MY life in golf...

I just realized that I've published "What's in the bag", but I've never published why I got into golf, so here goes...

I first got into golf when "I Shot The Sheriff" (by Eric Clapton, not Warren G or 386DX) was topping the charts (a year that had some AMAZING songs, by the way), and Mom had to give me a ride to the Los Angeles Unified School District summer school program lessons at Taft High School in eastern Woodland Hills. I remember hitting whiffle balls for hours on end with my best friend, John Forrest. John's dad Jack was a hard-core golfer; always had his clubs in the trunk of his car - house was LITTERED with Golf Digest magazines - you know the type...I remember being curious about WHY Jack was SO into his golf game....he was a HUGE Jack Nicklaus fan...I was more into Arnold Palmer - I respected his elegance, class and way he played the game - I am STILL an Arnold fan to this day...

The reason I remember the year is because I distinctly remember going to practice with my Mom and Dad one hot summer night at the driving range that used to be on Topanga Canyon Blvd, just south of Victory Blvd.. (Behind the miniature golf course/arcade where we used to have our birthday parties. They used to have one of those three or four story fiberglass slides featuring three or four whoop-de-doos - you know, the ones that you'd slide down on burlap bags...)

I distinctly remember schlubbing Dad's old set of Spalding clubs through the arcade area to get to the driving range out back that hot summer evening, and Clapton's "I Shot The Sheriff", Paper Lace's "The NIght Chicago Died" and Hues Corporation's "Rock the Boat" were all blaring over the PA system while we were hitting balls... (I'm having one of those "Field of Dreams" moments here - remember when James Earl Jones' character described "the memories so thick you could cut them with a knife"???

My Dad and I never played golf at the golf course, because golf just wasn't Dad's sport, but we spent a bunch of evenings smacking balls at the range, and then headed over to the drive-thru dairy that used to be where Green Jug Liquors now is on Platt Avenue to get a Drumstick ice-cream... 21st Century Insurance's second building is now built on the site of that former driving range...I'll bet they unearthed THOUSANDS of golf balls when they were digging the foundation for that 21st Building...
(Dad's sport was BOWLING by the way, and he taught me well...)

I gave up golf for basketball during the rest of Jr. High, and High School...gave up basketball for marching band when I and my friend Mitch got cut from the JV team two weeks into the fall semester of our 10th grade year...although getting cut from the basketball team (huge failure at the time) turned into one of the biggest blessings in my life as my experiences in marching band were probably the most continual FUN that I've EVER had in my life, and resulted in an opportunity to join and win the Drum Corps International Championships as a member of the Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps out of Concord, California.
(Tonight's shameless name drop: I went to Jr. High and High School with Brad Garrett back when he was Brad Gerstenfeld, and he was funnier than heck, even back then...it's nice to see a local boy done good...also got to play vibes with Mark Schulman in the HS jazz band - Mark's played drums with Foreigner, Richard Marx, Billy Idol, Cher and others - he's a great, funny guy whose story is inspiring in its own right...)

Total elapsed time in golf: Two years ('74-'75)
Player most admired at the time: Arnold Palmer

My golf game stayed dormant throughout my college years, and was resuscitated when I got my first job out of Cal State Northridge with a public accounting firm. We had significant audit activity going on down in the Palm Springs/Palm Desert area during January and February, which was quite convenient. Never made it out to the Bob Hope or the Dinah Shore because we were too busy PLAYING golf on the weekends.

Because we were sent down to the desert for weeks on end, many of the guys took their clubs and stayed down there to play golf over the weekends, rather than hassling the drive back into LA.

Realizing that I would have been laughed off the course had I brought along my Dad's '50's era Spaldings, I bought my first set of clubs, a set of MacGregor Golden Bear woods and Wilson K-28 irons from some discount catalog outfit in Northridge, CA, and a Ping knock-off putter from the Walter Keller Golf Shop in West Los Angeles (near where I was working in Century City).

After struggling with the old persimmon woods, I was smitten with the new Spalding Cannon woods that I read about in the golf magazines, and bought a set during my SECOND year of auditing down in the desert. I still have those clubs, and a friend was using them to get started playing golf...

Total elapsed time in golf: Two years ('83-'84).
Player most admired at the time: Greg Norman (I still admire his business acumen, sense of cool/style, and his wine is AWESOME...)

I got out of that firm for another, and gave up golf for skiing and water-skiing for about ten years.

Didn't touch my golf clubs until about '93 when I started dating my wife. She had played volleyball in college, and excelled at softball and tennis, and expressed an interest in trying her hand at golf, so we packed up my Cannons and K-28's and headed out to the driving range at Westlake Village Golf Course. We played her first round at Westlake, and then both of us got busy finalizing our education; she completed her Finance/IT degree at Cal State Northridge, and I completed my MBA at Pepperdine University.

We got married in '98, and a couple that she had worked with asked us out to play golf with them in 2000...

That was the start of the madness that we currently find both of us experiencing...the "golf bug" bit both of us really hard, but probably me harder, as all those memories from the years gone by came flooding back, and the happy, peaceful feeling that I always got (and get) out on the course became intoxicating...

We took lessons together through the Pierce College Extension Program, and became good friends with our instructor, "Coach Pete" Argiriou. "Coach Pete's" weekend classes at Pierce College in Woodland Hills are a GREAT, COST EFFECTIVE way to get introduced to the fundamentals of the golf swing.

When some flaws crept into my swing in 2004, I took my first "professional" lessons from Ted Lehmann at the Westlake Village Golf Course. Ted is AWESOME!!! Ted's instruction corrected the flaws in my setup, grip and alignment, and we developed the ol' "inside/out" swing plane that enabled me to FINALLY hit a nice draw, instead of the slow, leaky, power-robbing fade that I had been hitting on my own...Ted's instruction features video training, and he shows your swing side-by-side with PGA Professional's swings (usually Tiger's) that helps you work out the kinks efficiently...it's also kinda fun to watch your swing develop over time, because Ted kept files to help me in line, and on-plane.

We are truly blessed because we have approximately 25 golf courses within a 25 mile radius, and the variety of courses is amazing.

We got a membership at Sunset Hills Country Club in Thousand Oaks, CA in 2004, and have played courses from Kapalua in Maui, to Pebble Beach, to Sand Hills in Mullen, NE where my wife's cousin works. (It's an awesome course, by the way - another is Wild Horse Golf Club in Gothenburg, NE)

Total elapsed time in golf: Six years and counting...during which time my handicap has fallen from 24.5 to 18, reaching an all-time low of 17.4 during a time when I was "between jobs" and had LOTS of time to practice...low all-time score is 82 at Rustic Canyon Golf Course in Moorpark, CA.

PGA Player(s) most admired at the time: Padraig Harrington and Chris DiMarco with Jason Gore ascending and Michael Putnam waiting in the wings on the Nationwide Tour...Go Waves!
LPGA Players admired at the time: Annika Sorenstam, Lorena Ochoa, Paula Creamer, Brittany Lincicome (watch out for Brit - this girl's got game, and she is LOOOONG off the tee - super sweet, too - I was "Sign Boy" for her at Office Depot '05 at Trump National LA), Sherrie Steinhauer (met HER on the rental car shuttle bus this year at Sacramento, following the Longs Drugs Challenge - became a BIG fan after talking with her...), Katherine Hull (Go Waves!), Kris Tschetter (Grace and class on the golf course - plus she dresses impeccably)

Honorable mention: PGA:Fred Funk, Jim Furyk, Stewart Cink, David Toms, Luke Donald, Sergio Garcia, David Howell, Davis Love III, Fred Couples, John Daly (saw him SING with Hootie and The Blowfish in Memphis, TN - he's great!), Charles Howell III, Adam Scott, Mike Weir, Ben Curtis, Tom Lehman, Jesper Parnevik, Kenny Perry, John Cook, Jay Haas, Hank Kuehne
LPGA: Jenna Daniels, Julieta Granada, Morgan Pressel, Maggie Will

Total elapsed playing time in golf: 10 years...I'm really sorry that I didn't play during the ensuing years, and wish that golf had been "cooler" back in the day, rather than considered "an old man's sport plaid by beer-bellies in ugly polyester plaid pants". (Ahhh, the '70's and '80's - fashion's Dark Ages...)

The more I studied the history of golf, the more I LOVE golf...it's the one last sport that hasn't been completely ruined by inflated salaries and poor sportsmanship (although Tiger and Phil's withdrawals from The Players' Championship at the end of this year may cause me to re-think that hypothesis).

Because of golf:

• I've gotten to talk to Ray Romano while waiting for our clubs to come off the plane at LAX,
• I've met Jason Gore on the flight back from Phoenix to Burbank the weekend he won his "battlefield exemption" to the PGA Tour from the Nationwide Tour (Because I knew who he WAS),
• I've gotten to play "Ocean Trails" about a month after the eighteenth green gave way into the Pacific Ocean.
• I've volunteered for the last five years at the Target World Challenge as a marshal and standard bearer, and for the LPGA Tournaments at El Caballero in '04, Trump National LA in '05 and the Longs Drugs Challenge in '04 and '06...
• I've met three-time women's British Open champion Sherrie Steinhauer, and talked on a personal level...
• I've made a BOATLOAD of happy memories along the way...and they're not done!!!
  

I believe that golf truly IS the greatest game ever invented, and the rich history and traditions that are associated with the game make it a truly special experience.

I recently was fortunate enough to play a round at Riviera Country Club, and fulfilled a long-term dream to play the 18th hole well, lasering a 270 yard drive (where did THAT distance come from??? Thank you, Callaway Tour56's!!!) and a 170 yard approach into the back of the green/fringe, where I proceeded to chunk a wedge and finish with a bogey, but I didn't care - I'd already HAD MY fun...

My list of All-Star Golf Courses and Holes through the years:

• Pebble Beach #4, #7, #8, #9, #11, #14, #17, #18
• Kapalua (Bay Course) #5
• The Links at Spanish Bay: #5, #7, #9, #14, #16
• Rancho San Marcos #3, #6, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18
• Elkins Ranch #17, #18
• Sandpiper Golf Course #5, #6, $10, #11, #13, #14, #18
• Glen Annie Golf Course: #7, #12, #15, #18
• Torrey Pines (South) #3, #4, #10, #11, #12, #13, #18
• Sand Hills #1, #4, #9, #10, #12, #15, #18
• Wild Horse Golf Club: #1-9
• La Purisima Golf Course: #1, #3, #6, #8, #9, #10, #13, #15
  Rustic Canyon Golf Course: #13, #18
• Camarillo Springs: #6-11
• Tierra Rejada Golf Club: #4, #6, #8, #13, #14, #17, #18
• Lost Canyons Golf Course (Sky Course: #1, #2, #3, #6, #16-18
• Malibu Country Club: #1, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #11, #14, #17, #18
  

My future dreams in golf include taking my Mom back to Scotland to sightsee her childhood home and play golf at St. Andrews' Old Course (and hopefully at Course No. 7, which I hope to succesfully name Tayboir Mor or Seachdadhar Brae), playing Carnoustie and Ballybunnion, playing Bandon Dunes and Whistling Straits, and another round at Pebble Beach, this one with Mark ("Doc") Fletcher (now that I've reduced my tendency to slice, and won't be so nervous that I put three straight seven-wood tee-shots on the condominium roofs to the immediate right of the first tee).

Dream foursomes:

• (PGA): Arnold Palmer, Greg Norman, Padraig Harrington
  
• (PGA Runners-up): Fred Couples, Jason Gore, Stewart Cink
• LPGA Tour: Annika Sorenstam, Paula Creamer, Lorena Ochoa
• LPGA Tour (for all the wrong reasons): Natalie Gulbis, Katherine Hull, Kris Tschetter
  
• Nationwide Tour: Michael Putnam, Jason Allred, Kenny G (OK, so he's not REALLY a NT player, but we need SOMEONE to round out the foursome)
  
• Duramed Futures Tour (also for all the wrong reasons): Dana Lacey, Bridget Dwyer, Leigh Ann Hardin, Christina Monacelli, Blair O'Neal, Anna Rawson, Katie Ruhe, Linda Sorensen, Elizabeth Stuart, Perry Swenson, Kristina Tucker, Briana Vega, Heather Zielinski
  

That's the BEST part of golf - there's always something more to look forward to...golf gives you something to live for...