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Best of the
2001
Newsletters
Best of 1999
Best of 2000
Best of 2002
A MOMENT FOR US
Thanks go to all you readers and especially those who have shared comments
with us. John Coombs, Greg Golightly, Brad Grabow, Charles Harmon, Mike Lopez,
Martin Mahern, John Nixon come to mind as being among the most prolific.
New articles at IndyGolf this year:
Changes for 2002 are focused on streamlining. We're eliminating the
Calendar, Coupons, and Classified since they weren't used
COURSE CHANGES DURING THE YEAR
- Noblesville Parks' Fox Prairie GC
re-opened their third 9 after drainage problems kept it closed for the first
half of the season.
- Eagle Creek GC
added another 9 holes to become 2 18-hole courses of approximate equal
interest and difficulty.
- Hickory Stick GC near Bargersville
opened their new Tim Liddy course. 18 holes of grand sand and tight
fairways. It's one of the toughest courses in town.
- Gray Eagle GC (nee
Ironwood Academy) have 9 holes open and will become a full 18 hole course in
2002. Very Ironwoodish.
- Stony Creek GC
has a 9-hole par 3 that treks around their driving range.
- Woodland CC
(private) bulldozed the 50-year old William Diddle design for a completely new track.
Should re-open in Summer 2002.
Other News:
- Cypress Run GC
was bought by RH West (Oak Tree, Winding River, Royal Oak) and might be
eventually made into an 18 hole course - a project that was already
underway.
- Smock GC will have
their new clubhouse and driving range open this spring.
- Twin Bridges GC
has added a middle set of tees at 5814 yards. Perfect for us bogie players.
They are also in the process of replacing all the sand traps with material
and drainage that will remain playable after a rainy day.
- The Gongaware Indiana Junior Golf Academy
opened in a $3M, 23,000 sq ft complex at the Legends.
- Morningstar GC
was named one of the top 100 courses for women in the US by GolfDigest's Golf for Women
magazine.
Coming up:
- Gray Eagle GC will
open their second (front) 9 this year (as spoken of above).
- Sagamore Club is in line for a 2003 opening. It's a private championship course at 166th east of
Noblesville - across the street from Stony Creek GC. Jack Nicklaus has been signed on as the architect.
- Southern Dunes at Southport and SR37 has signed Gary Player to do the final design.
Opening won't be in 2002.
-
Victoria Trace, an 18-hole championship course by Jim Hague in northwest Shelby County
(400W & 700N) is planned to open in 2003.
- Plans are underway for The Golf Preserve to
include a full 18-hole championship course (240 acres) with condos and homes
(350 acres) east and south of the current facility. They could be looking at a 2003 opening. Tim Liddy and Pete Dye have both seen the
property.
- It's very possible a second 9-hole course in Zionsville might open next
year. James Walker has 15 acres at US 421 and 550S that he wants zoned as a
driving range and pitch-and-putt course. We'll keep you posted.
Year 2001 summary: 3 new courses. 9 holes added to 2 courses. No courses closed.
| |
Par 3 / executive |
9-hole |
18-hole |
Additions |
| 2001 |
Stony Creek - 9-hole par 3 |
Gray Eagle |
Hickory Stick |
Fox Prairie - 9 holes
Eagle Creek - 9 holes
|
| 2002 |
|
|
|
Gray Eagle becomes an 18-hole course. |
| 2003 |
Eagle Village Golf - 9-hole pitch-n-putt |
|
Southern Dunes front 9 and par 3 by memorial day
Sagamore Club (private)
Bridgewater Club (private) at the Golf Preserve.
Victoria Trace |
|
2004
or so |
|
|
Southern Dunes back 9
Unnamed 18 near I-65 and SR267 |
|
OTHER LOCAL NEWS
A patron drove into Walnut Ridge GC's clubhouse, displacing one wall and several shrubs. No injuries but a distance-and-stroke penalty was assessed for being out of bounds.
We don't have any more details yet but it looks like the Westfield Golf and Practice Center will open
this spring. This new driving range complex is on SR 32 between Westfield and Eagletown.
Ski World near Nashville, IN is interested in leasing their mountain to a business endeavor for a summertime golf course on the ski runs. They have plenty of land for a spectacular 18-hole mountain course with, say, a couple of
700yd downhill par 5s that are reachable in 2 strokes. Clubhouse and parking facilities are already in place and they'd like to see the land used year round. If interested, contact Sandi Beasley at 812-988-6638.
Eagle Pointe G&TR in Bloomington was vandalized last Wednesday. The police report includes a damaged green, stolen cart, $6,200 in stolen merchandise from the pro shop, a teen-ager run over by a truck, various beer bottles strewn around, and a deputy bitten by a Rottweiler. The culprits were caught.
At the Cambridge GC in Evansville, the cart barn, 66 carts, beverage cart, and range ball picker were destroyed early last Friday morning in a $500,000 fire. By 7am players were walking the course. By afternoon they had more carts on loan and were back to business as usual.
ODD RULES OF GOLF
Phil Mickelson offered 1-25 odds that Jim Furyk would hole out a bunker shot during the first playoff hole at the NEC Invitational. Mike Weir took him up on that and lost $500. Now both are in trouble for gambling. Not a USGA rule but a PGA Tour Player rule: A player shall not have any financial interest, either direct or indirect, in the performance or the winnings of another player ... whether through purse-splitting, prize money 'insurance,' financial assistance, bets or otherwise.
Mickelson got a one stroke penalty Saturday for not telling his opponent (Furyk) that he was lifting his ball for identification. Kirk Triplett was disqualified for doing the same thing. He just didn't catch his mistake until hearing on Sunday about Mickelson - about 12 hours after "signing a wrong scorecard". Rule 6.6.d.
In 1901 the USGA deemed you a professional golfer if you caddied for money - unless you were 14 or younger.
In 1916, Francis Ouimet was stripped of his amateur status by the USGA after opening a sporting goods business in Boston.
"I think it is believed to have arisen after a conversation between Bobby Jones and Scotland's Ta Torrance in the 1930s. Bobby Jones carried 16 clubs in his bag, Torrance had 12 and they settled on 14."
- David Pepper, R&A Rules Official
ODD MOMENTS IN GOLF
Someone stole the grass on the 6th hole of the Delafield GC in Milwaukee. Well, not all of it but two big ovals have been cut away. They did it
in fall, 2000, and again in May, 2001. Police asked the public to notify them if they see anyone with a new putting green in their back yard. Honest.
Mark McCormack received the PGA Distinguished Service Award. Who's Mark McCormack? The founder of IMG - the sports agents who market Tiger, Duval, etc. PGA President Jack Connelly says ``Mark McCormack revolutionized the sports world by his keen business sense and foresight, and in doing so impacted PGA professionals as well as athletes in many sports."
The Elks Lodge GC near Rochester, IN came out behind in a $925,000 judgment to a woman who lost vision in one eye when a ball driven on the 1st hole hit her on the 8th green. The course is tight with the green "only six yards from the edge of the first-hole fairway." The golfer who hit the shot was ordered to pay $275,000.
The GPS system at Lake Walden GC in Hartland, MI is being credited for saving lives
in May when it was used to alert golfers of an approaching tornado that ripped through the course. 120 of the 150 golfers made it to the clubhouse basement, 30 more headed for on-course shelters.
Steve Mitchell, a worker at Cedar Ridge GC in Cedar City, UT, has been hit with a $20,000 fine for killing prairie dogs on the golf course. Utah prairie dogs are listed as a threatened species. This stems from a 1999 survey that showed 350 fewer prairie dogs than expected on the course property. 350 fewer? Around here we think a dozen moles are a catastrophe.
A featherie golf ball made in 1830 was auctioned in England for $32,000.
The American Statistical Association's journal, "Chance"
published a paper titled Is the USGA Golf Handicap System
Equitable?. The author claims it is biased toward better golfers. Worse golfers are more inconsistent so counting only the best 10 of the last 20 scores gives them an unfairly low handicap
Braintree MA has a smoking ban in effect that will include their municipal
golf course. Outside. On the course itself. Good luck Braintree.
Yoplait Expresse was named the Official Yogurt of The LPGA. And Cheerios is now the Official Cereal of the LPGA.
The starter's hut at St. Andrews Old Course was bought by an American for $87,970.
It's destined for an un-named US course.
A guy who bought 2 "rookie" Tiger Woods cards for $4,995.95 each from the Shop at Home cable TV sellers has found them to be fake - cut out of a poster.
The IOC has recognized the International Federation of Tug Of War. This sport is now at the same level of olympic recognition as golf, rugby, squash, water skiing, and ballroom dancing. Body building has been rejected for official recognition. The only new sport, according to an AP report, will be women's wrestling. And anything we say about that will get us in trouble.
Ahlgrims
Funeral Parlor and Miniature Golf - Palatine, IL
Golgotha
Biblical Mini-Golf - Near Mammoth Cave, KY
- Golfer in Florida disappears. Found later in crocodile. True or False
- Golfer dies from pesticide after chewing on tees. True or False
- Golfer throws bag in lake. Wades in to find car keys. Drowns. True or False
- Arnie's wife and Johnny Carson talk about good-luck rituals. True or False
- Golf is an acronym of Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden. True or False
ODD MOMENTS IN HAWAIIAN GOLF
Make a tee-time, perform 350 hours of community service. Two (former) Verizon employees in Honolulu pled guilty to unauthorized computer use
in March. It seems they routinely altered the phone company's switching network to temporarily block all callers to the city courses' automated system except themselves to secure good tee times. Tee times for the next day become available at midnight at some courses in Hawaii.
In June, indictments were made against a starter and 2 other Hawaiian course workers for bribery in selling preferential tee times at the municipal Ala Wai GC.
TRIVIA
In May, Harold Stilson claimed the honor of being the oldest person to every get a hole-in-one. Stats: he's 101 and he hit a 4-iron on the 108yd 16th at Deerfield CC, Deerfield Beach, FL. It was Stilson's 6th ace - the first coming at age 71, after 50 years of golfing.
Legends says Fore was first yelled as a warning by the religious reformer, John Knox, in 1770. Maybe he yelled Ware before. Others believe it came from British infantry squads where the "foreward" rank of rifles would kneel down so the back ranks could shoot over them. Yet another unsolved mystery.
But we are pretty sure that caddie comes from cadet.
During WWII, all golf ball manufacturing ceased and for a while in post-war 1945 golf balls were selling for as much as $4 each.
ATTEMPTS AT HUMOR - QUOTES
CHAPTER
A 'gimme' can best be defined as an agreement between two golfers - neither of whom can putt very well.
You know your golf game is improving when you start missing shots much closer than you used to.
If profanity had an influence on the flight of the ball, the game would be played far better than it is.
The trees taunt you; the sand mocks you; the water calls your name... and they say golf is a quiet game.
To some golfers, the greatest handicap is the ability to add correctly.
Golf can best be defined as an endless series of tragedies obscured by the occasional miracle.
Some golfers believe 'overclubbing' can be corrected by 'overlooking' or 'undercounting.' When using a caddie it can also be corrected by 'overtipping.'
"Tee your ball high ... air offers less resistance than dirt."
- Jack Nicklaus)
"The best wood in most amateurs' bags is the pencil."
-Chi Chi Rodriguez
"The real reason your pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing at you."
- Phyllis Diller
"If you think it's hard to meet new people, try picking up the wrong golf ball."
- Jack Lemmon
"Let's face it, a wife can sometimes be a deterrent to a good game of golf."
- Earl Woods
"About three hours."
- GW Bush, when asked if he had a target score in mind during his first golf game of 2001.
"If you double bogey or more you're 'in your pocket.' "
- GW Bush, on how a busy person gets in 18 holes in 3 hours with 8 secret service caddies.
"On the first tee, that's it. Then you're through."
- GW Bush, when asked if he had the same mulligan strategy as Bill Clinton.
TIPS
Tired of bouncing your clubhead off hard, hard mats? Don't like how high rubber tees put the ball? Try Smarties - the little sour candies. On the hard, worn-out mats, they put the ball up just an eighth of an inch, are biodegradable, and don't leave a sticky mess like Life Savers.
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