Tales From The Bunker

Most of our readers probably think we either were captured by gypsies or ran off to Tahiti. Sadly neither happened so no excuses… just being lazy over the holidays.

Since it is finally cold in the north, golf is just a memory. But spring is just a few short months away. We would like to celebrate our return with our favorite video. We show it every winter to show just what it takes to be in golf shape. Sit back, relax and get motivated by the hardest working man in golf, Vijay Singh and as always, keep  ‘em in the fairway.

Tags: Golf Fitness, golf fitness video, golf workout, Vijay Singh// Category Golf Fitness // Add Comment »

Back on August 4th we wrote a blog on the greatest golf movies of all time based in part on information at http://www.sportsinmovies.com. Recently we found a list of the box office proceeds of recent golf movies.  With a big thank you to GolfWorld  the list is as follows;

Tin Cup – $53,854,588
Happy Gilmore – $41,205,099
Caddyshack – $39,846,344
The Legend of Baggar Vance – $39,459,427
Caddyshack II – $11,798,302
The Greatest Game Ever Played – $15,431,177
Who’s Your Caddy – $5,713,425
Seven Days in Utopia – $3,588,000
Bobby Jones: Stokes of Genius – $2,707,913

Obviously this list does not include all of the greatest movies ever in our previous blog as some of them are quite old. However the box office proceeds listed above are pathetic.

What is it about golf that does not resonate on the big screen?  It is an elitist sport, the game does not lend itself to a good movie story or is the problem that the scripts just simply are bad?

We are struggling for an answer. We would love to hear our reader’s opinion on the subject
.
As always keep ‘em in the fairway.

P.S. Has anyone ever seen Par 6?

Tags: Caddyshack, Greatest Golf Movies Ever, Happy Gilmore, Tin Cup// Category Blogging // Add Comment »

When your ball is greenside with the cup 30 feet away from the fringe do you try to be a PGA Professional? You pick up a sand wedge or a pitching wedge and try to fly the ball to the hole. When I try the ball occasionally flies very nicely to the hole. But often it goes everywhere but where I want it to go. We all know the line drive over the green or the flubbed shot that goes three feet.   There is a better way.

Learn the bump and run. It is not sexy but it is effective. The idea is to try to fly the ball 20% of the way and have it roll 80%. Use a seven or a six iron or even a five if necessary. Place the ball back in your stance with a majority of your weight on your front foot. Have the shaft leaning ahead of the golf ball. Then just make a putting motion. It’s amazing! With a little practice your ball starts ending up consistently near the hole.

Remember it is easier to hat a ball shorter and gain consistency. Forget about sexy, look for results.

As always, keep ‘em in the fairway!

Tags: Chipping, golf instruction, golf tips// Category Tips // 1 Comment »

These poor guys are up at 5:00 AM cutting grass, raking bunkers and generally getting the course ready for another day of amateurs trying to destroy the grounds. Without them there would be no golf.

However why are there always certain workers who pay to no attention to the golfers who pay their salaries?

They drive their carts by full speed as you are hitting. If they are working around the greens they briefly stop and wave you up but do not move. If your ball heads in their direction they do not move.

Have you ever felt like they are stalking you for several holes? Are they laughing at how bad you are or do thy simply enjoy making you nervous.

But the worst, the absolute worst, is when you are playing at the end of the day and they follow you around and start the sprinklers as soon as you are done with a hole. That would be ok but why do they always jump ahead and start the sprinklers on holes you have not played?  Even though you plan your strategy to avoid the sprinklers you always hit into them. First you have to time the sprinkler head, then run and hit your ball and get out before the sprinkler head comes around to nail you. Success rate of getting nailed….100%.

Let me restate that 95% of the maintenance workers are great. The other 5% hopefully do not know where I live.

As always, keep ‘em in the fairway.

Tags: golf course maintenance worker, greens keeping, playing golf// Category Blogging // 6 Comments »