Running with the topic of the last post, club selection, I’m curious whether players often change the clubs in their bag depending on the season. This is probably more of a temperature issue. Hitting a 2-iron in 50* weather is not a fun thing to do, and the sting of a mishit can leave your hands ringing for the rest of the round.
I don’t like 5-woods, but I would consider swapping my 2-iron for a 5-wood. Other than that, I wouldn’t change much.
I just answered a post at TheSandTrap, which prompted:
You can only use five clubs to play your next round. Quick! What do you pick?
My response:
The five clubs I would take are:
1) Putter
2) 56* sand wedge
3) 8 iron
4) 3 iron
5) DriverWost case scenario, I’m left with a 120 – 135 yard carry over something and the 8 iron flies too far and the wedge too short. But, I suppose I would do a good bit of positioning during the round to avoid that yardage / situation.
Taking a putter seems to be a given for many people. I’m not convinced I would need it. I do pretty well using the blade of my sand wedge. The driver is somewhat irrelevant, too. I could drive with a three-iron and be sufficiently long to score well. On most courses, with the five clubs above I would probably be using the three-iron off of the tee to position for the eight-iron.
I played for the first time in months today. I’ve been hitting range balls every few days for weeks now, savoring the final golfable days of the fall season in New England. The course was beautiful, empty and quiet. The foliage was in full swing. For nine holes, I walked through a corridor of color. The brick red and muted yellow leaves reminded me of high school golf. Back then, the leaves were distractions. They coved up my ball in the fairway and littered my putting line. This afternoon, though, the leaves were a perfect backdrop.
Saying I played nine holes is a little misleading. I basically took the range onto the course and got my $22 worth by playing five to eight balls per hole. It was much more enjoyable than hitting balls on the range, although my weaknesses were highlighted. I drove the ball well. I hit my irons well. I hit some miraculous flop-shots. Putting it all together, however, is something that I’m saving for my next late-fall round.
One of my favorite TV shows lately is HBO’s “Deadwood,” a Western set in the 1870s in what later became South Dakota. The strength of the show lies with its characters, the prime example being Al Swearengen, a saloon owner and general overseer of the town. Al’s authenticity jumps off of the screen. He is cruel, funny and intelligent all at once. And that’s before he’s opened his mouth to swear at you and offer you a drink.
When I watch golf, I’m watching for entertainment. As a good golfer, the players’ performances go a long way towards accomplishing that goal. However, to a less dedicated golfer or to a non-golf fan, golf is very unwatchable. The players performances cannot be appreciated and golf doesn’t seem to conjure up that universal nostalgic feeling that baseball does for many folks. Instead, non-golf fans are left with dorky commentary and an abundance of quickly clipped shots of various no-name golfers.
Part of the reason I became so enamored with golf in the first place was because some of the players of the past had such strong characters. They put their personalities on display instead of tucking them neatly into the side-pocket of their golf bag along with their watch and other valuables. Guys – who seemed more like guys than professionals or men – like Chi Chi Rodriguez and Lee Travino had fun with the game. They joked with the gallery and seemed to genuinely enjoy what they were doing. Even Arnold Palmer would hitch his pants for the gallery.
You don’t see players’ personalities anymore more unless it’s in a made for TV special. Only then might they cautiously reveal that they’re wine connoisseurs or they like to snowboard. Whoopie. But, get them back on the course and it’s like they’re in a business meeting – a focus fest – an anti-smile-a-thon.
Well, they’ve raised a lot of money lately. Maybe it’s time to give some back. Crack a smile guys. Give a fan a high-five. It’s good for the game and who knows, maybe you’ll inspire some other nine-year old kid to pick up a club and start talking up his game on the range.
The Valero Texas Open begins today. The Texas Open has been played in San Antonio, TX since 1922, which makes San Antonio the longest running host city of any PGA Tour event.
Colt Knost, who won this year’s U.S. Amateur, is making his PGA Tour debut thanks to a sponsor’s exemption. This guy turned down invites to three of next year’s major championships to try to play his way onto the PGA Tour this fall.
Other watchables include Texan (and Prince Andrew look-alike) Justin Leonard, John “Long Ball” Daly, the owner of the coolest name in golf, Spike McRoy, and one of my all-time favorite players, Corey Pavin.
To the reader: Are you going to watch this week’s Texas Open? Why?
Considering the reach of the Presidents Cup reminded me of the made-for-TV golf matches cum travel show Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf. This show was a tightly edited match between two professional golfers. The show first ran from 1962 through 1970 and then later from 1994 to 2002.
My memories of the show are of host Jack Whitaker droaning on about how wonderfully marvelous the players as well as the course were. It was sappy, to say the least, but hearing the players joke around and seeing them play in the relaxed atmosphere was exciting to me as a young golf fan.
I was wondering whether Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf lived up to its name as a truly worldly show. What I found surprised me. The initial run of the show seemed to be more far reaching in terms of playing locations than the more recent run of the show. Between 1962 and 1970 the show visited destinations such as Tokyo, New Zealand, Singapore, India, the Philippines, Thailand, and many places in North America and Western Europe. The later run from 1994 to 2002 was noticeably less adventurous. Most of the destinations were in the Americas or Carribbean. Only a smattering are in Western Europe.
Golf is clearly more far reaching than ever, but is the curtailed travel schedule of the recent Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf episodes evidence that the Presidents Cup would not go over well with a U.S. audience if played in some of the most far reaching locals?
(Information from Wikipedia.com.)(The Golf Channel is the current home to Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf, however their website for the show is semi-defunct and outdated.)
Gary Player wants the Presidents Cup to be played around the world.
We should be going into China. We should be going into India and I think we should be going into Eastern Europe. It would be my dream to see that.
Jack Nicklaus wants similar things, but is realistic.
Having traveled to China this past summer, I’m not sure I would want a Presidents Cup to be played there. The top players in the world would be less likely to travel to China. It is not a developed country. It is a developing country, which means there are still a lot of kinks to work out. If the Olympics go smoothly in Beijing next summer, perhaps my views on China hosting other sporting events will change. But it seems the PGA Tour (etc.) would have to reach for a reason to take the Presidents Cup to China or India. There are no Chinese or Indian members on the International team, so no one country is being ignored by the Australia-South Africa-Canada approach to the Presidents Cup. Further, I don’t think the Presidents Cup would play well in China or India for media and promotion reasons. Beneath the battle for the Cup is a concern for the bottom line, and marketing a golf event in China to a U.S. audience is a sure way to ensure the smallest possibly home-town crowd ever. China isn’t a country you just fly to. You basically have to get invited, and for a good reason.
I agree with Nicklaus that the Presidents Cup isn’t ready to be played in China, India, or, to a lesser extent, Easter Europe. Maybe once it establishes a more solid foundation with golf fans and the question of, “Are the players Cupped out?,” falls by the wayside should taking the Cup “abroad” be reconsidered.