Golf In New York City Blog

We should all congratulate Davis Love III on winning the 2008 Children’s Miracle Network Classic championship. Davis shot 64 on Saturday and 64 on Sunday. He played the last six weeks of the tour and was able to keep his tour card. Davis had 15 straight rounds in the sixties. This is his 20th win on the PGA Tour which comes with a lifetime exemption. Great Job!
Below are some of Davis Love’s words during the Sunday post round interview:
Well, the important thing is … and one thing I thought about out there in the middle of the round is that at least I haven’t been playing well, but I’ve been willing to work hard and learn and not just sit back and take it easy.

And I’ve learned a lot. I’ve talked to Bob Rotella. I went to his house last year, spent a lot of time with him. Spent some time with Morris Pickens, who’s a sports psychologist at Sea Island, trying to learn why we get good and why we get bad and how we get off.

And Rotella told me about Trevor Immelman not looking at the scoreboard at the last round of the Masters, and he didn’t know after he hit it in the water at 16 where he stood, and that’s what I was trying to do all day was just play and not know where I stood.

Obviously I knew I was leading, but I didn’t know what other guys were shooting. I just knew the two guys in my group, and I even tried not to look at the sign, just to keep myself focused on just playing the game.

I learned a lot over the last few years on how I can improve myself when I’m under pressure and when I’m not playing well, and it certainly paid off today because those last two holes, I could have chipped out, hit it on the green, missed the putt, not got up-and-down on the bunker and finished well back, and I just stayed in the process, just one at a time trying to do my best on each one. And I played them with confidence.

I was in trouble, but I was confident that I was going to get the ball up-and-down. I wasn’t thinking about winning or losing or screwing up. I was thinking about chasing that ball and getting it up-and-down. So a lot went into those last two holes over the last two years, for sure.
Well, I’m going to for another hour try to act like it’s not a big deal (laughs) and hold it together. But you know, it’s a big win for me.

It’s been a long time, and you know, a lot of people have put in a lot of worry and thought and effort and tried to help me get back to where I was. And you know, a lot of people have had a lot of confidence in me. And I’ve tried to balance the “what’s wrong with Davis? How can we help Davis?” You know, “how do we get him through this?”

It’s been a long three years because everybody, like me, expects me to play better, and certainly I’ve had a couple bad breaks, but I still, even after getting hurt, I should have played better all year. I shouldn’t have been this long to put four good rounds together. And not necessarily have to win, but I haven’t put four good rounds together all year.

I haven’t made the saves and hit enough fairways and greens and taken the pressure off my putter. That’s what I basically did, until the last two holes. I had the pressure off of my putter. I wasn’t missing every green and having to get up-and-down.

Scotty [Verplank] put the pressure on his putter today. I hit a lot of fairways, a lot of greens, had a lot of birdie putts. In Vegas and in Scottsdale and in New York, I’m putting for birdies and driving it down the middle of the fairway. I’m doing everything well, but I just wasn’t putting it all together, and I think this week, obviously to win everything has to go right.

I had some good breaks, made some good up-and-downs, but I played very, very well. It means an awful lot to put it all together.
You always question, am I doing the right things and can I still do it and why am I doing it. Why am I pounding balls on the back of the range. You know, I had a good wake-up call at the end of last year when I didn’t get to play these tournaments and fell out of the top 50, and you know, had to get in the gym and get my body back first and then get my game back. So it was definitely a challenge.

It wasn’t exactly what I needed after not playing well, like you said, for a couple years, was to have to come back from an injury. But I didn’t doubt my desire or I didn’t doubt the fact that I could compete, but the little things, you know, making the putts when you had to and all that, that’s golf.

You know, you never know whether like a [David] Duval or whoever, you never know when it’s going to turn on and when it’s going to turn off. And you certainly do turn off and how do you turn it back on, and that’s why I said I spent a lot of time with Rotella.

My son started working with Morris Pickens, and I listened for an hour lesson, and he goes, you got any questions? I said, yeah, I got questions about me, not about him (laughs). I’m not doing all that stuff.

So you know, I’ve questioned, you know, whether I’m doing the right things, and what it comes back to is I know how to do it. I just got to put the time in and keep doing the simple things, not trying to reinvent my game or my swing or the way I play. Just play Davis Love golf, and it’s good enough, and the confidence, I mean the chicken or the egg. We’ve been through that a million times. What comes first?

I think having a plan and sticking with it and being patient … one player was throwing stuff in his locker Sunday at Scottsdale, and he said, I don’t know how you’ve been out here playing so long. And.

I was getting ready to go take a shower, and I said, “Patience,” and I turned around and I walked off. And that’s really what it is. You got to be patient. You got to work hard and you got to, like I said earlier, be willing to learn.

But I’ve been very patient with myself. I haven’t beat myself up, and if I have questioned or wondered where it went or where I was going, I never gave up and I never thought that I couldn’t get it back. I just wondered how I was going to get it back.

And you know, obviously my brother and Joe LaCava have seen me play all year and just wondering what’s going on. You know, where is the winner’s circle, because I look like a guy that should win, and it’s all in your head.

It’s nice to do some things today, like make a few putts and hit a few great shots and make a birdie after Steve makes a birdie. The things that are all about competing, getting the ball up-and-down on the bunker on 18, those are the things that is a difference.

And Matt Cuza said something in the race yesterday, one of the guys made a good pit stop. He said, “That’s a champagne-spraying pit stop right there, boys.” And when I got that ball up-and-down on nine, I said, “That’s a champagne-spraying pit stop right there,” or up-and-down, because that’s how tournaments are won is when you do something, you know, out of the ordinary, you make a great … Steve made a couple long putts that I’m sure he felt like were momentum builders, but that up-and-down at 9 was what won me the tournament.

Bill Castner and Randy Friedman, a well-known mental coach expert, golf coach and author will be conducting a series of One-Day Winter Golf Seminar Instruction Workshops in both Clark, NJ and Manhattan. Workshop dates are November 15th (Clark), December 20th (NYC), January 18th (Clark), and February 15th (Clark). Also speaking during the workshops will be Class A Club Fitter - Tom Murphy, PGA Golf Professional - Leo Tabick and personal trainer Keith Shearer.

The Winter Seminar Applications are available or For more information call Bill Castner (917-208-5197).

Our readers might be interested in Ray Tennenbaum’s article, PUBLIC WELCOME, in the latest issue of the Met Golfer Magazine (copies available on mgagolf.org). The article mentions several public, daily-fee courses in our area, and discusses the nearly completed renovations at Pelham/Split Rock and Dyker Beach Golf Course. There is a terrific picture of the newly designed Clubhouse at Pelham/Split Rock.
If any of our readers have comments about the course improvements at these courses, please email them to us so we can update the website and let everyone know what you think about the renovations.

Congratulations to 26 year old, Camilo Villegas, from Medellin for winning the BMW Championship last Sunday. He finished at finished at 15-under 265 and collected $1.26 million. A lot was made of his four putt for double bogey during the second round but I felt how he dropped his ball on the tough 17th hole, the 601 yard par five, far more interesting. Camilo clearly knows and understands the rules of golf. But did he bend rules 26-1C (Lateral Water Hazard) and 20-2C (Dropping) to gain an advantage?
Villegas hit his first shot into the lateral water hazard that ran up the right side of the hole. He elected to invoke rule 26.1 (Listed below). His ball clearly was in the hazard. The Rules of Golf allow a player to drop a ball outside the water hazard within two club-lengths of and not nearer the hole than the point where the original ball last crossed the margin of the water hazard. This cost the player one stroke. Villegas dropped his ball within an inch of the red line painted on the ground to define the Lateral Water Hazard. The ball bounced into the hazard. According to his rights under the rules, Villegas picked up his ball and re-dropped within an inch of the hazard line. Again the ball bounced into the hazard allowing Villegas to place the ball where it landed outside of the hazard.
Villegas clearly acted within the rules and did not violate rule 26-1 or 20-2C. But did he act by the Spirit of the Rules and our game? Rule 26-1C allows a player to drop as far as two club lengths from the Margin of the Hazard. If Camilo had dropped even ten inches from the hazard line the ball would have been in play and a re-drop would not have been necessary. Of course, he would not of have had the advantage of placing the ball on top of the rough with his hand.
I have never before seen a player drop like this. Is this how it is normally done on the PGA Tour?
Villegas was able to hit a rescue club to within 150 yards of the hole and then he hit a good approach onto the green and one putted to save his par.
Was the way he manipulated the Rules of Golf: Smart, Standard Operating Procedure on the PGA Tour, or Cheating? Is it bending the Rules or OK?
I do not know. Anyway I am glad he won and still enjoy watching his “Spider-Man” style of reading putts on the green.

United States Golf Association Rules:
20-1. Lifting and Marking
A ball to be lifted under the Rules may be lifted by the player, his partner or another person authorized by the player. In any such case, the player is responsible for any breach of the Rules. The position of the ball must be marked before it is lifted under a Rule that requires it to be replaced. If it is not marked, the player incurs a penalty of one stroke and the ball must be replaced. If it is not replaced, the player incurs the general penalty for breach of this Rule, but there is no additional penalty under Rule 20-1. If a ball or ball-marker is accidentally moved in the process of
lifting the ball under a Rule or marking its position, the ball or ball-marker must be replaced. There is no penalty, provided the movement of the ball or ball-marker is directly attributable to the specific act of marking the position of or lifting the ball. Otherwise, the player incurs a penalty of one stroke under this Rule or Rule 18-2a.
Exception: If a player incurs a penalty for failing to act in accordance with Rule 5-3 or 12-2, there is no additional penalty under Rule 20-1.
Note: The position of a ball to be lifted should be marked by placing a ball-marker, a small coin or other similar object
immediately behind the ball. If the ball-marker interferes with the play, stance or stroke of another player, it should be placed one or more clubhead-lengths to one side.

20-2. Dropping and Re-Dropping
A. By Whom and How
A ball to be dropped under the Rules must be dropped by the player himself. He must stand erect, hold the ball at shoulder height and arm’s length and drop it. If a ball is dropped by any other person or in any other manner and the error is not corrected as provided in Rule 20-6, the player incurs a penalty of one stroke. If the ball when dropped touches any person or the equipment of any player before or after it strikes a part of the course and before it comes to rest, the ball must be re-dropped, without penalty. There is no limit to the number of times a ball must be re-dropped in these circumstances. (Taking action to influence position or movement of ball — see Rule 1-2.)
B. Where to Drop
When a ball is to be dropped as near as possible to a specific spot, it must be dropped not nearer the hole than the specific spot which, if it is not precisely known to the player, must be estimated. A ball when dropped must first strike a part of the course where the applicable Rule requires it to be dropped. If it is not so dropped, Rules 20-6 and 20-7 apply.
C. When to Re-Drop
A dropped ball must be re-dropped, without penalty, if it:
(i) rolls into and comes to rest in a hazard; (ii) rolls out of and comes to rest outside a hazard; (iii) rolls onto and comes to rest on a putting green; (iv) rolls and comes to rest out of bounds; (v) rolls to and comes to rest in a position where there is interference by the condition from which relief was taken under Rule 24-2b (immovable obstruction), Rule 25-1 (abnormal ground conditions), Rule 25-3 (wrong putting green) or a Local Rule (Rule 33-8a), or rolls back
into the pitch-mark from which it was lifted under Rule 25-2 (embedded ball); (vi) rolls and comes to rest more than two club-lengths from where it first struck a part of the course; or (vii) rolls and comes to rest nearer the hole than:
(a) its original position or estimated position (see Rule 20-2b) unless otherwise permitted by the Rules; or (b) the nearest point of relief or maximum available relief (Rule 24-2, 25-1 or 25-3); or (c) the point where the original ball last crossed the margin of the water hazard or lateral water hazard (Rule 26-1). If the ball when re-dropped rolls into any position listed above, it must be placed as near as possible to the spot where it first struck a part of the course when re-dropped.
Note 1: If a ball when dropped or re-dropped comes to rest and subsequently moves, the ball must be played as it lies, unless the provisions of any other Rule apply.
Note 2: If a ball to be re-dropped or placed under this Rule is not immediately recoverable, another ball may be substituted. (Use of Dropping Zone — see Appendix I; Part B; Section 8.)

26-1. Relief for Ball in Water Hazard
It is a question of fact whether a ball that has not been found after having been struck toward a water hazard is in the hazard. In order to apply this Rule, it must be known or virtually certain that the ball is in the hazard. In the absence of such knowledge or certainty, the player must proceed under Rule 27-1. If a ball is in a water hazard or if it is known or virtually certain that a ball that has not been found is in a water hazard (whether the ball lies in water or not), the player may under penalty of one stroke:
A. Play a ball as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original ball was last played (see Rule 20-5); or
B. Drop a ball behind the water hazard, keeping the point at which the original ball last crossed the margin of the water hazard directly between the hole and the spot on which the ball is dropped, with no limit to how far behind the water hazard the ball may be dropped; or
C. As additional options available only if the ball last crossed the margin of a lateral water hazard, drop a ball outside the water hazard within two club-lengths of and not nearer the hole than (i) the point where the original ball last crossed the margin of the water hazard or (ii) a point on the opposite margin of the water hazard equidistant from the hole. When proceeding under this Rule, the player may lift and clean his ball or substitute a ball.