Loose Threads

I received a nice e-mail today from one of my good golf friends, who in order to maintain his anonymity I'll call Mark Williams.  Mark is also a loyal reader of the blog and it's fair to say that this blog likely wouldn't exist if not for Mark, as he's always been very supportive of my writing efforts.

In addition to the usual catching up and greetings of the season, Mark also held out the possibility of a bucket-list golf outing in 2015 (Shhh, just between us kids its initials are PV), so you're all my witnesses that he said it out loud.  But Mark also got a bit snippy about the lack of content the last week or two, the Gobi Desert of the golf calendar...  Proving yet again that I write without fear or favor, we can all agree that Unplayable Lies readers, if nothing else, have received their money's worth.  So Mark, or whatever your name really is, you'd be better served to leave the snark to your humble blogger...

A New Record - At the age of 103, Gus Andreone is the oldest member of the PGA of America, and apparently still plays well enough that he now has another claim to fame:

The news of PGA Professional Gus Andreone's hole-in-one was obviously a big deal.

Not sure which I like more, the white socks or the pimped out golf cart.

The 103-year-old man recorded the eighth ace of his career on the 113-yard, 14th hole of the Lakes Course at Palm Aire in Sarasota, Fla. But as the news traveled the social waves, it also became clear that this was in all likelihood a record event, that Andreone is the oldest person to record a hole-in-one. 

There's no sure way to know, but we can say that nobody older has ever notified a golf institution with

This was Gus' eighth ace which borders on the greedy, though his first one was in 1939.  Gus considers 90 to be his par these days, but how about this:

With that being the case, we can tell you Andreone shot a nifty 7-under 83 (in relation to his par) on Wednesday in the round that included his latest ace.

Wow. 

We'll leave you with this beauty from Andreone: "As long as I can swing a club, I'll be playing golf."

True that last bit.  But the man shot more than a stroke per hole under his age, I'm guessing that might be some kind of record as well...

Golf in the Middle Kingdom - Mix the elitist game of golf with the last major Communist regime and the results have to be enigmatic, no?  So it's no surprise that the subject of golf in China tends to fascinate and frustrate, leaving the reader as perplexed as ever.  Shackelford pulls a few strings together in this post, kicking off with this recent WSJ story (behind a paywall):

Just a few months ago, members of a newly opened Jack Nicklaus signature course in the

Beijing suburbs woke up to discover the venue had been ordered shut amid a government audit of all of the city’s clubs. It was allowed to reopen after a few weeks, but only for members, not their guests. A nearby club didn’t get off so lightly: it had to plow up its immaculate greens and close permanently. 

This isn’t a passing shower. Golf, as it’s now played in China, doesn’t have a promising future.

Well, when construction of new golf courses is illegal, it can be difficult to grow the game.  Shack also links to Dan Washburn, author of this highly regarded book on golf in China, and adds this excerpt:

But during my recent two weeks in China, I encountered more pessimism and uncertainty from those in the industry than ever before. Everyone quoted the rumor that up to 100 courses would soon be shut down, a process that perhaps got kickstarted with the closure of a handful of courses this summer. Beijing then, as it had a handful of times over the previous decade, reiterated its oft referenced but rarely enforced ban on golf course construction. It did so again just this week. Things do appear to be ratcheting up. 

What to make of it? Who knows. Maybe this is truly the end of the boom. Maybe it’s just another bump in the road. Either way, it seems a good time to share with you a recent email I received from a China golf course industry veteran.

It seems to me that people greatly misunderstand China, which remains an extremely poor country (author Mark Steyn quips that China will get old before it gets rich, highlighting its serious demographic issues).  It may provide a venue for certain high-end facilities, but it will never be truly of our game.

This Week in Golf Rap Videos - Somehow this didn't make Alex Myer's list of viral videos:

OK, but I wanna see him make those 12-foota's when he's my age... Trust me, there's nothing more pitiful than a gangsta rapper with the yips.

That Ted Bishop? - The deposed PGA Prez isn't always my cup of tea, and my criticisms of his microphone hogging somewhat foreshadowed his demise-by-Twitter.  But fair is fair, and this post at his new blog on Andy Sanders, Jimmy Walker's caddie, is really worth a read:

Those predictions did come true, but not in a way that Dottie imagined. Unfortunately

she never lived to see Andy enjoy success in golf at the highest level. Sanders was one of the country’s best junior golfers and he attended the University of Houston on a golf scholarship. After college he played on the Nationwide Tour from 2002-04 aspiring to continue his playing career. 

Then one day Sanders woke up and experienced a blind spot in his right eye. Initially he thought it was a problem attributed to his contact lenses. Sanders would soon discover that he had Multiple Sclerosis. He tried to fight through the condition and keep on playing. He was receiving muscle injections every other week and eventually he contracted vertigo which was the worst thing that could happen to a golfer.

 “My playing career ended because of the medicine, not the MS. Those shots depressed me night and day. They gave me vertigo and losing my balance was the end of my playing career,” recalls Sanders. “There is no way you can’t look back and have some second thoughts. I made my choices at the time and now I am incredibly fortunate with my family and hopefully I have a great career ahead of me.”

A nice story of perseverance well done.  Hey, maybe I'll like Ted more as a ink-stained wretch than as a big muckety-muck.  Stranger things have happened...

First World Problems - Storm clouds gather on the horizon, a sinister drum beat reaches deafening proportions as all that we hold dear is suddenly at risk... Why the concern?

Here's a new tradition unlike any other - the race to see if the Masters can keep its field under 100 players by April. 

For the fourth time in the last five years, at least 90 players already have qualified for the Masters at the end of the year with three months of opportunities remaining before the field is set. Each time, Augusta National managed to achieve its objective of keeping the number of competitors in double digits. 

By far the smallest field of the four majors, the Masters has not had more than 100 players since 1966.

Now there's really no issue getting 100 players around a golf course on Thursday and Friday, it's just the ANGC Poobah's doing things their own way.  But remember that the numbers we're discussing are the total field, which includes past champions and fuzzy-cheeked amateurs (No, Fuzzy is a past champion) with no chance to win, so the actual competitive field is in the 70's at best.

Is that suitable for a major championship?  Discuss among yourselves...

I've got more...well, more of everything but time.  Can we meet tomorrow?  Good, I'll see you then.