Spending More Time in the Sand Than David Hasselhoff

Spent the weekend with my son, Alex, at the Joe Cheves Junior Invitational Golf Tournament in Morganton, NC. Where, you say? Well, so did I. It’s about 40 miles from Asheville right on I-40. The mountains are not that far away, as you can see from the picture below:

Mountains in the back, Mimosa Hills in the front!

A few comments about the tournament. First off, very well run! Carter Cheves runs it and does a fantastic job. He even got dressed up in a sport coat and tie on Saturday morning and announced each player with their accomplishments. Alex got the shout out for finishing second at the Dogwood State Tournament in August, as well as for playing at Athens Drive and at Raleigh Country Club, the last course for Donald Ross. Really neat.

Second, the pins were unbelievable! I mean, I’ve been at the US Open, and I watch a lot of pro golf, and I’ve never seen pin placements like I saw there. One par 5 had the pin tucked in a little hernia the green had deep right, on a downslope, behind a bunker. Alex hit his second shot 10 feet from the green and, honestly, had no chance of getting it anywhere near the pin. None! He had to make a good chip to be 20 feet away and struggled to 2 putt for par. Amazing. They had to do it otherwise these guys and ladies, the best players in Virginia and the Carolinas for the most part, would have destroyed the course. As it was, there were only 5 boys under par for the two days. That’s unheard of for most junior tournaments at this level. Then, to prove how ridiculous some of these guys are, local Apex senior and future UNC-Greensboro golfer Andy Knox shot 63 the final round to win by six. These guys are good!

If you like watching good golf, do yourself a favor:  go to a local junior tournament and follow around a few of the players. They will amaze you with their talent.

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I have traditionally thought the elitist clubs that ban cellphones on their courses were too stuck-up for their own good.

I hadn’t seen cellphones as a huge issue when I’ve played, after all. As a doctor, I’m biased, because it is often very difficult to go to a course without a cellie if you have to stay in touch with your office. I don’t see a lot of doctors just chatting on their phones, disturbing their partners and others. They use it only when they need to, discreetly, avoiding disturbing the other golfers.

But today, I saw on-course cellphone etiquette at it’s worst.

I was playing behind a group of 3 guys, all in carts, with a caddy no less (too much money to know what to do with). I started on 1 when they were on the green of the par 5, so I gave them plenty of room. I played the hole leisurely since I didn’t want to bump into them. As I walked up to the 1st green, I saw one cart on the 2nd fairway but, to my surprise, the second cart and it’s one occupant were parked next to the second tee. And he was on his cellphone.

I chipped up, putted out, practice putted and chipped for over 5 minutes (I checked my watch). No one was behind me, so I had time to do all this. Meanwhile, Mr. Motorola continued yapping on his cellphone, smoking a cigarette, and drinking a beer. His partners had by now played their second shots to the green and were parked by the green looking back at the tee toward their errant partner. I think they saw me, because after about 10 more minutes, they sent the caddy back in their cart to collect the Talker. He had never glanced in my direction (I put my bag down 10 yards behind his cart alongside the tee box and was just standing there, waiting for him to finish his conversation. Maybe I should have coughed or harrumphed or something, but I was curious how long he would remain oblivious).

This just tells me that this guy’s world revolves around him, and no one else. Exclusively! I mean, we all are self-centered to some extent, but he took it to a new level. It was fairly sad to watch someone so involved in himself that he had no clue that he was keeping his friends waiting, his employee caddy waiting, and a stranger waiting – all of which are considered poor form on a golf course or in life in general.

Put it this way – if my son acted even remotely like that, he wouldn’t get to play golf for a long, long time. And he knows better, and has since he first started playing at 8 years old.

Where was this guy’s father?

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Love the latest post by Ryan Ballangee of Waggle Room. Take a read.

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We went to the USA Baseball Complex here in Cary last night with our good friends the Coopers and the Stokes to watch the World Cup USA team take on Canada. In baseball, not curling or hockey. It was a lot of fun. Cool to see the USA team in action.

The USA World Cup Team in Cary

It got me thinking of golf in the Olympics. I mean, it is pretty cool to play any sport for your country, but is golf a good choice?

Quick quiz – which sport has been played in the Olympics the fewest times: Golf, Tug Of War, or Rugby?

Answer: Golf – only twice in 1900 and 1904 (Tug of War was hotly contested 6 times before from 1900 to 1920, and rugby 4 times between 1900 and 1928).

I’ve always pictured a good Olympic event as 1) a sport I don’t ordinarily see and, 2)an amateur sport.

Rule 1 takes out golf for sure, as well as baseball, hockey, tennis and basketball. I love watching the luge in the Olympics but wouldn’t change the channel with a remote to see it any other time. On the other hand, I don’t really care if “The Dream Team Part 10″ wins a game.

Rule 2 takes out golf for sure, as well as baseball, hockey, tennis and basketball – and track, skiing, figure skating, volleyball – heck, just about everything. But I don’t follow track much, unless the Tug of War is one of the events, so I don’t think of it as a typical professional sport and it gets a pass from me. Same is true for all the other lesser known professional sports. The big American team sports – not Olympic events in my book.

Golf has plenty of tournaments, many of which the best players already don’t care about. Do the best players in the world really care about playing for their country in yet another tournament? We already have widespread apathy for the President’s Cup. Is Olympic golf any different?

I say, leave golf out and let’s get Tug of War back!

A True Olympic Event!

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How cool is it to sit at work without The Golf Channel anywhere and be able to watch the PGA on my humble little computer?

I get these emails during every major and, today, for the “playoffs” of the Tour, the Deutsche Bank Classic, that say “Watch Live Now”. The first time I got one, I was worried it was another male enhancement ad or a trick similar to the $1.4 million I need to send you from Africa to help me out. But it actually is live video of various holes, key groups that are felt to be interesting. Try it!

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Golf ministry – sounds like something that Dr. Bob Rotella does. You know, your head is so screwed up with left wrist straight, supinate, one plane swing that I need to minister to you to help you.

That isn’t what I was talking about in my last post. I’m talking, actually, about how to use the game of golf to help people know Jesus. Or if they know him already, to know him better. To, in the words of my home church at True North, become a passionate follower of Christ.

Doesn’t seem like they go together well, does it? I mean, God and Jesus’ names are invoked on the golf course very frequently, but I’ve never gotten the impression that those who use Jesus Christ’s name after banging one off of a pine tree are really interested in getting to have a personal relationship with him. And look at the courses you drive past on Sunday mornings. They aren’t singing hymns on the fairways, brother! They are out for the golf only.

But golf has a lot to offer in the way of showing people a Christian perspective. First, the way a Christian golfer carries himself. Have you ever played golf with a guy who had a bucolic demeanor and attitude playing golf? Someone who didn’t not care, but cared in a friendly, even-tempered fashion, even as his Titleist bounced off the cart path into the river.

Someone who was a pleasure to play with and be with on a sunny, or rainy, day on the course, no matter his score – or yours, for that matter. Did it make you want to ask, “What is different about you? Why don’t you toss clubs, or grumble under your breath?” Not swearing is the easy thing to not do, but how about the general attitude? Suppose that same, admirable guy started telling you about his life and what was important to him? Would you listen?

Or would you prefer life lessons from the 6-pack drinking, cussing, club helicoptering bozo you are often forced to play with?

Modeling Christian behavior in church isn’t the challenge. Doing it in the midst of a challenging, stressful situation is much more valuable to the observer. Golf is that, in spades.

Maybe next most important after behavior modeling is that 18 holes of golf is 4 to 5 hours of time together for a small group of  men (I focus on men because I am one and I empathize with their plight. Also, studies show if the dad starts coming to church, the family comes with more than 90% of the time, so more bang for the evangelistic buck as the salesman might say). What other situation does that occur in for guys? Work? Not really, unless you count the usual sales meetings, board meetings, or other snoozefests. Not much in depth life conversation there.

But walking the fairways brings guys together. They talk in ways they don’t in other situations. I still remember golfing with my dad and his buddies and hearing their conversations. Man, Dad was a different guy out on the links! And I loved it! It was a glimpse of the non-Dad Dad. I’m sure my sons think the same when they see me with other men at the course or other places.

Golf Ministry – two words that really do go together!

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So it’s been over 3 months since I posted something. I would love to say the stampede of popular opinion has forced me to write again, but, in reality, no one seems to have noticed. I have, occasionally, missed it. Not often – usually I’m just relieved that I don’t “have to come up with another idea”, which probably means I’m not a true blogger.

Until now.

What got me off the couch to rip another post?

Twitter.

I don’t get Twitter. I find the fact that so many people are “tweeting” a bit discouraging for our future. It has become so rampant and out of control, that I’m half expecting to be invited to “Follow Barack” on Twitter. If our current president or a future president is found out to be a “tweeter”, I will then lose all hope in the United States as a country of influence in the world.

So this encouragement by C. Bivens, LPGA jefe, to have her players twit while on the course is not just disappointing, but infuriating. Does the LPGA want to be a fluff piece forever, or considered a real sport with real athletes? Compare the public response to my hometown Bucks’ forward Charlie Villanueva twittering in the locker room at halftime (outrage and head shaking) versus the acceptance of a commissioner of a major sports league encouraging her athletes to twitter.

Ms. Bivens, you have some of the greatest golfers in the world playing on your tour. Act like you run a sports league of value, not an after-school program for adolescents!

There, I feel better. I knew there was a value in blogging!

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Very good article on Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness journal on why there are fewer golf blogs than in other sports, written by Jon Show. Couple of interesting points:

There is less controversy in golf, unlike in team sports where crazed Packer fans (for example) wanted the heads of the entire defensive coaching staff after the Pack’s miserable performance on D the second half of 2008. Who are you going to fire in golf – the caddy? You can see the absolute biggest that can get when Steve Williams, Tiger’s bagman, made his inappropriate comments about Lefty earlier this year.

Lack of passion. The so-called “motor” for online sports blogging and activity is passion about a sport and golf is, at best, quietly passionate. I think in this case that the word “passion” isn’t used correctly. It should be “psychotic” in reference to some of the talk radio and blogging goofballs who populate MLB, NBA, and NFL fandom. Bloggers need to be crazy to attract big audiences. Those of us who write about golf maybe don’t care so much about the big audience – or we’d write about NASCAR.

Interesting to me, as a blogger. I get the arguments, but if there are blogs about every topic under the sun (politics being a prime example, the history of economic theory being another – yes, I’ve listened to a podcast and seen a blog about that), shouldn’t there be several about a topic like golf, that people really enjoy?

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When I was younger, I used to like watching the early season celebrity pro-ams – the Hope, the “Clambake” at Pebble Beach. It was fun for me to watch the nice weather and see some famous people hack around with the pros while I was sitting in the midst of winter in the wonderland known as Wisconsin.

As I get older, I like them less and less.

First off, I don’t live in the frozen tundra anymore so the early PGA season isn’t a preview of spring like it used to be. I don’t drool looking at the overseeded fairways in Tucson or the Pacific Ocean off the Monterey Peninsula. Maybe I’m maturing . . . [insert punchline here].

Second, I just don’t like watching B and C List celebs swinging the stick with pros who are trying to do their jobs. I like Ray Romano just fine, but I’d rather not see him chop it out from a fairway bunker with JB Holmes watching. Same for Kevin James. And I certainly don’t want to see some corporate CEO who is a member at Pine Valley and sandbags to a handicap of 18 while looking all the world like a 2 cheat on national TV either.

But the thing that has come to bother me the most is the way that the Hope courses are destroyed by the pros. Remember Duval’s 59? It was at the Hope. Every year, the 5 rounds of the Hope give up more birdies than the Badgers gave up passing yards this year. It is ridiculous. And this year is even crazier. Pat Perez set a consecutive round PGA tour record for low score in the first two rounds. This was such an incredible standard and worthy record that it was broken the next two days by Steve Stricker’s 61 and 62. That’s 123 strokes for 36 holes. To break it down even further, Stevo had 21 birdies, 15 pars, and nothing else except an uncontrollable case of the giggles during those two days. 6 more birdies than pars! 33 under par after four rounds? Are you kidding me?

Maybe it is because I can’t make birdies like that in any situation, even in those courses with windmills and clown mouths. I can’t appreciate 11 birdies in one round because it is beyond my mind’s ability to comprehend, much like the path our Secretary of State took to her current position.

I love professional golf. And I am a huge fan of Stricker’s, so it isn’t that I’m upset Steve did this. Someone would have, so it might as well have been the fellow Cheesehead. But I would much rather see these guys challenged. I like tournaments where birdie is not that easy and bogey is a definite possiblity on most holes. I want to see them work a bit – make the spectacular shot to save par, not the boring play for birdie. The US Open is the classic example, but the Player’s and the Wachovia in Charlotte are good ones too. This is one of the reasons I never got too excited about my hometown tournament, the Greater Milwaukee Open (now, the US Bank Open, at least this week). Brown Deer is a very good course, but pros just kill it.

Bottom line: As I get older, I just don’t want the game to look that easy for anyone.

The only good thing about today’s round: no celebs.

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Local guys doing well at the Sony in Hawaii!!

Webb Simpson was at the top of the leaderboard all day yesterday with an early 66 (4 under). Webb is a Raleigh product, graduate of Broughton and Wake Forest. He made it to the tour this year through a great performance (tied for 7th)  at Q school.

David Mathis was 2 under after Round 1 yesterday and is doing well so far today (4 under all day). He is a Campbell grad (Go Camels!) in 1997 and has been around the Raleigh area for quite some time. This is his first year on tour after being on the lower tours for quite some time. He made it by having a great year last year on the Nationwide tour. On a semi-personal note, he actually helped coach my older son’s high school team a few years back.

Brendon Todd from Green Hope HS and the University of Georgia was 1 under yesterday and even for the tournament after finishing early today. He is a Nationwide Tour grad from last year, like David.

Good to see the local crowd doing well in the Big Show.

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