Someone asked me about Golf?

Well, here it is.  A whole column dedicated to what I know about golf.  I am feeling pretty special right now.   Why should you listen to me?  What makes me qualified to give you advice about a precision game of skill and patience.  I was just like most of you I am sure... you know, a basic weekend warrior that got out a dozen times a year or so and enjoyed the game with friends from work ... until two years ago. 

My life changed. 

You see, my son who was 14 and had played golf maybe a five or six times in his life at that point and had yet to break 100, said to me... "Dad, I think I want to go out for the golf team when I get to high school next year."  This coming from a kid who had been annually named to the Little League All Star team, traveled to Cooperstown on a travel-ball team and basically had a mitt on his left hand for almost half of the waking hours of his 14 years on this planet.  He chose golf over baseball?  What the heck?

Well, he has now finished his Sophomore season at Los Alamitos High as the #2 seed on the JV team and has worked his way to about an 8 handicap.  Why did this change my life so?  Because it has become our passion... our shared value... if you will.  Not too many fathers have the to pleasure of "shared anything" with a 16 year old son.  So I feel blessed to share many 5 hour "good walks spoiled" with Ben.

Now, I play golf every weekend.  Most of my vacations revolve around golf.   I sometimes even watch golf on television now.  I have probably played every public course in Orange County and close to 75% of them in Riverside and LA counties.  I have played 12 courses that will host PGA or LPGA events in 2007.  I have hit every club Callaway, Taylormade, Nike, Cleveland, Cobra, Nickent, Ping, Titleist, Adams, Mizuno and Bridgestone have on the market today... and I have bought and sold plenty of them in the last two years.  I have not bought a golf ball in a retail store in over a year and yet I only play Nike PD Soft or Callaway HX Tours.  I have followed the prep golf scene and even attended an SCPGA event where a local 14 year old shot 4 under par.   

So my blog is going to focus on my collective learning of the local golf scene from the perspective of a parent who loves the game but isn't a "clubbie" and cannot afford to the weekend rates at the likes of Oak Creek and Tustin Ranch.  After all, I am paying for two for a few more years.