Hats off to the president and vice president of my local men’s golf association at River Oaks in Sandy, Utah. The club has been including very nice gifts for their members as a thank you for signing up for the yearly league. Last year it was a personalized water bottle. When I was president of the league for seven (long) years, I didn’t think of that, though we did give the members a prime rib dinner at the end of the season.
PitchFix Gift Set
This year’s gift is ironically a product I received for review a few weeks ago and which I was about to post about, PitchFix. PitchFix is a switchblade divot tool of very high quality design, style, and workmanship.
The tool comes in a nice branded tin along with two extra ball markers. Very classy.
I also like the fact that the whole men’s association has divot repair tools now. I hope they use them!
This would make a very nice and classy Father’s Day gift. If you want to buy one now, follow this link to several PitchFix models on Amazon.
Friday of last week I had the pleasure of competing in a 27-hole member/guest tournament with my dad at his great club Hidden Valley. I always jump at the chance to “hit the white spheroid” with my dad for a couple of reasons. First, he’s my dad and the time we spend together on the course is something I really enjoy. Second, his course is one of the best courses in the state, and was even ranked #1 at one time.
Hidden Valley Country Club Lakes Course – Par-3 6th – Aerial Photo by Tony Korologos
This 27-hole tournament over the years has been a tough one for us. It is a Ryder Cup-like format: 9-holes best ball, 9-holes scramble, 9-holes alternate shot. Historically we have done fine in all formats but the very pressure packed alternate shot. We’ve cracked into the money a few times but that’s about it.
Friday I brought a C- game. I shot my worst best ball in the history of our playing the event. Usually I’m good for even par or one-over. This time I flamed out with a 41. But my dad shined in that part, carrying my arse.
In the alternate shot he and I both had one terrible swing which cost the team badly. I hate doing that in alternate shot, leaving your partner in a bad situation.
In the scramble we only shot one-under…
Disgusted with our lame performance as a team, my dad and I didn’t even stick around to have a frosty beverage. We were the first to turn in our scores and laughed at being the “leader in the clubhouse.” When you are the first to turn in your card, you hold the lead!
Yesterday my dad called to inform me that while at the course to play, he was congratulated on the victory. As it turns out WE WON our flight! What a pleasant surprise which made my day.
Moral to the story: stick around and have a beer, just in case you won the tournament.
Yesterday (a Monday) I had a couple of hours to spend with my little guy, a 2.5 year old full of energy who loves putting with his plastic Little Tikes putter. I usually go to my more upscale course, but this time I decided we would visit the “neighborhood” course. This course is a lower end executive type course, a par-68 with short holes, a super modest pro shop, and a crowd more unique and authentic than I could have imagined.
The vibe of this place is super casual. No collared shirts required. Cargo shorts okay. In fact, I don’t think they’d care if you didn’t even wear a shirt as long as you were there.
Junior Golf Lessons
My boy and I were putting for a while. A group of kids started converging for what obviously was a group junior golf lesson. As it turned out I actually knew, and had had some previous lessons from one of the instructors. It was great to watch these kids on the range and on the putting green learning the golf swing and the game.
Junior Golf
The very working class parents sat in chairs under the shade of a big tree watching their kids hit balls. There was a UPS guy, moms and dads of all types… All this while a guy on a golf cart was playing guitar, harmonica, and singing. More on the live entertainment later (really, keep reading). What a cool scene.
Guitarist in cart on left while mom walks son to junior golf lessons…
Triage
My boy and I started to get quite hot and I remembered I left some bottled water in the car. So we went back to the car for a drink. While we were standing by the car I noticed a man carrying a woman in his arms from the driving range, while escorted by two other people. The man set the lady down in the shade and they were very concerned about her. I thought maybe it was a heart attack or heat stroke until I saw them icing and attending to the left side of her jaw. She’d obviously been hit by a club. What a bummer and that’s certainly a big point about golf injuries. Most golf injuries are not from players being hit by golf balls. Rather, the majority of golf injuries are the result of someone getting hit by a club during someone’s practice swing.
Takes Strokes Off Golf Lessons!
Breathless Live Entertainment
My boy and I went back to the practice green and hit a bunch more putts, then he took his plastic putter to the range stalls and started taking his first full swings. He had been watching those kids and was mimicking them. It was cool to see and he was knocking real golf balls a good 20 yards with a plastic putter. While he was hitting I thought I’d say hello to the guitar player.
As a former professional musician who made a living for 25 years playing music, I’m always interested and want to say hello to other musicians. I thought it was pretty cool a guitar player would bring his guitar and perform for the people at the course. How cool to sit on a golf cart and play guitar! He was very quiet and I could hardly make out what he was playing or singing from more than 5-10 feet away though.
Me: “Can you play Flight of the Bumble Bee?”
When I got close enough to talk to the guitarist and ask his permission to take a photo, I realized he was on oxygen. That explained the quiet vocals.
I grabbed my boy and brought him over to listen to the music when I realized something odd. He was capoed up about 5-6 frets, using no pick, and not really doing anything with his left hand other than muting some of the strings randomly. It only took me a few seconds to realize that this guitarist was not playing any chords at all and was making up lyrics which he talk-sang as he chicken-plucked.
Bless this guy. He didn’t know how to play guitar or sing, but it was still cool. Nobody noticed because he was so quiet.
Conclusion
It will not soon forget my odd Monday evening at the “neighborhood” course. It was authentic, tragic, entertaining, heartwarming, and breathtaking all at the same time.
Golf websites are scrambling, producing all sorts of “what’s wrong with Tiger Woods?” articles. The pundits are pontificating and theorizing, endlessly babbling about what Tiger is doing wrong or what’s wrong with him. From Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee to Fox Sports’ Greg Norman to the every day six-pack hack golfers wearing their sleeveless shirts showing their barbed wire tattoos, everyone has their theories.
None of them are correct.
It’s All About Apparel Scripting
To the uneducated/inexperienced golf media member or golf spectator the solutions would lie in Tiger’s swing coach, practice routine, equipment, personal problems, etc. But to my keen and experienced golf blogger eye, the reason for Tiger’s poor play is obvious: bad apparel scripting.
While we can’t be sure if it is one piece or the whole ensemble, the results don’t lie. Something is rubbing, squeezing, chafing, blistering, or perhaps cutting off Tiger’s circulation. Maybe his hat is too tight and it cutting off blood flow to his brain causing bad golf decision making? Maybe the tighty whities are too tight? Shoes might be causing blisters? Maybe it is just the color schemes? The white hat and black belt don’t match? The socks aren’t moisture wicking enough?
Whether it is one of the issues above, all of them, or a combination of a few, something is going to have to change. If Tiger, Nike, and Tiger’s “handlers” don’t adjust his apparel scripting soon, the 85 from last week’s Memorial Tournament could be the tip of the iceberg.
Golf Titanic.
Get Leonardo DiCaprio on the phone.
I had quite an enjoyable round yesterday at the Mountain Dell Canyon Course, between Salt Lake City and Park City, Utah in Emigration Canyon. The Canyon course is one of two courses on the property, and the one I prefer.
I had some spectacular shots yesterday. One was a punch 8-iron from under a tree in the right rough on the par-4 9th. The ball ended up 12 inches. Birdie. The next one was a punch 9-iron from 145 (lots of wind), from a severe side-hill lie. That 3rd shot on the par-5 14th astonishingly didn’t go in. It must have lipped out for eagle. The ball was TWO inches behind the hole. Birdie.
I had some other fantastic shots after the round, via my golf aerial photo/video hexacopter drone.
Mountain Dell Canyon Course – click to see more
They should get rid of the cart paths…
More aerial golf photos: Mountain Dell Canyon Course and Mountain Dell Lake Course.
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