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.
Showing posts with label Ping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ping. Show all posts
Sunday, May 16, 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!
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
The Groove Controversy - Case Closed
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Golf and eBay
Thank you to all of my followers for the birthday wishes today. My Facebook wall was covered with well-wishes. Whenever I told my peers that my wall was covered with birthday wishes, they looked at me with a perplexed look and asked whether taping notes or cards to the office walls was a violation of firm policy!
My SO bought me a set of Ping G-10 irons with graphite shafts (5-iron through pitching wedge and U (50degree) wedge) for my birthday. The golf clubs are fantastic. The graphite shafts are much lighter than steel shafts so my swing speed and ball speed should increase and I should be able to hit the ball a little further. Also, a graphite shaft club will not vibrate as much as a steel shaft club on a mis-hit (most of my shots), which should help my elbow pain (it is hell getting old!). Finally, the G-10 clubface has a larger sweet spot than the G-2 clubface so that should help me as well.
SO bought the golf clubs on eBay. First of all, you need to understand that SO is extremely competitive and does not like to lose, whether it is in court, playing backgammon and, now I have learned, buying items on eBay. The golf clubs were exactly as advertised. SO paid through PayPal and the clubs were shipped immediately and were exactly as advertised in excellent condition. When bidding, you need to read the eBay information carefully to confirm whether shipping is or is not included, the quality of the item and the seller rating.
SO spent last Saturday night fixated on the eBay auction site. There were three sets of G-10 irons for sale. We agreed on a maximum bid that was $300 below retail and you do not pay sales tax (I am not sure that SO ultimately held to our maximum bid amount). The bidding is timed and you can input a maximum bid amount and eBay will automatically increase your bid to one dollar higher than the highest bid until you reach your maximum bid or you can bid manually, or a combination. There is a lot of bidding strategy that you need to learn. Of course, there is little action until the last 10 minutes of the auction and then you need to be on your toes and try to make your final bid with less than 10 seconds remaining. We did not win the first auction, but we got an idea of the ballpark price for the G-10 clubs so we were ready for the next auction. The next set of clubs included a 3-iron and a 4-iron that I did not need because I use a 3-hybrid and a 4-hybrid. After we lost that auction, you could see that SO was getting frustrated and was intent on "winning" the next auction no matter the cost. The third auction did not include the 3-iron and 4-iron and the buyer paid shipping so we agreed on a further reduced maximum bid amount. SO watched the auction site like a hawk for the next 17 hours and surprise, she was the winner!
I have not seen SO since a week ago Sunday night, but I did get a call from a check-cashing store last night asking for a reference for SO to borrow money to purchase more items on eBay and I have 25 e-mails that say "I won again!".
My SO bought me a set of Ping G-10 irons with graphite shafts (5-iron through pitching wedge and U (50degree) wedge) for my birthday. The golf clubs are fantastic. The graphite shafts are much lighter than steel shafts so my swing speed and ball speed should increase and I should be able to hit the ball a little further. Also, a graphite shaft club will not vibrate as much as a steel shaft club on a mis-hit (most of my shots), which should help my elbow pain (it is hell getting old!). Finally, the G-10 clubface has a larger sweet spot than the G-2 clubface so that should help me as well.
SO bought the golf clubs on eBay. First of all, you need to understand that SO is extremely competitive and does not like to lose, whether it is in court, playing backgammon and, now I have learned, buying items on eBay. The golf clubs were exactly as advertised. SO paid through PayPal and the clubs were shipped immediately and were exactly as advertised in excellent condition. When bidding, you need to read the eBay information carefully to confirm whether shipping is or is not included, the quality of the item and the seller rating.
SO spent last Saturday night fixated on the eBay auction site. There were three sets of G-10 irons for sale. We agreed on a maximum bid that was $300 below retail and you do not pay sales tax (I am not sure that SO ultimately held to our maximum bid amount). The bidding is timed and you can input a maximum bid amount and eBay will automatically increase your bid to one dollar higher than the highest bid until you reach your maximum bid or you can bid manually, or a combination. There is a lot of bidding strategy that you need to learn. Of course, there is little action until the last 10 minutes of the auction and then you need to be on your toes and try to make your final bid with less than 10 seconds remaining. We did not win the first auction, but we got an idea of the ballpark price for the G-10 clubs so we were ready for the next auction. The next set of clubs included a 3-iron and a 4-iron that I did not need because I use a 3-hybrid and a 4-hybrid. After we lost that auction, you could see that SO was getting frustrated and was intent on "winning" the next auction no matter the cost. The third auction did not include the 3-iron and 4-iron and the buyer paid shipping so we agreed on a further reduced maximum bid amount. SO watched the auction site like a hawk for the next 17 hours and surprise, she was the winner!
I have not seen SO since a week ago Sunday night, but I did get a call from a check-cashing store last night asking for a reference for SO to borrow money to purchase more items on eBay and I have 25 e-mails that say "I won again!".
Thursday, February 4, 2010
I Love My Ping Eye 2 Clubs
I do not want to get embroiled in the new groove rule and risk a lawsuit from Phil Mickelson, but I am interested in the legal twist. Ping (or Karsten Manufacturing Corporation as it is legally known) is an icon in Arizona. According to legend, Karsten Solheim started Ping out of his garage and first invented the Anser putter and then the cavity-backed, perimeter weighted golf club, which was a great boon to the amateur golfer. Unlike the "blade" golf club used by professional golfers at the time, the cavity-backed, perimeter-weighted club was much more forgiving of "off center" shots and "thin" shots because more weight was at the base and perimeter of the club. Ping irons also used square grooves, rather than the standard v-shaped grooves (or more precisely, wider grooves and less distance between grooves), which was meaningless for the weekend golfer, but made a huge difference for the PGA Tour players because the width and location of the square grooves allowed the player to impart significantly more spin on the golf ball, especially from the rough areas. In my humble opinion, the Ping Eye 2 golf club is the greatest golf club ever made. I still have my original pre-1990 Ping Eye 2 golf clubs, which I gave to SO and she somehow lost my 7-iron!
In the late 1980s Mark Calcavecchia, a Phoenix resident, was one of the first PGA professionals to endorse and use Ping irons. Calcavecchia finished in the top 10 money winners for four consecutive years from 1987 through 1990. But even more impressive, Calcavecchia could spin his ball like no one's business, whether from the fairway or the rough. Calcavecchia was not the straightest driver on the Tour, but it did not matter in most PGA Tour events because he was still able to spin the ball from the rough. In 1987, Mark Calcavecchia won the Honda Classic hitting an 8-iron shot from the rough that miraculously stopped on the green. The USGA and PGA Tour were apoplectic and tried to outlaw the Ping Eye 2 clubs.
In August 1987 Ping filed a lawsuit against the USGA and Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews in Phoenix. Ping later filed a $100 million antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour. Ping was a relatively small Arizona company represented by a local Arizona law firm, O'Connor Cavanagh, against the giant USGA and PGA. The USGA suit was settled 1n 1990 about a week before the trial was set to start. As part of the settlement, the USGA agreed to drop its ban on the use of Ping Eye 2 irons and Ping agreed to stop producing the Ping Eye 2 iron with the "non-conforming" grooves and begin producing a club with conforming grooves and (this is where the "aw shucks" small-town lawyer snookered the big city lawyer) any Ping Eye 2 iron produced before April 1, 1990 was grandfathered and would forever be deemed legal under the Rules of Golf.
Fast-forward to 2010 and the "New Groove Rule". Phil Mickelson creates an uproar on the PGA Tour when he decides to pull out his old Ping Eye 2 wedges from his Arizona State University days and the "forever be deemed legal under the Rules of Golf" settlement language comes back to bite the USGA and PGA Tour on the butt. In the original lawsuit Ping claimed that it was trying to protect all of the golfers that purchased Ping Eye 2 golf clubs believing that they were conforming. I am hopeful that John Solheim, the President of Ping and the son of Karsten Solheim, will magnanimously agree to waive the "forever legal" provisions of the settlement agreement for professional tournaments, but that the original settlement agreement will still apply to those amateurs that continue to use their beloved Ping Eye 2 clubs.
In the late 1980s Mark Calcavecchia, a Phoenix resident, was one of the first PGA professionals to endorse and use Ping irons. Calcavecchia finished in the top 10 money winners for four consecutive years from 1987 through 1990. But even more impressive, Calcavecchia could spin his ball like no one's business, whether from the fairway or the rough. Calcavecchia was not the straightest driver on the Tour, but it did not matter in most PGA Tour events because he was still able to spin the ball from the rough. In 1987, Mark Calcavecchia won the Honda Classic hitting an 8-iron shot from the rough that miraculously stopped on the green. The USGA and PGA Tour were apoplectic and tried to outlaw the Ping Eye 2 clubs.
In August 1987 Ping filed a lawsuit against the USGA and Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews in Phoenix. Ping later filed a $100 million antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour. Ping was a relatively small Arizona company represented by a local Arizona law firm, O'Connor Cavanagh, against the giant USGA and PGA. The USGA suit was settled 1n 1990 about a week before the trial was set to start. As part of the settlement, the USGA agreed to drop its ban on the use of Ping Eye 2 irons and Ping agreed to stop producing the Ping Eye 2 iron with the "non-conforming" grooves and begin producing a club with conforming grooves and (this is where the "aw shucks" small-town lawyer snookered the big city lawyer) any Ping Eye 2 iron produced before April 1, 1990 was grandfathered and would forever be deemed legal under the Rules of Golf.
Fast-forward to 2010 and the "New Groove Rule". Phil Mickelson creates an uproar on the PGA Tour when he decides to pull out his old Ping Eye 2 wedges from his Arizona State University days and the "forever be deemed legal under the Rules of Golf" settlement language comes back to bite the USGA and PGA Tour on the butt. In the original lawsuit Ping claimed that it was trying to protect all of the golfers that purchased Ping Eye 2 golf clubs believing that they were conforming. I am hopeful that John Solheim, the President of Ping and the son of Karsten Solheim, will magnanimously agree to waive the "forever legal" provisions of the settlement agreement for professional tournaments, but that the original settlement agreement will still apply to those amateurs that continue to use their beloved Ping Eye 2 clubs.
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