Pete and Alice Dye to receive lifetime achievement awards

An editorial piece in today's Indy Star talks about the impact Pete & Alice Dye have had in the golf course design industry. Pete & Alice are being honored by the Methodist Sports Medicine Foundation for their contributions to the sport.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20110422/OPINION07/104220321/

Pete and Alice started designing courses in the Indianapolis area in the 1960s, including the well-known Crooked Stick Golf in Carmel, and since then the Dye family has designed hundreds of courses around the world, including TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedre, Florida; Whistling Straits near Sheboygan, Wisconsin (site of last year's PGA Championship); the breathtaking new course near the French Lick Resort in Indiana; Teeth of the Dog at Caso de Campo, Dominican Republic; Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head, South Carolina (where the PGA tour pros are currently competing) and their current project, the Black Pearl course in Roatan, Honduras. For an interactive map of Dye courses, check out http://dyedesigns.com/courses/.

I've been fortunate enough to have played 7 Dye courses - Brickyard Crossing in Speedway (my personal favorite); The Fort, Eagle Creek (Sycamore and Pines Course), Sahm, and Maple Creek, all in Indianapolis; Plum Creek in Carmel; and Harbour Trees in Noblesville. And I have more than 100 more Dye courses on my list and can't wait to check them off.

So which Dye courses have you played? Which ones are you planning to or hoping to play this summer? Which one is your favorite? Let me know about some of your experiences and observations. Like the time I birdied a hole (#8 at Brickyard Crossing) inside of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which is something I'll never forget. Or the early morning Columbus Day round I played with two good friends at Eagle Creek's Sycamore Course. Or the tee shot my wife poked into Morse Reservoir on a par-3 at Harbour Trees. I'm Dyeing to hear some of your memorable Dye course moments!

Golf Rule of the Month

Bear Slide Golf Club in Cicero, IN has a "Rule of the Month" feature on its website.

http://bearslide.com/golf-club/rule-of-the-month/

This month's rule covers substituted ball and wrong ball situations. Good use of website space to help golfers build or refresh their knowledge of the game's many (often non-intuitive) rules. I'm still not sure I fully understand the explanation of Rule 15, but I know more now than I did before I visited the Rule of the Month page, and maybe I'll be able to talk a little more knowledgeably about these things the next time they come up during a round.

Spring is a good thing

Baseball season started off today (with a bottom-of-the-9th-with-2-outs home run for a Reds win!), Butler in the Final Four tomorrow, grass is starting to get green, and golf season (after a couple of false starts and weather delays) is basically here. Lot of good things happening to keep us positive and maybe to deal with some of the other things that aren't so awesome. Hope you get a chance to enjoy some of the aspects of seasonal change and regeneration and new beginnings. Roll your windows down and pull out the short sleeve shirts, people. It'll be time for swimsuits and flipflops before you know it.

Skini mirts, Dan Siego, and Hatt Moward

Great article yesterday by Rick Reilly of ESPN.com about Butler and Matt Howard. My headline will make a lot more sense if you read the article. Love Ronald Nored's quote about the 6OT game and Howard speculating about BW3's possible involvement.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=6266899

Power of 10

Did you know that there have been 10 different NFC champions in the past 10 years? That's right, not a single repeat NFC title game winner from 2001-02 to 2010-2011. In case your memory needs refreshing, here is the list:

01-02: St. Louis (defeated Philadelphia, then lost SB to New England)
02-03: Tampa Bay (defeated Philadelphia, then beat Oakland in SB)
03-04: Carolina (defeated Philadelphia, then lost SB to New England)
04-05: Philadelphia (defeated Atlanta, then lost SB to New England)
05-06: Seattle (defeated Carolina, then lost SB to Pittsburgh)
06-07: Chicago (defeated New Orleans, then lost SB to Indianapolis)
07-08: New York (defeated Green Bay, then beat New England in SB)
08-09: Arizona (defeated Philadelphia, then lost SB to Pittsburgh)
09-10: New Orleans (defeated Minnesota, then beat Indianapolis in SB)
10-11: Green Bay (defeated Chicago, then beat Pittsburgh in SB)

This 10-different-winners accomplishment has never happened before in the NFL, in either conference. To put it in perspective, compare the number of multiple conference champion totals from previous decades:

91-92 through 00-01: Packers twice, Cowboys 3 times
81-82 through 90-91: 49ers 4 times, Redskins 3 times, Giants twice
71-72 through 80-81: Cowboys 4 times (5 if you measure from 70-71 to 79-80), Vikings 3 times

The numbers are even higher on the AFC side.

01-02 through 10-11: Patriots 4 times, Steelers 3 times, Colts twice
91-92 through 00-01: Bills 3 times, Broncos twice
81-82 through 90-91: Broncos 3 times, Bengals twice, Dolphins twice
71-72 through 80-81: Steelers 4 times, Dolphins 3 times, Raiders twice

So 30 of the 40 AFC champions won multiple titles in their respective 10-year periods.

So do you think the trends will continue next season? (Forget about the ongoing labor dispute - I don't want to talk about it - and they're going to play, eventually.) Will a new NFC team represent the conference in the Super Bowl? Will a repeat winner represent the AFC?

Of the NFC teams that have not won in the past 10 years, I would think Atlanta has the best shot to break through this year? What about Dallas? Maybe Minnesota? The only other options are Detroit, Washington, and San Francisco. So something tells me that this year will be a repeat winner instead of another new one. Whoever it is, they will be playing for the Lombardi Trophy next February just a few miles down the road from me at Lucas Oil Stadium. Can't wait.

Soggy conditions

Way too much rain lately in central Indiana...at least from the prospective of the people who want to get out on the golf course. Forest Park Golf Course, which sits just across S.R. 19 from the White River, experienced some severe flooding this week, and it doesn't look like they'll be open for play for a while. Several other courses are dealing with flooding and standing water in low-lying areas. The photo here was taken from Forest Park's 9th hole green, on top of the hill overlooking the 9th tee box, 8th green, and 8th fairway. How about some warm air, wind, and sunshine?!?

Cinderella story, outta nowhere

Hope you had a chance to see Bill Murray aka Carl Spackler win the Pebble Beach Pro-Am a few weeks ago with D.A. Points.  First win there for both guys.  Points had lobbied hard to be paired with Murray.  I didn't realize that Murray and his 5 brothers all caddied at the Indian Hill Club in Winnetka, Illinois when they were growing up...and apparently their experiences there produced some of the inspiration for the Caddyshack screenplay.  SI has a great article on Murray and Points and how they ended up winning the tourney.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1182012/index.htm