- Eighteen holes of match play will teach you more about your foe than 18 years of dealing with him across a desk. Grantland Rice
- Golf appeals to the idiot in us and the child. Just how childlike golf players become is proven by their frequent inability to count past five. John Updike
- It is almost impossible to remember how tragic a place the world is when one is playing golf. Robert Lynd
- If profanity had any influence on the flight of the ball, the game of golf would be played far better than it is. Horace G. Hutchinson
- They say golf is like life, but don’t believe them. Golf is more complicated than that. Gardner Dickinson
- If a lot of people gripped a knife and fork as poorly as they do a golf club, they’d starve to death. Sam Snead
- Golf is a day spent in a round of strenuous idleness. William Wordsworth
- If you drink, don’t drive. Don’t even putt. Dean Martin
- If you are going to throw a club, it is important to throw it ahead of you, down the fairway, so you don’t have to waste energy going back to pick it up. Tommy Bolt
- Man blames fate for all other accidents, but feels personally responsible when he makes a hole-in-one. Bishop Sheen
- I don’t say my golf game is bad, but if I grew tomatoes they’d come up sliced. Arnold Palmer
- My handicap? Woods and irons. Chris Codiroli
- The ardent golfer would play Mount Everest if somebody would put a flag stick on top. Pete Dye
- I’m hitting the woods just great; but having a terrible time getting out of them! Buddy Hackett
- The only time my prayers are never answered is playing golf. Billy Graham
- If you think it’s hard to meet new people, try picking up the wrong golf ball. Jack Lemmon
- It’s good sportsmanship to not pick up lost golf balls while they are still rolling. Mark Twain
- Don’t play too much golf. Two rounds a day are plenty. Harry Vardon
- Golf and sex are the only things you can enjoy without being good at either of them. Jimmy DeMaret
- May thy ball lie in green pastures, and not in still waters. Ben Hogan
- If I hit it right, it’s a slice. If I hit it left, it’s a hook. If I hit it straight, it’s a miracle. All Us Hackers
- The difference in golf and government is that in golf you can’t improve your lie. George Deukmejian
- Golf is a game invented by the same people who think music comes out of a bagpipe. Lee Trevino
Witchcraft
Long ago when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called witchcraft. Today, it’s called golf.
Poipu Bay Golf Club (Poipu, HI – Kauai)
I was really looking forward to playing Poipu Bay, especially after hitting the ball pretty well with an 84 at Pearl CC and a 78 at Puakea. Unfortunately, by driver left me for the first 16 holes at Poipu Bay and I really struggled with my irons the entire day – I pretty much made a mess of the round outside of a couple of nice saves.
The staff was hit and miss, the marshall on the course was very polite considering we were legitimately 5 minutes slow for each 9 and the starter was very nice, but the pro shop and the rest of the staff didn’t impress me much. There was an aloofness – sort of a “you are lucky to play here” air about them that I remember from the Wailea staff on Maui.
The starter told me that playing the blue tees would put the fairway bunkers in play for me, and was he ever right. The sand was really soft, and though I was in about 10-12 bunkers I didn’t hit a decent bunker shot until hole 17. Definitely would have helped to hit a couple of bunker shots before heading out on the course.
The greens were a lot slower than I expected, and there was some standing water and mud in low spots. Overall though, the course was in pretty good shape.
Holes 14-18 of the back nine are just spectacular – even though I was hacking it up pretty badly, I still enjoyed the view and the beauty of these holes immensely.
I’d like to take another shot at this course – a couple of good drives would have made a world of difference.
I’m not sure how we ended up at Puakea Golf Course, perhaps at the recommendation of the concierge service. It’s a newer course with very slow greens and little trouble in the rough. There are mounds on either sides of many of the fairways that reminded me of Pete Dye designed courses. The course had…
Pearl Country Club is on Oahu overlooking Pearl Harbor. The back nine climbs up a hill overlooking the harbor, and is quite pretty. It was a nice round in that we were on vacation in Hawaii and playing golf, and the course is nice, but isn’t particularly special. We arrived about 15 minutes before our…
In the summer of 2005 and 2006 I really struggled with a hook off the tee1. Over the last year, I’ve reversed that and have been playing a straight ball or fade for most of this summer. I’ve made the change primarily with ball position – a little closer to me and further up in…
I’ve been making some good progress on my swing this year, but I’ve still got some big things to work on: Now that I’m more upright, I need to make my swing plane more vertical – it’s still down where it was when I was leaned over too far. I’m getting too much wrist cock/early…
I’ve traveled for a couple of years with a soft-sided travel case and been lucky not to have had any broken clubs or issues. However I’m starting to take golf trips more frequently and last year a friend of mine had clubs broken on back to back trips with a soft case, so I decided…
I just played my first round with the HiBore XL (thanks Erik) after using the original HiBore for the last year or so. The HiBore XL is 9.5 degree, with the red/stiff Fujikara shaft. There are 3 main differences I’m seeing between the new HiBore XL and the original HiBore: The face is less shut…
My last two trips to Arizona have included a day of golf at the Raven at Verrado. Their all-day golf package is really a great deal. For $179 you get: Breakfast – tasty buffet or a cook to order omelette (or both) Range balls Unlimited golf – we’ve played 2 rounds each time Lunch Some…
My last golf trip was a 2 day weekend trip and I decided to just stuff my clothes into my soft travel case and forgo a suitcase entirely. That didn’t work out so well. My golf bag was over the 50lb limit and it was a bit unwieldy to move around. Next time, a separate…
I’ve been working on tightening up my swing, still quite a bit to do. One area I’m getting better in is swinging to a balanced finish. These videos are from a trip to Arizona at the beginning of the month. I wasn’t hitting the ball well at all, and was rusty from 2 months of…
I played my first good round of 2007 this afternoon, shooting 81 (40-41) at Ute Creek. Very satisfying, especially after a couple of rounds in the 90s when I couldn’t find the world with my driver in AZ. It was a bummer to bogey a bunch of the par 5′s and find the water on…
I played my first 9 holes of 2007 this afternoon. All in all, I’m quite pleased with the results: 4 pars 4 bogeys 1 double bogey – I should have taken relief from casual water and didn’t, it cost me a penalty stroke when I splashed into a hazard. My chipping was solid on pitch…
I got to go hit balls at the range (off mats) today as enough snow finally melted for my course to open up the range – my first real swings of 2007 and first since Thanksgiving last year. Hopefully the weather will hold this week and the course will open up again. I’ve got 2…