Golflogic.ca

President Roh Moo Hyun demanded Prime Minister Lee Hae Chan’s offer to step down over because of his most recent golf game, Roh’s chief spokesman said.

Premier Lee has been under mounting pressure to resign after causing distress whenever he plays golf. On March 1 railway workers launched a nationwide strike that paralyzed South Korea’s public transport system during one of Lee’s games.

Previous to this, Lee was playing golf during a solemn public holiday on which Koreans solemnly commemorate the March 19 popular uprising for independence against Japanese colonial rule. At the time, Lee was playing golf with businessmen suspected of attempting to lobby him, and at least one of his partners was convicted of stock price rigging, local reports said.

Lee, who assumed his post in June 2004, had also been criticized for playing golf during times of national trouble. He was playing golf in April last year during a devastating forest fire and again three months later when heavy rains pounded the southern areas, causing widespread flooding.

The Uri Party has sought Lee’s resignation for fear that the premier’s golf game might further erode the economy and weather patterns over Korea.

In a response to the opposition Grand National Party, which has long demanded Lee’s resignation, Lee made a public apology. Lee said, ”I apologize for my inconsiderate behavior to the people and to hard-working government officials. In the future I will make sure airports and the South Korean military are routinely put on alert whenever I play golf.”

–story filed by Michael Shandrick

Review by Michael Shandrick 

A Real Guy’s Guide to Chopping Ten Strokes Off Your Score, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 2007.

By John Daly, with Glenn Waggoner

The cover of Golf My Own Damn Way epitomizes the renegade allure of John Daly: quintessentially finishing a swing with a cigarette in his mouth. But don’t let Daly’s self-deprecating demeanor fool you. With 158 pages of anecdotes and tips on grip, stance, posture and aim, his latest book is a serious analysis of pre-game warm-ups, practice sessions and pre-shot routines all aimed at making us average guys and gals — who shoot between 90 and 119 on our better days – into better golfers.

More than an instructional manual, Golf My Own Damn Way is as close as we’ll come to having a conversation with Daly, and he answers most of the questions we’d probably love to ask him and those he doesn’t want to hear again. What about those gizmos to improve our game? “Bullshit.” What putter do you recommend? “Once you find yourself a good woman hang on to her. You never know what fresh hell you’re in for if you trade her in for a new model.” How do we improve our scores? “Take lessons.” Can we learn how to play golf from this book? “Don’t buy this book to learn about golf. Take lessons first.” Why can’t tour players just wear Bermuda shorts? “Good question.”

I got the idea that Daly wrote the book because he may end up playing with us at a charity pro-am event and he’d like us to bring our “A” game. He doesn’t like slow play. “Call the game after five hours and if you have three holes left, give yourself a birdie and two pars.” In fact, he’d like it mandatory that each tournament player has to drive their own carts to speed up the game.

Daly shares stories about his favorite course, best hole, worst experience, and provides some of his favorite quotes, including one from his playing partner, Glen Waggoner. “Keep your eye on the club. There’s nothing more embarrassing than to throw a club and then have to ask a playing partner where it went.”

For those wondering if Daly mentions his very public dispute with his wife this summer, he does.

Unlike Daly’s Grip It and Rip It: John Daly’s Guide to Hitting the Ball Farther Than You Ever Have Before with John Andrisan, Golf My Own Damn Way takes a departure from the grip it and rip it style of hitting a driver off the tee. “Use a 3-wood.” What?! “This book is about shaving strokes off the first four holes.” How do I avoid a slice off the tee? “Set up on the far right and aim left.” How can we get more power? “Listen to inside of your back foot.” Are you sure we should use a 3-wood off the first tee? “Yes, leave the driver in the trunk, guys.” How come you take your driver so far back on your backswing? I can imagine him saying, “Buy the book.”

To his credit, Daly finished Golf My Own Way during one of the worst years in his career. Last March at the Honda Classic, he tried to hold up his mammoth 135-mile an hour swing after a spectator snapped a picture of him mid-swing. He separated his ribs and shoulder, which cost him three months on the Tour. In November 2007 Daly withdrew from a tournament in Florida after completing the third round, which included a quadruple-bogey, his third of the season. He entered 24 events on tour this year and finished only eight, missing 10 cuts. Now you can understand why Daly wants it mandatory that people in galleries leave their cell phones and cameras at home even if it means a strip search to enforce a ban on all these devices.

Yet, with all the distractions, Daly still made it to the leader board for a day at both the British Open and the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Championships, giving those of us at home and in the gallery hope he could once again win these major championships.

For nearly twenty years John Daly remains one of the most popular gallery attractions in modern golf, especially among those who want the experience of seeing his towering drives off the tee in person. Yet this laconic posturing belies a genuine work ethic aimed at making us better and having some fun playing golf.

Despite the calamity going on in San Diego County, golf courses are getting calls from golfers to see if courses are open.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-golf25oct25,0,7893009.story?coll=la-home-center

San Diego Fires Brush Past Fairways

Numerous golf courses throughout San Diego County have closed their fairways out of concern for golfers’ well being. Aside from the courses that face potential physical damage from the flames, several county courses have closed due to poor air quality and a lack of staff.

Naturally, all courses located within mandatory evacuation areas are closed. They include Rancho Carlsbad GC, Ocean Hills CC, Shadowridge GC, Aviara GC, La Costa Resort and Spa, Encinitas Ranch GC, Crosby National, Santaluz GC, Rancho Santa Fe Farms GC, Morgan Run GC, Lomas Santa Fe GC, San Vincente GC, Mt. Woodson CC, Twin Oaks GC, Escondido CC, Lake San Marcos CC, El Camino CC, Bridges at Rancho Santa Fe, Rancho Bernardo Inn GC, Vineyard at Escondido GC, Maderas GC, Stoneridge CC, Del Mar GC, Fairbanks Ranch GC, Carmel Mt. Ranch GC, Barona Creek GC, Rancho San Diego GC, Steele Canyon GC and Auld GC.

As of today the following courses remained open: Tecolote Canyon GC, Adm. Baker GC and Cottonwood GC. Adm. Baker GC reported seeing heavy smoke but determined the course to be safe and at Cottonwood, fire could be seen on Mt. San Miguel ridge. The flames changed direction though and business continued as usual.

On a lighter note, Riverwalk GC was extremely busy with golfers today. They remained open and some of the Qualcomm evacuees opted to play a round of golf to take their minds off of the tremendous devastation. Riverwalk offered twilight rates to the evacuees.

The Harris fire surrounded the course and burnt up the edges of the green fairways. Salt Creek Golf Course and the structures on site went unscathed and the course returned to normal operation today. But yesterday was anything but normal.

Salt Creek opened its clubhouse and driving range to the firefighters battling the relentless flames. The course clubhouse provided food and water to the weary firefighters and the driving range, normally littered with little white balls, was covered with firefighters catching naps on their much-too-short, 20-minute breaks. The firefighters used the makeshift command post at Salt Creek until 10 p.m.

Although the details have not been finalized, Salt Creek plans to offer firefighters free rounds of golf next month.

San Diego natives and professional golfers Phil Mickelson and Chris Riley dodged a bullet in the form of fire. Riley lives on the coast and his home is currently not within an evacuation zone. Mickelson, who returned from New Jersey, was forced to evacuate his family from their Rancho Santa Fe home.

Mickelson’s public relations representative T.R. Reinman said the golfer’s property suffered minor damages but the structure itself was left relatively untouched by the Witch Creek Fire. Two of his neighbors were not as fortunate as their homes were completely destroyed. An adjacent neighborhood was completely destroyed as well. As of now, Mickelson and his family are staying at their second home near the coast. Mickelson still intends to travel to Southeast Asia in two weeks to compete in a tournament.

Report from San Diego Golf News – http://www.xksandiego.com/cms/newsletter.php?newsletter=Golf&area=display_record&arid=1446

I hope Musqueam and government negotiators discussing the future of the University Golf Club keep in mind that it’s not just a golf course but also a cemetery. During its 78 years of existence, an uncounted number of former players have had their ashes spread on the course with the reasonable expectation that it would remain a golf course available to all British Columbians in perpetuity.
– Horace Harrison, Vancouver. Letter to the editor, Vancouver Sun, September 19, 2007.
 

There is more going on than just a battle over land between elderly white golfers and the Musqueam band, which is due to take over the course in 2033. Similarly, the band will take control of the Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club in 2032. The band already hosts the Musqueam Golf Club on its land.
 

At issue is the prime real estate the golf courses sit on. These properties could net substantially far more to the eventual owners than profits from running a golf course ever would. What is causing concern is that Gordon Campbell’s Liberals are holding secret negotiations between land developers and the University of British Columbia, which is already selling off its real estate on the University Endowment Lands to developers building executive mansions and luxury condos – reason enough to believe UBC is building a city on what is now Crown Land. The Musqueam, not always included in these discussions, have shown they are prepared to go to court to make sure their interests are taken to heart about land they are actually entitled to.
 

The problem for the public is one of transparency. Without a public process there is only rancor, feeding a thinly veiled racist narrative about casinos, trailer parks and greed.  The less the public understands the consequences in these negotiations, the less the public has access to the common good, which includes information they need in order to vote.
 

The secrecy around these negotiations has left a sour taste in the mouths of many golfers and non-golfers alike, few of whom have a voice in how the public can be involved.
 

Maybe those ghosts of bygone duffers at the University Golfing Cemetery have something to say about all this. 

I went to a pitch and putt course this summer and found the maintenance crews were still on strike and the greens dry as a bone. The crews encouraged me to cross the picket line for free, so I played the nearly deserted course where the earth was cracked and the normally trimmed grass was left ragged. I really enjoyed myself. I felt like I was playing a US Open. The balls bounced off the green. Putts went sideways. It was a different game and it reminded me of the pitch and putt I played as a youth in Colorado, where they say the ground is as hard and dry as a “banker’s heart”.

Do we really need imported grasses? What if we didn’t need to keep weeds at bay and left the course to over-grow itself? A golf course is un-natural when it is pristine. The vegetation requires vast amounts of petro-based chemicals to make the greens greener. Grasses unknown to the region are imported and planted at great cost, requiring massive water support. Toxic chemicals are used to rid the area of weeds. A flowering banquet of other native plants are often ripped up and tossed because they don’t meet the esthetics of course designers and club members. Trees that do not support the style of the golf administrators are cut down, illustrated at the 2007 U.S. Open at Oakmont in Pennsylvania, where some 500 native trees were toppled for the tournament. And in some cases, nature gets in the way and has to be removed with sad results for wildlife. (See ‘Red Tail Hawks’ — “As It Lies more…

Wendy and Kenneth Fox have run Silver Rill Corn Ltd., a farm market in the verdant landscape near Victoria BC, for the past 40 years. In 2004, a startling crop of golf balls appeared among the carrots, beets, bean, peppers, peas, broccoli, corn and strawberries. It turned out that a new driving range rezoned into the area’s farmland had just opened and as many as 100 balls a day would cross over the Fox’s property line.

Wendy Fox is now plaintiff in a court case expected to go to trial soon before the BC Supreme Court. When Fox first complained to her new neighbours, Island View Golf, she was ignored. Told by a city engineer that there was no driving range that could guarantee 100% containment, she next went to a Central Saanich Council meeting to ask for their help with the problem, taking with her a dozen supporters carrying 30 boxes of golf balls (10,000 to 12,000 in all). Fox intended to illustrate how much of a containment issue there was.

“The bottom line is that we have a 10-acre farm and we can only live and work on five acres,” Fox said in a telephone interview. “Their fences aren’t working. They’ve never worked. These are band-aid solutions.” The Council sent her to the Land Commission, which had originally rezoned the farm area to allow an A4 designation for the driving range. “Why would they do that without a buffer zone?” she asks.

The commission, in turn, notified Island View Golf, which – to their credit – spent $300,000 putting up poles and erecting new fencing. “At first, 100 balls came over every day and now there are 10 to 25 a day, but when you have people working the farm, even one ball is too many when you have the Workers’ Compensation Board breathing down your neck. I can’t ask workers to risk injuries from falling golf balls.”

In January 2007, Fox returned 12,000 more golf balls she had collected to Island View Golf. Fox, 53, is shouldering most of the farm and legal work because her husband is recovering from a bone marrow transplant, part of his cancer treatment over the last two years. During this same period, she became frustrated with the legal foot-dragging and lawyered up. “It’s hugely expensive to go to court,” she says. “But they (Island View Golf) still haven’t closed the upper tier, and the new posts they put up are less than 100 feet high. When we asked them to fix things, they keep asking for extensions and doing nothing. All we want is our land back.”

On June 15, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the plaintiffs (Silver Rill) on a charge of contempt against the defendants (Island View Golf) for continuing to allow 81 golf balls to cross the Fox property between June 5, 2006 and June 14, 2006, “launched from the defendant’s golf driving range.” Island View Golf has to pay a $5,000 fine and court costs.

The contempt charge against Island View Golf fuels Fox’s cheerful resolve. “I’m not anti-golf, I like golf. It’s just that I don’t like it right next to me.”

Errant golf balls continue to fly into the Fox’s field from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. But Fox can no longer enjoy looking across the valley at night or watching the stars, because the driving range lights are on late. She can’t hear the frogs or crickets chirping over the sounds of the ball collecting machines running to midnight. Even if they wanted to sell their property they can’t: the 10 acres resides on agricultural land reserve.

While thousands of hooks and slices fade on her property, an equal number of balls fall onto a farm on the other side of the driving range. That family is waiting to see how the Silver Rill case works out before going to court. “They’re fence sitters,” says Fox.

Meanwhile, the couple wait for the trial date when they must prove that the Island View Driving Range constitutes a danger and inconvenience to the plaintiffs, their employees and others using the plaintiffs’ property. Fox must also prove that errant golf balls allege serious inconvenience and deny the residents of the farm reasonable use and enjoyment of their property.

Billing itself as “Vancouver Island’s No. 1 driving range” on its numerous television spots and its website, Island View Golf [http://www.islandviewgolf.com/index.html ] offers a monthly membership for $59.95, which provides “unlimited range balls.” There is little reason they should ever run out of those. By the time the trial opens Fox will probably have another 12,000 range balls to return to Island View Golf. This time she’ll let her lawyer drop them off.

NOTE: Through its attorney, Robert S. Gill, Island View Golf declined to answer any questions on the case.

You’ve heard them on weekends and during golf tournaments. The alpha-types are out there on the fairway cursing and ranting about their shot that just went into the rough. What should be a day away from the office becomes just another day at the office working at golf.

I’ve noticed this when I’m playing with people I don’t know. I only know them by their reactions to a golf shot. They jump on themselves and others when they make a mistake. I also see it in business. The smallest issue quickly becomes a firestorm of activity amid crisis and negativity. There is no up from there.

According to David Breslow, the Golf Channel’s columnist on the Mental Game, many people operate this way and don’t realize that they are “thriving” when they react in this manner. Yet this behavior does not produce the outcome they wish or remove the problem; rather it has a negative impact on productivity among those on the course and those unfortunates back in the office.

Breslow, a speaker and author, says that considering the amount of money golfers put into their equipment, travel and time practising, it is reasonable to enjoy a more positive experience from a game of golf. Breslow offers his clients the FlowZone© program, which is “very, very simple” he says.

For instance, Breslow suggests committing to finding at least ONE thing you can celebrate on every hole, no matter what your score is on that hole. “This forces your brain to search for those hidden moments that might normally slip away. Find moments to celebrate AND CELEBRATE THEM. Feel good about them, smile, put a bounce in your step, pump your fist or whatever! “

Another problem is that too many golfers focus on WHAT’S NOT WORKING. While some may mildly acknowledge what they did right, they are more intense about what went wrong.

Breslow offers a simple question:

What do you react to with greater intensity; the outcomes you like or the outcomes you don’t like?

“Most golfers admit they respond with greater intensity to the results they don’t like,” he says. “If this is you, remember your mind will record what you focus on with the greater intensity and that is what you will store on your tape.”

David Breslow
Performance Success Strategies
847.681.1698
www.theflowzone.net

What if boomers have fooled everyone and traded their golf bags for backpacks or motorcycles? This question came to mind after I ran across some statistics recently that suggested a decline in golf participation in BC and North America in general.

Every time I play, there seems to be a crowd in front of us and behind us. The green fees haven’t gone down, which you would expect in a soft market. So I called the guy who has his finger on the pulse of the game in British Columbia.

Kris Jonasson, Executive Director, BC Golf Association the past decade, keeps in touch with the BCGA’s 67,000 members and their clubs. He also reads every survey and research report that comes across his desk. He has a pretty good idea where the sport is headed in the province, from grassroots programs to the elite BC teenagers now earning their reputations in national tournaments. He said when the sun in out, tee-times are full and business is good. It’s in the off-times that the bean counters start working the numbers and coming up short. “It’s always been a problem tracking down the number of golfers,” Jonasson said. “But there are signs the market is down.”

With some 280 public courses in BC, and 11 private clubs, there was an increase from 1998 (771,000) to 2006 (830,000) among those who play at least one round of golf a season. This metric doesn’t measure golfers as a percentage of overall population growth or decline, however. During the same period there has been significant growth of upscale residential communities being built with new golf courses.

Jonasson explains course growth as real estate driven not market-driven. He remains cautious about forecasting the numbers of golfers. “Our concern is whether golf participation achieves continued growth of 1% – 1 ½% per year, and for the past two years it has been flat,” he said.

Industry growth will be chief among the topics discussed when Jonasson takes the gavel to the podium of the International Association of Golf Administrators (IAGA) meeting in Greensboro, North Carolina for its annual meeting. As their new president, he brings savvy and a robust charter to the position. It doesn’t hurt that British Columbia was voted the Number #1 golf destination by the International Association of Golf Tour Operators (IAGTO) in 2007.

While golf continues to be the #1 participation sport with one in five people across the province and North America playing at least one round per year, Jonasson and others will keep their eyes open for factors that could deter sustained growth. This could include slowing US and Asian economies, prolonged poor weather, and a rapidly aging population who are turning to other sporting alternatives.

Maybe we should just ask the Scottish, who invented the game. Did they ever worry about statistics?

Good news for Canadians: better tee times this summer.
 
Lots of Republican golfers won’t be coming up this way any time soon.  You see, this past January the Democratic majority in the US House of Representatives vigorously launched into ethics legislation, which banned golf junkets on corporate jets used for government business. These new laws were part of an effort by legislators to clean up Washington’s culture of corruption, brought to an unprecedented level by Jack Abramoff, the top Republican lobbyist.
Abramoff, now serving an 11-year sentence in a Maryland minimum facility, is ratting out his colleagues in a plea bargain and is helping prosecutors win guilty pleas or convictions from a long list of his friends who were once among the rich and powerful.
 
What triggered the scandal were the costs of a “recreational” golf trip to St. Andrews, Scotland in 2003, led by the now-disgraced Abramoff.
 
These days, Abramoff might be in a work party wearing a safety orange jumpsuit along the highway. If he were allowed to talk to the public he could tell you about the time he and Tom Delay, majority whip of the House, flew across the Pacific in a charted plane to play golf at a luxury resort in the northern Marianas Islands in the South Pacific, paid for by special interest groups who wanted permission to keep Asian sweat shops in US territory. Abramoff could also tell you stories about the time he and his friends played the old course at St. Andrews and spent $156,000 for a few days of green fees and other legitimate political expenses. They flew there and back in a corporate jet. Abramoff now spends his time along the highway looking out at the tall fence surrounding his new home. He will seldom have enough space to swing a club. The only bag they will be carrying around is one that holds garbage or his laundry.
 
He is far from his country club set where he and his cohorts extorted, bribed and conned people into giving them tens of millions of dollars to leverage political clout in Washington. These include lobbyists, senior government officials, governors, Congressmen and appointed Bush cabinet members, who circumvented national security laws and the loathsome Patriot Act they helped legislate into existence.  Some twenty of them are under indictment, another twenty are already serving their sentence, while a dozen or more have been targeted for further indictments. 
The most chilling part is that Abramoff conducted his lobbying in such an arrogant manner that it makes federal investigators wonder whether he ever worried about getting caught.  
 
As for those who are now awaiting sentencing, their best days on the links are behind them. Their weekends will be spent preparing their testimony rather than teeing off. They will soon face the House Ethics and Rules Committee members.
 
“Sir, did you play golf in Scotland with Jack Abramoff?”

I occasionally read articles by Rich Gordin, Mike Weir’s sports psychologist, on www.Weir.com. He recently wrote about expectations. For the most part Gordin says we should not take the game too seriously. In my case, as with everything to do with golf, I’ve learned just how low one can go with lowered expectations.
I played my first round of golf last Sunday since injuring my knee and back while biking on the trails last July. The course was a wet sponge. The sky, gun-metal grey, was spitting Scotch mist. I didn’t expect to exceed my expectations, which were to play somewhat competitively against myself, the course and the other two players in our band of three. (Calling ourselves a threesome makes me queasy.) 

Dr. K had set it up. He called Hank and me insisting we begin our season at our favorite pitch and putt at Rupert Park in Burnaby, where we traditionally warm up with our short game until sometime in July, move into 9-hole courses until September, and work up the nerve to play 18 holes in early October.

The good doctor had been obviously doing some serious training over the winter and he might have had a secret indoor putting green installed. He didn’t say anything but showed us near perfect wedge shots to the green. He doesn’t need the 9-iron anymore. I complimented Dr. K on his accuracy but later, with some jealously, accused him of playing without any degree of finesse.

No envy with Hank. It was simply good to see him. He’d trimmed down since I last saw him, just after his bypass. (See As It Lies: Hank on the Mend.) I hadn’t expected to surpass his shots. We got caught up on all the news while zigzagging, looking for our lost shots in the bog, and eventually ended up with the same score.
My wedge was still slumbering from the long winter rest and the 9-iron needed new batteries.  I would have done better if I had used a lawn rake instead of my putter. In any event, I was glad I made it out of bed and onto any course, after spending the winter hibernating and giving my body a rest.  My weight training was limited to carrying golf books and videos back and forth from the library. I kept mentally mapping all the shots I reckoned I’d need in real life. My mistake was that I had mapped shots for a course I was not presently playing on. I did not judge my shots too severely; instead, I laughed out loud at them. I was also amazed how many prime numbers I could put into such a small space on my scorecard. Dr. K diagnosed me with the yips. Hank smiled enigmatically.

In terms of my expectations, I was grateful to finish with the same set of them I arrived with. And, surprisingly, with the same ball too.

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See: Dr. Rich Gordin