Washington Golf Alert

Washington Golfer's Toolbox

Local resources include:

Swing, The Washington Post's online guide. Interactive map with local courses, feature articles, equipment reviews, tons of content.

Waggle.com, a website filled with regional golfing resources including hundreds of course reviews and updates on local events.

The Washington Post Sports section on Mondays. Buy the hard-copy edition and most Mondays you'll find golf course discounts. I haven't done a survey, but tragically, most seem to be for weekdays. Not always though--I saw a recent Bowling Green (Front Royal, Va.) discount for $25 on weekends after 1 p.m., compared to the usual $39.

Pros 'N Hackers magazine. This is a good quirky regular-Joe publication on its own merits, but I'll bet most of us subscribe to get the discounts offered every issue. I'm counting 21 discount coupons in the May, 2006 edition. The best deals are for weekday play, but many are for weekend afternoons. One random example: As of this post the excellent inland links course Bristow Manor, outside Manassas, charges $65 a round on Saturday and Sunday mornings; the Pros N' Hackers discount was for $35 anytime Monday through Thursday and Friday, Saturday and Sunday after 1 p.m. Other discounts are available when you subscribe. This year I chose the $49.99 option, which included a round "any day, any time" at the new Laurel Hill in Lorton. That's a $79 round during prime time weekends.  A similar deal, with a few restrictions but still usable on weekends, was offered as of post time for Renditions in Davidsonville, Md., which normally peaks at $89 a round. You can also pay $20, forget those deals, and just get the regular monthly discounts. Nine issues a year. You'll find free copies, absent all the discounts, available at many local driving ranges and courses.

GolfStyles Washington is a higher-end publication that's part of a chain. If you like reading about luxury golf vacations and the downside of country club memberships, this is the monthly for you. Well-edited with some useful directories and relentless updates on its "Solstice Survival" 54-hole competitions. Free subscription.

SkyCaddie by SkyGolf. Why am I including a national product on this local list? Because SkyGolf, a GPS-based handheld device that maps distances to greens and hazards, has a ton of local tracks in its database. You can search that database without spending a dime. The unit costs around $349, and annual subscriptions run from $19.95 to $59.95 a year, depending on how many courses you want in your library (sorry--I mean Sky Vault. Kind of like Fort Knox, where you may need to go after paying for everything). I'm addicted to mine.

Golfwits is another mapper I've used. Plenty of local courses on their list too. They have both PDA- and downloadable hard-copy maps--print it out, cut it up, staple it together, stuff it in your pocket. Though not GPS-based, the hard-copy color maps I've used are visually easier to navigate than the adequate SkyCaddie display (other than the simple but very usable graphics for the greens, SkyCaddie hazard instructions are sometimes inscrutable). Even without digital readouts of your yardage, these are very useful aids, especially if you choose the option to mark 100-, 150-, and 200-yard arcs from the green. If you use the PDA software, you can compile a depressing complexity of stats on items like greens in regulation, sand saves, and lost golf balls "good" double-bogies.

TeeTimes.com Pay $26 a year and book times up to 14 days in advance. Biggest drawback: Limited courses in this area. On the Virginia side, as of May 25, 2006 you'ree limited to to Algonkian, Brambleton, Burke Lake, Forest Greens, Generals Ridge, Greendale, Jefferson District, Laurel Hill, Oak Marr, Pinecrest, Pohick Bay, and the two Twin Lakes courses (Lakes and Oaks). That's much better than nothing, but I count 67 courses in my own NoVa/DC/Maryland directory. I see nothing in Tee Times for the Disctrict of Columbia, and 11 courses in Maryland, but over towards Ocean City and the like. Other Virginia courses are available around Williamsburg. TeeTimes.com is in several other states, with a decent selection in the Pinehurst/Sandhills region and some in North Carolina's Outer Banks. There's a special section at TeeTimes for Northern Virginia courses, so pay attention when you sign up.

Singles Golf DC if you're, you know, single. Also known as the Washington, D.C. chapter of the American Singles Golf Association. I don't have any experience with them (yet), but judging from their current schedule they're very active with regular weekend and mid-week outings and clinics, a number of which are concluded with post-golf analysis at local watering holes.

'A Glorified Qualifying Event'

From WTNH in Connecticut, a brief about saving what used to be the Greater Hartford Open:

He says it's justice that the tournament has gained new life with a new sponsor -- St. Paul Travelers -- and a spot on the summer schedule beginning next year. He says he'll be back for this year's tournament next month in Cromwell.

For a while it looked as if Faxon would go down as the final defending champion in the popular event, which began in 1952 as the Insurance Open and evolved into the Greater Hartford Open.

But Buick announced earlier this year that it was pulling its sponsorship after this tournament. The PGA planned to make it part of the secondary "Fall Series" of tournaments, a glorified qualifying event for professionals still in need of a PGA exemption card.

Yep, and that's what the Washington DC area is looking at after this, the last year of the Booz-Allen. If local organizers manage to find new sponsorship, we won't even be part of the ludicrous Fedex Cup. The only thing separating the post-Booz Allen from the Nationwide Tour will be the prize money. Here's a summary from the PGA:

Once the FedEx Cup season concludes with THE TOUR Championship Presented by Coca-Cola, the TOUR will enter the Fall Series, featuring six to seven official money tournaments that will determine the remainder of the 125 players eligible for the next year's FedEx Cup. The entire series will be telecast on The Golf Channel.

Every single mind-numbing stroke--promise? 

That's PGA golf for you, folks--in two short years we go from Sergio Garcia winning at Congressional to The Home Shopping Channel cable TV.

In the fall.

Did somebody egg Tim Finchem's house or something?

Single-Axis Golf

I love fiddling with my swing, and though my scores suggest that's not a great idea it's one of the main reasons I enjoy this pastime. There is not one perfect way to swing; the clones turned out by most of today's swing schools are effective but so were Lee Trevino, Jim Thorpe, and Arnold Palmer. A modern swing coach witnessing their forms, especially those of Trevino and Thorpe, would pass out from shock, and some still do when they see Jim Furyk.

None of these guys uses a single-axis swing (Thorpe may be up to a quadruple-axis), but in the spirit of golf diversity I point you to the Single-Axis Golf site. There are separate sections on Natural Golf, the Ideal Mechanical Advantage, the Heard Super Swing, Big Grip Golf, Graves Golf, and the aptly named That Other Method. Photos, video clips, and a lively forum where a current discussion concerns a golfer who finally found a swing key that works after 35 years of experimenting. So according to that I've got about 25 years to go.

From that link, here's the tip:

On your backswing merely pull with the middle fingers of your right hand (right handed golfer) against the shaft / thumb of your left hand. What you are doing is creating the angle (90*+) of the clubshaft to the left arm and a flat left wrist. Try to feel the leverage of this pressure point creating pressure against the heel pad of the left hand. You may be able to work in a push of the left heel pad to really force the angle.
When I say "merely" I am understating, you "really" have to pull to create this leverage. (beads of sweat cascaded everywhere) The first few buckets, and in fact for the first few weeks, my right bicept was getting very tired. The straighter you can keep your left arm the better - tension seem to be everywhere- definitely no "loose" arms. (After six weeks of doing it, I can now achieve it without as much tension in the arms, in fact at times I can get pretty loose and more clubhead speed is appearant. but definitely work with tension first.)

As you swing down, do everything you can try to keep the tension and hence the angles and DO NOT RELEASE, let the whole arm triangle assembly sort of rotate down and around. Feels different, if not, you are not doing it properly.
Another visualization, when you pull against the club/thumb, feel as if you are forcing a straightening the left arm and never letting it relax.

Also, if you are not used to letting your left arm rotate through on the downswing, you may have to overcreate the sensation. Insure that the back of your left hand is in line with you left arm (flat), no cupping. I started with the feeling that - from the top of the back swing - the back of the left hand immediately feels like it's flat and facing the ground just off my right (back foot). This seems to force the right elbow into the the side (very nicely). If you then carry the whole assembly through impact, the angles will be maintained. DO NOT FEAR holding the angle for a seemingly ridiculous amount of time. And in order to hit the ball, you will find your body providing the necessary bending....

Yes. It's just that simple.

'I Made Seven Good Shots'

That's the great line from Annika Sorenstam, who was in contention at the Sybase Classic Sunday before a triple-bogey on a par 4 with an elevated green. It was one of those I can do that moments for recreational golfers, watching Sorenstam's ball roll back to her feet three consecutive times after trying to pitch onto the 9th's green. The Golf Channel ruined our sense of this golf calamity, speeding up the video in an attempt to be cute because reality was apparently too boring.

Anyway, cheers to Sorenstam, who did strike all seven shots on that hole very cleanly. Here's a link to a New York Times account of the contest, which rightly focuses on winner Lorena Ochoa. Ochoa is Mexican and reporter Lynn Zinser focuses a bit on the golfer's pride in representing her country on the tour. This is a bit much, however:

But as Ochoa has roared to the top of the Tour's money list, winning the Sybase Classic at Wykagyl Country Club on Sunday with a final-round 66 for a five-under-par 208, she has become impossible for the non-Spanish-speaking crowd to ignore.

Like no English-speakers following the LPGA have ever heard of Ochoa until now. Please.

Field Notes: Falls Road

I don't usually play two days in a row, but a friend ordered me out with her husband, and I'm not one to let people down.

This is the time to golf the mid-Atlantic, folks. The weather isn't oppressive, we've had enough rain to keep everything green, and the public courses haven't been beaten to death by, well, us.

Falls Road in Potomac, Maryland has completed renovations that took a few years and had temporarily created some bizarre makeshift holes. No more. Now the only flaw to my eye is the strange par-3 9, an odd way to finish the front and one of the course's least interesting holes. It's 127 from the blues (black/blue/silver/green, and who the heck thought that up). Don't judge the rest of Falls Road based on that hole--maybe they're trying to cheer people up with an easy score before they make the turn.

The course is hilly, though by no means to the local extreme of places like Forest Greens in Triangle, Va. or Little Bennett in Clarksburg, Md. Plenty of variety including tees where you can wail away with your driver and others where you shouldn't. The photo is taken from the middle of the 10th's fairway. Yes, as you're making your way around you can often see plenty of other holes, but they rarely impinge on each other and a normal public golfer won't feel crowded.

As documented at FairwayFiles.com, not a terrible day for yours truly with a 102. Avert your eyes from the closing three.

Field Notes: Herndon Centennial

The last time I played this course, a couple years ago, was a depressing end-of-day: Cold dark weather, end of the season so the course was beat up, and I'm pretty sure my score was dreadful.

This morning I'm positve my score was dreadful--a 112--but by the end of the round, the sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the course was clearly in terrific shape. That's the 12th green at left. Actual sand in many of the bunkers (yes, that can be a problem in area courses, even what I'd call upper-middle ones). Fairways and greens in good shape. Herndon is a very walkable course, except for cris-crossing a highway a few times--the pedestrian bridge is lovely but it's a long trek and this is where a foursome in carts is going to overtake you.

Herndon is a bit short from the whites at 5800, but there's good variety and narrow enough fairways often enough to give your average recreational golfer second thoughts on the tee. Gentle elevation changes add more interest. If I were to change one thing about it, it'd be the first hole. Namely I wouldn't make it the first hole, a narrow par 4 with the toughest handicap--not so great either for your score or for getting everyone quickly on their way.

Documented evidence of my disasters taken from my data at FairwayFiles.com.

   

All Wie, All The Time

Might as well get used to it. After predicting a "media circus," The Golf Channel's Kraig Kann writes about Michelle Wie and her prospects for the US Open:

So do the math. Wie is among 750 vying for a precious 86 spots in the field at what most believe is the most demanding test in major championship golf. Last year at Canoe Brook Country Club in Summit, New Jersey [the sectional where Wie will try to advance] there were 84 players chasing just six spots in the U.S. Open field. And it figures that both numbers might go up this time around. The field at Canoe Brook will be set early next week. Reports have the number in the field at around 200, with 25 or fewer spots at stake. And the field will have major champions and multiple players with PGA TOUR and Nationwide Tour wins.

Golf is hard. PGA golf is really, really hard. The US Open is even more really hard. It is often called the most difficult test in golf. And by difficult, we mean boring. Well some of us do.

There's a good short ESPN piece on whether Wie will ever be a full-time PGA member. Without getting into whether that's a good idea for golf, the writers focus on whether it's a good idea for Wie. ESPN's Bob Harig says she won't succeed, because it's really very, very difficult--super tough, if you think about it. Harig:

Just getting her tour card will be an immensely difficult proposition. She could try to go to the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament, where she would need to finish higher than she did Sunday at the SK Telecom Open, a tournament with a slew of no-name players. Yes, they were professional men players, so finishing 35th was quite a feat. But the caliber of competition at the Q School finals figures to be as good or better; she'd have to finish 30th or higher. And that is only after advancing through two other stages of qualifying just to get to the 108-hole final.

   There are other ways for Wie to become a full-time member of the tour, but both probably are more difficult or far-fetched...

Including taking all possible exemptions, up to 7, and winning enough $$$ to earn a card.

Ron Sirak of Golf World says she'll do it--implying, however, only if in the end she really wants to: If Michelle Wie earns her PGA Tour card, can she be successful? Certainly, she may someday face the choice of whether to try to be a dominant LPGA player or a run-of-the-mill PGA Tour player.

Sirak notes something else. She's freakin' 16!

How the Divorce of an Aussie has a Local Angle

Was sorry to read about the impending split of Greg Norman and his wife after 25 years. But who knew they married in our back yard:

The couple met in 1979 and married on July 1, 1981 in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia.

Yeah. Slow day.

Who Needs Tiger

Channel 13/WVEC in Hampton Roads says Paddraig Harrington, one of my favorites, has committed to playing in the Booz-Allen June 22-25. With evil PGA chief Tim Finchem pulling the rug out from under professional DC golf, we hope this isn't the last hurrah for the contest. Some of the other top names are Sergio (defending), Bernhard Langer, Chris DiMarco and local favorite Fred Funk.

The Greater Washington Megalopolapolis doesn't do too badly with tournaments in any case. An LPGA major--the, er, LPGA--is up there June 5-11 in Havre de Grace at Bulle Rock, and we get fairly regular stagings of the President's Cup at Robert Trent Jones in Gainesville; the next one here is for 2007. And the Washington Post reports today the PGA is looking at Woodmore in Mitchellville, Md. for a Nationwide Tour event.

Life is Different in Scotland

From The Herald in the U.K., non-golfer Harry Reid writes about proposals to prevent folks from wandering around golf courses:

The Scottish Land Reform Act of 2003 gave walkers access to courses – which they probably already had, in theory – but the Scottish Golf Union wants changes to the legislation, changes that would confine walkers to defined paths....

But responsible members of the public should be able to walk on this land as long as they keep away from the greens and bunkers, and are careful not to disrupt games in progress. My essential point is that at many clubs, at many times of the year, there are actually very few, if any, games in progress. ...

Coloring this is the fact that most clubs there are privately owned. And that they are empty during the winter. And that non-golfers wandering off appointed paths apparently have a death wish.