TERRE HAUTE — After a long and tedious winter, it’s time to dust off the cobwebs on our golf equipment and get ready to play. In my case, it wasn’t spiders that visited my clubs over the winter, but mice!
They discovered a peppermint and a granola bar that had been left in one of the little pocket-type attachments that hook to my bag. Luckily, that was removable (and disposable), and no damage was done to my golf bag itself. One of my golf towels was chewed up a bit, too, but again, that could be replaced.
My clubs are in working order, but it’s yet to be seen how well they actually work! I’ve had a workout regimen over the winter that included playing tennis two or three days a week, and taking a class at the YMCA called “Body-Pump.”
It is a great class because it made me work on specific muscle groups and it was a lot of fun! Sarah Johnson, the instructor, keeps it fun but pushes you to build strength and endurance. She stresses safety and has a lot of knowledge, so you’re not likely to hurt yourself, although she encourages a little soreness for a couple of days! Everyone can do whatever amount of weight is good for him or her for the specific muscle group the exercise is for.
I worked on my triceps and biceps this winter, so we’ll see if that work will show up in my golf game. Other exercises that tend to be great for golf were for the back and for the thighs, especially the dreaded lunges! Since the YMCA and the YWCA have combined forces, the Body Pump class is at the YWCA building now, on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9 a.m. That schedule is not set in stone, though, so check with the Y before you go.
Now my equipment is ready, and my body is ready, but is my mind ready for golf?
If any of you had a chance to watch the Tournament Players’ Championship last weekend, which was won by Stephen Ames, you would have seen a player whose mind was ready for some good golf.
Through the combination of better player-caddie communication and some well-placed drives and approach shots, Ames won with a final round 67 on Sunday, beating his next-closest competitor by six shots. Compared to the rest of the field, Ames looked like he was shooting darts, seemingly placing his golf ball in the perfect spot for the next shot or for a birdie putt. He made it look easy, but if you asked the rest of the field, the course was not playing easy that day.
Ames shrugged off the pressure and the excitement, and just kept hitting excellent shots. It took a lot of concentration to do that. Maybe to him, it was just a walk in the park. After all, compared to life, golf was easy.
Just eight months ago, his wife had been diagnosed with lung cancer (even though she had never smoked) and had had half a lung removed after the British Open. Maybe sometimes, when ordinary living is very hard, it puts everything else in perspective.
Maybe, to Stephen Ames, the most exciting part of his day wasn’t winning The Players Championship, but having his wife and kids arrive in Orlando to meet him for a family vacation.
Even though winning that event gave him an invitation to The Masters, he said in an interview that he wasn’t sure he was going to go. He will be there, after all. It turns out, he just had to have a family meeting about it.
I would guess they reached a compromise, part of the vacation at Disney World, and part of it in Augusta, Ga. Sounds like the perfect vacation to me!
Speaking of vacations, rather than start our year off with a little spring training in Florida, this year’s spring break for the Myers family was spent at home, so that my 16-year-old son Phillip could have his wisdom teeth pulled!
Not a major ordeal, it took all of 20 minutes for all four teeth to be pulled, but I also understand that my family’s health comes first. I’m sure we’ll make up for the golf we missed as soon as the weather cooperates, and Phillip will probably play better, not having headaches from the impacted wisdom teeth anymore.
The Masters Tournament is next week, April 6-9. The Farmer’s Almanac is forecasting a wet and unstable April, including heavy thunderstorms and squalls in the Great Lakes and Midwest states.
For the Southeast, it notes specifically that the Masters could end on a soggy note. You probably won’t even be able to tell that holes 1, 4, 7, 11, 15 and 17 have been altered (which of course means lengthened), unless you’re very familiar with the old holes. HDTV helps a lot in seeing the hills and undulations at the Masters, so try to watch some of it in HD if you have it available to you. But if the weather is nice, don’t stay inside too much! Get your clubs dusted off and get out and enjoy the spring!
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Quote of the Day — “It’s number one for me, pure and simple, because it’s golf. The other events have become tented villages and circuses. When you go to The Masters, the focus is golf.” — Greg Norman. (It’s been a decade since Greg Norman’s Sunday meltdown, where he shot a 78 to blow a six-shot lead at The Masters, on April 14, 1996.)
On & Off the Course
On and Off the Course: Spring into the season
- On & Off the Course
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Death Notice: Feb. 7, 2013
• Gary R. Wright
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Donna Lynn Strahla Bown
Donna Lynn Strahla Bown passed away early Friday morning, Jan. 25, 2013, with her children by her side.
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‘The Match’ pitting amateurs vs. pros recalled 62 years later
Quote of the Day: “I play golf with friends sometimes, but there are never friendly games.” — Ben Hogan.
Bubba Watson has had a busy fall. Not only did he play all the way to the final round of the FedEx Championships, and in the Ryder Cup, he also played in an event commemorating a very famous match played at Cypress Point in 1956, pitting two of the greatest golf pros at the time against two of the best amateurs.
Come to think of it, all four were some of the best golfers of all time. This year’s event was celebrating The First Tee’s exceeding $100 million in pledges to reach 10 million new young people. It wasn’t televised and kept very quiet; only 225 people were in the gallery.
One of the people in the gallery was Mark Frost, the author of a book titled “The Match,” which is about that match played 62 years ago that was re-enacted in modern terms last week. The pros in 1956 were Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson and the amateurs were Ken Venturi and Harvie Ward. It was supposed to have been a private affair, built around a wager by two millionaires, George Coleman and Eddie Lowery. -
ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Golf from the wrong side of the brain
Imagine this scenario: a woman, small in stature (possibly freckled), walks into a hospital emergency room and says, “I have an emergency, I need a doctor quickly!” The admitting nurse, ever trying to be helpful, asks what the emergency is.
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Farmers looking at widely varying yields
Combines will roll through fields this weekend, bringing in the harvest from a summer with nearly no rain.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Golf debut in London would have been nice
As the Olympics get underway in London this weekend, I was thinking it’s too bad that the Olympic committee decided too late to add golf as one of the sports for this event; instead it will be added to the 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Getting to Hoosier country’s best golfing venue part of the fun
If you are looking for Indiana’s premier golfing destination, then you should look no further than French Lick.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Indiana's Pete Dye courses worth the drive
You’ve probably heard of the Robert Trent Jones Golf trail throughout Alabama, but you might not be aware that Indiana has its own “Pete Dye Golf Trail” comprised of seven courses.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Fathers typically a big influence on golfing sons
Some events fall naturally into place around holidays. The Fourth of July always falls somewhere during Wimbledon, giving all of the Yanks in attendance something to be boisterous about, to the chagrin of their hosts; The Masters often, but not always, ends on Easter Sunday, which is fitting since golfers find it such a reverent occasion.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Memorial just one of many visions of Jack Nicklaus
When Jack Nicklaus was a young man, the golfer he most admired was Bob Jones.
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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.
- More On & Off the Course Headlines
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Video: worst way to load cargo onto a plane
Never-before-seen footage of '08 Times Square bomber
