US Mid-Am Wilminton CC

[TEPaul]

Not a chance Huckster. I'll be up there first thing Monday morning and I'm going to make a proposal that I have no doubt whatsoever that NGLA will accept that henceforth for anyone to be considered to be allowed to play there must swear first on the eyes of their mother that NGLA is the most strategic course ever known!! Anything less or even any hesitation will result in being immediately thrown outside C.B.'s gate into the road on your tush!

[THuckaby2]

I have no problem with that, Tom.

NGLA is the most strategic course ever known.

I've never waivered from this sentiment, since I first saw it with mine own eyes in October 2002.

See how easy this is?  


TH

[Mark Studer]

Tom ...You are so correct in referencing rule 6-7 for slow play...but the part of rule 6 that I LOVE is  "player responsibilities", and knowing the rules of golf and the conditions of the competition .... just what the player must know. There is no problem with us admiring the Travis architecture at Scranton or the Raynor features  at next year's state am at Fox Chapel.....by the way for all the GCA'ers interested in Raynor and within a drive of Pittsburgh, Fox Chapel  G.C. has committed to hosting the pennsylvania state amateur in 2004 , so come out and enjoy some good golf and GREAT architecture next year.  The dates are July 26-28  2004.  Tom , maybe you could organize an architecture symposium for an evening during that time frame. Maybe Ron Forse and Brad Klein would be interested in participating..Brian Silva has been the consulting architect and George Bahto just spoke there in sept. That would be 4 possible speakers.Maybe the state assoc. and the west penn would be intersested in hosting such a night...Any interest?

[JSlonis]

George,

Playing with Bryan really did help me.  You could just tell by his attitude and golf game that he had been in situtations like we were in before.  He was very even keel, nothing seemed to faze him either bad or good.  He truly plays it one shot at a time and lets the game come to him without ever forcing anything.  We all hear this is how competitive golf should be played, but in the heat of the battle it is not always easy to do so. Sometimes I have a tendency to get to psyched up or too down during a round, and watching him go about his game helped me manage my emotions better on the course.  

It really helped on Sunday's back nine when I knew I was in contention and close to making match play, we were both around the same score and it was great to have someone in the group also playing well and rooting me on at the same time.

Tom,

8006...the counter is working!

[George Pazin]

Tom ...You are so correct in referencing rule 6-7 for slow play...but the part of rule 6 that I LOVE is  "player responsibilities", and knowing the rules of golf and the conditions of the competition .... just what the player must know. There is no problem with us admiring the Travis architecture at Scranton or the Raynor features  at next year's state am at Fox Chapel.....by the way for all the GCA'ers interested in Raynor and within a drive of Pittsburgh, Fox Chapel  G.C. has committed to hosting the pennsylvania state amateur in 2004 , so come out and enjoy some good golf and GREAT architecture next year.  The dates are July 26-28  2004.  Tom , maybe you could organize an architecture symposium for an evening during that time frame. Maybe Ron Forse and Brad Klein would be interested in participating..Brian Silva has been the consulting architect and George Bahto just spoke there in sept. That would be 4 possible speakers.Maybe the state assoc. and the west penn would be intersested in hosting such a night...Any interest?

A get together like this sounds great to me, I would certainly offer to help in any way I could. I'd even offer to host a few visitors, but if everything continues smoothly along nature's path, our first little one will be about 4 months old at that time.

Jamie -

You should have gone down to Wilmington this afternoon anyway & offered to play the second 18 against Norton double or nothing! Looks like you had a good season, what with the Crump Cup & the Mid Am. The stories I tell everyone about you just continue to get better....

Whoops, thought it was Smith that was out due to injury, not Norton.

[JohnV]

I was the Observer for the finals yesterday and did see what happened to Brian yesterday.  He had hit his tee shot on the 9th hole to the right and it came to rest in the rough just above the first fairway bunker.  His stance was a little awkward and I did seem him asking the Referee if his ball was embedded or not which it wasn't.  He had to stand with his right foot in the bunker and his left on the grass.  When he swung, he fell backwards into the sand immediately.  The ball went about 120 yards into the fairway.  He was down for some time and a paramedic was called.  He tore the left calf muscle.  After some time he was able to stand and decided to try to continue.  Nathan then hit his second shot.  Bryan limped down to his ball which was about 80 yards from the green.  His third shot came up short and ran back down the hill.  He chipped it from there, but the pain was too severe and he was unable to continue.

After the match was conceded I saw him rolling up his pant leg so they could put ice on it.  There was a large swollen mass on the outside of the leg that stood up at least 2 inches above the bone.  It didn't look pretty at all.  The doctor said he would out of action for 2 to 3 months.

Nathan was 4 up at the time and was playing excellent golf up to that point.  You never know how match play might turn out, but it definitely looked like he would win easily.  Brian had hooked numerous shots and then blocked others.

Nathan probably felt as bad as anyone about what happened and was very gracious in victory.  He is a classy guy.

I refereed Nathan's match against Jerry Courville and even though Jerry was out driving him consistently, Nathan was always in control of the match.  In the semis I was the observer and he was even more dominant.  He definitely appeared to be playing better than anyone else in match play and is a deserving champion.

As for the reinstatement of professionals, here are two quotes that I'm sure my LLTB would disagree with:

Joseph Dey, "I don't believe in the death penalty."
Tony Zirpoli, "Reinstatement should be purgatory, not hell."

That is the USGA attitude and I don't have a big problem with it.  Sixty of the 264 players this week were reinstated and in the end none of them won.  Nathan was asked if he had a problem with playing a reinstated pro and his answer was something like, "In 20 years I might be him and I'd like to play."

[TEPaul]

JohnV:

Interesting post on the situation on the finals with Norton's injury--most unfortunate but those things are bound to happen sometimes.

Good remarks about Amateur status reinstatement and a couple of good quotes too. Smith's remarks about that are thoughtful and honest too.

When it comes to your LLTB, now that he's no longer long lost from you perhaps you might try to educate him on some of the principles behind some of the USGA rules on such things as Am-status reinstatement. At the present he seems more inclined towards disenfranchising various categories of golfers instead of including them! It sure didn't look to me like Bryan Norton was doing anything at all to drag down the US Mid-Amateur championship because once upon a time he played professional golf or that the USGA should have a 'black eye' because they reinstated his Am-status allowing him to play in USGA championships!

[JohnV]

Tom, while finding my LLTB was great, there are something things that are long lost causes.  Between Amateur reinstatement and metal spikes, I think that Bill might be beyond my help.  Perhaps Dr. Katz could handle it, but not me.

Surprised not to see any mention of the article in Green Section where metal spikes came in last when tour players were asked to evaluate green surfaces while there were in Michigan earlier this year.