little longer and kept it in the fairway or at least on the grass all day. However, by closing my stance with my hybrids and irons, I seemed to hit a lot of shots on the toe of the club, leaving the ball generally right of the green. Maybe I was overcompensating for the perceived pull I had on the driving range. I shot an 89 with only two double-bogeys and I thought I should have scored much better given the way I played. I had two sand shots. On the first one, I was in the back of the bunker with a downhill lie. My confidence level for this shot was below zero, but I got the ball out of the bunker and onto the green so I was really pleased. My second bunker shot was a long bunker shot that had to go over another bunker. I purposely aimed a little away from the hole and hit a nice soft bunker shot onto the green with a chance for a sandy. I hit a number of good pitch shots and I rolled my putts pretty well and scared the hole on a number of putts but none dropped.

The only bad shot I hit all day was a sand wedge on my third shot on the par-5 4th hole. The hole is 540 yards and I hit a good drive and a good 1-hybrid and I was about 60 yards from the hole. I had a downhill lie and I decided to try to pitch the ball up to the elevated green rather than hitting a low chip and running the ball up to the hole. I was having second thoughts as I stood over the shot (my guru Martin Hall says back away if you are unsure about your club or shot selection) and skulled the ball over the green and made a double-bogey 7. Before, I would have been happy with an 89, especially on a course rated as difficult as Legend Trail, but now I am trying to shoot in the low to mid-80s so I was a little disappointed. I still thought that my handicap index for the round would be pretty good because of the high slope rating, but I was surprised that my handicap index for the round was 14.1. I still do not understand how the handicap index is calculated!

This weekend I am going to Hilton Head Island to play golf with my cousins and some of their friends. I am leaving Thursday night on the red-eye and arriving at the golf course at about 10:30 Friday morning and hopefully joining my group at the turn or earlier. We are playing 36 holes on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and 18 or 27 holes on Monday and then I am catching a plane back to Phoenix Monday night. I am looking forward to the trip and it should be a lot of fun. I will report back next week as soon as the blisters on my hands and feet heal and I am able to stand up straight.

Wah

2011-04-17T13:18:00.006-07:00

This weekend I played in a scramble golf tournament with Slim Whiskey and one of his clients. The golf tournament is sponsored by Macayo's Depot Cantina so you know that the food is going to be really good! The sponsor of the tournament has won the tournament the last 4 years (bad form) and Slim Whiskey decided that this year he was going to stack the deck. Our 4th player was our ringer, Benoit Bessier, a friend of Slim Whiskey's who plays on the Gateway Mini-Tour. "Wah", as he is known, was a golfer on the "Big Break" and is one of the subjects of "The Minors - The Road to the PGA Tour Isn't Always Easy". Although I only spent a few hours with him (it probably felt like weeks to him), the description of Wah in the March 1 post is spot-on.

Our team score was 59 and we left a number of shots out on the course. Not surprisingly, the host won the scramble with a 55. There were no minimum drive rules so we probably used Wah's drive on 14 of the 18 holes. Overall, including any sizable made putts for eagle or birdie, we probably used Wah's shot 70% of the time and the other 3 of us 30% of the time. But if Slim Whiskey or I had not hit our drives straight down the middle, Wah might have played more conservatively (yah, right). The course is really short with a lot of doglegs and Wah could drive most of the par-4 holes (or come awful close) and we had short irons on our second shots into all of the par-5 holes. The greens were so slow and bumpy that Wah was having trouble getting his putts on line and to the hole. I made a couple of 20 footers and Slim Whiskey commented that the bumps knocked my putts on line and into the hole. I was feeling pretty good about my putting until that comment.

Wah was hitting the white TaylorMade R11 driver. He is a former hockey player and his stance is very narrow and his swing is quick like a slap shot. He would tell us his intended line, especially on the doglegs, and his ball flew off his club on that line like it was on a string. He said that TaylorMade wants to get the R11 out in the public so it is basically giving the club away to get players to use it (I think he meant tour players at all levels, but I am going to call and ask anyway!). Interestingly, after playing with the weights on the club, Wah went to the neutral setting because it allows him to shape his shots with either a draw or a fade. He actually said that the new TaylorMade Burner 2.0 is much longer, but it is designed to play a fade and it is impossible to draw the ball.

It was really fun playing with a golfer of Wah's caliber. As golf legend Bobby Jones said when a young Jack Nicklaus won the 1965 Master's, he “was playing a game with which I am not familiar". But not only was he fun to watch, he was personable and friendly and was actually having fun playing golf with a couple of duffers. Wah would be a great addition to the PGA Tour and I will be rooting for him to make it.

Chopping Wood

2011-04-15T16:04:00.009-07:00

Every once in a while it is refreshing to see the greatest players in the world have a brain freeze. You never want to see anything like Rory McIlroy's Sunday back 9 at the Masters while leading the tournament, but a disaster on Thursday at a run-of-the-mill PGA event can be fun, especially when the golfer laughs about it as well. On Thursday, Kevin Na, one of the young, exciting Americans had one of those brain freezes (see video).

Na was playing the Valero Texas Open at the TPC course in San Antonio, Texas. Na was even par through 8 holes when he came to the par-4 9th hole. He hit his first drive into the woods and had an unplayable lie so he went back to the tee and hit his third shot in almost exactly the same place. He decided to try to punch the ball out of the trees and his ball hit a tree and ricocheted back and hit him on the leg for a two-stroke penalty so he way now lying 6. He dropped his ball and hit a tree again. He then tried to punch the ball out of the woods left-handed and whiffed and then hit the ball twice more a couple of feet. It looked like he might be able to get out of the woods, but his next shot hit a tree and bounced further into the woods. Finally, after two more swings he was out of the woods and into the rough. His approach shot trickled onto the fringe of the green and his next putt singed the edge of the cup and he made the 5 footer for a 16!

Although Na was frustrated while tramping through the woods, when he finally made it out of the woods, he was able to smile and joke about trying to figure out his score. His caddie was much more stoic than Kevin. Unbelievably, Na was able to compartmentalize the 9th hole and he shot a 4 under par 32 on the back 9 for an 8 0ver par 80 (with 16 strokes on one par-4 hole!). And I am gloating about my 79 on a muni course.

By the way, talking about mental toughness, Rory McIlroy fired a 64 today and is leading the Malaysian Open at Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club.

The Masters

2011-04-11T17:09:00.013-07:00

What a great finish to the Masters on Sunday! I was riveted to the television set as soon as I got home from playing golf. I missed Tiger's 4 under par front 9 to put him into contention and put some pressure on the young guns. I felt bad for Rory McIlroy. The drive he hit on the 10th hole was as far left as I have ever seen. When you saw him ask his caddy whether there was out-of-bounds on the left, you knew he was in big trouble. I did not even know there were cabins in the vicinity of the golf course. I have been watching the Masters for a lot of years and I had only seen the inside of the Butler Cabin, where the green jacket is awarded each year. Rory would have been the second youngest winner of the Masters at age 21. He showed amazing courage and poise after his disastrous round of 80 during the post-round interviews. There is no doubt in my mind that McIlroy will win his first major within the next year or two.

The Aussies put on quite a show. First, Geoff Ogilve starting hitting it stiff and tapping in for birdies to tie Tiger Woods in the clubhouse at 10 under par. Then the Aussie twosome of Jason Day and Adam Scott got hot with their putters each ending 12 under par and scuttling Tiger Woods' hopes of another green jacket (I think the USGA/R&A should outlaw the long putter, but that is a discussion for another day). But 26-year old Charl Schwartzel hung around making 10 straight pars and then birdied the last 4 holes to win the green jacket at 14 under par. Prior to Schwartzel, only Jack Nicklaus in 1986 played the last 4 holes on Sunday at Augusta in 4 under par to win the Masters. It was quite a display of shot-making by all of the young guns under the Sunday back 9 pressure of Augusta National.

My good friend and mentor (and jingoist), Fred Flintstone, was lamenting the lack of good young American golfers. Other than Tiger Woods, the only Americans in the top 10 at Augusta were Bo Van Pelt and Ryan Palmer. Among the American youth movement (under 30), you have Dustin Johnson (26), Nick Watney (29), Ryan Moore (28), Hunter Mahan (28), Ricky Fowler (22) and Anthony Kim (25). They have won a total of zero majors. Fred puts the blame squarely on video games for the dearth of young American talent. I think that golf (like everything else) has become global and players all over the world are receiving equivalent training, have access to the most-up-to-date technology, great training facilities and great courses, and the competition level is extremely high on all of the tours. One difference is that the great players from prior generations in countries like Spain, South Africa, Japan and Australia seem to take a more hands-on approach with the next generation than do the Americans. However, all of the young guns may have to wait a bit longer because Tiger is lurking and if he can figure out his putting woes, watch out!

79!

2011-04-10T19:45:00.008-07:00

I have been remiss keeping my followers up to speed on my golf game, but I have some exciting news today! First some background. A few weeks ago, I played Southern Dunes Golf Club with Chad Feldheimer. The wind blew the entire time at about 15-20 m.p.h. This was a precursor of Scotland and my game was not up to the challenge. If you did not hit the ball squarely in the middle of the club and had any side spin on the ball, the wind just took the ball and played havoc with it. I actually thought I hit the ball well and shot a 91.

The following day I played with the Deer Hunter and Gardener at the Cholla course at We-Ko-Pa. We-Ko-Pa is the Fort McDowell Indian Tribe resort, casino and golf course. The Cholla Course at We-Ko-Pa opened in 2001 and was designed by Scott Miller. It is ranked as the no. 4 public course in Arizona. The other course, the Saguaro course, is rated the no. 1 public course in Arizona. I was playing really well and I came to No. 18 needing par for an 84. The 18th hole is a gorgeous 410-yard par-4 finishing hole (see layout). I hit my drive 260 yard straight down the middle (downhill) and the ball came to rest about 10 yards in front of the bunker guarding the lake. The flagstick was in the back of the green about 160 yards. I hit a 6-iron on the screws and fly the ball into the back bunker. My confidence in my sand game was zero. I had already left one bunker shot in the sand and tried to putt out of a second bunker because of my frustration. This time I had a downhill lie with the water staring at me from across the green. I left my first two shots in the sand, finally got the ball out and 2-putted for a 7! I was beyond frustrated.

The following weekend I took a one-hour lesson from Heath Morgan, one of the PGA professionals at Kierland Golf Course. I had heard good things about Heath. I wanted to focus on getting out of the bunker and putting, which are two areas of my game that are sorely lacking and you can get immediate results. We went out to one of the holes and I hit a few shots out of the bunker that I either hit fat and did not get out of the bunker or hit thin and slammed into the face of the bunker. Heath then had me hit some pitch shots from the grass that I hit reasonably well. We talked technique and he told me that most amateurs that try to hit 2" behind the ball actually hit 4" behind the ball. He told me to use my pitch stroke and try to hit to ball. Surprise! I hit an inch or two behind the ball and the ball flew out of the bunker on a bed of sand. The take-aways on the sand shots were: Take pitch shot practice swings outside of bunker; Soft hands; choke down on club; weight more on your front foot; and, most importantly, try to hit the ball, not 2" behind the ball.

We then went to the putting green and he watched me continually push my putts weak and to the right. He made a couple of fixes and my alignment was better and I was rolling the ball so much better. The fixes were: left hand more in the palm of the hand (rather than the fingers); and follow-through twice as long as backswing (do not decelerate).

Now, the exciting news! I shot a 79 at Stonecreek Golf Club. Everything was clicking. I was driving the ball straight and fairly long. I was hitting my hybrids and mid-irons well and I was hitting my short irons great! I made some 10'-20' putts (I also had a few 3-putts) and I got out of four bunkers and actually made two sandies! Stonecreek is a par-71 course, 6,871 yards from the green tees with a course rating of 72.8 and a slope rating of 131. No pushover. I shot a two-over par 37 on the front 9 with 3 bogeys and 1 birdie. I was one-over par through 6 holes on the back 9 and then I started leaking oil. I chunked my approach shots on 16 and 17 and missed 3-4' bogey putts on both holes for double bogeys. On 18, I partially righted the ship with a drive right down the middle of the fairway and a 3-hybrid from about 180 yards to the left fringe of the green, but it took me 3 putts for a bogey. I was 8 over par for the round and 5 over par on the last 3 holes. But I shot a 79! Oh my God!

The Masters

2011-04-07T18:42:00.009-07:00

This is Masters week at Augusta National Golf Club. The Masters is my favorite golf tournament. It is also the start of the best four months of professional golf with the four major championships, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the Open and the PGA, being contested within this short time period. Playing Augusta National Golf Club is on the top of my bucket list.

The Curmudgeon is attending the third and fourth rounds of the Masters this weekend. His brother arranged the trip as a birthday present. If you watch carefully, you may see a toe-headed Curmudgeon holding up a sign behind the 12th hole tee box inscribed "Jon 3:16" just before the Masters security force carries him off the hallowed grounds of the club.

Augusta National is the most beautiful golf course I have ever seen (on my 50" HD television set). It is amazing how the groundskeepers are able to get the azaleas to bloom at exactly the correct time for the tournament. I have seen the huge heaters that are used when it is unusually chilly in Augusta in early April. The back 9 at Augusta, including Amen Corner, on Sunday afternoon may be the best test of golf and nerves and risk and reward in all of golf lore. Some of the great moments at Augusta include Jack Nicklaus, at 46 years old, winning his 18th major and his 6th green jacket in 1986; Tiger Woods winning his first major at Augusta in 1997 by 12 strokes!; and Phil Mickelson winning his first major in 2004 with 5 birdies on the back 9 on Sunday.

70 Years of Thunder

2011-04-02T11:46:00.008-07:00

A few weeks ago, SO and I attended the Luke Air Force Base 70th anniversary Open House and Air Show. It was billed as "70 Years of Thunder" and it was all that. We (and many others) were invited by Brigadier General Jerry Harris, the Commander of the 56th Fighter Wing - Luke Air Force Base.

This is one of the perks of being a board member and general counsel of Valley Partnership. Valley Partnership is a non-profit organization with more than 500 member companies representing all segments of the commercial real estate development industry, including developers, attorneys, engineers, general contractors, subcontractors, and other professionals. Valley Partnership advocates responsible development by presenting a balanced, pro-development perspective and the Valley’s best industry education and networking opportunities.

Valley Partnership is very big supporter of Luke Air Force Base located in Glendale, Arizona. Luke is the largest air base in the world with more than 180 F-16 fighter jets housed at Luke. Luke Air Force Base trains 75% of all F-16 pilots in the world. There are more than 6,000 Airmen stationed at Luke Air Force Base with more than 600 deployed in Afghanistan, Iraq and around the world every year. Luke contributes more than 18,500 jobs and $1.4billion annually, directly and indirectly, to the Phoenix local economy. The military is the largest employer in Arizona, employing more than 83,000 active duty, reserve and civilians at military installations statewide.

Approximately 260,000 people attended the two-day open house and air show. There were 120,000 on Sunday when we attended. We were treated as DVs (distinguished visitors). We parked in a special parking lot inside the base and were then transported by bus or golf carts to the "Commander's Chalet" (actually a big tent) immediately adjacent to the landing strip and dead center. The air show started at about 10 a.m. and lasted to about 4 p.m. There was a very nice lunch spread inside the tent and chairs and temporary stands outside the tent to watch the air show. All of the military personnel were extremely polite and helpful. Some of them looked like they couldn't be more than 18 or 19 years old. There were aerial acrobatic propeller planes, helicopters and parachutists, but the coolest stuff was the fire power of the U.S. military. We saw the F-18 fighter jets, the A-10 Thunderbolt II, affectionately nicknamed the Warthog, a U.S. Air Force Heritage Flight formation with a modern fighter jet flying with World War II, Korean, and Vietnam era fighters, and finally the internationally acclaimed Thunderbirds flying the F-16 Fighting Falcon planes. A number of fighter planes and pilots from Luke had just left for Libya that day to take control of the air space over Libya. All of the action happened right in front of our location. Planes criss-crossed upside-down and side-by-side; they did dog fight maneuvers flying straight up, in chase formation and engaging in a dogfight; they flew in a number of different formations, including the diamond formation; some of the planes turned on their burners and flew at supersonic speeds with the emblematic supersonic boom; and my favorite, the warthog bombed a target on the ground and then strafed a swath of ground creating a wall of fire.

When the events were over, we were bussed back to our cars and zipped out of the base with military efficiency. SO asked one of the soldiers whether we could walk to our car and while he was polite it was clear he thought she must be crazy. In the area where we waited for the buses, there were signs that the area was patrolled by the military and they were authorized to use "lethal force" if unauthorized personnel were in sensitive locations on the base.

Arizona Diamondbacks Spring Training Facility - Salt River Fields

2011-03-28T07:18:00.016-07:00

Last weekend was a non-golf weekend. On Saturday, the Fennemore Craig Foundation sponsored a volunteer activity for the firm's employees, families and friends at the new Arizona Diamondbacks Spring Training facility at Salt River Fields to benefit the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Scottsdale. Employees, friends and family members, including me and SO, volunteered as ushers, ticket takers and customer service representatives at a spring training game.

We arrived at 10 a.m. for our team meeting and to don our black Diamondback shirts and straw hats (actually they were out of straw hats so we wore baseball caps instead) and then it was out to our stations. The information provided was a little thin and we were kind of on our own winging it. I worked the entry to the party decks putting on different color wristbands depending on each attendees' particular party group. Luckily for me, I worked with a very nice lady who volunteered frequently and was a pro at manning the party deck entrance. She was volunteering for the Boys and Girls Club because the organization was a major supporter of her event, "step N out" for pancreatic cancer research at TGen. The gates opened at 10:30 and there was a trickle of people until the hour before game time. I hate to admit it, but of the 5 questions I was asked by fans at the game (where are the bathrooms?; where is the ATM machine?; who hit that home run?, etc.), I got 4 of them wrong! I also fumbled putting on the wristbands and probably angered a lot of men with hairy arms.

SO was placed as an usher. Clearly, the volunteer coordinator did not know that litigators do not play well with others. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when an octogenarian fan asked SO for the fourth time, "Honey, where is my seat?". The game started at 1 p.m. and did not end until after 4 p.m. SO and I met for our 15minute lunch break at about 2 p.m. to get our free hot dog and drink. We waited in line for well over 30 minutes and gobbled our food in about 5 minutes.

Although we were not supposed to be watching the game, the Diamondbacks fell behind the Cincinnati Redstockings 10-0 after 4 innings, but stormed back to win the game 13-10 with 8 runs in the bottom of the 8th inning. Hopefully, that is a good omen for the baseball season.

The Red-Headed Stepchild

2011-03-19T17:36:00.006-07:00

I have not played at Camelback Golf Club since last summer when the Indian Bend Course was not in very good shape so we decided to check it out in high season. The Indian Bend Course is the red-headed stepchild at Camelback Country Club. The Padre Course is considered the premier course and is well-maintained.

I actually like the Indian Bend Course better because it is a little longer and less tricked-out. It plays over 7,000 yards, but the balls runs on the fairway so it seems to play shorter than its actual length. It is an old-fashioned Midwestern style course with generous fairways and trees bordering the fairways. If you miss the fairway by 5 or 10 yards, you oftentimes have tree trouble. If you miss the fairway by 25 to 30 yards you have a clear shot to the green. The Indian Bend Course encircles the Padre Course and is partially within the Indian Bend Wash. There are some long cart drives between greens and the next tee boxes. It seems like the architect could have built another 5 or 6 holes with all of the wasted land, but the design was probably impacted by the wash and the architect's ability to channel waters through the course. Because of the long distances between holes, you have to use a cart and cannot walk, which is a disadvantage.

The Gardener, Chad Feldheimer and I teed off in the mid-morning and the weather was gorgeous. Randall from the Panhandle in Florida was our fourth. Randy was a good guy and a good golfer. He is a medical salesperson and met his wife, an obstetrician/gynecologist, while he was selling gynecological medical equipment. That seems a little weird.

The first hole on the Indian Bend Course is the No. 1 handicap hole, a 432-yard, par-4. It is unusual to start off with the toughest hole on the course. I drove my ball into the right rough and had tree trouble. I pulled my second shot left of the green, hit a bad wedge and made double-bogey. Not the start I was hoping for! My front 9 included 4 double-bogeys, 3 pars and one birdie and one bogey for a 44. With my flatter swing plane I was making better contact with my driver and irons and hitting it longer than normal. However, my short game, including my putting, was terrible. On the back 9 I continued to hit my driver and irons well and improved my short game and putting. I only had one double-bogey to go with my 4 bogeys, 3 pars and 1 birdie for a 41. I had two other legitimate birdie putts from inside 10 feet, but missed both. Overall, I was very pleased with my 85, although with a course rating of only 122, my handicap index for the round was not as low as I hoped.

The Gardener shot a 44 on the front 9 and got hot on the back and was even par through 6 holes before he double bogeyed the 16th hole and finished with two pars for a 38 on the back 9 and a total score of 82. Chad Feldheimer shot an 80 and had some of the worst luck you can imagine on the course. As I mentioned earlier, if you missed the fairway by 20 or 25 yards, you had an open shot to the green. Chad was bombing his driver and hit it through the fairway on a number of occasions, generally putting himself right behind a tree. On one hole he hooked his drive down into the dry wash and had to hit from the wash over trees to the green. He hit a beautiful shot that clipped the branch at the very top of the tree and dropped straight down. On No. 14, a par-5, 570 yard hole, Chad drive the ball about 310 yards down the middle of the fairway and had 260 yards to the center of the green. He hit a screaming 3 wood that was rolling toward the green when it hit the sign in the middle of the fairway directing carts to the side. The ball ended up about 30 yards from the green. Rather than putting for eagle, Chad settled for a par. It was just one of those days for Chad.

Bondurant - Afternoon

2011-03-16T07:49:00.007-07:00

When we got back from lunch we were chomping at the bit to get onto the race course. First, we did time trials through a road course in a large open lot marked with cones so we did not do any damage to the cars. The road course included straight-aways, hairpin turns, S-turns and two or three different types of curves. Once we got into third gear, we kept the car in third and did not downshift. The course took about 60 seconds to complete. We ran the course once or twice slowly to get a feel for the turns and then started the time trials. My three times were in the high 59 seconds, low 59 seconds and high 58 seconds, but each time I lost time either because I was too tentative, took a bad racing line, or was too fast through a turn and almost lost the back end of the car. SO started out with a first run of 68 seconds, but by the third run she was keeping up with the boys and was in the mid 59 second range.

Next, we went on the Firebird main oval track to practice finding the racing line and hitting the apex of the curve. Of course, the oval is not a perfect oval (see link above); on the east end of the oval you take a high line coming into the curve and smoothly turn through the center of the curve and hit the apex on the inside of the curve and accelerate when you are parallel to the apex. At the west end, you accelerate straight into the curve, brake hard (and you should downshift but we were novices), take a sharper angle into the curve and hit the apex and accelerate. Cones are set up and there are markings on the curves to show you the racing line but it is still hard to hit the apex on each turn. Also, my left shoulder was slamming into the side of the car on each turn so by the time I got out of the car my shoulder was killing me!

Finally, we got onto the Bondurant Road Course and tried to assimilate all of the information that we learned over the course of the day. Our instructor led the way and we tried to follow him maintaining the same racing line. Although we never got out of third gear, we were going well over 100 m.p.h. on the straight-aways and through the S-turns and over the blind hills. We were hitting all of our racing lines and accelerating out of the apex of the curves like professional race car drivers (sort of). It was really exhilarating! When we pulled into the pit area ending our driving school adventure, we were disappointed that the day went by so quickly.

Bondurant School of High Performance Driving - Morning

2011-03-14T16:59:00.012-07:00

About a year ago, the Curmudgeon invited SO and me to attend the Liberty Wildlife Annual Charity Fundraiser, "Wishes for Wildlife". The Curmudgeon's wife is very involved in Liberty Wildlife. Liberty Wildlife rehabilitates Arizona native birds and similar wildlife that are injured or become ill and it provides educational training throughout the state to school children. Check out the video releasing a bald eagle into the wild on the "About Us" page.

I am not quite so eleemosynary, but I know a good deal when I see it. At the silent auction, we bid on a one-day Bondurant School of High Performance Driving program for two people and got it for a steal. SO and I decided to go to the school as my birthday present last week. At the school, each student drives his or her own 6 speed manual Chevrolet Corvette Z06. I had not driven a stick shift in 20 years and SO, suffice it to say admitted than even when she drove a stick shift, did not do so very well. We tried to rent a stick shift car the weekend before school to practice, but could not find any car rental company that still rents stick shift cars. We even tried U-Haul and it did not have any stick shifts for rent. I think you can rent high-end cars like Corvettes with manual transmissions but they are very expensive. So we just winged it!

The class runs from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with a 90 minute break for lunch. The classroom is the Firebird International Raceway in Chandler. The first half hour or so is in the classroom talking about cars in general, downshifting, front wheel/rear wheel traction, geometry and the apex of a curve, trail braking and proper race lines and something about rolling back and forth between the brake and the throttle. SO and I were still trying to figure out whether the throttle was the brake, the accelerator or the clutch. And of course, we cannot forget the mandatory sales pitch by the photographer, which was pretty pricey, but what the heck, it was my birthday.

Then it is outside to pick your car. I chose the No. 5 Chevrolet Corvette (Mark Martin's number for all you NASCAR fans) and SO chose the No. 1 car (surprise!). There was only one other person in our group. We got into the cars and revved the engines and tried to figure out all of the electronics and headed out for our first training exercise of the day, manual shifting. The course was like barrel racing for all of you rodeo fans. We revved the engine, burned rubber and shifted from first to second to third gears on the straight-away, then we braked and downshifted into second gear as we were coming into the turn and when we reached the apex of the curve we accelerated from second gear into third gear and then did it again and again until we were comfortable using the clutch and shifting gears. SO did great and by the end she was shifting like a pro!

Next was accident avoidance training. We drove down the straight-away in second or third gear and there were three lanes ahead with a green light for each. About 80 feet before the road splits, the instructor would either leave one, two or all three lights green or turn all three lights red and you had to make a split-second decision into the correct lane. The red light signified an accident in front of you. We only had one death in our group where our third driver slammed into the back of the accident, although I do not think the instructor was overly impressed with our reaction time when all three lights were red. Interestingly, the hardest situation was when you had two green lights and could go in either direction. The moral of this exercise was that it is oftentimes better to maneuver to avoid an accident rather than stamping your brake and trying to stop before rear-ending the car in front of you. But if there is no way to avoid the accident and you need to stop quickly, stand on the brake and do not worry about stalling out the car or burning out the brakes.

Before lunch, we changed cars and all got into a car with training wheels for skid control training. You try to drive inside the larger circle and find the apex of the curve without going into the smaller circle in the middle and without losing the back-end of the car and spinning in circles. It is a lot like driving on ice or hydroplaning on water. Also, the instructor has a hydraulic lift that lifts the back-end of the car so you lose traction while turning. Each of us spun out the car and burned rubber at least once. It was like Kyle Busch after winning a NASCAR race. The lessons were: look where you want to go, not where you are going; do not jam the brakes because that shifts the weight of the car to the front wheels when you need more weight on the back wheels, and steer into the spin (i.e., toward your back-end) but do not over-steer or you will spin like a top.

Then it was off to lunch to talk about how much fun we were having!

The Haney Project - Jay Kramer

2011-03-07T13:03:00.016-07:00

I was going stir crazy the last couple of weeks! The last two weekends were miserable -- cold and overcast -- so I did not play any golf. This past week was beautiful so Chad Feldheimer and I snuck out of the office on Thursday afternoon to play some golf at Papago Golf Course. We shut off the blackberries and enjoyed the afternoon. We were paired with Cheryl and Bev from Calgary. Cheryl was buying a patio home at McCormick Ranch for the winter and her friend Bev came for the trip and to escape the Canadian winter. Luckily, Chad and I were walking and Cheryl and Bev rode a cart so they were generally able to keep up, especially given how long I stand over the ball.

I shot a 43 on the front 9 but tired on the back 9 and shot a 47 for a 90. I was unhappy about my golf game, but as they say (whoever "they" is) "the worst day on the golf course is better than the best day in the office." Holes 16 through 18 at Papago are similar to the the Bear Trap (Nos. 15-17) at PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, where this week's PGA Honda Classic was played. The 16th hole is a 416 yard uphill par 4, followed by a 232-yard par-3 and the 441-yard par-4 finishing hole. Chad Feldheimer played this stretch in one-over par and finished with a 78 after shooting a 40 on the front 9. I played the last 3 holes in 5 over par on my way to the back 9 score of 47.

Saturday afternoon I had an epiphany (another one) about my golf game. I was flipping channels and came to the final episode of the Hank Haney Project with Rush Limbaugh. I have not watched any of the prior episodes because I am not a Rush Limbaugh fan or a Hank Haney fan. I think a golf pro is a lot like a psychiatrist and should not talk about his clients or former clients. While Hank Haney was probably a well-known golf professional among professional golfers before Tiger Woods, he became a celebrity and has made a boat load of money due to his relationship with Tiger. When asked about Tiger, Haney should have the good sense to simply keep his mouth shut and invoke the golf teacher - student privilege. Rush is the epitome of talk radio. Loud and obnoxious. It does not matter whether the talking head is on the right or the left. In the half hour that I watched (with flashbacks), Rush was much more likeable than I thought. He truly loves golf and was a good student and hard worker (after blustering at first). But I digress. Back to my epiphany!

Even though I am not thrilled with Hank Haney's antics regarding Tiger Woods, he clearly knows his stuff. Rush is an 18 handicap golfer and his technical problems were that he was hitting a lot of balls on the toe of the club and hitting a lot of fat shots or thin shots because his swing plane was too upright. Haney worked with Rush to flatten his swing. It sounded like Hank Haney was talking directly to me because my problems are thin shots and toe shots. Upon hearing Haney's advice, I immediately headed to the Giant to work on my swing. I am not sure why flattening the swing plane solves the "toe problem", but I immediately starting hitting the ball closer to the middle of the club and one or two grooves higher on the club. My swing and swing thoughts seem to change weekly, but I think this is the one (again)!

Through golfnow.com we were able to reserve a tee time on Sunday afternoon at Moon Valley Country Club for $35! I called Digger to join the Gardener and me for the round. The sun is setting at about 6:30 at this time of year so we teed off at about 1:45 and finished at about 6:00 with some daylight to spare. Digger and his son played the first 9 holes with us. With all due respect to the original Cameo, I think that I am going to change Digger's moniker to Cameo West given his propensity for disappearing at the turn. Using my new swing, I played really well for the first 8 holes with 3 pars and 5 bogeys. Number 9 used to be one of my favorite holes at Moon Valley. It is only 383 yards, but there is water on the left that you can reach off the tee that goes all the way to the green and a stream that crosses right in front of the green. I overcompensated and pushed my drive way right. I tried to hit my second shot over the trees and hit some tree limbs and then pull-hooked my third shot into the water and made a 7 for a 44. On the back 9 I had another triple-bogey and a double-bogey but still shot a 44 for an 88. Although I had a few big hooks with my new swing plane, I was really happy with the way I played.

The Gardener was having a miserable front 9, but hit one of the great shots of all time. On the par-5 4th hole, the Gardener was in the greenside bunker in 3 shots. He skulled his explosion shot out of the bunker and the ball was heading right for the window of a house or possibly over the roof top when the ball hit a palm tree square on and bounced back onto the green about 15 feet from the pin. The Gardener made the putt for one of the great up-and-downs of all time (I made up that last part to embellish the story, but it was still an unbelievable shot!). The Gardener shot a 49 on the front 9 but somehow figured out his swing problems and played beautifully on the back 9, shooting a 39 for a total of 88.

The Carpenter and His Tools

2011-02-21T19:42:00.007-07:00

Phoenix got its last blast of Old Man Winter (hopefully) this weekend. It was cold (in the 50s and low 60s), rainy and overcast all weekend. So there was no hiking or golf this weekend. SO and I went shopping and in exchange for not whining and whimpering too much at Macy's, DSW and some other clothing stores, I got to spend an hour at the PGA Superstore in Chandler. The new Callaway RAZR Hawk Driver was released this week and I wanted to try it out. I have about $600 of PGA Superstore gift cards burning a hole in my pocket and I was a buyer today.

I took my 2008 TaylorMade Burner Driver into the store. One of the clerks marks your club with a piece of tape to indicate that it is your club and makes you leave the headcover at the front desk. Normally, this would not be a big deal, but the head cover was my new Jan Craig head cover so I was not thrilled (but I was too lazy to walk the 25 yards back to my car so I left it upfront).

The sales people at the PGA Superstore leave something to be desired. I went up to the hitting area and after waiting about a minute I interrupted a discussion between two of the sales people to see if I could get any help. One guy pointed me in the direction of the RAZR demo clubs and sent me to station 2. I hit balls for about 45 minutes in the simulator and not one sales person talked with me. I hit a number of drives with my TaylorMade Driver to determine my baseline. I hit my driver between 230 and 250 yards according to the simulator. I hit the Callaway RAZR Hawk, the Ping G15 and the TaylorMade R9 and R11 drivers. I hit all of them between 230 and 250 yards. It is possible that my "misses" were going further and straigher, but I did not notice a significant difference. By this time I am dripping with sweat and still no one has said a peep to me.

Two lessons I learned at the store (and that I am happy to impart to my followers): First, incentivizing sales people by paying commissions makes them hungrier. I was salivating to buy a new $400+ driver and no sales clerk gave me the time of day. There is a fine line between being a good salesperson and an over-aggressive boor, but I would have loved to have someone come over and talk with me about the different clubs and show me how to adjust the weights, etc. Of course, I could have tracked down a sales clerk, but why?

Second and more importantly, the old adage that "it is not the tools, but the carpenter that wields them" remains true. The difference in distance between my "ancient" 2008 TaylorMade Burner and the new 2011 drivers was negligible. The RAZR was developed in partnership with Lamborghini and it advertises that the clubface is made of forged composite and is lighter and stronger than titanium, the aerodynamic shape reduces drag by 43-percent over the FT-9 driver for more distance and the hyperbolic face technology precisely controls the face thickness, resulting in consistently higher ball speeds across the entire face. I would have gladly paid $400+ for an additional 10 yards off the tee and a little bit more accuracy, but I was not feeling it.

Valentine's Weekend

2011-02-12T12:42:00.026-07:00

Since Valentine's Day is Monday, the big question this week is whether you can celebrate Valentine's Day on Saturday or Sunday when you can spend more time with your sweetheart or you should celebrate on Monday, which is the date that Hallmark chose for Valentine's Day. The restaurant owners (not the employees) love a Monday Valentine's Day because a lot of restaurants are normally closed on Monday or business is slow. Although I hate to generalize (and my followers know how politically correct I am), the Venetians (not Venice, Italy) are firm that Valentine's Day must be celebrated on February 14. The Martians, who are generally more flexible and right brain-oriented, believe that Valentine's Day can be celebrated anytime in the vicinity of February 14. One Curmudgeon Martian combines his Venetian's birthday and Valentine's Day (it is a wonder he is still married!). Because I always like to impart some pearl of wisdom to my followers, February 14 is also statehood day in Arizona. Arizona was admitted into the Union on February 14, 1912.

SO's plan was to kill me before Valentine's Day because I was being very difficult about a Valentine's Day gift (it looks like I am getting underwear again!). We hiked Camelback Mountain on the Cholla Trail. Cholla Trail is the less-crowded, "easier" route up the mountain. It is 3.5 miles roundtrip. The last half mile or so requires scrambling along the ridgeline. There were plenty of places where a misstep or a slight push in the back would send you tumbling off the side of the mountain. I got dissed by some hikers for climbing in my Skechers and not wearing my hiking boots. I hate to admit it, but they were right. The view from the top of Camelback Mountain is beautiful and well-worth the hike. After hiking, we went to the farmer's market at Vincent's Restaurant, in the heart of the city, for breakfast.

Sunday was gorgeous and I was stoked to play golf. I just got my retro Jan Craig headcovers and I was looking sharp and feeling good. I parred the first hole at the Wigwam Gold Course and it was all downhill from there. I stunk up the joint! I hit some shots that came off the clubhead so strangely I have no idea what I did. I was hitting the ball on the toe and the heel, everywhere except in the middle of the clubface. I was nothing if not (in)consistent. I shot a 48 on the front 9 and a 48 on the back 9 for a 96. The highlight of my round was the 400 yard, par-4 18th hole. This is a good finishing hole with a canal that runs just left of the green. The Sunday pin position was on the front left side of the green so if you miss the shot just a little left of the green, the ball rolls off the edge of the green into the canal. Of course, I bail out to the right. My ball lands next to the cart path and right of the greenside bunker with the green sloping away from me and toward the canal. I decide to hit a flop shot over the bunker that lands softly on the green about 10 feet from the hole and I make my only putt of the day for a par.

While I was stinking up the course, the Gardener was bombing his driver and lasering his irons. He had three gimme birdies and hit another shot about 3 feet above the flagstick and missed a tricky downhill sliding putt for a fourth birdie. He had a 38 on the front 9, but limped home with double-bogeys on the last two holes for a 44 on the back and an excellent round of 82 for the day. It was the best I have seen him hit the ball! Chad Feldheimer was making pars with a few birdies and bogeys sprinkled in. He made the turn at 37 and it looked like this might be the day he shoots par golf. On the par-5, 14th hole, Chad drove his ball into the trees, his second shot hit a tree branch and he almost shanked his third shot. His fourth shot was a medicore short iron that landed about 20 feet from the flagstick, but he drained the 20 foot putt for his par. He needed a birdie on one of the last two holes to shoot 72, but unfortuantely he bogeyed No. 17 for a very respectable 74.

Sports on the Brain!

2011-02-09T17:37:00.003-07:00

Super Bowl weekend in Phoenix is extra special because the [insert sponsor name] Phoenix Open PGA Tournament is always played on Super Bowl weekend. The Phoenix Open draws the largest crowds by far of any PGA Tour event. I think the record crowd for the Phoenix Open was over 538,000 in 2008. This year attendance was down because the Pro-Am was canceled on Wednesday and we had unseasonably cold weather with early and mid-morning frost. Total attendance was about 365,000, which will still be the largest attendance of any PGA Tour event this year. And crowd size is generally down on Sunday because of the Super Bowl festivities.

On Saturday, SO and I hiked the Go John Trail in Cave Creek Regional Park, just north of Phoenix. The trail is 4.8 miles long and is very scenic. There are a couple of steep grades, but mostly it is a nice hike on generally flat terrain. We completed the hike in 1 hour and 45 minutes. I led the way at the beginning and end of the hike and SO ran me ragged for over an hour in the middle. I could barely keep up with her! She has been working out like a demon and it is really showing in her physical conditioning. I am very proud of her.

On Super Bowl Sunday I played in the "traditional" Greenfield Lakes invitational golf tournament with SO's step-dad and his buddies. Greenfield Lakes Golf Course is a really nice par-62, 4,100 yards executive golf course with two par-5 holes, four par-4 holes and twelve par-3 holes ranging from 100 yards to over 200 yards. The par-5, 530 yard 18th hole is the signature hole with a double dogleg. I hit the ball really well and shot an 8 over par 70. I had two double-bogeys and two birdies and eight pars.

After golf, it was time for the Super Bowl. Although I did not really have a dog in this fight, I was rooting for the Packers. I hate to admit it, but I still remember Bart Starr and the Green Bay Packers winning the first two Super Bowls (I don't remember whether the games were called "Super Bowls" at that time). I was a die-hard New York Football Giants fan at the time, but everyone revered and wanted their team to emulate the Packers. The Vince Lombardi trophy deserves to be in "Title Town". The Steelers are also a great football organization and there is no family more deserving of greatness than the Rooney family, the owners of the Steelers (except maybe the Bidwills - yah right!). This was a match-up of two storied football franchises that play football the way it was meant to be played. Although the game was not the best played Super Bowl ever, it was very competitive and until the final incomplete pass you sat on the edge of your seat thinking that the Steelers might pull out a victory.

The Greatest Show on Ice

2011-02-04T17:43:00.006-07:00

While the rest of the country is buried under a foot or more of snow, the greatest golfers in the world (or at least in the United States) are in Scottsdale, Arizona for the Waste Management Phoenix Open, generally known as the "greatest show on grass", but this year re-named the "greatest show on ice".

After a 5 hour frost delay on Wednesday, the PGA finally canceled the Pro-Am tournament because any play would have damaged the fairways and greens. Temperatures have been frigid in the early mornings causing a hard freeze on the greens and in the fairways. Thursday's high temperature may not have cracked 50 and Friday's high temperature was only in the mid-50s. On Thursday, the first groups teed off from the 1st and 10th holes at 11:40 a.m. and the last groups did not tee off until about 5:25 p.m. and only finished two holes before darkness. But check out the unbelievable sunset over the golf course. The PGA made a great decision to play the final round of the tournament on Monday rather than try to play 36 holes on Sunday. After losing the Pro-Am on Wednesday, the Thunderbirds must be very pleased to add another day to the back-end of the tournament. The weekend high temperatures are supposed to be 67 degrees on Saturday, 70 degrees on Sunday and 74 degrees on Monday with sunny skies.

The Perfect Sports Day

2011-01-31T16:25:00.013-07:00

Sunday was a sports day. Hiking in the early morning with SO, golf in the afternoon with the Gardener and floor seats at the Suns basketball game in the evening. It does not get much better than that! The weather was cold in the morning when we went hiking, but it warmed up to about 70 degrees with clear skies by mid-afternoon. Perfect golf weather!

I have got the Gardener into a physical fitness routine. His wife bought him a pull cart for his golf clubs and we have been walking the golf courses. He has become a bit of a pull cart snob. A few weeks ago we played at ASU Karsten Golf Course and the course would not allow him to use his pull carts so the Gardener decided to spite the course and ride in a cart rather than walk and carry his bag. I have absolutely no idea why a golf course would not permit pull carts other than golfers may pull them through the sand bunkers or across the green. I guess you need to make rules for the lowest common denominator. This week we played at Aguila Golf Course in South Phoenix. In the areas within 25 yards or so of the greens there were signs prohibiting golf carts from getting any closer to the greens, which is normal. But there were also signs prohibiting pull carts around the greens. As a pull cart snob, the Gardener was a little miffed about this rule. Of course, he understood not to pull his cart over the green or even the apron around the green, but 25 yards from the green, come on!

Aguila is the newest of the Phoenix municipal courses. It is a really nice track (see photo gallery)that plays to more than 7,000 yards from the black tees. There were three or four holes where the course was adding additional tee boxes to lengthen the course that were not yet open. Thank goodness! The course was designed by Gary Panks, who is one of the most prolific golf course designers in Arizona, with credits for The Golf Club at Chaparral Pines, Firerock Country Club, Whirlwind Golf Club (Cattail Course) and Whirlwind Golf Club (Devils Claw Course), among many others. Aguila is an interesting layout because there are two drivable (not for me) 300 yard par-4 holes and one short par-3 hole, which means that the par-4 holes are monsters. There are 5 par-4 holes that range from 433 yards to 471 yards. The course rating is 72.4 and the slope rating is 129.

The course was closed for a few months recently to redesign the bunkers because the golfers complained about the number and size of the fairway bunkers, the depth of the greenside bunkers and the lack of sand in the greenside bunkers. I never played the course with all of the bunkers but Matt, our playing partner on Sunday, pointed out a number of the bunker locations that are now grass. The only disappointing part of the golf course are the newly-renovated greenside bunkers. Matt said they used to be deep and difficult to escape. Now they are flat and serve no purpose. I actually putted out of three of the greenside bunkers with no difficulty. I would have liked to play the course as originally designed.

I played very consistently. I was generally hitting my driver straight down the middle of the fairway and hitting my hybrids and long irons okay. I only had two double-bogeys, one where I hit the ball into the water and another on a par-3 where I just mishit my tee shot and took a penalty stroke. I made a birdie on a par-5 hole and had 4 pars for an 86. On Saturday, I worked on my flop shot at the practice facility. After hitting about 30 flop shots without mishitting one, I was really comfortable hitting that shot. I hit three flop shots on Sunday from difficult positions out of the desert or over greenside bunkers. One was close enough that I did not need my putter and the other two were in the makeable putt range. The Gardener played really well in long stretches, but had a few erratic holes that killed his round. He shot a 90.

After golf, we washed up and headed to U.S. Airways Arena to see the Suns play the New Orleans Hornets and Chris Paul. Our seats were in the third row on the floor behind one of the baskets. The Suns played really well for 47 minutes and 30 seconds and then almost blew an 8 point lead in the last 30 seconds, but held on to win the game. The floor seats under the basket are really cool because you can see all of the action up close and you can see how big, athletic and physical the players are. If I had a choice of any seat in the house for a full season I would not want to sit in these seats because a small portion of the court is obstructed by the basket stanchion and you are peaking from one side to the other, but for one game it was a lot of fun (and the price was right).

DQed

2011-01-26T18:42:00.003-07:00

Over the last few months there has been a rash of high-profile penalties called on players by television viewers, some of which have led to disqualifications because the players inadvertently signed incorrect scorecards before learning of the rules infractions. This past week Camilo Villegas on the PGA Tour and Padraig Harrington on the European Tour were both disqualified for rules violations that were reported after they signed their scorecards. Villegas tapped down a divot as his ball was rolling back down a slope toward the divot. Harrington replaced his ball on the green and the the ball rotated forward two dimples. Both players were gentlemen about the disqualifications, but it is getting to be ridiculous.

Tim Finchem, PGA Tour Commissioner, intends to ask the USGA to review the Rules of Golf, but he is not advocating that the penalty related to signing an incorrect card be changed.
He said he wants a “full and thorough review” of the rule, so golf officials can ask if there is a better way to penalize players. Interestingly, Finchem did acknowledge that the professional tours have a right to set their own rules for a tournament, but he would rather retain the USGA as the rule-making body.

One suggestion is to assess the two-stroke penalty even after the card has been signed, provided the player was not aware he had broken a rule, but not disqualify him. This creates some problems if it affects the cut line or the winner of the tournament, in addition to making a subjective determination as to whether the golfer knew or should have known that he violated a Rule of Golf, but it is clearly better than the present Rule. My suggestion is to retain the honor system among the players and not permit television viewers to call in rules infractions. If a golfer blatantly violates the Rules of Golf and does not report himself or herself or has a number of unreported, unknowing violations, suspend the golfer. If the unreported violations continue, then ban the golfer from the tour for a number of years or for life, after giving the golfer all of the due process protections that are appropriate before denying a person his or her livelihood.

Golf Masochism

2011-01-25T18:18:00.005-07:00

Last weekend I unintentionally agreed to a masochistic golf endeavor. Chad Feldheimer was feeling very good about his golf game and he wanted to conquer The Karsten Golf Course at Arizona State University, the home of the storied ASU golf program. Instead of working, he studied the course layout and mapped out his strategy for shooting par. We also talked the Gardener into playing. Karsten, from the professional tees, is a bear! On the scorecard, the course is 7,002 yards long but plays to a par-70 with only two par-5 holes! The number 1 handicap hole is a 493-yard par 4 and the number 2 handicap hole is a 498-yard par 4. There are three other par-4s over 450 yards. The course rating from the professional tees is 73.8 and the slope rating is 131.

The front 9 is a par-34 with no par-5 holes and is only 3,251 yards. Pete Dye moved a lot of dirt to design this course on a flat, ugly piece of land. If you miss the fairway on your drive, you can generally find your ball but it may have rolled over a small hillock and you oftentimes cannot see the flagstick so you are hitting into a blind green. Theoretically, it should not make any difference if you know the distance to the flagstick and the location of the flagstick, but psychologically not being able to see the flagstick throws you off-stride and affects your perception and your swing. Also, the lack of any par-5 holes takes some of the fun out of the game. The mid-handicapper can usually hit the green in 3 strokes on a par-5 and may even have a reasonable opportunity for birdie and at least have a good chance for a par. Seven par-4 holes become boring. I know this sounds like sour grapes and it is! I shot bogey golf on the front 9 for a 43.

The last time Chad Feldheimer and I played Karsten we had the good sense to play the back 9 from the champion tees, which are 3,395 yards. Not this time. The back 9 at Karsten is like a death march. It is a par-36, 3,751 yards, but at least there are two par-5 holes. There are 3 par-4 holes over 450 yards and a 248 yard par-3. It is brutal. I shot a 48 on the back 9 for a 91 total. Chad Feldheimer shot a 79 and the Gardener shot a 90. I played the seven par-4 and par-5 holes in 6 over par, which was not bad, but I tripled-bogeyed both par-3 holes to ruin my round.

I think it will be quite some time before I go back to Karsten again!

71 Holes!

2011-01-18T19:15:00.014-07:00

This past Monday was Martin Luther King/Civil Rights Day so SO and I took a mini-vacation to Palm Desert in California. Palm Desert is about 4 hours by car from Phoenix. It is in the Sonoran Desert so the topography, scenery, temperature and rainfall are similar to Phoenix. I think there are more golf courses per capita in the Palm Springs area than anywhere in the United States!

We stayed at The Westin Desert Willow Villas. It is a new Starwood/Westin timeshare project. Because I have a Starwood Preferred Guest card (although I have almost no points on the card), I was invited to the project for a very reasonable price. The amenities are constructed and the first phase of the project is completed. There will be five phases when the project is completed. It is located between holes at the Desert Willow Golf Resort, which is a city-owned 36-hole golf complex. Desert Willow Villas is not affiliated with the golf courses, although we were told that guests get a small discount on the daily fee. The Firecliff course at Desert Willows is ranked as one of the best public golf courses in Southern California.

On Saturday, I played The Golf Club at Tierra Lago - North Course (formerly the Landmark Golf Club). The course was in good condition and the fairways were cut very close so you got a lot of roll off of the tees. However, because the lies were so close in the fairway you really had to concentrate on hitting the ball first and taking a divot in front of the ball. I played my best golf. I played from the professional tees, which are 7,060 yards with a course rating of 73.7 and a slope rating of 137. I was hitting my tees shots in the fairway and the ball was rolling so I had a lot of mid-iron approach shots. I had 3 pars and 2 double-bogeys on the front 9 for a 44 and 4 pars and no double-bogeys on the back 9 for a 41 and a total of 85. Because of the high course rating and slope rating, my differential was 9.3, the first time I broke double digits! Also, I played another 18 holes without losing a golf ball. That is 54 holes in a row without losing a ball! As an admission against interest, on the 183-yard par-3 15th hole, I hit a low line drive tee shot that landed in the pond in front of the green and skipped onto the grass. That is clean living!

On Sunday I played the Firecliff course at Desert Willow. Firecliff is a city-owned course. Palm Desert residents pay $45 per round. The "rack rate" is $175 per round. I paid $125 using http://www.standbygolf.com/. I would highly recommend this site if you are traveling to the Palm Springs area. The listed courses and prices were better than golfnow.com and golfhub.com. The website also lists other cities, including Phoenix, but it simply defaults to the golfhub.com site for Phoenix. I was paired with a father and his two sons visting from Michigan. The course was extremely lush with wall-to-wall turf. The scorecard says that the course is irrigated with reclaimed water as part of a conservation effort, but it is still using a lot of water.

We played from the Blue tees, which are 6,676 yards with a course rating of 71.7 and a slope rating of 133. Because of the lush fairways the course plays longer because you get very little roll in the fairways. The course is known for its more than 100 bunkers/waste areas and I was in a lot of them! I started off reasonably well and was playing under bogey golf through 6 holes and shot a 45 on the front 9. On the back 9 I did not think that I played that poorly but I shot a 49 for a 94. It was my worst scoring round in quite a while, but I did not feel that I hit the ball badly. It was simply a difficult course with which I was not familar and I did not play my best golf. Most importantly, through 16 holes I was still playing my Titleist Pro V golf ball. But on the 71st hole, a 204-yard par-3 with the pin tucked into the right-hand side of the green, I aimed to the center of the green and hit my 1-hybrid, but the ball faded a little more than I wanted and barely landed in the water pin high. Good bye old friend!

Breaking the Barrier!

2011-01-13T17:42:00.010-07:00

I think that I may be peaking too early for my journey to St. Andrews! I have played two rounds of golf so far in 2011 and I am playing my best golf ever. I shot an 84 at Papago Golf Course two weeks ago and an 86 at the Gold Course at the Wigwam Golf Resort last weekend. Hopefully, I have turned a corner and I can continue to shoot in the mid-80s and I just did not catch lightning in a bottle for a glimmer in time.

There are a few things that give me hope that this is not just a passing fad (I hope I do not come to regret those words in the future). First, I have played the same Titleist Pro V golf ball for 36 holes, which I am sure is a record for me. I am driving the ball straighter and longer than ever before. It is amazing how much easier it is to play when you are hitting your second shot from the fairway and do not need a driver to reach the green in regulation. Second, I was one over par through the first 7 holes at the Wigwam! (try not to do the math for the remaining 12 holes). I lost 5 shots on two holes because of two lob wedge shots that came up short and landed in the greenside bunkers. I either need to figure out how far I can hit the lob wedge and when I should use it or take it out of my bag forever. The lob wedge used to be my favorite club so I am not willing to give up on it yet.

Chad Feldheimer and I played Papago Golf Course. After my previous experience playing from the black tees, we moved up and played the blue tees. Papago is still a very good test of golf from the blue tees. It is 6,771 yards with a course rating of 72.0 and a slope rating of 125. Chad started out birdie-birdie and it looked like this might be the round that he shoots par or better and loses his "Chad Feldheimer" moniker. But he triple-bogeyed a short par-4 hitting a short iron into the greenside bunker and taking two strokes to get out of the bunker. He shot a 79, but hit the ball much better than his score indicated. I shot an 84 with two double-bogeys and 8 pars. I had a number of makeable birdie putts but did not hole any of them.

Last weekend The Gardener and I played the Gold Course at the Wigwam Golf Resort. We played from the Championship tees that are 6,830 yards with a course rating of 72.3 and a slope rating of 130. In the summer when the temperature is higher and the ground is harder and the ball flies and rolls further, we may try to play the “Monster” tees, which are 7,430 yards with course rating of 74.5 and a slope rating of 135. The Gardener had an off-day so I will not announce his score to my many followers. On the other hand, I was keeping the ball in play and hitting it pretty straight. I was one over par through 7 holes. On the par-4 eighth hole I was in jail and had to chip out into the middle of the fairway. I had 60 yards to the green and was thinking about making a bogey and moving on to the next tee. Against my better judgment, I pulled out my lob wedge and dunked the ball into the greenside bunker and made a 7 and shot a 41 on the front 9. I birdied the par-5 tenth hole and then proceeded to shoot 10 over par on the next eight holes for a 45 on the back 9 and an 86 total.

The Foreseeable Zone of Danger

2010-12-30T08:18:00.010-07:00

Many of my followers may be familiar with the personal injury case of Drs. Kapoor and Anand. The two doctors were frequent golf partners and were playing on the Dix Hills Park Golf Course, a nine-hole Long Island, New York course. After hitting their second shots on the first hole, a 283-yard par-4, each player went looking for his ball. Dr. Anand's ball was in the fairway and Dr. Kapoor's ball was in the left rough. The fact that neither player was on the green in two strokes on a 283-yard par-4 should tell you something about the quality of play.

It is hard to imagine what happened next. Dr. Kapoor "shanked" his next shot and hit Dr. Anand right in the eye blinding him in one eye. The third player in the group testified that Dr. Anand was about 20 feet away from Dr. Kapoor and about 50 degrees away from the intended line of flight. Dr. Kapoor testified that Dr. Anand was farther away and at an angle of 60 to 80 degrees. The court held that Dr. Anand was not in the "foreseeable zone of danger".

The trial court dismissed Dr. Anand's lawsuit holding that one of the inherent risks of playing golf is that you may be hit with a golf ball and every golfer assumes that risk within reasonable limits. The evidence seemed to indicate that Dr. Kapoor did not provide advance warning that he was about to hit his shot or yell "fore" once he realized the shot was off-line and heading toward Dr. Anand. Some may argue that Dr. Anand assumed the risk of injury simply by proceeding in front of Dr. Kapoor. Professional golfers always stand behind or to the side of the golfer hitting his shot, but it is commonplace and oftentimes "required practice" at most golf course for golfers to play "ready golf" and each to go to his respective golf ball and wait to hit. This speeds up play. Of course, if the forward golfer's ball is in the line of flight of the other golfer the forward golfer waits outside of the line of flight and the "foreseeable zone of danger" and oftentimes behind a tree as protection.

The New York State Court of Appeals upheld the trial court's dismissal of the lawsuit holding that a person participating in a sport consents to certain risks that are inherent in and arise out of the nature of the sport generally and flow from such participation, but that all participants owe a duty of care to their co-participants. In order to determine liability, the court must weigh the duty of care against the assumed risks. In this case, Dr. Kapoor's failure to warn in advance did not amount to intentional or reckless conduct, and the possibility of being struck by a ball reflects a commonly appreciated risk of golf. Implicit in the court's holding is that the plaintiff was not in the "foreseeable zone of danger".

The plaintiff's attorney argued that the "foreseeable zone of danger" differs with the skill of the golfer and there were disputed questions of fact in this case so the case should not be dismissed without a trial. I agree with the plaintiff's attorney. Although it puts a greater burden on the golfer and the court, there is no question that the "foreseeable zone of danger" playing with a professional golfer or even Chad Feldheimer is much small than playing with me. Chad is about a 4 handicap golfer. When he is hitting a 150-yard shot his "foreseeable zone of danger" is practically zero assuming the other player is not standing next to the flag stick. On the other hand, from 150 yards my "foreseeable zone of danger" is probably 10 yards on either side of the green and I have a duty to provide advance warning to any person in my "foreseeable zone of danger" before hitting (I hope this post does not come back to bite me someday!). That does not mean that from time-to-time we will not hit an errant shot outside of our respective "foreseeable zones of danger", but it would be unusual. Based on what little we know about Dr. Kapoor, I would say that his "foreseeable zone of danger" from 150 yards is probably anywhere in front of him. Theoretically, his "foreseeable zone of danger" diminishes as he gets closer to the green so whether Dr. Anand was in Dr. Kapoor's "foreseeable zone of danger" should have gone to trial.

A copy of the Court of Appeals memorandum decision in this case is available at the following link: Anand v. Kapoor, 222, New York State Court of Appeals.

What Were We Thinking!

2010-12-29T11:38:00.019-07:00

I have been hiking with SO and friends almost weekly and walking the golf course. I talked my friend the Gardener into walking the golf course and he bought a pull cart for his clubs. Chad Feldheimer, the young gun, refuses to walk. But the benefit for me is that I put my clubs on Chad's cart and I walk without having to carry my clubs. It is almost like having a caddy!

A few weeks ago, the Gardener and I walked Papago Golf Course, which is Phoenix's best municipal golf course. We usually play from the blue tees, which are 6,800 yards, but for some reason we started playing from the black tees, which are over 7,300 yards and once we realized what we were doing, it was too late so we stayed the course (no pun intended). From the black tees, Papago is a real man's test of golf. There are six par-4s over 440 yards. The par-5s average about 550 yards and three of the par-3s are over 235 yards! The course rating is 75.0 and the slope rating is 130.

We teed off on Sunday afternoon at about noon and finished in less than 4 hours walking. One single playing in a golf cart played through and otherwise we did not run into anyone else on the course or have anyone coming up from behind. The weather was absolutely perfect -- about 75 degrees with sunny skies and no wind. Papago used to be the busiest municipal golf course in Phoenix -- about 100,000 rounds per year! Golfers would park in the parking lot at 4 a.m. in the morning on the weekends in order to get a weekend tee time. The course got so much play that it fell into disrepair. In the mid-2000s the City of Phoenix and the Arizona Golf Foundation (an affiliate of the Arizona Golf Association) jointly undertook renovation of the golf course to restore it to its original luster. The Foundation did a great job on the golf course renovations but ran out of money before it could complete the new clubhouse (after razing the old clubhouse). A double-wide trailer stands as the clubhouse until there is enough money in the City budget to build the new clubhouse. However, in order to pay for the renovations, the City and the operator raised the in-season daily fee rate to $50 plus a cart fee, which out-priced a lot of the muni-golfers. Although Papago is a good as, if not better than, most of the semi-private and resort courses, golfers that are paying $65+ per round are generally not willing to pay that amount for a municipal course unless it is Bethpage Black or Torrey Pines.

Papago is a really well-designed walking course. You walk off of the green and the next tee box is usually within 20 to 30 yards -- unless you are playing from the black tees. We dropped our golf bags at the blue or white tee boxes and then started looking for the black tees. In some cases we needed binoculars to find the black tees. We then trudged back 50 to 90 yards from the front tees to our tee box. Sometimes the beginning of the fairway looked so far away I thought there was no way to reach the fairway, let alone reach the green in regulation. By the time that we got to the 18th hole, which is 464 yards long and about 50 yards back from the white tees, we were dragging and just trying to get to the clubhouse (or double-wide trailer) without too much damage. The Gardener shot an 87 and I shot an 88. With a 75.0 course rating and a 130 slope rating, my differential was 11.3, which is one of my best rounds of the year.

Heresy! A 12-Hole Round of Golf

2010-12-28T10:31:00.005-07:00

I kind of lost interest in my blog for the last month or so. I have been playing a lot of golf and the "World Of" trip to St. Andrews is coming together so there is a lot to talk about, but it is hard to find an hour or more to write a good post. But since my son Tyler and the Joker are pining for more posts here goes.

As the days get shorter and the weather gets colder (yes, it does get cold in Arizona; we are in the Sonoran Desert!), the daily window for playing 18 holes of golf dwindles. I played four times in a row in a three week period recently and did not once finish 18 holes! One time playing at Aguila Golf Course the weather was so nasty (cold, windy and drizzling) that the Gardener and I quit after 14 holes. Another time playing at Phoenix Country Club with Fred Flintstone we started after 2 p.m. and simply ran out of daylight. At Stonecreek Golf Club, Chad Feldheimer and I were supposed to tee off at 11:30 and we were delayed for an hour because of early-morning frost on the greens and then simply bad course management and after 4 hours and 30 minutes we quit on the 14th hole. Finally, playing with Digger at Moon Valley Country Club, we simply miscalculated how quickly we could play 18 holes and did not finish before darkness.

These rounds got me thinking about why golf is 18 holes instead of 12, 14 or 20 holes. As usual, everything in golf revolves around St. Andrews. Around 1764, St. Andrews converted from 22 holes to 18 holes (actually St. Andrews had 11 holes and the golfer played each hole twice). In 1858, the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews issued new rules for its members; Rule 1 stated "one round of the Links or 18 holes is reckoned a match unless otherwise stipulated". However, I like the legend that 18 holes aligns perfectly with the number of shots in a fifth of scotch -- one shot per hole.

I know it is heresy to talk about playing less than 18 holes of golf, but the idea of playing 12 holes in 2 1/2 hours is intriguing. While spending 5 to 6 hours at the golf course (including warm-up time and a round at the 19th hole) sounds fine to me, there are a lot of people with busy lives that do not want to spend the entire day at the golf course. For a while it would be cool to shoot in the high 50s or low 60s and even break the fabled 59! Existing golf courses may have to be reconfigured a bit, but the courses could either rotate out one 6 for maintenance or players could play two of the three 6 hole layouts. New courses could be built on smaller parcels of land to accommodate 12 holes instead of 18 and would require less water and maintenance. Assuming a course reduced its daily fee, it could make up the difference with lower operating costs and more rounds.

The Original Tea Partiers

2010-11-14T10:21:00.008-07:00

Last Sunday everyone in the continental United States turned their clocks back one hour ending Daylight Savings Time, except in Arizona. Arizonans do not turn their clocks back because they chose not to observe daylight savings time (even Indiana now follows daylight savings time, although a portion of the state is on Eastern Daylight Savings Time and a portion of the state is on Central Daylight Savings Time). The theory in Arizona (1) Arizonans are the original "tea partiers" (well maybe not the original tea party; I will give that honor to the Bostonians) and simply anti-establishment, or (2) it is so hot in Arizona that adding an additional hour of daylight would cause more of an energy crunch with air conditioners working longer and harder, or (3) following the anti-establishment argument, Daylight Savings Time is just a way for big businesses to capitalize on more sunlight during these months and Arizona refused to comply.

In any event, the effect of not following daylight savings time is, first and foremost, confusion for the rest of the country, and second, it gets dark by 5:45 in the winter so you have to schedule your golf appropriately. Last Sunday, Chad Feldheimer and I had a tee time at 11:48 at Stonecreek Golf Club. Assuming a 4 hour 30 minute round of golf, we had an hour leeway. We teed off 45 minutes late and made the turn in 2 hours 40 minutes. We finally walked (rode) off the course at the 15th tee at 5:15! I am officially taking Stonecreek Golf Club off of my list as my "home course" (at least for the winter season).

On Friday, Fred Flintstone invited me and one of his clients to play golf at Phoenix Country Club. The course was recently overseeded, and unlike the public courses that permit play two weeks after overseeding, the private courses usually close for a month for the overseeding. The course was spectacular! The greens were rolling fast and true. There were almost no ballmarks on the greens. Phoenix Country Club has my number. It is an old-style Midwestern course, flat and fairly narrow fairways with strategically placed trees and very small greens. I never drive the ball well at Phoenix and I am always scrambling to make bogey. It makes for a long day of golf, except that it is a beautiful walk in the park. Invariably, Fred shoots an 82. At the first tee, after Fred striped his drive right down the middle with his hockey swing, I told our playing partner that Fred would shoot an 82. Fred chimed in that we could just write down the 82, skip the golf and begin drinking in the bar. He shot a 43 on the front and needed a 39 on the back for an 82. No. 18 is a 500+ yard par 5. Fred was on the fringe of the green in 3 strokes and sunk a 20 foot putt for a birdie to shoot a 39 on the back and an 82 for the round! I shot a miserable 91 and I do not think I hit more than 2 fairways. However, the shot of the day was my drive on No. 16. I duck hooked the ball and it hit the wall of the restroom and the exterior wall of the maintenance area. After looking for the ball for a few minutes in the high rough I gave up. Our playing partner went to use the rest room and there on the floor under the urinal was my Bridgestone golf ball. Since the restroom is a part of the golf course and there was no applicable local rule, I had to hit out from under the urinal left handed (see picture below)!

You Need an MBA in Logistics to Play Golf

2010-11-01T12:29:00.008-07:00

This is the week that the Gardener's wife permits him to play golf. Chad Feldheimer also was able to play this weekend, but before Chad would play I had to negotiate a tee time, golf course and penalty for slow play. Chad is a long-suffering Detroit Lions fan and has the special NFL television package to watch and be tortured by his beloved Lions. The logistics were as follows: The Lions game begins at 10 a.m., Arizona time, and ends around 1 p.m.; assume travel time to the golf course of 20-30 minutes; sunset is 5:37 p.m.; and a round of golf on a Phoenix public golf course takes at least 4 1/2 hours (especially if it is "cart paths only"). You do the math! The last time the Gardener and I played we finished in the dark and the Gardener double-bogeyed the last two holes to ruin an excellent round, which he blamed on the darkness (I will give him the benefit of the doubt).

After negotiating for two days with Chad I had an epiphany. The Gardener and I would tee off at 12:30 and Chad could join us after the game. If there was enough daylight I would drive the cart while Chad finished the holes he missed. Another win-win solution for the great negotiator!

By the time that negotiations were completed and documents signed, the only course that fit our parameters was Vistal Golf Club. I like Vistal. There is a lot of elevation change and it has some beautiful views of South Mountain and downtown Phoenix. It plays over 7,000 yards from the blue tees, but the fairways are pretty wide. The greens and tee boxes were overseeded, but the fairways were not not. The fairways were still pretty green and the rough was pretty thick, but not too penal.

The Gardener and I teed off at 12:30. On the 3rd hole, the Gardner bent down to pick up his golf ball after holing out and he could not move. Getting old is hell! He was done for the day. He was nice enough to ride with me while trying to loosen up his back, but he was in a lot of pain. On the 6th hole, Chad finally showed up. We drove the Gardener back to the clubhouse, helped him get his bag off of the cart and sent him home to ice his back. Chad and I teed off at 2 p.m. and there was no one in front of us. I birdied the first hole, hit the ball very well, did not have any blow up holes (except I hit the ball in the water on the par 3 3rd hole) and shot a 41 on the front 9. Chad had not played in a month, did not hit any practice balls and was roping his driver as well as I have ever seen him hit it. On the 5th hole, I offered Chad some friendly advice that he needed to keep the ball to the right for the best angle into the green. He roped another drive right where he was aiming and hit it into the bunker. His second shot hit the lip of the bunker and went into the desert and he ended up with a 7 on the hole and a 40 on the front 9.

I did not hit the ball quite as well on the back 9, but not that bad either. However, I was in every fairway bunker on the back 9 and had a double-bogey barrage to shoot a 48 on the back 9 and an 89 for the round. Chad had bookend 40s for a pedestrian 80 (for him) even though he played better than his score. We played in less than 3 hours and finished just before 5 p.m.! That gave us plenty of time to get home before the ghosts and goblins starting knocking on our doors for Halloween.

2012 Ryder Cup Captain

2010-10-25T18:47:00.004-07:00

The Ryder Cup just ended and the next Ryder Cup is two years away, but the PGA will name the next American captain before the end of the year. Rumor has it that the odds-on-favorite is Davis Love III, but I am sure that DL III will find some way to choke and lose his lead.

At the McGladrey Classic, which DL III hosted at the Sea Island, Georgia, Resort, he began his normal Sunday slide by waffling to the press when asked if he wanted to captain the 2012 Ryder Cup team, saying "[i]f players ask me, are talking to me about it and they want me to do it, that's what I want to do. That's what it boils down to.” Not exactly the enthusiasm that the PGA would like to hear from its captain-in-waiting.

Assuming that the PGA will not call back the Zinger (Paul Azinger, the 2008 captain), the choices are pretty meager. Lee Janzen? Larry Nelson? Jeff Sluman? Those three do not create much excitement. Freddie Couples would be a good choice (if the Ryder Cup were played earlier in the year, Corey Pavin might have chosen Boom Boom as a player this year). Mark O'Meara would be interesting if his relationship with Tiger Woods is still solid.

DL III could not stand up to the pressure of the "World Of", let alone the Ryder Cup. His personal Ryder Cup record is 9 wins, 12 losses and 5 halves, not the stellar performance you would like from your captain, but the pickings may be slim. How about bringing back Tom Watson? He had a renaissance as a player the last few years and is the last U.S. Ryder Cup captain to win in Europe. Thinking outside the box, how about Jerry Colangelo? He brought USA Basketball back to prominence by winning an Olympic Gold Medal and the World Championships. Maybe he could do the same for American golf.

Why I Will Never Retire!

2010-10-24T11:20:00.005-07:00

When high-powered executives and business people retire, a very small minority travel and enjoy their retirement. The vast majority still have those competitive juices and control issues and have to find another outlet. Some become members of the board of directors of their homeowners association and fight with the developer about the turnover of the community's golf course or with the individual homeowners over basketball hoops, satellite dishes or the like. Those executives that belong to private country clubs ands retire become involved in the management of the country club. Some become members of the club's handicap committee and send letters like the following to the club's golf members (This is a real letter. I could not make this up myself!):

Dear Member:

Due to the rampant cheating and sandbagging on the golf course [editor's note: I took a little editorial license and added this prefatory language because the Handicap Committee is too proper to say this], your Handicap Committee will be implementing a new handicap monitoring system. The Handicap Committee has worked diligently to produce a system that will insure the ongoing integrity of our handicap system while minimizing the reporting requirements of our members.

The new system, which is monitored weekly by the Handicap Committee, creates a computerized comparison of all rounds recorded on the daily tee sheet generated by the golf shop as compared to the rounds posted to the Arizona Golf Association’s (AGA) handicap system. If a round is reflected on the tee sheet but has not been posted to the AGA system, an exception is noted.

In the case of all exceptions, the member in question will receive an e-mail noting the date of the round along with a request to contact the golf shop in order to resolve the exception in a timely fashion. Barring extraordinary circumstances, the Handicap Committee expects that exceptions will be discussed with the golf shop and resolved within five (5) days of receipt of the exception notice.

If the matter is not resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the member and the Handicap Committee within such timeframe, a penalty score may be posted pursuant to Section 8-4 of the USGA Handicap System Handbook. Your Handicap Committee and the golf staff thank you in advance for your efforts in insuring the integrity of this game we play.

Your Handicap Committee

World Of XXVII - Get Away Day

2010-10-18T17:43:00.004-07:00

Through six rounds of the "World Of" I do not think that we completed a round in less than 4 1/2 hours, even though we had the courses pretty much to ourselves. A lot of time was spent whoofing at one another, looking for lost balls in the wetlands, counting strokes and negotiating bets. Our tee time for Tuesday morning was 8 a.m. and I had a 2 p.m. flight back to Phoenix. I was worried that (a) I would miss the flight or (b) I would have to travel after playing golf and without showering (I was more worried about my seat mate on that issue), but I did not want to leave my buddies with 5 players (the only number of golfers on a men's golf trip worse than 7!) for the final round (Cameo left at 5 a.m. on Tuesday morning). Luckily, Turtle decided not to play since he had a 6 hour drive home, so "World Of" XXVII was down to a final foursome of Stinger, Arnie, Smooth and the Mouth.

Tuesday morning was cool and clear and our final foursome pulled out the long pants and golf vests looking very dapper. Turtle and I went out to the course to wish our comrades-in-arms good luck and to pick up our golf bags. Back at the house, we took Stinger's golf cart and tooled around the project, heading out to the sand dunes and the beach. After Turtle left, I putzed around the house until my cab picked me up at noon to begin the 12 hour odyssey back to Phoenix. I had a 3 hour layover in Houston and my plane was delayed for another 2 1/2 hours because of high winds and hail in Phoenix (check out the videos!). Sky Harbor Airport was shut down for almost 2 hours.

However, I do have the following blow-by-blow description of the epic final round of "World Of" XXVII from the Mouth:

"For those of you who missed the Golf Channel's special Grey Goose report from Camp Creek last night and Stuart Scott's Sports Center interview with Stinger and Arnie after clinching the final match of World Of XXVII with a par on the 18th hole (the 126th hole of competition), I will confirm that the final round lived up to the high standards of "World Of" competition. Arnie and Stinger took the early lead when Arnie -- in vintage Fat Jack style (huh!) -- ran in a 25 footer for birdie on Number 1 after conceding a four-footer to the opposition for par. That set the tone for the day. The front side had 3 lead changes and was not decided until Arnie and Stinger won the 9th hole for a one up victory. The back nine featured more lead changes, a couple of putts for "toppers" just when one side or the other seemed to be seizing control of the match, and fittingly came down to the last 2 holes. With Smooth and the Mouth clinging to a one-up lead on the back 9 and the 18 all even, Arnie again rose to the challenge by knocking in a 20 footer for birdie on 17 and using his stroke on 18 to ice the match. While the level of play was at times remarkably high for a Day 4 final round, it also included a whiff, a shank from the middle of the fairway by the only guy who at that point had not already incurred a penalty stroke on the hole, more than one ball putted off the green, and a trip into the muck searching for an errant tee shot that resulted in Arnie finding a ball he had lost in an earlier round (alas, he would lose it again before the match was done). All in all, a fitting conclusion to a great "World Of"."

And the follow-up from Stinger:

"In the interest of full disclosure, the Mouth was kind enough not to fully report that Arnie won the match on his own, with no help from his partner, other than complimenting his good play, tending the flag, raking the occasional bunker, and doing a little bit of Turtle-like coaching. The ball hawking was the result of yours truly diving head long into the driver yips, with no stress reliever available to assuage the ginzu-knife like tempo. By the end, I couldn't draw the driver back. But, as is the mantra of the "World Of", it is not about how well you play golf but being out on the course with your good buddies (and I had to work hard on that one)."

See you next year at St. Andrews!

World Of XXVII - Day 3

2010-10-18T07:08:00.012-07:00

Day 3 of the "World Of" was even nicer than the previous day if that is possible. When we left for the course in the morning, the temperature was in the high 60s and the sky was clear. The high temperature for the day was supposed to be about 75. Spectacular!

Sometime during the middle of the night, the Big Man and the Big Dog (an interesting pairing) stole out of the house and back to reality, leaving us with our normal prime integer, 7, players. In the morning we played at Shark's Tooth and played our own ball. My two-man game partner was Cameo. I was 1 under bogey through 5 but had 3 double bogeys on the last 4 holes for a 46 on the front 9. Cameo and I "hammed and egged" it pretty well so when I had a good hole, he had a bad one and vice versa. On the back 9, I had a kick-in birdie on the 173 yard par-3 and a 44 for a 90 total. On the par-4 15th hole, Cameo and I were both in the collection area adjacent to the green when we had a T.C. Chen moment. While I have done this more times than I want to remember it is very unusual for a good player like Cameo to chili-dip his chip shot and hit the ball a second time on the follow-through.

The most famous double hit was in the 1985 U.S. Open at Oakland Hills. T.C. Chen was leading the championship in the final round by 4 strokes when he double-hit his fourth shot from the heavy rough at the par-4 5th hole. After a penalty, a chip and two putts, Chen made an 8 and lost by 1 stroke to Andy North. Interestingly, under Rule 14-4, you count the stroke for the first hit and add a penalty stroke to your score for the second hit. There is no additional penalty in stroke play.

The United States made a stirring comeback in the singles matches on Monday at Celtic Manor. Losing 9 1/2 to 6 1/2 heading into the singles, the U.S. needed 14 points to tie the Europeans and retain the Ryder Cup. With victories by Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker, Dustin Johnson, Zach Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Jeff Overton and a stirring comeback by Rickie Fowler to halve his match and a disappointing half by Stewart Cink, the U.S. and Europe were tied with 13 1/2 points each and one match remaining, but Hunter Mahan was trailing Graeme McDowell two down with two holes to go after McDowell's birdie on No. 16 (after the approach shot, fast-forward to about 1:50 on the video). On the par-3 17th hole, both players missed the green and Mahan chili-dipped his chip shot and ultimately conceded the hole and the match. While everyone will remember Mahan's chip shot at 17, McDowells' birdie on No. 16 and two missed 4 footers by Stewart Cink were really the difference. If Cink makes either putt to beat Rory McIlroy, the U.S. keeps the Ryder Cup with a tie.

In the afternoon we headed back to Camp Creek. It felt like we had not played that course for weeks having played the last 3 rounds at Shark's Tooth. We were a little disappointed because the course superintendent had sanded the greens since our last visit, but it turned out the greens were still pretty fast and true. We played a "shamble" in the afternoon. I thought this was a made up "World Of" term, but it is actually a USGA "recognized" form of goofy golf in which all players tee off and the best ball is selected. Each team member then plays his own ball into the hole. According to the "recognized" experts on shambles, this game should be played with full handicaps to permit the higher handicap players to contribute. Since we only had 7 players (so what's new!), Smooth and Arnie, the two best players, and I played as a threesome, against Turtle, the Mouth, Cameo and Stinger, using the one low score. We played with some type of modified handicap system and we rotated an extra drive on each hole. We lost this game in the negotiations before the first drive. We rarely used the fourth drive because it was generally unnecessary and we were conserving our strength and we only had 3 scores against the other team's 4 scores. Although we got beaten like a drum, 6 under to 3 under, it was nice playing Smooth's or Arnie's drive on each hole and being long and in the middle of the fairway. I contributed a little bit here and there, but with the modified handicap, I only got a few shots.

We finished in the dark, just in time for dinner and Monday Night football. The perfect men's golf trip day! I was asleep by 10 p.m., but after 6 rounds of golf in 3 days I was still feeling pretty good.

Wagering at the "World Of"

2010-10-11T17:01:00.003-07:00

Today, I am pleased to have a guest post from Arnie, one of the stalwart members of the "World Of", on "World Of" wagering. Interestingly, this year Arnie a/k/a Metronome may have won every single bet with his stellar play.

The "World Of" has its own economic system. Everyone is a reasonably well-paid attorney, sufficiently well off to be able to afford a four-day golf trip to a nice place. That, however, doesn’t keep us from being major cheapskates. For example, each year the trip planning begins with an e-mail request to “send in your $100 deposit.” This originated as a way to get people to commit to the trip, so that the "World Of" participants that do not bail don’t get stuck with cancellation costs. This strategy failed miserably. No one was willing to be pinned down, much less risk forfeiture of “a hundo.” So, we still ask for the deposit, but nobody sends it in, and we always go to places where we can cancel. [Editor's Note: I think that I must be the only dummy that actually sends in my deposit!]

The best example of "World Of" economics is how we handle our golf bets. In the morning round, we ALWAYS play “the 2-man game.” The bet is $5 per head, better ball net, winning team takes all. The reason for winner take all is because, as Turtle is fond of saying, “second is just first among the losers.” That’s how we think at the "World Of". Anyway, $5 has been the bet since we were third year law students with no money, 27 years ago. Should we change it now? No way! One reason is that we are all so competitive that if we played for higher stakes, it might get out of hand. Another reason is that it is very hard to collect bets at the "World Of". The guys who win don’t want to be obnoxious about collecting, and the guys who lose don’t want to pay because they are cheap and because it is admitting defeat. So, the bets usually sit out there for 2 or 3 rounds until somebody like Smooth figures out a clever way to bring up the subject. That still doesn’t solve the problem of the bets made late in the trip because inevitably, several people leave without paying before we can have an accounting. So, if you’re going to lose at the "World Of", lose late and leave early!

The “net” feature of the betting is interesting, too. There are some highly suspect handicaps at the "World Of". The Mouth was a 16 for the longest time, fully capable of hitting it 270 yards and shooting in the low 80s. We finally have gotten him down to a 13. Shifty at one point got 36 strokes and made several net aces on par-3s. When he was paired with Smooth, you might as well get out your wallet. On average, I’d guess that the "World Of" handicap is 2 shots higher than the real handicap--another reason it’s good we only play for $5. There was, however, one exception to this rule. Several years ago the Natural’s brother from New Jersey came on the trip. He told us he was a 9-handicap, not bad at all. The funny thing was that the guy never broke 90, which was great as long as you weren’t his partner. The Natural’s brother quickly became known as a “New Jersey 9,” and “New Jersey” became our adjective to describe anybody who couldn’t play up to their handicap. In a way, I’m surprised we haven’t planned a trip to New Jersey. [Editor's Note: Now I understand why I was being called New Jersey!]

The most rancorous "World Of" bets involve the afternoon “scramble.” By the second round of the second day, we are all sick of playing our own ball (except for Smooth, who hits it a lot less than the rest of us). So, after 3 rounds of beating it around, we play a Captain’s choice round—for you guessed it--$5 a head. A big feature of this round is major beer drinking, led by the Big Man in terms of volume of beer and the Mouth in terms of volume of sound. Either because of the beer or because it’s a team game and nobody is individually exposed, there’s a lot of trash talk. The Mouth and Turtle, the Alabama Boys, always have to be on the same team. Turtle automatically becomes the coach of his team, even if he’s the 3rd best player. But Turtle can make a big putt, especially if he cares enough to take off his bucket hat and expose has bald pate to the elements. Every birdie in the scramble elicits a big yell from the team, so the other team(s) can hear it. Fake yells are also part of the scramble, just to keep the other team(s) guessing. And if you run across another team while you’re playing, don’t even waste your time asking them their score. They won’t tell you the truth. It may be that some teams don’t tell the truth even at the end of the round. There’s also plenty of cheating during the scramble. Ordinarily honest guys lose it. Balls get “found” and balls get advanced. It’s often getting dark at the end of the scramble, so it’s really hard to tell what’s going on. Seems like a lot of times the team that yells the loudest has the advantage. That’s the scramble.

In the end, the main point of "World Of" betting is not who wins the most money. I sure hope not because I know I’m down several “hundos” over the 27 years. No, the point is that we bet because you’re supposed to bet in golf, and you’re supposed to have fun betting. And in spite of the slow pays, the fake handicaps and all that goes on in the scramble, betting at the "World Of" is fun.

World Of XXVII - The After Party

2010-10-09T13:46:00.007-07:00

After Day 2 of the "World Of" XXVII, the party moved to the Watersound Beach Club for drinks. Danny, the bartender, was closing up shop as our cars pulled into the parking lot. Stinger implored Danny to stay around by slipping him some cash. Danny made each of us a "Stress Reliever" and we relaxed around the bar on the deck overlooking the sand dunes and the Gulf of Mexico as the sun set. It was an unbelievably great bar set-up. I even broke my "no alcohol rule" and partook in an alcoholic "Stress Reliever". Although I may be breaching a Watersound Beach Club non-disclosure agreement, I think the "Stress Reliever" was made with vodka, rum, cranberry juice, pineapple juice and who knows what else, but it was strong and very good.

From the Beach Club, we adjourned to a nearby restaurant where the locals hang out to watch some Sunday Night Football. The house special was a large platter of fish and crustaceans southern fried. The platter included fried grouper, scallops, shrimp, calamari and other deep fried seafood that was difficult to distinguish. It was all very good, but I knew as I was eating it I would regret it later. Surprisingly, when one of our members asked for a "Stress Reliever", our waitress, Audra, came back with a drink that looked and tasted surprisingly like Danny's secret recipe.

Back at the house, we watched the rest of Sunday Night Football and Stinger showed off the 12-speaker surround sound music system. In one of the least memorable (but most nightmarish) "World Of" episodes epitomizing the "World Of" motto, "The Wrong Way is the Right Way", the Big Man, Mouth, Smooth and Stinger began belting out karaoke-like Motown, Funk, Southern Rock and other 70s songs (with full orchestration and four part harmony and stuff like that). The lowlight of this nightmare was "Brickhouse" by the Commodores with the Big Man shimmying and singing "Shake it down, shake it down, shake it down now..." During this entire episode, Turtle was completely non-plussed and passed out on the sofa with the remote control in hand.

World Of XXVII - Day 2

2010-10-09T12:20:00.008-07:00

World Of XXVII - Day 2 was about as beautiful a day as you have ever seen. When we teed off at 8 a.m. it was in the high 60s with clear skies and minimal wind. The high temperature for the day was about 75 degrees with very low humidity. We played Shark's Tooth, which is a Greg Norman-designed course in Lake Powell, about 20 minutes from the house. When I saw signs for Lake Powell I became a bit disoriented and started looking for the Grand Canyon.

As opposed to Camp Creek, Shark's Tooth is a much more typical Florida golf course with flat terrain so you can generally see from the tee box to the flagstick. The fairways are pretty generous but the greens are very slick. The golf course measures over 7,200 yards from the back tees (1 shark tooth) with a course rating of 74.9 and a slope rating of 136. We played from the next set of tees (2 shark teeth), which were about 6,500 yards with a course rating of 70.6 and a slope rating of 126. The golf course should probably have another set of tees inbetween at about 6,800+/-. The course opened in 2002 and it has been consistently ranked in the top 10 courses in Florida. We played our own ball in the morning and I hit the ball well from tee to green, but had 4 3-putt greens (including some rakes well outside of the leather) and shot an 89.

Over lunch we caught up on the Ryder Cup. When play was called the day before, the Europeans were leading all 6 foursomes and four ball matches on the course. The Americans stormed back to tie one of the matches so the Europeans won 5 1/2 points out of a possible 6 points and the overall score at the end of play on Sunday was Europe 9 1/2, Americans 6 1/2.

During lunch unsubstantiated reports of a "Cameo" appearance were running rampant. As we headed back to our carts for the afternoon round, Cameo magically stepped out of his cab and onto the first tee talking a mile a minute. We played a 3-person scramble with 3 teams. I was teamed with Cameo and Arnie. Arnie continued to drive the ball right down the middle and almost got the new moniker "Metronome", but that seemed so impersonal. I drove the ball pretty well and made some contributions to the team effort. We started off two under par, but gave away both strokes and were at even par after 9 holes. Things were not looking good but we persevered.

On the back 9 we went on a birdie binge as Cameo's putter heated up and he made a couple of long snakes. By about the 14th hole, Cameo could no longer contain himself. Cameo has trouble keeping quiet for 5 seconds, but to his credit up to that point he let me go through my pre-shot routine of standing frozen over the ball for an interminable length of time before pulling the trigger. Finally, as Arnie was relieving himself in the trees and I was standing frozen over my tee shot, Cameo said in that thick Southern drawl, "Boy, what are you thinkin' about over the ball that damn long!" I had nothing to say in my defense except the non-sequitur, "I do not take any practice swings." If Arnie had a normal size bladder, he may have been able to outlast me in the trees. I gathered myself and ripped a drive right down the middle. We made 6 birdies on the back 9 and won the scramble going away.

The Showdown

2010-10-08T06:54:00.007-07:00

After stiffening up over lunch, we headed back to the Camp Creek course for the second round of "World Of" XXVII. The Big Dog joined us for the afternoon round and, heaven forbid, we actually had 8 golfers! The afternoon golf is a little fuzzy other than marveling as the Big Dog, weighing in at 140 pounds soaking wet with a short backswing and the sweetest hands in golf, consistently drove the ball 275+ yards in the middle of the fairway. The legend of the Big Dog is that in college he was playing in the Ivy League golf championship, which happened to coincide with a black tie event. The Big Dog partied all night and showed up on the first tee of the Ivy League golf championship in his tuxedo.

Saturday's golf was simply a prelude to the Alabama-Florida college football game. We got back to the house and hunkered down for 3 hours of football. Turtle took control of the television remote. Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa exploded when the Alabama football team raced out of the locker room. Alabama marched down the field on its first possession, but was stopped inside the 10 and settled for a short field goal. Florida came storming back and moved the ball down the field inside the Alabama 2 yard line. On fourth and goal, Urban Meyer elected to go for the touchdown rather than kick the field goal and the Alabama defense intercepted a jump pass in the end zone. Game over! There was much "World Of" analysis of Urban's decision, always a step or two ahead of the television announcers. By halftime, the score was 24-3 and the game was simply a good, old-fashioned butt-whuppin'. In the second half, Alabama shut it down and scored a defensive touchdown and gave up a field goal to make the final score 31-6, but the final score was closer than the actual game. Alabama was just bigger, stronger, faster and more intense than Florida. Florida fans can take solace in the fact that its team is young and Florida will probably get another shot at Alabama, when it counts, in the SEC Championship Game in December.

Between Turtle and the Mouth, they knew the first and last name of each Alabama player (including the 4th stringers), where he went to high school and his high school statistics, what other schools recruited him, his mother's maiden name and any felony convictions. With Turtle controlling the television remote, he also regaled us with a coaching seminar on the crackback block, the downfield blocking of the Alabama receivers, the Alabama pass rush (which had been anemic prior to this game) and the power and speed of the Alabama running backs, Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson.

The other highlight of the evening was dinner. The Stinger and Smooth took charge of grilling steaks on the barbecue. In addition to the steaks, we had a Caesar salad, garlic mashed potatoes and Texas toast (of course, no green vegetables). It was terrific! The only problem was that the timing was a little off. The food was ready before halftime. We suggested that we simply pause the football game, have dinner and then pick it up again and catch up before the end of halftime. The Mouth was adamantly opposed to pausing the game for reasons that I did not understand. I think that the Mouth simply did not want anyone else anywhere knowing what was happening in the football game before him. Turtle simply ignored him and made the executive decision to pause the game during dinner and surprisingly, the Mouth, acquiesced.

World Of XXVII - Day 1 (Morning)

2010-10-07T05:31:00.013-07:00

Our two leaders, Smooth and Turtle, arrived at about 4 a.m. after watching Turtle's son play in an Alabama high school football game and then driving 5 hours to Panama City. Zeke (no kidding, a great Alabama redneck name!) rushed for 80 yards on offense and had 15 tackles on defense in a losing effort.

Seven of us gathered at about 7 a.m. on Saturday around the breakfast table for cereal, dry cereal for the lactose intolerant, coffee and more (man) hugging with Smooth and Turtle. On a guy's golf trip, the perfect number of players is either 8 or 12. The worst number of players is 5 or 7. Nine is not great but you can make do with 3 threesomes. Invariably, the "World Of" has a prime number of golfers. The weather was cooperating. It was supposed to be in the mid- to high-70s with no chance of rain.

Day 1 is 36 holes at Camp Creek, a Tom Fazio-designed golf course, about 10 minutes from the house. The course is built in a wetlands area and has an Audubon certification for environmental sensitivity. Unfortunately, it is not that sensitive to golfers. Fazio moved a lot of dirt and sand to create a "dunescape" feel to the course. The golf course plays 7,159 yards from the championship tees with a course rating of 76 and a slope rating of 156. Smooth was nice enough to let us play from the blue tees that are 6,689 yards with a course rating of 73.5 and a slope rating of 146. According to the starter, the person that walked off the yardage had short legs because the course seems to play longer, especially with the Fazio-signature elevated greens that add one club to each approach shot.

The threesome of the Big Man, Stinger and Arnie teed off first. Turtle, Smooth, the Mouth and I followed. My teammate and cart mate was Turtle. Turtle was wearing his signature bucket hat (he brought 3 hats, but the other two got soaked with Budweiser in his trunk), the Mouth was wearing his brace on his ugly, bowlegged right knee, Smooth was typically low key in dress and demeanor and I was resplendent in my Ian Poulter plaid shorts. We play a simple two-man game for $5 per player using the low net score for each team. Since it is the "World Of", of course, one player plays blind (without knowing his partner). Arnie was the lucky seventh player today. We all use Smooth's handicap to determine how many strokes we receive. Smooth is a +.7 meaning that his handicap is below par and each of us gets one stroke more than our USGA handicap index! There is also usually a $2 Nassau bet in each group.

On a Saturday morning we almost had the golf course to ourselves. Because of all the bantering, reloads and looking for balls in the wetlands and dunes, it took us 4 1/2 hours to play the first round. We even got gently rousted by the course marshal to pick up the pace of play at one point, which is embarrassing. I hit the ball reasonably well, but the course is a little too tight for me and I had 3 or 4 penalty strokes for lost balls, and I shot a 93. I made a number of pars to go with the bogeys and double-bogeys so I was a pretty good teammate for our bets. The star of the morning round was Arnie. Arnie is an 8 handicap and shot a 76. Luckily, it turned out that I was Arnie's blind (figuratively, not literally) playing partner and we won the morning bet.

There was some controversy in our foursome. On two holes, the Mouth hit the ball into the woods/wetlands area and the ball was unplayable. The area is not staked as a hazard or out-of-bounds and "World Of" local rules would generally be to drop the ball in the fairway somewhat near where the ball came to rest with a one-stroke penalty. However, the Mouth pointed out to the Rules Official (his partner Smooth) that the ball was embedded (of course it was, it's wetlands!) and he was entitled to a free drop without a penalty stroke. The Rules Official confirmed the Mouth's interpretation of Rule 25-2, the "embedded ball" rule, and we played on (no one would ever impugn Smooth's integrity or his knowledge of the Rules of Golf). However, this reminded me of the Tiger Woods "loose impediment" ruling at the Phoenix Open. Sometimes the spirit of the Rules of Golf and the strict interpretation of the Rules of Golf are in conflict, but a good litigator needs to play within the rules and seize those kind of opportunities. [See Editor's Note below]

At lunch we caught up on the Ryder Cup from Wales. Day 1 of the Ryder Cup (Friday) was a washout. The first group only played about 8 holes before the course was so saturated with rain that play was canceled for the remainder of the day. It must have been a surprise to the USGA and the R&A that it might rain in Wales in early October. Instead of playing a links-style course with loamy soil that drains no matter how torrential the rain (I think there are a few (hundred) in Wales), the "powers-that-be" (I think this was an R&A only decision) chose Celtic Manor, an inland American-style course that could not withstand a sun shower or two (I am sure it had nothing to do with money). Also, what was Corey Pavin thinking! The Americans' rain gear and golf bags were "rain resistant", not "rain proof" so the Americans were soaked while the Europeans stayed relatively dry. Who knew it would rain in Wales? The American players went into the merchandise shop and purchased their own rain proof rain gear at retail prices. By lunchtime on Saturday in Panama City, the second session of the Ryder Cup was completed. The U.S. had a 6 to 4 lead, but the outlook for the Americans was bleak. There were six matches still in progress at nightfall and the Europeans were leading all six!

Editor's Note: Upon further reflection I think that the Rules Official may have erred on the "embedded ball" rule. Rule 25-2 provides that "[a] ball embedded in its own pitch-mark in the ground in any closely mown area through the green may be lifted, cleaned and dropped, without penalty, as near as possible to the spot where it lay but not nearer the hole. The ball when dropped must first strike a part of the course through the green. "Closely mown area" means any area of the course, including paths through the rough, cut to fairway height or less. (emphasis added). I have to question the Rules Official as to whether the wetlands area off of the fairway and rough is a "closely mown area"?

World Of XXVII - Prologue

2010-10-06T18:38:00.010-07:00

Friday was travel day for the "World Of". I left Phoenix at 10 a.m., Arizona time, and arrived in Panama City, Florida at 8 p.m., Central Daylight Time. I thought Panama City was on Eastern time so I actually saved one hour in travel time. It was fitting that I had a layover in Music City, Nashville, Tennessee, since the "World Of " is made up of Vanderbilt Law School class of 1984 graduates.

Panama City and its surroundings are known lovingly as the "Redneck Riviera". Rednecks from Alabama, Louisiana, Florida and Georgia vacation in Panama City and mix with the college students on Spring Break. Panama City has some of the most beautiful white sand beaches in the United States and the Gulf of Mexico water is as blue as Reese Witherspoon's eyes. Luckily, the BP oil spill did not reach the Panama City beaches, but according to the locals, i.e., the car service driver, all of the talk about the oil spill ruined the summer tourist business. However, my driver was very excited because this weekend was also the "Thunder Beach Motorcycle Rally", the most biker friendly rally in the U.S. About 160,000 bikers invade Panama City for bike shows, rock and roll and beauty pageants (and a lot of drinking and brawling).

Stinger (formerly known as High Right) hosted us at his vacation home. Special kudos to Stinger's wife, "The Bon", for allowing nine of us to stay at her lovely home (although she dissed us by calling us "harmless", which cut us to the quick!). The Bon has been with us from law school and she is almost one of the "boys". This house is not your typical summer bungalow. It is beautifully appointed and decorated in pastel colors with a lot of breakable items (I think we only broke one wine glass, but don't tell The Bon). It is clear that Stinger's only involvement in appointing the house was the electronics, the barbecue and the golf cart in the garage (Oh, and writing the checks). We never did find the paper plates and paper napkins so instead of using the cloth napkins we just used our pants and shirts. The house has an upstairs master bedroom for Stinger, a downstairs in-laws master bedroom where the Big Man slept, a guest quarters (with outdoor shower) for the Mouth, a boys' bedroom with 4 bunk beds where Turtle, Smooth, Cameo and the Big Dog resided and the "pink and green" girls' bedroom where Arnie and I slept. The children's bedrooms all had Tempur-Pedic mattresses and pillows that were great for tired bones and aching muscles. The Natural (parents' weekend at Indiana University); Crimson Tide (bad back), Shifty (Hong Kong) and Alice (just because he is Alice!) could not make it this year.

I arrived at the house at about 8:30 and was greeted with big (manly) hugs and smiles and some good-natured ribbing. I look forward to this golf trip every year. You cannot find a better group of guys that all get along and truly enjoy each others' (manly) company. Everyone genuinely likes everyone else and the conversation and camaraderie is easy and comfortable. That first night we caught up on how each of us was doing, what our children were up to and the state of our golf game. Eventually, the discussion got around to our lost youth and our most recent proctology exam and colonoscopy, at which time everyone was ready for bed with birdies dancing in their heads.

Prelude to the "World Of"

2010-09-29T07:04:00.008-07:00

In preparation for "World Of" XXVII, I played golf this weekend with Chad Feldheimer. Usually, Chad waits until I hit my drive on the 18th hole to point out that I have been misaligned the entire round, or my ball is too far back in my stance or that my posture is bad! Today, I actually received a "sort of" playing lesson from Chad in exchange for all of the free legal advice I have been providing to him. Chad is buying a new house. Normally, in Arizona attorneys do not get involved in residential purchases and the seller and buyer just sign the broker's standard form purchase agreement, which is sacrosanct and any changes to the form are looked upon with much disdain. Of course, Chad is using his own purchase agreement and has been in negotiations with the seller for over a month. He was recently wringing his hands as to whether a communication by e-mail was enforceable because the purchase agreement requires fax notices. It is a sign of how bad the Phoenix real estate market is doing that the seller is willing to put up with Chad!

We played at Papago Golf Course. It is one of most well-known courses in Phoenix and I have been raving about the renovation to Chad since I played a few weeks ago. Chad had never played the course and I think he was impressed with the layout. Overseeding season is coming up in Phoenix and the course superintendent at Papago has begun the process by reducing water on the fairways so they were a little browner than a few weeks ago. The course was still in good shape and the layout is really great. The greens need a lot of work and are slow and bumpy. According to the bag boy, the USGA is planning on having some qualifying tournaments at Papago. The course will have to address the green issue before then. Chad was hitting the ball from tee to green as well as I have ever seen him play, but he was really frustrated with the greens. He shot a 78 with a few three-putts in the mix.

After my last few outings, I was not happy with my game. Once again, I tinkered a little bit with my grip and swing plane to try to increase my distance and hit the ball more solidly. I strengthened my grip and held my hands lower at address. Oh, as Chad pointed out, I also used my "big boy" tees which are higher than the old standard tees. My ball flight was much straighter with even a hint of a draw and the ball seemed to bore through the air rather than fly lazily and drop straight down. Even Chad grudgingly complimented me on my ball flight.

I started off par-par and had one double-bogey and one more par on the front 9 for a 43. I was really happy with the way I played, but this was a familiar routine and I have been falling apart on the back 9 recently. I started the back 9 par-par-bogey-par-bogey and was 3 under bogey through the first 5 holes and dreaming about a mid-80s score before the "World Of". I limped home in 6 over bogey for the last 4 holes for a 44 and an 87 total. I was happy with my round, but of course I should have done better! I think that I am ready for my annual golf trip.

On Monday morning, the first weather reports from Panama City, Florida for the "World Of" began to circulate. There had been a lot of rain in the southeast over the weekend, but the weather report was clearing skies during the week and by the following Saturday clear skies with almost no chance of rain and high temperatures in the high-70s and lows in the 60s. We will be recording the Ryder Cup matches for the evening entertainment and the Alabama-Florida football game has been moved to Saturday night for national television so the stars are aligning!

Kramer

2010-09-20T17:59:00.005-07:00

"World Of" XXVII (27 for those of you that do not use Roman numerals in your everyday life) is coming up in two weeks and my game is still in shambles. My handicap leaped up from 11.9 to 12.1 last week and it could be getting worse! Every time I go to the course or the driving range I am tinkering with my grip, stance, ball position, swing or something else. This weekend I shelved my graphite-shafted Ping G10 irons and went back to my steel-shafted Ping G5 irons. I have so many swing thoughts going through my head, sometimes I am not sure I can pull the trigger and swing the club. One of these days I am just going to freeze over the ball and my playing partner will have to cart me off of the course like a statue.

I played on Sunday with the Gardener and my game was wearing off (or on) him too. Temperatures in Phoenix this weekend broke the record highs of 109 degrees. We played early and, surprisingly, it did not seem too bad. We played at Vistal Golf Club, which is one of my new favorite courses. It is located in South Phoenix and has beautiful views of South Mountain and downtown Phoenix, as well as a lot of elevation changes as you play into the foothills. From the blue tees it is a 7,013 yard par-71 layout with a course rating of 72.9 and a slope rating of 129. The course is in good condition, but the greens are slow and bumpy.

When I got to the course and announced myself the golf shop attendant looked perplexed. It seemed that the person that was playing with us was also named Kramer, which was an interesting coincidence. When we met our third player on the first tee, he introduced himself as "Kramer". I told him that was my last name also and asked his first name. It turned out that "Kramer" was his first name. His mother had a difficult birth with him and, in the throes of child birth, she promised the doctor that she would name her child after the doctor. Instead of using the doctor's first name (which must have really been bad), she used the doctor's last name, "Kramer". As far as he and I know, he is the only person with the given name "Kramer". It was easy and kind of fun calling him "Kramer" throughout the round. I felt like my daughter-in-law calling her husband (my son) by his last name. See her website Crepes of Wrath.

As usual I was hitting it pure on the driving range. The first hole is a 526 yard par-5. I hit my drive right down the middle and then laced a 1-hybrid to about 80 yards from the green. I then tried to hit my sand wedge too fine and left the ball in the greenside bunker turning a par into a double bogey. One the second and third holes I was on the green in regulation and 3-putted so after 3 holes I should have been even par and I was 4 over par! I drove the ball straight and short on the front 9 and I finished with a 44 that could have been a 40. Then disaster struck.

The back 9 at Vistal is a bear. It is over 3,600 yards with only one par-5. Five of the 6 par-4 holes are over 440 yards and the par-5 is almost 600 yards long. I made only one par on the back 9 and double-bogeyed a bunch of holes even though I was generally hitting my second shot from the middle of the fairway, albeit far from the green. I ended up with a 50 on the back 9 for a 94 total.

Sunday afternoon, notwithstanding the record heat, I went to the driving range and found that new magic swing where I was hitting the ball 20 yards longer and straight as an arrow. I am trying to remember what modifications I made to my grip, set-up, ball position, etc. that worked so well! Maybe it was just a dream.

Grand Old Dame

2010-09-08T17:27:00.009-07:00

I played Papago Golf Course on Labor Day. Papago is one of the great municipal courses in the United States. It was designed by William Francis (Billy) Bell, who also designed Torrey Pines in San Diego. Papago Golf Course opened in 1963. It hosted the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship in 1971 and a number of Phoenix Open qualifying events. In its prime, more than 100,000 rounds were played annually. Players would get to the course at 4 a.m. or earlier to get a coveted weekend tee time. When I first moved to Phoenix in 1984 we used to play Papago frequently, but I had not played the course in 15 years. By the mid-2000s the grand old dame had lost her luster and was in a state of disrepair.

In 2008, the City of Phoenix hired the Arizona Golf Association to restore the golf course and the AGA engaged Billy Fuller for the job. Fuller was golf course superintendent at Augusta National and a member of the Cupp-Fuller Design team before forming his own golf course design company. As part of a $5.8 million restoration project, a new irrigation system was installed and the greens, fairways, bunkers and tee boxes were all re-done. Overgrown trees were removed or thinned, but the original layout was not drastically changed, except that the course was lengthened from 7,068 yards to 7,333 yards from the championship tees. The course still has beautiful views of the McDowell Buttes and downtown Phoenix. The renovated course plays to a course rating of 75.0 and a slope rating of 130 from the black (championship) tees. We played from the blue tees, which are 6,771 yards with a course rating of 72.0 and a slope rating of 125.

I played with the Gardener (he is permitted to play every other week). The staff was very gracious and the starter provided all kinds of information regarding the course. He also explained something about the golf cart beeping, stopping and going in reverse if you got too close to the greens, desert or hazards. I kind of spaced out on this part of the discussion thinking that I know how to drive a golf cart around a green. After my debacle Saturday, I was nervous about my game, but I played really well on the front 9. I had 4 pars and one double bogey and shot a 43. The Gardener also shot a 43 on the front 9. Since it was our first time playing the course in a long time, we did not remember the layout of the holes. The course is really designed for walking and it has very few paved cart paths, which is nice if you are walking, but makes it difficult if you do not know the course layout. Also, if you got within 30 feet of the desert area or any water hazard the cart started beeping and then stopped completely (interestingly, I think that you could drive over the tee box without repercussions) . The only way to then maneuver the cart was to go backward. It reminded me of the shopping carts at the grocery store where the wheels lock if someone tries to take it off the property. I am not sure why you were not able to drive in the desert areas. Most of those areas were simply dirt with a little brush. It was nice because you could generally find and hit your ball out of the desert, but if those areas were vegetated, the course could be even prettier, especially when the desert is in bloom.

When we made the turn, I had double-bogeyed No. 10 but I was one under bogey through 4 holes. I fell apart on the last 5 holes, which included a 232 yard par-3 and 416 yard and 441 yard par-4s, and shot a 48 for a score of 91! The Gardener was playing beautifully. He was driving the ball straight and hitting his irons like lasers onto the greens. He shot a 39 on the back 9 for an 82. I had two holes where I hit good drives and the ball was on the edge of the fairway blocked by a big tree. On one hole, I tried to draw a 1-hybrid around the tree and I hit it really well, but the ball clipped a different tree and bounded into the desert. On the par-3, 232 yard 17th hole my tee shot was pin high and to the left of the green. I tried to hit a flop shot over the greenside bunker and left it short in the bunker with a downhill lie and made a triple bogey.

By the middle of the back 9 I was frustrated with my golf game and really frustrated with the b[l]eeping golf cart. I had just hit a poor shot and was driving the cart toward the green and following the directional signs to the left toward the water hazard when the cart started beeping again. I was now stuck between the green on the right and the water hazard on the left and the cart was not moving at all. I was ready to drive the cart into the water but it would not go forward so I left the cart sitting there as I went to find my ball. I would have walked the final few holes but the Gardener was able to maneuver the golf cart like a rat through a maze to the next tee box. This is a case of municipal golf overkill. Instead of simple signs saying do not drive in the desert or into the water hazard (you dummy), the golf cart manufacturer designs a Machiavellian device to drive the rational and sane golfer (that may be an oxymoron) crazy.

Mr. Big Shot

2010-09-05T12:54:00.006-07:00

My golf game is in the toilet so I need to find something different to blog about. I played golf with my friend Fred Flintstone on Saturday at my home course, Stonecreek Golf Club. I was expecting to tear the place up and give Fred a run for his money. Alas, it was a disaster. I could not hit my driver at all. I duck hooked it, topped it and pushed it right all day. It got so bad that I finally put the driver in my bag and teed it up with my 1-hybrid. I have never done that before. I shot a stinky 98. Fred was using his slap shot drive and hitting it long and straight. He ended up shooting his normal easy 85 even though he had not played for about 6 months.

When you play golf as a twosome you are oftentimes paired with one or two other players. The conversation is generally about golf and other sports, and maybe your jobs, but not much else. Generally, golfers are good guys but every once in a while you get a clunker. Saturday was one of those days. We were teamed with Mr. Big Shot. Mr. Big Shot was a recent college graduate with an engineering degree. He had just been hired by one of the large aeronautical engineering firms that build helicopters or fighter jets for the military and, according to Mr. Big Shot, was making a lot of money. Fred and I both congratulated Mr. Big Shot on his graduation and success and told him how lucky he was to get such a good job in this market. Mr. Big Shot also told us that his wife was due to have their first child in about two weeks, his mother-in-law was with his wife and they had told him to get out of the house and go play golf all weekend (this should have been our first clue)!

By the third hole, Mr. Big Shot was 5 over par and told us that he had been a state wrestling champion and while pinning his opponent in the state finals he hurt his back and had surgery. His back was very stiff, hence the 5 over par, because he did not have adequate time to warm up before the round. By the 5th hole, Mr. Big Shot told us that just played Superstition Springs Golf Club and shot 78 and that he was playing TPC at Scottsdale on Sunday. He triple-bogeyed the 5th hole and as we walked off the green he said disgustedly that this would probably be a round in the low 80s for him. Even Fred snickered at that comment.

Mr. Big Shot had a 49 at the turn so he needed to shoot a 2 under par 34 on the back 9 for an 83. On the 10th hole we learned that Mr. Big Shot's wife was a registered nurse at a private prison hospital and makes a lot of money. She supported him through college and between them they were making enough money to own a 5-bedroom, 4-bathroom house. He double-bogeyed No. 10 and bogeyed 11 and 12. When we got to the 548-yard par-5 13th hole, Mr. Big Shot told us that his wife and mother-in-law were heading to the hospital to have the baby and he hurried off in his cart. Fred and I looked at one another amazed and simultaneously said that he shot in the low 80s, just like he said!

Bad Things Happen in Threes

2010-09-02T17:31:00.016-07:00

Remember that I said bad things come in threes. Well, I am scared. But the good news first. My USGA Handicap Index is 11.9 because of the 87 I shot at Southern Dunes! I am afraid that I may have some work to do to keep it this low for awhile. The USGA Handicap Index is based on the best 10 of your last 20 scores, modified for course difficulty. Four of the next five rounds that burn off of my handicap were included in my 10 best scores.

This past weekend Chad Feldheimer honored me with his presence on the golf course. The temperature was supposed to be below 100 degrees so, after much whining and complaining, he "manned up" and decided to play. We played the Stadium Course at the TPC Scottsdale, the home of the "greatest show on grass", the Waste Management Phoenix Open. This is the PGA tournament that brought you one of the most controversial rules decisions in golf history. See link and go to "Windows Media Player". The tournament is best known for the short par-5 15th hole with the island green, the par-3 16th hole, the rowdiest hole in golf (who can forget Tiger Woods's hole-in-one!), and the drivable par-4 17th hole. It is a birdie fest for the pros and they can shoot 5 under par for that 3-hole stretch. Chad had only played the TPC Scottsdale on his Tiger Woods golf video game so he was excited to play the real thing. The greens fee to play the TPC Scottsdale was about $50 (it is about $250 in season), which is on the high end for me. The fairways were not in great condition and the rough was pretty heavy, but the greens were immaculate. They were fast and rolled true and if you hit your approach shot high, it would hold the green.

The golf course plays to a par-71 over 7,200 for the pros with a course rating of 74.6 and a slope rating of 138. We played from the Championship Tees, which are 6,525 yards with a course rating of 71.1 and a slope rating of 129. That was plenty for me. I shot a 91 and was only one over par on the four par-3 holes, but 5 over par on the 3 par-5 holes. Chad started off with five straight bogeys and if we were closer to the clubhouse I think he would have quit. Then he righted the ship and was one over par for the last 13 holes for a 77. On the short par-5 15th hole with the island green, Chad decided to move back one tee box and play from about 500 yards. I stayed at the 468 yard tee box. Our tee shot were both right down the middle but I outdrove him by about one foot (give or take the 30 yard head start) and we were both 200 yards from the flagstick and 170 yards from the front of the green. I stubbed my 3-hybrid and rolled it short of the water and Chad hit a 6-iron that did not draw and landed in the water. He made his up-and-down for a par, but I chunked my next shot into the bunker and made a 7! On the par-3 16th hole with the stadium crowd going wild (not really) we both hit the green and made our pars and walked off glad that the crowd could not jeer us. Chad drove past the green on No. 17 with some help from the cart path, chipped onto the green and made a birdie 3.

But getting back to the real story, bad things happen in threes. On the par-4 11th hole, Chad and I both hit good drives. One of our playing partners duffed his drive. Because we were playing "ready golf" I drove the cart out to our ball and moved far into the right rough area waiting for the person behind us to hit. Chad was in the cart texting (or sexting) and I was standing beside the cart not watching the shot (my bad). All of a sudden we hear "fore" and I cover my head with my arms and our playing partner's golf ball screams by my head and hits the plastic on the edge of the top of the cart and bounces backwards 25+ yards. There is no question in my mind that if that ball hit me in the head I was a dead man! I have now had two close calls and bad things happen in threes. I am scared!

The PGA Finally Got it Right!

2010-09-01T19:07:00.008-07:00

They say that bad things come in threes. The last couple of weeks the PGA Tour, the USGA and the LPGA had three rules violations that were public relations nightmares. First, Dustin Johnson grounded his club in a fairway bunker (and I use that term very loosely) incurring a two stroke penalty on the 18th hole in the last round of the PGA Championship. See link at 2:35 and 3:10. He missed the playoff by two strokes and came within inches of making a putt on the 18th hole that would have given him the outright victory, but for the two stroke penalty. It could have been worse for the PGA and USGA if Dustin made the putt on the 18th hole and thought he won the PGA Championship only to then be told that he incurred a two-stroke penalty for grounding his club in a bunker. There is plenty of blame to go around on this fiasco. The players and caddies were repeatedly warned that all sand areas were considered bunkers and not waste areas, but the USGA allowed spectators to trample and walk in the so-called bunkers. When you watch the video, tell me whether the area looks like a "prepared area of ground, often a hollow, from which turf or soil has been removed and replaced with sand or the like," which is the definition of a "bunker" in the Rules of Golf. As an aside, how crazy are those spectators in the line of fire. Johnson just hit his drive about 100 yards off-line and people are lined up to his left giving him about 5 yards of space to blast a shot off of the sand. You must be out of your mind!

Then, Julie Inkster, a member of the LPGA Hall of Fame, was disqualified for taking a practice swing with a weighted doughnut on her club during a 30-minute wait between the 9th and 10th holes at the LPGA Safeway Classic. Inkster had just been interviewed by the Golf Channel and a television viewer noticed the infraction and contacted tournament officials. Decision 14-3/10 interpreting Rule 14-3 prohibits a player from using any artificial device, such as a weighted head cover or club with a weighted "doughnut" on it for any stroke or practice swing during a competitive round. Violation of the Rule creates an automatic disqualification and according to the LPGA it had no wiggle room as to enforcement of the Rule. In fact, the LPGA tournament officials checked with the USGA (the last bastion of reasonableness and common sense) before issuing the disqualification. Of course, Inkster could have taken two or three clubs out of her bag and swung them together with the same effect and not been disqualified. The "Rule of Reason" from English common law seems to have evaded the USGA (and the venerable R&A).

Finally, Jim Furyk, No. 3 in the FedEx points standings last week, was disqualified from The Barclays, the first event of the PGA Tour Playoffs for the FedEx Cup, before it even began. Furyk overslept and missed his tee time for the Pro-Am on the Wednesday before the tournament. Under PGA Rules, this automatically disqualifies the player from the golf tournament. The reason for the rule is clear. The PGA Tour relies upon its sponsors and the Pro-Am is very important to the sponsors. Given a choice, many of the golfers would rather not participate in Pro-Am tournaments so it is important that the penalty for non-participation be severe. However, this is a clear case of "cutting off your nose to spite your face." First of all, Jim Furyk has a reputation for being one of the best ambassadors of the game and one of the professionals that does not shirk his responsibilities to the fans and sponsors. Second, by disqualifying Furyk, the PGA compounded the sponsor problem by taking one of the best golfers and fan favorites out of the competition. To his credit, Tim Finchem, the PGA Tour Commissioner, recognized the irony of the rule and immediately implemented an interim rule for the remainder of the season so that a golfer that is late for a Pro-Am will be disciplined for "conduct detrimental to the game" but unless he misses the entire round, he will not be disqualified from the tournament. Finchem asked the Players Advisory Council and PGA Tour Policy Board to evaluate the pro-am policy for the following PGA season. Of course, none of this helps Jim Furyk and hopefully he will not lose the FEDEX Cup by a few points that he could have won by playing the Barclays, but the Commissioner's proactive response is a pleasant surprise. At least Finchem has not completely drank his USGA/R&A Kool Aid.

Making the Turn at the 9-Hole Muni

2010-08-25T17:42:00.006-07:00

While on vacation at the Jersey Shore I did not see Snookie (or sadly Bruce Springsteen) but I did get to play a little golf. Asbury Park (or actually the next town over called Ocean) has a nice little municipal 9-hole golf course called Colonial Terrace Golf Course (watch the video). The course was less than 10 minutes from our rental house. The golf websites (not the city website) claim that it is a par-35, 3,704 yard course. They lied! It is actually 2,600 yards, but it was in relatively nice shape and it only cost $20.

I picked up a scorecard and put it in my back pocket and never looked at it again and now I cannot find it to provide more detail. As an aside, this little 9-hole golf course is on my GolfLogix Blackberry app. Every course that I have played since I bought the app has been mapped!

I played on Monday and the course was relatively empty. I walked the course with SO and she took some pictures and admired the wildlife. I played two balls and worked on my game. We played 9 holes in about 1 1/2 hours and then went to the beach. The two par-5 holes are about 440 to 450 yards and play as difficult par-4s. I birdied one of the par-5s and parred the other. The course was little better than your typical 9-hole muni course and the temperature was in the 80s and the humidity was not too bad so it was a nice walk in the park.

On Friday we went back to play Colonial Terrace again. I knew it would be crowded on a Friday during the summer so we got to the course at about 6 p.m. thinking that would be late for people teeing off. The starter told us that the last group had gone out 30 minutes ago so I thought I was home-free and would not catch up to the group until the last couple of holes. However, when I looked over to the first tee box, there was one group on the tee box and two groups in carts waiting. I was perplexed! The starter told me that those golfers were "making the turn". Huh, it is only a 9-hole course. The light bulb finally went off and I looked at the scorecard and there was a "back 9". The starter smiled and said "you get to play 18 holes for the price of 9". We put the clubs back in the car and went back to the house and enjoyed together time with the family.

The Prelude to Disaster

2010-08-23T12:21:00.008-07:00

Ever since I got hit on the noggin with a golf ball I have been remiss about keeping up on the blog. The event leading up to the faithful ricochet to the forehead was my disastrous golf game earlier on the same day. On Saturday before leaving for vacation, I played golf with my friend the Deer Hunter.

The Deer Hunter e-mailed me earlier in the week telling me that she had just scored her third hole-in-one! She has been playing golf for about five years! We played at the Raptor course at Grayhawk Golf Club, which is the Deer Hunter's home course. With her "Nothing but Net" discount, the greens fee was only $15. That is the best value in Arizona golf. Grayhawk has two 18-hole championship layouts, the Raptor and the Talon. Both are extremely challenging and very well-maintained. The Raptor course was designed by Tom Fazio and plays to 7,135 yards from the back tees. I played from the Palo Verde tees which are about 6,600 yards with a course rating of 71.4 and a slope rating of 137. The Deer Hunter did not play from the girls' tees, but played from the mens' forward tees.

I started off driving my tee shots right down the middle on the first three holes, but missed the greens with my approach shot and settled for bogeys. I felt like I gave a shot away on the 2nd hole, but was happy with a bogey on the 460 yard par-4 3rd hole. After that the wheels fell off! The 4th hole is a par-5 and and I thought I would make a par, but made a double-bogey 7. Sevens on the scorecard quickly kill your round. I had a 49 on the front 9 with 5 bogeys and 4 double bogeys and no pars! I finally made a par on the par-5 11th hole, but it was just a respite from my string of bogeys and double-bogeys. I shot a 48 on the back 9 for a 97. It was ugly in every way. I hit my drives left and right, but rarely straight, and I hit only one approach shot onto the green. The only thing that kept my score under 100 was that I chipped and putted OK. I was plus 16 on the 10 par-4 holes!

On the other hand, the Deer Hunter hit her drives long and straight (or at least on the grass areas). She easily outdrove me and the other male twosome that played with us on almost every hole. She hit a lot of great approach shots, some of which had enough spin that the ball spun backward when it hit the green. Pretty impressive! And when she missed the green or made a poor shot, she scrambled to save par or bogey. I do not think that she had any double-bogeys and she never seemed to be in big trouble. I do not remember her final score, but I bet it was in the high 70s or low 80s. The Raptor course is relatively tight and if you do not hit the ball straight you will lose a lot of balls in the desert (take it from someone that knows).

I posted my score and chalked this one up to a bad day. Little did I know that my day would be getting worse very soon!

Greetings from Asbury Park

2010-08-12T14:02:00.005-07:00

I am on vacation in Asbury Park, New Jersey, the home of the Stone Pony bar where Bruce Springsteen, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes and Bon Jovi played early in their careers. We saw Peter Framption at the Stone Pony on Monday night. Framption is about 60 years old and has a buzz cut (pull out your "Frampton Comes Alive" album and check out the hair!).

But my followers are never going to believe this story! I played golf in Phoenix last Saturday before flying to New York. I did not play very well so I was working on my swing in the Giant. The Giant has been my best golf purchase. I use the Giant at least a few times a week and really enjoy it. Until I finally got smart, I hit the ball right into the middle of the Giant and finally put a couple of golf ball-size holes into the netting. Now I move around and hit the ball into different parts of the netting. Now back to the story.

I was working on my swing and I hit the golf ball and it went through one of the holes. Usually, this is not a big deal and the ball hits the brick fireplace, bounces around and does not cause any major problems (a few golf ball-size indentations in the wall). However, this time, the ball ricocheted back through the same hole in the netting and hit me square in the forehead. What are the odds of that happening? First of all, the ball that is going on an upward trajectory somehow hits the brick and bounces back through the same hole. Then I happened to be directly in line with the ball and it hits me in the forehead. Luckily, I was just dazed and confused (and did not lose an eye or get a concussion). My forehead was bleeding and I am thinking that I am supposed to catch a plane in 4 hours and I need to go to the emergency room and get my head stitched up. I immediately put ice on my forehead and kept it there for more than an hour to try to keep the swelling down. The bleeding stopped and the cut on my forehead was not bad, but I had a golf ball-sized knot with "Titleist" stamped on my forehead. By Thursday, the swelling is completely down and the cut is mostly healed, but next week I need to go out and buy a new Giant!

Be the Ball!

2010-08-01T13:26:00.008-07:00

After last week's back-to-back 86s, I was excited to play this weekend. It is monsoon season so we are getting some rain and overcast skies. I set up a game with the Gardener for Sunday morning at the Gold Course at the Wigwam Golf Resort and Spa. On Saturday, I worked on a memorandum with Chad Feldheimer to present to the Pinal County Board of Supervisors. It drizzled off and on and was overcast most of the day. Late in the afternoon it cleared up and was beautiful. I went to the driving range and hit balls to get ready for my round on Sunday.

Sunday morning was overcast and drizzling as I drove west to Litchfield Park. The Gold Course is a Robert Trent Jones, Sr.-designed course with a Midwestern feel and a lot of left-to-right doglegs. It is one of the grad dames of Arizona golf. From the monster tees, the Gold Course measures 7,430 yards with a course rating of 74.5 and a slope rating of 135. That is more golf course than the Gardener and I were prepared to chew off. We played from the par-72 championship tees, which are 6,830 yards with a course rating of 72.3 and a slope rating of 130. The course was in wonderful condition. The fairways were very green and the rough was lush. The greens were smooth and rolling true, although they were a little slow due to the rain. The ball was not rolling much in the fairway so 6,800 yards was plenty of golf for us. If you miss the fairway, you are oftentimes in "jail" in the trees or in some pretty heavy rough so it is hard to reach the green in regulation.

It rained on and off, but never hard enough for us to stop playing and there was no lightning. The temperature (not my score) was in the 7os. The Gardener and I both played terribly on the front 9. I shot a 48 and he shot a 50. The only positive was that we played good "cart golf". If I hit my tee shot left, the Gardner followed suit. If he hit his tee shot right, I hit mine further right. My only par was on the 219 yard par-3 3rd hole. I hit my 1-hybrid pin-high on the right edge of the green and two-putted for my par. I had four double-bogeys on the front 9. Surprisingly, I putted the ball pretty well; otherwise it would have been even uglier.

The Gardener and I both decided that we would play better on the back 9 and we did. I started off on the par-5, 590 yard 10th hole with a reasonably good drive (compared to the front 9) and a good 1-hybrid that found the fairway bunker. The fairway bunker has two palm trees in the middle and I was right behind them (that does not seem fair!). I made a bogey and thought, "not again!". However, on the back 9, I had 6 bogeys and 3 pars and no double bogeys for a 42. The Gardener started driving the ball long and straight down the middle and, even with a few terrible shots, carded a 41 on the back 9 for a 91. On the back 9 instead of fiddling with my ball position, hands and clubhead alignment, I just focused on my body alignment, swinging easy and seeing the club hit the back of the ball.

I played the par-3 and par-4 holes at one under bogey, which is pretty normal for me, but I usually make one or two pars on the par-5 holes and nothing worse than bogey. Today, I played the four par-5 holes at one over bogey, instead of two under bogey, which is the difference between a 90 and an 87. I had 35 putts (including putts from the fringe) with no 3-putts. I also hit some good shots out of the sand and had one up-and-down from the greenside bunker.

That's Why it is Called Stonecreek!

2010-07-27T17:07:00.012-07:00

After Friday's round, I was really excited to play again over the weekend. I asked Chad Feldheimer to play, but the sissy told me it was too hot and he was hanging up his clubs until Fall. Luckily, Ken called and he was excited about playing more golf after the way he hit the ball on Friday. We decided to play late in the afternoon at my "home course", Stonecreek Golf Club.
We teed off at about 3 and finished at 6:30 with ominous storm clouds overhead (although it did not rain). It had been hot and humid all day, but by the time that we played, the sun burned off the humidity and when we made the turn and the sun was beginning to set, it was a balmy 103 degrees with very little humidity and a little breeze.

I started off with four straight pars and very makeable birdie putts on two of the holes. At that point I started thinking about whether Chad Feldheimer would believe my score and making sure that Ken attested to the scorecard. I then proceeded to go double-bogey, double-bogey and double-bogey on holes 5 through 7 and then I righted the ship with two pars to finish the front 9 with a 41 (it is a par-35). I hit the ball really well, even on Nos. 5, 6 and 7. On the 6th hole, I hit a nice approach shot but it faded a little right and hit on the bank right next to the green and rolled into the water. On the par-5, 548 yard 7th hole, I hit my second shot into the brush in the dry stonecreek wash that crosses the fairway and took a penalty stroke (bad course management!).

On the back 9, I had three double-bogeys, I parred both par-5 holes and I had one other par to shoot a 45. On No. 10 I hit into the thickets in the dry stonecreek wash that crosses the fairway again and had to take another penalty stroke! I was +4 on the par-3 holes, +9 on the eleven par-4 holes and +2 on the three par-5 holes. I hit 7 of 18 greens-in-regulation and had 34 putts (remember I count shots on the fringe as putts and greens-in-regulation). I wanted so badly to shoot a 44 on back 9 for an 85, but I just missed and ended up with an 86. Because we played from the back tees and the course rating is 72.8 and the slope rating rating is 131, my differential was 11.4. My round on Friday at The Foothills Golf Club and this round are my two lowest rounds for USGA Handicap Index purposes. I can't wait to see my next handicap index!

Closing in on 85!

2010-07-26T07:30:00.008-07:00

I had a great weekend of golf! Mid-July through August is monsoon season in Arizona so the temperatures go down a bit but the humidity goes up. Although it is nothing like the humidity in the Midwest or on the East Coast, when you combine humidity of 30 to 40 percent with temperatures in the low 100s, it is pretty uncomfortable. Until a couple of years ago, during this time of the year the golf courses were pretty empty, but with the advent of Golfnow.com and Golfhub.com, golf is so cheap that the locals get out and play the better courses in town for $20 to $30.

I left work mid-afternoon on Friday and played The Foothills Golf Club with my friend Ken from Phoenix Suns Charities. I had not played The Foothills in about 20 years. The course is located about 30 minutes from mid-town Phoenix by car and about 10 minutes as the crow flies. It is on the south side of South Mountain so you have to drive east about 15 miles and then drive back west about 10 miles because there is no road through the mountain (those darn environmentalists!).

The Foothills is a Tom Weiskopf/Jay Morrish-designed par-72 golf course that plays just under 7,000 yards from the back tees with a course rating of 72.6 and a slope rating of 128. The course was in okay condition. There were a number of brown patches in the fairways and the superintendent was watering those areas like crazy. Although it is monsoon season, we have not yet had a good rain in the Valley. The greens were very firm, smooth and fast, but they were rock hard and it was difficult to keep your approach shots on the greens. There were almost no ball marks on the greens!

I had 4 pars, 4 bogeys and one double-bogey on the front 9 for a 42. The fairways look narrow from the tee boxes, but are actually pretty wide open. I kept the ball in play off of the tees and I chipped the ball really well and made a few one putts. My double-bogey was on the par-4, 311 yard 6th hole. I drove it about 240 yards right down the middle and then I flushed a half-sand wedge over the green into the back bunker and 3-putted. How frustrating is that! I had 3 pars, 5 bogeys and 1 double-bogey on the back 9 for a 44 and an 86 total. Based on the course rating and the slope rating, my handicap differential was 11, which is my best round since I started keeping an official USGA Handicap Index. I was +2 on the par 3 holes, +10 on the par 4 holes and +2 on the par 5 holes and I had a total of 31 putts (I count my putts on the fringe and I also treat those as greens-in-regulation). I was really excited about my ball-striking and my chipping around the greens. I did not have any chili-dips or skulled shots around the green or any really fat shots, hoseled shots or badly pulled shots from the fairway. Let's see if I can keep it up!

Made in the Shade

2010-07-22T17:09:00.004-07:00

After watching Louis Oosthuizen tear up the Old Course at St. Andrews I thought I was ready to "go low" at Orange Tree Golf Resort. The Gardener and I decided to play at Orange Tree because it has some mature shade trees and is more of a Midwestern-type course than an Arizona desert course. We played in the middle of the day and the temperature was about 108 degrees, but there was a little breeze that helped (you know, it is a "dry heat").

Orange Tree Golf Course is a 6,775 yards par-72 course from the back tees with a course rating of 70.7 and a slope rating of 121. We were paired with a couple from Topeka, Kansas on vacation. I have no idea what they were doing on vacation in Arizona in mid-July. The wife, Sheri, was about 15-20 years younger than her husband and she was about 6 feet tall and very athletically built. Starting with the first hole, she bombed the ball off of the tees and outdrove the men from the women's tees by 20+ yards or more. It was very embarrassing, but I blamed it on my surgically repaired elbow. I do not know what excuse the Gardener used. I was not hitting the ball very long, but I was hitting it about as straight as I have ever hit the ball. I hit 7 of the first 8 fairways. I was 3 under bogey when I got to the par-4 9th hole. My drive was in the fairway and I proceeded to make a 6 from the middle of the fairway! I shot a 44 on the front 9 and felt like I played better than my score. The Gardener shot a 42 on the front 9 and was hitting the ball pretty well. Both of us were having trouble on the putting surface because the greens had been aerated and sanded and were very slow.

On the back 9 I continued to drive the ball well for a while. I was 2 under bogey after 3 holes and then I double-bogeyed the par-5 13th hole. I hit a poor tee shot on the 16th hole but made a really good recovery and one putt for a par. The 18th hole at Orange Tree is the signature hole and plays to the no. 1 handicap on the course. I played the hole well and just needed a two-putt for par, but I three-putted the hole for another bogey. I shot a bookend 44 for an 88 total, which I thought was okay. However, because of the course rating and slope rating my differential was 16.2, which will not help my handicap index. The Gardener shot a 44 on the back 9 and beat me by 2 strokes.

Louis Who?

2010-07-19T07:21:00.004-07:00

I got my stitches out of my elbow and my bandages removed and I am ready to play golf again. Prior to the operation the doctor told me there may be some fluid in the elbow that may have to be drained once or twice but that is normal. Instead, the fluid in my elbow has congealed and could not be drained (that is not a pretty picture). I should absorb the fluid over a few weeks. My elbow is pretty sore but the doctor said that I can do whatever I want.

I wanted to watch the end of the Open Championship from St. Andrews so the Gardener and I made plans to play at high noon. The temperatures in Phoenix have been running between 110 degrees and 115 degrees this week with some humidity to really make it miserable. We figured there would be no other idiots on the golf course at noon. We were wrong!

The Open Championship turned into a run-a-way for the journeyman South African, gap-toothed Lauren Hutton look-a-like, Louis Oosthuizen. Although Louis missed the cut in 7 out of the last 8 majors and most golf fans (including me) had never heard of him, Louis is currently ranked 5th on the European Tour (after the results of the Open Championship ). He does have one other win and one second place finish on the European Tour this year. He is 5' 10" tall and only about 160 lbs. (72 kgs.) but he hits the ball a mile and, at least this week, straight!

On Saturday morning the announcers were asked if Louis would be leading at the end of the day. One of the announcers (I cannot remember whom) unequivocally said no way. He is eating his words now. Not only did he remain in the lead, but he increased the lead over all of the field except Paul Casey (an ASU golfer) who shot a 67. On Sunday, it looked like a match play championship between Oosthuizen and Casey and I had the feeling that Oosthuizen would crack and Casey would win his first major. When Casey hit his approach shot to about 7 feet on No. 1 I thought that it was game on, but Paul missed the putt and just never got it going. The wheels fell off on No. 12 when Casey tripled bogeyed and Oosthuizen birdied the hole. From there it was a walk in the park (a very windy park) for Oosthuizen.

What surprised me the most about Oosthuizen was that Paul Casey is one of the longest hitters off of the tees in professional golf and little Louis out-drove him by a lot on almost every hole and hit the ball right down the middle of the fairway. It would not have mattered if the fairways were 20 yards wide (rather than 100 yards wide). Also, Louis was so calm out there. On Saturday, he bogeyed the first hole and went on to have 13 pars and 4 birdies on the last 17 holes. On Sunday, he had seven straight pars and then bogeyed 8 and came back to eagle the par-4 9th hole to stop any momentum that Casey was trying to generate.

After watching Louis tame St. Andrews I was ready to hit the links at Orange Tree Golf Resort.

NBA Free Agency - A Free for All!

2010-07-05T15:01:00.004-07:00

I have been following the NBA free agency free-for-all this week. July 1 was the first day that teams were able to talk with free agents (other than a player's own team). Free agents cannot sign contracts until July 8. The two mega-superstars of this year's free agent class are LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. Any player with an opt-out had to make the decision before July 1. Amare Stoudemire opted out of the final year of his $17+ million contract, which was expected, as did Dirk Nowitzki, Chris Bosh, Carlos Boozer and, unexpectedly, Richard Jefferson. One of the reasons for opting out this year is that the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) expires after next season and the players are trying to lock in longer term deals before the new CBA is effective or there is a lock-out.

As a Phoenix Suns fan, I knew that there were mixed feeling about giving Amare Stoudemire a maximum contract ($120 million over 6 years) because of his microfracture knee injury and multiple eye injuries, but more importantly, his lack of rebounding and defense, which may be an indication of lack of desire. I am a big Amare fan, but the rebounding and defense frustrate the heck out of me. He is one of the most physically gifted athletes in professional basketball, but he can just disappear on the defensive end of the floor. In my perfect world, the Suns would engineer a "sign and trade" deal with the Dallas Mavericks for Dirk Nowitzki, one of Steve Nash's closest friends, or with the Toronto Raptors for Chris Bosh. However, I think that the only time Mark Cuban or Bryan Colangelo makes a deal with the Suns is when hell freezes over! My back-up plan would be a sign and trade with the New York Knicks for David Lee. But once again I do not see Mike D'Antonio being very interested in making a deal with the Suns.

At this point it seems likely that Amare will be going to the Knicks and the Suns will get nothing in return. The Suns re-signed Channing Frye and expect to sign Hakeem Warrick. Hakeem averaged 10.2 points and 4.4 rebounds playing 21 minutes per game for Chicago after he was traded from Milwaukee. Unless the Suns pull something out of their collective hats it could be a long basketball season next year.

Live and Learn

2010-07-01T17:53:00.005-07:00

My elbow is improving. It has been 8 days since the surgery and the incision looks like it is healing very well. I go back to the doctor in one week to have the stitches removed. I do not have any limitations on use of the arm or elbow. It is not in a sling or cast. The only admonition that the nurse gave me was not to get the incision wet because of possible infection. After the debacle on the first day I have been doing a good job of keeping the bandages dry.

On the first day after the surgery, I wrapped the bandages in saran wrap (per instructions from the nurse) and showered. When I got out of the shower the cotton bandages and the ace bandage were both soaked! On the second day I wrapped my forearm with a plastic garbage bag and large rubber bands at each end. This worked reasonably well, but not great. My mother told me that there are plastic protectors made specifically to go over a leg or arm cast. I found them at Walgreen's but the arm cast protector did not go up to the elbow so I bought the plastic protector for a leg cast. SO found an armband holder for an iPod with velcro and I was set. With one hand, I put the cotton wrap and ace bandage around my arm and then put the plastic leg cast protector over my hand and arm and tighten the velcro armband and a rubber band around my bicep. This keeps the cotton wrap and incision water-free!

I am getting antsy about playing some golf and seeing how the elbow feels. However, it is 116 degrees outside and 72 degrees in the office today. The person that said "the worst day on the golf course is better than the best day in the office" must not have lived in Phoenix in the summer. The temperature is supposed to drop to a balmy 107 degrees this weekend so I may have to get out on the links. By the way, my new USGA handicap index is 12.6!

Practice, Practice, Practice!

2010-06-28T09:14:00.005-07:00

Since I could not play golf this weekend, Chad Feldheimer sent me out to the practice area with some drills to practice. For chipping he had me place a golf towel on the green and try to hit the towel with my chip shot. I placed the golf towel about 15 - 20 yards from my chipping area. I was very successful chili-dipping the ball and rolling it over the towel, but I do not think that what was Chad had in mind. Actually, I made good, consistent contact with the ball but I was chipping the ball about 20 to 25 yards in the air. I probably hit 100 balls and hit the golf towel on a fly 3 times! I just missed right, left or long (rarely short). I tried the pitching wedge, sand wedge and lob wedge, but nothing worked. I think I needed a beach towel!

I was much more successful with the flat stick. Chad told me to use my chalk line and find a flat putt and work on my putting stroke. I had taken the chalk line out of my bag for some reason a while ago and could not find it so I just hit putts. I used about 8 balls (there was no one else out on the practice green because it was so darn hot). Generally, when I am having trouble with my putter there are two problems. One, I do not get the ball to the hole and, two, I push the ball right (just minor problems!). I have tried to close the putter face and use an inside-to-inside stroke and a straight-back and straight-through stroke. Neither works. After tinkering with my putting stroke this weekend, I found that if I have the putter a little open and my feet a little open I can see the line better and swing along that line. I was also making better contact on the longer putts and getting the ball to or past the hole (or actually in the hole). I am ready for a putting contest for our paychecks with Chad!

Weekend Wrap-Up

2010-06-27T11:34:00.003-07:00

While laid up with my funny bone injury, this gives me a chance to catch up on last week's golf. On Saturday, Chad Feldheimer and I went back to Vistal Golf Club, which is located in south Phoenix in the South Mountain foothills (the bottom of the home page has an animated fly-over of each hole). It is a beautiful location with wonderful views of South Mountain, Camelback Mountain, Squaw Peak and downtown Phoenix. The golf course was renovated and extended so that it plays 7,013 yards from the blue tip tees. I shot a fairly uneventful 89 with a birdie 2 on the 200+ yard par-3 13th hole. The excitement of the day was Chad's tee shot on the par-3 191 yard 15th hole. His tee shot rimmed and circled the cup and ended up less than a foot from the flagstick for a kick-in birdie. But the real excitement was on the elevated par 4 6th hole. Chad was checking my ball position and alignment and he almost jumped out of his skin. Not more than 10 feet from him, there was a huge snake in the desert that looked like a diamondback rattlesnake, but Chad did not stay around long enough to check it out.

On Sunday, I decided to go out to the Indian Bend Golf Course at Camelback Country Club by myself. The temperature was about 108 degrees and I figured the course would be empty and I would hit 2 or 3 balls and just practice. I was wrong! When the price of golf drops there are a lot of people like me that will play notwithstanding the weather. I played with 2 other singles and the course was packed. We played from the red "baby tees" that measure 6,486 yards. I had tap-in birdies on the two par-5s on the front 9 and shot a 41 with book-end double-bogeys. I felt like Phil Mickelson or Tiger Woods making easy birdies on the par-5 holes. I was a little unlucky on the 1st and 9th holes because I drove the ball through the fairways and ended up behind the trees and I had to chip out on No. 1 and I tried a heroic shot on No. 9 and failed. On the back 9 I was on the par-5 greens in regulation with reasonable opportunities for birdie but did not make either birdie putt. I shot a 42 on the back 9 for an 83 total. I had a lot more 7, 8 and 9-iron shots into the greens than when I play from the "big boy tees".

In recognition of my impending surgery, Chad Feldheimer and I played a late afternoon round of golf at Stonecreek Golf Club on Tuesday. We teed off at about 4:45 and sunset is about 7:45 so we thought we would not have any problems finishing before it was dark. We got stuck behind a threesome on the 4th hole and we waited on each shot until the turn. The threesome must have quit after 9 holes and we moved along well until about the 14th hole when we caught up with another group and waited on each shot coming home. We finished just as the sun set. I shot a pedestrian 90 with 45s on each side. A coyote mother and father with 5 cubs followed us in the dry wash for part of the back 9 holes. On the par-5 13th hole I was 30 yards from the green hitting my third shot and skulled the ball over the green and into the dry wash area. I thought about leaving the ball since I was not sure where the coyotes were lurking, but my frugality took over and I risked life and limb to retrieve the ball and make bogey.

Pain in the Funny Bone - Ouch!

2010-06-26T10:11:00.004-07:00

I am out of commission this week because I had a bone spur removed from my funny bone. My right elbow has been aching for quite some time and I had a cortisone shot that did not help. A few weeks ago I went to see Dr. Donald Sheridan. He specializes in the portion of the arm from the hand to the elbow. If you have a shoulder problem, he is not your guy.

Dr. Sheridan is the "hand doctor" for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Arizona Cardinals and Arizona State University athletic program. The x-ray showed a very small bone spur on my elbow and Dr. Sheridan said that may or may not be the cause of the pain. To placate me Dr. Sheridan agreed to remove the spur. Surprisingly, this bone spur could not be removed arthroscopically so I had a general anesthetic and Dr. Sheridan cut me open, shaved off the bone spur and closed with six stitches. I was in and out of the operating room in 45 minutes. I have little or no pain from the operation and a pretty full range of motion except that the elbow is wrapped with gauze, cotton and an ace bandage.

The most difficult part of the recovery is showering and trying to keep the bandages dry. I first tried a new saran wrap product recommended by the physician's assistant. That did not work at all! I am now wrapping the bandages with a towel and then a plastic garbage bag and tying off both ends of the garbage bag with rubber bands. It seems to be keeping the bandages dry, but I am losing feeling in my fingers because the rubber bands are cutting off the circulation to my hand! I do have the old faithful duct tape that I may try so that my hand does not turn blue.

Hopefully, I will be back on the course in the next week or two. Dr. Sheridan "guaranteed" that the operation would shave 3 to 5 strokes from my golf score if I worked hard on my putting and short game while recovering.

Photo Shoot at Encanterra - Where Were the Models?

2010-06-21T17:23:00.005-07:00

This was a busy weekend of golf. I played in a group event on Friday at Encanterra, a Trilogy Country Club in Queen Creek, Vistal in South Phoenix on Saturday and Camelback Golf Club in Scottsdale on Sunday, and I watched parts of the U.S. Open and had Sunday father's day dinner with SO's mother and step-father. It was busy!

I was invited to play in a golf outing on Friday by one of my favorite followers, Carrie Martz. Carrie is on the board of Phoenix Suns Charities with me and her firm, Martz Agency, is one of Fennemore Craig's marketing companies. As best as I can tell, this golfing event was arranged to introduce Arizona Foothills Magazine to Encanterra Golf Club. Arizona Foothills Magazine does some great pictorial spreads of hot events around the Valley like pool parties at the W Hotel or the Vegas Sex and the City Fashion Show. We did not see any Foothills models at the golf course. The only thing hot about this event was the temperature!

Shea Homes, the developer of Encanterra, just built a 60,000 square foot clubhouse, dining facility and recreation center at the project. It is spectacular! I played with the owner of an insurance company and 2 Arizona Foothills Magazine photographers. We played from the tips. The course has only been open for about 2 years and the trees have not yet matured, but the course is long. Encanterra is 7,176 yards from the tips with a course rating of 73.9 and a slope rating of 130. Somewhere between the practice range and the first tee I lost my golf swing so I had to improvise. I hit the ball reasonably well and scrambled to an 89, but I had almost no opportunities where I was on the green in regulation with a reasonable chance to make birdie. The temperature was above 105 degrees and there was no one on the course except our 5 foursomes, but the starter bunched us all together beginning on 3 holes so it was excruciatingly slow. It took us over 4 1/2 hours to play when it should have taken 3 1/2 hours. After the golf, the club provided drinks and light hors d'oeuvres and we watched Phil Mickelson blister Pebble Beach for a 66, the low round of the day and tied for the low round of the tournament.

Buckeye - Paradise Lost

2010-06-16T17:15:00.003-07:00

Sunday was another beautiful June day in Phoenix. The temperature was in the mid 90s with little or no humidity or wind; a perfect day for golf! The Gardener and I trekked out to The Raven at Verrado Golf Club in beautiful Buckeye, Arizona, to play golf. I have been talking about going out to this course for some time, but this is my first time playing the course. I have played The Raven at South Mountain a number of times and the Raven courses are known for their great customer service.

Verrado is a large master-planned community developed by DMB Associates, Inc., one of the premier developers in Arizona. In the early and mid-200s Buckeye was the center of the Arizona real estate market. Every major homebuilder was building homes in Buckeye and land prices and home prices were increasing daily. Verrado was the showcase project in Buckeye. Homebuyers would line up a day or more in advance for the opportunity to participate in a lottery to buy lots in Verrado. Verrado was planned to have that midwestern small town look and feel with a Main Street and houses with front porches and wide residential streets with kids playing ball in the street. The elementary schools and local market are within walking or biking distance and there are parks for family picnics and nice ballfields for Little League. Verrado is still a very nice project but housing prices have dropped by 50% or more, many homeowners lost their homes and the banks are either trying to sell the homes at very reduced prices or renting them. There is little or no new development and large portions of the project have not yet been developed.

The Raven at Verrado Golf Course was designed by Tom Lehman and John Fought. Lehman and Fought also designed The Gallery North Course in Marana, which hosted the 2007 and 2008 World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship. The Raven is 7,258 yards from the tips with a course rating of 73.8 and a slope rating of 132. We played from the silver tees which are 6,833 yards with a course rating of 71.6 and a slope rating of 126. The course has very wide fairways and huge greens. Unfortunately, the greens had just been aerated and sanded so they were bumpy and slow.

I hit the ball from tee to green as well as I have ever played. On the front 9 I was hitting my driver well but I was 20 to 30 yards behind my playing partners. There is a small crack along the top of the clubhead of my driver and it was growing like the crack in a windshield in Arizona in the summer. Finally, at the turn I put the driver in my golf bag for good. In violation of USGA Rules, I used the Gardener's driver on the back 9. He has a TaylorMade Burner driver with a graphite shaft that is a few years old. I started hitting his driver and I was at least even with my playing partners on most of my drives. On the 449 yard par-4 16th hole I outdrove everyone by about 50 yards and was less than 150 yards from the green! As good as my ball-striking was, my putting was equally miserable. I had 39 total putts, including 5 3-putts. Part of the problem was that I was not hitting the ball near the flagstick and I had a lot of long putts. The other problem was that I was never able to figure out the pace of the greens with the holes punched in the greens and the greens sanded. I shot a 44 on the front 9 and a 45 on the back 9 with only two double bogeys and a lot of bogeys.

The Gardener is a good golfer, but he is tinkering with his swing and it has gotten into his head. He drove the ball pretty well all day but his iron shots were erratic to say the least. He was taking a short backswing closing down the clubface and pulling the ball left on some shots and he was late through the ball with an open clubface and hitting it right on other shots. Once in a while he would make a nice full turn and a smooth pass at the ball and the golf ball would fly high and true to the green. The Gardener shot a 47 on the front 9, but came back with a 43 on the back 9 for a 90. Once he finds his old swing, the Gardener will back back shooting in the low to mid 80s.

18 Shots of Whiskey

2010-06-13T13:47:00.008-07:00

I played golf with Fred Flintstone on Saturday at Wildfire Golf Club at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa in Phoenix. We played the Faldo course. The Faldo course is 6,846 yards from the tournament tees with a course rating of 71.6 and a slope rating of 127. The weather was in the low 90s. On the driving range, Fred was working on his low boring shots for windy conditions (Fred is boring also but this refers to a shot that is hit low and cuts through the wind). I was obliviously hitting my normal high fade. I enjoy playing with Fred because he is a shot maker. He has a great short game and makes some incredible par saves around the green.

The course was full and we waited to be called for our tee time. We chipped and putted and sat in our golf cart and chatted. The starter came over and talked with the twosome in the cart in front of us and he sent them off to the first tee. We continued to wait. Finally, someone realized that we were waiting to be called to the first tee and sent us off as a twosome. The fairways were completely scalped so that the winter rye grass did not compete with the summer bermuda grass for water and the fairways and greens had been aerated (and the greens sanded) earlier in the week. If I had known that the course was being aerated I probably would have chosen to play another golf course this weekend, but the aeration information was on the course website so it was my mistake. I probably should have realized something was amiss when the daily fee was less than $30 this weekend instead of the normal $75.

Play was excruciatingly slow. We waited on each shot but there was no one behind us so we worked on our bunker play, chipping and putting after we completed a hole and while we waited for the group to clear in front of us. That type of practice is really good for me. By the time we made the turn to the back 9, the wind starting kicking up and blowing pretty strong. I shot a 44 on the front 9 and Fred had a 41. Fred was hooking his driver and irons, but miraculously made some great saves around the green. On the back 9, I started bogey-bogey-bogey and Fred started bogey-birdie-double bogey on the first 3 holes. When we got to the 13th hole, we were over 3 hours into the round and the group in front of us was waiting again on the tee and there was a foursome in the fairway and a foursome on the green. Fred and I looked at one another and decided to head for the clubhouse. We tried to squeeze in and play the last two or three holes, but it was wall-to-wall golfers and we gave up. When we got to the parking lot, we got a very short sun shower to end the round.

Golf lore has it that a golf course has 18 holes because two Scots discovered it took 18 drams to equal a fifth of whiskey and they drank one dram per hole. Fred is one of those people that believes that golf would be perfect if it were 15 holes instead of 18. He is one of the few people with whom I have played anywhere from 13 to 18 holes. If Fred was a Scottish shepherd in the 12th century knocking stones into rabbit holes on the current site of the Old Course at St Andrews, modern golf would only be 15 holes because Fred would have left 3 shots for lunch after the round or saved the 3 shots for his wife Wilma, or he would have put a 2 1/2 time limit on the game.

110 Degrees and Climbing!

2010-06-11T10:32:00.006-07:00

I have a big weekend of golf planned so I need to catch up on last week's golf. It is supposed to be in the low 90s this weekend! Last Sunday the thermostat was was boiling over at close to 110 degrees. Chad Feldheimer and I ventured down to Maricopa to my favorite semi-private, daily pay golf course, Southern Dunes Golf Club. See the post "Southern Dunes - An Unmitigated Disaster" for a full description of this wonderful golf course. Southern Dunes is 7,517 yards from the tips and 7,307 from the black back tees. Although we are often gluttons for punishment, we decided that the gold tees at 6,889 yards with a course rating of 72.6 and a slope rating of 131 was as much as we could handle.

We had a 7 a.m. tee time and it was only in the high 80s when we teed off. Chad talked the starter into letting us play the back 9 first and then fit us in when we made the turn. Somehow we were ahead of the mower and the greens were slow and bumpy, which is unusual for Southern Dunes. We played the front 9 in 1 hour and 20 minutes. I felt like I was on the Jersey shore playing almost every hole from the sand. I started off 8 over par on the first 6 holes and then lightning struck! I shot even par for the next 8 holes with one birdie and one bogey and I also missed a 5 foot putt for another birdie. I even impressed Chad during that stretch! He was thinking that he would have to eagle a hole from the fairway to wrest the tee box back from me. Then reality reared its ugly head and I finished double-double-double-bogey on the last 4 holes for an 87. Overall, I was very pleased with the 87 score, but after 14 holes I was thinking about shooting in the low 80s. As Chad said, "that was my problem, I was thinking." It is hard to believe that I am the partner and Chad is the associate!

I kept my drives in play and I hit my iron shots really crisply. I was hitting my 7-iron 150 yards, rather than my normal 135-140 yards. I feel stupid telling my followers why I think I am getting the extra distance. About a year or so ago I was hitting the ball off of the hosel of the club so I started lining the ball up at address a little toward the toe of the clubface. This resolved the shank problem, but I was not hitting the ball square on the clubface and I was losing distance. I moved the ball alignment at address back to the middle sweet spot of the club and the ball starting flying further. The other change, which is not as self-evident and a little counter-intuitive is that I opened the clubface just a little, which also seems to help me hit the ball square in the middle of the clubface.

Chad has a new driver and he was booming his drives 280+ yards. It was a little depressing because I do not think I outdrove him all day and I was usually 20 to 50 yards back. Chad had a couple of brain freezes where he chunked his iron or fairway wood. On the par-5 holes, which average about 580 yards, Chad's approach shots were generally 180 to 200 yards, but he was 1 over par on those 4 holes. With those drives he should have been at least 2 under par. He ended up shooting a 77 leaving 3 strokes on the par-5 holes. He will not even let me touch his new driver, let alone hit a ball with it. He is afraid that I will leave a dummy mark on the top of the head of the club.

Cave Creek Golf Course - Old Memories

2010-06-06T12:42:00.006-07:00

This weekend I was a glutton for punishment. The high temperatures for Saturday and Sunday were supposed to be 110 degrees and 112 degrees. I do not think it got quite that hot on Saturday, maybe only 106 degrees. I decided that I was going to play at Cave Creek Golf Course, which is located at 19th Avenue north of Thunderbird Avenue in Phoenix. It is a City of Phoenix municipal golf course that was started in 1983 as a landfill reclamation project. When I first moved to Phoenix 25 years ago I used to play this course a lot. It is a reasonably good layout. It is 6,732 yards from the back blue tees with a course rating of 71.8 and a slope rating of 124. The course was designed by Jack Snyder. The course is relatively flat and there are a few spots where the grass simply will not grow over the landfill, but it is a worthwhile and environmentally friendly use of a landfill.

The walking rate at Cave Creek was supposed to be $10 after 4 p.m. so I signed up figuring that I would only play 9 holes. When I got to the course, the course superintendent told me that rate only applied in May so I paid a whopping $13 and walked. As I began playing the holes started coming back to me. The trees were a bit taller and more mature but the course had not otherwise changed much in the past 25 years. Although I wasn't keeping score I was hitting the ball really well and I enjoy walking even in the heat. The holes on the front 9 are pretty straight-forward and what you see is what you get. I was hitting my mid-irons into the green like lasers. The greens had just been aerated so the grass was a little long and the greens were slow and bumpy. It looked like in another 7 to 10 days the greens would be in nice shape. The last 3 holes on the front 9 are bears. The par-3 7th hole was playing 233 yards. I ripped 2 1-hybrids onto the back fringe of the green and made par with both balls. The 8th hole is 432 yards with the dry wash running along the right hand side of the fairway and through the center of the fairway. I do not think that I ever played the course when the creek was actually flowing and this was no exception. If you drive the ball into the center wash you can play the ball but you cannot see the green or even the flagstick. The green has a false front because the landfill under the front of the green sank. I pushed the ball right and had about 175 yards to the green. I flushed a 5-iron pin high and two-putted for a par. No. 9 is 422 yards generally back into the wind with Cave Creek wash on your right and the driving range on the left. Even if you hit a good drive, the approach shot to the green requires a long iron or hybrid club. I pulled my drive onto the hard pan, chunked my second shot, chipped short of the green and took another 3 strokes to get down from there for a double-bogey.

It was about 5:30 p.m. and the sun was not quite so hot so I decided to finish the last 9 holes. The back 9 has some lakes that arguably come into play and you have to carry Cave Creek wash on the 18th hole. I continued to hit the ball well on the back 9, but by the par-5 518 yard 16th hole I was starting to drag. I hit my third shot to 5 feet from the hole and made a birdie, which put a little giddy-up in my step. On 18, you have to hit the ball over the dry wash. If you push it right you have a long approach shot into the green and if you take a more direct route you may not clear the wash. I pushed it a little right and had about 180 yards to the green with a flyer lie. The green is adjacent to the wash so if you pull the ball left you may be in the wash. If you hit it to the right, there is a big hill and the ball typically comes off of the hill onto the green. I aimed to the right and flushed a 5-iron over the green, chipped down the hill and two-putted for a bogey.

It was really fun going back to this course that I played over 20 years ago. It is a reasonably good test of golf from the back tees and I would not be embarrassed to take someone to this course. I intend to go back and play in the late weekend afternoons again.

Muirfield - The Journey Begins!

2010-06-04T11:20:00.009-07:00

Smooth has taken the lead and put the "World Of" on his broad shoulders to get us to St. Andrews in 2011! We decided that since the "Open Championship" was being played at the Old Course at St. Andrews this summer it would not be a great time to make our Scotland trip. Muirfield will be the venue for the 2013 Open Championship. A great St. Andrews trip takes a lot of planning and forethought. We already have 11 commitments among the "World Of" participants: our leader Smooth, High Right, Turtle, Arnie, Mouth, the Natural, me, Shifty, the Big Man, Crimson Tide and Cameo. We are still waiting to hear from the Big Dog, but he could be in Tibet meditating with the Dali Lahma for all we know. I don't know whether Alice has responded yet, but it does not matter because he will change his mind 4 or 5 times between now and the departure date (which is OK so long as he pays his deposit). We are doing a southern Scotland trip, with a focus on the Open Championship rota courses, with other great links courses in the mix.

Muirfield and The Old Course at St. Andrews require tee times way in advance. Visitor days at Muirfield are Tuesdays and Thursdays (excluding public holidays) with the 1st tee reserved for two balls and the 10th tee reserved for fourballs. Muirfield public tee times were filling up quickly for summer 2011 so Smooth rounded up the gang so he could make an on-line reservation. In order to make a reservation, you must provide the player name, club affiliation and your USGA handicap index. Muirfield is a stickler for this stuff and may even confirm your handicap. You need a verified handicap index of 18 or less to play at Muirfield. I was sure glad that I joined the world-renowned Sanctuary Golf Club rather than the Nomads' Club or the Encanto Men's Club. That would have been embarrassing! Also, my new 13.4 handicap had just been e-mailed to me so I was very proud of myself. I expected to get a congratulatory phone call from the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers on my handicap, but I have not heard anything yet. Maybe the congratulatory letter is in the mail.

We have three tee times reserved at Muirfield beginning at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, 2 August, 2011. This is the first step in the Journey! The next step is to apply on September 1 for tee times at The Old Course. In addition to your name, home course and USGA handicap index, I think that the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews requires a background check before you can get on the course. If we apply on September 1, 2010, we hope to receive a response from the R&A by January 15, 2011. Once the group has dates for Muirfield and The Old Course at St. Andrews, you fill in the rest of the Open Championship rota and other courses.

At Muirfield, we play a four ball match off no. 10 in the morning and following lunch in the clubhouse (coat and tie required) a foursome match off no. 1 in the afternoon. A four ball match pits 2-person teams against each other using better-ball scoring with each golfer playing his own ball throughout. At the end of each hole, the low score between the two partners is the team's score. I assume this is played with handicaps. Four ball can be played as stroke play or match play and is one of the formats used at the Ryder Cup. A foursome match is also a Ryder Cup format that pits 2-person teams against each other, with each team playing one ball, alternate shot. There are some USGA handicap criteria that are used for this type of match. This format can get very very ugly!

The Alien

2010-06-03T18:41:00.002-07:00

I was sick as a dog all last week, but I was going to play golf over the Memorial Day weekend, come hell or high water. I hooked up with an old friend, client and golf buddy of mine, the "Gardener", and we played Vistal Golf Club. I have known the Gardener for probably 15 years. He and I are about the same age. I worked with him as outside counsel when he was a young banker and credit officer and I was a young lawyer and continued to see him for business and socially and to play golf from time-t0-time over the years. Every once in a while I run into him at the Encanto driving range banging balls. Our sons played on the same Little League baseball team and vied for playing time in right field. The Gardener is a good golfer with a very nice swing and a good golf demeanor, but he does not get out to play very much golf these days. His moniker is partially a play on his name and also because he is a very good sand player and he carefully rakes and grooms the bunker after hitting his shot.

Vistal is the old Thunderbird Country Club track in south Phoenix. The course was purchased by the Phoenix Thunderbirds (together with the First Tee course next door) in 2000. The Thunderbird Country Club course was short and had a number of tricked-out holes. In 2000 the golf course was completely re-designed and re-built by PGA Tour Design Services in consultation with local PGA Tour players Tom Lehman, Billy Mayfair, and Howard Twitty. Shortly after it reopened, a young golfer died from e-coli or some other bacterial infection after putting ice from an open water container on the course into his drink. That is why you now see signs on golf courses that say "do not drink the ice" or something to that effect. The Thunderbirds foray into golf course ownership ended shortly thereafter when the bank foreclosed on the course and it was purchased by Arte Moreno, one of the owners of Clear Channel Outdoor Advertising and later the owner of the Anaheim Angels.

Vistal Golf Course is now over 7,000 yards from the blue tees with a course rating of 72.9 and a slope rating of 129. The backdrop of South Mountain and the views of Camelback Mountain, Squaw Peak, downtown Phoenix and the Bank One Ballpark are absolutely beautiful. If the course was located in North Scottsdale, you would pay $150+ in season to play the course. In South Phoenix, the summer rate is $29.

I drove the ball pretty well on the front 9, but I could not get my approach shots on the elevated greens. And when I did get the ball on the green in regulation, I oftentimes three-putted the large, undulating greens. The greens look very small when they are elevated and you do not realize how much room there is until you get up close to the green. As my followers know I have been having trouble getting enough loft on the ball when pitching the ball onto the green to hold the green. Since I only have 13 clubs in my bag, I decided to pull out my old Alien wedge. I used it 4 times times on the front 9 and hit two great shot and two shots short and into the greenside bunker because I was tentative. I did not try to hit the Alien wedge out of the greenside bunker because I have been hitting my sand shots pretty well. When the Alien first came out about 20 years ago there was a lot of talk as to whether it was USGA legal. It is my understanding that the USGA subsequently confirmed that the club was legal under its standards. The Alien wedge in the link looks much better than the bulky Alien wedge in my bag but I was very happy with the results.

By the back 9 my cold started to catch up to me and I was feeling weak. The back 9 is over 3,600 yards long! There are 5 par-4 holes over 425 yards and one that is 398 yards. I lost my swing for about 5 holes and I was trying to advance the ball forward and into the hole. On the last 4 holes I starting playing a little better and finished strong in 3 over par for a 47 on the back and a 95 for the round. It was not one of my stellar rounds!

The next day I received my new USGA Handicap Index. My new index is 13.4! Luckily, the 95 at Vistal was not included for handicap purposes. Now that I have played Vistal and have a little better feel for the size of the greens and the layout, I think that I can do better.

ASU Karsten Golf Course

2010-05-26T18:01:00.005-07:00

On Sunday, Chad Feldheimer and I played at ASU Karsten Golf Course in Tempe near the Arizona State University campus. This is the home course for the ASU golf team. Players like Billy Mayfair and Phil Mickelson played Karsten when they were student athletes at ASU. It is a 7,002 yard, par-70 Pete Dye-designed, Scottish links course with rolling hills and railroad ties. The course is built on only 156 acres in the barren wasteland of the river bed of the Salt River adjacent to an electric substation with huge overhead power lines running across the golf course and within the flight path for Sky Harbor Airport. The course was completed in 1989 and the clubhouse was completed in 1994. The golf course is a brilliant use of virtually worthless real estate.

Playing from the professional tees, the course rating is 73.8 and the slope rating is 131. The front 9 is a par-34 with no par-5 holes. Chad Feldheimer and I both started out par-par-par. I also parred the par-3 7th hole and bogeyed the 494-yard par-4 5th hole (of which I was pretty proud), but double-bogeyed 4 holes for a 43 on the front 9. Chad did not play well and shot a 42 on the front 9. By the time we got to the 9th hole, the wind was blowing more than 20 miles per hour and we were struggling.

The back 9 is a 3,751 yard par-36 and we decided that playing from the professional tees was too masochistic even for us so we moved up to the champion tees, which are 3,395 yards. It seemed like we were hitting into the wind on almost every hole, although sometimes there seemed to be a cross-wind. The 10th hole is a 478-yard par-4 (498 yards from the professional tees). I had 2 pars, 5 bogeys and 2 double-bogeys for a 45 on the back 9 and an 88 for the round. Chad started bogey-bogey on the back 9 and was even par on the last 7 holes for a 38 and an 80 for the round. The wind on the back 9 was howling and it was a struggle just to finish. On the signature hole, the 217 yard, par-3 16th hole, Chad made a birdie and I made a par I hit the ball pretty well off of the tees, but I was missing the fairways so I had a lot of blind shots over the hills or shots with the ball sitting on the side of a hill either 2 feet above or 2 feet below my feet. I still hit a lot of good hybrid shots and I chipped and putted reasonably well. A number of greens are elevated and a shot that misses the green rolls down into the collection area below the green and I do not have enough confidence to consistently hit a high pitch or lob onto the green.

Because of the difficulty of the golf course, my 88 equated to a 12.2 handicap differential. With back-to-back 12.2 differentials my handicap index should go down when the new handicaps are posted on June 1.

My New "Go To" Course

2010-05-24T17:07:00.006-07:00

On Saturday I treated my friend and client Digger to a round of golf at Stonecreek Golf Club. Stonecreek has become one of my "go to" courses. The course is in great shape, it is very convenient from central Phoenix, it is reasonably priced, it is walkable and it plays almost 6,900 yards from the back tees. The course is a par-71 with a course rating of 72.8 and a slope rating of 131 from the back (green) tees. At times the course can be very slow, but we played Saturday morning in less than 4 hours. The course also has a replay rate of $20, although we did not take advantage of it this time.

Digger is a member of Moon Valley Country Club so he does not often venture out to play other courses in the area. He had not played Stonecreek for a number of years. Digger was hitting the ball pretty well, but he has a penchant for fading the ball (and sometimes even slicing the ball!). This golf course is not set up for a left-to-right hitter. Somehow, the creek seems to only run along the right side of the fairway. Digger started off with two double-bogeys, but then parred 3 of the next 7 holes for a 46 on the front side. I was driving the ball really well and parred both of the par-3 holes and one par-4 for a 44 on the front 9. I was having my normal trouble hitting my chip shots thin. I generally use a lot of wrist action on my chips rather than a straight-arm chip. After hitting another chip shot thin, Digger recommended that I try to chip with my putting stroke. I re-hit the chip and rolled it right into the cup for what would have been a birdie (but I took my double-bogey since I am now carrying an official USGA handicap index).

When we made the turn, there was a man selling golf balls from his backyard. I bought 9 like-new Titleist Pro-V golf balls for $1 each and one TaylorMade Penta TP golf ball for $1. The Penta TP is a 5-piece ball and is supposed to be the best ball on the market. On the back 9 I continued to drive the ball straight and in the fairway or short rough. I made a birdie on No. 13, a 548 yard, par-5, and had 3 pars for a 43 on the back 9, including a par on the 609 yard, par-5. I triple-bogeyed the 227 yard par-3 hitting my first tee shot into the water (thus losing my Penta TP golf ball!). Somehow, this par-3 is considered the no. 18 handicap hole. I assume the handicap is based on one of the shorter tees (166 yards from the gold tees and 147 yards from the black tees). On the par-3 197 yard 12th hole, Digger and I both won $20 gift certificates from the pro shop by hitting the green (or coming pretty darn close). We paid $10 each for the opportunity so it was a net $20 gain (it was actually a $20 gain for me because Digger paid my fee). I bought a Stonecreek golf hat to add to my collection. Digger bought a Boston Red Sox logo golf hat and claimed it was for a relative (but I think he may be a closet Red Sox nation fan).

I was able to string together two reasonably consistent 9-hole stretches for an 87. I still leave a lot of strokes on the course because of my short game, but my putting seems to be improving. Because of the course rating and slope rating, my handicap differential for this round was 12.2, which is my lowest differential for my last 20 rounds and should reduce my handicap index.

Golf Lingo - Part 5

2010-05-16T14:27:00.004-07:00

It is time once again for a fan favorite, "Golf Lingo". This is Part 5 of the series. "Golf Lingo - Part 4" was posted on January 20, 2010. If you click on the defined term you will link to the post in which it was used. Even if you cannot walk the walk with your golf game, if you can talk the talk you can hold your own at the bar after the round.

Blind Shot. A shot in which the golfer cannot see the intended target for that shot (e.g., over a hill, behind a line of trees, to an elevated green or out of a deep bunker).

Bump and Run. An approach shot to the green usually played with an 8-, 7- or 6-iron. The ball is typically played from the back of the stance, stays low and then runs up to or on the green.

Double Eagle. A double eagle is a score of three under par on an individual hole. Double eagles are more rare than holes-in-one. To record a double eagle, a golfer would have to make a hole-in-one on a par-4 hole or make a 2 on a par-5 hole.

Fringe. An area of grass immediately off of the putting surface and surrounding the green.. Generally, grass in the fringe is higher than on the fairway and green, but lower than the rough. Players often use their putters when their ball is on the fringe. See Texas wedge .

Gorse. Gorse is very thick, gnarly high rough, more similar to shrubbery than grass. It is oftentimes found on British and Scottish courses.

Grooves. The indentations on the face of all irons, which help to impart spin on the golf ball and help the ball get airborne. The groove controversy relates to the shape of the grooves ("u" or "v" shaped), the depth of the grooves and the distance between grooves and the sharpness of the grooves. Due in part to the grooves, professional golfers were able to impart sufficient spin on the ball from the rough to stop the ball on the green and even to spin the ball backward. The USGA and R&A are further regulating the grooves on irons to put more of a premium on hitting the ball in the fairway and penalizing a player that hits the ball in the rough. The driver does not have any grooves because the intention is to reduce spin so the ball flies longer.

Ground Your Club. Touching the head of the golf club to the ground behind the ball at address or before the forward swing. You may not ground your club in a hazard.

Handicap Differential. The difference between a player's adjusted gross score and the USGA Course Rating of the course on which the score was made, multiplied by 113, then divided by the Slope Rating from the tees played and rounded to the nearest tenth, e.g., 12.8.

Hiding in the Weeds Rule. A situation where your playing partner knows that you are about to play out-of-turn, thus violating Rule 10 of the Rules of Golf, and he allows you to commit the violation and based on the outcome of your shot, the playing partner either invokes the Rule and requires that you re-hit your shot or does not invoke the Rule and allows your shot to stand. Under the "Hiding in the Weeds Rule", the playing partner is deemed to have "unclean hands" and cannot invoke Rule 10.

Loose Impediment. From the Official Rules of Golf, "Loose impediments" are natural objects including: stones, leaves, twigs, branches and the like, dung, and worms and insects and casts or heaps made by them, provided they are not: fixed or growing, solidly embedded, or adhering to the ball. Sand and loose soil are loose impediments on the putting green, but not elsewhere. Snow and natural ice, other than frost, are either casual water or loose impediments, at the option of the player. Dew and frost are not loose impediments.

Perimeter Weighting. Invented by Karsten Solheim and made famous with the Ping Eye2 irons. The weight of the golf club is distributed more evenly around the club by moving more weight to the heel, toe and sole. Perimeter-weighted clubs are more forgiving for off-center hits for the average golfer. The professionals generally play "blades" where most of the weight is right behind the center of the clubface since they rarely hit off-center shots.

Stroke and Distance. The penalty imposed under USGA and R&A Rules for a lost ball or ball hit out-of-bounds. The player incurs the stroke for the lost ball or ball hit out-of-bounds, takes 1 penalty stroke and must make his third stroke from the same spot where the original ball was last played.

Thin. A mis-hit shot in which the clubhead strikes the ball near its midpoint or slighly lower. A thin shot generally travels lower and longer than anticipated.

Tiger Pelts. Also known as "beaver pelts"; these are large divots taken by a golfer, generally with his short irons. The tiger pelt probably emanates from the large divots that Tiger Woods used to take with all of his irons.

Tight Lie. Any lie in which your ball is sitting on bare dirt, very short grass or similar position in which there is very little grass beneath the golf ball.

Thank to About.com:Golf and the USGA Official Rules of Golf for some of these definitions.

You Drive Like a Girl!

2010-05-10T10:03:00.014-07:00

It is starting to get warm in Arizona so it is great golf weather for the frugal (cheap) golfer. There is an inverse relationship between the temperature, on the one hand, and the greens fee and pace of play, on the other hand. On Sunday, Chad Feldheimer and I played at the Legacy Golf Resort. This is one of the best public golf courses in the central Phoenix area. The temperature was above 90 degrees, the greens fee was less than $50 and we played in just over 4 hours (notwithstanding Chad badgering me about slow play).

Chad bought a new TaylorMade R9 SuperTri black-on-black driver at Golfsmith. He said that he was carrying the ball 270 yards in the simulator (I think there must have been some simulated gale force tailwinds or they just spotted a sucker). He would not even let me touch his new driver! I decided to put my TaylorMade R580 driver away and use my Ping G10 driver that I won in a charity golf tournament a couple of years ago because Legacy has very forgiving fairways. I had the G10 driver "fitted" at the Ping headquarters with a 10.5 degree loft and a draw face. The G10 driver is also an inch longer than my TaylorMade driver and has a whippier shaft. I have never hit this club well, but I keep hoping that something will change. See definition of insanity. We played from the back tees (Copper), which are 6,908 yards with a course rating of 72.1 and a slope rating of 128. We played with a husband and wife that were probably in their early 60s.

I usually average about 240 yards with my R580 driver (although I am often directionally challenged). I was hitting my G10 driver about 220 yards! I was being out-driven by our husband and wife playing partners. It can make for a long day when you are only driving the ball 220 yards and the course is almost 7,000 yards long (and a par 71). Luckily, I am hitting my 1, 3 and 4-hybrids really well (I have been getting a lot of opportunities). I started off with a double bogey, but parred both par-3 holes and both par-5 holes on the front 9 for a 42. I double-bogeyed a par-4 and both par-3s on the back 9, but also had two pars for a 45 (the back 9 is a par 35) for an 87 total. I did not make one medium to long putt all day, but I lagged the ball pretty well. I missed 3 putts within 6 feet, all of which I pushed to the right! Based on my gross score, the course rating and the slope rating, my "differential" for this round was 13.2, which is my lowest (best) differential of all of my handicap scores. I have no idea how the differential is calculated but I am sure that Chad Feldheimer will dazzle us with his knowledge of the USGA Handicap System.

Chad could not hit his new driver at all. Instead of his normal moderately high ball flight with a slight fade and 260+ yards of distance, he was hitting the ball low with an ugly hook. He shot a 40 on the front 9 and I thought that he might just call it a day and quit. On the back 9 he hit the driver a little bit better, but not much better. He started 3-over par on the first 4 holes, but ended 1-under par on the last 5 holes. He was in trouble on a few holes off of the tees, but miraculously he always found his ball and had a shot of some sort. Chad is a great scrambler. If he has to chip out from the desert on a par-4, he will oftentimes hit his third shot to within 10 feet of the flagstick and sink the putt or if he hits the ball into a greenside bunker, he has a pretty decent chance of getting down in 2 strokes or he will make a long putt for a par save. Notwithstanding his poor tee shots, Chad shot a 37 on the back 9 and finished with a 77, which was pretty impressive given the way he was hitting the ball off of the tees.

[Editor's Note: A "Handicap Differential" is the difference between a player's adjusted gross score and the USGA Course Rating of the course on which the score was made, multiplied by 113, then divided by the Slope Rating from the tees played and rounded to the nearest tenth, e.g., 12.8.]

The Hated San Antonio Spurs

2010-05-05T17:22:00.005-07:00

On Monday night I went to the first game of the playoff series between the San Antonio Spurs and the Suns. The Spurs are the seventh seed in the Western Division, but they beat the second seeded Dallas Mavericks to advance to the second round of the playoffs. The Suns are the third seed. The Spurs have been injury-riddled all season and are finally healthy.

The Spurs are the Suns' playoff nemesis. They have beaten the Suns the last four times the two teams played in the playoffs! Every year something crazy happens. One year Tim Duncan made a 3-point shot at the buzzer to win a game (his only 3-point shot the entire season). Another year Amare Stoudemire was suspended for a game because he stepped onto the court from the bench during a fracas and Steve Nash was cut with less than a minute to go in a game and the trainers could not stop the bleeding to get him back into the game. Another year Joe Johnson was injured and out for the season when he was undercut and landed on his face.

The US Airways Arena was electric on Monday night! The Suns started the game on a tear and Steve Nash may have had one of the greatest playoff game quarters ever. He scored 17 points on 7 for 10 shooting and had 4 assists and no turnovers in the first quarter. The Suns led by 10 at halftime and increased the lead to 14 in the third quarter. Twice San Antonio rallied from 14 back, with a 12-0 run in the third quarter and a 13-0 run in the fourth quarter that cut Phoenix's lead to 94-93 with 4:26 to go in the game. Oftentimes against San Antonio the Suns could not stop Duncan, Ginobili and Parker down the stretch and lost the close playoff games. This time, San Antonio could not make its shots and Jason Richardson made a big 3-point shot, Grant Hill made a jump shot and the Suns made all of their free throws down the stretch to win 111-102. Although the Suns controlled the game, you can never breath easy playing the Spurs because they never give up, they are well-coached and they have some great clutch players.

Husband and Wife Tournament - Never Again!

2010-04-30T16:18:00.007-07:00

Last Sunday I played with my friend Digger at Moon Valley Country Club. Digger is not playing enough golf at the club and he probably does not want to figure out (or tell his lovely wife) his cost per round! I always enjoy playing with Digger because we have a good conversation and neither of us takes the game too seriously. But around the 15th hole, Digger gets a call from his wife asking why he is not yet done and when he will be home. I think Digger once played a round in 3 hours and his wife believes that is the appropriate and reasonable amount of time necessary to play 18 holes of golf. While I agree with her and wish it were true, it has not been the case. On Sunday afternoons at Moon Valley Country Club, there is always some event occurring. Last time we played on Sunday afternoon, we were behind a juniors tournament. The juniors are generally pretty good players but they grind on every shot so it is slow. This week was a husband and wife tournament. The starter squeezed us in the middle and we played as an alternative lifestyle couple. The pace of play was excrutiatingly slow. Digger and I agreed that from now on we would try to play on Saturdays!

This weekend Digger's son was supposed to be making a model of the gastrointestinal system (meaning that Digger was making the model). He had it all planned out with toilet paper rolls and other household products. I now know that the gastrointestinal system includes the esophagus, stomach, small intestines, large intestines, anus and rectum. That was more information than I wanted to know. When Digger's wife called, he told her that she could get started without him, but I got the impression that Digger is integral to the project and no work could be commenced until he arrived. Whatever happened to making a volcano with baking soda and detergent!

Now, back to the golf. For once, I strung together two reasonably good 9s! We played from the Gold tees, which are 6,584 yards with a course rating of 71.1 and a slope rating of 120. I kept the ball in the fairway, I chipped and putted well, and I did not make any major bone-headed errors. On the front 9 I made par on the two par-5 holes and one double bogey on a par-3 hole (I hit the ball into the water) and bogeys on all of the other holes to shoot a 44. On the back 9 I had 4 pars and only one double bogey to shoot a 42 and an 86 for the round. My handicap is 14.6 right now and I think it may drop a few tenths of a stroke based on my last two scores.

Digger is hitting the ball really well off of the tees and was in the middle of the fairway on almost every hole. He was having a lot of trouble hitting his irons so he was always scrambling to just make bogey, which makes for a long day, especially when you are a 50+ year old and have to go home and build a model of the gastrointestinal system for your school project.

Arizona Grand? Not in My Book!

2010-04-30T06:32:00.007-07:00

On Saturday, I played in the "Landsharks Scramble Golf Tournament" at the Arizona Grand Golf Resort at South Mountain in Phoenix. I think we played from the Phantom Horse tees. The course was in nice shape but "in my opinion" (included for liability purposes) it is kind of rinky-dink at only 6,300 yards from the back tees with a lot of blind shots and tricked-out holes. The course traverses through the surrounding residential subdivision and some of the holes are fairly narrow for me. I played with Chad Feldheimer, Slim Whiskey and one of Slim's clients that was the major sponsor for the tournament.

We started on the back 9. The par-5 10th hole has a deceiving green with a big swale in front. We all left our third shot short of the green and had to chip and one-putt to save par. Not an auspicious start for a scramble! I played terribly on the front 9 but Slim Whiskey and Chad Feldheimer played well and we made the turn at 5 under par. Starting the front 9, I had one of the two shots of the day. Hole No. 1 is a 362-yard par-4. It was only playing 280 yards because the resort was setting up a wedding on the Sidewinder tee box. From our tee boxes, once you clear the crest of the hill, it is fairly steep downhill and you cannot see the flagstick from the tee box. I hit driver to about 6 feet right behind the hole. Although we did not see it, the ball must have rolled just past the hole. We sunk the putt for eagle (a double eagle hole in one would have been sweet!). Of course, Chad had to steal some of my thunder by hitting a 3-wood to about 12 feet from the flagstick.

We were 11 under par when we got to the par-3 202 yard 7th hole. The creek along the right-hand side is more like a lake at this point on the course. The pin was tucked in the right-hand side of the green only a few paces from the water. Slim Whiskey led off and dunked his ball in the lake. The client followed and also put his ball in the lake. Making sure that I did not do likewise, I hooked my tee shot way left but barely playable. This is why we bring Chad Feldheimer with us on scrambles (it clearly is not because of his pleasant personality). Chad takes dead aim at the pin and fires his 5-iron. The ball looks like it may be just right of the flagstick and I am holding my breath but it draws slightly and ends up about 8 feet left of the pin (he won closest to the pin for that shot). We ended the round with a 12 under 59 and finished in third place. The awards ceremony was at Macayo's Mexican Restaurant in Ahwatukee, the tournament sponsor, and we gorged ourselves on Mexican food and tequila.

I Must be in the Front Row!

2010-04-27T19:26:00.005-07:00

I actually played golf both days this weekend, but I don't have enough time to blog about golf today. Hopefully, I will get to it later this week. I am working on a large financing transaction that is taking up all of my time. Given the lack of liquidity in the credit markets it is nice to have a deal at all! The pre-closing is scheduled for Thursday and the funding is scheduled for Friday morning so I should be back on the links this weekend.

As a gift for my work on the transaction, the client gave me two tickets to the Suns playoff game against the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night. The series was tied 2 games each and the 5th game of a seven game series is oftentimes the pivotal game in the series. I am a HUGE Suns fans! When SO and I got to the will-call window the person behind the glass could not find the tickets so she called over the manager and they ultimately found our tickets. The tickets were in row 1 at center court! Row 1 is right behind the three rows of floor seats but the seats are raised so you get a better view. I think that Suge Knight and one of his posse were sitting right beside us (or else it was someone that looked just like him). Lute Olson and his wife were sitting in the floor seats right in front of us.

The game started off miserably. The Trail Blazers came flying out of the gate and made their first 8 shots and 10 of their first 11 shots. The score was 9 -0 and 18 - 4. After 6 minutes in the first quarter, I think the score was about 23 - 9. SO tried to cheer me up, but I may have been a bit testy with her. The rest of the game was a romp for the Suns. The crowd was crazy and the Suns ran the Trail Blazers off of the court. By the end of the first quarter the Suns cut the Portland lead to one point. By halftime, the Suns were leading by 10 and by the end of the third quarter the Suns were winning by 20. At one point in the fourth quarter the Suns had built up a 27 point lead. The final score was 107 - 88. The Suns reserves played really well. Channing Frye had 20 points, including a 4 point play, and Jared Dudley had 19 points. For the first time in a long time, the Suns have a bench that can keep the team in the game when the starters are resting and oftentimes increase the lead or cut the deficit. Steve Nash is 36 and Grant Hill is 37 so being able to rest those players and reduce their minutes during the season and into the playoffs is a huge advantage. Also, this team can actually rebound and play some defense, which have not been trade marks of recent Suns teams. Coming into the playoffs, the Suns were the hottest team in the NBA. If Robin Lopez is able to return for the second round of the playoffs, the Suns may be able to compete for an NBA championship.

The 6th game of the series is this Thursday at the Rose Garden in Portland. It would be nice if the Suns continue to play like they did on Monday and end the series without having to worry about a game 7 back at home. In the other western division series, Oklahoma City's young guns won the last two games against the top-seeded Lakers to tie the series at 2 games each; the Suns' nemesis, San Antonio, is finally healthy and is beating Dallas 3 games to 1 and Utah is leading Denver 3 games to 1. If Los Angeles, Dallas and Denver all lose and the Suns win, the Suns would be the highest remaining seed in the west and would have home court advantage in the next two series. The stars may be aligning perfectly for the Suns (except for those pesky Spurs)!

Rule 13.4 - Ball in Hazard - A Reed or Twig?

2010-04-20T18:26:00.013-07:00

The Curmudgeon, Chad Feldheimer and I had a spirited discussion today about the penalty that Brian Davis called on himself on the first playoff hole of the Verizon Heritage at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, this weekend. Davis, who has never won on the PGA Tour dramatically sinks a birdie putt on the 18th hole to tie Jim Furyk and force a playoff. Furyk and Davis then start the playoff at the same hole and Davis hits his second shot onto the edge of the green and the golf ball rolls off into the hazard next to the green. The hazard has a sandy base next to a pile of grass, twigs and reeds. From there you can see the video. Davis did not ground his club in the hazard, but on his backswing he barely clips a reed or twig that is lying on the ground. Davis calls Slugger White, the Rules official, over to discuss the potential infraction and after due consideration and a review of the videotape, Slugger (nice name) agrees with Davis and Davis is penalized two strokes for moving a loose impediment in the hazard in violation of Rule 13.4 of the Rules of Golf.

Rule 13.4 of the Rules of Golf in plain English provides that when you are in a hazard before making a stroke at the golf ball you must not touch a loose impediment in the hazard. One of the exceptions to this Rule is that you can touch any grass, bush, tree or other growing thing at any time, including at address or in the backswing. A loose impediment is defined to include stones, leaves, twigs and branches (as well as dung and worms and insects and casts or heaps made by them for future information). Anything that is fixed, growing or solidly embedded is not a loose impediment.

If Davis touched a reed, there is probably no penalty because a reed is a type of grass in which case it falls within the exception to Rule 13.4. But if Davis touched a twig there is probably a 2-stroke penalty unless you can argue that the twig is a "growing thing". Although I am not a botanist I have seen those nature shows where you hear the branch scream as it is being cut from the tree and I would bet that a twig continues to grow for some time after it is cut (like hair or fingernails on a corpse!). Alterntively, if you want to create new law in the world of golf, you could argue that Davis touched the twig on his backswing while making a stroke at the ball, which takes this out of the Rule completely (but the definition of "stroke" is the forward movement of the club only). This argument would require overturning clear precedent by Slugger, which would probably cause him to be excommunicated from the USGA. And finally, I think that the intent of the original drafters of the Rules of Golf at the Royal & Ancient Golf Club was that the player should not be able to improve his lie, stance or swing or test the condition of the hazard by grounding his club, touching the ground with his hand or clearing away any loose impediments before intending to strike the golf ball. If you are a strict constructionist (and want to suck up to the USGA and R&A) you impose the 2-stroke penalty like Slugger, but if you have any heart and are a judicial activist you snub the USGA and R&A and give Davis a fighting chance to scramble and make par and possibly win his first PGA Tournament.

I am sure that all of my "World Of" golf buddies that religiously read my blog will chime in with their analysis of this case.

Editor's Note: Unless the hazard was a water hazard, since the twigs interfered with Davis' backswing, he could have elected to take relief under Rule 25-1b(ii) of the Rules of Golf without a penalty.

SunRidge Canyon - Man Up!

2010-04-19T17:42:00.006-07:00

I am beginning to get writer's block on this blog! I can now truly appreciate the effort and work that goes into coming up with ideas and writing a blog or column every day. Although my blogging has been disappointing my golf game seems to be getting a little better. I played this weekend with Chad Feldheimer and Slim Whiskey at SunRidge Canyon Golf Club. SunRidge Canyon is located in Fountain Hills, about 35 minutes from central Phoenix. It is considered one of the more difficult public golf courses in the Valley. We picked a heck of a day to play this course. The high temperature on Sunday was 96 degrees, which was only 4 degrees below the record for that date. As you can tell by the name, SunRidge Canyon is located in a canyon and the temperature in the canyon had to be well over 100 degrees.

Notwithstanding a little whining from Slim Whiskey, we "manned up" and played from the black or championship tees. The course is only 6,823 yards from the black tees but the course rating is 72.6 and the slope rating is 142. The signature hole is the par-3 209 yard 17th hole. All three of us started off par - par and we looked like we knew what we were doing. I also parred the 3rd hole. The front 9 is 3,536 yards but many of the holes are downhill and downwind. After getting off to such a great start I was nine over par on the last 6 holes and finished with a 45. I hit the ball really well, but a small mistake on this course can lead to a double or triple bogey. If you miss the green by more than a yard or two, your ball nestles in this gnarly grass. Normally, I would putt the ball from that close, but I had to chip instead and it was very difficult to get the club to and through the ball. The greens were also very shaggy so you really had to whack the putts to get them to the hole. I never did get a good feel for the speed of the greens. I three-putted 3 of the final 6 holes and I probably lost another stroke or two chipping and pitching on the front 9.

As we made the turn, Slim Whiskey told us that the back 9 was shorter and easier. Like the dummies that we are, Chad Feldheimer and I believed him! Since we played the front 9 down from the ridge into the canyon, we now started to play our way out of the canyon. Each hole was uphill and into the wind and, after the short par-4 10th hole, long. The par-4 holes are all over 420 yards and the par-5 holes are 533 and 578 yards. I was hitting 1, 3 and 4 hybrids from the fairways, including my third shot into the par-5 holes! I do not think that I took my 5, 6 or 7 iron out of the bag the entire round. I parred two of the three par-3 holes and one of the par-4 holes on the back 9, but had a lot of double and triple bogeys and shot a 47 on the back 9 and a 92 for the round. Although I really would have liked to break 90 on this course, I was pretty pleased with my score. I hit the ball solidly all day and only had a few errant tee shots and approach shots. I lost a lot of strokes on and around the green and turned a couple of bogeys into triple bogeys by blading a chip shot or chili dipping a pitch shot or misjudging the speed of the greens.

2010 Masters - One for the Ages

2010-04-12T17:10:00.005-07:00

Wow! What a great Masters! There were so many great story lines this year. Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus with the ceremonial first drives. Tom Watson near the top of the leaderboard after round 1. Fred Couples, at 50 years old, trying to become the oldest Masters champion and hitting it longer than the young guns. Phil Mickelson playing his heart out for his wife who was too weak from her breast cancer treatment to attend the event until Sunday afternoon. Lee Westwood trying to win his first major after falling out of the top 100 golfers in the world a few years ago. Anthony Kim, the possible future of American golf. And, of course, Tiger Woods returning to competitive golf after an eventful 5 month hiatus.

And what spectacular golf! Phil Mickelson's stretch of eagle, eagle, birdie (missing an eagle by inches) on holes 13, 14 and 15 on Saturday was unbelievable. His bogey-free 67 on Sunday splitting the trees from the pine needles on No. 14, carrying Ray's Creek and stopping 5 feet from the flagstick ranks up there with some of the great shots in Master's lore. Lee Westwood's steady nerves and clutch shot-making and putting in the midst of Mickelson's barrage on Saturday and Sunday showed everyone that it is only a matter of time until he wins his first major. And Tiger Woods shooting 11 under par at the Masters without playing competitive golf for 5 months.

Tiger's round on Sunday was both bizarre and beautiful, although not at the same time. Tiger started out +3 through five holes and did not hit one good shot. He then holes a shot from the fairway on No. 7 for an eagle and birdies No. 8 and No. 9 to finish the front 9 at -1. On the back nine, Tiger either cannot find the fairway with his driver or pops up his drive like a mid-iron, and when he hits a great iron into No. 14 he misses the birdie putt and then misses the par putt! Somehow, Tiger grinds and makes some spectacular shots and finishes the back nine at -2 for a 69 (some of my "World Of" friends thought that the 69 score was apropos for Tiger). If Tiger plays the first five holes at even par and makes the short birdie putt on No. 14, Phil needs to make the birdie on No. 18 to force a playoff.

Now that the Masters is over, I need to get back to the important business of breaking 85 and reducing my handicap to single digits.

Pay Your Money, Take Your Chances

2010-04-05T17:21:00.004-07:00

Chad Feldheimer turned me on to Stonecreek Golf Club. The course is very conveniently located in the heart of Phoenix at 48th Street and Cactus Road. The course is very well maintained and the fairways and rough areas were both overseeded and very lush. The golf course gets a lot of play so the greens are a little beat up, but pretty good for a public course. Stonecreek wash runs throughout the course and creates a lot of problems, especially for those golfers that slice the ball off of the tee. From the Championship tees the course is 6,871 yards with a course rating of 72.8 and a slope rating of 131.

Once again I could not find anyone to play golf with me (this is becoming a trend!). So I decided to sign up as a single and take my chances with the pairings. I signed up for a 3 p.m. tee time. Playing with people that you do not know can be a little intimidating if you are an average golfer. You do not want to make a fool of yourself on the first tee. In this case, that was not a problem. I played with a father and his two sons. One son, Patrick, was 15 and the other son, Christian, was 13. They were good folks but none of them had played golf more than a couple of times. I played from the Championship tees, as did the father and older son. There were some very big swings and a couple of whiffs on the first tee before we got moving (and that was just me!). I walked and carried my bag. It was excruciatingly slow playing with this group but the groups ahead of us were not going any faster so somehow we were able to stay on pace. I was hitting the ball pretty well, but it was hard concentrating because of the time in between strokes (now I know how Chad feels playing with me!). After a while I just stopped keeping score and started hitting extra balls when time permitted (pretty much all of the time).

We made the turn at about 5 p.m. and I knew that there was no way we would finish 18 holes. Since there was no one teeing off on the No. 1 hole at this time, I decided to grab a cart and play the front 9 again. I bid farewell to my threesome and sped off. I hit the ball really well playing by myself and sped around the course in 1 hour and 10 minutes. I did not run into anyone until the 8th hole when I caught the single that started about 30 minutes before me. I puttered around on the 7th hole to let him finish the hole and then played in. I hit two balls off of most of the tees so I did not keep score, but I was making pars or bogeys with both balls (I did hit one ball into the Stonecreek wash). On the 9th hole, which is a 410 yard par-4, I hit my drive to 113 yards based on the GPS in the cart (the hole was actually playing 390 yards) and then stiffed my wedge to "gimme" range for a birdie.

"Hiding in the Weeds" Rule

2010-03-31T17:04:00.003-07:00

The twosome that joined Digger and me at Moon Valley Country Club this weekend were an interesting pair. They had analyzed their rounds of golf (and read an article) and their hypothesis was that if you hit eight greens in regulation and have 32 or less putts you are very likely to break 80. This does not seem like rocket science. Assuming a normal par-72 course with 4 par-3s, 4 par-5s and 10 par-4s and assuming 15 putts on the eight holes reached in regulation, you would be 1 under par on those eight holes so you could be 8 over par on the remaining 10 holes with only 17 putts (3 one-putt holes) and still shoot a 79! One hole (no pun intended) in the hypothesis is that as you hit more greens in regulation, rather than chipping, pitching or using the Texas wedge from off the putting surface, the average distance of your first putt will likely be substantially longer and 32 putts may be overly optimistic.

Our twosome also knew the intricacies of the Rules of Golf. There were three interesting and good-natured Rules discussions (we just talked about the Rule rather than implementing it). First, I hit my tee shot on a par-3 hole into the back bunker and skulled my shot into the water. Disgustedly, I dropped my ball where it went into the water hazard marked with yellow stakes, chipped up and made the putt for a double bogey 5. One of the twosome pointed out that my nearest point of relief was actually on the far side of the water hazard (no closer to the hole) with the hazard between the ball and the green. The other fellow offered that I could play the shot out of the greenside bunker again (I thanked both of them and took my double bogey). This is Rule 26 of the Rules of Golf.

Second, one member of the twosome chipped onto the green before his playing partner, who was farther from the hole but on the green, putted his ball up to the hole. The discussion ensued over the penalty for playing out of turn and they agreed there was no penalty assessed but the person that hit out of turn could be required to re-hit his shot without a penalty. A similar discussion occurred on the tee box when one player was about to tee off before his playing partner who birdied the prior hole. We all agreed that this was a breach of golf etiquette and gave the birdie player the honors. This is Rule 10 of the Rules of Golf. I proffered that if you know your partner is playing out of turn and you "hide in the weeds" to see if he hits a good shot before requiring him to re-hit the shot you have "unclean hands" and cannot take advantage of this Rule. Although there is nothing in the Rule to support this position, I am a lawyer and I can argue any position with a straight face. I call this the "Hiding in the Weeds" Rule.

The third Rules violation occurred when one player marked his playing partner's ball on the putting surface. According to the Rules expert, unless a golfer authorizes you to mark his ball it is an infraction to do so. There was much discussion about golfers marking their playing partner's ball in PGA tournaments (which I have never seen) and we all agreed that in order to address this Rule the players must agree on the first tee that the other player may mark your ball on the green on any hole, which seemed to resolve the matter between the Rules aficionados. This is Rule 20 of the Rules of Golf.

Michelle Wie could take a lesson on the Rules of Golf from our playing partners. This weekend at the Kia Classic, Michelle was playing a ball partially immersed in water and she had one foot in water and one foot on the ground. After hitting the ball she grounded her club in the hazard. This is a 2-shot penalty in stroke play (or loss of hole in match play) unless you ground the club to help you keep your balance. Michelle said that she in fact grounded the club so that she would not lose her balance and that the Rules official could not know what she was thinking or feeling, although there is no indication that she is falling in the video. I think that she simply had a brain freeze and compounded that with a white lie. The penalty cost her over $90,000 in prize money, but more importantly some respect among her fellow golfers.

My Kingdom for Two Good Nines!

2010-03-29T17:06:00.007-07:00

I played golf with my friend and client Digger this weekend at his club, Moon Valley Country Club. As you may recall, Digger used to take some of the biggest tiger pelts you have ever seen as divots. I think that the club president and the course superintendent must have had a "come to Jesus" meeting with Digger because he is now picking the ball pretty clean and not taking much of a divot at all. I cannot, however, say it is improving his game.

I tried to get Digger to walk, but he was having none of that. He said something about going to the gym for an hour that morning and that was all of the exercise he needed. We played with another club member and his guest. The member was about 70 years old and walked with a pull cart, which made me feel ridiculous riding (although he seemed to be in the motorized cart pulling the pull cart along side most of the time) We teed off at about 2:30 and the weather was perfect. Digger was shirking his child care duties and told me that he was only able to sneak away for nine holes. I played really poorly on the front 9. For some reason I was hitting a lot of shots very thin and even topped a couple of 1-hybrids and skulled two L-wedges. On the 7th hole, Digger's wife called and told him to get home. As the man of the family, Digger played out the last two holes before running home with his tail between his legs.

I decided to walk the back nine with my two golfing partners carrying my bag on my shoulder like a real golfer. Walking in solitude helps you focus and "be the ball". I started flushing the ball on the back nine. I parred the 10th, 11th and 12th holes before my first bogey. We were playing really slow and I was worried that we would not finish before dark. I parred 2 of the last 5 holes and bogeyed the other 3 holes with one ball in the water. In the dusk, I hit my drive on the 18th hole into the water and my second shot into the greenside bunker and then I almost holed out from the bunker but left the ball one or two turns from the bottom of the cup. I shot a 40 on the back 9 to go with my ugly 47 on the front nine for an 87 total. One of these days I am going to put together a good front 9 with a good back 9!

The last few times that I played golf I used my GolfLogix application on my Blackberry Storm. I now have an extended battery and the application works really well. From the tee box or fairway on the par-5 holes, it gives me the distance to each hazard and to clear the hazard and the distance to the 150 and 100 yard lay-ups. From the tee on the par-3 holes and from the fairway it gives you the distance to the front, middle and back of the green (the scopes give you the actual distance to the flagstick). You can keep your score, tee shots in the fairway and left and right, greens in regulation, putts and other sundry information, and if you are really sophisticated (which I am not) you can measure the distance of each shot and the club used. After the round you can analyze all aspects of your game to see what areas require the most work. For $40 per year (plus the cost of the extended battery) I recommend this application over the $350 scopes or GPS devices.

Phoenix Suns Charities Golf Tournament

2010-03-25T18:13:00.007-07:00

Wednesday was client development day on the golf course. It was the annual Phoenix Suns Scramble Golf Tournament on the Raptor course at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale. I invited the general counsel and the chief financial officer of the Phoenix Suns to play in the foursome. Chad Feldheimer was supposed to be our fourth player and ringer, but he actually had a deal to close and could not play. Slim Whiskey filled in admirably.

This is one of the best charity golf events in the Valley. Grayhawk is a great golf venue. The Raptor course was designed by Tom Fazio and is beautiful but also very playable. The door prizes are first rate. This year everyone in the foursome received an Antigua golf shirt with an understated Suns logo, a gift certificate for a Ping putter that can be fitted at the Ping headquarters, a Ping golf towel and a Ping golf glove (I love Ping!). Best of all, the door prizes are handed out by the Suns dancers as you drive up and leave your golf bag at the bag drop area. On the course, there are no mulligans and you have to putt out on every hole. Each foursome has its own independent scorekeeper, who is a senior citizen from a Sun City charitable organization. Not surprisingly, the gross scores are a little higher in this event than at some of the other charity scramble events! The event raises about $100,000 for Phoenix Suns Charities.

I may be a little bit biased, but the Phoenix Suns organization is the best organization in professional sports. It is a travesty that Jerry Colangelo did not win an NBA championship when he was the managing partner of the team. The Suns have put a winning and exciting team on the court for the last 25 years. The players are generally good citizens and involved in the community. I think that the Suns have more former Suns players involved in the organization than any other team in professional sports, including Neal Walk, Alvin Adams, Cedric Ceballos, Tom Chambers, Eddie Johnson, Steve Kerr and Dan Majerle. Also, the business people in the Suns organization are first rate. The Suns have been on the cutting edge of changes in the NBA from signing international players in the 1980s to having training camp in Europe to using social media.

Our foursome played pretty well. We shot a 66 gross and a 60 net and came in 7th place among about 30 teams. Our A player, the Suns chief financial officer, played really well when we needed him and seemed to hit all of his bad shots when we had a ball in the middle of the fairway or within 10-15 of the flagstick on the green. Slim Whiskey was our lead-off hitter and for most of the round he hit his drive right down the middle and took the pressure off of the rest of us. I got my required 3 drives in by the 8th hole but we were sweating the 3 drives for the Suns general counsel until he got on a roll on the back nine and started hitting the ball pretty well. I hit number 3 for the team and drove the ball well (with a few exceptions) and I hit some really good 1-hybrid shots from 210 to 220 yards on the par-5s and one of the par-3s. I started off making all of the mid-range 5 to 12 foot putts for the team but I quickly cooled down and did not make any putts for the team after about the 6th hole. We really only left one shot on the course. After our A player hit a great chip shot to about 3 feet from the hole on a par-4 hole, he stepped up and missed the gimme. Then each of us proceeded to step up confidently only to miss the gimme putt for a bogey. That was ugly!

As the 7th place team, we had the seventh prize choice. Prizes are awarded for the top 10 teams. The team members go up to the podium and get their picture taken with the Suns players and coaches that attend the event. The first prize winners chose a road trip on the Suns charter plane, the second prize winners chose 4 sets of Ping irons and the third prize winners chose 4 Suns season tickets. By the time we chose our prize, the remaining prizes were 4-foursomes at Grayhawk, 4 Maui Jim polarized sunglasses, 4 Ping golf carry bags and 4 Ping wedges. Based on the vote of my team, I chose the Maui Jim sunglasses. Behind me on the podium, Leandro Barbosa thought the sunglasses were cool, but Earl Clark (a rookie) was dissing me for not taking the Grayhawk foursomes. Rooks, what do they know!

Old Faithful - Southern Dunes

2010-03-23T17:49:00.006-07:00

March is high season for golf in Arizona. The weather is perfect and the prices used to be astronomical! With the recession and the advent of golf sites like golfnow.com and golfhub.com, the golf courses are scrambling for players and the green fees are pretty reasonable. It still costs well over $150 to play The Stadium Course at the TPC of Scottsdale, where the Waste Management Phoenix Open is played, or Superstition Mountain Golf Club, where the skins game was played for a few years, but there are a lot of great courses in the Phoenix metropolitan area that you can play for $75 or less in high season through internet specials.

Chad Feldheimer and I scoured the internet specials, but we ultimately decided to fall back to one of our favorite courses, Southern Dunes Golf Club. Southern Dunes is arguably in the Phoenix metropolitan area, but just slightly. It is a 45-minute drive from mid-town Phoenix, but it is well worth it! The course is a Scottish links design and in your mind's eye you can almost see the sheep grazing in the fairways keeping the grass closely cropped. Southern Dunes did not overseed the fairways this winter and the grass is just starting to green up and grow with all of the rain we have had this winter, but the lies are still very tight. Almost every hole on the course is interesting and challenging and the pin placements this weekend were more difficult than usual.

We play from the gold tees, which are 6,889 yards. The black tees are 7,307 yards and the tips are 7,517 yards! From the gold tees, the course rating is 72.6 and the slope rating is 131. From the tips, the course rating is 76.2 and the slope rating is 141. SO bought me a set of Ping G-10 irons for my birthday and this was my first chance to take them for a test drive. We started on hole no. 10 and I went par, par, bogey, par on the first 4 holes. I double-bogeyed the par-5 16th hole and the par-4 18th hole and shot a 44 on the back 9. From the gold tees there are 3 par-4s over 435 yards and the par-5s are both about 550 yards so I was hitting a lot of 1, 3 and 4-hybrids from the fairways (or rough), rather than my new Ping G-10 irons.

I started off the back 9 with a double-bogey on hole no. 1 and I was pushing the ball to the right. Chad Feldheimer said that my alignment was off (those were not exactly his words, but this is a PG blog!). Usually Chad waits until my drive on the last hole before providing any constructive advice so I decided to take this advice to heart. I focused on my alignment and opened up my front foot and I started hitting the ball where I was actually aiming! I went bogey, par, par, par, bogey, par on the next 6 holes. I was thinking about shooting an 85 at Southern Dunes. That was my big mistake, thinking! I went triple-bogey, double-bogey on the last two holes to finish with a 45 on the front 9 and an 89 for the round. Normally, I would be very happy with an 89, but the proverbial "woulda, coulda, shoulda" bit me on the butt.

Playing with Chad Feldheimer is very instructive for me. He played as poorly as I have seen him play and he shot an 80. He never double-bogeys a hole and he scrambles really well. On a par-4 hole, he pulled his drive into the gorse. He blasted out of the gorse and did not think he would be able to move the ball more than 20-30 yards, but the ball came flying out and landed in trouble across the fairway. He then hit a great shot out of the thick rough to the fringe of the green and two-putted for a bogey. On another hole he hit his approach shot into a greenside bunker and then hit a good blast shot out of the bunker but the ball trickled off of the green into the collection area. He chipped to about 5 feet and made the putt for a bogey. He could have made double-bogey or worse on either of those holes and ruined his round, but he held it together for no worse than a bogey.

March Madness - Black Thursday

2010-03-19T16:22:00.005-07:00

The entire college basketball season is simply a prelude to March Madness! Unlike college football, college basketball crowns a true national champion through its 65-team single-elimination NCAA college basketball tournament. The excitement starts to build with the conference tournaments and then the Selection Sunday announcement of the 65 teams in the tournament field, the brackets and the seeding within the brackets, and of course the perennial discussions of the bubble teams (and this year the discussion of increasing the size of the tournament to 96 teams!).

My two alma maters, Georgetown and Vanderbilt, were both shoo-ins for the tournament so there was no holding your breath to see if they would make the field. Georgetown was the no. 3 seed in the Midwest bracket, and Vanderbilt was the no. 4 seed in the West bracket. It looked like Georgetown had a good chance to reach the Elite Eight before running into Kansas, the no. 1 seed in the tournament, and Vandy would play Syracuse, the no. 1 seed in its bracket, in the Sweet 16. Both played there opening round games on Thursday against two mid-major teams.

First, Vandy ran into the juggernaut called the Murray State Racers. The Racers have a record of 31 wins and 4 losses, playing in the mid-major Ohio Valley Conference. The Racers are also riding a streak of 23 consecutive winning seasons. The mid-majors always seem to play well in the NCAA Tournament. The powerhouse conferences may not take them as seriously as they should and the mid-majors have a chip on their shoulders. This lethal combination oftentimes leads to an early round upset. In this case, the Racers beat the Commodores 66 - 65 on a buzzer beater by Danero Thomas. Buzzer beaters are so deflating because one moment you think you are going to survive to play the next round and the next moment your season and maybe your college career is over.

Then Georgetown played Ohio University from the mid-major Mid-American Conference (not THE Ohio State University!). Ohio University had a record of 21 wins and 14 losses and only got a ticket to March Madness by winning the conference tournament, but it was riding a 6-game winning streak. Ohio University had season losses to the likes of Marshall, Austin Peay and Akron twice! Georgetown started the season very strong and tapered off toward the end of the season. Georgetown had signature wins against Duke, Syracuse and Villanova, two of the no. 1 seeds and a no. 2 seed in the tournament. The Hoyas looked lackadaisical and mechanical from the start of the game and never found its rhythm. Georgetown trailed from the outset, were losing 48-36 at halftime, and lost by 14 points, 97 to 83. The Hoyas never got closer than 9 points and they simply whimpered home. In this case, the players had 40 minutes to realize that this was the end of their season and it did not look like they could do a thing about it!

If Black Thursday was not bad enough, how is this for piling on ... this is the lead sentence from an internet article about the number of people watching live streaming video of Thursday's first round of March Madness: "Initial stats are in for NCAA March Madness on Demand and it looks like CBSSports.com will be able to declare victory again (unlike fans of Georgetown or Vanderbilt)." Ouch, that is just beating a guy when he is down!

The Groove Controversy - Case Closed

2010-03-10T17:41:00.007-07:00

On February 4, I posted "I Love my Ping Eye 2 Clubs", which was read and quoted world-wide. As I am sure you recall (and if not you can link above), in that post I implored John Solheim to magnanimously agree to waive the "forever legal" provisions of the settlement agreement for professional tournaments, but continue to apply the original settlement agreement to those amateurs that continue to use their beloved Ping Eye 2 clubs. John must be reading my blog!

On March 8, 2010, Ping Chairman and CEO John Solheim announced that Ping will waive its rights that prevent the PGA Tour from prohibiting the use of pre-April 1990 Ping Eye 2 irons and wedges that do not meet the 2010 Condition of Competition from being played at PGA Tour events, including the Champions Tour and Nationwide Tour, effective March 29, 2010. The PGA Tour will then adopt a Condition of the Competition that does not provide an exception for the pre-April 1990 Ping Eye 2 irons. However, the agreement also ensures that amateurs will continue to be able to play their pre-April 1990 Ping Eye 2 irons at all amateur events played under the USGA Rules of Golf.

Although Solheim could not resist the "I told you so" comment, PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem expressed his undying gratitude to Ping and there were handshakes all around. You never know what deals were made behind closed doors, but it is clear that Solheim wanted more input into future equipment rulemaking. Simultaneously with this settlement, the USGA announced that it intends to hold a forum with all stakeholders to review its rulemaking process. Both Finchem and Solheim stated in their press conference that they will actively participate in the process.