Turning Stone Resort Championship

The PGA tour came to town this weekend for the first annual Turning Stone Resort Championship! I went for the day on Sunday and was downright inspired.

The tournament was held at the Turning Stone's Atunyote course, which I am told means eagle in the Oneida language. It was the first event in the tour's Fall Finish. PGA golf is effectively finished for the year now that the FedEx Cup is over, but there are still a few more events on the calendar. The Fall Finish tends to draw tour players who still need to make some money so that they can keep their tour cards for next year (only the top 125 get to come back, the rest need to re-qualify). This means either youngsters (Andrew Buckle) or the slightly over the hill (Corey Pavin, Fred Funk). I did get to follow Stewart Appleby, who is a genuine superstar, as well as fan favorites like Tim "Lumpy" Herron. Steve Flesch ended up winning, and he's not exactly a slouch either.

The big highlights for me were hanging out at the driving range and being dumbfounded by how far these guys hit their drives off the tenth tee. The range was great, because I was able to sit no more than twenty feet behind the pros and soak in all their swinging greatness. I look at a lot of swings on YouTube, but the real thing is something else. It looks like they're swinging at half speed, but then the ball rockets off the club face and you say damn. The tenth and eleventh holes made a nice little loop, so I followed a few groups there. No big-name players means no big crowds, which was great. Walking from the tee down to where they hit their shots rattled my brain, because the hole is 420+ yards long and every one of them was within 100 yards of the green in the center of the fairway. That's 320 off the tee, and is much more impressive in person than on t.v.

Race Day: Ithaca 5 & 10

Sunday was my first ever road race! Rae and I ran the 5-mile part of the Ithaca 5 & 10. We ran the whole way without stopping, hurray for us! Our time was 45:56, which works out to be 9:12 per mile.

I can report that running five miles in Ithaca was significantly less arduous than running four and a quarter miles in Syracuse (my longest run prior to the race). Having 150 people running with you helps motivate you along, and also the weather in Ithaca was cool and the course was flat.

I don't think running will jump to the top of my priority list, but I'm up for the Turkey Trot, which Rae and I are going to run Thanksgiving morning in Rochester. It's a bit shorter, and I think we can break nine-minute miles!

Mill Creek Golf Club

I played in my fourth and final Golf Channel Amateur Tour event last weekend at the Mill Creek Golf Club outside of Rochester. This was a combined event for the Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse tours. Forty-five players entered, which is a great improvement over the previous events I played in this year.

The results are posted here. I am happy to say that once again I finished at the top of my flight (so what if there were only three people in it)! Even better, my 83 would have tied me for first in the next flight up (the Sarazen flight) and would have put me in solo second in the Hogan flight.

My overall experience with the Golf Channel's tour was definitely positive, but I'm not sure if I would do it again. The best part was that I got to play in bona fide tournaments, which I had never done before and hope to do more of. This was a great place to get my feet wet since there was a wide variety of skill levels and everyone was serious about golf but not ultra competitive.

Going in, I wasn't sure how I'd do in an actual tournament where everyone follows all the rules and there are strangers watching you play. It was a bit daunting, and indeed some players folded under the pressure (I have lots of theories on this, perhaps another post is in order). It turns out that I do pretty well and have fun doing it. The way I see it, I follow all the rules and put pressure on myself whenever I play, so this really wasn't any different.

The downside of the Golf Channel's tour is that it's too expensive. Even after winning three events, I was still out about $350. That's a lot for four round of golf, particularly in upstate New York. Next year I might enter some different local amateur events, like the Post Standard Amateur. Heck, if I knock another four strokes off my handicap, I'll be eligible for the US Amateur Public Links.

Photo credits: Mill Creek Golf Club web site

I got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell!

In an episode of sudden productivity loss yesterday, I did a web search for Christopher Walken. For the life of me I can't remember the sequence of thoughts that led me to do this. Here's the best thing I found, and old SNL skit with Will Ferrell:

2007 Golf League Recap

Last week was the final match of the season for the No Name Golf League. We played nine holes every Tuesday evening at Frear Park for 18 weeks straight. No rainouts! I missed the first week, but made every week after that, due largely to Frear Park's liberal make-up policy.

This was my first time in a league, and I am definitely glad I joined. It made for a great Tuesday ritual: leave work early in the evening, play nine holes, and then get dinner at the Park Pub. I lucked out with the No Name league in that it's full of nice guys and the drinking is pretty limited. I was a bit worried that I would end up in a league full of middle-aged drunks storming around like a bunch of gorillas. As far as I can tell, that's the Thursday night league, so we're good to go on Tuesdays.

I'm not sure where I finished in terms of league standings. I know that Don M. won the first half, and Bob W. won the second half. Our league is handicapped, so to win what you really need to do is get progressively better so that you play at or below your handicap. Bob put in a lot of practice time, and it paid off. I did achieve a moral victory in that I ended the year with the lowest league handicap.

Here's my recap:

• scoring average: 41.8 (6.3 over par for nine holes)
• fairways hit: 43%
• greens hit: 45%
• putts: 17.6 per nine holes

Photo credits: Philip Kamrass/Times Union

The Robert Trent Jones Golf Course at Cornell University

My win streak came to an end this weekend at the Golf Channel Amateur Tour event at The Robert Trent Jones Golf Course at Cornell University. The field was pretty thin, with only nine people playing, but I struggled early with some rather frustrating double bogeys and ended up shooting 89. Not a bad score for me, all things considered, but it left me in the middle of the leader board.

Robert Trent Jones was a student at Cornell, and he designed the course. Hence the rather unimaginative course name.

Revenge Is Sweet

I played Burden Lake Country Club this morning and shot an 81. I'd played this course once before, last September. Yes, it's true, I kept the score in my golf files. But even without looking I remember the day because I struggled mightily and carded a 107. That means I improved my score by 26 strokes. Take that Chuck Baltzel, mister golf course architect.

The big highlight came on the 16th hole. There were a number of junior golf groups out on the course. Each group was comprised of four kids and an instructor. It looked like they were starting each hole at the 100-yard marker and playing putting games once they reached the green. They were up at the green on 16, and the instructor waved at me to play through, so I promptly pulled my approach shot into the green-side rough. Then, in front of the gallery of eight-year-olds, my chip shot landed softly on the green, tracked to the hole, and rolled right in the heart of the cup for a birdie! Naturally, I received an instructor-prompted round of applause.

34 Years Young

As of August 3rd, I'm twice as old as a high school senior! My birthday was full of old-guy fun: 9 holes of golf in the morning with the lovely wife, a big ol' brunch at the Brewster Inn, and then 18 holes of golf in the afternoon at Green Lakes State Park (a great Robert Trent Jones course).

I got lots of good old-guy gifts, like new reading classes and also some prescription lenses for my Smith sunglasses (did you know you could do that? You can!). I also got a digital picture frame and the Discovery Channel's Planet Earth DVD set, both of which I absolutely needed but didn't even know existed.

I loaded a bunch of pictures onto the digital picture frame and set it up in my office at work. No more having to decide who gets to be on display, everyone gets their fifteen minutes of fame!

Foxfire

I played in my second Golf Channel Amateur Tour event on July 14th at Foxfire in Baldwinsville. Once again, I came out on top! This time there were 16 players in the field. As in the first event, we used a quota system where everyone is assigned an initial negative score based on their flight. I shot an 85; highlights included my first-ever left-handed shot and a gold star for mental fortitude for following up a snowman 8 with three straight pars.

Here's a stock photo of Foxfire. My next event is August 18th at Cornell. Wish me luck!

Photo credits: Foxfire web site, Golf Courses 365

4th of July Vacation Part II: Fenton

I'm all set to catch up on a month of blogging! I have the 4th of July pictures and lots of other stuff to write about. I'll start with the last half of our trip to Michigan, which was spent at the family compound in Fenton. Festivities included Wimbledon watching, lounging, eating, and golf. We didn't get a lot of good pictures from the first three activities, but here's a shot of me, Jamie, Ray, and Tom after our round at the spectacular Shephard's Hollow course.

They have 27 holes at Shepherd's Hollow, we played 1-18. If you look closely, you might be able to guess our scores by the expressions on our faces.