Marvelous

You gotta love the early SNL skits of Fernando Llamas I believe his "You look Marvelous" line was used 1000 times at my graduation party.


Rio "the marvelous city" will host not only the 2016 games, but will also bring golf to the games, where it so rightly belongs.
The future betting will not however be on the golfer that wins the gold, but for the golfer that builds the course.

See, Rio has no golf courses...it does have pristine beaches with scantily clad sun worshippers and sugar cane fields with...um...controlled burns.

Now it's not Billy that will be saying his famous line, but rather Norman, Faldo and Nicklaus.


No, I'm not talking about their dreams of competing with their sticks...


...they will be competing with their shovels.


So, it is in this beautiful corner of the world, that these great men will train their bulldozers over Rio Terra Firma, to reach the gold in a much more high stakes game than what the actual golf shots will contest, for the Olympic gold.

They will be competing for residuals, the right to call their golf resort the "Official Golf Course of the 2016 Olympiad", and have that moniker to have and to hold way after the Games have gone.

...and that will allow one of these great men to check their bank account while the Rio gold flows to them and say..."Mahvalas".


Thanks for reading. Keep it in the short-grass,

JFB

Sibling Rivalries

You have your Eli's and Peyton's...your Serena's and Vanessa's...and the Laroche boys...

...get ready for the Thompson's.

In case you missed it, Friday held some trepidation for two youngsters from the same household: Nicholas Thompson, and his little sister Alexis.

Big brother Nicholas, a former Georgia Tech golf standout who shared the leaderboard with the eventual winner, and Techster, Matt Kuchar at the Turning Stone Championship in Verona NY.

Little sis Alexis, a Florida high-schooler who's 14, shared the leaderboard with eventual winner Lorena Ochoa at the Navistar LPGA Classic at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail's Capitol Hill spread in Prattsville AL.

I'm sure the household was abuzz! And I'm sure the biggest question was not where they would finish in their respective tournaments...

...but rather which course would the parents walk.

Thanks for reading. Keep it in the short-grass,

JFB

The hole-in-one

There are many reasons to golf: we go to relax, commune with friends or go just for the challenge. There is the beauty and serenity of the golf course that makes a round of golf a unique experience each and every time we go...and that's what makes the game of golf so easy to get hooked on.

So when my friends and I decided to go take a day off work to play The Echelon Club in North Georgia, we were going for all those reasons.

But one of my friends got way more than he bargained for.

When you hear of people hitting a hole in one, you listen with detached interest...because, I guess as it is with a lot of events, unless you're in the moment, you can't understand the passion of being there.

Well, I was there, and I now understand the moment.

It happened on the 3rd hole. At 160 yards on an elevated tee it looks inviting, but throw a sand trap the width of the green...10 mile an hour cross-winds, and a pin placement that made you wonder if the greenskeeper "got any" the night before, and you had all the makings of a snowman in 70 degree weather.

When the ball hit in front of the hole, took one bounce into the flagpole and dropped in, we all cheered as if we had completed an insurmountable task.

We are all part of that event now, forever will our names be on that scorecard that will soon be mounted on his wall...with ball. We four are part of something that we won't forget.

My friend has accomplished something that has odds of roughly 12000 to one. Forever and a day that we play, he will have that on me.

He could have shot 500 that day, but in the end...he was the one that got his ball to fly to the stick and go in.

Yes, passion is a big reason folks golf. But hit a hole in one, or witness one, and you'll be hooked beyond passion. You'll understand the essence of the passion...

...to hit the perfect shot.

Thanks for reading. Keep it in the short-grass,

JFB