Grouchy Golf Blog

A couple years ago, I moved about 20 miles west to the beach town of Santa Monica, CA. As a result, my home course went from the Rose Bowl parking lot to Rancho Park, former home of the L.A. Open. On the par-5 18th tee, there's an interesting plaque to commemorate Arnold Palmer's achievement at the 35th L.A. Open in 1961.


Here's the engraving:

The first day of the 35th L.A. Open, Arnold Palmer, voted Golfer of the year, took a 12 on this hole.

As an inspiration to all Golfers The L.A. Jr. Chamber of Commerce dedicate this monument.

Palmer hit a fine drive. He sliced his next 2 shots into the driving range, then hooked two more onto Patricia Ave. Hit the green with his sixth shot, and two putted. Eight strokes plus four penalities add up to 12.

Here's the detailed story according to Golf For Dummies:

Palmer needed a par 5 on the 18th for a 69 in the second round. After a good drive, instead of laying up with an iron for the tight second shot, he went for a birdie and pushed a 3-wood out-of-bounds onto the adjacent driving range. He paused briefly to regroup and then hit another 3-wood. This time, he hooked it onto Patricia Avenue. Stubborn if not downright foolhardy, Palmer hit the 3-wood yet again, and again hooked it out-of-bounds. On the fifth try, after four straight penalties, he finally put his 3-wood on the green and went on to make a 12. A long, sad story. Arnie's description was more succinct. Asked by a reported how he managed to make a 12, he replied, "I missed my putt for an 11."

The plaque and story are great comic reliefs to any golfer having a bad day on the golf course. But did anyone bother to check the grammar before it was engraved in stone!?

Labels: Arnold Palmer, Courses

The golf blog community is generally composed of kind and supportive people who simply want to write about that crazy game we somehow love. One of the best golf bloggers out there is my friend Tony K. who created the Hooked On Golf Blog. It is definitely one of the best golf blogs out there and I visit it almost every day for its regularly updated content.

But Tony has also created The Golf Space, a social networking site specifically built for golf and golf businesses. Recently, The Golf Space celebrated its 3rd birthday! The site is 100% free and membership has grown to over 4,100 members and with over five million page visits since it opened in 2006. Check it out and meet others who share your passion for golf! Congrats Tony!

Labels: Blogs

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine emailed me an article written by Sally Jenkins about Tiger Woods' post injury return to golf.

What shocked me most about this article was the writer's prematurely drawn conclusions about Tiger's golf game. Just read this passage:

But so far, Woods's comeback has been a relatively humdrum event...After an eight-month layoff to repair the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, Woods missed dozens of putts and seemed frustrated by the slow pace of the whole affair. All of which was a reminder that the injury is a clear demarcation in his competitive life: He's now 33 years old and in the last third of his career, and while he surely has a lot of greatness left, the game may no longer come so easily.

At the time that the article was published, Tiger had been out of competitive golf for almost 9 months and had logged fewer than 6 competitive rounds, 2 of which were match-play shortened and didn't require putting out. That's right, the writer believes that this sample size is sufficient to derive meaningful conclusions. Anyone who plays golf regularly at any level knows about the fickleness of golf and how maddeningly long it can take to recover one's form after a sustained layoff. Just because Tiger is a little rusty, it certainly doesn't mean that he's lost his game. To make that kind of jump is just regoddamndiculous!

Yet the writer has seen enough to proclaim, "For the first time in a decade, Woods will enter the Masters at Augusta National as something less than the clear-cut favorite." Oh brother!

But it doesn't stop there. The writer later suggests that Tiger may never recover his putting touch:

Oddly, the thing that seems most affected by the long layoff is not his swing...but his putting...But his trouble was perhaps a glimpse of what to expect when he gets older: Other greats who were nervy, aggressive putters, such as Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson, saw their touch desert them in their mid-30s, and struggled to ever make short putts again.

All golfers know that putting is one of those things that is highly variable over the short term. The fact that Tiger's putting game was off for 6 rounds is hardly surprising. The writer seems to have forgotten that Mickelson's putting blew all year until he won at Riviera. Tiger is arguably the greatest clutch putter of all-time and I'm sure that he'll regain his putting sooner rather than later. Oh, and don't believe the writer. Tiger is the clear-cut favorite at Augusta.

Labels: Tiger Woods

There were a couple of important things we learned from the 2009 CA Championship at Doral Golf Resort & Spa:

1. Mickelson's game is in top form heading into the Masters
2. Tiger Woods' swing is the best it has looked since perhaps 2000
3. Henrik Stenson wears tighty whities

Most people don't know about #3 because it didn't make the television broadcast. But luckily for us, an alert shutterbug was able to capture the moment in pictures!


Apparently, Stenson stripped to his skivvies to avoid soiling his clothes from hitting out of the water hazard. But c'mon, doesn't he get those stylish threads for free anyway? Surely he could have borrowed Fanny's caddy bib. Maybe Stenson signed with a new underwear sponsor that demanded more exposure. On second thought, I think he was simply looking for a good excuse to show off that professional athlete bod of his. Golf is a sport, right?