Diffley Weighs in on the PGA Championship

Guest blogger Mike Diffley, head pro at Pelham CC and all around good guy, shares his thoughts on the PGA Championship and a few other hot topics:

The four majors have been played. The PGA was exciting as it has become the major where the best players play great courses not too tricked up--except they continue to make the finishing holes par 5's that they call par 4's. It seems like a par is a birdie, I'm not sure if it's good or not but I don't like it.

Oak Hill was soft earlier in the tournament and the scores reflected what happens when all these great players don't have to worry about controlling the ball into the greens. Looked like darts! The fairways become wider as the ball doesn't roll out into trouble if hit a little off line. Length is not much of an issue with an amazing amount of players using non-drivers on long holes. I have personally not been to Oak Hill but it surely looks like and have heard it's like many of our best.

Speaking of our best, the three locals, Danny Balin, Mark Brown and Rob Labritz surprised me by not playing better. All three are great drivers of the ball as evidenced by their having won on the Black at least once. Getting used to the scene or just not having your "A" game at a major makes things tough.

Jason Dufner all week--but particularly in the last round--proved the adage that the three most important clubs are putter, driver and wedge. He was splitting the fairways, hitting it on the center line defined by the cut. Wedging it to three tap-ins in the final round and putted well from inside 10 feet. He can be a little shaky on the greens but handled it well this week.

Dufner has a great motion with incredible balance and power all following the longest (in length and number of times) waggle in the history of golf. He waggles until he feels it, very different than most players or instructors would advocate. He is known as an awesome ball striker, so keep it up.

His persona on the course is interesting. The announcers are always saying how calm he is. He definitely seems like a cool cat because he has found his way of not reacting (no judgment) to every or any shot. He didn't know how to celebrate after his last putt went in because he had trained himself not to react! In his first interview after the win you could tell he was in shock and hadn't turned off his focus.

It's great to see a player who has worked and improved over the years. He is 36 and nobody really knew who he was on the big scene until the PGA two years ago. He was a walk-on at Auburn and comes from Ohio. Not a star at 17 I guess, just someone who figured out how to keep getting better. Chuck Cook a great Texas teacher is his man and lets him be himself!

On another note: Andrew Svoboda (a St. John's grad) won on the Web.Com this week in Missouri shooting 22 under with a final round 64 (8 under) to probably secure his PGA Tour Card for 2014. He hasn't had a great year but caught fire this week under the radar. Andrew grew up at Winged Foot and is a former Met Am and Open Champion.

Speaking of Met Open Champions, Diffley won the premier event in 1991. This year, he'll be playing in his 30th Met Open at Old Westbury CC.

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

Amazing Wedge Puts Rob Labritz in PGA Championship

In one of the most exciting finishes of his career, GlenArbor Director of Golf Rob Labritz holed out a 95-yard wedge in the second playoff hole to earn a spot in the field for the PGA Championship. The video shows this amazing shot


Labrtiz had edged into the playoff at the PGA Professional National Championship at Sunriver Resort in Oregon with a one-over 288. He was one of six vying for three spots in the major to be played at Oak Hill in Rochester this August. Danny Balin, of Burning Tree in Greenwich, made the playoff as well. Balin dropped a birdie putt on the first playoff hole, as did Bob Gaus, leaving four contenders for the last spot in the major.

On the second playoff hole, the 457-yard par four eleventh on the Crosswater Club course, Labritz had pulled his tee shot into an ugly bunker where he was left with a difficult lie. He gouged it out into the fairway while the other three players put their second shots on or close to the green.

Left with 95 yards, Labritz called on hours spent working on wedge shots with his swing coach Tom Willson, head pro at Bonnie Briar, and took dead aim with a 52-degree wedge for the uphill shot to a pin placed precariously on the upper tier. His hope was to get close enough for a one-putt par to stay in the playoff. The video shows what happened instead.

Standing ready for the post-shot interview was Labritz compatriot at GlenArbor Brian Crowell, head pro at the Bedford club, who was providing on-course commentary for the Golf Channel coverage of the event.

This will be the fourth PGA Championship for Labritz, who was the low club pro at Whistling Straits in 2010.  Oak Hill may be a particularly memorable tournament for another big reason: Labritz and his wife Kerry are expecting a baby girl to be born about that time.

Two other Met Section pros made the cut in the tournament, but finished just outside the line for the championship. St. Andrew's Greg Bisconti was tied for 24th. Metropolis assistant John Guyton finished in a tie for 59th.

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

Labritz Wins Club Pro Title At PGA Championship

Let's hear a hearty "Huzzah!" for Rob Labritz, Director of Golf At GlenArbor Golf Club in Bedford and low-scoring club professional at the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits. Labritz shared the awards spotlight with Martin Kaymer, the rising European PGA Tour star who won the Wanamaker Trophy.

Last year's low-scoring club pro was also from Westchester, Greg Bisconti, an assistant professional at St. Andrew's in Hastings.

Labritz has been blogging about his experience at the tournament at the NY Post with Ralph Wimbish. Yesterday, he announced he's taking the big plunge this year and heading for Q School in November. His performance at Whistling Straits convinced him he's ready to take his shot on tour.

And a fine performance it was. "HUZZAH!"

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

Rob Runs Into A Round-Wrecker

We've all had it happen to us. Rob Labritz, the only club pro to make the cut at the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, had an excellent third round going for 17 holes. Then a quadruple bogey jumped up and bit him.

You can read the details of how one of Pete Dye's 1,000 bunkers snagged Labritz's approach shot on the 446-yard par-four ninth hole (his 18th of the round since he started on the back nine) at the blog he's writing with Ralph Wimbish at the NY Post. But we've all had it happen to us...an awkward stance, a bad lie, a little extra adrenaline and the next thing you know your scorecard has a blot on it.

Up until that point, Labritz was cruising. He'd started the round at even par, then scored a birdie on the first hole. Here's some video of the precise second shot that set up the tweeter that put him under par for the tournament.



He poured in this putt for another bird on the 12th hole.



Labritz added yet a another circled number at the 569-yard par-five 16th hole. He dropped a couple of shots in the early going on the back nine, but got one back with another kick-in birdie at the 507-yard par-four 8th hole, his 17th of the day. All together, a much-more-than-respectable round that shows Labritz, the Director of Golf at Bedford's GlenArbor Golf Club, can keep pace with the best.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

Labritz Scores At PGA Using Positive Mindset

Rob Labritz, Director of Golf at Bedford's GlenArbor and one of 20 club pros competing in the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, went to bed last night feeling mighty good about his chances for moving up the leaderboard. He told Ralph Wimbish of the NY Post that he felt great calm after finishing the first nine holes of his delayed second round.

Labritz had reason to feel good; he scored two birdies and parred the treacherous 18th hole (his ninth for the day) that had put him over par for the first round. With that out of the way, he went to the course this morning to finish the second round expecting much lighter winds and facing the much easier front nine.

A birdie on the second hole, a 593-yard par 5, gave Labritz a one-under 71 for the round and puts him at even par for the tournament. While there are still players on the course finishing their second rounds as of this writing, that should put Labritz well inside the cut line. We'll be watching (and rooting) this afternoon.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

Sweet Swing at Whistling Straits

Rob Labritz had a fine first round at the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits. The Director of Golf at Bedford's GlenArbor Golf Club shot a one-over 73 in a round that included four birdies on the front nine. He was one under going into the final hole, the treacherous 500-yard par-four 18th, which he told the NY Post's Ralph Wimbish has been his nemesis in the practice rounds.

Here's video of Labritz's tee shot at the 148-yard par-three 12th hole, which he safely two-putted for a par.


For the inside scoop on Labritz's experience at the PGA Championship, visit the blog he's writing for the NY Post with Ralph Wimbish.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

Buddy Trip? Try Whistling Straits

Enchanted by the TV coverage of Whistling Straits? Consider it as a destination for a buddy trip.

First you fly to Milwaukee. Milwaukee? You bet. The land of polka fests and cheeseheads also happens to be the home of the Midwest’s only AAA Five-Diamond resort and the site of the 2010 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits. When they played it there in 2004, you may recall, Vijay Singh won his third career major. The Straits course, which opened in 1998, is two miles of rugged Lake Michigan shoreline sculpted into brutal, windswept links by golf architecture’s bad boy Pete Dye.

At the same complex and just inland from the Straits Course, Dye built the deceivingly tranquil Irish Course, where the grassland and dunes are crossed by four meandering streams. There’s also a flock of Blackfaced sheep complete with bells, which makes for an other-worldly experience when they trot between the pot bunkers as you’re aiming your tee shot. Kohler also offers two slightly more conventional courses at nearby Blackwolf Run, also Pete Dye designs. All the courses—-and everything else in town—-are operated by Destination Kohler, a division of the well-known plumbing fixture company.

There are basically two places to stay in Kohler, a quaint, carefully manicured company town where stately elms line the streets and even the bricks in the old factories look scrupulously clean. The AAA Five-Diamond facility is the distinguished American Club, where every room features a Kohler whirlpool bath (it is a plumbing fixture company), down comforters, and memorabilia honoring famous Americans. Less posh but still comfortable is the Inn on Woodlake, a 121-room hotel overlooking an eleven-acre lake with private beach and its own putting green. The tiny village also offers ten places to dine, including the Whistling Straits Restaurant in the stone clubhouse overlooking Lake Michigan, which received the 2005 Wine Spectator's Award of Excellence.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

Inside The Ropes At The PGA Championship With Rob Labritz

Only 20 club pros made it to the PGA Championship that starts today at Whistling Straits--Rob Labritz from GlenArbor is one of them. He's chronicling his experience with the help of Ralph Wimbish in a blog for the NY Post.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.