SUPERBOWL PARTY AND THE 2015 GOLF SEASON..

Brian Carnes (New England) & Ricky Marr (Seattle)
pose for a picture before the game

I write after having attended a Super Bowl party at the Elk City Country Club last night, of course, after having recorded in my DVR the last few holes of the Phoenix Open, which almost overlapped with the Super Bowl just down the road. All of you members should be pleased that the party was very well attended. If you did not come... we missed you! There was food galore, and stories, and fun, and fans of both teams, and even several people like me who didn't have a "dog in the fight" who just wanted to watch a good exciting game, and did.


While Seattle fans were not happy with the result, no one was disappointed about the excitement and the camaraderie. We all had a great time in a great party, organized by -who else? You know!

"In Love" watching the "big"
game... you know who?
Always smiling!

If you didn't know or watched the game, New England has a fourth title, and Seattle came short in a game that at in the closing seconds, had all the chances (and probabilities) to win. If you would have asked 1,000,000 football fans, with the circumstances the way they were, who would win with just less than a minute to go, 999,875 would have said, "There is no way that Seattle will not win. They have three downs, on the one yard line, they have one of the best running backs in the NFL, and they have one time out". But, it is never over until the last whistle blows, and when it blew, New England had won its fourth Super Bowl.


I compare it to golf in the following manner: you are playing in the U.S. Open and down the stretch, you have a chance to win on the last hole. You and another player, separated themselves from the rest of the field and it is a two man race going to the last hole. After a long day full of good play and some luck in your last hole, you have a chance to win on #18: all you have to do is finish with a bogey or better. It is a long par 4 with lots of trouble, but nothing that a seasoned professional can't manage, particularly when you only need a bogey.

The play that SHOULD have changed the
result of the game... but didn't!

If you are Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Bobby Jones, Hale Irwin or Ben Hogan, just to name a few great U.S. Open champions, you play it like a short par-5 hole, which should be easy for a professional; but, if you are a Jean van de Velde (or in this case, Pete Carroll or Russell Wilson), someone who wants to be a "hero", you take unnecessary risks that could land you in second, and eventually do, in a "Two-man Race". And that my friends is what happened last night in Arizona. Someone made lots of money in Vegas.... but back to Phoenix!!


Unnoticed to many golfers, also in Arizona, an American who had won five times as a professional (in Europe), but never in the United States, won his first PGA Tour title. Brooks Koepka, who has admitted to lofty goals, including that of working to reach #1 in the world, played like the champions mentioned above, took his chances where he needed, and then played solid golf down the stretch to win the tournament by one shot.

Brooks Koepka, get used to seeing this face...
his goals are mighty and the Phoenix Open
Champion seems determined! Like "XLIX"
He won a tournament that others had 
a chance to win...

So, now that football fever is over for the next 9 months, lets "talk more golf". Local and TV golf.


Not much local golf here in friendly Elk City Golf & C.C.  where winter has been pretty cold, but the PGA Tour has started the 2015 season in warmer places with four American winners (I know, I know, the "season" started at the end of 2014, but let us call that, "The Fed-Ex Season", as, for all facts and purposes, I am a "calendar year" guy).

Patrick Reed

Patrick Reed won the Tournament of Champions. Then, Jimmy Walker did not take any weekend chances of getting caught in the last few holes by scoring 62-63 in the weekend and lapping the field by nine shots in the Hawaiian Open. The next week, Bill Hass withstood the pressure last week to win in what used to be the Bob Hope Annual Invitational and now is the (Clinton) Humana Challenge. Then, it was Koepka's turn. Way go Americans!

Jimmy Walker

Yesterday, one of my favorites, Jordan Spieth, finished with a three putt for an 11 under par that left him four shots behind the winner, and I mention him because he finished the 2014 season with great play, including two wins, one of these being a "semi-major" when he closed with a 63 to win the Australian Open.


Next week, we will have all the "big names" in famed Torrey Pines, where past champions include Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, and though Phil played fairly well in the Humana and Tiger missed the cut in Arizona, none of this two great champions are playing at their best, but, no matter how they are playing, you

Bill Hass

can't count them out at one of their favorite places where both of them have won (Phil has won three times here and Tiger has won eight!).


Many say Tiger "is done". I certainly agree that this is the way it looks to us who not only play the game, but who understand that it is much more mental than many people realize. Perhaps too many swing thoughts -I remember the late Severiano Ballesteros who was a natural, and who somehow, wanted to change his long and fluid swing to a "tighter" swing, and ended his career with mediocre play because he had too many swing thoughts during a round of golf.

Our local New England fans celebrate

That said, Tiger has to miss many more cuts -unlikely- before people can truly say, "he's done"; and http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/bill-plaschke-carroll-blows-it-for-seahawks/ar-AA8SQRG?ocid=mailsignout).
you know Phil, "what will Phil do next?" Phil is "almost" like a Jean van de Velde and Pete Carroll put together, very smart, confident, talented and sometimes tries shots that others would not even dream of. Perhaps he tries these shots because that is the only way he sees himself with the trophy in his hand, and perhaps just for the fun of hitting a great shot. In his defense, I do not think he tries these shots to "be a hero". And for all of the similarities with Carroll, I think Phil's money was on Nicklaus, I mean, Belichick (I read this great article about Super Bowl:

Another couple who always smiles...

Note: Our tournament calendar is ready (you can click the link on the right side of this page). I see us having a great season and lots of pleasant surprises in our season. In the next few weeks, we will be finalizing details for some of events of this year and if there are any changes, I assure you, these will be positive changes that benefit the players and increase the fun of participating.