Also this past week, from the Q school qualifiers, the class of 2011, led by Brendon Todd, gave us 26 additional graduates for the 2012 tour. Brendan was one of four former Georgia Bulldogs to get the tour card via Q school. Since the year 2000, recent Q school winners have won only twice their first year following Q school finals. Still, it should be exciting to watch the new qualifiers battle it out for a win at next year’s PGA tour.

Champions. Jeff Freeman captured medalist honors at the 2011 champions tour national qualifying tournament at TPC champions course in Scottsdale. For his victory, Freeman, the 1999 PGA professional player of the year, earned a check for $30,000.

Everything pales in comparison to the fight that Devon Quigley and his family have ahead of them. The son of Champions Tour veteran Dana Quigley, was in a horrible car accident Wednesday night while driving home from a birthday party, when his car collided with a semi-truck in Riviera Beach, Florida. When I went to visit Devon and the family this past week in the hospital, he was showing some signs of improvement, but the battle will be slow and hard, and at this date, uncertain. The support that the family has received from friends, family, and members of the PGA has been outstanding. I am asking all members of my club and website visitors to say a prayer for Devon’s recovery and for the family to have the strength to get them through this trying time.  

FLASH

Years later, there were men and women who were specialists in the self improvement industry. Tony Robbins comes to mind as one of the most famous, and most vocal when it comes to modeling. Now this isn’t modeling like you see on the “Next Top Model”. This is what Tony refers to as an essential ingredient to catapult you to a higher plane in human development on a personal level. An example would be if you wanted to become an astute and creative business leader, you might model (emulate) a particular individual who exemplifies those characteristics that made them a success, like maybe Steve Jobs of Apple.

So how does that translate to golf? That’s probably one of the easiest things to explain now that there’s so much golf on TV. Once you know the basic fundamentals of the golf swing, grip, alignment and posture, you can then model yourself after a favorite golfer, just like we (and I’m willing to guess, you, even though you may not think about this now) did as a kid for baseball. Let’s face it, 50 years ago, there wasn’t that much golf on TV. Now we have our own channel, and multiple tours being televised every week, almost all year round.  

So if the fastest way to success in any endeavor is to model a successful person, how do you pick that person? That’s actually the easy part. Pick out someone on any one of the tours that you admire and has a similar body type and perhaps emotional demeanor that you do.  For instance, although he’s perhaps one of the greatest golfers around, not many people have Tiger Wood’s athletic body and intense competitive spirit.  However, as a 50 and over player, there are many incredibly great golfers that you can watch on TV and model yourself after them.  

Now, I’m on Tour, and have been for a lot of years. And I can tell you, as you can see, that the elder statesmen on the PGA Tour, and all of those on the Champions Tour, have different body types than the young bucks you see, like Rickie Fowler or Rory McIlroy.  So look for someone who you can closely associate with.  Watch their swing, their tempo, their approach to different shots.  Improvement will come as you learn more (like in these articles, tips and member’s video lessons), and then take what you learned and incorporate it into skills that will translate into lower scores.  And as you model your favorite, try to imagine what he’s thinking as he approaches each shot.

Think like a pro, act like a pro, and you’ll find that your scores will improve. Oh, and one more thing. Don’t imagine for a minute that the pros don’t practice, and I mean a lot. Remember, I don’t ask you to put in hours a day, but give me minutes a day, or every other day (probably more than you’re putting in now), and I promise you, you will improve, especially if you incorporate what you learn here.

Hit ‘em long and straight,

FLASH

http://youtu.be/TMcn7ZAx3lY

This combines the beauty of the Scottish landscape with some of the refinements of a modern day course. 

Should be a challenge to play, but I can’t wait to see it finished.

It already looks incredible.  Good Luck, Donald.

FLASH

The Champions Tour Q School began it’s regional qualifying stage October 25. Florida Regional played for 17 spots, Texas Regional played for 16 spots, and Nevada Regional also played for 16 spots, all having two alternates. The good news is you’ll be able to view the final stage (officially Nov. 30-Dec.5) on the Golf Channel December 3-5, check your local listings for times.  Good luck to all.

Holes in one on the Champions Tour this year was Olin Browne #8 Alliance; D.A. Weibring #3 US Senior Open; Jay Hass #4 3M; Hale Irwin #9 Boeing, Chien Soon Lu #17 Songdo IBD Championship; and Mark Wiebe #3 Charles Schwab.  Conspicuously absent was ME.  I came close a few times, but missed the ACE this year.  Looking forward to next season and expect to be more competitive. As you can see, even the pros have difficulty getting holes in one, just like you, only we usually get it a little closer.  That’s why I keep stressing the short game and practice, practice, practice.

The Nationwide Tour has also finished out its season with Ken Duke winning $180,000 at the Daniel Island Club in Charleston. Not a bad haul for the Tour Championship win, which brought him to 7th on the money list this year.  JJ Killeen ranked 1st with $414 grand, Ted Potter Jr. with $402 grand, and Mathew Goggin showed at $378 grand. These guys are good too, and it sure was a competitive field this year and we got so see some great golf.

The LPGA’s qualifying tournament is set for this week in Daytona Beach, at both the Legends and Champions courses at LPGA International. This is the final event in the 3 part annual qualifying tournament held to determine membership on both the LPGA and Symetra Tour (which used to be known as the LPGA Futures Tour). This year is the first time the two tours are operating joint “Q-schools”, and the first time all the qualifiers are being held in Florida, which of course is the home of the LPGA. Look out for Ginger Howard, a Florida favorite. The field will consist of a total of 142 players, and the top 40 (including ties) will receive their LPGA membership for 2012.  Good luck, Ladies!

A final note regarding America’s victory for the Presidents Cup. First of all, maybe I was watching TV at the wrong time, but it seems to me that the coverage was centered around Greg Norman. Now I understand he’s from Australia, but come on, Fred Couples  was America’s Captain and he was hardly mentioned.  Seems like a terrible oversight to me.  And while we’re on the subject of Fred, let us not forget how everyone was second guessing him regarding his pick of Tiger this year.  It seems like it was a great pick after all, as Tiger scored the clinching point.  Speaking of great picks, Jim Furyk came alive and played like it was 2010, as he and Phil won all five of their matches.  Great synergy there, and it was a blast to watch.

Flash

Many years ago, there was a commercial, and I’m pretty sure it was by Maxfli, about their golf balls.  Now whoever was handling their advertising account at the time was pretty great in my estimation.  They had one commercial where they had this guy (I don’t remember if it was a professional golfer or not) hitting his ball off the tee with his driver, while his black labrador retriever was standing by.  He let go of a massive drive, right down the middle and out of sight.  The lab took off and several seconds later, with the sound of a swoosh, you see him standing in front of the golfer with the Maxfli ball in his mouth, logo facing the camera, of course.  

The second memorable commercial they had was the rocker Alice Cooper, putting on a green, coming up short and someone in the foursome exclaiming “nice putt, Alice“.  Of course the irony was obvious and the point taken. Which brings to question, how did that saying come about? Well, I don’t know if this story is true, but this is pretty plausible and certainly worth relating to you all.  After all, wouldn’t you like to know who Alice is?

Contrary to one frequently offered explanation, this “Alice” has nothing to do with the Jackie Gleason sitcom The Honeymooners. Gleason was a golf fanatic, and his character on the show, Ralph Kramden, played golf, too. >> Ralph’s wife was named Alice . It’s a good guess, but the phrase does not refer to Alice Kramden.

It turns out that “Alice” isn’t a she at all. “Alice” is a he, and it’s not “Alice”, it’s “Alliss.” As in Peter Alliss.

Peter Alliss is the famous English golf broadcaster, the voice of golf on the BBC for decades. But before he became internationally famous as a broadcaster, Alliss was famous in Britain and Europe as a touring pro. And a pretty good one, too: Alliss won 21 times on the precursor to the European Tour and played on eight Ryder Cup teams.

At the 1963 Ryder Cup in Atlanta, Alliss played Arnold Palmer and Tony Lema in back-to-back singles matches and won by 1.5 points, halving with Lema and beating Palmer. At some point during his match against Palmer, Alliss — for whom putting was not a strength — badly missed a 3-foot putt. Someone in the gallery yelled out, “Nice putt, Alliss!” Alliss described that moment in a brief article in a 1997 issue of Sports Illustrated, and explained how the phrase became part of the golf lexicon.

The BBC programs of the early to mid-1960s liked to get punny with Alliss’ name and its homonym, the female monicker Alice . Ah, that good ol’ golf humor: questioning a man’s, well, manliness for leaving a putt short by calling him a woman’s name. They did it in the 1960s and they still do it today.  

Except that today, most golfers — most of those outside of Britain, anyway — have no idea that “Alice” is actually Peter Alliss. But now you do.

Hit ‘em long and straight,

FLASH

When I was playing a Pro-Am in San Antonio before the tournament, one of my amateur partners hit his ball to the right of the fairway and left himself a pretty long shot to the green with the stump of a tree in his way. This created two rather distinct problems for him.

The first, was that a poorly directed shot, in this case his tee shot, was poorly struck with a glancing blow which caused excess spin and a slice to the right, leaving him with a long approach shot to the green. Secondly, in order to get the ball over the stump of the tree, he was going to have to hit a ball that gets up quickly so as not to clip or directly hit the object in front of him. In this case, he was going to have to hit a club that would give him the length to carry the ball, like a mid or long iron, but also have the launch characteristics of a shorter iron to clear the object. No small task.

While some of you are more skilled and can open up a longer iron and hit a high flying and soft landing shot to the green, most cannot. Now I can hit a 4 or 5 iron pretty high, but I know mid-handicappers like Doc really struggle with this shot. Try as he might, even when he hits a long iron so the ball takes flight, it resembles a line drive compared to my ball which lands softly on the green. Doc is usually hitting back after his ball skirts across the green because of his ball’s lack of altitude. 

In this case, Doc would be better served to use another equipment solution that still allows him to maintain a normal swing but enables him to get the ball up higher. He has two solutions here which would probably serve all mid to high handicappers to have in their bag. One is a hybrid, and the other would be a 7 or 9 wood.

While the hybrid iron has pretty much phased out the lofted wood, remembering that both are designed to perform the same task although a bit differently, it becomes a matter of personal choice as to which one to use. I would suggest to try both and see which one you feel more comfortable and more confident with, although I recommend the hybrid. Doc recently gave up his 7 wood for a fitted hybrid and finds he likes it better than his old seven.  But you should really see which one offers YOU the best result. Which launches higher and more consistently off of different lies, and which fills in the distance gaps better and gives you more confidence to attack from far out.

This was a big difference for Doc who now goes for it where as before he would lay up.

Hit ‘em long and straight,

FLASH

Well, the weather has finally changed in Palm Beach Gardens, Fl, and the rain has stopped, so it’s time to get out there and practice. Now I know most of you are probably thinking “If I were a pro and made my living at golf, I’d be out practicing, too.”

The truth is, if you take this sport seriously, or even if you just enjoy it for the fun and friendly competition, you’ll play better and enjoy it more by practicing. It doesn’t have to be for hours every day, or even 20 minutes every day (although Doc will tell you at least 20 minutes a day should be devoted to some form of exercise). But if you get out to the practice range once a week and work on the lessons you get as a member, and you pick up your perfect release every day for 5-10 minutes /product/perfect-release/, chances are you’ll be blown away by how much improvement you’ll make with pretty much very little effort.

So get out there and practice, and adopt the “Winning At Golf After 50″ attitude that will help increase your enjoyment of the game exponentially.

Now that I’ve got that out of the way, I thought you might enjoy this. Here is a sign posted at a golf club in Scotland:

1. BACK STRAIGHT, KNEES BENT,
FEET SHOULDER WIDTH APART.
2. FORM A LOOSE GRIP.
3. KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN!
4. AVOID A QUICK BACK SWING.
5. STAY OUT OF THE WATER.
6. TRY NOT TO HIT ANYONE.
7. IF YOU ARE TAKING TOO LONG,
LET OTHERS GO AHEAD OF YOU.
8. DON’T STAND DIRECTLY
IN FRONT OF OTHERS.
9. QUIET PLEASE
WHILE OTHERS ARE PREPARING.
10. DON’T TAKE EXTRA STROKES.

WELL DONE.

NOW, FLUSH THE URINAL, GO OUTSIDE,
AND TEE OFF.

Hit ‘em long and straight…and keep smiling!

FLASH