Clubs and Courses

Well, I did what I said I’d do this weekend:  I went to the BMW Championship at Dubs Dread (Cog Hill #4) on Friday and the U.S. Senior Amateur Open at Beverly Country Club today.  I had a great time.   

A year ago I was sitting in my car listening to the second installment of a Planet Money series on NPR and realized the USA was moving into the vortex of a financial melt down. The shock of that realization woke me up every morning for the next nine months.   

I’ve had a similar, albeit less dramatic sense about golf that started with The Masters tournament and has grown with each major.  New equipment sales have taken a beating alongside the declining stature of the star players.   

Zach Johson's win may be the biggest story from the Valero Texas Open, but our local story from that tournament is a lot funnier. 

I've written about Lance and Rick Ten Broeck in the blog, two excellent golfers who grew up in Beverly and got their chops playing at Joe Louis.  Lance went on to play on the Tour, albeit without much success.  He's been Jasper Parnevik's caddy for the past ten years.

Because Lance has some history with the Tour he's qualified as an alternate under certain circumstances.  Well, the Valero Texas Open was just such a circumstance in an unexpected way.

For some reason the event was short a player for the first round on Thursday.  Lance's name on the PGA alternate list is no where near the top, but the need was sudden and Lance happened to be in San Antonio as Parnevik's caddy.