Davis Love III A Class Act

In the spring of 1994 I received a call from Eric Dutt who was the Tournament Operations Director of the Las Vegas Invitational. The Desert Inn CC had asked to bow out of the three course rotation of TPC Summerlin, Las Vegas Country Club and Desert Inn and Eric was inquiring whether I would be interested in hosting the event at Las Vegas Hilton Country Club. Although it would seem like a no brainer, the early October dates of the event made it very difficult to have a course in condition for a tour event. Las Vegas temperatures are cooler at night so courses usually overseed in the middle of September. With an early October date a course needed to overseed early and take the green height down quickly or wait to seed until after the event and risk that an early frost would render $50,000 of seed a total waste. We decided that it was worth the risk to overseed early and agreed to host the PGA Tour Las Vegas Invitational. Within weeks we received a visit from a PGA Tour Agronimist who outlined the expectations for green speed, bunkers, fairway height, rough height and other details that needed attention. I do not recall receiving any income for the event but I believe that the PGA paid the course $50,000 which also happened to be the fee that the course paid back to the tour for the opportunity to have some television coverage. 

            As the tournament date neared things were going well with course preparations, the golf shop was stocked with an endless array of Las Vegas Invitational Merchandise and the food and beverage operation was stocked to the gills with hot dogs and beer. The Las Vegas Hilton Country Club (originally Sahara Nevada CC), now Las Vegas National, had hosted many professional tournaments beginning with the LPGA Championship in 1961. The PGA tour also hosted events  at the course beginning in 1967 with the Tournament of Champions. From 1969 through 1976, the Tournament continued forward as the Sahara Invitational and the tournament winners of both the LPGA and PGA events reads like a Hall of Fame list of professional golfers. Mickey Wright and Sandra Haynie were among the LPGA winners.  For the PGA events, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Lanny Wadkins,  and Al Geiberger all won the Sahara Invitational event.  The Course record of 63 was initially set by Arnold Palmer in 1967 during the Tournament of Champions. Great history, but as the modern tour players arrived for practice rounds there was only one thing on their minds, “ Are the fairways going to be this wet during the tournament?” Any speck of mud on a ball was cause for great concern and the tour staff assured the players that the course would be dry for the tournament. I asked one prominent player how he liked the greens and he said, “Bruce, the greens are fine but here’s how it works. If I putt well during the tournament they are great greens. If I putt poorly they suck. That’s just how it is.” The weather during the event was perfect, the players liked the course and Bruce Lietzke was crowned the champion. The thing I recall most about the event was the graciousness of Davis Love III. He was the defending champion and we had a large sign at the front entrance welcoming people that featured the statement that Davis Love was here to defend his title. Love had arrived needing to at least make the cut in order to qualify for the Tour Championship. He did not play well and had just finished his round at my course when one of my staff approached him with a request. “Mr. Love, would you mind posing for a few pictures with our Pro out by the entrance sign?” I was within earshot and cringed a little bit as I knew how disappointed Love was in his play. Love’s reply, “I’d be glad to. I really enjoyed your course today.” That is class.

           

The course hosted the event for three years with Jim Furyk winning in 1995 and Tiger Woods posting his first Professional win in 1996. I do remember that Woods played the first round of the event at Las Vegas Hilton Country Club and shot a 70. He finished at 28 under for the five round event. I wonder if he would have posed for a picture with me….

5th Man on 1972 TFHS Golf Team Is Tough Achievement

Golf as a team sport is usually over by the time a person finishes college unless that person is an elite golfer who plays in the Ryder Cup or Solheim Cup. The memories of team golf last much longer and are usually quite strong as playing this individual sport as a team creates some interesting scenarios. In most team sports there are a limited number of individuals who compete for a certain position on the team. In golf, everyone wants to be the number one player and there is usually strong competition just to make the traveling squad of four to six players. My high school golf experience was quite unique and wonderful. My family moved from Boise, Idaho to Twin Falls, Idaho the summer before my sophomore year. Golf was a popular sport in Boise but in Twin Falls, a town of 30,000, golf was the most popular and successful sport in town. The Twin Falls High school golf team had won 6 of the last 11 State Championships in golf and expectations were that the trend would continue. The team played and practiced at Twin Falls Municipal Golf Course. Built in 1931, the course featured two par fives, six par threes and ten par fours for a total par of 68. The greens were tiny and built for flood irrigation. They sloped severely from back to front and the sides were almost straight up and down. This was a great course to learn to hit accurate irons shots and develop and inventive short game. The course is short and has an odd par but it has hosted the Idaho Open eight times. As a sophomore I was a bit overwhelmed by the talent level. The two best players, Kevin Packard and Gary Duncan, seemed to shoot under par every round and there were 6 other players on the team that could shoot par or better at any time. The qualifyings for the team were very fair. Early in the season all spots were open to those shooting the lowest scores. I averaged two or three over par at that time and just could not seem to make a match. As the season progressed the spots available for qualifying decreased as players earned immunity by being medalist or shooting under par in matches. The final qualifying of the season came about and there was only one spot available. Maybe I could make a match and if I played well be selected for the state tournament team. The qualifying was to play two nine hole rounds in a two day period. I shot 34 the first round and was thrilled to see that no one else had played well. The three nearest scores were 38, 39 and a 40 by Dave Warner, a Senior who had made most of the matches that year. The next day I played well again and shot a 34 for a total score of 68. Based on the previous day’s scores I was absolutely assured that I had finally qualified for a match. As I waited for the rest of the team to finish I went out and played four holes on the back nine that looped back to the clubhouse. As I entered the clubhouse I noticed the whole team gathered around the coach and there seemed to be quite a bit of excitement. Were my team mates that happy that I had finally made a match? I walked up to the coach and said, “I made the match, right coach.” The coach looked up and said, “Sorry McNee, Warner shot 26.” This did not compute at first. 26 + 40 = 66 so that is lower than 68……but wait, no one shoots 26, they had to be playing a joke on me. Unfortunately for me it was no joke. Warner had made par on the first hole (the only par five on the front 9) and then birdied the next 8 holes. He did go out and play the back nine and made nine straight pars for an 18 hole score of 60 which is a pretty good score for the 5^thman on a high school golf team. The team went on to win the State Championship that year and I had an unforgettable memory of both disappointment for myself and pure joy for an unbelievable achievement by a team mate.

Joey "O" and the Dream Seed

         I am writing today about one of the most dedicated, giving, talented people I have ever had the privilege of knowing.  Of this gentleman Bob Hope said, “Thanks for the Memory- the classic memory…a great hit…I’ve just about seen everything, but I could watch you perform daily and still laugh and be impressed by your amazing stunts…you make hitting the ball nearly 300 yards while riding a unicycle look easy! We’ve been friends for over 20 years and I have to tell you, you are the most determined and imaginative entertainer I’ve ever seen- and a great one at that!!”   Joey “O” popped into my life in the early 1980’s while I was the Head Golf Professional at Yuma Golf and Country Club  www.joeyogolf.com/ . I don’t recall whether Joey was a friend of a friend or if he just showed up out of the blue but my life has definitely been enriched by the time I have spent with Joey. Joey "O” is simply the most amazing golf performer of all time. He has appeared on the Tonight Show, performed at major PGA tour events, written five books and entertained millions of people over the past thirty years and chances are that you have never heard of him! Joey is a humble man who aggressively chases his dream but is otherwise not a self promoter. When Joey showed up in Yuma he was in the early stages of developing his show. He came to me and said “ Mr. McNee, I need a place where I can hit about 1000 balls a day. I don’t have money to pay for the balls but I will do anything you ask in trade for this opportunity. Now, I was only 27 years old at the time but I had heard this type of thing before…hit a 1000 balls(too lazy)….trade(no skills)…no money(true story). Joey was so sincere and I was so intrigued by what he said he could do that I agreed to let him hit balls as long as he did not bother any of the members. Joey did not hit 1000 balls a day, it had to be more like 1500. He started hitting balls at first light, took a short break for a sandwich in the middle of the day and continued mastering his craft until the sun went down. At the end of every day Joey’s hands were bleeding and he was visibly exhausted but the next day he was right back at it 100% ready to go. The shots he developed are so spectacular that it is hard to describe them. As Bob Hope mentioned Joey hits 300 yard drives while riding a unicycle. Hope failed to mention that the unicycle was six feet tall and Joey used clubs up to 5 feet long hitting off of tees of various heights. Hope also failed to mention that Joey doesn’t just make contact, he hits every shot with a perfect crispness that produces a trajectory like a bullet shot out of a rifle. Paul Azinger says, “On a scale from 1-10, Joey “O”, your show is a 50! You are the best in the world! The most solid ball striking I have ever seen!”   I just called Joey to make sure that my memories of him were not just my imagination and he confirmed that he used to practice 14 hours a day and that he truly believed it took 10,000 hours to truly master a task and become a world class expert. The amazing thing about Joey is the number of tasks he had to master. Among the shots that Joey “O” has mastered are: Hitting a ball while doing a one arm hand stand on an iron(the kind you iron clothes with), balancing on a circus ball and hitting shots with various length clubs off of various height tees both right and left handed, balancing on a balance board doing all of the above again both right and left handed. For added danger Joey also puts the ball or balance board on a table and performs the shots from there. Every shot is perfect contact and did I mention that he also keeps the crowd entertained with a great comedy show as he performs the shots. I am writing this story not to idolize Joey “O” as a performer although I do. I am writing because for all that Joey has accomplished as a performer his greatest accomplishment is as the author of “The Dream Seed”. The Dream Seed is what Joey had at the age of 4 when he was at the circus and realized that he wanted to bring happiness to other people. From that point, Joey had to water and fertilize the seed to make this dream seed what is was supposed to be. Watering the dream seed is what drove Joey to hit balls for 10,000++++ hours to master his craft. Fertilizing the seed was what drove Joey to sneak into the Tonight Show offices and meet producer Freddy de Cordava to ask what it would take to be on the Tonight Show. The meeting failed but Joey wrote letter after letter detailing his accomplishments until he was invited to appear on the show. With Jay Leno hosting, Joey appeared on the show with Tiger Woods. Joey is also a motivational speaker and will speak or perform for any audience. 10,000 hours to become a world class expert. If you hit balls 7 days a week for 8 hours a day that is only three years to master one facet of the game of golf. Joey had to add the acrobatics involved, master the shots both right and left handed and lift weights in order to have the strength and stamina to perform these amazing feats. Check out Joey “O” on this you tube video.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoSB8TSVamg&feature=related

While Joey “O” is great at what he does the true greatness lies in the story of how one can achieve world class mastery of a task by planting a Dream Seed. Your job as a human,” says Joey, “is to plant the seed and focus on the seed every day and believe your dream is already yours. Do you have a Dream Seed that needs watering?

My topic this week is “Judgement” as in he usually uses good judgement in making decisions. I always thought that I had a pretty good eye for talent when it came to assessing a young person’s golf abilities. In the early 80’s I was an assistant golf professional at Yuma Country Club and at the same time I coached the Arizona Western College golf team. I had some pretty good players, one of whom was Art Sellinger. Art was consumed with trying to hit the ball farther and really at that time he was not much longer than the average junior college player. At the end of his junior college career Art asked me for some direction as to his future in golf. I remember the words verbatim. I said, “Art, work on your short game because the long ball won’t get you anywhere.” By the late 80’s Art had won the National Long Drive Championship twice ($100,000 first prize) and had tracked me down in Las Vegas where I was managing the Las Vegas Hilton CC. Art approached me about putting together a Long Drive Pro-Am with the folks at the Hilton with the promise that the next year “he would have a major sponsor, the event would be televised and we was going to do it at night under the lights”. I helped him with the event but thought to myself there was no way this kid from my junior college golf team could put together a major televised event. Of course the next year Art came through with RE/MAX as a sponsor, hosted the event at night under the lights and it was televised on Christmas Day. Art is now the owner of Long Drivers of America, and producer of the RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship/ESPN, Art of Long Driving, Inc. and Sellinger's Power Golf. He's a contributing editor to Golf Tips Magazine, is recognized as the "Authority on Power Golf" by the Golf Channel, has graced the cover of numerous industry magazines, and has appeared in more than ten national television commercials. I learned three lessons. 1. If you follow a dream with hard work and a plan anything is possible. 2. Drive for show, putt for dough is not right. 3. My judgement is not that good. 


This is a first in a series of blogs about the remarkable people I have been privileged to meet through golf. All of these experiences pointed me in the right direction to be able to create the ChipInABLE. This inexpensive golf teaching aid will help the world of golfers learn the proper motion to have a successful short game. www.chipinable.com