Independence Day Golf Outing to Hollydale Golf Course

Is it really Friday? I put in 70 hours this week, and was off today and Wednesday. The math tells the rest of the story.
I played golf this morning with an old friend, and was paired up with a husband and wife also playing as a twosome. Pictured to the left is the first tee box.
The club had free food (right), and a pull tabs for golf pricing. We both drew great tickets, so the total cost for 2 players was 44 dollars. So cheap – you could twice. 18 was enough though, as “John Doe” there in the black chased the beverage cart as much as the golf ball! I have been sober for 5 years now, so I concentrate more on my shot-making.
It felt so good to be out today, and the weather cooperated nicely. Sunny, 78 degrees, and a gentle breeze. My game was not the best, but I still managed to win some cash and shoot 76. I think the American flag pins threw me off a tad … (smile)
This was the first time I have worn shorts this summer, and my legs are burnt to a cinder! My farmers tan combined with bright pink calves make for quite a visual. Yikes!!!
Tomorrow is a trip out to see the folks … (and more golf). Sunday?? Yep, you guessed it, more golf – this time at my Uncle’s club up North. How lucky can a cat in Hollydale get? Holiday weekends rock. I better go get some after-sun care for my chickenny legs.

To visit the Hollydale Golf Course web site, click Hollydale Golf

Us Womens Open in Edina Minnesota at Interlachen CC

Official Web Site of the 2008 U.S. Women’s Open With the US Open Golf Tournament just down the road in Edina Minnesota, the buzz about the professional women players is big news here. Even non golfers are talking about the championship.

This will be the last US Open for Annika Sorenstam, who “plans on retiring” from golf. This is a photo of her signing autographs on Wednesday after a practice round. While she has intentions of winning this week, ultimately she will finish second. How do I know? A little bird told the Cat.

Last years winner was Defending U.S. Open champion Cristie Kerr (left), and she is in Minnesota to defend her title. Will she win? No.

She does feel that Interlachen suits her game … NOT ENOUGH!

Pictured left is Lorena Ochoa. She will be the winner come Sunday afternoon. Her length will be a factor on this long course (with five par 5’s), and her ability to keep herself below the hole with shot making decisions will be key in shooting low scores here on the severely sloped and fast greens. Interlachen is a golf course where greens in regulation is not as important as putting yourself in the right position to get down in two. Lorena will also be able to reach the 18th green in 2 shots, so I expect her to be well under par on this finishing hole … enough to win a US Open? Probably not, but her vast array of ammunition against this course will prove to be enough for the other players to fall behind.

Think women golfers are not feminine? Check out this picture of Pat Anderson, Christy Kerr, Paula Creamer, and Natalie Gulbis. I have a big crush on Natalie Gulbis!! click the link if you are a male, for a hotter picture

I have a signed picture of her on my wall at home. I wonder if she reads my blog?? {no she doesn’t}
Natalie will finish in a tie for 10th place at the Open.

Nervous Golf & Wayne Gretsky Meet President Ford

Many of us have certain times when a nervous moment arises on the golf course. For the most part, I play with a care free attitude, and worry less than I should. Sometimes though, especially after a break, I do feel a few jitters on the first tee box. I place some golf rounds rounds in a “priority” category. These in particular can induce a few butterflies. Do other players feel the same cringe every now and again?

Wayne Gretzky claims he’s not comfortable playing in front of people, and that “there’s nothing worse than having a three-foot putt in front of 100 people.” He is currently promoting the Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic that he will host June 26 through 29. Amateurs … including Gretzky, will pair up with a tour pro and try to make the cut as a team.

“At best, I could be about a seven-handicap if I took a year to work on my game – my habits in golf are so erratic and poor that to break that all down would be tough for my mind to do”

Gretzky is famous for an outing in which he hit a U.S. Secret Service agent who was up in a tree looking out for former U.S. president, Gerald Ford. (I wish I had some video of that!)
“We’re creatures of habit,” he said. “My habit is to slice the ball. Five of 10 drives I’ll hit straight and five out of 10 I’ll hit into the water to the right.”

Mike Weir once told Gretzsky that it was every kid’s dream to play in the last group at Pebble Beach. Wayne says that it is more of a nightmare! He dreamed as a kid of being in the seventh game of a Stanley Cup final, not in the final group of a PGA Tour event.
Gretzky will come into the Nationwide tournament as a recent winner.
He and his pro partner, Chris Nallen, won the pro-am at the Nationwide’s BMW Charity Pro-Am May 18. Given the win, Gretzky should be able to fore-go some of his anxiety.

I can’t remember the last time I had 100 people watching me play. The largest group watching me hit a ball? Maybe 70 …. that was nerve-racking enough!

Wedge from 130
Speedcat Hollydale

Farm Golf

Some days are just busy at local golf courses. Sunday was one of them. With this, you get slow play, and way to many people on the links. I like to pace my round to about 3 hours per 18 holes. The “dreaded 5 hour round” is more like a test in my waiting ability. I hate to wait; what to do? Drive North to Isanti!

follow through
made birdie putt

This course is NOT what I would describe as pristine, lush, or championship quality. What it does have is a great layout, some really long 600 yard par 5’s, and a green fee so cheap that you might think the clubhouse attendant rang up your receipt wrong. I payed 24 dollars to play 18 with a cart using my PGA Card. Of course, the best part of playing here is that it’s never busy. We played as a twosome and never waited on a tee box.

• Round Duration: 3 hours
• Birdies: 4
• Longest drive 315
• Closest to the pin: 3 feet
• Score: 69 ( yes, you read that right )

This was a wildly fun round, and well worth the trip. As I am leaving town for work at the end of the week, it will have to do for a while!!

Sanbrook Golf Course 2181 County Road 5 NE, Isanti – (763) 444-9904

1 review, directions, and more »

World Golf Destinations of Grandeure

When you think of the greatest places to play, Pebble Beach, Augusta, St. Andrews and the like often come to mind. Here is a different (and unusual) listing of great places to play. I have only been to one of these destinations.

The Bridges San Fransisco Playing to nearly 7,000 yards from the tips, the Bridges Golf Club reflects a stimulating design precept that distance is one element, and risk / reward ball flight options make this course interesting to play, and a beauty to behold. Many carries over natural canyons allow for strategic course management. Do not play here if you are afraid of heights! More information: Bridges Golf Course

. .

Eagle Trace Golf Club Minnesota When it comes to dangerous golf, Eagle Trace is the scariest course I know. If you are not hitting the ball on target, you will find disaster is only one errant shot away. I have never played this course without a high score on one or two holes. Unlike any other course I play, the design is full of tight, water laden, tree lined holes with island greens and multi – level fairways. I get a knot in my gut just thinking about it. Think you are playing well? Play this course from the back tees. The last picture is me, playing my second shot to the elevated island green on #11. Hit the green or else. There is also an aerial shot of this hole above.For more information: Eagle Trace

  Mission Hills Golf Club China The world’s largest golf course destination is at Mission Hills Golf Club. 216 holes stretch across thousands of acres. With 12 resort and championship courses – designed by the likes of Nick Faldo, Greg Norman and David Duval, Mission Hills is serious sensory overload for golf fanatics. If you can’t find enough golf here, you have a serious problem. For more information: Mission Hills Golf Club

  Coober Pedy Club Australia Make your way to the small mining town of Coober Pedy in South Australia, where there’s not a blade of grass or a stitch of greenery in sight at the Coober Pedy Opal Fields Golf Club. Opal mining is the chief business here, and most residents live in a subterranean world of tunnels and caves to escape the Outback’s searing temperatures. The golf course itself is basically one enormous sand trap that must be oiled with grease lest it blow away in the dry desert winds, and golfers tote swatches of faux grass from hole to hole to ease teeing off. For more information: Coober Pedy Golf

  World Ice Golf Championship Greenland Each spring on a tiny island in Northern Greenland, the World Ice Golf Championship lures hardy fanatics for a chance to tee off atop moving ice floes in the High Arctic tundra. The annual event takes place in Santa Claus territory—370 miles north of the Arctic Circle, near the town of Uummannaq, where glaciers groan and icebergs bob around a nine-hole course cut from the snow and ice just before play commences. Since the greens are white, the balls are painted red. For more information: World Ice Golf Championship

  Lajitas, The Ultimate Hideout Texas Indulge your cowboy golf fantasies at the deservedly named “Lajitas”. The Ultimate Hideout … this is a 25,000-acre resort isolated in western Texas, some 300 miles from El Paso along the banks of the Rio Grande. The 19-hole course dubbed “the Ambush” features four holes set on an island in the Rio Grande and a bonus hole that involves a shot across the mighty river into Mexico—making Lajitas the world’s only trans-national golf course. Cool! For more information: Lajitas

  Rotorua Golf Club New Zealand The antithesis of Australia’s arid environment awaits across the Tasman Sea in New Zealand, where you can slice the Southern Hemisphere skies in the thermal hot spot of Rotorua. The Rotorua Golf Club features an 18 hole, links style, par 69 course, as well as a nine hole course where bubbling mud pools, steam vents, steaming creeks and rushing geysers make for otherworldly obstacles. For more information: Rotorua Golf Club

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Ace in Florida by Legally Blind Man

Legally blind golfer makes a hole in one : adapted from Times Staff Writer RODNEY PAGE’s story

This is Leo E. Fiyalko. He is speaking to the members at Cove Cay Country Club . Fiyalko is 92 and legally blind! This story really touched my heart, and reminded me of my own hole in one experience when I was 13 years old. I thought I had hit a bad shot that went off the back of the green. After looking for the ball, I decided to check the hole … and there it was.
Leo said, “All I was interested in was getting on the green.”
I guess just as I, the surprise was a bit more than just a good day, it was one that was a highlight of my life on the golf course.

The big event happened on the 110-yard, par-3 fifth hole at Cove Cay Country Club in Clearwater Florida. After 60 years of playing golf, the rarest of shots finally occured. “It was my first hole in one, and I never saw it” said Fiyalko

The feat came on Jan. 10 when Fiyalko and his group teed it up for their weekly nine-hole best-ball outing. The group of 20 to 40 golfers, who range in age from 70 to 90-plus, have gathered every Thursday afternoon during the winter for at least 20 years.

In his prime, Fiyalko played to a seven handicap, but now he needs help lining up his shots and finding his golf balls. A seven handicap? Not to bad! I have struggled for years to have a single digit handicap. I plan on playing golf for a long time to come. That is what is so great about golf in my opinion. You can continue to enjoy the sport for such a long time.
Congratulations Leo, I salute you from the frozen tundras of Minnesota. I wish you well, and also wish I could just get “one” round in soon.

Natalie Gulbis

To watch Natalie Gubis swing is so interesting to me because of the way her lower body actually moves forward and upwards, while her head and shoulders remain on plane and at the same height as address. In my own personal swing, the left foot acts as a plant for moving weight and turning into the line. With all certainty, a topped shot would result from using foot action like Natalie’s at impact. She seems to create speed and acuracy with this style of legwork …. it just proves that there is not just “one” correct method of producing solid golf shots.

I found this next video of Gulbis nailing one poor soul with a wedge. So many times while waiting on the tee box, I practice hitting to targets – just not “human” targets!

It looks like this guy has a pretty even temperment … I must admit, I’d love to be hit with a Natalie Gulbis golf shot!

Here is my own impact position “flipped” around.

From Picasa

Speedy

Welcome to Hollydale Golf Notes

. . . The putting green

My name is Speedcat Hollydale. I started blogging a year ago, and mixed many different topics on my main page. It seemed about time to create a blog devoted exclusively to golf. In the past, readers were really not interested in my golf thoughts and stories, because I had not attracted a golf audience. With this page I am not interested in creating a volume of traffic, nor a huge page rank for searching key words. Rather, this will be my own spot for golf related posts.

The future of this blog will contain my own course reviews, golf news, and great pictures from the best courses in the world. Most of the following posts are from the past summer on the greens.

From Picasa

Riverwood National

************************************************************** Riverwood National is a new course, in it’s second season. My opinion of this layout is not yet quite formed. It has many blind shots, doglegs, and elevation changes that prohibit you from seeing your ball actually land. This course is also set up as a “target” course. It puts a premium on playing the correct yardage off of the tee. If you expect to grab your driver and smash the ball down the middle – you are at the wrong place! Until I learn how to navigate my shots into the right position here, my days will be filled with turmoil. Many shots from the tee box looked perfect to me…only to run through the landing area and into watery graves. ANYTHING with the word grave in it, is not good! I rate this course a soft 6 on the 1~10 scale. If you are looking for a mental test of golf, go to Riverwood. If you like to belt out large drives, stay clear.

If anything, this is a scenic course for being so young. Only a couple of holes are still in rough shape.

• Score: 75
• Longest drive: 360! (help from wind and elevation)
• Longest birdie putt: None made? Yes, it’s true.
• Pars on card: 15

This was a great day to play golf, and the people at Riverwood National are fantastic. Worth a try!

Adams BUL Driver

- You can click on this picture to see inside my nose-

Click on Adams Insight BUL Drivers to check this club out. This photo was taken August 2007, warming up on the “driving lake”. What is a driving lake? Well, you hit your own old balls in the water.
My playing partner let me try his new Adam’s Insight Driver, and I was thoroughly impressed. Trust me, I have hit all of the new lines from the top manufactures, and this piece of equipment stands up to the best of them…..at any price.This shot in particular went about 335 yards, and strait out like a rocket. Ball speed at impact is very explosive – and it is very easy to catch the sweet spot.

How about those knee caps! – Speedcat