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A few nights ago I came home and parked the car in the garage like I usually do. I stood outside the garage and reached around the metal guide rail to hit the button to close the door, leaning far into the garage while keeping my feet on the driveway so as to not trip the safety sensor. I looked up at the stars and started counting the planes that flew overhead - one, two, three…four, five….it's amazing how much air traffic there when you stop and actually count. I tried looking for Mars. Ah! Found it. It didn't appear as red as it had a few months ago. But something just didn't feel right to me. Why was star-gazing and plane-watching so mesmerizing all of a sudden? Why did it feel kind of strange? Then it all came to me…

It was because I was standing outside, but this time I wasn't freezing my ass off.

For the first time in months, I didn't feel the kind of bitter cold that comes from within, the kind of cold that makes the very center of your body shiver and shake. The kind of cold that makes doing anything outside a miserable experience. As if taking out the garbage isn't a crappy enough task, the crappiness of it is compounded when it's so cold out that your eyes feel cold and it hurts to inhale the cold air. 16 degrees. Awesome. It can get so cold here sometimes that the properties of the garbage bags and the very jacket that you have on to keep you warm actually change. The plastic becomes rigid and stiff, as does the jacket, making sounds when crinkling that just don't sound normal for plastic and fabric. But the other night was different. It was soothing to be standing there, enjoying the "warmer", almost 50 degree weather. How cold would you be if in June or July the temperature suddenly dropped to 45 or 50 degrees? I've played golf on early fall mornings when the temperature was 55 to me it was almost unbearable, yet that night as I stood outside looking up I felt as if I could have easily thrown on a sweater and played in those conditions.

We are 4 days removed from what could possibly be my most favorite day of the year, running a very close 2nd behind Christmas (and only because it's tough to supplant those amazing childhood memories of Christmas that I have, and that I hope you have as well). I'm sick of early sunsets. I'm sick of cold weather. I'm sick of not hearing birds when I wake up. I'm sick of seeing either snow, sand, salt or any combination of the three that pollutes our sidewalks and roadways for weeks on end. Double-click right now if you're as big a fan of Daylight Savings Time as I am.

Daylight Savings Time allows me to get on the course at 7:30 in the evening and play 9 holes. Try thinking about that when you're driving home from work and it's dark out at 5:30. It's amazing what a little sun can do for you.

Spring is on it's way. Dust off those clubs and organize your bag…the battle with winter is almost over and the light at the end of the tunnel is shining brighter than ever.

Posted by vaca22 at 10:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

How long does it take you to play 9 holes, in general?  Like an hour and 45 minutes, something like that, right?  A friend of mine (we'll call him Bean) met up one evening after work to squeeze in 9 holes with a cart.  There was a bit of a wait, so Bean and I teed off around 6:20 or something like that...there must have been a solid 2 hours of daylight left to play.  The first hole played fine - no waiting, no lost balls, all good.  We teed off on 2, and once we got to the fairway the problems started.  The group in front of us decided it would be cool to take 6 practice swings and then barely get the ball in the air.  Now, everyone has to start somewhere, and I have plenty of patience for that.  Everyone has bad days too, so I can understand that as well.  When the groups became so backed up that we were able to watch them tee off from the tee box itself, frustration set in.  These hotshots were teeing off from the tips.  Great.  Nothing like playing from the hardest tees and barely advancing the ball.  Needless to say we drove off after 6 holes because at that point we had already been out there for close to 2 hours and there was no way we could finish without the aid of some spotlights or a couple of lighthouses or something.

Now imagine playing a 7-hour round, and imagine you're a touring pro.  Would you want to pull your hair out, or hit the bottle at the clubhouse?  Welcome to the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, where celebrities get to act like asses all day and the pace of play is as slow as molasses.  In the winter.  Uphill.

Sure, there are celebrities that take the game seriously and try to put on a good show, make some putts and maybe sign an autograph or two.  Kevin Costner, Don Cheadle and Andy Garcia come to mind.  But then you have clowns like Bill Murray.  Yeah we get it, you were in Caddyshack.  Yeah, you love  golf.  But is it really necessary to prance around on every green or throw chocolates into the crowd or even TALK to the crowd that much on each hole?  And then there's Danny Gans, the Vegas showman who is a permanent performer at The Mirage.  I love it when I'm watching coverage on TV and Danny Gans feels the need to always be within 3 feet of the camera.  I also love it when he feels the need to do every single one of his impersonations between each of his shots.  I don't even know how many impersonations he does, but it's more than 2 and that's enough for me.  It's completely unbearable after 5 minutes, so imagine being the pro in his group and having to deal with the constant chatter and B.S. 

7-hour rounds?  You gotta be nuts, even if it IS Pebble Beach.  Rory Sabbatini can't possibly be at this event, he might just murder someone.  If I were in this tournament because of the venue I would just come back later in the year and avoid the hooplah.   But if I were playing I might be inclined to say, "Hey...just shut the hell up and play already."

Posted by vaca22 at 03:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The "Golf Clap" hasn't been around for a while.  Sure, if someone makes a nice birdie or a well-earned par you might get some light clapping, but nowadays people scream and yell.  They shout nonsensical phrases (YOU DA MAN!) and whistle loud enough to hail taxis from several blocks away.  I think more than any other sport, golf is a sport in which the fans love rooting for the underdog, no matter who it is.  You'll never hear booing or jeering when a player makes a move on Sunday and cuts a 5-shot deficit to 1. 

My inspiration for this post is this week's FRB Open.  I remember watching Tiger Woods get that hole-in-one in the 1997 Phoenix Open (as it was then known) and how crazy, and I mean TOTALLY CRAZY, people went.  All 10,000 or however many people on that hole went into a dizzying frenzy of screaming, shouting, whistling, clapping, cheering and yelling.  We don't need someone acing the hole to get that kind of reaction now...all it takes is a shot close to the pin, no matter who it is, to have everyone go bananas. 

It's clear that golf has become increasingly popular in the last 10 years thanks primarily to Tiger Woods.  Smaller, specialized pro shops have now made way for golf mega stores, where you can find anything from the latest equipment in all colors, styles and flavors, to apparel, gizmos, gadgets and training aids.  Before his emergence, golf was a sport mostly for adults.  If you go to any course now you will find just as many younger kids as you will older folks.  This summer I went to my local course to practice some chipping and putting and there was a group lesson being held by the club's pro.  There couldn't have been anyone older than 10 in that group, boys and girls included, with wide smiles, an eagerness to learn and enthusiasm that you just don't see often in kids anymore.  At the end of the session the instructor wanted everyone to clap and cheer for each other for a job well done.   I have no doubt that they have seen Tiger's energy and passion for the game, and it's infectious...they want to be able to do the things he does.  So does the aspiring high school player, the low handicap middle-aged father, and the early-rising senior.  People may have wanted to be like Mike, but now they want to be like Tiger.  Playing golf is now a cool thing to do.

Go to a tournament this summer if you can.  Keep silent and quiet as the players make their way through each hole, bottling up that energy you have within...and when you see that one amazing shot, throw your hands in the air and cheer loudly along with everyone else, releasing all of that pent-up energy.  Can't get to a tournament?  Wait for Phil to tee it up on 16 this week.  Take your Dolby Digital 5.1 digital surround system and crank it up, and wait...

You'll discover that the golf clap is a thing of the past.

Posted by vaca22 at 05:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

If you weren't paying much attention to the Sony Open, you probably didn't hear about John Daly's incident after finishing his 2nd round.  After fighting to shoot even par to stay in the tournament, Daly was told that he might not be playing the final two rounds due to a new rule that the PGA Tour Policy Board established in November.  Now in addition to MC (Missed Cut), DQ (Disqualified) and DNF (Did Not Finish), the PGA has created another acronym - MDF.

MDF can stand for many things; Made Daly Furious, May Disappoint Fans, and Medium-Density Fiberboard just to name a few.  But in this case, MDF stands for Made Cut, Did Not Finish.  So wait a minute...that's just like DNF, right?  Well, yes and no.

You may qualify for a DNF in any round.  If a player pulls a muscle or something midway through the first round, he may receive a DNF.  Most likely he'll get a "Withdrew From Tournament" though.  If he gets this injury in the 3rd round, he might also be a candidate for DNF.  Where MFD differs is that if you qualify for MDF, you still get paid.  So wait a minute...that's good, right?  Well, not really.  At all.

The Tour Policy Board passed this rule to keep the sizes of the field manageable.  Manageable...what's to manage??  Well apparently there were a few instances last year in which the field of players that made the cut was over 80.  Before this rule, the cut was always the top 70 players plus ties.  If the cut exceeds 78 players, then the number nearest to 70 continue in the tournament. The logic behind this new rule is that the field size is kept under control in the event of poor weather or the need for two-tee starting times because of daylight concerns or television obligations.  At the Sony Open, 87 players made the cut.  With the new rule in place, the nearest number to 70 was 69, which means that 18 players made the cut, but did not finish.  They each received a check for $9,699 and FedEx Cup points.  John Daly was one of those players. 

You can put a positive spin on this new rule by saying that now those players that MDF'd can still collect a paycheck AND have two extra days off to travel or practice or whatever.  But the reality is that the new rule is terrible.  Here's why - any one of those 18 players could have played lights-out golf in the final two rounds and collected a much larger paycheck AND more FedEx Cup points.  For that reason alone the rule is bunk.  In addition to that, you're also eliminating players from the field that people might want to see during the weekend.  I can tell you from experience that if a popular player just makes the cut and has to play early on Saturday morning, people are going to come out and see them play.  If Phil Mickelson just makes the cut at our local PGA Tour stop (the Travelers Championship), you can rest assured that there will be throngs of people out on the course bright and early to see him play.  That's additional revenue from ticket sales, consession stands, the pro shop and gift stores, parking, etc..  It seems as if everyone loses when this rule comes into play.  Now, while we won't be seeing MDF at every tournament, there will probably be about 10 events throughout the year that will trigger the use of the new rule. 

That's 10 events too many for this guy.

Posted by vaca22 at 02:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I ended the year on a great note by finding a true gem of a course.  My goal was to find a course with excellent conditions and a great layout, all while not dropping a ton of cash.  I had put together a list of about 12 courses, almost all of them south of Connecticut.  Based on reviews and price, I settled on The Architects Club. Located near the PA border, The Architects Club in Lopatcong, NJ was really an amazing course.  I play the same 2 or 3 courses all year round (props to Darkness, whose employment at a local country club saves me untold amounts of cash in greens fees), so taking a day trip to play something different was really great. 

Designed by golf course architect Stephen Kay and Golf Digest Architectural Editor Ron Whitten, The Architects Club pays tribute to golf architects of the Golden Age of course design.  Rather than replicate and copy the holes that these famous architects constructed, the course is designed in the style that made these individuals such masters of their craft.

As you make your way around the meticulously maintained layout you'll encounter the styles of architects such as Old Tom Morris, Alister MacKenzie, Donald Ross, and A.W. Tillinghast, just to name a few.  If you're unfamiliar (GASP!) with the courses these men are responsible for, allow me to remind you:

• The Old Course at St. Andrews (modification), Machrihanish CG  (Old Tom Morris)
• Cypress Point and Augusta National (Alister MacKenzie)
• Pinehurst #2 and Oakland Hills (Donald Ross)
• Winged Foot and  Bethpage (A.W. Tillinghast)

Are you looking for the steep, sweeping-faced bunkers of Tillinghast?  How about Donald Ross' diabolical greens, with more twists and turns than the Tour de France?  Elevation changes, cascading greens, false fronts, blind tee shots...you can encounter all of these obstacles at The Architects Club.  Mind you, this isn't an impossibly hard course; as a matter of fact, it's very fair.  In my opinion, this is what makes this course so great.  With a little bit of thinking and planning, navigating your way through the course is a great pleasure.  You can actually see the intent of the designers with their placements of hazards, rough, doglegs and of course the greens.  The greens are definitely kept at "tour level" speeds.  I could have knocked at least 5-7 strokes off of my score had I been used to the speed of these greens and ended up with a score in the high 70's.  They are definitely faster than your average golfer is used to.  With rolling undulations and complex breaks, putting was the biggest challenge at Architects.  To me, the harder the putts were, the more I enjoyed the challenge.

At just a little over $100 per round, which includes a complimentary bucket of balls to use at the beautiful range, a yardage book and a ball marker (in the likeness of one of the classic architects!), this course is an excellent alternative to your local muni.  Some public and semi-private courses can run you at least $200+, so as long as you don't make The Architects Club a regular weekly stop, your wallet shouldn't be crying that much.  The new 16,000 sqft clubhouse is immaculate, the staff is courteous and friendly, and for being a public course the pace of play is excellent - rarely was there any wait to hit and we were never rushed at any point from the groups behind.  If it hadn't been for a single walk on 2 minutes before we teed off, my group would have just consisted of myself and Darkness. 

Not bad for a 9:45am Sunday tee time.

Posted by vaca22 at 05:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

First I'd like to take some time to welcome you all to PGA365.com.  The idea behind the site is to make it a little more than your standard blog.  Here you will also find a forum that you can contribute to as well.  You can always write a comment in the blog but there is room to really open up discussions in the forums and get more people involved.  We'll also have a few links to some of our great sponsors and friends as well as some useful resources.  We want golf nuts everywhere from all walks of life to have a place to be able to learn, be entertained, and to share their experiences and expertise.  Let us know what looks great and what needs improvement.  Your participation is definitely encouraged and welcome!

 That being said, the golf off-season in New England is junk.

 I always thought I spent more time golfing each year than not golfing.  I realized one night on a long walk out of work and to my car that this really wasn't the case.   Avid golfers up here stare a long cold winter straight in the face for half a year.  That's 6 months for those at home keeping score.   

 We start winding down our season in October and I can't imagine there are still many of us playing in November, and I think we all know what happens from December to March.  I generally don't play in October because it starts getting colder and the earlier sunsets make playing after work more difficult.  This year has been a little different, however.  Daylight savings time was pushed back a week later making the season seem longer (I guess), and there were many trees that hadn't even started changing color until November. It's almost the middle of the month now and there are trees that are coverd in leaves still grasping strongly to their branches.  Usually by this time of the month everything is bare.

 Courses close down, it's entirely dark out by 5:30, the roads get dirty from salt and sand...this place really transforms into a cold wasteland for what seems to be forever. Luckily for me, I somehow manage to lose all interest in the sport from October to the middle of February.   I don't  think about it, I don't read about it, and watching any kind of coverage on TV is unbarable at this time of year.  In a way I suppose this is good because it gets my mind off of it for a while but once the itch starts it seems as if spring can't come soon enough.  You would think that March signals the arrival of golf once again but in years past I've spent days digging out of a freak storm that dumped 20 inches of snow in the middle of the month.  "It's almost April, right??" you think to yourself. Either that, or the daytime highs are still below 40.  Basically, we're not doing anything golf related for 6 months, and that can be tough for people crazy like me.

 It's always a good idea to take a break for a while to keep things in perspective and return to playing with a new sense of determination.  Maybe a little time off is all you need to get that slice under control, or those putts rolling the right way.  Maybe your wife got really mad and you had no choice. There is always a week or two in the summer that I mysteriously avoid playing at all, but 6 months is just too long.  You guys in warmer locations may not realize how lucky you are to have access to playing for more than 6 months at a clip.  This long period of waiting, for me, is what makes me realize how much fun I have playing the game.  Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have any problems playing year-round in a warmer climate...it's just that having to endure such a long, cold and bleak off-season can get annoying, fast.  There are a lot of things wrong with New England, particuarly in this state, and this is just another one of those things you can add to that list.

 Here's to hoping your off-season flies by, no matter where you are.

Posted by vaca22 at 01:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)