Our New Partners' Best Ball Champions. Winning in convincing fashion the team of Peter Ennis / Bob Price  closed out  Mike Sakala /Larry McNaughton to win the 1st Major of the year.

 Would it be repetitious to ask for some sun and dry fairways?  I read that New York gets 9 inches more rain than Seattle - this spring it all seems to have fallen on Friday night/Saturday morning.  Oh, to hit a pure shot from a firm lie - maybe next week.    

The first round of the President's Clup continues next week.  There were some close matches this week and a couple upsets too (like Gramolini over Cook - who would have called that?).  I've updated the draw to show Saturday's victors

Also next week we get to see what Charlie does about the "Play It Forward" guidelines from Barney Adams & the GCSSA (read about here it if you missed it).  I'd love to play a set up where we could hit reasonable irons into #10 or #17.

 This Week At A Glance

From the First Tee	Saturday, July 2nd	Matches This Week
	First Tee Time: 5:40 Forecast: WARM and DRY	President's Cup Rounds One & Two

Last week's comment box collected a couple good links and an interesting suggestion from DiLeo to keep tournaments away from the holiday weekends.  Makes sense to me.  I like the ability to make remarks to the whole group, so have kept the comment box - just moved it to the "About Us" page. Go forth and speak your mind.

Who says longer is better?  There's a lively discussion these days about what to hit off the tee - the new longer, lighter shafts or the even newer, short ones.  Some say that drivers should be shorter for accuracy, while others maintain drivers should be longer for distance.

If shaft length meant driving distance you'd expect to see the pros swinging 60 inch monsters.  Instead the average length of drivers on the PGA Tour is slightly shorter than 45 inches, with many pros playing drivers in the 44.25 to 44.5 inch range.  Meanwhile standard length for what you and I see in the pro shot is at least 45 inches.

Shouting "more distance" some golf club manufacturers are pushing drivers that are even  longer –  45.5 inches for the TaylorMades, a few more at 46 inches.  Bobby Jones Golf even has a stock 47 inch driver in its inventory.

Don Trahan, father of Tour player D.J. Trahan and promoter of what he calls the Peak Performance Golf Swing, has emerged as a leading spokesman for shorter drivers. Trahan fits some of his students in 43 inch drivers.  Famous fiddler Sergio Garcia has been  experimenting with a 42.25 inch driver.

“To get distance, you have to make solid contact, and most golfers can’t do that consistently with long drivers,” Trahan said.  Trahan swears that the better contact from the shorter shaft  ends up producing longer drives for average players.

He even goes one step farther and speaks directly to a lot of us:  "Golfers over 60 years old, 5 foot 10 or shorter should try hitting a ladies driver." Don reports that "this leads to better balance and control - ease of swinging, as well as the feeling one can swing it faster with less effort than with a longer driver."  He claims the results of his testing were "more good shots, less bad ones and better missed hits. And we all know that better golf is about hitting good misses, because no one hits them all good."

So why not.  We're playing the tees up next week, maybe we should play the drivers down.  Just some food for thought.