Nissan Open Memories - Part 1

Every February the PGA Tour visits Los Angeles and Riviera Country Club for what is now known as the Northern Trust Open.  By my count, I have attended the tournament over ten times, mostly between 1989-1997 when my dad and I used to make the trek to Pacific Palisades every year.  And as luck would have it, the tournament was played in my home town at Valencia Country Club in 1998.  In my last blog post, I talked about memories from my very first trip to Riviera.  Now it is time to share five other memorable moments.

An Encounter with Carl Spackler Himself - At one of the tournaments in the early 1990's, my dad and I were following one of our favorite players Peter Jacobsen around the back nine. When we reached #16, we stopped by the green to watch Peter plunk his tee shot into the greenside bunker short of the green.  If you have ever attended a golf tournament in person, you know that it is common practice to mumble things to people in the crowd standing around you, whether you are cracking a joke or giving information to your fellow fans.  As we watched Peter size up his shot, my Dad made a comment to the guy next to him. "Looks like a pretty tough shot".  The stranger muttered back "not for these guys, eh?"  My dad then elbowed me in the ribs and muttered something in my ear.  I asked him to repeat himself.  "It's Bill Murray" he whispered.  I still couldn't hear him so I shrugged it off.  "It's BILL MURRAY" he said in my ear with a whisper. "Don't make a big deal out of it, but he's standing right here" he murmured as he tilted his head in Bill's direction.  I took a peek and standing next to my dad in a grubby sweatshirt with the hood pulled over his head and sweat stained baseball cap, was the one and only Bill Murray!  I am sure that Murray was trying to blend in with the crowd so he wouldn't be recognized, but he actually looked like Carl Spackler, his character from golf movie classic Caddyshack. My dad and I are both huge Caddyshack fans (not to mention Saturday Night Live, Stripes, Meatballs, etc.) and we were both surprised and thrilled to see him.  Jacobsen hit his shot and finished up with a bogey on the hole.  As he walked off the green, he saw Murray in the crowd and walked over to us.  He put his arm around Bill and turned toward the TV tower.  Here we were standing shoulder to shoulder with Bill Murray and Peter Jacobsen and the CBS TV cameras were zooming in on us.  To this day, I still have no idea if we actually made it on TV, but it was quite memorable moment.

Chunky Chip by John Daly - John Daly is one of the most polarizing players on the PGA Tour.  Either you love him or you hate him.  Either way, he is always an interesting character and is usually fun to watch.  One year, my dad and I were parked behind the 4th green and John Daly's tee shot came to rest about 15 feet from where we were sitting.  The 4th at Riviera is a difficult 230 yard par-3. Big John came shuffling up the mouth of the green and set up shop right in front of us.  He was smoking a cigarette, which is something you rarely see on today's tour.  He was facing a slick chip shot, severely downhill with a lot of break in it.  The ball was in fairly deep rough and he had about 40 feet to the hole with about 10 feet of rough to carry.   He reached in his bag for the lob wedge and got ready to hit the shot.  He tossed the cigarette to the base of his bag, took a few practice swipes and settled in for the shot.  John took the club back slowly. As it approached the ball, something very surprising happened.  He stuck the club in the ground about 3 inches behind the ball, causing it to move a grand total of about twelve inches.   Everyone in the gallery has done it before - many times.  But to see John Daly do it was a bit odd.  John is known for his temper, and those of us standing around were a bit tense as we waited for his reaction.  He didn't take much time for his third shot, and he pitched it onto the green about 15 feet from the hole.  He snapped up his cigarette and his putter and proceeded to miss the putt, resulting in a double-bogey.  When he returned to his bag we were close enough to him to hear him tell his caddy "I hate this fucking hole" and he slinked off to the next tee.  We got a good chuckle out of that.

Ted Tryba Goes Low  - In 1999, my dad and I went to the Saturday round with two other cronies - Garry Pallister (my college roommate, golf nut, and good buddy) and Ken Hasler (a colleague of my dad's for many years and a close family friend).  I believe this was Garry's first trip to Riviera, so we decided to break off from the old geezers and take a tour of the entire 18-hole track.  As we wandered around, we started noticing that a phenomenon was taking place.  People were talking about a player that was absolutely on fire and lighting up Riviera's back nine.  The player's name was Ted Tryba, a journeyman who had one PGA Tour victory under his belt at the time.   We approached one of the old-fashioned style score boards to see what the fuss was all about.  Tryba had a string of birdies and an eagle on the board and only had a few holes to play.  Holy cow! He had a chance at the course record - a 62, held by Larry Mize, Fred Couples, and Kenny Perry.  We hustled off to find him and Tryba did not disappoint.  We followed him for a few holes and he kept the birdie string alive.  As we reached the difficult 18th hole, he was 11-under par on the par 71 course.  One more birdie, and he would shoot a 59!  Tryba hit his second shot over the green and left himself a difficult chip to go below 60.   Would we witness only the fourth sub-60 round in the history of the PGA Tour?  We could almost see Tryba shaking as he went to hit his chip.  It never came close, stopping 15-feet from the hole.  He made a bogey to settle for a 61, but what an incredible round of golf!  Tryba made nine birdies, an eagle, and one lone bogey at the last.  He ended the day two strokes ahead of Ernie Els, Tiger Woods, and Davis Love III  for the tournament.  On Sunday, Els shot a 68 to take the title, and Tryba would wind up tied for second with Tiger thanks to a final round 72.

Coming Home to Valencia CC - In 1998, Riviera was scheduled to host the U.S. Senior Open and did not want to hold two major tournaments at the course that year.  The PGA Tour decided to hold the event at Valencia Country Club, 40 miles north of the Riv in my home town of Santa Clarita.  I also used to work at Valencia CC when I was a young golfer.  As a volunteer, I used to forecaddy, help out the marshals, and run errands for the pro in exchange for free golf and range balls during the week.  I spent virtually an entire summer playing here every day, so I knew the track intimately.  I was very eager to see how the big boys were going to handle "my" course.  Valencia CC is a beautiful and difficult layout.  It was designed by Robert Trent Jones, Sr. and features tree lined fairways, tough par-3's, and fast and tiered greens. Water comes into play on nine of the holes.  This would be the first time I had ever gone to the tournament for more than one day.  I went to the Thursday round by myself.  It had been several years since I had been there last and I had a great time walking the entire track.  I remember a few things from that day, including bumping into David Ledbetter and watching Payne Stewart (R.I.P. Payne) for the last time.  On Sunday, my dad and I went with the same Ken that I mentioned earlier.  What we witnessed that day was actually something that would prove to be very historic.

PGA Tour veteran Billy Mayfair had been on fire all week.  He fired a 65 in the first round to jump out to an early lead.  I watched Billy play a few holes that day and he was putting amazingly well using a funky putting technique that was more of a pop than a stroke.  He also seemed to be cutting across the ball on purpose with one of those odd long necked face balanced Ping putters from back in the day.  It was U-G-L-Y but it sure looked pretty on the scorecard.  Tiger Woods was also in the field and he made his presence felt by shooting a 65 on Saturday to move one shot behind Mayfair at the end of the third round.  On Sunday, it was basically a two man race.  Stephen Ames, Payne Stewart, and John Daly played well, but in the end it came down to a Mayfair versus Woods finale.  The crowd seemed to be very heavily in favor of Tiger.  We tended to root for the underdog over the years and we were heavily pulling for Billy to hang on.  It was quite a contrast in styles.  Mayfair looked like an old shaggy billy goat out there compared to the golden child and PGA Tour poster boy, but he showed that he had plenty of guts and also plenty of game.  Tiger wound up making birdie on three of the last four holes to take a one stroke lead.  A charge like that from Tiger has mentally defeated many of the game's great players, but Mayfair hung in there and answered with a birdie of his own on the final hole to send the tournament into sudden death.  The playoff began at 18 and Tiger pumped his tee shot on the par-5 near the trees and driving range fence that line the right side of the hole.  Billy hit a smooth drive down the center and his second shot was a lay up to about 85 yards from the flag.  Woods was forced to punch out and set himself up for a wedge shot into the green for his third.  He wound up wedging his Nike One ball to about 25 feet - a mediocre effort.  Mayfair then spun his third shot close, nearly holing it and stopping within 6 feet to put the pressure on Tiger.  Woods would miss his birdie putt and set the stage for Mayfair to take the win . Quirky putting stroke and all, Billy drained it to take home his fourth career PGA Tour victory.  To this day, this is the only time Tiger has ever lost in an official PGA Tour event playoff.  He is 11-1, and we were there to witness his only defeat.  Mayfair would go on to win again in 1998 at the Buick Open and proved his mettle by defeating testicular cancer in 2006.

Poor Olin Browne - When you go to a PGA Tour event, you expect to see the very best of the best.  Not only do the players all have the ability to hit great shots, they do it with amazing consistency.  However, once in awhile, you will catch one of the pros really stinking it up.  One year at the end of a long day, my dad and I were making the trek back to the shuttle busses.  There were still players on the course, and as we walked up the right side of #9, we stopped to watch Olin Browne, who had found the fairway bunker nearby.  There weren't many people around, literally just a few of us.  Hole #9 is a long par-4 that plays uphill to a tight green.  Browne had a long way to go to reach the green, maybe 200 yards, and he had pulled a rescue club or a fairway wood for the shot.  He took a very hard swing at the ball and cold topped it.  The ball rolled through the bunker and popped out into the rough, traveling a grand total of about 30 yards.  Browne then proceeded to compound matters by going after a pin that was tucked behind the two deep bunkers fronting the right side of the green.  His third shot came up woefully short and found a sandy landing.  We kept walking and watching, as the hole was basically on the same path as our way out.  When we reached the bunker, we had a front row seat again.  Trying to salvage bogey, Browne attempted to hit his bunker shot in a way that would barely clear the lip of the bunker and settle close to the pin that was tucked behind it.  Unfortunately, he hit the lip and the ball rolled back down, virtually in its own divot.  For his fifth shot, he did it again.  At this point, he paused, stepped out of the bunker and went to his bag to regroup.  He saw us standing there.  We were feeling somewhat sympathetic, but also enjoying the show.  He said something to us. To paraphrase him - "Sorry guys, I really suck, this is embarrassing.  It's been a long day."  As I recall we offered him words of encouragement and he stepped back into the bunker.  He blasted the next shot (his 6th) well over the lip and left himself with a very long and undulating putt. Shots 7 and 8 were putts and he walked away with a quadruple bogey.  Olin Browne was no hack.  He played on the PGA Tour for over 20 years and has made over $9 million in official earnings. We just happened to catch him at his worst on that given day.

The next blog entry will contain a few more of my favorite Nissan Open stories: Freddy's Alley, Chasing Kevin Burton, Rooting for the Underdog, and more.


If you are interested in purchasing tickets for the Northern Trust Open at Riviera in 2011, (Feb, 15-20) I would recommend buying them from the American Golf Foundation.  20% of proceeds go back to local golf charities. Although I no longer work for American Golf, I can personally vouch for the people who run their foundation, and they work very hard to do good things for local charities.
https://www.americangolf.com/northerntrust

See You at Riviera!

Some say that the PGA Tour season really doesn't start until the tour heads to Florida.  What they don't appreciate, is that here in California we are very lucky to have some of the best and most historic venues on the circuit.  Torrey, Pebble, Riviera. Jewels of the California coast.  Torrey is like paradise on the bluffs, unique in the fact that it is truly a municipal course, and has a memorable US Open in its recent past.  Pebble Beach is perhaps the most dramatic, beautiful, and historic course in the United States.  And lastly Riviera - no coastline like Torrey, less history than Pebble, but it has undeniable charm in its imaginative design, famous West L.A. location, and the huge clubhouse on the hill.  I have a lot of great memories from attending the Nissan Open at Riviera.  None of them stand out more than my first one in 1989.

I started playing golf when I was 13 years old and I quickly realized that I loved the game.  I began to follow the PGA Tour in 1988, ruled at the time by Curtis Strange, Paul Azinger, Payne Stewart, Tom Kite, Greg Norman, Mark Calcavecchia and Freddy Couples.  The majors would always give us a chance to see European greats like Seve, Nick Price, Nick Faldo, and Ian Woosnam.  It was a great era for golf, with lots of colorful personalities and talented players who could contend at any tournament.  I remember being captivated by Curtis Strange dueling Nick Faldo in his first of back-to-back US Open wins; Sandy Lyle hitting a clutch shot from the fairway bunker on the 72nd hole of the Masters to make par and best Mark Calcavecchia by one stroke; and the growing popularity of metal woods and the Ping Eye 2 irons that would become controversial in later years for their square grooves.

I made the high school golf team in the fall of 1988 and was thrilled to become a competitive golfer.  In February of 1989, my golf coach told us of a way where we could go to the Nissan Open at Riviera if we put in a day of work in exchange for a ticket.  I was dying to go to the tournament, so I told my dad of the opportunity and asked him if we could take advantage of the deal.  Luckily, my father was a golf fan too.  And even luckier, he wasn't thrilled with the idea of picking up trash in exchange for a ticket, so he decided we would just head down to Riviera for the final round and try to buy tickets at the gate.  Luckier still, a rich guy in the parking lot asked us if we had tickets yet.  I said "no" but before we could ask him "how much" he tossed two tickets in my dad's lap and said "have fun!"  You have to love the generosity of golfers.

I had seen a video that Jack Nicklaus made about his favorite golf holes in the world.  Included in the video were a few of Riviera's great holes, including the driveable par-4, 10th, the par-3, 6th, which has a bunker in the middle of the green, and the famous 18th, a long par-4 with a blind tee shot to an elevated fairway and a grass amphitheater filled with spectators behind the green.  I could not wait to get a look at these holes in person, but I eventually found out that just about every one of Riviera's holes was a gem.

As we made our way onto the grounds, we made the usual route through the first and second fairways, along the driving range and wandered toward the green at #4.  The fourth hole at Riviera is one of the hardest Par-3's on the PGA Tour.  Measuring at about 230 yards into a prevailing wind, the hole is also all-carry because of a gigantic, deep bunker fronting the green.  Once players reach the putting surface, they have to contend with a green that is severely tilted from back to front and right to left.  This hole eventually became one of our favorites to watch because of its difficulty.

On this day, we stumbled upon a group of spectators who were surrounding a wayward golf ball that had been hooked severely into the left rough.  We waited near the ball to see who it belonged to. Peter Jacobsen and famous caddy Mike "Fluff" Cowan emerged from the masses and arrived at the scene.  I had no idea who Peter Jacobsen was or what he was all about.  As most avid golfers know, "Jake" is one of the most amicable and entertaining players every to grace the fairways.  As he approached, he asked the crowd if everyone was okay, and made a crack about his terrible shot.  Marshals created a lane for Jake to hit his shot, and he surveyed the situation.  He was absolutely dead, maybe 30 yards from the flag, in fairly deep rough, short sided with no green to work with and the huge bunker to contend with.  As he settled into hitting his shot, a small boy was squirming around in his peripheral vision.  Jake backed off and instead of asking his caddy to handle or or giving the father a sour look, he handled it in a graceful and humorous way that I will never forget.  He walked over to the kid and told him he wanted him to play a game, to try to help him out by acting like a statue while he hit his shot.  The child agreed and Peter went into his routine, flopped a perfect pitch shot up to about 3 feet from the cup, and the the two dozen of us watching roared with approval.  Peter gave the kid a high five and proceeded to make the putt for an incredible par!  20 minutes into my first golf tournament and I already had a great story and a close encounter with a tour pro.  It was truly exciting.

The Treacherous 4th at Riviera

Because of what we saw, we decided to follow Jake's group for awhile.  We also developed a fondness for one of Jake's playing partners on that day.  We had never heard of this guy before.  He was wearing dirty, baggy, red pants and a plain white shirt.  We could identify with him because he was a stocky fellow who seemed to be having a great time on the course.  He had a colorful first name and he looked Italian, so we we thought his last name was pronounced Mee Dee Ah Tay.  Yes, it was the one and only Rocco Mediate.  This is not the same Rocco that is famous for 10 PGA Tour victories, battling Tiger at the US Open, being the subject of a John Feinstein book, his television commentary, or sponsorship of Callaway.  This was the Rocco Mediate that was 108th on the money list in 1989.  We immediately took a liking to Rocco, as he seemed to enjoy the banter with Jacobsen and even gave us a nice fist pump when he rolled in a long birdie.  He just seemed like a guy we would want to hang out with.  For years, we would make a point of going to see him every time we went, regardless of how far out of it he was.  We often wondered if he noticed us year after year, two great big guys, standing around a green with nobody else watching, and encouraging him with a "Go get 'em Rocco" after every good shot or holed putt.

An old picture of Rocco, courtesy Getty Images

We eventually peeled away from Jake, Rocco, and their other playing partner Gary Hallberg so we could try to check out the leaders.  Scotsman Sandy Lyle started Sunday with a two shot lead over Mark Calcavecchia, and a four shot spread over local favorite Fred Couples and veteran Hale Irwin.  "Calc" was well known for his aggressive game, Ping Eye 2 irons, and having a penchant for driving Porsches.  Lyle out-dueled Calc in the 1988 Masters, but clearly was not the crowd favorite on this occasion.  Couples always played well at Riviera (eventually winning there in 1990 and 1992) and made an early charge before fading.  We witnessed a few key shots on that day, including a Calcavecchia chip-in for birdie on #12 and Lyle three-putting on #14 to give up the lead for good.  Calcavecchia got his revenge for the Masters the year before, besting Lyle by carding a 68 on the day to win by one stroke and two over Irwin.   He would go on to win the British Open that year and finish fifth on the PGA Tour Money list, topping off the best season of his career.

We stayed until the very end of the tournament.  The day was exceptionally cold, damp, and windy.  We sat on the side of the hill next to the 18th fairway and froze as we watched greats like Johnny Miller, Tom Kite, and Ben Crenshaw finish their rounds.  It was magical to experience cheering on the final group and watching  Calcavecchia hole out to claim the victory.  The whole day was a great memory.  Not only did it give me a new appreciation for the game of golf, it was one of the best times I have ever spent with my dad.  We would wind up going to the tournament every year through 1997, making a point of coming home from college or skipping work to make our way to the Riv.   

In so many ways, the events of the day solidified with me the things that are important and great about golf.  Peter Jacobsen showed class and a love for the game that is unmatched. His sportsmanship and positive attitude were infectious and clearly a key to his success.  Rocco proved to be tenacious and perservearant, eventually finding success in his career despite suffering from crippling back problems.  Watching tough competitors like Calc, Lyle, Freddy, and Irwin made a great impression on me with their levels of concentration, precision, and focus.  Anyone who loves golf or has a youngster who loves golf should attend a great event like this.  The memories, life lessons, and entertainment are well worth the price of admission, even if you aren't lucky enough to get free tickets from a stranger!

More Riviera memories to come in my next blog post!

If you are interested in purchasing tickets for the Northern Trust Open at Riviera in 2011, (Feb, 15-20) I would recommend buying them from the American Golf Foundation.  20% of proceeds go back to local golf charities. Although I no longer work for American Golf, I can personally vouch for the people who run their foundation, and they work very hard to do good things for local charities.
https://www.americangolf.com/northerntrust

Jake

80's style Mark Calcavecchia

Skins Game in the Soup - Los Serranos South 1/8/11

I was invited to play in a skins game at Los Serranos on Saturday, January 8th.  It had been over ten years since I had played at this Chino Hills classic.  What had once been a favorite local course of mine fell out of favor with me.  For years, there had been consistent construction on the 71 and 91 Freeways,  making it difficult for Orange County travelers to make the short trek.  I had also heard about the horrific loss of 3000 sycamore trees in 2001 to a blight that infected the red gum variety of the tree.  Apparently, a pinhead-sized insect called the red gum lerp psyllid was the culprit.  The tall and dense sycamores lining many of the holes made the course feel intimate, added the challenge of hitting through chutes, and on many holes, made it imperative to hit the fairway with your drive. I was told an old golfing buddy that seeing the course without the trees would "make me cry."  It was finally time to come back to a course that I had enjoyed dozens of rounds on in the 1990's.

Coburn

Overall, Los Serranos has a great feel.  There is typically a lot of activity around the clubhouse, with an adjacent driving range, tees for #1 and #10 of the South Course and #1 of the North Course nearby, and a lively restaurant and bar with sports games on the tube.  When I arrived, I met up with one of my playing partners Nick "The Kid" Gomez, a.k.a. "Slowmez" because of his pace of play and questionable intelligence (Just kidding, Nick).  He signed me in for the Skins game and after I paid my green fees, he whisked me away to the first tee to meet up with the others in my group.  Filling out the lineup were "Big Game" James (see older blog entitled "We're Home") and one of the most talented golfers I have ever known, Jeff Coburn.  We don't have a nickname for Jeff other than the standard "Cobes" or "Cobie" but I always thought "The Stick" would work on many levels.  After all, we have a mutual friend named "The Broom", why not add "The Stick"?

I was very, very relieved to find out that we were going to be playing from the blue tees.  Los Serranos South Course is famous for "Jack's Blacks", a set of tees that measure to 7628 yards, supposedly the longest golf course in California.  It has been raining off and on in Southern California for weeks.  The golf course was certainly in playable condition, but still quite wet.  My 230 yard baby draw tee shots would not get much distance in the soup.  I would have had virtually no prayer against these players.  Jeff (+2 handicap), James (2-3 handicap) and Gomez (1 handicap) are clearly better than me (currently rising to a 10), but we all know that during a skins game, all it takes is a birdie on the right hole, and I am certainly capable of getting lucky somewhere!

Overall, I hit the ball pretty well.  I started out with two solid pars on the back to back par-5 opening holes.  I made a bogey on #3 thanks to a bad tee shot and I started to slide from there.  I bogeyed three in a row including the par-3 sixth hole, where I hit an horribly fat 5-iron about 100 yards from the tee. On seven, I hit my second shot to 4 feet and missed the birdie putt by a mile, a sign of putting woes that would plague me all day.  I hammered my best drive of the day on the par-5 eighth, only to completely top my second shot, leave my third short of the green, make a terrible pitch with my fourth, and then three putt for double bogey, which left me steaming.  I made a nice up and down par on nine and posted a +6 (43) on the front.

I could have posted a decent score if I would have putted the way I am capable of.  I can't blame the greens because my putting was THAT bad, but they were a little tricky, as the poa annua proved to be bumpy later in the day and the speed seemed to be inconsistent from hole to hole.  Some holes were much quicker than they looked and felt after the rain, but others seemed very slow.  I three putted #10 from 30 feet, missed short par putts on #11 and #12, and went on to three putt #15 from the back fringe. On the monstrous 592-yard 18th I hit an absolutely beautiful approach shot to about 15 feet. In my effort to convert the birdie, I left myself with a five footer coming back.  I gassed it for another three-jab and left shaking my head with an appropriate ending to a rough day with the flat stick.  I ended up shooting a 42 on the back for a score of 85 on the day, which is +11 on the par-74 track.

I did manage to sneak in a birdie on #13, a short 476-yard par-5.  I hit driver down the middle, laid up left with a 5-wood to get a good angle for my third, and stuffed a 56 degree wedge to three feet.  However, before I even had a chance to make my birdie putt, Mr. Stick Coburn rolled in a 30 footer for eagle, dashing all hopes for a potential skin.

The most memorable hole of the day for me came on #16, a par-5 that is lined by tall trees on both sides of the fairway.  I hit an awful tee shot, short and to the right of the fairway.  Blocked by huge trees, I had no chance to hit any kind of straight shot. I decided I would try to hit a sweeping punch hook back into the fairway.   As I stated in a previous blog entry, I have a new set of clubs am I am not totally comfortable with them yet.  How hard can it be?  Narrow stance, ball back, forward press, hood face slightly, hold the follow through down, swing easy, right?  I have hit this shot a million times, it used to be my bread and butter recovery shot.  However, instead of a low curveball back to the promised land,  I produced a high block shot that went deeper into trouble.  While the ball was in flight, I threw my arms into the air in disbelief.  It must have been funny, because as I followed my ball toward the 5th fairway, I heard Gomez cackling in the background and imitating me from the fairway I SHOULD have been in.  Suddenly, I was motivated to make a grinding par.  After finally successfully punching out, I hit my fourth shot to about 10 feet from just a shade over 100 yards out.  I made the right to left slider for a great barkie par - take THAT Gomez!

The guys in my group played great.  As I mentioned, Cobes mixed in an eagle on #13, and he also birdied #18 to shoot 69, the first time he has broken 70 at Los Serranos South.  Yes folks, that is five under par.  One thing that always amazes me about Jeff's game is that he never seems to do anything that special, but at the end of the day, when you add the scores up, he almost always winds up under par.  He also seems to always find a way to bury that long putt that will win him a skin, no matter how hard or long it may be.  In other words, he is CLUTCH.  Gomez played steady and made a few nice birdies, including a chip-in and shot a 75.  James kept the ball in play for most of the round and shot a great score of 78.  What is amazing is that he is super long but he played the six par-5's at six over par.  He could have gone mega-low if he had played to his usual strength.  Overall, we all struck it pretty well and some of the guys took away a chunk of the prize money.

As for the course and the Eucalyptus trees, it was a bit disheartening to see that so many were lost.  It almost looked as if a tornado had hit holes 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, and 11.  Most of the trees have been replaced with new saplings and I can't wait to play the course in 2041 after they have had 30 more years to grow.  Although the course no longer has the feel of a poor man's Riviera Country Club, Los Serranos still has a lot of character and I am looking forward to my next visit.  

The famous 18th - 677 yards from Jack's Blacks, 592 from Blue Tees

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?

Custom Fitting - Personal Experience

For years I have been selling the concept of custom fitting golf clubs to golfers of all shapes and sizes.  Of course, in the golf business, we all say that purchasing a set of custom fit golf clubs is a way to immediately and drastically improve your game. This is a great sales pitch and a great way for us to sell sets of irons,  but I have always wondered how much it really works.

I have been through the club fitting experience myself recently.  Let me tell you I think the results were very positive.  I have been fit once before, back in 1997 for a set of Ping irons.  This was done by an exceptional Ping sales rep on an outdoor range with a lie board and a variety of different clubs and shafts.  The experience was great because you could really judge the ball flight and distance in a real golf environment.  We ended up settling on Ping ISI irons, 2 degrees upright (Green dot), 1/2" over in length and Cushin shafts "stepped to stiffen" as Ping sets the shafts in their factory.  We also discussed wedge lofts and set composition, but I ended up buying a set that ran 1-LW - thank YOU Personal Use Discount!

For over ten years, I swore by these Ping irons.  I felt like they fit me perfectly. I trusted them, the way they looked, and they worked great when you mishit one or had to play from the rough.  Over the course of a few months it all seemed to change.  I started hitting everything with an extremely toe deep divot.  Bad shots were spraying thin and way right or snipe hooking low and to the left.  The worst part is, I felt like I had no idea where it was going when I teed it up on a par-3.   Just looking down at the club made me feel uncomfortable.  The questions entered my mind.  Do I need a re-shaft? Did I outgrow these clubs? Maybe I'm just a terrible golfer and age is catching up with me?  Truth be told, I am much older, my swing speed has gone down, and I have gained a ton of weight.  The dynamics of my swing MUST be a lot different than they were in 1997.

In February of this year I caught a break.  I finished #2 in on the American Golf Corporation Tour for 2009, which is a recognition system for AGC GM's.  A great perk for finishing in the top 8 is that you get a free set of custom fit Callaway clubs.  I went to the Callaway Golf Center in Las Vegas with an open mind.  A lot of guys who won the free set already knew exactly what they wanted and did not want to waste their time going through the fitting process.  I wanted the full experience and decided that I would put my ego aside and let the club fitter put me into the what he thought was the right set of clubs.  To this day, I think this is a very important aspect of getting a true fitting.  Many of us think we should be using X-shafts and forged irons, when our swings really aren't made for them.

Callaway Golf Center is a wonderful facility.  I was surprised that club fitting was not being done on the range, but rather indoors on a simulator.  I had a great tech named Eli help me with my fitting.  He used the camera and launch monitor information to guide us through the process.  The ball flight was calculated and shown on the projection screen, and vital information such as swing speed, launch angle, and spin rate were shown after every swing.  Eli made me feel good about the process right away because he commented on how I was really "pureing it" and seemed to make a very consistent pass at every ball he put down.  We worked through a bunch of their irons, including the X-22 and X-forged models.  Being a taller golfer at 6'3", Eli really worked on getting the length right. He kept pushing me farther away from standard than I was used to, giving me longer and longer clubs until I simply could not hit them with consistency.  We settled on X-22 irons, which despite their chunky look, were going dead straight with pretty much solid contact every time.   I remained at 2 degrees upright with a Uniflex shaft, which I find feels very similar to the Cushin.  The two biggest tweaks were the grip size and the length.  Eli encouraged me to use a midsize Lamkin grip, which was much thicker than the usual method I have used of simply double wrapping the tape under a standard grip. 

The length was a HUGE breakthrough for me. 10 minutes into our fitting session, Eli watched me swing a few clubs from my Ping set and decided right away that my clubs were too short for me.  The reason I was hitting the ball so poorly, with such inconsistency was all in the length.  I was lunging at the ball and dipping down to go get it.  Any small misjudgment in the motion would cause a fat or a thin shot, which is what I had been fighting.  I was asked to swing with a 1" over shaft and to stand up straighter and remain there during the swing.  I immediately starting hitting everything flush.  He found it. This is what club fitting from a good club fitter is all about. 

I ended up with X-22 irons, 3-PW, 1" over, 2 degrees up, Uniflex shaft and a mid-size Lamkin grip.  We also talked about set composition, and was fit for a Diablo 10.5 degree driver with a stiff Habanero shaft, a 19 degree hybrid, X-series chrome wedges(52,56,60), and an very sweet Odyssey Black #2 model.  One thing I also found interesting is that Eli skipped the 3-wood and put me in a 22 degree 5-wood.  Because I have a steep angle of attack, he felt that I was de-lofting my fairway woods and that this configuration would give me the optimum amount of carry and roll.

So, how did all of this work?  Well, I have swapped out a few of the components for clubs that I already trust.  I am using my Taylor Made Super Quad, my Taylor Made 19 degree rescue and sticking with my Vokey wedges.  I am hitting the Callaway 5-wood great.  No more low head high 3-wood line drives.  The X-22 irons with the extended length have been a major improvement.  I feel so much more confident with these clubs and they just feel right, something that had been missing with my Pings for awhile.  I have played five or six full rounds with the X-22's and it took me awhile to get used to them.  The grips are a little funny to me because they limit my hand action. I have always felt that my soft hands were an asset to my swing in helping feel the club head move through impact.  I may end up switching back to a more conventional size, but I am still experimenting. 

It all came together for me recently in rounds at San Clemente Muni, where I shot a 78 and a decent round at Talega, where I blew up on the back nine thanks to a balky driver.  My iron play was excellent in both rounds, and I am growing more confident each time I tee it up.  I can honestly say that the custom fitting process was well worth the time and effort.  I am enjoying the game again and hitting the ball much better from the fairway.  I am very lucky to have had two very productive club fitting sessions with two very good club fitters.  When I return to the golf industry, I will certainly feel good about selling this service to other golfers.  It has made a positive impact in my golf life, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is serious about improving their game.