GolfStinks

A Golf Blog for the Rest of Us!

Golf: A Life Long Journey

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Golf gets better with age
How many people over 60 can still play other sports? (photo by Greg D’Andrea)

Many of us have participated in different types sports on every level. Most of us in a recreational manner but some have been blessed with the opportunity to showcase their skills in “the show”. For those not familiar, “the show” refers to the big leagues – NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL…you get the picture. Personally, I’ve played on competitive levels. Granted, not in “the show” but had the chance to compete against some that did and let me tell you, they deserved to be there.

It’s easy for us to watch a game on the television and say this guys sucks or that guy is a bum. What we might be forgetting is that these athletes are the best of the best. Against their peers it might now be so evident but trust me, they got game! However, as good as they may be their days are numbered. Most pros call it quits in their 30’s, a handful make it to 40 or so and that’s it the gloves are hung up.

Coming back to real life and us average joes, the age of the recreational player probably extends another 10-15 years maybe 20 but there  is an exception. Golf. I really can’t think of any other sport or activity that can be a part of our entire life, health permitting. Don’t get me wrong, I know there are senior leagues that exist but when was the last time you saw a 65 year old whip a 25 year old’s ass other than on a golf course? Exactly. Golf is one of the few things we can enjoy throughout our life.

Not only can we enjoy the game, we can actually get better as we age. For example, a gentleman in his 60’s I know, who we can call Phil, is putting up some the best scores he’s ever had. Why? Wisdom through experience. He’s more concerned about keeping it in play then smashing the s*** out of the ball. Less is more as he likes to put it. Hitting it 175 or 200 yards down the middle is way more beneficial than spraying a bomb all over creation. I would insert a grasshopper quote here but unfortunately I don’t have one.

So, if there’s one thing we can take away from this is that as a hack, our better days are ahead.

Hit’em long…yell FORE!!! Or just keep it in play…

Is The Pro Golf Season Too Long?

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Does the pro tour need an off-season?
Does the pro tour need an off-season?

I’m watching some college football games on Saturday afternoon when across the bottom of the screen scrolls an update reading Tiger Woods leads in some golf tournament.  As I reach for the remote to rewind what I just saw (gotta love DVR), I’m thinking to myself that I couldn’t possibly have seen what I think I just saw.  They must have just been mentioning his name as part of some other story.  I mean, it’s December.  What golf tournament is still going on?

But sure enough, I was wrong.  Tiger, at the time, was leading the World Challenge in California.  So I know I’ve mentioned it before but, come on.  Doesn’t golf have an off-season?  If you take a look at the PGA Tour schedule, it sure doesn’t appear so.  Don’t get me wrong, golf is great.  But wouldn’t some down time make for more excitement when “golf season” came around?  Everyone has heard the expression “Too much of a good thing.”  Well, why wouldn’t that apply to golf also?  I love football, but I would lose some interest if it was on every weekend.  I need the off-season to keep me excited and interested.  But if there isn’t going to be an off-season, then why not add a wrinkle here and there?

What do I mean by a wrinkle?  How about we see more of a connection between the pros and the hacks like us?  If they’re going to play in December, lets see them play somewhere other than southern California where the temperature is still 70 degrees.  Head a little more north and play where the temperature is hovering around the 45-50 degree mark.  Myself and three other stinky golfers played a nine-hole round last month on a shoreline course.  The temperature topped out around 45 degrees and the wind was blowing/gusting from start to finish.  I’d like to see the pros play in that once in a while.

Did anyone happen to see the Eagles-Lions game this weekend?  They played that game in blizzard conditions with 4-6″ of snow on the ground.  Now I don’t want or expect to see golf played in that weather.  However, let’s do something other than the “challenge of playing by the ocean breeze of Pebble Beach.”  I mean, please.

The problem I’m getting at is, I enjoy golf, but I had absolutely no idea that a golf tournament was taking place this weekend.  I truly believe the sport could be helped by simply creating a more condensed season.  I mean, December?  The NFL is into the final few weeks of the regular season.  The NBA is now in full swing, as is the NHL.  There’s simply too much competition for viewers.  Shorten the season to April through early November (at the latest).  The only competition through a good part of the season is baseball.

If it seems like I’ve said this before, it’s because I have.  But I’m truly only trying to help!  The whole point is, if I as a golf fan had no idea that a golf tournament was even happening this weekend, then there may be a problem.  Not that I would have been watching anyway with football going on…but you see my point.

Swing ’til you’re happy!

The Beauty Of Parity In Golf

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It’s funny, in any sport when a team or player is said to “dominate” their opponent, we all picture a blowout. Whether it be a 20-point win in basketball, a three touchdown victory in football or a double-figure pounding in baseball – when you hear the word “dominate” or something related to it, you think of a blowout. So why is golf different?

For instance, two weeks ago at the Phoenix Open we heard about Phil Mickelson dominating the tournament, from his first round 60 to his -28 final score. But when you stop to look at the final scores of the other players, “domination” is not exactly the word I would use. A four stroke victory over Brandt Snedeker somehow doesn’t quite qualify as a blowout win in my book. Beating your opponent by what works out to be an average of one stroke per day seems more like a pretty tight match to me.

But it wasn’t just that tournament. There are many that go by deemed a dominating win, or a player runs away with it. But more often than not, that’s just not the case. So is it the media that overuses the terms? Do they want to make it seem like a player is more dominant than actually is the case? If so, why? Wouldn’t the parity of the PGA Tour make for more exciting tournaments and possibly better viewership?

Parity, to me, makes for a better overall sport. In football, there’s something about knowing that any team can win at any time – the god awful Jacksonville Jaguars can be a playoff team in two years. Same in the NBA – a perennial loser like the LA Clippers has become one of the most exciting teams in the league. Even baseball is on the right track with some smaller market teams making yearly runs at the playoffs. A little more balance to the playing field and they’ll have it just right. But there’s parity in golf, right? Of course there is.

When you see the final scores of a golf tournament, you see that there isn’t much difference in the final scores between first place and tenth, especially when you take into account the scores are over a four day period. So when tenth place finishes twelve strokes back of first, that works out to only three strokes per round on average. So how much better was the winner?

Now I think that’s great! I love the idea that anyone can win any tournament because not a whole lot of strokes separate the best from the mid-level players. Sure, there’s a favorite…there’s always a favorite. But at the level these guys play, anyone can get hot at the right time. And that’s the beauty of parity, which the PGA already has. Any player can win any tournament at any time. The field is open week in and week out. How can that be a bad thing?

Swing ’til you’re happy!

Bo Knows…Golf?

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Just recently I tuned into one of ESPN’s 30 For 30 documentaries – this one entitled You Don’t Know Bo – obviously a documentary about the great Bo Jackson.  When I was a kid, I loved watching Bo play football, play baseball, act in commercials…everything.  I loved just the idea of Bo Jackson!  To see a guy who can be one of the best players in Major League Basbeball then head over to the NFL and one of the best players there as well, is simply amazing.

Now there have been several other multi-sport athletes in the major American sports – Deion Sanders, Brian Jordan and Danny Ainge quickly come to mind.  But despite a relatively short career (eight years in baseball and four in the NFL), none of the others are remembered more as multi-sport athletes more than Bo.  Perhaps that’s deserved though as he is the only player in history to be voted an all-star in baseball and a pro-bowler in football.

Now golf, though there are many athletes who play the game well, has had only one true multi-sport athlete – Babe Didrikson Zaharias.  And though we are aware of guys like Tony Romo who are great golfers that play other professional sports, I wonder why no one has tried to make golf the other half of their multi-sport athletic career.  Perhaps it has something to do with the business of sports today.  With all of the money and huge contracts floating around, the last thing an owner wants to deal with is the risk of injury due to a player participating in another sport.  But seriously…who gets injured on the PGA Tour?

It was a special kind of owner – Al Davis – who would allow a player, especially a star, to miss five or six games of an NFL season to play another sport.  But golf?  If an NFL player was to primarily play in the summer months, during the off-season, then I don’t really see the issue.  But in other sports such as basketball or baseball, the case may be different.  Baseball is played during prime golf season.  It’s played on the weekend – often bigger/more important/rivalry series are played on the weekends.  So MLB owners are not letting players leave to play in a golf tournament.  Basketball on the other hand plays primarily in the winter, until the late regular season and playoffs which occur in the spring.  So in all likelihood, unless the team has no shot at the playoffs, then they aren’t going to be let off the hook either.  However, the NBA off-season runs from mid-June through early October.  So NBA golfers like Ray Allen and Chris Paul could get a few months in if they wanted.

So with the opportunity there, why have some of these athletes from other sports not tried to play on the tour?  Is it due to the fact that, since they can’t do it full-time, they’ll never fully excel?  That makes sense I guess.  The pros are the pros because they work hard to be pros.  So playing part-time only in opens, pro-ams or charity events probably just doesn’t cut it.

Now I understand it’s golf, and it’s not exactly a physically demanding sport, so the Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders comparisons can be put aside.  But it would be a multi-sport athlete nonetheless.  It’s been a while since we’ve seen one and a multi-sport athlete always gets sports fans excited.  So could a multi-sport athlete help generate more interest in golf?  Well, it sure couldn’t hurt.

Swing ’til you’re happy!

The Golf Pros Set The Pace

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turtle-criss-crossed-621372_1280

Last week I read an article by Rick Reilly on ESPN.com about how slow baseball is despite the rules that are supposed to be in place to keep it moving along.  The article is funny, but true.  Sometimes, with all of the stoppages in play, it’s just tough to sit through an entire baseball game.  But what it reminded me of most was…golf.  In particular, going to a golf tournament and watching the pros.

Now we’re not the only ones to put some blame on the pros for the reason slow play makes it’s way onto your local course – this topic has been debated plenty of times before, so you already should know what I mean.  But the similarities between the two when it comes to slow play are pretty funny.

Watch the pro golfers wander around the green for as long as they do before a putt.  Now compare that to watching an at-bat for a major-leaguer.  The golfer looks at the green from every angle.  Sometimes twice, as if the green is going to move.  Then look at the baseball player and his at-bat.  Take a pitch, step out of the batters box to “adjust”, back into the box for another pitch.  Repeat a few times.  By the time it’s all over, we could have seen six or seven scoring plays in a basketball game.

At least on TV they can switch from golfer to golfer, so we don’t have to sit through the painful green-wandering, the conversations between the golfers and their caddies, the endless practice swings…you get the idea.  We’re stuck with all of the nonsense that Mr. Reilly so accurately describes.  It’s no wonder I don’t pay full attention to baseball until basketball season is over.  And my attention span is cut short once the NFL starts up.  Kind of makes that stroke clock idea look better and better all the time!

But seriously, how can you tell everyone to play their round in four hours when we all watch the pros take their sweet time?  I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be on a clock.  The pros, they should be.  But not us.  As long as we’re being considerate to other golfers and following the rules of etiquette, then screw your four hour time limit.  I’ll let people play through before I’m rushed.  Hey, they’re the professionals.  They set the example, right?

Swing ’til you’re happy!

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