Tiger resumes plans to build new course in Cabo

Interesting read HERE, courtesy of Golf.Com, where you can read more of the nitty gritty.

“I don’t want people to lose a dozen balls when they play our course. Pinehurst is a great example of a course that’s tough for us but playable for everybody else. It gets players thinking, with options around the greens. We want lots of variety.” ~ Tiger Woods

Reading through the article, you’ll note Riviera, Pinehurst and St. Andrews as some of the more prominent examples that he’s using as a template of sorts to blend difficulty with playability in what really is his first “green light” layout… considering that his prior three projects have either been scrapped indefinitely or delayed because of the economic recession. With the economy finally showing some signs of a moderate rebound, there’s little reason to believe that his signature course El Cardonal at the Diamante Resort won’t be completed on schedule next summer.

 

Trump’s $200 Million Makeover of Doral Big Blue Monster

The par4 18th at Doral

Here’s an interesting tidbit I came across putting this article together earlier today: both Tour events last week were hosted by resorts owned and managed by The Donald. Yeah, it seems his money and influence has found its way into pro golf, on top of just about everything else.

Although some of his critics might not necessarily see that as a good thing, as it relates to his planned $200 million facelift of the Doral Resort and Spa (the host of the PGA Tour’s second World Golf Championship event each season) – this blogger thinks it’s a blessing. Not because of the planned renovation of the resort accommodations, mind you… although I’m sure it’ll be nothing short of spectacular 5-star luxury for the guests and business people who come there for both business and golfing pleasures, but primarily because the layout of the famed Big Blue Monster has made the televised event incredibly stale and boring to watch over the past decade or so.

As for some of the proposed changes to the layout, Trump is relying on renowned golf course designer and architect Gil Hanse to incorporate some of the needed modifications that both feel will make the layout more interesting and possibly a bit more challenging, but without taking away the original playing design from the original architect, Dick Wilson. As some of us know, Hanse was recently selected to be the primary architect of the new golf course that will be hosting the first-ever Olympic Golf event in the upcoming 2016 Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro, so he obviously brings a tremendous amount of experience and architectural design knowledge to the table. His biggest challenge will be finding the subtle compromise between maintaining a playable resort design for paying resort guests while at the same time making some subtle changes to several of the holes to create more of a challenge for the Tour players who play one of the bigger events of the season there each spring. Striking that balance is obviously becoming increasingly difficult because of the enormous advancements of modern golf equipment technology, but Hanse believes it’s doable. “The combination of interesting winds with new hole locations and trying to get them into different angles, we’re hopeful it makes them more interesting,” Hanse said last year in THIS article in Miami’s Sun Sentinel. “That’s what we’re after, as opposed to hard or easy.”

According to Hanse in that article, the following changes are being considered:

–  six greens will be shifted to new locations

–  the layout of the par3 15th will be totally rebuilt and redesigned

– water hazards will be added to increase the challenge on both the 15th and 16th holes, with the addition of a semi-island green on the par3 15th and water also coming into play on the short par4 16th

– several other greens will be rebuilt and enlarged to accommodate more challenging hole locations

– tee boxes will be moved to require different angles to the fairways, and several greens will be shifted to be in closer proximity to the green-side bunkers and water hazards in play

– greens and fairways will be reseeded with more modern Bermuda hybrid grasses

One hole that will not change, however, is the difficult 467-yard par4 18th. Hanse feels that the closing hole is plenty challenging as is, without the need to create more excitement and drama than already exists. Although it remains to be seen what the changes will look like a year from now or how much more challenging the Tour players will find it, Hanse summed up his thoughts on the project that will consume him for the next 6 months. “Ultimately, the main way to challenge these guys is to be able to set the pins in locations that are difficult to access. You have to either shape your shot in there or you have to position yourself well off the tee,” he said. “If we can bring some of that element back to the course, which I think was critical in the original design, that will be a good accomplishment. It will be a much more interesting and, I think, more visually appealing style.”

It’s been a long time coming, in my opinion.

Snedeker’s Winning Bag

Tami Chappell/Reuters

Although the video below was shot back last year, nothing has changed with his golf equipment since. Sneds seems to be a throwback to an era when players didn’t hop from one driver to another every three months, or to a different equipment company once their sponsorship contracts were set to expire. I did find it interesting that he plays graphite shafts in his irons, and he explains why in the video.

Given the success he’s had the past two seasons, I don’t expect his equipment to change anytime soon.

Nike Golf’s “Apologies” Ad Warrants Apology

Congrats, Nike Golf. In as little as 30 seconds with your latest ad, you’ve kicked the etiquette of the game to the curb, not to mention compromised the safety of literally hundreds of thousands of golfers who play the game on a daily or weekly basis. Had you simply scrubbed the “No I’m Not” comment from one of the actors, the commercial would’ve been taken for what it was – an advertisement. Instead, your attempt at a witty punchline and the negligent attitude it conveys is incredibly regretful.

On behalf of the ever shrinking population of golfers who still value golf’s long lost principles of courtesy, etiquette and proper sportsmanship, your company has done a huge disservice to the game we love.

My Time in the Game: At Home at Olde Homestead

In the fall of 1999, my wife and I visited the area that we would eventually call home three months later. Having spent 7 years in Western Kentucky and truly loving every minute of our existence there, I didn’t exactly know what to expect living in the Northeast. But first impressions tend to be lasting impressions, and our relocation agent in nearby Allentown (who was assigned to assist us with our house hunting trip) didn’t exactly roll out the red carpet or give us the warm fuzzies about leaving a place that we’d grown to love.

Jeanie was our relocation agent, and we explained to her that we weren’t looking to buy a home right off the bat. The wife and I discussed this prior to moving and agreed that renting for a few years to get comfortable and acquainted with our new surroundings would be ideal for our situation. The most important thing that we communicated to her was that we were looking for a good school district for our kids, and right after that we were wanting to live in more of a rural area and avoid the inner city life at all costs. We have never been, nor will ever be, city people. I don’t like traffic, I don’t like crowds, and I’ve always appreciated having some sense of privacy. Give me a 2-lane road with farmland and mountains any day over the hustle and bustle of a busy city – I don’t need to be able to get to the mall in 10 minutes or less. In fact, put me an hour away from the mall. I hate the mall. I hate everything about going to the mall, I’m not a mall guy.

But Jeanie didn’t quite get the memo.

We spent the first two days looking at nearly every rundown row home and chronic fixer-upper in center city Allentown. I kept dropping subtle hints at every other traffic light that we came to, reminding her that (a) we weren’t interested in buying a home and (b) that I despised traffic lights and overpopulated areas in general… but she continued with her own agenda and finally it dawned on me that the only thing she was interested in was making a sale. Knowing that if we continued the same process with her over our remaining two days on our trip that we’d end up not finding a place to live, I called her office the next morning and told her that she was no longer needed. She was shocked and almost impolite after learning that we no longer wanted her input, and I basically told her to have a good life. When I got off the phone with her, my opinion of the people living in the Lehigh Valley took a serious nosedive, which only motivated me to drive as far away as possible to find a place to live. A quiet place, above everything else.

The next morning my wife and I grabbed a quick breakfast and decided to head north up route 309. I pointed at a little spot on the map that said “New Tripoli” and told her that maybe we should start there. We heard good things about the school district, it was a very rural area with light population, and it would only add about 15 more minutes to my wife’s commute to work each day. So that’s where we headed. The little town of New Tripoli ended up being precisely what the doctor ordered. We found a new town home that was for rent, we liked the area, and it was a situation that we felt would be comfortable until we found something a little more permanent later on.

But the best part was that I’d scouted what appeared to be a really nice golf course only a mile up the road from where we’d be living. To suggest that this had nothing to do with my part of the decision would be a lie, for sure. And I think the wife knew that, but she also knew that it was a nice area with a good school, and that a golf course nearby would more than help her husband settle in and make new friends. It really was a win-win for everyone involved, except Jeanie of course.

The name of that golf course is Olde Homestead Golf Club, and I’ll never forget the first time I took a tour of the place…. it was unlike any other course I’d ever stepped foot on. It was immaculate, the conditions, the scenery, the old Pennsylvania Dutch feel, the mountains, the wildlife – everything about it. Each hole that I toured only reinforced my notion that this was the greatest place on the golfing planet, and I couldn’t wait to put a tee in the ground and give it a test run.

Over a dozen years worth of fond memories and approximately 1000+ rounds later, I still enjoy playing there as much today as I did many moons ago. A lot of golfers often lament that they get tired of playing the same course over and over, but I’ve never felt that way there. Even when I became a member at a private club several years ago, I still logged plenty of rounds there to more than qualify being a regular. With it only being a mile up the road from me, and having one of the best practice facilities in the Northeast, there was no way I could possibly avoid the place, and not that I ever wanted to. The owners, the staff, the quality of service and the warm hospitality – all of these things only enhance the experience of playing undoubtedly one of the best 18 hole golf facilities in the Lehigh Valley, public or private. In fact – I’ve probably played no fewer than 200 courses in the Northeast over the past 12 years, and Olde Homestead still ranks #1 on my personal ranking system, by far. There’s not a single weak hole on the layout, and I feel like I’m appreciated there every time I walk through the gates. The people who make Olde Homestead what it is, and Olde Homestead the layout itself, have become family to me, my 2nd home only a mile down the road from where I live. But besides becoming my 2nd family and 2nd home, Olde Homestead also revealed the very thing that Jeanie failed to help me discover back in the fall of 1999: that my perception of the people in the Northeast couldn’t have been more wrong.

When I finally get settled in London this summer, I’ll have to find a new place to hang my golf hat for a few years. I’ve already made some inquiries and have my eye on a few places in particular, and they look relatively nice and enjoyable to play.

But no matter which course I play over there, it won’t be Olde Homestead. 😦

 

 

 

Sports Radio Shock Jocks Bash Haney During Live Phone Interview

Thanks to Geoff Shackelford for sharing THIS HORRIBLE, UTTERLY TASTELESS INTERVIEW-GONE-AWFUL by Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton, as these pieces of work paired up on Hank Haney earlier this week on NY’s WFAN.

I’m over halfway thru the book… and the vitriol that is coming out of the critics’ mouths over this is beyond me, especially considering that most of the critics have admitted that they’ve not even read the damned thing. Rest assured that Tiger’s Fanboys will always come to his defense, even if it means name calling and making total asses out of themselves. The funny thing is that Tiger himself would never find a situation in life where he would want the likes of these two idiots defending him. Kuddos to Haney for maintaining his composure and simply hanging up on them. If WFAN was the only sports station I had to listen to, I think I’d drive to the middle of the Verrazano Bridge, open my door, walk to the edge, climb the rails and jump.

 

 

Golf Magazine 2012 Club Test

Schecter Lee

With the season officially getting underway next week, I wanted to provide my readers with a direct link to Golf Magazine’s 2012 Club Test.

I also want to offer a few tips to those who are considering upgrading their equipment.

• It’s not just about looks.

I remember falling for the Ping i10 irons a few years back, and committed the cardinal sin of allowing the appearance of a club to have the most influence in my buying decision. Sound familiar? For me – it ended up being a $600 mistake. Looks are important, but obviously not the only primary consideration. And it’s also proof that just because you get properly fitted for a new set of irons, that doesn’t mean that the model of the iron itself is a fit for your golf game. The biggest mistake I see committed by golfers year in and year out is the same boo boo I made with the i10 irons – buying more club for less game. Game Improvement irons might not be the eye candy that your golfing taste buds desire, but don’t make the mistake by assuming that you’re above a little more forgiveness.

• Ditch the long irons, get the hybrids.

The last set of irons I purchased was back in the fall of 2011, the TaylorMade R11’s. Except I didn’t purchase the complete set. I ordered the 5-iron thru A-wedge, since I already had 3&4 hybrids in my bag setup, which removed the need to needlessly purchase the 3&4 irons that usually come with the set. This is becoming more of a standard practice now, especially since hybrids have become increasingly popular because of their relative ease to hit, and the money saved with not purchasing the 3&4 irons is quite significant. In some instances, it could be as much as $250-$300 dollars less.

•   Check your loft progressions.

The reason you want to check the loft progressions of potential new irons is because each manufacturer might have different specs, particularly as it relates to loft. A degree or two here, a degree or two there – suddenly you might find yourself with a notable gap either at the long end or the short end of your bag. Case in point: my R11 6-iron has 28* of loft. Not taking the time to reference this, I purchased a set of Callaway Razr hybrids (3&4) and at the last minute decided to give a 5-hybrid a try as well. That Cally 5-hybrid has 27* of loft, only one degree less loft than the R11 6-iron. In essence, I hit my 6-iron nearly as far as I hit the 5-hybrid. So if you play one brand of irons and maybe a different brand of hybrids or wedges, take note of the loft progressions and compare. And lastly, take note of the strengths of your shorter irons, particularly the pitching wedge and gap wedge. If you’re like me, preferring more of a non-stock specialty wedge (like the Cleveland CG14’s, for example) you’re going to want to keep that 4* or 5* at-most progression. It could mean that the 56* wedge that you’ve traditionally played is 6* less than the stock gap wedge that comes with the iron set (50*). Try to maintain 4* – 5* progressions throughout your bag to maintain distance continuity. One last thing: just because there might be 2* of difference doesn’t necessarily mean you need to go out and purchase new wedges. It’s not an issue for a club builder to bend the wedge the 1-2 needed degrees to comply with your preferred loft gaps.

• Get on a launch monitor.

Most modern golf retail outlets (like Golf Galaxy, Edwin Watts, etc.) have the ability to check your true swing speed, your spin rate, your launch angle, your carry distance, and your swing tendencies (hook, straight, or slice) with a launch monitor. I always encourage players looking to upgrade to new irons (or any club for that matter) to take one of their current irons (one that they hit reasonably well) and do a launch monitor comparison with the potential new model of iron they’re considering purchasing. Always do a comparison if possible, because it gives you a much greater sense of just how much of a difference there might be in the performance. A knowledgeable club fitter can take the data from the launch monitor and help steer you in a better equipment direction, pertaining to both shaft flex and club model design best suited for your golf swing.

• Take advantage of Playability Guarantees

Not all golf retail outlets do this, but some actually offer a grace period of sorts with new club purchases. TGW.COM offers a 30-day playability guarantee for new clubs purchased from their website, providing that the club isn’t altered, damaged, has excessive wear, or is a special custom order. It’s a great insurance policy to have, knowing that if the new club doesn’t perform as expected – you can return it and get in-store credit to apply to something different.

 

Golf equipment isn’t inexpensive, but millions of golfers continue to purchase golf clubs that are either ill-fitted or not what they were expecting performance-wise. They then take an enormous loss by trying to auction it on eBay for half of what they paid for it retail. If you’ll do your homework, you can save yourself both time and money by following my tips above and avoid Golf’s revolving door of hit it, sell it, and buy something else.

 

Tour Instructors Weigh In About ‘The Big Miss’

Scott Halleran / Getty Images

As I noted earlier this week, I’ve yet to read Haney’s book all the way through and will post my own review on it as soon as I do.

But there’s some serious blow back from the vacuum that he’s created and it’s all centering around the ‘professional code’ that many of his fellow instructors believe he completely ignored with writing the book. A couple of days ago I posted an article about Rick Smith taking dead-aim at Haney without any reservations whatsoever, and since Smith spoke out, several others have felt obliged to give their two cents as well. All of the quotes below are courtesy of THIS ‘Golf Central’ Golf Channel news segment.

“Within the realm of coaching there are a number of things that are said in confidence. There are things that players discuss with you that are very confidential, how they are thinking, their life outside of golf that should not be written about. If it was just about the golf game that would be OK. The golf swing is on public display and I have no problem commenting on that, but nothing that would be personal.” ~ Dale Lynch, swing coach for Geoff Ogilvy, Aaron Baddeley and Matt Goggin

“If there’s something about him and his wife or his kids or his phobias – those are out of bounds. There are certain parts you don’t mess with, that would be out of bounds no matter who you were. But if you’re giving insight into the person you are teaching there is nothing wrong with that. I don’t think Hank gave any type of tomahawk to Tiger, he simply wanted to write about his time with the best player of all time.” ~ Randy Smith, swing coach for Ryan Palmer and Colt Knost

“When you’re an instructor you become part of a player’s inner circle and in doing so you learn a lot of personal things. What Hank is doing might set a bad precedent going forward when a player is looking at hiring a swing coach. In my books I’ve talked about other players but only from an instructional standpoint, which is fine.” ~ David Leadbetter, swing coach for Michelle Wie and Trevor Immelman

It’ll be interesting to see if Butch Harmon decides to capture part of the spotlight and comment about Haney in the coming days and weeks as well, especially since Haney referenced him several times throughout the first couple of chapters. I also find it interesting that Sean Foley has stayed out of the fray, but I’m gathering that Tiger has allowed Steiny to speak on behalf of the team and prefers to minimize the distractions that the book has created.

Haney has taken to the airwaves to explain/defend his right to write the book, as well as his credibility with some of the content. He’s not fared too well, especially as it relates to THIS audio podcast earlier this week from ESPN’s Mike and Mike morning talk show on ESPN Radio. One thing appears certain… all indications suggest that Hank Haney has officially offed himself as a Tour instructor, at least given the fallout by his fellow instructors. Then again, maybe this was Haney’s exit strategy from the Tour Limelight all along.

Okay, I Lied. I Just Bought Haney’s Book….

Please forgive me. I know that I remember saying earlier last week that I wasn’t going to promote Haney’s new book about Tiger, but I couldn’t help it…. kinda like walking into an Edwin Watts Superstore, or any golf equipment shop for that matter. It’s not easy to just say no, especially considering that I spend a great deal of time writing about the Tour, which includes Tiger Woods from time to time.

Call it doing my homework, stepping up to my responsibilities as a blogger wanting to keep his readers informed, if you will.

I downloaded the eBook version onto my iPhone this morning, and I tended to some errands early and had some free time this afternoon to dive into it. I read for about 90 minutes, getting through 2 chapters. I won’t offer my review until I’ve read it completely, but I will tell you that it’s been an enjoyable read thus far. “Enlightening” I guess is a better word. And I’ll also add that outside of a very quick blurb about his (Haney’s) observance of Tiger and Elin’s sometimes “cool” relationship, I’ve not read anything through these 2 chapters that (1) sounds unreasonable or unbelievable and (2) would paint a picture of Tiger that would be all that different from any other major sports icon.

I will be giving my review at some point over the next week.

Stay tuned.

PING to Unveil Adjustable-Length Belly Putter

I’m actually surprised that they’re the first major equipment company to come out with this. I’m not sure how popular they’ll be, especially considering that there’s a notable movement happening currently to have longer putters banned, but it’ll be interesting to see if PING might branch the concept over into their other models at some point if they do become popular. The model they’ll be introducing for the adjustable-length belly putter concept is the Nome 405, the same model  that Hunter Mahan brandished exceptionally well in his win at the WGC Matchplay back near the end of February.

“At PING, custom fitting is our priority and with the popularity of belly putters, we saw a unique fitting opportunity because shaft length is so critical to performance,” said PING chairman and CEO John A. Solheim. “Adjustability is key because the standard 42-inch belly putter fits a narrow range of people. When the shaft is too long or too short, it alters your distance from the ball, your eye position, and the path of your stroke,” he added. “Adjustability lets you experiment until your posture is comfortable and your eyes are over the ball, which helps you make a consistent stroke and solid impact. We’re pleased to have USGA approval of this easy-to-use, innovative technology,” said Solheim.