Golf Therapy by Tony Lawson PGA Professional

"Treatment for Swing and Short Game Disorders, General Golf Related Ailments and Debilitating  Mental Malaise"

The last major of the year, The PGA Championship will be contested this week at the Atlanta Athletic Club.  This 7,467- yard par-70 layout should be quite a test for the entire field. Rees Jones just finished a total renovation on all the turf grasses and from all indications the course is in perfect shape.

The heat and humidity in Atlanta in the middle of August will be felt by all the competitors and will be a test of endurance as well as patience.  

Tiger will be teeing it up again this week. It will be the first major he's played in without Stevie Williams on his bag since 1999. Woods won 13 of his 14 majors with Williams looping for him. And oh yeah, they made a few bucks along the way.  

Adam Scott's great win last week at the Bridgestone WGC in Akron, Ohio with Williams on his bag for only the last 4 tournaments was no doubt a snub to Tiger, if not some vindication for Williams. After the win he was quite vocal and made some comments  regarding his  unexpected firing from Woods a few weeks back. All this soap opera stuff should make for some great commentary this week and could prove to be quite entertaining as the tournament unfolds.  

I'd like Tiger to play well, as it makes for great TV. His shootout with Bob May a few years back was like watching a heavyweight fight.  I'm not expecting him to contend, but you never know with that guy. If he can find some fairways off the tee and the putter gets hot,watch out. How about a pairing with Adam Scott on Sunday? Don't bet on it. You would need to hire a referee! 

The only predictions I will make is that they will play 18 holes each day and you won't see any of these guys wearing turtlenecks and sweaters.

However, I am going to let Dennis Silvers, the "Golf Guru" give you his picks. The Guru picked Darren Clarke to win the British Open at 75 to 1. I have a feeling he was the only one in the western hemisphere to cash a winning ticket at the sports book. He must either have a crystal ball or have the inside track on some info the rest of us mortals are not privy to.

Although I would have preferred an American to win The Open, it's hard not to like Clarke. He's a journeyman who has been around for quite a while. He had a rough go at it with his wife passing on a few years back and taking on the full-time job of raising two young sons.

Anyway, chalk up another win for Northern Ireland. The whole country has a population smaller than Vegas and they keep winning majors. Must be something in the water.  

Being a PGA member, my annual dues help fund our tournament. It also allows me as well as 28,000 fellow PGA Club Professional's to try to qualify and play in this years Championship. I opted out this  year as there is a Gilligan's Island marathon on this weekend that I just have to see. My wife figured I'd just be throwing entry fee money away anyhow.   

So I'll be home checking out Ginger and Mary Ann!   

However, I was recently asked to play as an invited guest in "The Geriatric Open". My wife suggested that I play in that event. She said it would be good for my self esteem. She is confident I can have a top 10 finish, especially given the fact that the field consists of 16 competitors, all with their own defibrillators, the youngest of which is 88. 

WHAT A GAL!   

Until Next Time,

Fairways & Greens,

Tony

tonylawson@pga.com

(702) 521-6606  

Golf Season in Full Swing

                                                        

Here we are in another Las Vegas  golf season with the temperatures over  105  degrees. The high temps make it a little tough to finish 18 and I am not complaining. I feel very fortunate to still be able to play.

I would like to reflect a little on golf course etiquette. In the last thirty years it seems to me the rules of the game and the courtesy has really dropped.  I don’t know why and maybe no one has bothered to educate the beginner golfers. I would like to point out a few things that I think would make it more enjoyable for all players on the course. Sometimes our foursome might get carried away and we forget to keep our voices down. Sound really carries on the course and we must remember that there are other players that are trying to hit shots.

Speed of play is always very important. It is not necessary to be on the course for 5 hours or more. A good round of golf can and should be played in 4 to 41/2 hours. Be ready to hit your shot when it is your turn to play. I see a lot of guys that will sit in the cart while their buddy hits only to drive another 10 or 15 yards to their ball. Go to your ball and at least get an idea what you are going to do when it is your turn. You can also speed up play by putting out, if you are only a foot or so from the hole and not in any ones line . Do not waste time by marking the ball and going through all the motions of the pros. We can all take a lesson from our new golfing sensation, Rory McElroy. He does not waste a lot of putting or hitting his shots. A breath of fresh air! When you finish the hole and get to your carts, go to the next hole to mark scores or at least pull away from the green to allow the next group to hit their shots to the green.

And if you find yourself a hole or two behind, make every effort to catch up to the group in front of you. If you get in trouble and cannot catch up, there is nothing wrong with letting the group behind you to play through. I like to carry this to the streets that we drive. If you want to drive slowly, move to the right lane and let others drive through.

A rule of etiquette that bothers  me most involves sand bunkers. Those rakes, weather in the bunker or out, depending on the course, are there for you to use when you hit a shot or shots out of the bunker. Rake you divot or divots and footprints so the next golfer does not end up in them. I cannot believe how many golfers hit their shots out of the bunkers and move right on the geen without raking the traps. This practice can also be used in the fairways; try and replace your divots in the grass, either by replacing it with the grass or with the sand jar on the cart. It’s aggravating to hit a decent shot in the fairway and have it end in someone’s divot!

Just one more important thought: Weather playing a Muni course or an expensive resort destination, it does not get any better than being on the course. We should  all do our very best to care for the course we are playing and for the sport we love. Just because we pay a green fee does not give us the right to disrespect the course or the game. With that said and hoping not to offend anyone I want to say, God 

Bless you all and wishing you many healthy years of golfing enjoyment.

Lou Cangey

Vegas Golf Inc.

VegasGolfPros.com

Golf..A 4 letter word.  

2011: The Year of High-Tech Golf

I get really excited at this time of year when we get to see all the new offerings from each vendor. Most years I am amazed at what they think up to improve our golf game. While usually most of their new stuff falls short (and most will again this year), I have to say that some of this year’s equipment is the most technologically advanced I have ever seen.

Drivers that have come out in recent years have been not-so-amazing. But this year, there are drivers with loft AND lie you can change with a few clicks of a wrench. In the past, the only way to change that for woods was to get out the old file and trim down the face a little at a time. And that little bit of time meant an hour of filing and then checking it and filing and checking it again. So when I saw these new drivers I was shocked. I stood there grinning from ear to ear saying to myself…so this is where we are going. I mean who thinks up this stuff? Maybe somebody who got tired of filing and checking and filing and checking.

Another advancement for this year is the new Titleist 910 driver with its 16 different settings. And it does actually change the ball flight. Drivers in the last few years have had slight changes that you could make and they all worked as well, but wow. This is a real game changer.

What will they think of next? I can’t wait to find out.

If you are interested in seeing some of the new equipment take a look on our webpage www.vegasgolfpros.com

Golf A 4 letter word. 

Lance Cangey

Vegas Golf Inc.

VegasGolfPros.com 

Get ready, set, hold on.

Last year’s products are on their way out, so right now next year’s products are being talked about, photographed, and seen in the lucky tour players’ golf bags. Golf manufacturers are talking up their newest equipment to change the game and how to play it with their latest club, ball or shaft. The TV ads are rolling out, making every golfer salivate at the new products that will make him a better player. Even I get a little excited still at the thought of a shiny new fancy driver that will add ten yards.

While this may be an exciting time of year for the customer, it is one of the hardest for a store owner like me. So I’m going to take this opportunity to give you the behind-the-scenes details that show you the nitty gritty details of the golf retail world.

So first, a story: A few years back a golf bag company (which will remain nameless) was coming out with a new golf bag that had a revolutionary carry system that was going to change how you carried your golf bag across your back. The ads were out, the salivating started. I had six pre-book orders in our website’s system from people who were willing to wait for the bag. Well, the arrival date came and went. Another week passed, and still no word from the manufacturer. Finally I was told that the bags were held up in customs. And after two months of more phone calls I was told the bags were never coming and I had to call my customers yet again and let them in on the bad news.

You see, right now is when the new stuff comes in while they’re trying to get rid of the old, so they’re all in a flurry of activity as the stuff comes and goes and they get unorganized and behind. And I mean unorganized. And behind. I call the manufacturers repeatedly to ask them about merchandise their websites say that they have in stock, only to be told “not for another two months,” or they laugh and tell me their site will be updated soon. I hang up the phone and curse! What am I supposed to tell my customers?

What I do is offer my customers discounts or special offers to make up for the manufacturers’ shortcomings. I have to keep my customers happy, as the go-between between them and the big golf companies. No matter what, I strive to provide the best possible service to my customers and provide the customer service the big companies lack.

So the next time you call me and there is a wait for a specific club or bag, please have a heart! We will get the equipment for you or will make you happy somehow, even if I have to make a hundred calls to those companies and make them hurry up. It’s just what we little guys do.

If you are interested in seeing some of the new equipment take a look on our webpage www.vegasgolfpros.com

Golf..A 4 letter word. 

Lance Cangey

Vegas Golf Inc.

VegasGolfPros.com 

To Seed or Not Seed:

It’s September and the temperature is dropping and the leaves are changing and Fall is in the air. NOT! This is Las Vegas baby and we don’t get that stuff here. What we do get this time of year though is over-seeding at all the golf courses. Just when you’d think the kids were back in school and more tee times would be freed up, instead, now we have to endure 2-4 more weeks (depending on the course) of limited places to play and prices that are going up.

Some smart management companies stagger the over-seeding process on their courses, but some companies do it all at once on all of them. I know it has to be done, but that doesn’t make it any easier. The golf business right now is always slower at this time of the year and that seems to make it grind to a stop. Here at Vegas Golf we really won’t get busy until the 1^st week in November, when the Christmas bug seems to start biting. In the meantime, we will try to keep busy by hitting golf balls in the net, practicing putting, shining up that new shipment of Cobra S2 Forged Irons, or having a lazy morning cup of coffee with a customer. Please don’t get me wrong - golfers are still tuning up their clubs and tweaking this or that, but it is a far cry from the normal frantic pace we keep.

So until November, feel free to come by and get what you need anytime. We will be here waiting for you. And after the 1^st week in November, please take a number and we will be right with you, I promise.

Golf A 4 letter word. 

Lance Cangey

Vegas Golf Inc.

VegasGolfPros.com 

Hydration and a New Color Golf Ball

Well now that summer is in full swing, I have noticed two things to be very apparent. The first thing is that here in Las Vegas the temperature is skyrocketing and hovering around 108. So needless to say we need to stay as hydrated as we can when out on the golf course. This sometimes means drinking water even when you’re not thirsty.

The second and most surprising thing is that the new Srixon Z-Star yellow colored golf ball has become very popular. It began with Tim Clark’s PGA Golf Tour win of The Players Championship in May, when he played with the new yellow golf ball and spurred a lot of interest. Previously, the yellow colored golf balls were always synonymous with cheap golf balls and bad golfers, but suddenly these golf balls are the “Tour” player’s golf ball.

 We got the new golf balls at the end of May with customers already asking for them. As soon as they hit the shelves people were buying sleeves to try them out. They were also complaining about the color…it was too bright and why would they have such a golf ball for real players? That surprised me - I thought, why buy it and then complain that the yellow color isn’t for you?

Anyway it seems that golfers are getting over the fear of the new color scheme and actually liking the fact that they can now pick out their golf ball down the fairway without any problem. There also isn’t a problem telling which golf ball is yours from anyone else’s. It is a good golf ball for the money no matter the color. So if you haven’t tried them buy a sleeve and see what you think.

If you are interested in finding a dozen new Srixon Z-Star yellow golf balls you can find them on our webpage www.vegasgolfpros.com

Golf A 4 letter word. 

Lance Cangey

Vegas Golf Inc.

VegasGolfPros.com 

To Groove or not to Groove

Golf is not a new sport by any means, but the new criteria that the USGS is handing down for wedge groove spacing and angel is. I must admit when I heard that the Ping Eye 2 wedges were going to be exempt from the ruling because of the law suit they won against the USGA years ago about their grooves I was a little miffed. I would understand if Ping had won their law suit last week or last year even, or if the USGA was only outlawing certain wedges. But the new ruling on grooves was across the board and included all makes, models and manufacturers.

So with that said, Ping should not be exempt for the simple reason that all wedges will have to be changed, even though their wedges were deemed legal by winning the suit.  I am not Ping hater, I just want the rules to be even across the board with all the manufacturers. I also did not like how all of a sudden the price of used Ping wedges was sky rocketing on auction websites. I thought “here we go again” with these weird, outrageous prices, until someone figures out they cannot back up a golf ball even with square grooves and the wedges are really worth that much. I have been in the golf business for over 25 years and have been a part of that upswing in pricing before and usually someone gets hurt. The customers either pay way too much for a product that isn’t worth it or the vendor gets it bit because they bought a large quantity hoping to cash in on the wave.

I do believe the new groove rules are unnecessary. The only golfers that this will affect are the Professionals and a few really good players. I cannot remember the last time I spun a golf ball back, at least on purpose. I pick the ball and it is really hard for me to make that shot, because you usually need to hit down on the ball to make it spin back.  I do like the look of the new conforming wedges though and it does add to interest and hype to the sport a little and we can always use that…

If you are interested in finding a new conforming wedge you can find them on our webpage www.vegasgolfpros.com

Golf..A 4 letter word. 

Lance Cangey

Vegas Golf Inc.

VegasGolfPros.com