UPPER MARLBORO, MD – To watch the Virginia Potomac Cup golf team smile, cheer, and rally around each other at Lake Presidential Golf Club yesterday afternoon, you’d never know they were only one year removed from a record 29-7 pasting at the hands of Maryland. Yet after returning six players from last year’s squad and adding two new faces at the top, Team Blue is optimistic about their chances to avenge the worst drubbing in Potomac Cup history and bring the trophy back across the river for the first time since 2007.

Veterans Frank Romano, Mark Vandegrift, Tom Lantz, Chris Robb, Steve Ciliberti, and Mark Waslo all returned to Virginia Captain Steve Czaban’s 12-man roster and will face Maryland’s Team Red at Rocky Gap Resort August 27-29. A total of fifty 2-man best ball teams competed at yesterday’s grueling qualifier, twenty-five on either side. The top six teams from both Maryland and Virginia made their respective squads. The finals formation mirrors that of the Ryder Cup: two days of doubles – morning foursomes and afternoon four balls – followed by Sunday singles. Virginia leads the overall series 5-4.

“We’re excited, and we’re going to give them all they can handle,” said Vandegrift, who fired a 4-under 68 with Romano to finish second in qualifying for the squad. “We’ve got some scrappers on this side, and we’re going to play much better than last year, so Maryland better be ready,” he concluded firmly.

“We’ll play better and we’ll play smarter, but most importantly, we’ll gel and have some serious team chemistry,” agreed the feisty Ciliberti, who shot a 2-under 70 with Kolani “The Flyin’ Hawaiian” Cotner, a promising newcomer playing in his first Cup. They finished tied for fourth for Team Blue, along with Waslo and his new partner, Michael Keating.

Last year’s star Virginia rookies Robb and Lantz – who resemble Shaggy and Freddy from the Scooby-Doo cartoons – finished third with a 3-under 69. Newcomers Roger Derflinger and Matt Plumer won Virginia’s medalist honors with a 5-under 67. Their six birdies were balanced against just one bogey, a head-scratcher at the short par-3 12th, the easiest hole on the course with its large green and accessible pin placements.

“Our team is much better and much deeper than last year’s squad,” explained an energized Steve Czaban. “I love last year’s guys, but we were weak at the bottom end, and that was exploited. This year, Maryland’s top end is better again, but in match play that gets mitigated.”

Don’t rush to relay that benediction however, and certainly don’t take it to the bookmakers just yet. Maryland didn’t just beat the bottom of the Virginia line-up last year: the pummeled everybody, throughout the entire competition. Team Red opened the event with a 6-0 skunking in Friday Foursomes play, normally Virginia’s strength, built the lead to 9-0 lead before Virginia scored its first point, and clinched the Cup Saturday afternoon, making Sunday’s singles an afterthought. The only suspense was whether Maryland could put up 30 points. They came close, and the 29-7 shellacking also set records for most points scored, largest margin of victory, and fewest points surrendered. The defining moment of the tournament was when Maryland player-assistant captain Vance Welch told the squad they should try for a record setting win and “if anyone wants a piece of anybody on Virginia, just let me know.”

Still, there is good news for Virginia, not only because of who made their team, but who missed qualifying for Maryland. Four Breton Bay members who were staples of last year’s “Killer Bees” team fell short yesterday. Bill Jenner, Pete DeTemple, Brent Martin, and Greg “Cookie Monster” Roberts were edged out, Martin and Roberts in a three-hole playoff for the last spot. Breton Bay will send two newcomers, Mark Cusic and Greg Winkler, who finished second for Maryland with a 4-under 68.

As usual, Maryland’s battle standard will be carried by the unquenchable Welch, 2008 Maryland player of the year, and owner of the greatest career win percentage in tournament history, a staggering 18-4-2. Welch and Steve Martin won overall medalist honors with a bogey-free 7-under 65. Last year, Welch set the course record at Blue Ridge Shadows during a practice round the night before the tournament – a smooth 65 that beat Frank Romano and Mark Vandegrift playing as a team.

Two other veterans, Rusty Pies and Lee Flemister, return as well after finishing tied for 3rd with 3-under 69s with their respective partners, Zac Lese and Joe Rizzo. Cup rookies Rodney Frank, Bill Lange, Nick Keefer, and Eli Baltic round out a Maryland team that will head to Rocky Gap Resort and try for a three-peat.

“I feel great about my team,” bellowed Maryland Captain Ron Thomas, in a voice every bit as authoritative as long-time, iconic Maryland Captain Jeff Sheehan. “We have our leaders, Welch, Martin, and Pies, and we are back-to-back defending champions. Until someone takes that from us, it’s ours. So quit talking and let’s play golf,” he concluded, sending a mischievous grin at Steve Czaban.

So as the teams pack up and get ready to head to the bucolic splendor of Cumberland County, Maryland has some new faces, but still retains its sturdy backbone. Welch, Pies, and Flemister went a combined 12-3 last year. One man can’t win you a team golf event, but three can bring you right to victory’s doorstep. While Virginia’s team seems to have found a good balance of old veterans and strong new players and clearly has excised the listless lugnuts that dragged them down in ’09, Maryland still looks deeper on paper, though the gap has closed from the ridiculous laugher last year.

For Virginia to pull off the upset, Vandegrift will have to shoulder anchor and opening duties and play no worse than .500 against the teeth of Maryland’s line-up. Then Ciliberti, Robb, and Lantz will have to go from being plucky little rookies to being breakout stars; it’s the only way they can counter the firepower Maryland brings 1 – 12. Moreover, someone will have to take the leadership role both on and off the course that Vance Welch does so admirably for Maryland. Indeed, Captain Ron Thomas has the easiest job in the Cup: just let Welch do all the motivating, heavy lifting, and deep thinking. All Thomas has to do is show up, smile, and cheerlead.

Opening line: Maryland -4.5

NEWS, NOTES, AND QUOTES

Maryland Captain Ron Thomas should try to rookies Rodney Frank and Joe Rizzo together in a “Jerky Boyz” pairing, (“FRANK RIZZO!”). Maybe they can play Virginia’s “Marky Mark” pairing of Waslo and Vandegrift. Who wouldn’t want to see Marky Mark vs. The Jerky Boyz?

“Rocky Gap is a great finals venue,” gushed Maryland’s Rusty Pies. “It’s a challenging and beautiful course, and the resort is top notch, A-plus. It’s a wonderful place for a getaway. It’s fantastic for the Potomac Cup.”

“It is a bit of paradise,” added Vance Welch. “It’s right on the water and they have a great beach, all the summer sports you can imagine, and when the sun rises over the lake in the morning it’s, heavenly.”

Clockmaker…err…”horologist” Lee Flemister may also clean your clock on the golf course, but those “Five Fingers” shoes he wears set off every dork alarm in DelMarVa. (Pic soon…)

Rocky Gap Resort may be in Cumberland, Maryland, but the address is actually listed as the town of “Flintstone.” No word yet on whether they serve brontosaurus burgers. Nevertheless, let’s meet the Flintstones – here are the final rosters for the 10th Potomac Cup:

Virginia

1. Roger Derflinger/Matt Plumer 67
2. Mark Vandegrift/Frank Romano 68
3. Chris Robb/Tom Lantz 69
T-4. Steve Ciliberti/Kolani Cotner 70
Mark Waslo/Mike Keating 70
T-6. ***Duncan Puller/Don Hollis 71

***won 4-for-1 playoff on the fifth extra hole over:

T-6 Mark Fegani/Gus Kearney 71
Terry Banks/John Lombardozzi 71
Tim Ferraro/Mark Boedicker 71

Maryland

1. Vance Welch/Steve Martin 65
2. Mark Cusic/Mark Winkler 68
T-3. Rusty Pies/Zac Lese 69
Lee Flemister/Joe Rizzo 69
5. Bill Lange/Rodney Frank 70
T-6. ***Nick Keefer/Eli Baltic 71

***won 2-for-1 playoff on the fourth extra hole over:

T-6 Brent Martin/“Cookie Monster” Roberts 71

Maryland looks to reload from last year’s juggernaut that set records for most points scored, fewest points surrendered, and largest margin of victory in a 29-7 howler that was decided after Saturday’s doubles play completed. 10 members of last year’s team are seeking to return, including the Killer Bees – Breton Bay stars Pete DeTemple and Bill Jenner, who both finished a perfect 5-0-0 last year.

“I spend more time in the interview room with you, and get the least ink,” joked DeTemple, and he’s right. He and Jenner have not only been nigh unbeatable in two years for Team Red, they have recruited more stars from their home club of Breton Bay.

“They get this event, and love this event,” said Vance Welch, another Maryland super-star, and former state Player of the Year. “This is the greatest thrill for an amateur: to play in an event just like the Ryder Cup. And these guys epitomize that spirit. The Breton Bay guys are huge for us.”

Also returning to action are clockmaker…err…horologist Lee Flemister, Steve Martin, Greg “Cookie Monster” Roberts, Rusty Pies, teen sensation Keegan Boone, Rusty Hall, and Chad Rowse.

Virginia, so overmatched last year, pins its hopes on Francesco Romano, a cup staple for nearly a decade and perennially one of the top five players in Virginia, as well as Mark Vandegrift, who closed his 2009 Potomac Cup with a bang, winning the anchor singles match 3&2 over a heavily-favored and red-hot Cookie Monster. Other stars to watch include dominating player Don Phattiyakul, colorful Steve Ciliberti, Steve “The Thing” Nolin, Mark Waslo, slim, smooth Ross McIntosh, and last year’s prize rookies Tom Lantz and Chris Robb.

The 10th annual Potomac Cup kicks off from Rocky Gap Resort on August 27th.

From the article:

“First, the course no longer ends on a par 3. That was changed in 2003 when the club – in hopes of getting this 2011 Open – agreed to re-route the course so that its then 17th would close out the course. The change has been on display in three PGA Tour events since, but has not been the cauldron for the National Open. The course now ends on a downhill par 4 with a peninsula of water guarding the sides and back of the smallish putting surface. The membership considered putting holes from the adjoining Gold Course into play for the Open like was done in ‘64 (and for the ‘76 PGA Championship) or even trading off with the Blue permanently. Ultimately, this move made the most long-term sense for the club.

Fairways had their contours changed and the Davis-described “waviness” of them was largely eliminated. Davis said the design characteristic was a relic of the 60s and 70s, which took Congo’s stiffing, deep bunkers largely out of play. Davis will mow the fairways so that they come more into play, but not create targets overly generous for the Open.”

Great stuff, Ryan. See everyone from Ballyhack and Lake Presidential.

I’ll have more course reviews soon, along with wall-to-wall coverage of the PGA Championship from Whistling Straits.

Nice to see that he’s really learned something from his scandal and fall, and that he’s devoted to avoiding all the mistakes he made in the past like feeling entitled and treating everyone and everything as though it were beneath him. Yep…nothing to see here, move along. Tiger’s back!

By the way, it’s $5,000 per Fbomb, referred to in PGA Tour circles as the Tiger Rule, because it used to be $500 a pop, before the Tour had to do something about how foul Woods’s mouth was and how little he cared to improve.

Hank Gola also takes Tiger to task in the Daily News over the new Nike putter switch-and-whoopsie-switch-back, and for his disingenuous answers to even mundane questions. From the article:

“He shot even-par 72 Sunday, going back to his old Scottie Cameron putter – a blow for Nike – but while it helped his putting statistics, it didn’t move him up the leaderboard.

“Actually I’m driving it better than I have in years, but I’m just not making the putts,” he went on. “It’s ironic that as soon as I start driving it on a string, I miss everything. Maybe I should go back to spraying it all over the lot and make everything.””

It’s obvious what’s really wrong. Woods’s self-inflicted scandal still dominates his life, and his troubles are still traveling right down the golf club.Between steroids, alleged love children, and the two-fronted steroids/PEDs war linked to him, he isn’t the same and never will be. The end-to-end dominance and the invincibility are gone. He’s now 1 of 156.

THE THUMBPRINT IN THE PAR-3 7TH GREEN AT UNION VALE

I-84, NY – It’s a summer weekend in the greater NYC area and rather than having a meal set to the dulcet tones of jackhammers and ambulances, fighting through crowds shopping or at museums, or doing a vapid dance of the sand crabs at a Hamptons time share, you wisely decide to get some air and exercise and play golf.

Now let’s suppose your friends couldn’t come through with that dream round at National Golf Links of America, Winged Foot, Shinnecock, Winged Foot, Sleepy Hollow, or Bayonne, and that you really don’t feel like staying up all night in the parking lot at Bethpage for a round on the Black – the only course to play at the state park facility – and only a chump of the highest order will waste 6–½ hours and $50 on any of the poorly conditioned New York City public golf courses. Besides, you’d like to go upstate, get out of the city for a while in the bucolic splendor of the Catskills. What’s an NYC public golfer to do?

North of the city, there are plenty of public courses just a little over an hour’s pleasant drive up the Hutch, The Saw Mill, or the Taconic Parkway and along I-84. Let’s compare and contrast six venues: Links at Union Vale, Centennial Golf Club, Pound Ridge Golf Club, Richter Park Golf Club, Casperkill Golf Club, and Concord Golf Club’s “The Monster” course.

LINKS AT UNION VALE
138 North Parliman Road
Lagrangeville, NY 12540-6209
845.223.1000
www.thelinksatunionvale.com

Won’t you take me down…
to that Texas town…
to that town…they…call…LaGrange!

Sorry, that’s a little ZZ Top there for you, but you do have to make it to the upstate New York town of Lagrange for some excellent golf.

Architect Stephen Kay is also a professor at Rutgers University and a gifted golf historian. As a young high-schooler, he told his parents, “I wanna be a golf course architect when I grow up,” and he did it. His biggest man-sized hit is Links of North Dakota, a superb layout along Lake Sacagawea. His affinity for UK golf shines through there as well as at other courses, including Union Vale, where he incorporates strategic elements he imported from the great links across the Atlantic.

Like a true links, Union Vale is treeless, so the wind whips and swirls. Kay also tried to keep open routes to the greens to incorporate the ground game and plenty of short game options.

The highlights include the stretch in the middle of the course from 5-11. Five, a short par-4, requires a long carry over a pond to a diagonal fairway extending from left to right. The pitch plays uphill to a green bisected into two smaller pods by a long hog’s back extending parallel to the fairway through its center. It’s a much tougher hole than its meager length on the card. The sixth green is guarded by a huge center-line sod faced bunker with an enormous lip, a theme Kay repeats throughout the round in different forms. The green is also divided by a swale running through it, another element Kay brings back time and again to make the targets on the approach on short holes smaller than they appear. It’s a basic tenet of good architecture: the shorter the whole, the sexier you can make it.

And right on cue, the best and most unique hole on the course is the long par-3 seventh. Severely uphill all the way and guarded by a cavernous bunker, the green contains an old-school design element, a thumbprint, a roundish depression in the front of the green so that a small circle of green is much lower than the rest and, once again, the green has two distinct sections and two-putting from one to the other is remarkably taxing on the nerves.

Two other good holes are 11 and 16. At 11, an enormous chocolate drop, a grassed over rock guards the front of the green, “but we also extended its reach into the green itself,” explains Kay. “Everyone thinks that it existed beforehand, that it was there originally, but we designed it that way.” The massive humps sheds balls like a magnet with the polarization reversed. The long par-4 16th it a Kay original the he tries to build at every course, a “Trinity Hole,” a hole with a “Three Sisters” bunker complex. Unquestionably the best example is at Alister Mackenzie and Perry Maxwell’s 5th hole at Crystal Downs, but the features Kay employs are both strategic – as the bunkers create a diagonal hazard to be challenged according to how aggressive the player wishes to be off the tee – and aesthetically pleasing.

Union Vale stands head and shoulders about the rest of the class on the I-84 corridor when it comes to golf course architecture and strategic design features. Even though, you can hit driver on every hole here, but it’s a tough second shot golf course, requiring careful planning and execution. It’s a true thinking man’s golf course. Moreover, the greens are cunning. The adventure simply continues as you try to putt along their spines, knobs, and hollows. It’s a great place to work on your short game.

Though the premium weekend rate is $89 with cart, $73 for walkers, the course’s twilight rate stars at a player friendly 2 p.m., and is only $58/42. Weekday rates are substantially less.

Design: 5 stars (all ratings out of 7)
Natural Setting: 3-1/2 stars
Value: 5-1/2 stars
Overall: 5 – 5-1/2 stars

CENTENNIAL GOLF CLUB (Meadows and Fairways Nines)
185 John Simpson Rd.
Carmel, NY
845.225.5700
www.centennialgolf.com

A radio blitz campaign spearheaded by former WFAN personality Chris “Mad Dog” Russo made the course famous, but 27 holes and a striking natural setting keep New Yorkers coming back. Located just a hop, skip, and jump off of I-84W in Carmel, this 27 hole facility designed by Larry Nelson rumbles up and down 340 acres of steep hills: excellent terrain for golf.

Now you have to be judicious at Centennial. Most golfers like a side called the “Lakes nine” and, indeed, the Lakes is the most popular and most heavily marketed by the club. It has lots of water. It cuts through the trees. It has dramatic downhill tee shots into saddles and tough approaches uphill back to the plateaus. It’s visually arresting.

It is also an architectural abomination and gets double the play. It’s one thing to drive to a narrow isthmus of land between two ponds, and then hit a second shot the same way on a par-5 at PGA West Stadium Course, but not when I’m trying to have a low impact practice round at home on a weekend with my friends. Endless water hazards and trees doubling as pinball machines is not what they thought of when the Dutch taught the Scots the game when journeying from the ships’ docks to their mercantile meetings in the town of Edinburgh, nor is it what Old Tom and his boys envisioned when playing at Prestwick, St. Andrews and the like. I refuse to play the Lakes nine on general principle.

Happily, the Meadows and Fairways nines offer a little more architecture and have wonderfully varied natural settings and interesting cross hazards and greens, so you can have an excellent 18 hole day and avoid the masses of players pock-marking the Lakes nine with un-repaired ball marks.

The Meadows nine has a great drive and pitch par-4 at the second hole, another great cross-hazard at six, and a homely setting amidst rolling farmland, and old farmhouses. Most greens here and on the Fairways nine are separated into two tiers, but not as artfully or strategically as at Union Vale. The sharp lines of the tiers are more abrupt.

Still, the Meadows-Fairways incarnation of the course shows you something different every hole except 2 & 3 fwys which are similar, but a par-5 and par-4. Indeed, the Fairways nine is just straight-ahead, no tricks, good old-fashioned golf, with bunkering eerily (and happily) reminiscent of the fabled Olympic Club in San Francisco.

Everyone’s favorite hole is the short, downhill, par-5 at 8 Fairways. “I have a reasonable chance to hit a par-5 in two and have a good look at eagle,” gushed Mel Stollenheinrich, a local player who plays at the club almost every weekend. “Between that and the great finisher with a huge downhill drive and a heroic carry over a chasm, it keeps you coming back.”

Sadly, walkers are not allowed to play until 4:30 p.m., a tough walking policy which is too rigid and costs the club a ½ point rating overall. Numerous scientific studies show walkers and riders finish within five minutes of each other: sometimes the carts are faster, sometimes the walkers are faster. However, I see why they do it at Centennial. It’s a murderous walk between tees and greens, especially on the Meadows nine. The walks between tees are harder then playing the course.

The $135 rack rate during high season weekends is far too high, but the twilight rates start early (2 p.m.), and are only $85 on weekends, $70 Monday – Thursday. Even deeper discounts are available after 4 p.m. There is a matted practice range and a short game practice area.

Here’s a sure bar bet winner for you: How many majors did Larry Nelson win and where did he win them? A. Three – 1981 PGA at Atlanta Athletic Club, (site of the 2011 PGA, incidentally), 1983 U.S. Open at Oakmont, 1987 PGA at…shudder…PGA National, the worst major venue ever. Yes, even worse than Medinah.

Design: 4 – 4-1/2 stars
Natural Setting: 5 stars
Value: 4-1/2 stars
Overall 4-1/2 – 5 stars

POUND RIDGE GOLF CLUB
18 High Ridge Road
Pound Ridge, NY
914.764.5771
www.poundridgegolf.com

Say it out loud with me and repeat as necessary…this is a Perry Dye golf course…this is a Perry Dye golf course…this is a Perry Dye golf course. Pete helped with it, of course, and there are a couple of funny stories regarding Pete’s involvement, as there always are. But Perry was the lead. It’s his place.

Don’t get me wrong; it’s still as hard as any Pete Dye golf course. To paraphrase one critic’s review of Pete’s Stadium Course at PGA West, you need a camel, a canoe, a tourniquet, and a rosary to play Pound Ridge. It’s ridiculously hard for the weekend or bogey golfer: a high alert walk though a minefield of unexploded triple bogeys on every shot from one through 18.

“I lose two dozen golf balls every time they play there,” moaned a shell shocked Pound Ridge resident, who plays there once or twice a year. “If you’re off the fairway, you’re taking a penalty stroke.”

He’s right. Due to the irregularly shaped nature of the property and the stranglehold of environmental restrictions, most fairways are criminally narrow, tighter still because of ubiquitous water and hip-high fescue. Most of the holes are shoe-horned in a rather pedestrian back and forth manner along a north-south axis of a square shaped parcel of property that’s relatively flat.

“It’s actually a Rhombus, not a square,” joked one of my friends, but who’s counting. You get the idea. You feel like you’re playing back and forth most of the day.

The best holes are 13, 14, and 15, holes that are away from the Rhombus. 13 tee is set in an idyllic dell deep in the woods. The drive is semi-blind over a rock to a saddle of fairway. Usually a three-shot hole, the green is a narrow sliver guarded on the left by a deep ravine with a bunker at its deep floor, and guarded on the right by woods. You either have nerves of steel or a prescription for anti-depressants if you go for this green in two.

Off the tee, 14 requires a thrilling carry over a deep chasm bolstered by a stone wall. Then the hole bends left and plays uphill to a semi blind green set between two hummocks.

The most recognizable and memorable hole at Pound Ridge is the short, quirky par-3 15th. Another narrow sliver of green is set beside a wetlands hazard on the left and a gigantic white rock on the right. Dye – Pete not Perry – spent a good half hour on that tee bouncing ball after ball off of the rock.

“Some of ‘em bounce on the green, and some of ‘em bounce all over the place,” he laughed as he played the next shot straight up and stuck a 7-iron to three feet: pretty good for a guy who’s half of 164.

THE GREENSIDE ROCK AT POUND RIDGE'S 15TH

Still if you really want to get scared at Pound Ridge, look at the price tag. The standard rate for 18 holes is $235, with discounts harder to find than your golf ball.

“It’s prohibitively expensive, even for Pound Ridge residents,” said our Pound Ridge resident, who has been part of a grass roots movement reaching out to the club for more reasonable rates. “I’d play there a few times a year if it cost $125, but I just can’t get my wife to wrap her head around a $235 green fee, not when she needs a pair of shoes and the kids need camp.”

If you’re wondering why it costs so much, it’s because it cost over $40,000,000 to build. Far more work needed to be done than just digging up the old muni that was on the property before. All of Westchester and the surrounding area sits atop a large granite slab, so acres and acres of rock had to be dynamited, sending building costs through the stratosphere.

“I just told Mr. Wang to tell me when he was out of money, and then we’d be done,” quipped Pete Dye at the Grand Opening and Media Day Ceremony.

Everyone laughed except Mr. Wang, who looked like he needed antacids. He’ll tell you he had no choice but to change the economic model of the course and try to market it as a “destination course,” pushing hard on the marketing and Pete Dye name, the only Dye or Dye Family course in the state. As such, the course markets stay-and-play packages with a premium hotel in Manhattan. What a bargain. Not only do you add a huge rack rate hotel into the equation, you also pay $45 for the hour-plus shuttle ride to the course. That must be some new definition of a “golf destination” and a “resort package” with which I am not familiar.

There are a few options for locals, but they are also premium priced. $3,500 buys you 50 rounds, but you can only play after 4 p.m. Since you’d have to take off work to have even a remote chance of finishing your round, Pound Ridge again fails on delivering actual value to its customer.

Design: 3-1/2 – 4 stars
Natural Setting 4 stars
Value: 1 star
Overall: 3 stars

CONCORD GOLF CLUB (THE MONSTER)
Concord Road
Kiamesha Lake, NY
845.794.4000
www.concordresort.com

Back in the seventies, the Concord Hotel was one of the most celebrated facilities in the country. A-list celebrities entertained well-heeled New Yorkers and other jet-setting golf and tennis aficionados in a bucolic getaway conveniently nestled in the Catskill Mountains.

This full service resort climbed to the top of its competitive mountain primarily on the strength of its unconquerable golf course, dubbed “The Monster.” Sadly, bankruptcy and real estate disputes have closed this once proud hotel.

It has been many years since Bobby Darin and Englebert Humperdink shared drinks with Florence Henderson and Ben Vereen. But the golf course has stayed open throughout the turmoil, a well kept secret on any true connoisseur’s golf radar screen.

Owner Ray Parker issued a challenge to architect Joe Finger: Parker wanted the most difficult course in the country, one that could host a tour stop and provide a difficult test to the world’s top players. Finger succeeded too well to lure to the professionals, reputedly intimidated by the ungodly length and ubiquitous water hazards. When the course opened in 1963, only Spyglass Hill had a higher course rating in the United States. Nevertheless, coupled with the white-glove resort treatment of its guests, the course was an instant hit with the playing public, eager to test their skills and see if the Monster was truly deserving of its reputation. To this day, most players return to their homes humbled by the layout, but loving the experience.

Most of the course’s difficulty is derived from a combination of its length, the size and placement of its intimidating water hazards and its enormous, undulating greens. Built amid eight large lakes and Kiamesha Creek, water is in play on nine holes. The course features numerous forced carries over water. Add in the sheer length of every hole and the course is worthy of its rating and reputation. Seven of the ten par fours are over 410 yards from the white tees and both par threes on the front exceed 207 yards. The par threes on the back, while shorter, feature forced carries over water from tee to green.
Even now, its prolific length and fierce rating make it one of the most difficult tracks in the country for all levels of play. Most amateur players are overmatched at tracks over 6800 yards and ratings over 72 and pros still face a stern, long test at the Monster’s Herculean 7650 yards/rating 76.4. Now imagine the challenge presented back in the course’s heyday when no one heard of a bubble shaft, fairway metals were not even in designers’ imaginations and blade irons were the standard in all bags. The Monster’s difficulty was so renowned that pros were unwilling to consent to a tour stop being played there. To this day, the course record remains 67, owned by several players.

The course beats players into submission on the front nine, but shortens on the back. The back, however, has more water and looks more difficult than the front. Still, the high number of good back nines carded by travelling golfers helps keep them coming back.

While the resort may not re-open for a few more years (if ever), the course is still in terrific shape. While rumors went around several years ago that the conditioning had deteriorated, the course took the criticism to heart and rectified the problems. It’s $75 at its highest weekend rate, $55 after 2:30 on weekends, an excellent value. Its $65 during the week, $45 after 2:30. There is a large practice area and short game facility.

Design: 4-½ stars
Natural Setting: 4–½ – 5 stars
Value: 5-1/2 stars
Overall: 5 stars (Like Centennial, a no walking policy knocks an entire half-point off the rating).

RICHTER PARK GOLF COURSE
Aunt Hack Road
Danbury, CT
87878787878
www.richterpark.com

Danbury, CT stills gives NYC public golfers something New York City does not – a public golf course with an interesting design and at a fair price, (around $62 in high season). Richter is a nice muni in good condition with some interesting holes, and some beautiful views. You can get around in four hours, meet some nice people, get a great meal, and be home before rush hour hits.

Architecturally, the course is hit-and-miss. The low points are 1, (a 90-degree dog-leg around a pond), the par-3s on the front, (both all carry over water), and the stretch of 14-16, (which play around man-made ponds or the course’s unique quicksand hazard).
For those of you who never heard of Richter, you read that last sentence right. A nasty and downright dangerous quicksand bog guards the entire right side at 15 and 16. The city found out when they lost a backhoe in it building the course.

There are some excellent holes too, though. Four and six are great par-4s, six in particular. The blind drive should start at the big tree in the distance and draw gently to the left. The long iron/fairway wood approach to the elevated green will be played with the ball above your feet and cannot go left under any circumstances as the green drops 60 feet straight down to the edge of the river. Excepting 16, the par-5 are strong, especially the three shot 12th. Looky-loos love to squeal about how the green sits surrounded on three sides by water in the middle of the river. It is an inspired green setting. The closing dog-leg, par-4 18th demands your best drive of the day to reach the corner, then requires your best approach shot of the day, uphill to a green surrounded by bunkers.

Richter is a great place to take the family for a getaway weekend round or to go get some quick low impact practice without breaking the back. It’s not a place to take to impress friends interested in architecture and design, but it’s a reliable stand-by for a quick getaway. Sadly, the practice facility is sub-par.

Design: 3 – 3-1/2 stars
Natural Setting: Five Stars
Value: 4 – 4-1/2 stars
Overall: 4 – 4-1/2 stars

CASPERKILL COUNTRY CLUB
2320 South Road
Poughkeepsie, NY
845.463.0900
www.caperkillgolf.com

Built in 1944 and for years a private course for corporate guests, this Robert Trent Jones course is another nicely conditioned, inexpensive getaway for a quick round. There’s a few good holes, a number of solid, well-protected green complexes, and you’ll get around in four hours instead of the six you’d have to invest over the chopped salads that serve for New York City public golfers.

Architecture junkies won’t like it as there is too much penal architecture, and a few par-4s are either screwy or bland, but for weekend play, the course tests enough of a players game to be just fine. Most importantly, you can work for all aspects of the short game, not just the lob wedge. There’s even a good short game area with bunkers for practice.

The best holes are some of the more difficult par-4s. Two plays long and uphill to a green benched in a hillside. A severe drop-off to a shaved chipping area guards the left side. At seven, a long drive must catch the hill and roll down to the lower plateau or else the approach will be side-hill with a long iron or hybrid to a green guarded by sand on three sides and fronted by water.

11 and 17 are the strongest par-4s on the back. 11 requires a long drive over a burn which crosses the fairway, then an approach to a green guarded by one of the deepest bunkers on the course. 17 plays through a chute of trees, and requires a long drive, then an uphill approach to a long, narrow green.

Though the high rate on weekends is $65, greens fees go down after 12 p.m. to $45, and reduce further still to $27, a steal. Weekdays the rate is $45 in the mornings, $27 after noon. As my father says, “you can’t beat that with a stick!”

Design: 3 – 3-1/2 stars
Natural Setting: 4 stars
Value: 4 – 4-1/2 stars
Overall: 4 stars

In summation, definitely go see Links at Union Vale to see things you’ve never seen before and learn about architecture. Go to Centennial or The Monster to impress clients and make a special occasion out of your round. Play Casperkill or Richter Park with family and friends for a nice, low impact day or for practice, and wait to play Pound Ridge when they have a ½ price day or a friend gets you in a scramble so you don’t leave with a bruised ego and slashed wallet.

Four players are at 6 under, including Englishman Paul Casey and Lee Westwood, who were nicely tucked in to fish and chips by the time Tiger Woods teed off. Woods hit forty minutes worth of stingers on the range, then bogeyed the first two holes to drop to 3-under.

The R&A announced that the delay will require some players to finish early Saturday. Apparently the media tent and hospitality were creaking and swaying in the maelstrom, while balls were “oscillating” on 7 and 11. It was so bad pre-eminent sports writer Art Spander joked that it was Auntie Em’s storm, and Dan Jenkins joked that it knocked over a glass of port in the R&A tent.

***Update*** McIlroy just bogeyed to drop to 7-under.***

2011 – Royal St. George’s, Sandwich, Kent, ENGLAND

2012 – Royal Lytham & St. Anne’s, Blackpool, Lancashire, ENGLAND

2013 – Muirfield Golf links, Gullane, East Lothian, SCOTLAND

2014 – Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Hoylake, Merseyside, ENGLAND

2015 – The Old Course at St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Fife, SCOTLAND

2016 – TBA

Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy opened the tournament with fireworks, firing a blistering 63 in the benign conditions. His card was perfectly clean: seven birdies and a stunning eagle at the par-4 9th. He drove the green and made the 15 foot putt. In fact, he played the crook, the stretch of 9 – 12 in 5-under for the four holes. He closed with a 30 on the back nine, including a birdie at the home hole.

“Obviously there’s been a lot of rain over the past couple of days and going out this morning with no wind, you’re never going to get St. Andrews playing any easier,” McIlroy said in his post-round media center interview. McIlroy’s competitive record at St. Andrews has been exemplary. He’s played nine rounds there since 2007, six as an amateur, and has never shot higher than 70.

“This course, I just love the place,” he said. “If I had one course to play, this would probably be the course, because it’s just an enjoyable golf course.”

It was the 24th 63 in major championship history and the eighth in the 150 year history of the Open Championship. Interestingly, only one other player accomplished the feat at St. Andrews, Paul Broadhurst in 1990. Tiger Woods was the last player to card a 63 at a major. His 63 at Southern Hills in the 2007 PGA Championship was a cunning surgical dissection of the course and a clinic in precision planning and execution.

As we go to press, (noon stateside today), South Africa’s Louis Oostuizen is in second place by himself with a 65. John Daly, Andrew Coltart, and Steven Tiley are tied for third at 6-under 66. Daly’s 66 was the most remarkable. He turned heads for all the wrong reasons a two days earlier, showing up for champions’ events at the 150th Open Championship at the Home of Golf as the only person without a tie, but wearing a technicolor dreamcoat called “Shagadelic” made by his sponsor, Loudmouth Golf Apparel. Many questioned the timing of the outfit, but it also didn’t help that published photos used the snapshot taken when Daly looked peaked and haggard.

That being said, nobody looked good in that picture except Paddy Harrington, but we digress.

Daly fired a 31 on the front nine and ran off four consecutive birdies at 8 – 11. his lone bogey came at the 17th, the iconic 495-yard par-4 Road Hole, which is essentially a par 4-1/2, (it’s playing to a bloated 4.63 stroke average) but has made headlines with a new tee box off the confines of the course and on an adjacent track.

“Mild thing?” Daly asked when queried by the press as to what we should call him now that he is trying to shed his “Wild Thing” image – despite the silliest outfits this side of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey. still, his sublime short game complimented his long drives well in the windless conditions and rain-softened Old Course.

“It’s good to be sittin’ here. I think this is the first time I’ve seen the media center at the British Open since 1995,” he said gratefully, more clear of eye and attentive than earlier in the week, and sporting a pretty pink and light blue outfit with matching bubble gum and lavender paisley pants. “The green are not real fast but they’re rollin’ real good and a firm putter goona have an opportunity to really get it goin’.”

Then he provided excellent strategic analysis and a candid look at how technology and length are hurting the defense of the Old Course.

“My whole method about playin’ here is that I only worry about one bunker and not five or six. For me, it just puts driver in my hands.”

Still, not everyone is enamored with technology’s effect on the Old Course. Melvyn Morrow, a direct descendant of Old Tom Morris, is an outspoken opponent of uncontrolled technology and its effect on golf courses and golf design.

“Technology is killing our old courses….As a golfer I would be pleased to be 9 under but come on how much of that is down to the modern equipment vs. Fitness/course condition?” he asks poignantly.

“There is a sadness in these low scores. So our only hope or option is that the wind rises and comes to the aid of TOC….To say its the best score in the 150 years of the game is just untrue. Its only the best because of the new technology. The score is only applicable today, as in 5 years it will be even lower if still no control. Just who the hell do they think they are kidding, with all the low score this morning. The message is clear, you have to control technology.”

Still, wind is the great equalizer, and a links course that yields Tiger Woods’s 67 today, can counterpunch right back the next day with a 77 in blustery conditions. “I saw the wind so bad earlier this week,” wrote one Irish journalist, 50 mph at one point, that I thought over par might win the tournament. Indeed, early week conditions were freezing, rainy, gusty, and were thought to be predicted through Saturday. Today’;s sunshine and calm were unexpected, and the players took advantage. As the final round nears a close, 77 players are under par, and and 105 of the 156 starting contestants are level par or better.

Scandal scarred Tiger Woods was 6-under after 14 holes, but bogeyed 17 to finish with a 67. He was tied for 6th as we went to press.

“It felt awkward because there was absolutely no wind. You never play a links golf course in no wind,” said Woods. “These greens are the slowest I’ve seen in a long time…if ever. Putts uphill into the grain are slow….I’m in good shape. I took advantage of a golf course when I had to.”

Lee Westwood overcame a slow start to shoot a 67 as well, his first round under 70 in 11 tries at St. Andrews. Lucas Glover and Sean O’Hair are two of the eight other players who join Woods at 5-under, four back of McIlroy. Trevor Immelman, Ryo Ishikawa, and Camilo Villegas were all at 4-under along with 11 other players, including three-time major champion Vijay Singh, Ricky barnes and Peter Hanson. Former Open Champions Paul Lawrie and Ernie Els were part of another large logjam at 3-under 69.

Back-to-back Open Champion from 2007 and 2008 Padraig Harrington opened with a pedestrian 73.

OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP AT ST. ANDREWS FLASHBACK: Lee Trevino was leading the 1970 Open Championship at St. Andrews when he hit an iron approach to what he thought was his side of the gigantic double greens…then it hit him:

“Oh no! I done hit it to the wrong flag! And I’m dumb enough to have done it too!”

Leaving himself a putt of over 100 feet on a turbulent green, he bogeyed, opening the door for Jack Nicklaus, who went on to defeat Doug Sanders in a playoff.

Tony Korologos has posted parts 2 and 3 of his caddie walk through of beloved, venerable St. Andrews. Here is the link to holes 7 – 12. Here is the link for the breakdown of holes 13 – 18.

Here’s a snippet to wash down your morning tea and crumpets. As for me, I’ll have some strawberries and cream:

“Finally we arrive at the 17th Road hole.

I am sure you all know that the Championship tee has been put back 40 yards, over the fence and pathway that the spectators used to crowd around. In Opens past the spectator was really amongst the golfers on this tee, so close I would occasionally think that a perhaps a wee breath freshener might not go amiss! I do hope that when they play that drive, from the re-positioned tee, the golf fans are still going to be allowed to ‘hustle’ around and breathe upon the golfers that are taking part in this Open competition.

The European professional golfer has been using a 3 wood and a driving iron (some still used a driver if wind dictated it) over the last few years when playing in the European Tour’s Dunhill Links Championship. From a central position on the fairway they were striking a 7, 8 and even a 9 iron into this thinnest slither of a green. Once on the green after being able to stop the ball upon it with the now banned grooved clubs they generally proceeded to miss the birdie putt by not allowing for the large swing and always on the ‘low side’ but securing the par has not been too difficult.

This legendary golf hole needed toughened up.

For a full description, prior to the tee alteration, of this dramatic golf hole visit the following link: http://www.caddiegolftours.com/oldcoursetips/17throad.htm

This 17th Road hole is the golf hole that every golfer wishes to play and there is always drama upon it so let us hope that tradition continues.”

Great find Tony. Tune in all week here, Tony’s Hooked on Golf blog, Waggle Room, who had this great interview with Gary player, and Wei Under Par for the world’s best grass roots web-golf coverage of the World Championship of golf.

Until then, enjoy the picture of lugnut John Daly ruining the photo of past champions with his self-indulgence and utter lack of grace. His nickname oughtta be summertime…cause he’s got no class. But hey, his girlfriend is nice to simpering P.R. wannabees, so if you’re a jock-sniffing Klingon, fall all over yourself apologizing and defending him: You might get to roll with the dregs of his posse. He’s so brave and resolute the way he flies in the face of such overrated golf virtues such as tradition, altruism, manners, and dignity. Casual eyeballs and ballsy fashion statements are so much more awesome…in fact they’re “awesomely awesome:)” See you at Hooters John, where you can pick up your fan mail, and maybe even a future ex-Mrs. Daly.

PR dingbats take notice: Golf is about putting the game and others before yourself…and as Maximus famously said to Proximo in Gladiator, “This is not it…THIS IS NOT IT!”

Photo hat tip: Super-Steph (Steph Wei for those of you scoring at home).

Meanwhile, another hat tip to my friends at Golf Club Atlas, who are having a fun caption contest over the photo I posted.

Paddy: Hey! Don Cherry! I didn’t know you won an Open Championship! I live your hockey coverage!

Roberto DiVicenzo: What a stupid he is.

Trevino in response: Yeah…and that goes for Daly too.

Tiger: Oh crap, it’s Devon James over there…

Watson: Just think Tiger…if you wore a coat like that, you’d still be half a billion richer…

“‘I have a new putter in the bag,” he said nonchalantly after explaining his decision on which 2-iron he’ll play. “I’ve switched to the Nike putter for this week….“It comes off [the Nike putter] faster, which one these greens is something that I’ve always struggled on slower greens,” he explained. “I haven’t had to make that much of an adjustment because the ball is coming off a little quicker.”….From the 5-10′ feet range, he’s putting 53.97%, which ranks him at 109th on Tour this season. Last year he finished 9th and made 62.07% of putts from the same range.”

By coincidence, while at the Met Golf Writers event this Monday, we were treated to a presentation on the new Nike Method Putter by a Nike rep.

He told the assemble media that Nike had a fit getting any players to use the models they had designed independently. So they went directly to their players and asked them to do the heavy lifting for them. “We asked them to tell us what they wanted,” he said. “They gave us specs and we designed to their wishes.”

The club is so new, we haven’t as yet been able to get a pulse on how it performs. Now Nike will have the greatest litmus test they could ask for: the game’s greatest star at the game’s most hallowed venue at the de facto World Championship.

Oh, and Steph, about Tiger putting well on fast greens…don’t forget Augusta!

Interestingly, Woods says he hates greens that have severe undulations. “I don’t like greens with elephants buried under them,” he told R&A officials while visiting Royal Liverpool in 2006 in prep for his cakewalk win in sunny, calm weather over the flattest greens in the Open Championship Rota. Odd…he sure putts well at Augusta…

We’ll check in with Tony all week. We’ll also keep an eye on a simmering issue: Melvyn Morrow vs. Tiger Woods. Melvyn, the direct descendant of Old Tom Morris has been outspoken about Tiger Woods’s boorish behavior on the golf course in the past, but when the sordid sex scandal erupted, he made good on a threat to make certain with Prestwick G.C. that if Woods wins the tournament, (a long shot, but possible), that Woods is NOT awarded with the replica Moroccan belt that will be given this year to the winner along with the Claret Jug.

As we go to press, our Irish correspondents report 50 mph winds at St. Andrews. Cue King Lear! Brian Keogh writes:

“Winds gusting up to 50 mph made St Andrews almost unplayable as Padraig Harrington continued his preparations for the 150th Open. The Dubliner, 38, hit balls for two hours in gale force winds before going out. But he was eventually forced to walk in after just five holes of his practice round….Tiger Woods played all 18 holes but R&A Chief Executive Peter Dawson confessed that the vicious west wind would have forced them to suspend play had the championship started on Sunday.

Dawson said: “The balls were moving right off the 11th green and we would have had to suspend play. Winds were gusting at over 50mph out there. That’s pretty extraordinary.”"

SHE TURNED CARTWHEELS AT ST. ANDREWS, AND WAS A WHIRLWIND AT OAKMONT: PAULA CREAMER, AMERICA'S SWEETHEART

The Pink Panther struck again! No, not Peter Sellers and his hilarious, bumbling French Detective, this is America’s Pink Panther, sweet smiling, sweet swinging Paula Creamer, who won the 2010 Women’s U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club. Our great All-American girl won at one of our quintessential All-American golf courses.

Creamer closed with a 69 to finish the tournament at 3-under, four shots clear of Korea’s Na Yeon Choi and Norway’s Suzann Petterson. Creamer overcame a hyper-extended thumb which sidelined her much of the year, as well as stomach problems that limited her appearances in 2008 and 2009.

Eight of the top ten players closed with rounds under 70 over the par-71 6,613 yard course. Choi closed with a 66 and Song Kim shot a 65, the two lowest rounds of the tournament.

Dude?! Where’s me Oakmont? Oakmonster? What Oakmonster? They chopped it up like sushi…on a Sunday!

“We could be a lot more agressive because the course played one to two clubs shorter today,” said Choi. “I could be more aggressive on all of my shots as opposed to the way the course played the rest of the week. On one hole, where I normally had a three wood in to the green, I hit four iron. Which is a considerable difference.”

“I don’t think it played 6600 yards today,” agreed one journalist/AWITP correspondent who covered the tournament. They couldn’t play it if they had it that length, and they didn’t want these women to be embarrassed.”

Still, Creamer was the only player to finish under par for the week. Her 281 aggregate put her at 3-under for the tournament.

“I was in pain, but I was trying to do everything to not think about it,” Creamer said, one day after the she told the media, she was afraid her thumb would “explode.”

That’s another reason why we love Paula…great competitor, great person, and great quote.

With the pins in exactly the same places for Sunday as they were for the 2007 U.S. Open won by Angel Cabrera, Creamer was a leg up on the competition after watching hours of video about the course and about championships conducted at Oakmont. The work paid dividends as she dominated the event, getting stronger each day. After opening with a 72, she carded two 70s before closing with the same 69 Cabrera shot on Sunday.

1. The British Open!
2. My preview and live coverage of the PGA Championship
3. Article on Pasatiempo
4. Atlantic City Country Club
5. Golf along I-84 in the NE corridor
6. Book reviews of Titanic Thompson (Kevin Cook) and Ancestral Links (John Garrity).
7. Stephen Kay and Forrest Fezler interviews and courses.

We may also have a guest appearance by Pete Dye in time for the PGA, so watch out for that!

NEW YORK, NY – As we reach the halfway point in the year, a tiny little David has the clubhouse lead on a whole raft of Goliaths in the race for the Best Sports Journalism of the Year Award here at A Walk in the Park, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

It’s book review season and, right on cue, my desk turned into a scriptorium scene from Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose.

[Author’s Note: If you didn’t get that joke, go read the book, and send me a long thank you later. It’s a life-changer.]

I get plenty of manuscripts as an entertainment lawyer as it is, so add in all the books that may – or if they suck, may not – be reviewed, and I have to move piles the size of Greek columns just to use my phone, let alone work on the laptop.

In the middle of the frenzy, the good folks at a little publishing house called Union Square Press, named for the hip NYC section of Union Square, contacted me about their newly-released collection of U.S. Open stories called “One Week in June: The U.S. Open.” It’s a sequel to their book “One Week in April: The Masters” and is imprinted as a division of Sterling. I yessed them when they called…I’ll talk to anybody about everything all the time…you never know what might pan out…and they sent me a review copy.

Then the tragicomedy began! First, it gets sent to an old address. Then it gets sent to the wrong state. Then they sent it to my house, but I’m not there, and it gets sent back. It became, quite honestly, the biggest pain in the ass any book has ever been!

After two false starts, a send back, and more nonsensical mishaps than an NBC prime-time comedy, it finally arrived one May afternoon.

I almost threw it on the pile to deal with after the U.S. Open, when I said to myself…”uh…Jay, it is about the U.S. Open…let’s see if they have anything useful for your prep piece on Pebble Beach.”

And what do I find when thumbing through the table of contents? A previously out-of-print, 35-page analysis of both Pebble Beach and Tom Watson’s win in 1982 by no less a personage than Herbert Warren Wind himself…

Score!!! Cha-ching!!!

Between that terrific story, great reads on Kite’s victory in ’92 and Woods’s romp in ’00, and a 1983 article I dug out of the basement written by Watson himself, I had all kinds of history, first-hand accounts, fascinating anecdotes, and important insights for my entire week at Pebble. Suddenly “that pain in the ass book” became one of the three top resources for my entire week at Pebble and will be constantly in rotation every time I have to write about the Open.

Whether you are a journalist needing research materials or just a golf fan looking for good stories, you have a small gold mine in one tome with this book. Organized chronologically, the book traces famous Opens and champions throughout the event’s illustrious, and often bloody history. Ancient figures from the dawn of golf emerge as vividly as if they were written yesterday. Francis Ouimet discusses his miracle victory in 1913, still regarded as the greatest U.S. Open of all time, Grantland Rice materializes again from the mists of time and depicts in loving detail Bobby Jones’s winning putt in the 1929 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, and Dan Jenkins – the great golf writer of our generation – takes us back six decades to spin a yarn about Hogan’s taming Oakland Hills, “The Monster,” in 1951.

But the veritable “Who’s Who” of great golf writers continues. Two PGA of America Lifetime Achievement Award winners, Art Spander and Dick Schapp recall the massacre at Winged Foot in 1974. Rick Reilly writes about both Oakland Hills and San Francisco’s Olympic Club, that little giant-killer of the U.S. Open Rota. Meanwhile, the New York Times’s Dave Anderson depicts Opens at Shinnecock and Baltusrol.

Every great player at the Open gets some face time: Merry Mex, Byron Nelson, The Golden Bear, Woods, Bobby Jones: the entire Pantheon of Golf Royalty are showcased. All the great courses make an appearance: from Oakmont to Pebble, from Pinehurst to Cherry Hills, from The Country Club to Baltusrol.

There’s even everybody’s favorite sideshow story from any U.S. Open: The Hinkle Tree! You remember the Hinkle Tree? When the U.S.G.A. tried to close a short-cut they failed to see off the eighth tee at Inverness in 1979? “Trees sure grow fast in Ohio,” quipped Lon Hinkle as he spied the Blue Hill Spruce Mike Strantz planted in the middle of the night at the U.S.G.A.’s request. “Take down the gallery ropes.”

He made another birdie!

But Union Square Press scores an eagle with this work. If you are a sports journalist, this book is an important research resource. If you simply love golf stories, it’s terrific bedtime and bathroom reading. There is something in this book for everyone.

It may not win this years Best Sports Writing Award…David Feherty, John Garrity, and Kevin Cook all released books this summer, a bumper crop if ever there was one…but it is the leader in the clubhouse right now and an important work. It’s possible that this collection way have research value long past what even the publishers anticipated. Run, don’t walk to get your copy.

ISBN No. 9781402766299
400 pages
$19.95 (Well worth the price, and hard-cover to boot).