Ultimate springtime golf fitness tips for "real" golfers

By Tim McDonald,
National Golf Editor

For those of you unfortunate enough to live in the North, you must be salivating at the thought of the spring golf season.

Hold on, Tiger. You ain't the man you used to be. You can't just jump up and go straight to the golf course after a long winter of sloth and mold.

Now, you will find any number of charlatans willing to sell you their total golf fitness regimens. These sleazoids always assume you're a golfer interested in a cleaner, healthier way of living and golfing. I've seen you out on the course, and I know that's not the sort of thing you're "into."

So here is my total golf fitness regimen for the "real" golfer:

• For God's sake, you have to strengthen your core! This involves eating really hard food, like jawbreakers. Eat a bag of those and have your neighbor punch you in the gut to see if your core is all it can be.

Options: Month-old fudge, Purina Dog Chow, pine bark.

• You also have to really work your obliques, I mean really work the hell out of them. Here's the perfect exercise for that. Lie flat on your back with knees bent slightly wider than your hips. If you have really fat hips, you're either going to have to really stretch your knees like in a cartoon, like The Elastic Man from India, or just skip this exercise. In fact, if you have really fat hips, just skip playing golf, nobody wants to see you out on the course.

Now, you slim-hipped people reach your hands to the ceiling like you're crying out for the Lord Jesus Christ to spare you from your miserable existence. You can hold light hand-weights, or not. What do I care? Lift your head and chest toward the ceiling and rotate to reach both hands just outside of your fat, right knee. Repeat on the left side. Now, take a breather. Ask Christ for forgiveness.

• Breathing exercises: Breathing properly and deeply is critical, especially for those tense moments on the course when normally you would start crying.
This deep-breathing exercise involves attending your local adult movie house, or calling up one of those sites on your Internet browser. Follow your instincts. It's either that or follow mine, and then you're looking at jail time.
• Horizontal abduction/adduction: I can't give you much help here, because I always get "horizontal" confused with "vertical," and I have no idea what adduction is. Who came up with that word, anyway? It's a stupid word and should be eliminated from the English language, if it's even English.

• Standing hip rotation: Don't do this. It makes you look like a girl.

• Alcohol fitness: How many times have you lost $2 Nassaus because while you were getting hamboned, your playing partners were just holding up that bottle of Jack Black pretending to drink?

Well, no need to waste good liquor. You can still drink and maintain your competitive edge. You just need to build up a tolerance. Stand upright in a dark closet, with a wide stance, and suck it down. Keep drinking until your wife leaves you.

• Aerobics: Ha! Don't make me laugh. This is golf!

• Putting: Don't bother to practice putting. Putting in golf is overrated. I play golf maybe 200 times a year and I've yet to meet anyone who can putt. You either make it or you don't. If you miss, just keep putting until the ball goes in the hole. Simple.

• Seniors: As we age, our bodies react differently, so seniors must prepare for golf differently than young punks. An important thing to remember is that there is an inverse relationship of increased ear hair to laughably short drives off the tee.

So keep those ear hairs trim and neat. If you're proud of your thick mane of ear hair, don't sweat it. If you're short off the tee, you're probably small in other areas, and I think you know what I'm talking about.

• Excuses: A healthy psychological outlook is a must for Better Golf. If you can convince yourself that the snap hook you hit into the weeds over there is not your doing at all, you'll retain the confidence needed to excel in the game.

The first time you smack one of your all-too-typical lousy shots, turn to your playing partner and snarl," "Will you stop that!" Look at him, looking all hurt and everything. Who would have thought golf fitness could be so much fun?

• Torque development in the downswing: This is so important, I can barely contain myself. This is vital to any golfer who has ever wanted to improve his score. You could even say it is absolutely critical in terms of reaching your full potential as a golfer and knowing what it is to be truly human.

• Alignment and posture: Face the target squarely and stand erect, with your rump jutting out slightly. Feels a little silly, doesn't it? Can you think of another situation in life where you would position yourself in such an odd manner? I can't.

Hawaii golf resorts named to best lists

Several Hawaii golf resorts made it onto Golf Magazine's best resorts lists, chosen by readers.

The Four Seasons Resorts Lanai at Manele Bay was named to the Platinum List, a list of the 10 finest golf resorts in the United States.

Six resorts made it on the magazine's Gold List of properties that offer the "best vacations your money can buy": The Four Seasons Resort Hualalai at Historic Kaupulehu on the Big Island and the Four Seasons Resort Lanai, The Lodge at Koele; The Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa on Maui; Kapalua Resort on Maui; Mauna Lani Resort on the Big Island; and the Princeville at Hanalei Resort on Kauai.

Two Hawaii resorts were named Silver Award resorts: Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa on Kauai and the Hilton Waikoloa Village on the Big Island.

The magazine also had its first-ever list of Green awards. The Big Island's Mauna Lani Resort was named to the list for its three-acre PowerLight photovoltaic system. The Kapalua Resort made the list for its Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuaries, Puu Kukui nature preserve and its Honolua and Mokuleia Bays that are Hawaii State Marine Life Conservation Districts.

Toyama blows away field to capture state amateur golf

'AIEA — It took Travis Toyama one hole — three big swings and a monstrous putt on the first hole — to create separation yesterday in the final round of the Hawai'i State Amateur Stroke Play Championship at Pearl Country Club.

The rest of the windy afternoon was pretty much all Toyama, all the time. He started with 16 guys within nine shots of him and ended with a 3-under-par 69 that blew them away. Toyama coasted to his first state stroke-play title by eight shots.

Toyama, a senior on the University of Hawai'i golf team, has some sweet bookends: In 2002, at age 15, he became the youngest winner of the Manoa Cup — the state's amateur match play championship. Three years ago he won it again. He will try for a third this summer at the 100th Manoa Cup.

Like his golf game, Toyama's career is full of magical moments. Yesterday it came in the form of six birdies — three on the front and the final three holes, which only served as exclamation points on his huge victory. His 69 might not sound spectacular, but in the final three days only four players broke par at Pearl. No one else broke 70.

The wind blew scores sky high and golf balls all over 'Aiea. The only time Toyama blinked was Friday. That came on the putting green, where he missed everything outside 3 feet.

"Putting was my biggest problem," Toyama recalled. "It was really rough. ... I've really been struggling with my putter (in college tournaments). From there it gets a lot worse. You get kinda shaky over your iron shots. You want to chip it in because you can't putt. Everything starts with the short game."

Off the tee, Toyama was beyond reproach.

"Travis hit the ball really well," said Neal Takara, who shared second with the Big Island's Chris Igawa. "Especially in this wind you have to hit the ball really solid and Travis did that."

Toyama's grip-and-rip putting style was back on the weekend when he left nothing short. After his cross-green birdie putt on the first hole rattled the cup — "That probably took all the nerves out of me" — he sank a 12-footer at No. 5 and 4-footer at No. 6.

When a string of six pars was interrupted by two bogeys in a three-hole span, Toyama regrouped to drop a 12-footer on the 16th and 6-footer on the 18th. In between, he "blocked" his tee shot way right on the 17th, tried to hit a "cut" shot out of the trees that never "cut" and landed 20 feet from the out-of-bounds stakes on the left, then feathered a flop shot to within inches for an unorthodox birdie.

"On the back nine I started to play a little too defensive," Toyama said. "I was trying too hard to just make pars and not make bogeys. The last few holes I tried to get aggressive and just not do anything stupid."

The no-fear approach was reminiscent of Toyama's riveting Manoa Cup wins and fifth-place finish in last year's Western Athletic Conference championship. The leading-large victory looked like his 10-shot win at the 35th annual Independent Insurance Agent Junior Classic in 2003. That week in New Jersey he broke the record for largest margin of victory set by another guy who won yesterday — Tiger Woods.

For Takara, a customer service representative for Titleist, yesterday was a case of deja vu, and a reality check. At 37, he was older than the combined ages of his playing partners — Toyama (21) and 'Iolani eighth-grader Lorens Chan (13), who finished fourth. Takara was also reliving the 1996 State Stroke Play, when he was second to Brandan Kop by 10 shots.

"It seems to be that when everybody wins by large margins, I finish second," Takara said, shaking his head.

All was not lost.

"The juniors are getting better; a lot younger now," Takara said. "It's a testament to the junior golf programs and the instructors. To be quite honest I'm really happy to see that. When they beat me by eight that means the game will sustain itself."

Toyama and Chan are stark evidence of that. Chan might have the best shot at breaking Toyama's Manoa Cup record this summer, and/or next. He lost in the semifinals last year and has been in contention pretty much everywhere since, coming within a shot of qualifying for the Sony Open in Hawai'i.

The four-time Hawai'i State Junior Golf Association state champion isn't even in high school yet, but he knows what it takes and he saw it in Toyama yesterday. "He played overall fantastic," Chan said.

How can Chan get there?

"He just has to get older," said Kevin Ralbovsky, Chan's coach. "But I like him now because he's goofy and humble."

Seasider Golfers Win

Turtle Bay, HI—The Brigham Young University-Hawaii men’s golf team defeated Hawaii Pacific in the first dual match of the spring season today at Turtle Bay’s Palmer Course. The Seasiders shot a team total of 306 on the par 72 course to defeat the Sea Warriors by ten strokes.

BYU-Hawaii’s Brett Puterbaugh and Josh Coon shared medalist honors with Hawaii Pacific’s Brian Keller with all three shooting 76 on the challenging, beautiful course. Kyle Kunioka and Derek Hall were another stroke back for the Seasiders to complete their team scoring. BYU–Hawaii’s Neal Manutai also competed and shot an 84.

BYU-Hawaii will play again on Friday at against Hawaii Pacific and Chaminade on the Fazio course at Turtle Bay beginning at 1:00 pm.

Team Scores

Place	Team	Total
1	BYU-Hawaii	306
2	Hawaii Pacific	316

WG: Vulcans 7th at Rattler Round-Up

San Antonio, Texas – Tied for 23rd place at the Lady Rattler Roundup hosted by St. Mary’s University at the Dominion Country Club, Nicole Aoki and Randi Ono led the University of Hawaii at Hilo to a seventh place finish in the 12-team tournament. Aoki recorded rounds of 86 and 86 to finish at 172 while Ono put together rounds of 81 and 91. Kiilani Matsuyoshi finished in a tie for 28th place with a 175 (81-84) while Jayna Shimomura was tied for 31st place at 178 (86-92). Kodie Nakamura completed the squad and finished in a tied for 42nd place at 184 (94-90). Tarleton State won the team title with a 638. They were followed by Cal State Monterey Bay (665), St. Edwards (669), Northeastern State (675), Dallas Baptist (691), St. Mary's (692), Hawaii Hilo (693) , Texas San Antonio (699), Southwest Oklahoma State (709), Texas A&M-Commerce (742), Incarnate Word (748) and Oklahoma Panhandle State (971).

UH Places Two Individuals In Top 10, Finished Tied For Sixth At Fresno State Invitational

FRESNO, Calif. - Led by a second place finish by Corie Hou and a sixth place finish by Xyra Suyetsugu, the University of Hawai`i Rainbow Wahine golf team (301-303-604) finished tied for sixth at the Kitahara Fresno State Invitational at Copper River Country Club Tuesday.

Hou (72-73-145) finished up at one-over-par, tying for second, just one shot off the lead. Suyetsugu(75-72-147) tied for sixth at three-over-par. The two were followed by Carolina Perez (77-77-154), tied for 37th, Lisa Kajihara (77-81-158), tied for 50th, and Phyllis Lai (81-83-164), tied for 76th.

Tulsa came from behind to take the team title at 14-over-par. They were followed by UC Davis (+17), Kansas (+20), San Francisco (+21) and UC Irvine (+27).

Individually, Fresno State's Taylor Siebert finished at even-par to take the title. She was followed by Hou, UC Davis' Jee Park and Kansas' Emily Powers (+1) and Danielle Cvitanov (+2).

The Rainbow Wahine will be playing in the SJSU Spartan Invitational next week, from March 3-4.

More Americans Are Giving Up Golf

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. — The men gathered in a new golf clubhouse here a couple of weeks ago circled the problem from every angle, like caddies lining up a shot out of the rough.

“We have to change our mentality,” said Richard Rocchio, a public relations consultant.

“The problem is time,” offered Walter Hurney, a real estate developer. “There just isn’t enough time. Men won’t spend a whole day away from their family anymore.”

William A. Gatz, owner of the Long Island National Golf Club in Riverhead, said the problem was fundamental economics: too much supply, not enough demand.

The problem was not a game of golf. It was the game of golf itself.

Over the past decade, the leisure activity most closely associated with corporate success in America has been in a kind of recession.

The total number of people who play has declined or remained flat each year since 2000, dropping to about 26 million from 30 million, according to the National Golf Foundation and the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association.

More troubling to golf boosters, the number of people who play 25 times a year or more fell to 4.6 million in 2005 from 6.9 million in 2000, a loss of about a third.

The industry now counts its core players as those who golf eight or more times a year. That number, too, has fallen, but more slowly: to 15 million in 2006 from 17.7 million in 2000, according to the National Golf Foundation.

The five men who met here at the Wind Watch Golf Club a couple of weeks ago, golf aficionados all, wondered out loud about the reasons. Was it the economy? Changing family dynamics? A glut of golf courses? A surfeit of etiquette rules — like not letting people use their cellphones for the four hours it typically takes to play a round of 18 holes?

Or was it just the four hours?

Here on Long Island, where there are more than 100 private courses, golf course owners have tried various strategies: coupons and trial memberships, aggressive marketing for corporate and charity tournaments, and even some forays into the wedding business.

Over coffee with a representative of the National Golf Course Owners Association, the owners of four golf courses discussed forming an owners’ cooperative to market golf on Long Island and, perhaps, to purchase staples like golf carts and fertilizer more cheaply.

They strategized about marketing to women, who make up about 25 percent of golfers nationally; recruiting young players with a high school tournament; attracting families with special rates; realigning courses to 6-hole rounds, instead of 9 or 18; and seeking tax breaks, on the premise that golf courses, even private ones, provide publicly beneficial open space.

“When the ship is sinking, it’s time to get creative,” said Mr. Hurney, a principal owner of the Great Rock Golf Club in Wading River, which last summer erected a 4,000-square-foot tent for social events, including weddings, christenings and communions.

The disappearance of golfers over the past several years is part of a broader decline in outdoor activities — including tennis, swimming, hiking, biking and downhill skiing — according to a number of academic and recreation industry studies.

A 2006 study by the United States Tennis Association, which has battled the trend somewhat successfully with a forceful campaign to recruit young players, found that punishing hurricane seasons factored into the decline of play in the South, while the soaring popularity of electronic games and newer sports like skateboarding was diminishing the number of new tennis players everywhere.

Rodney B. Warnick, a professor of recreation studies and tourism at the University of Massachusetts, said that the aging population of the United States was probably a part of the problem, too, and that “there is a younger generation that is just not as active.”

But golf, a sport of long-term investors — both those who buy the expensive equipment and those who build the princely estates on which it is played — has always seemed to exist in a world above the fray of shifting demographics. Not anymore.

Jim Kass, the research director of the National Golf Foundation, an industry group, said the gradual but prolonged slump in golf has defied the adage, “Once a golfer, always a golfer.” About three million golfers quit playing each year, and slightly fewer than that have been picking it up. A two-year campaign by the foundation to bring new players into the game, he said, “hasn’t shown much in the way of results.”

“The man in the street will tell you that golf is booming because he sees Tiger Woods on TV,” Mr. Kass said. “But we track the reality. The reality is, while we haven’t exactly tanked, the numbers have been disappointing for some time.”

Surveys sponsored by the foundation have asked players what keeps them away. “The answer is usually economic,” Mr. Kass said. “No time. Two jobs. Real wages not going up. Pensions going away. Corporate cutbacks in country club memberships — all that doom and gloom stuff.”

In many parts of the country, high expectations for a golf bonanza paralleling baby boomer retirements led to what is now considered a vast overbuilding of golf courses.

Between 1990 and 2003, developers built more than 3,000 new golf courses in the United States, bringing the total to about 16,000. Several hundred have closed in the last few years, most of them in Arizona, Florida, Michigan and South Carolina, according to the foundation.

(Scores more courses are listed for sale on the Web site of the National Golf Course Owners Association, which lists, for example, a North Carolina property described as “two 18-hole championship courses, great mountain locations, profitable, $1.5 million revenues, Bermuda fairways, bent grass, nice clubhouses, one at $5.5 million, other at $2.5 million — possible some owner financing.”)

At the meeting here, there was a consensus that changing family dynamics have had a profound effect on the sport.

“Years ago, men thought nothing of spending the whole day playing golf — maybe Saturday and Sunday both,” said Mr. Rocchio, the public relations consultant, who is also the New York regional director of the National Golf Course Owners Association. “Today, he is driving his kids to their soccer games. Maybe he’s playing a round early in the morning. But he has to get back home in time for lunch.”

Mr. Hurney, the real estate developer, chimed in, “Which is why if we don’t repackage our facilities to a more family orientation, we’re dead.”

To help keep the Great Rock Golf Club afloat, owners erected their large climate-controlled tent near the 18th green last summer. It sat next to the restaurant, Blackwell’s, already operating there. By most accounts, it has been a boon to the club — though perhaps not a hole in one.

Residents of the surrounding neighborhood have complained about party noise, and last year more than 40 signed a petition asking the town of Riverhead to intervene. Town officials are reviewing whether the tent meets local zoning regulations, but have not issued any noise summonses. Mr. Hurney told them he had purchased a decibel meter and would try to hire quieter entertainment.

One neighbor, Dominique Mendez, whose home is about 600 feet from the 18th hole, said, “We bought our house here because we wanted to live in a quiet place, and we thought a golf course would be nice to see from the window. Instead, people have to turn up their air conditioners or wear earplugs at night because of the music thumping.”

During weddings, she said: “you can hear the D.J., ‘We’re gonna do the garter!’ It’s a little much.”