By Tim McDonald,
National Golf Editor
For those of you unfortunate enough to live in the North, you must be salivating at the thought of the spring golf season.
Hold on, Tiger. You ain't the man you used to be. You can't just jump up and go straight to the golf course after a long winter of sloth and mold.
Now, you will find any number of charlatans willing to sell you their total golf fitness regimens. These sleazoids always assume you're a golfer interested in a cleaner, healthier way of living and golfing. I've seen you out on the course, and I know that's not the sort of thing you're "into."
So here is my total golf fitness regimen for the "real" golfer:
• For God's sake, you have to strengthen your core! This involves eating really hard food, like jawbreakers. Eat a bag of those and have your neighbor punch you in the gut to see if your core is all it can be.
Options: Month-old fudge, Purina Dog Chow, pine bark.
• You also have to really work your obliques, I mean really work the hell out of them. Here's the perfect exercise for that. Lie flat on your back with knees bent slightly wider than your hips. If you have really fat hips, you're either going to have to really stretch your knees like in a cartoon, like The Elastic Man from India, or just skip this exercise. In fact, if you have really fat hips, just skip playing golf, nobody wants to see you out on the course.
Now, you slim-hipped people reach your hands to the ceiling like you're crying out for the Lord Jesus Christ to spare you from your miserable existence. You can hold light hand-weights, or not. What do I care? Lift your head and chest toward the ceiling and rotate to reach both hands just outside of your fat, right knee. Repeat on the left side. Now, take a breather. Ask Christ for forgiveness.
• Breathing exercises: Breathing properly and deeply is critical, especially for those tense moments on the course when normally you would start crying.
This deep-breathing exercise involves attending your local adult movie house, or calling up one of those sites on your Internet browser. Follow your instincts. It's either that or follow mine, and then you're looking at jail time.
• Horizontal abduction/adduction: I can't give you much help here, because I always get "horizontal" confused with "vertical," and I have no idea what adduction is. Who came up with that word, anyway? It's a stupid word and should be eliminated from the English language, if it's even English.
• Standing hip rotation: Don't do this. It makes you look like a girl.
• Alcohol fitness: How many times have you lost $2 Nassaus because while you were getting hamboned, your playing partners were just holding up that bottle of Jack Black pretending to drink?
Well, no need to waste good liquor. You can still drink and maintain your competitive edge. You just need to build up a tolerance. Stand upright in a dark closet, with a wide stance, and suck it down. Keep drinking until your wife leaves you.
• Aerobics: Ha! Don't make me laugh. This is golf!
• Putting: Don't bother to practice putting. Putting in golf is overrated. I play golf maybe 200 times a year and I've yet to meet anyone who can putt. You either make it or you don't. If you miss, just keep putting until the ball goes in the hole. Simple.
• Seniors: As we age, our bodies react differently, so seniors must prepare for golf differently than young punks. An important thing to remember is that there is an inverse relationship of increased ear hair to laughably short drives off the tee.
So keep those ear hairs trim and neat. If you're proud of your thick mane of ear hair, don't sweat it. If you're short off the tee, you're probably small in other areas, and I think you know what I'm talking about.
• Excuses: A healthy psychological outlook is a must for Better Golf. If you can convince yourself that the snap hook you hit into the weeds over there is not your doing at all, you'll retain the confidence needed to excel in the game.
The first time you smack one of your all-too-typical lousy shots, turn to your playing partner and snarl," "Will you stop that!" Look at him, looking all hurt and everything. Who would have thought golf fitness could be so much fun?
• Torque development in the downswing: This is so important, I can barely contain myself. This is vital to any golfer who has ever wanted to improve his score. You could even say it is absolutely critical in terms of reaching your full potential as a golfer and knowing what it is to be truly human.
• Alignment and posture: Face the target squarely and stand erect, with your rump jutting out slightly. Feels a little silly, doesn't it? Can you think of another situation in life where you would position yourself in such an odd manner? I can't.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Sunday, April 13, 2008
How to Survive Playing Nine Courses in a Day
By: Blaine Newnham
So when is enough enough? I'll never forget the ultra marathoner - folks who run as far as 100 miles in one race - talking about his addiction to his sport. "We're all just an injury away from being on drugs, serious drugs," he said, creating the image of a pulled hamstring giving way to heroin.
As I tell my wife, in dealing with addiction as most of us do, it is better to play golf than gamble on it. I make a few golf trips each year, visiting areas that are trying to promote themselves.
It is easy for the Reno and Lake Tahoe areas to make their cases to golfers, you know, a diversity that spreads from the desert east of Reno to the towering pines of Lake Tahoe to the mid-century and modern feel that is Plumas County, and my favorite course in the area, White Hawk Ranch.
On a recent media tour to that area we were given an option: Play a civilized round at one of the nice courses near Reno - Arrow Creek, D'Andrea, Red Hawk, LakeRidge, there are many of them - or meet in a casino parking lot in Carson City at 6:30 in the morning for real golf.
Shoot, there was no choice for me. Even though I'm 65 years old, I'll always go on that trip to Ireland that has eight rounds of golf in five days rather than the more casual five rounds in eight days. I'm a 36-holes-a-day guy at Bandon Dunes. But this was a different challenge.
We would embrace the so-called Divine9, a group of nine courses south of Reno near Carson City that can get lost in the glamour that belongs to Lake Tahoe-area venues like Edgewood, Squaw Creek, Old Greenwood and Coyote Moon.
In the dead of one winter, the publicity folks came up with the crazy notion of playing all nine courses in one day. Well, not all the holes. But two holes on each course. "We realized, once we gotten together as a group," said Jim Keppler, the pro at Eagle Valley, "that as resort courses go we were as inexpensive as any place in the country. The question was? How do we promote our properties."
Even though for vacation purposes the courses are close together - within 20 minutes or so of each other - the nine courses in one day was quite a logistical undertaking. We needed Eisenhower to organize our invasion; instead, we got Phil Weidinger, the zany Stateline, Nev., publicist who hatched the plot in the first place.
We were in northern Nevada in early June. The goal was to be finished by dark or dinner or both. In the end, it would take us more than 11-and-a-half hours. We would cover more than 80 miles.
A dozen of us - about half the tour group - piled into the little van that morning and were immediately medicated with doughnuts and coffee. We took our own clubs, if not our sensibilities. As the van rumbled toward Empire Ranch, our first stop, I wondered if this was really "country for old men," as the movie asks. It was barely 40 degrees as we were greeted by club personnel and directed to golf carts.
It was a brisk five-minute ride to somewhere that I was sure was deep into the back nine, but turned out to be the fifth hole. Half of us teed off on a par-3, the other half on the adjacent par-5, and then traded holes.
Every course wanted to show off its most daunting hole. The par-3 was a 170-yard carry over water. A nice, challenging hole for someone in full swing, but a nightmare for those of us who hadn't made a swing at all. There was no time or humor for warm-up on a driving range. With five colleagues looking on, I scraped a 5-iron on the green and two putts later was even par.
Even though there was no concerted effort to have it happen, the par for the 18 holes worked out to be 71, and the aggregate distance was 6,325 yards. The regulars at every course would duck for cover as our group broke the morning serenity. They'd been told to beware of these golf paparazzi.
From Empire Ranch, a low-key but scenic 27 holes nestled along the river, we headed to Dayton Valley, an Arnold Palmer design that could humble you if the wind came up. Or even if it didn't. Our first hole there was 165-yard shot to what looked like an island green. I found water, and was lucky to get a double bogey. The next hole was one of the toughest par-4s on the planet. I hit it in the water again, and got double again.
The folks at Dayton Valley were, as usual, warm and accommodating. It was just their course that proved inhospitable for someone of my limited abilities.
I was beginning to wonder if I would break 100, let alone survive as we pulled into Eagle Valley, where all the help stood at attention and where our first two holes on the older and easier East course were clearly made for my game. Then we headed into the desert foothills for the new West course. It might have produced my favorite two holes on the tour, a par-3 framed by the desert and an uphill par-5.
We finally hit the high-end layouts at Genoa - the Lakes and Resort courses - which were as pretty as advertised. Those courses near $100 green fees in the highest of seasons, but for the most part these were splendid every-man venues that could all be played for $295 with a special card called "Tickets to Paradise."
I liked most of them. Carson Valley Country Club is old-world golf between historic cottonwood trees and along the Carson River, a course that made up in charm what it lacked in challenge. The place felt right to me. Carson Valley is so serious about attracting young golfers that it has built tees 100 yards or more in front of the regular ones. Silver Oak has a beautiful setting up against the mountains, and Sunridge, designed by its owner, is as spectacular as slippery with its sidehill location.
The Genoa Lakes courses are the work of John Harbottle, the Tacoma designer who seems just as comfortable working without trees as with them. The Lakes course is a links creation, while the Resort - has a lofty desert feel. Both are top-notch.
There is no doubting the appeal of the Carson Valley courses. Unlike the courses near Tahoe which would be lucky to enjoy a six-month season, the lower and more arid Carson courses are open nearly 10 months a year. They are close to gambling, of course, and don't require winning a jackpot to afford them.
"You can play all of our courses for what they charge for one day of golf at some of the courses in Las Vegas,'' said Keppler, who also said late fall is the very best time tackle the Divine9. "The weather is beautiful and most of the locals are out killing animals. They like to do that."
Along the way, the cultural differences in the courses - from the kind of beer served in the grill to the speed of the greens - were fun to observe. A few of the courses treated us as celebrities, others as a nuisance. I guess we were some of both. At Eagle Valley all 12 of us played two of the holes at the same time, like a giant horse race. The regulars just stood back and laughed.
Finally finding my swing, I made par on five of the last six holes, at Carson Valley, Sunridge and Silver Oak, to shoot 84, third best in the group. By the end, as the sun set over the Sierra, I actually wanted more. Maybe we could have played three holes on each course. Honestly.
There has been recent talk of a public nine-courses-in-a-day event, where golfers would pay for the privilege of riding the bus and playing without preparation. You know there are enough crazies out there to do it.
Blaine Newnham has covered golf for 50 years. He still cherishes the memory of following Ben Hogan for 18 holes during the first round of the 1966 U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco. He worked then for the Oakland Tribune, where he covered the Oakland Raiders during the first three seasons of head coach John Madden. Blaine moved on to Eugene, Ore., in 1971 as sports editor and columnist, covering the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. He was to cover five Olympics all together - Mexico City, Munich, Los Angeles, Seoul, and Athens - before retiring in early 2005 from the Seattle Times. He covered his first Masters in 1987 when Larry Mize chipped in to beat Greg Norman, and his last in 2005 when Tiger Woods chip teetered on the lip at No. 16 and rolled in. He saw Woods four straight major wins in 2000 and 2001, and Payne Stewart's birdie putt to win the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. Blaine plays golf at Wing Point Golf and Country Club on Bainbridge Island, Wash., where his current index is 12.6. In 2005, Blaine received the Northwest Golf Media Association's Distinguished Service Award. He and his wife, Joanna, live in Indianola, Wash., where the Dungeness crabs out-number the people.
So when is enough enough? I'll never forget the ultra marathoner - folks who run as far as 100 miles in one race - talking about his addiction to his sport. "We're all just an injury away from being on drugs, serious drugs," he said, creating the image of a pulled hamstring giving way to heroin.
As I tell my wife, in dealing with addiction as most of us do, it is better to play golf than gamble on it. I make a few golf trips each year, visiting areas that are trying to promote themselves.
It is easy for the Reno and Lake Tahoe areas to make their cases to golfers, you know, a diversity that spreads from the desert east of Reno to the towering pines of Lake Tahoe to the mid-century and modern feel that is Plumas County, and my favorite course in the area, White Hawk Ranch.
On a recent media tour to that area we were given an option: Play a civilized round at one of the nice courses near Reno - Arrow Creek, D'Andrea, Red Hawk, LakeRidge, there are many of them - or meet in a casino parking lot in Carson City at 6:30 in the morning for real golf.
Shoot, there was no choice for me. Even though I'm 65 years old, I'll always go on that trip to Ireland that has eight rounds of golf in five days rather than the more casual five rounds in eight days. I'm a 36-holes-a-day guy at Bandon Dunes. But this was a different challenge.
We would embrace the so-called Divine9, a group of nine courses south of Reno near Carson City that can get lost in the glamour that belongs to Lake Tahoe-area venues like Edgewood, Squaw Creek, Old Greenwood and Coyote Moon.
In the dead of one winter, the publicity folks came up with the crazy notion of playing all nine courses in one day. Well, not all the holes. But two holes on each course. "We realized, once we gotten together as a group," said Jim Keppler, the pro at Eagle Valley, "that as resort courses go we were as inexpensive as any place in the country. The question was? How do we promote our properties."
Even though for vacation purposes the courses are close together - within 20 minutes or so of each other - the nine courses in one day was quite a logistical undertaking. We needed Eisenhower to organize our invasion; instead, we got Phil Weidinger, the zany Stateline, Nev., publicist who hatched the plot in the first place.
We were in northern Nevada in early June. The goal was to be finished by dark or dinner or both. In the end, it would take us more than 11-and-a-half hours. We would cover more than 80 miles.
A dozen of us - about half the tour group - piled into the little van that morning and were immediately medicated with doughnuts and coffee. We took our own clubs, if not our sensibilities. As the van rumbled toward Empire Ranch, our first stop, I wondered if this was really "country for old men," as the movie asks. It was barely 40 degrees as we were greeted by club personnel and directed to golf carts.
It was a brisk five-minute ride to somewhere that I was sure was deep into the back nine, but turned out to be the fifth hole. Half of us teed off on a par-3, the other half on the adjacent par-5, and then traded holes.
Every course wanted to show off its most daunting hole. The par-3 was a 170-yard carry over water. A nice, challenging hole for someone in full swing, but a nightmare for those of us who hadn't made a swing at all. There was no time or humor for warm-up on a driving range. With five colleagues looking on, I scraped a 5-iron on the green and two putts later was even par.
Even though there was no concerted effort to have it happen, the par for the 18 holes worked out to be 71, and the aggregate distance was 6,325 yards. The regulars at every course would duck for cover as our group broke the morning serenity. They'd been told to beware of these golf paparazzi.
From Empire Ranch, a low-key but scenic 27 holes nestled along the river, we headed to Dayton Valley, an Arnold Palmer design that could humble you if the wind came up. Or even if it didn't. Our first hole there was 165-yard shot to what looked like an island green. I found water, and was lucky to get a double bogey. The next hole was one of the toughest par-4s on the planet. I hit it in the water again, and got double again.
The folks at Dayton Valley were, as usual, warm and accommodating. It was just their course that proved inhospitable for someone of my limited abilities.
I was beginning to wonder if I would break 100, let alone survive as we pulled into Eagle Valley, where all the help stood at attention and where our first two holes on the older and easier East course were clearly made for my game. Then we headed into the desert foothills for the new West course. It might have produced my favorite two holes on the tour, a par-3 framed by the desert and an uphill par-5.
We finally hit the high-end layouts at Genoa - the Lakes and Resort courses - which were as pretty as advertised. Those courses near $100 green fees in the highest of seasons, but for the most part these were splendid every-man venues that could all be played for $295 with a special card called "Tickets to Paradise."
I liked most of them. Carson Valley Country Club is old-world golf between historic cottonwood trees and along the Carson River, a course that made up in charm what it lacked in challenge. The place felt right to me. Carson Valley is so serious about attracting young golfers that it has built tees 100 yards or more in front of the regular ones. Silver Oak has a beautiful setting up against the mountains, and Sunridge, designed by its owner, is as spectacular as slippery with its sidehill location.
The Genoa Lakes courses are the work of John Harbottle, the Tacoma designer who seems just as comfortable working without trees as with them. The Lakes course is a links creation, while the Resort - has a lofty desert feel. Both are top-notch.
There is no doubting the appeal of the Carson Valley courses. Unlike the courses near Tahoe which would be lucky to enjoy a six-month season, the lower and more arid Carson courses are open nearly 10 months a year. They are close to gambling, of course, and don't require winning a jackpot to afford them.
"You can play all of our courses for what they charge for one day of golf at some of the courses in Las Vegas,'' said Keppler, who also said late fall is the very best time tackle the Divine9. "The weather is beautiful and most of the locals are out killing animals. They like to do that."
Along the way, the cultural differences in the courses - from the kind of beer served in the grill to the speed of the greens - were fun to observe. A few of the courses treated us as celebrities, others as a nuisance. I guess we were some of both. At Eagle Valley all 12 of us played two of the holes at the same time, like a giant horse race. The regulars just stood back and laughed.
Finally finding my swing, I made par on five of the last six holes, at Carson Valley, Sunridge and Silver Oak, to shoot 84, third best in the group. By the end, as the sun set over the Sierra, I actually wanted more. Maybe we could have played three holes on each course. Honestly.
There has been recent talk of a public nine-courses-in-a-day event, where golfers would pay for the privilege of riding the bus and playing without preparation. You know there are enough crazies out there to do it.
Blaine Newnham has covered golf for 50 years. He still cherishes the memory of following Ben Hogan for 18 holes during the first round of the 1966 U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco. He worked then for the Oakland Tribune, where he covered the Oakland Raiders during the first three seasons of head coach John Madden. Blaine moved on to Eugene, Ore., in 1971 as sports editor and columnist, covering the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. He was to cover five Olympics all together - Mexico City, Munich, Los Angeles, Seoul, and Athens - before retiring in early 2005 from the Seattle Times. He covered his first Masters in 1987 when Larry Mize chipped in to beat Greg Norman, and his last in 2005 when Tiger Woods chip teetered on the lip at No. 16 and rolled in. He saw Woods four straight major wins in 2000 and 2001, and Payne Stewart's birdie putt to win the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. Blaine plays golf at Wing Point Golf and Country Club on Bainbridge Island, Wash., where his current index is 12.6. In 2005, Blaine received the Northwest Golf Media Association's Distinguished Service Award. He and his wife, Joanna, live in Indianola, Wash., where the Dungeness crabs out-number the people.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
TPC Las Vegas mows over the competition when it comes to having perfect greens
LAS VEGAS -- TPC Las Vegas' Golf Course Superintendent, Kim Wood, offers expert tips and tricks on how to maintain a perfect putting green.
Greens can be fast or slow, have divots or be perfectly smooth but TPC Las Vegas maintains perfection on its vital surfaces. TPC Las Vegas outlines key guidelines on how to reach putting green excellence.
* Greens should be aerated two to three times per year to aid in relieving compaction, increasing oxygen to the roots and continuing the flow of water. At this time, it is important to fill the aerification hole with sand that is consistent to the material from which the greens are constructed.
* During the growing season, it is essential to seed the greens in order to renovate the area. This process called “topdressing” helps maintain the smoothness and firmness of the green.
* Irrigation should be done infrequently but deep into the root in order to keep that area quenched and leave the surface dry to improve playability and prevent disease.
* Greens are to be verticut using a machine equipped with blades that reach vertically into the turf to cut through lateral stems and dislodge thatch. Verticut greens provide a firmer surface and promote new growth of individual plants.
* Slow release fertilizers or small doses of nitrate fertilizers are recommended to minimize or eliminate a fast growth rate. Plant growth regulators are also available, as it is difficult to maintain a fast putting surface if the grass grows too quickly.
TPC Las Vegas is located at 9851 Canyon Run Drive. For more information call 1.888.321.5725 or go to the TPC Las Vegas Web site, www.tpc.com/lasvegas.
TPC Las Vegas is a 7,080-yard, par-71 golf course and was designed by Architect Bobby Weed and player consultant Raymond Floyd in 1996. As a host of PGA TOUR events and the Champions Tour in past years, TPC Las Vegas offers a stern test of golfing skills along with stunning vistas. In 2007, TPC Las Vegas was voted “Best Desert Course” by Vegas Golfer Magazine and was also named “Best Golf Course” by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
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