Remember…Snead’s Open Championship

Sam Snead had a legendary career. With 82 wins on the PGA Tour, still not equaled by Tiger Woods, and with the Open Championship being played next week at Royal Liverpool it brings to mind Snead’s Open record “across the pond.”

Immediately after the end of World War II Wilson Sporting Goods, his longtime sponsor, pressed Snead to travel to Great Britain to promote their clubs and balls as golf became reestablished following six years of war. Snead had played in the Open once before, in 1937, and was not especially enthusiastic about returning but perhaps the fact the venue was the Old Course at St. Andrews helped make up his mind to go.

As Snead related the story, he and Lawson Little had to ride from London to St. Andrews, Scotland in a cramped little rail carriage and saw what he called a patch of weeds and rocks. As the train slowed and then stopped Snead asked a gentleman sharing the compartment, “You from around here? Can you tell me what they call that? Looks like an old abandoned golf course.”

The scornful reply from the staid English gentleman put the American in his place. “My good sir, that is the Royal and Ancient Club of St. Andrews. It is not now, nor will it ever be, abandoned.”

Slammin’ Sammy apologized profusely but failed to mollify his fellow passenger who turned out to be a titled member of royalty. Snead couldn’t remember for sure but it was “Duke Something” and the Duke was not bashful telling newsmen on the scene the entire disgraceful—in his eyes—story. The British newspapers took Snead to the cleaners which was not something done with the same intensity in the United States at the time so the “Hillbilly Pro” had a tough time the entire week.

But Snead was able to get his revenge for the unfriendly treatment by fans and the press…he won the 1946 Open Championship by four shots and even though he got the first place check, a paltry $600, he did not go back to defend in 1947.

ED TRAVIS | Golf Opinion & Commentary

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Tri State Golfer Summer Issue 2014

Reasons to Keep Your Tristate Golfer Magazine Subscription

Although there are online blogs you can now go through over the internet, still nothing beats the goodness of your Tristate Golfer Magazine. If you have been subscribing to the magazine, there is no reason why you should stop. With that, here are some of the many reasons why you should keep your magazine subscription. Check out the cool reasons below and you’ll learn to love the Tristate Golfer even more.

1. You don’t have to drive to the shop to get your magazine. If you subscribe, you can rest assured that your magazine will arrive at your doorstep every month. You can actually save much time, money and effort. You don’t need to spend on gas to get a hold of the magazine.

2. You can subscribe for a year’s supply of magazines. Get the perk of paying for a subscription all at once. You won’t have to pay every month. You can pay everything for a year and actually get a discount. Cool, right?

3. Get golf news ahead of everybody else in your community. Your magazine subscription actually brings you golf news and other stuff before they are even found in the market. You get to have your copy first.

4. You can read amazing stuff anywhere you want. You actually read your magazine whereever you are. You can bring it to your weekend getaway at the beach or at a camping. You can also read the whole stuff or your favorite parts of the mag over and over if you want to.

5. Get the chance to win freebies. Magazine usually have sponsors and advertisers that give out contests through the mag. If you are the lucky one, you could win amazing freebies!

6. Get samples along with the magazine. Some products that are being endorsed through the mag place samples with the subscriptions. You can enjoy the samples yourself as well and for free!

 

7. Be inspired by the amazing stories featured in the magazine. The magazine will always feature somebody that is known and has achieved so much in the golf course. If you read their stories, you will surely be inspired to improve your skills even more.

8. Make it as your collection. A magazine edition is only released once. Different contents are inside a different month each month or quarter. You can actually collect all the magazines from the maiden issue with the latest ones.

9. Have something you always look forward to have every month. Because it is sent to you every month, you can always look forward to the contents and possible freebies that you along with it. You will never have to be disappointed about receiving only bills and nothing else.

If you are planning to get rid of your subscription, think again. You wouldn’t want to regret doing just the thing, right? Any Tristate Golfer Magazine is made to provide you with all the coolest stuff and information you need about the sport in the Tristate region. When you subscribe to the magazine, you will never have to miss any of the amazing deals and news about golf, ever again.

10 Rounds with The Game of Golf

You want to get better—right?

And you know that means lots of practice—right?

Plus you know charting rounds will help find the weaknesses that rate additional attention—right?

But aside from the desire, what are you doing to improve? Take a basic example…how far does your driver go? Bet you don’t know hole by hole or even on average to within five yards…or maybe ten yards. Or, what’s the carry of your five iron…your nine iron? How many putts did you have in the last round or what is your GIR?

Well, you get the point. To improve your score you must know what you do well and what needs added attention, instruction and practice.

And that’s where Game Golf comes in.

I’m not particularly tech-savvy nor do I want to be, plus I’m not interested in some device if it gets in my way physically or mentally. Game Golf fits those criteria in a nice, positive way.

It’s simple to use, after downloading the software to your computer and creating an account, make sure the belt unit is charged and you’re ready to go.

I will admit at first I sometimes didn’t remember to tap the butt of the club (there are buttons you screw into the grips) on the belt unit before each shot but more on that later. However, once it became part of my pre-shot routine I did it without thinking.

Tapping the button on the end of each club marks the spot where you’re hitting and since each button has a different code the belt unit can record, “He’s hitting a five iron.”

When you get to where the ball landed, select the next club, tap the button on the belt unit and hit the shot. As I said—simple.

After the round plug the belt unit into your computer with the supplied USB cable and the software downloads your shots and calculates all the distances and stats. It even lets you add shots so if you forgot to tap before you hit, say your drive, you can add it. GPS based Game Golf ($249) is ready when you switch it on so there no searching for the course you’re playing and it even knows if you start on the back nine or skip a hole.

Since improvement involves knowing what needs improving, by using this system you have all the information about each round, the individual shots and your averages. Suppose after a few rounds your drives average 210-yards (which by the way isn’t bad for a recreational player) but they are hardly ever in the fairway. Or your putts per round are somewhere north of 32. You can plainly see opportunities to improve.

It didn’t take ten rounds for me to become used to Game Golf. After only two or three I saw while my fairways in regulation number was good and I was hitting 13 or so greens when I did miss my scrambling percentage was not good…in fact it was the worst part of my game. I had thought my putting was or even my mid-irons were but it was the pitches and chips so I have been spending lots of time practice around the green and am beginning to see it pay off.

Could all of this data be written done in a notebook during the round? Sure, and the statistics could be calculated too, but I challenge you figure out the exact yardage you hit your drive on the twelfth hole without some kind of laser or GPS device and Game Golf is the most painless way I know of to do it. And for a sugar topping, the USGA allows Game Golf to be used in competition.

If you want to know your game better and to improve Game Golf is an excellent way to get the data you need.

ED TRAVIS | Golf Opinion & Commentary

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From medalist to champion, Liu takes WWGA National Amateur title

Mika Liu made three straight birdies to start the afternoon portion of the 36-hole final of the Women’s Western Golf Association’s 114^th National Amateur Championship to stretch a 1 up lead to 4 up and lead her to victory at Lancaster Country Club Saturday.

Liu, 15, from Beverly Hills, Calif., who earned medalist honors after qualifying scores of 73-71, topped Cammie Gray of Northport, Ala., 3 & 2.

Liu’s older sister, Marika, captured the third flight title.

Despite her age, Liu has an impressive resume. She was the 2011 FCWT National Player of the Year and named to the 2012 and 2013 AJGA Rolex All-American Team. She recently won the Women’s Southern Golf Association Championship and has participated in a LPGA Symetra Tour event where she placed fifth out of 140 players.

Gray did not pick up a golf club until she was 14. She played her first competitive round when she was 15. She reached the round of 16 at the 2013 US Women’s Amateur Championship and won the 2013 Alabama State Women’s Amateur Championship. She also was named the 2013 Alabama State Woman Player of the Year. She competed in the 2014 NCAA Division Finals with her teammates from Alabama.

For more information, visit www.wwga.org.

Nate Oxman

Editor

PhillyGolfFiles.com

610-613-0851

noxman@phillygolffiles.com

From medalist to finalist, Liu continues run at WWGA National Amateur

Mika Liu of Beverly Hills, Calif. stayed focused on the task at hand, overcoming a back-nine rally by Sirene Blair Friday morning for a 3 & 2 quarterfinals win and then dispatched Josee Doyon, 3 & 2, in the afternoon semifinals match to move into the finals of the Women’s Western Golf Association’s 114^th National Amateur Championship at Lancaster Country Club.

  Liu, who earned the top seed in the Championship flight following qualifying rounds of 73-71 on the 6,201-yard, par 72 William Flynn design, will meet Cammie Gray of Northport, Ala. in Saturday's 36-hole final.

  Liu took a 2 up advantage to the back nine Friday morning and then used a terrific second shot at No. 10 to set up a two-putt par to win the hole. Blair, of South Jordan, Utah, had a chance at a halve at No. 11 following a beautiful chip from right of the green, but missed a par save to fall 4 down with seven holes to play.

  “It was great that I could go 4 up, but I was still cautious because the round hadn’t ended yet,” said Liu. “I wasn’t going to assume anything.”

  Blair made a solid two-putt par at the downhill par-3 12^th to trim the margin back to three after Liu’s tee ball found the water and then rolled in a 12-footer for birdie at the par-5 13^th to battle back to 2 down. 

  “No. 12 has really been a decision-making hole for me,” said Liu. “It was like that yesterday and today. The wind picked up a lot more today than yesterday. I did hit the same club today as yesterday and hit a solid shot, but it just didn’t go.”

  Blair was in beautiful position to win a third consecutive hole after hitting her approach at the par-4 14^th to 5 feet, but her birdie try missed high.

“I knew that it was from my own short putt mistakes,” said Liu. “I tried to learn from those and be more confident with my putts because I was doubting myself with my lines. And then when she missed her putt, it gave me a bit more of a relief. I wasn’t as tight because if she had her momentum, she maybe could have it going. So I knew I just had to stay in there.”

  After Blair’s second from the right rough found the rough left of the green, leaving a difficult up and down, Liu regained firm control of the match following a phenomenal 5-iron from 150 yards at the uphill par 4. Blair then hit a poor chip that fell short of the green and into a greenside bunker and Liu two-putted for par to push the margin back to three up with three to play.

  “I knew I didn’t really have to try to hit it in the hole,” said Liu. “I could just let it be a par.”

  A halve at the 16^th sent Liu, just 15 years old, into the semis. Saturday’s 36-hole Championship flight final is free and open to the public. For complete results as well as more information, visit www.wwga.org. 

Nate Oxman

Editor

PhillyGolfFiles.com

610-613-0851

noxman@phillygolffiles.com

Women's Western Amateur underway at Lancaster Country Club

The Women’s Western Amateur rolled into Lancaster Country Club Monday for the first of a six-day stay with Emily McLennan, a rising junior at the University of Tennessee – Chattanooga and Eunice Yi, a rising sophomore at Georgia Regents University posting dual 1-under par 71s to top the leaderboard on the first of two qualifying days.

     McLennan and Yi were the only two players in the field of 144 to finish under par on the 6,201-yard lauded William Flynn design. That’s surely an indication of what type of test Lancaster CC will provide one year from now when it hosts the U.S. Women’s Open.

     McLennan, the reigning Tennessee Women’s Amateur, Southern Conference champion and a native of Queensland, Australia and Yi, from Evans, Ga. will attempt to secure medalist honors as the top qualifier among 64 who will enter the championship flight of match play, which begins on Wednesday.

     Nineteen players from Pennsylvania are in the field at the Women’s Western, eclipsed only by the U.S. Amateur in status among women’s national amateur events, including Shannon Gramley of Sharon, Pa. and Shady Side Academy, who posted a 1-over 73 Monday.

     Other Pennsylvania residents include Erica Herr, a recent Council Rock High North graduate and New Hope resident bound for Wake Forest University in the fall. Herr opened with a 4-over 74. Herr’s younger sister, Madelein, shot 88. Allison Cooper of Harrisburg also shot 74. Ashley Cassidy (79) of Doylestown, Emily Gimpel (79) of Lafayette Hill, Kate Granahan (80) of Allentown, Amanda Ploener (80) of Chadds Ford and Aurora Kan (83) of Boothwyn will battle for spots in the 64-player championship field Tuesday.

     The Women’s Western Amateur, held continuously since 1901 and featuring former champions Patty Berg, JoAnne Carner, Nancy Lopez, Beth Daniel, Cristie Kerr and Stacy Lewis is free and open to the public. Check out www.wwga.org for complete scoring and more info.

Nate Oxman

Editor

PhillyGolfFiles.com

610-613-0851