Katieshack

Long Beach's Merrick Creeps Toward Top

With the sheer amount of golfing opportunities in the Southland, it's a wonder that there aren't more professional golfers emerging from the area. One that is, however, is Long Beach's John Merrick.

The 25-year-old former UCLA star who captured both the 2001 Long Beach City Amateur and SCGA Amateur Championships in back-to-back weeks as a 19-year-old made a name for himself on the Nationwide Tour, winning one event out of his 40 Nationwide career tournaments and securing four Top-10s. This past weekend, however, Merrick collected his first Top-5 PGA Tour finish at the Renoe-Tahoe Open, tying for fourth place. It was the first time he's broken into the top 10 in a PGA Tour event. Read more HERE.

We look forward to watching one of our past SCGA champions—and all-around classy, nice guy, according to everyone who's met him—as he continues his trek toward the top.

The (True) Spirit of the Game

The SCGA recently held its first Parent/Junior Championship at Marbella Country Club in San Juan Capistrano, which is not only our first SCGA junior tournament in recent years, but the first family event we’ve held as well.

I have been fortunate in my time at the SCGA to be privy to many tournaments and have been around many wonderful players (both personality- and talent-wise), but this particular tournament was different: with young players (both male and female) ranging from age 7 to 17, teaming up with their fathers, grandfathers and step-fathers in the modified foursomes format, it was perhaps one of the most inspirational and refreshing tournaments I have been exposed to.

In a nutshell, this tournament reflected the true spirit of the game of golf. Let me explain.

In general, most golf tournaments you go to these days or see on TV, both professional and amateur, feature someone (or a few people) who dampen the mood of the day by complaining about whatever it was affecting their round: “the greens were awful,” “the rough was dangerously thick,” and “that hole placement was unfair” are pretty much the standard lines no matter the level of golf being played (I won’t argue with validity of these statements, although they’re frequently said out of frustration). The term “sandbagger,” used both in jest and seriousness, is a popular one whether in a leisurely game or competitive match, as is, “that person shouldn’t be out here,” or “they aren’t good enough to be in the field.” They sink a putt for par and aren’t happy, or hit a drive offline and slam their club into the ground. Relaxing to watch, similar to a ticking time bomb.

This tournament was different, though. Most, if not all, of these talented kids are not jaded by competition (yet). To see the genuine excitement on the faces and in the voices of the players, both kids and parents, after making a long putt or hitting a great approach shot onto the green was, for lack of a better phrase, REALLY fun. The praise, high-fiving, pats on the back and motivation out there was nice. Although there were two flights, different ages of players were playing together. Many players could not stop talking about what a beautiful course it was and how much they enjoyed playing it. When 12-year-old Frank Cuccia, Jr. scored his first ace ever on the 117-yard 11th hole with his 5-iron, he was beaming the entire day. When 7-year-old Blake Keesey, the youngest and perhaps most talked-about player in the tournament (see the next issue of FORE), came to the scoring area with his father, Victor, and saw the table of silver winners’ plates, he gasped and said, “Wow, those plates are so beautiful.”

When he and his father ended up winning the Vice President Flight of the championship and Blake raised the oversized champions’ plate over his head, the entire field roared with applause and chanted his name.

All and all, it was good, clean golf fun.

This “true spirit” of the game may be different things to different people. To me, however, it’s about appreciation of the sport, enjoyment of the surroundings, camaraderie with both your playing partner and the players in the group, maybe even feeling some sort of pride or satisfaction in an aspect of your game, like a great shot (no matter how dire the round as a whole may have been). Does the true spirit embody competition? Of course it does. That doesn’t mean players have to be excited if they lose — disappointment’s a natural feeling, but is true negativity necessary? No. It doesn’t hurt anyone to be a little happy for the person that wins.

I overheard one of our SCGA committeemen volunteers ask a father if he enjoyed the day. The father smiled, nodded his head, and said something that we should all think about:

“I signed my son and I up for this tournament to spend time with him,” he said. “I work so much and thought this would be a great chance for us to take some time out of our day to be together. I need to do it with all my kids. It was so much more than golf, and we’ll sign up next year because of it.”

Next time you go out to play, think about what golf really is to you, beyond winning. Above anything else, it’s a great opportunity to spend a few hours of quality time with someone you care about and appreciate the activity, which, in the grand scheme of things, is really what’s important.

Beware of gators

As you contemplate how much that wayward Pro V1 or Noodle you hit in the water hazard is worth to you, think for a moment what the consequences of your (ahem) thriftiness could be: an alligator nearly amputating your arm.

So learned 50-year-old Bruce Berger the hard way, when he reached in for his ball in a pond at Lake Venice Golf Club in Florida and the 11-foot, one-eyed beast latched onto his arm and pulled him in. See the AP article HERE.

Now trust me, I'm ALL for free golf balls. I'm ecstatic if I only go through a sleeve during a round. But I'm not going to wrestle a gator, near a sign that says "Beware of Alligator," to get one. Sorry.

It's a dangerous game. Be careful out there.

The many forms of course camaraderie

I was recently on a business golf outing with an East Coast colleague at Saddle Creek Resort in Copperopolis, a 6,800-yard Carter Morrish design two hours southeast of Sacramento. With a course starter named Mac McCool (greatest name ever and the topic of a whole other blog) and a restaurant menu to die for, read in a future issue of FORE Magazine more about this stunning layout in Northern California’s copper country and how the first stage of Copperopolis Town Square is nearly complete, as purveyors Castle & Cooke are building a new “country town” from the ground up.

However, I digress.

While riding around the course, my playing partner Scott began telling me a rather entertaining story about a group of guys he plays golf with in Texas each year. Every time they go out, he tells me, they try to choose one phrase — lacking any directness or substance — that can be used to respond to any comment or rhetorical question thrown their way. Among these phrases, “Ain’t that the truth,” “You got that right,” the Scottish-influenced “Aye,” and my Los Angeles contribution, “No doubt,” had all been successfully used in the past, and, as shocking as it was to hear for a person like me in the communications industry, they worked.

A little skeptical, I asked to see this social experiment first hand, to which Scott obliged. For his victim, he chose another sports writer on the trip who not only immensely enjoyed talking to, instructing and critiquing everyone’s games that were on the trip, but enjoyed talking to himself as well. Scott went to work.

“Hey Scott, what a day out here, huh?”

“You got that right.”

“Wow, did you see that? Heck of a shot.”

[Insert chuckle] “You got that right.”

“Wow, I didn’t even see that break in the green, the ball just hi-tailed it left.”

“Hmmm, you got that right.”

I shook my head in disbelief (and immense amusement) at this spectacle and began to think of the things I say to people on the golf course…could this tactic really be used on me as well?

Scott and I recapped. “I can’t believe this,” I told him. “I’m amazed it worked. What happens if someone asks you what you do for a living or where you’re from? Something specific you have to answer?”

He smiled. “Think back on all of the times you’ve played with a group of people you don’t know. Direct questions may come up within the first five, maybe 10 minutes that you meet the people and possibly before you tee off. After that, though, you are, for the most part, done.”

In remembering my own experiences, the interesting thing was that he was right. My curious tendencies teamed with my aversion to awkward silences in a golf cart lead me to chit-chat and ask people a lot of specific questions requiring more than a yes or no answer. People are interesting to me; you never know who you might meet. But aside from the occasional remark asking me if I was the next Annika and telling me I need to tee off from the back with the boys, I could count the number of times people asked me specific a question during a round on two hands. And I realized that not only was I okay with that, I always had been.

As one of the staples of the game of golf, camaraderie can come in many different forms; it doesn’t always mean that a full-fledged, eye-opening conversation needs to occur. For many it’s about the company of another or watching the way someone else plays the game. For others, it’s a change of scenery at a new golf course with a new person. If you like running commentary, a good laugh, and want to feel better about your game by watching mine, I’m your gal.

Like Scott told me, think back on the times you’ve golfed with a new person and you’ll be surprised at how little you may have verbally communicated but how much of an enjoyable time (hopefully) you had. Whatever your camaraderie goal is, have a good time out there, because really, if you’re not, there’s no point in playing the game.

Fallen Golfer and Golf Cart Safety

In a very tragic incident yesterday (May 22) at Pala Mesa Golf Resort in Fallbrook, a 65-year-old Irvine golfer died after his golf cart went over a cliff on the second hole and plunged 75 feet down to the road below. Read the Associated Press story HERE.

The cause of the accident is still unknown and investigators will look at the cart for mechanical failures; this gentleman very well could have been doing everything right, which makes this incident unfair. That being said, cart safety is important and we should take this opportunity to remind ourselves of that.

We need to think of golf carts as cars, which requires us to pay attention to the surroundings around us. Beautiful scenery, a great shot, or a rousing conversation can take our attention off the real task at hand: DRIVING. Too many times I have seen a golf cart rolled over out of careless driving, a cart steered into a pond, ditch or bunker, even a person rolling out of the cart because of a turn made too sharply by the driver. An SCGA committeeman’s ankle was broken after his playing partner accidentally hit him with their golf cart. Adding alcohol into the mix, as golfers sometimes partake in, clearly increases the chances for poor cart-driving decisions. PLEASE BE CAREFUL: RECKLESS CART DRIVING IS NOT FUNNY. Be aware of the conditions of the course; wet grass will cause carts to slide and skid, whether it be forward, backward or sideways. Keep the cart speed low. Check the mechanics of the cart before you head onto the course; if you notice a problem like faulty brakes (scary to discover on the course, such as when I found the parking brake on my cart wouldn’t work and there were hills coming up), inform golf course personnel. This all seems obvious, but some people need a reminder.

Have fun out there, be safe and use both caution and common sense. Our thoughts go out to our lost golfer.

Welcome to the Katieshack

As a person who could easily take five pages to answer a question requiring a one-word response, imagine my excitement when I was told that, yes, I would be given (mostly) unlimited Web space to share some of my golf world discoveries with my SCGA friends!

A perk of working in communications and magazines, especially in the golf industry, is that I am often informed of equipment, apparel, books, products, courses, instruction, specials, etc. (i.e. anything and everything golf-related) that the general golf public many times is not. In other words, I hold many consumer golf secrets in the palms of my little hands, and I’m now ready to spill to you all. It’s my duty as a golf communications professional.

Through this SCGA blog, I’ll have the opportunity to share many things I come across in my golf travels, whether it be a product I’m excited about, incidences I run across on the golf course, a humorous golf story that a member may share with me, or quirky, under-the-table golf news. Luckily for everyone I enjoy typing, so look forward to frequent and timely entries. Golf is a fun and intriguing sport as well as a fascinating lifestyle, and I hope that Katieshack, Bob’s Blog and Know the Rules will reflect that.

The Katieshack is open 24 hours a day, so stop by and let me know what interests you as a golfer, what you want to read about and what you want to see. Tell me a golf story or share a golf memory. I look forward to hearing from you!

--Katie Denbo

Read any good books lately...?

As a member of the golf communications community, I am privy to the new, the exciting, and the up-and-coming of many facets of the game, but only have so much room to share in FORE Magazine. Much of this includes apparel, equipment and courses, but it also includes a favorite pastime of mine: books!

Being the literary…ahem…nerd that I am, the delivery of a new golf book to FORE headquarters always piques my interests a little. We have shelves and shelves of books here that publishers send to us, from beautiful coffee table books full of photography (such as Classic Shots by Marty Parkes of the USGA, a MUST-see even for non-golf fans) to history, biography, instruction, and, my personal favorite, sarcastic humorous golf comedy books that simply put everyone’s favorite game in perspective.

Intruigued by the latter? Let’s just say when Bobby Rusher’s How to Line Up Your Fourth Putt ($15 at amazon.com) arrived on my desk, my need for a good golf laugh was satiated.

Before I begin, let me reiterate that I don’t condone much, if any, of what Rusher writes about here. But no golfer I know, scratch or otherwise, can deny that some of these thoughts or ideas haven’t passed through their minds. As one person eloquently put it, this book is for those people who need a good laugh at themselves…since others are doing it anyway.

From “How to Avoid the Water When You Lie Eight in the Bunker” (answer: pick up) to “What to Do When You’ve Parred the Course by the 11th Hole” (this was once me!), the 84 one-page chapters of this book contain some of the most sound social sports advice I’ve seen. For those having a rougher day than their opponents, Chapter 62 offers “How to Increase Your Opponent’s Score When You Are Unable to Decrease Your Own.” If you’re behind in your skins game, try Chapter 9: “Using Your Shadow on the Greens to Maximize Earnings” (shadow puppets, anyone?). My fondness, however, lies in Chapter 12, perhaps because of my familiarity with it being used against me: “The Art of Telling Jokes When Your Opponent Is In the Bunker.” You know you’ve done it. Enough said.

Rusher’s not the only genius out there: A Disorderly Compendium of Golf: Wisdom, Folly, Rules, Truths, Trivia and More, by Lorne Rubenstein and Jeff Neuman (best $14 on a golf book spent) will keep even non-reading aficionados interested. If nothing else than for its 50 Most Memorable Lines from Caddyshack.

Until next time…