http://jeffwallach.com Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:53:43 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en As legendary golf instructor Charlie King will tell you, one of the best ways to get people to improve their golf-- or their knitting or whittling or ice fishing, for that matter-- is to provide some incentive or motivation.  It's the exact phenomenon that explains why Peter Kessler whipped me in golf all week until we put a small wager on the match and I came roaring back to win.  The fact is, I could ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/instruction/3704/in-the-zone-at-the-red-zone-challenge In an era when golf course architects seem to take great pride in their ability to make our game ever more difficult (thanks, Jack!), and to punish us in increasingly cruel and inventive ways for even slightly mis-hit shots, architect Jim Engh has taken the opposite tact.  And golfers should love him for it.  I'd give him a hug right now if he was in front of me. Engh has figured out what nobody else in ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/courses-and-travel/3706/an-even-bigger-easy-the-creek-club There's at least one moment in everyone's first round at Reynolds Plantation's Great Waters Golf Course where you come off a hole that just played down to a lakeside green and then tee off away from the lake and by the time you get to the next green you're at the lake again and you wonder: did I forget to take my medication this morning?  Such is the nature of Jack Nicklaus's fine work here ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/courses-and-travel/3684/great-waters-not-just-for-great-players-though-it-wouldnt-hurt This morning The Golf Road Warriors executed Callaway Hex Black sorties at Reynolds Plantation's Oconee Golf Course on a cool, atmospheric, slightly overcast morning that gave way to a warm, sunny afternoon.  Designed by Rees Jones, Oconee is the more buttoned-down, conservative sibling to Tom Fazio's Plantation Course-- though whether that somehow makes Jones and Fazio related I can't really say. I played with fellow warrior Brian McCallen who was fresh off an emergency visit to ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/courses-and-travel/3671/my-perfect-golf-day-cheeseburger-included With even the briefest glimpse of a golf course it's easy tell whether you're in the hands of a master architect and whether he was given good or great land and ample artistic license to perform his work.  Tom Fazio's The National at Reynolds Plantation checks off all the boxes.  In fact, Fazio says of the The National, "I got excited because from the first calls about this course I was told they had lots ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/courses-and-travel/3656/national-holiday-fazios-masterwork-at-reynolds-plantation Your cup may runneth over at Bob Cupp's The Landing Golf Course, at Reynolds Plantation.  But before we even talk about the golf, let me just point out that the Planatation has put three exclamation points on service!!!  Which is to say that when a server or assistant pro or bartender tells y'all to have a good day, they say it as if they actually mean it, which is a welcome respite from the robotic ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/courses-and-travel/3639/landing-at-well-the-landing While others pursue various conservative programs to make golf faster and more fun and thus attract scads of new players-- programs such as Barney Adams's Tee It Forward,  the PGA of America's Golf 2.0 (wonder how many consultants were paid to come up with THAT name) or Play Golf America's cringe-worthy  "Get Golf Ready"-- I've created an initiative of my own that will make the game both faster and more enjoyable for everyone, but especially ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/instruction/3627/new-program-to-grow-the-game-to-be-tested-at-reynolds-plantation It's nearly game day and I've just taken a look at the opposition's line-up. Bob Cupp.  Jim Engh.  Rees Jones.  Jack Nicklaus.  Tom Fazio.  Those are the golf course architects I'll be facing off against next week at the renowned Reynolds Plantation golf resort, an hour from Atlanta in Greensboro, Georgia. It's like pitching against the 1927 Yankees. There are any number of ways to plan a sensible strategy: going through my clubs to figure out the best ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/courses-and-travel/3612/pre-trip-jitters-for-reynolds-plantation The absolute perfect golf round would combine the camaraderie of a quietly entertaining friend like fellow Golf Road Warrior Jay Stuller with the steadying presence of a woman golf pro like Dede Cusimano (whose gorgeously smooth swing made Jay and me look positively vaudevillian in comparison), and the artistic perspective of one of the world’s great painters of golf courses (the charming Graeme Baxter), who just happens to be Scottish and speaks with a lilt ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/courses-and-travel/3591/great-day-at-silver-rock If you’re the kind of golfer who’s lucky enough to play two rounds each week, it would take you more than a year to test-drive every course in the Palm Springs area.  Sure you can also ride the aerial tram, hike the Indian Canyons, or shop along chi-chi El Paseo.  But why would you, when more than 1oo golf courses of every mood, demeanor, style, and challenge await behind little stone gates and cute guard ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/courses-and-travel/3565/pga-west-stadium-course-where-dreams-of-breaking-80-go-to-die Well, the Callaway RAZR X clubs didn't hurt, either.  The RAZR Fit driver hit a LOT of fairways.  The Jaws wedges led the charge on a lot of up-and-downs from around the greens.  But the shirts seem unbeatable. Today saw the Golf Road Warriors take on Shadow Ridge Golf Club in the morning, and the North Course at Terra Lago in the afternoon (actually, into the evening, as we finished the eighteenth hole in ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/courses-and-travel/3540/aur-shirt-wins-two-more-matches-as-golf-road-warriors-take-on-shadow-ridge-and-terra-lago I can think of no better or more masculine way of closing out an afternoon following golf than a visit to La Quinta Resort and Club's Havana Club-- a brilliant concept that combines the simple pleasures of a physical service well delivered with the trash-talking cameraderie of a poker game.  After a morning round at La Quinta's Mountain Course yesterday, the Golf Road Warriors headed for the luxe privacy of La Quinta.  But rather than ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/lifestyle/3526/the-havana-club-at-la-quinta-shave-smoke-drink-like-a-man There really is no way to get closer to the Santa Rosa Mountains-- unless you are on belay-- than playing Pete Dye's Mountain Course at La Quinta Resort.  From the moment you leave the clubhouse and look off across vast green lawns framed by elegant palms, your eyes are drawn beyond to jagged rocky peaks sawing a red line against the distant blue sky. The Golf Road Warriors played the course this morning from 6,300 yards-- yards ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/courses-and-travel/3517/the-mountain-course-at-la-quinta-because-its-there Who needs a massage more than The Golf Road Warriors?  And where better to enjoy the quiet, private luxury of a spa and secret springs than Two Bunch Palms, in Desert Hot Springs-- reputed fortress hangout of mobster Al Capone back in the 1920s.  After a long day full of shooting (on The Classic Club's golf course), I cannot imagine a more relaxing location to hide from the heat. Built in the 1920s, the original construction ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/lifestyle/3500/two-bunch-palms                                 No doubt you're wondering why I've taken a photograph of this golf shirt in my shower at the JW Marriott Desert Springs.  As the purple shirt from this great company's Active line awaits today's high-pressure golf matches, I wanted to highlight the fact that the polyester double knit stretches like spandex and has a great feel, and is built to dry quickly and maintain it's shape.  The yarns are treated with anti microbial and UV ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/equipment/3501/aur-shirts-maintain-a-dry-heat-in-palm-springs A big day at The Classic Club-- possibly, with the exception of Ireland's Tralee, the best Arnold Palmer-designed golf course ever created.  While the first hole was unremarkable in every way and established a low expectation, by the fourth any cogent golfer would stop in his own spike marks and think: there's a LOT of golf course here.  Not just beautiful and challenging, but a course that reaches that deeper level of quality inherent in ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/courses-and-travel/3482/golf-road-warriors-put-the-class-in-the-classic-club There's little better than getting on a plane in cold, rainy Portland, Oregon in the morning (after a proper dose of Peet's coffee) and teeing off on a golf course in Palm Springs three hours later beneath sunny skies in 75-degree temperatures.  Well, okay, maybe one thing that's better is winning your nine-hole match 5 and 4 and then closing out the press on the final hole of the day as the desert begins cooling ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/courses-and-travel/3461/golf-road-warriors-warm-up I don't normally make a habit of photographing my golf shirts before play, but I took the above shot in my room at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort, in Palm Springs at seven this morning, as I finished my continental breakfast, because it's just so so cool.  I posed the shirt-- from Canadian company AUR-- with two plastic water bottles, thus essentially making this a family portrait, because the shirt is MADE from plastic ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/equipment/3472/lucky-shirt-to-win-the-day Here's a short, entertaining video shot at the TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course, and featuring Peter Kessler; Tiffany Nelson, Sr. Business Development Director at TPC Scottsdale; and yours truly.  CEO Bob Senoff is only referred to and does not appear.  No CEOs were harmed in the making of this video. But the real star is the first real-time leaderboard scoring app, Grow the Game Golf. http://youtu.be/M_eNgl8wKEA The Golf Road Warriors will be packing Grow The Game Golf's updated app on this week's ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/equipment/3454/from-the-archives-grow-the-game-golf Following years of research, Callaway Golf recently announced  that their all new HEX Black Tour golf ball will be available March 2nd-- which is about ten days after I'm writing this.  What they didn't announce is that twelve dozen of the balls will be waiting for the Golf Road Warriors when we check into the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort in Palm Springs tomorrow. Marketing materials tell me that the balls feature a host of new ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/equipment/3412/put-a-hex-on-your-golf-nemesis   When the Golf Road Warriors hit Scottsdale back in December I felt a bit like James Bond, outfitted with an ingenious weapon for use against my rivals.  Just as the beloved "Q" provided Bond with deadly umbrellas and toxic fountain pens, Tim Buckman, Callaway's Senior Director of Global Communications, fitted me out with the company's deadly-accurate new RAZR Fit driver months before it actually became available to golfers who weren't also M1 spies.  I kept it ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/equipment/3405/secret-weapon-no-longer-secret Yep, even when we're working on a guidebook we look at, well, guidebooks.  Not that we don't also do our own research and always hope to find great unheralded attractions or an undiscovered hiking trail or secret new bars or restaurants that aren't in the book and only known to furtive locals. But let's face it; why start from scratch when someone at least half competent has already made at least a rough map of ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/courses-and-travel/3384/travel-writers-dirty-little-secret-one-in-a-long-series As someone who enjoyed years of fun at summer camp as a kid, the private community of Martis Camp, just a couple of mountain peaks over from Lake Tahoe, is aptly named.  This is exactly the camp I would have designed for myself as an adult who has never lost my interest in playing as many sports and games as possible in a single day, with my family and close friends, in a terrifically beautiful ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/courses-and-travel/3049/tahoes-martis-camp-camp-grows-up-even-if-you-havent At a time when virtually everyone in golf swears to be single-handedly saving the planet, how can you not love sincerely environmentallly responsible golf shirts from AUR?  Their S. Cafe shirts employ a patented process that transforms coffee grounds into yarn, which is then used to produce cool golfwear (and may provide a nice buzz!).  Their Ecosmart shirts consist of fabric made from recycled polyster yarn that is itself made from recycled plastic bottles.  AUR's ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/equipment/3311/a-u-r-is-c-o-o-l If you think wine goes well with food, how about the perfect combo of the right cigar with the right golf course?  On the recent Golf Road Warriors Scottsdale we were lucky enough to partner with Certifresh Cigars, who package some of the world's best smokes in a way that outsmarts even the laziest humidor owner.  The cigars are housed individually or in groups of two or four and sealed with their very own personal ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/lifestyle/3262/pairings-the-best-cigars-for-the-right-golf-course   For me, it's easier to picture dinosaurs roaming the earth than to imagine that just 25 years ago, even seasoned travelers actually lugged wheel-less suitcases through airports.  But just as  sea-dwelling creatures eventually evolved onto land, so too did luggage develop wheels.  Say happy 25th birthday to Travelpro's Rollaboard, the suitcase that marked a Darwinian leap forward for travelers across the planet. It began with Northwest Airlines pilot Robert Plath, who first changed the physical orientation ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/lifestyle/3269/happy-birthday-modern-travel-era   This in the parking lot of We Ko Pa Golf Club, one of the best courses we played on the recent Golf Road Warriors (GRW) trip to Scottsdale.  I'm posing with my 28-inch T-Pro Bold Expandable Rollaboard, which is ready for action as I head for Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport directly from the golf course parking lot. We Ko Pa was a perfect last hurrah as Peter Kessler and GRW videographer Jamie McWilliams joined me on ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/courses-and-travel/3234/last-warrior-standing We suspected the elves were playing the new Callaway Tour I(z) when we saw how long the little guys were off the tee.  The balls are pictured here with a few foursomes of our favorite smokes from Certifresh. The elves asked us to tell you that Santa never liked your cookies, anyway.         ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/lifestyle/3227/what-golf-road-warriors-want-under-the-tree Former LPGA TOUR pro and current golf and yoga instructor Dodie Mazzuca joins us on the TPC Scottsdale Champions Course to offer a few yoga poses that will help your game.  Mazzucca teaches at the Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale  . . . http://youtu.be/pv_56TYNr90 http://youtu.be/JN9ZXkfumcQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHeU4k9A2S8 ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/instruction/3222/golf-road-warriors-stretch-their-limits Here's what happens when the we let videographer Jamie McWilliams come out from behind the lens . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ7buz5vOsw&feature=channel_video_title ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/lifestyle/3213/kessler-and-the-canary The Golf Road Warriors head off the fairway with Desert Wolf Tours, north of Scottsdale.   http://youtu.be/n0_jZ2AVRog ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/lifestyle/3209/golf-road-warriors-go-off-road Please don't tell our wives, but the Golf Road Warriors have been known to smoke a few cigars-- daily, that is-- in our adventures in the world's best golf destinations.  But there have been many occasions on which I went to my little leather cigar case in my golf bag to discover a dry stick that was a shadow of its former self due to having been in the bag since a round played several ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/adventure-travel/3197/golf-road-warrior-discovers-new-way-of-lighting-certifresh-cigar Peter Kessler is the only golfer I know who can talk in the middle of his own backswing, though much of what he says to himself cannot be repeated here for fear of scaring small children.  It's often an admonition aimed at himself, his putting stroke, a stranger who coughed three miles away during Kessler's set-up, or something unintelligible even to those of us who know and love him. Today during an afternoon round at The ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/personalities/3194/peter-kessler-earns-new-nickname   Photo by John and Jeannine Henebry Is this a great country, or what?  In the span of one long day today the Golf Road Warriors enjoyed the municipal magnificence of the McDowell Mountain Ranch Golf Club early in the desert morning chill with the sun just coming up over the sagauro-studded peaks, an afternoon round amidst the refinded desert finery of The Boulders Resort, and finished the evening watching amateur bull riding at the Buffalo Chip ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/courses-and-travel/3184/from-the-boulders-to-barbecue-in-seven-miles I am not a golfer who thinks that rangefinders are a good idea, or who enters my greens-in- regulations and putts-per-hole into a phone application.  In fact, I usually leave my phone in the car during golf rounds. But this week, during the epic Golf Road Warriors siege of Scottsdale, we agreed to use a scoring app provided by Grow the Game Golf, which recently debuted real-time leaderboard scoring and other features. Today we took on Troon ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/partner/scottsdale-cvb/3168/grow-the-game-golf-the-golf-app-you-actually-want At the Four Seasons Scottsdale Resort, former LPGA TOUR professional Dodie Mazzuca will stretch your golf boundaries-- literally-- in a class that combines traditional yoga poses, sports stretches, and deep breathing in a calm, focused, and encouraging effort to improve your range of motion for the golf swing. I took the class this afternoon with fellow Golf Road Warrior Tom Bedell, who grunted his way through the poses in a way that led me to ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/lifestyle/3164/warrior-pose-yoga-for-golf-road-warriors The Golf Road Warriors have begun gathering in the desert from various points on the compass.  Day starts early tomorrow with massages at the Four Seasons spa to get golf ready, as someone once put it.  Then off to Troon North to test our mettle on the famous monument course. Here's a quick view of a few things that awaited the warriors upon arrival . . .   ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/courses-and-travel/3152/warm-greeting-at-four-seasons-resort-scottsdale As a professional travel writer I'm supposed to be cat-like in my stealthiness, moving through the world with nothing bigger than a Ziplock bag to hold a week's worth of clothing, toiletries, electronics, reading material, and enough Ibuprofen to numb a pack horse.  But the fact is-- as I've learned from my many trips to Bandon Dunes for warrior-like golf outings-- that the guy who's most prepared for a trip, usually performs best on the ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/lifestyle/3143/packing-for-golf-road-warriors-more-is-more In the depths of the gear closet, secreted underground in an undisclosed Portland location, I must decide upon what gear to take on the Golf Road Warriors trip to Scottsdale, departing tomorrow (which reminds me-- gotta go check in for my flight)! I start with golf shoes  (two pair, one white, one black); golf towel (I'm going with a brand new Sunriver towel in a rich blue that matches my golf bag); a dozen golf balls ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/courses-and-travel/3136/like-the-bat-cave-for-golf-writers I have been told that these don't belong here . . . ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/lifestyle/3131/callaways-in-the-kitchen Somehow he managed to talk about it without saying anything negative.  Or laughing.  The new Callaway Razr X Irons, Jaws Wedges, Odyssey Putter, Razr Hawk Woods, and a secret weapon I'm not allowed to talk about yet arrived today.  Be afraid, Scottsdale.  Be very afraid. http://youtu.be/ZsLK0baW9bs ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/equipment/3118/callaway-golf-clubfitter-gerritt-pon-on-my-swing Callaway Golf's Gerritt Pon talks club fitting at the undisclosed location where Phil goes to get fit. http://youtu.be/stL9_MBsDH4 ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/equipment/3108/get-fit-like-phil One word: Scottsdale. Which the Robb Report once called the best place to live in the US for golf. I’ll fly business class and begin my trip with a warm-up round on the Kierland Golf Club just because it’s fun, then make my way to a Kiva suite (outdoor shower, fireplace, plunge pool) at the Four Seasons Resort, where I’ll walk the two terrific Troon North courses at least twice or until I’m out of golf ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/courses-and-travel/2100/how-i-would-spend-10-000-on-golf Not that you would ever watch golf on television, but if you did you’d likely see Tour players executing the occasional shot that might cause you to reflect: ‘I’d be as likely to grow antlers as make a shot like that.’  And I’m not just talking about 300-yard drives or high, perfect five-iron shots that plunge to the green and jump into the hole.  I’m talking about shots that seem to defy physics and appear ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/partner/scottsdale-cvb/2364/talking-stick-pro-tim-mahoney-solves-the-downhill-bunker-shot-puzzle Players venturing south to the desert for a warm, dry fall or winter golf trip will face a unique challenge: how to hit shots that hang in the air longer than Superman showing off for Lois, and that land softer than the final notes of a Kenny G song.  Desert courses such as the beloved layouts at Troon North, in Scottsdale, are often target-style, meaning that fairways and greens present lonely islands of grass in ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/instruction/2367/troon-north-pro-doug-hammer-helps-golfers-tame-the-desert A lot of resorts-- particularly those built back in the boom of the 1980s-- have grown tired enough to be forced into retirement, especially with all the great new boutique properties popping up  full of eco-engineering, flat-screens t.v.s as thin as the 600-thread cotton sheets, and animatronic deer walking past your room on cue (okay, I'm making that up). Which is what makes a visit to The Boulders Resort, north of Scottsdale, so refreshing (I mean, ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/courses-and-travel/2627/the-boulders-still-awesome-after-12-million-years During the same month that Oregon, my home state, has garnered the honor of being home to the #1 golf resort in the US (according to the recent listing in Golf Digest that would be Bandon Dunes), there's other good news for Beaver State golfers as well (though being the Beaver State, in the first place, isn't such good news).  The Oregon Golf Association (OGA) just announced a spanking new deal called the ExploreOregonGolf VIP ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/courses-and-travel/3078/best-golf-deal-in-the-great-state-of-oregon In honor of an upcoming visit to the renowned La Costa Resort, outside San Diego, to have a look at the newly-renovated property, I felt nostalgic enough to post this La Costa story written several years ago.  The names have not been changed to protect anyone.  And I'm still waiting for my dollar. All photos are post-renovation.  I'll write an update of my more recent visit in the next few weeks.     Even if you watched this year’s ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/courses-and-travel/3067/playing-with-matches-at-la-costa   The farther I can get from the obvious trophy courses when visiting Scotland, the more authentic my visits always prove to be (and the less likely it will take more than 3.5 hours to play). I hesitate to mention 120-year-old Brora Golf Club in northern Scotland, and only do so because you are unlikely to venture 52 miles north of Inverness, past Dornoch, to play a 6,156-yard course that isn’t particularly famous. But Brora is the ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/golf/courses-and-travel/3060/my-favorite-course-in-the-uk Just for starters, Ireland's Tralee Golf Club may have the single best yardage guide I've ever seen-- with actual aerial photographs of every single gorgeous hole, with yardages to major features superimposed on the photo in color-coded numbers representing the distances to these features from the various tees.  The photos are good enough that you want to tear them out, frame them, and stick them up on the wall above your desk to remind you ... ]]> http://jeffwallach.com/partner/perrygolf/2987/tralee-golf-club-the-golf-road-warriors-closing-round-and-new-warriors-opening-shots