When our kids were growing up, we spent our summer vacations hiking. We drove to all the western states and provinces during these trips visiting the Cascades, Tetons, Sierras, Rockies, Sawtooths, Bitterroots, Wasatch, and San Juans. It was while hiking these miles and miles of mountain trails that I became a birder. I never seemed to be able to identify and remember the names of all the wildflowers I saw, but became quite adept at identifying the many birds.


Osprey in flight by Chris Seufert at flickr.com

One thing I've enjoyed most about golf, is that I can continue to identify and admire these birds. During my rounds I've seen plenty of herons, egrets, kingfishers, nuthatches, creepers, wrens, hawks, seagulls, cormorants, kites, jays, sparrows, juncos, warblers, bluebirds, flickers, sapsuckers, woodpeckers and more. On my recent trip to Kauai, I even saw an Albatross at The Prince Course in Princeville!

Although my favorite bird, the American Dipper (Water Ouzel), won't be found on a golf course, a few of my other favorites can be. One of these is the Osprey.

I first identified an Osprey many years ago along the Snake River in Idaho, southwest of Jackson, WY. I watched this rather large fish-eating bird catch trout after trout from the river, and carry each catch to its young in a nest atop a dead lodgepole pine on the nearby hillside. I watched from a trail at a point above the nest and was treated to a great view of its two young. Their call is a series of sharp whistles, described as cheep, cheep, but near the nest, the call is a frenzied cheereek!

Recently, an Osprey appears to have moved in near Monarch Dunes Golf Course to fish in a lake along the 7th and 8th fairways. I've seen the bird several times now. During one round, I witnessed the Osprey swoop down and catch a 10-12 inch fish, then carry it to a nearby eucalyptus tree to feast. My tee shot just happened to end up right below the branch he'd landed on. I watched him eat for a few moments, then took my approach shot to the 7th green as he simply looked down and watched. By the time I walked by again on the 8th, he'd finished his meal and flown off.


Mute Swan, wikipedia.com

I've also seen Osprey several times along San Luis Creek on the back nine at Avila Beach Golf Course. Along this creek, I've also seen many Kingfisher, Night Herons, Great Blue Herons, Cormorants, and other common water birds. During one round, I saw six Mute Swans, apparently the first Mute Swans to visit our area.

During the spring, I look forward to watching the Red Tailed Hawks nesting in a eucalypus tree next to the 17th green at Monarch Dunes and the many Great Blue Herons nesting in a few huge eucalypus trees along the 11th green at Avila Beach. Unlike those unruly coots and geese, the hawks and herons don't seem to litter the greens with constant droppings.

Unless I'm having to putt over coot poop, I've found that during the rounds where I pay more attention to counting birds than counting strokes, I seem to always see more of one and experience less of the other!

Labels: Birding, Birds

Lorne Rubenstein wrote an article this month for SCOREGolf, A Zone Worth Finding, about a book by Former PGA Tour winner Bobby Clampett, The Impact Zone: Mastering Golf's Moment of Truth. It's the one book Rubenstein read this year, or in many years, for that matter, that says very little about the swing itself, and plenty about the moment of truth - impact.


Golf Impact Shot by photomudger at flickr.com

Rubenstein introduces Clampett's own introduction in his book. "You’ve probably heard that the most important six inches in golf is between the ears. Though the mind unquestionably plays a key role in the game, the most important six inches in the swing truly take place through the Impact Zone - meaning the two inches before impact through the four inches after it. After all, they don't call impact the golf swing's Moment of Truth for no reason."

Each of us, including the tour pros, have different looking swings, a unique style, a signature swing. But when we hit quality shots, we all look the same at impact. If you want to make an impact in this game, think impact.

Clampett shares that, "if we could somehow change the way the game is taught, and begin working from the ground up with a focus on the golfer's swing dynamics, and with the goal of moving their swing bottoms four inches in front of the ball, we could begin to make some real progress - progress that would both grow the game and make it immeasurably more enjoyable for those already hooked on playing it."

Read that carefully. Clampett encourages a swing that bottoms four inches in front of the ball, not at the back of the ball. This is exactly what Fred Shoemaker told our group during an impromptu clinic at Bandon Dunes last month. Assuming our swing bottom occurs naturally near the center of our chest (on an even lie), this indicates that a well struck ball should be placed behind our center (back in our stance). Try experimenting with this and notice where your divot starts - well in front of where the ball was.

Looks like a book I might consider taking a look at!

Labels: Articles, Bobby Clampett, Fred Shoemaker, Impact, Instruction, Lorne Rubenstein

I ran across an article about Lorena Ochoa in the San Francisco Chronicle by Scott Ostler that suggests there is something at least semi-mystical about the world's most dominant female golfer. The mystical issue was initially raised recently by Christina Kim, who told a writer, "I've known Lorena for almost a decade and there was always something sort of mystical about her. There was something different about her that a lot of people can't even grasp."


Lorena Ochoa by pgamexico at flickr.com

Ostler shares, "Ochoa is not large (5-foot-6 and 130 pounds), she's soft-spoken, she has delicate features and no bulging muscles, yet in the last year, she has reached a mystical place in athletics that is familiar only to people such as Tiger Woods, Roger Federer and, not so long ago, Annika Sorenstam."

Lorena's response to this so-called mystical aura was, "I'm very good at just leaving things behind. I think that's very important, just in the mental side. A lot of players, you know, just in different ways, they regret too much or get upset or angry or waste maybe one or two days or weeks being down. In a way, I'm easy with me. I do get really mad and disappointed, but I just kind of move on and leave things behind and put them in the trash can, and I keep going."

"Here I am," Ochoa said of her No. 1 spot, "and I like to be here."

Labels: Articles, Golfers, Lorena Ochoa

My wife and I traded our timeshare to visit Kauai last week. We stayed in Princeville, on the north side of the island. I brought along my golf clubs, hoping to sneak out a few times while my wife enjoyed shopping or sitting by the pool. I was able to get 4 rounds of golf in!


The Prince Course, Princeville Kauai

The first course I played was 5 minutes from our condo - The Prince Course at Princeville. I played with a threesome from Auburn, CA consisting of 3 friends and their wives. The wives each drove a cart, the husbands rode along and played golf. We had 4 carts between us! The group was very friendly and fun and made me feel very welcome joining their group. Two of us started off nicely with birdies on the first hole. I had opportunites for several more birdies on the front, but had difficulty dealing with the slow and grainy bermuda greens and turned a couple opportunities into bogies. Still, I had a good round going into the back nine with just 1 mishap on 8 - a double bogie tallied from the frontside bunker. I figured out then that you had to pick the ball out of these sandless traps.

The back nine is where the challenge began. Somehow, I found a way to par the horseshoe shaped par 5 10th after nearly going OB to the far right off the tee, then barely getting back to the fairway. A landed a long approach from there by hitting across the canyon, found inside the horseshoe shaped fairway. On the short par 3 11th I hit a solid PW into the right to left headwind that carried the ball just enough left to loose it forever in the jungle below. I dropped near the green and chipped up close to save bogie.

The course then presents you with a long drop from the tee on 12 to a narrow jungle and tree-lined sliver of a fairway below. I hit a solid 5-wood, leaving me with an easy 9i in. A par here kept me 5-over.

The trouble began on 13 where the fairway is cut in half about 200 yards out by a ditch lined with dense shrubs. I hooked my hybrid and found the ball directly behind some rocks, forcing me to pitch out to the fairway, still leaving me 185 yards out. From here I pushed a 5i right of the green and never found the ball. When it was all over, I'd quadrupled the hole. I followed this with 2 bogies and a double bogie over the next 4 holes to ballon my round to 13-over. A respectable par on the #1 handicap 18th kept me from scoring over 85.

The next day, eager to master that back nine, I invited my wife to ride along with me after showing up early and finding the parking lot empty. Apparently, The Prince Course is empty on weekends since tourists just assume it'll be too busy to play and locals play elsewhere. For most of the round, my wife walked from each tee to green while I played the hole with the cart. She'd show up at the green about the time I'd hole a putt and I'd then give her a ride to the next teebox. She got some exercise and enjoyed the views. I got to play a much better round.


The Prince Course, Princeville Kauai

I made the turn at just 1-over, a score which would have even been a few strokes lower if I had figured out those greens. I made a mess of 10 again, but chipped in from behind the green to get another par! I made the exact same mistake on 11, taking too little club and letting a slight draw get carried left of the green by the headwind. This time I failed to get up and down and added a double bogie. However, I managed another par on 12 and improved on 13. This time on 13, I hit 5i to the end of the 1st half of the fairway, then hit 6i to the green. I caught a little bit of shrubbery trying to carry the ditch and came up just short and bogied. I parred the remaining holes to finish just 4-over! And I only lost 1 ball, on the 11th!

I had the opportunity to play The Prince Course one more time a few days later and played well. This time, although I finally parred 13 with a 5i followed by another 5i, I blew up on 12. I skied a 5w off the tee, then laid up to 100 yards instead of trying to hit this small green surrounded by jungle from over 200 yards out. Somehow, I then shanked my wedge from there and lost the ball right of the green. I stumbled in with an 81, going 8-over on the back! I got to enjoy this round with 3 other singles, 1 who I learned lives just 30 minutes south of me and plays the same home course.

On the afternoon of our last day, just prior to taking the red-eye home, I played my final round at Poipu Bay Golf Club. My wife did a little sight-seeing and shopping, then enjoyed the pools at the Hyatt while I played with 2 other singles. On my first trip to Kauai 2 years ago, my son and I played this course. I was hoping to play much better this time around, but poor play in the wind on the back nine only allowed for incremental improvement over that initial round. I did manage to finish the front just 3-over, but I 3-putted so many times on both nines, that I decided to just let go of the score and enjoy the setting. The finishing holes with the ocean bordering the left side of 15 to 17 are breathtaking, and challenging! The long drop to the par 3 17th green is quite fun. From 185 yards, I first tried hitting a 7i, but went a little right and long. Just for fun, I hit another ball from the tee with my 8i and put the ball just 10 feet right of the pin, carrying the frontside bunker! I nearly birdied 18 to finish off a fun week in Kauai.

As much as I enjoyed the golf, the highlight of the trip was a helicopter tour of the island. The views of the waterfalls and Napali coastline were beyond spectacular. Of course, we enjoyed the beaches, dining, and hiking as well.

Next trip, I'm planning to play the Kiele Course at Kauai Lagoons, whose back nine was closed for renovation; Puakea, which I'm told provides superb scenery and a just a great stretch of holes from the 11th to 17th; and Kiahuna Plantation, a RTJII course that was recently revitalized into a quite interesting course. Looking forward to that next visit!

Labels: Courses, Golf Destinations, Golf Vacation, Poipu Bay, Prince Course, Princeville, Rounds

Trip Kuehne, after winning the U.S. Mid-Am in Bandon Dunes last week, 13 years after loosing to Tiger Woods in the 1994 U.S. Amateur final, shared the following comment regarding amateur golf in an interview with the USGA.

"Golf is a game, and you play games. My golf game was a heck of a lot better after I decided to do that, just play golf and play the game, and that's what I'm trying to do. It's been a great run. I'm thrilled. I want people to realize that you don't have to turn professional if you're an All-American. There are other things out there. You can get a good-paying job, you can enjoy the game of golf and play because you love the game of golf, and hopefully some people have done that, or will do that in the future. I know that the USGA is proud of it, and I'll probably get in trouble for saying this, but I don't like the fact that almost 100 people in this event are reinstated amateurs. I would love to see more guys that are 35 years old that have always been amateurs who play because they truly love the game of golf. That's why I play the game, because I truly love the game of golf. I think it's watered down a bit with the prize money."


Trip Kuehne holding the Robert T. Jones Jr. Memorial Trophy after winning the 2007 U.S. Mid-Am at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort (Steven Gibbons/USGA)

Trip Kuehne, 35 from Irving, Texas, is the older brother of LPGA Tour player Kelli Kuehne and PGA Tour player Hank Kuehne - both USGA champions. Kelli Kuehne won the 1995 and 1996 U.S. Women's Amateur titles, and Hank Kuehne won the 1998 U.S. Amateur.

Sandy Tatum, another strong advocate for amateur golf and past USGA President, writes in his book, "A Love Affair with the Game", that "The word amateur derives from the Greek words meaning, as a verb, to love and, as a noun, lover. That word, therefore, puts amateur golfers in the right frame of reference, because they are the lovers of it whose love provides the heart, and indeed the soul, of the game of golf."

Both Sandy and Trip simply ask talented young golfers to consider an alternative to turning professional, one that preserves their love of the game, instead of taking them down a likely path of frustration, lack of income, and eventual failure. At the least, Sandy Tatum encourages these youngsters to take full advantage of the education available to them in college, instead of focusing solely on their golf game. He even tried to persuade Tiger to finish his education at Stanford before turning pro.

Many pros certainly "love the game", but once their livelihood begins to depend on it, their relationship with the game inevitably changes. Dan Millman even observes that, "those who do sports for the trophies or pursue a career mostly for the money are missing the point."

In an interview, this month with The Outdoor Journey, Millman goes on to say that, "It's all a path of personal growth. Sports are a form of voluntary adversity that develops strength and character. This is why I've never aimed at winning or success (since I can’t ultimately control such things). I am only for excellence -- doing the best I can in a given moment, and let the outcomes be what they will. No matter the outcomes of a race, if we learn something about ourselves, it is a victory."

I think Bobby Jones would be proud of Trip and his artful pursuit of excellence... Congratulations!

Labels: Amateur, Articles, Competition, Dan Millman, Sandy Tatum, Trip Keuhne

Dean Barnett shares an interesting article in The Weekly Standard this month about a renaissance in golf course architecture that began in 1994, when Sand Hills Golf Club opened for business. He argues that this minimalist design is ending the modern trend of moving copious amounts of earth, often creating uninspiring golf courses on land better suited for strip malls. Excerpts from his article are included below.


Sand Hills #8 by DustinJo at flickr.com

The Coore & Crenshaw masterpiece at Sand Hills ushered in a new era in golf architecture that aficionados characterize with one word: minimalist. The guiding principle is deference to the land. Minimalism holds that a golf course developer should look for land that is ideal for a course, and the architects they hire should let the characteristics of the land dictate the nature of the course.

Shortly after Pacific Dunes debuted, Tom Doak journeyed to remote Holyoke, Colorado, where he would create what is perhaps the fullest expression yet of golf as it was meant to be. The Ballyneal Golf and Hunt Club of Holyoke opened for business in July 2006 and has already won the highest accolades. In its first year of operation, Ballyneal debuted as the 46th best course in America and the 83rd best in the world according to Golf Magazine. Ballyneal is the youngest course on either list.


Ballyneal by rebjr at flickr.com

There remains the pressing question of what long-term impact places like Sand Hills, Bandon Dunes, and Ballyneal will have on golf architecture and the game itself. The early attempts at golf-course design by Jack Nicklaus's successor as king of golf, Tiger Woods, may offer a clue. When someone asked him to describe his design philosophy, Tiger Woods used the magic word: "I'm more of a minimalist," he said.

Putting Golf Back on Course - Dean Barnett, The Weekly Standard

Labels: Articles, Ballyneal, Course Architecture, Courses, Pacific Dunes, Sand Hills

Within 21 hours, I experienced my worst and my best golf on the same course. In my Tuesday night 9-hole men's league, I continued a slide in performance over the past 2 weeks with a whopping score of 51 to loose my match! 21 hours later, I shot 34 on the same front nine, followed by a 37 on the back to tie my career best 71 at Monarch Dunes Golf Club (70.7/135).


Monarch Dunes 13th by Aidan Bradley

After a run of scores in the 70's in 11 out of 13 rounds, I'd failed to break 80 in my past 7 rounds! In a few of these rounds I was flairing my drives out of bounds to the right. In other rounds I'd shank or scald my wedges. Failure to get out of sand traps with any success and my common 3-putts plagued me in most of these rounds.

I then decided I needed some practice. I'd gotten back in the habit of playing instead of practicing when some time opened up to head to the course.

On the range, I made some minor adjustments to my posture - butt out and chin up. I had recently purchased a book on golf fitness and got the impression from browsing it's photos that I needed to make this adjustment. It seemed to work on the range, however, I learned after my round of 51 on Tuesday night, that lifting my chin up was probably responsible for all my scalded wedge shots. In yesterday's career round, I kept my butt out, but let my head return to its more comfortable position, more in line with my spine angle. That worked!

More importantly, I made a rather obvious discovery when I was practicing my putting last Sunday. It's something most golfers already do, but I never tried it. I've always tried to keep an image in my mind of the desired path the ball will travel when I putt. I'm a path putter and go by feel once I'm over the ball. But with the hole as the eventual target, I think I unconsciously start the ball on a line more towards the hole instead of the path's apex.

Instead, after reading a putt, I'm now picking a very specific spot on the green or blade of grass that is located in line with the apex and is just before or past the hole based on slope or speed. Now when I putt, I let go entirely of where the hole is and simply maintain an image of that spot in my mind and commit to it when I take the putter back. I then succeed in starting the ball on the correct line, and assuming I read the break correctly, the ball just drops in the hole!

I know what you're thinking, "duh, you could have figured that out a long time ago if you'd just take a lesson!" I guess I'm just stubborn and like to experiment and figure it out the hard way!

Anyway, I really concentrated yesterday on just trusting my ability to putt to a very specific spot on the green and to let go of any attachment to making the putt. On all 18 greens, I putted exactly where I intended to, I just happened to misread a few breaks by a small amount.

I finished each nine with only 12 putts!

This is quite a breakthrough for me since I rarely come in with less than 34 putts. I'm the only 4 handicapper I know who putts more like a beginner! I depend entirely on hitting fairways and greens. If I miss a green, I nearly always 2-putt for bogie. If I hit a green, I usually 2-putt for par, but often 3-putt for bogie. An occasional lucky birdie is required to keep my score under control.

Yesterday, I only hit 6 fairways and 8 greens in regulation and managed 3 birdies with my 24 putts! The last time I shot 71 on this course - nearly 8 months ago - I hit 15 greens and 12 fairways with 4 birdies and a whopping 34 putts!

It was simply an amazing round. I had four quality birdie opportunities inside 10 feet and only missed one. I only failed to get up and down for par on 2 holes. I hit 2 extraordinary lob shots to within tap-in distance. One was a blind shot over a mound to the upper tier of a downhill sloping green. I heard others in my foursome sigh after my ball reached the green. I thought their reaction was because I'd almost succeeded in keeping the ball on the upper tier - a nearly impossible outcome - but that it barely rolled down to the bottom tier, 4 feet below. When I walked towards the green, I learned I'd nearly holed the shot, finding the ball inches from the hole!

After birdies on 5, 6, and 11 and a single bogie on 9, I walked up to the 16th tee only 2-under. One of the guys in my foursome - a major league baseball pitcher who recently retired after returning too quickly to play after elbow surgery - asked me if I knew I was currently 2-under. I did of course know, but had succeeded in paying little attention to my score up to this point. His comment inadvertantly removed me from the "zone" I was in and I double-bogied the easy 16th. I immediately realized what had happened and got back to my detached shot-at-a-time routine and nearly birdied 17, barely misreading the putt. Then on 18 I came up a little short on my approach, but nearly holed my chip. Pars on 17 and 18 gave me my career tying round of 71!

I was seriously close to putting the clubs away for a month or two after Tuesday night, but had already committed to playing the next day. As a friend shared after the round, "the Golf Gods suckered me back in big time."

Labels: Monarch Dunes, Putting, Rounds, Self Coaching