Archive for September, 2006

Seaton Golf Course Review; World Golf Predictions Part II [BC's Gettin' A Muffin!]

September 29, 2006 at 10:05 pm · Filed under Croucher's Local Knowledge, Golf, Golf News, Golf Tournaments, Ontario Golf Course Ratings

Here’s the current leaderboard after Round Two at the American Express Championship. If it were anyone else, I wouldn’t think too much of it, but it’s Tiger and I’ve got to think I’m winning a muffin. Of course, it’s only fair to point out that picking Tiger to win a tournament is like picking Lance Armstrong to win the Tour. It’s not like I’m going out on a limb here. Any Moving Day Predictions, anyone? Feel free to comment.

Anyhow, as Tiger looks to deny Furyk AGAIN on Sunday, I figure I could fill in some time with another Ontario golf course review.

***

SEATON GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB

2665 Brock Road
Pickering, ON L1V 2P8
Clubhouse: 905-683-3822

CATEGORY / RATING [out of 5]
Beauty – 3.5
Strategy – 3
Challenge – 3.5
Design – 3
Par 3 Holes – 3
Par 4 Holes – 4
Par 5 Holes – 3.5
Conditioning – 4
Fun – 4
Course Service – 3
Pace of Play – 3.5
Value for Money- 4.5
Food Quality – 3
Walkability – Good
Over All Rating – 4

For Scoregolf’s Course Rating, click HERE

NOTES: I’d better come clean by saying that I consider Seaton to be our foursome’s home course, and therefore I’m obviously a biased fan of it. Amir doesn’t like it all that much, but the rest of us do: for $55 on a Sunday morning with cart, it can’t be beat, baby.

There’s some challenging little holes [Croucher has great local knowledge here he'll share with you, but the 7th is the toughest, and the 6th through 10th can really test you], and in general Seaton’s a great bang for your buck. If you’re like me and unable or unwilling to play $100+ golf courses around Ontario, you’re probably going to enjoy Seaton as much as I do. There’s no really stupidly-designed holes, the pin placement is almost always fair to us duffers, and the food at the clubhouse is edible. It’s a 6018 yard, par 70 course, so it’s walkable, and it’s not overly hilly, so you won’t feel like you need a mountain goat to carry your bags like you might at Dentonia. Here’s a course outline:

The bottom line at this place is that if you’re a weekend golfer looking to have some fun and be challenged a little bit without feeling beat up on by the course, Seaton’s worth the drive from anywhere in the GTA.

If you’re going, tell Mark that Kevin Croucher and his gang sent you. It probably won’t do you any good, but it might get us something!

CROUCHER’S LOCAL KNOWLEDGE: SEATON G&CC

[Kevin originally posted his words of advice as a comment, but it deserves it's own section.]

Stay to the left-centre of #3 and you will be rewarded with an easy chip to a longer than wide green.

IF you have the cojones for it, stay down the roadside of the fairway on #4. This will leave you with a nice approach into a very undulating green. If you do go up the right, be smart, chip back to the front edge of the green area, get up and down, and walk away with a 4.

Don’t be a hero on #5. Hit it to the 150 marker and stay to the left of this green. It runs away towards the east, and it is protected by a steep faced bunker.

Right is might on #6 if you have to bail anywhere, and oh yeah, stay below the hole. You may as well, because if you don’t and you hit your putt too hard, you will be there anyhow. Save a stroke, play smart.

On #7 you have three choices. Be scared by the trees in front and to the right. Let the trees on the left, and the hydro wires make your tummy turn, or you can block them all out, hit a club that will get you to the other side of the hill, shading to the left a bit, (not too far though as you will see when you get up there) and hit an easy second shot into a fair green and walk away with a par. Really easy to type, not so easy to do.

#8 is a nice, all carry Par 3 with a protecting bunker, and a hidden from the tee, very long, flat, fast green. Tight tee shot with trees on both sides, so hit a club that you can either carry 200 yards (from the blues) or bail to the landing area on the hill side. Either way, if you get a 4 on this hole, high fives all ’round, and walk quickly to #9.

#9 is about 310 yards fom the back tees, and if you stop and think about it, you can get a four on this hole without too much trouble. It looks hard, seems hard, but if you hit whatever club can get you to the 150 marker, hit another one that can get you 150 yards on an uphill track, then the only thing you will really have to worry about is the green which is quick front to back. So you get a 5. Take it and get to the clubhouse for a snackie-poo and you have made your turn.

# 10 is fairly straight forward. A 400 yards or so Par 4 that you should play on the right-center of the fairway. Longish green with a little slope at the front. Should be a nice 4/5.

I like #11, especially standing on the green during the fall and looking back up the hill. Gorgeous colours and a nice view. This is a downhill Par 4 that you can let it all out on. Play down what seems the right, but is really the centre of the fairway. Although, you can play down the left and your approach shot isnt that hard either. Big green that has a few big slopes on it. If you come in from the left you can land on the hilly side of the green and run the ball down to somewhere near the pin.

I HATE 12!!! Therefore, I say never speak of it again.

13 is a good Par 5 that you need to have your brain-cells meshing on. Out of bounds all the way down the right, and a pinched in fairway near the 150 marker with a freaking stupid big tree right in the middle up by the 100 yard pin. And if that isn’t enough, a bloody pond is to the left of the green that is deceptive. Hit your tee shot to the leftish center of the fairway. If you can hit a 3-wood or 5 wood long, then go at the green. If not, then be smart, hit it somewhere up near the 150-125 yard mark, and hit a high wedge into the green. You do that, and you can walk away with a par. Don’t do it, and you walk away with a double.

On 14 go at the 150 marker off the tee. Really. Downhill from there with a big green that is fast and runs away to the back.

# 15 is an all carry Par 3 that you will love in the Spring/Fall and hate in the Summer. This green slopes dramtically to the front so hit it high, land it soft and walk away quickly if you get anything less than a 5.

We are now in the home stretch. The tee shot on 16 needs to be more left than right, as the hole is a 90 degree dogleg right that will punish you for being a Republican. Just for this hole be a centrist, or even, dare I say it, a small L, liberal. The green, when you get there runs faster than Ben Johnson from left to right, so be smart. Play to the swale in front, and putt it in.

# 17 you can almost drive if you can hit it 300 or so. If not, stay in the middle, land your approach in front (not when it is wet though,) and keep in mind this is a small green that is very quick. Flat, but quick.

Let it all hang out on 18. You can get home from really anywhere in the fairway. (I said ‘fairway’ Tim). Big flat green, with only a few little bumps.

- Kevin

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World Golf Championships. American Express Championship. Tiger Woods Championship?

September 28, 2006 at 5:54 pm · Filed under Golf, Golf News, Golf Tournaments

Awrite, fellas… it’s prediction time again. And this time, it’s about the American Express Championship.

Tiger’s won five tournaments in a row now, if you don’t include the European Tour’s World Match Play event he crapped out on, and if you don’t count the Ryder Cup, which is obviously a team effort. Tiger himself considers the streak over tournament-wise, but not Tour-wise, which might say something about his confidence in defending the American Express title this weekend. As I write this, he’s just hit an eagle on 18 to take the lead with a -8; Padraig and Poulter are -7 apiece.

Stewart Cink’s been playing well [Ryder Cup play aside, team-wise], and he’s sitting at -6 with Ernie Els, who’s body maybe isn’t as healed as he says it is. Furyk, Karlsson and Scott are sharing a -4, Donald’s in at a -3, and Trevor Immelman – who’s beaten Woods on Tour this year, and who’s bound to start breaking through regularly soon - is also 3 under.

So, let’s hear it: is Woods taking another one? Even after the Match Play and Ryder events, I’m saying yes to that one. I invite all opinions.

- BC

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Lord Byron Passes

September 27, 2006 at 1:00 pm · Filed under Golf News

Byron Nelson passed away yesterday. Although he retired in 1946 [at the age of 34] and most of us never got to see him play, it’s sad to hear the man that some considered the greatest golfer to ever play the game has shuffled off this mortal coil. By contrast, though, it’s nice to hear that he passed away on his back porch at home on his ranch,  and at the ripe age of 94 at that.

Nelson, by all accounts, used to play golf to further his interests on his Texas ranch. The two-time Masters winner, two-time PGA Championship winner and U.S. Open winner would put his prize money towards a new cow, or tractor, or piece of farm equipment. 1945, the year before he retired, he won 18 tournaments in a row, and won 31 of 54 tournaments he played in between 1944 and 1945. Although his streak record has been said by some to be tainted [a word I use hesitantly] by the fact that many of golf’s best were serving in World War II at the time, it still stands as a monumental achievement that may never be matched. To top it all off, Nelson is credited as the father of the modern golf swing, which is worth any tournament victory in my book.  

You’ll hear a lot of stories about Lord Byron around the ‘Net this week. My favourite, however, is one I read about in Golf Digest. Vijay Singh, struggling at the time, once called Nelson up and asked him to check out his swing. Nelson, in his 90’s, diligently shuffled off to the airport, caught a plane, and met Singh on the range. Singh hit a few balls for Nelson, and Byron simply said, “There’s nothing wrong with your swing.” He then reportedly shuffled back off to the airport again and returned home.  

Byron Nelson passed away yesterday. He’ll be missed, and anyone who golfs today owes him a tip of the visor. 

- BC

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It’s A Ryder Cup Rout

September 24, 2006 at 9:54 pm · Filed under Golf, Golf News, Golf Tournaments

So The Ryder Cup ends once more, and congratulations are in order for the Euros. Woosie, Monty and the lads from across the pond continue to dominate the American contingent, and deserve all of our respect. At 18.5 to 9.5 in points when it’s all said and done, I don’t suppose we can say we’re overly impressed up here in the Great White North with our American neighbours – in truth, I’m sure that a lot of us were rooting for Europe from the get-go, being as multi-cultural as we are – but as the Maple Leaf fans like to say, there’s always next year [or at least, the year after that, anyhow]. I’d have liked to see it closer, but I suppose the Europeans are just plain better at team play.

Instead of focusing on the downside for the Americans, however, let’s talk about the brightest spot of the tournament. This picture, I think, says it all.

From John L. Byrwa’s article at www.rydercup.com:

[Darren] Clarke, a captain’s pick by Woosnam, was sensational in the face of unimaginable emotion. His 3-and-2 win over rookie Zach Johnson gave Clarke a perfect 3-0 mark here and also was his first-ever singles victory.

And while the victory will go miles in cementing Europe as a clear-cut favorite when the 2008 matches move to Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Clarke, who was unsure if he would even play in the event and went nearly two months without playing following his wife’s death, struggled to put into words what the victory and his experience here will mean for him personally.

“It’s done a lot for me,” Clarke, the father of two sons, Conor, 8, and Tyrone, 5. “It’s done a lot for people to show me how much they care and how much they care about me. It’s done a lot to show that they cared about Heather, and that means everything.

“To be here all week, my team have been unbelievable. The American guys have just been … the support that they have shown me, and their wives, has just been incredible. And the crowd on Friday morning will be something I cherish forever.”

So will we, Darren.

- BC

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Ryder ‘Til It Hurts [Predictions, Round II]

September 23, 2006 at 1:34 am · Filed under Golf, Golf Tournaments

RYDER CUP PREDICTIONS [ROUND II]

kcrouche said,

Match 1
Stewart Cink/J.J. Henry 3 a.m. ET Paul Casey/Robert Karlsson
I like Europe in this one, I see it 2 and 1.

Match 2
Phil Mickelson/Chris DiMarco 3:15 a.m. ET Sergio Garcia/Jose Maria Olazabal
Have to go with Europe again on this as I think that the US is tired, but Phil and Chris may surprise.

Match 3
Tiger Woods/Jim Furyk 3:30 a.m. ET Darren Clarke/Lee Westwood
Eager to recover from Friday morning, DC and LW will storm this match. I see it going back and forth, but 1 UP to the Europeans.

Match 4
Scott Verplank/Zach Johnson 3:45 a.m. ET Henrik Stenson/Padraig Harrington Europe sweeps the morning matches to take a 9 to 3 lead.

Big Clumsy said,

Match 1
Stewart Cink/J.J. Henry 3 a.m. ET Paul Casey/Robert Karlsson
Given the first round, I like a split here. TIE.

Match 2
Phil Mickelson/Chris DiMarco 3:15 a.m. ET Sergio Garcia/Jose Maria Olazabal
I’m going to take the Spanish Armada again. EUROPE.

Match 3
Tiger Woods/Jim Furyk 3:30 a.m. ET Darren Clarke/Lee Westwood
Eager to recover from Friday morning, DC and LW will storm this match. I see it going back and forth, but 1 UP to the Europeans.

Agreed. EUROPE.

Match 4
Scott Verplank/Zach Johnson 3:45 a.m. ET Henrik Stenson/Padraig Harrington

My pick’s EUROPE, but not a 9-3 lead with the split tie.

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Ryder? I Hardly Even… Well, You Know The Rest

September 21, 2006 at 6:08 pm · Filed under Golf, Golf Tournaments

RYDER CUP PREDICTIONS!

The Ryder Cup is set to begin, and for some of us fans, that means it’s the best time time of the [next two] year[s] as far as golf goes. While I love the Open, the U.S. Open, the Masters and all the rest, the Ryder Cup holds my interest more than any other golfing event. And so, it’s prediction time! Feel free to join in with a comment and your own predictions, and we’ll see if we can’t get Croucher to do a little head-to-head predicting here, with a Pumpkin Spice latte at Starbucks going to the winner.

FOURBALLS

Friday, September 21st

Colin Montgomerie and Padraig Harrington vs. Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk. Despite their Ryder Cup records and all the talk about how the Americans only care about money events, I think it would be unwise to pick Monty and Harrington over Woods and Furyk in any event whatsoever. Tiger and Jim are a one-two punch that’s tough to beat… especially if you’re Monty and Padraig. BC’S PICK: America.

Stewart Cink and JJ Henry vs. Paul Casey and Robert Karlsson. Cink and Henry. Cink has played really well lately, and while I think Henry was a questionable choice, Karlsson’s a rookie here [albeit one with a solid partner]. BC’S PICK:America.

David Toms and Brett Wetterich vs. Sergio Garcia and Jose Maria Olazabal. Garcia and Olazabal sound like a hell of a pairing to me, so good on Woosie for putting them together. Toms is Toms, and I never hear about Brett these days. I’m thinking the Spanish lads are going to open a can of Inquisition here. BC’S PICK: Europe.

Phil Mickelson and Chris DiMarco vs. Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke. You know, this is the toughest pick for me, because my head says one thing and my heart says the other. Mickelson is uncanny and DiMarco really solid, but I like Westwood’s style, and Darren Clarke is a personal favourite of mine. I think Clarke is what tips the balance here, too: he’s incredibly likeable, and after suffering the tragedy of his wife passing away very recently, he’s an Irishman who’s going to have the crowd on his side DOUBLE-strong. In the end, the heart wins out. BC’S PICK: Europe.

- BC

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In The Bag: Wish List

September 19, 2006 at 2:23 pm · Filed under What's In The Bag?

No golf this past week for us as a foursome, I’m afraid, though Croucher went to Parkview and hit a 78 on Saturday. Dennis needs a couple of weeks to heal up his bad shoulder, and as I’m not yet in possession of a set of clubs built for my size, I’m still on the sidelines. So after taking my driver, woods and hybrids to the driving range to work through some slice-fixing techniques I’ve been reading up on in Golf Digest, I went to Golf Town and hit a whole bunch of clubs for a couple of hours. I’ve got a wish list I’ve been building for a year that I’ll share with you here.

My original search for all-new clubs began with The Hot List 2005 from Golf Digest. As the bible of club-testing issues, The Hot List professionals take all the major brands and score them accordingly. Because I don’t have a ton of cash to spend on clubs, I looked at the ‘Top 10′ ranked game improvement clubs, found the lowest price of the ‘Top 10′ in each category [drivers, woods, irons, wedges and putters], and went to Golf Town armed with that list. I also supplimented that list with some random reviews from ’round the ‘Net, so you can see what others think.

BC’s Wish List

Driver: Nicklaus AirMax 460 DPT. I originally went to Golf Town thinking I’d hit the Nicklaus AirMax 440 ML as well, but I didn’t find either of them there, so I’m still looking to test them out. Both drivers are excellently priced [the ML at $270] and get excellent write-ups wherever I look at half the price of anything else. It might not be a Taylor Made R7 [nothing is], but it’s not $500, either. I’m looking forward to testing this one myself, and I still want it sight-unseen.

Woods: Adams Ovation. Man, these things are beautiful. Go to your local Golf Town and smack the 3-wood around off a deck, because it really flies. The difference between these and my Spaldings are night and day. Again, like all the clubs here, these are pretty reasonably priced at $98 a pop, though I’d probably get them from The Golf Warehouse if I were buying them today.

Irons: Nike NDS. I’ve hit these three times at Golf Town, and I continue to love them. I don’t reall like the way they look, and the weighting feels a little Mickey Mouse to me, but they’re so forgiving and easy to hit that I don’t care about the appearance much. These are right in the middle of last year’s ‘Top 10′ list, and at $500 cost significantly less than the Pings [$850] and Callaways [$800] they’re getting ranked with.

Wedges: Cleveland 588. I didn’t hit these against the screen, but I did fool around with them around the store, and they’re so beautiful it hurts. Croucher gave me a Cleveland wedge I still use, and there isn’t a club in bag that compares to it. At around $100, these clubs are the best value I’ve seen when you compare Golf Digest ranking against price.

Putter: Ping G2i CRAZ-E. Pretty weird-looking, but it’s the best roll I’ve ever felt off a clubface. Now updated to the G5i, it’s an incredible feeling club – and that’s coming from a guy who has almost no ability to ‘feel’ anything on the course. I love this thing, and I want this thing. At $200, though, it’s a stretch. My best bet? To go to TGW.com or Ebay for one.

- BC

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Tiny Woods

September 14, 2006 at 12:58 pm · Filed under Golf News

Croucher sent me an article he found on Golf Online this morning about a 6 year-old Scottish phenom who drives the ball 250 yards and sunk his first ace at the age of five… all the while sinking 60 foot birdie putts along the way. They call him “Tiny Woods”. Here’s the article:

 

http://www.golfonline.com/golfonline/features/features/article/0,17742,1533067,00.html

 

I cannot wait until science invents a machine that will allow duffers like me to suck raw athletic skill out of the young for our own nefarious golfing purposes.

 

- BC

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4 Seasons GC: We Stopped Keeping Score

September 10, 2006 at 11:33 pm · Filed under My Foursome, Ontario Golf Course Ratings

BC’s COURSE RATING: 4 SEASONS COUNTRY CLUB

RR#5 Con.8 #1900
Claremont ON , L1Y 1A2
Phone: (877) 406-8583
Website: http://www.2golf.ca/location/index.php

CATEGORY / RATING [out of 5]
Beauty – 4
Strategy – 3
Challenge – 3.5
Design – 2
Par 3 Holes – 2
Par 4 Holes – 3
Par 5 Holes – 3
Conditioning – 2.5
Fun – 1
Course Service – 0
Pace of Play – 3
Value for Money- 1
Food Quality – N/A
Walkability – Demanding
Over All Rating – 2

For Scoregolf’s Course Rating, click HERE

NOTES: So Dennis, Amir and I hit 4 Seasons Country Club in Claremont today, and were left vastly disappointed with the course. This wasn’t a V-Cup event, as Kevin had to work; although there’s no hard and fast rule about it, I don’t like the idea of the guy holding the Cup not getting a chance to defend it because the office called and he had to answer. Instead, this round was just about having some fun. Or it would have been, if it had been anywhere but 4 Seasons.

We came across this place last week, after we’d played 18 at Seaton Golf & Country Club and were looking for a place to fit us in for another 18 [Seaton being full on the long weekend]. It was full as well, but as we had driven into the place we saw some challenging-looking holes, great landscaping and a beautiful clubhouse. It impressed us enough to book a tee-time for this week. This course lied to us, as Amir said, and we won’t be returning there.

While the course has it’s challenges, it’s also and extremely dumb course in terms of design. The back nine aren’t just hilly – they go straight up and straight down. Amir had a cart and Dennis walked half the time and rode half the time, but I walked the whole thing.. and let me tell you, this short little beast felt a lot longer than it was. 4 Seasons has a course rating of 66.5 and a slope rating of 124 [from the tips], but the pin positions were apparently decided by an idiot who thought putting a hole on a slope was a good idea. Also, the further away from the roads one got, the poorer the conditions were: near the back, you couldn’t tell the fairways from the rough. Most notably, however, this is the only course we’ve ever played where we just stopped keeping score.

That ought to tell you something.

*****

Pure Fit
On another note, my short clubs are killing me. I’m looking forward to a new set Kevin is getting his buddy at Pure Fit to build for me – they’re a new company ’round here, and we’re looking forward to trying out some of their stuff – and I don’t think I’ll be playing much until they’re in. Clearly my game needs a lot of work, but I see no point working and spending money on it when the current tools I have are far from sufficient. I loathe the idea of not playing golf on the weekend with the boys, but I am dying here.

Parting shot: Jim Furyk won the Bell Canadian Open today. I’m pretty happy about that, as he’s one of my favourites. Going to be fun seeing him and Tiger at the Ryder.

- BC

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The Pink Purse [Do You Sense It's SHAME?!?]

September 7, 2006 at 2:07 am · Filed under My Foursome

The Pink Purse first came into play on August 27th, when Amir showed up with a pink child’s purse he’d purchased in a Winners store in Toronto and subsequently bullied Croucher and me into using it. Whereas the Valleywoods Cup celebrates our achievements, the Pink Purse humiliates our shortcomings… because any player who does not put his drive past the front tees or leaves his putt more than halfway short of the hole must carry the Pink Purse to the green and the teebox, as well as use the pink balls and pink tees within [a rule which Dennis refuses to agree to, having fallen in love with Pinnacles and Pinnacles alone]. Also, the bearer of the Pink Purse must hang it on his golf bag, and, perhaps most terribly, must pay for the food and drinks from the drink cart girl with the money inside. Yes… hilarity abounds.

The Pink Purse itself depicts a small dog – possibly a poodle, we’re not really sure – with pink wings, and is passed between each player who ‘wins’ it as the round continues in what we refer to as ‘the curse of the Pink Purse’. The golfer holding it at the end of the round doesn’t have to hold it at the beginning of the next round, thank God. It’s gotten a couple of funny looks from other golfers [Amir's had the best line for a gawking duffer so far, with a 'Yes, it's a purse. What of it?' that made the guy keep right on walking]. Kevin’s also pointed out that we hold the intellectual property rights on it, and he doesn’t want to see any purple handbags out there or there’s gonna be lawyers.

We’ve all had the Pink Purse since it’s inception, and it’s not as bad as it sounds. In fact, those pink balls inside have some pretty good compression, man. It’s all in good fun, and I’ve gotta admit that it makes you think about not leaving those putts short.

- BC

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