Holiday Golf at Brookside 12/26/2010 - Meet the "Brookside Butcher"

He's a legendary figure in this part of Los Angeles.  Some people wonder if he is actually real or just a legend that has been passed on from golfer to golfer. Some say he is a shadowy figure that only comes out late in the afternoon to play super twilight alone.  Another rumor is that he owns a deli on Colorado Boulevard and uses his 9-iron to tenderize his meats. Others claim he is simply a golf hustler who goes by many names to hide his true identity.  I have always hoped to meet the infamous "Brookside Butcher".

It seems that around this time every year I get a call from my buddy Garry about squeezing in a round at Christmas time.  This annual grudge match is something that I hate to miss.  We don't play for a ton of money, but mostly for bragging rights and the fun of quoting Caddyshack and making fun of one another.  This year, we decided to play at an old favorite - Brookside Golf Course in Pasadena. Here is a lineup of the players.

Garry is in town because his wife is from the area and they spend the holidays here.  We were college roommates at UCI an awful long time ago and we have played a lot of golf rounds together over the years.  I know Garry's game quite well and his style of bomb, gouge, slash, and dash is always fun to watch.  He is known for playing Army golf (left, left, left, right, left) and you usually will see something incredible happen when he plays.  A round without Garry is incomplete without a chip in or a putt holed from over 40 feet, a drive that is either 50 yards left or 50 yards right of the correct fairway, and some kind of shot that will just make you laugh your ass off.  I would say he is about a 10 handicap, but he certainly has the ability to be much better if he would play and practice more.  As you read on, you will see that he didn't disappoint.

His brother-in-law Peter, a.k.a. "Sweet Pete" is a the regular third part of the foursome.  Peter is a solid player who hits the ball short but very straight.  He keeps the ball in play and is very good about getting the ball from point A to point B.  For years, he has amazed me with a great little short game.  He often has been the source of our jokes because he used to use a cheap Mitsushiba wedge around the greens called "The Verdict".  Forget Cleveland, forget Vokey, The Verdict is where its at!  We often refer to him as a former great golf champion who has won obscure events in exotic locales.  "That shot reminded me of when you won the Bora Bora Open in 1989."  You have to be there for that to be funny, I guess. Pete is probably about a 5 or 6 handicap by my estimation.

Our final player has been our fourth on many occasions - another family friend of Garry's who is in town for the holidays from Chicago, Bill.  He is like the rest of us.  He has game, but doesn't play or practice as much as he would like to.  When in town, he uses an old set that he stashes at his parents' house, so he doesn't have his usual set.  Nevertheless, he uses his old school Taylor Made R7 and magnesium bronze Ping Zing putter to play pretty decent golf.  I would say that Bill is about an 8 handicap.

On the tee, we decide that we are going to play a team best ball match for a $5 Nassau just to keep it interesting.  Garry would be my partner, and Peter and Bill would pair up.  The course was pretty wet thanks to four to five days of heavy rain in Southern California over the past week.  Drives were not getting any roll in the fairway and the winter air was fairly heavy so the course was playing very long.  This should have played into our hands because Garry is probably the longest player in the group.  Unfortunately, Garry was spraying the ball all over the place on the front nine and I was hitting the ball great from the tee, but having a hard time hitting Brookside's small greens and was even worse once I reached the putting surface.  We got behind quickly, and before we knew it, we were already 3 down after 5 holes.

A funny thing happened on Hole 6, a 492 yard par-5 with a severe dogleg to the left.  Water lines the left side of the fairway, and there are two tall, skinny palm trees about 200 yards out that are right in your line if you want to hit your tee shot right down the center.  You have to decide if you want to take the aggressive line to the left of the trees, which brings water into play or if you want to take the safer line down the right side, preferably with a slight draw around the palms.   One of the trees has a small fork (maybe two feet wide) in it that runs from about 20 feet off the ground to the top of the tree, about 60 feet high.  As Garry is ready to tee off, he is debating which way he wants to go.  Since he is prone to hitting the ball anywhere and everywhere, I basically told him not to worry about it and just to let it rip.  I also told him that I would give him 100 to 1 odds on hitting the ball through the fork in the tree.  He chuckled, along with the other guys in the group, but I called him a wussy when he wouldn't even put down a $1 wager.  He settled down and took his usual rip, initially sending the ball to the left of the tree with a slight, sliding fade.  We all gasped in amazement as the ball appeared to go through the fork in the tree!!!  Three of us were convinced that the ball went right through the gap and were whooping it up in amazement.  But apparently, Garry is the only one that saw that the ball actually hit the right fork and caromed back into the water.  Still, the shot was quite exciting and gave us all quite a thrill.

On the front nine, we got whipped thanks to steady play from Peter and Bill and my inability to make any putts from 5-10 feet.  Despite getting the match to two down with two to play, we lost the front nine 4 down when all was said and done.  When we reached the 14th Hole, I was already weary from getting beat up all day both by my own crummy play and by watching my partner scatter tee shots all over the place.  The 14th is a shortish par-4 with a fairway that bends slightly to the right.  Garry teed off first and a legend was born.  His tee shot took off like a power fade, cutting right down the center of the fairway, perfectly matching the shape of the hole.  Bill admired the tee shot and complimented Garry on how nicely he "carved it in there".  My comment was "that's why the call him 'The Brookside Butcher'"

The new nickname got a laugh out of everyone in the group and seemed to help jump start our comeback attempt.  We won the hole, and despite being drummed on our overall match, we still had a chance to win the back nine and save us a few bucks.  On 16, The Butcher hit another wayward drive into an area with a lot of tree leaves.  We barely found his ball, but he responded by hitting a miraculous punch shot from about 130 yards out that took one big hop in front of the green and stopped about 30 feet short of the cup.  He drained the 30 footer to make birdie and put us 1 up on the back nine!  We ended up losing 17 thanks to two poor tee shots, so went to 18 all square on the back nine.  Bill and Peter, who had both been hitting the ball good all day,  both hit their tee shots into the lake on the right side of the fairway.  The Butcher piped a drive down the left side and carried me in, winning the hole himself and clinching the back nine for us 1 up, which limited the damage to a $5 loss overall.

The Butcher in action at Presidio

It remains to be seen if the nickname will stick over time, but "The Butcher" just seems so perfect in so many ways.  After all, Garry's tee shots do often resemble things you might find in a butcher shop, such as a shank or a slice of pork chop.  He has bloodied up dozens of golf courses by recklessly hacking away at them. His overall game is like ground beef, etc, etc, etc.  (Insert lame joke here)
 
The Butcher did save our back nine by winning two out of the last three holes, so I can't complain.  The final damages - Ryan 89, Peter 89, Garry The Butcher 90, and Chicago Bill with an 86 I believe.  The scores were certainly inflated thanks to the conditions.  It was a long day for all of us, but as usual, a great deal of fun!

Brookside Golf Course - A Local Gem

Every year around this time, I play a holiday round of golf with the same group of guys.  This year, we decided to play an old favorite, Brookside Golf Course in Pasadena. 
   
Brookside is a classic parkland type of golf course.  Designed by the famous William Park Bell, it features long, narrow fairways with small greens.  There are lots of large oaks, sycamores, and even palm trees lining the fairways, which makes the course feel even tighter.  

Brookside has been part of what is called the Arroyo Seco area of Pasadena since its first nine holes were built in 1925. One of the great things about the course is that it sits right in the shadow of the world famous Rose Bowl.  This time of year, there is a ton of activity around this area. Workers are preparing for the big Rose Bowl game, and float builders have workshops nearby where they are pasting flowers on the floats to be used in the Rose Parade.  As we played, there were dozens of people jogging, bicycling, or walking their dogs just outside the fences of the golf course.  We even saw a parade of cars from the 1930's and 1940's cruise by.  The course just felt alive and part of the community, the way that these muni courses were intended to be when they were built so many years ago.  You would never see a development plan drawn up this way in today's day and age.  A 100,000 seat stadium with very little parking, a 36-hole golf course right next door, jammed into a little valley up against a major freeway, with multi-million dollar homes sprinkled in the hills all around it?   Try presenting that to any planning committee or city government in 2010.  This is part of what gives Pasadena and Brookside so much charm.

We played the C.W. Koiner Course, also known as the Number 1.   The course stretched to over 7000 yards from the gold tees, so we decided to play the blacks, which measure out to about 6700. The course played extremely long because there were several days of heavy rain in Southern California before we played on December 26th.  The course was quite moist, wet, and muddy in spots. It was obvious that the fairways had not been mowed much in the last week.  I can understand, however, because there is a fine line that superintendents and general managers have to walk between mowing to please the golfers and ruining the golf course when it is so wet.  The air was heavy and damp that day, and there was absolutely no roll for any tee shots or long approaches.

Brookside gives you a chance to start off well, with an easy and short par-4 right off the bat.  After that simple warm up hole, you had better be ready to play.  There are eight par-4's that measure at 400+ yards, including three in a row on holes 2, 3, and 4.  The back nine has two beasts, the 466 yard 12th, and the 441 yard 18th.  I am used to hitting a low draw, so I typically count on some of my distance coming from a lot of roll.  The conditions and the course design really made it hard for me.  My drives were sticking in the fairways at 210-225 yards instead of rolling out to my usual 235-245, which meant that there were a lot of long approach shots to tiny greens.

As I mucked along, I wondered how they played this course in the 1950's and 60's with persimmon woods, old-school blade irons, and inferior golf balls.  If I can barely break 90 with a SuperTri, a Pro-V1, and some X-22s, how did Billy Casper shoot a ten under par score of 274 during the 1968 Los Angeles Open?  It makes you appreciate how good some of those old tour pros really were.  

There were two holes that really stuck out in my mind as classics.  Number 9 at 341 yards seems pretty benign when you look at it from the tee or read it on the scorecard.  However, the drive can be tricky, as there is a bunker on the right side of the fairway that seems to gobble up a lot of tee shots.  The hole also plays uphill, much more than it feels like when you are in the fairway.  It is definitely wise to take an extra club or two when approaching this green.  In addition, there is a giant tree that sits to the front-right of the green complex.  If the hole is located toward the back of this uncharacteristically large green, the tree can absolutely reject shots that are headed right toward the pin.  If you are approaching from the right side, it makes the shot even more awkward and dicey.  Two of the guys in my group had trouble when their balls came up short and right of the green and had to play around the massive tree trunks just to get their pitch shots anywhere near the hole.  It almost borders on goofy, but I will chalk it up to a unique design and call it "classic".

Hole 18 is 441 yards and is the closest hole to the Rose Bowl on this course.  It is hard to focus on the tee shot at hand because you can almost imagine the roar of the crowd from Pittsburgh's Lynn Swann's great catch in the 1979 Super Bowl against the Rams, or Vince Young's touchdown run for Texas in the 4th quarter of the 2006 BCS National Championship Game to beat USC.  In the 1999 Women's World Cup Final,  Brandy Chastain famously ripped off her jersey top after scoring the winning shootout goal to give the United States the win, and there have been countless great memories from USC vs. UCLA football games over the years.  You could probably hit a drive into the stadium if you really tried.   If you fail to concentrate on golf, this finishing hole can eat you alive and put a large dent in your score.  There is a pond to the right of the fairway that catches anything that is blocked, sliced, or pushed.  You need a large drive here to be able to get home in two, so there is no way to really lay up.  Just like number 9, this hole plays more uphill than it looks, and probably plays more like a 460-470 yard par-4.  Most of the greens at Brookside are small and relatively flat.  This green has a definite ridge that causes balls on the front of the green to move right to left as they get deeper into the green,  In addition, the green is severely sloped upward from the front to the back, and any putt that comes from the front of the green really needs to be struck well to reach a hole location in the back.  Making a four here to end your day is quite an accomplishment.

Overall, playing Brookside was a great experience.  Everyone should make the time to visit this historic area of Los Angeles and to face a very traditional and challenging golf course.

New Tiger v Graeme McDowell

We all know the story with Tiger.  He was on top of the world, not just the golf world, but one of the richest, most recognizable, and most admired PEOPLE in the universe.  At this time last year, I couldn't have told you the difference between Graeme McDowell and graham crackers.  But here is this guy with his geeky Callaway painter's cap, his golf shirts that look like they came straight out of 1987, and he is making New Tiger look like a chump yet again.

I'm sitting here watching the Chevron World Challenge and the duel between Graeme McDowell and Tiger Woods is coming down to the 17th hole.  McDowell has a one shot lead andl has just pulled off a tremendous bogey after declaring his tee shot unplayable, taking an imaginative drop on the 9th tee box, pitching it to 8 feet, and then draining the putt.  New Tiger makes a ho-hum par with a tee shot to 20 feet, a mediocre birdie putt that didn't even sniff the hole, and a tap-in.  Earlier in the round, New Tiger gave up a one shot lead by making a double bogey on a Par-5 while McDowell made a simple birdie.  A three shot swing on a Par-5 and Tiger got the worst of it? Unheard of for Old Tiger.

Now tied, New Tiger stiffs his second shot on 18.  I think I am going to have to eat my words.  No worries, McDowell just calmly rolls in a 20 foot birdie to put the pressure squarely back on New Tiger.  A two footer? New putter? Never a doubt, it's a birdie and a playoff.

Now, while we get ready for extra holes, I have to say that the golf world needs New Tiger to play well.  You can hear it in the voices of the announcers.  They are desperate for the stories, the magic, and the ratings that follow.  Dan Hicks even mentions that "it feels like old times" when Tiger stuffs it close on 18 again, trying to stir up the way it used to feel.  Why do we need Tiger for golf to be exciting?  He is still an icon, still polarizing, and still captivating, whether you like him or not.

Holy cow! On the first playoff hole, McDowell rolls in the same 20 footer on 18 that he made to prolong the tournament only minutes earlier.  New Tiger has 12 feet to tie, aaaaaaand, Noonan.  Putt slips by on the low side.  Fans and announcers seem disappointed.  McDowell being interviewed by Dottie Pepper almost seems to defer to Tiger, calling him the "greatest golfer of all time".  New Tiger tells Mark Rolfing "he fought hard".  Would Old Tiger ever say something like that?  He would have just won the thing by 6 shots going away.  We are living in a bizarre world.  Who would have ever predicted this?

The fact is, McDowell has owned Tiger in 2010.  He came back from four shots down to win the Chevron World Challenge at a course that is basically Tiger's backyard.  Sherwood hosted his event for years.  McDowell won the final match of the Ryder Cup, gaining the clinching points against Hunter Mahan.  He had a 2-1-1 record and was involved in winning several key matches on the way to taking the cup.  Despite Tiger's amazing 67 in the third round, McDowell beats Tiger by three shots to win the US Open trophy at Pebble Beach. Remember that in 2000, Tiger lapped the field, setting numerous records in the very same event at the very same course.   

I hate to admit it, but I was planning on watching football today.  Tiger DOES draw you to watch. Tiger DOES inspire me to spend an hour writing blogs.  And this match with Tiger today DOES make me look forward to the new season starting in January!  So who needs him, anyway?