ryebread442

1. Jason Day (-13) 2. Peter Hanson (-11) 3. Kevin Streelman (-10)

Francesco Molinari -9 Alvaro Quiros -11 Matteo Manassero -6

Jonathan Byrd -10 Anders Hanson -6 Aaron Baddeley -8

I agree with iacas on this one. There was a course in my area (5880 yards from the normal tees) that had par 3s at 130,118,149, and 165 yards in length...until the beast at 16 which was listed as 195 (except the normal tees were moved to the back tees at 215 yards). It also featured trees on both sides with a slope on the right that even further penalized the unfortunate hacker. After they renovated the back nine, it morphed into a dogleg par 4 by clearing out the woods behind the green. It's helped pace of play enormously. On the other hand, there is a city course that plays less than 6,000 yards. On hole 2 you get a nice, 150 yard "island green" (they substituted water with sand) and then it's three 190 yard par 3s (including back to back ones that are almost identical). Length seems like the easy way out when dealing with par 3s. Instead of designing holes that are on the edge of a short hitter's grasp, architects should use their imagination. Play with the green depths, fool around with the sand traps. Do anything. The most boring hole in golf is the straight out, 200 yarder that says "We ran out of ideas."

I was known as "Ryebread" during my high-school golf years. No real significance, my coach was just playing on my first name. A buddy of mine got "Stumpy" that year because he had a tendency to hit his putts fat.

Nick Watney -6 Ben Crane -5 Francesco Molinari -4

Martin Kaymer- 276 J.B. Holmes- 278 Webb Simpson- 279

When I was young, my dad would go out every Sunday morning to play with my uncle and a rotating duo to round out a foursome. My uncle made a pretty impressive-looking trophy and they would all play net golf. Lowest net won the trophy, defending champ got to come back next week, and if you forgot to bring it, you were out of the running for that round. He usually got home around noon and I would always ask him who won (usually, not him) in addition to listening to his stories. Fast-forward a couple years, when I turned 13. I decided that I could probably muster enough strength to move the ball down the course, so I asked for a set of junior clubs. I got hooked fast.

I know coaches actively recruit (my coach stalked out the Maryland State Championships), but it never hurts to give coaches a call or filling out an academic interest form. Since you are still a sophomore, my advice is to keep doing what you are doing now (since you can shoot around even par, you are obviously doing a good number of things right). If your grades are good and your game follows, there's no doubt that a team will pick you up. Also, remember that you'll have to work twice as hard when it comes to schoolwork. Depending on your choice of major, it can be pretty demanding. I don't mean to scare you, but it's something to file away for the future. If you have a good head on your shoulders, you'll do fine. Also, enjoy high-school while it lasts. I graduate from college in 2 weeks, but it feels like I walked across the stage for high-school just yesterday.

I played for three years at Stevenson University in Baltimore, Maryland. It's a Division III program (conference: Capital Athletic Conference), but there are some pretty good players. Usually, I was just one of the utility guys that went to minor tournaments or filled in with guys who couldn't make it due to class. We usually played a bunch of southern Pennsylvania courses like Hershey C.C., Links at Gettysburg, etc... The program was in its infancy when I was a freshman so I walked on and had the chance to play right from the start. I was slowly phased out when better players started showing up. You could find a range of scores at a D III tournament. One time, I think someone shot in the 140s while the winner shot -2. Junior year, my rounds were 90, 98, 124 (never play competitively the week after you just finished physical therapy), and 89. I was never in contention, but it was always a lot of fun. Short hitters beware, though. There were times when I couldn't reach par-4s in two because of my 205-215 drive.

I played in a scramble a few weeks ago where the low gross was 51 (par 72). They had a strange set of rules for this tournament. There were 3 sets of tees (back tees, regulars, and ladies) and each team got to tee off from each set of tees 6 times (I think we had a par 5 from the ladies' tees that measured 330). There were no mulligans, but if you hit your shot into one of five spray-painted shamrocks, it counted as being holed. Also, I say gross because at the end of the round, they took 30% of the average of your team's handicap and subtracted. My team's 63 put us around 13th out of 25 net and 17th gross.

There have been a number of oddities during my golfing career. The one that stands out the most where I was hitting a shot happened last year. I pushed my 2nd shot on a par 5 to the right on the opposite hole. About 50 yards in front of me, there was a guy mowing the grass in line with the hole. I tell him to move since he's in my way and only moves about five feet to the right. I hesitate, knowing it's not nearly enough, but he just stands there looking at me holding his ground. I end up hitting a screamer no more than 10 feet off the ground, forcing him to hit the deck. As for playing partners, my dad once hit himself. It was a par 5 that doglegged left. His first pushed right along a treeline, but he still had a favorable angle coming back. Unfortunately for him, he pushed his shot right, struck a tree, and nailed himself right in the Twins bullpen. Luckily, he was okay (and I, already born), but he definitely took a shot. Lastly, I've come to believe in reverse-karma. Same course, following hole as the first story. We were waiting for a par 3 to clear and my friend was getting impatient. He was messing around with his 3-wood that he won in a closest-to-the-pin contest, but never had the chance to use. 90 degrees to his left, he saw an opening between the tips of the trees. He teed up a old ball, and pounded it. A few seconds later, we heard what sounded like a car crash. The main road went perpendicular to his ill-advised shot and struck a car. Said car actually went in reverse maybe a fifth of a mile to see what happened as my friend tried to look as innocent as possible (the guy drove away a few seconds later). As I left the course at the end of the day, a bladed shot went through the previous hole and hit the hood of my Civic. No significant damage, but the golf gods really should have punished the guy who hit the shot.

I am a big fan of the Bridgestone e6's. The noticeable difference in ball flight surprised me. I tried them out one day and managed to turn a slump around. Since I can't go very long without testing something new, I picked up a pack of Diablo Tours (I was split between those and the new Titleist Velocities) but haven't been out to give them a field test yet.

Bill Haas- 276 Luke Donald- 278 Webb Simpson- 279

U.S. Team 17.5 Int. Team 16.5 MVP: Matt Kuchar

One of my friends who shoots at around a 16 handicap told me he was +4 on the front nine of a rather challenging course then blew up for a +21 on the back. I asked him how that happened and he said that he drank about 10 beers over the course of the round. So my answer would be alcohol.

Paul Casey -11

I've scrambled for par a few times, but the strangest one came from the last round I played. My friend and I decided to play one day when we were excited by the fact that the temperature would make it to 40 degrees. It was the sixth hole, a short par-5 that doglegged at near the end. I pulled my first shot left after hitting it off the heel. My next shot was a high, short shot, but it still left me only about 140 yards out (they only had one set of tees placed that day due to winter conditions). My next shot would have been perfect, but the cold, hard ground shot my ball right by the pin and under a tree. My 4th shot was headed right for the sand until it bounced out and allowed me to putt from the rough. I sank my par and walked to the next tee box grinning the whole way.

Thanks for the advice everyone. Hopefully this is just some sort of problem that doesn't manifest itself on the course.

I went up to a driving range to get some practice getting rid of my slice only to find out that it is getting worse. I must have hit 8-10 wedges in a row that barely got three feet off the ground and just sliced dead right ending up at least 50 yards from their intended target. I've done this about three times all year and I'm wondering if this is a result of an over-the-top swing. Also, it seems like my ball striking is getting worse over the summer rather than getting better. Do you have any tips or fixes for this?

I'm from Baltimore as well. What course did you play? As for advice, I'd just try and put it behind me and move on to the next round. The last thing you want to do is go out in your next round saying "I need to shoot __". Hope you bounce back.

For the past two months I've been playing a Calloway Tour iz and I really love it. They check up so well around the green that I'm contemplating not even using the Pro V1's my coach hands out before a tournament. I'll probably end up grabing a sleeve of each, plus a few Pentas and head to a chipping green to make my final decision.

I almost got hit about a month or two ago acting as a caddie for my school's alumni charity event. The hole was a short 270-280 Par 4 and I just took the pin out of the hole and heard "FORE!" being yelled. I debated for a second on which way I should go since I had my back to them at the time and with a stroke of luck, I picked the right direction. Had I continued going towards the back of the green instead of off to the side, I would have probably been struck in the back. When the group behind us caught up to ours at the turn, they did apologize and the guy claimed he didn't know he could hit it that far. Good thing it avoided the other members of the group. I was caddying for the president of the college, one of the former athletic directors, and some board of trustee's members.

I always shake the hand of my playing partners after the round, if you don't, it doesn't with me. (I'm sorry, it was so tempting) Puns aside, I always like to introduce myself to anyone I've never played with before everyone tees off and shake everyone's hand after the round. Almost everytime I've played this year, I've gone out with the same guy and still shook his hand and congratulated him. I just see it as common etiquette. I've never been concerened about taking off your hat and sunglasses. Since I almost never wear a hat or sunglasses when I play, I never knew it was common courtesy to remove them at the end. I don't think that anyone is less respectful if the are wearing a hat on their head, if you offer to shake my hand, congratulate me, and wish me well in the future, I wouldn't mind if you had three hats and a pair of comically oversized sunglasses on.

I've done something similar to that before (52-38) and I never could figure out why I played so well on the back. All I did was grab a hotdog and a Mountain Dew at the turn. I usually do play better on the back, but it's never that dramatic of a difference. It is fun salvaging a bad round with a back nine in the thirties though.