Tee It Forward?

The PGA of America and the USGA have a new initiative, TEE IT FORWARD (here), that encourages golfers to play from tee boxes that are appropriate for the distance they drive the ball (see the graphic above). The Initiative will be running from July 5-17 at participating golf facilities.

One course I play regularly, The Meadows, has five tee boxes ranging from 5155 to 6955 yards in overall course length (here). Given my driving length, I should either play from the White (6068) or the Blue (6448) tee boxes, but the blue tees are actually out of the suggested range. I could try playing a mixture of white and blue tee boxes, but that would screw up handicap calculations.

The USGA is not suggesting that courses add tee boxes but rather that people play from the boxes that are in their range. For me, that would be the White tees. Of course, I could always try to add 25 yards to my tee shots (see below, the click doesn't work)!

NOTE: There are some holes that the Meadows could benefit from added tee boxes, for example the 18th hole that has almost a 50 yard gap between the back and forward tee boxes. Hopefully, courses will look closely at the spacing between tee boxes and make some adjustments.

Rory McIlroy's Great Golf Swing

In honor of Rory McIlroy's record setting performance yesterday in the US Open, here's Wayne deFancesco's swing analysis. Notice the sit-down-standup move and the minimal head movement.

Seven Steps To Havana Deserves More Recognition

In the clip above, pianist Viviana Pintado sings "Contingo Aprendi" (With You I Learned) with Minneapolis based Seven Steps to Havana, Doug Little on sax. I heard them play on August 19, 2009 in Madison. Here's a rough translation followed by the actual lyrics (without the intro):

With you I learned

That new and better emotions exist

With you I learned

To meet a new world of illusions

I learned

That the week has more than seven days

To make greater my few joys

And to be happy with the things I learned from you

With you I learned

To see the light from the other side of the moon

With you I learned

That your presence I will not change for anyone

I learned

That a kiss can be sweeter and deeper

That I can leave tomorrow from this world

The good things, I have already lived them with you

With you I learned

To see the light from the other side of the moon

With you I learned

That your presence I will not change for anyone

I learned that a kiss can be sweeter and deeper

That I can leave tomorrow from this world

The good things, I have already lived them with you

And with you I learned

That I was born the day I met you

Contigo Aprendi
Que exsiste nuevas y mejores emociones
contigo aprendi
a conozer el mundo nuevo de ilusiones
aprendi
que la semana tiene mas de siete dias
hacer mejores mis contadas alegrias
ya ser
yo contigo lo aprendi

contigo aprendi

a ver la luz de el otro lado de la luna
contigo aprendi

de tu presencia no la cambio por ninguna
aprendi que puedo un beso ser mas dulce y mas profundo
que puedo ir me manana mismo de esto mundo
las cosas buenas ya contigo las vivir
contigo aprendi
que yo naci el bien que te conoci

contigo aprendi

a ver la luz de el otro lado de la luna
contigo aprendi

de tu presencia no la cambio por ninguna
aprendi que puedo un beso ser mas dulce y mas profundo
que puedo ir me manana mismo de este mundo
las cosas buenas ya contigo las vivir

contigo aprendi
que yo naci es bien que te conoci

The Future of Golf

In a prior post (here) I revisited Arnold Palmer's great golf swing. In the clip above, the "King" talks about the business of golf and what he sees for the future.

Thelonious Monk: If you play a note that sounds wrong, just keep playing it until it sounds right.

TCM recently aired a Clint Eastwood documentary "Thelonoius Monk: Straight No Chaser." In the clip above, Monk is working out the head with tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse. The tune is "Boo Boo's Birthday" named for Monk's daughter. The tune has an unusual harmonic structure and is 21 bars in length. Charlie is seen here making sure he understands it. Working out new material is, for me, one of the best parts of a good jazz session.

In the Mortgage Market, The Government Is The Problem

From reporting today by PBS Marketplace (here):

Bruce Marks is the CEO of NACA (the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America).

BRUCE MARKS: Every person who's here (at a loan modification convention in LA) has already tried and failed to work with their lender. So it's really incumbent upon the government to require them to do it. I used to be a regulator, I worked at the Federal Reserve Bank. The fact of the matter is, as a regulator, they can force these lenders to do it across the board.

VIGELAND: Why does it take something like this for a homeowner to be able to modify a loan? What's the difference here?

MARKS: There are two differences. We have legally binding agreements with all the major lenders and the investors covering over 90 percent of mortgages in this country where they have to do it. Secondly, there's nothing like that face-to-face interaction. Personal interaction is what gets the results, because you see families, you see the devastation firsthand, and that makes that banker that much more committed to helping the homeowner.

VIGELAND: But if that's the case, then isn't it pretty close to impossible for banks to do this for the millions of people who need a loan modification?

MARKS: Well, actually they can. But you know, you have to have the government pushing to do that. The biggest problem we have are not with Bank of America mortgages or Chase or Wells or Citi, it's with government-owned mortgages: FHA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac. So the mortgages that the government controls, those should be the ones that we can modify the easiest. They should stop the foreclosures and they should say that these bankers can never foreclose on somebody unless every effort was made to modify that mortgage and that was documented.