It was a dark and stormy night ... and a snowy day in Marana.
Friday, April 18, 2014
2013 AMPC
February 2013
I marshalled the 17th hole. Didn't see much golf, as lots of matches ended before then. Even after the snow melted, it was cold.
Best Friends
May 2013
We visited Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, one of our favorite charity organizations, whose mission is to take in unfortunate animals and put them up for adoption, or else give them a place to live out their lives in relative comfort. Most animal shelters euthanize their inmates if they cannot be adopted quickly. Best Friends takes pets from those shelters and other sources, keeps them if they are not adopted or adoptable, and provides whatever medical or behavioral help they need to live out their natural lives.
Here's one of the clients.
They have lots of cats, and places for them to play
We saw some hummingbirds at the feeder
And when they pass, there is a Pet Cemetary with wind chimes
We took a hike while we were there, to Hidden Lake. On the way, we passed an Anasazi grain storage facility
and some interesting rock formations
The lake is in a cave, with interesting geology around it
More pictures here and here.
We visited Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, one of our favorite charity organizations, whose mission is to take in unfortunate animals and put them up for adoption, or else give them a place to live out their lives in relative comfort. Most animal shelters euthanize their inmates if they cannot be adopted quickly. Best Friends takes pets from those shelters and other sources, keeps them if they are not adopted or adoptable, and provides whatever medical or behavioral help they need to live out their natural lives.
Here's one of the clients.
Zion National Park
May 2013
Zion National Park contains the Zion Canyon, 16 miles long and up to 3,000 feet deep, carved by the North Fork of the Virgin River.
The canyon was settled by some of the first Mormons to come to Utah. Before that, it had been occupied by humans for 12,000 years.
Many of the unusual features in the canyon were named by the Mormons.
We went on a nice hike up to a waterfall
and hanging garden
This mountain has a name, but I forgot it
There's a "natural bridge"
On the way home, we stopped at a little pizza restaurant / tourist shop. The food was OK, nothing special, but they had a toy for me to play with
Lots more pictures.
Zion National Park contains the Zion Canyon, 16 miles long and up to 3,000 feet deep, carved by the North Fork of the Virgin River.
The canyon was settled by some of the first Mormons to come to Utah. Before that, it had been occupied by humans for 12,000 years.
Many of the unusual features in the canyon were named by the Mormons.
We went on a nice hike up to a waterfall
On the way home, we stopped at a little pizza restaurant / tourist shop. The food was OK, nothing special, but they had a toy for me to play with
Thursday, April 17, 2014
JTBC Founders Cup Pro-Am pictures
The long overdue pictures from the Pro-Am.
We were late to tee off, because one of the "amateurs" in the preceding groups was late to the tee: Nancy Lopez
We also got to see Paula Creamer
and Lexi Thompson
tee off ahead of us.
Our Girls Golf participant who walked with us was MaryBeth
a 5th grader whose favorite shot to practice is her driver. She hits it 180 yards.
Some candid shots of the Real Housewives of LA with Morgan:
and at the 10th tee, where Morgan was replaced by Meena Lee, they took a group picture, and I took a video
And an update from the Walking Scorer chairman:
We were late to tee off, because one of the "amateurs" in the preceding groups was late to the tee: Nancy Lopez
Our Girls Golf participant who walked with us was MaryBeth
Some candid shots of the Real Housewives of LA with Morgan:
And an update from the Walking Scorer chairman:
If you recall, there was a 12 year old girl playing in the
Pro-Am this year. Her name is Karah Sanford, and she was one of the finalists invited to the finals of the drive, chip and putt competition in Augusta. If
you watched the finals on TV, she was the one with Scoliosis who was shown
being fitted for the harness to straighten her spine. She was also shown
driving, chipping and putting. She finished 9th in her
group.
FRED COCHRANE J
“It’s not the size of the
mountain, but the strength of the mountain mover”
Karah's team won the pro-am.
Karah has 9 aces. Could she become the first player to hole-in-one her age?
Karah has won the San Diego Jr Amateur Championship 5 years in a row, and has several trophies for winning tournaments with the word "world" in the title.
If you don't like economics, read this
This is a link to a one-hour lecture that is the equivalent of an MA in economics, but without a need for any prior training. Whether you think so or not, you do practice economics in your daily lives. You know more than you think. If you vote, and if any part of your decision-making in the course of voting is based on the candidate's economic policies, then you need to see this. Anyone can understand it. Really.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkAKG6nkFM4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkAKG6nkFM4
Monday, April 14, 2014
JTBC Founders' Cup Round 4
I got
to the tee early, watched Cristie Kerr and Laura Davies tee off, and
there were some "civilians" waiting by the tee, and I asked
the woman if she would be walking with that group, and she said no,
she and her husband were there with their son Mike. "He's
the commissioner" she confided to me. So I shook hands with Michael Whan, LPGA Commissioner.
My
pairing today was defending champion Stacey Lewis and none other than Morgan Pressel.
As she walked up to introduce herself I said "We have to
keep meeting like this" and she said "This is four times,
right?"
Michael
overheard, and after she walked away he said "5 times is
considered stalking".
He
was kidding.
Wasn't
he?
Both
were 12 under par, with the lead held by Lydia Ko at 16 under. It
started auspiciously for Morgan, as she birdied the first hole while
Stacey made bogey. Stacey came back with a birdie at 2, and the
next excitement was at the 4th hole, a par 3.
At
each green, near the exit, there are a couple of chairs positioned
for the walking scorer and standard-bearer to sit in while their
group putts. It's restful, of course, but it also gets us down
and out of the line of sight of the patrons trying to watch. When
we arrived at the 4th green, Laura Davies and her caddy were sitting
in our chairs!
She
explained that there were already two groups waiting on the tee at
the fifth hole, a reachable par 5 with a propensity for generating
rulings, and both those characteristics result in delays. When
Morgan and Stacey finished putting and walked toward the exit, they
saw Laura and stopped dead in astonishment. I said "We
recruited her to be a volunteer."
So
everyone had a nice chat while the next group, which included PaulaCreamer, played the hole. And she also reacted with surprise at
the sight of her fellow-competitors as spectators.
On 5,
Stacey hooked her drive into the desert, all the way to the bottom of
the wash which was used as a service road, 20 yards left of the
ropes, where she had a decent lie and plenty of room to swing, and
was able to play straight toward the green into the fairway and make
a 2-putt par. Stacey made birdie on 7, and both players were 13
under.
The
8th was Morgan's downfall. She was suffering from her allergies
more than usual today, after showing virtually no symptoms on
Wednesday. Phoenix is the only tour stop where she has any
problem at all. Her drive went into the hazard on the right, in
a bush, and after some consideration she played it, moving it only a
few feet, out of the hazard but still in the wash. Better than
a drop, but from there she couldn't quite reach the green, and made
double bogey. She also bogeyed 12, and birdies on 13 and 15 got
her back to -12, T22.
Meanwhile,
Stacey went on a tear on the back 9, making birdies on 10, 14, 15, 17
and 18 to get to -18. It was one short, though, as 2012 Champion Karrie Webb
had tied the course record (63) and nobody in the
following 10 groups could match her. Hee-Won Han also shot 63
on Sunday, finishing at -14, T15.
JTBC Founders' Cup, Round three
My group today was Suzann Pettersen and Hee-Won Han. I had walked with Suzann before, also in 2009. I can't say she has changed much. She never spoke a word to me after introducing herself, and didn't autograph a ball at the end of the round. Her entry in the LPGA 2014 Fan Book says that she "Says her friends would describe her as 'funny, laid back, caring and determined' ". Her walking scorer says there is nothing funny or laid back about her demeanor on the golf course.
She played well on the front 9, with 4 birdies and no bogeys. On the 10th, she 3-putted from short range, and you could see the smoke rising from her head. She hit her drive into the fairway bunker on 11, which brought forth an f-bomb as she walked down the fairway. On her bunker shot the ball hit the lip and shot into the air, landing well short of its intended target. That was when she let loose ahail volley barrage fusillade torrent of f-bombs that would make a sailor blush.
My standard-bearer told me she once let one fly on live TV, during an interview.
She managed a par 5 on 11, but bogeyed 12 and 18, finishing with 70.
Hee-Won made 3 birdies on the front 9, but also one bogey, and then shot 37 on the back, also making bogey on 18. For a moving day, there was not much motion for this group.
LPGA professionals have as many different attitudes and approaches to golf as any other group of golfers. Some, like Suzann, treat every bounce and roll like a life-and-death issue, and make sure everyone around them knows it. Others, like Morgan and Natalie, while obviously concentrating and taking their jobs seriously, also obviously realize that it's just a job (for us hackers, just a game), not their life and not even one of the top three most important things in their lives. Perhaps that's a part of the reason that Suzann has had more success in golf, but one must wonder if it is worth the cost. Maybe, off the course, she really is as nice as Natalie and Morgan are on the course. Jeckyll and Hyde, so to speak. Even that has to take its toll. Which is the real person, and which is the mask? How do you control it, prevent the natural reaction at the wrong time?
She played well on the front 9, with 4 birdies and no bogeys. On the 10th, she 3-putted from short range, and you could see the smoke rising from her head. She hit her drive into the fairway bunker on 11, which brought forth an f-bomb as she walked down the fairway. On her bunker shot the ball hit the lip and shot into the air, landing well short of its intended target. That was when she let loose a
My standard-bearer told me she once let one fly on live TV, during an interview.
She managed a par 5 on 11, but bogeyed 12 and 18, finishing with 70.
Hee-Won made 3 birdies on the front 9, but also one bogey, and then shot 37 on the back, also making bogey on 18. For a moving day, there was not much motion for this group.
LPGA professionals have as many different attitudes and approaches to golf as any other group of golfers. Some, like Suzann, treat every bounce and roll like a life-and-death issue, and make sure everyone around them knows it. Others, like Morgan and Natalie, while obviously concentrating and taking their jobs seriously, also obviously realize that it's just a job (for us hackers, just a game), not their life and not even one of the top three most important things in their lives. Perhaps that's a part of the reason that Suzann has had more success in golf, but one must wonder if it is worth the cost. Maybe, off the course, she really is as nice as Natalie and Morgan are on the course. Jeckyll and Hyde, so to speak. Even that has to take its toll. Which is the real person, and which is the mask? How do you control it, prevent the natural reaction at the wrong time?
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