We have taken the liberty to add friends with whom we wanted to share our newsletter. As with all transmissions these days, this one doesn't have to be in your inbox. If you prefer not to have it sent every two months, just let us know.

Also, we have elected to provide a URL from which our readers may download the current issue so as to deter anything resembling "spam." Thanks, CGM

One Under Par
Volume 7, number 4.

A Newsletter fromKeyGolf.....August, 2006

The News Keeps Getting Better...At Least from Our Vantage Point

CONGRATULATIONS to KAREN DAVIES

Karen is a member of the Teaching and Club Professional Division of the LPGA and a professional staff member at Pinnacle Peak Country Club in Phoenix. More than a year ago, a mutual friend introduced us and that meeting opened a friendship that is continuing. Karen has always been a committed and disciplined teacher and player. By her own evaluation, she has now brought a full balance to her physical (swing) and mental game skills and habits.

But there is more outstanding detail to her story. She played 12 years on the LPGA Tour and that can only happen where there is solid talent. While she did not manage a win in those years, she performed with sufficient competence to stay there for those dozen years and that's no mean feat. Now she teaches as zealously as she played - but that is not to say that she doesn’t play anymore. Quite the contrary.

In April she added to that part of her experience and hit the winning trail. First it was a win at the LPGA Teaching and Club Professionals Western Section Championship. Then, in July, in somewhat spectacular fashion, playing at Pinehurst, she came from 10^th place in the final round of the National Championship of the Teaching and Club Professional Divison, shot the tournament low round of 67, to get into a playoff. She hit the first par five in 2 (on Pinehurst #8), two-putted for the birdie and took home the the national Championship trophy. She now also has a spot in next year's LPGA Championship.

That didn't finish it either. After that event, she hopped a plane to Colorado, played in the Aspen Valley Pro-Am and won that as well with a two-day total of 141.Without apology, we also report that in this event, she also beat all the guys. (Take note Annika and Michele)!

We love it. Not only is she a great person and player, she is also dedicated to the automatic principle and using her clearkey. So we thank her for her confidence and give her high praise for her tournament performances. Karen has demonstrated what we truly believe, even if only a few completely finish the course, they do it with their own talent. From our end, we can only present the information and the tools. The rest belongs to each player's personal resources, dedication and committment.

Karen got her diploma the old fashioned way. She earned it - summa cum laude.
.....from The Arizona Republic

**********************************************************************************************************

While Karen's accomplishment can, and should, stand alone, we do offer the following somewhat perverse, tongue-in-cheek "editorial."

**********************************************************************************************************

GOLF, 2006 VINTAGE,
and we don't mean "wine," though what follows may be a bit "fermented," or you may need a glass later!

Grab your Soldin's Golf bag, you know, the one with solar charger and plug-ins for cell phones, smartphones and PDA's. Hitch it to your XIR remote controlled caddie cart. Put on your Ionic rechargeable bracelet and your MIO watch to diminish any pain and monitor your heart rate. Grab some of those balls with the location chips in the center, so your ball finder can pick up the scent. Take a couple of your Epoch-3.125 high tech tees. Don't forget your Golf-Ball Finder glasses and your Scout (golf ball) Finder, your Radar Golf System in case the first two don't work, and your GPS Tee2greensureshotgps so you don't get lost, and last, but not least, load up your brand, spanking-new Nokia N93 Golf Phone that will make instant tele-shots of your swing and provide immediate playback so you can tell what the heck is going on today. (And, most certainly, no one would want to miss any ring or vibration. Somebody might be on the phone).

If you can make it to the course with that load, you are now ready for golf in the 21st century. Surely someone will come up with a carry-bag for all that stuff, complete wirth club logo. (We give notice here, that we lay claim to the "carry-bag" idea, even without a patent).

Look up all of the above on the internet. It's all real. It's marketed on the internet and in some stores. At best, it begs a question: Have we become so immersed in high tech junk that it has actually changed the game, the preception of it (and of ourselves) and our involvement in it? One could get thoroughly disoriented wondering what has happend to GOLF. It's not a self-managed, self-disciplined, self-reliant game anymore. It is becoming a litany of high-tech devices gathered to provide some sort of high tech crutch for execution - (we don't need to play the game anymore, we can, in effect, just plug it in, sit back and watch) - carried out as a veritable machine-driven, arcade-oriented, casino-operated excursion into outer space, formerly called a golf course.

Now hear this: "Earth to Golfer. Come in Golfer. Where are you? Please identify yourself. Kindly return to the first tee and start this game all over. Please deposit all your junk in the provided recepticles and if they happen to be full (we hope), just leave it beside the first tee and our army of collectors will gather it up."

Having jostled and jested the point, perhaps we need to ask more fundamental questions. Will the satisfaction, pleasure and enjoyment of the game be the same if we learn to hit more greens with a range finder or decide to go with our own well-developed ability? Will we become so used to a ball finder that we don't need to pay attention to learning to hit more fairways? Will we give so much attention to the operation of a remote for our high tech computerized caddie cart and answering our cell phones and making sure they are charged that we lose our focus on playing? Is this the onset, the beginning evidence of artificial ADD for golfers, especially in a world that already makes frequent use of ADD claims as an excuse? Will we become so enraptured with using a Noika to capture our own swings to decipher our problems that we lose focus on playing the game in favor of obsessive problem identification? or simply decide to become film-makers instead of golfers?

Perhaps we, the few, are the last of some breed that continues to think it is the wonder of a self-manged game that provides the value that got any of us there, along with the personal challenge we found. I guess some will say it's OK to shift the pleasure and the challenge involved from the old game to the "new" one, marked by finding some way to harmonize all those high tech pieces together into a synergistic, working unit, if we don't succumb to golfer's ADD first.

Oh well, I guess I'll just grab my little carry bag, walk a few holes, breathe deeply to soften my heart beat, use my eyes for distance and discovery, and use my clear key to postpone any anxiety. Believe me, that will be fun!

Lest we sound like some fuddies caught living in the past, please take note that we have no objection to new ways to do things, or new tools with which to do them. If that were the case, we would never have encountered the automatic process and clear keys. What we have a problem with is changing the face of the game so that it no longer bears a close resemblance to it origins (and we are not talking club development and golf ball design, except maybe a ball with a microchip for location purposes). And we don't object to putting all that together and giving it a new name since it will now become a new game if the trend continues. We have archery golf, disc and frisbee golf and perhaps some others, so why not something like "Outdoor Arcade Golf?"

Think of it, a whole new industry! It could have its own locations, marketing groups, amatuer and professional organizations and categories, management groups, tournament schedules and a ton of tournament flights. One for "all-purposes" for users of all the high tech stuff, another that uses "Heartmath only," one that is "Nokia restricted." Add one based on the number of cell phone calls/per round, complete with a stat record like greens in regulation. Do that instead of flights by handicap. Well, you get the point. But just look at the variety. Who needs a plain old golf game? Even let your mind go wild with all the possibilites for wagering. It is loaded - ball count, heart rates, distance accuracy, speed around the course. What a way to take our minds off gas prices and global warming.

(Oops, we forgot the new golf cars that can hit speeds of 25 mph, with a 5.5 horsepower motor and a 400-amp controller for the batteries, for only about 6 - 8 thousand bucks).

Wonderful! Wow! We're ready for the one true game - "New-Age High-Tech Golf."

See you on the first tee!

===============================
We have placed past issues in our Archives.
Let us know if you have questions or comments.
eMail