Keegan Bradley's 2001 PGA Championship paved the way for younger golfers to embrace long putters.

Once the last resort for old men with bad backs and yippy hands, long and belly putters are now showing up in the bags of PGA Tour professionals, in even more bags on the Nationwide Tour, and a certified rage amongst kids wearing Ricky Fowler colors and wide white belts.  Bellies, it seems, are growing as prominent as Maltbie’s gut.

So is an increasingly heated debate on whether or not these “alternative putters” are good for the game, or even legal since the butt of the shaft is “anchored” to one’s chest or stomach.  For example, the recent Sports Illustrated golf equipment issue contained a long feature entitled “The Belly Boom,” which concluded that no matter what critics may say, the weird-looking long putters were in the game to stay.

Meanwhile, the Northern California Golf Association’s latest quarterly magazine includes a point-counterpoint column on whether belly putters ought to be banned. I was asked to write the “no” side of the argument, and of course crafted a professional opinion without ever actually testing a belly on a real green.  But the assignment triggered an interest in the belly, and it’s now clear I should have tried one long ago.

The plain fact is that once on the short grass, I’m cursed.  Now, on putts of 20 to 30 feet, I’ll lag them to kick-in distance maybe 8 out of 10 times.  Alas, when putting for birdie or par from three feet out, well, I‘ll lag those lag those close, too.

Then came this Golf Road Warriors adventure, and from trip sponsor Callaway Golf an Odyssey White Hot Sabertooth Belly Putter, just like the one Keegan Bradley used to win the 2011 PGA Championship, the first major ever captured by a player who was alternative putting.  More significant on the personal level, the Sabertooth is turning into absolute beast, enabling me to drop short Coachella Valley putts this week at the Mountain Course at the La Quinta Resort, the Indian Wells Golf Resort, Silver Rock Golf, Shadow Ridge, the Golf Club at Tierra Lago.

Jenkins Needs Fiber

The argument against long putters is that anchoring the butt end of the shaft against one’s sternum or stomach enables you to make a more stable and consistent pendulum stroke, which is ostensibly an unfair advantage against someone crouched over a regular-length stick, gripping the club only with the hands.  Tom Watson, who can get  his panties in a bunch over most anything, railed against “this big broom putter.”  Venerable Golf Writer Dan Jenkins announced that: “I loathe and despise the long putter with every fiber in my body,” which at his age indicates he’d better be eating more fiber.  In 2004 Ernie Els insisted “they should be banned.”  Guess who I saw using an alternative putter at the Frys.com Open last fall?

Now Els is flopping like a beached carp, or maybe worse and like a Republican presidential candidate.  “Although I’ve used it, I’ve used it for, what, six months now, I feel the same as most of the tra­di­tion­al­ists,” Els said at the 2012 North­ern Trust Open in Los Ange­les. “I feel that no club should be anchored to your body.  I don’t know how they’re (the USGA) going to go around it;, maybe use a put­ter as long as you want as long as it’s not anchored to your body any way, even up your arm.  You see a lot of the guys use it in their armpits now.  “Noth­ing should be anchored to your body. I was in such a state that I felt that I needed to change some­thing, which I did.  I went to the belly.  It hasn’t really helped me that much, but it has helped me.  But I’m for it.  Ban it.  It’s fine.”

Thanks a lot, Big Whatever.

The USGA in fact  had a chance to ban these putters some 20 years ago.  If Sam Snead’s croquet-style putting stroke could have been prohibited, the thing about anchoring the butt of the club against the body would have met little or no resistance.  USGA Technical Director Frank Thomas wanted long putters banned as non-conforming, but was overruled. Now?  Well, the big cats are out of the bag.

Putting guru Dave Stockton has been learning to personally stroke the alternative putters just so he can teach their use with his distinct approach to putting.  Short game instructor Dave Pelz has found that players tend to make more short putts with belly putters, but are not quite as accurate on long lags.  I’ve found that one simply needs to spend a little time getting a feel for the stroke on those longer putts, which is soon identical to using a standard length flat stick.

(Caveats: Casual one-handed automatic tap-ins from 12 inches out aren’t as easy with the heavy and long-shafted bellies.  Make sure it’s conceded before flipping an alternative at the ball.  Oh, and since it’s also one of the heaviest clubs in the bag, walkers who pack ought to sure they’re ready for the additional weight.)

Yet another putting guru is PGA Teaching Pro Norm Albergio of Rhode Island, who is also one of the world’s most far-sighted putter gurus.  Albergio contends that most regular length putters have shafts too long and heads that are too light, which makes it too easy to put unwanted side-spin – - perhaps only 30 rpms – - on short putts.  He believes Tiger Woods is making a perfect stroke on those five-footers, but missing on the left edge, because of his equipment.  Albergio also says that the USGA would be wrong to think anchoring a putter to you body gives any kind of advantage.  “It’s the mass and weight of a long putter,” he insists, “that gives them stability.”

The Short and Long of It

How rapidly are long and belly putters penetrating the golf market?  “In 2011, interest in belly and long putters has brought tremendous excitement to not just the putter category, but the golf industry as a whole,” says Chris Koske, Global Director of Odyssey Golf. “Odyssey has seen a 400 percent increase in sales of our mid and long putter offerings over 2010, and we are not expecting it to slow down any time soon.”

Titleist’s Scotty Cameron says he used to sell between 500 and 1,000 alternative putters a year, but thanks to Adam Scott’s second place finish in last year’s Masters, Bradley’s PGA win and other professional successes, Cameron expects to sell up to 20,000 of them in 2002.

My White Hot Sabertooth is increasingly good on lags, while producing more reliable rolls on short putts.

Like a baseball bat with perfect weight and balance, putter choices are highly individual, which is why it is good golfers today have so many choices.  I’ve tried several belly models now, but find I have excellent long-range touch with the White Hot XG Sabertooth, while getting much closer to dialing in the accuracy on those long-perplexing short challengers.

With one of the more radical head shapes, the club’s “Dual Fang” design gives it the name of the extinct cat.  But those big teeth position weight out and behind the sweet spot, helping keep the putter on line.  Here’s more of what Odyssey says about the Sabertooth:  Aiming Channels inside the fangs make lining up putts easier. The multi-layer White Ice® Insert allows weight to be shifted to the perimeter of the head for stability, while also delivering enhanced feel, sound, responsiveness and resiliency, adding up to consistent distance control and ultimate feel on the green.

And that’s what you need to roll the long putts close, and make the short ones that produce the most pleasing and rewarding sound in golf – - a ball hitting the bottom of the cup.

A TravelPro bag similar to my 25-inch spinner.

A twenty-five inch Travelpro MaxLite 2 Expandable Spinner is a luxury I’ve been without for far too long, a piece of luggage sufficiently large to hold enough clothing for seven days on the links and dinners out, and to accommodate a ride home with the extra stuff that typically accumulates during a golf trip.  Provided by a Golf Road Warrior Palm Springs sponsor –  - Travelpro – - this size of bag marked a reversal after several decades of light and spare packing.

As a corporate road warrior I always tried to get by with a small carry-on, for the ease of getting off flights without waiting for baggage, and ensuring nothing would get lost.  Hotels did any laundry and the rather expensive charges simply went on an expense account.  I worked for Big Oil, which could afford it.  My wife and I also traveled light on vacation, achieving an apotheosis during two weeks in France with only carry-on.

However, when it comes to golf trips, where you have to check the clubs and wait in baggage claim anyway, I’ve never had enough room in my roller bag, and end up shoving extra things in with the clubs.  Even new things got wrinkled, and I’d look and feel like a latter-day Oscar Madison.

Thus, I was quite pleased with Travelpro’s selection of the larger bag.  This case is made of rugged polyester that’s water repellent and stain resistant, with “spinner” wheels that rotate 360 degrees, making it easy to weave through a crowded airport while also managing a golf travel bag.  It has handles of neoprene – - instead of plastic – - which another good design touch.  It also has protective skid guards, corner guards and crash-guard wheel housings that should stand up well during the roughest travel.  Marketed as “the choice of flight crews and frequent travelers,” Travelpro’s luggage line includes backpacks,  garment bags, rolling duffels, and even a “checkpoint friendly” computer brief.

Wearing The Green

Yet another GWR sponsor is AUR, a Canadian golf apparel company, known for its line fashionable and performance driven designs, the latter of which dry quickly and resist wrinkling – - and I tend to get wrinkled way to much on trips.  Along with traditional golf-inspired sweaters, vests, pants and shorts,  the company’s strongest growth category is an environmental compatible line of green line of shirts.   These include fabrics that incorporate bamboo and coffee grounds into the cloth, which initially sounds odd but is actually quite practical and useful.

A shirt made from one of AUR's environmentally friendly fabrics.

For the Golf Road Warriors, we’re packing three different types of AUR shirts down to Palm Springs.  Here’s how each is described:

CarboCool™ fabric contains a blend of Polyester and Bamboo Charcoal. The carbonized bamboo is visual on the inside of this material as a grey tint. The benefits of this fabric include Moisture Wicking and Fast Drying for comfort, as well as Anti-Odor and Added UV Protection for peace of mind. Carbonized Bamboo is environmentally responsible, and offers the same benefits that a chemical finish would without the unnecessary harm to the environment.

S.Café™ uses a patented process that transforms the coffee grounds into yarn, which is then used to produce polos.  Most coffee grounds end up in our landfills, which contributes to our overall solid waste management problem.  Producing a garment with S.Café™ fabrics helps in easing landfill concerns.

EcoSmart™ is a fabric made from Recycled Polyester Yarn.  Recycled polyester yarn is made from plastic post-consumer based products. It is environmentally friendly by reducing fossil fuel consumption and green house gases when compared to regular polyester production. The Ecosmart story encompasses 2 different fabrics: 100% Recycled Polyester and Combed Cotton/ Recycled Polyester, which provides the durability and performance of polyester with the added comfort and breathability of cotton.

These shirts will be arriving shortly before we depart.  If they resist wrinkling in the new Travelpro, Oscar is going to be looking a lot better in the photos.

The Pete Dye Mountain Course at La Quinta awaits the Golf Road Warriors.

At this time of year the good people of the Pacific Northwest are absorbing more precipitation than they shed, a spiritual soaking as depressive as the region’s relentless slate-gray skies.  Across Minnesota and Wisconsin yet another snowstorm could be the final straw that sends even stolid Lutherans overboard, perhaps into a crazed and bloody tribal war against Episcopalians, waged with shards of broken hot dish and bombs of fetid lutefisk.

At this time of year, folks living in upper North America are in dire need of Palm Springs and entire the Coachella Valley, where winter is warm, dry and seasonal affective disorder is but a distant memory.  What’s more, if this once-sleepy city was sweet enough to attract the likes of Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope and Dean Martin – - who could have chosen to lead the high life almost anywhere – - the venerable destination clearly has even more going for it today than good weather.

Indeed, during the last week of February, the Golf Road Warriors will be rolling into Palm Springs, playing golf at several of the Coachella Valley’s 110 courses, sampling meals at its finest restaurants and sleeping in the most comfortable accommodations in this part of south-central California.

Swimming Pools & Movie Stars

Located about 110 miles east of Los Angeles, Palms Springs initially became a fashionable resort destination in the 1900s, particularly for “health tourists” with afflictions that subsided in dry heat.  While it used to be largely deserted in the tepid summers, the city today has a permanent population of around 45,000.  Other rapidly growing communities now sprawl to the south, including Desert Hot Springs, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, La Quinta, Indian Wells, Cathedral City and Indio.  Still, Old Palm Springs – - where Sinatra lived – - has perhaps the best climate, shaded in late summer afternoons by the San Jacinto Mountains, which in turn block cold winds during winter.

It was the climate that initially attracted Hollywood movie stars to Palm Springs in the 1920s.  Amenities soon followed.  Over the years, wealthy winter fugitives funded innovative architects, who designed leading edge “mid-century” and “desert modern” homes, many of which still stand in the oldest section of town.  Golf also boomed; in 1960 the area had less than 20 courses.  Today the desert features such gems as the fabled Mountain Course at the La Quinta Resort, the Indian Wells Golf Resort, Silver Rock Golf, Shadow Ridge, the Golf Club at Tierra Lago – - all of which the GRW will play.

(Aside:  I played Silver Rock a few years ago and was fascinated by what was clearly a waterline on the side of the mountain flanking the fairways, a good 20 to 30 feet above.  Turns out to be evidence of prehistoric Lake Cahuilla, which was created when the lower Colorado River shifted course and filled the Coachella, Imperial and Mexicali valleys in the centuries before the Spanish arrived. Native peoples subsisted on freshwater fish and other creatures around the lake.)

We’ll be staying at three resorts over seven days, including the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort in Palm Desert; the Hyatt Grand Champions Resort, Villa and Spa in Indian Wells; and, the Renaissance Esmeralda Resort and Spa, also in Indian Wells.  Moreover, we will be subsisting on nightly dinners planned at a selection of fine restaurants, and where it’s doubtful the menus will include either hot dish or lutefisk.

I also was invited to spend an unexpected hour with Ely Callaway, the company founder and former vintner who was much more interested in a book I’d written on the wine industry than in his clubs.  Only after I Scout’s-honor promised to mail him an autographed copy would he finally talk about golf and technology.   “We never claim that our drivers will make you a better player,” Callaway memorably allowed.  “But we do believe they can make the game more enjoyable.  Just try the clubs and see what you think.”

Callaway Performance Centers pack those 8 acres and a research building into a small and efficient fitting space.

What I think is that if Ely were still alive, he’d get a huge kick out of the fact that the guts of that leading edge test facility have been compacted into a few hundred square feet, and can now be found at the more than two dozen Callaway Performance Centers in North America, Australia, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom.  An eight acre expanse of emerald fairways embedded with motion-detecting sensors – - and surrounded by a trio of weather stations that fed data on wind speed, direction, temperature, barometric pressure and dew point directly to computers in the research center – - the test center’s equipment revealed the speed of a clubhead pre-and-post-impact, the speed of the golf ball at launch, its trajectory, spin rate and distance including carry and roll.

The same stuff is now concentrated in the Callaway Performance Analysis System, one of several computerized fitting systems.  A service once available only to leading professionals, custom club fitting is today pretty-much standard for anyone giving a whit of thought to buying new clubs, though technology developed in research facilities such as Callaway’s.

I also think that Ely might be mildly amused to learn that 17 years later, his office guest would be a Golf Road Warrior on the metaphorical freeway to Palm Springs, sponsored by Callaway Golf, fitted at a Callaway Performance Center, and outfitted with a complete set of irons, wedges, a driver, fairway metals and a killer Odyssey White Hot Sabertooth belly putter, all packed into a Callaway carry bag.  Good karma, I guess, for sending the old winemaker the book.

If You’re Going to South San Francisco

In advance of the GWR assault upon the finest golf, dining and luxurious accommodations the fabled Coachella Valley has to offer, I headed to the Golf Mart in South San Francisco, which was the site of the nearest Callaway Performance Center.  There, Club Fitting Specialist Nick Regnart put me through a series of swings with several very different six irons, all of which are part of Callaway’s Razr line.  I tried the Razr H HL iron, which is also called “The Forgiver” because its low center of gravity launches shots higher even on impacts low on the clubface.  We tried “The Player,” which is the Razr XY Tour Irons.

Muscle backs that look almost like perimeter weighted, game improvement clubs.

However, what felt best in terms of feedback and also performed best – - with a little more distance and a tighter shot pattern – - was the Razr X Muscleback irons, designed by legendary club maker Roger Cleveland.  Over the years nearly all Callaway irons have featured fairly deep cavities in the back of the clubhead, a foundation for the perimeter weighting that makes these sticks forgiving and pleasing to hit.  Inside are components that brand the club with Callaway’s signature X.  If you look close at the rear of the muscleback heads, they feature an unevenly shaped X out of shallow and narrow channels.  It thus looks almost like a perimeter-weighted club with more metal and weight near both the heal and toe, yet also has the heft of a true forged blade.

The stats and specs that Regnart produced were virtually identical to what I’ve learned from other fittings.  We choose irons with shafts that were a half-inch over standard length, and a lie angle that’s two degrees flat from standard, since I tend to hit standard out on the toe.

For a driver we went with Callaway’s Razrhawk, but with a 9.5 clubface, a degree less than what I’ve been playing.  We compared my regular driver and found we could get more distance by controlling a ballooning ball flight, and with a draw bias that corrects for a pesky fade.  The Razhawk three metal is a canon; I hit it almost as far as the driver.  For wedges we went with Callaway’s Jaws series, with lofts of 52, 56 and 60 degrees.  Distance tests before the trip to Palm Desert showed these played identical to several previous sets of wedges.

To wrap up a very thorough fitting that took about an hour, Regnart also recommended I play the HX Diablo Tour ball.

Aesthetics

While visiting Callaway Corporate headquarters in 1995 I was accompanied by a young Jeff Colton, who had just recently earned a degree in applied physics. Today he’s the senior vice president of Global Brand and Product, the group overseeing the Golf Road Warrior sponsorship.  While the corporation has gone through a number of management changes since Ely Callaway’s heyday, what remains is an attention to aesthetics, so evident in the design of my muscle back irons.

Back in the day, Callaway not only put research money into materials that helped golfers hit the ball straighter and longer, but in a way that felt and even sounded better than previous

When the Razr Hawk driver makes contact with a golf ball, a square hit feeds back through feel and Callaway's distinctive sound.

types of clubs.  Colton’s supervisor at the time explained the importance of acoustics, and its affect on the composition of the Big Bertha.  After all, Callway designers knew that the with new-fangled Ruger titanium drivers, golfers had to instantly appreciate a sound much different than the click of a persimmon-headed driver.  So, whether it’s clubs, apparel, golf balls or travel gear, Colton and his colleagues continue to develop products that may or may not make you a better golfer, but most certainly add to the enjoyment of the game.

Not that Ely Callaway always looked forward.   Since his company had only recently moved into its then-new Carlsbad headquarters building, he good-naturedly groused that he could never find anybody when he wanted to ask a question or get something done.  “I used to just stick my head out the door of my office and everyone in the company could hear me yell,” Callaway explained.  “It kind of makes me miss the old days.”

I personally regret that Mr. Callaway is not around to return the favor, because today I’d make him Scout’s-honor promise to autograph the Performance Center fitting sheet for my Callaway golf clubs.

This is the look of golf in Mesquite, Nevada, typified by this shot at the Falcon Ridge course.

The golf industry’s marketing muscles are in full flex this time of year, as new gear is introduced and warm-weather regions buy more airtime than Republican primary candidates, touting courses, food, accommodations and other activities.  From the Gulf Coast to Scottsdale and Hawaii, each makes a good case for what is relatively expensive discretionary travel. However, about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas is the city of Mesquite, which over the past decade has evolved into a budget-friendly alternative to these more venerable, widely advertised and thus better-known destinations.

Near where the borders of Nevada, Arizona and Utah converge – - and where the Virgin River cuts through jagged, red rock canyons – - Mesquite has golf courses that weave around, over and through terrain that’s arguably as bad as South Dakota’s Badlands.  The fees at most are about half of what’s charged at Sin City tracks.  And the stuff that stays down in Vegas also stays with Mesquite, in casino-hotels that range from very good quality to slightly scruffy, but at rates that are also a comparable bargain.

While gambling is clearly Mesquite’s prime industry, the city of some 15,000 has been taking an increasingly strong run at the golf market. Its Oasis Golf Club hosted a season of the Golf Channel’s popular Big Break series.  Next to the nearby Conestoga Golf Club is the Mesquite Sports Event Center, the home of the annual Re/Max World Long Drive Championship, which is televised in early November and draws good ratings amongst golfers envious of 380-yard tee shots.  And the local marketing association, golfmesquitenevada.com, works with the major hotels and courses to create and promote reasonably priced stay and play packages.

Last December the association also hosted the first Mesquite Media Golf Classic, bringing roughly 80 golf and travel writers from around the world for an annual four-day tournament, which in the previous nine years has been held in Scottsdale.  Sponsored by the CasaBlanca Resort & Casino, TaylorMade Golf, Troon Golf and several others, the event gave a number of these veteran journalists their first exposure to the Red Mesa region of Nevada and Utah.  And also to golf courses with elements unlike any some of us have experienced.

The Courses

Mesquite has eight golf courses and there are several others within an hour’s drive.  Each tells something of a story, part of which is what makes them memorable.  My A Position colleague, Jeff Neuman, wrote detailed reviews of each, as did my pal Wayne Freedman, a reporter with the ABC Television affiliate in San Francisco.  Their names link to more detailed reviews of each course; I’ll stick with the general arc of the stories.

The first that we played, Coyote Springs, is a Jack Nicklaus Signature course, located about an hour south of Mesquite, off Interstate 15 and out on State Route 168, into a desolate piece of country that’s clearly a long ways from anywhere.  Alas, that was not the intent when Coyote Springs in the spring of 2008.

Indeed, the course was meant to anchor a community spread over more than 40,000 acres, with several more golf courses and  100,000 residents.  Numerous pads for prospective homes are graded in the desert surrounding the course, and yet not a single one was ever built.  The clubhouse is a temporary structure.  Several streams and man-made water falls cut through the course, and most prominently at the road that was supposed to be the entrance to the village; fake rocks and manufactured waterfalls are not normally seen on a Nicklaus design.  The grand idea of the project epitomizes the over-ambitious visions that led to real estate bubble and crash, and yet one that left behind a good and surprisingly viable golf course.

Coyote Springs hosts some 21,000 rounds a year, with green fees that range from $110 and $125, and traffic is picking up over last year.  It is an excellent, well-maintained and challenging course, with a mean slope rating of 141 from the 7,471 tips, and a stout 132 from the 6,215 yard white tees.  The greens feature wicked slopes that are particularly testing when pins are cut on about 20 square inches of flat space, which left 80 golf writers muttering for the next 24 hours.

Two years after Coyote Springs opened Golfweek ranked it among the “Top 100 Residential Golf Courses.”  Since there are no residences nearby, this is yet another reason golf consumers should be wary of publications and their ratings.  Still, Coyote Springs deserves its other high rankings as a public desert course.

The second day of the Media Classic took us to the Falcon Ridge Golf Course, which weaves over, down and through the hills above Mesquite Boulevard.  This was definitely not a Jack Nicklaus design.  Several holes featured tee shots were uphill and blind, with hazards and surprise landing zones.  I also found it the most interesting course we played.  Being able to come back with the course knowledge to deal with those challenges, explained GolfMesquiteNevada’s Cody Law, “is why so many visitors suddenly want to play this one twice.”

Because of the fairways and greens carved into the badlands and huge elevation changes on several downhill tee shots, Neuman observed that, “At times, Falcon Ridge can seem almost too spectacular, too much like one of those “World’s Toughest Golf Holes” calendars.”  And yet, it wasn’t that difficult a golf course.  Once you’ve seen where you need to hit the ball, you’ll want be sure to save time for a second round at Falcon Ridge.

The view from the 12th tee at Falcon Ridge.

Into the Virgin River Gorge

The Coral Canyon course is surrounded by the beauty of red rock walls and Zion National Park.

Day three took us to the sublime Coral Canyon Golf Course near the small city of St. George, Utah, an hour’s drive from Mesquite.  In many ways this was the most physically beautiful course  we played, set in a valley with views of the jagged red rocks of Bryce Canyon and pieces of Zion National Park.

However, the drive from Mesquite alone made the round special. Here is where I-15 disappears around a corner and into the narrow Virgin River Gorge, with the road closely flanked by soaring, striated canyon walls with ever changing colors.  When built in the 1970s, it was considered the most expensive stretch of road ever constructed in the United States.  And it’s what opened southern Utah to Las Vegas and helped lead to the rise of Mesquite.

Designed by Keith Foster, the Coral Canyon course harmonizes with the surroundings.  Indeed, it has giant sandstone boulders, natural washes and a couple holes that pass a huge and long finger of hardened lava.  Rated one of the top public golf courses in Utah, its green fees range from $50 to $100.  While the view alone is worth the drive, Freedman rightly called Coral Canyon “the most pleasant course we played in our four days.”

The final Media Classic course is the 2010 Gary Panks designed Conestoga Golf Club, again right next to town, and yet a completely different interpretation of the landscape than Falcon Ridge.  Many of the fairways seem much more generous than at the other courses, including those with several strategic “islands” in the desert.  Managed by Troon Golf, which guarantees a high level of quality, Conestoga still provided stiff challenges, again dictated by the estimable Mesquite terrain.

As Freedman notes, the design capitalized on “the topography of red, sandstone cliffs, canyons, and high desert washes. If Panks hadn’t laid a golf course through these environs, you might expect to see cowboys, Indians, bandits, and John Wayne carrying a Winchester rifle.”  Well, unlike the operators of Las Vegas golf courses and its casinos, there don’t seem to be many bandits in Mesquite, where the living and golfing is easy, which makes it a Classic alternative and affordable destination.

The Boulders features two courses that weave through some of the most enchanting terrain in the Scottsdale area.

Several of my colleagues are at this moment hard at play – - after which they’ll be forced to work late into the night – - to bring news and interpretation of their seven days of golf and leisure in Scottsdale, Arizona. Writers Jeff Wallach, Peter Kessler, Tom Bedell, Terry Moore and videographer Jamie McWilliams drew the long straws for this trip.  It sounds cushy spending a couple days at the Four Seasons at Troon North, two more at the Fairmont Princess and a pair at one of the casitas at The Boulders.  It is.  But packing up and moving every two days is more about spreading the coverage than convenience and comfort.

But the boys do get to play the awesome Boulders course, which Wallach has written about.  Also already covered is Kessler’s report on a round at Troon North, another incredibly designed beauty that features pristine maintenance, and also a round at the TPC Scottsdale.  The TPC is great for professionals and fans at the annual party-fest tournament, but a mixed experience for average players.

In any event, The A Position war party will also be writing about new Callaway irons and the company’s fitting process, Certifresh Cigars, Travelpro luggage and a new smart phone app called Grow the Golf Game, among the goods and services of other sponsors who are helping make this multi-segment report possible.  Best of all, there’s a Sweepstakes.

Enter and Win

With a couple clicks of your mouse and the entry of very basic information, anyone has the chance to win a Scottsdale golf and leisure Sweepstakes page, modeled after the Road Warriors latest tour.  Worth about $6000, it includes golf and accommodations for two and much more.  Here’s what the prize package includes:

While most wineries here and in nearby Amador and El Dorado counties make Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon and other mainstream varietals, Stai and his staff produce a number blends and wines from little known grapes more common to southern Europe, such as the Tempranillo, the Carnignane and Graciano.   Some of his wines go by unusual names, including Ol’ Chumbucket and River of Skulls.  And then there is a most remarkable Rioja-style blend called The Spaniard.

Named after a character in the 1987 film Princess Bride, this is one big blend, so much so that Twisted Oak boasts that six fingers are needed to hoist a single glass of the stuff.  It is a very dry wine, soft and velvety and yet with enough acid to make its flavors stand out.  The latest vintage, 2007, is a blend of Tempranillo, Garnacha and Graciano grapes, which together produce flavors of cherries, blueberries and notes of green olives, sandalwood and a bit of citrus.  It bagged a double gold medal at the San Francisco International Wine Competition, and earned numerous other awards.  But why listen to wine experts when golf and travel writers can testify?

At a winemakers dinner on the outdoor patio of the Greenhorn Creek Resort’s new Caddy Shack, hard by its Robert Trent Jones II golf course, several vintners from the Murphys and Angels Camp area poured their wares during a meal featuring barbecued steak. We sat at a table of 6 and consumed several excellent reds. But the hands reaching for refills decidedly favored The Spaniard, forcing Stai – - who also goes by the name El Jefe – - to open three additional bottles during the meal.  That’s voting with a wine glass. 

Spend any time on the Twisted Oak website and you’ll get an idea of the  playful nature of Stai and his ideas about wine.  Consider The Spaniard’s tasting notes: We have quite a hodgepodge of tasting notes for The Spaniard, so rather than wrap a narrative of questionable cleverness around them, we’re just going to throw them right at you: “Cherry Sweet Tart” “Leather berry berry” “Oakberry pepper” “Great gams” (gams?) “Fruitalicious” “Way better than beer” “A great [Italian] red” (that was one confused taster, and we won’t repeat the inappropriate ethnic characterization that rhymes with Winnebago.) Our favorite: “It’s turtles all the way down!” OK, so that last one is maybe too hip for the room (you can read about it on Wikipedia) – we’re pretty sure he was referring to the long finish!

For a retail price of $49 a bottle – - or $39.20 if you join the Twisted Few wine club – - it ought to include a few turtles.  The thing is, only a few hundred cases of The Spaniard were made.  It’s the stuff of hands-on attention that is behind most exceptional wine.  Add that to a blend of grapes not normally used in California wines, and what you get is a vintage that’s simply and boldly a knockout.

The target at the 13th hole of Greenhorn Creek.

In 1848 a wave of humanity swept into Alta California’s central Sierra foothills, drawn by the discovery of gold.  To the thriving settlements of San Andreas, Angels Camp and Murphys, merchants, opportunists and curious observers followed the miners.  Some of the more notable included Daniel Webster, William Hearst, J.P. Morgan, Ulysses S. Grant, John Jacob Astor and a young journalist with the pen name of Mark Twain, all of whom stayed in the Murphys Historic Hotel, where several original musty rooms still freeze time from the second half of the 19^th century.

While the gold rush largely ended seven years later, waves of people continue to flock to the region even now.  During warm summer days some of those visitors still pan for gold in the area’s streams – - or go white-water rafting down its rivers.  Others explore abandoned mines – - or the enchanting natural caverns with underground lakes and unusual crystalline formations.  Still more go hiking, biking or ride zip lines, after which there are tastings at one of the two-dozen wineries in the county, shopping at art galleries and antique shops, visiting a gold rush museum, and dining at a number of remarkable restaurants. During winter, skiing and snowboarding is nearby in the High Sierra.

Home to Twain’s celebrated Jumping Frog and an eponymous contest each May, Calaveras County is also a place for excellent year-round golf.

On a recent visit to the Greenhorn Creek Resort and its award-winning Robert Trent Jones II redesigned course, we experienced a small sampling of what the region offers travelers, including several wineries – - more about which in another post.  And as memorable as anything else during the trip, our small group of journalists were given a hands-on lesson in making those green amphibians leap, by a couple of veteran Jumping Frog Jubilee wranglers.

Joe Kitchell, the 2005 Jumping Frog champion.

The Caddy Shack

Although I’ve been through Angels Camp several times and played golf at a few of the region’s courses – - which in retrospect I uniformly much enjoyed – - I hadn’t previously paid much attention to Calaveras County as a destination.  My bad.  It’s only a two and a half hour drive from San Francisco, an hour-and-a-half from Sacramento and is located pretty much between Lake Tahoe and Yosemite.

Along with the Saddle Creek golf course just down the road in the town of Copperopolis, Greenhorn Creek shares honors as the region’s premium course.  With five sets of tees that range from 4,882 to 6,749 yards, the layout offers firm fairways that yield prodigious rolls on tee shots, and wickedly fast greens that played at 11.5 on the stimp in late October.  While by and large a friendly and forgiving course, it does pose challenges with several short par 4s, such as the 325-yard 12^th, which is a severe dog leg right with a narrow fairway flanked by ditches on each side to a green that’s decidedly up a hill.  The 13^th provides some relief – - so long as you miss the pond on this steep, downhill par 3.  But it’s back to focusing on the next hole, a 415-yarder that’s also narrow and is listed as the third most difficult on the course.

Walk away with a par or bogey on Greenhorn Creek's 5th hole and one can sigh with relief.

Then there is the 5^th, the green of which is in the photo on the left.  What the image doesn’t show is that you have a narrow fairway with water to the right, and out of bounds to the left.  And to reach that green with the water guarding it, most players will be forced to lay-up or hit a second shot that must travel 170 yards.  It’s listed as the second hardest hole on the course, but has a much higher pucker factor than the number one handicapper.

Since Greenhorn Creek has an active full-time membership engaged in all manners of sporting and social activities, its facilities include an exercise and weight room, a large pool and a couple of tennis courts.  Its CAMPS Restaurant has a first-class menu, with the good burger you’d expect at a golf course, but also dinner items that include steamed clams, roasted duck breast with truffled risotto, and, along with several cuts of steak, fresh pan-seared scallops, not the cuisine normally found at a golf course.

The resort offers a number of “stay & play” packages, starting at $109 per person for at least two players during midweek, and yet only $135 per person during weekends.  There’s an eclectic set of accommodations, including the least expensive rooms at a time-share condominium complex. Run by WorldMark, the multi-bedroom units include a kitchen and living room, and are what you’d expect by a budget-conscious traveler.  At the other end of the spectrum is one of bright and freshly decorated cottages near the course, with two or three bedrooms and kitchens that are open to living rooms.

The lounge area of Greenhorn's Caddy Shack.

The latest wrinkle in Greenhorn Creek accommodations is the Caddy Shack, a barn-like former business office that was recently conferred to a five-bedroom hang out.  Situated near the golf course’s ninth hole, the Shack is geared for groups of up to dozen.  With a barbeque area, horseshoe pit and a living room with 55-inch high definition television, it’s advertised as a place for “friends, family, teams (and) business groups.”

Jumping the Frogs

Our group was treated to an authentic Angels Camp experience when we were met by officials from the Jumping Frog Jubilee, which for the past 80 years has been each May during the Calaveras County Fair.  Inspired by the 1865 story – - The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County was actually Twain’s first published piece of work – - the contest attracts serious participants.  Some families and groups have been at it for generations, such as 2005 champion Joe Kitchell, an Angels Camp native who’s been with the Calaveras Frog Jockeys for some 25 years.

Each year new frogs are captured a couple months before the event and released right after.  While the critters aren’t exactly trained, wranglers understand what motivates them.  “The life cycle of the frog is to eat, not be eaten, and to breed,” explains Kitchell.  “Our job is to make them think they’re going to be eaten.”

One of the frogs we jumped on the visit to Greenhorn Creek.

In the contest, frogs are held back the back of the neck, pinched between two fingers.  The jockey often strokes the frog’s legs, to relax it.  It is then set down in a small circle, after which the wrangler attempts to frighten it into jumping three times – - hopefully straight out.  “You try to find frogs that don’t jump in different directions or back and forth,” Kitchell, “since the distance is measured from the circle to the landing of the third jump.”  But too much experimentation is counter-productive, since the more they are handled, the more docile the frogs become.

At the start of each jump a wrangler takes care not to stand above the frog, because it has exceptional peripheral vision and might freeze if it sees the person.  The trick is to make a loud noise, thump the ground and blow air at its butt, inducing that primal fear of consumption by a larger animal.

The world record, set in 1986, is 21 feet 5 and ¾ inches.  Each year the winner usually makes three hops that average 19 to 20 feet.  None of us rookies could get our reluctant frogs to hop more than ten.

While the finish on the Miura MG Hybrid is described as black, the overall look of the club is more like dark chocolate.

My 56-degree Miura K Wedge has a new best friend that just took up residence on the opposite side of the bag. With its unusual and yet beautiful design, the K Wedge has quickly become my most versatile tool around the green, a scoring club from wet sand, thick rough or tight lies.  And now, Miura Golf’s recently introduced MG Hybrid may well redefine the look, feel and even the sound of utility clubs.

“I probably hit my 20 degree hybrid as far or maybe longer, but it definitely doesn’t produce the sound of pure feedback like this one,” says my buddy Terry Noyer – - who recently won the Marin Country Club’s net championship – - and who tested the MG.  An almost indescribable resonance, the audible note is a firm and sharp click, like what comes from the sweet spot of a forged iron striking down on a quality golf ball.

More important, while utilities are often considered clubs most useful for getting out of trouble or simply moving the ball somewhere up the fairway, the MG Hybrid is designed to look and play like a scoring iron, albeit from distance.

Available in lofts of 20 and 23 degrees, this hybrid projects the aesthetics that are typical of Miura products, especially evident in the forged muscle-backed irons for which the small Japanese company has been long known.  The utility’s head has what the company describes as a I.P. Black finish, although the bronze-hued faceplate gives the club a chocolate-like appearance, somewhere closer to dark than milk.  While as attractive as any of the so-called “workshop edition” utilities that Jesse Ortiz designed for Bobby Jones Golf, the MG Hybrid displays its serious nature after one good strike, send the ball out on a boring trajectory.

Confidence Inducing Appearance

Unlike most club manufacturers, Miura doesn’t release new models on a fixed business cycle time frame, but only when a new technology or design is developed to the point where it can clearly help golfers.  The MG Hybrid came about from consumer feedback and the technical insights of the company’s founder, Katsuhiro Miura.

As Miura Golf Pres i dent Adam Barr explains, “The days of the ‘three-through-pitch’ automatic set is over. Play ers are putting more thought into how they will con fig ure their bags. So hybrids become even more impor tant as sup port ers of the irons. The new MGs are designed with the recog ni tion that hybrids can be used for every thing from cov er ing a lot of ground on par-5s to pin point shots into greens on long par-4s and par-3s.”

Other than sinking a 30-foot putt, perhaps the best feeling in golf is launching a long-distance shot that lands softly on the green and stays there, and with the multi-purpose 20 degree MG, it is decided easier to do this than with a 3-iron.

Here’s how the company describes the design of the clubhead: The MG Hybrid fo lows through smoothly after impact thanks to Miura Golf’s new Circle Cut method sole shape in which a line cuts through the club’s sole, creating a stepped tier on the sole and the optimal center of gravity to provide the optimal ball trajectory for a hybrid iron.  It also is more about the blade’s height than the head volume. The blade height is almost the same size as the height of the ball at 43mm.

Therefore, at address the MG’s face gives the golfer an impression similar to holding a much higher-lofted club, maybe even something as forgiving as a six iron.  That induces confidence that seldom accompanies 200-yard shots into a well-bunkered green.  Since the space between the ears is the longest hole on any course, anything that breeds concentration and a positive outlook is an edge in psychological design.  And its why the MG has a friend in the K Wedge.

The most unusual and distinctive feature of the 56 degree Miura K Wedge are the trio of fingerprint like indentations on its sole.

Talkin’ About Shaft

Although the sound when the MG Hybrid makes contact with the ball is distinctive, a   gentle and pleasing vibration instantly follows, transmitted up and through the Aerotech Sports SteelFiber SS 75 regular flex shaft that my club came with, which is well suited to a relatively slow swing speed.  With a “high modulus” graphite core, an Aerotech shaft is then covered with more than 59 miles of steel fiber strands, each with a diameter of 8 microns, or approximately one tenth the diameter of a human hair.  Available in three weights – - 65, 75 or 85 grams – - the SteelFiber wood shafts are perfect for hybrids and fairways woods, giving the player the control of a steel shaft and also the lighter weight and vibration-dampening properties of graphite.  Such technology is why this Bellingham, Washington-based company is making inroads on the golf club shaft market.

Founded in 1991, Aerotech was the first company to produce an NHL approved composite hockey stick.  It then expanded into helmets, fishing rods, knee braces and among other products, violin bows.  It also manufactured golf club shafts for several other companies including Cleveland, Adams and Lynx.  Since launching its own branded shafts nearly a decade ago, Aerotech is proving itself as an innovator in making technologically advanced high-quality shafts.

The new MG Hybrid carries a sug gested retail price of $299 for those with graphite shafts and $279 for one with a steel shaft, and can be tested by visiting www.miuragolf.com to locate the closest Miura dealer. To see a video of Adam Barr talking about the club, click here.

The Westin La Cantera has two courses, The Resort and The Palmer.

Hell came to Texas in 2011 and despite Governor Rick Perry’s futile pray-for-rain intervention, much of the Lone Star State withered during its driest 12-month period since 1895, when Texas first began keeping rainfall records.  As fires raged across the state, Austin was cooked by more than 90 days of 100-degree temperatures. Reservoirs went dry, cows died and San Antonio’s golf courses . . . well, in late September they actually didn’t look all that worse for the wear.

On a trip arranged by the San Antonio Convention & Visitors Bureau, a small group of golf and travel journalists got a first-hand look at the area’s courses.  Base camp was the Westin La Cantera Resort, and the primary focus was the Las Americas golf tournament, which raises money for the Lorena Ochoa Foundation. While serving as the tournament’s host, the now-retired LPGA star put on a short clinic, and her very evident pregnancy didn’t detract the least from her oily swing.

Signs of the drought were equally visible on the fairways of La Cantera’s Resort Course, where irrigation had been cut back by nearly a third during the summer.   Some of the less important areas of fairways showed almost as much dirt as brown grass.  But the prime landing zones were at least a pale green with sufficient turf, while tees and greens were in resort condition.

Other courses in the area have, however, been harder hit.  With San Antonio under a stage 2 water restrictions for most of the summer, courses that relied on the municipal supply had to curtail irrigation by 30 percent.  Although the region teetered on moving to stage 3 restrictions – - which would have meant a 40 percent cut, mid-September thunderstorms brought some relief to an area that had only five inches of rain this year – - far behind the pace to reach its 33-inch average.

To squeeze through the heat, one club watered its fairways only once every two weeks, just to have enough to keep the turf on its tees and greens healthy.  Courses that could use treated and recycled effluent fared relatively well.  Others were reluctant to draw on the area’s declining ground water supply, and one was even forced to truck in water for tees and greens.

Down in The Quarry

We found the venerable Quarry course, just five minutes from downtown San Antonio, in even better condition than La Cantera.  It is also a course that exemplifies the intrigue that is San Antonio and Texas Hill

As a result of the Great Texas Drought, water level in The Quarry's lake are currently not nearly as high as in this photo.

Country golf.  Opened in 1993, the front nine of the 6,740 yard, par 71 Keith Foster design has a links style format that follows rolling hills and features native grasses, and rambles around open space next to a freeway and office parks.   The back nine then plunges into the base of a 100-year old quarry pit, which closed in 1983 after roughly 100 years of operation.  Famous for supplying the cement for the State Capitol of Texas, the 88-acre floor is partly surrounded by 100-foot limestone rock walls, with a lake in the middle.

There are forced carries over that lake, over rock walls and to some relatively narrow fairways.  On the ledge above are some of San Antonio’s toniest homes, part of the Alamo Heights neighborhood.  But it’s the jagged stone that makes this course – - and others in the jagged topography of the Hill Country – - that make golf in this part of Texas so visually interesting.

The rates at The Quarry are very reasonable, ranging from $60 to about $110.  The starter sends off groups ten minutes apart, which makes for a fast and yet unhurried pace of play.  Its restaurant has one of the larger menus we’ve ever seen at a golf course.  And the clubhouse hosts weddings and weekend parties that are open to the public.

If the Drought Continues . . .

The recent drought has put Texas in a world of economic hurt, in particular the agricultural sector.  There are forecasters who believe that abnormally low rainfall could continue for several years or longer, a mean piece of climate change.  The future of the Alamo City’s River Walk is arguably in question.

As magnetic to visitors as the Alamo, San Antonio's River Walk is a civic treasure.

Golf courses will endure more issues and adapt should the drought continues.  For example, it’s not just a lack of water, but also the sustained heat that also causes damage.  The USGA’s regional agronomist, Charles “Bud” White, explained that with the 100 degree plus temperatures, a course can lose over a third of an inch of moisture every day, just in evaporation out of the turf.” The combination of drought and heat can also cause layers of clay beneath a course to expand, which can wrench and break irrigation pipes and buckle cart paths.  And if rain does not fall during the next six months, spring will be tough on fairways.

Indeed, during normal summers golf course turf builds up a store of carbohydrates in the root system, to help it make survive winter.  When the grass is already dormant or stressed, such as the courses in Texas, the turf is vulnerable to severe winter weather. As a Golf Course Superintendents Association of America official told one reporter, “Come spring, a lot of superintendents may have to find ways to manage their courses like they’ve never had to before.”