Best of the 2002 Newsletters

Best of 1999
Best of 2000
Best of 2001

A MOMENT FOR US

As we start another year (2003), we're encouraged to see that IndyGolf is growing steadily. During the season we topped 100,000 hits almost every month and 800,000 hits for the year.

Thanks go to all you readers and especially those who have shared comments with us. Adrian Terrel, Andy Batt, Brian Hedges, John Nixon, David Sullivan, Greg Golightly, Mike Lopez, Rob Hallford, and Ron Beilke come to mind as being among the most prolific.

2002 IN BRIEF

Jan - Feb: Mild winter. Players down from Michigan.
Mar - May: Wet. Flooded courses down the White River from Grandview in Anderson to Bluff Creek in Waverly.
Jun - Aug: Hot and drought. 80+ days of 80+° temps.
Sept - Oct: Football and school. Crappy weather continued.
Nov - Feb: Nasty, cold. Only a few decent golfing days.

In brief, it was the worst golf weather year anyone can remember. Sigh.

COURSE CHANGES DURING 2002

Gray Eagle GC opened their second (front) 9.

Fox Prairie GC's third 9 opened (again) in the spring. The new 9 was open for a short time in 2001 but closed due to faulty drainage;.

Other Course News:

After 30 years, Brownsburg GC closed at the end of the 2002 season. The property will become phase 2 of a neighboring neighborhood.

Augusta Hills GC also closed to become another housing development. It opened in 2000.

The Deer Creek GC clubhouse burnt down one night in October but the course was only closed for 1 day.. (right)

The Legends of Indiana has started moves to go private as The Legacy Club. Info here. Jim Fazio is going to tweak the course. Legends will remain open to the public through 2003.

Eagle Pines GC - Thursdays are banjo-pickin' afternoon on the porch. Add a dog sleeping on a golf cart and charm just exudes from the clubhouse.

Smock GC opened a new clubhouse at the beginning of the year and a nice driving range around back opened shortly after.

Brookshire GC was sold to a conglomerate out east. They started repairing bridges getting it into shape but the weather made that difficult.

Riverside GC changed the 5th and 13th holes: both the tees and the green were moved back a bit on #13 to make it a true par 5 hole. You'll now have a second shot to get to the bottom of the hill before going up to a green that affords a bit more room for error up front. Rumor has it they'll let the grass on the hill grow longer (darn).

Hole #5 is now called a par 5 on the scorecard so Riverside becomes a par 72 course (and has been re-rated as such).

Other News:

Crooked Stick GC has been awarded the 2005 Solheim Cup - the women's version of the Ryder Cup. This 3-day event matches 12 U.S. vs 12 European pros. The date is Sept 16-18, 2005, just one weekend before the US Grand Prix F1 race for that year. NBC has signed for TV broadcast. Crooked Stick's last big production was the 1993 USGA Women's Open. Pebble Beach and Whistling Straights were in competition also.

Mary Solada and Ted Clark opened the Westfield Golf Practice Center on SR 32 west of US 31. 40 grass tees, 6,000 sq foot of putting green, practice chipping and bunker areas.

Coming up:

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 is the architect.

Southern Dunes at Southport and SR37 might open their front 9 and maybe the par 3 course by Memorial Day.

Victoria Trace, an 18-hole championship course by Jim Hague in northwest Shelby County (400W & 700N) is planned to open in 2003.

Bulldozers are at work at the Bridgewater Club south of Westfield. This Pete Dye private 18-hole country club covers 240 acres with condos and homes on another 350 acres east and south of the current Golf Preserve facility. They could be looking at a 2003 opening.

It's very possible a second 9-hole course in Zionsville might open in 2003. 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.

Christel DeHahn is planning a new course near I-65 and Ind 267 south of Lebanon. No name yet. County planning folks haven't approved the project yet.

Year 2002 summary:

9 holes added to 1 course. 2 courses closed.

	Par 3 / executive	9-hole	18-hole	Additions	Closures
1999	Northeast P&PC	Buffer Park	Timbergate Trophy Club	Bluff Creek - 9 holes Otte - 9 holes	Seven Vs
2000	ShorTee's Golf - 18 very short par 3 holes Golf Preserve - 9-hole par 3	Augusta Hills	Purgatory Winding Ridge		Brownsburg Augusta Hills
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	Zionsville pitch & putt		Southern Dunes back 9 Unnamed 18 near I-65 and SR267

OTHER LOCAL NEWS

Purgatory GC received an Honorable Mention in the June Golf magazine in an article with suggestions about where to hold future US Opens. "This 7,754-year course is dotted with more than 130 gaping sand pits filled with crushed white brimstone. Make that limestone." At $65, it is by far the least expensive course mentioned.

Golden Eagle Golf on Brookville Rd has been sold by Chris Neu to Dave Phillips who has been teaching there part time.

R.N. Thompson Golf bought Eagle Pointe in Bloomington. Oh, and The Yacht Club restaurant on White River at 30th St - a perfect 19th hole for Riverside and Coffin.

And R.H. West Management bought Cypress Run GC near Franklin and LaFontaine GC in Huntington.

Over at the Keystone Indoor Golf Dome, Dave Southerland has invented a self-teeing mechanism for disabled (or lazy) golfers. Step on a button, roll a ball into the depression, step off the button, and a rubber tee rises from beneath the mat with the ball nicely in place. It's safely air operated and has adjustable height. Really neat.

Geese Wranglers LLC wants to rid your favorite course of our Canadian neighbors. Let Nunzi and Speck (and Kathy and Lynn) roam your course.

Indiana has had 6 cases of human West Nile Virus but no deaths. For complete information, see the CDC.

There are now 500 Audubon-certified Sanctuaries. Here is a full list. In Indiana they include the Brickyard Crossing, Smock GC, and Winding River GC. Also in Indiana: Knollwood CC - Granger, Sand Creek CC - Chesterton, Sultan's Run - Jasper, Warren Course - Notre Dame, Victoria National, Newburgh,

OTHER NEWS

An IOC commission has recommended dumping baseball, softball, and the pentathlon and add golf and rugby. The changes could be in effect as early as the 2008 games.

Up in Hammond, IN, the city wants to build a golf complex on an old dump and have set the wheels in motion to borrow $3M for the project from the Horseshoe Casino. Gone are the days of bond issues and banks evidently.

Q&A

Q) Where's the shadiest place to golf now that global warming is "real" and 90° will be common?

A) Where can you find a tree to hide under on every hole? Here's some nominations: (9 - 9-hole) (E - Executive)

GC of Indiana Fair-Way GC (9) Zionsville GC (9)	Ironwood GC (Lake and Valley) Pebble Brook GC Stony Creek GC Brookshire GC Forest Park GC (9) The Golf Preserve (9E)	Grandview GC Killbuck GC
Friendswood GC (9) Tomahawk Hills GC (9) Old Hickory GC	The Fort GC Coffin GC South Grove GC Pleasant Run GC Sarah Shank GC A.J. Thatcher GC (9) Grassy Creek GC (E) Riverside Academy (9 Par 3)	Greenfield CC
Martinsville GC Eagle Pines GC	Deer Valley GC (9) Indian Springs GC (9E)	Blue River GC

ODD RULES OF GOLF

It actually happened last year. William Guy was disqualified at the Scottish PGA Championship because he ran out of balls. He was 10 over par on the 7th hole of the second round when he lost his last ball. Rules forbid borrowing from your partner unless they are using similar style, compression, etc.

TECHNOLOGY?

Please drive through the puddles in the cart paths. The grass near puddles is very fragile. Just slow down and splash through, not around. Thanks.

Next Technology Golf has the latest harebrained pseudo-scientific marketing buzz word. "Attached to the face is a Patented Magnetic Assembly that through the Science of Magnetostriction . . . ". ". . . this strengthened titanium minimizes trampoline effect and transfers more energy into the golf ball . . .".

And another company has developed a system sort of like the Oral B toothbrush (whose bristles change color with exposure to water). This will turn balls gray once they've been in the water for about a week. They hope manufacturers will use it to drive the used ball market into the ground.

Friction-Less - "your ball is GUARANTEED to come off a Friction-Less golf tee 2 miles an hour faster than off a regular tee"

But then there are Strata and Topflite balls with a Teflon coating. Maybe Vaseline is obsolete?

BIRD -X has a full range of products to scare away geese. These include loudspeakers with random alarm calls, scent-based solutions like coyote urine powder, and their latest - a Floating alligator head ($69). Now scare geese and the occasional golfer.

Now on to the Odd Moments. Let us not forget USGA's seeming reversal on the trampoline clubface issue.

ODD MOMENTS IN GOLF

In August, an Indiana State Police helicopter landed on Eagle Pines GC to prematurely cultivate a Civil Air Patrol find. Actually a pretty good harvest - 175 plants of pot in nice neat, cultivated squares. The garden was a couple hundred yards east of the 4th hole in a neighboring field. No charges or suspicions have been leveled.

Royal Oak CC had a Chevy Monte Carlo as an uninvited golf cart when a guy being chased by the Greenwood police ended up in a ditch near the 14th hole. No permanent injuries to the course or the guy but his car and his driving record won't soon be the same.

The 4th green at Saddlebrook GC neede  extensive repairs after a joyrider in a stolen car did donuts on the green one night.

The world's highest public course has opened. It's the Dragon GC in the Choglamsar area of Leh in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir. At 11,000 ft above sea level, it's only topped by a military course in the same vicinity.

A 5-year old aced a 106 yd par 3 at Eagle's Bluff CC in Bullard, TX last week. He did it with a Big Snoopy driver.

In Nevada, prison inmates built a driving range for the town of Tonopah but haven't been allowed to build one at their own facility. The director nixed their request but allowed them to build a softball diamond instead.

Ground Zero Ball Given To USGA.

Dozens of Nigerians obtained visas to England using forged invitations to play in the British Open. Reuters story

While building a new golf course at Forest Park in St. Louis, they have found four buried WWI artillery shells. Two have been live. "Workers putting in the new golf course have been advised on how to recognize old munitions".

Huh? The USGA has bid $16M for the Russian Tea Room in Manhattan with the idea of making it a golf museum. Still no chipping greens in Central Park.

What happened to bikes? In Peachtree City, GA, high school kids can drive golf carts to school. And they're running out of parking space.

Fredrik Jacobson of Sweden got an ace on the 11th at the Murphy's Irish Open last weekend in County Cork. Well anyway,  to make a long story short, everyone attending the tournament got a pint of stout (but Murphy's rather than Jacobson bought the round).

There are 18 golf holes and 14 sinkholes at the Seven Hills GC near Tampa, FL. Four new ones opened up last Thursday on the 13th fairway to join the 10 others that have appeared during June. A local rules allows a free drop but people are asked not to try retrieving balls as the holes are deep, curved, and all connected together underground. They're trying to figure the best way to fill the holes and may wait to see how many they'll have to deal with when the cracking stops - after all, the biggest is now less than 10ft across, not like really big ones.

Don't forget 2002 gave us The Sweet Spot with the Murray brothers. That was pretty odd.

Try searching The National Enquirer for golf news. MJ Fox is missed by golf cart. Ray Romano's kids flush some balls. Hugh Grant breaks a windshield. Justin Timberlake leaves a divot. Is there no juicy dirt anymore?

USA Today's survey of corporate CEOs revealed that 15% of them have made a hole-in-one. "They not only cheat at golf, they also lie about it."

These things aren't for road use! A guy ended up in critical condition last month when his golf cart got hit by a semi truck at the M13 intersection as he was driving down M21 north of Detroit.

Ron Kern shot an ace at Purgatory GC's #3 with a pitching wedge from the blue tees. The pin was up front. Hey, who better knows when to play a redan green than the course architect.

On April 4, 5, and 7th, 2003 the Old Course will be played backwards - as it was played 100 years ago. If you're bored with playing the same course over and over you won't want to miss it. Get your tee time for this on Oct 1st.

A guy in England was sacked by his employer after he was seen playing golf when taking a day off "sick". He sued and was awarded £18,000 ($24,000) in back pay since his doctor told him to relax and exercise for a week while battling tonsillitis and vertigo. At least that's his story and he convinced the court.

Another guy in England has (legally) bet £20 with 5,000 to 1 odds that his 2-year old son will win a Major. Says he's "a natural". Gee, if Earl Woods would have bet that on Tiger the $150,000 extra would be nice but would it be necessary?

Ages of the 8,468 entries to the 2002 U.S. Open qualifiers range from 13 to 70. There's 12 Chips, 15 Greens, 18 Woods, Donny Hacker, Jon Hooks, Jeff Bunker, and Jamie Ball.

LPGA wouldn't stop golfers from posing nude.

Doctors in Taunton Deane in Somerset, England are starting to prescribe an 8-week regimen of greens fees and lessons at the local municipal course in as a get-fit activity. The patients pay $56 (US) for the treatment with the other $300 covered by government funds.

It really exists: Magnetic Water. No doubt it attracts Surlyn. Next: Magnetic Trees. Then: Magnetic Sand.

In August, a fire in a storage barn at the Quarry Hills GC in Quincy, MA was let burn by the local fire department. 6 tons of urea-based dry fertilizer were involved. They have been applauded for backing off rather than cause toxic run off or an explosion.

Norco, CA (eastern suburb of LA). Yesterday. About 100 golfers at the Hidden Valley GC questioned and a few people arrested on prostitution charges during an outing. "The tournament allegedly had sex-for-sale in tents pitched on the fairways."

Microsoft's "Outlaw Golf" for Xbox. Golfers include a lap dancer, rapper, and a guy who passes out in his own barf. Barf.

Last year, Tiger paid more taxes than any other person in Shenzhen province, China. That's $507,000 on the $2M appearance fee for a weekend tournament just north of Hong Kong.

GOLF QUOTES

"Could I have whipped Tiger Woods? Hell, yes. In my prime I could do anything with a golf ball I wanted. No man scared me on the golf course."

- Sam Snead

"The only person who remembers if you finish second is your wife and your dog - and that's if you have a good wife and a good dog."

- Gary Player

"Good tee shot will enhance your chances to par this hole".

- A) Description of par 3 12th on cart card at Crawfordsville Municipal.
- B) Description of par 3 12th in fortune cookie at Crawfordsville Wok House.

"I could care less about golf or The Masters, I was trying to get out my message about the poor people being mistreated.''

- Charles Barkley on Tiger winning at the lengthened Augusta and why he said the extra yards were racist.

"I know people in Dallas. Trust me, Oswald didn't act alone."

- Lee Trevino

"The Masters, in my mind, is not tied at the hip to this club. An event of this profile could be held somewhere else."

- Martha Burk

GUEST EDITORIAL

I just have one complaint/observation. It appears in your editorial comments, or responses to other's comments, that you take a "homer" stance, or have a blind eye to problems perceived by others. It appears that you side for the course in most, if not all of your editorial comments. Why not just let them speak for themselves, without editorial opinion/comment, unless you have a valid explanation of a problem, after speaking to a representative of the course which was the target of the complaint? Why attempt to discredit someone's opinion who took the time and interest to send in a review or comment? I believe that most of your readers are smart enough to be able to determine which are the valid opinions/complaints and separate them from the frivolous opinion/complaints. There are some courses in Central Indiana which have actual problems in the areas of management, customer service, attitude, conditions, policies, etc.

They are businesses, with problems just like any other, which sometimes need to be pointed out to help them improve. If you include this note in the next newsletter, I can almost guarantee that there will be a lot of heads nodding in agreement. - Joel Hettmansperger

AND, OF COURSE, THE OBLIGATORY REPLY

Yes, we do rah-rah for the courses. It's part of our job. Not to mention any hope of making money off this web site rests with sponsorships, not paid subscriptions.

We mainly look for trends of courses that have trouble such as continual complaints about slow weekend rounds, blasé customer service, lumpy greens, etc. While these reports usually elicit a phone call from the clubhouse, it's IndyGolf's main job to describe the courses so you can pick a place to play this weekend. If you take 3 friends to a course you've never played and come away thinking IndyGolf steered you right, we've fulfilled our mission.

GOLF JOKES, OTHER THAN MY CHIPPING

The Laws of Golf (Making the email rounds - thanks Jill)

1. If you really want to get better at golf, go back and take it up at a much earlier age.
2. The game of golf is 90% mental and 10% mental.
3. Since bad shots come in groups of three, a fourth bad shot is actually the beginning of the next group of three.
4. When you look up, causing an awful shot, you will always look down again at exactly the moment when you ought to start watching the ball if you ever want to see it again.
5. Any change works for a maximum of three holes - - or at a minimum of not at all.
6. No matter how bad you are playing, it is always possible to play worse.
7. Never try to keep more than 300 separate thoughts in your mind during your swing.
8. When your shot has to carry over a water hazard, you can either hit one more club or two more balls.
9. If you're afraid a full shot might reach the green while the foursome ahead of you is still putting out, you have two options: you can immediately shank a lay-up, or you can wait until the green is clear and top a ball halfway there.
10. The less skilled the player, the more likely he is to share his ideas about the golf swing.
11. The inevitable result of any golf lesson is the instant elimination of the one critical unconscious motion that allowed you to compensate for all of your many other errors.
12. If it ain't broke, try changing your grip.
13. Golfers who claim they don't cheat, also lie.
14. Everyone replaces his divot after a perfect approach shot.
15. A golf match is a test of your skill against your opponent's luck.
16. It's surprisingly easy to hole a 50-foot putt when you lie 8.
17. Counting on your opponent to inform you when he breaks a rule is like expecting him to make fun of his own haircut.
18. Nonchalant putts count the same as chalant putts.
19. It's not a gimme if you're still away.
20. The shortest distance between any two points on a golf course is a straight line that passes directly through the center of a very large tree.
21. There are two kinds of bounces: unfair bounces, and bounces just the way you meant to play it.
22. You can hit a 2-acre fairway 10% of the time, and a 2-inch branch 90% of the time.
23. Every time a golfer makes a birdie, he must subsequently make two triple bogeys to restore the fundamental equilibrium of the universe.
24. If you want to hit a 7-iron as far as Tiger Woods does, simply try to lay up just short of a water hazard.
25. To calculate the speed of a player's downswing, multiply the speed of his backswing by his handicap. Example: backswing 20 mph, handicap 15, downswing 600mph.
26. There are two things you can learn by stopping your backswing at the top and checking the position of your hands: how many hands you have, and which one is wearing the glove.
27. Hazards attract; fairways repel.
28. You can put "draw" on the ball, you can put "fade" on the ball, but no golfer can put "straight" on the ball.
29. A ball you can see in the rough from 50 yards away is not yours.
30. If there is a ball in the fringe and a ball in the bunker, your ball is in the bunker.
31. If both balls are in the bunker, yours is in the footprint.
32. Don't buy a putter until you've had a chance to throw it.