It was interesting to see the people, culture and environment of these fragile locations. Whether you believe climate change is man made or natural, it’s a good video to watch. From http://beautifulislandsthemovie.com Beautiful Islands –The Three Sinking Livings This movie looks at three beautiful islands, shaken by climate change: Tuvalu in the South Pacific, Venice [...] Related posts:

1. The Water Crisis
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PutterZone.com today shares the accompanying in-hand photos of the new Piretti Cottonwood II putter

My mission for the past few years is to get more of the weak hearted as well as the overbearing non-tech business people online.  Why? Well, on the most part they need to be and secondly YOU need them online. The TWO issues most of the newbies to La-La-Land have Read More

I came across this brief video addressing a problem that I observe on a weekly basis -- misuse of the practice tee area.  Have you ever complained about the quality of the turf on your local driving range?  Then do your part to help your local course superintendent maintain it!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpItaRl8tjk

How's that for a pertinent topic? OK, let me clarify. Because I fully realize "sexy" is different things to different people. For this discussion I'm using sexy in the formulaic laddy mag sense. I'm referring to a classic dude's definition... a Maxim-ish characterization that brings to mind women like Jessica Alba, Scarlett Johansson and Kendra Wilkenson ...and pretty much any lady who appears

I missed out on Big Break Sandals Resort week 1, but a quick recap, Elena Robles was sent home after winning the first part of the elimination challenge and saving Kelly Sheehan who in turn did not return the favor by saving Elena in the following challenge.

A pretty lame move if you ask me, but then again, I’m not competing for a chance to play on the pro tour and an Adams golf sponsorship..

Big Break Sandals Resort week 2 opened up with Carling Coffing winning the immunity challenge and after a good bit of tension building and card flipping, choosing to save Maiya Tanaka.

Just for the record, I’m pulling for Carling to win, I played with her in the 2nd Annual Future Stars Foundation Pro-am, which coincidentally, we won (with no help from me mind you..).

While Carling and Maiya were lounging by the pool in their bikini’s, sipping wine and pina coladas, the rest of the ladies proceeded to the the second immunity challenge which was a longest drive contest.

One of the hosts, Tom Abbot began stirring the pot by saying “I’ve got some bad news for you ladies, none of you made the cut.. in Carlings eyes.”

The ladies were paired up in a head to head challenge where the longest drive in the fairway wins, below are the results.

Stacey Bieber vs Kelly Sheehan

Kelly – 207
Stacey – 215

Taryn Durham vs Seema Sadekar

Taryn – 238

Seema – 230

Lili Alvarez vs Ryann O’Toole

Lili – off fairway

Ryann – 265

Sara Brown vs Chris Brady

Sara – 231

Chris – off fairway

The losers of the long drive challenge proceeded to the final elimination challenge where they competed in a three part challenge. They were hitting shots to the green on the 18ths hole at Sandals resort. On the green was one point, closer to the pin was two points and closest to the pin was three points.

The first location was 165 yards away and after the first location, Kelly Sheehan was in the elimination spot.

The second location was a slightly blind shot where you couldn’t see the green, just the flag from behind a hill. They didn’t mention the yardage, but it looked like it was about eh, 75 yards out. After all the shots, Kelly Sheehan remained in the elimination spot.

The third location, you had four shots, as long as the previous shot was on the green. Going into the third location, Lili was in the lead with eight points, followed closely by Chris and Seema who were tied at seven points and Kelly trailing with Five points.

The challenge ended with Lili and Chris tied for with 14 points and Seema, who missed the green short on her first shot with seven points and lastly, through some crazy karmic backlash, Kelly who missed her shot way left of the green with five points.

Kelly had an easy opportunity to stay in the game, but nerves got to her and now shes out. I wanted to see her stay in because shes an Orlando resident who teaches out of Reunion Resort.

Overall, my first impressions of the show wasn’t all that favorable. All the drama on the show is pretty nauseating and the addition of the Save/Send card has added a Survivor “alliance” element to the show, which I don’t really care for.

What are your impressions of the show and who do you think will win?

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I’ve lived in Orlando for many years and until recently I had never heard of Mission Inn. A friend of mine who recently began an affiliation with the club invited me out to tour the facility and write a golf course review on one of their two courses, El Campeon.

The facility is located about 45 minutes northwest of central Orlando in Howey in the Hills and while it’s not technically an Orlando golf course review, it’s close enough to be classified as such. Besides, who would read a review entitled “Howey in the Hills Review?”

Let me begin by saying the experience at Mission Inn Resort & Club is well worth the drive. Getting there is an adventure in itself. The drive takes you through a variety of rundown, ramshackle and bedraggled areas and at the end, the club shines like the last beacon of hope in a dying world.

I arrived on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, driving through very impressive Spanish architecture on my way to El Campeon. The first thing I notice upon my arrival was a massive putting green that was impeccably maintained. While spending some time working with the short stick, I was told about the course, who’s modern appearance belied it’s extensive history.

The origins of Mission Inn date back to the early 1900’s, when the Florida citrus industry was in its infancy. The course was originally created in 1917 by George O’Neil, who was a master of the game and had staked out his place among golf’s upper echelon for his abilities in architecture. The course he created boasted rare tee to green elevations of 85 feet, towering forests and sparkling, spring-fed lakes.

In 1924, the area was expanding so rapidly that Charles E. Clarke of the famous Troon Golf Course in Scotland was commissioned to further enhance the El Campeon golf course. Five years later, the stock market crash of 1929 lead to the Great Depression. That coupled with one of the worst freezes in Florida history, put an end to El Campeon’s owner, Mr. William J. Howey’s citrus empire.

Forty years later, in 1964, successful businessman, Nick Beucher of Wilmette, Illinois responded to a Wall Street Journal ad and acquired the Floridian Country Club, which consisted of an 18 hole golf course and a 1950s clubhouse, in Howey-in-the-Hills. He spent the first few years renovating and expanding the clubhouse, as well as completely restructuring the badly neglected 18-hole golf course.

In 1969, the decision was made to create a captivating, Spanish Colonial golf resort complete with overnight accommodations. So, building began on a hotel and the name was changed to Mission Inn Golf and Tennis Resort.

In 1992, a second championship golf course, Las Colinas was built. Designed by former PGA Tour player, Gary Koch, Las Colinas features wide open fairways and gentle rolling hills creating an inland links design.

Over the years, members of Nick’s family have joined the business and continue to actively operate the resort. The resort you witness today is a direct reflection of the vision and tireless effort of Nick Beucher, his six children and their dedicated staff.

El Campeon is the third oldest golf course in the state and boasts an impressive 7003 yards from the tips. The scenery is impressive and at times breath taking. I experienced this for the first time on the fourth hole, your tee shot is over a lake to an uphill sloping fairway that’ll leave you feeling small and insignificant.

With a course rating of 74.2 and a slope of 136, be sure to bring an ice pack to sooth the ache caused by the beating you’re about to receive. It’s a traditional golf course that rewards smart, accurate play. It’s not a course that randomly punishes good shots. What I mean is, if you aim for the center of the fairway, it doesn’t throw a random sand bunker out there for any other reason than to make it tougher than it already is.

It doesn’t need to..

With it’s 85-foot elevation changes, El Campeon requires demanding tee shots and many of your approaches are to double and triple-tiered greens.

There’s plenty of challenges to the course, island greens, sloping fairways, inconvenient lakes and rivers, trees that seem to reach out and grab your ball, soft sand and of course, one very mean double dogleg 538 yard Par-5. This beast is called “Devil’s Delight” and it’s the signature hole on El Campeon.

It begins as a harmless dogleg right that quickly shifts to a dogleg left, with the devil himself taking the shape of an ancient oak tree that blocks your approach shot, which,by the way, is over a canal about 10 feet wide to a protected green guarded by a beach side bunker.

I played this hole incredibly well until my landed in the shadow of the “El Diablo” oak, sitting two with about 90 yards to the green, I flubbed my pitch and my ball went for a swim. The rest, is… too painful.

The course was a blast to play and overall, in great shape. The one exception to this was the greens. The greens I experienced during the golf course review left a little bit to be desired. It was apparent on more than one hole that they had seen better days.

This was about two months back, however and I’ve heard that it’s since been corrected, I can’t confirm this, as I haven’t played the golf course since the review.

Mission Inn El Campeon golf course is ranked in the top 10 of Florida’s 1500 courses. In addition, the conference and golf facilities have been the recipient of such national honors as the Gold Key Award, Gold Tee Award, Planners’ Choice Award, Pinnacle Award and Greens of Distinction. They’ve also been mentioned in several Golf Digest “Best Places to Play” in North America, as recent as 2008/2009, and ranked by Zagat as one of “America’s Top Golf Courses in 2003”.

If you’re in the market for a challenging, change of pace, I strongly encourage you to make the trip to Mission Inn El Campeon. If you go, please give my regards to El Diablo.

-Dave

If you liked this one, feel free to check out my other Orlando golf course reviews and if you’re looking to play, here’s a selection of discounted Orlando tee times.

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Kelly Sheehan was the second contestant eliminated from Big Break Sandals Resorts. Sorry to see her go, she was the only golf professional among the cast members (as opposed to professional golfer). Last week, the Orlando Sentinel did a piece on Kelly that included this:Whereas the other entrants are in the early stages of a playing career, Sheehan chose to pursue teaching before competition.

It’s hard to believe that it’s one year since the best golfers in the world teed it up at Bethpage Black (one of the courses I grew up playing) at the US Open. This also means that Sunday is Father’s Day, the traditional day for the final round. Let’s hope the weather cooperates better on the west coast at Pebble Beach than it did the east coast last year. If you recall, it rained hard practically throughout the entire tournament that was won by Lucas Glover, or G. Lover as he called himself on David Letterman’s top 10 list. Question: what do Pebble Beach and Bethpage Black have in common that’s unique for US Open courses? Submit your answers via email to AJM.ME@thumbsdownmethod.com . All correct answers win a FREE copy of Thumbs Down, Golf Instruction Made Simple, Front Nine eBook. The answer will be revealed in my next newsletter following the tournament.

Typically by this time of the season I’ve played at least 15 or more rounds of golf. As I’ve explained previously my life has changed in oh so many ways and one of the sacrifices is where and how much I play. So far this season I’ve only played 4 times, but thanks to Thumbs Down The Power Move, my ball striking is very good. More on this after the following article about my first hand experiences related to the rules of golf. I hope you enjoy it and as always I welcome your comments and feedback emailed to AJM.ME@thumbsdownmethod.com.

On April 30 I continued a tradition that’s been in place since for as long as I can remember. What’s so special about that day? Not only is it typically one of the nicest days of the year, it’s my birthday and I love celebrating by playing golf. What made my first round of the 2010 season an even more unexpected thrill was this; on the par four first hole I only needed three. Talk about keeping it simple; after a 250-yard tee shot in the fairway, my 140 yard 8-iron almost flew directly into the hole. Even though the greens were recently aerated and still covered with sand, the 10-foot birdie putt dropped into the cup. For me, birdies on the first hole feel great, but typically they’re the kiss of death when it comes to scoring during the remainder of the round. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what also happened on this day. My ball striking was good, but with difficult putting and chipping conditions due to the early season gree! ns (and my winter rust), I wasted shots here and there, so I finished with an 86. On the bright side, the weather was great and my goals were simply to get the season started and just enjoy being outside playing golf after a long winter layoff. 

I purposely mentioned my score to make a specific point about the rules of golf that may sound trivial, but I don’t post a score on my card until the ball actually lands in the hole. Although it sounds like a fundamental part of the game, it’s NOT as common a practice in the world of non professional or non tournament golf as you’d think. Ask any golfer what the main objective of the game is and you’ll get a simple answer like this; to hit the ball from the tee into the hole in as few shots as possible. I find it amusing, yet very sad when I watch golfers fail to finish a hole by NOT making the final putt. Instead, they do one or more of these (only a partial list in no particular order): pick up the ball sitting next to the hole, sweep it away, give themselves a putt they feel they could have made or make a half hearted attempt to hole a short putt. The irony is that even if they miss they post it as if they made it! . In all examples an incorrect score is posted. On this day, one member of my foursome played all nine holes (before he left) without having one putt actually hit the bottom of the hole. This means he had nine gimmees or simply put, he cheated on every hole.

This article was originally intended to be about my opening round of the season and not about cheating. However, after observing it all around me during my first four rounds of the 2010 season a natural title for this story could easily have been, “Oh rules of golf, how do I cheat thee …let me count the ways”.  You probably think I’m nit picking, but if you look closely you’ll discover that a large number of golfers play by their own rules, thinking they’re doing nothing wrong and that no one notices. I wouldn’t call these people cheaters and if you told them they were cheaters, they’d be hurt and probably in a fighting mood. But, based on the rules of the game how can you NOT say that they cheat? I find that the practice of not putting out to be the rule most abused, but where else does cheating occur? The answer is …all over the course.

The next greatest area of abuse that I notice is the lost ball, closely followed by shots hit out of bounds and into water hazards. In all cases the player hits a shot they can’t find. The correct thing to do is play a provisional ball just in case you don’t find the original shot, but sadly this rarely happens. This is a part of the game where strokes can add up on a scorecard in a hurry and typically they’re not counted. Observations during this year’s rounds are too frequent to mention. They include on one day watching a player in my group hit a tee shot clearly into the woods that we never found, but instead of playing a provisional or a second tee shot and taking a stroke and distance, he just dropped a ball from near the woods and played on. On another hole I observed a player hitting his tee shot right towards the water, then making a non-complimentary remark as if he knew it went into the water. As he approached the wa! ter he found a ball (of a different brand from his last hole) short of the hazard and played it, even though it wasn’t his. On another hole this same player hit a blind recovery shot that wasn’t found after minutes of searching. When a fellow group member found a ball that clearly wasn’t the one we were looking for, the player claimed it and played it. A few weeks ago my playing partner hit several balls into the woods during his round. Like the example above, instead of playing provisional tee shots and taking a stroke and distance, he just dropped a ball from near the woods and played on. I stand corrected. On one hole he hit his first tee shot far to the right, followed by a second one on the same line. He never found either shot and then played the next one from an area near where they probably were. The key word is probably. Whatever score this player thought he shot for his round needed to have at least ten strokes added (and that’s being generous). Although this soun! ds like the exception, I find it to be more common than you’d think. It’s a good thing that golfers are honest people, don’t you agree? LOL )        

Bobby Jones once said “there’s golf and there’s tournament golf and the two are not very much alike”.  If you play in tournaments YOU NEED TO KNOW THE RULES or trust me, you’ll be in for a rude awakening. During a qualifying round every stroke is counted, which means every putt needs to be made, WHICH MEANS THERE ARE NO GIMMEES. Any player who’s not prepared to make the short putts they’re not used to holing typically misses a few during tournaments and then the temper kicks in. When a player qualifying for a tournament has to count every stroke from lost balls, shots hit out of bounds or hit into water hazards, they typically end up posting rounds much higher than they’re used to seeing. Even before you’re able to play in tournaments you have to establish a USGA approved handicap. This requires that every round played to be posted, another big area of abuse. A subtle way of cheating and believ! ing you’re better than you really are is to post only your low rounds or posting an incorrect score that provides the handicap a player wishes he (or she) was. The problem here is that although it feeds the ego, it’s the kiss of death when it comes to competing in handicap tournaments. Why? Because a player either gives his opponent too many strokes and doesn’t play well enough to compete or gives strokes to a player they think they’re better than. In this example, all too often they find out the hard way they’re not as good as they think and lose their match.

Similar to the Bobby Jones quote, there’s sports and there’s pro sports; and the same can be said when it comes to rule enforcement. In sports other than golf, rules are typically enforced subjectively by referees or umpires. Examples include the baseball strike zone, fouls called in pro basketball and penalties dished out in hockey. Obvious examples of mistakes occurred during the 2009 baseball playoffs where many were made in front of a worldwide audience. However, a catastrophic example happened recently when a pitcher in baseball lost a perfect game because of a blown call by the first base umpire, with two outs in the ninth inning. In this example, a historic moment did not occur simply due to human error. With so much on the line these days it’s too bad major league baseball hasn’t implemented more extensive usage of instant replay in an effort to get calls right. That’s just one mans opinion and I’m sorry I go! t off on a tangent. What do you think? Email me and let me know.

Golf is a whole other animal when it comes to rule enforcement, because getting it right is of paramount concern. Sometimes rulings are enforced after TV coverage replays and analyses them, even if it’s hours after the fact. Personally I don’t agree with that method. The best example of honesty I’ve heard of is when J.P. Hayes, a player competing at Q-school to qualify for the PGA Tour disqualified himself for playing a nonconforming golf ball. This cost him an entire year of tournament exemptions by calling a penalty no one else probably would have noticed.  More recently, Brian Davis called the rules officials when his club nicked a reed in a waste area on his back swing during a playoff against Jim Furyk at Hilton Head. After an extensive super slow motion review it was revealed that he indeed suffered a two-stroke penalty which caused him to lose the hole and the playoff. In contrast, during this year’s L! PGA Kraft Nabisco major in early April, Michele Wie was in contention for the lead during the final round before she was given a two-stroke penalty for grounding her club in a water hazard after playing a shot from shallow water. Many video replays clearly showed she violated the rules and was forced to suffer the consequences, even though she carried on and complained about how she didn’t think it was fair. In this case Wie was wrong.

After playing 25 years as a member of a private golf club and now playing public golf, I’ve noticed a few areas where public and private course players are not very much alike. Although bending the rules is a universal trait, here are a few differences I’ve observed (Please note that no disrespect is intended toward public course golfers): Playing the ball from where it lies is the first noticeable difference enforced more closely on a private course. When I first learned I only played on public courses where the rule of thumb was that it’s OK to improve a lie from the fairway, by moving it a few inches (as long as it’s no closer to the hole). Hey, when the fairways are immaculate there isn’t a better lie to be had. More liberties are taken to improve lies on a public course, but that’s understandable since the conditions are not typically as good (just a rule of thumb). This is a general statement based on my own personal obs! ervations and again, there’s no disrespect intended for public courses. Personally, I’ve always believed that players shouldn’t be penalized for the poor condition of a golf course or the neglect of other golfers. Two examples include not replacing divots or raking bunkers.

Obviously there are many other examples of ethical cheating on the golf course. I say ethical cheating because the player thinks what they’re doing is OK and they don’t intend to cheat. Trust me there’s a difference between this and cheating done by real cheaters, because I’ve played with real cheaters before and they’re a different breed all together. Please send me your experiences watching both ethical and real cheaters in action.

As I mentioned earlier, my game is rusty, or at least my scoring is. This is mainly due to a lack of play and a shift from a course I played for 25 years to the local county courses I’m still getting used to. Fortunately, I’m having a good season with my driver which I use more often than previously, on a course with many short par 4s where I used a 3 or 5 wood to tee off with. My ball striking is sharp and frankly I’m impressed with how solid and accurately I’m hitting shots. Thank you Thumbs Down The Power Move!! The simple fact is that it works and I’m not only it’s inventor, but also its biggest fan and a living testimonial. Thumbs Down at impact is the one thing the swings of all the best players have in common. Several weeks ago when Fred Couples was winning every tournament on the Champion’s Tour I saw this slow motion footage of him striking the ball and wanted to share it with you. The attached link contains a 5 second video that shows “the missing ingredient ” for better ball striking you need to add to your swing. After showing it to Gary Wiren, Master PGA Top 100 Instructor and member of the Teacher’s Hall of Fame  he made this comment; ” all good swings have their thumbs down (pointed toward the ball) at impact”. I suggest you replay the video multiple times because it happens fast. That’s the beauty of Thumbs Down The Power Move. It takes a few minutes to learn and a split second to execute. http://www.golfinstructionmadesimple.com/Videos/FredCouples.wmv