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Fresno, CA Advertising Sales James Lynam - Senior Advertising Director
Business Relations Stephan Roose • Jennifer Masson
Editors
Graphic Design
Brent Williams • Jeff Carpineta Michael O’Donnell • Michelle Wood Ryan Fleming
Jennifer Masson - Director of Operations Brent Williams - Director of Graphic Design Ryan Fleming - Layout Coordinator
Contributing Writers
Contributing Designers
John Carpineta • Elizabeth Evers Larry Denton • Henry Vernon Lorraine Simpson • Alan LeStourgeon Lisa Kai Lee • David Ferrers Debra Fortosis • Noel King Daniel Collins • Jim Burke
Brent Williams • Doriano Riosa Rafael Baez • Adriane Marseille
Website & New Media Blake Wilhelm - Senior Web Developer Brent Williams - Junior Web Developer
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Fresno, CA
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Origin of the Game The History of the PGA Championship 2013 PGA Tour Schedule 2013 LPGA Tour Schedule Eastern Amputee Golf Association The Health Benefits of Golf GREAT SCOTLAND!
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Fred Couples: The Gloveless “Boom Boom” Driving Growth with Golf 2.0 3 Steps to Improve Your Swing 2013 Champions Tour Schedule How to Lower Your Scores NOW! Primary Care for the 65 (yards) and Under Business Directory
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Origin of the Game
“Dispelling the Myths” When and where did golf begin? Everyone knows golf originated in Scotland, right? Welllllllll ... yes and no. It’s definitely true that golf as we know it emerged in Scotland. The Scots were playing golf in its very basic form - take a club, swing it at a ball, move ball from starting point to finishing hole in as few strokes as possible - by at least the mid-15th Century. In fact, the earliest known reference to golf comes from King James II of Scotland, who, in 1457, issued a ban on the playing of golf and football (soccer). Those games, James complained, were keeping his archers from their practice. James III in 1471 and James IV in 1491 each re-issued the ban on golf. But the game continued to develop in Scotland over the decades and centuries, until 1744 when the first-known rules of golf were put down in writing in Edinburgh. Golf as it was then played would be easily recognized by any modern golfer. But can it be said that the Scots “invented” golf? Not quite, because there’s strong evidence that the Scots were influenced themselves by even earlier versions of games that were similar in nature. Here’s what the USGA Museum says about the issue: “While many Scots firmly maintain that golf evolved from a family of stick-and-ball games widely practiced throughout the British Isles during the Middle Ages, considerable evidence suggests that the game derived from stick-and-ball games that were played in France, Germany and the Low Countries.” Part of that evidence is the etymology of the word “golf” itself. “Golf” derives from the Old Scots terms “golve” or “goff,” which themselves evolved from the medieval Dutch term “kolf.” The medieval Dutch term “kolf” meant “club,” and Priority One Marketing Group, LLC | 5
the Dutch were playing games (mostly on ice) at least by the 14th Century in which balls were struck by sticks that were curved at the bottom until they were moved from Point A to Point B. Sounds a lot like hockey, doesn’t it? Except that it sort of sounds like golf, too (except for that ice part). The Dutch and Scots were trading partners, and the fact that the word “golf” evolved after being transported by the Dutch to the Scots lends credence to the idea that the game itself may have been adapted by the Scots from the earlier Dutch game. Something else that lends credence to that idea: Although the Scots played their game on parkland (rather than ice), they (or least some of them) were using balls they acquired in trade from ... Holland. And the Dutch game wasn’t the only similar game of the Middle Ages. Going back even farther, the Romans brought their own stick-and-ball game into the British Isles. So does that mean that the Dutch (or someone else other than that Scots) invented golf? No, it means that golf grew out of games that were played in different parts of Europe. But we’re not trying to deny the Scots their place in golf history. The Scots made a singularimprovement to all the games that came before: They dug a hole in the ground, and made getting the ball into that hole the object of the game. As we said at the beginning, for golf as we know it, we definitely have the Scots to thank.
Does it Stand for “Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden”? Did the word “golf” originate as an acronym for “gentlemen only, ladies forbidden”? That’s a common old wives’ tale. Or, in this case, more likely an old husband’s tale. No, “golf” is not an acronym for “gentlemen only, ladies forbidden.” If you’ve ever heard that, forget it immediately. Better yet, find the person who told you and let them know it’s not true. Like most modern words, the word “golf” derives from older languages and dialects. In this case, the languages in question are medieval Dutch and old Scots. The medieval Dutch word “kolf” or “kolve” meant “club.” It is believed that word passed to the Scots, whose old Scots dialect transformed the word into “golve,” “gowl” or “gouf.” By the 16th Century, the word “golf” had emerged. Sources: British Golf Museum, USGA Library
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What was the First Public Golf Course in the United States?
When Van Cortlandt Golf Course opened in New York City in 1895, it became the first public golf course in America. There were other golf courses in the U.S. by that time - perhaps 100 or more - but Van Cortlandt was the first built for the masses. And Van Cortlandt Golf Course is still in operation today, the centerpiece of Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. The park also boasts a lake and two nature trails. In Van Cortlandt Park you’ll also find the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail. The aqueduct, built during the 1830s and 1840s, was New York City’s first major water supply project.
How Did the Size of the Golf Hole Come to Be Standardized at 4.25 Inches?
Question: How Did the Size of the Golf Hole Come to Be Standardized at 4.25 Inches? Answer: How many times have you lipped out a putt and wished that the size of the hole on the green was just a smidge larger? Why is the hole that size to begin with? That’s one of our most frequently asked questions: How did the hole come to be standardized at its current size of 4.25 inches in diameter? Like so many things in golf, the standardized size of the hole comes to us courtesy of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, with an assist from the links at Musselburgh. In new rules issued in 1891, the R&A determined that the hole size should be standard on golf courses everywhere. So the R&A discussed just what exactly that size should be. The size they decided on was 4.25 inches in diameter. The reason is that the folks at Musselburgh (now a 9-hole municipal course and called Royal Musselburgh Golf Club) had invented, in 1829, the first known hole-cutter. That ancient hole-cutter is still in existence and is on display at Royal Musselburgh. That first hole-cutter utilized a cutting tool that was, you guessed it, 4.25 inches in diameter. The folks running the R&A apparently liked that size and so adopted it in their rules for 1891. And as was usually the case, the rest of the golf world followed in the footsteps of the R&A. The exact reasons for why that first tool cut holes at the now-standard diameter are lost to history. But it was almost certainly a completely arbitrary thing, a notion supported by the story that the tool was built from some excess pipe that was laying about the Musselburgh links. Priority One Marketing Group, LLC | 7
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History of the
PGA Championship
At the exploratory meeting of The Professionals Golfers’ Association of America on Jan. 17, 1916, 34 other golf professionals joined the legendary Walter Hagen to lay the building blocks for the foundation of what is, today, the world’s largest working sports organization. It was there that the idea for a national championship was conceived. Department store magnate Rodman Wanamaker, who hosted the meeting, would provide a trophy for the competition, as well as an initial purse of $2,580 for the match-play event. The first PGA Championship was played in 1916 at Siwanoy Country Club in Bronxville, N.Y. But it would be five years before an American-born PGA Professional claimed the Championship. England’s Jim Barnes won the inaugural Championship, but the event was interrupted for two years by World War I. Barnes came back in 1919 to capture his second consecutive Championship and began his own era of domination. Hagen would go on to post his record-tying five PGA Championships in the 1920s. Gene Sarazen would claim victories in 1922, ‘23 and ‘33. Priority One Marketing Group, LLC | 9
Denny Shute captured the PGA Championship title in 1936 and 1937, becoming the first back-to-back winner before Tiger Woods in 2000. The baptism of Byron Nelson as one of the finest competitors in PGA Championship history began in 1939 when he was defeated, 1-up by Henry Picard, in the finals. “Lord Byron” reached the finals in four of the next five PGA Championships, and etched his name on the Wanamaker Trophy twice, in 1940 and 1945. The Championship was not played in 1943 because of World War II. During the post-war years, the Wanamaker Trophy added the names of Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Chick Harbert, Doug Ford and Jack Burke. In 1958, the format of the PGA Championship was changed from match play to stroke play. The new era in PGA Championship history added the names of Dow Finsterwald, Bob Rosburg, Jay Hebert and Gary Player to its Champions roster. In 1963, Jack Nicklaus won his first of a record-tying five PGA Championships. Fittingly, Nicklaus tied Hagen’s record with his last PGA Championship triumph in 1980 at Oak Hill Country Club in Hagen’s hometown of Rochester, N.Y. In 1999, a 23-year-old named Tiger Woods became the fifth-youngest winner in PGA Championship history when he outlasted Spain’s 19-yearold Sergio Garcia by one stroke at Medinah (Ill.) Country Club. Woods made the PGA Championship’s return to Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky., in 2000 perhaps the most thrilling climax in history. In the process, Woods became the first back-to-back PGA Champion since Shute. In 2001 at The Atlanta Athletic Club, unheralded David Toms conquered the strongest field in golf history by finishing with a 15-under-par 265 to set a major championship record for 72 holes. Rich Beem’s stunning back-nine charge elevated him past Tiger Woods to the title in the 84th PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn., and Shaun Micheel held off Chad Campbell on Sunday at brutally difficult Oak Hill Country Club to win the 85th PGA Championship for his first career victory, icing the win with a spectacular 7-iron and tapin birdie on the 72nd hole. In 2004, the Championship moved to Wisconsin and breathtaking Whistling Straits in Kohler, where Pete Dye’s creation on the shore of Lake 10 | Priority One Marketing Group, LLC
Michigan produced Vijay Singh’s second PGA Championship triumph. Singh, the 1998 victor at Sahalee Country Club in Redmond, Wash., closed with a final-round, 4-over 76 -- the highest winning score ever by a PGA champion -- then made the only birdie over the three extra holes to defeat Justin Leonard and Chris DiMarco in a three-hole playoff. The following year, Phil Mickelson claimed his second major in as many years with a brilliant up-and-down tap-in birdie from the heavy greenside rough on the par-5 18th hole to win the 87th PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J. It was the first Monday finish at the PGA Championship in 19 years.
And not since 1986 at Inverness had a player from the last group won the Wanamaker Trophy with a birdie on the 72nd hole. Over the past nine decades, the PGA Championship has developed into one of the premier sporting events in the world. More than 100,000 people line the fairways of the nation’s finest golf facilities during PGA Championship week to view the strongest, all-professional international field in major championship golf. As it was more than 80 years ago, the Wanamaker Trophy is still prized as one of the golf world’s greatest treasures.
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The Health Benefits of golf by: Norleen Gray
BELIEVE IT OR NOT... golf is actually good for your health. Even the United States Golf Association thinks so; they also advise that you should walk the golf course and try to avoid – as much as possible – riding golf carts. Although riding golf carts is the most convenient way to get yourself from one hole to the next, it will actually be good for your body if you walk your legs along the greens. Doing so pumps your heart, circulates the blood all over your body, and is a good and fun way of exercising. David Fay from the United States Golf Association also thinks that the most pleasurable way to play golf is by walking. Riding carts, he said, should as much as possible be stopped now. Walking is a good form of exercise. It is the most basic and easy program of getting fit which almost anyone could do. Simply put, walking is good for you. Although some believe that walking the golf course is a very unhealthy thing to do because of the nature of the game – the start and stop process of golf playing. In actuality though, there have been scientific studies as well as evidence of people actually telling their personal experiences on the positive effects of walking through a game of golf. 18 | Priority One Marketing Group, LLC
In Sweden in particular, there are researchers who discovered that walking through a game of golf equals to about forty to seventy percent of intense workout in an aerobics class. This is assuming that about eighteen holes were played. In another study by a cardiologist named Edward Palank, golfers who walked were found to be in a better state of health because the level of bad cholesterol in their body decreased. Meanwhile, the level of their good cholesterol was steady. Those golfers who settled to ride their way across the golf course on golf carts, however, did not show these same positive health results. Also, according to Golf Science International, four hours of golf playing was found to be comparable to attending a forty five minute fitness class.
The Health Benefits of golf by: Norleen Gray
Another golf association, specifically the Northern Ohio Golf Association, stated that when a golfer walks across a course, it is roughly equivalent to walking for three to four miles. This included walking around hills, over greens and tees. Not convinced yet? Maybe you should try doing the following activities and see, as well as feel, the difference for yourself. During a round of golf, try to walk along alternating holes so that by the end of your round of golf you should be able to have walked through a total of nine holes. If you are feeling not up to it yet as fully as you should, that is okay. Maybe you could try walking on a set of nines while you can ride the other set. If you have a golf partner and he or she insists that you ride along with him or her, make sure that you only ride on the path of the cart. You can then walk down to the fairway towards your ball and then your partner could bring the golf cart up.
Are You Convinced Yet? Believe it or not, golf carts do create damage around sand traps and around the greens. Even if carts are not supposed to ride along these areas, sometimes though, depending on who is behind the golf cart’s wheel, they still at times do. For the sake of the greens, go walk! Because of advances in technology, there are now grasses that are able to grow on areas that they originally are not supposed to grow on at all. As a result of this, golf courses look as amazing as they were before. Unfortunately, these same golf courses are as subject to a lot of wear and tear as well. Driving a golf cart along these beautiful greens subjects them to unnecessary damage. So now that you know, it would not hurt you to consider walking along, across, over, or through those greens now would it?
Are you convinced yet? If not, try to look at it this way. If your health is not good enough for you to settle to walk those legs and pump that good old heart of yours, then at least take pity and be considerate of the damage that golf carts do to fairways. Priority One Marketing Group, LLC | 19
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3
STEPS
TO IMPROVE YOUR SWING
After you set your golf club behind your golf ball and your hands onto the grip of the club, you should be a stepper. Your feet have three responsibilities and in order to accomplish each of these it can and should take as many steps to do so:
#1 Ball Position.......................... W
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hen stepping your feet, it is imporhe ball position should be more in tant that you accomplish proper ball line with the forward instep, the left position for the club and the situation step should be smaller and the right, at hand. widening step should be wider.
I
f you are hitting an iron, hybrid or fairway wood, with your golf ball on the ground in a relatively flat lie, you should he proper foot work will accomplish step your feet equidistantly apart as you widen them so that the club is cen- the right ball position, making proper tered in your body at the completion of contact possible. your stepping.
T
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3
STEPS
TO IMPROVE YOUR SWING
#2 Proper Distance
When stepping your feet, you must also adjust your distance from your club and ball so that you are in the proper posture (bowing forward from your hips) and adjusting your feet to the point where you feel your hands hanging directly below your shoulders. With each club, you should consistently be the same distance from the end of the grip of the club to your body. This is the measuring point, rather than to the ball, which should change as the length of each club changes.
#3 Alignment
When stepping your feet, after you’ve properly aimed your clubface to the target, you need to stand so that the line through your toes is parallel to the target line, thus left of the target. This line through your toes should be “parallel left.” This line is parallel to the target line but left of the target, much like railroad tracks. As you can see, your feet have many responsibilities during your set up routine. Therefore, I like to see a minimum of four steps to adjust and prefer six to eight steps. The first couple of steps may be larger to get you in the rough vicinity of the right distance, and the remaining make the smaller adjustments necessary to be particular about ball position, proper distance from the golf club and proper alignment. You will also tend to see better players taking more steps. Besides accomplishing each of these responsibilities, it can also serve to relax the body and help with rhythm. Priority One Marketing Group, LLC | 31
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NOW!
HOW TO LOWER YOUR SCORES…
Do you want to lower your scores? Silly question isn’t it? Everyone wants to lower his or her scores. High handicappers and low handicappers alike want to shoot lower scores and it’s the lifelong quest golfers search for. The search goes on to develop the ideal swing and lower scores. There are 3 Keys to shooting lower scores and they are keys you can use to shoot lower scores NOW! Here are the 3 Keys #1 PLAY THE SHOT THAT NEEDS TO BE PLAYED... NOT THE ONE YOU WANT TO PLAY
The first way to lower your scores is to be honest with yourself. You need to know your game; wherever it is right now; you need to know what clubs to hit and when. There is no point in using what other golfers are using. If they hit an 8-iron from 155 and you should hit a 6…hit the 6-iron. More scores balloon because players are playing what I call “EGO Golf” instead of “Scoring Golf”. If you want to score well, you must put yourself into the best position to do that. Hitting an 8-iron because someone else is doing it won’t get you what you want. (Continued) Priority One Marketing Group, LLC | 35
You will lower your scores when you begin playing the BEST shot instead of the shot you want to hit. Hitting the shot you want to hit is not always the BEST shot to hit at the time. Play the percentages. Play the correct shot even if you want to go for the risky or low percentage shot. Take a look at how many times playing the shot YOU wanted to hit has gotten you in trouble. Each time it has, you’ve added strokes to your round. Play the shot that needs to be played in every situation, not the one you want to play. If you don’t have the distance then lay-up and take a bogey if that’s what it means. How many times have you “gone for it’ only to add 2 or more strokes to the hole? You must play the game you know how to play and play within that game. Take an honest look at how far you hit each club right now. As you improve your game, this will change but you must play the game you have RIGHT NOW! #2 KEEP IT SIMPLE: PROCESS VS. OUTCOME Simplify your round of golf. Each hole is presenting you with the exact information you need to make the right choices…for your game! The architect has laid out all the obstructions for you so you know exactly where NOT to go and where TO go. Focus on WHERE TO go.. Simplify your round by thinking simple. “Fairways and greens” is such a simple idea that players tend to either forget it or get TOO caught up in it trying to be too perfect. Simplify your round by thinking fairways and greens. It doesn’t matter whether you are a 30, 15 or 5 handicap. Hit the shots you are capable of hitting and no more! When you try to “outwit” or “outplay” the course or other golfers, you will get into trouble. How can you simplify your round? Easy. Focus on process versus outcome. Process thinking is focusing on what you have 100 control over; at all times. Focus on your routines, your breathing, your pace between shots, visualization, rhythm and balance in your set up and swing. You have complete control over ALL of these things. You don’t have control over things like conditions, course layout, playing partners attitudes, score or any other outcome or result type of thought. You’ll find that when you focused on outcomes in the past, you probably didn’t play as well and your scores reflected that. Keep it simple. Focus ONLY on what you have control over. These are PROCESS THOUGHTS.
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#3 PRACTICE YOUR SHORT GAME!
It’s important to spend time on your short game skills. The tendency is to go to the range, hit the driver and other irons, and then call it a day. Take a close look and you might find that chipping, pitching and putting is where your strokes add up during a round. Imagine what your scores would be like if you learned to chip and pitch the ball closer to the hole? You can lower your scores by taking the time to practice chipping and pitching the ball closer to the hole. The more you do it, the more confidence you gain as well. In addition, your putting can improve because of the confidence gained by getting closer to the hole more often. Great players spend a lot of time on this part of their game because they understand that this is where their strokes can add up. There are professional golfers on the developmental tours who still don’t work on their “weaknesses” in practice and it costs them dearly when they compete. While the long ball looks beautiful, it’s the short ball that brings the numbers down on your scorecard.
You can lower your scores by acting on these 3 Keys right away. Good Luck!
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