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

Ranking Hamilton County's golf courses

I mentioned in my last post that my home county (Hamilton County, Indiana) has 22 golf courses, 15 of which are public.  I've been fortunate enough to play 14 of the 15 public courses, plus one of the private ones.  In alphabetical order, sorted by public/private status, they are:

PUBLIC:
Bear Slide Golf Club (Cirero)
http://bearslide.com/

Brookshire Golf Club (Carmel)
http://www.brookshiregolf.com/

Forest Park Golf Course (Noblesville)
http://www.forestparkgolf.com/

Fox Prairie Golf Course (Noblesville)
http://www.foxprairie.com/

Gray Eagle Golf Club (Fishers)
http://www.grayeaglegolf.com/

Ironwood Golf Club (Fishers)
http://ironwoodgc.com/

Mohawk Hills Golf Course (Carmel)
http://www.indygolf.com/course/mowhawk-hills-golf-club_73/

Pebble Brook Golf Club (Noblesville)
http://www.pebblebrookgolfclub.com/

Plum Creek Golf Club (Carmel)
http://www.plumcreekcc.com/

Prairie View Golf Club (Carmel)
http://www.prairieviewgc.com/

Purgatory Golf Club (Noblesville)
http://www.purgatorygolf.com/

River Glen Country Club (Fishers)
http://www.riverglencc.com/

Stony Creek Golf Club (Noblesville)
http://www.stonycreekgolfclub.com/

Sunrise Golf Course (mailing address is Indianapolis, but it's located in Carmel)
http://www.indygolf.com/course/sunrise-golf-club_31

Wood Wind Golf Club (Westfield)
http://www.woodwindgolf.com/

PRIVATE:


Crooked Stick Golf Club (Carmel)
http://www.crookedstick.org/

Harbour Trees Golf Club (Noblesville)
http://www.harbourtrees.com/

The Bridgewater Club (Carmel)
http://www.thebridgewaterclub.com/

The Hawthorns Golf and Country Club (Fishers)
http://www.hawthornscountryclub.com/

The Sagamore Club (Noblesville)
http://www.thesagamoreclub.com/

Twin Lakes Golf Club (Carmel)
http://www.twinlakesclub.com/

Woodland Country Club (Carmel)
http://www.woodlandcc.com/


I've been thinking about and working on some county course rankings, with the ultimate goal of applying a multi-factor process to produce composite scores for each course.  I would welcome your personal rankings, comments, questions, and suggestions to make my evaluations more useful or more informed.  For my initial list, I've simply ordered the courses based on preferences for playing them under perfect circumstances - cost not considered, no other groups on the course, weather is just right, no time contraints, etc.  If someone told me on a summer Tuesday at noon that I could go play any Hamilton County course, on the house, I would rank them as follows:

1. Prairie View.
2. Bear Slide
3. Plum Creek
4. Purgatory
----
5. Wood Wind
6. River Glen
7. Ironwood
8. Pebble Brook
----
9. Fox Prairie
10. Gray Eagle
11. Stony Creek
12. Brookshire
----
13. Forest Park
14. Sunrise
15. Mohawk Hills

I've also developed tiers for separating comparable courses for purposes of rankings and evaluations.  My "double eagle" tier includes #1-4 above, the "eagle" tier includes Wood Wind through Pebble Brook (#5-8), and the "birdie" tier covers numbers 9-12.  The three 9-hole courses make up the "par" tier.  (Because even when golf is average or mediocre, it's still good, if you know what I mean.)  Sunrise is the only one on the list above that I haven't played, so after playing there I may want to revise the rankings, but since it's a 9-hole I thought it made sense to list it in the same tier as Forest Park and Mohawk Hills.

For my more ambitious and data driven rankings phase, I've come up with some evaluation categories that I believe factor into my decisions - and most other golfers' decisions - about where to schedule their tee times and outings.  If you think this list should be tweaked or added to in any way, let me know.  Would love to hear about your thought process for picking courses and ranking them against each other.

Within each category, I'll assign a score on a scale of 1-10, and then ultimately I'll average the categories scores for overall composite scores and put out a new results list.  Some of the classification sets may seem to overlap, but I believe the associated considerations are distinct enough to give them separate categories, and I'll explain them further as I share my course-by-course designations.  My working list for evaluation categories includes, at this point:

1 - Appearance/visual design
2 - Condition/maintenance/upkeep
3 - Challenging/unique/strategic design
4 - Space/privacy/crowds/enjoyability
5 - Cost/value
6 - Amenities/perks/atmosphere

So what do you think?  Am I missing anything?  Placing too much importance on anything?  Should any of the categories be weighted?  How much do you think these categories will change the initial rankings I listed above?  Golfers always have a lot of ideas and opinions, so feel free to share yours.

For some more good info on these courses, check out http://8greattowns.com/Golf-Indiana.  It was developed by the Hamilton County Convention and Visitors Bureau, and includes descriptions and links for the county's public courses (excluding Mohawk Hills and Pebble Brook, although the print version has a listing for Pebble Brook), plus 2 Marion County courses - The Fort and Brickyard Crossing.

And remember, even though all of our local courses are covered with several inches of ice and snow right now, it won't be too long before golf season is here.  I played my first round last year on March 15, and in 2009 I even made it out before the end of February.

PGA Tour winner reminds us how lucky we are

While watching Sunday’s finale of the Bob Hope Classic, which came down to a 3-way playoff capped off by a fantastic 13-foot winning putt by Jhonattan Vegas, I was struck by something Golf Channel announcers Rich Lerner and Frank Nobilo mentioned about Vegas’ homecountry, Venezuela.

Lerner and Nobilo recounted conversations they have had with Vegas, in which he talked about his sadness at recent actions by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to permanently close several golf courses.  Apparently, Chavez believes that golf is an elitist sport that doesn’t belong in a country struggling with poverty and homelessness, so he’s directed government officials to acquire and bulldoze at least 9 Venezuelan courses in favor of housing for the poor.

Regardless of your political views and your thoughts on the issues of access to and affordability of housing, this story should make you think for a moment about how lucky we are to live in a nation where golf courses are so plentiful.  In my home county alone (Hamilton County, Indiana, which is comprised of around 403 square miles), there are 22 golf courses!  Fifteen of them are open to the public.  That means there is a golf course per every 18.3 square miles, and a public golf course per every 26.9 square miles.  Getting to a local course is usually no more than a 10-15 minute drive, and some residents live on courses or within walking distance of them.

In Venezuela, by contrast, the numbers are extremely low.  According to New York Times reports and Venezuela Golf Federation listings, the country had 28 courses several years ago, before government actions reduced the number to less than 20.  Other sources give even lower numbers.  (GolfWorldMap.com lists only 7 golf courses, all located along the northern coasts.)

Venezuela spans a total of around 353,841 square miles.  You could fit more than 878 Hamilton Counties within Venezuela’s borders, yet the former contains either an equal or greater amount of courses, depending on your sources.  In terms of courses per square mile, Venezuela’s ratio is more than 1/18,000. 

By edging Gary Woodland and Bill Haas in Sunday’s finale, Vegas became the first Venezuelan to win a PGA Tour event.  Vegas learned the game by watching and imitating his father, who worked for a 9-hole course in the oil-drilling camp in Venezuela’s Orinico River valley where the family lived during Jhonattan’s youth.  He later moved to the U.S. to study and golf at the University of Texas before qualifying for the Nationwide Tour and eventually the PGA Tour.  The Jhonattan Vegas story is an unlikely one, and it looks like it will become even more unlikely given recent trends in his homeland.

 So the next time you find yourself complaining about the condition of the bunkers or the greens fees or the group ahead of you playing a little too slow, step back for a moment and remember how fortunate we really are.  Appreciate the ease of access and relative affordability that we have.  Value the variety and volume of courses that we have locally and regionally and nationally.  And remember that it could be a lot less ideal.  Even when you hook your approach shot out of bounds, smile and savor the fact that you’re playing a wonderful game that too many of us take for granted.