Great Weekend: Pre-1975 Golf And English Garden Party

A great weekend has come to an end. Of course the Olympics finale and US Men’s Volleyball gold medal stole the show on Sunday; however Saturday was the epic pre-1975 golf tournament and the english garden party in Denver, CO. You can view the different slide shows below…

Throw Back Golf With Garden Party

Coming this August 23rd is a golf outing worth writing home about. It’s time to hunt down some old clubs and get that swing grooved for a golf classic.

Golf Invitation

Garden Party Invitation

Get your RSVP in before Aug 7th.

Rick Reilly Does It Again With A Great Golf Story

Rick Reilly does it again. His ability to capture a reader and make them laugh out loud is unreal. Please take a deep breath, relax and read the article below. You will not be disappointed.

LIFE OF REILLY
A day on the links with the round mound whose swing will astound.

By Rick Reilly

Have you ever secretly longed to comb through airplane wreckage? Had a morbid curiosity about autopsies? Wanted to tour a torture camp?

I have. That’s why I purposely set out to play golf with Charles Barkley. Wait, don’t get mad! I’ve never met anybody in sports I admire more than Sir Charles. He is more fun than a Dubai expense account. He is unfailingly hilarious, generous and honest.

But his golf swing? Technically, it’s not even a swing. It’s a lunge. Scientists study it. He gets to the top, starts down and then—two feet from impact—just stops! Totally freezes! He looks like a man waiting for a rattlesnake to pop up so he can kill it. It’s the only swing in the world with an intermission. Me, I’d quit and take up the tuba. But not Barkley. He plays golf all the time.

Which is where I came in. Through a clerical error, I was invited to play in this country’s best celebrity golf tournament, the American Century Championship on the shore of Lake Tahoe. It was bizarre and cool at the same time. There were rooms in which every face you saw was famous. When was the last time the four people ahead of you in the taco-bar line were Lance Armstrong, Kate Hudson, Al Michaels and Lou Holtz?

(Random celebrity observations from the week: Michael Jordan’s girlfriend is scorching. Aaron Rodgers nearly gets a facial tic when asked about Brett Favre. Ray Allen can actually rap. After a bad shot, Ray Romano will yell, “I could rip off my own ear!” Jessica Simpson, in town with boyfriend Tony Romo, is not a stickler for detail. When I asked her, “Jessica, is today your birthday?” she replied: “Yes! No! Wait! Yesterday! No, wait, is today the 12th? Then, day before yesterday? I don’t know!”)

Anyway, after much begging I was paired with Barkley for the first round. The night before, as I walked through the casino to go to bed, I saw him. He was standing on a stage, pouring mobs of people shots of Patron, on his tab, which would top $10,000. So you knew he was taking me seriously.

We had the day’s largest gallery for two reasons: (1) The mayor of South Lake Tahoe declared it Charles Barkley Day to honor the $100,000 he donated to locals who’d lost their homes in fires; and (2) people wanted to see the Incredible Hiccuping Swing.

I have bad news. I saw it up close—and it’s getting worse. In one fairway bunker Barkley took it back, froze as usual, then suddenly flinched and aborted the swing altogether. Balk. He gathered himself and made another run but, again, could not bring himself to finish the last two feet. It was like a man trying to shoot a favorite old cow. The third time, he finally swung but whiffed. On the fourth, he hit it. And this was only the first hole.

When Barkley freeze-flails, people laugh, shriek and gasp, but it’s not funny. It is a pox on his life. “I’ve tried everything,” Barkley says. “Tiger can’t help me ’cause the hitch is there no matter what. I even tried getting hypnotized for 45 minutes and still woke up with the same crappy swing.” And so it went the rest of the day: Barkley making people laugh and hug him, interrupted by these sporadic fits that made them look away in sympathy. “Hey, I know I suck,” he yelled on the eighth hole, still lying two and not yet to the women’s tees, “but I got nice equipment.”

Thing is, he never stops having fun. I missed a putt badly on 12 and told the crowd, “I forgot—every green breaks toward Charles.” He counterpunched with “Uh-oh, God don’t like you bein’ mean to fat people.” Toward the end, I asked him why he puts himself through it. “Beats working,” he shrugged.

Overall, in this 54-hole Stableford tourney, in which double bogey is the most you can take, Barkley took the max on 41 holes and finished last by a large county. No wonder that, in Barkley’s group, the sign boy was given no numbers.

The best player of the week was ex-MLB pitcher Rick Rhoden. The wettest was Romo, who fell in a pond at No. 1 on Saturday. And perhaps the happiest was Rodgers, who was introduced at the first tee on Sunday as a “Green Bay Packers quarterback.” Rodgers corrected the announcer, “Starting quarterback.”

As for the nobody among the 82 celebs, I finished with a plus-two, good for 53rd place. But on the plus side, I was low sportswriter and beat Michael Jordan. One other crucial thing: I can remember when my birthday is.

Day Two: Usga Pub Links Qualifier

So I knew going in I was going to need a low score to qualify … really low … career low. I guessed I would need a 66. In other words, it was close to impossible. And the optimist in me said ’sure you can do it’; however, the golfer in me didn’t agree. That being said, this weekend golfer was quite happy with my round …

Holes:

3 iron, 9 iron, 2 putt = par
Driver, 7 iron chip out of rough, wedge, made a 20 ft putt = par
3W, 4 iron, 9 iron, chip, 2 putt = bogey
Driver in the rough, 5 iron short of the green, get up and down for a par
9 iron short, chip and miss a put = bogey
3W in the rough, 4 iron lay up, wedge to the green, 2 putt = par
4 iron off the tee, 7 iron the back of the green, 2 putt = par
7 iron over the green, chip and 2 putt = bogey
Driver to the green side bunker but in the rough, chip on the green, 2 putt = par
3W, 9 iron, 2 putt = par
5 iron, chip, 1 putt = par
Driver in the hazard, 3W, wedge short, chip up, 1 putt = double bogey (first one of the tournament for me)
Driver in the fairway, hybrid short of the green, chip and 1 putt = par
3W in the fairway, 7 iron to the rough next to the green, chip it past the hole and off the green, putt up, 1 putt = bogey
3W in the rough, 5 iron down the fairway, 8 iron 6 inches from the cup = birdie
3W in the left rough, blade a 6 iron, put a wedge on the green, 2 putt = bogey
5 iron in the hazard, chip short of the green, hole the putt = great bogey
Driver in the fairway, 6 iron to the middle of the green, great 2 putt form 50 ft away = par.

So when it was all said and done I shot another 78. 39, 39. Not bad. I had only 11 putts on the back nine. That has to be a record for me.

Stats for the 2 rounds:

29 putts day 1; 27 putts day 2
10 fairways and 5 greens day 1; 6 fairways and 7 greens day 2
only one double bogey for both days — amazing considering I had 10 DBs in my two practice rounds
0 (zero), I mean zero 3 putts.
3 birdies

I didn’t make the cut, in fact I would have needed to shoot a 65 to be in the top 5. A 67 to be an alternate. Not this year. But I had a great time and hope to play in more of the USGA and CGA tournaments in the coming months.

For those interested in seeing the other scores and qualifiers just click here.

QUALIFIERS
Riley Arp, Fort Collins, Colo., 69-71–140
Pat Grady, Broomfield, Colo., 72-70–142
Gabriel Maier, Cody, Wyo., 70-72–142
Jim Grady, Broomfield, Colo., 72-71–143
Zachary Zaremba, Pueblo West, Colo., 69-74—143

And for those following DJ Stewart, he had an unlucky hole 9 and had two balls go into the hazard. He finished with a respectable 79 for a two day total of 75+79=154. Well done DJ.

U.s. Amateur Public Links Qualifying

Today I played in the US Amateur Pub Links Qualifier at Murphy Creek. It’s playing as a par 71 and 7378 yards — long but due to the Colorado altitude it plays a bit shorter. Now to my round, but first you need to know that I played two practice rounds there:

Practice Round 1: 81, 5 double bogeys on the back nine.

Practice Round 2: 87, 5 more double bogeys, and 0 (zero) GIRs on the back nine. It was ugly, but I was taking a an allergy pill and felt a little light headed (excuses I know).

To say the least, I was not feeling that confident heading into the qualifier … so here you go …

Hole 1: 4 iron of the tee, 8 iron to 8 feet and sank the putt for a birdie! Great start for me.
Hole 2: Driver, 5 iron short of the green, chip, missed a 10 ft putt. Bogey
Hole 3: 3 wood, 4 iron into the bunker, PW out of fairway bunker, chip, missed a 9 ft putt. Bogey
Hole 4: 3 wood in the fairway, 8 iron to the green, 2 putt. Par
Hole 5: 9 iron off the tee over the green. Chip to 1 ft from the hole. Par
Hole 6: 3 wood off the tee, 6 iron lay up, wedge to the green, 2 putt. Par
Hole 7: Hybrid off the tee, 7 iron left of the green, chip up, sink a 10 ft putt. Par
Hole 8: Hard 7 iron on the green, 2 putt. Par
Hole 9: 3 wood into a fairway bunker, PW over the green, chip, miss a 6 ft putt. Bogey

38 on the front. Feel real good going onto the back even with the bogey on 9.

Hole 10: Driver into the wind, stick an 8 iron 4 inches from the cup. Birdie
Hole 11: 5 iron to the right of the green. Tough chip. 2 putt. Bogey
Hole 12: Driver over the bunkers, 3 iron just to the right of the green, chip up and 2 putt. Bogey
Hole 13: Driver right, 5 iron out of the rough, wedge short of the green, chip up to 4 ft, make the putt. Bogey
Hole 14: 3 wood in the fairway, PW over the green, chip, missed a 18 ft putt. Bogey
Hole 15: 3 wood in the fairway, 7 iron layup in the fairway (in a divot), 54 degree wedge to 18 ft, missed putt. Par
Hole 16: Great 3 wood, 9 iron left of the green (dang it!) in the bunker, 2 putt. Bogey
Hole 17: 3 iron to the long par 3 goes left into the bunker. Get out and 2 putt. Bogey
Hole 18: 3 wood off the tee, 5 iron just right of the green in the rough, chip an 8 iron just past the hole, make a downhill 4.5 ft right-breaker for par.

40 on the back nine

78 total, make the cut and tee off tomorrow at 7:09 am — check it out here.

And yes, I am a big enough golf dork to remember every shot I took today.

By the way, fellow Oxonian DJ Stewart fired a 75 and is in contention for one of the top 5 spots. I think he’ll shoot a 69 tomorrow and have to play in a playoff for the final spot. You heard it here.

Last note, the course was in great condition. Kudos to the staff. The rough was thick, the greens were fast and the tees were back. Great tournament setup. I can’t wait to see it in July for the championship.

The President’s Putter Quick Recap

I have many handwritten notes that I’ll capture in a post-by-post, day-by-day summary but in the meantime I wanted to at least get a picture up and link to my slide show.

On the left you can see a picture of me teeing off during my practice round on the 13th hole.

Check out the article written in the Telegraph here. Charlie Rotheroe went on to win The Putter for his 3rd time: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2008/01/07/sgamat107.xml.

Lastly, I’ve embeded a few videos. The first is a 360 view of the course. The second is just a classic video of a chap swinging on the 10th tee box.

What’s In My Bag

It’s winter in the northern hemisphere so why not be geeked up on golf? It’s that time of year to be thinking about what awaits us in the year to come. Maybe 2008 is the year for my first my hole-in-one (I should mention I’ve played well over 3,000 par threes and patiently await my first ace). Or maybe it will present my first round under 70 since my glorious 67 at Lake Arbor back in 1995. Time will tell. In the meantime, you can check out my weapons of choice for the upcoming year. I’ll be showcasing these sticks in The Putter Jan 3-6.

Driver

Titleist 905R
Aldila NV Green S-65 Shaft
In my bag since Dec 2007
Paid $99 at Roger Dunn (still have 60 days to exchange if I so chose to do so)
Comment: I had to replace my Callaway 454 (still in the garage) and for $99 bucks I couldn’t pass this one up.

3 Wood

Callaway Big Bertha (2004)
Aldila NV Green S-75 Shaft
In my bag since fall 2005
Comment: This has been my go-to club for quite some time. I don’t for see replacing this one for a while.

Hybrid

Ben Hogan 2i (19 degrees)
Steel Stiff Shaft
I have the old version, not the new Ti CFT
In my bag since spring 2004
Comment: I got this before playing Pebble Beach in ’04. I like it but I’m not in love with it. In fact, I tried the Sonertec for a few weeks but returned it.

Irons

KZG Forged Evolution (3 – PW)
In my bag since Dec 2006
Comment: These replaced my Cleveland TA1s. This is a progressive set of mid-sized forged blades. I’m a big fan of these although it took a little time to get used to the relatively larger heads. They’re very similar to the Mizuno progressive irons. In fact, rumor is they’re made in the same factory.

Wedges

Taylor Made Rac Satin 54
Ebay purchase that I didn’t expect to win (got it for $35 or $40)
Re-griped with pink decade grip
In my bag since summer 2007
Comment: I’ve liked my decision to move from my 3 wedge system (52, 56, 60) to the two wedge system (54 and 60). I’ve had to hone in my half and ¾ wedge shots to make up for the gap in distance.

Titleist Black Nickel 60 degree wedge
In my bag since 2003 (with a few exceptions)
Comment: This club is probably something I’ll replace soon. It’s been a great club but the groves are worn down.

Putter

Titleist Scotty Cameron Studio 5
In my bag since the winter of 2004
Re-griped with a USA grip in Dec 2006 before playing in my first Putter at Rye.
Comment: This is my black pearl beauty. She could be the putter for me for quite some time. Who knows though, Scotty Cameron keeps coming out with great stuff- I really like the new Circa 62 putters.

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