Low-down - Did You Know

Golf Course Facts

• The World's Longest Golf Course is the International Golf Club in Massachusetts, a long par 77,  8325-yards, from the tiger tees.
• The World's Highest Golf Course is the Tactu Golf Club in Morococha, Peru, which sits 14,335 feet above sea level at its lowest point.
• The Longest Hole in the World is the 7th hole (par 7) of the Sano Course at the Satsuki Golf Club in Japan.  It measures a long 909 yards.
• The World's Largest Bunker is Hell's Half Acre on the 585-yard 7th hole of the Pine Valley Course in New Jersey.
• The World's Largest Green is that of the 695-yard, 5th hole, a par 6 at the International Golf Club in Massachusetts, with an area in excess of 28,000 square feet.

Golfing Feat

• The Lowest Recorded Score on a long course in the UK is 58 by Harry Weetman, the British Ryder Cub golfer, for the 6170-yard Croham Hurst Course in Croydon, Surrey, on January 30, 1956. 
•  The Lowest Recorded Score in the world is a 57 shot by Wayne Meyers of Easley, S.C. back in 1994 at Southern Oaks golf course in Powdersville, South Carolina in the USA.
•  The Lowest Recorded Score by a Woman in a professional tournament on an 18-hole course of more than 6,000 yards was a 62, first recorded by Mickey Wright on the Par 71, 6,286 yard Hogan Park Course at Midland, Texas, in November 1964.  The score was equaled by Laura Davies in the 1991 Rail Charity Classic.
•  A Score of 59 The first professional to record a 59 on the US Pro Tour was Al Geiberger on June 10, 1977, in the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic at the Colonial Country Club.  It included 11 birdies and an eagle and just 23 putts.  The score was eventually equaled by Chip Beck, and more recently David Duval.
• The Record for 36 Holes is 122 by Sam Snead in the 1959 Sam Snead Festival on May 16-17, 1959.
• The Most Holes-In-One in a year is 28 by Scott Palmer in 1983.  All were on par 3 and par 4 holes between 130 yards and 350 yards in length at Balboa Park in san Diego, California.
• The Most Holes-In-One in a career is 68 by Harry Lee Bonner from 1967 to 1985, most of them at his 9-hole home course of Las Gallinas, San Rafael, California.
• The Longest Hole-In-One ever recorded is the 10th (447 yards) at Miracle Hills Golf Club at Omaha, Nebraska, by Robert Mitera on October 7, 1965.  A 50mph gust carried his shot over a 290-yard drop-off. 
• Drive of 2,640 Yards across ice was achieved by an Australian meteorologist named Nils Lied at Mawson Base, Antartica, in 1962.
• The Longest Recorded Drive on an ordinary course is one of 515 yards by Michael Hoke Austin of Los Angeles, California, in the US National Seniors Open Championship at Las Vegas, Nevada on September 25, 1974.  Austin drove the ball within a yard of the green on the par 4 450-yard 5th hole of Winterwood Course.  It rolled 65 yards past the flag aided by an estimated 35mph tailwind.
• On the Runway at Baldonnel Military Airport in Dublin, Liam Higgins drove a Spalding Top Flite ball 634.1 yards on September 25, 1984.
• The Longest Holed Putts in a major tournament were both 110 feet - Jack Nicklaus in the  1964 Tournament of Champions and Nick Price in the 1992 PGA.
• Robert Tyre "Bobby" Jones, Jr. was reputed to have holed a putt in excess of 100 feet at the 5th green in the first round of the 1927 Open at St. Andrews.
• A Putt Measured at 140 feet and 2 3/4 inches on the 18th at St. Andrews was sunk by Bob Cook in the International Fourball Pro Am Tournament on October 1, 1976.
• The Greatest Margin of Victory in a major tournament is 21 strokes by Jerry Pate in the Colombian Open with 262 on December 10-13, 1981.  Cecil Leitch won the Canadian Ladies Open Championship in 1921 by the biggest margin for a major title - 17 up and 15 to play.

Golf Oddities

• Floyd Satterlee Rood  used the United States as a golf course, when he played from the Pacific to the Atlantic from September 14, 1963, to October 3, 1964, in 114,737 strokes.  He lost 3,511 balls on the 3,397.7 mile trail.
• The Greatest Number of Rounds played on foot in 24 hours is 22 and five holes - a total of 401 holes - by Ian Colston, aged 35, at Bendigo Golf Club in Victoria (a par 73 6,6061-yard course) on November 27028, 1971.
• Seventy-Seven Players completed the 18-hole 6,502-yard Kern City Course in California in 10 minutes, 30 seconds, on August 24, 1984, using one ball.  Score - 80!
• The Lowest Recorded Score for throwing a golf ball around 18 holes (more than 6,000 yards) is 82 by Joe Flynn, ages 21, at the 6,228-yard Port Royal Course in Bermuda on March 27, 1975.
• The World One-Club Championship was won by Thad Daber using a 6-iron at the 6,037-yard Lochmore Golf Course in Cary, North Carolina with a 73 on November 10th, 1985.
• The Longest Delayed Result in any national open championship occurred in the 1931 US Open at Toledo, Ohio.  George von Elme and Billy Burke tied at 292, then tied the first replay at 149.  Burke won the second replay by a single stroke after 72 extra holes.
• A Record 321,779 Competitors - 206,820 men and 114,959 women - played the 1984 Volkswagen Grand Prix Open Amateur Championship in the UK.
• The Slowest Strokeplay Tournament round was one of 6 hours 45 minutes taken by South Africa in the first round of the 1972 World Cup at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia.  This was a four-ball medal round, everything holed out.
• Steven Ward Took 222 Strokes for the 6,212-yard Pecos Course in Reeves County, Texas, on June 18,1976 - but he was only 3 years and 286 days old.
• Jacqueline Ann Mercer won her first South African title at Humewood Golf Club in Port Elizabeth in 1948 and her fourth in Port Elizabeth Golf club on May 4, 1979, 31 years later.

Fact or Fiction

Flex Ratings Are All The Same

True or Not true. Why does an ’S’ shaft from one manufacturer feel so different to that of another? Each shaft company has their own designs for shafts. They grade their shafts in accordance to their own flex ratings so an ’S’ shaft from one company could in fact be an ’R’ or ’X’ from another. Even within a company different ranges of shaft designs will show different flex readings. It is very hard to compare apples to apples without a Frequency Analyser. Table 1 below shows the results of three different manufacturers ’R’ flex’s tested as raw full length 40" shafts.

Two of the companies manufacture two ’R’ shaft designs however I have not indicated which these are or what materials the shafts were made of. The pairs from within the same company were both either steel to steel or graphite to graphite.

Raw Shaft Flex in Cycles Per Minute
40" Raw Shaft CPM
1 318
2 313
3 318
4 306
5 295

The Higher A Golf Ball Bounces, The Further It Will Fly

True or Not true. Have you ever been in a golf shop and noticed a fellow customer bouncing a golf ball on a hard surface, judging which brand bounced higher and basing their purchase decision on that test? Possibly, as it happens often. The compression stress placed on a golf ball, even when bounced on a hard surface, is minimal compared to stress placed on the ball when it is being hit by a clubhead at speed. 800-1000kgs of crush versus gravity’s pull. Different types of ball construction (Fig. 1), two-piece, three-piece, wound balls, number of cores and construction materials will all have an influence on how a ball will fly.

The only way to find the best ball for your game is to try a variety out at the driving range or on the golf course. Or better yet, find a launch monitor and experiment with a variety of golf balls until you discover the correct one for your swing and club.

The Lines On The Putter Are The Sweet Spot

Not necessarily true. If a manufacturer has put sightlines on the top of a putter then they have to line up with the sweet spot. Well they should do, however each clubhead is built with mass quality tolerance levels so these sightlines may not always correspond with the sweet spot.

To find the sweet spot hold your club between two fingers up high in front of you and tap the clubface with a pencil on the toe or heel of the club (Fig. 2). It will twist around. Keep tapping toward the middle of the clubface until the clubface stops twisting and moves only back and forth rather than to the side. Your last point of contact is your sweet spot and should be marked as such.

Face Grooves Create Backspin

This one is common and one of the great myths of golf. The backspin is created by the balls compression on the clubface. This occurs between the time of impact and the moment of separation from the clubface. The clubs swing path and type of head rotation sees the ball mashed into the clubface. The loft presented to the ball distorts it in shape and gives us the launch angle and all of its backspin. The ball does not actually ever ride up the clubface, instead it gets imbedded in the face where the groove lines reside. High-speed photography has proved this. The more loft the greater the backspin.

Therefore, the grooves have zero influence on the launch angle or backspin on the ball. Well known club designer Ralph Maltby built a set of irons with no face groves at all and played with them extensively to prove this point to disbelievers.

Also, in the mid 1980’s the USGA undertook extensive groove type testing and concluded that in dry conditions it was loft, not grooves that put backspin on the ball.

So what good are grooves then? Rather like car tyres which work perfectly in the dry, we need them to work in the wet as well. Clubfaces without grooves work fine in dry conditions but with water and grass in the way, the grooves allow some of the trapped materials to be moved from the collision zone. Without groves you may get a high flyer with less spin and in this instance the ball does in fact run up the face – it actually skids up the face on the lubricating water and/or grass.

5 Irons Have The Most Backspin

This is an old wives tale. Following on from the face grooves myth above it is pretty obvious that the more loft we have on a club the higher the backspin rate will be.

Topspin Creates More Ball Roll

“I hit that drive with a lot of topspin. Look at it roll way out there”. To get the ball airborne we have to hit it with backspin. The backspin creates the lift the ball requires to stay up there. If we did hit a ball with topspin it would just knuckle ball into the ground. These days with the advent of launch monitors we see players trying to optimize the backspin on the balls being played so that they can improve length off the tee.

The perceived topspin is actually a ball that has been hit with a counter-clockwise turning clubhead through the impact to separation zone, a draw spin. In this case the ball has been presented a clubface that has a little less loft shown than a shot where the clubface has been left open and opening further, a clockwise increase in backspin if you like, a high slice.

Forged Irons Feel Softer Than Cast Irons

Many players think a forged club feels sweeter to play than an investment cast head. Indeed at an atomic level the grains in a forged club are a little farther apart in comparison to an investment cast iron. But in a blindfold test hardly anyone can tell the difference. It is probably more a case of most forged clubs look really good and this mental image adds to the mystique of the real feel.

Golf Shafts Lose Their Stiffness

Many people surmise that if you keep using your clubs over a long period of time the shafts will ’wear out’ and lose some of their stiffness and become weaker. This is not the case at all, even with steel shafts. The reason for this is that the loads put on the shafts never get anywhere near the break straining points which would be required to cause metal fatigue in steel. If you have kinked a shaft or there is rust present then this is a different matter but a good quality shaft, whether steel or graphite, will keep its flex.

7 Woods Are For Women & Seniors

Whilst in the US last year I walked by up to 200 golf bags a day on the driving range and I was actually surprised at how this old view just does not exist over there in comparison to Australia and the UK. A 7 wood flies higher and lands softer than a 3 iron for players with slower swing speeds. Many slower swingers cannot hit their 3 iron any farther than their 4 iron as the backspin they place on the ball is not high enough to keep it airborne. Learn to use a 4 iron from under a bush and the 7 wood becomes one of your best friends on course.

The History of Golf

   No one knows the precise origins of the game of golf.  Some think it really began in medieval times, with shepherds hitting pebbles around the hillsides with their crooks.

   Another suggestion is that the game derived from the ancient Flemish pastime of chole, which was already known about and played in England by the mid-14th century.
 
   Perhaps the most likely forerunner was the Dutch game of kolf, documented as early as the end of the 13th century and portrayed in many Dutch landscape paintings by the 16th century.  "Golfers" certainly played cross-country with a stick and ball, not into a hole but to certain landmarks, usually doors on specific buildings.

   It was in Scotland, however that the game really developed.  Up and down the east coast, it apparently became so popular a pastime that in 1457 King James II, in an Act of Parliament, banned golf - and soccer too - because they were interfering with archery practice.  Skill with the bow and arrow was crucial to keeping the English out of Scotland.  The game remained uniquely - perhaps with its Dutch counterpart of kolf - until James VI of Scotland also became King of England and took the game south with him.  At Blackheath in South London, the Scottish noblemen laid out a seven-hole course so they could continue playing their beloved game.

   The early courses in Scotland bore little resemblance to those of today.  The game was played over public land - as in places it still is - with natural hazards and obstacles to negotiate   Not only were walls and ditches part of the game, but players often had to thread their way through others out enjoying their various recreations - horse racing, cricket, picnicking and so on.

   Caddies were hired by the golfers, not just to carry the clubs - golf bags were not invented until around 1870 - but to help make a way through the other activities on the links and presumably to watch out for the ball.

   Courses were natural, manicured only by sheep and rabbits.  There were no formal tees as such; players simply teed up a few feet from the previous hole.

   Rules, of course, developed over the years, and golf clubs were formed.  The oldest of these, the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers - now based at Muirfield - was founded in 1744, while ten years later the Society of St. Andrews' Golfers was created.

   The rules of various clubs and courses were standardized, following St. Andrews' lead in using 18 holes.  Before 1764, the course at St. Andrews consisted of 22 holes, others had as few as 6 and as many as 25.  But by 1858 it had been agreed.  the Society of St. Andrews Golfers, having become the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews in 1834 now ruled that a round of golf should be 18 holes.  And so it has remained.

   The game developed rapidly and began to be played professionally in the mid-1800's.  Allan Robertson, the first great professional golfer, died in 1858.  Some say that his death prompted the first professional championship at Prestwick in 1860 to find a new national champion.  This competition was opened to amateurs in 1861 to become the first Open Championship.  In 1863 it attracted prize money for the winner of just 10 pounds.   And from there, the game of golf developed to the game we now know today.

One Less Excuse

Humid Air Won't Slow Your Ball Down

   Worried that humidity hampers ball flight?  Think that the ball has a harder time pushing its way through dense air?  If so, you're all wet.  Hot humid air actually is lighter than cold, dry air.  And water vapor is lighter than dry air, so on a humid day the air is actually less dense, providing less resistance.  That means a golf ball will fly farther on a humid day - but not enough that you'll notice a difference. Our conclusion: Don't sweat it.

Dog Days of Summer

In ancient times, when the night sky was unobscured by artificial lights and smog, different groups of peoples in different parts of the world drew images in the sky by “connecting the dots” of stars. The images drawn were dependent upon the culture: The Chinese saw different images than the Native Americans, who saw different pictures than the Europeans. These star pictures are now called constellations, and the constellations that are now mapped out in the sky come from our European ancestors.

They saw images of bears, (Ursa Major and Ursa Minor), twins, (Gemini), a bull, (Taurus), and others, including dogs, (Canis Major and Canis Minor).

The brightest of the stars in Canis Major (the big dog) is Sirius, which also happens to be the brightest star in the night sky. In fact, it is so bright that the ancient Romans thought that the earth received heat from it. Look for it in the southern sky (viewed from northern latitudes) during January.

In the summer, however, Sirius, the “dog star,” rises and sets with the sun. During late July Sirius is in conjunction with the sun, and the ancients believed that its heat added to the heat of the sun, creating a stretch of hot and sultry weather. They named this period of time, from 20 days before the conjunction to 20 days after, “dog days” after the dog star.

The conjunction of Sirius with the sun varies somewhat with latitude. And the “precession of the equinoxes” (a gradual drifting of the constellations over time) means that the constellations today are not in exactly the same place in the sky as they were in ancient Rome. Today, dog days occur during the period between July 3 and August 11. Although it is certainly the warmest period of the summer, the heat is not due to the added radiation from a far-away star, regardless of its brightness. No, the heat of summer is a direct result of the earth's tilt.

 
Is 42 The Perfect Age to Play Golf?

I recently received an article from a friend of mine about the perfect age of golfers.  She was quite upset as the age was mentioned as 42 and being that she was 83 and still playing golf she thought the perfect age would be 83 as long as you are still playing 18 holes 3-4 times a week. :-)

As Joan’s article states that many football or hockey players may burn out in their late twenties, or early 30’s but good old golfers have a much longer shelf life. According to their research and expert opinion by the Quinn Insurance Company, that the best age for men and women to play golf is age 42.

They say that for you to perfect your swing and with experience, stamina, confidence on the course, patience and technically should put them in the front of their game. Research recently shows that 42 is the average ideal age for precision and accuracy on the course. It seems they check with over 200 of the world’s top golfers on their average score over 18 holes and that the 40-45 age group topped the list leaving the 20-25 years old behind.

This test was done by sports physiotherapist, Cornel Driessen who works with the top European Tour golfers. It is quoted as saying many might be looking to Tiger Woods as top physical condition for golf. They state that there is an ideal golf specimen within each and every one of us playing this game, so mater what level, gender or age.

Driessen believes that peak golfing performance is down to physical conditioning and training the body and mind to perform. If we keep practicing and gaining the edge our body will respond which means a great deal of practice to make us successful. If we are to compete with the younger ones our game has to be in top performance. Mr. Dreissen explains that for those he works with to stay at high standard of physical conditioning program has to be tailored to their body’s individual needs throughout the years.

Lee Westwood was mentioned in this article as he hit the headlines here in America when he enjoyed his best performance at a major in the US Open. I remember watching him in the open and thought how much he improved himself as he has slimmed down and his game was in top form. Lee Westwood remarked that all this work he was doing now in 2008 will help him say in 2018 when he will be only 44 years old.

Another golfer was mentioned Nigel Ellis when he said that his performance on the golf course has improved massively with age, as he has cut his handicap down from 28 to 18. He believes that older players are more relaxed and patient on the course and all that practice sure is paying off as you get older.

I found this article very interesting as all it proves that the more you practice the better your golf game will become. I can’t say that I have lowered my handicap much, nor has Joan as she states she was scoring in the 90’s when she was at age 45 and is still scoring in the 90’s at age 83. However, she says she does practice a lot before each time she plays 18 holes.  She claims to have had many golfing lessons throughout her 50 years of playing golf. Some days my game is better than others she said and I think the mental game has a lot to do with that she claims.  Outside distractions can cause any golfer to lose that edge. Slow play bothers me the most as some players are never ready when it is their time to hit the ball. Some stand over their putt for longer than is necessary and when we are playing in 90 degree heat with the sun bearing down on those hot greens it gets to me. We have some players who are oblivious as to what is going on around them never pay attention to where everybody has hit the ball. I try to keep my cool as it is all part of the game.

Your age should not have anything to do with your game unless you have not taken care of yourself as you aged. Eating right, exercising and keep yourself mentally alert should go with you into old age. I know many of our golfers have aches and pains, some have diabetes, heart problems and corrective knee surgery but they are still out there because the love of the game of golf.  Age is just a number and with golf you can play at almosy any number you like.

Labour Day

Labour Day or Labor Day is an annual holiday to celebrate the economic and social achievements of workers. Labour Day has its origins in the labour union movement, specifically the eight-hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest.

Canada
Labour Day has been celebrated on the first Monday in September in Canada since the 1880s. The origins of Labour Day in Canada can be traced back to April 14, 1872 when a parade was staged in support of the Toronto Typographical Union's strike for a 58-hour work-week.  The Toronto Trades Assembly (TTA) called its 27 unions to demonstrate in support of the Typographical Union who had been on strike since March 25.  George Brown, Canadian politician and editor of the Toronto Globe hit back at his striking employees, pressing police to charge the Typographical Union with "conspiracy."  Although the laws criminalising union activity were outdated and had already been abolished in Great Britain, they were still on books in Canada and police arrested 24 leaders of the Typographical Union. Labour leaders decided to call another similar demonstration on September 3 to protest the arrests. Seven unions marched in Ottawa, prompting a promise by Canadian Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald to repeal the "barbarous" anti-union laws.  Parliament passed the Trade Union Act on June 14 the following year, and soon all unions were demanding a 54-hour work-week.

The Toronto Trades and Labour Council (successor to the TTA) held similar celebrations every spring. American Peter J. McGuire, co-founder of the American Federation of Labor, was asked to speak at a labour festival in Toronto, Canada on July 22, 1882. Returning to the United States, McGuire and the Knights of Labor organised a similar parade based on the Canadian event on September 5, 1882 in New York City, USA. On July 23, 1894, Canadian Prime Minister John Thompson and his government made Labour Day, to be held in September, an official holiday. In the United States, the New York parade became an annual event that year, and in 1894 was adopted by American president Grover Cleveland to compete with International Workers' Day (May Day).

While Labour Day parades and picnics are organised by unions, many Canadians regard Labour Day as the Monday of the last long weekend of summer. Non-union celebrations include picnics, fireworks displays, water activities, and public art events. Since the new school year generally starts right after Labour Day, families with school-age children take it as the last chance to travel before the end of summer.

An old custom prohibits the wearing of white after Labour Day. The explanations for this tradition range from the fact that white clothes are worse protection against cold weather in the winter to the fact that the rule was intended as a status symbol for new members of the middle class in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

A Labour Day tradition in Atlantic Canada would be the Wharf Rat Rally, while the rest of Canada is watching Labour Day Classic, Canadian Football League event where rivals like Calgary Stampeders and Edmonton Eskimos, Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Toronto Argonauts, and Saskatchewan Roughriders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers play on Labour Day weekend. Before the demise of the Ottawa Renegades after the 2005 season, that team played the nearby Montreal Alouettes on Labour Day weekend. Since then, the Alouettes have played the remaining team in the league, the BC Lions.

Labour Day parade in Grand Falls-Windsor Newfoundland started in 1910 and still continues today, 100 years later. The celebrations go on for three days with the parade on Labour Day Monday.