World Championship Yo Yo

I've been trying to find a good follow-up to my cowbell post, something from YouTube that is truly inspiring. I have found it in the form of Shinji Saito, a world-class yo yo artist. Shinji has serious game.



Can't get enough? I think the single yo yo champ is here.

Book Review: The Impact Zone

Earlier this summer I read The Impact Zone by Bobby Clampett, and a book review is well overdue. I give this book three and a half stars with a cautionary asterisk. The stars are because it presents a genuinely new and insightful view of the golf swing and I thought it was great. The cautionary asterisk is because this book is for full-blown golf nerds only. If you've spent hours comparing and contrasting the swings of tour players on YouTube, you'll love this book. If you're a beginner, you may want to keep your distance from The Impact Zone.

For those not in the know, Bobby Clampett is a former golf prodigy and ex-tour player who currently works as a commentator for CBS. He is an awesome golfer and golf uber-nerd, and I trust what he has to say.

The gist of the book is pretty logical: all that really matters in the golf swing are the dynamics at work during the period of impact, when the club head is in contact with the ball. He considers many of the commonly-stressed aspects of the swing to be matters of style. In his opinion, the important dynamics that players must strive for are: 1) the flat left wrist at impact, 2) the forward swing bottom, 3) loading, 4) lag and the body pivot, and 4) the straight plane line. Each dynamic gets its own chapter, followed by a chapter on equipment and a chapter on visualization.

I got the most out of dynamic #1, the flat left wrist at impact. I'm a mid-handicapper who makes classic mid-handicapper mistakes: I tend to over-swing, come over the top, and then compensate with a chicken-wing move. Focusing on obtaining a flat left wrist at impact really did help with my swing. It also paid dividends with my bunker shots, where like many players I fight an urge to flip my wrists to get the club under the ball.

In short, I recommend The Impact Zone to anyone who considers themselves a student of the game.

Goodbye, Dome

My beloved winter golf sanctuary, The Golfer's Dome, has closed its doors forever. Apparently the dome was purchased by Wegmans, who will deflate it and replace it with a warehouse or perhaps some sort of Wegmans super store.

Rae and I had a great routine over the last few years of heading out to Clay and doing work in the Barnes and Noble cafe. I snuck across the street every time to hit a bucket in the dome. I also took lessons there from Paul, who is now out of a job.

The good news is that there are a few winter golf alternatives near Syracuse. Paul is trying to set up a teaching facility in the indoor soccer / lacrosse facility off highway 481. And of course there is always the dome at the Turning Stone, which I happen to drive by on my way to and from Troy every week.

Grow-A-Head

Updates will be provided as they become available...

Asterisk

This story really makes my day.

Background: The baseball that Barry Bonds hit into the stands for his 756th career home run (all time record) was caught by a fan named Matt Murphy and subsequently auctioned off for $752,467. Although other famous baseballs have sold for more, 700K was considered high considering that his record was clearly steroid fueled and that Bonds is a royal ass.

Zinger: It turns out that the ball was purchased by gazillionaire fashion designer Marc Ecko. He put up a web site to let fans decide the fate of the ball: a) donate it to the Hall of Fame, b) donate it to the Hall of Fame with an asterisk, or c) shoot it into space. The votes were tallied, and Marc Ecko will literally brand an asterisk to the baseball and donate it to the Hall! How great is that?

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