The Common Golfer

Perhaps Congress needs to stop focusing on gas-guzzling cars, and start looking at golfers.  Researchers with the Danish Golf Union have discovered it takes 100 to 1,000 years for a golf ball to decompose.  Those numbers are shocking, when you consider that at least 300 million golf balls are lost or abandoned each year in the United States!

Personally, I never lose golf balls…but the rest of you hackers are seriously hurting the environment.  The researchers found that during decomposition, the golf balls “dissolved” into hazardous heavy metals.  Dangerous levels of zinc were found in the synthetic rubber filling used in solid core golf balls.  Not a huge deal above ground…but when submerged under water, the zinc soaked in to the ground sediment and poisoned the surrounding plant life!

The research was started after a team found thousands of golf balls at the bottom of Loch Ness.

I think this is potentially bad news, but maybe not as bad as you think.  In most scenarios, on a golf course with man-made water hazards, this is a non-issue because golf balls are harvested by divers and resold – they don’t have a chance to decompose and poison the water.  But on courses with rivers, oceans, and bodies of water that divers can’t recover balls from, this could be potentially dangerous.

I’m not one to get my panties in a bunch about the need for everything to be “green.”  But there’s no denying the effect (small as it is) that golf balls could have in certain environments.  That said, one thing is for sure: if a company releases a “green” golf ball, plenty of people will buy it no matter what the cost!

What do you think?

Wake up!  Scientific studies have shown that getting treatment for sleep apnea (which causes snoring and lack of sleep) can improve an affected golfers handicap by an average of 3 strokes.  Another finding in the study was that people were more apt to stick with their treatment, if they believed that there golf game would improve.

“Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) can lead to daytime sleepiness, fatigue, and cognitive impairment, all side effects which can negatively impact a person’s ability to golf to the best of one’s ability,” said researcher Dr. Marc L. Benton.  “As any golfer knows, when your ability to think clearly or make good decisions is compromised, the likelihood of playing your best is greatly diminished.  Through treatment with NPAP, we can improve many cognitive metrics, such as attention span, memory, decision-making abilities, and frustration management, which may, in turn, positively affect a person’s golf game.”

Oddly enough, the study actually found that “better” golfers with handicaps of 12 or less benefited the most from treatment.  Better golfers saw an average improvement of 9.2 to 6.3.

Dr. Benton estimates between 1 and 3 million golfers in the United States have untreated OSA.  Maybe next time you’re stuck behind a group of crappy golfers, you can recommend they go see a doctor!

The nationwide push to “go green” has officially gotten weird.  Kensington Golf Course in Canfield, Ohio was looking for a more natural method for maintaining the grounds.  Their solution?  Goats.

“What we use the goats for is to … eat all the foliage down so that we’re not in there with weed eaters and gas powered motors, to basically reduce our carbon footprint on the environment,” said Sean Novotny, course superintendent.

Beyond “saving the environment” one mouthful of grass at a time, the goats are also saving Kensington a ton of money.  With less money for fuel, labor, and equipment maintenance, the savings are easily in the $1,000’s.  The course is also considering adding more goats next year.

This is all well and good, but I can’t imagine this idea taking off across the country.  Can you imagine waiting on the tee at Pebble Beach, while a herd of goats crosses the fairway?  I don’t think so.  But maybe it will increase business at Kensington Golf Course; I live in Ohio, and I might venture a trip next year to say I played “that course with the goats!”

Who says you can’t find good deals at a thrift shop?  After spending $5 on a used black Callaway golf bag attached to a pull cart, Larry Brooks (potentially) made the find of a lifetime.

“I heard something rattling around,” said Mr. Brooks.  ”I stood it back up, and I was shaking the bag out with golf balls, tees and stuff falling out. I could still hear something falling out.”

He pulled out a black plastic sleeve with a gold medal in it.  The front says Augusta National Golf Club and has an engraving of the clubhouse.  The back has the words “Lloyd Mangrum,” “Runner-Up,” and “1940″ engraved in it.  While it’s true that Lloyd Mangrum was the runner-up of the 1940 Master’s, there is some debate as to the authenticity of the medal.

According to Masters records, runners-up received a silver medal starting in 1951, and as of 1934 the winner was given a gold medal.  So why would the 1940 runner-up have a gold medal?  To muddy the waters even further, the World Golf Hall of Fame has a 1935 runner-up medal on display…which is silver.

How is this so complicated?  We’re talking about a time roughly 70 years ago.  It’s not like written history was just invented after the 1940’s!

Brooks has spoken with numerous sports memorabilia collectors, who all are of the opinion that the medal is real.  That being said, Augusta National is reserving judgement until they see the medal.  For a club so steeped in tradition, you’d think they would instantly know whether or not a gold medal had been awarded in 1940.  Can’t somebody just ask Hootie Johnson?  I’m pretty sure he was already Chairman of Augusta back then.

Well, golfing just got a lot cooler…pun intended.  When I saw this story, I did a little research and found that air conditioned golf carts have been around for a few years.  However, since this is the first I’ve heard of it, and because I have golfed countless times in ridiculous heat, I’m running with this like it’s hot news.

Palmetto Dunes in Hilton Head, SC has added Coolwell G2 equipped golf carts.  The Coolwell G2 is actually really cool.  It pulls heat and moisture from the air, through a big block of ice, blowing cold air onto the golfers.  In 110 degree heat, it uses about 13 pounds of ice for a round of golf.  It also automatically shuts off when you get out of the cart.  And for us golfers in places with four seasons, the G2 also has a switch that turns it into a heater!  (Files this under really simple inventions I can’t believe I never thought of)

As for the other half of the cheesy photo above, Palmetto Dunes is also offering Segway Golf Transporters.  I attempted to get some better pictures of the G2 from Coolwell’s website, but they’re either out of business or don’t pay their bills on time – all that comes up is a GoDaddy landing page.  Regardless, these are two really cool ideas for improving transportation around the golf course…but I can only imagine what this will do to already high greens fees!

Remember this name – Mark Benevento Jr.  It may take 5-10 years, but we may have finally found someone who will regularly beat Tiger Woods on tour.

At a meeting with investors, at the site of Woods’ first U.S. design project in Asheville, NC, Woods hit two ceremonial drives from a tee.  Both went wide right into the trees.  After a couple of snickers from the crowd, Woods asked the crowd if anyone else would like to take a swing.  Up stepped 12-yr old Mark…apparently the only golfer on Earth with a spine when pitted against Tiger Woods!

Two drives, each 200 yards, straight down the middle.  Are you kidding me?  This video is great.

A group has started an online petition to prevent the R&A from lengthening the road hole.  If you’ve read this blog lately, you know I think it’s a horrible idea to change the road hole.  Now you can do something to help fight back!  Please sign the petition here, and help stop Peter Dawson (head of the R&A) from ruining golf.  Also, please retweet this, digg this, etc. to spread the word to as many people as possible.  The Golf Gods thank you in advance

The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of Saint Andrews has announced it will be doing its part to ruin golf.  In preparation for the 2010 British Open, R&A has announced it will be lengthening the famous 17th hole of Saint Andrews Golf Club.  Apparently even the birthplace of golf isn’t immune to needing “Tiger-proofed?”

The 17th hole, famously known as The Road Hole, will be lengthened by 35 yards, making it a 490 yard par 4.  The idea behind the added yardage is to put driver back in to the hands of more pros.  Peter Dawson of the R&A said, “Over the years, we have seen the threat from the road behind the green, and to a lesser extent the Road Bunker, diminished as players have been hitting shorter irons for their approach shots allowing them to avoid these hazards more easily. This change will ensure that the hole plays as it was originally intended.”

But at what cost?  Saint Andrews is the most sacred of golf courses!  And to be honest, I don’t see what 35 yards is going to accomplish.  With tour pros hitting fairway metals well over 300 yards, a player like Tiger Woods could easily hit 3-wood and a 7-iron into the 17th hole.  I think Ryan Ballengee with Waggle Room Golf put it best, by saying that Peter Dawson is bastardizing the most famous golf hole in the world.

You know this gets me thinking…since the green shared by the 5th and 13th holes is so large and easy to hit in regulation, maybe we could add a rotating windmill?  Or a clown’s mouth that opens and closes?

Next time you buy some “gently used” golf balls at your local pro shop, stop and ask yourself “how many people had to die in order for me to save a few dollars?”

On September 19, 75-year Jerry Gunderson drowned while diving for lost golf balls in South Florida. “I don’t know why he did it; it’s high risk, but he just loved it,” said his wife, Judith Gunderson. “He always said that’s the way he would go.”  What makes it even crazier that a man would drown in a pond while diving for golf balls is the fact that his son died 27 years ago doing the same thing.  Let me repeat that – his son drowned diving for golf balls 27 years ago!

You would think that after losing a son to drowning, that it would be hard to even go swimming (let alone scuba diving).  Gunderson started diving in 1953, and reselling golf balls helped him to open a chain of seven golf supply stores called International Golf.  Golf ball divers across the country won’t reveal how much money they make, because it’s a competitive business.  Who knew?  A typical golf store will have contracts with multiple “freelance divers,” and some rumors say a diver can make over $100,000/year!  Maybe I need to consider changing careers.

Above all else, it’s tragic that a man has lost his life.  And I am in no way trying to make light of the situation.  But to me, this is a remarkable story giving a glimpse in to an industry that I never even realized was in existence!  So next time you dip in to a barrel of used golf balls – remember Jerry Gunderson.

Throughout the incredible history of golf, no one person has encapsulated the title of “the common golfer” as much as Bobby Jones.  Born Robert Tyre Jones Jr. in 1902, Bobby was immediately a natural talent at golf, learning to golf at Atlanta’s East Lake Golf Club (site of this week’s Tour Championship) and winning his first tournament at age 6.  He then went on to leave an impressive mark on the game of golf, that still can be felt today.

After winning his first competitive tournament at 6 years old, Jones went on at 9-yrs old to defeat a 16-yr old to win the junior title at East Lake.  He early successes continued as a junior, and earned him the nickname the “new kid from Dixie.”  He also set a record that still stands today, as the youngest person to ever qualify for the US Amateur at 14 years old. Read the rest of this entry »