Book One – 78mph

When you look at the scorecard for the Sky Mountain golf course, you may think this it’s an easy peasy track. 6392 yards from the tips.  To anyone who thinks that, all I can say is “Yeah, right!” Here are my views on Sky Mountain – The Course.

Sky Mountain

Sky Mountain Golf Course – Photo courtesy John Armijo

Even from the forward tees at a distance of 5044, Sky Mountain is a challenge.

There are no easy par 3’s, and the terrain plays tricks on your eyes.

Take the second hole, at 100 yards for example. Standing on the tee box, the hole looks like it’s downhill and that may make you change your mind about which club you’re going to take on the tee. Bad choice. Walk the hole and you’ll see: it’s actually uphill!  After playing it a few times you decide to take a longer club and of course you nod up in the bunker at the back of the green.

The eighth hole is from an elevated tee to an elevated green from all tees except the forward tee.  From the forward tee it is uphill 112 yards to a green that is almost impossible to keep a ball on it once it has landed unless it comes in really high.  This green slopes drastically from left to right and the best way to attack this hole is to land it three feet from the green and have it roll on!

The 12th hole, 131 yards, has a lake along the left side to a bunker protecting the green and desert is to the left with an outcropping of rocks and a few trees.  Long and right are out of bounds.

The 16th hole, 151 yards, is so well bunkered that you need to land the ball on the left centre of the green to keep it from rolling into a bunker.  When I first played this hole there was NO bunker on the left and you could land the ball short and left and it would roll onto the green.  Not now.  They added a bunker there to compliment the two bunkers in place both to the right of centre.  Long is OK as there is plenty of grass behind the green.

The ducks at Sky Mountain.

My duck friends. They would come running! to meet me when they heard my voice as far away as 150 yards. !

When I play from the forwards, the par 4’s are all reachable with my second shot.  The first hole, 296 yards, is definitely an iron off the tee to around 110 yards.  With a driver or three wood the ball ends up in the valley that is sloping to the left.  A wedge from there is pretty tricky to the green.  The green slopes AWAY from the fairway.  Land on the green and your ball may just go into the desert over the cart paths.  An iron from 110 is a much better choice to keep the ball on the green.

To read about Sky Mountain and Spring Break, click here!

Number three is 226 yards and driving this hole is possible but the hole is a dogleg and you need to carry a bunker at the green.  A better choice is to play a wood or an iron so you can use a short iron into this green.

The 4th hole, 293 yards, has been my achilles heel from the very beginning. It’s a dog leg to the left with an uphill green protected by bunkers. Although the hole was re-shaped a couple of years back, it’s still a little devil of a hole. It has a two-level green with quite a bit of undulation.  In order to place your tee shot for easy entry into this green you have to be able to draw the ball. From the tee you must carry the hill that is at the 150 yard marker.  This hill slopes extremely to the right and a tee shot straight or with a fade will end up in the right rough.  Good luck on this one.

Sky Mountain scorecard

My second Eagle at Sky Mountain Golf Course Hole #9

The  5th, 11th, 13th,15th and 17th are not long par 4’s.  These holes are comfortable lengths and give you time to enjoy the course and the views.  The 7th hole, 356 y arms is almost impossible to get on the green in two shots.  From the 150 yard marker it is downhill all the way to the water!  This pond goes all the way across in fron of the elevated green.  A bogey is good.

The 14th hole is 347 yards but a dogleg to the left with bunkers along that side as well.  The hole is downhill, then uphill, then slopes down to an elevated green.  Par is great on this one,

The par 5’s are not too long, but each one is a challenge just the same.

The 6th hole, 406 yards.  The 9th hole, 437 yards.  The 10th hole, 368 yards and the 18th hole, 401 yards.  All thes holes you can be on in regulation.  Birdies can be had and even a few Eagles.

The views of the desert are always changing depending on the light on the red rocks and the time of day. It is truly amazing how different it can look from one day to the next. The desert is very appealing in that way. If I could put my finger on it, I’d say that’s what makes Sky Mountain Golf Course the most beautiful course in southwestern Utah.

Read more

Some really exciting things are happening for 78 MPH and I’d like to tell you about where we’re at. I say “we” because honestly I would be lost if it weren’t for the help of my oldest daughter, Colleen, and she’s never without an idea of what I should be writing about next, or how to find new readers.

Double Ace

Brian Harman’s double ace feat is on display at the World Golf Hall of Fame

She isn’t scared to ask people things, either. Like the World Golf Hall of Fame – they let me use a picture of one of the golf balls that professional golfer Brian Harman used on the final Sunday of the Barclays when he had two holes-in-one for my story on aces. They said, no problem – and it’s quite the stunning image!

Sir Nick Faldo

Adam Long, Director of Golf at The Wilderness Club

Adam Long, Director of Golf at The Wilderness Club

Or The Wilderness Club in Eureka, Montana. The truth was, I nearly got back in the car to drive back to The Wilderness Club to see Sir Nick Faldo put on his golf clinic on the 3rd of September, but since I didn’t, we asked the Director of golf there, Adam Long, if he would take some pictures for us that we could use for the blog, and he did. Thanks, ADAM!

Greg Norman

And then there’s the Greg Norman story. He’d made some comments about the state of golf and I found that I agree with him, and have some ideas of my own as to how we could better be growing the game. We tweeted it out to the Shark himself, and put it on his Facebook page too, and he commented “Great post, Maureen, thanks for sharing” and, as you can imagine, did that ever make my day.

Phil Mickelson

Here in Calgary, we’re going to have a new golf course and it’s going to be called Mickelson National. It’s currently under construction, and will be Phil Mickelson’s first Canadian signature course. I’m going to follow the development of the course for my blog. (Pssst, You may not know this, but Phil and I go way, way back, in fact, all the way back to 1991 – but that’s another story, and you’re going to want to keep your eyes peeled for that!)

78 MPH’s Millstones

How to make a golf car seat cover

Me on the Golf Car cosy on a cool Calgary day

If you think that my blog is just for friends and family, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes, friends and family do follow sometimes, but since June 7th, which is the day I posted my first blog, there have been over 7,500 readers and over 150 comments. One of my most popular posts is about positional vertigo and golf – and I meet people all over who tell me they have it and had never heard of the Denver doctor’s solution. And this week, the Quilting Board lit up my post about how to make a golf car seat cover as many quilters have decided that would be a great present to start making now for someone on their Christmas list.

This is my 57th post, and I think we have nearly a dozen in reserve. Each post requires a lot of work, including finding appropriate images, putting in the right links, sometimes they need interviews — and then after publication, we need to let the world know, on Facebook, Twitter and Reddit. We’ve grown my Twitter following from 1 (thanks, Abigail) to 100, all organic followers, which is great (that means I didn’t pay for anyone, which apparently is a common practice!)

I really appreciate all the comments, the encouragement, even the surprise that some people have expressed about me writing a blog. It’s fun to write, but my editor is really tough on me, forcing me to get to the point. That’s why I’ll be doing mini-series on some of my favourite topics, like Sky Mountain Golf Course, and why I love it so. It’s nearly a mini series already!

Looking Forward

On October 7th, the blog will be 4 months old and I will turn 81. My wishes for my 81st year is to continue to be in good health, to be able to golf good courses, and hang out with my friends, meet new ones too and shoot my age again. With a bit of luck, all those things will work out, just fine.

Keep on reading on!

-Maureen

Read more

Oh, the joy! Oh, the happiness. Oh, the thrill.
Oh my! Will I ever have A BIG BAR BILL!

What thoughts go through your mind when you finally make the ultimate golf shot, a hole-in-one?

Multiple Aces

Having a hole-in-one is pretty special. But having multiple holes-in-one? How special is that? Mega!

Brian Harman had a Hole-in-One two times in one day

Brian Harman had double aces at the 2015 Barclays. His golf ball and the shirt he was wearing ar now on display at the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, FL.

During the final day of the 2015 Barclays, on August 30th, 2015, PGA playing pro, Brian Harman did something amazing, twice. He made two holes-in-one, twelve holes apart from each other. Both were made on par 3’s at the Plainfield Country Club in Edison, New Jersey.

Harman’s first hole-in-one came on the 196-yard third hole. And his second hole-in-one was on the 228-yard 14th. By making those aces, he became the third PGA player to ever score double aces in the same round. Now, that’s pretty special.

The World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, FL has both Harman’s golf ball and the shirt he was wearing on display.

Deborah Rowbotham

Deborah Rowbotham showing off her medals from the Huntsman Games, which we both played in 2014.

My niece, Deborah Rowbotham, knows what having multiple aces is all about. She has had three – yes, count them, THREE holes-in-one! And to top it all off, she made all three of them the very same summer, and two of them were on consecutive Sundays.

Unreal. Shocking. Exhilarating

This is what Deborah said about her string of aces, which happened in 2001:

It was unreal, shocking, exhilarating and, thank goodness, I had hole-in-one insurance!

All of Deborah’s aces happened at the Dundas Valley Golf and Curling Club in Dundas, Ontario. It’s Deborah’s home course, and I have played it several times both with Deborah and with my sister (her mother) Georgie, who was a long time member there. Georgie was 96 when she passed away last fall, but she was an active golfer until her 86th year.

It wasn’t until Georgie was 75, in 1993, when “Gorgeous George” as we used to call her, had her only hole-in-one, again at the Dundas Valley course. And Deborah, who’s been golfing since she was 11, was there to see her mom’s ace!

Molson Award

Georgie Rowbotham’s Molson Award from the Dundas Golf & Curling Club

Another one of Georgie’s proudest golfing moments came in 1968 when she won the Molson Award for the Ladies Golf and was given a beautiful silver platter as a memento.

Since I’ve played the course, I even know the holes that Deborah’s amazing feats were accomplished.

Dundas Valley is another one of famed Canadian golf course architect Stanley Thompson’s designs. Look closely at the name and you’ll see the word “valley” in it those valleys really come into play with the course. You will have an abundance of sidehill, uphill and downhill lies on nearly every hole on the course, and it must have been quite a challenge for Thompson back in the 1920’s to come up with his design.

Even so, many of those holes are familiar to me as they are similar to another Thompson designed course – Tor Hill in Regina, Saskatchewan. Although I moved from Regina to Calgary, Alberta years ago, I’ll always consider Tor Hill my “home” course.

As for me, a hole-in-one has always been elusive. But each time I step on the tee-box of a par three and look towards the pin, I imagine in my mind’s eye the flight of the ball, landing lightly on the green, and skipping a few yards and then rolling into the hole. Alas! I have been close, SO CLOSE, more times than I would want to tell you about, inches to the left, inches to the right, but never close enough to fall in and find the bottom of the cup.

Hole-in-One

If you’ve made an ace, there are different places that you can register your accomplishment online, but many of them exclude international players. One that I found that includes acers from around the globe is the Golf Digest Hole-In-One Club where you can enter in all your details, including date, which course you were playing, which club you used and has a searchable database to find friends or folks you know who have registered their aces. If you’re worried about hole-in-one insurance, one international vendor is Hole In One International who, according to their Twitter page, has paid out over $45,000,000 in cash and prizes to contest and promotion winners worldwide since 1991!

No matter if you think a hole-in-one is a sign of golfing skill or just a lucky shot, they’re amazing to watch and they’ve got to be amazing to make. This year, on the 2014-15 PGA Tour, 41 holes-in-one were recorded, numbers 40 and 41 belonging to Brian Harman. Billy Hurley III was the first one to record a hole-in-one last season, and both he and Andres Romero joined Harman with two aces in the season, although Harman was the only player to record two holes-in-one either at the same tournament, or on the same day.

Read more