TERRE HAUTE —
Most people consider the time around Christmas to be the gift-buying season. Retailers also count on the other gift-buying season, springtime! In the months of May and June it’s graduation time and we have Mother’s Day, Father’s Day. Mother’s Day is the biggest day of the year for sending flowers and cards. If someone were keeping track, I’m pretty sure Father’s Day would be the number one day for giving golf balls! There are so many other ideas for that golf-addicted father of yours, you shouldn’t limit yourself to golf balls.
First of all, I must say that if your dad is a golfer, golf balls are always a pretty good idea. Golf balls are used and lost and just worn out, so having plenty of new balls on hand is a good idea.
However, if you don’t know what kind of ball your dad likes to use, don’t just buy any old golf ball that is on sale! If he is particular, those golf balls will sit on a shelf and never get used.
The best way to find out what kind of ball your dad uses, ask him. He might be very specific, telling you what brand and type, such as “Titleist PRO-V IX” or Srixon Z-star. If you’re a non-golfer, that won’t mean anything to you, so write it down, and take it with you when you go to the pro shop or sporting goods store to buy your father’s day gifts.
If you want to keep your gift a surprise, ask his buddies what he uses. If he has a group that he plays with regularly, they are bound to know what he likes to use. It’s possible that your dad doesn’t want you to buy him any golf balls though. He might have plenty, or might prefer to buy them himself (being wary of your ability to get the right kind).
There are many, many other options available as a great gift for Father’s Day. Great golf gifts can range in price from under $10 to over $1,000.
A bag of tees or some divot tools or ball markers would be on the lower end of the price spectrum. A gift of a vacation at a golf resort would be on the high end! In between the items are many to choose from.
A very useful item that would be inexpensive is a golf towel. You could have some fun with that, having something embroidered on it that was special like “World’s Greatest Dad” or “Gamblin’, Golfing, and Grinnin’.”
Another possibility on the lower price end would be a golf head cover. Head covers go over drivers or woods, and help protect them from being banged around as clubs are transported in and out of the car, etc. Just because they serve a practical function, it doesn’t mean they have to be boring! Head covers can make a unique statement. Animal head covers are popular, and so are cartoon characters. You can find gorillas, penguins, sharks, many kinds of dogs, parrots, eagles, and of course lions, tigers and bears. In syndicated cartoons you can get Fred Flintstone, Superman, Scooby Doo, Bugs Bunny, Sylvester, Tweety, Yosemite Sam and the whole Looney Tunes gang. You can also get Darth Vader, Yoda or Boris the Vilan with a little bomb in his hand, if your dad has a great sense of humor! Just look in your local golf shop or online, and you’re sure to find something fun. Head covers usually cost between $20 and $40.
If your dad is a reader, books are great gifts. I would recommend a book called “A Son of the Game” by James Dodson. It is a story about a father passing along the love of the game of golf to his son, and the contentment he finds in doing so. Another book that is a classic that any golfer would love is “Arnold Palmer: Memories, Stories, and Memorabilia from a Life on and Off the Course”, by Arnold Palmer. It is essentially Arnold Palmer’s scrapbook, with personal and professional stories, rare photos, and facsimiles of 12 collectibles from his archives.
For gifts on the high end of the spectrum, especially for the gadget lover, there is such a thing on the market called a range finder. These electronic devices can tell a golfer how far it is from his ball to the green, or even his ball to the sand trap. There are many makes and models of range finders, with the more expensive ones capable of measuring more distances.
Be careful though, some of these require a monthly membership in order to be able to use all of the bells and whistles. Range finders are usually upwards of $200, but boy, are they a big hit out on the golf courses these days. Among its greater benefits, it saves a golfer time by not having to hunt down a sprinkler head with a distance on it, and step it off. Believe me, if your dad doesn’t have one, he probably wishes he did!
Another idea that dad would probably appreciate, especially after a bad day on the course, is a bottle of really good Scotch. It might not help his game, but it might help him feel better about it!
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Quote of the Day: “Golf is played by twenty million mature American men whose wives think they are out having fun.” — Jim Bishop
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Upcoming Event — The Terre Haute Women’s Golf Association will be holding their 2-person Ringer Tournament at Hulman Links on June 25 and 26. In The Ringer you play 18 holes one day, then on the second day take only your scores that are improvements over the first day. The cost is $20 for green fees and cart. Tee times will begin at 9 a.m. both days. For more information call Sandy at (812) 877-3485.
On & Off the Course
ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Father’s Day is a good day for golfers
- On & Off the Course
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: With some tricky rules, golf is not a walk in the park
Golf is not a casual sport, even though it has a term called “casual water.”
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On and off the course: Sycamores seeded sixth heading into MVC golf tourney
It wasn’t too long ago that Indiana State University didn’t even have a women’s golf team.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: A hard ticket to come by
This is the weekend of the Masters Tournament, the first of the four major tournaments.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Some things on golf course are worse than steep putts
It’s not often that anything gets more scary on a golf course than a steep downhill putt, but on some courses around the world, things a little more on the supernatural side might give you a bigger fright!
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: The shot heard round the world
I don’t know if the Golf Channel will show a “Best Shots of 2011” highlight reel, much like ESPN does for baseball or football.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: The Red, White and Blue visits the Isle of Green
In 2006, the Ryder Cup was held in Ireland at The K Club in County Kildare.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Fall may be coming but golf season is far from over
Once the major tournaments are over with, what’s there to look forward to in the world of golf?
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Golf… simplified!
Golf is not a simple game. A golf course is made up of 18 holes, all different. There are par-3s, par-4s and par-5s; they all vary in length and elevation, and each has its own challenges. There can be water hazards, trees, sand bunkers, tall grass, hills, valleys — and then, if that’s not enough, there’s probably wind too.
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On and Off the Course: Northern Ireland builds on golf history
Northern Ireland is only about 5,452 square miles in area and has a population about the same as West Virginia, which is about 1,880,344.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Women’s Open at the Broadmoor
This is the weekend of the U.S. Women’s Open, and this year it’s being played at The Broadmoor, East Course, in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: The Fort Golf Course: A Walk in the Park…
Indiana has some pretty spectacular state parks, but one of them gives you the ability to “spoil a good walk” by chasing a little white ball.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Father’s Day is a good day for golfers
Most people consider the time around Christmas to be the gift-buying season.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Playing with lead a difficult task
As exciting as last week’s Masters was, with six players being tied for the lead at one point on Sunday, it was very difficult watching Rory McIlroy fall apart to shoot an 80.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Masters a rite of spring
This is Masters weekend, the grand kickoff to the golf season for a lot of golfers. Sure, there have been tournaments on TV, because the professionals have been playing in Hawaii, California, Texas, Dubai, and other areas not so affected by winter as we are here in the Midwest, but to me, watching The Masters is a rite of spring.
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ON THE OFF THE COURSE: Some history on the Ryder Cup
I fell asleep in way too many history classes to ever qualify as a history buff. However, since I have grown up a bit (not much), I enjoy learning about all kinds of history. I often have questions about how something began, or how something came to be.
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On and Off the Course: Purdue's Kampen Course a gem in Indiana's rough
About a month ago, Indiana was still heavily mired in heat and humidity, making outdoor activities such as golf less appealing than usual. At that time it felt like the repressive heat would never go away, it would never rain again, and all of the grass was just going to continue to wither and die. And the month prior to that we kept getting rained out of golf events!
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On and Off the Course: Successful golfers know ... focus is the key
I have a good friend who coached his daughter’s basketball team for a number of years, and told me that his theme with the girls was always “focus”, until it was ingrained in their brains. Now when they play high school ball, if they hear “focus” yelled from the stands, they know the source.
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On and Off the Course: Technology adds even more fun to the course
You’ve hit a drive into some brush in an area marked as a hazard, but you can’t find the ball to prove it is there. And no one actually witnessed it go in the hazard. You just think that’s where it probably is. What is the rule for this situation?
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On and Off the Course: Anthony Gonzalez First Tee Classic a worthwhile charity event
On Monday, I worked as a volunteer for the Anthony Gonzalez First Tee Classic, Golf Tournament and Auction at Eagle Creek Golf Course in Indianapolis. It was an absolutely beautiful day, with clear blue skies, just a few wispy clouds here and there and a high temperature of about 76 degrees.
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On and Off the Course: Trends show golf in decline
You don’t have to watch the news or read the paper to understand that America is struggling on the economic front. The evidence can be witnessed at the local golf course.
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On and Off the Course: Remembering former South golfer Ian White
It’s usually a bit of a struggle for me to figure out what my topic will be for this column. This week I could have written about Tiger’s withdrawal from the Players’ Championship due to a bulging disc in his neck, or by association, the health hazards a violent golf swing can have on the human body, or any number of other golf-related topics.
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On and Off the Course: Ochoa’s departure to impact LPGA
LPGA Commissioner Michael Whan already had a tough job, trying to promote the LPGA tour and keep the 25 events that they have on the schedule, but that job was made tougher last week when the tour’s No. 1 player announced her retirement from the game at the ripe old age of 28.
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On and Off the Course: Examining the square groove rule change
Even though the Masters is going to have its own little drama going on with the return of Tiger Woods, an interesting thing to note will be how well the players are able to hold the hard fast greens at Augusta. An underlying part of the bigger picture that everyone might not realize is a rule change that could dramatically affect most, if not all, of the players. That rule change took effect on Jan. 1.
- On and Off the Course: President's Cup should be entertaining Just when we thought golf season was over, and it was time to concentrate on football, we must awaken from our naps, because there’s going to be some exciting golf for us to watch next weekend. The President’s Cup will run from Oct. 6-11 at Harding Park in San Francisco.
- On and Off the Course: The obscure of golf's rulebook Golfers know that the rules that govern the game are abundant. The game originated in the 15th century on the links of Scotland, and somehow as time went on and people became more civilized, rules were adopted.
- ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Women’s City Match Play had tough competition I played in the Terre Haute Golf Association Women’s City Match Play Tournament a couple of weeks ago.
- On and Off the Course: One for the ages … well, almost! I wonder how long people will be referring to last week’s British Open, as “one for the ages.” They could also refer to it as “one for the aged!” Tom Watson’s near miss of a 9th Open Championship (as the Brits prefer to call it, and as it rightly should be by virtue of its longevity) was a rallying cry to all those golfers who have toiled for so many years at their game, but had given up hope as for ever getting it back to where they had it twenty years ago.
- ON AND OFF THE COURSE: In a bad economy, should LPGA raise its fees? For 31 years The LPGA’s Corning Classic was held at Corning Country Club in Corning, N.Y., with Corning Glassware as its title sponsor. This year, however, was the end of an era as LPGA players played their final rounds in its’ longest-running event. Due to many factors Corning chose to not renew their contract for 2010.
- ON AND OFF THE COURSE: ‘Average golfer’ ready to face challenges of Bethpage Black Golf Digest, in association with the USGA and NBC Sports, has asked the question, “Can the ‘average golfer’ break 100 at Bethpage Black under U.S. Open conditions?”
- On and Off the Course: Golf is for Mother’s, too I’d like to wish all of my readers who are mothers, whether they play golf or not, a Happy Mother’s Day — and if you do play golf — I hope you have a fine day today and that you find the time to get out on the course.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: With some tricky rules, golf is not a walk in the park
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