The Short Par 4

Without question, my favorite type of hole to see on the score card is the short par 4.  If done correctly, it rewards the sensible and aggressive players while punishing the foolish and poorly struck golf shots.  It gives course designers the ability to get creative with challenging green complexes.  It challenges the player to make a smart decision based on a number of factors.  If your course doesn't have one, you are missing the boat...  The birdie boat to fun golf land.  Here are my top 10 short par 4's in no particular order.

• The 14th at  Southern Dunes - A drivable option with sand everywhere.  I went for it and found the sand twice and ended up with a round crushing 6.

• The 4th hole at Pebble Beach - 2 options off the tee.  Driver leaving a short chip or iron leaving a fuller shot.  Most tour players go with an iron, I go with driver.

• The 14th hole at TPC Snoqualmie Ridge - With great views of Mount Si in the background this short par 4 urges you to hit driver over the wooded abyss to find a tight and challenging green.  Or you can just bail out right and wedge in.  Great fun!

• The 16th hole at Bandon Dunes -  One of the most photographed holes on the property.  With a strong tail wind usually in play, the player can go for the green.  Although, truly evil bunkers lurk short and the Pacific Ocean on the right.  Awesome!

• The 4th hole at Spyglass Hill -  Although some players hate it, this is possibly my favorite golf hole in existence.  The more you decide to carry the hazard off the tee, the shorter your second shot will be.  A uniquely designed green complex awaits.  Probably the skinniest green in the world.

• The 12th hole at Chambers Bay - Featured prominently at the US Open, the 12th is a very real chance to make an easy eagle by driving the green.  The green offers all sorts of unique putts if you don't put it in the right space.

• The 2nd hole at Gamble Sands - Probably the best scoring chance on the list, offering a beautiful view and only a 3 wood into the green it's a real chance for the double eagle!!  My buddy John thought he had one here until he find his ball in the bunker over the green.

• The 6th hole at Desert Willow's Firecliff Course - An iron layup or a driver to a well protected green?  A well designed option on my favorite course in the Palm Springs area.

• The 10th hole at PGA West -  Pete Dye continues to keep the water in play here requiring a solid iron and a wedge to this scenic back nine opener.

• The 7th hole at Wolf Creek -  Only an idiot would hit driver at this green.  Fortunately I hit my driver so poorly I missed all of the obvious trouble and managed a sneaky pitch and putt for a birdie.  A real tough green complex to hit in real life and in the video game.

The 14th at Southern Dunes in Maricopa, AZ, a great short par 4.

The 10th at PGA West

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 $$.

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

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.

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.

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!!!

The Rare Slow Motion Somersault Drive

During the 2015 Golf Digest Think Young Play Hard Invitational at Royal Links Golf Club in Las Vegas, I completed a rare somersault drive in an attempt to out drive long drive champion Jeff Flag.  This one went about 260 yards with a slight fade.  Jeff hit his 3 hybrid about 320, he won.

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.

2015 US Open Predictions (Pie Chart Section)

Complaints about Chambers Bay broken down by golfer

Probably a little ambitious, but I've heard these guys like to complain.

#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.