A SPRINGTIME SPIFF-UP REVEALS PLENTY TO BE BRIGHT ABOUT IN OTHERWISE DARK TIMES

by Vic Williams
illustration by Calder Chism

It’s been a while since I’ve headed down the well-worn spring cleaning road for the sole purpose of filling This Space. I admit it’s a popular fall-back position, but what the heck. My desk is groaning with golf stuff, both literal and intellectual, and it’s high time to dig in and get my hands grass-stained.

Here’s the deal: When I while away my winter doldrums dreaming up meaty material for the next Weekend Wisdom column, I usually have no problem coming up with one true winner with enough substance to see these 1,500-odd-words through.

Not so this winter. I hit a wall built not out of a dearth of ideas but an overabundance of material. Good, strong bricks of worthwhile subject matter lay about me, begging to be picked up and pushed into place. And sure, some of them are big and weighty enough to fill an entire column’s worth of exposition and rumination, but why not stack as many as my ink-and-paper real estate and your ever-withering time windows allow? I’ll do my best to tie them together with fast-drying word-mortar.

If you see cracks, try to ignore ’em.

The Eyes Have It — I squint a lot. Part of it is my heavy-lidded physiology, part of it habit, but mostly, I feel, it’s a result of spooling out my life under 300-plus-days-a-year West desert sun. And now that we’re busting out of the cold months yet again and Sol sticks around beyond dinnertime, my squint is in full Clint-mode.

Such eye-crinkling is bad news on a golf course, a telltale tension symptom. As the face muscles go, so go the rest of your muscles, including those that control the golf club through its arc.

A few years ago I started wearing sunglasses while playing, both to help alleviate said tension and ward off cataracts that eventually impede many a sun-worshipper’s vision. Now I rarely hit the first tee without them, even on cloudy days, which still have their share of glare. In fact, I’ve turned into something of a golf shade geek. I’ve got at least 10 pair, all built specifically for the sport. Some are polarized, some not. Some lenses are designed to sharpen the tiny silhouette of a flying golf ball against a background or blue or cloud-mottled sky, others bring out a course’s contour. Some are dark, some go the amber route.

Then there are Transitions (www.transitions.com),which just might trump them all, especially if you wear prescription glasses or contacts. They not only sharpen your on-course vision, they adjust to light levels in any environment — meaning they’ll make the trip from sunhammered green to fluorescent clubhouse in a snap. I’ve tried a pair and love ’em, but to give y’all a testimonial that means something, I got reigning Masters champ Trevor Immelman on the horn. He’s one of Transitions’ two official PGA Tour spokesmen (along with Kenny Perry), and he gave me a few minutes in March while preparing for the third event on the Florida swing, sponsored by Transitions.

“The lenses are great, aren’t they?” said the softspoken, sweet-swinging South African.“The beauty of the technology is, not only are you taking care of your eyes and making sure the UVA and B rays aren’t coming in, you can keep the glasses on your head all day long. You don’t have to worry about cloud cover or fading sunlight; the lenses will get lighter or darker depending on how many UV rays are coming in. It’s pretty incredible, and I think once golfers become familiar with it, it’s going to be very popular.”

Immelman, who grew up playing in the sun and heat of his native land, will help get Transitions shades on fellow players’ eyes by talking up the product on ranges and wearing them in competition. He wears contacts by day with Transitions-fitted sunglasses, then wears his prescription Transitions in the evening. It’s a combination that he says will prevent the onset of cataracts and keep eye fatigue at bay.

“I always have found that long days out in the sunlight, you get more drained. If you can take care of your eyes on those hot, sunny days, you can conserve energy. The thing is, with me growing up in Africa, we had some pretty

serious heat. We didn’t wear too much eyewear, so I became accustomed to squinting and my eyes got used to not being too sensitive to light. Not until I started using this product did I realized the effect it was having. The more people understand the technology, the more they’ll realize what an incredible product it is, not just for golf but all outdoor pursuits. It’s a lens that will adapt with you, indoors and out, if the weather changes ... it’s cutting edge.”

So if global warming indeed has the sun on the rise, so to speak, now is the time to gain the Transitions edge. And speaking of cutting, I’m ready to start cutting strokes with Trevor. And send the Clint squint packing.

What Recession? — The golf biz certainly isn’timmune to the nation’s current economic pain. In fact, it’s hurting more than many industries. No use denying it. But there are bright spots, one of which is the upcoming Haggin Oaks Golf Expo April 26-28 in Sacramento, by far the country’s largest golf course-based demo day event. Ken Morton Jr., who runs Haggin Oaks’ retail operations, says they’re on target to beat last year’s booth count, and that business overall is good thanks to pricing creativity and product extension programs on the part of companies like Cleveland — giving folks more options to find just the right deal for a new driver or entire set of sticks. “They’re holding over last year’s models and having them available at a reduced rate. We have the Cleveland XLS, the 2008 model, side-by-side with this year’s model, on sale half-off for $149. In previous years Cleveland would have probably destroyed the previous year’s version when the new one came out. There’s lots of value.” The same deals are available at www.mortongolfsales.com. It might be time to finally retire that ancient persimmon, don’t you think?

Deal Us In — If you haven’t yet made a golf pilgrimage to southern or central Oregon, shame on you. And if I can’t convince you to at least move it up on your must list, shame on me. Because, my friends, the stretch from Klamath Falls north to Bend along Highway 97 is one of the West’s richest golf destinations, with some springtime-and- beyond stay-and-play pricing this year that should turn your head and get you to gas up the car.

Take the region’s two Jeld-Wen-owned properties, for instance — Running Y Resort just outside Klamath Falls (www.runningy.com) and Eagle Crest Resort in Redmond(www.eagle-crest.com). The former is offering a Swing Into Spring deal through April that includes a one-night stay in the lodge and unlimited golf for two for $89, with a similiar deal taking over through the summer months. Eagle Crest’s weekday package costs $99 year-round including unlimited golf on the Ridge and Challenge courses, a night in a two bedroom condo, cart and range balls. The incredible views and great service are thrown in for nothin’.

Not Enough Oregon for You? — Never, right? During a recent whirlwind jaunt through the Beaver State, FG discovered one current gem, Centennial Golf Club in Medford, a John Fought design that brings to mind several outstanding Northern California tracks like Poppy Ridge and Sevillano Links; and a soon-to-open (we hope) private-resort property just north of Grants Pass called Paradise Ranch, where Jack Nicklaus and his No. 1 son, Jackie, have teamed up to create a truly sensational routing. There’s one long par 3 that we can’t wait to play. It’s gonna be really good.

The Full Irish — That’s the name of the artery-clogging breakfast often enjoyed by intrepid golf writer Tom Coyne during his four-month walking-golfing excursion around the Emerald Isle, which he chronicles in this year’s best golf book so far, A Course Called Ireland. That’s right,the dude walked Ireland, golf clubs strapped to his backthe whole way. The tall, red-headed Philadelphian headed to his ancestral land to play 990 holes (811,360 yards, par 1,745), from Kilkee to Ballybunion, picking up blisters, Irish wisdom, countless pints of Guinness and even more friends around every bend. Coyne has a gift for blending a poetic love of golf with a respect for old world history and holding it all together with hearty, self-deprecating humor. If you need a break from the onslaught of bad news in today’s papers and cable newscasts, this is the book to curl up with.

The Full Bookshelf — Coyne’s book is king for me right now, but that could change after I get through the stack of new tomes crowding my workspace as we speak, especially Sports Illustrated writer John Garrity’s owntake on an Irish odyssey, Ancestral Links; and Freddie & Me, former Augusta caddy Tripp Bowden’s account of hisfriendship with that famous club’s legendary caddy master, Freddie Bennett. I’ll have full reviews of these and other Summer Reading picks in the June-July issue.

Until then, happy spring-ing.

Published in FG Magazine, April 2009

AMERICA'S MOST HONORED MAGAZINE AT ING AWARDS
It’s getting to be a habit, and we can’t seem to help ourselves. For the fourth straight year, FG racked up an impressive load of hardware at the International Network of Golf Media Awards announced at January’s PGA Merchandise Show. We scored six awards in all, besting writers and photographers from such national publications as GolfWeek and Sports Illustrated. First-place honors went to Vic Williams in Competition Writing for his piece on Tiger’s historic U.S. Open victory (July-August 2008), Joann Dost for her epic shot of Tiger’s 72nd hole putt on Open Sunday; and Calder Chism for his “Weekend Wisdom” drawing of Vic in the May-June 2008 issue. Outstanding Achievement awards went to Williams and Darin Bunch for Travel Writing. Other FG contributors who took home awards included Tony Dear and Bob Seligman. Next year, look for the clean sweep.