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The Other Vegas...What Stays...
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| “Why me?”
Such was my pondering when I was assigned to do a media tour and review of the JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa, for I may be one of the few people on this planet that really does not like Las Vegas. I have found it to be too wild, too flashy, too superficial, in short, just too much. What’s more, I do not gamble, so when I am there with friends or business associates who do, I end up watching uncomfortably as others pour money into those blinking and chiming gluttonous machines. |
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Southwest Ireland Golfing Journal Part I: Views Come Cheap
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| “Views come cheap in Ireland,” infused our host, Paddy O’Looney, in a matter-of-fact tone.
As with so much of Ireland, I did not fully understand or appreciate the depth of his simple words at that time, but have since come to the conclusion that a golfing trip with friends to Ireland, if not a life-changing journey, then it is at least life-affirming. |
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Visualizing Success
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| One of the more remarkable years in professional golf was the one notched by Jack Nicklaus in 1972. Individual athletic performances aside, his accomplishments in that year were as much an example of vision as execution. |
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Poetic Rhythm: Southwest Ireland Golf Journal Part II
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| There is a certain poetic rhythm to life in Ireland. Traveling this land as replete in stunning visual variety as it is in bridges to its timeless nature, one comes to understand why the ancient pagan Druids and Celts, then Christians, embraced the mystic. How else could one explain so much that is clearly outside the hands of man? |
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Top 5 Courses in the World - THAT YOU HAVE PLAYED
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| I will admit that I am seldom at a loss for words while surrounded by friends, and bathed in the warmth of companionship and the cascading lights thrown from the dancing embers of a peat fire in some cozy little pub. Immersed in such confines and deeply entrenched in dialog of all things golf; lately, I have taken to quiz my cohorts with a hypothetical query a cynic will claim has no right answer. On the contrary, I believe in fact, it does have a correct answer, only the answer is likely different for each person. |
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Kiss My Asterisk
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| Why, less than two months ago the game’s pundits were suggesting that a Major won during Tiger’s recovery from knee surgery would need to be marked with an asterisk indicating that the world’s # 1 golfer was not participating (and presumably that Tiger would have won the tournament if he had played). However, the path to such self-righteous sensationalism was obscured (twice) by a Major champion that seems to posses a certain “every man” quality. Padraig Harrington’s rally from being three shots down to Sergio Garcia at the turn was a testament to his drive and determination. Let’s face it, Harrington does not have one of those PGA Tour-like swings that people marvel at. Harrington does it on pure guts. He literally outworks the competition. On the back nine on Sunday, Harrington shot a 32, the same number he posted on the back nine during the final round at Royal Birkdale. The putts he made on the 16th (12 feet) for par, to catch Garcia and Ben Curtis, the 17th (10 feet) for birdie and the lead, and then the crescendo on the 18th (15 feet) for par and a two shot margin, were nothing short of spectacular. |
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Into the Mystic, Ireland's North and West
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| The next morning, the full light of day greeted us with the beauty that surrounded us. I was struck by the beauty of the Blue Stack mountains that embrace the region like outstretched arms. As anyone who appreciates Celtic music already knows, in Ireland’s land, you can hear the music, and in its music, you can see the land. My mind danced to the harps, strings and pipes of one of the most beautifully rolling, cloud topped, mountain ranges that I had ever seen. Their beauty was only enhanced by the violent manner in which they dropped off into the sea, marked by massive and dramatic cliffs. Such a sight takes away any wonder as to why Celtic folklore is so woven with the mystic. |
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Tony Jacklin's Words of Wisdom
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| Tony Jacklin recently recounted an inspirational poem, told to him by a friend for whom he used to caddy. Jacklin credits the poem with being his inspiration to win the 1969 Open Championship and the 1970 U.S. Open. |
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U.S. Open: The Greatest Upset of All Time
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| Harry Vardon and Ted Ray were imposing figures in the world of golf in 1913. The distinguished looking Vardon, a five-time winner of the Open Championship (he would win it a record sixth time, one year later, in 1914), was the best player in the world, the Tiger Woods of his era, if you will. Ray, the reigning Open Champion, was a large, thick man with a walrus mustache. He was distinctive for his massive drives, making him the John Daly of his day in terms of his larger-than-life persona and everyman demeanor. The two were in the midst of an extensive tour through the United States, where the Brits would team up against anyone foolish enough to challenge them. Entering the 1913 U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, the two had built up a record of forty-one wins and no losses. Their mere presence at the relatively young U.S. Open was a great boost for the tournament’s prestige. |
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Thank you, Dad
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| I have always numbered among those that viewed Father’s Day as something of a contrived holiday. Shallow on historical precedent; something fabricated for commercial reasons.
However, my jaded perspective began to thaw after the death of my father almost a decade and a half ago and I lost the chance to participate in the trite ritual. My transformation was complete the first time I received a hand-made Father’s Day card from my oldest son, when he was just a pre-schooler. Immediately, my self righteous position was caught in the undertow of sentimentality, ushered by a tiny hand print and a misspelled message of “Dad, I luv yu.”
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Everything New is Old Again
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| It is an annual rite of the spring when optimism, hope and a spirit of renewal prevail. Everything is fresh and new, a blank canvas. A chance to start anew. |
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Tiger: Owning All Four
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| They said it couldn’t be done, and virtually the entire golfing public believed them. For a man to win all four major championships in his lifetime was a feat of, well, major proportions. To win all four in succession should have been an impossibility. |
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To Whom We Owe Gratitude
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| “You don’t have the game you played last year or last week. You only have today’s game. It may be far from your best, but that’s all you’ve got. Harden your heart and make the best of it.” -- Walter Hagen |
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In Celebration of the Bold
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| You heard the outcry didn’t you? Heard the electronic snickering, the printed ridicule and the world-wide golf-media mocking?
The March edition of Golf World U.K. (not affiliated with the U.S. version of the magazine by the same name) featured a long article about eccentric British professional Ian Poulter. |
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The Year That Changed History
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| Some years are so distinctive that their events become seared upon the pages of history. As though the currents of incidents building up to them could no longer be contained, ushering in a whole new era. |
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A Final (Beautiful) Look at Scotland
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| The last in Matt's three-part journal of his journey through northern Scotland |
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Scottish Golf: My View, Part II
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| The first course on the day’s agenda was the Nairn Golf Course (www.NairnGolfClub.co.uk). While currently enjoying considerable notoriety and acclaim, it was only a few short years ago that Nairn sat in relative obscurity. Then, as host of the 1999 Walker Cup, the eyes of the world of golf were opened to its unique offerings. Our eyes were opened on the first tee as we looked out on the beautiful, expansive championship links course sitting on the shores of the Moray Firth. |
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Scottish Golf: Hidden Gems
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| St Andrews, the city, and the Old Course are so much more than merely a golfing destination. For a golfer, St Andrews is quite simply a mecca. It is a pilgrimage that anyone who truly purports to love the game must make at least once in a lifetime. The aura of what has gone before you embraces you as soon as you enter the ancient city. From the massive cathedral ruins to the rubble of the St Andrews castle, each element of the city seems to be a building block of anticipation to your first steps on to the historic course. It is almost overwhelming and well worth it for a first-time pilgrim to walk the course the evening before a round, if only to confirm that your feet really do touch the earth. |
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The Great Babe
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| The stories, the accolades, the achievements in a life otherwise cut short are almost beyond comprehension. Mildred “Babe” Ella Didrikson Zaharias (as an adult, she would change the spelling of her last name from Didriksen to Didrikson, to reflect the Norwegian spelling, rather than the Swedish), could well be the most consummate athlete ever to grace the fairways. She was labeled with the nickname, “Babe,” after hitting five home runs in a single baseball game as a youth. |
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Like Tiger: Think Big, Be Big
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| When Tiger Woods was a kid he had Jack Nicklaus’ impressive achievements taped to his wall as motivation. Even for a golf prodigy like Woods, Nicklaus’ golfing accomplishments read like something superhuman that only a fool or someone severely self-deluded would even aspire to. Tiger Woods was different. He did not use Nicklaus’ record as an opportunity to take account of his deficiencies, but as a road map to success – as a cause of self-empowerment, not resignation. |
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Thank Hagen for Wanamaker Rule
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| Did you notice that in Tiger Woods pre-tournament press conference, that he was asked if he displayed the Wannamaker Trophy for winning the PGA Championship with the rest of his hardware? |
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Matters of the Mind
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| It is a matter of public record that Padraig Harrington won over a million dollars on Sunday at Carnoustie with his Open Championship victory. However, in a move that is nothing short of shocking in today’s golf world, Harrington opted to skip the Scottish Open one week earlier, and a potential payday of over one million dollars, when he committed to play in the Irish PGA Championship at the European Club. Potential payday for winning that event: $25,000!
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A Day in the Sun: The Greatest Open Championship
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| No one ever doubted the natural talents of Tom Watson. By the time he was in his mid-20s, he was long off the tee, laser accurate with his irons, had the ability to get up and down from anywhere and had a bold and confident putting stroke. Such defined his physical strengths. The initial doubt, however, was his mental fortitude. A perspective that was probably unfair, as his sometimes brilliant play revealed his innate abilities that had not yet been matched by experience of tournament hardened nerve. Probably due to the early success of a young Jack Nicklaus, critics were quick to judge a young golfer with talent if he failed to win majors while still wet behind the ears.
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Johnny's 63: A Most Shocking Record
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| Coming into the 1973 U.S. Open at Oakmont, the sense of daunting was palatable. Oakmont was well used to the its staring role on the nation’s most prominent national stage and it carried with it more than just the pedigree of having hosted four national championships. As the sight of Hogan’s last U.S. Open victory in 1953 and Nicklaus’ first, in 1962 (in a playoff over Arnold Palmer), the course also carried with it a reputation for sporting America’s fastest greens and fairways that were so narrow that even the U.S.G.A. had to ask the membership to widen two fairways in preparation for the National Championship.
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Gator's Donovan and the Luck of the Irish
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| It was a shot that never should have gone in. He was dead; in jail; out-of-the-hole. A handicap stroke in hand, wasted by circumstance and failure to capitalize, surely, victory on this critical last hole was ours and a very critical half point in our Ryder Cup-style grudge match, or so my partner and I thought…
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Ban Golf!
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| It will come as no great surprise that the Scots and the English have had a long and sometimes contemptuous relationship. What may come as a bit of a surprise is how this complicated union had a significant impact on the development of the game of golf.
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Ben Hogan and the Municipal Pro
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| Much has been said about Zach Johnson, the humble professional from Iowa, and how his victory at the Masters shocked the golf world, but a closer look reveals that the most shocking victory in a major may well have come from another humble golfer from Iowa almost 52 years ago.
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Half in the Bottle
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| Of the many lessons the game of golf teaches us, one of the most applicable is the value of consulting with an expert, rather than boldly rushing in and leaving your fate in the hands of blind ambition.
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