Meadows Match Play Round 1

We are underway at the inaugural members match play event. Thanks to the members that put this together. It is the first one of its kind. Now in talking with the tournament directors, they say that next time will be a little bit different as they learned what *not* to do from this years event.

I love match play golf. I've played in stroke tournaments many times, and even a couple modified stableford events. For those that are unfamiliar, stroke play is easiest to understand, the one with the lowest score at the end of the tournament wins. Stableford scoring is a bit different in that the one with the highest point total wins, where each score as it relates to par gets point values. For example, in one of those events, par was worth zero points, birdies were worth 2 points, eagles worth 5 points, bogeys are -1 (negative) points, double bogeys and worse were -2 (negative) points.

Match play is a whole different animal altogether. Two players playing match play determine the winner by the number of holes won. The person winning the most holes, wins the match. Each hole can be won or halved. Halving a hole means that the each player got the hole in the same net number of strokes.

Note, I said same NET number of strokes. In the Meadows match play, we are playing with handicaps. For example, in my first match, I was up against a very good player, Devin DeCator. Over the years, I've played many rounds with Devin and I like his ballstriking with the driver club very much. I knew it would be quite tough. Devin carries a USGA index of 6.1. At the time of the match play start, my USGA index was 9.8. For the Meadows course, on the tees we were playing, Devin's course handicap was 7 and mine was 11. Devin was required to grant me four strokes on the four hardest holes on the course, which are holes 18, 16, 5 and 8 (i think).

So for all the other holes, it was straight up, we had to match score to halve a hole or one of us had to win it. On the holes where I get a stroke, then I could subtract one stroke from my score and compare it to Devin's. If I got a bogey on those holes, Devin would need to birdie those holes for him to win the hole. It would not be enough for him to par it.

Here is a shot of the current brackets

Well, I just gave away the outcome of my first match against Devin... I won 2&1.

Now what does 2&1 mean? That means that I finished two holes up with one left to play. That is one of the fun things about match play, we were done on hole 17. That is, after 16, I was 2 holes up with two left to play. At the teebox on 17, Devin would have needed to win the next two holes (17 and 18) to continue the match until someone finished (that happened with Dawdy's match, it went 19 holes).

So at the 17 tee box, all I had to do was match Devin's score for the hole (I did not receive any strokes on that hole). We both scored 3 on that par 3, and the hole was halved. BUT since I was still two up, there was now no way for Devin to win the match, so it ended there.

I won't give a full play-by-play of my match against Devin, but it was a very exciting match in that we traded leads twice during the match. Neither of us got our more than 2 past the other. So it went essentially, Devin was up for a while, I was then up for a short while, then Devin was up, then we were even, then Devin was up, then we were even, then I was up. It was akin to boxers trading blows, but this is golf and we (rarely) beat each other silly with fists!

While I play o.k. and Devin is a good player, neither of us had what you would call a 'stellar' shot making day. But what I did get out of it was a fun round with people I enjoy playing with, even if the gimmies were in very short supply (yes, the greens were pretty quiet).

Next up, I play against Tyler Potter. I have never played with him, so this should be interesting. Especially since I have to give him one shot in the competition (#18). Hopefully, the match ends before then.

If you play against your buddies, try match play a few times. You will find it very exciting and

interesting. If you are unsure of the rules of match play, check with the USGA web site where you can find the rules of match play online (although gamesmanship is something you learn on your own).

Season almost upon the Northerners

We here in the northern portion of the United States typically experience a winter-time slumber of sorts when it comes to our golf game. Sure we run out to warm places during this time of year, but that really only frustrates us to the truth of winter-time.

This coming season should be exceptionally interesting. For those history buffs, the differences in people's demeanor, abilities and outlook have vastly changed since the summer of 2008 until now.

I expect there to be some attrition of members, and that is unfortunate. Some of my golfing acquaintences will not be coming back to the haunt so regularly... or even at all in some cases.

It is precisely this situation when one should play more golf than ever. Yes I understand that may now be beyond the means of many people, but a great effort should be made. That golf ball could really care less about your 401k. Besides, you shouldn't be thinking about that kind of information while golfing anyway.

But in life, there are some traditions that I want to continue. Yes, things such as going with your buddies on your golf trip, attending that golfing fundraiser, and just playing with your buds should be a priority. Now more than ever, the golf-as-vehicle for relationship building should continue.

An old American Indian legend has it that this world is the 'dream world' and the next world is the real one. Before I wake from this dream world, let me get in just one more round.

Torrey Pines 2008

Well now. I had the amazing honor of playing Torrey Pines in San Diego California right aroun 3rd week of October 2008. I must say, it is a well storied track and some neat things. First off, if you are a resident of the city, well, take advantage of the rates charges. Iz Cheap Man.

My goal at Torrey was to break 100 from the tips. I was either so excited, or so nervous.. not sure which... I failed in the mission (but not by much mind you). But I lucked out the next day (see below... last picture).

Funny story though, while standing on the back deck of the pro shop, I saw a rescue helecopter performing its duty by rescuing someone that fell off of a cliff. Pro shop sez "happens all the time". Yikes! Carefull duffers

You can click on any of these thumbnails to see super-detail

Sandy at THE CLOCK!



You MUST click on this photo if you want to see the amazing view to the pacific




Thank yous to our host (middle). Picted is Sandy, Michael and Mason

Yes... the better luck part. The next day, had time to visit another course in Escondido, that being The Vineyards. I recommend highly (6800 yds from tips). I shot an 80 there.... the day after Torrey. Go figure?! More than 20 shot differential. Same guy. Nutz Game

This is the view of #18 at Vineyards. I was in the first fairway bunker and nailed a shot to 8 feet, and got a birdie (WooHoo, 2nd of the day). Nice view

Check out all of the places you can before you hang up the sticks for good. See you out there!

2008 Morningwacker

Ahhh. Was a fine day for play as the 2nd annual 2008 Morningwacker event took place. For those not in the know, the Morningwacker event is the premier competition between the the members and the staff at The Meadows golf course at GVSU in Allendale Michigan.

To sum up the event, Staff wins over Members (14-10). At least it was closer than last year!

But we all had a great time. The 18 hole event was 6 holes alternate shot, 6 holes of best ball and 6 holes team score. The members certainly welcome ringers for next years competition (please!!)

For those people that have not played The Meadows, in my opinion, one of the best courses in West Michigan. It can bite you in the can if you are not careful, and will reward you when you do well.

Pictures come next. See y'all after the thaw!


(Almost) All the competitors at the 2008 Morningwacker


Scott, Meadows 2008 Club Champ, wondering what happened "out there"

Sandy and Pat just chillin

Sandy's playing partner, Russ - note smiles there even after the beatings

As you see, staff wins (again, dang!)

Ahh, "I see your problem now, Byde"

Spiro and a stupendous drive off of #1

On the bridge at Hole #17. Great players here!

Not all players looked this good in their backswing (it was a great shot, too, Pat!)

Just before the beating was to begin

This is the closest the members came to winning (yes, BEFORE the event started)

Come see the sights

Sandy here has played in several tournament events. They are all fun, but I noticed something odd. The "tournament" handicap is very different than the official USGA handicap. Sandy is new to the tournament golf play, so the variance may be mental. Who knows, maybe you do.

I am a bit disappointed in the turnouts at the events. Less and less players are showing up. I shower before I go, so it is not personal hygiene. I cannot account for the mild apathy of other members of this tour.

I would strongly encourage any players to please try out the golf channel amateur tour. The prizes are decent. I especially like the skin and stableford side-games. Even if you did not do your best that day, a skin won makes me feel better anyway.

Time is at hand

Here in loverly Michigan, we all anxiously await the thaw to move quicker than it has. Apparently a record snowfall this past season has led to a very late spring thaw. It is late March and there is still plenty of snow left around. That does not bode well for the courses that traditionally open on April 1. So we wait.

I realize that I get more in touch with my vegetable soul when I am around the trees and shrubs and all things on the links. The great inner peace and belonging are emphasized when the experience is shared with other like minded individuals. We are all just small vessels of a greater work and golf gets me in touch with that place. I suspect the effect is moderate compared to the fullness when completely at one with the entirety of creation.

But we all have our time, no matter if short or long, we all belong. Come golfing with me anytime

The Transform Result

Sandy Here just to inform you all that the visit to Hotstix was very much worth the effort. In particular, less than 3 weeks after the new equipment arrived, Sandy shot the lowest score EVAR.

Plus, ended up winning the Golf Channel Amateur Tour flight for my group (WMI). Hows them beans, very nice.

So the new golf season for the north doth approach. And with it, the GCAT membership is in swing. We will see how the challenge goes this season in the tour as the competition is heated with outstanding players.

Transformation

No, it is not about the popular movie named "Transformers", which is in theaters currently in the USA. Specifically, Sandy has spent the better part of a day looking for new gawftech. That is, new sticks.

Ahh... but not just any new sticks. Went to the current best fitting around, namely Hotstix in Scottsdale Arizona.

The entire process took 1/2 of a day and was exhausting! I beleive my fitter had watched me dole out nearly 500 golf balls in the process of working out a new game using technology. What is absolutely amazing is the detail and understanding these people have. Sandy's golf swing was never in question, the fine fitter at Hotstix found what worked best for the swing that Sandy has. And since that swing varies from time to time, lots of balls involved with obvious crappyness tossed in the evaluation.

IF you are considering doing this and having them do your full set, do a few things...
(1) Don't play 18 holes before the fitting, play maybe 9. Sandy played 18 in hot Phoenix and was paying the price late in the fitting.
(2) Be sure you have already received funds from selling your extra kidney. It will cost you much much more than you can afford. Take your current set, at list price brand new, and multiply by 4 or even 5. That comes close to what you will need.

Even risking foreclosure of the pad, Sandy did it anyway. Why? Because when I hit balls with the sample clubs that matched my requirements, the difference was beyond expectation. Here is the 'for example' section:

My *carry* on my current driver (Callaway gbb2, 9.5 firm shaft) averaged a paltry 206 yards (my ball must roll the next 60 yards). My *carry* on the new setup is 238 yards average. We are talking 30 more yards of carry. Bot just that, dispersion was 3 times tighter in the shots. It was beyond amazing.

Hotstix told me my custom stix arrive at my door in about 3 weeks. I already have ridiculous statistics saved now. I will report back on the tournament results with the new stix. I anticipate misses will be better.

The Mirrors

Many duffers profess that golf is a microcosm of life experiences themselves. While golf is not life, my own behavior on the course reflects almost exactly my approach to various scenarios IRL. There are many times where you plan a shot, visualize it, and execute. For the advanced golfer, the results are pretty close to what you expect. The key phrase here is experience and wisdom.

When bad things happen in golf, what do you do? Sandy likes to play walk-on singe and join groups. So I get to see a vast array of reactions to very tough situations. Rarely does Sandy end up playing with someone that takes good and bad with equanimity. Most people react with verbal hatred of themselves as people and then physical hatred apparently towards the club they just used and slam it into the ground. Basically a show. Is that tantrum what these people really do at their jobs in the office? Can you imagine presenting a wonderful marketing plan to a board of directors, in which you are shot down for some reason or another, and then breaking out into a verbal and physical display of hatred at a board meeting? Of course not, we tend to keep ourselves in check.

So why not the golf course? Why does so many people's sense of self-worth tied to a simple golf shot?

It reminds me of one of my favorite sections of Zen Golf by Dr. Joseph Parent entitled 'Who's to say what is good or bad'. This is later in the book, and it's placement may be overlooked by many people, but I consider it one of the most important life and golf lesson ever. Dr. Parent describes a scenario which did have me asking, what is good and what truly is bad. I've had many real life experiences where things absolutely did not go as planned and results were exactly opposite of what I wanted. We are talking serious life scenarios people, not fufu what am I wearing today stuff. I was not accepted into the first three colleges I applied for, but I was accepted at the fourth. I thought it was going to be terrible not having to go to the places I was planning to go to. But now, many many years later, my entire life, career, friends, nearly everyone that is important to Sandy, all came from the 'bad problem' of going to the college that was 4th on my list.

So what is good and what is bad? How you deal with life's tough situations should mirror how you respond to troubles on the short stuff. If not, why not? You don't yell at yourself and call yourself stupid names when you make a mistake at the office. Why do you murder yourself on the golf course? Try this for one round: when you hit a bad shot, shrug it off. Really, you have to say something like 'this too shall pass' or 'hmm., that is not like me, oh well'. If you live in this game, that may be very tough for you to do, but try it once for a couple holes. Let it go, and you will find you will get there.

Going for it

Why so few entries? Sandy is dang busy. Since leaving the Buffalo Golfer community and relocating to the not-as-much-snow area of Western Michigan, things have been rocky but getting better.

So Sandy has decided (Sandy loves 3rd person references), to give the tours a crack at his majesty. Q-school is not ready to handle it yet, but something smaller can. So I joined up and am playing in the Golf Channel Amateur Tour in Michigan, the Grand Rapids Division.

So far, results have been... humbling. I know many duffers and when I show them the scores that Sandy posted, they sneer at the scores and quickly slip me a scientific calculator for my next rounds.

Little did they realize, that the tournament golf can be an axe or a polishing stone for ones game.

Now Sandy chuckles when they wonder how I beat them in the friendly skins game. Anyone interested in proving your own game needs to put it in play at tournaments. This is the only place you will truly know if you are really able to make the 4 footer for par all your buddies typically 'give' you.

At the time of this post, Sandy is 2nd in Merit points on the Sarazen flight -- attempting to finish first for the season. What comes is what comes. Bring your game

http://www.thegolfchannel.com/GALeagueTournament/tour.asp?source=aagt&detail=1&menuitem=1&TOUR_ID=10000046

The Move out West

As you can likely tell by the dates, I've been busy golfing and not blogging at all. That's the way she goes. Perhaps the move from an eastern seaboard state to the united states midwest also had something to do with that.

Farewell to my good golfing friends in Buffalo. Buff-Golf will continue to use Sandy Lie namesake (because they pay licensing fees), but the articles will not be done by yours truly. The saddest part of that is I calculated net losses in skins $$. I'll visit ye all again one day and ya better bust out the green when I get back.

When all seems futile and your world is falling apart because of this and that; causing you to require physical relocation lest a bullet in the back. Well, it is. Don't you remember that you are going to die? Not a matter of *IF* buddy. You will, I will, your kids will, your grandkids, their friends, their enemies, your car and your dog. When? So when will you die? Shortly after your last breath.

Hubub: My great friends at Planet 5 records (http://www.planet5.com) are recording something... they say it is fantastico. El Presidente there won't tell me what happenned to the Feb 2005 release of 7 Second Echo... they say "still delayed" -- sheesh, picky-ass musicians. Perhaps I can extract info from them soon as I join the band on an early winter late fall golf hoohah sat morning.

Till the next drinking session... practice the putting cause the greens are tougher in the next life.

Sandy

Causality and the munchkins

Most people view golf as pure recreation. There are those that make a living in and around golf; players, caddies, equipment manufactuers, club designers, repair shops. For the recreational golfer, this game is usually an escape from their 'real life'. For the artisans in and around the game, it is daily life and they could not eat without it. But for barstool philosophers such as Sandy here, this silly game mirrors life in sublime ways. Take causality; that which is done resulting in some outcome. In most games, causality is relatively immediate. You hit the incomming fast-ball pitch and it goes across 2nd base causing a runner to be on 1st base. You kick the ball and it lands in a net causing a goal and perhaps the match won. In most games, the results of a game are done at the end of the match, or perhaps the season. In golf, however, after the round is over, does the real impact of individual shots begin, perhaps decades after that shanked 5 iron punch. There are glof shots left in my brain from last season that I can directly attibute to: (1) Purchasing new equipment months later, (2) Signing up for short-game lessons 1 year later, (3) Mis-struck approach shot over flowers that could take the heads off of a fleet of munchkins constantly reminding me to pop-in that wizard-of-oz movie years later, (4) Missed putt for a match and enough money lost to my competitor who is enjoying warm sunny Florida while I sit here blogging in Western New York.
And there it meets. Life and Golf. When I speak to someone about something that appears minor, the impact of my actions may have immediate consequences, as well it may be something of import many decades later. Does any person involved with some personal relationship doubt the truth of this? Revisit your actions on that day you met the people most important in your life. Maybe you did something different, likely you did what you normally did during any of those days. Yet some shot you took at that time had dramatic life-changing consequences. That casual round happening somewhere right now with that golfer making the imaginary 'putt to win The Masters' may indeed be the putt to win decades from now.
As for me, I'm running over to my video player and visit the lillipop guild so I can recall that munchkin-killer on the 5th hole in Spring Island South Carolina which set up a 2 foot birdie putt and the one-shot win for the match paying out a yellow-brick-road amount of money which I used to buy a few books which caused me to re-evaluate some business plan in my 'real job' such that sales increased by 10% which got me to a new client in Toronto Canada who turns out to be related to a very famous footballer who I met and had a lovely dinner with him and his wife where we talked about home remodeling and I got them the name and number of a friend that is the best at designing those things where they built their addition to the house and invited me back where I admired their pets so much that I too obtained a yorkie which pooped one too many times on the carpet forcing me to contract the services of a carpet cleaning company, the owner of which came over to clean it and is now one of my best friends. All that, from a single golf shot. Recreation indeed.

Sandy Lie Jan 2005 Weblinks

Alright! The latest Sandy Lie weblinks have been published on the BuffaloGolfer web site. You better visit, or I'll come over and stare at you all day. Just look at that picture of me... you don't want me staring at you all day.

Visit Now. (Click on the title you fool)

Wish i had that problem...

Bah! Just when I think I've got it, like any other golfer, and my ego has gotten a boost cause I shot the best round in my foursome and I actually think it was work...

"It wasn't easy. I had to dig deep many times when I just didnt have it and that takes a mental and physical toll on you. If you shoot 65's every day, it takes no effort and the game is pretty easy. When you're not playing well and have to shoot 70 that's hard."
- Excerpt from Tiger Woods' Latest Newsletter See: http://www.tigerwoods.com/home/default.sps

Hmm. When not playing well and *must* shoot 70 what do *you* do?

I know... only play 9 holes. Go Tiger.

Buffalo Area Golf

In the Buffalo NY area where I hang out, there will be no golf until April 2005. That makes me sad. But, check out the haps at http://www.buffalogolfer.com -- Whilst we all wait, there is fantastic things going on in the area (and the site it cool too, since I have a column there, you best visit).