SwingOIL – high-tech liquid refreshment to help your golf game

I think I first heard the term “swing oil” back when I first took up golf, playing with a more experienced golfer-friend who was referring to a mid-round brewski. He claimed that it not only quenched his thirst, but it relaxed him and allowed him to swing freer, and play better. I never noticed any improvement in his back nine after a cold quaff of the brew that made Milwaukee famous, or whatever, but he swore by it.

These days, when the golf magazines and most health and fitness gurus are emphasizing healthy eating (no more hotdogs at the turn…) and drinking on the course, there are much better options available in the drinks category. One of them is swingOIL.

SwingOIL is a sports drink that is formulated especially with golfers in mind. It comes in three flavors – Orange, Lemon-Lime, and Strawberry-Banana.

The sports drink trend started back in the mid-1960s with Gatorade, a simple hydration and carbohydrate and electrolyte replacement drink. The drinks that are available nowadays have evolved from that early beginning, and incorporate ingredients that are advertised to help your golf game in a number of ways. SwingOIL includes a generous list of these New Age ingredients: glucosamine, chondroitin, and turmeric for your joints, ginseng to help your focus, rhodiola rosea extract to help you manage stress, taurine to keep you energized during your round, and citrulline maleate to help you recover afterwards.

Absolutely confirming the claims of the manufacturer would require a large group of test subjects, blind testing with placebos, and a legion of lab-coated boffins to run the tests and gather data. Lacking those resources, what I did was take a few packets of swingOIL (in the yummy orange flavor) along with me on a three-day golf outing to give it a try. The orange-flavored variety of the drink has a nice citrus flavor that I really enjoy, sweeter than actual orange juice, but not sickly sweet like an orange soda.

As much as I look forward to the opportunity to take time off from my desk job to go to a resort and play golf three days in a row, I know that doing so will take its toll on me – precisely because I spend much more time sitting at a desk at the aforementioned desk job than I do playing golf. My informal experiment may not carry much weight in the world of science, but I came away from the experience with a good impression of swingOIL and its benefits.

I held off using swingOIL until the third day. I was playing a pretty tough private course during this outing, and though carts were in use all three days, the difficulty of the course and the amount of time it had been since I last played meant that I was in for some aches and pains after the end of the visit. I downed a packet of the juice just before I went to the course, and I took another along for a mid-round quaff.

I wasn’t consciously evaluating how well I played during the round with swingOil, compared to the first two days, but on later reflection I had to conclude that I felt better than I might have expected to, given that three straight days of golf is not usual for me. I knocked a few shots off my score on the third day (including playing four pretty tough par-3s in even par) – a result which might be attributed to an increasing familiarity with the course, but I can honestly say that I felt more focused on my game, which is one of the claims the makers of swingOIL advertise.

I also noticed that I didn’t feel sore, or not very much, the next day, after my three-day outing, and I can’t help but think that the swingOIL made a contribution to that result. Over the next couple of weeks I used swingOIL a few more times, on trips to the range, and always felt that it had helped keep my swing smooth, and my next-day aches and pains at bay.

As the ads always say, “Your Results May Vary”, and I don’t expect anyone to take my word for gospel on what swingOIL will do for you – but I will say that it sure can’t hurt to try it. The drink goes down smoothly, especially chilled, at the end of a hot day on the course, and it is chock-full of good stuff – and no bad stuff – that has got to be better for you and your golf game than a cold brewski at the turn.

“Tommy’s Honour” – indie film brings golf legends to life ★★★★☆

Great sports films tend to be less about the sport being portrayed than about the lives of the people involved as shaped by the sport they play—about the pursuit of excellence and the inevitable sacrifices that are made in the name of that pursuit. With its emphasis on the lives of an iconic father-son duo from the early days of golf, the new film Tommy’s Honour, released April 14th, may not achieve the status of great sports film, but is certainly to be considered among the best golf films to ever hit the big screen.

Jack Lowden, as Young Tom Morris, and Peter Mullan as his father, Old Tom (background) bring the story of two of the game’s early greats to vivid life in the new film Tommy’s Honour.

Making a successful sports film, let alone one about golf, is hard. If the story is too much about the sport itself, the filmmakers run the risk of viewers staying away unless they are fans; and if too little attention is paid to the game or sport in the film, fans will nitpick technical issues.

When the film is about golf, those problems multiply. Golf is a niche sport, considered by non-golfers to be arcane, snobbish, and too difficult to play. Most viewers can identify better with movies about football, or baseball, or even basketball.

A film about golf has to have a strong hook to bring non-golfers into the theater, while at the same time staying true to the game in order to please golf fans. When the film is a period piece, and you add to the mix the complications of an historic setting, heavy Scots accents, tweedy vintage costuming, and 19th-century class conflict, the burden is multiplied. Luckily for all golf/movie fans, the folks that brought us Tommy’s Honour were up to the task.

Golfers with a sense of history and some knowledge of the early days of the game will already be familiar with the story of Old Tom Morris and his son, Young Tom (as he was known.) Old Tom was a club maker, caddie, course designer, and the greenskeeper at St Andrews Golf Links for over two decades. He founded the Open Championship in 1860, and won it four times – in 1861, 1862, 1864, and 1867.

Young Tom was the oldest of four children in the Morris family and a champion golfer in his own right who surpassed even his father in a tragically short career. Born in 1851, Young Tom won the first of four Open Championship titles in 1868, at the age of 17. He is still the youngest man to have ever won the Open Championship, and the only man to have won it three times in a row, from 1868 to 1870, with a fourth victory in 1872. The 1872 win was his last, as he died at age 24—some say of a broken heart after the death in childbirth of his beloved wife, Meg, and their infant child.

But Tommy’s Honour isn’t just about golf. The heart of the story is about family, with all the complications that arise out of family relationships, and class struggle. Scottish society was very stratified at the time, and men like the Morrises, though skilled craftsmen and sportsmen, were looked down upon by the “gentlemen” who were members of the golf clubs where they worked. They were just menial workers who were expected to know, and keep to, their “proper place”–which was low on the social ladder (with no prospect of climbing higher.)

Champion golfers like the Morrises played matches against other club champions, matches that were arranged by the toffs who belonged to the golf clubs. The gents bet heavily on the outcomes of these matches while the players earned a relative pittance for their efforts. A comparison to horse racing comes to mind, with the club members in the role of the owners and bettors, and the players in the role of the horses—with nearly as little control over their fates.

Old Tom accepted his station, while Young Tom, as portrayed in the film, was champing at the bit to rise higher and do better than his father—a desire which was a point of conflict between the two. Young Tom pressed for a larger share of the winnings and more control over the matches, earning his father’s ire, and disdain (followed eventually by a grudging respect) from the upper-class golf club members.

The story in Tommy’s Honour is about love, and respect, and pride, and conflict, all set against the backdrop of the time and place when the game of golf was starting to grow beyond its Scottish roots, when the early champions were starting to chip away, bit by bit, at the hierarchical structure of the game.

There was a long road ahead of them yet, but this was the period when the men who played the game better than their masters started to earn the respect that was their due, and Young Tom Morris was a seminal figure in that first groundswell of change.

From a purely film-making point of view, Tommy’s Honour is a handsome film, beautifully shot in the Scottish countryside and in “the auld grey toon”, as St Andrews is affectionately known. The costuming, cinematography and other production qualities are equal to the best that film or television can offer (comparisons to Downton Abbey have been made), and the acting, especially the portrayals of Old Tom by veteran Scottish actor Peter Mullan, and relative newcomer Jack Lowden as Young Tom, are vivid and heartfelt. Ophelia Lovibond, who played Young Tom’s wife, Meg, is known to American television audiences from appearances in the TV show Elementary.

As far as the authenticity of the golf scenes go, with no moving pictures of golf from that period in existence there is no basis of comparison for the truthfulness of the actors’ portrayal of the players’ swings. The hickory-shafted clubs and primitive balls (not to mention ties and heavy tweed jackets the players wore) dictated a swing that differed greatly from what we are used to seeing today. More qualified viewers than myself have cast a critical eye on the golf scenes, but I found them to be quite satisfactory—with one rather glaring exception.

There is a scene early in the film in which Young Tom is showing his friends Davie Strath and James Hunter a new shot that he has invented. Using a rut iron—sort of a 19th century sand wedge, but without the angled sole that produces bounce—Young Tom pops a hard-spinning chip shot onto the putting surface, past the flag, whereupon the ball spins back just like a modern golf ball, coming to a stop below the hole.

Other reviewers have pooh-poohed this scene based on the fact that the combination of 19th century club and ball could not possibly have produced that kind of spin. I tend to agree, but I also feel that another, and maybe more important, limiting factor comes into play—the surface of the putting green.

Most modern courses have fairways that are smoother than the putting greens were in those days. Given the furry texture of the greens at the time, even with appreciable amounts of backspin the feathery or guttie balls of the time would not have found the purchase necessary to gain traction and back up as Young Tom’s trick shot was shown to do. It was a somewhat jarring anachronism, but as it came early in the film it didn’t have a significant impact.

Tommy’s Honour is destined to be considered one of the best golf films ever made. As of this writing it has already ended its short run in the local indie film/art house theater in San Jose where I saw it, but still had a couple of days left to run in another art house in Monterey. Though it is doubtful that it will see much screen time in theaters, movie fans with an interest in period pieces, British cinema, and/or golf should look for it before long on streaming services and hopefully on DVD.

Miura K-grind wedges reinforce the brand’s reputation for excellence

Miura golf clubs have a well-deserved reputation for high quality, outstanding performance, and craftsmanship. Manufactured in Himeji, Japan, the historic seat of Japanese steel-working which produced the legendary swords of the samurai warriors,  Miura irons and wedges are forged from mild steel in an 11-step process which includes three proprietary forging steps. The special forging process creates the uniform grain structure that gives these clubs their world-class feel and performance.

The Series 1957 K-Grind wedge is a good example of the quality and craftsmanship which characterizes all of Miura’s products. The K-Grind wedges are limited-edition clubs, bearing the “Series 1957” designation in commemoration of the year founder Katsuhiro Miura’s began making golf clubs. The K-Grind wedge is distinguished by three channels ground into the sole, forming passages which increase the club’s ability to pass smoothly through heavy sand or thick rough.

The balance and feel of the K-Grind wedge is exemplary. Even without the benefit of the personalized fitting process which usually accompanies the acquisition of a club of this quality, I felt at home with the 56° K-Grind wedge after just a few swings. The club performed beautifully for me on shots ranging from full swings from the fairway to short chips from tight lies around the green.

The Miura K-Grind wedge presents a good look at address.

Out of sand – never the strongest part of my game – I was very pleased with the consistent, confidence-inspiring performance of this club. I usually play a sand wedge with significantly lower bounce than the 12 degrees of the 56° K-Grind, but I found that a firm, accelerating swing with no hesitation (one of my problems in bunkers…) produced a high-flying, soft-landing ball flight, even with the less-than-premium range balls in the bunker practice area at my local course.

Classic ball-contact surface with no gimmicks.

I had similar results with the K-Grind from the dense rough around the practice green. Whether square-to-square or with the face flared open for a higher trajectory, the club moved smoothly through the deep grass on full- and partial-swing shots, just as Mr Miura intended when he designed the fluted sole.

The K-Grind’s unique fluted sole helps the club
slide through both sand and dense rough.

Full shots on the grass-surface range with the K-Grind were fun – that’s the only way I can describe them. The high-arcing flight of a full wedge shot is one of the great joys of golf for me, and the consistent flight, precise distance control, and tight dispersion that I got out of full-swing shots with the K-Grind were the most fun I’ve had with a golf club in my hand in months.

It’s understood that Miura irons and wedges are premium clubs which command a premium price, and they are available only through specialist fitting centers – not at your local golf-and-tennis center or big-box sporting goods store. However, for the golfer who is ready to step up to a higher level of performance and precision in their “red zone” scoring clubs, these wedges are certainly worthy of consideration.

Pebble Beach beats Disney to the punch with “Beauty and the Beast” imitation at AT&T Pro-Am

The big news in movies right now is the upcoming release of Disney’s live-action version of Beauty and the Beast on March 17th, but the PGA Tour and Pebble Beach beat Disney to the punch by a month with a week of beauty-and-the-beast weather for the AT&T Pro-Am.

A nice change from the horror show of the Thursday and Friday weather, Saturday and Sunday at Pebble Beach were picture-perfect. (photo by author)

I hate to harp on the Monterey Peninsula weather for the AT&T Pro-Am, but weather is so often a big part of the story at any golf tournament, and given the volatility of the conditions at this time of the year in this part of the world, it is always part of the story for this event.

Dating from the early days of the “Crosby Clambake”, when the event was held in January, “Crosby weather” has been a catchphrase for conditions that frequently ranged from cold and damp to downright nasty. Over the last five years or so, while California has suffered through historic drought conditions, the AT&T Pro-Am has been blessed with mostly good weather. Sure, there has been a rain delay or two, and even a pair of waterspouts over Carmel Bay (not affecting play) in 2013, but since 2011 the event has had a disproportionate number of days of beautiful weather, the kind of conditions that the local Chamber of Commerce, and CBS-TV’s golf producers, love.

In 2017, as record-setting rains put paid to the historic drought conditions that have plagued the state of California, the beastly side of Monterey Peninsula weather showed up again for the AT&T Pro-Am. Pounding rain and winds gusting to 35 mph forced a stoppage of play on Thursday, and while play continued on Friday, drizzle and low fog marked the day, with foggy conditions forcing a short play stoppage at Pebble Beach in the early afternoon before halting play altogether at 4:21 p.m.

Weather gurus predicted better conditions for the weekend, sunny and calm, and all concerned had their fingers crossed that they would be right, for the sake of catching up on Saturday to allow a Sunday finish to the tournament. When play was shut down Friday afternoon by fog only 33 players had completed their second rounds, leaving 121 players who would have to be back in position Saturday morning wherever they had been when play was called on Friday – and then all 154 players had to get in their third round.

Saturday dawned calm and dry, with only a few puffy white clouds as stage-dressing. As the the players who still had holes to complete brought  Round 2 to a close, the leaderboard showed a triumvirate at the top: World #1 Jason Day, World #6 (and AT&T spokesperson) Jordan Spieth, and 199th-ranked Derek Fathauer, a no-win journeyman breathing rarefied air on a big stage.

Two-time AT&T Pro-Am winner Brandt Snedeker was T-4 (and six strokes back) at the conclusion of second round play, and another two-time winner, World #4 Dustin Johnson, was not totally out of the picture at 4-under, T-14. These and all the other A-listers would, of course, be playing at Pebble on Saturday, where all the best scenery (and the cameras) are.

The men at the top of the leaderboard reacted in various ways to the Mr Hyde/Dr Jekyll transition in the weather from Friday to Saturday. Jason Day threw his game into reverse on a stretch of those “easy, nothing-special” inland holes that Pebble is “famous” for, carding three bogeys and a double in a five-hole stretch from 11 to 15, before making birdie on 17 and bogey on 18 (his ninth hole). Four birdies in six holes from four to nine were spoiled by a double-bogey on the par-3 fifth, leaving the World #1 sitting T-11 after 54 holes, a drop of ten spots on the day.

Third-round co-leader Derek Fathauer did what many out-of-nowhere leaders/co-leaders do – he faded. Playing out of the limelight at MPCC-Shore, Fathauer carded a one-over 73 and slipped five places to T-6.

The pair of two-time winners mentioned above, Brandt Snedeker and Dustin Johnson, each brought their experience at Pebble to bear on the situation today, and took advantage of the weather to move up the scoreboard.

Snedeker leveraged a seven-birdie, two-bogey day into a two-spot bump to solo second at 11-under, and DJ rode a clean six-birdie card to solo third after 54 holes at 10 under par. There was some controversy about the drop that Johnson took on 18 after knocking his second shot into Carmel Bay, but no official action was taken at the time.

Taking the fullest advantage of the Chamber-of-Commerce weather was second-round, and eventually third-round, leader Justin Spieth. Spieth ran away and hid from the rest of the field, racking up his second 65 in a row on the strength of an eight-birdie round that was spoiled only by a tough bogey on #8, the opening stanza of the “Cliffs of Doom” stretch of par-4s that concludes the ocean-side stretch of holes that runs from #4 to #10. He finished the day at 17-under, carrying a 6-stroke lead, and the momentum of a pair of birdies on list final two holes, into Sunday’s final round.

Three surprise movers who all landed at T-6 after 54 holes were Aussie Geoff Ogilvy, who knocked down a clean-card 66 at Pebble; Scott Stallings, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour who last notched a “W” in 2014 at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines; and NorCal stalwart Kevin Chappell, who moved up 23 spots after carding a 5-under 67 at Pebble, with two bogeys.

Day Four dawns clear, bright, and beautiful

Sunday at the 2017 AT&T Pro-Am was, if anything, a more beautiful day than Saturday had been – it was the kind of weather that had people checking the ads posted in the window of the real estate office at the Pebble Beach Gallery shops (and then recoiling in amazement, or horror, at the prices…)

Spieth came out of the blocks in the fourth round playing flat, carding one birdie early – on the short par-5 2nd hole – before getting locked in to a string of pars. In the meantime, Snedeker and an even less-likely challenger, 2011 U.S. Amateur champion Kelly Kraft, were making birdies.

Kraft had five birdies, three pars, and a bogey on the front nine to go out in 32 before another birdie on the under-appreciated 11th hole pulled him to within three shots of Spieth. Two-time former AT&T Pro-Am champ Snedeker also snuck a bit closer to Spieth with a 2-under front nine, turning at 13-under, five back of the young Texan.

Saturday’s back nine was where Spieth had made a charge, carrying momentum forward from a birdie at the tough par-4 ninth hole, making two more birdies immediately, at 10 and 11, and three more down the stretch, at 15, 17, and 18 – but a similar charge never materialized on Sunday. Luckily for Spieth, Kelly Kraft’s front-nine play didn’t carry forward to the later holes. Kraft pulled to within three strokes of Spieth after eleven holes, but couldn’t muster any more birdies over the last seven holes and so never put any real pressure on the eventual winner.

Spieth opened up a bit of breathing room with a 30-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th hole, though by that point in the tournament only a total meltdown on the 18th hole would have lost the day for him. Even with a flat round that opened par-birdie and closed birdie-par with fourteen pars in between, Spieth hung on for the win.

After Spieth and Kraft, a pair of two-time former champions – Dustin Johnson and Brandt Snedeker – were third and fourth, with the trio of Gary Woodland, Jason Day, and Jon Rahm sharing fifth place. Four-time AT&T Pro-Am winner Phil Mickelson looked like an outside prospect to mount a challenge after 54 holes, but a dearth of birdies, and an imploding back nine 44, which included two bogies, a double, and – wait for it – a quadruple-bogey, dropped him an ear-popping 37 spots to solo 65th, otherwise known as DFL.

“Crosby weather” strikes again at AT&T Pro-Am

After several years of pretty reasonable weather at the AT&T Pro-Am (years which encompassed a period of historic drought in California, by the way…) classic “Crosby weather” returned with a vengeance on the first day of the 2017 tournament.

“Crosby weather” is the blustery, rainy (and once, in 1962, snowy) smörgåsbord of conditions which the Monterey Peninsula may experience in the period from January to mid-February when the Crosby Pro-Am (now the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am) has been played over the years.

PGA Tour officials, no strangers to weather-related issues at their events, moved all of Thursday’s tee times up an hour in anticipation of the heavy weather that was predicted to arrive around midday, and while it was not a complete solution, the earlier start allowed all but half a dozen players to complete at least twelve holes, and 72 players, a little less than half the field, actually completed first round play.

Play was stopped at 1:34 PM local time due to unplayable conditions. Wind gusts up to 35 mph were recorded by PGA Tour weather officials, but water puddling on the greens – more so at Pebble than the other two courses in the rota – was the reason that play was called. Conditions were less severe at Spyglass Hill and MPCC-Shore, but calling play at one course means calling play at all three in order to keep rounds at all courses synchronized.

Play was officially cancelled for the day at 2:39 PM, when Tour officials announced that players with first-round play to complete would be back in position at 7:30 AM Friday, with second-round play commencing one hour later than originally scheduled, at 9:00 AM.

All three co-leaders, tied at 4-under, completed play Wednesday: Rick Lamb – a Web.com Tour grad in his first year on the PGA Tour; Seung-Yul Noh, a Korean player with one win, in 2014, to his credit in eight years on Tour; and Joel Dahmen, who is in his second year on the PGA Tour. Among the better-known players who also get to sleep in a bit Friday morning are World #1 Jason Day, of Australia; 2018 U.S. Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk, and World #6 Jordan Spieth.

Clovis, CA’s Bryson DeChambeau strokes a putt on the 2nd hole of Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Shore Course using the face-forward, arm-lock putting style that he has recently adopted.

Players with Northern California associations had mixed results to show for Wednesday’s truncated play. San Jose State grad Mark Hubbard turned in a 3-under scorecard at Pebble Beach, while Sacramento’s Nick Watney is 3-under through 13 holes at the tournament’s namesake course. Ricky Barnes, of Stockton, completed his round on Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s (MPCC) Shore Course in par; Spencer Levin, of Sacramento, is +2 through 16 at Spyglass Hills, while Fresno-area natives Bryson DeChambeau and Kevin Chappell are +2 through 11 and +3 through 15, respectively, at MPCC, and Alameda’s James Hahn is +4 through 17 on the Shore Course.