Golf Blog

Golf Bros Add Some Lady Bros in Utah

The Golf Bros took their talents to the state of Utah in July.  This time it would not be all bros, as two accomplished lady golfers would be joining.  Allow me to introduce them.

Sarah Moodie:  Sarah is an actual doctor.  Which should serve us well as there were several health endangering experiences on the trip.  She also played college golf, but she played in Canada, so....

Ashlee Bradshaw:  Ashlee is 3 years new to the game of golf and already a big star on Instagram. She let 6 Golf Bros stay at her house for the weekend, so we are not sure about her judgement skills, but we like her anyways.

The Courses:

Victory Ranch:  Woah man, the trip started out with a magestic round at Victory Ranch.  An unbelievable golfing experience that left us saying "I can't believe how perfect these greens are" about 25 times.  

Experienced golf bro, Joe Garvey made a bunch of birdies from the perfect fairways and we paid him a bunch of $$.

Experienced golf bro, Joe Garvey made a bunch of birdies from the perfect fairways and we paid him a bunch of $$.

 

Wasatch Mountain Golf Course:

For the afternoon round we had two groups tee it up on the Mountain course at Wasatch.  Things started slowly on the front nine, but heated up quickly as Ryan Pearce ambushed Joe and Sarah with a fresh batch of ice from the bushes.  Then Ashlee chipped one in and rolled in another birdie on 17 that left us doing 40 pushups as a penalty on the 18th tee.  Ashlee stood poised to take all of our money and leave us all with tired arms.

The Golf Bros had other plans.  with a raucous crowd looking onto the 18th green, the bros hit their approaches.  Ryan Pearce hits it to 25 feet from 180, I knock it to 8 feet from 198, and Kris Buerkle hits it to 12 feet from 120.  With birdies, pushups and pride on the line, Pearce drains his 25 footer for a closing birdie and the crowd goes wild.  Next up Kris calmly rolls in his 12 footer for birdie, the crowd goes even wilder.  A hush falls over the crowd and I can hear bets being placed against me in the audience.  In one of my finer moments, I roll in the 8 footer for birdie and scream unnecessarily loud and high five everybody.  With a closing bogey for Ashlee, the tides were turned and she still owes us 55 pushups.  Update:  Since this post has aired Ashlee has sent photographic evidence of her doing a pushup, the other 54 are assumed.

Professional prankster Pearce ambushes an unsuspecting Joe Garvey and Sarah Moodie

Professional prankster Pearce ambushes an unsuspecting Joe Garvey and Sarah Moodie

Ashlee is pictured here not doing the 55 pushups that she still owes us.  Update: After the airing of this post, the pushups were completed.

Ashlee is pictured here not doing the 55 pushups that she still owes us.  Update: After the airing of this post, the pushups were completed.

Mountain Dell:

This round involved 2 scramble teams, ice cubes to the head and a bunch of weird stuff with a large inflatable duck.

Ashlee worked some magic and got us into a great scramble game early Sunday, both teams would fight valiantly but end up defeated in the end.  The highlight of the day would be when Joe Garvey would capture video evidence of Ryan Pearce dousing Joey and I with ice.  

https://instagram.com/p/5DNzJoEJqn/

Joey the Cat attempts immediate revenge on the camera man by running him down in the bushes.  Fortunately, our onsite doctor, Sarah, would not be needed for this incident.

From left to right: Joey the Cat, Kris Buerkle, Ryan Pearce, John Kennelly, Joe Garvey, Danny the Duck, Patrick Koenig.

From left to right: Joey the Cat, Kris Buerkle, Ryan Pearce, John Kennelly, Joe Garvey, Danny the Duck, Patrick Koenig.

On call doctor, Sarah Moodie, plays a tough lie from the water hazard on #15

On call doctor, Sarah Moodie, plays a tough lie from the water hazard on #15

Wingpointe Golf Course:

The final round of the trip would be a shirtless and shoeless one.  Conveniently located by the airport and Buffalo Wild Wings lies Wingpointe Golf Course.

With an apparently lax policy on golf attire, the bros played shirtless, and shoeless, and made a ton of birdies.

The sun starved San Franciscans and Seattleites work on their tans.  Note:  portions of existing tans have been removed for dramatic effect.

The sun starved San Franciscans and Seattleites work on their tans.  Note:  portions of existing tans have been removed for dramatic effect.

Final Golf Bros trip grade by Joe Garvey: 7.8/10.  Update from Joe Garvey:  "Buffalo Wild Wings brought the trip down to 7.8 but some minor airplane landing drama brought it back to an even 8.0."

Flawless for the First Time

Every now and then you have a round of golf that reminds you how much fun the game can be. This round at The Classic Golf Club in Spanaway, WA was one of those rounds for me.  I got right after it by hitting my approach to 1 foot on the first hole and continued with a very enjoyable and bogey free front nine 34.

After some great ball striking early in the round faded, I was forced to rely on my short game to keep things going.  Usually for me, poor ball striking leads to a bogey here and there.  Not today, today, I was chipping like Jesus.  I tapped in 5 times for easy up and down pars and even threw in another birdie on 17.  I just needed a par on 18 for my first bogey free round of golf ever.  Faced with another chip short of the green, I was able to deliver in the clutch and tapped in for a 69 with no blemishes.  YEEEHHA!!  GOLF!!!

2015 US Open Predictions

Here are my US Open predictions for Chambers Bay.  They are in early this year, which should make them even more impressive.  As a disclaimer, I would also like to remind everyone just how hard it is to correctly predict golf tournaments.  

Top: 5

  1. Jordan Spieth - about 3 years ago, I predicted Jordan would win his 1st major at Chamber's Bay in 2015.  This long range pick is looking even more likely now that Jordan his risen to #2 in the world and claimed victory at the Masters.  Spieth wins by 1 draining a 12 footer for birdie on 18 that sends the crowd into a frenzy of total madness!!!
  2. Rory McIlory - Rory goes down swinging after suffering a tough double bogie on the 16th hole to give up the lead and lose by 1. Rory manages to roll in a nice birdie on 18 forcing Spieth to make his 12 footer for the win.  Ratings glory for FOX!!
  3. Jason Day - Another solid performance in a major by J-Day.  His all weather Adidas pants propel him up the leader board with the low round of the day on Sunday.
  4. Dustin Johnson- I originally had Sergio here but decided to go with Dustin Johnson.  This was based on the fact that I think Dustin is a better golfer at the current time.      
  5. Ryan Moore - Going with the hometown favorite to have a strong showing.  A tough Sunday round sees him fall out of a tie for the lead.

Notables:

  • Tiger Woods:  Tiger plays 2 of the 4 rounds under 70 and the other 2 not so much.  He finishes a respectable T-26th place.
  • Rickie Fowler:  Rick finishes in a tie for 6th ending that whole "top 5 in a major" thing he had going on last year.
  • Jason Dufner:  Dufman finds his grove and leads after day 1, he then turns in 3 sub par (above par) rounds to finish in a T-27, 1 shot behind Tiger.
  • Angel Cabrera:   My friend Joe will bet heavily for "El Pato" to pull this one off.  Joe will lose heavily.
  • Greg Norman and Joe Buck:  Earn moderate to bad marks as Fox's 1st time US Open commentating team.
  • Phil Mickelson:  Phil's driving holds him back this week.  Too much trouble off of the tee costs him a realistic shot at a Sunday run.  He finishes in a T-7 position.  He chips in a whole bunch though and people love it. 

Cinderella Story:

A 21 year old by the name of Ollie Schniederjans (a) from Georgia Tech plays like a man on a mission through 2 days coming into within 1 shot of the lead.  The papers erupt with Francis Ouimet stories of old.  People start chanting Ollie after every birdie, One particularly ambitious fan paints "Ollie Ollie Oxen Free" on her T-Shirt.  In short, people get real excited.....  Unfortunately, Ollie fades into a respectable finish over the weekend right along side Jason Dufner.  Not bad for a 1st timer. 

Winning Score in relation to par:  1 under par:  A near perfect score for the USGA.  The weather ends up being about 1 stroke nicer than expected.

 

#18_365

Someone asked me the other day if I would play golf every day if I had the necessary time and resources.  I found this question to be ironic as I often use the hashtag #18_365 in my Instagram posts.  The hashtag stands for 18 holes a day, 365 days a year, a concept created by Adidas Golf  to be a rally cry for golfers who don’t let weather stand in their way of the game they love

My answer to this question was that I would absolutely play golf every day of the year.  Let's break this down real quick.  Starting with the holidays...  I can always get up early and play on Christmas, and the course is usually wide open on Thanksgiving.  However, I might have to play in the dark on my anniversary and the wife's birthday.  Then there is the issue of weather.  Even here in Seattle, I would get around 201 days with no measurable precipitation, so those are easy.  

But what about the days when mother nature gets nasty?  What would I do on those days?  The answer is simple... I would play in the rain, I would play in the snow, I would play in the wind, I would play in the heat, and then I would play in the rain some more.  Even if no one else will play, I will.

They make golf umbrellas, they make rain pants, and rain gloves, There is even Clima Heat and Clima Cool for taking on blizzards or the Arizona desert in July. 

In conclusion, sign me up for the unlimited time and resources to play unlimited golf!  In the meantime, I will just play when I get the chance, even if no one else will.

Check out other like minded golfers at Golf Digest's content hub for Adidas Golf #18_365.

 

One of my favorite days of golfing in the rain.  Thanksgiving 2014 at Pacific Dunes.  I was the only golfer on the course.

One of my favorite days of golfing in the rain.  Thanksgiving 2014 at Pacific Dunes.  I was the only golfer on the course.

Golf Digest Invitational - Think Young Play Hard

I was lucky enough to be a part of the inaugural Golf Digest Invitational this past weekend.  Below is a snapshot of things that happened.  This list is non-inclusive, partially representative, and potentially offensive.  Sensitive golfers, you have been warned.

16 Things that happened at the Golf Digest Invitational

  • I realized that the race carts at Pole Position go 45 mph and that I am moderate to bad at go kart racing.
  • We hung out with the Bryan Bros and realized that hitting a golf ball out of mid air is a damn hard thing to do.
  • We also realized that hitting a wedge closer than the Bryan Bros is not easy.  Joe managed 3 feet to the Bryan Bros' 3.5 feet!  That .5 feet earned us some new wedges!
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  • I shook hands with Boyz to Men and came to the conclusion that they are some chill ass dudes.
  • This awesome photo was taken of our power foursome by AJ Voelpel.
  • To start things off, a cannon exploded, blasting my hair back and preventing me from hearing properly for 2-3 days.
  • I received $50 in poker chips as swag for the tournament, I waited the entire weekend to play them, doubling up twice on the roulette wheel right before I checked out of the Mirage.  Whoop.
  • Captain Joe Garvey's shorts amazed 80% of the participants and blinded the other 20%
  • Fences were jumped mid-round to obtain Jack in the Box.
  • In an attempt to best World Long Drive Champion, Jeff Flagg, I implemented a rare somersault drive.  There is a slow motion video that exists and I will find it.  Update: it has been found.  View it here.
  • I rolled a 35 foot putt through the gaming floor of the Mirage.  It missed wide left.
  • Joey the Cat and Ryan Pearce won the entire freaking tournament!!! Congratulations boys!  Outstanding Victory.
  • We took some party selfies with the champs.
  • I took a picture of Joe Garvey's butt as he mooned our foursome from atop his golf cart on an adjacent hole.  Picture not pictured here.
  • The ever popular Ashmaeb of Instagram tried to go out the wrong way from this bunker. 
  • Golf Digest's Ashley Mayo flew into the golf course on a helicopter. We made her do push-ups.
  • This post was originally titled 23 things that happened in Vegas at the Golf Digest Invitational. It has been truncated for male nudity and extreme profanity.  Until next year Golf Digest Invitational !!!!  Think Young and Play Hard until then.