Golf Competition - Support Your Charity

All golfing eyes were on the rain-soaked U.S. Open, taking place last week at Bethpage Black golf course in Farmingdale, New York.

An almost comeback by Ricky Barnes, and excellent play by David Duval, Phil Mickelson, and others to hang in there and make the event very competitive down to the wire, provided for a memorable tournament.  A very good job was managed by Lucas Glover to make the birdie when it really counted and have his name added as a U.S. Open champion.

Fortunately there are certain other golf activities taking place that us mere mortals can participate. These occur every week and for some golfers it may be their most enjoyable golfing experience of the season.

Last week I had the pleasure of attending a fund-raising event (golf outing) for the Novi Jaguars FC Scholarship Program. The Novi Jaguars FC is a youth soccer club in Novi, Michigan (30 miles west of Detroit). The teams and players developed by the organization are competitive with the best youth teams in the US. Many players go on to play soccer in college.

A number of the soccer coaches are originally from the home areas of golf, i.e., Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.

The organization strives to be certain that any young person in the Novi, Michigan area who wants to play soccer will have the opportunity to play and learn despite the high unemployment rate and very difficult financial issues in the area.

During the event we volunteered to take the Swing Speed and Tempo Time measurements of those participants who would like to know that information. We took the measurements at the tee of the  designated Long Drive competition hole.

The data and report might be insightful for the many of us golfers who are not playing in the US Open.

Following is a review of the event and the data generated, with some additional information on golf swing speed, tempo time, and shot distances.

Event Format

·         Recreational golf outing, Best Ball Scramble Tournament

·         Proceeds benefit the Novi Jaguars' FC Scholarship program

·         112 registered golfers; 64 participated in the measurement survey

·         Golfer ability ranged from "very good" to "just learning"

·         Conditions: Weather -- Sunny, low 70's;  Slight breeze directly toward tee box, occasionally with a left to right presence.

·         Location: Cattails Golf Course, South Lyon, Michigan

·         Fairway: Intimidating tree on left, smaller trees on right. 100 yd carry over swamp area required. Slight uphill fairway at typical ball landing area.

PLEASE SEE THE NEXT POST FOR CONTINUATION AND MORE INFORMATION