Junior Golf: Hide It, Keep It-Show It, Sell It

   That's kind of an odd title, isn't it? Before I began teaching and when I retired from teaching and began my writing career, I was a salesman and sold office equipment and wholesale food products to grocery stores. I had a sales manager share with me a very good idea as I was learning the sales industry. The saying was very profound and I will share it with you:  Show it, sell it--Hide it keep it.  After thinking about how we promote junior golf and even bringing kids into the game that is kind of what we are doing, aren't we.  We just are not giving junior golf the exposure that it should be getting as far as getting kids into the game.

      As I travel around town, I see all kinds of signs up (I live in Merced, California).  Signs such as "Atwater Little League Sign Ups" or "Merced Girl's League Softball Leagues Now Forming.  Sign up At...On Saturday March 4" or "Atwater Strikers Soccer League-signups October 4th". Sign like these are all over the place as I am sure they are in your town.  During the fall you see signs announcing sign ups for soccer leagues and basketball leagues as well as youth football. Signs for Little League and softball leagues are visible during the early spring. Most of these signs are put up around schools in order to get as many kids into the particular sports to sign up as they can.  I ask you though, Where are the signs announcing youth golf programs and signups for those programs?
      I can answer that question quite easily.  There are no signs that are put up.  One of the reasons is that golf programs for youth are not promoted except in the golf community.  Another reason is that there are not that many organized youth golf programs as you see in other sports.  I think that is a shame.  Why aren't there any programs out there?  How come we hide such programs as "First Tee" and "Golf Kids"?  Are we embarrassed?  Do we think that kids are not interested in golf?
     We need to be a bit more aggressive in bringing kids into the game of golf.  Yes, kids are coming to the game of golf.  We can just look at the growth in participation rates in youth golf tournaments and see that it is growing, but probably not as quickly or as much as it should be growing.  Let's take a hard look at what needs to be done to change this.
      I understand many of the challenges that are faced when you try to develop a youth golf program.  A major consideration is who is going to run the program.  Most golf facilities and their staff are totally overburdened with the tasks that are required to run their golf courses, let alone establishing a quality youth golf program.  It is hard to put together a youth program and takes a lot of resources in time and money.  In most cases, the courses and pros don't have that time and money to devote to a quality program.  I understand their logic and concerns that a youth program is another huge investment in the course's time and limited resources.  The decision is a tough one to make, even though the time and money spent is an investment in the future and many of these youth players turn into paying customers.
     Perhaps what is needed is for the men and women of golf look to the future and volunteer to supervise golf programs as in other sports. We need to establish more programs and advertise those programs.  The word needs to get out.  There are golf programs and many other programs can be created. We must go on the offensive and let communities know that these programs exist.  Let's get kids playing golf. Let's show parents and kids the wonderful benefits of the game of golf and how you can play golf for a lifetime.  Let's show it and not keep it.

On Life As A Golf Ball

   We all make sacrifices in our lives.  Some sacrifices are bigger than others and have a more dramatic effect on our lives. What about golf?  What can we say about sacrifices in the game of golf?  Who is it that pays the biggest price in sacrifices for the game of golf?  Have you ever taken a good look at the golf ball? That little dimpled orb pays the greatest price and in some cases gives up it's life so that we may enjoy the game we all love.

      Think about it for a moment.  The ball is created in a nice, growing environment--the golf ball factory. There they are coddled and inspected.  Remember, not all of them make it out of the factory to play on the first team.  Some are rejected and for the most minute of imperfection.  It is a brand of shame to have the Titlist brand--OK, I'm partial to Titlists although I can't always afford them and I don't play ProV's because I'm cheap--painted onto you and then not pass inspection for something as little as a spec.  Then you have to suffer the indignity of either having the word "PRACTICE" stamped on you or even worse the mark of the X painted on you.  This means you are not good enough and have been rejected. You don't even get a trophy for participating.
       Should you make the cut and pass inspection you get put into a paper sleeve with two other perfect dimpled orbs then grouped with three other paper sleeves to make a box of a dozen and sent out to do your job.  By the way, my wife bought an eighteen pack of Top Flites the other day and the balls were not placed in sleeves. That has nothing to do with where I am going with this post, I just though I would throw that in. They were Top Flites after all.  She likes Top Flites but now plays yellow PXG's and I am not going to argue with her, especially if I want to stay out of the dog house and sleep with Fido. Fido has it pretty comfortable in his dog house but when I have to sleep in there with him, he gets the doggy bed and I have to sleep on the hard floor. Back to the Titlists. So the balls go out to the place where they are going to be sold, unaware of the fate that  is to befall on them.
      Joe Average buys the dozen at a totally over inflated price.  I won't say where because I have too many golf pro friends and I don't want to offend anyone. By the way, there is a great sale going on over at Dick's right now on Top Flites and Maxfli's. Sorry, I got off the subject again. So, Joe Average takes the ProV's he paid too much for and and heads for the course.  He reaches into his bag and gets out a tee as well as a sleeve of the new ProV's.
       That wonderful ball is going to be smacked around many times by a stick.  It has to hurt.  Can you imagine the pain that ball has to endure?  How about the blow to the ball's pride. Does it really have to be this way?  You darn right it has to be this way.
      Joe Average is playing golf now.  He tees up the ball on a long par four with water to the right. The ball will be violently struck and fly down the middle of the fairway, missing the deep water hazard on the right hand side of the fairway. Joe must avoid that water at all costs.
      Joe takes a mighty swing with the stick and THWACK, hits the ball. It was a pretty ugly swing at that because Jack doesn't like to take lessons. If you want to improve your game, see your local pro for a lesson please. (That was for all my golf teaching buddies out there.) Guess where that poor ball flies because of Joe's wonderful swing.  Yes, it sadly flies into the middle of the water and hits a ten pound bass squarely on the head. That poor, brand new ball has sacrificed it's life so that others may have enjoyment in their lives.  I'm not too sure how happy the bass was either. Actually, I'm not sure how much enjoyment because Jack is back at the tee yelling words you wouldn't want your preacher or priest or rabbi to hear. I can't speak for a Budhist Monk or a Muslim Imam because I haven't met an Imam or a Monk.    
        Let's have a moment of silence for that new Titlist.  Let's not forget the sacrifices that golf balls all over the world are making, even now.  By the way, how many balls did you put into the lake today? Why don't they give golf balls swimming lessons before they go out to be sold?  

Water, Water everywhere. Why does it always have to be in front of me?

You're In The Jailhouse-Uh, Doghouse-Now

      So, what did I do wrong now?  Why is my wife mad at me?  If you are married or have been married, or have dealt with the female members of the human species you know what I am talking about.  I'm sorry but we males are at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to goofing--I use goofing because I am a church going man and can't use the "F" word--up with your favorite female and not knowing why.  Guys, you know what I'm talking about don't you?

     I got up this morning in a pretty good mood.  The dishwasher needed to be emptied and dirty dishes needed to be put in the dishwasher.  The kitchen needed to be cleaned up, so I started it and took a bit of a coffee break, fully intending to get back and finish the job.
     My wife got up and went into the kitchen.  It was clearly apparent to me something was a bit amiss as her normally bubbly champagne personality was not that but could best be described as more of a rotten chardonnay. I had a decision to make, probably wrong but the incident needed a definite course of action.  Hmmm...do I take the coward's way out and go to the gym to work out for say eight hours, or ride out the storm at the house and try to make the situation better. I decided to take the courageous route and stay, after all maybe I could garnish some brownie points and help make the situation better. I can honestly say that was the wrong decision.
     Yes I stayed, silly me.  I like describing things with weather metaphors so here goes.  Her "partly cloudy with showers" disposition when she woke up quickly changed into category five hurricane Julia--the name has been changed as her name isn't Julia to protect the innocent, namely me.  Into the kitchen she went huffing and puffing.  No dishes were thrown, but there was a lot of dish noise and a "See this dishcloth?  Its red where you have spilled punch in the refrigerator." comment.  I know I have been had when the refrigerator comment comes out. I haven't spilled red punch in the refrigerator for a long time so I knew that wasn't it.
     I knew she was mad at something, basically mad at me in general. Stupid me, I asked the question, "Honey, are you mad at me?"  There was no answer, just a sort of audio sound of disdain. This is the upsetting "huf" that is sort of like the fingernails on a chalk board in its effect.
     What happened next is a mistake all of us guys make and I tried to stop it but it just came out.  Out of my mouth blurted, "What did I do wrong?"  After that came automatically out of my mouth I instantly heard The Death March--dum, dum, da dum, dum, da dum da dum da dum.
      "You know what you did." she answered.
    "Whatever I did wrong, I'm sorry for doing, but I really don't know exactly what I did wrong."  I said honestly.  At this point I was beginning to feel like a whipped cocker spaniel who had just chewed up their master's prized house slippers.
     "If you don't know what you did, I shouldn't have to tell you." she responded back.
     At that point, I went down my list in my head.  I took out the trash.  No, that isn't it.  I put the dishes away, including the silverware. That isn't it. I hung up my clothes.  No, that can't be it. Hey, I even wiped off the toilet seat and put the lid down.  I even sprayed air freshener.  I give up!  What is it?
     "Besides, if I had to tell you what you did wrong you don't love me."
     That's it, I quit. The battle has been lost.  Where are my car keys?  I'm off to the gym or at least to higher ground to let hurricane Julia pass.  I'll be back in about eight hours.

All I have to do is add electricity, heating and air conditioning.

I'm sorry that this post doesn't have to do with golf, but I thought I would give you a good laugh. We did just get home from golf and I am about to go out and grill some hamburgers.  Wish me luck.

 

 

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Which Golf Ball Should I play?

 

Which golf ball should I be playing is a question that I get quite often. My wife asks me this almost every time we play golf. There are a couple of important factors that come into this when I attempt to answer that question. It is not a "one size fits all" response.  

One of the first questions we need to explore is where are you in your journey with the game of golf?  Are you new to the game-we call this a newby-or are you a seasoned veteran? Do you fall somewhere in between these two categories. What is your swing like? Do you hit the ball straight and a country mile or do you struggle to get the ball airborne? Do you lose a lot of balls when you play golf?  I would add that if you were new to the game, but I know a lot of seasoned golfers who lose a lot of balls as well. 

You don't want the cost of a dozen golf balls to send you to the poor house if your balls disappear quite readily. Sometimes they do that on purpose, so you might consider using a less expensive ball and maybe ProV's don't fit your budgetary constraints. There are a good number of economically priced golf balls out there .  I would strongly recommend these less expensive, non-budgetary breaking balls for the newer golfer. There are still balls out there for under $20 a dozen and some even are 18 packs. Believe it or not, most of them are not that bad. I won't recommend a brand here, because there are so many, from Nitro (yuck) to Srixon, Callaway and Titleist. I am kind of partial to Dick's Sporting Goods as they have the Top Flite line and the Maxli line as well. 

OK boys and girls, are you ready for a bedtime story?  Well, it's really not a bedtime story and I am going to tell it to you anyway. How many of you have heard of the Precept ball?  Bridgestone Tire and Rubber Company wanted to get into the golf ball manufacturing business but didn't want to use Bridgestone for the name on their ball because they didn't want people to think that their ball was just a small tire. They came up with the name Precept, and it was a very good ball.

The rulers at Bridgestone/Precept wanted to offer women a lady's ball so they came out with what they called The Lady Precept. It was an exceptional ball and actually out performed their flagship ball. It went further and was very responsive around the greens. You could tell it was a lady's ball because the writing on it was a hot pink and it was sold in a pink box and the sleeves were pink.  After all, it was a lady's ball. 

An odd thing happened to the Lady Precept. Men discovered the ball and were buying it.  However, there was a bit of a thing in that men didn't want to be seen buying and playing a lady's ball. Sales of the ball went through the roof and it wasn't just women who were buying the ball. After a while, the ball became known as the "paper bag ball" because men would buy the ball and would insist that the ball be placed in a brown paper bag so that it would not be discovered that a guy was playing a lady's ball-after all, that could prove to be embarrassing to the average macho guy. 

So, what did Bridgestone/Precept do?  The solution was pretty simple.  They knew they had a great ball on their hands but had to come up with a creative solution to get the ball into the hands of guys and take away the stigma of playing a lady's ball. They changed the packaging and the name of the ball from "Lady Precept" to "Precept Laddie". They still made the Lady Precept and packaged it in its pink box with pink lettering, but the new "men's" ball, The Laddie, would be packaged in a new silver and green box and sleeves.  The printing on the ball was black and "Laddie" would be printed on the ball itself. This move was brilliant in that the ball was the same but now men were not hesitant to buy the ball. I used to play "The Laddie"  almost exclusively and it was a great ball.  They still make it, but I have switched to a different ball manufacturer because as Bridgestone transitioned to the Bridgestone name on its balls, they phased out the "Precept" name.

Let's move on here and talk about the seasoned player.  What ball should the experienced golfer play?  My answer to this is it depends o the individual golfer and what they like.  Let's not forget that golf balls are subject to the regulations of The USGA and Royal and Ancient Golf Association as far as the specifications of golf balls. Golf balls have to conform to the regulations set forth by these two organizations as far as ball statistics and performance. I can't hit their balls because of their Bridgestone logo on the balls.

There is not a whole lot of difference between premium balls. A ProV has certain subtle differences than say a Callaway or other premium ball but they all have to conform to golf ball specifications as set forth by the ruling bodies. The "Feel" of the ball is what most golfers go by.  How do you like the feel of the ball? Does it feel hard or does it compress and have a soft feel coming off the club?  How does it perform around the green?  What is the ball flight of a particular ball?  How does it feel coming off an iron shot?  Most golfers have personal preferences and choose a ball based upon those questions. 

Keep in mind that golf ball manufacturers spend a lot of money on the promotion of their golf balls. How much do you think they spend on sponsorships as far as the golf playing professional? What does Callaway pay Xander to endorse their balls? What about TV advertising. I would like to have 1000th of the money Titleist spends promoting ProVs.  It is a probably the finest ball out there and I have played the ball, but I cringe at the fact that I have to shell out over $50 for a dozen balls. Do I really have to help pay for Jordan to fill up his jet?  I have problem scraping up the cost of a fill up on my Hyundai Venue.

As I said, I don't play ProVs because of the price.  I also must admit that I am a bit of a golf ball prude.  When Nike came out with their ball, and it was a good ball, I couldn't play it because of the logo on the ball.  The same is true with Calaway balls.  I can't play Callaways and I have tried.  My eye just hates looking at that Callaway logo and how it is placed on the ball.  They make a great ball, I just can't hit it with that huge logo. I have the same problem as far as the logo on the ball as Taylormade and I have already mentioned Bridgestone. I have played Srixon, and I am not impressed as far as my game is concerned. All these brand name balls are great balls, I just don't like the looks of them as far as how  they set up for my eye.

Do I avoid Titleists? Actually, I don't.  Every now and then I will change up my routine and buy a dozen True Speed Titleists.  I was part of the developement program when Titleist brought out the prototypes and I was one of the first to buy one of those unmarked white boxes. I liked them and they performed well for me.  The feel was a little bit softer than a ProV and they did well around the greens in my short game. I do like ProV's as well, but at their price point I only buy them when I win on a huge lottery ticket or when I win big at the casino.

OK, it's time to do the great reveal.  What ball do I prefer to play?  I have always been a Maxfli man.  I played the ball that had the red dot on it and was a wound ball-I wonder how man of you know what I am talking about when I say wound ball? There is a history around Maxfli where Taylormade bought it and made it their low-end line and the balls didn't sell. The Maxfli line was sold off to Dick's Sporting Goods-as was Top Flite-and rescaled the ball to become an excellent high end, the Maxfli Tour X ball line that was economical and would compare quite closely to the ProV.  Testing has shown that the performance of the Maxfli Tour line can stand up to the ProV line.

PXG has entered the golf ball market.  I tried the original PXG ball and loved it.  The ball stops on a dime when hit on the green. I found that it was just a bit hard for my tastes and was not that much better than my Maxfli Tours.  I stayed with the Maxflis, although I played a couple of dozen PXGs. 

PXG has come out with a new ball, the PXG Tour X.  I fell in love with the ball immediately after hitting it. The ball was a noted improvement over the original PXG ball and the performance is a step above my Maxflis.  I will be playing this ball for a long time, but I still have a couple of dozen Maxflis to fall back on.

What is my advice as to which ball to play?  Try as many as you can and find one that fits your game and you like. 

 

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An Open Lesson To Golf Teaching Pro

    I am writing this as an eighteen handicapper.  My game, as I said in an earlier post is good, but I do have the potential to get better.  The question has come up many times and from many people especially those I respect and admire (Mark, Wayne, Phil, Brad, Matt, Tom and all the rest of my FaceBook Golf Pro Friends) as to why I don't take a lesson from my local pro.  There are a few reasons why I do not, and when I am on the golf course I hear the same reasons from many of the players whom I am playing a round of golf with. As a journalist, I ask the question to of course see what the answer is.  I don't want to offend anyone, but here are some of those reasons, many of which I share with the average golfer.

     Here goes, and that is not to say that I shouldn't take a few lessons.  I am not anti lesson, far from that.  I think what it all boils down to is commitment.  That is not a commitment to the game, that is a commitment to time and to the funds that it takes to devote not only to the process of improving, but to the time and financial constraints of taking lessons.  Is the time and money spent on lessons worth it to me? For me, it doesn't, and I know that to many that statement is almost a sacriledge. Keep in mind that many of us feel the same way.  I understand that my feelings here may be contrary to the logic of improving my game, but I am being realistic.
     Let me explain how I feel, and I am sure that many recreational golfers feel the same way.  The statement I am about to make will clear a lot up.  I will never be a scratch golfer. I would like to be, but I have a life that gets in the way of that pursuit. When I go out to play golf, even if I have a bad round I enjoy myself.  First of all, I don't know how I am going to play or what I am going to shoot. It is an adventure.  Sometimes I hit some shots that amaze even myself, other shots I wonder if I have ever played this game before. Each round is different. That's the beauty of it.  I have the potential to be a better golfer and score much lower, but I don't have the time to practice.  Life gets in the way, life and the fact that we only have one car and my wife uses it for work. Getting to the course to play or practice can be a major undertaking.
     I am seventy years old.  You have heard the saying you can't teach old dogs new tricks.  That statement is very true. I really don't feel that old, but it takes a long time to engraine a new concept or move into my golf game.  Changes take practice and time.  In the meantime, putting those changes in practice on the golf course takes a lot of sacrifice and frustration in order to make them permanent and while I am putting those changes in place, those changes take time really messing up my game when I am playing. I'm getting too old for this.  I want to go out and play as my time on this earth is limited. Improvement is a great thing, but I am never going to play on tour. I like where I am at and lack the patience to do that which will improve my game.
     Cost is also a factor.  In my case, I just don't see where it is a good return on my investment of the cost of lessons to take a lesson or two.  Don't get me wrong. If my game goes to heck in a hand basket or there are major changes in my physical makeup and I have to change something or not play, I will take a lesson to steady the ship. I won't take a lesson just to shave a few strokes off my scores. There won't be a significant improvement in my scores, just a marginal moving of the dial should I take a lesson.  I have to ask myself if that $40 and hour is worth the cost when I could go out and play, probably fixing whatever problem or hitch I have developed by myself. If I can't figure it out, there is always YouTube (Of course I say that facetiously.). Besides, I am not going to spend the time on the range to make any significant changes that are suggested by a qualified professional.
     One last thought here on the cost of lessons that I would like to share. I have to make a choice since I am a senior and live on a fixed income.  That choice is a major one.  Do I spend money on lessons or do I take that $40 and spend it on green fees?  Think about that for a minute.  In our household every dollar counts.  I have to justify playing golf, let alone springing for a golf lesson. I'd rather play golf. It seems to be just that simple.
      One last thought about this that I will share.  Which teacher and what philosophy of golf learning do I seek out?  There are many and I am confused.  There are the "Naturalists" and then there are the "Technocrats".  The Naturalists boil down to a philosophy of keeping it simple.  The Technocrats use every bit of technology they can get their hands on and boil the swing and the game down into nanoseconds and very minute moves.  Where do I go for instruction. Who do I listen to? Which school of golf teaching is correct. It seems as though most golf pros and teachers can't decide how the are going to teach the game and don't know when what they are teaching is not enough or when it is too much.  This old guy doesn't want to sort it out, but I just want to play and that's it. It makes for some great conversation but how important is it?
     I want to say again here and EMPHATICALLY that I am not saying don't take lessons.  If you have a problem in your game by all means see a professional. I strongly recommend it, especially if you are just starting out in the game. I am just stating why I personally don't take lessons.  If you feel that you need a lesson, by all means take one or two. I'm definitely not an expert on this, but I do know my game and what I want from it. Right now I enjoy the game of golf and how I play it.  Yes, I do have my ups and downs as far as scores are concerned and how I hit the ball. Change is hard for me and I just want to go out and play golf. Is that too much to ask?

I said I don't take lessons.  I didn't say I don't try to learn as much about the game as I can.  This is Rick, a pro that was on board a cruise I was on.  I learned a lot from him. 

  

What Makes A Great Golf Course?

    Have you ever wondered what makes a great golf course? In my 55 years of playing the great game, I have played a lot of courses, some great and some not. Let's take a minute here and talk about what I think makes a great golf course.

     I have to confess that I am an "Old Style" golf course kind of guy.  A well designed course in among a grove of trees with small, fast greens is really what I love. You don't have to have forced carries and enough water to mimic the Pacific Ocean in order to make a wonderful layout. Greens don't have to be the size of Siberia in order to make up a great course and those greens don't have to be faster than the cars running at Daytona Speedway on the third weekend in February--I'm a NASCAR fan so I thought I would throw that in--just fast enough to get a good roll to the hole.
     What do I think make a "Great Course"?   Recently I stopped to think about that and maybe it is time to share those attributes to you.  Remember now, I am an eighteen handicap player so this is more from the point of view of an average player.  You also have to keep in mind that I am not a course designer and these are my opinions.  Please feel free to disagree with any of these points.  I give you that permission.

1.)  The course has to be enjoyable to a player who has never played the course before.  Let me explain this. I have played a lot of courses that have required a lot of local knowledge as far as where to place the ball on certain shots. Many times I have hit what I thought was a good shot, and the ball winds up somewhere that cost me a lot of strokes. It went there because of the course design and not how I hit the shot. Local knowledge is fine, but don't penalize a player who has never played the course.

2.)  I feel that forced carries are OK and add to the character of a course.  However, a great course allows the player to carry the "carry" and not have to pull off an impossible shot to get over the barranca or water hazard. I have played courses like that where there is no way I am going to get over the barranca or water hazard. Not all players like to "go for it" or do they have that ability.  There should be a safe landing area for laying up. You can have forced carries, but make them so there is a bailout area or they are at least "carryable" for the average golfer.

3.)  Greens should be fair and not punitive.  There should be break and they can be lightning fast but don't make them putt like the holes on the local miniature golf course.  Ant hills don't have any place on a real golf course.

4.)  The course should not be so "gimmicked" up that it is not enjoyable to play.  In other words, why have a hole that has a creek running through it where the average golfer cannot find the proper landing areas?  I can see double fairways, but don't punish the average golfer with an impossibly long shot into the green after hitting the shorter route fairway. The course should reward a good shot, not penalize the golfer with an impossible next shot.  And don't tell me to play the forward tees either, because you are still not going to make it over that barranca.

5.)  I like an "Old Style" golf course. Greens don't have to be fast, but they need to putt true and be well maintained.  I prefer courses that have tree lined fairways, but I enjoy "links style" golf as long as the course isn't "tricked up".  Undulations in the fairways are good and the course does not have to be flat. The course should basically say, "I'm an old school course.  I'm not going to throw anything funny at you.  Take your best shot and beat me if you can."  Riverside Golf Course in Fresno, California and Bayonet Golf Course in Seaside California come to mind when I say that.

6)  I'm going to show my West Coast bias here.  One of the things that make a course a "Great Course" is a course that is on, has views of or you can hear The Pacific Ocean.  That's all I'm going to say about that one. It kind of speaks for itself.

     That's my list.  Of course it is only my opinion.

What can I say?

Why I play golf

 How many of you are asked why you play the game of golf? I get asked that question a lot these days and my answer is simple.  I love the game. But, why do I love the game so much and why do I play it?  Let's take a look at this question for the ages.

As you can see from that wonderful picture I am a pretty hefty guy and always have been, even growing up. I have lost a lot of weight from my top end at 300 pounds and now I am just under 210.  I wished to the genie that I would soar to a height of over six feet and the genie told me he would take care of that.  The genie lied and I stopped growing height wise at a whopping 5'7".  

I wanted to play sports when I was younger.  I have to say that this didn't happen much as I was growing up.  I did love to swim and I learned how to swim at the local city pool, but my parents also enrolled me at the local YMCA.  I took swimming lessons there and participated almost every Saturday in their weekend activities for youngsters.  I truly enjoyed my experiences at the "Y" and it did strengthen my body. I didn't lose much baby fat, but I was able to gain muscle.  I still would not consider myself athletic at the time in any way.

Like all red blooded American boys, I wanted to play baseball. My parents enrolled me in the local Little League and I went out for their tryouts.  I wanted to play second base in the worse way and did pretty well in the tryouts but was not picked on any team for second base.  I was a chubby kid and they thought that I was not fast enough to play second. I do admit to this day I am pretty slow as far as my running capabilities. Running is not my strong suit and I hate to run.   They said that they would love to have me play and offered me a choice of position.  Take a guess at what position I was offered. 

What positions normally does the chubby kid play?  I could roam the area behind the plate as a catcher or take up residence where else-right field. I didn't have a catcher's mitt and didn't want to take the abuse of squatting up and down after every pitch at catcher.  I chose right field-you know the song. One thing I could do though is hit. 

I don't like basketball.  I have very small hands and cannot put a basketball through the hoop if my life depended on it. You still have to run in basketball, so much for basketball.

I really thought that I wanted to go out for football.  I thought long and hard about it, and then my strong sense of reality sunk in. I found out that there was something called "double sessions. Also, practice for football-a fall sport-started in August.  It's hot in August in Fresno, California.  I'm not talking about 85 degree heat.  No, most August days are well over 105. my sense of survive ability was quite strong in telling me that this was not a good idea.

I also had to be a realist about what position I was going to play.  Where do they put a very slow-coach wanted to time me with a calendar-chunky guy.  Do they put him in as quarterback, wide receiver, or running back.  No way was I going to play tight end.  Yep, I was told I was going to play guard or tackle. 

Come on guys, I was only five foot seven and weighed a whopping 160 pounds.  I was told that my task would be to block defensive linemen who were a foot taller than me, much taller and heavier.  They also were a lot faster than I was. I would rather run into a telephone pole at full speed. Did I tell you that you have to run at football practice? Football was out.

My way into golf was a bit strange.  When you boil it all down, I was sold into golf for 50 cases of Wanda's Wonderful Pancake Mix.  I won't go into the full story here and for that you will have to buy my book when it comes out soon, the title being Birdies, Pars and Bogies: My 55 Years In the Game of Golf. I started taking golf lessons and I found out that I really like this game. First, the ball is stationary and nobody is throwing it at you with speeds up to 100 MPH. You don't have to squat and catch a ball being thrown at you and you sure as heck don't have to knock over a guy that is twice your size. The game takes a lot of skill and creativity.  Most of all, YOU DON'T HAVE TO RUN!  

Come Join The Family of Golfers

   It has been said that golf is an elitist sport.  I guess looking at just the face of it that can be said.  But is it the true nature of golf.  I get angered when the media puts that face forward.  Golf is not a white man's elitist sport.  In fact when you dig a little deeper you find that true golf is very egalitarian in it's nature. Golf in the trenches is not the PGA tournament that you see on TV. Come and see the true game of golf and who is playing it. Come to Rancho Del Rey or Riverside Golf Course.

     Many people outside of golf see only one world and that is the closed world of the private golf course. They also see the very closed world of the PGA Tour.  The media reports loudly on decisions made by some of the old ruling bodies of golf that seem anti-women.  The good news in that respect is things are changing. It has to change because the game is much more multi-cultural multi-colored and played by the ladies than what is shown on TV and women are the biggest growth area of golf today. Golf, especially at the public course level, is more diverse than people want to give credit. Most public course golfers know this. Please don't take that as a hit on private courses either, because the memberships in most private clubs is changing to reflect a more diverse population.

     As I have said in previous posts I play and worked as a marshal at a local semi-private course.  Most of the members that play at our course can be described as "working class".  Our course is open to whomever wants to play and the advantages of being a member are basically reduced green fees. State golf association memberships are extra.  It's great to see the diverse nature of those golfers who play the course and who are members with almost no distinction between members and public players.

     We have all kinds of people with different backgrounds playing at Rancho Del Rey. It is not unusual to see a foursome or fivesome--we do allow fivesomes on non-busy days during the week--that are made up of hispanic, black, asian and white players. We have a very active contingent of Mexican American Golf Association players whose membership included white guys and African Americans.We even have a gentleman from Puerto Rico who looks and sound just like ChiChi Rodriguez. I think it is his brother, but I don't know. I haven't seen him for awhile. It seems as though he moved to Minnesota.

        Women play right along side of men and are very active in the Player's Club. In fact, our ladies have formed their own player's club and their membership is growing.  A good piece of advice here is don't get into a money game with one of our ladies.

    We have a very active senior's club. Our club is made up of a very diverse background of players, both ethnically and if you look at where our members come from occupationally. We have teachers, plumbers, construction workers, delivery drivers and even a couple of retired Marines. As far as the ethnic background of our members it is truly a rainbow of colors and we even have a member from of all places, Guam. 

  
     Come take a look at our nineteenth hole.  The place is jumping with conversations and color, religion, sex or national heritage doesn't stop the conversations. Most of the conversations are centered around golf as this is the cornerstone of the family. We are family here. The only distinction that is made is that we are all golfers, and some non-golfers. The main question is not who are you but more importantly, what is your handicap?

Golf: The Game Has Changed Over My Years of Playing

 I was reading an article in Golf Digest that talked about how the science of agronomy as it relates to turf has influenced the design of new golf courses. This got me to thinking.  When I started playing golf, golf construction and architecture was a fairly straight up thing.  Ground was sometime graded and contoured, greens were pushed up from the given landscape and given contours with no layering for drainage, bunkers were formed in the fairways and around the greens trees were planted or removed to line the fairway and bermuda grass seed layed down and bent grass planted on the greens.  That was it-well, it may have been a bit more complicated than that.

Building a golf course has changed since then and the science of agronomy is a critical part of the design of new courses. No longer do you have green construction which is the ground being pushed up and contoured to make a green.  Today's greens are layered  in order for the green to drain in rainy seasons, or when they are siphoned during the hot seasons to keep the grass cool and water does not puddle on the green.  Hybrid grasses such as zoysia and hybrid bermuda are now used, not just the plain old bermuda that was planted on older courses.  Trees are actually being removed from older courses in order for the sun to hit to the grass easier and to make watering more efficient. How architects build golf courses and the science that goes into building is one of the big changes that have come to golf over the years. Much of golf has changed over the years.

I am of the opinion-I may be wrong but hey, I'm over 70-that today's young golfers are not taught the game of golf. This is a pet peeve of mine.  Their vision of the game is to take out a driver, hit it as far as you can and then take a wedge to the green and one putt for a birdie. When I was learning the game, my pro was very adamant about me learning the game. He taught me the importance of playing strategical golf  such as where to hit the ball into position when going for the green wasn't exactly a high percentage shot. More importantly, he taught me how to estimate distance and know what a certain club would do and how to hit shots that would get me out of trouble and what to do if I did get me into a situation where I had to take my medicine-more about this later. To this day, I can estimate a distance to the pin to within three feet.  It's a lot of fun seeing my playing partner with a GPS device's mouth drop when he asks me a distance and my estimate is to within three feet of his GPS's reading. 

 Above all else, the short game is what the game is all about. "Drive for show, putt for dough" is more than just a silly saying. Inside 100 yards is my office. I carry four different wedges and am deadly with  the 100 yard bump and run.  I play a variety of shots from within 100 yards depending on the conditions. you just don't see many younger golfers being taught the skill of the short game.  To this day, I can't look a garbage can in the face.  You can read more about this when my book is published soon, but I used to have to put 30 golf balls into a garbage can from 40-100 yards in my lessons with my pro.

I don't want to get into this too deeply because it is a discussion that can go on for hours. What about the difference between today's clubs and thos clubs that we played forty years ago. I remember playing my persimmon woods, that by the way were really made out of wood and the extra still stainless steel shafts that they were tied on to. I took my driver that I used to play down off the wall and swung it the other day.  It was like swinging a telephone pole, but there was nothing like hearing the sound of the ball coming off that persimmon head when a ball was struck well. I still can't believe how small the heads are. They hit a heck of a lot different than the graphite shafted, big headed PXG driver I play now.

I used to play extra stiff steel shafted irons with very small blade heads.  I loved the performance that I go out of those clubs.  As I got older, I didn't play as much so I went to a midsize clubhead with steel stiff shafts and then transitioned into graphite because my back was deteriorating. The game to me just wasn't the same, but I couldn't swing as good as I used to because of my hurting back. Also, the lofts on the irons changed to what was before a 9 iron was now a 81/2 as far as flight and distance.  

Have I mentioned the ball yet?  I guess I haven't.  How many of you have hit a Titleist Balata 90 compression ball.  It was a ball that had a real odd sense of humor in that it was you friend if you hit it well, but after a few holes when you hit a bad shot, it smiled and laughed back at you. Those of you that have hit one know what I mean.  The cover was natural rubber and was wound with rubber bands.  The ball had an inner core that was a little rubber ball that was either solid or filled with a liquid substance. It cut very easily.  Today's ball is solid with a urethane cover that does not cut easily.

I guess that the winds of change are to be expected after more than 55 years of playing the game.  Technology is a big part of the game now, which I'm not sure that is a good thing but I do know that it changes the way the game is played and taught. It will be interesting to see the changes that will come about over the next 55 years.   

  

Viva Las Vegas: Golf In the Kingdom, Courses I have Played In Las Vegas-Part 5

Have I bored you enough with my posts about Las Vegas and the courses I have played?  Hang tight with me for just a little while longer because this should be my last post on the courses I have played in Las Vegas. Here goes, stay with me now. 

We packed up the car and headed out for the fourth PGCC Coaches Clinic and Tournament, once again traversing the vast nothingness of the California High Desert.  This was going to be a bit different conference in that we were to stay at a different hotel and we were not returning to Stallion Mountain.  The courses for this event were in Boulder City and the courses were the new course outside of Boulder City, Boulder Creek which had just opened about a month before we got there and Boulder City Municipal.  I don't know why the change was, but I really enjoyed playing the two courses. 

Boulder Creek had three nines, but one of the nines was not open because it was still under construction. The two nines that we did play were great tracks with some interesting holes.  All in all, the two nines were fair as far as their architecture, but being very new the greens were like concrete and when you hit into them the ball would bounce into the air as if you had hit the ball onto the concrete of a parking lot. That was an interesting part of playing there. The course was well bunkered and there were many sand collection areas.  Yes, there was water, but the lakes were placed in areas that you could navigate them.  They were not punitive but came into play in a very logical way.  I would play Boulder Creek again and it rates high on my courses to play again should I ever be in Las Vegas again.

When I saw the list of courses we were to play in this my fourth PGCC Coaches/Clinic I was taken aback a bit and kind of disappointed.  There was a municipal course on the course rotation that year, Boulder City Municipal Golf Course.  All of The PGCC events played courses that were upscale, and I was kind of wondered why we would be playing a muni and not an upscale course.

I am actually a very boring person, or so I am told. I don't get very many surprises in my life.  Boulder City Golf Course was a true surprise.  I had dismissed it as another muni golf course, probably not worth playing. I was WRONG.  This course is truly a hidden gem.  It was a lot of fun to play and I was totally amazed at how this course in the desert was so lush. The layout was interesting and the greens were fast.  Set in a what seemed to be a housing development, the fairways were pretty tight.  The rough was, what can I say, tallish and lush.  I want to play this course again should I ever return to the Las Vegas area. Probably never again, but never say never.

Let's fast forward several years.  Did you read my post "Detail A Car-Buy A Timeshare"? Please go back and read it as it lays the groundwork for these next few comments.  At any rate, my wife and I found ourselves in Las Vegas.  I have a good friend that lives in Las Vegas that I used to play golf with so we decided to hook up for a round of golf.  We decided that The Paiute Golf Resort Wolf Course would be a great place to play a round of golf with myself and my wife. 

We totally enjoyed this course. Being in the middle of nowhere in the desert, I was totally taken aback as to how lush and green the course was.  It was in perfect condition, with the greens running fast and true. The layout was what I thought fair with no forced carries.  There was one thing I thought was a gimmick as I think this particular feature on a golf course is.  They had an island green.  I am not a fan of island greens for a number of reasons.  Overall, I rate this course very highly and do want to  play it again, just move it away from Las Vegas.

I will never go back to Las Vegas.  Those were famous last words that I have uttered. Yep, I was wrong again.  My third daughter was pregnant and a revealing party was planned. The location of the party was-you guessed it-Las Vegas. My youngest daughter was graduating from masseuse school on the same weekend, so it was planned that the family that was stretched out from Missouri to Spokane, Washington to Bakersfield, California and Merced California would gather in Las Vegas for two celebration events. So I hopped a plane to Las Vegas and booked a one room suite at the time share.  The parties were on two separate days, so what was I to do with my down time?

My youngest daughter lives in Las Vegas so I was looking forward to spending some time with her.  Did I mention she plays golf? I got off the plane at 7:30 AM after the flight from Fresno that left at 6:00.  I had been up since 3:30 in order to catch the 6:00 flight so I was fairly tired when I got to Las Vegas. My daughter and I had breakfast and guess where we went from there. It wasn't bowling, my friend. She has connection in the Las Vegas golf world so we got a great rate at Bear's Best.  Of course-no pun intended-I was going to play golf, especially with my daughter. I should mention here that she is a pretty good stick and drives the ball about 270, enough said.

We got to play Bear's Best just out of town set in the rolling hills just out of Las Vegas. This was an upscale experience.  There was the pyramid of practice balls on the range and the place was impeccable.  This was Vegas, especially seeing the scantily clad escorts that were riding on the carts and hanging on to some of the players. This ain't Kansas, Toto. So, what about the course?

As I sat outside of the clubhouse, I kind of got the same feeling about this course as I did when I played Royal Links.  This was a Las Vegas imitation.  Bear's Best is a collection of holes inspired by Jack Nicklaus.  It winds through the contours of the foothills it is designed, but the lies are mostly level and the greens are huge.  They putted fairly truly as well and I would play the course again, even though it is totally overpriced.   I'm not a fan of imitation golf courses but hey, let's play some golf. That is, if I don't fall asleep which I almost did three times. As I flew out of Las Vegas and the wheels of the airplane escaped the bonds of earth, I once again vowed never to return to Las Vegas.

My wife's son was going to be in Phoenix for a couple of weeks. I didn't blame her for wanting to visit him when he was there. She asked me if we could drive to Phoenix, stopover at the midway point for a couple of nights and drive from there to meet her son in Phoenix.  I give you three-no one-guesses as to where the halfway point would be. Yep you guessed it, Las Vegas.  At least we have our time share there and it was open the few days we wanted to go. There would be time to squeeze in a round of golf with my friend who lives in Las Vegas and my daughter. I don't think vowing not to go to Las Vegas again is not a vow, but a curse.  Every time I seem to vow that I will never grace the Las Vegas area again, I seem to return. I will never say again that I will never go to Las Vegas again.

Here's the question.  Where in Las Vegas can we play without spending an arm and a leg?  We found a course that was reasonably priced, under $50 with cart and that was The Legacy in Henderson, Nevada just a short drive from the strip.  The Legacy was sold and the new owner wanted to close it and turn the property into a housing development.  The land around the course was already a full built housing development with a homeowner's association.  In the HOA contract it stated specifically that the golf course would stay a golf course and could not be developed, contrary to what the new owner wanted to do with the land. The HOA took the new landowner to court and won, the new owner could not develop the course. In retribution, the new owner said fine you could have your course, but that doesn't mean I have to maintain it. You can see where this is going.

The tees and greens were fine, but the fairways were in many cases just dirt. Despite the condition of the course, I liked it.  From what I understand, the HOA and the new owner have come to a bit of an agreement and he is putting more money into the course as far as maintenance.  The greens were OK, but had a lot of bare spots and some crabgrass.  There is a unique feature of this course and it is that the tenth tee has the four suits of a deck of cards as teeing grounds. I would play this course again.

Well, in the last two of my posts I have shared with you the courses I have played in Las Vegas.  We have a timeshare in Palm Springs. We enjoy Palm Springs and the courses there much more. Hmmmm...is there a post in there somewhere.  Yes there is in the future.  My opinion of Las Vegas is unchanged.  I will never go back to Las Vegas again- uh, maybe.   

Have you checked out my website?  It is a directory of public golf courses you can play.  Take a minute and click on http://the-golf-course-travel-bag.com and check it out.

 

 

  

Viva Las Vegas: Golf In the Kingdom, Courses I have Played In Las Vegas-Part 4

 How interesting is a seven hour trip in the car through twenty miles on the other side of "The Boondocks"? Let me tell you, it's not very entertaining. How many rocks and volcanic cones can you see when they all look the same. This is basically what you get when you drive from Fresno to Las Vegas.  It is miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles.  There are some interesting attractions along the way such as the tallest thermometer in the world, which is not always working, and of course The Mad Greek in Baker, California but not much else.  You have to have a good reason to make the exciting transit to Las Vegas. I don't mind flying, but I still hate Vegas.

In my last post, I talked about how I took part in the first of four annual PGCC Coaches Tournament and Clinic. I must say here that the conference turned into mostly a tournament where the majority of the almost 200 coaches played in the tournament but didn't stay for the clinic.  Being one of the 20 or so coaches that stayed for the clinic, I must say that I learned a lot about coaching golf from the instructors. Believe me, it was not a waste of time and I had plenty of beside the pool time back at the hotel.

I looked forward to the second year of participating in the event. This particular year the tournament was played over all three of the Stallion Mountain courses. We didn't get to play one of the courses last year as I said in my last post so I was excited to play the third course, and it was a lot of fun to play-but nothing to write home to mom about. After playing the on the third day, we packed up the car and headed for home.

After a long school year the summer vacation finally arrived And this was going to be my third trip to the PGCC Coach's Clinic.  This year's lineup of courses was two days at Stallion Mountain and the third day at Desert Pines in Las Vegas.  I am not going to say that I was excited to be going back to Las Vegas and The PGCC Tournament but I was ready to go because we were going to play a different golf course than Stallion Mountain for the third course and I was curious what the course was like. 

Stallion Mountain was..Stallion Mountain. I must admit though it was good to play the courses because I had played all three courses and they were not new to me.  Desert Pines was a different story. It was different and unlike any of the courses we had played in past tournaments.

What a total change of pace.  Yes, this was a course that was suggestive of courses you would find in the Carolinas such as Pinehurst and did not have a "Las Vegas" feel at all. There were tall Carolina Pines outlying the fairways and collection bunkers as well as lakes came into play. Desert Pines falls in a high place on my courses I have played.  I haven't gone back to Desert Pines, and I hear that the course has been neglected.  I don't know if that is true, but I have seen some of the reviews on GolfPass and they seem to reflect this.

I would be remiss-what does that mean, by the way-if I didn't share this story about my playing Desert Pines.  We of course were in Las Vegas and this was the last day of the Tournament.  In a rare form of misjudgement, I decided to slip out of the hotel room and do some enjoyment of the Las Vegas nightlife. I gambled too much and imbibed in what native Americans call "firewater". You could say that I was a bit "in the bag" when I returned to the hotel room at 2:00 AM or 02:00 for those of you serving in the military. Tee off time was 8:00 or in 6 hours. 

Yes, I did make it to Desert Pines in enough time to go to the driving range and hit some balls. Let's just say that the fog had not cleared over the Golden Gate Bridge as far as my body was concerned.  I walked onto the hitting area and picked out a stall.  The hitting stations were not grass but turf and I noticed there were no ball filled triangle of balls to hit.  There was a ball sitting on a rubber tee on the right side of the turf square? I said to myself what the heck and I hit the ball that was on the tee.  Whoosh and off it went out onto the range.

I turned away from where the ball was and asked someone a question.  When I turned back towards where the first ball was, there was another ball on the tee. At this point I began to doubt my sanity.  I knew that I had hit that ball off that tee and there were no more balls. But yet, a ball was sitting on the tee as big as you please. I knew I was in pretty bad shape and was slightly hungover, but I didn't think I had lost it that bad. Like Columbo in a good mystery, I was going to solve this. I was a little beat up mentally and physically I know, but I wasn't ready for the looney ward just yet. hey, I'm from Fresno and now Merced.  These things don't happen in my neck of the woods.

Here's what I did. There was a ball sitting on the tee. Thwack, I hit it off the tee and off it went majestically into the air.  I froze my eyes on the tee to see what was going to happen. The tee went down into the ground and then up comes another ball on the tee. There was a ball feeding system where the balls came up from a machine under the hitting area.  Wow, what high technology. I was still sane and the mystery was solved.  I was not losing my mind, but that didn't cure the intense hangover. 

I want to stop here because this blog is getting a bit too long and I don't want to lose you.  In my next post I will share with you my fourth trip to the  PGCC coaches Clinic/Tournament which was my last year participating in it. I will also talk about the three other courses I played in Las Vegas-Paiute, Bear's Best and Legacy- but on separate occasions. Stay tuned for Viva Las Vegas: Golf In The Kingdom Part 5 coming to a computer near you on The Golf Course Travel Bag.

 

     

Viva Las Vegas: Golf In The Kingdom-Courses I have Played Part 3

 The car was all packed and we were ready to leave the wonderful urban sprawl of the Las Vegas area.  What was I going to do for the next seven and a half hours of riding through nothingness of the California High Desert and then the pleasing to the eye experience of riding up Highway 99 up through California's San Joaquin Valley from Bakersfield to Merced. There was a stop in Bakersfield at the Famous Hodel's Buffet Restaurant for lunch and then it was off to finish our trip back to Merced. 

Seven and a half hours is a lot of time to kill.  My wife hates my driving so she does ALL of the driving when we go on any trips-anywhere.  To a lot of guys this is truly not what guys do, but I kind of like riding shotgun wherever we go. That's another story. I don't care to get into it because my wife reads my blog and I don't want to kick the bear, if you know what I mean. So, what do I do for those seven and a half long and boring hours other than converse with my wife about how much we hate Las Vegas?

What do you think I did?  I will wait for your answer.........OK, time's up.  I'll tell you what I did. We got to play golf this trip so my mind was on golf and I started to think about the many courses I have played in Las Vegas on my many trips there. I try to get in a round of golf when I am there, sucking up my pride and shelling out the non-resident green fee.  As I have said in my last post, I have issues with how out of town golfers have to pay a premium green fee to play the courses in Las Vegas, but I've talked about that in my last post and I won't go there. 

As each mile that looked a lot like the last ticked away, I started to make mental notes about the courses I played in Las Vegas and how I would share them here on this blog. I guess I will do what I normally do and write about them. Keep in mind, I enjoyed playing them. I have also listed them on my website, although I do have to update my website to include The Legacy.  By the way, if you haven't done so visit my website at http://the-golf-course-travel-bag.com. 

So that you can gain a sort of perspective on this, I think I need to share with you a paragraph of introduction here.  The first group of courses I played when I was a participant for four years in The Professional Golfers Career College Coaches Tournament and Clinic. I enjoyed playing these courses and each one was unique in its design.  What courses did we play? I will give some feedback on those courses later in the blog but first I want to give you some context as far as playing the courses.

The first year we played at Stallion mountain which at the time had three courses.  One of the courses was out of play so we played two of the three. We did play all three Stallion Mountain courses the following year.  The third course we played that year was Royal Links which is closed presently. Stallion Mountain's courses were fairly straight up, by that I mean that the course was flat but the rough and fairways were pristine.  I remember the greens being large and fast with some undulation to them. The three courses were nothing special really, but they were fun to play.  Stallion Mountain's three courses have been rerouted into one course, which I haven't played.

I remember arriving at Royal Links and looking over the course from the clubhouse. I  thought  to myself that this course is truly Las Vegas.  It had a sort of unique twist to it that truly made it a "Las Vegas Concept" course.  All of the holes on it were representations of the courses in the British Open rotation such as "The Road Hole" at St. Andrews and "The Postage Stamp".  To me, it was kind of a gimmicky golf course. I enjoyed playing the Royal Links and especially enjoyed "The Postage Stamp".  The course was pretty damp given the fact that the turf was a hybrid rye and in order to keep rye grass alive in a hot climate, you have to put a lot of water on it.  There were a lot of damp spots and puddles. I do have a good memory of the place in that I shot one of the best rounds of my life there.

Memories, tucked between the pages of my mind. You didn't think I could get away with not coming up with some throwback to an Elvis Presley song when this blog is entitled Viva Los vegas which is a Pressly song, did you?  Well, there it is. This post is running a bit too long so I will split it up into two posts. In the next post I will share more of the Las Vegas courses I have played. In the meantime, Viva Las Vegas.  That is, if you like Las Vegas.

   

 

  

Viva Las Vegas-Part 2 Golf In The Kingdom

 My little tirade on Las Vegas didn't go over too well, judging the number of hits it got.  That's OK, it was a bit of a downer to Las Vegas and the bottom line is I still do not like Las Vegas. Have you seen the parking rates downtown? You better win big in the casinos in order to just pay your parking bill. Enough said about that.

 Today's post is going to focus on one of the biggest reasons I dislike Las Vegas and that is how they do golf.  I have played several golf courses in the Las Vegas area and I did love the courses.  What I hate is how they soak non-residents by charging non-resident rates.  On Golf Now all the course green fees are based on non-resident rates. If you don't live in Las Vegas you pay a premium. There is not even a seasonal rate, just the rate non-residents pay, and non-residents are soaked. As far as pricing is concerned, courses are entitled to charge what they want but I'm not going to buy into that. That's not very welcoming and I just will not spend my money in a place that makes visitors feel unwelcome, but tries to take advantage of them.

Let's talk briefly about this resident rate.  I understand the resident rate if you play a course that is funded and owned by a particular city or county.  The taxpayers of that city or county pay their taxes for services the city or county offers, which may include the operation of  golf courses in that city or county.  I can see a two tiered system for residents versus non-residents. San Diego County which owns and operates Torrey Pines and Balboa Park has that kind of set up. I won't play either of the Torrey Pines courses the main reason being that the non-resident green fee is too steep, and except for the views the course plays a lot like a course I play in Fresno. When we do go to San Diego we try to play Balboa Park where the non-resident rate is reasonable. I'm OK with that.

Las Vegas is a different story.  Green fees are structured for residents are different than for non-resident, and in some cases there is a significant difference. It doesn't matter whether the course is a muni course or a semi-private course.  There is also not a difference between a summer and winter rate.  You have to know, if you are a tourist staying in Las Vegas and want to play golf you are going to pay through the nose. I truly understand that Las Vegas is a tourist town, but does it have to act like a very tight slot machine taking your money where the jackpot never comes up?

Nope, Las Vegas is not going to see me very often.  I may go there to visit my daughter and play golf with her but she lives there and when I go, I get resident rates.

In my next blog, I will share with you the golf courses I have played in Las Vegas.   

 

Viva Las Vegas, Or Not 

I really don't want to put into words how I feel about Las Vegas.  I have been there several times and each time I visited the city I have tried with all my might to like the town. Each time I went there I vowed that this time would be different and I would learn to like the place.  Well, each visit pretty much evoked strong feelings about the place.  OK, I'll say it.  I hate the place. 

Why do I not care for Las Vegas?  There are several reasons that I hold this opinion. First off, from where I live it is an almost seven and a half drive through nothingness, the California High Desert. The drive is basically once you have gotten to the boondocks, you still have about one-hundred and fifty miles to go. Flying there is not too bad, but in order to get around you must rent a car. The freeway system is pretty good, but the whole place runs at a pace that you better be careful you may get run over by that Mack truck. The traffic around the strip is, well what can I say.  Basically, Las Vegas is Los Angeles in the desert with a lot of rude people that just goes on and on. At least in Los Angeles you have an ocean nearby and it is not 150 degrees in the summer. Bottom line is, I just don't like the vibe of the city.

I've had some valid reasons for going to Las Vegas.  Let me share them.  First off, my first visit to Las Vegas was with my ex-wife. Our reason for going to Las Vegas was that we had never been there. Well, cross that off our bucket list. Her and I flew there in I believe it was early June, rented a car and did many of the touristy things you do when you go to Las Vegas. 

 We don't gamble so we really didn't go to the casinos.  We did Hoover Dam, The Liberace museum and The Billagio Fountain as well as going into the Luxor. The Follies Bergiere show at the no longer Tropicana hotel kept our interest and we enjoyed it. I hope the Oakland Athletics enjoy their non-existent ballpark when they move there on the site of the Tropicana. Sitting out at the pool at The Flamingo was a highlight of our trip. OK now, been there and done that. It wasn't that big of a deal and we probably won't come to Las Vegas again.  I was wrong.

I don't know if any of you are familiar with the jewelry company Cookie Lee.  It is a multi-level marketing company that sells jewelry and my ex-wife became a part of it.  She did fairly well with it I must say and recruited a couple of ladies into the company. She had a prospective recruit that lived in Las Vegas so off we went to meet with this lady. I was going to play golf with this lady's husband, so I went along.

This trip was a total bust.  We stayed a a fine Best Western which was very nice and had a great pool.  We enjoyed very much the evacuation of the resort in the heat of the July summer when the fire alarms went off.  It turns out that someone badly burned their toast causing the smoke alarm to go off in the room which facilitated the evacuation.  All in the name of safety.  Did I say that the pool was great? All kidding aside though, the resort was the high point of this visit.  The room was very nice and the staff went out of their way to make things comfortable.

Here goes a summary of this trip.  The recruit had ulterior motive and didn't sign up. The recruit's husband whom I was to play golf with backed out.  The whole trip was a bust, except for the exceptional stay at the resort. 

Trips three through six were business trips-sort of. When I was a teacher, I was also coaching golf at a local high school and middle school.  There was a coach's three day clinic/tournament that I was always invited to each year and it just happened to be held in Las Vegas. That clinic/tournament tuned into TOURNAMENT/clinic as most of the almost 200 coaches played in the tournament but sort of disappeared for the clinic. My memories are very fond as I participated in three of these events put on by The Professional Golfers Career College out of San Diego and we got to play some of the great courses in the Las Vegas area. On the rotation of courses were Stallion Mountain, Royal Links which is now closed, Desert Pines and the two courses Boulder Creek and Boulder Creek Municipal in Boulder Creek. I enjoyed very much going to these tournaments but my third was the last that PGCC held. The first year we got rained on and the second and third year the mercury soared to a wonderful 112 plus.  Another reason I hate Las Vegas.   

I've been to Las Vegas three times since The coach's tournament. My present wife drove the seven hour trip there on a time share promotion and came away seven thousand dollars poorer. Yes, we did buy the timeshare and I will share that story tomorrow, we enjoy it even though it was very expensive.  My wife was the one that said yes and we got to play golf. I wrote a post about this and I will repost it tomorrow so that you can get a good idea of what happened.

 The second time I went to Las Vegas on a immediate family reunion of my five children and I stayed in our timeshare. My wife did not come along and I won't go into that. My daughter who lives in Las Vegas is a fantastic golfer and I got to play golf at The Bear's Best golf course with her.  One of the highlights of the trip was finding out the gender of our next grandchild-my only grand daughter-and going through the National Atomic Testing Museum which was a blast, pardon the pun.

The third and last time I was in Las Vegas I was with my wife.  Her son  whom she sees rarely, was going to be in Phoenix, Arizona.  She wanted to meet up with his so we decided to drive and use our timeshare as a sort of halfway point on our way to Phoenix and stay a couple of days at our timeshare.  This not only would also include a round of golf in Las Vegas. This trip went off without of hitch and we got to spend some quality time with her son.

I know that this post was a bit rambling and probably wasn't that humorous, in fact probably downright boring. Thanks for staying with me on this. My post on Friday will be about the courses I played in Las Vegas and my opinions on them.  The bottom line on this is still, I hate Las Vegas.

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Who Am I?  Writer or Golfer?

So, I am having to make some big changes.  I have asked myself what do I want to be when I grow up.  Do I want to be a writer or do I want to be a golfer? I don't want to reveal my age, but I will say that I just entered my seventh decade of existence. I play golf and I write.

Social Security and my teacher's pension have kept me going for a while and so has being married to a wonderful wife. However, eating Hamburger Helper and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as our daily sustenance is not my idea of living.  Once in a while we splurge and make a tuna fish sandwich.  OK, its not that bad, but I would still like to supplement our income and the best way I know of doing this is through my writing. With this in mind, I have decided a couple of things, so here goes.

The biggest thing is that I have to devote more serious time to writing. What I need to do is to set aside a block of time where I am not disturbed and sit down at my computer and write.  This must be a ritual each day as there are a few things that I want to accomplish on a regular basis and I can't do that if I am not consistent. I have to totally internalize that I am a professional writer first and golf along with travel are my subjects. Golf and travel are my subjects that I am painting and the written page are my canvas.  Writing has been a hobby and it is time to change that.

Secondly, I must become more consistent posting my blogs.  How can you build a following and when you don't know when another post is coming out.  Readers go away from you work, because they can't depend on you being there.  They want new things and ideas to read and enjoy.  If you are not consistent in your posts, they will not subscribe and think that you have fallen into a cenote in the Yucatan, drowning in that cenote. Well, maybe not that but they won't come back if there are no new posts on a regular basis 

Here is my plan.  I will post hopefully three times a week, most likely Monday, Wednesday and Friday so watch for it.  The Golf Course Travel Bag will be my main blog but I will also try to get a couple of my other blogs such as Golf Is For Couples and David Rallis Writes up and running in this mix. Posts will not only be about my thoughts on different aspects and topics in the game of golf, but I will also share some of the observations about some of the over 250 courses I have played. What was it like to play some of the wonderful courses I have played such as Pacific Grove in the Monterey area?  What are some of the hidden gem golf courses I have played such as Oceanside Muni? I will share that with you.

I have a lot to write about and there is more to come so I hope you will join me on this literary journey. I am also making arrangements to do some affiliate marketing through my blogs so I hope you will support me with that as well. My goal is to get my readership up to at least 10,000 hits a month and a subscribers list of about the same size.  I know it will take time so please help me on this.  I would appreciate it so don't forget to hit the follower's button on the blog.

I don't know if any of you know this but I do have a website.  The web address is http://the-golf-course-travel-bag.com and is basically a course directory.  The unique thing about it is the courses listed in it are all courses I have personally played and some personal comments about what I thought about that course.  They are basically courses on the West Coast, but I have played in Florida and some other places as well. Again, I hope to have some affiliate marketing on that site and please visit as well as subscribe to the site.  I am in the process of updating the website with a few courses that I have played since I last updated it.  

To those of you who have read my blog when I publish, I want to say a hearty Thank You. I hope to welcome many more readers into the Golf Course Travel Bag blog family.  Please don't forget to hit the followers button and thank you for reading, I'll

see you soon. 

 

It Is The Game of Golf-Darn

 Yes, golf is a game that can humble the heart.  It is also a game that can take you to new heights.  In my case, it can also take you to new lows as well.  These things are very true, especially if you have experienced "the wheels coming off" in a round.  We all know that golf is a game of a collection of shots and sometimes those shots are not our best.  We love the game, it is a challenge and is never the same each time we go out. No matter how great we play or on the other hand how bad we play, we always ask that age old question after our round, When is our next tee time.

I don't know how many of you experienced watching the end of the 2024 Byron Nelson Golf Classic?  It was certainly an exciting finish between the two top competitors in the tournament.  Tyler Pendraith won by one shot over Ben Knowles.  There are a couple of things I have to say about the finish of this tournament. 

First off, congratulations to Tyler Pendraith for winning what I believe was his first PGA tournament. This player from Canada was solid throughout the tournament.  However, I don't know at the end of the day that he didn't win the tournament so much as Knowles lost the tournament on the last hole.  Let me explain. 

Two questions have to be answered. The first question is why did Knowles try to go for the green with a hybrid on hole number 18 which is a short par 5 and supposedly the easiest hole on the course?  Why did you do that when you are leading the tournament by a stroke and all you had to do is lay up, take an easy pitch shot from off the green, make the putt for birdie and walk away with the trophy and  $1.7?  

And that my friend is not the end of it.  How could you chunk a wedge out of that thick rough? All he had to do is get the ball on the green and two putt for at least a par and a share of the lead leading to at least a playoff.  He could have put that wedge shot for a makeable birdie and a win.  For pitty sake, I could have taken out my 60 degree and blasted it out of that rough. I realize that the pressure was on, but come on. Such is the game of golf, I guess.  Disaster was snatched from the jaws of victory.  

I don't feel sorry for Ben Knowles.  That little missed pitch from out of the rough by the green cost him about $700,000.  Oh well, he still pocketed over a cool $1000000 so I don't feel sorry for him.  I have to publish a lot of blog posts and book for a million dollars.  One thing he did prove though.  It is truly a difficult and humbling game. But, we golfers already know that.       

  

I'm A Travelin' Man

 I don't know how many of you remember that Ricky Nelson hit song "I'm A Travelin' Man". I'm going to date myself here and say I remember when it was first released and the AM radio stations-my, that's a long time ago-used to play it a lot.  I remember watching "The Ozzy and Harriet Show" when Ricky performed it for the first time. OK, I am getting old so let's get that out of the way.  I'm also a "Travelin' Man"  and have played golf in a lot of diverse places.  I have haven't played outside of North America, but I have logged a few miles especially here on The West Coast. I guess that's why I call my blog and other things "The Golf Course Travel Bag".  It kind of makes sense.

I'm going to take a minute here to give a sort of explanation or "road map" if you will about what I am going to bring to you with "The Golf Course Travel Bag".  I am going to share with you stories about the golf courses that I have played and some of the locations that I have traveled to. Of course I can't get away with just writing about courses and locations.  I have to throw in a bit of off the wall humor and observations about golf and the issues surrounding the game.  For example, Why would you want to throw out a perfectly good golf ball because the pros are hitting it longer than the gutta perch ball with graphite shafts and not hickory shafts? That my friend, is a question for the ages.  I don't have time to answer that question because I have to leave for church and my wife gets a little perturbed when we are late, considering she is the choir director and I sing bass.   

In my over 50 years of playing this wonderful game I have played over 200 different courses. Many of those courses I have take pictures of.  I have a website in which I have listed and given some information about most of those courses. On my website you will find courses you can play and they are open to the public. I have played quite a few private courses that require an invitation or I played them in competition and I haven't listed these on the website.  Check out my website at http://the-golf-course-travel-bag.com. So, what else was I going to call it.

My wife and I have just returned from a few days at our time share in Palm Springs. What did we do?  We played golf, of course-pun not intended.  In the coming weeks I may share some stories about those few days, or I may not because I am retired and take naps.  I don't know the point I am making here, I am just trying to close this post. So, I guess I will just say watch for my next post.
  

Ouch! It Hurts

 So I have come to the conclusion that I am not as young as I used to be. It seems as though I have found places on my body that I never knew existed and guess what-They all hurt.  Not only that, those minor aches and pains become major and take a much longer time to heal. Believe me, they play real havoc with your golf game. I have to tell you that getting older is not for whimps. But, you do have to put all of this in perspective considering the alternative.

I would give you a rundown of all the aches and pains that evolved in my not so pure body, but I don't want to bore you any more than I have in the past with my earlier posts.  Let us just suffice to say that they hurt, and in many cases have kept me from playing golf.  I hate it when that happens.  I deal with sciatica.  My knees are bone to bone and I enjoy it when my orthopedist looks at my x-rays and says, "Are you sure your knees aren't hurting you?  I have seen knees that were in  much better shape that I have replaced."  Actually, they don't hurt and once a year I go in for my hyleronic acid shot and do a series of knee exercises. They are fine for another year. I thank God for that and back out to the golf course I go.

I honestly think it is a conspiracy.  My body is trying to tell that eighteen year old feeling brain that the body it is in is not eighteen, but is in a beat up seventy year old body.  The body has finally thrown a major monkey wrench into the brain/body controversy.  It has dealt an almost crushing blow with a new condition. I have been afflicted with the dreaded tennis elbow and it hurts.

The war is raging between the brain and the body.  When I first started hurting from this I decided that it would not stop me from playing golf.  What the heck, there is always the wonder drug ibuprophen. Four little tablets of this amazing discovery of the pharmaceutical world will beat back the pain and it will go away. I'll ice my elbow as well and it will disappear.  It will be as good as new-all will be right with the world. Wrong, well if I stop playing golf for a couple of weeks and keep icing it as well as taking ibu, maybe it will go away. So, I laid off .  

This was fine, but a complication arose. In September my wife out of the blue asked me if we had time at our timeshare the first week of January.  Yes, I almost fell off my chair because as you know, she doesn't like to go away and travel. I told her that I would look and lo and behold there was a week available in the San Diego area.  I told her about it and I grabbed the time.  I love the San Diego area and I was excited.  The next four months were filled with joyous expectation from me, enough to drive my wife close to insanity.

The weather was pretty nice in December, good enough for it to be pleasant on the golf course.  We played quite a bit. I felt a slight tug in my right elbow and thought nothing of it.  Unfortunately as the playing month wore on the pain got worse. The dreaded tennis elbow was knocking loudly at my door and it forced its way in. It got bad enough that on a couple of rounds, I had to quit about the fourteenth hole. My eighteen year old brain said play on soldier, but eventually the 70 year old body said, "Shut up kid, I hurt!"  I came to a compromise with the two factions.  I would play until I started to feel a bit of pain.

 OK, so that didn't work.  What was I going . to do?  Our San Diego trip and its four day golf marathon were quickly approaching. I sat out the last week of December and stoked up on the wonder drug as well as icing my elbow and putting heat on it.  I found out that YouTube is full of ways to alleviate the pain of tennis elbow. They helped, but the pain didn't go away but was lessened. San Diego and golf, here we come. That eighteen year old brain was fired up.  The 70 year old body said, "You do what you want, but I am not responsible for any catastrophes." On to San Diego we went. I love San Diego and I love to play golf especially in San Diego.

Did I say I love San Diego?  It is one of my favorite places on Earth.  I love the warm climate, Casa Guadalajara Mexican restaurant, Fillippe's Italian food, Point Loma and the Cabrillo Monument, the harbor and especially the golf courses. I was not going to miss out on this trip.  There was no way. We got to our resort in Carlsbad and checked in.  My arm hurt and my 18 year old brain told me that I would be OK, but my 70 year old body tried to warn me of impending doom and disaster.

We teed off on Monday and my arm felt OK.  There was a little pain but I had taken my ibuprophen and I was wearing my tennis elbow brace.  I felt great.  My eighteen year old kept telling me, "See, I knew you could do it."  My 70 year old body said, "You just wait, the round is not over yet." I made it to the fifteenth hole and my arm didn't hurt but it was starting to let me know it was there. I decided that in order to keep playing this week I should listen to my 70 year old body and sit the rest of this round out.  I didn't want to not be able to play tomorrow, so I thought I would rest the arm for the rest of the round. My 70 year old body was very happy.  We got back to the resort and I went in the jacuzzi and put the water jets on my arm.  It felt great.  I was ready for tomorrow.

I woke up and it was a beautiful Tuesday morning.  I'm ready for today's round of golf, I thought.  I took my ibuprophen and put on my tennis elbow brace.  Let's go conquer the world, my eighteen year old brain thought.  My seventy year old body was yet to be convinced.  We headed to the golf course and I was really excited about playing in this beautiful weather.

After checking in at the pro shop we got our cart, went to the car and loaded up our clubs. I felt good and it seemed that my ibuprophen was kicking in.  On to the first hole we went and teed off.  My eighteen year old brain kept encouraging me on and my 70 year old body reminded me that the round was not over.  I was playing golf and enjoying it with just a little ache and nothing more. 

I bogeyed the first hole, double bogeyed the second and pared the third. No pain here, just a very small ache. I had bogeys up until the seventh hole and I was still in good shape as far as any pain. My seventy year old body was waiting.  On the eighth hole tee I felt a little tug in my elbow. The second  shot was ok but on the third hole I felt a big pop-OUCH!  That was it.  My seventy year old body was now in charge.  This is as far as you go buddy.  I sat out the rest of the round in pain. That's it for today, but what about Thursday when we were going to play one of my favorite courses?  I'll be all right as I can rest my arm tomorrow.  Its going to rain tomorrow.

Thursday came and I was excited because this was the day we were to play one of my favorite golf courses Mt. Woodsen in beautiful Ramona, California. What a beautiful golf course in a mountain setting.  If you look at the numbers on the scorecard it doesn't look very tough and is short by most standards.  Yes, but a lemon looks sweet so don't let this course fool you.  It is hilly and has some great holes, especially their signature hole which is a par three and you have to cross a long quarter mile bridge that snakes through the hillside in order to reach the third tee.  What a wonderful hole and that hole had a significant role in my play for the rest of the week. 

 I hit my tee shot to the par three and it hurt.  Ok, let's pick the ball up and go on to the fourth hole. My tee shot on the fourth probably was one of the worst drivers I have ever hit and quite frankly was beyond description.  I was done for the day.  My 70 year old body had totally counter manned my 18 year old brain. That was it for today.  I tried a few more shots after that, but I found out that there were many ways you could hit a hosel rocket. 

There was no way this trooper was going to soldier on.  I was done. We had a tee time for tomorrow at another course but it was time to make some really mature decisions, and that decision was that my body didn't want me to play.  We decided to cancel our tee time for Friday which was a good thing because Denise's knees were bothering her. It was time to retreat to the safety back in Merced, recoup and rest in order to soldier on another day. Its a long drive from San Diego to Merced.  My 70 year old body was proud of me, and my 18 year old mind went off into a corner and pouted.  

Several weeks ago I fell and braced my fall with my arms.  Needless to say this was painful and has caused me another seven weeks of a hiatus from golf. I am having withdrawl symptoms and I am dying to get back to playing.  Well, I'm just going to wait it out this time. I am going to display the wisdom of an almost 70 year old person and put my 18 year old brain in its place. I think the pain will do a pretty good job of that.