LPGA news and Duramed Futures Tour players news

I'm here working on the shopping cart overhaul tonight (another WILD Cinco De Mayo celebration here) and watching the TiVo'd coverage of today's LPGA tournament.

Several of my favorite LPGA players are seriously in the hunt today, as Stephanie Louden is tied with three other golfers in the lead, and my Pepperdine buddy Katherine Hull is only two strokes back in seventh place....ONE stroke ahead of Lorena Ochoa!

Looks like it's going to be a VERY interesting championship round tomorrow...but it's great to see two of the NICEST players on the LPGA (Stephanie and Katherine) in contention this week...I'll be hoping for good things for BOTH of you tomorrow!!!

While we're talking about hoping for good things...if any of my Texas readers are free next FRIDAY, May 11, 2007, Duramed Futures Tour player D'Rae Ward is having a fundraising golf tournament at the Glen Garden Country Club. You can read more about this event at D'Rae's website here... D'Rae is ALSO in the hunt at this week's Duramed Futures Tour event, which had today's play canceled due to high winds in the El Paso area...D'Rae's 24th birthday is coming up three days after the tournament, by the way...

Like I said, Sunday's golf is going to be VERY interesting...

Moving on to LOCAL charity fundraising events... TartanGolfGrips.com has created a VERY special customized putter grip for the La Reina High School Athletic Boosters Charity Fundraiser at the Lost Canyons Golf Club on the SAME day, Friday, May 11, 2007! The grip incorporates the La Reina uniform tartan, the school crest and matching text, and looks SLICK!!! It got sent off to Georgia to be produced on Friday.....this sounds like a REALLY fun event, and I wanted to put the word out for local golfers who are looking for a NICE round of golf at Lost Canyons...one of my favorite high-end local courses...

Artan of the week - April 12, 2007

So, it's LIGHTHOUSE time again, huh???

Time to head to the coast at Harbour Town in South Carolina.

My money's on Jim Furyk winning this one - this course seems to suit his eye, and he's usually in the hunt, and I think he's due...but wait, this is Davis Love III's home...could it be that being at home could help elevate DL III's game back to championship form???

Without further ado, the South Carolina Artan....customized for this year's tournament...

Easter Golf news

After attending a local sunrise service, and heading out to an early breakfast out with Mom, Cheri and I headed over to Elkins Ranch Golf Course with our favorite other golf couple.

I wanted to go to Elkins because the citrus blossoms are in bloom right now, and I enjoy their scent immensely. Elkins is also a fun, friendly little course that is located smack in the midst of citrus groves on three sides, and mountains on the fourth. It's quite far out away from civilization, and it's a nice getaway that's still pretty close by....

Elkins is located in Fillmore, California, which is a town that is in the midst of changing from mostly agricultural, to suburban residential, which is kinda sad, because once all those groves are plowed under, where will we get our oranges and lemons???

For the time-being though, a trip to Elkins is like a trip back to the '60's, when the course was first built. My favorite hole on the entire course is #18, which is a dogleg right into a large amphitheater green that is framed with large pine trees on the left and center, and the snack shack/bar/bar-b-cue patio on the right....it's a funky reminder of days gone by, and you can almost imagine the horn-rimmed and cat's-eye glasses on the people that played golf there when the course opened in the early 60's...and the HAMBURGERS are LEGENDARY - we joke that it's probably because the grill hasn't been cleaned thoroughly since the Eisenhower administration, but there's SOMETHING there that makes them taste EXTRA good....

The day was cloudy, and cooler than normal, and a bit of a breeze kept everyone bundled up in sweatshirts and jackets, but the citrus blossoms did their thing, and EVERYONE shot REALLY well...we had a bit of trouble with their fuzzy greens from poa annua, and all of us left SEVERAL putts short of their intended destination, and pumped up the scores, but I ended up with a legitimate 87, and edged Cheri out by 1 stroke, but she was playing from the forward tees, and I was playing from the blues...

We had a great day, and Cheri was just LAUNCHING her drives...her tempo was nice and slow, and she was just BOMBING the ball off the tee...we measured one drive at 276 yards on a flat fairway!!! How you ask???

Our playing partners brought along one of those new SkyCaddie GPS devices!!! Now, I'll be first to admit that when I saw them advertised by Pete 'n Nat on the Golf Infomercial Channel, I thought they were a joke, being the traditional purist that I am...sorta...

After being out on the course with friends that actually HAVE one of the little babies, and knowing exactly how far out from the green we are, and hitting DARTS into the green...I want one....(more confessions...sheesh) I STILL think they're too expensive, but if you have the disposable income, they are COOL! We had access to the high-end model, the SG4, and they had downloaded all of the coordinates from the website, and we new EXACTLY how many yards INTO the pin, and how many yards OUT from the tee-box we were, and we were able to measure EXACTLY how many yards out Cheri had launched her Callaway Big Bertha Red golf ball....it was pretty FUN, actually...

Pinehurst blogs

While at the barber shop on Saturday, I was reading an article in GolfWorld: Turns out that Pinehurst No. 2 has TWO blogs going, here and here...

The article states " CELEBRATING: Beginning this month, the 100th anniversary of the the No. 2 course at Pinehurst (NC) Resort. Guests playing the Donald Ross course (#19 on the Golf Digest's America's 100 Greatest Courses list) this milestone season will receive a commemorative gift and add their names to an archival registry.
Pinehurst's clubhouse, the Tufts Archives and the North Carolina Museum of History will note No. 2's evolution with historic displays, and Pinehurst has started a blog (http://pinehurst2.blogspot.com) for anyone who has played the course and has a story to tell."

Right now, it looks like the word hasn't really gotten out yet, but I thought I'd do my part to help drive site traffic....

Anybody ever played there????

New greenskeeper at St. Andrews Old Course

New head greenkeeper for the Old Course

Gordon McKie has been appointed head greenkeeper at the world famous Old Course at St. Andrews.

Mr. McKie, who has been head greenkeeper at the New Course for two years, will take up one of the most prestigious roles in golf next month. His immediate task will be to continue the preparations on the venerable links for the staging of the Women's British Open in August and further ahead the Curtis Cup next year and The Open Championship in 2010.

Gordon takes over from Euan Grant who is moving on to a similar role at a new development in the Mull of Kintyre after three years at the Old Course.

Having worked for St Andrews Links Trust for 12 years, Gordon said he was very proud to be taking over at the Old Course. "It is a privilege to work on the most famous course in the world," he said. "The history and tradition surrounding the Old Course makes it unique and it is continually under the glare of the international media spotlight. I am very much looking forward to maintaining the exceptionally high standard of the course and ensuring it continues to set the benchmark for links courses around the world."

Alan McGregor, general manager of St Andrews Links Trust, welcomed the appointment which comes ahead of an extremely busy tournament schedule at the Home of Golf. "There is no doubt this is one of the most challenging and demanding greenkeeping roles in golf and in Gordon I am confident that we have someone who is more than up to the task. With his skills and experience of working at St Andrews Links over the years and at previous Open championships, I am sure he will relish the challenge "Gordon will work closely with the Links Superintendent Gordon Moir and the greenkeeping team on preparing the Old Course for the upcoming major championships. I would also like to thank Euan Grant for the substantial contribution he has made over the last five years and wish him all the best in his new position."

Born in Glasgow and brought up in Tain, Ross-shire, Gordon began his career with an apprenticeship at Tain Golf Club. He studied at Elmwood College and became deputy head greenkeeper at Tain in 1989. He joined St Andrews Links Trust in December 1995 as deputy head greenkeeper of the Eden Course. Five years later he became head greenkeeper before moving to the New Course as head greenkeeper in January 2005. Gordon is married to Susan and has one son, five-year old Ross.

This article says it all....

This article by John Maginnes summarizes exactly how I feel about Pebble Beach...we have been fortunate to head up to Monterey (we drove up 101, which added immeasurably to the overall experience by the way) with our main playing partners Margaret and Steve back in the summer of 2004...

I, too, look forward to my NEXT trip back...some of the holes (like 11-15ish) are relatively unspectacular), but the stretch from 4-10, and 16-18 are like nothing I've ever experienced on a golf course since....

I will be GLUED to the television this weekend, which is good because the rains are supposed to be coming, and it'll be a good excuse to get the tax returns prepared, and some stuff done around the house, since we won't be tempted to go out and PLAY in the rain....(I'm a fair-weather, SoCal/spoiled golfer - I admit it....)

This is a SPECIAL week...

This is a special week, where one of the special events on the PGA Tour is played out in one of the most hallowed of American golf cathedrals, at the Pebble Beach Golf Course in Monterey, California. For those of you who have never seen this area in person, you have GOT to see this stretch of coastline in person, and preferably when the weather is sunny and warm, because it is simply SPECTACULARLY beautiful....bring your wallet, though, because the beauty does NOT come cheap!

Click here for some interesting tournament history.

The weather for this year's tournament doesn't look like it's going to be picture-postcard-perfect like it was last year (not by a longshot), but it's still my favorite event of the entire PGA Tour season (followed by The Masters). (Tiger's tournament doesn't count, because it's after the season's over...)

There are some pretty cool features available on the web, and one of my favorites is the 'real-time cameras' that are available...the best one is probably the first tee, followed by the 18th green, and the 17th hole. If you leave the windows up, it appears that some of them automatically refresh, too...17, especially... (if the weather gets as NASTY as the National Weather Service is indicating, these cameras might provide a glimpse into the weather-nasties...)



THIS one will likely get interesting later in the week, as it's a feed from the PUTTING green outside The Lodge, the gorgeous hotel/shopping area near the first tee...because this one's more of a close-up shot than the others, you MIGHT be able to see someone FAMOUS warming up on the putting green before their round later this week...you can actually see the GOLF BALLS on the green, it's so close!!!




Click here for PGATour.com coverage, and here for Golf Channel's. It's a drag that Arron Oberholser's back is suffering from a bulging disk (for more reasons than one!) and he won't be back (pardon the pun) to defend his title this year...
Here's the list of celebrities that are scheduled to participate in the 2007 Pro-Am segment (HEY, no WOMEN celebrities??? What is this, 1907???):
*Harris Barton • Former Professional Football Player (San Francisco)
* Chris Berman • Sportscaster
*Michael Bolton • Entertainer
*Tom Brady • Football Player – New England Patriots
*Joe Buck • Sportscaster
*Glen Campbell • Entertainer
*Don Cheadle • Actor
*Kevin Costner • Actor/Producer/Director
*Carson Daly • TV Host
*Tom Dreesen • Entertainer
*Glenn Frey • Musician
*Kenny G • Musician
*Peter Gallagher • Actor
*Danny Gans • Entertainer
*Andy Garcia • Actor
*Thomas Gibson • Actor
*Joe Gransden • Musician
*Bob Griese • ABC Sports Analyst
*Kevin James • Actor
*Huey Lewis • Musician
*Rush Limbaugh • Radio Talk Show Host
*George Lopez • Entertainer
*Bill Murray • Actor
*Craig T. Nelson • Actor/Producer/Director
*Chris O’Donnell • Actor
*Stone Phillips • Journalist
*Ray Romano • Actor
*Darius Rucker • Musician
*Kelly Slater • World Surfing Champion
*Emmitt Smith • Professional Football Player
*Clay Walker • Entertainer

I WANNA go.... (St. Andrews News Feb. 1 2007)

I was listening to Pure Golf with Peter Kessler on XM 146 - The PGA Tour Network on XM Satellite Radio on my way in to work this morning, and Peter was interviewing a gentleman associated with the design and development of the new "Castle Course", the seventh course at the St. Andrews Golf complex...

Peter's guest was going on about the FANTASTIC views afforded by the course's proximity to the Firth of Forth, and how it's only 20 minutes East of Edinburgh, and how the VIEWS of the ocean and the coastline from holes 10-15 (especially lucky #13) will rival Pebble Beach and several other famous coastline courses, and the more he described, the stronger the urge became to GO there and PLAY after the "Castle Course" opens on April 1, 2008...(What's up with THAT??? April Fool's Day??? Hmmmm....curious.....)


Well, hearing about THAT got me out to the St. Andrews Links and Trust website to see if there was a progress update on the course construction....WOW, was there EVER...

(All pictures courtesy of the St. Andrews Links and Trust)

This is a shot of the "headlands" where the ninth and eighteenth holes will meet, and the clubhouse will be located. (I'm not positive if the building in the center is the foundation of the new clubhouse, or an existing structure, but you can just SEE the layout of the holes...Peter Kessler's guest was describing the phenomenal views on the back nine, and you can get an idea what he was talking about...he was also mentioning that the WIND will come into play on that series of holes...

EVIDENTLY!!!

This is a shot of the topographical map of the course...I don't know why, but I've always DUG these things since I was a kid....they're like technical art, and the descriptive information that is presented graphically is just beautiful to me...this view gives you an idea of the clubhouse and coastline layout from another perspective, as well as the elevation changes and the layout of the golf course as well (in green)

These pictures are just drop dead gorgeous, and give you an idea of the "grow in" that's already taken place...OR, the small amount of dirt that's been moved, which is what Mr. Kessler's guest was indicating - Tom Doak's minimalist approach only took ten months to implement...WOW!

As if this visual feast for the eyes wasn't ENOUGH for one day, when I got out to the St. Andrews' Links and Trust website, they're also holding a JOB fair over two days. Figuring that something like this doesn't come around every so often, I decided to copy the text, rather than link to it, to KEEP it in perpetuity, as they appear to be staffing up in anticipation of the new course opening, as well as for the 2010 "Open" Championship...check it out:

ST ANDREWS LINKS TRUST
Situations vacant at St Andrews Links Trust
Golf Manager:
St Andrews Links Trust manages and maintains the largest public golf complex in Europe including the world famous Old Course. More than 80,000 visitor rounds are played on the six Links courses each year and the practice facilities and services are used by thousands of golfers.
The Trust is seeking a senior manager to oversee its golf operations. This includes an extensive Golf Practice Centre and Golf Academy and our successful junior golf association. The Golf Manager will also supervise our caddie, starters and rangers departments and the staging of several major tournaments which take place on the Links. These include the Links Trophy, the St Rule Trophy and the Alfred Dunhill Links Trophy on an annual basis and the Women’s British Open in 2007, the Curtis Cup in 2008 and The Open Championship in 2010. {No pressure THERE, right???}
This challenging role requires a dynamic team player who is adept at running a diverse range of operations in a co-ordinated and efficient manner. The ideal candidate will have substantial experience in a senior leadership role within the golf industry.{Ya THINK???}
An excellent package is on offer for this post which presents a wonderful opportunity to become involved at the heart of the Home of Golf.{Heck, I'd pay THEM for this job!!!}
Please apply in writing to:
Ann Stuart
HR Manager
St Andrews Links Trust
Pilmour House
St Andrews KY16 9SF
or email:mailto:a.stuart@standrews.org.uk
Tel: 01334 466672
The closing date for applications is 16 February 2007

AND, if you're not at the top of the Golf Manager heap, but want to get in on the action in a more, um, GRASS ROOTS level, grab your passport and get to the airport NOW, because this Saturday is Day #2 at the:

Links Recruitment Days 2007
St Andrews Links is the most famous golfing destination in the world, with a global reputation for quality. Permanent, full-time, part-time, and seasonal job opportunities in our retail, reception and clubhouse departments are now available at the Home of Golf.
St Andrews Links is hosting two recruitment days when you can find out more about the following:
● Golf Shop Sales Associates ● Warehouse Assistant● Receptionists● Food and Beverage Assistants ● Kitchen Porters● Golf Practice Centre Assistant ● Players’ Assistants ● Putting Attendants● Facilities Assistants ● Cleaners
Come along and meet us at:
The St Andrews Links Clubhouse
West Sands Road
Tuesday 30 January and Saturday 3 February 10.00am to 2.30pm
Ann Stuart
HR Manager
St Andrews Links Trust
Pilmour House
St Andrews KY16 9SF
or email:mailto:a.stuart@standrews.org.uk
Tel: 01334 466672
{Just think what you'd see, and experience as a "Players' Assistant" or "Putting Attendant" - course you'd probably STARVE (or at least be really slender from not EATING), but still...it's nice to dream at what it MIGHT be like...}

ZZZZZZZZZZ....

Rant on...

It appears that the St. Andrews Links and Trust announced the winner of the naming of the 7th course over the weekend....

Can you spell B O R I N G ???

The winning name??? {Drumroll please.....}


Are you ready for this???

{Make sure you're sitting down, and don't have any milk in your mouth, cuz you'll spit it out on your computer monitor when you see this lame-o name they selected....}

Ready???? Here goes.....


The Castle Course


BU WA HA HA HA HA HA - they had over FOUR THOUSAND entries, and they chose "The Castle Course"???


As this article in the Scotsman relayed, Mr. Alastair Dempster (are you sure it isn't DUmpster?) reported (somewhat defensively, apparently) "Defending the choice, Mr Dempster said trustees sought a name which was easy to understand, relevant to the course and town and which fitted in with the trust's family of names.

He added: "In golfing terms this is a major decision and a historic announcement. It's not every day that a new course at St Andrews is named. In reaching this decision, we were acutely aware that the name would have to stand the test of time and remain appropriate to a world-famous golfing destination." {Wake me up when it's over...)

Yeah, Alastair, "The Castle Course" should stand the test of time....and it SURE is easy to understand - not much risk or imagination there....apparently there used to be a castle called Kinkell Castle on the property, so there you go....(so if some farmer had abandoned his plow on the property, would it have been fair to suggest "The Plow Course"??? Unbelieveable....)

An American named Edwin Burtnett was selected from the other unimaginitive sheep, I mean contestants that played it safe, and Mr. Burtnett gets the opportunity to play one of the first rounds when the course is officially opened next year...I'm pretty sure Mr. Burtnett just AGONIZED for HOURS over his winning selection, along with the other contestants' names that were in the lottery fishbowl....

Click here for the OFFICIAL report....oh well, it still looks like a PHENOMENAL course, and I plan to go play it someday soon....along with a few others in the area....hopefully with Mom in the cart, enjoying the day, and her first trip back to Scotland since the end of World War II...

Maybe the locals will take to calling it "Seachdadhar Brae" (Seventh Heaven Hill)

Rant off....

And the winner is...the 2006 golf website of the year goes to...

As awarded by Scotsman.com - congratulations goes to our own Geoff Shackelford and geoffshackelford.com.

The 2006 "Huggy" award for "Best golf website" went to Geoff with a comment of "Log on today if you really want to know what's going on in golf."

Congratulations, Geoff - we love your Rustic Canyon design, and hope to SOMEDAY, SOMEHOW get to play the Prairie Club course near Valentine, NE.

My wife was born in Valentine, and her folks now live in North Platte, NE, about 2 hours south of the Prairie Club on HIghway 97. Her cousin Dan is the superintendent at Sand Hills Golf Club near Mullen, NE. Sand Hills was ranked #1 in the nation in the 2006 Golfweek course rating for courses built since 1960, and we got to play Sand Hills over the July 4 holiday last summer, along with Wild Horse Golf Club in Gothenburg, NE.

What a couple of FUN, beautiful, CHALLENGING courses...if you're ever in Nebraska....you MIGHT want to check out these beauties....

Wandering Golfer goes Wild...

For those of you who want that "Field of Dreams" experience on the golf course - you're in luck...

Well, you're in luck if your cable package includes the Fine Living channel, and the "Wandering Golfer" series.

Tune in (or program those TiVo's) on Monday, December 4, 2006 at 6:00 PM (Pacific) when the "Wandering Golfer" takes you to pastoral Gothenburg, Nebraska and the beautiful and FUN TO PLAY Wild Horse Golf Club. That's right - you can have your own "Field of Dreams" experience on the golf course, and you don't EVEN have to leave the comfort of your couch!

I got to play nine holes at Wild Horse Golf Club over the Fourth of July weekend this past summer, and I'm kicking myself that I didn't stick around to play the back nine, because I had more FUN on this beautiful golf course that has been hewn out of the Nebraska cornfields than I have had on many others that cost much more to play! Wild Horse is literally surrounded by cornfields on three sides, and you have to take a nondescript road out of Gothenburg (population 3,619 (2000 census)) about three miles to an even MORE nondesript DIRT road that leads you to Wild Horse. On more than one occasion, A.P. (my father-in-law) and I thought we were on the wrong road and almost turned back to get our bearings, but we followed the instructions that we'd been given, and eventually we got there...

You can tell when more people are coming to the course to play by the plume of dust that their car/truck kicks up on the dirt road!

Once you've parked your car in the parking lot, however, you're in for a TREAT!!! Wild Horse is one of the new breed of "minimalist" courses, where the golf course architects (Dave Axland and Dan Proctor) worked with the existing topography to release the course from the original layout of the land, and did a phenomenal job!

Wild Horse is ranked #21 in the United States according to the Golfweek rankings of courses built since 1960. Check out the hole by hole online course tour before you visit this "Field of Dreams" on the "Wandering Golfer" December 4 edition.

For those of you who care about such matters, Gothenburg was FORMERLY known as the hometown of former Dallas Cowboy Pro-Bowl tight end Jay Novacek, who's got this latest business venture going. And I thought that Nebraska was just flat and boring - the country in central and western Nebraska is GORGEOUS! Check it out!

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...

This is becoming an obsession....

I dunno - there's just something really compelling about this contest to name the Course No. 7 at St. Andrews....

Maybe it's because I was born on the 7th (September), maybe because 7 has been a lucky number for me throughout my life (along with the number 23 - both of which were coincidentally worn by two of the greatest athletes in their fields, namely John Elway of the Denver Broncos and Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls, respectively, but I digress...), maybe it's because the winner gets to go play the course after they win the contest and it's been a lifelong goal/dream of mine to take my Mom back to her hometown of Edinburgh, maybe it's just a really cool idea to open it up to the rest of the world... I dunno...

I awakened this morning, head spinning about my preparations for the Golfweek Golfest Show down in Scottsdale, and all of a sudden, ideas for naming this course just started FLYING about my imagination at 5AM...that's just WEIRD!!!

In any event, here are TODAY's submissions:

• Piper's Moor or Pipers Moor
• Piper's Glen or Pipers Glen
• Tartans Brae or Tartan's Brae
• Tartans Glen or Tartan's Glen
• Tartan's Moor or Tartan Moor
  
• Piper's Bluff
• Piper's Brae or Pipers Brae
• Misty Isle Links
• Kenross Mhor
• Craigduff Brae
• Taylor Brae
• Seachdad Mhor

VOLUME II for the day was:

• Tyreboir Brae
  Thrill
  Thistle Dubh
  Tayboir Mor
  Tayboir

Sigh - I hope they announce the winner right after December 1, because this is just nuts....

Off to go finalize my packing and preparations...wish us luck this weekend!!!

Help find a good name for Course No. 7...

How cool is THIS???

The fine folks at the St. Andrews Links and Trust (yep, THAT St. Andrews - let's be reverential for a moment, shall we...bow our heads...OK, good) need our help...and they're having a contest...

Well, they don't really NEED our help, but they're having a fun contest to name their latest course, which is now going by the institutional name of "Course No. 7". (Is that like Chanel No. 5 ???)

Details of the contest are available here, and in the spirit of fun, fair play, and an attempt to get some discussion going on the blog, I hereby respectfully submit MY proposed entries, dated November 6, 2006, for your consideration, discussion and idea generation...(although, mine are going to win, so you might as well just read mine and weep...neener, neener, neener - see Kristen, the candy corn hasn't worn off YET....ugh)

Without further ado - here are the soon-to-be winning entrants:

* Seachd Adhar Links or Seachdadhar Links
(Seventh Heaven Links or Heaven's Seventh Links)
(In Scottish Gaelic no less - look it up - hopefully
I get some brownie points for trying...)

* Seachdadhar Brae (Do you see a trend developing here???)
It's not so bad if you say it phonetically...Seek DAD har
BRAY...say it with me again...Seek DAD har BRAY)

* Kinross Brae

* Kinkell Brae or Kinkell Ross (It'll make sense when you
read the background)

* Castle Brae (Please see above comment)

* Craigduff Brae or Craigduff Ross

* Rosseachd Links (Rosseach Links) or Rosseachd Brae
(Rosseach Brae)

OK, class, talk amongst yourselves - no flames - whaddya
think??? Huh?
Pretty CREATIVE, huh? (He said with smug satisfaction...)

If I win - I'll take lots of pictures and post 'em here...

OK, I added these entrants too...I'm paying homage to the
best Denver Broncos quarterback ever - John Elway...
BTW - I saw one of his first-ever Southern California
football games whenGranada Hills came to El Camino to
play an early or pre-season football game in September
1976 - Elway threw for like 350 yards and
Granada stomped ECR into the dust...even then,
we knew he was someone special...)

Without further ado - I also proposed:

• ELWAY'S LINKS
• ELWAY'S DRIVE
• THE DRIVE
• DRIVE SEVEN or DRIVE NUMBER SEVEN
• NUMBER SEVEN'S DRIVE

Obviously, the word is out - check out this press release from the St. Andrews Links:

November 9, 2006

Flood of entries for naming competition

Potential names for the seventh course at St Andrews Links are flooding in from around the world.

The naming competition for the seventh course launched last Wednesday on the internet and since then entries have poured in from golf fans and members of the public throughout America, Asia, Africa, Europe and the UK.

It is the first time in more than 600 years of history at the Home of Golf that people have been invited to suggest names for a golf course at the Links and the competition, run through the official www.standrews.org.uk website, has attracted nearly 500 entries in the last few days.

Some of the more interesting and imaginative names which have been suggested so far include "No 7 Cliffs of Heaven", "the Human Peace Course", "The Prince William Course" in recognition of his time studying in St Andrews, and "The Miracle."

Many people have been suggesting names focused on the location of the seventh course on a clifftop site at Kinkell Ness and near Brownhills Farm to the south-east of St Andrews. The course commands spectacular views out over St Andrews Bay to the hills of Angus and of the cliffs and rock formations of the rugged coastline such as the Maiden Rock and the Rock and Spindle. It was also formerly the site of Kinkell Castle.

Alan McGregor, general manager of St Andrews Links Trust which is running the competition said, "We were expecting a great deal of interest in the competition but we have been surprised by the sheer number of entries and the imagination and thought which has gone into them.

"It is quite clear that people from all over the world feel an emotional attachment to the cradle of golf and we have been very pleased to receive entries from far-flung parts of the world as well as much closer to home. I would urge people to keep their thinking caps on and send in their own suggestions. There is still plenty of time to do so."

The competition runs until December 1. The best names will be submitted to the Course No 7 Working Party to select the winning name. The name of the new course will then be announced in January. The competition winner will have the opportunity to play one of the first rounds on the new course when it opens in 2008 and will be a guest at the official opening ceremony along with VIP's from the world of golf.

Course No 7 is currently under construction and is due to open in 2008 when it will become the seventh course in the Links Trust's portfolio and a younger sister to the Old Course.

Full details for the competition and weekly information bulletins regarding the history and nature of the land at Course No 7 are being provided at www.standrews.org.uk. To send in your entry please email namecomp@standrews.org.uk. The deadline for entries is 12noon on December1.

Media Contact:
Mike Woodcock
Communications manager
St Andrews Links Trust
01334 466610
E-mail mikewoodcock@standrews.org.uk