I don’t have a TV right now (surely there’s rant/blog coming about that soon). Therefore I missed the chance to watch Tiger Woods and Rory McIlory on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show last night. In case you missed it like me, here’s a video clip below.
I witnessed an ace yesterday in my regular Sunday grudge match at Salt Lake City’s Bonneville Golf Course. My buddy/opponent Marius hit a beautiful five iron which drew toward the pin, hit, and rolled straight in the hole. Needless to say, he won that hole. Happy to tie the overall match though!
I tweeted the event yesterday, so above is an experiment in embedding the tweet. Seems to have worked.
I’m currently enjoying the feel of a pair of Swiftwick socks as I write this review. Swiftwick makes compression socks for all sorts of sports and activities, not just golf. Swiftwick is proud of their products as they should be. They’re made with the highest quality materials and state of the art equipment, right here in the USA. Not one Swiftwick sock is made in China.
Swiftwick Compression Socks
What exactly are “compression socks?” Compression socks are much tighter than standard socks. This compression helps to improve blood flow and circulation. This improved blood flow and circulation increases endurance and helps the athlete perform better with less fatigue.
Click to see more Swiftwick socks…
On The Course
Despite the fabric being a little thinner than many socks I own, the Swiftwick socks provide great comfort when walking the course. I don’t find that my knees or ankles ache or tire during a round of golf, which is a great thing. It must be due to the increased circulation. Tired feet/legs means a weak base which will result in weak golf swings. From there it is a loss of power, accuracy and eventually a loss of confidence.
Off The Course
As I mentioned, I’m wearing a pair of Swiftwicks at the office today. The comfort level is great and my feet feel wonderful, even though I’m trapped in the cubicle. Around town, hiking, or even working in the back yard I feel the benefits of Swiftwicks and their compression.
Conclusion
While I’m not 100% sure a pair of socks can shave numbers off of your golf handicap, they can help aid in performance, comfort, stability, and endurance. Through their compression technology, Swiftwick socks can help prevent score-trashing fatigue and aches.
I could move to Michigan, at least during the warmer months. Winter? Not so much. The golf in Michigan is so astoundingly good and interesting. The topography and vegetation lend themselves to such fantastic golf which can compete and even crush competitive golf destinations like Florida, South Carolina, California, or the northwest. The terrain with its great rolling hills and elevation changes makes a great canvas for golf architects to paint their masterpieces.
Secluded is an understatement… click to zoom
One such masterpiece is the Arthur Hills designed Shepherd’s Hollow Golf Club, located northwest of Detroit about 45 minutes in Clarkston, Michigan. Shepherd’s Hollow is secluded in a densely wooded area, not near any kind of visible development. Each hole has its own space. Nothing shared. No side-by-side fairways.
Courses
Shepherd’s Hollow features 27 holes. Unfortunately I was only able to play 18 of the 27 during the HOG World Tour stop. I MUST get back there soon to play those again and experience the nine I missed.
There are five sets of tees at Shepherd’s Hollow, allowing the course to accommodate players of all ability levels. The tips for each set of 18 runs roughly 7,100 yards. The primary 18 is an absolute beast of a golf course, rating at 76.0 with a slope of 147. A scratch player would do well to break 80 from the tips.
Tee
Tee shots at Shepherd’s are impressive. The view from each tee is of a hole lined by trees on each side and landing areas which are anything but flat. Tee placement is crucial to have a chance at par, and on this course pars are good. Nearly every tee shot features some kind of elevation change, requiring good strategy and calculation from the golfer.
I really like the different tee sets at Shepherd’s. Different tees don’t just mean a change in yardage. The angle and even elevation of each tee shot is different based on the play of the day.
A very unique feature with regards to the tees is how they are marked. Rather than having two tee markers sitting on the ground which the player must tee off between, one pole on the side marks the teeing area. See image below:
Tee marker above left, working the tee shot right-to-left above right!
Fairway
If you manage to hit the fabulous fairways at Shepherd’s Hollow, you’ll be presented with challenging lies and approaches.
The stance may promote a draw but the approach may require a fade. One other course does that very well, Augusta National Golf Club.
Green
Ah the greens. What lovely surfaces these are. Such great conditioning and such fun to putt. Tiers, slopes, and swells make putting a fun (but fair) challenge.
A challenging two-putt prospect…
Hitting the proper area of the green on approach is as challenging, for finding the wrong spot makes two-putting an accomplishment. Once again, not unfair, but very challenging.
Facilities
The clubhouse and its setting are tremendous. The clubhouse’s classy architecture perfectly fits in with the environment.
Such a great clubhouse…
Inside the clubhouse is very warm and inviting. The pro shop is full of great gear and apparel while the food and beverage provides some fantastic selections.
The back patio is magnificent! I could hang out there all day. See below.
Nice place to collect your winnings and enjoy a frosty beverage…
Conclusion
If asked to come up with one word to describe the whole experience at Shepherd’s Hollow I’d use the word “pure.” The whole experience from the facilities to the course to the area… PURE.
Links
More Hooked On Golf Blog Shepherd’s Hollow Golf Club photos.
Other Michigan golf course reviews
Official carries the wiener off the 7th green…
I don’t do a lot of Tiger Woods posts. There are billions of other sites regurgitating every bit of news they can find about Tiger, even covering his empty parking spots or his entry into the porta potty. My favorite is when he blows a big snot out of his nose and they show it in super slo-mo on the Konica Minolta Tiger Booger Vision Camera. With the Ryder Cup coming up I feel Tiger is worthy of some commentary here.
Tiger Woods has withdrawn from consideration as a captain’s pick for the Ryder Cup. Here’s his post regarding his withdrawal:
I’ve been told by my doctors and trainer that my back muscles need to be rehabilitated and healed. They’ve advised me not to play or practice now. I was fortunate that my recent back injury was not related to my surgery and was muscular only.
I have already spoken to Tom [Watson] about the Ryder Cup, and while I greatly appreciate his thinking about me for a possible captain’s pick, I took myself out of consideration. The U.S. team and the Ryder Cup mean too much to me not to be able to give it my best. I’ll be cheering for the U.S. team. I think we have an outstanding squad going into the matches.
I plan to return to competition at my World Challenge tournament at Isleworth in Orlando, Florida, Dec. 1-7. It’s an event that’s important to me and my foundation, and it will be exciting to be playing again.
Thankfully this announcement puts an end to the nauseating over-posting of the “should Tom Watson pick Tiger for the Ryder Cup team?” questions. Glad that’s over. Seems like every article and every social network feed had about as many of those posts as the “dump ice on your head” ones. By sheer numbers alone, one might conclude that the Ryder Cup team is better of without Tiger Woods, even when he’s healthy. His record in the event is quite poor. Based on recent play I don’t understand how anyone would remotely consider him for the team. They’re just Tiger homers.
I can’t help wondering if Woods should not have played in the Bridgestone and the PGA this past month or so. He was obviously not at his best yet told the media he was 100% and there to win. Is that denial, stubbornness, rust, or was he really 100% only to become injured again during the course of the Bridgestone? I’d have to question his doctors about that, or Woods himself for perhaps ignoring their advice and playing anyway? We will never know.
Now that Woods has bowed out of any competition until at least the first week of December are we going to be subjected to more posts about how Tiger not being around is killing the golf economy? Probably but I sure hope not. Personally I don’t buy gear or book tee times based on whether Tiger Woods is playing and I don’t know anyone else that does either. The Tiger effect hurts the media, but they took too many trips through the Tiger buffett anyway. Sooner or later the Tiger media bubble was going to burst.
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