The Best In Golf

This space has been dedicated to  the “Old Pro” before.  He defines the profession.  I knew that 15 years ago when our paths first crossed but last week he made par from the parking lot.

If you read my previous post on how, after a lifelong love affair with the ancient game, I found myself shooting 90 and caring zero.    It’s not that I stopped liking golf…no it was much worse than that,  I couldn’t care less.

Fast forward a few days and I’m on my way to the PGA Show in Orlando.  I’m just about to Jacksonville when the phone rings.

“Ricky, It’s your Pro.”  Not it’s Mike, but “Your Pro.”

Proey, what’s shakin?”

“What’s shakin’ is I read your BLOG and I need to see you”

“Love to see you Pro, what’s up?”

“If you’ve lost it for golf then that’s my business…I am your Golf Doctor and I want to see you, dig?”

So here it was.  Mike Harmon, the Old Pro, loved by every member at Secession, at least the ones that matter, called me to tell me he was taking my malaise for the dimpled grape to heart…it was “his business”.  Whoa.  The montage that had become my game meant more to him than it did to me…what in the world can you say about that?

He asked me how much of my recent downturn in enthusiasm had to do with how I was playing.  Fair question, it’s probably about 50%.  His prescription (it wasn’t advice) was to swing a weighted club 30 times a day in a specific manner.  He would show me when I saw him…fair enough.

I’m walking the golfer’s candy store trail which is the PGA Show an hour before my Doctor’s appointment when by karma I find myself squarely in the middle of the training aids section of the floor.  I look and look, talk and talk, and am convinced that I have found the gold standard in weighted clubs…of course you have heard of it, most of you own at least one I’m sure, yes… The Orange Whip.

Scared to purchase the Masters of all training clubs before I see my Pro, I take the brochure, supremely confident that Mike will give the all green to purchase.

The appointment came and my excitement waned as my Pro told me to throw away the brochure I had brought on the Orange Whip…he wasn’t interested.

“How many old sand wedges do you have?”  Only about 20 says I.

“Take one and saw it off.  Put it against another and duct tape them together…that’s your weighted club.”

That’s not Old School, that’s just School.

So we set aside a few minutes out of  our busy days and got together.

He cares about my golf game…how cool is that?

I wish I had something to teach him because he showed me something that day.

As all Best In Golf loyalists know, we’re big on trendy here at the ol’ Blog.  If those snappy designs came in a little more athletic sizes (XXL +) we would be a lot moreso, that’s for sure.

Heard from O.O.T.G. (One of the Greats) today…the original…The Wizard of Wilshire.   He was filling me in on this great new company and website getting off the ground out there in the land of whey shakes and sprout burgers…Trendy Golf.

Well if The Wiz gives it one of his boney little thumbs up, that’s good enough for me…check it out.

Dan Jenkins is on Twitter at The British Open (danjenkinsgd) and here is a sample of his Tweets…that sounds nuts coming from a guy covering his 201st major but you have to love it that he’s grabbed on to the technology. 

In fact with his quicker than my backswing wit you could say Twitter was invented for him.

Here’s a sample:

• History lesson: Walter Hagen won four British Opens, but he never won a major Bobby Jones played in
• If you’ve never been to Scotland: Turnberry & Troon, west coast; St. Andrews & Carnoustie, east coast. England down here; Ireland over there
• In my experience at the Open, the best order of fish-and-chips is when the fish tastes like chips and the chips taste like fish
• When there’s a lull in British Open action you can keep the mind alert by counting the toenails in your pork pie
• Is it harder to hit an iron out of heather or swallow a mouthful of haggis? My vote goes to the haggis
• In earlier days the only thing thicker than heather at a British Open was the nose hair on an R&A official

He’s the original…check it out.

…needs to spend the time to watch this.

I’m not in the habit of posting links on B.I.G. but this is something special.  Jim Nantz and Jaime Diaz on the Charlie Rose Show talking about golf, The Open, and Dads. 

It takes a little time to navigate and at times it’s a little pedestrian for golf insiders, but the last two segments are magic and worth your attention.