Ultimate springtime golf fitness tips for "real" golfers

By Tim McDonald,
National Golf Editor

For those of you unfortunate enough to live in the North, you must be salivating at the thought of the spring golf season.

Hold on, Tiger. You ain't the man you used to be. You can't just jump up and go straight to the golf course after a long winter of sloth and mold.

Now, you will find any number of charlatans willing to sell you their total golf fitness regimens. These sleazoids always assume you're a golfer interested in a cleaner, healthier way of living and golfing. I've seen you out on the course, and I know that's not the sort of thing you're "into."

So here is my total golf fitness regimen for the "real" golfer:

• For God's sake, you have to strengthen your core! This involves eating really hard food, like jawbreakers. Eat a bag of those and have your neighbor punch you in the gut to see if your core is all it can be.

Options: Month-old fudge, Purina Dog Chow, pine bark.

• You also have to really work your obliques, I mean really work the hell out of them. Here's the perfect exercise for that. Lie flat on your back with knees bent slightly wider than your hips. If you have really fat hips, you're either going to have to really stretch your knees like in a cartoon, like The Elastic Man from India, or just skip this exercise. In fact, if you have really fat hips, just skip playing golf, nobody wants to see you out on the course.

Now, you slim-hipped people reach your hands to the ceiling like you're crying out for the Lord Jesus Christ to spare you from your miserable existence. You can hold light hand-weights, or not. What do I care? Lift your head and chest toward the ceiling and rotate to reach both hands just outside of your fat, right knee. Repeat on the left side. Now, take a breather. Ask Christ for forgiveness.

• Breathing exercises: Breathing properly and deeply is critical, especially for those tense moments on the course when normally you would start crying.
This deep-breathing exercise involves attending your local adult movie house, or calling up one of those sites on your Internet browser. Follow your instincts. It's either that or follow mine, and then you're looking at jail time.
• Horizontal abduction/adduction: I can't give you much help here, because I always get "horizontal" confused with "vertical," and I have no idea what adduction is. Who came up with that word, anyway? It's a stupid word and should be eliminated from the English language, if it's even English.

• Standing hip rotation: Don't do this. It makes you look like a girl.

• Alcohol fitness: How many times have you lost $2 Nassaus because while you were getting hamboned, your playing partners were just holding up that bottle of Jack Black pretending to drink?

Well, no need to waste good liquor. You can still drink and maintain your competitive edge. You just need to build up a tolerance. Stand upright in a dark closet, with a wide stance, and suck it down. Keep drinking until your wife leaves you.

• Aerobics: Ha! Don't make me laugh. This is golf!

• Putting: Don't bother to practice putting. Putting in golf is overrated. I play golf maybe 200 times a year and I've yet to meet anyone who can putt. You either make it or you don't. If you miss, just keep putting until the ball goes in the hole. Simple.

• Seniors: As we age, our bodies react differently, so seniors must prepare for golf differently than young punks. An important thing to remember is that there is an inverse relationship of increased ear hair to laughably short drives off the tee.

So keep those ear hairs trim and neat. If you're proud of your thick mane of ear hair, don't sweat it. If you're short off the tee, you're probably small in other areas, and I think you know what I'm talking about.

• Excuses: A healthy psychological outlook is a must for Better Golf. If you can convince yourself that the snap hook you hit into the weeds over there is not your doing at all, you'll retain the confidence needed to excel in the game.

The first time you smack one of your all-too-typical lousy shots, turn to your playing partner and snarl," "Will you stop that!" Look at him, looking all hurt and everything. Who would have thought golf fitness could be so much fun?

• Torque development in the downswing: This is so important, I can barely contain myself. This is vital to any golfer who has ever wanted to improve his score. You could even say it is absolutely critical in terms of reaching your full potential as a golfer and knowing what it is to be truly human.

• Alignment and posture: Face the target squarely and stand erect, with your rump jutting out slightly. Feels a little silly, doesn't it? Can you think of another situation in life where you would position yourself in such an odd manner? I can't.

Big 12 Golfers of the Month Named for March

April 9, 2008

IRVING, Texas -- Trent Leon (Oklahoma State) and Nacho Elvira (Texas A&M) has been named the Big 12 Men's Golfers of the Month while Pennapa Pulsawath (Iowa State) has been chosen as the Big 12 Women's Golfer of the Month for tournament play in the month of March, the conference office announced.

Trent Leon, Oklahoma State, Jr., Dallas, Texas
Leon recorded two top-20 finishes and fired three rounds below 70 during the month of March. The junior claimed his first career win at the U.S. Collegiate Championship with his three-round score of 8-under 208 (69-69-70). The honor marked his sixth career top-10 finish. Leon was named the Southern Golf Association's National Amateur of the Month following his victory. The Dallas, Texas native also tied for 17th at the Puerto Rico Classic.

Nacho Elvira, Texas A&M, Fr., Santander, Spain
Elvira earned three top-13 finishes including two top-six performances while shooting par or better in seven of nine rounds played in March. The freshman captured the individual title at the Barona Collegiate Cup with a 12-under 204 (67-71-66), just one stroke off the school record for 54 holes. He led his team to a first place finish and received National Player of the Week honors from Golfweek and Golf World. Elvira tied for sixth at the U.S. Collegiate Championship with a one-under 215 and opened up the month with a tie for 13th at the Southern Highlands Collegiate.

Conference USA Player of the Week

MEN'S GOLFER OF THE WEEK
KELLY KRAFT - SMU
Fr., Denton, Texas (Ryan)
Kraft continued his strong freshman run, finishing second at 3-under 210 at the 2008 Diet Pepsi Shocker Golf Classic at the par-71 Wichita Country Club. Kraft carded rounds of 69, 69 and 72. As a team, SMU finished second to host Wichita State. The weekly honor is the second of Kraft's young career (Mar. 12).

Tarleton State Women Ranked #3

NCAA Women's: Division II Teams 
Division I - Division III
                                   Adjusted   Avg.            Rank 
                        Division   Scoring   Drop   Versus#   of  
   Team                  *Record   Average  Score   Top 25   Sced  Wins@
  1 Rollins College       102-  0    75.96   80.02    13- 0   185     3
 2 Nova Southeastern U.  101-  1    76.15   80.84    12- 1   201     1
 3 Tarleton State        100-  2    77.93   83.31    13- 0   327     8
 4 Florida Southern       99-  3    75.35   81.31    11- 2   222     4
 5 Barry University       98-  4    76.83   81.81    11- 4   209     1
 6 Lynn University        97-  5    78.47   86.01     9- 4   205     1
 7 Ferris State Univ.     96-  6    77.74   83.59     7- 5   242     3
 8 Grand Valley State     95-  7    77.33   82.54     4- 1   217     3
 9 Northeastern State U   93-  9    80.96   88.37    11- 3   265     0
10 Upper Iowa Univ.       92- 10    80.27   89.43     5- 3   306     3 

Van Niekerk Sizzles in Nevada

LUBBOCK, Texas - Texas Tech junior golfer Ulrika Van Niekerk continued her hot streak Wednesday, firing a final-round 69 to finish second at the UNLV Spring Rebel Invitational in Boulder City, Nevada. The top ten finish was her second in six days as the Capetown, South Africa, native also finished among the top ten at the Rio Verde Collegiate Invitational in Arizona on Sunday.

Van Niekerk shot a three-round total of 210, 6-under par, finishing two strokes behind tournament medalist Cathryn Bristow of Oregon. Van Niekerk in the last six days had four rounds under par, including all three at the UNLV event.

Stephanie Smith finished in an 18th-place tie with a 1-over 217, while Gloriana Soto tied in 39th place with a 223. Alex Gibson shot a 226 and tied in 46th place and Megan Dowdy carded a 232 and a 68th-place tie. Rosalyn Kim, playing as an individual, posted a 2-over 218 and finished in a 21st-place tie.

Texas Tech, which posted a school-record 286 in the second round, tied with Oregon in third place as both teams finished with 5-over 869s. The finish marked the second top three showing for the Lady Raiders in the last two events as the team claimed the runner-up spot at the Rio Verde tournament Sunday. Washington State and No. 35 BYU tied atop the team leaderboard, finishing 10 strokes ahead of Tech and Oregon with a pair of 859s.

San Francisco (870) finished fifth, followed by host UNLV (873), UC Davis (875), Campbell (883), Idaho (887) and No. 46 Washington (888) among the top ten. No. 45 Indiana (889), Fresno State (890), Colorado State (901), Sacramento State (901) and New Mexico State (913) were 11th through 15th, respectively, while Kansas State (914), Eastern Washington (925) and Long Beach State (942) rounded out the field of 18.

Complete results and standings are on-line at www.golfstat.com.

Texas Tech will take spring break off from competition, before heading out for another back-to-back tournament swing in the southwest. The Lady Raiders will compete in the Mountain View Collegiate in Tucson, Ariz., March 29-30 and the BYU/Dixie Classic in St. George, Utah, April 1-2. The events will be the final tune-ups prior to the Big 12 Conference Championships in Stillwater, Okla., April 25-27.

Applications for 2008 Southern Texas PGA Foundation scholarships now available

The Southern Texas PGA Foundation, which has distributed $263,000 in scholarships to 118 students since 1999, has made applications for its 2008 scholarships available. At least a dozen scholarships with a total value of $21,500 will be disbursed this year.

Applications for the scholarships can be secured here or by stopping by the STPGA office at Cypresswood Golf Club in Spring (21604 Cypresswood Dr., Spring, TX 77373).

Applications for all 2008 STPGA Foundation scholarships must be submitted to the STPGA office by Apr. 2, 2008, to be considered— winners will be announced on May 16, 2008.

“Our scholarship program has grown by leaps and bounds over the past eight years and it’s something I think we can take great pride in,” said Doug DeSive, head golf professional at Corpus Christi Country Club and chairman of the STPGA Scholarship Committee. “We have dedicated ourselves to providing financial aid to as many deserving students as possible and continually seek new means to secure funds that will assist our scholarship efforts. Personally, I think it is one of our most important and rewarding causes, and I’m sure our members feel exactly the same."

The scholarships to be awarded by the STPGA Foundation in 2008 (as of Mar. 2, 2008) include:

The Nicholas Battle Scholarship, named after a junior golfer who passed away in an accident, is valued at $3,000 and is available to applicants throughout the Southern Texas PGA’s geographical territory.

Three Tommy Aycock Scholarships, named after the late PGA Professional who won the STPGA Section Championship six times, will be presented in 2008. Valued at $1,000 each, the Tommy Aycock scholarships will be awarded to students residing in the five-county area (Nueces, San Patricio, Aransas, Kleberg, Wells, Bee and Refugio counties) around which Aycock spent much of his career.

A $2,000 Hardy Loudermilk Scholarship, named for a long-time San Antonio golf professional who earned national PGA Golf Professional of the Year honors in 1968. The Hardy Loudermilk Scholarship will be presented to a student who resides in Bexar County, Comal County, Guadalupe County, Kendall County, Atascosa County, Medina County, Wilson County or Bandera County.

The Joe Finger Scholarship, valued at $2,000, was created in 2004 by the members of Riverhill Country Club in Kerrville, and Mark Caldwell, the club’s head golf professional. It is named in honor of the late golf course architect, Joe Finger— Riverhill is one of many course designed by Finger. The scholarship will be awarded to a resident of Kerr County.

The Byron Nelson Scholarship was created in 2004 by members of Riverhill Country Club— Mark Caldwell, Riverhill’s head golf professional, heads up fundraising efforts for the scholarship. The scholarship is named for the record-setting Hall of Fame professional golf, who teamed with Joe Finger to design Riverhill’s golf course. The scholarship, valued at $2,000, will be presented to a resident of Kerr County.

The Joe Moore Scholarship, valued at $1,000, is available to all STPGA Foundation Scholarship applicants. It is named for and was created by a San Antonio golfer whose history includes two San Antonio Amateur Championships and a role on a late-1940s NCAA Championship team at Louisiana State University. Moore, a member at San Antonio’s Woodlake Country Club, was the head golf professional at Lackland Air Force Base’s golf course when he retired in the 1980s and played on the PGA Tour for several years.

A pair of George Hannon Scholarships, valued at $2,500 each, will be presented to students whose primary residence lies with the Austin area (Travis County and the counties contiguous to Travis County). The George Hannon Scholarships are named for the former University of Texas golf coach who served as the president of the Southern Texas PGA in 1972-73 and was twice honored as the STPGA Golf Professional of the Year. Hannon is a member of the Golf Coaches Association of America Hall of Fame.

Established this year, the Ross T. Collins Scholarship, is valued at $1,000. It was created by the members of Kerrville’s Riverhill Country Club to honor Ross Collins, the 1972 PGA of America Golf Professional of the Year. Collins spent the last six years of his career as the head golf professional at Riverhill and retired in Kerrville. The Ross T. Collins Scholarship will be awarded to a resident of Kerr County.

The new Bill Sitton Sr. Scholarship, valued at $2,500 annually and renewable for up to four years, is available to all STPGA Foundation scholarship applicants. It was created to “assist aspiring college-bound students with furthering their educations.” Billy Sitton Jr., the managing director of Club Corp’s international office, said the scholarship honors “a hard-working guy who enjoyed golf and introduced me to it.” The Bill Sitton Sr. Scholarship is available to all applicants.

To be eligible for scholarship consideration, applicants must reside within southern Texas. Applicants must have completed high school or be enrolled in a certified college or university by Sept. 1, 2008. A grade point average of 2.5 on a 4.0 scale is also a requirement, as is the ability to demonstrate plans for enrollment as a full-time student at an accredited two-year or four-year institution within the United States.

For additional information, please click here.

D-FW golf is in full boom

By BILL NICHOLS / The Dallas Morning News
brnichols@dallasnews.com

Barney Adams used to sell his custom clubs out of Hank Haney's Golf Ranch in McKinney.

About a decade later, Plano-based Adams Golf has 16 staff pros, the leading hybrid club on three tours combined, and sixth-best market share in iron sales. Haney's empire includes the industry's biggest giant, Tiger Woods.

Adams and Haney are two examples of the Dallas area's impact on golf. Imprints the size of Big Tex's Footjoys can be found all over Dallas and Fort Worth.

D-FW is steeped in history and overflows with quality courses, Tour players, teachers, agents, trainers, course designers and turf experts. Retailers continue to multiply, satisfying our high- tech needs regardless of the economy.

Talented juniors hone their swings with instructors from the nation's largest pool of PGA professionals. Well-run junior tournaments flourish on three tours.

Almost every week, it seems a local pro or amateur is contending for a trophy somewhere.

Dallas' Colt Knost won three U.S. Golf Association championships last year. So did Irving's Trip Kuehne. Rockwall's Anna Schultz won the U.S. Senior Women's Amateur, and 14-year-old Anthony Paolucci of Dallas came within one match of replacing Woods as the youngest U.S. Junior Amateur champion.

Connect the dots

Nowhere else do neighboring cities rival the golf-rich tradition of Dallas and Fort Worth.

Dallas has hosted a PGA Tour stop since 1944, raising a record $100 million in charity. Fort Worth's Colonial, which began in 1946, is the longest-running event played on the same course.

To understand the impact our area has on golf, you need only connect the dots.

In Fort Worth, on the other side of Golftown from Adams Golf, renowned club designer Tom Stites and his team create Woods' clubs at the Nike Research and Development facility.

The $10 million center sits a football field away from Leonard Golf Links, a driving range owned by Marty Leonard. Her father, Marvin Leonard, founded Colonial Country Club. The storied course along the Trinity River has staged two majors in addition to its annual event. "Hogan's Alley" takes its nickname from Fort Worth legend Ben Hogan, a five-time Colonial champion. Marvin Leonard sponsored Hogan early in his career. Stites learned the craft of club-making under Hogan.

Another Leonard, Justin, is not related, although you might think so as he's never missed a Colonial cut in his 11-win career.

A talented shotmaker like Hogan, Leonard played Hogan clubs until the Ben Hogan Company was sold. Leonard can now be found launching shots on test monitors outside Stites' office.

Rory Sabbatini, a South African who lives in Southlake, was using Nike clubs when he won last year's Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial. But he will wear an Adams Golf cap when he defends his title in May.

D.A. Weibring, another member of Adams' tour staff, led his Plano-based Golf Resources Group in its remodeling of the TPC Four Seasons at Las Colinas.

That's where Dallas native Scott Verplank won last year's EDS Byron Nelson Championship. It was an emotional victory for Verplank, who finally won his hero's tournament.

Nelson, who developed his game working as a caddie with Hogan, befriended the teenaged Verplank, taking him to play at Northwood Club, site of the 1951 U.S. Open.

Verplank won the U.S. Amateur in 1984. Leonard won the national championship in 1992.

The Four Seasons is also Trip Kuehne's home course. Kuehne never turned pro after losing to Woods in the U.S. Amateur final two years after Leonard's victory.

But last year, Kuehne won the U.S. Mid Amateur, the U.S. State team title with Terrence Miskell, and played on the winning U.S. Walker Cup team.

Kuehne's brother, Hank, won the 1998 U.S. Amateur, and sister Kelli captured U.S. Women's Amateur titles in 1995 and '96.

As youngsters, the Kuehnes were taught by Haney at Stonebridge Ranch in McKinney.

Major champions

Legends Nelson, Hogan and Ralph Guldahl won majors in the 1940s and '50s, followed by Don January and Lee Trevino, and then Leonard at the 1997 British Open.

Each generation has passed the torch, helping grow the game by encouraging young players.

Nelson remained an ambassador until his death in 2006. January still donates to the Junior Foundation of the Northern Texas PGA. And Leonard has been an NTPGA spokesman for 12 years.

Hall of Famer Kathy Whitworth, the LPGA's career leader in wins, has been a major supporter of amateur golf.

The NTPGA boasts the largest regional office under the PGA of America umbrella. The organization includes 750 club pros, 2,750 juniors and 250 senior associates.

The NTPGA runs 250 junior tournaments a year, and has infiltrated 150 schools.

The Northern Texas PGA, Texas Golf Association and Legends Junior Tour provide competitive and developmental programs for amateurs of all ages.

"The PGA Tour players have been extremely helpful with their time and effort," said Darrell Crall, executive director of the NTPGA. "All the guys who live in the area support us in some way. Being validated by a star means a lot to a young player."

'A giant'

Dallas-Fort Worth was fourth in a recent ranking of Best Golf Cities in America by Golf magazine and the National Golf Foundation, ahead of Orlando and Atlanta. Austin took the top honor.

The magazine listed D-FW's median green fee at $38, noting that "Dallas is a giant for rich golf history and value play."

There are about 135 courses and 37 driving ranges in and around Dallas and Fort Worth.

At the PGA Merchandise Show on Jan. 17-19 in Orlando, the Dallas area ranked among the top 10 in number of exhibitors (33) and PGA professionals (40).

Everything from high-performance shafts at United Sports Technologies in Fort Worth to Daltex custom gloves are produced here.

Long Drivers of America is based in Roanoke.

Need sand for bunkers or gravel for construction or maintenance? Try Neese Materials in Garland. Need a cutting edge bunker drainage system? Try SportsCrete Texas in Farmers Branch. Or how about a synthetic green for your back yard from a Southwest Greens franchise in Fort Worth and Dallas/Collin County; or hole-in-one insurance from Dallas-based National Hole-in-One Association?

Major retailers Golfsmith, Edwin Watts and Golf Galaxy have multiple locations. And two PGA Tour Superstores opened last year in Plano and Frisco.

A place for the pros

In terms of Tour players, D-FW probably has the second most of any metropolitan area, behind only Orlando.

Pros have settled here because of the central location, international airport, relatively calm weather and lack of state taxes.

The Vaquero Club in Westlake has pros Todd Hamilton, Ben Crane, Brandt Jobe and Brian Watts, as well as Haney, among its members. Leonard recently left Westlake and returned to Dallas.

No telling who might be on the range at Royal Oaks in Dallas. Leonard, Harrison Frazar and Anthony Kim are among the PGA Tour players there.

Corey Pavin, B.J. Staten and Kris Cox are based in Dallas. Chad Campbell and John Rollins are stationed in Colleyville, Sabbatini in Southlake, Hunter Mahan in Plano, J.J. Henry in Fort Worth and Ryan Palmer in Hurst.

Australians Rod Pampling and John Senden are neighbors in Flower Mound, Aussie Nathan Green lives in Plano, and Aussie Greg Chalmers lives by the TPC at Las Colinas near Tommy Armour III.

Top teachers

If you want to find a top-100 national teacher, you don't have to travel far.

Haney has three facilities with a strong stable of instructors. Randy Smith of Royal Oaks, who recently reunited with Leonard, works with Frazar and Colt Knost.

Smith, Northwood's Bob Elliott and Bent Tree's David Price have made huge contributions locally and nationally.

Price has been one of the PGA's top rules officials since 1987. He has made important rulings in Masters, PGA Championships and Ryder Cups.

Smith and Elliott began raising money for junior golf more than 25 years ago. Smith's 24-hour marathons and other programs have raised about $1 million for the NTPGA Junior Golf Scholarship Fund.

More in store?

Back when Adams was selling out of Haney's Golf Ranch, the company hit $1 million in sales in 1995 and $3.5 million in 1996.

An infomercial for his Tight Lies fairway metals pushed sales to $36.7 million in 1997, and then overall sales reached $84.6 million the next year.

"It took me 11 years to become an overnight success," Adams said in 1999.

Woods has won five of the last 16 majors, leading many to believe he could win the Grand Slam this season. Considering Haney lives in Westlake and Woods' clubs are made in Fort Worth, that could be another big story for Golftown.