The Golfer's Wife

Winter Golf

Okay, I know it's not quite Winter yet. But we are playing under Winter Rules.

We played golf on Black Friday. Temperature was 65 degrees, not a cloud in the sky. As you can see, SOME people felt it was warm enough to wear shorts. And in the background there you can see the reason for playing with orange balls. Which I forgot to bring. Lost two balls when they embedded themselves somewhere on the fairway and, in spite of following them all the way, we couldn't find them when we walked up. Ah well. That'll learn me. 

And for those of you who live someplace where you don't have to worry about orange balls and winter rules. It is treated as casual water. You move your ball to the closest piece of green grass that is no closer to the hole. Which in some cases actually means you have to back track 20 yards or more. Love that winter golf.

Sparse Coverage

So, as mentioned, things are slooow in the world of golf.

The weather here is somewhat iffy and the ground is somewhat hard/frozen, so golf here in The Household is sloooow also.

And it is the holiday season, to which usual craziness, this year we are adding a college graduation ( Golfing Offspring #1. Of whom we are extremely proud ).

All of which means posting will probably be sorta sparse for awhile. So I'm still around. Just more than a little busy.

Although we did make a tee time for Black Friday. Much rather knock an orange ball around the frozen tundra then brave the malls.

In any case. Here's hoping you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Back soon.

Lady Heathcoat-Amory

Today ( November 17th ) is the birthday of Joyce Wethered. You have probably never heard of Joyce Wethered, but in her prime she was considered the best golfer in the world by none other than Bobby Jones himself.

Joyce is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Here is their biography of her.

Notice that quote by Mr. Jones.

"I have not played golf with anyone, man or woman, amateur or professional, who made me feel so utterly outclassed,'' said Jones. "It was not so much the score she made as the way she made it. It was impossible to expect that Miss Wethered would ever miss a shot-and she never did."

Here is what Willie Wilson, a Scottish pro golfer and club maker said about Joyce:

"Good swing? My God, man, she could hit a ball 240 yards on the fly while standing barefoot on a cake of ice."

Here are pictures of Joyce swinging her driver.

Let me just point out here that Joyce hit not today’s modern ball, but a 1920’s pneumatic ball, and not with a nice graphite shafted club with a titanium head, but with a hickory shafted club with a wooden head. She hit that ball 240 yards with that equipment AND wearing a skirt that fell below her knees. Eat your heart out Tiger Woods. 

Here is a wonderful, and more complete, biography of Joyce from The Society of Hickory Golfers.

And here is her obituary. Lady Heathcoat-Amory lived to a ripe old age.

So the next time you are sitting around with a group of golfers, discussing who is/was the worlds best golfer, and the names Bobby, Jack and Tiger are being thrown around, you might speak up and say ‘For my money Joyce Wethered is the best there ever was’.

Weekend Update

As mentioned previously things are slooooow in the world of professional golf right now. But a few things worth noting did happen this weekend.

First off, huge congratulations to Michelle Wie on her first LPGA Tour win. She won the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Guadalajara Mexico. Hopefully this is the first of many. And as an aside can I just say ‘very nice’ to Lorena Ochoa on her choice for the trophy? Its not often you actually notice the trophy. It’s usually something tasteful, but bland, in silver or crystal. But Lorena chose something different enough that I actually noticed it. And I have to say I think it’s quite striking.

Next, Tiger won the Australian Masters down under. No big surprise there I know. But still worth noting. Great golf is still being played in some parts of the world.

And now a somewhat sad note. David Duval missed the cut at The Children’s Miracle Network Classic at Disney this weekend. The missed cut means he doesn’t automatically get his tour card for next year and has to go through qualifying school. He has paid his entry fee to Q School, but when asked about it said ‘Don’t expect to see me there’. He could show up anyway. Or he could play next year on sponsor’s exemptions. But the general feeling here at The Household is that he will hang up the putter for good. David has always been a particular favorite here at The Household, so if he is done we will miss him. David lives out here in The Wild West, and seems very happy just being a dad, and not spending most of the year away from home. So we can hardly blame him if he doesn’t think it’s worth it.

And last, linked to without comment, the story of Doug Barron. No opinion one way or the other on this one at the moment. However, I imagine there will be more such stories over the next few years, so just thought it was worth pointing out. 

Littering

Alright, I’m willing to concede that this may, in fact, be an issue. And if it is I admit that I have certainly contributed more than my fair share of little white round spheres to the problem. But in my defense let me just say, it’s not like I wanted to. I didn’t do it on purpose. I would be perfectly happy to still be playing with the first ball I ever teed up. I really don’t see how it’s my fault that course designers put ponds and creeks and nasty rough hazards in very inconvenient places on golf courses. I have tried, really I have, but as of yet I haven’t managed to find a brand of ball that isn’t attracted like a magnet to the most inaccessible places on a golf course when hit by one of my clubs. If they don’t want me to continue to lose balls and contribute to this problem, the solution is easy enough. Nice wide fairways, with no hazards except for the occasional sand trap.

Also, although I have ‘littered’ parts of Scotland, and indeed other parts of the world, I would like point out that, while I have been to Loch Ness, none of the balls in there are mine.

Fall in the Wild West

Remember this?  That was 12 days ago. And actually that was just day one. It didn't quit snowing for another 36 hours, and left almost 2 feet of the white stuff. But the course opened on Thursday ( 6 days after the last flake fell ), and we played today. This is what it looked like today.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, things seem to be going 'swimmingly'. 

The Sorrows - Part V

Since things are a little slow in the world golf I thought was probably time to get back in touch with The Calthorpes. Remember them?  I know it’s been awhile. But they have been there, in suspended animation, waiting for me to run out of other things to blog about, so they could re-emerge and Jane could continue her tale of woe.

Thus far we have a landed English man (Jack Calthorpe) who gets wounded in a hunting accident and, at the suggestion of a friend, takes up golf as part of his rehabilitation. And of course he catches the fever and golf takes over his life, much to his wife’s ( Jane Calthorpe ) chagrin. We learn that the Calthorpes have a neighbor, Mrs. Marshall, who had designs on Jack, and indeed had thought they were engaged, when Jane came along and stole his heart. Jane believes Mrs. Marshall still has designs on Jack. Jack turns a large portion of his acreage into an 18 hole course, and conscripts various servants to play with, and serve as his caddy and greens keepers. He discovers his butler has a drinking problem and fires him, and manages to replace him with a caddy from Scotland, once again, much to Jane’s chagrin. Jane tries to convince Jack that the caddy ( Sandy ) is no butler and needs to be let go, but since he is a wonderful caddy and, as it turns out, a pretty good instructor, Jack will have none of it. Things come to a head when Jane throws a dinner party and Sandy is not paying attention and pulls out a bowl of dirty golf balls to serve as dessert, instead of the intended sliced pineapple. The next day Jane puts her foot down and says Sandy must go, and Jack says No and they proceed to have the worst argument of their marriage. At the end of which Jane ‘flounces’ ( her word, not mine ) out of the room and slams the door.

And so we pick up the story in the stormy aftermath of the fight:

Jane had flounced off to her boudoir. Which, as it turns out, is just a small room off the main drawing room. She slams the door between the rooms, and promptly bursts into tears. And then she starts thinking things over. Jack had pretty much done whatever she wanted for so long that she found this new side of him ‘disagreeable’. It was, she decides, his own fault that she was in charge. Someone had to be and he wouldn’t. And while she held ‘the reigns of authority…I flattered myself that I never pulled them unduly taut.’. But the more she thinks about it the more she thinks maybe she had taken advantage of the situation. In fact she decides that she secretly admired Jack when he had spoken to her in ‘that determined manner’.  If only he had been that way from the time they were married things would have been much better. At this point she says

  

( Well. Certainly not. Not at 26. Not at 36. Not even at 46. I can tell you this from personal experience. At this point I figure ones youth is not entirely gone even at the age of 86. In fact at that point parts of it may even be staging a come back. Anyway. Back to Jane. )

In any case she decides that perhaps she had been a bit domineering and that if Jack wanted to take over that was certainly his right, and perhaps she could be a better wife. So she makes up her mind that in the future Jack would have no cause to complain about her. Things had definitely changed in the relationship, but she would treat him ‘civilly if coldly’. Because after all most marriages have no love at all and she had had the good fortune to have love for 9 years, so she could hardly complain if things were now at the same state as everyone else.

( Once again, vast difference between 1896 sensibilities and today. And it seems to me she is slightly over reacting to the situation. But I imagine that is central to the rest of the story. So on we go. )

It is a dreary rainy day, so she decides to spend the rest of the day in the boudoir catching up on her correspondence. She has been at it for a few hours when she hears a loud crash in the drawing room. She rushes in and finds Jack standing in the middle of the room surrounded by overturned curio tables with all their contents lying broken on the floor. He is looking very penitent. She asks if he has taken leave of his senses. He apologizes profusely and blames it all on one Horace Hutchinson. As it turns out Horace Hutchinson has written an article in a ‘periodical’ on improving your putting. In said article he suggests finding a straight line on a carpet, or in a wood floor and practice swinging your putter along the line, to maintain a straight smooth stroke. Jack had searched all over the house and the only straight lines he could find were the ones in the drawing room carpet. So he had been swinging his putter. With predictable results.

Jack is very sorry and says he will give Jane carte blanche to replace all the items he broke. Jane tells him that’s no good because they had sentimental value, being given to her by family and friends. He asks Jane to forgive him but she tells him she has nothing to forgive. As he just reminded her it is his house, she just lives there. He can practice wherever he pleases. But if he doesn’t mind, could she please have her boudoir, as it’s really too small to swing a club in anyway? Jack says he is sorry about what he said, and he doesn’t really think she is a tyrant and he really couldn’t get on with out her. And there is a nice little scene where they agree they love each other and it’s really not nice when married people argue.

So. Crisis averted, at least for the moment.

The Calthorpes two children. An 8 year old daughter named Dorothy her younger brother Little Jack. Jack and Jane decide it’s time to hire a governess to teach Dorothy. Jane goes off to London to hire someone and ends up with what she considers a nice lively, if somewhat plain, young daughter of a country vicar, named Miss Lark. When she gets back Jack tells her that Mrs. Marshall came by several times to learn golf and has declared herself enamoured with the game. Jack found the whole thing to be a nuisance. He reminds Jane that he doesn’t really like Mrs. Marshall all that much and he was bored and really wished she would go away.

Two days after Jane returns, Miss Lark shows up. Things go fine for the first two weeks. Dorothy likes Miss Lark and she settles into the daily routine. Then Jack discovers that Miss Lark is the sister of the four Lark brothers, who are famous golfers. And that Miss Lark plays golf too. Miss Lark has been getting Dorothy familiar with the game of golf, and after finding out she is from the famous Lark family of golfers, he talks her into helping him with his approach shots. At first it is all business between the two of them, but Jack flirts a little, and eventually Miss Lark develops a crush on him. Jane isn’t too upset about this. Miss Lark is still doing her job as governess, and she thinks it’s only natural that a young girl out on her own for the first time would get a crush on the master of the house. But as things go on she starts to get a little worried. She doesn’t blame Miss Lark. She actually likes her very much. She thinks it is up to Jack to make it clear she is just infatuated and that he doesn’t return her affections. But Jack is too involved with the golf end of things to notice.

Then one day Dorothy spends the day with a friend, which leaves Miss Lark with free time. Jack talks her into going out to the course and helping him with his approach shots again. Jane watches them for awhile from a window while writing some letters. Eventually she sees them go over a slight mound and behind a hedge. And they don’t come out. After a little bit she decides to go look for them. She feels like a sneak, but tells herself she is doing it to save Miss Lark from embarrassing herself. When she gets to the hedge she hears Jack suggesting to Miss Lark that they should do something besides playing golf. Miss Lark protests, saying that she could never betray Jane like that, she has been so kind to her. Jack says IF Jane finds out, he will ‘square it with her’.  At which point Jane pushes through the hedge, surprising them. She tells Miss Lark to go back to the house. Miss Lark bursts into tears and says how sorry she is, and how she would never do anything to hurt Jane, and heads off. Jane is not really mad at Miss Lark, but she is furious with Jack.

Jack does not help himself by telling her things really aren’t as bad as they seem, if she would just look at it from a mans point of view, because men and woman are different.  ( Hoooo Boy. I’m thinking that doesn’t go over so hot, even in the 1890’s. )  Jane accuses him of breaking his marriage vows, and that she would appreciate it if he wouldn’t insult her with the whole ‘men are different’ line. Jack says he is very sorry and only cares for her and she is the only woman in the world he really loves. Jane says she has been a fool to trust him. At which point Jack once again doesn’t help himself by saying that, as a man, it’s very hard to be indifferent to a young girl who has a crush on you. Jane says he has sunk to a new low by blaming what happened on Miss Lark. Jane tells him that she no longer trusts him, and wonders how many other women have ‘lain in your arms and been kissed by your lips.’ She says they’ll have to continue to live together, for the children, but she doesn’t think she can love him any more. Jack tells her she is over reacting. That lots of women don’t mind if their husbands happen to give a pretty girl a kiss. ( Boy, he just keeps digging himself deeper, doesn’t he? ) Jane says she is not ‘lots of women’. Then she says she is going back to the house, which used to be her home. If Jack would rather she now moves out, she will find somewhere else to live. And she marches off, leaving Jack standing there.

Jane shuts herself in her bedroom. Jack tries to talk to her but she tells him the least he could do under the circumstances is quit bothering her. A little while later he comes back to the door and says he won’t trouble her any more, he is going to London and won’t come back until he hears from her. And he asks her not to be to hard on Miss Lark since it really was his fault. He tells her he loves her and hopes that some days she will let him hold her again. Then he walks off down the hall. Jane waits a bit and then opens the door to call him back, but then she sees him and Sandy heading off for the station-with the golf clubs. She reminds herself that Jack hates a scene and disharmony on the domestic front. All he is doing by going to London is replacing her with golf and avoiding unpleasantness at home. He isn’t going to avoid causing her trouble at all. So she watches him leave and ‘good riddance’. 

****

Goodness. All is certainly not well at the Calthorpes. And I don’t really think the present circumstances can be blamed entirely on golf. I mean, a young governess with a crush on you is a young governess with a crush on you, whether she plays golf or not. Golf just gives you a reason to kiss her behind the hedge, instead of behind a closed door. Will Jane ever call Jack home? What will become of Miss Lark?  And does Mrs. Marshall really like golf, or is she just looking for a way to get Jack behind a hedge? The answers to these questions and more, in the next installment of The Sorrows of A Golfers Wife.

Not A Golfer

The LPGA has picked their new commissioner. And they didn’t listen to Jigger. His name is Michael Whan, and he is a marketing guy. He is slightly more qualified than Carolyn Bivens, in that he actually plays golf, and has done so since he was a kid. He has also worked for TaylorMade and Wilson Sporting Goods. So he has a modicum of experience in the world of sports. Whether or not this will help him as commissioner remains to be seen. The first thing he did as commissioner was fly to a meeting of tournament sponsors and hand out his cell phone number and e-mail. Which impressed the sponsors, since one of the big complaints about Bivens was her total unresponsiveness to sponsors.

Here is Ron Sirak on the selection. And here is Jim McCabe from GolfWeek.

Right now it seems that everyone is cautiously optimistic. I dunno. I tend to agree with Jigger. And it’s not like they didn’t have some Golfers to choose from. But here’s hoping Jigger and I are wrong and he turns out to be the best thing to hit the LPGA since Annika.

A View From The Back Door

Yeah. So. There won't be any golf around here for awhile.

An App For That

We are what is referred to as ‘early adapters’ here at The Household. This means that when a new gadget comes out that in any way relates to something in our lives, we have to have it. So when the first rangefinders came out The Golfer was all over them. After a certain amount of research he settled on one, and used it quite happily for years.

In order to use this particular rangefinder a course must be ‘mapped’. This means that some person has walked the entire course, picked certain attributes of each hole as markers ( like maybe a particular sand trap, or a tree, or the edge of a water hazard etc. And of course each tee box and the front, center and back of the green.) and plugged in the coordinates of said markers. Then GPS is used to figure the yardage between all the markers, which can give you the yardage from various points on the fairway to the green. When you are playing you bring up the hole on the rangefinder and you can see the yardage from where you are to all of the markers. You don’t get any kind of picture of the hole. It’s just a round green circle representing the green, with all the markers between the tee and green labeled ( tree on left, hazard on right, second sand trap on right, etc. ). If you happen to want to hit the ball and land someplace not by a marker ( like maybe you want to lay up ) you have to estimate the yardage, based on the yardage to the closest marker.

Over the years a great many of the worlds courses have been mapped. If you happen to play a course that has not been mapped you are more then welcome to do the mapping yourself. Which can take 6-8 hours, since you have to walk the course and pick out markers and type in coordinates. Not something you will do for a course unless you will be playing it a lot. In order to get access to the course maps you pay a yearly subscription fee. One price will get you all the courses in your state. A slightly higher price will get you all the courses in the US. An even higher fee will get you courses all over the world. The only caveat being that, no matter which subscription you choose, you can only have 10 courses on the rangefinder at any one time.

In spite of the flat picture maps, and the being SOL if you happened to play a course that wasn’t mapped, overall The Golfer was very happy with his rangefinder. It was the best thing available. Then he got an iPhone. Since there is an app for everything on an iPhone, there are of course, several rangefinder apps. He bought one for $10. No yearly subscription. Just a one time charge of $10 ( The soundness of the business plan for this particular app is a matter of some speculation here at The Household. But for now it’s available, so The Golfer bought it. ). It operates on much the same principle as the rangefinder. People have mapped courses and you can download any map you want. There are a couple of key differences however. You can download as many maps as your iPhone can hold. And when you download a map what you actually get is Google Maps pictures of each hole on the course. Not only do you get the yardage, but you can see every sand trap, every hidden pot bunker, and how maybe it’s better to miss right because that way lies another fairway, but left is a large patch of nasty rough. And as for the yardage, you can get it from any point on the hole to any other point on the hole. So if you hit your tee shot, and then are wondering if perhaps your second shot should be a lay up, you can get the yardage from where you are to the green, where you are to where you would lay up, and the yardage from where your lay up shot will land ( you hope ) to the green, and make a decision as to whether to lay up, or to go for the green. Quite an improvement on the previous range finder.

The number of available course maps with this app is actually pretty tiny. But more are constantly being added, and adding a new course is easy. There is a nifty web interface. Basically you have it do a Google Maps search for the course, then click on the tee box and the green for hole, and Google maps uses it’s GPS to pull up all the images it takes to get a complete picture of the hole. Do that for every hole, and voila, mapped course from the comfort of your home. The Golfer went on an out of town golfing trip with the guys a couple weeks ago, and it took him just 10 minutes to map the course they were playing, from his hotel room.

The one downside to this rangefinder app is that, to fully utilize all it’s awsomeness, the iPhone has to use it’s GPS constantly, which runs down the battery. Totally drains it in a little over 2 hours. Which really only gets you through the first 9. The Golfer solved this little problem by purchasing an auxiliary battery pack for his iPhone. Which meant he also had to buy a bigger holster. One that was made to hold an iPhone with the auxiliary battery pack attached. The extra battery pack lasts through an entire round, so when he’s done he still has a fully charged phone. At $10 for the app, $80 for the battery and $30 for the new holster, The Golfer figures it’s a bargain. Even if this particular app eventually disappears, there are others, and new ones show up everyday. And if he does end up paying a subscription fee at some point ( because one of these app developers not only writes the app, but comes up with a viable long term business plan ), better a subscription for a Google Maps version of the course, with the ability to add new ones in minutes, than the flat, markers only, maps his old rangefinder provided, and no way to add a new course on the fly. 

It is the opinion of us cool headed business types here in The Household that the current rangefinders are not long for this world, at least in their current form. In order to survive they will need to, at the very least be able to provide yardage from any point on a hole to any other, and an easy way to add new courses. And if they do that they are basically the same as the iPhone apps. And since you already have the iPhone, why exactly would you buy the rangefinder?

Rules

The yearly women’s leave-the-husbands-and-kids-at-home-and-go-somewhere-fun-and-eat-and-drink-and-shop trip was this past week, so I was without a computer. And even if I had brought it along I certainly had better things to drin.. uh, do than pay attention to golf. So this morning I logged on for the first time in days to see what exciting things I had missed. And you know what? I hadn’t missed a darn thing. This is the slow season. Actually it’s referred to as the ‘silly season’.  Really just not that much going on. The majors are all ancient history, the FedEx Cup has come and gone. And the Presidents Cup ( or the Ryder Cup, depending ) is over. As is the Solheim Cup, in the years when it is played. There are still tournaments, on both tours. But the name players have all gone home for the winter. The people playing are the ones trying to earn enough to keep their tour card for next year.

So, since there is nothing worth mentioning going on with the tours, lets talk rules. Not golf rules, cc rules. As I mentioned awhile back, we belong to a country club. Country clubs have a LOT of rules. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. There aren’t many places where you take offspring these days that have a rigid set of rules, that are enforced. I don’t think it harms their psycies at all to have to actually dress appropriately and behave themselves. And they seem to have managed to adapt, as we haven’t been thrown out yet.

Anyway. CC rules come in sets. There are the pool rules, the Upper clubhouse rules, the Lower clubhouse rules, course rules, etc. Recently, in Golf Digest, Jerry Tarde commented on course rules.

Rule #1 is not an actual rule at our cc. As in it’s not actually printed in black and white in the membership book. It is generally seen as BAD FORM to throw a club, but it’s certainly done. As in the recent club-up-in-the-L********’s-tree incident. And I’m sure when they drag the ponds they find a large number of clubs among the rest of the muck they pull up. And you all know what happens to The Offspring if they throw a club. But while it certainly isn’t condoned, there is no actual rule against it.

Rule #2 is also not a rule at our cc. Drive through the parking lot on any sunny day and you will see people changing their shoes.

Rule #3 is an ABSOLUTE at our cc. Along with collared shirts which are TUCKED IN. The rule used to be no denim of ANY kind was allowed anywhere on club grounds. There was some mumbling and grumbling about this a few years ago so they took a survey on general attitudes towards denim, and the up shot of that was a rule change. Denim is allowed in the Lower clubhouse ONLY. Meaning in the grill, bar, and casual dining room. But while nice denim pants, skirts, dresses, shirts etc. may be allowed, washed out, ripped up jeans are not. And denim is still not allowed in the Upper clubhouse, and don’t even THINK about wearing it out on the course. Not even pants of the 5 pocket design that aren’t made out of denim are allowed. We may let you eat some lunch wearing a pair of Levi’s, but we’ll be damned if we’ll even let you on the practice green in them. Which is actually fine with me. As I said, it doesn’t hurt anyone to have a little enforced decorum in some part of their lives.

Rule #4 is not a rule at our cc. But normal rules of etiquette pretty much apply. When you enter the room, remove your hat. That said, walk into the bar/grill at any time on a Saturday afternoon and half the people will be wearing hats.

Rule #5 is also not a rule at our cc. But once again, normal politeness and golf etiquette applies. You don’t make noise when someone is about to strike the ball. A cell phone going off definitely qualifies as noise. So while most players have their cell phone on them, they are set to silent. Mr. Tarde argues that the younger generation thinks of the cell phone as an appendage, and that banning it risks alienating whole generations of golfers. Mr. Tarde should hang out at our course. He would see that even the ‘older’ generations will give up their cell phones only when you pry it from their cold dead hands. I don’t foresee a rule banning cell phones on the course anywhere in our future.

And about the swearing, also no rule against that. Thank goodness. Not that I ever….well, okay, yes I do. Not a lot. Really. But sometimes….when the 4th putt, that was only 6 inches, lips out….well. If there was a rule I’d be in big trouble.

Golf and the Olympics...again

We had a dusting of snow today here in The Wild West. And the high was somewhere around 30. The baseball powers that be decided that was reason enough to postpone the Rockies/Phillies game scheduled for tonight. So instead of sitting at the ballpark freezing my a** off, I am sitting at home watching the Avs play the Blackhawks.

As long as I am sitting here I figured I may as well weigh in on the recent IOC decision to include golf in the 1916 Olympics.

This is what I had to say about it last year, during the Summer Olympics in Bejing. At the end I said:

So the golf-in-the-Olympics discussion around here usually consists of:
   
‘Lets hope they never manage to add golf to the Olympics’.

‘Yeah’.


So much for that.
  
My opinion hasn’t changed any. I still think it’s a silly idea. I imagine that a lot of the pros will play in 2016, just to show support, and for the novelty. But after that? I doubt you will see the worlds top players in the Olympics.

The over all reaction of the golfing world has been luke warm. The players have dutifully said how wonderful it is, but they aren’t exactly brimming with enthusiasm. Although I will admit, you can’t expect them to be too excited about something that is 7 years away. Half of them may be at least semi-retired by then.

Regardless of the players reactions, the rest of us still think pretty much what we did before. See here and here.

The only person who seems to think it’s a good idea is Ron Sirak. And I have to say, for all the reasons I mentioned before, I think he is being very optimistic on how much being in the Olympics will contribute to the growth of golf. With 27 other sports being contested at the same time, most of which aren’t played regularly, on television, by professionals, how much time will people really spend watching the golf?

In any case, it’s 7 years away, and a lot can happen in 7 years.

Meanwhile there are baseball playoffs and hockey games.

The Presidents Cup

This week is The Presidents Cup. I could just link to my Ryder Cup post and say ‘read this and just substitute Presidents Cup everywhere it says Ryder Cup’. But that’s not quite right.  As mentioned back in that post, the Ryder Cup is a team competition between a team made up of players from the US and a team made up of players from Europe, which was started back in 1927. It has a long and storied history, and lots of Tradition. And if I’ve said it once I’ve said it a hundred times, and I’m sure I’ll say it again, Golf is nothing if not Tradition. And for decades this was fine, because 99.5% of professional golfers were either from the US or Europe. But golf was not immune from globalization. The game made inroads in other parts of the world, and people outside of the US and Europe became infected with the fever. Most notably people in South Africa and Australia. But if you look at the list of current PGA players you will see players from Japan, Korea, Argentina, Columbia, and Fiji, just to name a few. Which meant that every other year, while European and US players played the Ryder Cup, some of the best golfers in the world could only sit on the sidelines and watch.

In order to rectify this situation and, lets be honest here, in order to keep the TV revenue flowing in the off years when there wasn’t a Ryder Cup, in 1994 the PGA created The Presidents Cup. The format of which is the same as the Ryder Cup, but the two teams consist of the US and ‘the rest of the world except for Europe’.

The Presidents Cup is a good match play tournament, and it is great golf. But it’s not the Ryder Cup. To see how the golfing world feels about it all you have to do is look at the press coverage. Ryder Cup points are tabulated and re-tabulated and there is speculation for months before hand about the captain’s picks. And once the teams are known the possible match ups are discussed endlessly. There are months of articles leading up to it, and non-stop speculation as to the outcome of various matches. It is all the golfing world talks about for weeks leading up to the actual tournament.

For this years Presidents Cup the big stories are the fact that there was a fertilizer mishap on some of the greens at Harding Park ( the course where this Presidents Cup will be played ) and they got burned pretty bad, and would they be ready for play, and the fact that 2 weeks before the tournament the ‘rest of the world’ team captain Greg Norman announced that he and his wife of just 15 months, tennis star Chris Evert, were separated. Which was a bit of a shock since they had both left their previous spouses to marry each other. Even the staid world of golf has it’s little soap operas.

Anyway. Players do consider it an honor to be on the Presidents Cup team and, since the teams do consist of the worlds best players, it is, as I said, great golf. It’s main problem is that it just hasn’t been around long enough. In golf 15 years is not nearly long enough to have established Tradition. And without Tradition, it’s just another tournament. Give it another 50 years or so and it will have acquired enough Tradition that people will have totally forgotten it was originally created to grab TV revenue.

Meanwhile, here are the basic facts for this year, including team members, format, and TV times and stations. We will be watching it here in The Household. Well. Except for on Thursday and Saturday ( and hopefully on Sunday ) when it conflicts with Rockies playoff games. Playoffs over Presidents Cup any day.

Distractions

Believe it or not there are times when it’s not golf 24x7 around here. These past couple weeks it’s only been golf about 12x7. Lots of other things going on.

To start with there was the weather. We have absolutely beautiful falls out here in The Wild West, but every year, just as fall is starting, Mother Nature whaps us upside the head with a couple of days of cold wet weather, just to remind us what’s coming later. She did said whapping last week. Which was the signal to pick everything from the garden, clean up the flowerbeds, check the size and wearability of all coats/gloves/boots/ski-and-snowboard-gear and replace if needed, get out all the corduroy/jeans/long-sleeved-shirts/sweaters, and make sure every car has a scraper.

Then there are the Rockies ( the baseball team ). They were in a race for the NL wild card spot, which they finally managed to clinch today, but we were chewing fingernails for a week or so there. And there is even a chance ( somewhat slim since their remaining games are against the Dodgers  ) they might win their division. In any case there will be baseball around here well into October. Which means more nights at the ballpark instead of blogging.

And there are the actual Rockies. As in the mountains. The Aspen are turning, which requires the yearly trip to take in the green and gold hillsides ( notice please flatlanders…they are referred to as hillsides, not mountainsides. You ski down a mountainside, but you look at Aspen on hillsides. Don’t ask me why. That’s just the way things roll.).

There has been some golf. The cc had it’s yearly version of the Ryder Cup. The Golfer was the captain of Team USA this year. They were victorious over Team Europe. Which means he automatically qualifies for next years tournament, so he was happy.

Tonight the Avalanche start their season, which means we will now be adding hockey games to the mix. Tonight they are honoring Joe Sakic and retiring his number. Very bitter sweet. The Avs have never started a season without Super Joe. This is a ‘rebuilding’ year, so great things are not expected. But hopefully they can at least win this home opener for Joe.

The Presidents Cup is next week. And the weather is supposed to stay up in the 70’s. So I’m sure we will be back to golf around 20x7. At least until the first baseball playoff game.

I surf so you don't have to

Another linky post. Things found whilst wandering the web.

READ THIS. 

Seriously. I link to lots of things, and I would imagine that, in spite of the fact that if I link to it you KNOW it has to be good, you don't always click through. But I am telling you. Click. Even if you have never done it before, and you never plan on doing it again, click. 

You all know about my crush on Mr. Feherty. I also hold the man in extremely high esteem. His Troops First Foundation being one of several reasons. And for what he did here I will give Tiger a pass on a whole season of thrown clubs. And you know how I feel about throwing clubs. 

*****

In my continuing effort to keep you abreast of the next generation, I give you Charlie Reiter. Any kid who plays in plus-fours is destined to go far. 

*****

And last. The heck with the 'no two countries with McDonalds will ever go to war with each other' theory. What really matters is 'do they play golf'? Helping to solve the worlds geopolitical problems. Golf, is there anything it can't do? 

Checking in with the Pros

It’s been awhile since we’ve checked in with the goings on, on the pro tours. Here is an attempt to get you up to date, with lots of linky goodness( which means it’s a good work time waster post. Just sayin. )

Ladies first.

Since the Solheim Cup the women have had 4 tournaments.

1. The Safeway Classic. Which was won by M.J. Hur. I admit, until she won I had never heard of her either. If you are interested here is her bio.

2. The Canadian Open. Which was won by Suzann Petterson

3. P&G Beauty NW Arkansas Championship. That’s a mouthful hunh? This was won by Jiyai Shin. Ms. Shin is on track to win both Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year. The first time any one has done that since Nancy Lopez in 1978. Here is a very nice write up on her by Stina Stenberg at Golf Digest.

4. The Samsung World Championship. This is an invite only event, which only had 16 competitors this year. It was won by Na Yeon Choi.

And while things are looking better for the LPGA since they removed Carolyn Bivens, they aren’t out of the woods yet. But it’s not for lack of a quality product and fan support. Here is a good write up on the state of things.

Next up for the Ladies is the CVS/pharmacy LPGA Challenge in Danville, CA.

And now the men.

The men have been in the throes of the FedEx Cup playoffs. Here is what Jigger had to say about the FedEx Cup. Here is what I had to say about the FedEx Cup. Since it was pretty much a dud last year, as predicted the awarding of points underwent yet another revision for this year. Here is a nice explanation of how points were awarded this year. And here is an explanation of the whole ‘reset’ thingy.

Got all that?

The first playoff tournament was The Barclays, which Heath Slocum won. The second playoff tournament was the Deutche Bank Championship, won by Steve Stricker. The third playoff tournament was the BMW Championship, which Tiger won. So at the end of 3 here are the current standings. If you go to this page and look there where it says 2009 Playoffs and has a picture of Tiger holding a trophy, you will see wrap-ups of the 3 tournaments. If you are interested these wrap-ups give a nice summary of moved-up, moved-down, and was-eliminated.

Here at The Household we are still reserving judgment on this whole Playoffs thing. As has been noted before, we watch a lot of sports here at the household, which means we watch a lot of playoffs. And we have been watching golf for years. And we have never felt golf needed playoffs. But we could be wrong. We’ll see.

Anyway. Here is Jeff Rude on the FedEx Cup. And here is a write up from The New York Times.

This week is the final tournament, THE TOUR Championship ( and yes, for some reason THE TOUR is all caps ), which will be played at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.

And now, if you followed all those links, you should be fully caught up with both tours, and have wasted at least ½ hour besides. A quick check on the EPSN and People web sites, and it will be time to go home.

So True

I came across this the other day and had a good laugh. I am one of those ‘tech workers’. A software engineer in fact. Although I have been doing it for so long that when I started there were no software engineers. There were only computer programmers. And almost no one knew what that was.

Annnyyyyway.  Believe it or not, as off the cuff and un-edited as these posts may seem, I actually do type them out and do a certain amount of proof reading before I post them. And the first thing I do is remove the word So from the beginning of almost every sentence. The Golfer is also a long time tech worker. 90% of our conversations begin with one or the other of us saying ‘Soooo…’. 

After I read this I started listening for it in conversations around the office. And damned if at least 95% of them didn’t start off with a So….

I really can’t tell you why we ‘tech workers’ do this. Or actually which comes first, the So or the job as a tech worker. Are there people who are genetically programmed to use So.. and for some reason they gravitate towards jobs in the technology sector? Or does taking a job in the technology sector mean that, along with an addiction to caffeine and an overpowering sweet tooth, you will also develop the need begin conversations with So?

Sounds like a good topic for a thesis, or maybe a government funded study, doncha think?

And now I’m sure you will all be keeping a count of the number of times I start a sentence with So. Just keep in mind, apparently I can’t help it.

Many Happy Returns of the Day

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Arrrrnnnnold
Happy Birthday to you

And many moooorre.

Today (September 10th) is Arnold Palmer's 80th birthday. There are Golfers, and then there is Arnie. Much has been written, and I’m sure much more will be. It is hard to overstate Arnie’s impact on the game. So take a moment today and lift an Arnold Palmer to The King.

New Member

The cc welcomed a new member this past week. This is him.

The cc has always had a pair of swans. Several weeks ago the male of the pair ( which I have since learned is called a cob ) died, due to an unfortunate accident. He was hit in the head by a golf ball.

Swans pair up for life, and an un-mated female ( which I have learned, is called a pen) would be an un-happy, and perhaps not long for this world, pen. The pen in question here is 11 years old. As it turns out swans live 20-30 years in ‘controlled environments’ ( like say the ponds of a country club golf course ). So it was determined that the cob should be replaced. And here is another interesting fact I learned about swans. They pick their mates at about 2 years of age. After that you really can’t break up a pair without serious consequences for both birds. Which means the cc either had to find a cob who had also recently lost his mate, or get a 2 year old un-mated male. And of course it was much easier to find a 2 year old un-mated male, then a recently widowed cob. They found said un-mated male in Cleveland of all places. He was flown out ( on a plane, they didn’t make him fly himself ) last week and seems to be happy and busy inspecting his new home. And mate.

So I don’t know about you, but I have been thinking. About the possible devious nature of swans. Pens in particular. The pair always SEEMED happy out there paddling around the ponds together. But who knows what the true state of the relationship was? Perhaps he was bossy. Or a wimp who didn’t stand up to the ducks and geese. Or perhaps he had gotten slow and dumpy in the pen’s eyes. And perhaps she thought to herself that it was time for a change. That a nice young stud would be just the thing. And so she waited and watched and when she saw a golfer standing in a particular spot, and aimed in a particular direction, she suggested to the cob that she was sure there was something nice and tasty to eat if he looked just THERE. And presto. The old cob is history and a handsome young thing is plopped down in her ponds. I mean they seem very serene out there gliding along. But you really don’t know what lurks in the heart of a swan now do you?

Parents

I have explained before about Golfing Offspring #2 and the straight A’s. About how, since she started getting actual letter grades in the 4th grade, she has felt the need for them all to be A’s, in spite of being a child of mine and The Golfer. She is absolutely driven when it comes to doing what it takes to ensure that not only does she have 100%, she has all the extra credit too. 110%. This, in spite of the fact that she takes all AP classes. Because what good is the A if it’s not weighted the highest? Both The Golfer and I have said to her on numerous occasions that we wish she would get a B, just so she would see that the world doesn’t end. To which she replies ‘You guys are just mean.’  Of course we encourage all The Offspring to maintain good grades. But by good we do not mean you need to be #1 in your class. Where this penchant for the grade point average in the stratosphere came from is a complete mystery to both her parents and her siblings. It certainly did not come from us standing behind her and pushing. If anything we have tried to discourage it in some cases where we felt perhaps she was taking it to extremes.

My point here is that there are kids who are driven. Whenever a prodigy comes along in any thing, there are always those who say no child has the drive and concentration to become that good at anything. They are only that good because their parents pushed them into it and continue to push them. And of course the list of pushy stage parents is legion. But people who think there are no self-driven children are wrong.

With 3 kids in various sports, playing various musical instruments, and in various other activities, I have seen a lot of kids doing a lot of things. Most of them do it for fun, and want to improve, but don’t feel the need to be The Best at whatever it is. They may want to be very good, or they may decide it is the ‘most important thing’ and be willing to spend lots of time and effort on it. But if they aren’t The Best, their world doesn’t fall apart. And most parents follow their kid’s lead. If the kid wants to do it, the parents will make it possible, and help them along the way. But they are not standing behind them pushing. 

And of course I have also seen, far too many, cases of Not-Earl-Woods. When the parent has picked the activity and decided that their child will be The Best. And not just in sports. In music. In academics. I’ve seen them all. And in all cases there is a very unhappy child, trying their best at something, to please a parent. Not because they want to do it. But because it seems to be the most important thing to mom or dad. And it is destined to fall apart at some point, in the worst way for those involved.

And then there is the rare child who is driven. Who has found something they want to do, and they want to be The Best, and their parents can either help them or get out of the way. I happen to have one who drives for straight A’s. But I have seen them in sports, and music too. They are few and far between, but anyone who knows them knows that rather than pushing them, their parents are being dragged along for the ride, and are doing their best to make sure whatever it is doesn’t take over, and trying to maintain some balance in their kids life. And those of us watching remember those kids names. Because we know we will be hearing it again at some point, and can say ‘I knew them when..’.

And now you are thinking ‘What the heck brought all this up again?’

It started with this. A very good article on the kids and parents at the U.S. Kids Golf World Championships. Read it. It applies to anything your child does, not just golf. In particular I would point out this:

"People are bringing their child out because they know how well Tiger played at an early age. That's all good," said Rudy Duran, who coached Woods between ages 4 and 10 and was at the championship as a consultant. "Bad thing, I think they misinterpreted what the Woods family provided for Tiger. The family provided an ideal support network. It wasn't their agenda. It was what Tiger chose to do in his free time—after homework and chores—and they supported that. It was not over the top. All the parents want to do good for the child, but maybe some are a little too gung ho."

I like the way he phrases it. Whether your child is just doing it for fun, or is one of those rare driven kids, your job as a parent is to provide the support network.

This article prompted the following letter to the editor. Which points out the fact that being that support network can be incredibly time consuming and expensive. This applies to anything, not just golf. But if your child is motivated and wants to devote the time and effort, it’s very hard as a parent to say no. And so you find yourself intensely involved. And perhaps to someone who doesn’t have a child with such a passion for anything, it can seem like there is very little difference between you and Not-Earl-Woods. GO#2 has a few friends who have GPA’s close to hers. They all tend to end up in the same classes. There are some who are there because of pushy parents. If their GPA’s drop a quarter point, or their parents think they aren’t devoting enough time to their studies, they are grounded until things are more to their parents liking. I like to think that the teachers get to know the kids well enough, and have dealt with enough of these over achievers, to be able to differentiate between the ones that are driven, and the ones that are pushed. But sometimes I wonder what they think of us. If they think we are standing at the door everyday when she comes home. Waiting to see how she did and checking her grades online every night.

Which brings us to this. I am on record as putting Michelle’s parents firmly in the pushy category. In the obnoxiously pushy category even. I think she was pushed into golf, and I don’t feel her parents have managed her career all that well. And of course the talk has been how she has never really lived up to her potential, but when her parents were denied their usual 24x7 all consuming access to her during the Solheim Cup, and she actually got a chance to spend time with other tour members, and act on her own, she shined. Very brightly. So how good could she be if her parents would just back off?

I have not changed my opinion of Michelle’s parents. However the important thing is not my opinion. I am just a no-name blogger. The important thing is not even reputable golf commentators opinion. The important thing is Michelle’s opinion. She is old enough now that if she wanted to tell her parents to go jump in a lake she could. And she hasn’t. Even after her Solheim Cup experience should have proven to her that she is perfectly capable of winning without their constant hovering. Michelle obviously feels that her parents provided, and continue to provide, that all important support network. And she publicly supported her parents and suggested that maybe the rest of us don’t know what we are talking about.

Point taken. Her relationship with her parents is really no ones business but theirs. And sometimes there can be a very fine line between being the pushy parent and being the supportive parent, and often times people on the outside of the situation can mistake one for the other. So. Good for Michelle for standing up for her parents. And for politely telling the rest of us to get lost. I am finding I like her more and more, in spite of myself. And so in future, when discussing Michelle ( and I hope she continues to do well so there is lots of discussion ) I will leave her parents out of it.

And now if you’ll excuse me. I need to go explain, ONCE AGAIN, to GO#3 that, just because we don’t expect him to be as driven as his sister, does NOT mean we don’t expect the math homework to be turned in and it’s only the second week of school so how can you be so far behind in turning in the homework ALREADY? Sometimes pushy is good.

Numbers

Some person with too much time on their hands did the math, and determined that, for the 2008 season, Tiger Woods earned $100,000 for every 11.2 holes he played. Which works out to $2300 each time he swung the club. And remember, he missed most of the 2008 season with that little knee problem. I would imagine the numbers will be considerably higher this year.

And now for some numbers that us mere mortals can relate to. A Swedish study found that the death rate for golfers, both men and women, aged 40-79, was 40% lower than for other people of the same age, sex and socioeconomic status.

Golf is a low-intensity form of exercise that people can participate in well into old age. Of course to get maximum benefit you should ditch the cart and carry your bag. But even riding, teeing off on a regular basis can add 5 years to your life.

So to all of you who have been sitting around saying 'Someday I'll take up golf. When I have the time', this just blew that excuse out of the water. Turns out you'll actually have more time ( you know, in the long run ) the sooner you get out there and play a round.

It's science people, and you can't argue with science. Facts are facts. And the fact is that someday all old people will play golf, because all us golfers will outlive the rest of you and we'll be the only old people left. Well into our 90's and still cursing the thick rough and looking for the beer wench*.

* Most courses have a roaming food cart that is driven around the course during the day. When it happens to end up at the hole they are at, players can purchase anything from water, pretzels and beer, to fancy wraps and cocktails, depending on the course. But regardless of the toniness of the course and the contents of the food cart, it is ALWAYS driven by  a 'cute young thing'. I don't know what they refer to this as in your neck of the woods, but out here in The Wild West it is invariably referred to as The Beer Wench. Totally not PC I know. If it bothers you don't buy anything from her. Personally I never let a little political incorrectness stand between me and a cocktail for the back 9.

Add This To The List

Back when we were discussing Tiger’s temper I listed the things that would get an Offspring removed from the course, and in big trouble at home. The 3 rules we have are, briefly:

Do not EVER throw a club.
Do not blame your bad shot on any one/thing else.
Do not take out your frustration with your game on anyone else.

I am now adding one more rule to the list. If I ever find out one of The Offspring have violated this rule I will turn into a version of Mean ‘Ole Mother that they have previously seen only in their nightmares. ( You did know that’s what ‘mom’ stands for didn’t you?  Gets screamed along with ‘That’s not fair’ and ‘Everyone else gets to go’ and is followed by stopping feet and slamming doors.  )

Here is the new rule:

You will finish what you start.

The Golfer played in the Club Championship this weekend. We were discussing it and he mentioned that the guy in 2nd place in the Championship flight left after Saturday’s round in 4th place and by the time he arrived for Sunday’s round he was in 2nd place. They teased him that if there was just one more round he would find himself the winner. I was actually paying attention this time and so of course asked him ‘how did he go from 4th to 2nd over night?’ ‘Because the two guys ahead of him withdrew.’  ‘Why?  Did they get sick?’  ‘Oh no. They just knew they weren’t going to win, so they withdrew.’

At which point I admit my jaw dropped.

‘They quit, just because they couldn’t win?’  ‘Oh yeah. Happens all the time. I don’t think I’ve ever played in any championship in any mens group where some guys didn’t pull out when it became obvious they weren’t going to win their flight.’ ‘Please tell me you haven’t ever done that.’  ‘No no. Of course not. But some guys aren’t in it for the game, they only care about winning’.

So I have been naïve I guess. I mean as I have pointed out before, the world is full of jerks, and many of them play golf. It should go without saying that, just as in other sports, there are some people for whom the game means nothing and winning means everything. But this is Golf. With Tradition, and Etiquette, and The Honor Code, where players call the rules on themselves. Quitting because you can’t win doesn’t fit in there anywhere. I will just never understand how people can take up the game and then ignore the most important parts of it. The parts that set it apart from every other sport.

And so, to make sure The Offspring are never of the mistaken belief that winning is the only thing, we have a new rule.

If you start it, you WILL finish it. Even if you are so far in last place that there are triple digits between your score and the score of the person in 2nd to last, you WILL finish.

Because, as you have grumbled sooooo many times before, MOM has eyes in the back of her head, ESP, and the ability to instantly appear whenever unacceptable behavior is taking place. If you don’t finish I will know. And if you thought what happened after the infamous I-Have-Had-It-car-pool incident was bad, you don’t want to even think about what will happen if you withdraw from a tournament. Unless you have a broken bone, or a fever and are throwing up. Even us MOM’s can give a kid a break sometimes.  

Thats quite enough of that young ladies

I had a ‘Berry before most of you had cell phones. I have an iPhone now. I know all about Facebook. I don’t Tweet (  blogging is all I think you people can probably stand of me ) but I do follow a few Twitterers. All my music comes from iTunes. I live with two teenagers, and am in regular contact with a 21 year old. When IDK, WRU, WTF, and L8TR show up on my iPhone I know what they mean. I know who The Fray, The Flo-Bots, and Cage The Elephant are. I can do several of Dane Cook’s routines from memory( not that I’m proud of that or anything, but you hear them enough and they kind of sink in ). My point here is that, in spite of being a mom, I have managed to keep up with the world in general. I am not stuck back in the ‘80’s or something. And I don’t think the game of golf should be stuck there either.

I am on record as stating I have no problem with the emotions shown on the golf course by the younger players. That in fact I think it’s a good thing. And I don’t mind a cheering gallery either. Golf needs a little more ‘umph’, as it were.

But ( and you knew there was a but ).

Golf does not need cheerleaders or face paint.

We watched the Solheim Cup this weekend. All of it. Or at least all of it that was on The Golf Channel. Which was basically all of it. It was good golf. No, it was GREAT golf. The Americans’ were favored to win, and they did. But it was all tied up going into the singles matches on Sunday. The Europeans gave them a real run for the money. Or the Cup, as it were.

Anyway. I know that most of the team members were young. 7 of them were under 30. And I know it was exciting, and a team format, which they are decidedly not used to. I imagine it was a lot of fun to be playing With the same women they normally play Against. And I know there was the whole ‘representing your country’ thing. And apparently they all stayed in the same house, and there was music and dancing and much camaraderie. I get all that.

But that is no excuse for the putting of hands together and cheering, or inciting the crowd to cheer “Let’s go Morgan, Let’s go’ with their ribbonned pony tails bouncing. Or the flag waving parade that resembled nothing so much as a Color Guard presentation. And the face paint. Don’t even get me started on the face paint. Thank the golfing gods that Julie Inskter refrained from face paint. I would have lost most of the considerable respect I have for Julie if she had shown up with a design painted on her cheek. All in all it resembled nothing so much as a bunch of high school cheerleaders that just happen to be able to play golf.

I didn’t mind the fist pumps, or the dancing off the greens, or the high fives, or the cheering crowd. And Christina Kim should bottle that personality and that smile and sell it as an anti-depressant. I love her joi-de-vivre.

But they got carried away and took things over the top. And it wasn’t just me. If you watched, there were several points over the 3 days where the younger girls were busy doing the cheerleader thing and Julie Inkster and Christie Kerr were in the background looking distinctly uncomfortable. Even during the opening ceremonies.

I’m not a grouch or an old fuddy duddy. Really. But it is Golf, not volley ball, or field hockey, or soccer. And there is tradition, and decorum, especially with something like the Solheim Cup. That is part of what makes Golf golf, and not field hockey or soccer. And they are professionals, not high school students.

In two years the cup will be played in Europe. I imagine just being out of the US will have a bit of a dampening effect. I hope so. And I hope that more mature heads prevail the next time it is in the US. Because in 4 years it will be held practically in my back yard. So we will of course have tickets. And I’m afraid if cheerleading ensues the mom in me might just have to pull a couple of them over and explain about proper behavior on a golf course, and use spit on a napkin to wipe the paint off their cheeks. And we really don’t want that to happen, do we girls?  Hmmmm?  Didn’t think so.

[ Jigger: So this couldn’t possibly have anything to do with your overall feelings of intense dislike for    
             high school cheerleaders, could it?

TGW: I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Jigger: You know. The fact that you despise cheerleaders because they never came to cheer at your
           swim meets, but always showed up to cheer for the boys swim meets.

TGW: Well they should have cheered for us instead. We were WAY better than the boys. We took the
         All-City meet 3 years in a row. They didn’t even get close. They should have come cheer for the 
         winners.

Jigger:  So the woman who thinks Sergio Garcia is hot and refers to Mr. Villegas as Cammmmilo, is
            questioning the dedication of a group of high school girls who would rather go cheer for a
            bunch of totally ripped high school boys wearing Speedos.

TGW:  Look, over by the shed, isn’t that a squirrel? ]

The Solheim Cup

The oldest and most famous team event in golf is, of course, The Ryder Cup. But it only happens every other year and only involves players from the US and Europe. In recent times there have been a lot of very good golfers from parts of the world that aren’t the US and Europe. South Africa, Australia and Fiji, just to name a few. So in 1994, in order to fill in the every other year gap, The Presidents Cup was established. This is a team event between the US and golfers from everywhere that is not Europe.  You’ll notice that in each case it is the US against someone else. That is because, let’s face it, the US is where the money is. Last year was a Ryder Cup year. This is a Presidents Cup year. One thing both of these events have in common is that they are for the men.

In order to even things out a bit Karsten Solheim made big push for a women’s team event, and in 1990 the Solheim Cup was born. Karsten Solheim was the founder of Karsten Manufacturing, which is the maker of PING brand golf equipment. And that story is a blog post or two in itself, and we aren’t going there today. Just know that Mr. Solheim knew a thing or two about golf, and had enough clout in the golf world to get a womens team event off the ground. Hence said event is called The Solheim Cup.

Like The Ryder Cup, the Solheim Cup is contested by teams representing the US and Europe. And like the Ryder Cup, The Solheim Cup is match play. Each team has 12 players, and is made up of the top players for each side and a couple of Captain’s picks. And like the Ryder Cup, The Solheim Cup is played every other year, and the venue alternates between US and Europe. Sensing a theme here?  The Solheim Cup is the women’s Ryder Cup.

So instead of repeating myself I will point you to this post I did on The Ryder Cup as far as format and strategy goes. Just substitute Solheim Cup and LPGA in your head each time you read Ryder Cup and PGA and that pretty much covers it. Of course there are a few differences, lots more legs showing for one thing, and the point system for determining team members is a little different, but overall they are pretty much the same. Which was Mr. Solheims point, after all.

There are a lot of good non-US and non-European golfers on the LPGA. But given it’s current financial straights, I doubt there is a women’s version of The President’s Cup anywhere on the horizon.

The Solheim Cup is this week, the 17th – 23rd, with the actual match’s starting tomorrow and going through Sunday. It is being played at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois. The US team leads in overall Solheim Cup wins 7 – 3, and has never lost the cup when it’s been contested on American soil. They are heavily favored to win this year as well. Which doesn’t mean it won’t be fun to watch. And we will watch a lot of it here at The Household. The Golf Channel will have the exclusive coverage, starting tomorrow. And of course you subscribe to The Golf Channel. Doesn’t everybody?

Here is Ron Sirak on this years teams, and their slightly different attitudes. And here is an interesting take on the future of the cup itself from a British news paper. And because I know you will want to, here is the page so you can keep up with real time updates on the scoring.

Update

Because I know you are interested, even though you may not have been following him as closely as we have been here at The Household, here is a Zach Olsen update.

Zach finished 12th at the Junior PGA. He is now the 99th ranked junior in the US, and ranked 3rd in his class. He is ranked 69th on the Junior Scoreboard. His father has been told he is on the watch list for the 2010 and 2012 Jr. Ryder Cup.

Oh, and he has received his first ( of what I’m sure will be many ) college recruitment letter. From Oklahoma State.

I am more than mildly surprised

So I mentioned in the previous post that I would be mildly surprised if Tiger didn’t win the PGA Championship. He didn’t. But not only didn’t he win, he lost when he had the lead for most of the final round. It’s not that that has never happened. But it’s only happened once before. During his first year on tour. He wasn’t playing his best game today, but he was grinding it out and doing pretty good, and Tiger’s not-his-best is something the rest of us can only dream about. So I would say it was pretty much a foregone conclusion here in The Household, and probably in the announcers booth, that this would be another ho-hum Tiger win.

Boy was it not.

Who did win?  Y. E. Yang. And the question on everyone’s lips was ‘Who the heck is Y.E. Yang?’  He is a 37 year old South Korean who didn’t even pick up a club until he was 19. He served his required two years in the military starting when he was 21. He turned pro in 1996 and played on the Asian and European tours. He had to go through the qualifying tournaments the past two years just to make it on the PGA Tour. But there he was, hoisting the Wanamaker Trophy.  

It was a heck of a final round. Either one of them could have won it even at the 18th hole. And did you see that 3-hybrid shot to the green on Yang made on 18? That was not the shot a person intimidated by Tiger Woods makes. Nervous, yes. You don’t 3 putt on 17 like he did unless you’re nervous. But intimidated? No. For the most part he looked like he was having the time of his life.

I will say this for Tiger, after the recent dust up regarding his temper, he behaved like an adult and a professional, although it was obvious he was very frustrated with the way things were going. And he was very gracious.

"He's always been a wonderful ball striker. The only thing that held him back was the flat stick. Today, he executed his game plan, drove it beautifully and hit his irons in the correct spots. He played beautifully."

As for Yang, when asked if he would like a re-match with Woods he laughed and said "Never again. I would like to stay the guy who won over Tiger at the PGA Championship and that's it. No re-dos."

So here’s a big Congratulations shout out to Y.E. Yang. He certainly earned himself the Wanamaker.

And I end the day quite a bit surprised that the man on a mission didn’t manage to pull it off.

Links

( another in the long a** series of posts )

The 4th, and last, Major of the year, the PGA Championship, begins tomorrow at Hazeltine. Given his performance this past weekend, Tiger is of course the favorite. Especially since he will be trying to erase the memory of missing the cut at The Open. 

Speaking of which…during his wonderful performance at The Open it was frequently mentioned that Tom Watson is one of the greatest links players in the world. Tiger is a great golfer, but he is not necessarily a great links golfer. Which, I think, contributed to his missing the cut.

And now some of you are nodding and saying ‘Um hmm.’. And some of you are saying ‘what the heck is a links golfer’? I shall endeavor to enlighten you.

There are two kinds of golf courses, generally referred to as ‘links’ and ‘parkland’. 95% of the courses in America are parkland. It is rare to find a true links course here ( although a new one just opened up here in The Wild West ).

As for an actual definition of ‘links course’…well links courses have a lot of things in common, but there aren’t specific criteria laid out in a rule book or anything, about what is or is not a links course. It’s one of those ‘you know it when you see it’ kind of things.

Back in the Beginning golf courses were laid out on top of the land. There was no earth moving equipment, so you couldn’t design a course from scratch. You had to design around what was there. Which meant for the most part, every little mound, every patch of sand, every place it was to steep or to uneven to mow, pretty much had to be left in place and worked around. There was no evening out of land on the fairways or greens. No planting of special grasses in fairways vs roughs vs greens. And when you did this on a piece of land next to the ocean, this meant dealing with the fact that generally speaking, no trees grew there. Which was actually a good reason for putting a course next to an ocean, the designer didn’t have to worry about moving, or removing, trees. Which was a much bigger deal back then. And they didn’t want to use up valuable farmland( Jack Calthorpe aside). So they put courses on narrow strips of land next to the sea, where things didn’t really grow anyway. Which meant they didn’t have a lot of room to set the holes up in a nice wind-y parkland way. So the holes were generally laid out 9 holes straight out, and 9 holes straight back. And being next to the sea there was lots of sand, patches of which would accumulate in deep pockets in the land, otherwise it would be blow away by the constant winds. And thus pot bunkers were born. And in the areas they didn’t plant grass and maintain as fairways and greens the native grasses grew. And these tended to be thick and tall and reedy. These were the original links courses.

So to recap, generally speaking a links course:

- Is laid out more or less on top of the land. Not a lot of massive earth moving. Although mounds and knolls are added to give odd bounces and angles.

- Is built on sandy wind swept soil.

- Has deep pot bunkers as opposed to sand traps

- Doesn’t have much, if any water. Except of course for the sea next to the holes.

- Is treeless.

- Has deep, nasty, rough made up of tough reedy grass.

- Goes out and back.

You can build a links course any place there is sandy soil in a wind swept location. And there are inland links courses. But most of the world’s links courses are along a coast.

As far as playing a links course goes. You either love it or you hate it. When playing most parkland courses length is what matters. How far can you hit the ball. The longer your drive, generally speaking, the better off you are. Most parkland courses are so thoroughly designed and landscaped that unless your ball goes out of bounds, you are never really left with an un-playable shot. And sand traps tend to be shallow and open. Hence the term ‘the beach’.

On a links course it’s not length that matters, it’s accuracy. If you miss the fairway you are in a world of hurt. You will be lucky to find your ball. And if you do you may want to take an un-playable anyway, just so you don’t have to hit out of the nasty stuff. Did you see how many players in The Open took two or more shots to get out of the rough? Did you see how they shook their wrists to shake off the sting of hitting the ball hard enough to get it to pop out of that crap? And there is a world of difference trying to hit out off a nice flat sand trap, as opposed to a pot bunker that comes up to your shoulders. On a parkland course landing in the sand is unfortunate, but not too bad. On a links course you want to avoid the bunkers like the plague. Also that whole ‘wind swept’ thing comes into play. The fairways and greens tend to play hard and fast and bouncy.

Playing a links course takes a whole different mind-set, a whole different strategy. You have to think about every shot, and where it’s going to land, and what kind of bounce it will take. You can’t just hit the ball as hard and as far as you can and hope for the best. Remember, the farther the ball goes the more it moves off course. The more the chance it will end up in a bunker, or take a little bounce off that knoll you didn’t notice and land in the crap. Lay-up is a dirty word to a lot of golfers, but a lot of times on a links course the smart shot is a lay-up.

A lot of people don’t like to expend the extra mental energy it takes to play a links course. They just want to take out their driver and pummel the ball. Other people love playing a thinking game. They like having to use a bit of strategy. If you don’t like playing links courses they can be the most frustrating rounds of your life. Instead of recovering from a bad shot to make par, a bad shot can easily lead to double bogey.

A good golfer can play a links course without being a great links player. Tiger has won The Open on a links course, so he can certainly play them. If your game is just a little off on a parkland course, and you miss most of the fairways, and over shoot a green here and there, you can recover. And we have all seen Tiger win, even when he wasn’t hitting the fairways. But if your game is a little off on a links course, things can go south in a hurry. Which is fine for someone like me. My game goes south no matter where I play. I get no more frustrated on a links course than I do on any other. And a nice gin-and-tonic does wonders for that. But when you are the best, and are used to being able to play through the bad shots and save par, and all of the sudden you are in the crap and the bunkers and the ball keeps taking bad bounces off of mounds and knolls and you are dropping shots right and left, I can see how you would get so frustrated that it would effect your whole game. And you might be so competitive and so focused that you can’t get beyond it. And I think that’s what happened to Tiger. My little insight on it anyway, FWIW.

Tom on the other hand. Tom is the consummate links player. Tom thought about every shot. Tom could see every bounce the ball would make, every spot the ball needed to land in to miss a bunker. Every hook or slice that needed to be made to miss the crap. Tom knew when to make the lay-up, and when to blow the ball past the trouble. Tom knows how to read and play a links course better than any other player on tour. Which is how he managed to out play all those kids, who are great golfers, but not great links golfers. Most times being a great golfer is enough. But sometimes being a great links golfer is better.

This week the PGA Championship will be played on a nice long parkland course up by Minneapolis. Tigers game was not off at all this past weekend, and I don’t imagine it will be off this weekend either. And even if it is, with a parkland course, the results won’t be nearly as disastrous as they were at The Open. Considering the way The Open went, and how competitive he is, I imagine he will be a man on a mission. I will be mildly surprised if he doesn’t win the PGA Championship.

And for the record, I have played links courses. In Scotland even. And I love them.

The Calendar...again

First I found it funny. Then I was slightly miffed. This time I am just shaking my head.

Here are two recent entries.

Seriously?

First off I’m thinking that if a golf course butts up next to a graveyard with a fence around it, the graveyard is definitely out of bounds. So while it may be nice not to loose your ball, it’s not like you can play it from where it landed. Perhaps the sensible thing to do in this situation is just leave the ball there and take your drop. Hmmm?  Maybe the fence is there for a reason. Like people don’t want golfers traipsing all over their loved ones. It may not be exactly sacred ground, but if they didn’t mind golfers making divots next to grave stones they wouldn’t have put up the fence.

But graveyard, backyard, open space, whatever it’s around, lets talk about the fence. You ‘climb’ a fence. You do not scale a fence. Who the heck scales a fence? I spent a lot of time with fences in my youth. I climbed them every day, and used to walk along them to get between yards. I mean why take the sidewalk when you can take the fence? We all used the fences. And we all ‘climbed’ the fences. No kid I knew ever ‘scaled’ a fence.

Even worse though, climb it or scale it, you need INSTRUCTIONS? I admit to being a bit of a tom-boy, but even the girls who spent their days in dresses playing with dolls could climb a stupid fence. All types. Chain link, slated, 6 foot privacy. We had them all in my neighborhood, and we climbed them all. Gates were a waste of time.

So once again I must wonder about the editor of this calendar. What kind of a childhood did he ( and I think we firmly established in the previous calendar post that it must be a he ) have that he felt the need for an entire calendar day of instructions on how to climb a fence? Were there no fences where he lived? Did he grow up in an apartment in downtown Manhattan or something? Even there, aren’t there fences around things? What kid in their right mind sees a fence and says ‘Oh, better not climb that. Obviously they are trying to keep me out.’? Or maybe he was one of those kids whose mom kept him inside practicing his violin while the rest of us were busy climbing the fences to see what they were trying to keep us away from. I almost feel sorry for him. Almost.

So let us take away two things from these two days. First of all, if your ball lands in a graveyard behind a fence, have the common courtesy to just let it lie.

Second of all, if you ever see a kid staring at a fence, help him climb it. Don’t let him grow into an adult who needs instructions on how to get to the interesting stuff on the other side.

Picture Essay

( I don't normally do the pop-up window thing with pictures. But these look so much better real size. Hopefully you don't sprain your finger clicking on them )

We played Riverdale Dunes yesterday.

This is what it looked like when we started:

At about the 7th hole, it started looking like this. Which, if you live out here you know, means something nasty is headed your way.

Soon after this the lightening started in earnest. Here is a little fact you might not know. The county we live in is second only to Dade County Florida in number of lightening strikes per year. And sure enough, there was a bit of a rain delay.

Yes the sky got that dark. And the wind blew and the rain came down in sheets.

20 mins later, we were back on the course, and it was moving out beyond us.

30 mins later it looked like this.

Gotta love the weather here in the Wild West.

Short Putts

So while most of the golf world was watching Tiger win yet again this weekend, the women played the Woman’s British Open. It was won by a 39 year old Scot named Catriona Matthew. Who happens to be a new mother. As in she gave birth to her second daughter 11 weeks ago. Let’s see Tiger do THAT, then win a major. 

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This years Solheim Cup team has been chosen. It will be played Aug 21-23 at Sugar Grove, Ill.

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After writing this post, I can only shake my head and worry at this story. And generally agree with the title here at ForePlay. I hope someone is watching out for this kid. Someone who will take him out for ice cream when he needs it.

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Do you ever click on the Golf Course of Rhymes link over there on the right hand side?  You should. It’s a very interesting golf blog. I particularly liked this poem and agree whole heartedly with the sentiments expressed in the last stanza.

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This made everyone here at the household laugh out loud this weekend. We cut it out and it has a position of prominence on the fridge. So much power I have. The power to decide which dreams to grant and which to squash. Bwaaahaaahaaahaaa( she laughed evilly, rubbing her hands together).  ( Although having spent 6 months backpacking around Europe myself, that is one dream I would definitely grant. )