In the locals watch of
Philadelphia-area golfers in the U.S. Amateur,after the first of two days of
stroke-play qualifying, two players – AmoryDavis from Chadds Ford and Brian
Belden from Emmaus – are in good position to be among the low 64 who
advance to match play.
Davis, a
senior at the University of Virginia, is the low local, having shot 2-under 70 on The
Home Course, tying him for 11th..Today, he’ll play Chambers
Bay, which will host the match play portion of the Amateur.
Belden, a senior at the University of Kentucky, is tied for 24th after shooting even par
72.He also plays Chambers Bay
today.
Michael Brown, 37, from Cheltenham, winner of the 2010 Philadelphia Open, shot 3-over 75 and
his tied for 97th, along with Brandon
Detweiler, from Akron, Pa., a senior at N.C. State,
who was medalist at local qualifying for the Amateur.
Robert Savarese, from Lafayette Hill, shot 4-over 76 and is tied for
123rd.Marc Mandel, from Conshohocken, shot 6-over
77 at Chambers Bay, leaving him tied for 164th.
Ballamor GC in Egg Harbor Township is
rightfully crowing that nine months after it went public, the course has been
ranked 4th
in New Jersey on Golf magazine’s latest list of Best
Places You Can Play.
The Top
100 nationally and the state-by-state
lists will be published in the September issue of the magazine; it’s already
available on the sister website, Golf.com.
"This comes as a pleasant
surprise," said Ballamor GM Mike Tucci."While we
knew Ballamor
was as good as or even better than some of the other NJ courses, we figured it
might take some time for the word to get out."
Opened in 2001 as a private
club, Ballamor
filed for bankruptcy last fall and reopened Jan. 1 2010 as an upscale daily
fee.
For fans of Pine Valley Golf Club, circle Sunday, Sept. 12 on your calendar.That’s the day of the finals of the 86th Crump Cup.
The George Arthur Crump Cup Memorial Tournament, named for the founder
and main architect of the club, is a four-day competition among a field of top
amateurs.The day of the finals is
the one day of the year that Pine Valley,
near Clementon, N.J., the No. 1
ranked course in the country, throws open its doors to any and all comers.
Here is the pertinent
information for this year’s Crump Cup.
-- Doors open at 1 p.m., Sept. 12.
-- Parking is at the Clementon Lake Amusement Park, 144
Berlin Road, Clementon.Signs will
be posted to direct you to the designated parking area.(Police will not allow parking o East
Atlantic Ave.)
-- Parking is $20 per car, which will include a
shuttle bus ride to the course.
-- The Clementon Youth Athletic Association will set up a refreshment
stand inside the front gate.
-- Video, photographs and cell
phones are not permitted.Do
not bring cameras.
-- In case of inclement
weather, call 856-783-3000, Option4.
For your reading enjoyment, here’s
a tour of the course from GolfClubAtlas.com.Here’s
a good magazine story on the Crump Cup.Photos from last year’s Crump Cup are under Photos on the MyPhillyGolf Home
page.
I don’t know about you but
in the span of about 15 minutes, I went from being totally outraged that Dustin Johnson was getting completely hosed
at the PGA Championship to thinking, in the words of Roberto de Vincenzo, "Whata stupid he is."
How can you come to any
other conclusion, once you’ve seen the CBS video
of Johnson’s tee shot flight path
into what is clearly a bunker?
That,
and the fact that he readily admitted afterward that he hadn’t bothered to read
the Local Rules sheet from the PGA pointing out that every single one
of Whistling Strait’s 1,000 bunkers
would be played as bunkers, not as waste areas, no matter how far off the
beaten path they were.
What happened to Johnson must be tough for him to
swallow but he’s got nobody to blame but himself.
I agree with you up to a point. If the PGA of America was going to declare all of the 1,000-plus bunkers in play, as they did, then they should have kept fans from walking in them. Unfortunately, because of where Pete Dye put so many of the bunkers at Whistling Straits, that’s not practical if you want to have spectators attend the tournament. They have nowhere else to walk.
However, what is inescapable is that the PGA gave a Local Rules sheet to every player declaring the bunkers in play. For competitors, reading that sheet, especially in a major, is Golf 101.
Wolfman Dan
[8/17/2010 7:26:59 AM]
The patrons should not be allowed to stand in the bunkers of the golf course. If so, it should be a waste bunker, and grounding is OK. Try having a patron stand in the bunker at Augusta, and see what happens. Terrible, with terrible outcome. The PGA should be embarrassed.
Three of the top sticks from
the ranks of the Philadelphia PGA
Section are in the field of this week’s final major of the year, the PGA Championship
at Whistling Straits.
They are: Rich
Steinmetz, 38, head from at Spring
Ford CC in Gilbertsville; Mark
Sheftic, 35, teaching pro at Merion
GC in Ardmore; and Stu
Ingraham, 50, teaching pro at M Golf
Range & Learning Center in Harrisburg.
All three are good enough
and sufficiently experienced that it’s not out of the question that any or all
could survive the cut, even if the odds are against it.Twenty club pros are in the field.
For Ingraham, a former PGA Tour player, this is his sixth trip to the PGA Championship; he made the cut in
his last two appearances, in 1993 and 1996.For Steinmetz and
Sheftic, this is their second trip
to the PGA.
Here’s
a story on Steinmetz; here’s
one on all three.
I reached a watershed moment in my golfing career
over the weekend.
No, I did not make a hole-in-one.No, I did not win the club
championship.No, I did not
break 70 or even 80.I added a second hybrid to my bag.
I realize, of course, that
officially makes me an Old Fart.
It’s one thing to carry a
single hybrid; that’s not necessarily un-manly; but two hybrids is definitely Old Fart territory.
When hybrids first appeared
on the scene a few years ago, most better golfers eyed them with curiosity,
ambivalence, suspicion, even scorn.Over time, many golfers opened their minds and their wallets and
eventually took the hybrid plunge.
This was back when even
weekend hacks generally still carried 3-irons and even 2-irons.(Years ago, for a brief time, I even
carried a Ping Eye-21-iron; among golfers, nothing says
badass like a 1-iron. It’s been so
long ago I forget whether I wrapped that 1-iron around a tree or threw it in a
lake.)
I finally bought my first hybrid
three or four years ago, after plenty of golfers already swore by them and
equipment companies were even coming out with entire sets of hybrid irons.My first hybrid was 19-degrees, killing two birds, or
clubs, with one stone.I got rid
of my 4-wood and my 3-iron.
Although I’ve tried a couple
different brands of hybrids since then, I have continued to be a 19-degree man, allowing me to remain loyal
to and confident in my 4-iron.
At least until about a week
or so ago, when I noticed that two or three 4-iron shots were as, well, not as crisp and solid as they might
have been.In point of fact, the
ball flew off the club like a sickly
pigeon.Didn’t sound good,
feel good or look good.
I swallowed my pride and
drove to my neighborhood big box golf chain store.Soon enough, I was running my fingers across the smooth,
metallic underbelly of a 21-degree
hybrid.
"Can I help you?" asked a nosey
clerk, who had clearly snuck up on me.
"No," Isaid, dropping the hybrid like a
12-year-old caught looking at Playboy.
When the nosey clerk was
gone, I fondled the 21-degree
more.Not only did it have more
loft, the shaft was shorter.I knew that meant more control.I could no more walk out of that store without that 21-degree hybrid than an addict could walk away from the front door
of a crack house.
I played my first couple of
rounds with "21" over the weekend.I love it.I hit it like a 4-iron,
then I choked it down an inch and hit it like a 5-iron and, I kid you not, choked it down even more and hit it like
a 6-iron.
But that was too much, too
far, too quick.I refuse to be one
of those stooped-over old geezer farts you see pulling a pull cart, dragging a
bag with putter, SW, PW, 9, 8, 7 and
nine variations of hybrids and woods.I will
not be that guy.
At least not for now, not
until a 23-degree hybrid catches my
eye.
Over the last few years I have changed my set mix from a "standard" setup of driver, 3 & 5 wood, 3 - PW, GW & SW to driver, 4 wood (17 deg), hybrids (19 & 24 deg), 5 - PW (47 deg), GW (52 deg), SW (56 (deg) & LW (60 deg) and have brought more consistency to my scores (i.e. more in the lower 80’s and less often blowing up into the 90’s).
So, I prefer to think of myself as getting wiser as I get older (early 50’s) and not as "getting more flatulent".
Jason W.
[8/10/2010 7:22:56 PM]
Joe - It’s not how, it’s how many. Don’t count your hybrids, count your strokes.
The Muni Golfer
[8/10/2010 9:52:43 AM]
I’ve had as many as 3 in the bag, but right now it is just 1. But, before the end of the golf, I think there will be at least 1 more to keep it company...
Steve
[8/10/2010 5:23:12 AM]
Geez...I found an old Ping 9 Ti wood/metal in my garage recently and it’s now in my bag. What does that make me?
Ed
[8/9/2010 6:22:38 PM]
I’d feel bad for you if I didn’t have three hybrids.