Els for Autism Teams with BirdieBox

The Els for Autism Foundation has teamed up with BirdieBox to launch the "Els for Autism Box," a limited-edition collection of golf related products associated with Els for Autism’s founder, the smooth-swinging South African golfer, Ernie Els.

BirdieBox will officially debut the package during Autism Awareness Month at their pop-up retail store in Augusta, GA, today through Sunday, April 12th. A percentage of proceeds will be donated to the foundation started in 2009 by Els and his wife Liezl after their son Ben was diagnosed with the disorder.

"Our foundation is committed to helping people on the autism spectrum fulfill their potential to lead positive, productive and rewarding lives," Els says, "And we are delighted that BirdieBox, along with my partners, have developed this great new give-back initiative to help the Foundation raise funds and awareness for this important cause. The box has some great items and the timing is perfect as it launches in April – which is Autism Awareness Month.”

These limited-edition boxes are available through BirdieBox.com at three price points ($249.95, $149.95, $79.95) and will include an extraordinary assortment of golf gear with a total value nearly double the retail cost. Among the items included are TaylorMade TOUR Preferred balls, special-edition “Els for Autism” Daphne’s head cover, Els Collection polo, Zero Restriction outerwear, Stable 26 socks and an I-ONICS Power Sport band.

BirdieBox’s donation will help fund a state-of-the-art autism center and hub of worldwide operations for Els for Autism, The Els Center of Excellence. Groundbreaking for the Center took place last year and the first components are due to open in August 2015. Once complete, the Center will provide on-site education for 300 children on the autism spectrum ages 3-21. It will also bring together the critical components of early intervention, transition to adulthood, medical and professional services, and adult services all on one campus. Committed to a global mission, the Center has been designed to facilitate a multi-faceted global outreach program focused on the sharing of best practices and programs with the global autism community and beyond.

“It is estimated that 1 in 68 children in the U.S. will be diagnosed with autism, a truly staggering figure highlighting the millions of individuals and families affected by the disorder,” says Pat DePirro, CEO of BirdieBox. “We strongly believe in the Els for Autism Foundation and proudly stand by its side as it strives to make a positive difference to the lives of those affected by autism and their families.”

A turnkey solution for club, corporate and charity golf outings, BirdieBox offers event organizers a wide variety of packages for all budgets and tastes. These include numerous pre-configured options and prize boxes, or customers can totally customize their order by selecting from a diverse assortment of premium golf, lifestyle and nutritional products. The exterior of each event box can be handsomely designed to showcase specific logos, imagery and messaging. Brand exposure can be furthered by inclusion of logoed golf balls, apparel, headwear, accessories or other items.

Beyond the company’s event services, personal monthly subscriptions that remove the hassle from shopping and gift-giving are available at BirdieBox.com. Packages include a selection of the hottest golf, lifestyle and nutritional items from major brands. Offered in one-, three-, six- and 12-month options, subscriptions start at $49.95 per month while retail value of each delivery is $100 or more.

The Els for Autism Foundation was established in 2009 by Ernie and Liezl Els to focus on the issue of autism. The Els son Ben is profoundly impacted by the disorder, which affects 1 in 68 children in the U.S.

The Foundation’s overarching mission is to helping people on the autism spectrum fulfill their potential to lead positive, productive and rewarding lives.  In the U.S., to help fulfill its mission Els for Autism is currently building a state-of-the-art Center of Excellence in Jupiter, FL, on a 26 acre campus with a local, national and global reach and is in the middle of a capital campaign to finance the development. Once completed, the Center will host a uniquely designed, on-site educational program for 300 children on the autism spectrum ages 3-21 and bring together the critical components of early intervention, education, applied research, transition to adulthood, medical and professional services, and adult services all on one campus. Having all the essential components on one campus, with the integrated programing and continuity of service that this allows, will not only be a game-changer for the children in the local area, but positions the Center as the perfect hub for a global outreach program; that will ensure its influence is felt far beyond the boundaries of its walls.

Groundbreaking for the first components of the Center, the Lower School and the Auditorium Building, began in March 2014. The Lower School is on schedule to welcome its first students in August this year, and the Auditorium Building is also on track to become the new home of the Foundation this summer, enabling the team to further develop its global outreach programs using this magnificent, and fit-for-purpose building as its base. In the meantime, the Foundation continues its fundraising efforts to ensure a continuous build schedule for the remaining components of the Center; the Upper School, the sports facilities, the medical and professional building and the adult services component.

Among many other books, Dave Donelson is the author of Weird Golf: 18 tales of fantastic, horrific, scientifically impossible, and morally reprehensible golf

Best Golf on TV Sunday? Drive Chip Putt at Augusta

A pair of local youngsters should be on everyone's radar Sunday when they compete in the Second Annual Drive Chip & Putt Championship this Sunday prior to the start of the Masters.

One is Matthew Camel of Greenwich, CT, who racked up the high score in the nation in the regional qualifer, scoring 169 total (69 Drive, 40 Chip, 60 Putt) out of a perfect maximum score of 225.

Camel, who plays out of Round Hill Club, was a consistent performer in Met PGA Jr. events last year, accumulating 4,295.76 points toward a rank of ninth in the player of the year race in 18 events. He won twice, once at Powelton Club, again at Rockrimmon.  He qualified for the Drive Chip & Putt in the Male 14-15 year-old division at Apawamis, then Eisenhower Park's Red Course, before advancing to the regional event at Bethpage Green.

Jennifer Rosenberg of Laurel Hollow, NY, will compete in the same age group but in the Female division.  She started her qualifying at Harbor Links Golf Course.  Rosenberg teed it up on six Met PGA Jr. events last year, and won four of them, finishing second in the player of the year competition.   In 2013, she won the Long Island Girls Championship, played at Glen Cove Golf Course.  Her home course is Glen Oaks.

Eighty young golfers in four age categories will compete in the Finals Sunday.  If you can't make it Augusta, be sure to tune in to the Golf Channel.  If last year is any indication, this may equal the Masters itself in entertainment value.

Among many other books, Dave Donelson is the author of Weird Golf: 18 tales of fantastic, horrific, scientifically impossible, and morally reprehensible golf

Champion Course for Champions at PGA National

Planning a trip to PGA National Resort and Spa? Be forewarned: the Champion Course, home of the Honda Classic, is a hard, hard golf course. That's not say you shouldn't play it--it's a great golf course well worth the exertion--just keep your expectations under control.

Remember that the course was really designed for professional competitions. It opened in 1981 and hosted the Ryder Cup two years later, followed by the PGA Championship in 1987. It was the home of the Senior PGA Championship from 1982-2000.  After a major renovation, it became the home of the Honda Classic in 2007. It's interesting to note that during those last nine years, only twice has the winner pushed the final score to double digits below par for four rounds.

When Jack Nicklaus took on the renovation in 2002, he basically designed a new golf course, attempting through modifications of the fairway and green contours to make it a little more forgiving for the average player.  While that was accomplished, little was done to change the routing and the heavy influence of water hazards on play.  Coupled with thick, sticky rough, the course well deserves its high ratings and slopes.  From the 6,719-yard gold tees, those are 73.4/145. Most of us will tackle the Blues, which play 6,367 but carry a 71.8/138.  For a real indication of how tough the course plays, though, look at the White tees.  Many players will ignore them because the card shows they measure only 5,934.  The 69.9/129 rating/slope, though, is more like many 6,300-yard courses I've played around the country.

Looking for a challenge? The Champion Course is it. Fifteen of the holes have water in play that dictates strategies both off the tee and during your approaches.  Another caution: the green surrounds generally don't release a short approach shot unless it's a briskly-struck bump and run, so don't expect to trickle a lucky miss onto the putting surface. I played the course this year while the fairways were still narrow after the tournament, so I got to experience plenty of play out of the rough.  It wasn't particularly long, just thick and sticky, so digging out with a short iron is almost always your only option.

The famous Bear Trap gets all the TV coverage, but there are plenty of other tough holes on the course.  Number 6, which looks like a pushover 468-yard par five on the scorecard, plays as a par four for the pros.  Water lines the entire left side just a few yards away from the fairway and bunkers encroach on the right off the tee.  The green has three levels, too, so distance control is paramount on the approach. Number 7, a 186-yard par three, plays downwind but has a front bunker that makes it all carry.  The green is long with a Biarritz-like swale in the center just to make it extra interesting.

One of the strongest holes on the course is Number 11, par four at 395 yards from the Blue tees. Getting off the tee isn't a big problem, but the approach is a killer.  Water runs from the landing area all the way to green on the right. The green itself sits diagonally to the fairway, making for some interesting pin positions. If you overshoot the green, you're left with a shot from a treacherous bunker back toward the water.

Water and wind are hallmarks of the famous Bear Trap, holes 15 through 17.  The two par threes are relatively short (153 and 155 from the blue tees), but both play all-carry with water wrapping around the right side of both greens to drown slices.  Sixteen, 391 yards, calls for an iron or hybrid off the tee to stay in the short grass, but that sets you up for a long approach over water to an elevated green. How tough is it?  Even the bailout for the second shot is over water!

The finishing hole is a classic double dogleg par five that provides all sorts of excitement. It truly is one of the best finishing holes in the game, playing 527 from the blue tees and forcing the player to negotiate fifteen bunkers and water on every shot.  A strong drive sets up a wonderful risk and reward second shot, too.

As I mentioned at the beginning, the Champion Course is not an easy walk in the park. It's hard. But for golfers who want to challenge a real player's course, it can't be beat.

Among many other books, Dave Donelson is the author of Weird Golf: 18 tales of fantastic, horrific, scientifically impossible, and morally reprehensible golf

Antigua in the High Cotton

I don't know about you, but I've never been fond of the "plastic" feel of the typical high-tech fabrics used in golf shirts these days.  Granted, they have advantages, but they also make me feel like I'm trying to swing while covered with Saran Wrap.  Antigua has just released a solution: Desert Dry Performance Cotton.  It adds fine cotton fibers to the synthetic filaments that promote moisture wicking. The result is dry comfort with a natural feel against the skin.




Ron McPherson, President and CEO of Antigua, explains the company's thinking in this short video:

I reviewed the Antigua Spring Collection earlier, but hadn't tried the Desert Dry Performance Cotton at that time. I have now, and can say that I found it very comfortable and almost retro in the way it feels against the skin -- Retro as in what golf shirts used to feel like before they started making them out of plastic. Maybe I'm getting too particular in my old age, but I'll leave that conclusion up to you.  By the way, I don't wear Spandex when I ride my bike, either.

Among many other books, Dave Donelson is the author of Weird Golf: 18 tales of fantastic, horrific, scientifically impossible, and morally reprehensible golf

Gary Player Reaps Award from Met Golf Writers

The Player Foundation and World Golf Hall of Famer Gary Player are slated to receive the Winnie Palmer Award from the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association at the organization's 64th National Awards Dinner on Tuesday, June 9 at the Westchester Marriott in Tarrytown, NY.

The Player Foundation provides quality education, nutrition, medical care and extra-curricular activities for underprivileged children around the globe. It was established by the Player family in 1983 and to date, through several annual events staged in the U.S., Asia, Europe and South Africa, the foundation has raised more than $50 million for these important causes.

Each year, Black Knight International, in conjunction with The Player Foundation, manages and runs
a series of four prestigious golf events on four continents which raises more than a million dollars annually.

"What the Gary Player family and their entire company has done for others is remarkable," MGWA President Bruce Beck said. "The Player Foundation provides hope, just like Winnie Palmer did for so long."

The MGWA's Winnie Palmer Award acknowledges an individual consistently given their time, energy and enthusiasm to those less fortunate. The Award is named in honor of Winnie Palmer, who devoted much of her life to charity work for literacy programs and health care. Past recipients include Barbara Nicklaus, Dolores Hope, Vivienne Player, Betsy King, Peggy Kirk Bell, and Ernie Els.

Created by the Met Golf Writers Association in 2000, the Winnie Palmer Award has been sponsored by Rolex Watch USA since its inception.

Other MGWA award winners Nick Price (Gold Tee Award) and Ron Sirak (Werden Golf Journalism Award) will join Player on June 9. Additional MGWA award recipients will be announced in the coming weeks.

Among many other books, Dave Donelson is the author of Weird Golf: 18 tales of fantastic, horrific, scientifically impossible, and morally reprehensible golf

Disabled Vets to Learn Golf Free with Met PGA Pros

Met PGA Hope (Helping Our Patriots Everywhere) got off to a good start yesterday at the John Kennedy Learning Center at Westchester Country Club when dozens of local pros gathered to find out how they can help veterans with disabilities benefit from the game of golf.

"There's a special link between golfers and our veterans," said Charles Robson, Executive Director of the Met PGA. "With West Point in our backyard, it just seems like a natural."  The eight-week golf instructional program for veterans with disabilities is slated to roll-out at West Point GC this spring.  "For us, it all comes down to giving something back to these people to whom we owe so much. For the vets, it's a great chance for them to benefit from the game."

Elmwood CC's Pete Stefanchik
swings wrong-handed on one leg

The pros attended a morning presentation by PGA Professional David Windsor, an expert in teaching adaptive golf programs for individuals with physical and cognitive challenges.  In the afternoon, they experienced first hand what the vets feel like trying to play golf while coping with various disabilities. The pros wore various devices that forced them to hit a ball on one leg, or with the opposite hand like a switch hitter in baseball, or with only one eye.

"The sensation is totally different," said Heath Wassem, Met PGA President and head pro at Fenway Golf Club. "It really gives you a great appreciation of what they go through."  There were also several disabled vets in the crowd who demonstrated their prowess.

PGA HOPE is the flagship military program of PGA REACH, the charitable foundation of the PGA of America. It is designed to introduce golf -- at NO cost -- to veterans with disabilities in order to enhance their physical, mental, social, and emotional well-being. The HOPE program, led by PGA professionals, helps veterans assimilate back into their communities through the social interaction the game of golf provides.

Interested participants should contact the Met PGA to learn more.

Among many other books, Dave Donelson is the author of Weird Golf: 18 tales of fantastic, horrific, scientifically impossible, and morally reprehensible golf

The Squeeze -- a Sure Bet Golf Movie

Jeremy Sumpter, Jillian Murray,
and Terry Jastrow (seated)

Any golfer who plays for money -- all of us, in other words -- needs to see The Squeeze, a soon-to-be-released movie about gambling, golf, and Las Vegas. It's also about the loss of innocence, how young love conquers all, and why you should never trust anybody who wears a hat indoors. But mostly it's about life-or-death gambling on golf.

Here's the plot in a nutshell: Young muni golf phenom who can't lose becomes the stakes horse for a high-rolling gambler who rides him to Las Vegas to play in a million-dollar match. The Squeeze happens the night before the match, when the small-town phenom is threatened with death by either side, one if he wins, the other if he loses.

I saw the movie in a preview and found it fun, exciting, and full of choice bits.  It's not Tin Cup, but it's not Bagger Vance, either (thank goodness). What really distinguishes it from other golf movies is that the players are really players. They know which end of the club to hold and how to swing it, which is more than you can say about just about any other golf movie ever released. The golf sequences -- and there are many good ones -- are believable and a pleasure to watch.

The verisimilitude is in large part a function of the director's background as a senior producer/director of golf for ABC Sports for 22 years. Terry Jastrow conceived and wrote the story based on what he says is the true story of Keith Flatt, which he heard over the dinner table one night.  Also on the production team was Jastrow's wife, Anne Archer, whom you might remember as Michael Douglas' wife in Fatal Attraction, Michael Doven, whose credits as an associate producer include Mission Impossible II, and many others with substantial film credentials.

Golf is at the center of the story, but the characters are what make it fun.  Twenty-two-year-old Augie Baccas (Jeremy Sumpter) is the young phenom whose fractured family life and need for ready cash enable the smooth-talking gambler, aka Riverboat, to persuade him to give up dreams of playing in the US Open for a career hustling golfers with more money than sense. Riverboat is played by Chris McDonald, who played a similarly smarmy bad guy, Shooter McGavin, in Happy Gilmore.

Augie's longtime sweetheart, Natalie (Jillian Murray), is against the deal, of course, but comes through for him in the end.  Las Vegas gambler Jimmy Diamonds (Michael Nouri) looks the part and plays it better. The best character in the whole flick, though, is Riverboat's over-the-top wife, Jessie, played by Katherine LaNasa.  She delivers the cleverest double entendres as well as the most flamboyant strut you'll ever see on screen.

The story arc is rather predictable, but there are enough sidebars and minor characters to make it worthwhile to pay attention. Augie struggles with his conscience in the beginning, but greed and/or need wins out and he plays in ever-larger matches set up by Riverboat until all the available sheep are fleeced and they move to the really big money games in Las Vegas. There, Riverboat sets up Jimmy Diamond for the coup de grace in a poker game and pits Augie against the reigning "US Champion" (I suspect the USGA wasn't crazy about allowing use of the term "US Amateur Champion" in this context) at Wynn Las Vegas.

The night before the match, Augie has another confrontation with his conscience, but overcomes it with vodka and cranberry juice. That's when the threats come from Jimmy Diamonds and Riverboat.  Heads you win, tails you lose, but in either case, you die. Not the kind of quandary that makes for happy swing thoughts on the first tee. The story arc is predictable but the ending isn't, so I won't offer any spoilers. Trust me, though, it's worth hanging around for.

Reaction from other early screeners has been very positive. Here are a few comments:

Jack Nicklaus: "I watched The Squeeze with Barbara and really enjoyed it. It’s a fun movie that tells an interesting story, and the golf elements are so real you actually believe it could happen."

Phil Mickelson: "The Squeeze is the best golf movie ever because it’s so authentic. It hooks you in the beginning and stays interesting and entertaining right to the end. I’m looking forward to seeing it
again."

Tom Watson: "The Squeeze depicts actors (lead actor Jeremy Sumpter in particular) who are truly believable as pro quality golfers. Director Jastrow’s true understanding of the game (with 22 years directing sports, in particular golf on ABC Television) injects reality into the scenes with a stream of golf humor that golfers will find both familiar and believable, which are sadly lacking in all previous golf movies. With his athletic swing, Sumpter made this entertaining tale believable from the start. The catalyst for the film is the character “Riverboat”, whose role is wonderfully played by Christopher McDonald. His guile and salesmanship together make for an intriguing surprise ending. The Squeeze is indeed an enjoyable adventure into golf and big time gambling."

The bad guys are evil, the hero is kind of hapless but you root for him anyway, and the golf is more than just credible.  The Squeeze is a delightful diversion.  It releases April 17th in selected theaters and video on demand.

Among many other books, Dave Donelson is the author of Weird Golf: 18 tales of fantastic, horrific, scientifically impossible, and morally reprehensible golf