Season Ending Early

Sorry it's been so long since I updated this, but there has been a lot going on in the Cleveland household this summer. One of the things that have kept me busy has been getting medical diagnosis for some troubling problems I've been having for the past several months. The most troubling of these from a golf standpoint has been shoulder pain I've been having since the beginning of the year. I just got the results today and it is confirmed that I have a tear in the labrum that will require reconstructive laparoscopic surgery. That surgery is scheduled for two weeks from tomorrow, July 31st, which will effectively end my golfing season for 2008. I won't be able to swing a golf club at all for 3 months, and I won't get full use of the shoulder for at least 4 months. The Dr indicated that it would most likely be a full year before the shoulder will feel 'normal' again. So best to get this done now vs waiting until later. Speaking of which, I will undergo ankle surgery for a double fracture of the cartilege and re-attachment of the tendon in my left ankle sometime in October. The good news, if you can call it that, is that I won't have any physical excuses for my poor game next year.

That said, I've got 2 weeks to get some good golf in. Though I'm not playing this Thursday due to a job interview I'm going on, I fully expect to get a tee time for the 24th and hope to get all of you to come out and play. I'd like to get out on the 26th or 27th as well for 18 holes if anybody is interested. Just let me know.

Lack of rain, and a leak in the Wellshire dam are causing the course to not water the rough. The result of this is that though the fairways and greens are still in pretty good shape, the rest of the course looks absolutely horrid. Your best drive is one down the rough where the ball has nothing to stop it, it will roll like it was on cement. So pray for some rain, and a good soaking at that.

The Wellshire pro shop has a sale going on that beats the Wellshire Mens Club Discount (i.e. you don't get both). 40% off Mens clothing, 30% off all equipment, and even 20% off balls and gloves. It's a good time to stock up. TGW is also running some pretty good summer specials on discontinued items as well so check them out.

With my shoulder hurting I've had to adjust my swing to something less than full which has resulted in me being a bit more consistent in my game, in fact I've shot 97 at Wellshire the last 3 rounds. In the Wellshire Men's club skill competition I even hit 11 out of 14 fairways! My drives aren't going too long, but I'm still out at least 210 (it's hard to say since my Sky Caddie has been in the shop for the last 3 weeks). In any case it seems I'm working toward Bogey golf which would be the logical next step for me. Given that this winter will be spent mostly working on putting and getting my shoulder back, it gives me something to shoot for next year.

So shoot me an e-mail and let me know when we can get together before the 31st to hit some balls, and after that to at least lift up a beer or two (with my left arm of course).

A Night Gone Astray

Well I don't know whether it was the golf balls that were 'stray' or us golfers, but things certainly were not normal last night at City Park. The weather cooperated with us and we were able to get in a nice 9 holes of golf on a pretty empty golf course. Now it might have been because we were playing the back 9 which used to be the front 9, and if you are confused, I certainly was and still am. It seems that there have been some changes at City Park. The pro-shop has been turned around, the GHIN computer is not where it used to be, the 9's have been reversed, the scorecards have been replaced by generics, and the club house pub closed before we finished our round. Add to that the fact that though I hit 5 fairways, I only hit 1 green in regulation and carded a 54 for the round (ESC 53) and it was a confusing night. The best part was having Chris and Jason on the course with me and though it was their 1st and 2nd time out this year respectively, and they kicked my butt from a score standpoint, I at least wasn't that far behind. I did hit a spectacular 60 degree lob wedge on #7 (or was it #16) over a 25 ft tall pine tree and to within 12 feet of the pin to make me feel somewhat good. Chris shot a most excellent 42 his first time out, and Jason followed up with a 46. With Bogeys at City Park closing early, we headed to The Bank for food and to catch part of the NBA finals. The only problem with The Bank was that unlike most banks where you can hear everyone else, the place was so loud we couldn't (or at least I couldn't) hear either of the guys well enough to extend a good conversation. It may be a while before I head back to City Park given the experience. In any case I think we all had a good time, and Jason has already tentatively committed to next week. Chris may also be IN, depending on his work schedule. As for next week....

Our next tee time is next Thursday, June 12th 5:31PM at Kennedy golf course. As always it's first come first served, and to reserve your spot e-mail me at n3xt@arrl.net by next Wednesday, June 11th at 1:00 PM so I can adjust the reservation if necessary. It is entirely possible that we may have a full foursome or more going forward at least for the next 4 weeks or so given these are the longest days of the year.

In fact, if there is interest in getting out on the course by 4:00 PM, it may be possible to try to get 18 in. Let me know if you are interested in a 4:00 or earlier tee time. I'm flexible and I'm sure given the traffic in front and back of us last night that we could have easily gotten 18 in if we had started at 4:00. In addition, it should be entirely possible to get on the course on Thursdays at Wellshire if our tee times were moved up to 4:00. Just let me know your thoughts by commenting on this blog post (http://www.theurbangolfer.blogspot.com/) or e-mailing me at n3xt@arrl.net .

The next Wellshire Men's club activty is this weekend; the 2 man 2 day event. Saturday is the Scramble, and Sunday is a best ball format. I will at least come up with a postable score on Sunday, though the format precludes posting the scramble score. I will at least be out there both days which are shaping up to be beautiful and in the 80's. As long as I don't forget the sunscreen I should be OK.

Saturday is the deadline for entry into the next event, the Skills by Age Group Challenge. This format will take your 18 hole score and will subtract strokes for hitting fairways, and one putting, while adding strokes for 3 putting. Doing this all on a net basis against age group will be one wide open tournament. The date of the event is Sunday June 22nd, and I got my entry in yesterday.

Next week is US Open week and will celebrate the return of Tiger Woods after his latest knee surgery. Historically he's done well after having surgery done, and though I am hesitant to put his name on the trophy just yet, remember that he one at Torrey Pines earlier this year running away. Phil Mickelson as the world number 2 and a local resident of the San Diego area also has a rather impressive record at the course. Tiger and Phil are paired together for the first round of the tournament which should make for a fascinating Thursday and Friday couple of rounds before the cut. And don't forget that the chosen 10 handicapper will play with Tony Romo, Justin Timberlake, and Matt Lauer to see if he can beat Tiger's challenge of breaking 100. NBC will show how he does sometime next weekend. Given that 56,000 golfers sent in 100 word essays on why they should be the one chosen, and the event could pull in a record number of viewers. Make sure you have your DVR's set accordingly.

The women's second major of the year is this weekend, and it will hopefully have some compelling story lines as well. Will Annika prevail in her last season? Will Lorena Ochoa continue her dominance? Who will shine out of the new young superstars? Just keep the TV turned to the tournament to find out.

It will be interesting to see how I do this weekend from a physical standpoint. On Monday I'll get the results of an MRI on my ankle to see whether and/or to what extent I may need surgery. It's given me problems for several years, and a lot will depend on how long I would be laid up to determine when I get any surgery done. In addition, my shoulder has been in pain for some time now, and though it's early in the process, physical therapy has not helped one bit. I may need surgery on it to repair the rotator cuff if the PT doesn't start to work soon. I'll keep you all posted, but whatever happens, I'll continue to be playing golf.

Until next week, hit it straight, hit it long, and get it in the hole!

David C.

What a beautiful night, Maybe even for Golf.

It was a beautiful evening for golf last night. Derek and I played the front 9 in just over 2 hours, and after I ate, I sat on the patio and watched the golfers come in until it got dark. I only wish my game was as beautiful as the evening. I shot the worst I have since last October finishing with an ESC 53. It was pretty pathetic. Didn't hit a drive all night, and though I hit the 8th and 9th greens in regulation, I 3-putted both. That part was frustrating. The good news is that I at least hit the green with my tee shot on #9 for the first time this year. Hopefully I'll continue that trend at least. The other good news is that I will be ready to do it all again next week, though the league situation at Wellshire is going to make things tough.

Going forward though, here is how the tee times will work. I will continue to get the tee time closest to 5:30pm on Thursdays with the following course preference: 1) Wellshire, 2) Kennedy, 3) City Park, 4) Willis Case, and 5) Overland. If I don't get any takers by Wednesday at 1:00pm I will try to get a 4:00pm tee time at Wellshire. The rationale is that I want to play with you guys first and foremost, and secondly to get better at the course I will be playing tournaments at. Don't hesitate to e-mail me to ask for a particular course on a particular night because I'll do my darndest to make it happen. Now on to this week's tee time.

Next Thursday's Tee Time is set for 5:32PM at City Park. Please e-mail me your intention to play by Wednesday at 1:00PM as noted above. My e-mail address is n3xt@arrl.net . As always, spots are first come first served. Cost for 9 holes at City Park is the same as for Wellshire and is $14.

The next Wellshire Men's Golf club event is next weekend June 7th and 8th with the 2-man, 2-day event. Day 1 is a scramble, and Day 2 is a best ball. A picnic is being served following the Sunday round. Prizes will be awarded for best Hawaiian shirt on Saturday, and best 'Bobby Jones era golf atire' on Sunday. The Match Play brackets are posted and it's time to schedule the first round matches. I am the number 15 seed in the C Flight and get the opportunity to go up against the number 2 seed. As I have noted here before, I have yet to win in a match play round. Maybe I will play up to my ability this time. June 7th is also the deadline for the next tournament, the Skills by Age group event. This event awards points based on hitting fairways, 1 putting, etc. and should be a fun event. I am scheduled to play this event, but do not have my registration in yet, but will get it in the mail this next week.

The US Open at Torrey Pines is fast approaching as well. It will be interesting to see how Tiger plays after his knee surgery, but the more fascinating event will come the day before the US Open when a Joe Schmoe who has been selected by us will play the Torrey pines course with Tony Romo, Justin Timberlake, and someone else I can't think of to test the Tiger theory that an average golfer would not be able to break 100 on a US Open Course. Oh, and NBC will have the cameras rolling on the event and will televise it either before or during its US OPEN coverage. It should make for some great TV, and regardless of who the guy is, I'm rooting for him.

Give me a call or an e-mail soon, and let's play some golf!

Until next week, hit'em straight and long!

David C.

A Breezy Night on the Course

Yep, it was a breezy evening for golf with winds whipping at least 20 to 30 miles an hour over the first 5 holes at Wellshire last night. The first 2 holes were direct head winds and the rest caused us to fight significant cross winds. But no rain hit us and it ended up being the best round I've shot so far this year with me carding a 47 despite poor putting. Maybe I should play in adverse weather more often. Jason did pretty well last night too given it was his first time out with the clubs since last fall. With his new found distance in his 7 iron he could be pretty dangerous this year.

Our next tee time is next Thursday evening at 5:31PM at Kennedy golf course. This may have to be the norm for every other week given the league play on those nights since the reservation system seems to not allow me to get decent tee times (anything after 4:30pm). It may not be Wellshire, but at least it's golf. Let me know if you can play, as always it's first come, first served and I need to know your intention to play before 1:00pm Wednesday to release any unused spots. Let me know at n3xt@arrl.net .

Jason and I talked about these posts and he indicated that he thought they were about right as far as length, content, and number sent per week (one that is). If you'd like to add to the conversation come to the blog and post your comments, or even better, come and play golf with me on Thursdays and we can talk about it afterwards over a beer and some 25 cent chicken wings (they are surprisingly good).

The next Wellshire Men's Golf Club events are the 2 man, 2 day event with a club picnic after the Sunday round coming up on June 7th and 8th. The skills by age group competition is scheduled for June 22nd with registration due on June 7th. I hope to see you there.

That's about it for this week, I hope to see you all soon on the course!

David C.

Temps going up, Scores coming down

Well it's been a crazy couple of weeks with the ABCD scramble, the related Calcutta as well as a trip to LA, a Sanctuary opportunity and a Thursday Tee Time. So I am way behind in keeping you all caught up in the Wellshire Thursdays Golf World.

First off though, I have a Tee Time set for this coming Thursday May, 22nd at 5:40 PM. First come, first Served as usual, e-mail me at n3xt@arrl.net to reserve your spot by Wednesday at 1:00 PM.

As far as getting tee times in the future, the Denver Reservation system has made it easier for us. The old policy was that we could make the reservations 7 days in advance with the tee times released at 7:00 pm. What this meant was that I would have to rush home after playing on Thursday night and make the reservation for the next week after letting others have their pick for a couple of hours before I got home and down to my computer. Well the policy revision is that the tee times are now available 8 days in advance for residents. So now I can make our Thursday reservations on Wednesday nights when I am generally at home and available. Given the league situation every other Thursday, it may not help in getting an advantageous tee time, but then again, it might.

The Wellshire Men's Golf Club's last event that I played in was 2 weeks ago now which was the ABCD scramble and Calcutta. By the way, the food at the event was spectacular with essentially all you can eat prime rib with all the fixings. Cash bar was reasonable and included the men's club 10% discount which is also good at the pub. Other benefits of membership that were announced at the banquet were 25% off of meals at the Wellshire Inn (not the pub) which would have been good to know for Mother's day, and 30% off of all merchandise in the pro shop. With discounts like that, the Club membership should be able to pay for itself if you lose balls or are looking for upgrades. The discount does not apply however to lessons, green fees, or range balls.

The tournament was delayed at least 40 minutes due to frost, and though I was going in an early group, I knew I would be cutting things close to make my 6:00PM flight to LA. The scramble required each member of the foursome to contribute 3 drives for the day. On number 1 I stiped it down the fairway for my first which I think caught my team off guard a little. In fact I played so well that I had contributed all 3 of my drives by the time we reached number 9. Without any pressure for the rest of the day I could concentrate on the rest of my game which did us well as we ended up in 2nd place for the day. I couldn't have been much happier as it meant I was getting a $500 check and $90 of proshop money. This tournament alone will help pay for the year. I only hope I do half as well the rest of the year. I am thinking I kind of like these Calcuttas.

At the ABCD scramble I found out a piece of information for you that will help in your game at Wellshire that I did not know about. On the holes at Wellshire, the flags are different colors. I did not think that there was any rhyme or reason associated with them, but I was wrong. It was pointed out that there are 3 flag colors in use at Wellshire. Red, White, and Blue. Far from being just patriotic, the colors identify the general relationship of the pin placement on the greens. Red flags indicate the pin is located in the front 3rd of the green, a White flag indicates the middle 3rd, and a Blue flag the back 3rd of the green. This will help those of us with Sky Caddies in determining an appropriate distance to the pin.

The next Wellshire Men's Club tournament is scheduled for June 7th and 8th with the 2 man, 2 day event. Saturday is a scramble, and the Sunday is a best ball. I had been hoping to play with Derek, but he and his daughter are scheduled for a very fun camping weekend and so I will now be stuck with a computer draw. The time has also just past this weekend for entry into Wellshire Men's Club's match play tournament. I got my entry in for the net flights, so will be interested to see how I play. I have yet to win a round in a match play event, but maybe this will be my year. The good/bad news is that my handicap continues to go down and is now at 26.8. My goal for the summer will be to get it down under 20. I know it's possible if I can get out there and play more.

Lastly I have to report that I had an opportunity, however brief, to play at Sanctuary this last week. For those that don't know, Sanctuary is the private course of the REMAX International founder. The facility is only open for charity tournaments, and the minimum buy in for a foursome is $5,000. Well, someone in the last tournament dropped out and my pastor called me at 10:45PM to see if I could fill out a foursome teeing off at 9:15AM the next day. I of course said I'd clear my calendar, but as luck would have it, the organizer of the foursome had found someone else in the few minutes between phone calls. At 11:05PM I was out. Hopefully such an opportunity will arise in the future, and maybe my game will improve such that I wouldn't be embarrased on such a beautiful golf course.

Have a great week and I hope to see you on the course!

David C.

A Great Week for Golf

As the title suggests, last week was a great week for golf. I got in 18 holes at the Wellshire Men's Golf Club Tourney, and another 9 last night. Although I didn't play particularly well on Saturday, it was still good to get out and swing the clubs. I seem to be settling into a consistent pattern of only having one hole that I totally blow up on so that my ESC score for handicap purposes is not getting too out of hand. I have noticed that the long winter layoff has set my overall game back, but I think it is improving from this point. I scored a 55-52 / 107 on Saturday and carded a back 9 52 on Thursday night. The 52 would have been shattered had I not dropped 2 balls in the hazard on 18 costing me 4 strokes. Oh well I guess that's why they call it golf. Anyway, I do have a tee time scheduled for next week, and given the longer days, it should work out better for most of you.

Tee Time, Thursday, May 1st 5:20PM at Wellshire Golf Course

Let me know by Wednesday at 1:00 PM at n3xt@arrl.net if you want to play. As always, it is first come first served.

A note to consider, is that the fairways are getting their spring aeration on Monday and Tuesday, the 28th and 29th, 9 holes each day. I'm not sure how it will effect play on the first, but I do know that the Men's Club ABCD scramble is scheduled for the following Saturday so I would think that they should have the plugs picked up by Thursday. As for the greens, they were still pretty bad on Saturday, but there seems to have been some improvement between then and Thursday. At least I was hitting more putts on Thursday night so it might not have been the greens at all, maybe I'm just getting better.

As I noted earlier, my play at the Men's club tournament last weekend wasn't stellar, but I was better than my eventual playing partner who seemed to 4 and 5 putt every green. He blamed it on his putter, but it WAS his first time out for the year. To solve his problem for the scramble he indicated he was going out and getting a new putter, probably one of the new Nike IC versions (which I like from an alignment perspective, but not a roll perspective). In anycase we ended up next to last with a best ball score of 75, the other 2 players in our foursome won the event with a net 63........hmmmm. Anyway, there was at least one group who scored worse with a Best Ball 80 which according to one of its players (who shall go unnamed) spent a little too much time in the beach. This after spending the week ON the beach in Mexico, go figure.

I don't have a website for you this week, but suggest that you go to the blog and check out my past suggestions as well as the list on the right hand side of the website. The URL is http://www.theurbangolfer.blogspot.com/ check it out and you can see how things are going in my golfing world.

One item of interest from a software standpoint is that Caddie Master Pro has a brand new version 3.03g which was just released which adds some nice new features to the software. For those of you unfamiliar, this is the sofware I use to create your scorecards when we play, and I also use to track the key statistics to see how my game is improving. I highly recommend the software and am real appreciative of Brian Yager who develops it. The price isn't too high either for having something that you own vs relying on a website.

For those interested in watching golf, The EDS Byron Nelson Classic is being held this week at the TPC at Four Seasons near Irving/Las Colinas, Texas. With a complete redesign of the course it should make for an interesting tournament and one in which the late Byron Nelson could be proud.

That's it for this week, there will not be a tee time on the 8th as I will be in LA, so get your e-mail to me so we can play sooner vs later! If not, I'll see you in the clubhouse.

David C.

Weather, Again.....Plus First Tournament

Once again the golf gods could not intervene to get us a good Thursday night of golf. The snow had mostly cleared in my neighborhood, but it was still pretty cold out. Now today should be a great day with highs in the 60's and Saturday with high's approaching 80. It's just not fair. Oh well, we didn't begin our streak of no weather delays until the end of April last year so hopefully things will improve.

Our next Thursday night event is next week, April 24th at Wellshire where I have a 5:00pm tee time. Please e-mail me at n3xt@arrl.net to reserve your spot. I need responses by about 1:00pm Wednesday in order to modify the reservation if necessary.

Now because of the lack of hitting balls the last 2 weeks I expect that I will be pretty rusty out on the course on Saturday for the first tournament of the year. Hopefully my eventual partner will bail me out accordingly. The format for Saturday's Earl Wilcox memorial tournament is a blind four-ball format where your partner for the 18 holes will be determined by blind draw AFTER the round is played. It should make for a fun and interesting day especially since you can't give advice to your partner if you don't know which one he is. For those of you unfamiliar with the term four-ball, there are two forms of play called four-ball, one dealing in match play, and the one we are using Saturday which will be the stroke play variant where each person plays their individual ball for the entire hole, and the lowest score between the individual partners on the team is the one counted.

This Saturday April 19th is also the due date for RSVP's to the Wellshire Men's Golf Club spring banquet and calcutta being held on Saturday May 3rd, and the ABCD scramble event for the following day Sunday May 4th. So be sure to get your entry form in the mail or bring it to Wellshire on Saturday as I'm sure they'll take your entry during the Earl Wilcox.

Congrats to Trevor Immelman who grabbed a green jacket at Augusta National Golf Club last week. The coverage on DirectTV was excellent and was fascinating as you got to see each player take on the various holes covered. I was torn between watching Amen corner 11, 12, and 13 vs holes 15 and 16. The green on 16 is just wicked while just getting on the green on 12 was fascinating to watch. Anyway, this week the PGA is at Harbor Town Golf Links for the only PGA tour stop in South Carolina. As I'm typing this morning, Boo Weekley has taken the lead in this tournament he won last year, his first PGA tour win. The LPGA is at the Ginn Reunion resort just South of Orlando, Florida in a tournament that has one of the highest purses on the tour. 49 of the top 50 golfers in the world are present. Lorena Ochoa will be going for her 4th straight win this year, she's making Tiger look almost pedestrian (not that he's going walking anytime soon after his surgery this week). The only downside to the LPGA event is that it only airs for 2 hours and is in standard definition. These girls deserve better coverage than this.

The latest Big Break series got underway in Kaanapali, Hawaii. It looks like we will be in for a real cat fight as at least half of the women have at least some professional golf experience. Look for the first elimination this coming Tuesday night.

The link of the week is http://www.golfnow.com/ not only can you get some discounts on some pretty good courses here in Colorado, but they have a daily trivia contest featuring a very cute Keri Murphy. The prizes are all golf related and you can earn entries each day which are good for 30 days. Today's prize was a bag boy pull cart. Check them out.

A special Happy Birthday to Derek Burnett today who has just turned 40! Hopefully he will shoot his age on the front 9 tomorrow.

That's it for now, I'll let you know how the tournament went on Monday.

David C.

The Masters is Here!

I don't know about you, but I know that golf season has officially arrived when The Masters is played. The first major of the year, and the only one that is always played at the same place each year, The Masters is a unique golf tournament played on an even more unique course. More wide open than a US open course, the 18 holes of Augusta National Golf Club were built in 76 working days in 1932 and 1933 at the location that was once an ornamental tree farm. The course has got to be one of the most beautiful places on earth to play golf on. The only trouble with that is that 99.99999999% of us will never get the opportunity. Heck, that many of us will never even get to see the tournament live such is the difficulty of getting duckets to the event. So I will have to be satisfied with watching the event on TV. It is very beautiful in HD, and with DirectTV's coverage of Amen Corner, and the 15th and 16th holes, I will be more than satisfied. The ESPN coverage was more fluff pieces than golf so I would opt only for the network coverage at the very end on Sunday in order to see the final groups go up 17 and 18. Other than that, if you've got your laptop plugged in, you can keep track of the leaderboard and all the other activity on the course without having to get up and change channels. It should be a wonderful weekend ahead.

And I need the weekend to heal. I played my first 18 holes last Saturday at Wellshire in brand spanking new golf shoes that hadn't been broken in. After 5 holes I was in pain, after 10 I tried to slap on a bandaid, and if it weren't for the beers I wouldn't have made it. Add to that, despite a good warm up, my second shot from the practice tee I pulled a muscle in my back. It must have been the pain in my back that kept me from noticing my heel beeing rubbed raw. At the time of this writing on Friday, I still can't put on a shoe over my left foot. But all is healing now and I am hopeful to get on the course next week. Oh, by the way, I may have been in pain, but I saw some definite improvement in my putting and ball striking by the end of the round. I recorded my first birdie of the year on 17 and managed to finish the round with a par on 18. Overall I shot a 107, and given the pain and the lack of playing recently, I feel it was a good score. Now to get out more often.

To that end I do have a tee time for this coming Thursday, April 17th at 5:00 PM at Wellshire. As always, first come first served, and let me know by 1:00pm on Wednesday.

I also have the first Wellshire Mens Club Tourney happening on Saturday so it should be a good week for golf. I just think I'll break in the new shoes at home a little bit more and stick with the old comfy Addidas AD Comforts.

The website for the week is http://www.digitaldivot.com/ a website that will track your handicap without you having to actually join a club. Not a bad little site, and the service is free!

So if you don't play golf this week, at least watch The Masters this weekend, it will make you anxious to get out and play!

David

The Secret to Thursday Tee Times

Needless to say I was becoming frustrated at the Denver Golf Reservations system. For the second week in a row it looked like there were no tee times available for Wellshire even though I was on the site at 7:01pm. Now I could understand if there were no openings on Thursday nights due to leagues, but as I mentioned in an earlier post, I should have been able to make reservations at least every other week. So last night I looked at all the Denver courses, and guess what, Wellshire was the only course that I could not book a tee time on for Thursday because "There are no tee times available for the date and time desired". I even tried for 1:00pm and different days and each time got the same message. Thinking I must be blackballed by Wellshire somehow I booked a tee time for 5:00pm at JFK. Then sometime in the wee hours of the night it hit me that I HAD been successful at booking the Saturday Tee Time for tomorrow. The only difference was that it was for 18 holes. This morning first thing I cancelled the JFK reservation and went back to Thursday at 5:00 pm at Wellshire, but this time instead of clicking 9 holes, I clicked 18. Voila! We now have a tee time set for next Thursday evening at 5:00 PM. I'm not sure what is wrong with the Wellshire reservation system, and I hesitate bringing it to the attention of the management, but the secret to booking a tee time at Wellshire is to specify 18 holes. Now given the time of day, it will be impossible to work in 18 holes even in the heart of summer so I know that they can't expect us to pay for 18 when we can only get 9 in. I expect that next Thursday I will go in, tell the pro shop I'm playing 9 and go from there. If they ask I will tell them that it is the only way to book a tee time at Wellshire. In any event, we are ON for next Thursday at the desired time and the desired course. As always, participation is first come, first served, and I need to know by Wednesday 1:00pm so I can modify the reservation if necessary.

Remember too that I have an 18 hole (really) tee time for 10:50am tomorrow, April 5th for Wellshire. Please respond by 1:00pm today (4th) if you want to play, there are still spots left.

Next week is the super-bowl of the golf year with The Masters. The coverage should be great from ESPN, CBS, and DirecTV with multiple channels available to those with DirecTV. Coverage will begin in earnest on Wednesday when the par 3 event will be televised for the first time ever. What do you want to bet that no one mentions that co-founder of The National, Clifford Roberts committed suicide at the lake just across from the Eisenhower cabin, or even mention that the 'cabins' include 8 bedrooms, 2 living rooms, saunas, and other amenities that could be easily found more likely at Vail than in any conventional cabin you or I know. I've been listening to Curt Sampson's book 'The Masters' which gives a very interesting history of the place, and the men who created it. A must read for those who love The Masters Tournament as the greatest of the 4 major golf championships. My DVR will be working overtime next week as the only thing better than watching golf (at least in Hi Def) is playing golf. And speaking of which, I can't quite figure out what kind of paint the folks in Texas use on their golf courses. The fairways at this weeks PGA event at the Restone country club almost look like the blue football field that the Idaho State Broncos play on. It just doesn't look right. On the other hand, the ladies event at the Kraft Nabisco looks natural, at least I think so as I found it difficult to keep my eyes off of Paula, Natalie, and Suzanne.....anyway.....

Given yesterday's weather, I did not get out and play, so I will give you an update on playing conditions at Wellshire sometime this weekend. Until then, dream of green fairways and smooth greens.

18 Holes This Saturday, Wellshire, 10:50 Tee Time

As I mentioned in Friday's post, I've gotten a Tee Time for Saturday 18 holes at Wellshire. Even though I was on-line at 7:05pm, only 5 minutes past when they are supposed to release the Saturday times, the earliest time available was 10:50 AM. Hopefully this will work for some of you so e-mail me if you want to get in a full round this Saturday. Be sure to e-mail me at n3xt@arrl.net to be included in the foursome. As always it is first come, first served and reservations will close at 1PM on Friday so I can modify the reservation if necessary. Note, this time is in addition to the Thursday Tee Time of 4:37pm at Kennedy. So make sure in your e-mail you specify Thursday or Saturday.

In other golf news, Andres Romero posted an early enough score on Sunday to hold off the field and win the Zurich Open in New Orleans yesterday. This despite an obscure ruling where he moved his ball that was touching a rake on the 18th hole on Saturday. After taking the penalty stroke, he calmly holed what was now his 4th shot from 50 feet. The golf gods smiled upon him on Sunday. As an added benefit, he gets to play in 2 weeks now at The Masters.

Lorena Ochoa continues to dominate the competition in the LPGA by winning by 7 strokes at the last ever Safeway event at Superstition Mountain in Arizona. Safeway is pulling back to sponsoring just one event, the Safeway Invitational held in Portland, Oregon. So far the LPGA is struggling to maintain their tournaments despite better competition and, arguably, more fan appeal. Up this week is the LPGA's first major at Mission Hills, California.

Bernhard Langer won for the 2nd time in the last 3 weeks taking the Champions Tour Ginn event in Florida. He's just playing significantly better than the competition right now, and though he's just plain ugly to look at, and I don't mean the advertising billboards he wears for shirts, he looks unstoppable in rough conditions which the Ginn event played in. It looked miserable for the gallery out there.

Feel free to join The Official Masters Pool at the golfchannel.com discussion board. Winner gets a sleeve of the balls of their choice from all the losers. It could seriously fill your bag for the season no matter how many balls you lose in the lake. The only down side is that if you lose, you have to send a sleeve of balls to the winner. And if you join and lose, make sure that you do send your balls since it is my job this year to run the pool.

I'll post a new Thursday Tee time this Friday, so until then, work on your swing as best as you can given this mornings snow.

David

Thursday Tee Time, But....

I hope your Easter weekend was enjoyable and you got out and had some fun in the good weather last Saturday. For the 2nd year in a row we've had snow on Easter Sunday. Last year at least we had The Masters on TV. This year we just got to see Geoff Ogilvy at the top of a star studded leaderboard. Oh well, at least The Masters is only 2 weeks away and with it, the start of the golf season for most of the country. I can't wait as I have been stuck at home sick this past week and decided not to venture out to the course yesterday figuring I'd let the antibiotics do their thing. That said, I went to bed before making next Thursday's Tee Time, and lo and behold, it appears to be filled up for any 9 hole rounds after about 1pm. I'm not sure if this is a function of the leagues starting up or if there are just that many people that want to play our beloved course. So for next week at least, the tee time is for 4:37 PM at Kennedy. For whatever reason, JFK is also $2 more expensive than Wellshire, and at $16 for 9 holes it's getting fairly pricey so I'll be sure to bring my own on course beverages. As with all of our Tee Times it is first come first served at n3xt@arrl.net , and I need to know by about 1PM on Wednesday so that I can modify the reservation if necessary.

Next weekend I may get to play on Saturday as the girls fairy godmother (Jill's best friend Adrienne) is flying out for a visit. The last thing they will want to see is me unless I'm doing the cooking so it may be possible to get a full 18 in if the weather cooperates. E-mail me if you are interested, and if I can remember on Saturday night, I'll make sure I get a decent tee-time. I'm thinking a 9:00 AM or there abouts would work best to keep the afternoon free for your other friends and family. I'll publish another post to this blog with the details late this Saturday or Sunday after church.

Saturday April 5th is the last day to sign up for the Wellshire Men's Club Earl Wilcox Tournament which will be held on April 19th. Check out their website for details as to where to send your money. I've found that if I want to get better at golf I need to play more, and the best way to play more is to either come out on more Thursdays or play for money at one of these tournaments. The Wellshire Mens Golf Club is a good sized group, but for any given tournament approximately 25% of the players will win something. Not bad odds, and the tournaments are not all stroke play events. There are best ball, foursome, and other tournaments that tend to spread the love around. Add to that skins for both gross and net scores and you will find yourself getting better before you know it. I improved 9 strokes off my handicap just last year so I know that even a duffer such as myself can get better. Information about the Wellshire Mens Golf Club can be found at their website which is today's Link of the Week the URL is noted in the links section of this blog so visit the blog, and visit the links. I encourage you to just poke around at least see if it's something you'd be interested in. They've recently upgraded their website, and I think more upgrades are planned such as online payments for upcoming tournaments, but I could be wrong about that.

Hopefully I'll feel good enough to get out and hit some balls this weekend and be ready for next Thursday at JFK!

David C.

Finding Rust

As the title to this post implies, I found my game a little rusty the first time out, but there are a lot of things to talk about this week, including:

1. Tee Time for Next Week
2. Next Wellshire Men's Club Event
3. Status of the course at Wellshire on March 20th
4. Status of my game
5. New Things
6. New Links

So, I do have a Tee Time for next week Thursday, March 27th at 4:30pm. As always, first come first served for the available slots. E-mail me at n3xt@arrl.net to reserve your space.

For those in the Wellshire Men's Golf Club, the entry due date for the Earl Wilcox event is April 5th. This is a blind foursome so it should be great fun playing, THEN finding out who your partner from your foursome actually was. In addition to that, the night before the Earl Wilcox, Friday April 18th is meet the board night at the Wellshire Pub for new members (there are over 30 at last count), where the board will pick up the bar tab. Not a bad way to start off the new tournament season in my opinion.

The course at Wellshire is still pretty much in winter hibernation. The rough is cut to the same length as the fairways making just about every ball hitable. The course itself is pretty dry which will see your balls roll a lot farther than they will later in the spring and the summer. The greens have 4 pre-cut holes in them, with 3 of them covered up. That said, you don't want to have to putt over them if at all possible. The greens are generally lightning fast and hard, probably more like Augusta at The Masters than at any other time I've played. The green on the par 3 11th hole has so many ball marks though, that a putt of any distance will likely go off line when you try to get it close. It looks like nobody has repaired a ball mark all winter, and those that did, took out all the roots underneath. Given most of today's ball mark repair tools though, it isn't surprising. Check out the GreenFixGolf link at right for a better solution, and one that I used several times during yesterday's round. If you do pick a blister pack of the tools, pick the black ones, the more expensive gold ones are just gold painted plastic. You'll save $10 on two going that way. The tee boxes were not marked as far as blue or white tees in any way so it was up to me and my Sky Caddie to get us set up at around the right yardage for each hole. So overall, spring is yet to really come to the course, but it's still very playable as I explain below.

As far as my round yesterday, I got to the course early for my 4:20 tee time thinking I'd get some time to putt and generally warm up for the round, but when I checked in with Bob, the starter at 3:45, he said I was free to join a threesome that was just going off the 10th tee. So without any warm-up I teed off with Ed (editorial cartoonist for the Rocky Mountain News), Dave (a retired guy), and Jason (who's wife called him at least 3 times during the 9 holes to find out what he was making for dinner). My usual drive off 10 with the hybrid started good, but hooked toward the left rough, but was OK, my next shot however was topped and I found the pond which, though very low, still had enough water to swallow up my ball. In fact, if you were desperate for balls, now would be the time to hit the course. You could have a couple dozen of balls that were partially buried in the mud of the pond and probably another dozen or so if you looked in the grass on the embankment of the left rough. Now laying 4 it took me another 3 shots to get on the green, and with the speed of the greens off the charts, I wrote down an 11. In other words, not a great start. Now on many a past performance, this would simply set me up for a disasterous round, but having just finished Dr. Bob Rutella's "Golf is Not a Game of Perfect," I put in my mind not to let the bad start get to me. And you know what, it really worked. Though my round was weak at best, I played every shot going forward without consideration as to the trouble encountered with the shot just played. I highly recommend the book as an intro to the mental side of the game. On the par 3 11th, I hit the green on the tee shot, but it went about 10 yards farther than I thought my 9 iron should (I've usually played the hole in the past with an 8 iron). Four putts later, and I was 8 over after 2 holes. Things got better though and I parred the par 4 13th hitting a laser of a 3w from 227 yards out to within 20 feet of the pin. It was a beautiful shot, and showcased the addition of the 3w into my arsenal. It should give me much better options on par 5's and shots that I only had my 3 hybrid for last year. My drives weren't the straightest this evening, but I did have one that went 270 yards and an incredible drive on the 17th that went 283 yards. My total strokes for the round was 56, but after taking into account ESC for number 10, I posted a 53, not great, but still reasonable given it was the first round of the season. The big take aways were that I need to spend more time practicing my wedges and getting used to the new putter. Hopefully the weather will be decent over the next week for me to get some work done in these areas before next week. By the way, green fees went up a buck so now our Thursday nights will cost $14 for 9 holes. I find this was not calculated for my golf budget for the year so I expect to make this up by bringing my own beer, see below for how I plan to do this.

Where new golf things are concerned, and as mentioned above, I am most impressed with my new 3 wood. It seems to be what I have truly been missing as far as distance is concerned. Other new things tried out for the first time were the Cool paq for my Sun Mountain cart. I brought along some sodas and they stayed nice and cold. I look forward to putting in some malt beverages in next week so that I can save a little money vs paying for the beer at the course. Let me know what you like to drink and I can add a can or two to the pouch for the next time we play (the cool paq holds at least 6 12oz cans). I'm still evaluating the e-data coach as far as how useful it will be. My initial impressions are that it needs to find a place on my hip vs carrying it in a pocket to truly make it useable, I also kept getting messed up on whether I needed to record the distance my ball traveled or whether the distance recorded should be the distance left to the hole. I'll give it at least another try or two.

For my golf link of the Week, check out www.coloradoavidgolfer.com . The magazine related site has a cool identification for those who have signed up, and include a free game-tracker interface if you wish to track some of your stats. The forums are pretty empty, but given some increased Colorado interest, they could be an enjoyable read.

Well that's all I have for now, the days are getting longer and I look forward to playing some golf with all of you soon.

David

First Tee Time of the Season!

As of today, the 14th of March, the golf season is open in Colorado! And in order to fully celebrate the season I've booked the first Tee Time for the Wellshire Thursdays group. As noted to the right, I've got a tee time booked for 4:20pm on Thursday March 20th. The early time is necessary to avoid darkness. Sunset will come around 7:10pm. As always, the spots are first come first served, so if you want to play, get back to me as soon as possible. 2 ways to do that are either by entering a comment below this post, or e-mail me directly at n3xt@arrl.net .

The current forecast for next Thursday is a high of 57 with no precipitation currently expected. Obviously if the situation deteriorates significantly we'll have to change our plans.

I went out and hit balls at Park Hill on Tuesday and followed that up with some putting at Wellshire on Wednesday. The one thing for certain is that there is rust on my game, no telling how long it will take to get back into form, but the only way to do that is to start playing and keep practicing in between. At Wellshire I had the opportunity to talk some more with Bob the starter who confirmed that there are at least 4 leagues scheduled for Thursday nights, the good news is that 2 of them, the early league and late league, are every other week, so there should still be good opportunities for us to get on the course. He also stated he'd work with me to squeeze us in. I'm sure the leagues won't be starting up until at least May, so until then we don't have anything to worry about.

The pub changed its menu a little bit, for the worse I'm afraid, they took a number of items off the menu including the Burrito, and the Noonan, but the Nachos, and Burgers are still there. I talked with Ilona who indicated that this summer they will be having grill specials on the patio including 6.95 for burgers and 9.95 for ribs before 7:00pm, so eating early will always be a possiblity.

The practice greens, though not in their summer form, were running pretty fast, so no telling how they'll play on the course.

I was researching the other day on the proper way to fix ball marks as I don't think I'd ever really seen a demonstration, when I came across a new tool that is better for the green and heals the ball marks up to 3 times faster. Check out http://www.greenfixgolf.com/ for information and some videos. I've inquired with both the CGA and the City of Denver Golf courses as to whether they are looking into the system as a way of improving our greens, as well as cutting down maintenance costs required for existing greens, which the tool, if used, could save a ton of money. That and just being a good steward of our city golf courses seems to be a good thing to do.

Lets pray for some great weather next week and get hold of me if you want to play next Thursday!

David

Will the Season Ever Get Here?

Well I sure hope so. Officially, for handicapping purposes, the season doesn't start until next Friday the 14th of March for clubs in the Colorado Golf Association. This includes all the men's clubs associated with the Denver golf courses. But we've had a taste of things when a week ago we saw temperatures in the 70's. My girls and I went and flew kites that day, and by Sunday morning we saw near blizzard conditions and 3 to 6 inches of snow. Such is the weather in Colorado in March. Historically, March is the snowiest month of the year in Colorado, but for those like myself who have been stuck indoors since October, we are finding ourselves going stir crazy. I can't wait to get outdoors and enjoy playing golf. I've gotten most of my winter repairs and upgrades taken care of, I've got the clubs shining, the bag cleaned out (I highly recommend going through your bag just for the purpose of seeing things you thought you lost years ago, like the petrified Snickers bar that had found it's way to the bottom of my bag with an unreadable expiration date, yeachhh), and I've even gotten some range balls hit. So bring on the good weather and let's get out there!

For those that expressed interest last year, the software I use to create the scorecards we used last year and track my rounds was Caddie Master Pro. Brian Yager is the software developer living in Canada, who is a real live golfer. Obviously this is his passion and his product is very good. In an e-mail with him last week he indicated that an update is due any day so hopefully it will fix the one problem I encountered last year and add new functionality to make it even more user friendly. I highly recommend the program for tracking your rounds, the link to his website is over to the left.

This year I'm also going to test out a new product from Medicus (the people who brought you the hinged clubs) called the eData Coach. The product is a little handheld device that you input the particulars of each shot including the club used, the yardage hit, the direction it went, etc. The output is downloaded to a website and reports can be generated that indicate that my drives go 230 yards but tend to hook. From all the data a practice plan can be developed that will allow me to work on the identified weak parts of my game. One of the developers of the product was formerly a teaching pro at Kennedy golf course and will be back in town to work with and promote the eData product this summer. I'll know how well this works pretty fast depending on how well the input device works. It looks a little clunky from a form factor perspective, but I'm sure if it is successful for golfers like you and me, then there will be improvements made over time. If you happen to play with me early in the season, be patient with me if I seem to be fumbling with yet another electronic gadget on the course. At least I'm not taking business calls. More information about the eData Coach can be found at http://www.edatacoach.com/

On these cold days at the end of the week I am enjoying XM satellite radio's coverage of the PGA without paying for XM or using a new piece of equipment. If you are at a computer with a broadband connection you can connect to the full XM radio coverage of tournaments at http://www.pgatour.com/ . The website allows you to connect and listen gratis from the comfort of being in front of your PC. I find it nice to listen to as I am struggling with creating my software applications for work. It's sure beats listening to the regular drivel from sports talk radio that generally doesn't say a thing about professional golf.

We start the next segment of Fantasy Golf with the ESPN Best Ball Challenge next week. Sign up and take on Jason and I, as I seem to be an easy mark the last few weeks. And don't forget that The Masters is only 5 weeks away and DirectTV will feature some great coverage on multiple channels with the standard network coverage to include 56 minutes of golf every hour (only 4 minutes of commercials). Could this be the start of the first Grand Slam since Bobby Jones? Who knows, but so far this year Tiger has won twice, Phil once (came in second once), and Ernie once (he also came in second once). So all the top players are having success which could make for an interesting tournament. Augusta National has so far escaped the drastic measures that the level 4 drought in Georgia has exacted on other golf courses, but if the drought continues and the situation worsens in Augusta, it will make for a less than lush environment. In other words, pray for rain for the area.

Well I should really get back to work, but I'll let you know when I head out to the range, and when I expect to play my first round of the year. And if you don't hear from me for a week, it's because it's still too cold for me to get out of my basement.

Don't forget to 'Spring Forward' and move your clocks 1 hour ahead this Saturday night. If you don't you'll be late for church on Sunday.

Don't Give Up on Golf, America

The link below points to a poignant article written by ESPN Page 2's Mary Burkheit about golf and her father. It reminds me that I learned the game from my Dad, and I have many fond memories out on the golf course with him. I think it's good reading for a cold winter day like today, though I warn you, make sure you have a tissue or two handy. I needed one.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=buckheit/080226&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos1

It may be cold today, but it's supposed to be in the mid to upper fifties the rest of this week with sixties for Saturday. I expect I will go out and hit balls at Park Hill on Thursday at lunch if anyone is interested in joining me. Feel free to drop me an e-mail and we can coordinate times. My e-mail is: n3xt@arrl.net

Wellshire Men's Golf Club sent out their schedule of events for the year. If you were thinking about joining, these are the events that will be played. I expect to play in 7 or 8 of them at this time (pending spouse and calendar approval).

April 19 - The Earl Wilcox - blind draw for partner in your foursome

May 3 - Spring Banquet and Calcutta

May 4 - ABCD flighted scramble

May 17 - Point Par (Stroke Play Event)

June 7 & 8 - 2 Man, 2 Day scramble/bestball Event with picnic on Sunday

May 17 - Match Play Begins

June 22 - Skills by Age Group event

July 12 - Arizona Scramble - 2 nets

July 27 - Modified Stableford

August 9 - 2 Man Best Ball at Meadow Hills

August 23 & 24 - Club Championship with picnic on Sunday

September 5 - Calcutta

September 6 - ABCD Best Ball

September 28 - 2 Man Scramble/Scotch/Best Ball event

October 12 - Roaming Tee Box event

TBD - Fall Banquet

Check on Wellshire Men's Golf Club link at the right if you want more information (their site is being reconstructed as I write this though).

That's it for now, and don't forget to stop over and sign up for the ESPN Best Ball Challenge by clicking on the link on the right. The group is 'Wellshire Thursdays" and the password is "Wellshire".

Going to hit some balls!

Well it's Friday, it's already 42 and looking to get into at least the upper 40's today. I went and checked out the Park Hill Driving Range, and it's open! This is probably my favorite range in Denver as you will actually hit off the grass vs matts. Cost at the driving range is based on a card you can buy for standard $ increments. I bought a $20 card and I anticipate I'll get at least 4 large buckets worth before having to refill the card. The range also has an indoor facility that I didn't know about that will cost you about the same per session. For putting practice I still prefer the putting green at Wellshire where there is some elevation change and undulations that most courses and putting greens seem to lack. For chipping, pitching, and bunker practice, I like City Park as they have a couple of full size greens, with bunkers to hit out of. Just take your own shag balls or buy some range balls and have at it!

The WGC Accenture Matchplay event has been great viewing, though I've been solidly disappointed in NBC's lack of HD cameras. When CBS airs a golf event in HD, every camera is in HD. Not so with NBC, they have HD cameras covering their anchors, the blimp, and the interview area, but for on course coverage it's primarily SD. It's quite annoying going back and forth between the SD and HD cameras that if I was watching live would probably give me a headache.

It looks like Tiger is hitting his stride after a great comeback win against JB Holmes on Wednesday. He pretty much cruised yesterday against Aaron Oberholser. Michelson got bounced out yesterday along with Adam Scott, so a number of the heavy hitters are off to the Honda classic by now.

From the 'who would have guessed' file, it appears that Michele Wie is attempting to actually play some decent golf. She shot her first round under 70 in almost 2 years yesterday and is only 5 shots back in 16th place going into today's second round. Jeong Jang leads at -8, and is putting well with her Yes! Putter.

John Merrick is leading the best of the rest of the golfers not in the WGC Accenture Matchplay, posting a 6 under score after the first round. Dead last honors goes to Bubba Watson who shot a 9 over 79 yesterday, and is another 4 over through 15 today. It looks like he can take that plane out of Cancun tonight and start preparation for The Honda next week.

If you want to hear the WGC Accenture Matchplay from your PC, go to http://www.pgatour.com/ and go to the XM satellite links. You don't need an XM receiver or subscription, but you'll hear the XM feed. The best news is that this feature is FREE.

Anyway, I suppose I'd better get to work so I can hit balls at lunch.

David C.

Welcome

Welcome to The Urban Golfer! I hope to use this as a jumping off point for my golf experience starting this spring 2008. Please feel free to post comments or other things of interest to the Denver golfing community and especially for those of us in the Wellshire Thursdays group and the Wellshire Men's Golf Club community. I hope to be able to keep up on this on a very regular basis, and get ready for a great season of golf in Denver!

David C. Cleveland