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!
Showing posts with label Phoenix Suns Charities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Phoenix Suns Charities. Show all posts
Monday, July 26, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Phoenix Suns Charities Golf Tournament
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!
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!
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