The Kokopelli Golf Stance

My name is Michele Weeks and I am a volunteer for the American Lung Association in Richmond, VA.  I came across your blog and wanted to reach out as I thought this was something your readers would be interested in.  Every year we sell Golf Privilege Memberships to benefit our organization.  This year we have partnered with Golf Digest Tee Times to offer a new and improved golf program.  The new Golf Privilege Membership is still the same great price of $39.95 (that's $20 off the non-ALA price) but now includes over 3300 courses and an array of online specials!  I know there are a lot of discount golf memberships out there but I think a lot of folks would be interested in our membership since it offers a way of giving back to a great organization.  These also make terrific gifts for the upcoming holidays.  You can purchase the Golf Privilege Membership by visiting www.alagolfmembership.org.  We would greatly appreciate it if you could inform your readers of this awesome opportunity.  If you have any questions you can call 804-267-1900. 

Here is a little more info on the American Lung Association:
The American Lung Association of the Atlantic Coast is the leading organization working to save lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease.  Our work takes place in the community where you live.  We teach children and adults how to live with asthma, and we provide support for families whose members are living with lung disease.  We fund research that will directly impact the care of people with lung disease.  We fight for laws that make the air cleaner, and we help teens and adults to quit smoking. We are leading the fight for air – join us!

Kind Regards,
Michele M. Weeks

Mr Science Reports

Terry started well with a very short birdie putt on 1, but the day was a struggle.  The pin placements were diabolical on many holes, perched up on small "top shelves", sometimes on peninsulas, guarded by bunkers and often at the back of the green, when there is nothing but trouble over the green on this course.  Terry made 4 birdies on the day, and burned the edges a few more times.  He was even par when he had a blowout on 14.  His approach was a little right of target, and funneled down the false front into the chipping area right of the green.  We all thought he should have hit a lob wedge onto the green, and had a par putt, even if it was a long one.  Instead he selected a hybrid to chip with, and it didn't quite make it to the top of the hill, and rolled back down near where it started.  On the 2nd try he used the lob wedge, and two putts later he had a double bogey.  He fought back with birdies on 15 and 17, but finished two strokes out of the playoff for the 11th and 12th spots.  The top 5 get a "card", exempt from qualifying, and the next 7 get a conditional exemption.  Anyone in the top 30 is exempt from pre-qualifying, and thus can play in the Monday qualifiers.  Terry is T20, and will be competing in Monday qualifiers next year.

The other two in our group were Fred Holton and David Peoples.  David shot 70 and missed the playoff by 1.  An errant tee shot on 16 went over the trap on the right, and bounced right, toward the hazard.  As he got into the cart, disappointed, he said "Every swing's an adventure".  He made a good chip, but missed the putt and released an F-bomb.  Then birdied the next hole, but it was not quite enough.

Fred, a club pro from Alabama, shot 69 and was in the playoff for 11th and 12th places, along with Lu Chien Soon, Rod Spittle, Curt Byrum, Jim Rutledge, and Rich Parker.  They all made par on the 9th hole, the first playoff hole, a par 5 where many birdies were made during the tournament.  Lu, Fred, and Jim all had a putter in their hand for their third shots.  On 10, another par 5, they all made birdie except for Rod, whose short birdie putt suffered a horeshoe-shaped lip-out.  On 11, Lu and Jim missed birdie putts from inside 10 feet, and Rich fell out with a bogey.  On 12, Fred captured the final spot with a 6-foot birdie putt.   

Peter Senior shot 66 and won the tournament by 3 shots.  Steve Haskins, who had a 4-shot lead at the beginning of the day, shot 74 and tied for 2nd with Joe Ozaki (66) and Ronnie Black (70).  Jim Roy (66) got the 5th exemption in a playoff against Bruce Vaughan and Kirk Hanefeld.

Mr Science Reports

I walked with Terry Burke, John Ross, and Curt Byrum again today.

Terry has a blog:  http:\\www.championspursuit.blogspot.com

Curt started out on fire, birdied #1, 3, 4, and 7, but then bogied 8, 14, and 15.  Came back with birdies on 16 and 17, shooting another 68 and is tied for 3rd with Peter Senior.  His birdie on #3 was a tap-in deuce, no more than 2 inches.  On 14, he missed the green to the left, in the tall rough, wedged it barely onto the green and it rolled down the slope, down to the bottom tier, past the hole to the opposite side of the green, hovered for a second at the fringe line, and then plunged 20 feet down into a collection area.  He putted from there and almost made it.  15 is 359 yards around the dogleg, but only 306 as the crow flies across the desert.  Curt went for it, and ended up in a tuft of tall fescue, unplayable.  His third shot came up short of the green, and he had a harsh word for himself after that one that we can't repeat in a family blog!

John had an up and down day with 4 birdies and 3 bogeys.  On 16, he hit his tee shot into the greenside bunker, short-sided, and had a sort of iffy lie with a ridge of sand behind the ball.  He left the pin out, hit it perfectly onto the fringe and it rolled right into the hole.  The pin had been out for Terry to tap in his par putt, and I wasn't sure that they hadn't just forgotten to replace it, so I asked John and he said he left it out on purpose, because he had a good visualization of the shot.  John is tied for 7th with Robin Freeman and Bruce Vaughan.

Terry struggled.  On the front 9, everything was difficult, and he was +1 for the day on the 9th tee.  For the 3rd day in a row, he hit his second shot to the par-5 9th into a greenside bunker, this time on the upslope below a high lip, about 60 feet from the pin.  The sand was soft and deep, and with the awkward stance and not wanting to hit it fat and leave himself a long birdie putt, he bladed it over the green and into the landscape rocks next to the clubhouse.  Fortunately, it bounced out of the rocks and onto the grass, where he had a downhill, sidehill lie behind a tree near the green, and he was short-sided to a pin placed on a small ledge at the back of the green.  His next shot hit the tree and fell short, and he couldn't keep the 5th on the top shelf, and made 7.  It was looking very grim, but he gutted it out on the back 9.  After pars on 10 and 11, he started hitting irons more accurately, and stroking putts better.  He birdied 12 and 13, and burned the edge on 14, and made one more birdie on 17 to finish with even par 71, tied for 10th.  Terry is playing with Fred Holton and David Peoples tomorrow.

Steve Haskins shot another 65 and is in front by 4 from Ronnie Black, who shot 64.  Rod Spittle shot 66 to go with a 67 yesterday, and is tied for 10th with Terry, R. W. Eaks, and Joe Ozaki. 

Mr Science Reports:

I wasn't officially scoring today, but I walked with Terry Burke again, and John Ross http://www.pgatour.com/players/00/60/40/ and Curt Byrum http://www.pgatour.com/players/00/11/56/  today.  All three of them shot 68, to go with their 65's yesterday, and they are tied for 2nd now with Peter Senior and Jim Roy, and will be playing together again tomorrow.  

Steve Haskins is alone in the lead by 2.  He's the son of Don Haskins, who is famous for being the winning NCAA Basketball coach in 1966, the first to start 5 black players, as Texas Western beat the Kentucky team coached by Adolph Rupp in the finals.  http://www.pgatour.com/story/9204748/

"Texas Western’s improbable run to the NCAA title is chronicled in the new movie Glory Road, starring Josh Lucas as the elder Haskins, who won 700 games at the school now known as the University of Texas El-Paso. The Hall of Fame basketball coach even has a cameo in the film as a gas station attendant."

Curt lives in Scottsdale, but says he has no home court advantage at TPC Scottsdale, because he has only played the course about three times.  It's pretty busy, he says.

Curt eagled #4 (short putt), and John eagled #17 (medium-length snake), otherwise they were all pretty steady.  Terry had his first and only bogey of the tournament on #11 today, and 4 birdies.  The pin placements were harder today, and all of them made a bunch of 5-foot par putts.  Terry had his second sandy birdie on #9.

I'm going back again tomorrow.  Gotta see Terry make it.  He was grinding today, there was nothing easy.  His Mother and Father arrived today and met us at the 18th green.  Ed has played the course in a group similar to our annual golf trip for over 10 years.  Their crowd is a bit bigger than our 8, about 72 players.  They go to Myrtle Beach every year, too, in addition to Scottsdale.

Mr Science Reports:

I kept score for Rod Spittle (I kid you not), Terry Burke, and Lu Chien Soon today.  Lu Chien is from Taiwan, has 10 wins on the Asian tour, and shot 65 today with 6 birdies and an eagle.  On 13 the pin was on the right, tucked behind the bunker, where you could see the flag but not the hole.  Lu Chien hit his tee shot past the pin onto the hill, and it trickled back down toward the hole and out of sight.  We all thought it might be in.  Terrry and Rod also hit good tee shots, and when we got up there Lu Chien was away.  He missed his 6-footer, and the others made birdie.  I told Terry's caddie "Where I come from, we call that a sucker pin.  I guess we're not doing it right."

Rod is from Canada, and seems to be making a living on the Champions Tour, even if I never heard of him http://www.pgatour.com/players/02/86/78/ but he spit up on 10 (our first hole, 542 par 5).  He hit his drive into the desert, and the ball was under a bush, unplayable.  It was 2 club lengths from the cart path, on a steep hill leading down to the hazard.  After much discussion with his caddie, he decided to drop on the slope, and hope it ran down the hill, and after two drops he would get to place it.  On the first drop, the ball rolled only a couple of feet and into a horrible lie, almost unplayable again.  He managed to bash it out of there about 50 yards onto a mound, and it rolled down the hill, across the cart path, and down into the desert again, almost to the hazard.  From there he hit a great shot onto the green, but 3-putted for double bogey.  As we went to the next tee, he told me it was a 7, "in case I lost track".  After the round, I told him he needed to practice his drops, because that was what did him in. 

Rod birdied 11 and 13, but on 12 and 14 he hit into a fairway bunker, and from there into a greenside bunker, making bogey both times and shooting 38 (+2).  He finished with an eagle on 9 for even-par 71, and never lost his sense of humor, despite the difficulties.

Terry is from Bethesda, MD, and is a 3-time Maryland Mid-Amateur champion.  He would have played the PGA Tour, but when he was 12 his foot was injured in a motorcycle accident, and he walks with a limp, and can't walk 18 holes.  He turned pro 2 weeks ago, and can play on the Champions Tour because they allow carts.  He played a very solid round, including a great downhill, breaking birdie putt from the fringe on 16.  He was 4 under at 2, when he hit his drive under a tree.  Trying to deal with the restricted backswing, he failed to move the ball on the first try, and managed to chip it into the fairway on the 2nd try, and made double bogey.  He came back with an eagle on 4, and birdies on 5 and 9 for a "bogey-free" (but not whiff-free) 65, tied for first place.  But for that one drive, and a missed 3-footer for birdie on 8, he could have shot 62 and been in the lead by 3.  He was the only player out there that I saw a gallery following.  He had his wife, and three other guys who were relatives or family friends.  I ate lunch with them all afterwards, and I'm going to follow him today.  He's tied for the lead and in the final group with John Ross and Curt Byrum.  

http://www.pgatour.com/2009/s/11/17/qschool.rd1/index.html

Mr Science Reports:

I kept score for Heath Slocum, Bryce Molder, and Tim Clark today.  They all started at -8, tied for 7th place.  Tim did well, shot a bogey-free 65 and is now tied for 2nd, 3 behind Troy Matteson who shot 61 for the 2nd day in a row.  Heath had 68 with 3 bogeys, and Bryce had 70, missed a bunch of makeable putts.  Tim lives in Silverleaf, a few miles north of me, and Bryce also lives in Scottsdale.

There wasn't much excitement in our group, though.  They started slow, playing the first 6 holes in a total of 3 over par, where the field is typically well under par.  But they were knocking the pins down, collectively, on the back 9, where on several holes all of them had birdie putts under 20 feet.  Very few long ones went in, though.

There was plenty of excitement elsewhere.  Nicholas Thompson made 2 on the par 5 11th, and then made 1 on the 13th.  Ted Purdy made an ace on 16, winning the Mercedes, and about 1/2 hour later Chad Campbell did the same, winning ... the respect and admiration of his peers.  Webb Simpson, who is tied for 2nd, holed out a wedge from 129 yards on 14 for eagle.  Young phenom Rickie Fowler is T5, shot 69 today with 2 double bogeys after being tied for the 36-hole lead.
 
Back to O'Donoghue's tomorrow, I think, unless Junior Science is coming over in the afternoon with his engagement pictures.