RONNIE TUMLIN, REALTOR AT CRESCENT BEACH, ST AUGUSTINE  FLORIDA

If you are looking to buy or sell property in St Augustine or at the beach you found me.  Yes I am still active and up to date just call me or email me at 904-501-1010 or ronnietumlin@gmail.com.  Below is a ton of information regarding my golfing activities and a nationally recognized tournament.   RT

GOLF WEBSITE:  RUB OF THE GREEN by RONNIE TUMLIN

Tournament Bulletin:  Mountain Glen Club in the heart of NC mountains, has announced they will host the 2023 Mountain Man National Senior Amateur

Play dates will be Sept 29, 30 Oct 1 2023 a Friday Sat and Sun.  Tournament director will be David Burleson PGA at Mountain Glen.  You will be able to enter on line and use a credit card or mail a ck with form below.  There will be Sr, SSR, Leg, and Super Leg divisions.  The weather that time of year in the NC mountains is traditionally spectacular with afternoon temps in the low 70s.  The course is both fun and challenging, no blind mountain shots, no fairway drives running off over a cliff.  It is my home course summers and believe me everybody who plays , loves it.  Shotgun start every day, Sunday will be morning start.  Entry fee will include all golf fees, carts, range, SteakDinner, cash prizes and "Ball Pool"  Find the entry form below and send it in or call it in with a credit card asap, we expect to fill it.    Bring your friends, bring the lady this time of year will be fantastic for foliage and weather.  Shotgun start will allow for lots of sightseeing.  Local mom n pop hotels are nearby, Best Western is in Banner Elk a few minutes away and every major hotel is in Boone half hour away.  There are rental condos on Sugar Mountain just 15 minutes from the course.  Call David for info on this 828-733-5804  

MOUNTAIN MAN NATIONAL SENIOR  FOUR DIVISIONS,  SR,  SSR  ,LEGENDS AND SUPER LEGENDS

PLAY DATES SEPT 29, 30, OCT 1  2023  you can mail form below or call the shop and register with a credit card  828-733-5804  David Burleson professional

NAME __________________________________________

ADDRESS_______________________________________________________________________

PHONE__________________________

EMAIL________________________________________________

AGE AS OF SEPT 29,2023________________

For mail in entries with a check made to Mountain Glen MM for $450.00

Mountain Glen-MM

P.O. Box 326

Newland , NC  28657

 

 

Above, Ohio Hall of Famer Randy Reifers champ of the super legends division, just above Don Russell of Jupiter the only repeat champ this year

The 2023 Florida Senior Azalea is in the books.  The final round of the senior division pitted relative new comer Matt Avril of Vero Beach staring at the top 3 players in the country on the first tee Sunday.  Avril had the lead but.......Rusty Strawn, Jack Hall and Dr Doug Hanzel would not let him cruise to victory.  Avril held a slim 2 stroke lead through 14 holes.  He picked  up a shot on the crowd on the nasty par 3 sixteenth with an up and down par.  On 18 he had a 3 shot margin on all three men.  He played for bogey and got it laying up his second shot for  a wedge which he got on the green and two putted for a two shot victory, all three of his opponents got up and down pars.  Avril finished 1 under par for the three rounds.  Another giant killer round was posted Sunday in the SSR by just turned 65 Marcus Beck of Tallahassee who took down multiple champion David Anthony from Jacksonville.  Anthony has won state and regional titles and was defending Azalea champion.  Beck played the final 36 holes 3 under par for the victory.  Don Russell of Jupiter defended his Legends title with 1 under par for 54 holes, he had the lead after the first 18 and never gave it up.   Don is tough as an old boot when he has a lead.  In the Super Legends, Jim Arnold jumped out with an opening 67 but Randy Reifers of Ohio took the lead after day 2 and never gave it up with under par rounds Saturday and Sunday.  Defender Jim Carley of Ormond Beach finished second.  Reifers is a hall of fame member in Ohio and for good reason.....the man can still play after a nationally recognized career as an amateur.  The weather was great as usual with temps in the 70s and clear skies all three days.  Many thanks to all those who came.  See you next year Lord willing.  For all the scores of all divisions visit the PALAKA GOLF CLUB WEBSITE.  RT

2009 Sr Champion   Bill Zylstra , Michigan (141)                         SSR   Boyd Johnson , Georgia  (144)

2010 Sr Champion  Rick Woulfe , Ft Lauderdale, Fl  (211 won in playoff over David Brookreson )       SSR  Boyd Johnson, Georgia  (143)

2011 Sr Champion  Chip Lutz, Pennsylvania (208 )                    SSR  Gary Shimmin,  South Carolina  (143)

u2012 Sr Champion  Chip Lutz, Pennsylvania  (208)                    SSR  Jim Carley,  Ormond Beach, Fla  (141 won in five man playoff)

2013 Sr Champion  David Anthony, Jacksonville Fl (209)          SSR  John Darr, Gainesville, Fl  (206 )

2014 Sr Champion  Ronnie Tumlin, Crescent Beach Fl  (208 won in playoff over Doug LaCrosse)                   SSR  Ted Smith   Indiana  (211)

2015 Sr Champion  Doug Hanzel,  Georgia (208)                         SSR  Berger Warner  Ocala, Fl  (211)               Legends Brian Sachs  Gainesville, Fl (213)

2016 Sr Champion  Doug Hanzel, Savanna Ga  (209)       SSR  Rob Hess, Casselberry Fl  (211)             Legends  Jim Carley Ormond Bch, Fl  (212) 

2017 Sr Champion  Doug Hanzel, Georgia  (201)                          SSR  Rob Hess, Casselberry Fl  (212)             Legends  Brian Sachs, Gainesville, Fl (212)

2018 Sr Champion David Anthony  Jax Fla (203)                          SSR  Pete McDade , Lakeland Fl (212)             Legends Don Marsh Johns Creek, GA   (209)

2019 Sr Champion Doug Hanzel, Savannah Ga ( 213)                  SSR Rick Woulfe, Ft Lauderdale (213)             Legends Don Marsh, Johns Creek, Ga  (214)

2019 Super Legends Champion, Charlie Busbee of Georgia with scores of 73,73,73 a very very good performance

2020  Sr Champion Randy Haag (203)   SSR Champion David Anthony (210) playoff over Mark Baxter(210)  Leg Champion Berger Warner (207)

2020 Super Legends Champion Charlie Busbee (217 star)

2021 Sr Champion  Dr Doug Hanzel (203)  SSR Champion Randy Elliott(211)    Legends  Dr Robb Hess (208)  Super Legends Dr Jim Carley (209)

2022 Sr Champion Rusty Strawn (136)  SSR Champion David Anthony (147 )   Legends Don Russell (143)  Super Legends Dr Jim Carley (140)

2023 Sr Champion Matt Avril Vero Beach,  SSR Champion Marcus Beck Tallahassee,  Legends Champion Don Russell Tequesta,  Super Legends Randy Reifers Ohio

 

Mid May, hell I don't know the date all I know is the weather channel is going off the deep end with "RECORD TEMPERATURES ON THE WAY!"   In the past I have clearly explained how the global warming panic is all high grade BS.  Let's take a look at all the hoopla hype today about record tieing temps across the country.....today the records may be tied or "near record.....ohhhh we're all gonna dieeee"  Looking into those records they have to go all the way back into the 1920s to find a high of 84 that might be tied today ...A HUNDRED YEARS AGO!!!!. now what's wrong with this crapthe DC crazies are pushing on us.  I am so sick of "green initiatives"  I could just scream......yet, I fear our uneducated youth who have no thoughts of their own, are buying into it all the way and will vote for green nut jobs no matter....they have been brain washed by the nut jobs teaching school today in public schools.  I distinctly remember my nephew while in graduate school 18 years ago.....told me his professor was praising Castro as a great leader and great man.....he said he almost stood up and screamed.....his father and I have kept him enlightened .....anyway I told him agree with the professor and get a grade and graduate.  He did with a laugh and a smile.

If the greenie nut cakes want to ride bicycles that's fine....I don't care.  If they want to walk around with back packs and high ankle hiking boots that's fine...if they want to eat grasshoppers and ticks....fine I don't care.  If they want to live in tents, fine with me.....BUT do not expect the sane people in this country to comply with your directives.  We and I include myself, have not taken the initiative to run for office....oh, I did once and finished a distant second to a minority man in a city election but at least I got rid of the guy who was trying to close the golf course so mission was accomplished...I am sure I would have quit anyway.  Ever go to a county or city commission meeting?  All the nuts come and raise hell about stupid stuff all night....I would go crazy having to sit there and hear that crap, I say "hear" cause I wouldn't listen.....anyway, educators today are 90% green liberals....that's fine but teach the facts not your theories......philosophy class is for that please.  Anyway, don't die today in the heat.....no telling how many perished in 1923 when temps got into the 90s........

 

 May 12, 2023....welllll......our country is in the midst of an "invasion" as labeled by Ted Cruz and he is right.  I have no beef with new people coming in and becoming citizens if for the right reason, but I fear we are getting the poor, the uneducated, the criminal, the people who have grown up in third world countries in central America and else where who do not understand what law and order means.  There is a reason guys in Guatemala carry machetes on their belt.....I fear the outlaws are coming knowing they can make way more money in America than they can in a dirt bowl south of here.   Yes yes I have visited many central and South American countries and not just on fly bys, the guys with guns will stop you for no reason and shake you down for money and cigarettes.  I have personally played golf with a guy who was part of the so called "cartel" in Columbia....after two rounds I think he finally figured out I was not a fed.  He spoke his first words of English to me over a drink after the second round in Cali.  Yes, he could play.  I asked him straight up about the cartel.....he told me frankly and I will never forget....he said "we have the latest military equipment,  jets, missiles, we have highly trained soldiers, we have unlimited resources......we own the government, we own the police"  I asked him what do the people think about  their drug operations? He told me "we build schools, we build hospitals and we take care of the people"  THIS is what I fear may happen in the U.S. in years to come....a handfull of thugs will run this country and if you are not on their side you are a shag ball.......come to think of it, a handfull of thugs are running the country now in DC.....one big difference though.....the citizens are armed....THAT IS THE DIFFERENCE.  You may be against guns, but talk to the good ole boys in the rural areas of America, yes I do all the time I am a small towner myself and I blend in quite well....none of them want to shoot people, they simply want to defend what's theirs simple as that.  Crazy people will find a way to kill others they don't need a machine gun....you never heard about the crazy nutcase that cut people up with a knife,  I once heard the only guy who can stop a crazy man with a gun  is a good guy with a gun.  Guns are outlawed in Chicago you need not look any farther than there to see what would happen if they took our guns....the thugs all have AR equipment good ole boys will need the same when the next civil war starts.  I don't have an AR or AK, but I do have a 357, 410 and 12 if somebody breaks into my house at night I can reach what I need without getting out of bed, i sleep quite well for the time being.  Think I'll shut up for now except , except.....I laughed all the way through the CNN interview the other night.....the man made that nasty woman commentator look like a fool and she continually dogged him about the so-called insurrection, she dogged him about pending lawsuits.....she could not shake him not one little bit....jojo could not hold up 5 minutes with that kind of dogged questioning......there was no teleprompter there were no notes there were no handlers talking to an earpiece ........ I am still absolutely bewildered that a total senile idiot is running the country and listening to a bunch of nut jobs in his cabinet and advisory staff......is there a straight person in the bunch?  I don't think so.  We are all being run by lbgftxyz  nut cakes telling dojo what to do.  I fear they are not worried one bit about losing in 18 months because they know how to rig the system just like the cartel runs elections south of Texas down Central America into SA.......If I'm nuts so be it,  I can still make pars.  RT

April Day Before Easter....its early and I don't know the date......damned allergies keeping me up but really down all night......gotta get back to the mountains manna.

Lets talk politics for a minute.  I want my reparations!  They flash The Masters at me every year on TV....can I play there?  They won't even let me past the gate.  I have been discriminated against....they let little kids in there, they let little girls in there to compete for something I never got to even try.... something about chipping and putting.....I want reparations.  California wants to hand descendants of slaves around a hundred grand.....so here's my question.....My grandmother is a descendant of a slave in Georgia according to family lore....my grandmother has 6 brothers and sisters still alive, .my mother is still alive, I have 6 brothers and sisters, I have no idea who my father is.....my brothers and sisters have 38 kids between them they can verify......those kids already have 20......so heres the deal, starting with only my grandmother we have somewhere between 100 and 200 offspring and growing every day.....so heres the QUESTION:  does every descending child  heretofore get a check at birth?  Forever????  Hell, why don't you whities just sign up to be slaves right now and work for the reparations recipients......might as well this thing will go on forever and ever.....I can see a river of people haulin ass to California right now.....today.....I can see the TV ads right now......"High there, we are Slave, Slaver and Slaveinsky,   your legal team ready to help you get what you deserve.  Call us right now, we will do the research to find out if you are a descendant of a slave.  You may be missing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars that are rightfully yours.....call today, operators are standing by....don't let this opportunity pass you by....you only have 50 years to stake your claim.  We have recovered millions for people just like you so make that call......we are the largest reparations recovery firm in the nation and size matters".....I can see the ads now, I can see the fraud now.....how about African immigrants who just showed up swimming across the river?  They say their ancestor grandaddy from the 1700s was captured, sold and sent to America on a boat to be a slave.....they came over to collect......heres another one.....Mr. Slavensky, this is Lakeesha, I was married to a man who said his great great grandaddy was a slave.....my man Octavious died last year....I want his reparations, I deserve it I put up with his sorry ass for 3 years.....I gots 5 kids that I think belong to him....they wants their checks too.....sign me up.  No I got no marriage license it got burned up in the apartment fire last winter.....Mrs. Lakeesha that's okay sounds like you have approximately a million coming for hour family we will get right on it.....no recovery no feeeees.....we will send a man right over to sign you up thank you for calling and do not call anybody else we got this......

Folks, it only took 24 months to take this country into the toilet.....24 months......and as I predicted 50 years ago.....this country could only be taken down from within nobody outside could get us......I have lived to see it......I truly believe in the coming ten to fifteen years everything you and your family has worked for and saved for the future will be gone...."THEY" got themselves a president who is too dumb and out to lunch to even know what is going on.......remember the great movie Dances with Wolves.....at the end,  Kostner narrates the plight of the Plains Indians.....after he left the village it only took a few years to see their land, their buffalo, their history wiped clean and gone into the dark corners of the halls of history......I now know how they felt as the end was before them, as they fought it out....BUT my friends there still is one more great big difference between then and now......GUNS....we have guns, we have numbers, those trying to destroy us and our way of life know this....THAT....IS WHY THEY ARE ON A CRUSADE TO TAKE OUR GUNS AWAY.....if we let them do that we are done ..... done forever because the those confiscating our guns will have them and keep them and use them against us but you know that.  If I were a hard core lefty I would start on the local level, then state.....that is already in the works in blue cities and states.....only the thugs have guns now in those places and the thugs are on the side of the lefties.....ain't no burglar with half a brain gonna break into your house if he knows you are armed to the teeth he will go rob your neighbor who he knows has nary a gun in the house......it is as simple as that.  I'm done....but I still got a gun, just a raggedy rusty old revolver but it works every time.  RT 

March 24 2023  The kids as I call them, from all over the country and Europe had good weather, the golf course was perfect and yet only 3 players in the 2023 open Azalea Amateur broke par and only by a couple of shots.  I overheard two kids on the putting green (college players) talking saying it would take 20 under par to win on this tiny golf course less than 6000 yards.....these are young bucks that can drive 1, hit wedges to all three of the par 5s, drive 11 and hit irons to the par 4 13th.  There is no great trouble anywhere.  I wanted to tell those two kids I would take par and playem for a hundred a shot but my jackass days are over....well, almost....so I let it be.  The course is not unfair, its just hard to hit the small greens and if you miss long or sideways bogey is a good score.

Anyway, most of you reading this are old bucks.....here's what aggravated me this week....St Augustine has become south Florida, with people from the northeast moving in here in droves....good for business but aggravating for the few locals left ..... they prefer to blow a horn if you don't burn rubber off at the red light, they will haul ass by you on a solid line only to turn off a quarter mile down the road....the women are on the phone at the red light and sit there for the count of 20 after the light turns green.  On the golf course?  The other day I saw....no it wasn't me I was just watching.....a fellow in the left rough off the first hole....wayyy left....the hitter on the first tee had no idea if he was playing towards 5 or 18 but was well out of the way.....the guy on the tee pulled his shot a bit and it rolled past the guy in the rough at least ten yards away.....the man in the rough quickly boarded his cart and hauled ass towards the tee.  I thought this could be good.  He jumped out and wanted to know who almost hit me !!?  Uh oh, fight coming.....I was disappointed when the hitter said nobody almost hit you the ball was ten yards away and we didn't know what hole you were playing you were so far out of position.....the screamer slithered back towards 18 green and left cussing.....now this guy was an entire rough, an entire fairway and far rough from his own fairway and he is yelling at others.....I watched to see what plate was on his car when he loaded up.....Connecticut.....I wanted to ask what he was doing here but no mind I wasn't in the mood just amused.

Reparations:  Ok so the nut cakes in California want to pay gazillions to descendants of slaves.....for what?  There is not a single slave alive today.  Okay so you give the great great great grand daughter of a slave (if you can prove it).....she gets a million dollars for doing nothing......so where does it end?  Does her kids get checks and what about their kids?   Where does it stop?  What have these people done to deserve a check because their ancestors were sold by fellow Africans to Europeans 300 years ago????  What qualifies you?  100% blood line?  50%?  what if you are only 25%?  Where does it stop?  What if your great grandfather (if you could find a record) was a descending of a slave and his woman came from Africa as a free person just migrated....what if???  You gonna give Oprah a mill because her ancestors were slaves?  She is one of the richest women in the world....self made.....does she get a check?  And I gotta pay it cause I'm a white?  Total lunacy....but WE have let the world come to this.....we have stood idly by and watched the flower children of the 60s take over our education system, and their children carried on....now we have trannys taking over the education system too.....and guess what?  Our own people are standing around watching that happen because it would be mean to remove trannys from the education system.....Ohhhh I had LBGTDG  whatever the hell it is.....I had teachers in school who were ... lets say gay....they were good teachers....this was in the 60s they were really good teachers but they did not push their sexual preferences on us at all, it wasn't talked about at all....we knew they were different they knew we knew and we knew they knew we knew.....I liked every one of them because they were indeed good teachers.....I'm sure there are good gay teachers today but from what I see in the news, many push their sexual agenda on the kids wanting more to join their ranks......kids today are stupid....the internet has made them stupid.....they hear something and immediately look it up on Google.....never mind finding out for yourself....whatever Google says must be the truth ......  kids are stupid today Lord only hope their parents aren't as stupid and can say wait a minute.....RT

March 17, 2023  Happy St Pattys Day.  The 66th Florida Azalea Amateur kicked off this morning with the best players in the world.  120 players in the scratch division from half a dozen countries.  Andy will call me Saturday night and say your record of 13 under is at risk we have a kid 10 under after 36.  Ahhhh he does that every year and the kid shoots 76....somebody sometime will break the record....all records are broken except perhaps Jack's major record.

Down to aggravations.....now that tournament time is over for me I can get to the business of moving to a new house 25 miles west of Palatka ending my stint in St Augustine for the past 40 plus years.  Oh, how bout this, Willie Nelson was playing last week at my old club Marsh Creek CC on the island he did a concert at the St Aug amphitheater and played golf every day.  Willie is over 90.  Anyway, wife and I have decided that old St Augustine is now just like south Florida.  Bumper to bumper all day every day....hour or more wait at a decent restaurant....even Outback....local seafood shops...forget it .... hour and a half. Grocery store some old biddy arguing with the cashier about a price......damnit I"ve had it.   I must admit I am a McDonalds, Arby's and Wendy's junkie.  But I have had it with fast food in St Aug....its now slow food....slower than slow....all day long the line is wrapped around the building.....I have had it with Yankees blowing horns at me if I don't burn rubber at the red light.....these people drive crazy.  Oh, I will still work a bit in the real estate business.... I can commute when necessary.....I still know more about beach houses and condos than all the new kids put together....I can't believe they turn these people loose with customers.....the customers have no idea they are being represented by a total dumb assed rookie....I get the stupidest questions from these people about my listings....oh well, time does not stand still for realtors nor golf players.  Even Palatka traffic is crazy...even sleepy Palatka!  I can't wait to get back to North Carolina in the mountains, oh we have traffic, lines at Macs but the locals rule....us Florida people own more property there than the locals but we go home for the winter so the locals control politics and run the show and that's just fine with me.  Reminds me of Palatka when I was a kid, nobody took their keys out of the car, nobody locked doors, we slept with the front door unlocked at night !  Same in NC Mountains right now today.  Nobody messes with anything that belongs to somebody else,.  Hope you can come to the Mountain Man at the end of September.  It will be a treat I promise if you do.  RT

Feb 24, 2023  Two weeks from today....Tee time!  We have a spectacular field of highly regarded seniors in every division this year from California, Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Tennessee, The Carolinas, Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Georgia's best, Florida's best, Illinois and half the Florida guys are winter residents from all over the country.  I have seen a good number of guys in the field slipping around the local real estate.  You are welcome to come play all you want before the green flag drops.  The course is "good" shape....greens today were running about 9 and will get quicker.  The locals are three putting left and right.....yeah me too, but heyyyy its a skins game, you gotta gun it.   We finally got our stash of Titleist's new 2023 balls and our Callaway shipment of their 2023 bullets are  on a truck somewhere so we will have balls!  Next weekend the Junior Azalea tees off a hundred young men and women, then the following weekend us seniors then the following weekend the world recognized Florida Azalea Amateur featuring many of the best amateurs in the world.  See ya in two weeks  RT 

 

Feb 7, 2023  Who watched the Pebble Beach toonament last weekend cover to cover?  I watched a little but never got really interested....LIV took most of the best players to dinner and only a couple of guys we know stayed home and if they are not there and not playing well, it's just a hooters tour event on a great golf course.  But my friends,  this proves golf is unpredictable, if you want a fair game go bowling that's about the only thing I can think of that is fair.  Same exact distance every time, same exact break every time....none....same ball, same shoes, same weather.  No referees required, rule book can be written on the back of your hand.....Oh, I used to bowl ... we all did huh?  Up until I was around forty friends and I would travel to tournaments, we were too old to go drinking at night so we went bowling.  I had to quit cause had a few cricks in the back a few times and once a guy or two quit, we all did.....so much for that.  Yeah, I averaged 180-220 I think my best ever was a 245, best series 640..  Not tour numbers but pretty good for Thursday night leagues.  Ok ok, alley speeds varied but it only took a few rolls to figured out what they were gonna do that night.

Palatka Golf course is coming along better and better after devastating hard freezes in Dec after we planted seeds wall to wall.  Fairways are excellent, roughs are.....welllll rougher n ever.....I think greens have a way to go, we reseeded in patches by hand and it is now up and should split by the end of the month and roll good by March.   Heyyyy we got new carts finally, they were delivered 4 months late but they are new EZGO with those new batteries.....best I can tell they easily go 36 maybe 54 on a charge...they are faster too and ride better....butttt.....I hate the foot feed....its a floating pedal and you can hook your toe under the foot feed and booger up the toe of your shoes....what elf dreamed that up?

Man, thank you for the balloon.....I was growing sick of the classified this and classified that....what a sham....the FBI put on a show at Trump compound with a guns drawn raid in the darkness.....wooooeeee boooooeeee.... then to make things look good to idiots who are allowed to vote they "searched" Biden too but in broad daylight, hung around an hour or two and "found" a few more documents that were very old.....DNC set the whole thing up....but then somebody said wait a minute, that dumbass VP would be in charge we may not be able to control her so easily ..... bottom document line, those were all photographed, sold and used  long time ago I'm surprised Hunter didn't shred and burnem all....probably did the most recent and best ones....didn't bother with non important ones, may have been  kept for souvenirs to show his friends how important he was.....balloon same deal, by the time the public saw it the coordinates info had already been sent back....I know a little about gps coordinates and I can tell you satellite images are close but not exact.  If I am trying to fly a single bomb down somebodys chimney I need the exact coordinates to the foot....very hard to do from a satellite but easy if you stand on the exact spot you want to hit and take the numbers.....my trolling motor can park the boat on a spot and automatically keep the boat within inches for hours...unbelievable ...Jojo probably had to ask Hunter to call his associates to see if it was okay to shoot it down....they obviously told dojo to let it go across the country, collect coordinates,  uplink, then you can  blow it up.  Simple as that.  What a shame the chicoms have dojo in their back pocket.  You and I won't be around to see the coming civil war but if I wrote this on a cave wall as a prediction future archaeologists would say Revelations, Nostradamus, Tumbladamus....they all had a view to the future......China could never invade this country with soldiers...virtually impossible.....they have to start a revolution from within and thats what will seed a civil war.  Except this time the south will rise and stay up....I got a kick out of reports that hunters were taking pot shots at the balloon in South Carolina....hilarious.  Cops had to get after them and say stop! the bullets can't go that far and will fall and hit somebody on the head.  The good ole boys are armed to the teeth I can see it now,  deer hunters gathered up shooting at it.....would love to have been there.  Reminds me of the Texas sniper in the tower decades ago...the cops showed up with .38 pistols shooting at him, then the deer hunters showed up with the real artillery....the boys said stand back we will get him....that was back before assault teams etc  didn't need them down at headquarters....it was a time for sanity  RT

 

 

STARDATE: Jan 31, 2023....FRIENDS AND I actually watched a little PGA Tour golfin this past weekend.....one of our native sons, Brent Everson was the final round leader's caddy....Sam Ryder, we were pulling for Brent more than Sam but a pull for Sam is a pull for Brent.  I guess we didn't have quite enough pull that Homa guy blew past Sam and a really lousy double on 17 I think it was....cost Brent biggggg....oh well, a guy from Palatka doesn't need the money anyway I guess.  Brent has had some great lugs for some great players over the past few decades, Gary Woodland, Justin Leonard in his heyday....just to name a couple.  Leonard gave Brent a real nice check when he decided to retire.  Now dig on this one.....I remember when Brent was luggin for Micheal Bradley and I asked him just how far does Bradley hit the ball?  He said long.  I said okay how far does he hit a 7 iron....Brent told me we can hit it 175 if we step on it.....I was impressed that was long 25 or 30 years ago.....today I have a friend who just turned 75 and he consistently hits an 8 iron 185!  At sea level!  My my, how the game has changed.  I remember playing tournaments all over the southeast 40-50 years ago and we hit it pretty good but the big deal was the fairways.....grass wasn't like today and irrigation wasn't like it is today....the ball would runnnnn much like the tour tournaments today.  Only now, they shut the water off in the fairways just before the tournament .... back in olden days it was common to see a ball bounce and roll 50 yards.....today in our old age it takes one hop and stops unless it backs up....at least the new Titleist and the Callaway Chrome soft XLS will roll a little.

Football:  I enjoyed pro football this year for the first time in many.  Especially the playoffs till last Sunday.  I saw many downright bad calls including the penalty play against the Bengals that enabled KC to win the game.  I really didn't care who won, I like Burrow and Mahonnes both they are good guys I think but go have the to referees decide the game at that point was bad.....the defender may have made a mistake....I guarantee when you are watching a slippery QB like Patrick down the sideline its hard to keep up with where exactly the line is while you are chasing a greased pig.....nobody was hurt, so let it go and let the players decide who wins.  The NFL is moot and probably should be just like when the refs stole a super bowl chance from the Saints a couple years ago....oh well, if you are looking for a fair game go bowling where refs are not needed you get what you got period.

Politics:  I see by the headlines today......the migrants living in 500 dollar a night hotels like the Hyatt,  in NYC refuse to leave.....shocker!!  They get room service, 3 squares, spending money, fresh sheets, nice bathroom , TV, beer and a nice bed all for freeeeee........who the hell would want to leave and go to a detention center across town?????  I see the idiot in chief bragging this morning that if you go buy an electric car you will get a 7500 dollar tax credit.....okay so I make electric cars, the govt is giving a buyer 7500 dollars to buy one.....ahah!  Hey sales manager, raise our prices 7500 dollars.....thank you dojo ........

Finances:  Most of the old guys like me who worked for themselves their entire working life, have retirement accounts or just flat out saved money into brokerage accounts for 40 years.....since dodojoe took over we have been going  backwards literally and that does not account for inflation.....I have several friends and my wife and I who cashed out of managed accounts into CD and money market instruments.....everybody is unanimous I have talked to.....we are collecting 4-5% interest for the first time in many many years....and the principal isn't going backwards except for inflation.  One friend told me at least he can sleep at night.  I still have a handfull of equities, stuff I control that we bought 20/30/40 years ago.....for example XOM, right now its around 110-112ish....dividends are around 3% it fluctuates......but my basis is around 15 or so.....so what is my dividend on my original investment?  A LOT,  i don"t care what my advisor says.  Us  old folks been taking zero interest rates on the chin, those who worked and saved have been penalized ...... its about time we got a break..... this is a by product of dumbjoe economy going to hell.  We all did better with DT in charge but hard core dems who live off govt pensions and SS don't care.  I once had a retired professor tell me, he wasn't rich like me and couldn't afford to go play tournaments......I asked how much he made in retirement.....100?  110?  he finally admitted around 130 and had been making about that much relatively in retirement for the past 25 years.  I told him, tell ya what....I'll trade you my portfolio for your retirement checks.....he said what do you mean?  I said I make 50-60 a year, half what you get.....you are a multi millionaire old friend.....you can finance new cars every two years, you can do whatever you want cause your checking account refills every month.....mine does too but no guarantees, none at all and the past couple of years is proof....I lost my ass in net worth but his checks kept coming......so don't cry about your govt pension.... you are doing just fine.  No no, I'm not pissed off, no way I would have been able to  have a boss, or sit at a desk, or have to ask somebody to take a few weeks off.....a salesman makes as much as he wants to.....income is relative to work habits....more you work more you make.  I used to gripe every time I took off to a tournament it cost me 3 grand for the tournament but I lost ten grand in commissions somebody else got cause I was gone.....I finally began to accept it....you gotta have a life.  No way I will think before my last breath, man am I glad I worked that week instead of going to a tournament......RT

late January 2023...the weather is playing hell with the golf course,  three nights in the 20s a couple of weeks ago, today it was 85.  Grass doesn't like such wild swings in temperatures.....Global warming I guess.  The clown show in Davos will fix it though i am sure.  Most of you have not kept up with wh haveat those "leaders" are talking about wanting to do.  One of the scariest is they want to eliminate YOU and ME from eating meat.  They want rid of all the cows, sheep, goats, pigs.....they want us eating veggie burgers and insect burgers.  I have it on good authority there are bug processing  plants being built right now.....sounds insane right?  The whole world has gone insane since Trumper was exorcised.  Almost every country in the world has signed onto the green new way.....guess who is sitting back laughing and saying we ain't playing that game......go ahearef d and take a wild guess.... how bout the Ruskies and Chinkz...they say no way.  Did anybody every connect the dots when in the past 24 months more than half the meat processing plants in the country, who operated on a national scale....were mysteriously destroyed....by fire by plane crash even......The chinamen bought Smithfield lock stock and bacon.....their meat plants did not blow up or burn or get crashed into....hmmmmm....BUT the nut job who created Microsoft has become a global food and health expert and he wants rid of all meat in your diet too.....hmmmmm can't anybody connect the dots or are they simply afraid to do so......yeahyeah I know , all this sounds crazy as hell......who would have ever thought the Saudis of all people, would virtually destroy the PGA Tour overnight?????  Who would have believed the DNC and quiet players inside the administration would frame Jojo with so called classified papers?  Who would have ever believed the CIA/FBI had a hand in killing Kennedy ?  There is a big reason no president will release the truth on that....it would destroy the FBI/CIA if they did...not even Trumpster would release the info.....we will find out who is flying the ufo airships that are flying all over the place......our military pilots are finally speaking up....my father was a highly decorated  fighter pilot in WWII and a jet fighter instructor through the mid 50s.....he told me in no uncertain terms he had a silver ufo pull up along side him....no appearance of propulsion, no wings, no windows....just a long silver like object...he said it flew alongside him for a couple of minutes then all of a sudden it accelerated  at a speed he said was impossible for anything he knew of could do.....he said he never told a sole in the military they would have grounded him....today pilots are speaking up and not just one or two.....I had a cousin who served in the air force in the late 50s he was stationed in Africa and was a radar guy.....he said fighter pilots would report seeing ufo craft right and left....he couldn't see the ufo craft on radar but was listening to the pilots yelling about what they saw on he radio...they would chase the ufo's...nobody ever shot at one or caught up to one.....he said it happened regularly.  The good news?  If these ufo things were up to no good we would all be dead.....I wouldn't be surprised if earth is a food stop for intergalactic travelers....why not?  get water and food and press on to the next star....why would they stop off and visit with a bunch of crazy as hell humans?

Anyway back to conspiracy theories......I predict  it will come to pass the people who really run the country and want to ruin the country and are  going to drum dojo right out of his office.....he said to folks in south Florida after the hurricane "don't f with a biden"  wellllll guess what,  his own people are going to screw him....they put him in office, they will take him out.  Even his reliable news sources are turning on him.....talk about a conspiracy....history may or may not ever reveal what is going on just like the Kennedy assassination it may stay buried forever.....I also predict obama is pulling all the strings attached to the head puppet....look for michele or gavin to surface and be anointed within a year or less ..... they picked kamala for their backup but have changed their minds....she is an emptier suit than barack.....I look at obamala as an evil genius who is still fooling the majority of women and all the hard core dems.  Hannity may be right saying the repubs may never again win the white house....he said today millions of conservatives are leaving cal, mich, penn, wisc, etc but the census still shows those states as having millions more than they really do and they will keep their seats and electoral votes and that is how they will keep control of the destruction of the country.....who the hell can stopem???  Millions migrants are going to those states too to raise babies who can vote in 20 yrs.

I heard a former advisor to DT answer a question that I hadn't thought about....imagine that.....when asked why are these puppeteers letting millions of migrants flood the country unabated ?  Is it the vote they hope to get?  He said no....they are playing the long game.....their children born here will be voters in 20-25 yrs and they will all vote liberal and for the promised benefits socialism will bring to the hoards of lower class.  Of course, some will succeed in climbing the ladder out of the lower class.....but most will be raised on welfare and be happy to stay on welfare.....kind of like our inner city folks.....welfare parents raise welfare children and they all vote democrat no matter what....case in point?  Chicago ... end of story.  

The only good news I have is you and I will be long gone when the long game comes to fruition....our young folks who grew up with us as parents, grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles....they will suffer greatly and will probably never know what we grew up doing....they will have no clue....sad but probably true.  No, the Cubans who stormed south Florida back in the 70s?  They came and started businesses they scratched their way to the top on their own.....they did not come for the welfare.....end of case your honor.   RT

End of 2022: Do any of you remember the Fauci Flagstick Bullsh--?  I keep thinking back where they had us believing touching a flag pole could give you the virus.  Clubs all over the place were requiring flags to stay in the hole.  I had an argument with my club in NC when they mandated the pin stay in.....I said let me get this straight, we cannot pull the flag for fear of the virus being on the pin.....but....its okay to reach down in the hole with your entire hand where a hundred hands have been today and you are safe?  I said BS!  several of us revolted and pulled pins ...... we were told to quit or don't play.  Stupid what Fauci had us believing.  That little elf told us lots of things not true and he is supposed to be the world's leading expert.....if he's the best we got we be in big trouble.  Now they are trying to sell booster shots....go get one....booster beware....Ronnie ain't boosting, I rolled the dice on the vaccine and just like the table game, sooner or later you will throw craps.  Like the great Dennie Crane said when warned about the black widow he was eye balling (Heather Lacklear sp?) who had killed 3 husbands.....Dennie looked at his partner, glanced up and down Heather again and said "I'll take my chances."   Lets try to enjoy 2023....my resolution is not to fuss about doubles....I am lucky to be here making doubles and I shall adopt that attitude the rest of my days.  RTEnd of Dec 2022. ...political solution:  Fentanyl crisis they keep hollering about .... smuglets smugglers smugglettes...think about that a minute......over a hundred thousand fentanyl deaths the past 12 months......I can put the brakes on fentanyl smuggling right now.....guaranteed fix.....next case your honor.....why Trump never thought of it I don't know....only anawhole like me would think of this one......do you remember The Outlaw Josey  Wales....when the old indian was walking by a huckster barking to a crowd in the dusty western town his tonic that would cure anything ?  He pointed out the indian and said here you should try this elixir.....the indian simply looked up and said "you drink it"........  All we gotta do on the border when they catch somebody with pills, marchem out on the Rio Grande banks and face the crowd to the south and make him or her take a pill or two out of the stash and swallow......same for everybody traveling with him too...okay okay except the smuggletts.... .kind of like the drill sergeant catches somebody goofing off in PT and he makes the entire platoon run laps....same deal....now the crowd who would say that's inhumane!!!  They would never be on this site anyway.  I still gotta be careful talking about the keystone cops running our country cause now I understand the cia and fbi are watching closely at anybody critical of the dc crowd so I'll leave it at that.  Irs too but I got that whipped....I took the year off and had zero sales income this year......I'll do better next year,  already have a couple deals in the works after the first.  RT

I am sad to report the passing of Chip Ward unexpectedly a few days ago.....he was entered and looking forward to being in Palatka in March.  He was a good man and will be missed by many.

With that note let's try to have a Merry Christmas everybody......RT

FIRST OF DECEMBER 2022:  I am still bored with the golf channel and what few tournament activities there are.  What would Ronnie do  if he ran the Golf Channel?  I would probably concentrate on analyzing equipment and equipment performance on a regular basis.  I would do tests on every golf ball in the universe for all types of players from beaters to bomber tour pros.  I would not only do the tests into nets with laser equipment but I would take the results to the golf course and see exactly how accurate the net equipment is.  How is it I hit a 7 iron demo into the net and the laser says it went 125 and on the golf course I hit it 135-40.....yeah.... I have lost that much distance in the last 50 years but so has Jack,........Jack.  Okay, how far did I hit a 7 in my prime?  In my prime late 20s early 30s I flew a 7 iron blade 741 Titlest, with whatever Titleist ball was the best at the time anywhere from 165 to 175.  That was a S44 stiff steel shaft, blade iron and rubber band ball.  I was considered a long knocker in those days,  muntil Daly showed up in Palatka and hung out and played with us time to time.  He hit a 7 iron on number 3 from the blue tee 195 yards on the fly.  I once drove the 11th hole with my First Flight driver and a 95+ First Flight ball but there was a 30 mph wind behind me and I was 15 before I was hurt real bad in a hunting m wheishap.  It was in the club championship and the gentleman I was playing was 6 down after 10,  and when I drove the green on 11 he said "I quit" and he walked back to the clubhouse.  Today I hit a good drive and a 5 wood on the same hole....down wind hurricane speed maybe a six iron on a good day.  Oh well....back to what I would on the channel:  I would travel to different courses around the country built by the greats and play a round with the pro and analyze what makes the course great.....where would I go?  To courses they never play on tour you don't see on TV except for PGA and Open which only goes there every ten years or so.....like.....Winged Foot, like Oak Hill, like San Francisco CC, Jupiter Hills, Bandon Dunes, Champions, Charlotte Country Club, Pine Valley, Butler National,  Chicago Golf,  Seminole, Grandfather ......I can go on and on....I would go to great public courses so viewers could go play if they wanted to....there are lots of them all over the country.

I would go find some of the past greats still alive and play their home or favorite course with them guys like Jack (if he would do it), guys like Gary Player,  Michelson, Bob Murphy, Hale Irwin, Ben, Elkington......... there are a bunch of guys past their competitive years but I would love to play with them and interview them on their home or favorite course playing and reminiscing....you could edit the skunk shots to not embarrass them.   Guarantee you the audience would be bigger than some of the never ending "analysis"  from the talking heads at a major who just burn time speculating on who will do what in the tournament....yeah those guys do a good job but their yak only lasts so long.  Kinda like watching Hannity he yaks the same  same points night after night.  I could fill in for him without a script....or teleprompter......I wouldn't make a good analyst on "live from the Open" show....I'm too lazy to do the homework.

I would do some shows with course architects on how and why they do and did what they did and do.  I know a couple of famous ones and I always love to hear a guy like Bobby Weed explain why he does what to the property.....I like a lot of what he does but we disagree often....I think his biggest challenge is squeezing 18 holes into a laid out housing development that will surround it.  Drainage is a huge deal cause todays courses are usually built on lousy land, rarely does an architect get a piece of dirt that is naturally a great piece of land that all you have to do is place tees and greens and let the terrain do the rest.....that my friends is why so many of the old great courses are great....they were built on great land a hundred years ago without regard to housing development.  Pebble maybe?  I dunno.  Kingsley in upstate Mich is a great one, Victoria National is a great one like that and its not very old....a zillionaire bought some strip mined land and built a course around the quarries....it is spectacular....they used to have the Friedman Cup there but the children of the owner sold it and that tournament was sadly canceled.  The minor league tour (whatever they call it now) plays their final there I think.

Feherty was great at interviewing celebrities at courses....those were great I watched'em all.  He did one here in St Augustine at Marsh Creek with Steve Spurrier and this is the truth.  They came out to the club and Feherty was giving Spurrier a pointer on chipping and Steve literally chipped in an impossible shot first take.  They finished up the interview at Spurriers house on the beach just down from my house....it was a great show as were all Feherty's shows.

Oh well, I'm sure the channel has thought about all this but probably too expensive to do and if the golf equipment thing exposed that all drivers are the same and all irons are about the sam.....they would lose their advertisers ......BUT....I see different guys getting better distance and accurate out of all kinds of different clubs it all depends on playing ability.  For example I can hit an X shaft pretty straight but it stays too low and doesn't carry far at all, I need a fishing pole shaft.....different equipment is needed for different guys.....Oh well, what do I know?  I don't know what I don't know.  RT

END OV NOVEMBER 2022....IT'S ABOUT TO THE POINT....nobody much cares about TV golfin.  The tour is full of second stringers these days, the names we all know are living it up with appearance money and 54 hole tournaments.  Money does buy most anything doesn't it?  Speaking of which I am ready go predict another tragic outcome for American politics:  Herschel will lose.  The gems have out spent Herschel 5 to one.....the commercials with late middle aged white women saying they always voted republican but this time they could not vote for Herschel because he cannot be trusted....compelling crap my friends but it will work.  The Dems are masters at attack ads and they have zero good to say about Warlock....nuttin....all the ads are aimed at discrediting Herschel whether its lies or not.  They even had a white woman on crying saying Herschel paid for her abortion 40 years ago and she couldn't believe he denied knowing her.....Interesting what money will buy huh?   This goes on to prove my point that the electorate is stupid they will swallow every tale hook line and sinker.   Most politicians exclaim "the American people are smarter than that....they know what is going on"  That gentlemen is another misnomer....the American electorate is dumb and stupid....they believe anything they hear on TV instead of looking at facts.  That is why we have an idiot running the country, air new idiot in the senate and another on the way.  Sad but that's the way it is.  I truly hope I am wrong.  About TV golf and politics....wrong for a change would be a good thing.

I think I'll just go get in my golf cart.... RT

THURSDAY TWO DAYS LATER......Okayyyyy....I win the prognostication derby yet again!  Shocker.  Read my predictions below going back to October.   The one who knows all sees all did not call hurricane season over either in mid November.  We had a small fry cane come through today....no big deal....do not believe your eyes when you see news reports and TWC...I was driving around A1A in St Aug this morning specifically Crescent Beach....there was a news guy standing up to his knees in the ditch with a wet street behind him that always holds six inches or so after a rain storm.....the camera crew was all set up and he was just a yackin while a block away people were going into a beach side restaurant.  Wind was about 15-20 mph normal day at the beach most of the time.  My house had zero damage, slept through it all last night after licking my election wounds.

Sooooo.....I predicted ridiculous counting and counting in Arizona.....the other suspect states quickly polished off most of the republicans and closed shop.....they learned last time the longer they take the more suspect the count becomes so they simply jammed the box off the bat.....Wisconsin does have a few sane people apparently.....Obviously in Az,  the republicans swept it but the dems control the count.....hell, even the gov candidate is head of the election count.....talk about Dracula running the blood bank?????  Common mannnn.  Lake is in second place about 13,000 votes behind the head of the elections board chief who is running for governor.  They claim they have 400,000 more votes to count and its Thursday afternoon.  The longer it takes the more they will cheat you can book it Dano.  In Nevada for senate,  Laxalt has a small lead with 80% counted and the remaining 20% I will betcha will be overwhelming democratic votes...lets see if I miss on this one.  I have no prediction on the Az governors race except if Lake wins by a large margin she will scratch out a razor thin margin on the books....if she really won by a whisker,  that whisker will be shaved off and she will lose when its all over.

So you ask.....how the hell did Kemp landslide Abrams for governor of Ga and Herschel got beat??????  The answer is fairly easy.  Young women.  They bought into the abortion and end of democracy crap the dems put out and it was nation wide too.  Even my wife, who is way smarter than the great one, says young women swallowed the abortion bs hook line and sinker.....too dumb and uninformed to know a Georgia senator has no say in abortion.....it is up to the state not the senate.  So they vote for the Republican gov and stiff arm Herschel......and thusly keep the economy in the crapper.....because Dad is paying the bills, they have no clue.  My wife says young people should not be allowed to vote until 30 or prove they have had a steady job for at least 2 years.  Young men went for Herschel if they voted at all.....but the Girls showed up....I roll my eyes every time Newt says "the American people are smart they see right through the smoke and mirrors"  NOOOO  Newt,  the average voting American is dumb....not stupid....dumb.   Am I pissed off?  A little bit I hate it that I was right 4 weeks ago, I would prefer to eat crow than to crow.

Trump:  Now what?  Even I a great Trump supporter, say its time for him to sit down and rent rooms for awhile.....do not run....Desantis will have a chance if Trumper bows out completely.  If he runs, he will split the conservatives beyond repair.....and that my friend you can make book on it.  Would it be hilarious if Desantis became president and made Trump Secretary of State????   that would be funner than fun.  RT

ELECTION DAY!  Never mind people have been voting for what seems like months.  The 3 people who follow my political commentaries have clamored for a prediction.  OkAAAYYYYY....I have said many times lately do not drink the republican and fox koolaid....we will be lucky to take the house by a nice margin, but we will be luckier than lucky to take the senate.....I wouldn't be surprised if it stays 50-50 thusly the dems win.  I predict today that there will be the usual vote count shenanigans in Pa, Mi, and Arizona particularly.....and all the glitches will favor the dems.....funny how these "glitches" always go the same way isn't it?  Shocking.  The only landslides I see will be in Florida.  We will have to wait a week more for finals in those aforementioned states and I fear the results will not be good for clear thinking southerners.  If we do not take both branches I am fairly certain I am switching to independent.....less chance of being audited....I don't cheat but an audit would drive me and the wife nuts.......RT

October 29, 2022  the open entry form is above and we are open to all on a first in first in basis.  Last year we had 43 guys on the wait list and some did get in, the wait list is on a received date basis so the sooner you enter the better chance you have of getting in.  We are still having our infamous ball pool provided the balls show up, we have ordered 300 dozen from Titleist and Callaway hopefully they will all show up.  

Politically speaking:  yeah yeah I know some of you are clamoring for comments from the one who sees all knows all.....so here you go ten or so days before the so called election.  I still have little faith in an honest election in some of the northern, midwest and southwestern states.  You all know which ones.  I predict Pennsylvania will elect that kook to the senate.....he was a kook before the stroke.....Hershchel is getting blasted by anonymous women claiming all sorts of stuff from 40 years ago....I am sure the dems will be able to pay a few more to come up with tales of woe.....I am sure the next one will tell Herschel beat up her grandmother and stole her purse......the Georgia senate race will go to Herschel unless the cheat as hard as last time which is not off the table at this time not by a long shot.  DO NOT drink the Fox koolaid.....their analysts are all convinced it will be a red route....not so fast.....I look at it like back in Spurrier days at Florida, we had to win by at least 14 to win by 3.  The zebras controlling the game didn't like Stevie it was very clear if you went to the games.  Same deal in Minn, Wisc, Penn, NM, Az, Wa, Ca, Or......the Fox koolaid says all those states are vulnerable and repubs can pickup governorships, reps, senators the works.....I'm telling you do not go out and buy champaign election night......there will be "counting" going on for days after the election if not a week or more.....you can write that down on the fridge door......I can safely predict a big sweep for the Florida races.....we have good candidates and we will see if the new residents who left blue behind have turned red.....I think so.  You can book that one Dano.  I am very interested in the Arizona governors race, Ms Lake is a skeptic about the 2020 results in Arizona......off the reservation info and speculation sure looks like there was a lot of fishy stuff going on in 2020.  She says if elected she will root out and expose what the dems did.....THIS...is why the DNC is pouring millions into the Gov race in Az.....THIS is why those outside Az are in a panic if she wins.....if she is successful in winning and exposing.....it could be a domino deal extending to the other states that went by a whisker for jojo over trumpeter...........I am fairly certain Pa will not get a lot of fraud attention because even my friends up there admit it is the most corrupt state west of NY and there is nothing that can be done about it.....Dracula runs the Pa blood bank.    I'll shut up and I think I will change my registration to independent very soon if the dems keep control......the high are ess....(code from bots) ..... will be targeting average repubs in the near future....I don't fudge on taxes but an audit can be devastating on your pocket book guilty or not.  RT

Oct 2, 2022  Okayyyyy, folks the entries will not be available for another three weeks so cool it.  I will be back from my summer hideout in a few weeks.  Had to come back to St Augustine to ride out the storm and pick up any pieces that would fall off.  Truth of the matter is, we lost not a single cushion, not a pool screen hell, we didn't even lose electric.  Water is fine.  The storm went out into the ocean well south of us took a left and gave us a nice brushoff.  St Augustine is nearly bullet proof from major storms.  Okay the weather channel had pics from downtown St Aug and it showed the streets full water downtown....its much like downtown New Orleans....get a king tide and a northeast blow and the waterway comes up over the seawall downtown....soon as the tide goes out and wind calms down its gone in a matter of hours.  The good news about the bad publicity is maybe it will scare a few more north easterners from coming down and paying stupid prices for property.  I have seen a definitive pull back in prices property is actually selling for.  I predict that trend will continue on a slow bleed until we get some solid results in the November election.  If the dems keep control of all three branches all bets are off and the real estate market will crash hard.  Interest rates have hurt but not here at the beach cause most buyers write checks.  Inland however amateur speculators getting loans have driven those prices way up.....I know there is a big slow down with the major developers because I am getting notices every day they are offering selling bonuses, buyer upgrades all kinds of incentives to bring people to them....just two years ago they didn't want to pay brokers anything.....now they are begging us to bring buyers.....I suspect you know what I have to say about that.  

I sincerely appreciate clients and golfin friends calling me during he storm and afterwards.  We are just fine.  Folks in south Fla not so much, sorry as I can be.  Regarding the golf course, most courses are still closed today due to 2 feet of rain over four days here....Palatka is fine, had a kids tournament yesterday.  /The course only lost one tree and the mens golf assn will have a saw party next Saturday.

Politically, jojo and his collection of deplorables running our country has us like a ship adrift after a storm.....just floating around  going anywhere, nobody on the way......I AM NERVOUS and I suspect you are too....the pundits keep saying the public is not stupid and can see whats been going on.  I don't think so.  The dems know the public is stupid and dumb both.....this is why they keep harping on the same things that are simply not true....they say the southern border is secure....it sure is.....securely open to any body from anywhere who is up to whatever they please.....hopefully the drug cartels will police it and keep non members out.  The cartels own our government just like they do in Mexico and other central countries....they own our big democratic cities....that is in plain sight......they own the mayors, they own the judicial, hell they own the cities......I just hope they leave you and me alone.  If we can keep DeSantis as governor in Florida we should be okay he is quick to remove crooks from office in Florida.....see you later gotta head for the mountains.  Rt   

September 17, 2022.....I should probably keep my keyboard under wraps,  jojo and the dpfbi and the jojodeptof jistise have robots looking for key words and I am likely to get raided if I say what I really think.  And if you think I know what I talk about all the time politically speaking, just go down to my predictions and rant on May 10th second paragraph.  It has come to pass.  Go ahead and read it then come back up here..........

Ok just as I predicted our dumb bunnies on fox and the republicans in general have screwed the pooch......they gave the dems a road map for success in the mid terms....and guess what?  The dems are now favored to keep the senate and may very well keep the house against all odds just a couple of months ago.   Hey, what about the money I gave my brother for college so he wouldn't have to get a student loan....the money my mother gave to her grandson (my brothers boy) to get his degrees so he wouldn't have to get student loans.  He told me "they" were pushing money at kids all over campus at UF trying to get them to sign up for student loans.....oh they painted a rosy picture said the loans would be easy to repay......they were right!  Hell you don't even have to pay at all under the current regime.....to hell with those who paid the loans off  to hell with those who worked their way through college.  To hell with parents who saved for years in a college fund to send heir kids to school.   Be a grasshopper you will come out just fine the ants will take care of you.  I doubt they even have that book in schools any more....why should they?????? 

LIV tour?  All I can tell ya it is partially jojo's (thats my code word for you know who I don't want to get raided)  fault for stopping America from providing oil big time down to a trickle and driving oil up to the hundred dollar a barrel  range.  The saudis have tripled their income over the DT(code again)  four years.....they have money to burn and they have all but destroyed the PGA Tour and relegated it to a farm tour....all that crazy money will dry up if oil ever goes below 50 again but its going to take all of us to get it back there and I don't know if all of us is enough.   As soon as the price of oil crashes so will the LIV deal.  No I do not blame the guys for taking the crazy dough....many of the early recruits were on the back nine of their careers so why not?   As a result in the overall picture, I am beginning to be bored with PGA golfin....its like watching the Hooters Tour.....the few greats who have stayed the course are going to make a ton beating all the upstarts......and as soon as an upstart becomes a regular contender....poof!  Gone to the bigs at LIV.  Therefor my bottom line is the LIV is a result of jojo's kill big oil policy.....it killed American big oil and propped up Russian and middle eastern oil by more than doubling the value of their production.   I'm done.....entries for our 2023 event will be announced in late October when I get done playing in the North Carolina mountains and head back to Florida.....yesterday I had the pleasure of playing with the great Don Russell from Jupiter who came up here for a couple of months to see what I have been talking about.  It was 68 degrees, partly cloudy and Don shot 68.  One bogey on the card and that one hung on the lip.  Don is the Fla Senior Azalea defending champion of our Legends division.  Our average temp in July and August was 75ish at tee time....this month we are averaging around 70 every day from eleven till sundown.....absolutely amazing and players are coming into this area from all over the south and southwest.....I am afraid it will change life in the mountains as the locals know it.  The folks who fled the northeastern blue states have all but driven locals into the woods in Florida.  I am a lucky local who found the mountains 7 years ago.  This is booming with new construction scattered all over the tall country and we have golf courses from public to extremely stuffy and expensive.....there's game for every pocket book at this time......RT

 

June 2, 2022....anybody remember Jimmy Hatlo and his cartoons "they'll do it every time" ???  I am entitling todays musings by RT THEY'LL DO IT EVERY DAMNED TIME......if you have had a hip or knee replacement or both....I guarantee you getting dressed is a challenge these days....and if you can't straighten out your ankle or lift your leg enough your foot will go in the pocket of your pants instead of down the pants leg EVERY DAMNED TIME.....At Mountain Glen we have cart paths fairly close to the fairways....a good move by our now retired pro Sam Foster....nobody hates cart paths more than me but when the course is too wet it is still playable by a cripple like me, I aim at the paths off the tee and it works okay....BUT when things are dry I aim at the fairway....when the course is wet I play with "skinned balls" those who have hit the cart path, these are generally new but look like Aliioop took a cut at them.. ....when the course is dry I play a clean ball.....every now and then I will pull out a new ball on the course and its like magic.....my tee shot sails straight at the path, bounds an extra 30 and butchers my new ball EVERY DAMNED TIME.   It's like your car all shined up with a new wash and wax and presto!  It rains the next day....EVERY DAMNED TIME.  In college we called it the Toledo Dump derived from Pat Lindsey one of our players from Toledo.....the dump occurs when the cart strap comes loose and your clubs take a dump....have you ever had it happen on the course????  Never....it only happens on a cart path or the parking lot EVERY DAMNED TIME.  Finally I will leave you with this one....pull a T shirt out of the drawer without looking at it.....unfold it and flip up n down a few times, throw it down on the bed without looking now.....then pick it up and put it on without looking at it and I guarantee you it will go on backwards.....EVERY DAMNED TIME.  RT

JULY 1, 2022  A recent Florida court ruling may very well spell doom for public courses everywhere and Palatka is no exception.  The judge ruled that if a city or county owns a course and turns it over to a management company they must PAY PROPERTY TAXES on the course, clubhouse, the works.  Before Andy Heartz and Bobby Weed took over the management of Palatka the course was losing approximately 250-300 thousand a year.....under private management the city now nets approximately 60 thousand a year....if the county is allowed to tax the course, it could spell doom for our course and many other public courses around the country.  This is a biiiig heads up to everybody who plays public golf....prices for rounds and carts may have to double and if thats the case,  might as well close it up.....public players ain't gonna stand a double over night....BIDEN has doubled everything else and something will have to go and that will most likely be public golf courses......very worrisome.  RT

 

  

May 10, 2022  YEAH,  I been quiet for awhile, not much to report golfin wise, I entered a senior tournament in South Carolina they said I'm not good enough anymore and I had no response for that one...oh well, I got in three others coming up no problem.  I did play a two man in the mountains a few weeks ago, I holed an 8 iron on the 5th hole and played the 14th par five hole 4 under in three rounds.  My partner and I finished 3rd.  It wasn't a senior event it was open and the guys we played with the final round drove it on the green 3 of the first 6 par 4 holes.  They whacked one or two in the woods too but that kind of fire power is disheartening....I found out later the bomber tried the tour for a couple of years....no worries, my partner and I got a 200 dollar skin!  We were happy.  My mountain home in the Linville-Grandfather area (Newland is my mailing address) has been spectacular.  The weather has been in the 60s most days at noon when our mob tees off every day....today the forecast is 72.  I love the grass, bent and poa greens, blue grass fairways that roll big time when dry....everybody says the ball should fly farther but it really doesn't go but maybe 3-5 yards farther with the irons maybe 5-10 with a driver.....but hey, every yard counts at 73 huh?????

Political review?  I can't stand it....the republicans are idiots.....the Fox pundits are idiots.....the conservative talking heads are idiots......whyyyy in th hell are they daily giving the dems an open play book on how to fix all our ailments in this country right now......they keep rattling saying all the nut cakes in charge have to do is start producing our own oil instead of buying it for double from people who do not like us.  They keep explaining how 5-6 dollar diesel fuel is what is killing shipping prices the country runs on diesel trucks we all know that but they keep harping on it....shut upppp....All we have to do is remove stupid regulations the current regime implemented......all we gotta do is this and do that, quit this green crap ......that my friends is stupid to give the dems an open book......there is still time for the people who are really running the country to reverse course......the only good news is the dems are dumber than dumb and they will not pull the rip cord before they hit the ground.  The overall bottom line is both parties are idiots.  Sure Trump did and said what many considered outrageous.....Marc Esper told Sixty Minutes Sunday night that Trump suggested the national guard wing a few of the  fire bombers in DC last summer......I really think that was a Trump quip.....it was not a dead serious suggestion, it was not an order.....locker room talk you know?  Esper said Trump asked why couldn't we use drone missile attacks to hit drug cartels in Mexico?  Actually not a bad idea....they are at war with us are they not?  Esper said that was an outrageous suggestion.  Maybe,  maybe not.  Esper used that to get Trump haters to buy the book.....you can see right through it.....Just like when dumb Joe says stupid things I take them with a grain of salt, if you sat Joe down privately he really doesn't mean what his wise cracks are interpreted to mean by the right.....common man we know better about all that crap on both sides......BUT I have a few friends and damn few at that,  but a few who believe the crap coming from MSNBC and CNN.  Just today, the new inflation figures.....CNN touted a big improvement in the numbers inflation it  dropped from 8.6 to 8.4  it is slowing down and reversing!  That is high grade bullshit but my liberal friends will say hey,  inflation is coming back down mannnn Joe is doing a good job....I do not argue with them they are good people just look through different glasses than the rest of us do.  So, I just say hit it and lets quit talking politics.  

One last thing about Esper....in the Sixty Minutes interview he said a lot of derogatory things about Trump.....Sixty is viewed by more liberals than conservatives but I do watch it often.....he was all over CNN same thing.....Then today he was all over FOX , viewed mostly by conservatives,  and he was 180 degrees..... stated many things Trump did was good and started listing them....yada yada yada.....Esper's book tour is loaded with high grade BS to make both sides buy it....i will pass  RT

 

April 1, 2022   With great sorrow I have to report we have lost another great senior player and gentleman James Reid of Oklahoma.  I have known James since 1996 playing a major in Ohio.  James became a friend since.  We often talked on the phone discussing our game, where will play next and of late our ailments.  He was stricken with pancreatic cancer a little over 2 years ago numerous surgeries, chemo you name it..... after all that  he said he was feeling great and starting to play well back in October and he entered the Sr Azalea.  Doctors told him they thought his cancer was cured....in Feb he became very sick again told me he had to withdraw in early March.  His Oklahoma golfing buddies told me James was in the hospital and they feared he would not be coming out....he did not.

James Reid was the man who could pull strings to get you into a tough to get into tournament, he was personal friends with the Nicklaus family and if you are that you are a pretty special person.  Many years ago I was having a problem with an Oklahoma outfit who had a cell tower on my property.  I called James, he said I'll make a call and write a letter for them to honor their contract or else, they will be surprised you have counsel in their back yard.  They straightened up straight away,  James would not take a dime for his services.  James won his share of national events ....a couple of years ago he was really looking forward to turning 55, that golden number.  He made 55 but not 60.

I guess my grandmother was right.  She passed at 93 and often she told me she had outlived all her friends, everybody she ever grew up with was gone, her adult friends from the golf course were all gone.  She said son, when you live a long life you lose all your friends eventually...she was glad she had her daughter two grandsons and great grand children.  She was a golfer and a good one,  she broke 80 in her late 60s.  I am relating this because golf players have golfin friends and if you are reading this you have friends all over the country.  Be glad you have them and talk to them often because one of these days if you live long enough you won't be able to talk to them any more.  James marks yet another tough loss.  RT

 

March 17, 2022  I have erased some of my earlier reports and commentary due to federal govt, Facebook, tickertocker, tweetie and especially googler robots .... they have been sniffing around looking for derogatory comments about jojo the dodo, if they detect I am writing about our dc nut cakes they will kick me off the internet.  I think I have written you about that before when they destroyed my business website after I was critical of the obamana administration.....yes I can spell, I made A+ in English and spelling in high school but if I spell our dodo people correctly the robots will pick it up.

Anyway, the 2022 Sr Azalea was again a great success despite the first bad weather encounter ever in this tournament.  Friday, we got lightninged out, rained all day 4 inches worth, Friday night another 2 inches.....Saturday morning inch and a half....yet our course was ready for play by 12:30 and we hit it....no rain but winds gusted to over  40!  No more rain but the wind brought in cold....at tee time 11am Sunday it was 50.  By 12:30 it was a comfortable 65 and sunny with slight wind out of the northeast.  Rusty Strawn and last year's champ Doug Hanzel went toe to toe all day Saturday and again Sunday and again in a playoff starting on 6 next to the clubhouse.  Hanzel hit a superb wedge out of the trash for a 4 foot par putt which I am sure he would have made....Strawn blasted the highest most perfect tee shot with a six iron 20 feet right over the flat to the rear fringe.....and nothing but net from there, game set match.  I understand from others Strawn made one frog strangler after another all day and topped it off with another on the playoff hole.  I have always said we hand the trophy to the guy who putts best every time.  David Anthony won a three man playoff in the ssr with a par on six, Don Russell shot 71-72 to win the legends by one.....I predicted he would win that division on Thursday when I played nine with him and he shot 31 on the front side....weather that day was perfect his 3 over Sat and Sunday was really really good.  The star of Saturday was defender Dr Jim Carley, who shot 66 Saturday in gale winds....he followed with 74 in much better weather Sunday to win over Fred Peel by four in the super legends.

Walt Martin in super legends won an astounding 4 dozen balls Sunday, he parred 3 and 6, then made a deuce on 12, 14, and 16.  THAT was a show and I saw it all.    His longest putt for a deuce was 10 feet the other two were gimmes.   

politically speaking.....ok ok ya'll can quit asking me for opinions, here they are.....Putin wants the nickel and other rare earth minerals (all battery making materials) that are in Ukraine, he doesn't give a damn about the people....killem all...he wants their farming capabilities to control the food in eastern Europe.....I don't understand Russian people....go wayyyy back in history.....hell, everybody killed each other back in czar days all over Europe and the middle east...then the Marxists, then Stalin who killed millions of his own people and anybody else within gunshot..... North and South America were no different going back to the Spaniards from 1500s into the 1800s.....it was a way of life back then and for the life of me I don't know why it was,  just a way of life back then....Vikings, Native Americans  you name it, everybody killed each other then Europeans tried to wipe out Native Americans and about did it.  Russian leaders never quit....everybody pretty much did elsewhere.  Russians and killing Ukrainians by the thousands.......right now.....today......Anywayyyyy this mess in Ukraine would never  have happened under Trumper.....it happened previous to Trumper, and for four years zero wars were started anywhere.  Jojo gets elected and presto hell comes back with a vengeance now you tell me why.....duhhhhh......I had friends who hated Donald and said he was gonna get us in a war, get a nuclear exchange started.....they bought into the cool aid that he was crazy.....well boys, so did the bad guys around the world....they were afraid of Donnie.....noooo problems.

I suspect you like me are uneasy....inflation is killing my life's savings, gasoline went crazy after jojo took office, my portfolio is getting scary but cash is eroding  to the tune of 10% plus due to inflation.....cereal has quietly nearly doubled and will continue to rise.  Steaks have doubled if you try to get a good one, because corn has tripled.....grass fed steak ain't fittin' my grandmother would say.   It all hooks back into fuel costs.  Here is the deal to coin a phrase.  

Dumb is doing something or not doing something wrong and you don't know any better....Stupid is knowing better but doing it anyway.  Our leaders are stupid....our populous is dumb, 60% just does't know or care.  So, the DC crowd knows this....they do stupid stuff knowing the average American is dumb.  How the hell can jojo get a 40% approval record??????  Dumb Americans,  thats how.  If you ask a thousand people the question on how is he doing everybody on welfare and the draw will say great....half those working will say "okay"  but if you tell them prices are going up because gas is up they will tell you its Putins fault, or the oil companies have conspired ...or its just temporary....bit city people don't buy gasoline they walk or take the subway or a bus.....most of us live in the real world not a major city with a million or more who never go anywhere.......this is why the polls are so....lets say dumbbbbb.   The sad thing is,  the polls are right.  This proves how dumb 40% of Americans are.....they just don't know any better.  Next case your honor.

Am I gonna go buy an electric car???  Hell no.  I'm not sitting on a gigantic battery waiting for it to blow up....have you ever seen a golf cart catch on fire?  I have and you can't put out the fire....it burns to the ground and quickly....what they gonna do with old worn out batteries 5, 6, 10 years down the road?  A new battery will cost more than the car is worth.....have you seen the lines at charging stations in California?  The news won't show them but I have seen the pictures from people in the lines for hours......got any idea what a fast charger costs to put in your garage???  Thousands after you rewire and install a new service box.  What happens when everybody in your neighborhood plugs in after work?  Yes, Tesla gives you a slow charger that takes all night like your golf cart but is that always convenient?  NOOOOOO.  
The grid cannot handle the suction of amperage....it will fail.....the power company will have to rewire everything....who do you suppose is going to pay for that?  So many people think electricity is free to charge their cars....I have a friend who says his electric bill is up about 60 dollars a month....not too bad, gas costs me 900 a month.....I drive a lot in my business and to the  course and back.  Butttt, my friend only zips around town with his Tesla no long trips....because you can't do a long trip....you gotta hunt a charging station somewhere every 200-250 miles.....oh, they say it will go 300 on a charge.....okay fine but you run out of juice and its a 500 dollar wrecker bill so you gotta hunt a charge every 3 hours at 70 mph and the charge  takes an hour iffffff you can find one.  Gonna have to pack rations in your electric wagon.  Butttt if all you do is zip around town all day like the greenies in cities do fine, electric is for you.....how far will your electric golf cart go?  15 miles on a hard surface but you ain't goin to the next town its gonna take you four days your cart takes 8 hrs or so to charge from dead.

I gotta go, my truck needs gas.  RT

 

JUNETEENTH 2021:  I have been rather slack lately, not playing much, poorly when I do but with only one wheel its tough.  Knee replacement inevitable, Drs say my hip repair destroyed my knee and it has to be done too....hold on boys ....I gotta digest this s___ sandwich a bit here.  I think the last time I played without pain and injury I was 14 and I was a plus 2......but s----- happens.  Just ask Rohm.....but the golf god smiled on him after all.  How bout Palatka the number 29 rated municipal course in America  RT

APRIL 24, 2021 ONCE again I have to be careful about mentioning names politically or the trolls will kick us off the internet.  So I will use coursalias info but this goes down as I told ya'll so.  In an interview with the conservative cable network we all know the name of, the guy who comes on at 9 weekday nights interviewed a past person who was President south of me in a beachside community of the rich and famous.  Our former leader told the questioner that Pfizer knew very well the vaccine worked and would be quickly approved a month or more before the election but with held the information until the week AFTER  the election.  He said Pfizer was pissed off cause he ordered them to start selling drugs in the U.S. for the same price they charge other countries instead of sky high for us.  He also said the FDA was in the back pocket of the drug companies.  I have said that now since the week after the election....exactly that.  Now many say the guy doing the talking is crazy and wrong.....well, lets see....he said Obama was spying on his people after the 2016 election and the media laughed it off saying he was crazy....it was true.  He said the whole Ruskie thing was false from day one....the media said oh no, its true to the core....it wasn't.  The media claimed he was in bed with the Ruskies with financial interests.....he said no way.....and he wasn't.  Does anybody now doubt his claim that the drug makers own FDA?  huuuuuhhhhh??  Of course they do.  

I have reliable sources that claim Germany and England have a "cure" for advanced prostate cancer.  I even have knowledge of two guys who went and took the treatment after being given notice to get their affairs in order.  The first one is cured.  Totally.  The second one took off for the same treatment....it takes three treatments a month apart.  he has his second and says he is feeling good.  We shall see what happens to the second guy.  My oncology people say no way it doesn't work FDA has not given their blessing for the treatments. Which gets me to thinking....why would they want to cure me when they are making roughly 100 grand a year for treatments that simply stiff arm the cancer for a few years....why the hell would they want to cure the goose laying the golden eggs so he can fly the coop?  The pharmaceuticals get big money for those injections they give you just to keep you in neutral till the cancer finally goes around them after a few years and kills you.  You tell me.  I am told the treatments cost ten grand cash money U.S.  they are administered by legitimate hospitals and physicians.  You tell me.  RT (getting on the first thing smoking east if the second guy gets cured)  

April 1, 2021  We just got word that the Moot Thomas Sr in nearby Ocala will be scheduled starting the Tuesday after we wrap up the Sr Azalea on Sunday.  They have always been infant of us, but a combination of iffy weather and a conflicting LPGA championship caused the change which I fully endorse.  Hell, I might even go try to play again.  Impossible for me to play anywhere the week before the Azalea there are too many moving parts and problems to solve but it goes with the deal, no complaints.

Politically, I am growing sadder and sadder as I watch the crazies dismantle our great country brick by brick....the border thing was no brick it was an entire wall so to speak.  As predicted,  the dems are hollering bloody murder some states are going to require voter ID to vote ....  of course they are hollering discrimination .... voter ID requirements will expose all the fraud from this last election and this is why the dems are scrambling to get all their crazy ideas flushed through before a new honest election can be held in 18 months.  I have to be careful as I have said before, the big boy of search engines kicked my business off the internet several years ago because of my views on the president before the last one before this one.  Like I said gotta be careful.  I can't prove they kicked me off because of my politics, but it was amazing my competitors who had inferior websites stayed up and are up today.  I was told I was kicked off because my site was obsolete, I was light years ahead of my real estate competitors.. .... back then we had no idea the big boy search engine would do such because of politics.  Actually I am flattered they looked at me as a threat....little did they know Ronnie is simply dirt on the floor when you get down to it.  The best part is I made a lot of sales with that site and losing it hasn't killed me.....old clients still call and thats good.   :)  RT

March 16, 2021  The tournament is over and Ronnie is winding down.  I saw some spectacular golfin last week, I even broke 80 every day myself!  I have started watching the news again and I am getting depressed.  Here is what I see when you connect the dots.  

1.  Biden people (Joe has no idea whats going on he doesn't know what day it is most of the time) opened the flood gates at the border.  This will bring over a million in the country before December this year.  Voters?  You betcha.

2.  Voters?  Yes....H.R. 1 just passed by the house changes federally the national voting laws.....you do not have to have an ID you do not have to register in advance, you can register at the poll or mail it in with your ballot that will be mailed out by the hundreds of millions.  No votes have to be verified.  read it, its right there folks.  Biden people will get the already 20 million illegals citizenized within a couple of years.  

3.  The two trillion dollars they are spending will go to sanctuary cities where these illegals will flock to.  The money by the billions will be given to the sanctuary cities like San Francisco, Detroit, Chicago and Philadelphia just to name a few.  They will all vote democratic because the money will be thrown at them for years to come.  Nobody will have to qualify to vote just send it in.

That my boys will be game set match for a one party system.  If you have more than one house, more than a million or two saved up they will be coming for you.  This is how it works in socialism.....ask anybody from a socialist country.....I have personal friends who came from such and they are bewildered why we would allow the dems to tear our country apart.  Many say a fight is coming.....I cannot argue such.  If they come after our family farm and property my descendants will fight and not with paper and lawsuits.  Many others will do the same.   If they come after everybodys guns which it appears they will, the fight might start sooner.....that will be the flash point within our life time.  I hate it but I'm too damned old....todays kids won't know the difference in another 20-30 years.  RT 

March 2, 2021  Woweeeee what a difference a month makes since my last rant.  Here we are pissin away not millions nor billions....a billion is a thousand million for those who just got out of school.....we are pissin away TRILLIONS.....thats a thousand billion by the way.....I had no problem with the first stimulus during Trump times.....but now, here in Florida at least we are busting at the seams with activity and business the restaurants are open, the roads are full.....stores are full....its 2019 on steroids.....real estate is flying off the listing pages....I just put one under contract full price cash.....over 740K....I saw one in Palatka for sale for 200 a tacky little prefab 2/2 but it was on a nice lake on a small lot 75 ft wide....I thought about buying it as a steal but I called a couple of people who could possibly be interested .... both hesitated....it had two full price offers the next day.....told'em so.

Now, about the Senior Azalea...the golf course is superb, we have had a number of our players drift in and out recently they are all raving about the conditions....weekend before last we had the Florida State Junior ..... state association is rescheduling with us again next year.....last weekend we had a north Florida junior....they will reschedule

 

JAN 28, 2021   Okayyyyyy, gas now up 40 cents (thats 20% in 3rd grade math class back in 1957 I don't know what the hell they teach now, I guess the kid punches his phone for the answer) and I predict it will go to 4.00 as soon as possible if the Dems get their way and right now they be having their way with us reasonable people.  Now go figure on this one announced today....THEY want to give everybody under a certain income 2000 a month stipend ck calling it a covid relief measure....this would be on top of unemployment and the 300 a week bonus ck??? or they want to change the 300 a week bonus to either 500 a wk or simply add 2000 a month on top of unemployment and bonuses????  If they pull off the 2000 a month bonus...guess what.....it will stay forever....government can never take something back they give to the public....except tax cuts......except tax cuts , because these are sold to the public as being only for the rich.....who the hell is rich and where?  Is 100 grand a year rich in Manhattan?  How about Indianola Mississippi?  How about in San Diego? Or...or.....Childress, Texas?????  A hundred grand goes a loooong way in Palatka.....here in St Augustine where I live, its a living and thats about it.  Only 30 miles difference.  The same house in St Aug that will bring 500 will only bring 200 in Palatka....mayyyybe 225 if its in the right neighborhood which is a tough one cause I don't think there is a right neighborhood in my beloved Palatka......

Okay, I still say we all sit back and watch what these idiots are doing......it looks like they are trying to buy votes for 2022.....duhhhh imagine that......for our generation who saved our whole life so we could play golf, fish and enjoy life after 50 years of working.....our savings are going to evaporate quickly as the dollar is absolutely going to take a big dive in value the next year or two....write that down on a sticky note and put it on your fridge that RT predicted it......2 dollars will not buy a gallon, it will take 4.  300K will not buy a house, its gonna take 500K.....should we dive into real estate?  I dunno all I can say the last three sales I made this month were all people cashing out and buying condos on the beach thinking thats the best hedge against devaluation.....and it may be but I'm too old to start speculating on property I'll just hook up the investors with those who want to cash out.  RT

JAN 22, 2021 Ahah!  Gasoline is up 20cents already..hoards are marching north to the border.......surprise surprise....the unions that endorsed the democratic ticket are getting shafted big time in just one day as well!!!   At my club in the mountains in NC there is a guy who is in his mid 80s...name is Sam.  Sam got hit by a truck on the side of the road while he was changing a tire 40 years ago....he said he was drug over 200 feet under the truck....broke his pelvis and both legs, both arms, ribs the works.  Was told if he survived he would never walk again.  Sam in his mid 80s walks with stiff legs side to side as he twists to walk to his ball....he plays okay, shoots bogey golf which I think is pretty good, he shrugs at5 doubles and laughs at others.  I play with Sam a lot and hear a lot of crazy but true things coming out of old Sam.   This past October before I came back for the winter we were waiting to tee off and Sam said, can yon guys believe so and so is going to vote for Biden?  I said no,  I can't believe it and so is so and so (names are not mentioned to protect the innocent).  All five guys in our group just shook our heads.....then old Sam says:  You know these people voting against Trump are gonna get just what they deserve......he hesitated a moment and said.....trouble is we gonna get it too.  

That my friends about sums it up.  I am not up in the air hanging off the ceiling by my finger nails over the election.....I spent the past six months hedging my portfolio and selling off most everything to some degree or another as the market did yo yo action all fall and right into today.  What I did keep?....against the advice of my advisor....what I did keep was all my oil stocks.....even though they had gone in the toilet they were still paying good dividends AND I said if Trump loses, oil is going through the roof.  My XOM and BP has been on the march the past 20 days or so.....I heard a so called financial analyst say just this afternoon on FOX Business that it is quite possible oil will hit 100 a barrel with a reasonable amount of time....its hovering right now around 50 up from 35 a short while ago.....hell, it hit negative territory last spring I think it was....producers were paying people to take it off their hands!  I bought gasoline for 1.65 not too long ago, today in Florida it is bumping around 2.40 and rising.  Those who voted democratic for the house, senate and presidency are fixing to get just what they deserve....only we gonna get it too.

Oh, you say battery cars are the future.... gasoline engines are on the way out......so Joe Schmoe down on the assembly line Gary Grasscutter in your yard is going to go out and plunk down a hundred grand for a battery car?   I don't think so.  So Trump acted like a jerk now and then.....folks, he was a my pillow compared to the crack pots who are running the show now.  Not Joe, he is virtually harmless alone, but he is following exactly what he is told to do by the crack pots pulling all the strings....why not?  They told him to sit out the campaign at his house and not go into public .....  he won!  The conservatives are having a hissy fit (thats a term used by ussens south of the line) FOX people are going nuts.....I said lets all simmer down and let the crackpots lead us down the road to who knows where?  In two years, maybe less......Americans,  after getting what they deserve will have a decision to make.....lets sit back and just see what happens.  The TV and radio pundits can holler all they want.....it will do zero good.....zero zilcho nada.......no good.  The crackpots are laughing at us at how they duped the American voters.  Oh yes, they fudged the election we all know that....even my wife thinks so and she hates Trump.....I have to be careful how I phrase things the Google robots will pick up on key words and I have to avoid those or we might mysteriously vanish off the grid.  Damn shame we have to dodge Big Brother lurking in the shadows.....its 1984 folks...... only 37 years later.  I remember like yesterday the 1984 movie when I was a kid, 1984 seemed like a century away then.....it should be mandatory reading and watching.....but I suspect the book will bet burned and the movie erased.  It has come to pass.  RT   

JAN 11 well well, the dog pile keeps adding guys on top of Trumpster.....did he incite a riot?  I don't think so I think those guys were extremely riled up when they got there.  Did Trump screw up?  Yes.  What should he have done and all would be well?  This is not second guessing,  this is common political sense which he doesn't have in many situations.  Remember where he came from and the environment he came from in NY City.....ok, if Ronnie was his advisor I would have told him to meet the throng like he did BUT.....say, " folks, I am so happy to see you here and thank you so much for your support.  The election is over, we were unsuccessful at every turn trying to figure out what went wrong.....let's all go home in peace let the Democrats reap what they sow....and I will see you in three years!  Thank you and God bless"

THAT was all he had to do.....walk away and pull an Arnold and say "I'll be back" but he couldn't bring himself to do it and I am disappointed.  I am still a Trumper but I do not know if he can recover from the platform blackball worldwide.....I know his supporters are more riled than ever that the servers kicked off Parler, they rubbed Trump from Twitter and the rest.  Hell even Apple got into the act which I didn't expect.  I hope the dems tax the hell out of Tim Cook and Apple. He is gay and further left than Hawaii.  He took Trumps assistance that was offered with a friendly hand and now burned Trump bad.   I am on an Apple product right now and it is the best once you get used to one after you started on Microsoft programs.  Regarding Cook,  and old gay dear friend of mine once told me he may look like a nice fellow and probably is but you cannot trust a gay.  So help me,  thats what he told me and I never forgot it.  He would tell me we are best friends but you can't trust me.  I remained his friend till his final exit and thats all I have to say about that Forrest.

 Looking back at getting black balled off the web, back in Obama days I wrote extensively about Obama and my words were not kind at all.  I had a column on my business website dedicated to politics like right here.  All of a sudden one day we disappeared from the web.  I had made hundreds of thousands of dollars in business off my website and it just vanished over night.  I tried and tried to find out what happened.  I could not reinstall it I was totally shut out.  A so called expert told me Google deemed my site obsolete and kicked me off because of security concerns.  Being trustful I said okay, built a new site and my business never recovered to prominence like I once enjoyed in the early days of internet and real estate.  I had an extensive website before any of the major chain brokerages had one in our area.  I was light years ahead of them.  I got all the searches, all the contacts, the site kept me and my sales people running all day long.  WE DONE GOOD.  By the time Google wiped me out and I retooled , I could not catch up...... the chain boys were pouring millions into their sites and kept me blown away.  I did not buy my way to the top of search engines I earned it the hard way so I was hard to compete with.....in the early days you moved up the search ladder according to how many hits your site got and how long people stayed on the site.  I designed it for older clients, not for kids who were doing most of the internet work in the 90s and designing sites for 12 year old mentalities.  I wrote my own site, wrote my own design and paid a programmer to institute it.  He said I was nuts.......he was later shocked at the success of the site.  Anyway, I now believe Google kicked me off cause I was seriously anti Obama and open about it.  The obsolete stuff was BS.  Google may kick me off right here I don't know but it ain't my living and we all know now the lefties are running the whole world and young people growing up under communism or socialism or leftism will have no clue what freedom us old folks enjoyed up until the 2020s.  We are too old to fight and I suspect the 20 somethings thru 40s have been taught to accept whatever comes their way without any questions, people over 50 are still trying to scratch a living and can't take time to fight and that's all I gotta say about that Forrest.  I just wish Trump had a little political and social sense about him.....he has good instincts but he let his ego drive him right onto the Long Black Train.  RT 

JAN 6, 2021  Well, the state of Georgia allowed drop boxes to be stuffed just like Pa, Michigan, Wi, 
Az thus we lost the senate.  Hold onto your wallets boys they will be coming afterem.....and Lord help us if they put all on Medicare, its tough enough now to get into a doctor without the world getting in for free.....total disaster for us old folks.  I have a number of family friends getting the vaccine already but I am in St Augustine where it is total bedlam in a community of older residents and upper folks flooding in for the winter.....don't know if i"ll get it or not.....hope you do and we can all ride double safely...... RT

DEC 14, 2020 Ronnies political report: As you can see below, in my previous predictions........they have ALL COME TRUE.....My next prediction is the Georgia senate runoff is totally up in the air.  I am real curious if Georgia will allow absentees to be counted that are not triple checked for authenticity....we shall see.  If they do that the Senate will stay Rep but if not it will go to hell in  a hand basket.  Our only hope then is the guy from West Va will save us.  I hope we do not have to find out if he has the guts or not to go against the dems in the senate.

My next prediction:  Guarantee you the Hunter Biden stuff will all simmer down and be swept away in the coming months***....the media is already downplaying it as Russian and Trump propaganda.  We already know the FBI and DOJ sat on the investigations for well over a year before Joe even got the nomination.  I think "The Swamp" is way bigger and way nastier than anybody ever imagined.  Today I talked to a friend who hates Trump and watches only CNN and network news.  He was totally unaware of any Biden investigation, unaware of any camera surveillance showing phoney ballots being counted in Georgia after the polls closed pulled out of suit cases hidden under tables.  I told him about it and he said "those surveillance cameras can be doctored the Trump people probably did it"  I said you can see the faces on the people doing it!  He was having none of it.  This man is relatively intelligent and honest as the day is long....but I am afraid he has been totally duped by CNN and the rest.....this my friends is why no evidence will ever be accepted that the presidency has been stolen .... half the world believes what they hear on the corrupt news and believe nothing they see on FOX simple as that......*** hedging my predicition:  It is possible this is a super conspiracy to get rid of Joe and slide that nasty woman into the presidency all orchestrated by the super left in affiliation with the swamp....as soon as CNN, ABC, NBC and CBS pick up on it and DOJ does not issue a "nothing there" notice, we will then know it is a super conspiracy and they will drum Joe out.  Dem or Repub it doesn't matter they are all in the same swamp I do believe.....and Trump was making their lives miserable..... RT  

Dec 6, 2020....after watching five minutes of the"senate debate" for Georgia seat on Fox tonight, I turned it off.....boring.....the lady republican is not a polished politician or speaker.....she was appointed.....the dem is a polished speaker but his only experience is preaching.....I have no beef with that but I think he is terribly unqualified....she has been in the Senate 11 months or so she has a little experience....but not much.  If she loses I won't be surprised .... Ga republicans have a heavy lift.  The other race is bombarding me here in St Augustine roughly 80 miles south of the Georgia line with ads that are pure lies.....but anything goes..the blanket tv ads reminds me of what we saw in NC regarding the SC race with Graham.....crazy bombardment in all directions...the republican is a smart fellow his opponent is a slick progressive who is a  socialist in my opinion.  This can also go either way just depends on how well the dnc can cheat and they are pros at it......after clear video showing fraudulent counting of votes the national media is ignoring it therefor it is ok to cheat I guess.  RT

Nov 23, 2020 .....Does anybody have election fatigue????  I previously wrote there is no way anybody will prove voting machines were"rigged" and if they were,  there is no way it can be uncovered.....easy to rig the machines, easy to derig......the only people who know the truth are the insiders of the DNC and the programmers of the computers who I am quite sure were greased extremely well and if anybody talks they know they would go to prison..or worse...so NOBODY is going to sing...the mail in ballots cannot be checked for legitimacy...that was key to the fraud to separate the envelopes from the votes.....this way you can slip thousands and thousands of fake mail ins into the pile and say the envelopes were  checked and were discarded....next case your Honor.....Sydney Powell says she has proof regarding the computers, I seriously doubt she will be able to produce enough real evidence.  The tracks were covered Nov 4th.  Witnesses to voter fraud will decide their lives are more important than saving Trump....THE COURTS???  NOPE....no judge or group of judges (appeals and supreme) will risk a bloody civil war if the election was  over turned and trust me it would be bloody, quick and decisive but would tear the country apart literally....No Judge wants that even if the law was broken big time..... now the Georgia runoff.....THIS MY FRIENDS will be unbelievable.....the DNC now knows how to cheat and get away with it.....the RNC hasn't figured out how to stop it.  Georgia will be a free for all brawl starting next week.   I suspect we will see a replay of Nov 3 with the big cities and university towns going 90% dem and the rest of the state going 60% rep.....I suspect bad things for reasonable people.  RT

Nov 9, 2020........NOW SOMEBODY PROVE TO ME THAT PFIZER DIDN'T SIT ON THE VACCINE NEWS TILL TODAY......stock market takes off, everybody is gleeful, a return to normalcy by spring......They got rid of Trump and his squeezing the pharmaceuticals on prices.......the big  pharma bit Trump in the ass......Joe is already touting the success of the trials and has named a virus task force......would this news a week ago made a difference?  Probably but I doubt it personally.  I think the dems would have hollered it was pushed through without sufficient "science" just to win the election....I think a few turn coat repubs who bought into the BS that Trump was doing a bad job may have changed their minds.....the chickens who mailed in couldn't have changed their bets.....The winners of any war or election write the history of the contest......history will show the vanquishing of the virus was because Joe "did it right"  put it on a post it note and stick to your fridge door.....Trump will get zero credit for the vaccines coming out in short order..........now a couple of weeks late to make a difference to Donald and all the accolades will go to Joe.  Trumps claim of "just around the corner" were right.....again...the media and dems laughed at him like they did every time when he was right.....bottom line........Trumps goose is cooked..... Book it Dano....RT

Nov 6, 2020 POST ELECTION CALAMITY.....wellll Trump did pull a rabbit out of the hat, but not so fast.....if you will read my Oct 24 posting it has come to pass....as predicted by the one who knows all sees all....  Trump is done, the legal system will not straighten out the crooked vote via mail......so here is my new prediction for 2021 and 2022.  IFFF we can keep the crooks from getting hold of the Senate (still up in the air today) we will be okay.....IFFFF we can keep a leash on Romney and the two nutty women  who are rinos is the wild card.  No telling what they will  do or when.  I hope they will toe the conservative line.

FUTURE ELECTIONS:  WILL BE TOTAL FICTION HERETOFORE ...... the dems up north have demonstrated how to cheat using mail-in phonies.....in 2022 the republicans will have to fight bullshit with bullshit and the electoral system as we know it is dead and gone...nobody has a majority enough  to end this massive mail out stuff ..... I hope I live to see the day the dems rue the day they did this because the other side can get just as nasty....for example the supreme court approval process....the dems rigged it a few years back then this past 3 years they paid a heavy price....those pigeons came home to roost and dumped all over  on their front porch.   The biggest problem with the republicans rigging the elections in the future is how on earth will they get a foothold in the major cities up north and Atlanta specifically.....that is the hard part, the hardest part......Detroit, Philly , Pittsburgh, Atlanta, St Paul Minneapolis, Vegas and other large metro areas up north and west are run by democrats and muslims.....I have no idea how to smoke them out.  Those metro areas control their entire state.  We had that problem in Florida for many years but it has changed the Cuban Americans in southeast Florida have reversed the situation making it possible now that we  have two republican senators and republican Governor.  The governor got Dracula out of the blood bank in Palm Beach and Broward counties last year and guess what?  The democratic vote mysteriously decreased dramatically....imagine that......Florida will remain red a long time I hope.  The pre vote polls were obviously rigged too to discourage Trump voters but we did not bite, Florida allows mail in voting but every single ballot is absentee and requested and then double checked when returned and must be in by election day.  No trick or treats thank you.  Hell as I write Philly and Atlanta are still counting and receiving....but they will finish up later today I suspect now that they have Joe taking the lead after trailing  since Tuesday.....they will count till the pot gets right......anybody surprised??????  My last question:  How can Florida count many millions of votes on election day and  deliver final results in a few hours and the northern states take days to count fewer?  I thought they were supposed to be smarter than us dummy southerners......ahhhhh I stand corrected.....they are smarter than us.....they rigged the system....and we can't do anything about it, not a damned thing.   RT

Oct 24, 2020   I sent out confirmations today  to our latest 2021 entrants and closed with this political prediction....I am giving Trump a 20% chance of winning again.....the senate same same....that is the spookiest part....losing the senate and let the crazy Dems and Muslims in the house take over the country.  I predict if Joe does win they will hold over his head his corruption over the past ten years while his family and probably Joe himself raked in literally millions from China, Russia and other foreign adversaries.....the Biden Family can't hold a candle to what Hillary did as Sec of State,  but they did learn quite well how to get filthy rich tax free via their political positions in the U.S.  

The crazy side will want to tax your ass to death,  socialize medicine like Canada so you can wait months for an operation.....but hey its no charge cause they tax hell out of your paycheck.....but what doctor wants to go to school for 12 years or more and run up huge debt to work for "wages" instead of what he can produce in his specialty no matter how good he is he gets a fixed salary established by the lefties.....how's that gonna work of you ?  You will be waiting inline behind illegal immigrants who get free medical too.....I can guarantee it.....of course the politicians will have their  own separate doctoring like they already have now.  They will want to tax you 2% on your total net worth.....Elizabeth and Nancy call it the wealth tax......total up all your assets....cars, house, all your retirement accounts, your portfolio.....you have more than you think my friend.....if you have say one million in assets they will take 20,000 in cash every year on top of the taxes you already pay......if they gain the Senate you can book it Danno they are coming after you no matter your political persuasion......oh no, they will exempt government officials of course.

The crazy side of the Dems will tell Joe, if he does not do exactly what they tell him they will expose his corruption that is currently being suppressed by CNN, ABC, SIXTY MINUTES, NBC and major newspaper chains.  Google, Facebook and Twitter is also covering up the real story for Joe and the Biden family.  The Dems may do it anyway within a year or so to sweep him aside and put that crazy VP in charge, she is a San Francisco LEFTY.....do not doubt how nasty the far left can be.  They will destroy any of their supporters who do not toe the line trust me on that.  It hasn't started yet because they do not have the Senate yet.....we can stand to lose the White House but if the Senate goes blue with Joe we are done.  I hope my predictions are wrong and Trump pulls a rabbit outa the hat again......but I have zero confidence......I do believe there will be many many shenanigans with Democratic run states and cities to FIX the vote.....inevitable......I do think many will be surprised that Florida will go big for Trump because of a couple of things.....namely the governor removing the election supervisors two years ago for crooked activity in the 2018 election counting votes.  I think southeast Florida with a true count, if that is possible , will be closer to 50-50 Trump and Biden while the rest of the state goes heavy for trump except for Alachua and Leon Counties where the two big universities are.....Orlando area may be blue too because of the huge tentacles of CFU which is now the largest university in the state.  Damned shame the college educators never had to scratch for a living like the rest of us have done......they get paid no matter what....virus, depression, financial collapse.....doesn't matter they get paid....., they think money just happens so all they worry about is making sure it keeps happening.  Damned right I know what I'm talking about  I had good friends who were Dr professors at biiiig universities and I knew them well....they of course were a little strange and probably couldn't function outside the university system in the real world but they really had no idea what it was like to scratch for a living.....one of them used to gripe to me he had to teach a class now and then because he was busy writing text books for the University to buy from him....I said wait a minute you mean to tell me the University pays you while you are writing a book to sell to them?  He said of course!  I am a Dr of engineering.......all you can do is say Lord help us to yourself.  Just a personal example not all are that way.....but......oh, wait a minute.....free college?  Surrrre!  Do you think the professors who make hundreds of thousands a year will take a pay cut????????  Hah!  

I'm still in the real estate business and I see 1031 exchanges all the time, I tell my clients not to do this.....pay the capital gains now.....it will never be cheaper and Joe wants to run it double to over 40% !!!  Can you imagine what will happen to investment income if Capital gains go to 40+%?????      Those stocks you have held for years you have to liquidate to pay a few bills or buy a new car......you get whacked 40+??????   If Joe wins  and we lose the senate too,  we will have only about  40  workdays days to figure out how to hold onto what you have now that you already paid taxes on......They will be after your assets first then later your guns......younger radicals want what you have.....they are coming...RT 

October 7, 2020....The country remains paralyzed with fear over the virus......am I concerned?  yes....am I letting it rule whats left of my life?  no.  BUT the fear mongers on TV are fanning the flames of panic with leaf blowers trying to keep the country turned upside down.  I talked to some friends in SC, other friends in Ga who were miffed that their clubs were either closed or so restricted nobody could play.  Let me put this in perspective.....yes, I am concerned that weed spray can give me cancer....do I run from it at the hardware store?   gotta kill weeds growing up through the cracks in the driveway...I don't drink it every day...... they say Zantac gives you cancer.....did I throw mine out?  no, I use it maybe five times a year when I get an incurable hot neck.....Am I staying home between the mattresses every day afraid of the virus?  I guess I'm irresponsible, CNN would call me reckless endangering everybody around me....disregarding of my fellow players....do I wear a mask into the club house?  yes.  I take off when outside.   I ride by myself, I do not eat inside restaurants.......the TV doctors would have you believe the virus is hiding in every shadow behind every tree waiting like a snake waiting for a mouse to walk by....sure, its out there but I'm not gonna go looking for it.....We did have one of our older Palatka guys at the course get it, his wife gave it to him he thinks ......they are mid 80s..CNN would tell you they were good as dead right?   She spent a couple days in the hospital he only had a runny nose and that went away in a week.....they are both fine now....his wife has no idea where she got it and neither does anybody else.

Is Ronnie scared of the virus?  yes, but I will not let it run my life even if I have to play by myself, go fishin by myself and eat dinner with only my wife.  There is all kinds of things trying to kill you and me....and ain't none them good.  If the virus gets me, so be it ... I'll  deal with it.... or I won't....the bigger deal is my concern for my wifes health...she has underlying conditions that would be bad.....hell the regular flu can damn near kill ya...I can keep rattling I'll quit now.

POLITICS:  All you need to know,  is see my Sept 29 politics prediction about the presidential debate.  Tonight with the VP debate I don't know whats gonna happen except I do think Pence will let her show everybody what a mean vile bitch she really is but the referee will cover for her as will CNN, NBC,CBS and ABC.  That said I do not believe there is such a thing as an undecided voter if they are undecided they probably will not vote period or will let the mail vote for them.  I do not believe any Biden voters will change their minds either....I have a couple of friends who were Trump voters but will vote for Biden....they watch CNN every day and never FOX...they are drinking the Kool Aide.....yes, I watch both every day just to see what CNN is hollering about.....I get bored with CNN because they are all virus all the time...turn'em on and watch a while that is all they holler about....virus virus virus.  Hell with it.....I don't know who will win the election but my biggest fear is losing the senate with down ballot voters.  If we lose all three branches the government will be worse than Obamas first two years , RT.  ps  wayyyyy worse.

Sept 29, 2020.........Okayyyyyyy......entries are now open for the 2021 Senior Azalea and I am already getting checks from guys who didn't get in off the wait list last year.....the golf course has been doing very good this year, we stayed open during the shut downs, we pulled pins and still are now all the courses are pulling pins.....duhhhhh.....I am still in the mountains on the eastern continental divide....weather has been great in the 60s lately but today its raining and foggy so I am tending to business for a change.

Complaints?  I'm usually good at complaining but right now I don't have much of a beef with anybody golf wise.....if golfs superman wants to hit it 350, fine.  The next guy after superman will be teeing off with hybrids hitting them 400 I suppose.....I don't know where or if it will end.  The USGA has to put the brakes on......all the equipment is built for gym rats these days.....and you old guys, very few of us can get stronger without drugs and those will kill ya sooner or later....you lucky guys who are still strong at 55,65,75?  You are some of the lucky ones.  I think we ought to start flights based on how far you hit a 7 iron instead of age or handicap.....my 7 nowadays goes about 135 on a good day.....that should put me in about the third flight.  I recently played our senior club championship and did not win.....damn......I think it is now clear, if you can't win your own club championship you are down to the last damned stop.  The train ain't going any further.  I can only think of one time since I was 18 I didn't win a club championship and I lost that one to a kid I help raise so it was ok.  But here's the twist, I rarely played unless the guys started chirping there is a new guy who will beat ya if you play.....I would say okay, go out and hit a dozen balls the day before and go whack the new guy and wait a few more years till another came along.  Nowwww I look forward to next year to see if I can win cause nobody thinks I can and they are probably right so it will be fun right?  sure it will be.....no fun in winning when you are the favorite by a mile, it fun when nobody thinks you can.  The last Palatka championship I played I was 40 and we had a qualifier and I barely got in the four spots with a pair of 70s.  The three kids favored had all shot in the 60s....in match play I had no chance but dusted off a soon to be tour qualifier from Palatka 2 down.  The next day I smoked a former asian tour pro who was in his late 20s who finally gave it up and got a job.  NOBODY thought I had a chance....the other guy who got beat in the first match wound up being head pro at a major club in Florida.  Names are protected to protect the innocent.  That was the last time I played.....I knew better than to try again in Palatka.  I later played a few at Marsh Creek in St Aug and won every time but the last when a dear friend kid beat me on the third hole of sudden death.....well, wait a minute.....I hit a lousy tee shot that got a lousy bounce into a bush and that was it.....I tell him I beat myself, we both still laugh about it.

POLITICS:  you knew I couldn't pass up since the debate is tonight.  Here is my prediction:  It has been over hyped, it will not be great, it will be the most watched debate in history.  Trump will not score a big hit..,,Joe will not screw up.....and Chris will argue with Trump but will not argue with Joe, he is a closet liberal and he doesn't like Trump in my opinion.....he is the only left leaning commentator at Fox qualified to referee a presidential debate simple as that.  I think the great debate will be next week when Harris and Pence take stage.....I hope Pence will show the country what a bitch Harris can be and is......THAT my friends is going to be fun to watch.  She will be nasty I predict and VP Pence is a really ice guy who will not bite kick and scratch like Donald would.

I hope Mitch can get the Supreme Court vote before the election so people can see what clowns on the left will do if they march to the orders of Chuckie and Nancy.  Hell, even the RINO from Utah will probably vote for Barrett.  The vote will be fun and I have confidence in Mitch....he is a wiley old fox that out foxed'em last time and will again.   I have no idea who Amy Barrett is but she is a refreshing change from the two bow wows Obama put up there who are left of Hawaii........RT

 Aug 3, 2020  well, well, most of my predictions have  come to pass as usual.  My crystal golf ball predicted the USGA leave the pin in rule would be a disaster.....I do not watch a lot of PGA tour TV but hell, nothing else is on.  I continue to chuckle at the pros who play this game for a living,  nearly all take the pin out nowadays after trying it with pin in for a year.....pin never helps a good putt but it can bat a good putt away.....it can help a bad putt cause usually a bad putt misses anyway but with some luck it could bump the pin and stay.....not often I assure you.  This foam donut deal in the cup is driving me crazy too....how many times have you lipped the ball out since March?   the ball hits right half of hole, it dips down a bit hits the foam pops back up and touches pin and presto....big time lip out....I see it ever day I play, at Mountain Glen we laugh about it now.  In Palatka we don't use them.  So how about the governors rules about leave the pin in and take rakes away......now wait a minute.....experts say direct sunlight kills the virus in 90 seconds.....the damned pin sits out in the sun 18 hours a day!  After the last guy puts the pin in, the folks waiting back in the fairway will be at least 600 seconds before anybody touches the pin!  The damned pin is the cleanest thing on the golf course......AND ANDDDD......what the hell is the difference in somebody reaching in the cup to get the ball out with the donut or reaching into the  hole without the donut....?????Huh?????  what genius thought that one up?????

I still doubt the infection numbers they are spewing out every day.....how many people do you know who have been in the hospital with he virus?  How many people do you personally know who have tested positive and not gotten sick?  I know 2 and neither got sick ....... footnote it really hurt to see Herman Cain got the virus and it killed him so it is real but I ask how real?  I have no opinion regarding kids going back to school....that is a tough one.

My crystal golf ball predicted Joe Biden would never debate trump live on stage....with or without an audience.....ain't need gonna happen.....his handlers will not turn him loose infront of an adversary.......so lets fast forward.....he stands a very good chance of getting elected President......so what then?  Does he stay under the desk in the oval office while the nut cases run the country into the basement?    I ask this one too:  Most of the democrats running the show this day want to defund and disband police across the country and replace them with social workers who will love and hug thugs asking them not to do that again please........okayyyy......what's next?  Disband the military is next, defund the military ..... If Joe wins you can book it Danno.  I could weather a Joe presidency but the nuts he would have running the country and congress that would surely go Democratic control if Joe wins, would absolutely change America ....... you guess what it would/will be like.  

Back to golfin...do you find no crowds at the tour tournament boring tv?  Yes of course you do.....and the players are more robotic than ever....I watched Koepka sink a bomb late in the round yesterday he didn't even crack a smile.....no fun to watch. 

Will senior amateur golfin get back on the grid this year?  my favorite tournaments were all canceled and my wife is afraid for me to go to the ones who "say" they will play.......I have been burned by tournaments insisting they were going to play this fall but canceled anyway....governors scared, boards scared of getting sued....no fault of the tournament directors I assure you.  I do not look for a real senior schedule again till next summer IFFF a vaccine comes out.  RT

March 26, 2020  I told my brother just a couple of days ago, if we go into a nation wide shutdown food could become scarce as toilet paper and fuel might get tight too.....Palatka has a GP paper mill and we make toilet paper, the mill is running at 100% 24/7 Palatka is well stocked.  However we do not have a refinery......and just like that I am hearing about gas stations with no gas.....not many but spotty areas.....if we get a shut down nation wide who's gonna run the refineries, I am told in south Florida there are zero canned foods in the stores only perishables and people are standing in line to get in grocery stores.  My brother has a place down there and he says it is downright scary.  Fuel prices down here are 50 cents a gallon higher.  He is coming back up here soon as he gets his house in order and his boat dry docked.  He lives on   lake in the woods in north Florida.....a great hideout....and his freezer is full of fish and game he has acquired over the past year or so.  

The Palatka Golf Course is under siege.....the city wants it closed.....but Andy is resisting....the clubhouse is closed but we gotta maintain it and with zero play we can't afford to maintain it.  That said,  if we are forced to close the course, who is going to pay what it will take to fix everything after a couple of months with zero maintenance? There will be trees in the fairways.......I have been sequestered now for 6 plus weeks, I'm walking again and am headed to the course to chip n putt a little and see if I can stand up without falling down.....Dr cleared me, but I'm gonna wait to take a cut at it for at least another week or two.

I am dead sick of watching old cowboy movies....there are no sports except old replays that are boring anyway.....if sports replays were any good nobody would go to a game, we can just watch the replay next week or two....wouldn't matter if we knew the final score.....sports replays are boring except for the really old golf matches and Golf Chanel hasn't shown any of those to my knowledge.  I will watch Jack hitting a 7 iron from 145 and he crowd going nuts cause he hit it 20 feet.....that was a good shot back then with the equipment of the day and those egg shaped Macgregor balls he played.

Politics:  can you believe the crazy democrats and their pork they tagged onto the relief bill?  Yes, I believe it.....crazy people do crazy things thats why we call'em crazy......one person asked me why does the administration want to give businesses the money to pay employees who can't come to work?  The way I see it....simple.....if you keep them on the payroll they will come back to work...hopefully, and small companies won't be beating bushes for help when this thing clears.....if you put them on unlimited unemployment they'll collect from now on and the hell with work......and.....and....we spent just as much money so lets try keeping people on the payrolls and see what happens.   RT 

March 22, 2020    I have stayed home since the senior a week ago, my wife has some health issues and so do I so we are watching TV sleeping as much as possible, and just hanging out.  If I was totally mobil , I'd be going nuts.  Just a home body type and neither are my golfin buddies around the country.  A lot of you are playing, I suppose the golf course is safe as it gets so long as you ride by yourself, do't handle pins, don't go in the clubhouse, etc.  I guess we shall eat everything in the freezer and fridge over the next week or two, after that only time knows whats gonna happen.

The Florida Azalea Amateur just finished up, and a young lad from Tennessee shot 7 under for the three days to win and best a field of over 100 college players from all over the country.  The international players did not show up for obvious reasons.  There were two Florida players in the top ten.  Scores are available on the Palatka Golf Club website.  A couple of our senior players hung around for the tournament and played against the kids, Marcus Beck from Tallahassee made the cut and finished at 223 thirteen over par.  Not bad for 56 yrs old.  Marcus played at FSU what seems like light years ago.

Politically, I just thought I was tired of Trump TV, now I am sick of Virus TV......I don't think a news story would be on if the Russians invaded Alaska!!!!  You guys gotta be getting tired too if you are some of the cooped up.....I am getting emails with funny pics and stories from everywhere......even got one today accusing UNC lab of concocting the "super virus" under a grant from Chinese govt and the Chinamen took the virus home to study how UNC did it and it got away from them......I really don't believe that's what happened, but but.....who really knows????/  If that's true, somebody at UNC will sing.....only time knows.  I do believe the Chinese military was fiddling with bio warfare agents and this virus got away from them, I do believe that happened somehow.

I see on virus TV the left is all blaming Trump on shortages of gowns, masks, ventilators and the such and the hospitals will be over run with patients in short order.  How can those idiots blame Trump for not having stockpiles of this stuff to outfit hundreds of millions of people in case of a emergency????  How about the last 5 presidents?  How about the last 100 years of presidents and congressmen and senators????  Oh, we have seen and will see Monday quarterbacks  constantly harping "they" saw this coming and warned Trump....did they to warn Obama or Bush?  Why didn't they build themselves a bunker in the back yard with 2 years worth of canned food????

I do have a problem with all our medications being made in China....I have been harping for years all our vitamins and supplements are obviously made in China and I don't trust the ingredients.....look at any bottle in the house you have and it will say "distributed by so and so in the USA"  but nowhere will it say where its made......if it don't say its "made in America"  it ain't.   Think I'm crazy?  Go find a bottle on the shelf that says "made in America"  you can't buy a vitamin supplement that says that, nowhere no way no how.  I have searched and searched the past few years.  Hell, even OREOS are made in MEXICO.... If I was king I would require every product in America to be labeled where it is made....food, medicine, golf balls, you name it....everything should be labeled so we would know.  Where are band aids made?  Who makes your tooth paste?  Could it be spiked with some crazy bacteria or virus?.....If China wanted to destroy the U.S. all they would have to do is lace our consumables they make and we are all dead in short order......they don't need to fire a shot.  IF every product was labeled where it is made, I suspect there would be a revolt against Chinese consumables nation wide....no matter the cost differences.  Would I put it past the Chinamen in charge to release this virus within its own borders so to semi destroy the world economy and bring the U.S. to its knees?  Nope, crazy people do crazy things......Trump has crippled their economy the past couple of years so who knows?????  I guess the lefties could use that approach.....whatever it takes to beat Trump in Nov they will do, even if it takes killing tens of thousands......and that my friends is my opinion.  I do stress we should insist to our idiot legislators that all products be labeled where they are made.....how you gonna feel when your Z  pack next week says "made in China"????   I suspect there would be an uproar.....China might just choke off our supplies of medications for everything.....they can do that if they want to.  Are our drug companies to blame?  Yes and no.  Yes cause they can get them made el cheapo.....make better margins......no, because the American consumer wants cheap products no matter where they are made..... 

Lemme telly another short story....last year my wife and I wanted new fake wood flooring in the house....we bought Armstrong and had it installed.....it was awful....streaks of haze discoloration, it just wasn't right.  The retailer came and looked and agreed, then the factory guy showed up a week later.....you could literally rub the finish off with your finger.....I showed him....he was astonished.....then he started fussing the damned factory screwed up something.....I said where is it?  North Carolina?  He said......you guessed it.......I said is any Armstrong flooring product like this made in America?  nope.  I screwed up, I should have asked where it was made from the get go.....we figured since it wasn't cheap it was American probably made in Dalton Ga or somewhere like that......Just another case my friends.....if it doesn't say "Made in America"  it ain't  RT

March 12, 2020  The Florida Azalea tees off tomorrow at 12:30.  We have the strongest field ever in my opinion.  We have guys from coast to coast in both Canada and the U.S.  We had a couple of guys pull out because of the virus scare but 95% of the field said they wanted to play so we shall play  no hard feelings and we shall refund partial entry fee to those concerned about the virus.  I can say that most of the guys coming from far off who flew have been here a week or more.  I have told everybody if you even think you are feeling bad withdraw right now.  We will hold player meetings outside on the putting green.  We are discouraging guys shaking hands, holding pins or gathering in the clubhouse and most I met today are hands off and thats fine, we all want to be safe till this virus thing shakes out.

Pro tour:  So far this year it has been in a word, boring.  Robots playing for millions.  Only a couple of players are fun to watch when playing well...my favorite is Rickie....he is not a character like Fuzzy or smiley like Jordan....wow, I miss Jordan being in the hunt....the poor kid just fell off he end of the world.  I told everybody when I read a couple of years ago he was working on hitting a draw during the off season so he could hit it farther was a huge mistake.....guess what.......Its no fun watching th new guys now.....robots with clubs, hell they don't even crack a smile when they make a 40 footer.  Commonnnn mannnn have a little fun playing.  Now the TPC will go on without fans.....wow, has the media scared hell out of the country or what??????  17 will be dull the final round without fans but hey, do whatcha gotta do.

ok, okayyyyyy.....a lot of guys want me to comment on politics of late.  I am disappointed Bernie appears to be a victim of the swamp....I really felt Trump would wax  Bernie rather easily.....Joe, I am not so sure.  Yeah, Joe is likable but I really think I do not want him pulling the strings....and his people he has said he wants in the cabinet if elected are downright stupid and scary.....no, lemme say dumb and scary.  there is a  big difference between stupid and dumb.  Dumb is not knowing any better....stupid is knowing better and doing it anyway.  Yes, I have done some stupid things in my life.  The biggest scare for me is the down ballot.....if Joe gets elected, theres a good chance Nancy and Chuck will be in charge of the House and Senate and if that don't scare you, you are dumb.  I can put up with one party in charge of one chamber an another on the other.....but not one party in charge of both.  Stock market?  I am holding, most of my friends are doing the same.  We think the market will come back when this virus thing lifts.  RT

Jan 6, 2020  A new decade and I'm still here running off at the key board....Remember when you were a young ladd, and 1984 seemed like some twi light zone saga farrr into the future?  2001 Space Odyssey was so far fetched nobody could believe it?  Today both tales are ho hum and came to pass a good while ago and during our lifetime.  Big Brother is a fact today.  I seriously wonder how these writers come up with this stuff?  Bones had some gadget he waived around over Kirk's chest and it told him exactly what was damaged and what he had to fix .....we said hah!  Today.....common every day stuff.....Kirk's stun gun when he took the transporter to some ungodly landing......today?  I suspect the cops would have laser zappers that would burn a hole right through the bad guy but nobody has the guts to turn somebody loose with one of those but they do have stun guns called tasers......right out of Star Trek huh?  

I think I could write a good story about a guy who happened upon a ufo landing, made friends with the crew and flew off into the galaxy to see wonders we can only imagine then return 20 years later with information about wonders that nobody would believe......he would be able to sit down and design a fusion engine that would propel a space craft far beyond the speed of light....he would describe other civilizations far more advanced, civilizations still in the stone age.....how much fun would it be to go visit the galaxy and watch what was going on like a bug on the wall....if we don't blow ourselves up and if the hoards don't eat us out of house and home and the fanatics don't take over, it will happen in centuries to come......I truly believe we could have been out of our solar system by now had we worked as hard as we did to get to the moon.....I think welfare literally ate the space program butttttt, welll I'll leave that one alone.....think about it, we went from plastic pump up toy rockets full of water to the moon in a decade!..you and I saw us go from prop air liners and fighters to huge Jetliners and jet fighters from 400 mph slugs back in the 50s to supersonic nearly invisible.......you know, who knows????  Maybe some guy did take that ride and is out at area 51 slowly showing our guys how to do this stuff.....sounds crazy but we saw Dick Tracy talking to his watch and thought....no way.....Captain Midnight talked to a TV screen with somebody on the other end in the mid 50s, Maxwell Smart talked to his shoe!.....total scifi.....today, it is common as ice cream cones in summer.....we think nothing of it.  Well, maybe not the shoe but they could make one if they wanted to....Musk was crazy enough to believe he could shoot off a rocket into orbit and land the booster softly onto a barge out in the middle of the ocean.....now that was crazy.....he did it.....Here's one for you......how about when you bought a new car in the 60s and 70s you better trade it before it hit 50,000 miles cause it would fall apart.....today, 150,000 is common before stuff starts happening.  My 1970 SS Chevelle was hot in its day......huge engine.....smoke the tires hitting all four gears....today my Suburban has more horsepower and gets well over 20 mpg.....my SS got 13 on a good day.  If you had a good radio back in the day you could pick up WLS Chicago or WBT Charlotte  at night and hear the Mister Norm ads for hot rods.....WOWO in Fort Wayne......I knew the night guy on the New Orleans flame thrower at night but I can't remember the calls....his name was Jessie....yes, he was from Palatka of all places.  Can I rattle or what?  Today, we can watch live TV in the car, pick up a hundred stations on satellite, run a computer from the car...see traffic jams before we get to them.....kids can watch movies in the back seat......what would have been a wonder back when is common today.....hell, I remember 8 track tapes and the player eating the tape and throwing the whole thing out the window of my hot rod....today its all on a little disc and the players don't eat.

How about your golf clubs.....I grew up whacking my grandfathers hickory shaft clubs around.....the two or three he let me use.....I remember the steel shafts they painted yellow to look like wood.....then  Dynamic stiff....hozels you drilled out stuck the shaft in there after putting a blow torch to the hozel to make it expand and when it cooled off drilling a hole through the hozel hole through the shaft then putting in a nail and filing off the rough edges....go find an old tennis racket and take the leather wrap off and making your own grip......a Bulls Eye putter with a shaft that looked more like a frozen  snake....golf balls with rubber bands hanging out of them.....today?  A kid couldn't be caught with so much as a scuff on a ball.....Gets a new set every year....has a coach, caddy, strength coach and guru.....no wonder they score so well compared to olden days.... YOU would have too most likely if you didn't get burned out like so many kids I see today who were pushed so hard they quit soon as they got out of sight of mom and dad who wanted to raise the next Tiger.

Okay, I'll quit.....I wish the best and prayers to my friends Marty, Bob and Rob who are fighting the good fight right now.....I have lost many friends the last few years and I don't feel so good myself.....but let's continue as long as we can and may we all fight the good fight.  My great friend Douglas Miller who was a life long golfin buddy we lost over a year ago.....fought cancer for 17 years.....he played through it all.....chemo, experimental pills, surgeries on his kidneys, liver, pancreas, lung, brain.....as soon as he could walk he would start playing again.....he fought the good fight.....he told me if you get sick and quit playing you will die like Harold did.....I'm gonna keep playing like Douglas did.....Happy New year and may we all see 2021....we can take that space ride later we have an eternity to do it.  RT

Dec 18, 2019  This should be my last post of the year.  I hope all you guys had a great financial year like I did and almost everybody I know did.  Are you tired of winning yet?  Trump told us we would get tired of winning....golf players never get tired of winning whether its at business or on the course.  Apparently our defending senior champ Doug Hanzel doesn't get tired of winning, every time I read final results in something from Timbuktu,  Doug pulls it out down the stretch and he was early to enter this year so it appears nobody can stop him.....only the great David Anthony from Jacksonville broke Doug's string back in 2018.  This year, David will terrorize the SSR and I am installing David as a 2-1 favorite in SSR.

Legends division is up in the air....we have more entries  than ever in Legends.  I find that as we all are fortunate to get older, some guys who were dominant in their younger years, become irrelevant in their later years.....and guys who were no factor as mid-ams, even as seniors, seem to come out of nowhere and become a real force in 70 plus golf.  Why????  I think there are several reasons why my game is irrelevant in competition these days and I take this opinion from my own situation and several friends who have shared results.  1.  We do not practice like we used to....I just don't have the gumption to get out there and beat balls, hell I don't even like to go out on the putting green much these days.  2.  We don't play as often as we used to.....from the time I can remember back when I was very young I played 5,6,7 days a week.  Now?  50 rounds a year at best.  3.  Lack of concentration and this comes as a result of not practicing and not playing regularly.  4.  The ailments take their toll.....golfin will tear up your back, neck, shoulders, knees, hips.....any jackass who thinks golfin is a sissy game I urge them to try it.....it ain't for softies.  Most of us played multiple sports, I dislocated my shoulder playing sand lot football, ruined my thumbs and ankle playing baseball, tore up my right knee snow skiing.....I am sure many of you have similar stories in life ....most really good golfers were good athletes in school.....I was mvp in little league, threw many no hitters, one perfect game and led the league in hitting with a .526 average, I played quarterback and full back, point guard, short stop when not pitching, rolled a 640 series in college at PE, made all stars in every organized sport I played till I was 15.....so why did I gravitate towards golf?  Two kids I grew up with played big time college football....one was MVP in the cotton bowl, yeah Carl Johnson played for Tennessee and he grew up in my Palatka neighborhood.  Charley Hood played at Florida.  Today, both say they wished they had gone with me to the course instead of high school football and baseball.  I quit team sports by the 10th grade because it drove me crazy when team members made dumb mistakes that cost us the game.....I decided if I was going to lose it would be my fault and nobody else's.  Golf answers that bell.  5.  Many guy's games evolve over time ...  The great Chip Lutz told me he wasn't good enough to play on the team at Florida.....Today he can wax every player on the starting team when he was in college....what happened?  Chip went to work after school, played a little for years,  did not tear himself up practicing and playing for 45 years or so...by the time he was 55 I think Chip was financially strong enough he could start playing big time.....the first two times he came to Palatka he did not win, wasn't even close the first year.....within a couple of years, Chip became the top senior in the world winning the U.S., Canadian and British senior ams plus countless other championships including two Azaleas.  I can't think of anybody else that dominant in Sr amateur golfin who was a dominant force in amateur and mid am golfin.  I think they all burned out and tore themselves up to boot.  Oh, many are still great players but none can match Chip's record.

Another great senior player who is a close friend, Dr. Rob Hess dominated SSR golf the past few years.....he always played but not seriously till his 50s....his body was in great shape.....he semi retired and became a great player on the national competitive scene but he never came into full bloom till he turned 65 and he was "the man" through today.  Rob entered this year but will not be with us due to some neck surgery that will take a while to recover from.  We all wish him the best.  If anybody can bounce back, he will.  Merry Christmas! ( if that offends you, go play the Schiff Shootout don't bother playing here)

Which reminds me....somebody asked me the other day if California will ever turn red?  I said hell no, the conservatives are leaving in droves only the nut cakes are left for the most part it shall become so dark blue California will end up blue black   RT

 

Nov 22, 2019.....entries to the Fla Sr Azalea flooded in and we are close to full, the Moutain Men still have a week to enter and then we will start putting in guys curse ntly on the wait list.  The golf course will be in superb shape this year, the overseed has popped and we are now mowing the greens, fairways and tees.  Weather has been cool the past few weeks so the blend got  a great start.  I can't promise the tournament will be the best ever cause its hard to improve "best" but we will be as good as the best which we are.  Every time another tournament copies what we have been doing we will be somewhere else so goes our evolution. 

commentary:  Is anybody paying much attention to the "new season" on the PGA Tour?  This is supposed to be the silly season.  Its football season and basketball is starting, I just can't get fired up about tour golfin right now.  AND Trump TV is still interesting to a degree, its good entertainment watching Trump drive the lefties nuts.  No. Trump does not do everything "perfect" he is his own worst enemy but he does enough good stuff to keep me on his side, its just too bad he can't resist making crazy statements and attacks on people when silence would do much better.  I talked to an old friend of mine yesterday who is deep inside the RNC who is from Palatka by the way.  He told me what Trump has said so bluntly and distastefully about the Bush family, Clintons and Obama is all mostly right politically speaking,  but  my friend wishes Trump could just keep quiet about them individually and do what he is doing without the disparaging remarks especially the Bush people who my friend knows very very well, and he said the Bush family are the nicest and finest political people he has ever known.....I don't know them personally, but I think he is right.  My only criticism of Trump is his criticism of others publicly.  If he quit doing that he would win in a landslide.....that said,  my friend said "we think we can win again but its not gonna be easy this time cause the dems now know how we did it last time and they are fixing the mistakes"

My friends, we shall see.  RT 

October 1, 2019....well boys and girls, the season is winding down in the mountains, the Palatka Golf course is winding up with the great Bobby Weed coming in next week to start tweaking what has become the hardest hole on the golf course....number 2.  The plan right now is to fill the pothole in front of the green.  Dig a new half moon bunk around the back of the green and extend the front of the green 6-8 feet down the fairway,  sprinklers permitting.  Forty years ago I had a hand in digging the bunk infront of the green.....but......forty years of guys whacking sand up on the green created a hump that shoots a ball landing over the bunk over the green....land left and left she goes same for the right side.....so we gotta fix it and have decided to cover the bunk or at least fill it back to green level....right now it is head deep to a tall indian and just too hard.  40 years ago I hit wedge in there and thought it was too easy now my six iron will not hold the green at all.  Hopefully it will all work out for the best.

I still say the leave the pin in rule is the second dumbest the USGA has done....it has slowed play considerably.  One guy wants it in, the next out.....I hate a pin in the hole when putting.  It does not help a good putt can only hurt, the pin saves very few bad putts if any.  AND guys reaching into the hole to get the ball out with the pin in, booger up the cup lip left and right. 

We skimmed 20 bucks a man off the 2019 entries to do a little tee work, I hope everybody approves.....here is what we did with the money:  We built new tees from scratch on number 2 about 20 yards in front of the white tee for seniors.  We built a new tee on 3 about half way down the hill for seniors.....the hole now plays about 130 yards but is extremely up hill.....you can only see half the pole from this tee but I find it a very interesting shot.  The older seniors love it hitting 7-9 irons instead of 3 wood and driver from the white tees.  It is still not a gimme par from the new tee.  I see lots of guys whistle it over the green into a nasty bunk.

Andy and Dave then built us a new tee on 4 about 1/3 of the way up the hill from the whites.....this makes for a par 5 for most seniors that will play driver, three wood and 8-pw to the tiny toad stool Ross green.  It is still hard but at least the old guys have a chance....from the whites the old bucks are hitting too long a third shot to get it on the green with any consistency.  

I had just enough cash left to build a sorely needed tee on 15 about 15 yards in front of the whites...for old farts....now the average senior can get the ball far enough down the left side to have a clear shot at the green around the tree on the right side and its a real tee instead of a spot mowed out of the fairway.  Everybody loves this one, especially meeeee.  We built all these out of the right kind of sand, shaped them so a mower can get up on them and then sodded..... they are completely grown in now and can take a beating.  

People ask me all the time.....including the Florida State Golf Association.....why does this little course play so long but measures so short.....I think its because when built there was no sprinkler system....we have one now.....it was all hard pan and the ball rolled a mile....today we have great fairway grass and a real sprinkler system, very little roll at all.....the par 5 holes are not easy unless you kill the tee ball and then only 5 is easy if the killer gets it in play.  the par 3 holes ever since I started playing competitively in high school have been my key to the course.....all 5 par 3 holes are down right hard to par.  Only two of the three are flat the others are steep hills to overcome.  Next case your honor.

Today we had a high school girls district conference championship and 10 teams participated.  When I left a 74 was on the board.....pretty good.  We also landed the boys championship next week, the FSGA junior championship in January.  We also got a Jacksonville junior of sorts, and more are to come.  They all say its hard to find a course in good shape that welcomes them.   In Palatka we encourage young people to play and welcome them all.

I'm headed back to the mountains tomorrow where my buddies up there tell me its still in the low 70s and perfect.  I'll be back in a couple of weeks so entries to the Sr Azalea are officially open!!!!  RT 

July 5th......all is well in the mountains right now at noon it is 72 and partly cloudy the golf course is perfect and loaded with folks from Charlotte, Atlanta and scattered throughout the southeast trying to escape the heat.  The golf course is perfect, the greens are running about 10.5-11.....fairways and perfect, weather is greatttttt!  Come see us and play a couple of days mannnnn everything is great in these here hills this time of year.  RT

June 24, 2019.....I have told many of you about my experiences in the NC mountains playing with the locals, it is a blast.  These local guys are just like the Palatka brethren, they kick one leg up and hit it as hard as they can and there are plenty of guys at Mountain Glen who fly it well over 300 just like in Palatka.  But heroes a new I heard yesterday.  I was in the daily noon game they call Dogfight....everybody throws in 11 bucks and the shop draws teams while we are playing we just pick up with friends or whoever to play the round.  Yesterday I was with Nick and Ed from Vero Bch and southern SC respectively.  Both pretty good players probably about 8-10 handicap about like me.  And Samson, a local cat who is rather quiet and dryly spoken.  Okay, here we go....on the third hole Nick whacks one out in the left rough and nails a hybrid right through a tree and "crack!"  Nick looked at us and said.....I've always been told trees are 99% air......everybody chuckled a bit and ole Samson just sat there and muttered slowly in that mountain drawl......."so are screen doors"

It seems like I hear a new one every week and that's one to remember next time somebody claims trees are mostly air.  RT

June 20, 2019.....The U.S. Open is history and yet again, there is a Palatka connection.  Gary Woodland's first caddy on tour is from Palatka.   I'll never forget Brent telling me "this kid can hit it a mile but after two years I haven't been able to throttle him back and learn how to score"  Brent changed horses saying he couldn't afford to caddy for Woodland anymore despite the fact he believed Woodland would eventually learn how to "play"  Of course being from Palatka our guys on tour lived on a shoestring, it was tough mking a living till you got a horse....Brent caddied many years for Justin Leonard and now has a guy who is barely staying on tour but it is hard to get a new horse these days everybody wants to be a tour caddy and new players often have a friend from school like Jordan has.

Regarding the new rule allowing pin to stay in he hole when putting:  I don't like it......in tournaments.  I have seen some great shots get spit out that would easily have dropped....some lousy shots drop that should have gone wayyyy past.....but my biggest beef is people putting with pin in the hole, leave the pin in while retrieving their ball.....they booger up the lips of the cup leaving it like a volcano!  Recently at a tournament we kept noticing the white paint scattered all round the cup.....it wasn't a lousy paint job.....I told everybody it was white flakes pulled out of the lips of the cups by hands reaching in with the pins in.  We al need to be more aware what is going on here.....my great partner Freddie actually had a putt on a very very fast line, roll up to the center of the hole, hesitate and roll dead sideways.....everybody in the group was astonished including meeeee.  None of us had ever seen a ball do what that one did.  Upon close inspection of the cup here was literally a tiny lip raised up around the edges where guys hands had pulled up the dirt in the cup.....a ball moving along pretty good is not affected but if it crawls up on a 14 putt, it just bumps that rim and dribbles sideways.  Nuff said  RT  

 

June something 2019....entries to the Mountain Man are coming along nicely we have nearly 100% of those who played last year returning and that tells you everything you need to know.  I am at Mountain Glen right now, and the golf course is the best shape ever. The super took a big job at nearby Linville Ridge.....congratulations to him.  Here is he rest of the story.  Our pro Sam Foster has been wanting to retire the last several years and said this will definitely be his last year in the shop.  That said, Sam loves to cut grass.....he could be seen on some days in the afternoons on a mower in various places on the course.  Reminds me of the great John Benson who would rather cut grass than sink a birdie.  Anyway, Sam slowly but surely has taken over as interim superintendant.  Sam has been a caddy, has worked at Augusta National, played the tour several years and has been around golf for over 65 years.  He is doing an absolutely great job.  He loves what he is doing and is doing it well.  He has lowered the height of the roughs and fairways and ...... and .......the greens.  The course is playing absolutely perfect.  I have always maintained get me a super who is a good player and the course will be trimmed like good players want it.   Our former super did a great job (or Linville Ridge would not have hired him)  but Sam has taken it to a new level.  Sam has no formal training on course maintenance,  but six decades of being on the course is the best school there is.  We all hope Sam will hang around to cut grass a few more years!

Now, about Palatka goings on.  The course this past winter and spring was its best ever.....yes, our super is a good player.  This summer we are embarking on a couple of projects I have pushed for the past two years.  We have the pieces in place right now....we got the sand, we got the dirt, we scratched around and got the money for sod.  We are going to build a handfull of NEW "senior" tees on various holes.  Mostly on the front side.....number 2, 3, 4, 8, 9.  On the backside number 15.  I kept harping the old guys needed their own tee instead of putting them on the back of the ladies tees.  I am assured we will get this done this summer.  ALSO, the second green is in dire need of overhaul.  We are going to wrap the left green side bunker around the back of the green to keep balls from running down the hill and onto the third tee.  It will be shallow, just enough to catch a run away.....we are going to use what we dig out to fill the front trap and turn it into a "grass bunker"  We will raise it so you are not chipping out of a pot hole.  The second hole is hard enough.  Score cards clearly showed the second hole the hardest par four on the course year after year and we hope this will help older players who can't fly a tall ball with a short iron onto the green.  Yes, Andy and Bobby Weed and I all agree too many courses are built for young strong tour pros......Palatka is played by older players and needs to be built accordingly.  Personally , I enjoy some of the gigantic tour courses and "Fazio ridiculous" greens, bunks, runoffs and crazy stuff from time to time but I do not want a steady diet of goofy golf.  Gimme a fun course I can score on if I play well.....so many of these new "modern" courses do not reward a good shot from us older guys we are at the mercy of crazy pitches, mounds and ricochet rabbit balls that should have been good shots for us.  I just got through playing two Fazio courses in a row in big tournaments....I hit the ball really good the first round on course one and scored really good...for me.... the next day I hit the ball just as well , putted just as well but the bounces I got on the greens were mostly bad or worse......I shot 8 strokes worse and played just as well.  Tournament two, another Fazio, a best ball and my partner and I played well but could not score.....since I am 69.99 we had to play farther back and that was a hinderance but still when I hit a 4 hybrid sky high over a lake and land it 2 feet short of the hole only to see the ball go in a bunk unplayable back to the pin....comeon mannnnnn......yeah yeah I have been playing there for 15 years and shall return if I am alive and able I love the place and we have had great success in the past but either the course outgrew my game or my game shrunked.  I suspect the latter.  I just do not understand tournament directors putting pins in places where only a short iron will get anywhere near the hole.  Okay, let's put a tour pro out there 200 yards and give him a 7 iron and try to keep it on a hard tongue with the pin just over water and a bunk behind the hole......he ain't gonna stop it either .... the ball has to be coming straight down like you dropped it from your knee.  Otherwise you have to hit the ball 40 or 50 feet away from the pin and hope you can two putt......I do not see golfin like that being fun.....now if you put the tee up to where everybody in the field can lay up to the lake and everybody has a 100 yard shot to the hole, fine......I'll get off the stump now.

After eating crow when Tiger won the Masters I am back on burgers and fries after his PGA no factor performance.  Hope to see ya soon.  Remember this.....getting shorter off the tee only means you are getting older instead of dead.  RT

April 30, 2019.....TOTALLY  unrelated to golfin but related to us all:  I was watching the Weather Channel this morning and all the hoopla about global warming and the crisis at hand.....they say you guys in Canada will be sweating in springs to come....us'ns in Fla and NC will be roasting in summers to come...glaciers are melting.....the crazy politicians in DC are hollering we "gotta do something nowwww!"   So the  Weather Channel is showing the alarm at glaciers melting in the Arctic, huge melts in the Antarctic.....alarming ice melt, islands appearing where it was thought we were only seeing glaciers......MY GOD!!!!  But wait, there's more.....they had some archaeologists scratching around who found a Viking era knife over 1600 years old beneath a melted glacier......they found some Viking gloves when the ice melted where there had been nothing but ice and snow the past who knows how many hundred years....found Viking era clothes here and there.......did a light bulb go on?????? Nope......I am quite sure you are smart enough to figure out the Vikings were roaming around on dry land up there 1600 years ago.....I don't think they tunneled under the ice berg and deposited their clothes and tools.   The weather was probably quite nice within or near the Arctic Circle at times.  But like Big Jake told the Indian....."times change."

Ok so we are indeed going through a warming cycle worldwide.....can't these clowns accept the fact the earth cools and warms in cycles?  Ain't a thing we can do about it.  The sun will one day burn out.....ain't a thing we or those beyond us can or will be able to do about it.  Is there a chance somebody somewhere in a galaxy far far away had to load up their star ships and take off across the universe with millions or billions of beings on board   in search of a new planet somewhere with a stable star to settle on?  If we fast forward a few hundred million and we had a trillion people to evacuate would we stop off at earth and say "hi guys we are moving in"????  They may  do or have already done a fly by and said too many inhabitants lets look around have some fun and move on????  Is that at all possible?  Could that possibly explain ufo stuff? Or perhaps the ufo stuff was simply scout ships?  My father was a pilot,  he swore up and down he saw cigar shaped ufo ships up close... he said he got a good look and they whisked away faster than he could have imagined.  If our distant relatives into the future don't blow it all up they will face weather changes and they will face the sun cooling down or perhaps heating up too much.....hopefully they will be able to load up and look for another earth somewhere across the universe to move to....hard to grasp but the time will come for sure.......unless our scientists are totally crazy......way back in Columbus days,  their scientists thought the earth was flat didn't they?....The Vikings already knew a lot better..Doc Beckett says:  "I hope the Bible is right, cause I got a lot of questions."  RT

Day after The Masters:  I had crow for breakfast and lunch today.....probably eat the left overs tonight.  Rarely....almost never ever is the one who knows all,  sees all,  make a mistake of this magnitude.  I am not a big Tiger fan, I have heard too many first hand stories from locker room managers about him stiffing the staff, refusing to sign autographs, while demanding special services, stories about him demanding security and never once thanking or even acknowledging the law enforcement officers that provided such free of charge.  I have heard these stories first hand.  I heard first hand stories about the night his wife whacked him in the mouth with a 7 iron and for good reason apparently.   I should hope none of it is true.....if any of it is....I hope this tiger changes his stripes.  He seems more friendly on TV and more sociable like perhaps the chip on his shoulder is a little smaller.....i hope so for golfs sake.  I still cringe when I think about his early commercials about there are some golf courses he is not allowed to play.  Remember those?  Hell, there are hundreds I am not allowed to play that he CAN play.  I still take exception to that woe is me type hype in his early days.  I hope all that is over.

I have said repeatedly no way in hell Tiger would ever come back after watching him with the chip yips, after watching him spray tee balls all over the lot...quitting in the middle of rounds claiming "injury"......after he gets arrested for DUI.....I said he would never ever be relevant again....I said way down below somewhere that Tiger may win a small tournament somewhere some time but no way in hell he could ever win a BIG tournament not to speak of a major.   Ok....ok.....ok.....he did it....not in grand fashion but in clutch fashion.....it was like old times so to speak, everybody around Tiger folded like cheap lawn chairs.....to his credit I thought on 12 after the other guys dunked it he did what Jack always did.....he hit it for the middle of the green instead of going for the throat and the pin,  if it pulls up short its in the bunk instead of the drink....I thought right then and there "he has a chance"   I  won many a tournament running away when everything was on.....but I also won many a tournament when "I did"t have my A game" and the other guys started making mistakes and I just kept hitting fairways and making middle of the green shots and made pars and watched them fold.....THAT is what Tiger did and I tip my hat to him......he played smart, he hit the shots and he prevailed while the others shot themselves in the foot coming down the stretch.....Thye old Tiger knew how to win and apparently the new one still does.  I was dead wrong.  I heretofore make no more predictions regarding Tiger.  I do think this win is good for golf, very good for golf....we needed something like this real bad.

I do strongly disagree with Trump on this one though.....The Presidential Freedom Award?  common mannnnnnnn.....that is an insult to all those who have gotten one in the past for service above and beyond, ....what has Tiger done outside golf?  and that's all I have to say about that.  A wise man once said nothing.   RT

March 12, 2019 The Fla Sr Azalea is in the books and what a grand three days of weather....perfect all three days with light breezes, high temps around 82 each day.  The golf course was absolutely perfect.  Greens were perfect and rolling 10.5-11 each day.  This allowed us to put pins where the seniors had never seen before.   I used traditional pin sets we have used for decades in the Azalea Amateur being played this Fri-Sun.  You may think the scores were higher than normal and they were......it was the greens.  You could not bang a putt from 30 ft from anywhere on the green.  If you were above the hole it could run away real easy.  Players had to be careful.  The first day the scores were best when we put pins dead center of all 18 greens on Friendly Friday.....then on Sucker Saturday we put pins in corners.....not unfair, you just had to think a little bit or you got bit.....and many players kept hitting at the pin instead of middle of the green and they got bit.  Sunday we just reversed the Sat pins and scores came back down.....everybody learned.  Yardage wise we played the seniors at 5750 yards, the supers at 5200 and the legends and super legends around 4800.  Ask any player, the golf course was perfect and weather was perfect its just that old Donald R built golf courses for greens that r 85 yardsan 7 or 8 not 10-11 same for Tillie today we can get'ed as fast as we want so that is the only defense a course has.  I was amused when I set the pin on the front of the par 3 third hole and placed the tees at the bottom of the hill at 85 yards.....you would think guys would have eaten the hole up.....wrong.....it ate many a good man's wedge shot.  We gave away over 50 dozen balls in the "ball pool" fyi.

Our winners were the favorites of course, the guys who were "close" were very close.  You can see all the scores on the Palatka Golf Course website I ain't got time to post'em all.  I gotta go back to work.  This tournament absorbs the golf shops total attention, the superintendent's total attention ,  my wife's total attention (she's the book keeper) and of course devours me for a month before tee time but that my friends is what it takes to have a great event on a great little course with great players from 18 different states.  Many players came from more than a thousand miles away and some of the played very well.   What I am most proud of is the condition of the course......I have been crashing Dave the super for two years.....this was his third tournament here.....he kept saying give me time......man, have I ever heard that before or what?  Well, guess what......by his third senior the course was spectacular just as he said it would be and he did it without butchering the place at all.....it will be perfect for the Fla Azalea Amateur this week with young bucks from all over the world.  We have had many of today's tour players come, many who play this week will be on TV in years to come.  We have several USGA champions playing this week.

Since some old fart named Ronnie something still holds the all time scoring record for the three days coming up, I will be watching with great interest.  13 under par was shot with a persimmon driver, blades and a rubber band ball on burned out greens from a tough winter but Andy our pro and manager keeps laughing every year saying these kids hit the ball a mile but they don't know how to score.....we shall see.....one of these days some kid will kick one leg up and hit it a mile for three days and be able to wedge it close enough too break that 60 year old record......all records are made to be broken , I read that somewhere some time.  Hope everybody will try to make it to the Mountain Man in Sept we will be playing a sat, sun and monday so ya'll come I guarantee a great time....guaranteed by RT.

Jan 18, 2019  As we get older and really think about it.....golf life is much like the tide I watch from my windows every day here at the beach.  As a young boy playing baseball from the age of 9 I saw the tide coming in....by the time I was ten, I was pitching by eleven I was hitting clean up and by 12 I lead the league with a .526 average.  I graduated to Babe Ruth baseball, all the while dabbling with competitive golf.  At 13 in the "majors" I hit .389 the pitchers were all 14 or  it 15.  My tide was still rising but I found the players I competed with were bigger faster and stronger.  I hit .411 my final year of organized ball, never threw a no hitter and never whacked one out of the park.  That was when I decided to start playing more golf.  Golfin was easy, the tide was still rising.  I was life guard at the club pool and after I was relieved every day at 5 I would go out in my bathing suit, spikes no socks, t shirt and shoot 9 holes under par every single time.  I would gamble with the men and win most all the time.  Tide was definitely rising.  By the time I was 16 I was rockin then a terrible accident took me out for several years. Slack tide.  By the time I recovered completely I was 25.  Oh, I played well through college but I could not beat Andy North.....I played Andy in matches and tournaments he beat me one or two shots every single time.  I can thank him and Gary Koch for me not turning pro like many of my golfin buddies.  My amateur career was fun, the tide started coming again and strong.  I was king of the hill for ten years then another life altering injury skiing.  All of a sudden the tide stopped and started to seep back out.  My game went down hill in 5 year increments, I was never ever able to duplicate scores and shots I hit between 25 and 35.  Your brain tells you how to do it but your body says no.  I had some great moments but they were hard.  I used to look forward to turning 55 and man was I wrong......won the first few tournaments but that tide kept going out.  Barely won at 64 then another health issue and the tide was practically dead low.  Such is life, and golfin I think.  Everybody's high tide is different everybody's dead low is different.  I guess if we knew when...... it would not be any fun.  We can all look back and see that dead high tide now and hopefully smile and shake your head and say it was a good run.  I have lost many friends the past few years, my hunting and fishing buddy (who never touched a golf club) Dr Terry Breakneck was stricken with cancer at age 65.  The last day he hunted,  a couple of us picked him up and put him on a cooler in a dove field with gun in hand, He told me as Doc Beckett and I were leaving..... "If I don't see you again, its been a great run"  I never saw him alive again.  In just a few days he was gone, he knew it was dead low tide.  He accepted it after a really heroic fight to stay in the game.  One of the toughest guys I ever knew and one of the most fun to be around.  Us golfin guys in the senior divisions are watching the tide go out...... for some slowly for some quicker .....  at 69 1/2 I have been playing the legends tees just to see what I can do, especially since threatening par from the whities is out of the question .....I am not looking forward to 70 for my golfin.   I will however remember Sir Winston.....no matter the pain, no matter the grief, no matter the doubles, no matter how long.....I shall never ever give up.  My brain keeps telling me that 72 is possible tomorrow.......all the while we must remember it has indeed been a "good run"  Nowhere on your birth certificate is there a warranty, our games have a shelf life just like we do.  Make sure your good run keeps running as long as you can.  RT

Dec 18, 2018  Most of you north of the line wonder what us crackers do this time of year.....its cold in Florida in December with temps in the 50s and 60s.....a lot of guys calling about the tournaments ask me how I'm playing?  I reply "I ain't"  Many of us don't play much more than you do in the winter unless you go to south Fla for the winter and golf all winter which it appears half our field does.  Speaking of which, interest in the Azalea is creeping across the country it appears.....I have several new players from Oklahoma and Texas and a couple from Texas on the wait list.  So, what do I do in the winter?  FISH.  One of my college buddies who is a great player has all but given up the game since he started shooting 80 regularly so he is now a fishing guide so to speak north of here at Fernandina Beach.  That is north of Jacksonville about 30 miles just south of the Ga line.  Anyway, Mitch told me the other day he was shooting 80 in the boat too.....he said it started on a Sunday when his power pole (thats a hydraulic electric operated pole that goes down into the water and sticks in the sand to hold the boat still instead of using an anchor)....his power pole on his new boat got stuck in the mud and the motor burned up.  He had to go overboard with tools in hand and standing neck deep in 60 degree water he had to disassemble the whole thing to get free.  End of that day trip.  He says a day later he goes out and his satellite controlled electric motor thought it was headed south but was going north then quit......I told him the more gadgets you got the more trouble you get......then the next day to cap it off....he took an old friend fishing....Jimmy lost his balance and fell off the bow platform backwards.....cracked his head big time....ambulance to hospital....brain bleed.....doctors say he will be okay after a few days in ICU......damn, you didn't was so dangerous huh? I told Smith he best go home and get between the mattresses for a few weeks.   Anyway my luck on the water this winter has been better.....if only I could make pars like I catch fish......I'll start golfing in late January when the fish move farther south.....I only hope I can make pars like I catch fish.....yeah yeah...birdies are out of the question these days.  RT

 

This be a nice snook I caught a week ago way more fun than makin bogies

 

 

NOV 8, We are still getting entries and have a sizable wait list.  Some of the guys on the wait list have played with us for many years and I am sorry as I can be.  If you are on that list stay tuned, we always get withdrawals.

The election:  It has taken the "experts" till now to realize what has been going on in Arizona and Texas.  It has already occurred in Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado.  California people fleeing high taxes and crazy government have moved into these states.  People from the northeast fleeing from high taxes and crazy politicians have moved to these states.  BUT one huge problem I have been preaching for years......these people bring their voting habits with them!  20 years ago, Cruz would have won in Texas in a mudslide......Arizona was solid red, now its pink.....Colorado is radical blue, Nevada is dark blue and New Mexico went over the wall a long time ago. AND what is going on in Montana?  They too apparently are on the slide. The same thing has been happening in Florida.  I didn't realize Florida was on the road to crazy political control until a few years ago, I sat like a fly on the wall in the Marsh Creek Country Club bar when a handfull of new members within the last few years got into it with a local guy who was born here.  They were touting a 10% local sales tax increase and school tax increase ...... the local went nuts telling them those crazy commissioners will only piss the money away and its not needed.  He cited the last sales tax increase which was supposed to only be "temporary" so they could pay for a new school.....it became PERMANENT......The new members were not deterred, several of them were retired from the educational field in the northeast.  They could not understand why he was so against the school and sales tax.  He asked them why they left up north and moved down here permanently?  He said,  and don't tell me its the weather......they said sheepishly high taxes on their homes and income taxes.......I came away from that argument saying to myself Florida is in trouble.  And we are.  The governors race was decided by a handfull of votes and the demorat was a self professed socialist wanting freebies for everybody everywhere ...... The senate race is being recounted right now and the demorat......has been there several terms and has always been a rubber stamp for dem leadership in the senate.....(yeah yeah I now how to spell democrat)  I think conservative government in Florida is all but lost, I think Texas is on the brink as is Arizona which is still counting votes between a self professed ultra liberal demorat and a conservative military female vet...that about says it all.  If Jesus came back and ran in Colorado, NM or Nevada he would lose he would have have to pass the collection plate to have a chance in Arizona.  I think I'll just go get on my golf cart.....RT

NOV 5, 2018  The field is full and wait list has begun forming.  Last year 8 guys got in off the wait list, in 2017 only two so we never know but if you live nearby and can get here quick I encourage you to send in your entry for the wait list.  No check, no gettin on the list.

The golf course has been over seeded, we got good rain the next day and are expecting a superb covering since the bermuda has been in exceptional shape this fall.  We have some new old mowers, even a new old collar mower so we will now have 3 cuts around the green.  How bout that!!!???

Politics:  Yes, I had a couple of guys tell me I shouldn't talk politics on the site.....I disagreed politely and there was no argument.  As I have said in the past I have friends , good friends..... who are democrats and all their putts break left.  That said I gotta say "TOLD YA SO!!!"  I watch CNN and all the networks, I do so to see the other side despite the fact it is the dark side. I love politics and have written and broadcasted my opinions since I was in my twenties when I had my own radio station.  Only Fox so far has reported one of the women who wrote to the panel "anonymously" that she was assaulted in the back seat of a car by Justice Kavanaugh when they were in high school..... has admitted she made the whole thing up.  Apparently, the FBI or Justice Dept or somebody in law enforcement figured out who sent it in during the hearings and followed up.  She got spooked  and admitted she lied.  Surprise, surprise.  Not only was she lying they found out she was more than 20 years older than Kavanaugh, she is a political activist and left of left.  Fox identified who she was.  I forget now, but I guarantee you it will not get any print or airplay where you or anybody else can see it unless its Fox News.  TOLD YA SO......Guarantee you some of the other accusers will admit lying if pressured by legal authorities, but you won't hear about it and if does make print it will be buried back in the the D section at the bottom in small print.  RT

NOV 1, 2018  As of today we have 101 paid entries!  The wait list starts at 105.  The past few years we have averaged 10 guys dropping out for various reasons and we filled all vacant spots so we do welcome guys for the wait list.   However, no check no wait list.

Not much going on in the golfin world right now except all the manufacturers are touting "longest irons ever"  "longest driver ever built" and surely to come "longest ball"  I see by the news,  Titleist is releasing a new ball after the first of the year.  I guess they want shops to dump the current balls so they don't get stuck with the old ones.  Does anybody remember .... i want to guess about 12 maybe 15 years ago...Titleist came with a new ball and the previous ball was actually longer?  I distinctly remember being at Atlanta National and the rep was giving away a doz new ones to everybody playing.  I used the new balls on the front side of the practice round and kept coming up short.....i dug out my "old" ones for the back side and was pin high all of a sudden.  I went back to the guy and said here take these 3 sleeves back and gimme the old ones......he quietly said "you're not the first one"  I asked what was going on?  He said he didn't know.  I remember when the "Professional" came out and it was a dud.  The so called new VX1 the past couple of years,  I personally couldn't tell the difference from the previous VX1.  So, what does give?  I talk to guys all the time it doesn't seem to matter what driver they use from 5 years ago to now, everybody pretty much says they all go the same.  I find that to be true for me too.  So what gives?  I think this is the deal from an unbiased perspective.......I think as senior golfers get older every year and lose swing speed every year to some degree, I think all the so called new technology only benefits really fast swing speeds.....as us old guys lose speed some will say without the new stuff you wouldn't hit it as far.  Okay, tell ya what.....go fish out one of your older drivers from the closet.  If shaft is interchangeable put your current shaft in the old head and see if there is a difference.  I have done that, and I find there isn't a steps worth of difference.  I will say some heads hit it straighter or have a bigger sweet spot than others but on solid hits I can't tell the difference.    

As for balls,  I still prefer the sound of a Titleist V1X coming off the face I like the feel of a Callaway softie (the X model) in colder weather, I prefer to putt the Callaway I swear they roll better I don't know why.  I can't tell the difference in how far they go pretty much same same I guess thats because of my "terminal velocity swing speed".  Bottom line is I still reach for the Titleist first but I will quickly switch if the ball is not going in the hole or if its cool, so I carry both in the bag.  Now, if somebody could make a ball that sounds like a Titleist and putts like a softie, flies like a V1X and rolls like a Pinnacle.....BUT....stops on the green like a dropped cat........

So, you ask what makes Ronnie an expert?  He can't break 75 any more!  That is true but I'm still stuck on the SSR tees till August next year.  When I do slip up on the ladies tees I can still score pretty good.....that said I still hit it in the middle of the driver face more often than not,  so I am a good guinea pig.  My buddy Rob Hess still hits the gym every day and still bombs it and still hits it in the middle of the club most of the time too.  I have seen him change drivers several times the past couple of years there is no difference in his length off the tee.  

Ok, so what can we do besides move up a tee when we are stuck in short hitters hell like I am?  Shafts.....it is expensive to diddle around with shafts but I am convinced the key to picking up a few is shaft changes but there is no golden rule,  its hit and miss, hit and borrow, hit and beg.  I will pay a thousand dollars for a shaft that will give me ten yards no problem, thats a hundred a step.  That said,  I'm not sure 85mph can be helped so my one large is safe.  RT 

OCT 20-  We have had overwhelming response to the Fla Sr Azalea.  Today we have 98 entries we will take first 104.  Last year we had a huge wait list but many got in after all.....this isssss senior golfin and sheet happens.   We are spreading winter seeds right now tee to green and roughs.  One thing you may notice looking at past champions and scores, the numbers keep going down.  Is it because of better and better talent?  Partly...... partly guys getting to know the old Rossie and partly because of the better conditioning of the course and real grass everywhere.  Those who played a long time ago and never came back will not recognize the place and one such entrant is Rick Woulfe from Ft Lauderdale.  He bested David Brookreson on the first playoff hole by chipping his second shot from 40 yards out with a 7 iron close enough to make a birdie.  He played a few times afterwards but the year he finished 5th and some fat guy with gray hair at age 64 won, that did it.  Rick never came back.....till now.  He is a hall of famer and will challenge the supers this year.  Welcome back, he be  THE wolfman ya'll understaaand.

In other news we have a couple of real hotshots from Georgia, Oklahoma and New Orleans coming to try out the field in the seniors.....this will be fun to see how the new guys play the old course against the best we got.

We now have over 20 guys in SSR and over 20 in Legends and just over 50 in seniors....perfect balance.  Come play a few times before the tournament it takes course knowledge and bump and run know how to play this course like they did back in the 20s.  

The great Bill Sonnatag from NC is returning....last year he finished out of the money but was leading money winner.  He had an ace, an eagle two and eagle 3.......but he had too many "others" He also had a handfull of deuces..... I think he walked with north of 8 dozen balls and a grin.  I played with him all summer in NC and he was still porting our logo balls.  RT

OCT 18, 2018 I have a few reports from our golfing friends in the Fla panhandle affectionately known as LA.  Those reporting in say they are fine with minor damage and a couple of guys have electricity after a week without.  I have done a 3 wk stretch without electric and believe me there is good reason to own two homes.  I am at Mtn Glen right now and temps were cold today with a high of 60 but it was sunny.  The golf course shuts down in ten days and so will my wife and I.  Entries for the 2019 Fla Sr Azalea are flying in, we are already over half full in hand and a ton "in the mail" so my inbox says.  I expect to be starting a wait list by early November.  The course in Palatka is the best its been in over 40 years and the over seed is coming next week I think.  Andy says we should be great this year so I expect scores to be better than ever.  We may have to pull some of the old pin positions out of the closet if the greens are as good as promised, we shall see.

I only had one guy disagree with my political opinion posted previously but that's fine.  I have lots of friends on the left and we get along fine we just argue once in a while then smile and hit the ball.  No big deal.  The mid terms will be interesting.  Whichever side wins they will be crowing "see?  told ya so"  Whoever loses will say "the voters simply did not understand what what was at stake"  I can hearem all now.  Should be fun.  Whoever wins or loses it won't matter much to us old farts, its the young folks who should really care but most do not.  When I was a young buck I was totally engaged in politics.  The 20 somethings I know couldn't care less.  I can actually see socialism coming within 50 years but you and I won't be around , so I can't say see?  I told ya so.

Personally, I have had some physical setbacks this past summer and my game has gone south.  I am a ten and can't play to it.  I think if I could ever get 3 months without a mishap or new ailment I could shoot some good golfs but I am finding myself not really wanting to play much.  I enjoy the company of the guys left alive I have played with for years but if somebody says its too hot lets quit I say good lets go.  If it sprinkles a bit I am ready for the clubhouse.  Somebody says lets go spend 2000 on an individual tournament next month I say no thanks.  I will continue tournament golf as long as i am able but its gotta be cheap and I ain't playing anymore back breaking golf courses.  I want fun golf courses and I want reasonable prices.  I want to hit short irons again to greens instead of hybrids and three metals.  I have moved up another tee and its more fun and I shall continue moving up till there are no more "up tees"  Hope to see you guys soon.  I ain't quittin I'll keep swingin and hopefully go out with my spikes on.

 I lost one of my best friends of my entire life last week.  He was 85 and the cancer finally got him after 18 years of struggles but he told me many times:  If you quit playing you will die.  He kept playing and shot his age at 69 and every year thereafter right on through his early 80s and finally he just couldn't play any more.  Doc Beckett and I cried upon his passing and several days after.  We both spoke at services.  Douglas MacArthur Miller (yes he was a nephew of sorts) was a great man, a great friend and great athlete.  I guarantee you he played more holes around Palatka Golf than any man ever has or ever will.  He aced all the par 3 holes, he actually made a double eagle on ten right on top of Harvey Reyolds a great player who had just holed a 3 wood for double eagle.  How many times you reckon that ever happened?   I am quite sure he is playing today, the guys were waiting for him guaranteed.   A few days before he passed I told him save me a spot, he told me "I'll be waiting for ya" and I am sure he will be. RT

OCT 4, 2018  I CAN'T STAND IT, gotta write a political opinion here......I am quite sure somebody will not like it and say they will never play in our tournament again.....happens every time.....ok thats fine......it has been a blast watching the Supreme Court hearings and then watching all the so called pundits.....who get paid mind you for their feeble opinions......the pundits have offered tons of opinions on all the networks and channels......yes, I watch more than Fox News mainly for fun and entertainment.  My initial take on the judge was simple.....high school horsing around?  College drinking?  Common mannnn, there is not a man on that committee or in the senate who did not do the same or more.  Post office, spin the bottle, strip poker.....you name it.  Almost every young buck could be hauled in for "rubbing up against girls" in grade school and/or high school at dances.  If Kavanaugh was a sexual predator as the dems have hollered about.......if he was......he would have done it again and again.  That's what they do. He would still be doing it simple as that.  If he was a habitual drinker and drunk as portrayed......he still would be.  I went to college so did many of you and that was in the 60s and 70s.  Some of my best buddies drank a lot in school.....I was usually the driver, I had a car I stayed sober somebody had to get us back to the dorm  in one piece.  This guy was in college in the 80s......Beer is what we are squawking about?  no dope?  No rapes?  No burglaries?  No DUI?  Ever?  No molestation charges every filed.....the frat house did not have to cover for him??????  I asked my wife after all the testimony who was lying.  She always knows ......  I have never ever fooled her except once into marrying me.....anyway, she immediately said "that woman is lying through her teeth"......its all a put on"   I was somewhat surprised but kept quiet and said I think so too.  My reasoning was that if he had done that he would have continued to do so and worse later in life and it would have been found out by the FBI a long time ago.  So, I asked my 96 year old mother the next day same question....she watched it all........she said without hesitation "that woman is lying no doubt about it"  Women know these things.  Another question to Ford:  what made him stop?  who stopped him?  Most rapists I have ever read about finished the job......if this happened, what, who made him quit?  Surely she remembers that hmmmmm?

Next, my wife said you just watch some of these republicans who hate Trump.....they will hesitate just cause they can't stand Trump.....then the Flake thing....he would say yes then no then maybe.....No wonder that guy could not get re elected and he knew it,  he is a fence sitter.....he got totally duped but the crowd in the elevator who we now find out were hired protesters which makes them professionals.....it was orchestrated beautifully.  I think once again, the far left has wasted their money like they did on Hillary, who by the way is still running......I love it, she is fun to watch knowing she is accused to have dipped  millions from her so called foundation.....if it was not crooked from the get go, why did she and Bill shut it down right after the election?  Why wasn't money continuing to pour in like it did in 2015 and 16?  The Clintons were doing great things for humanity right?  They shut it down and covered the tracks quick as they could after the election cause somebody might decide to look into it instead of away like the obama crowd did.  

Anyway, I seriously wonder today the 4th of October,  if the old  silver fox of the senate will have pulled off another coupe like the Gorsuch deal.  Or, will the dems wheel out a 20 year old tomorrow saying she was molested by Kavanaugh as a secretary?  We my friends shall see but it has been a lot of fun.  I wish Kavanaugh would sue hell out of Ford.  I wished he would ,  but I do not think he will...... too many people say he is a good man.....perhaps too good, we shall see.  If he looses the vote I hope and maybe he will sue Ford.  Good man or not.  

byline:  I have a few questions for Ford and for you too.....if this was such a traumatic experience for her why doesn't she remember where she was?  Or how she got there or how she got away?   Do you remember the first time you met your wife?  What year?  Where?    Do you remember where you were when Kennedy got shot?  Do you remember where you were and what you were doing 9/11 when you heard the news?  Do you remember the first older kid who beat you up and where it was?  Do you remember when you later kicked his ass after you grew up?  I do...... all of these......you do not forget traumatic things that happen to you.......or important things that happen to you......Also, where does this woman work?  What is her political view?  She calls herself Doctor but I never saw a stethoscope around her neck.....real doctors have a medical degree.....she is a psychologist, NOT an MD.....AND .....according to what I heard , she has a therapist!  If that's true that's enough.....next case your honor the witness is excused and the jury will disregard her testimony.  I think I'll just go crawl in my golf cart.  RT

OCT 2, 2018   WELLLL, our guys got drilled in the Ryder Cup.....again.  I didn't watch a lot of it but what I did watch as okay but we just faded in the stretch time after time.  I think our guys are just not as enthusiastic as their guys and fans and I'm ok with that, neither am I.  We all know match play is welllll.....match play.  I have won my share of match play events including a state championship.....but I was able to get away with playing just "fair" for a match, then getting hot for a couple of matches and then just playing middle of the green golf in the finals....medal play, is different and we all know that it just depends on your preference but match play on TV is refreshing once in awhile.  These days I have no desire to play match play....if you have a bad day or our opponent goes out of his mind you go home.  I want to play.....the whole deal.....not go home after a match or two.  I will never forget in the late 80s I was exempt to the Fla State mid am.....I had a 5 year exemption so I played a couple more times after 85.  It was in Jacksonville at the CC of Jax....36 hole qualifier to see who gets into match play top sixteen guys right?  Okay,  I make it easily....I could play back then.....I breeze the first match no problem then I run into a chap from Orlando I did not know.....he played out of his mind making bombs of 40,50,60 ft.  I was 3 down with 3 to go and I hit a 5 iron for a gimme on 16.  17 was playing long, a four iron into the wind....par 3.  I hit first and nailed it or another gimme.  My opponent yanked his about 50 ft left.....yup, he canned it....game over.  I was 3 under for the day and got killed.  To add insult to injury his afternoon match I was told he didn't break 80 and got drilled 6 & 5.  I'm still pissed off and it was over 30 years ago.....I really do laugh about it if I ever think about it now no big deal.  RT

 

Sept 23, 2018  Ok ok so I was wrong for the first time in 69 years.......Tiger did win a tournament of quality.  I have never been a Tiger fan but actually found myself pulling for him to win coming down the stretch.  I felt he hit the best shots, hit the best putts and played a smart round of golf.  He hit to the middle of the green and said come catch me if you can.  They not only couldn't catch him he couldn't even catch himself on the East Lake course with roughs finally like we as old folks have to play out of all the time.  Those guys weren't a lot better than we are out of that stuff.  Even my 96 year old mother called me to see if I was watching.  Tiger's comeback may help fuel a comeback for golfin for awhile, we shall see, I hope so.  I also must admit I have heard so many stories from locker room attendants where majors were played that Tiger was actually not a nice guy to them at all.....he was notorious for stiffing the guys in the locker room while Phil peeled off a wad of hundreds when he left.  Perhaps a tiger can change his stripes, I hope so.  Golf needs for Tiger to change his stripes and actually become a nice guy   in the locker room, on camera and in life in general.  Americans and golf players love a come back and I actually hope he is back.  Jordan has been a breath of fresh air the past couple of years but a lot of wind has come out of his sails we need some pizazz in the game right now.  RT 

Aug 13, 2018  The PGA is in the books and what a turn around from the Open and U.S. Open which were both boring.  The PGA looked like a major and was fun to watch.  As many you know I am no Tiger fan but I did find myself rooting for him to do good which he did in great fashion.  I have regularly predicted he would never win another major and he almost made me look stupid but Koepka made me look like Merlin.  10-15 years ago the field would have wilted and choked with Tiger making a final day run.....today these new guys hit it farther, putt it better and iron it better.....and they do not choke....they make bogies but I did not see choke strokes out there....most stray shots looked like guys were pushing the envelope off the tee trying to get a short shot in....Koepka has shown before he will not slow down it is pedal to the metal every day.

Did you guys note all the lip outs?  Why????  easy answer, the greens were slower than most majors they had to hit it firm to get it to the hole and that produces lip outs, next case your honor.  I played Belrive back in 85 I think it was in the USGA Mid Amateur, the last walking tournament I played in.  I was in my prime at a late 35 and I could hit it.  The 600 yard par 5 back then was a monster.  It was tight , the roughs were tall like yesterday.  I played afternoon and morning.....it started raining at noon the first day and quit at noon the next day.  36 in the rain, but nobody said golf was fair did they?  Only 10% of the qualifiers had my times all the rest played in the sunshine.  Anyway, I could hit it back then and that 600 yarder was a beast.  I hit three one irons both days in the rain to get on the green and two putt for pars.  I will always remember that.  Today guys in their 20s bomb drivers dead straight, lay up with mid irons and wedge it on the green.  It did not play hard ..... that boys is everything in a nutshell about golfin then and now.  The greens I putted on in 85 were much faster even in the rain.....but Jay Seigel had no problems he played right infront of me both days and I watched him sink one after another.  I think he shot 142 and made the cut I was 5 back and missed by 1 i think.  It was Jim Holtgreives home course and he won......he was good.

Tigers perfomance made the PGA great theatre and I am glad for that.....Koepka may well be the best man standing right now.....maybe.  Only time knows but I did enjoy watching all four days and watching those guys whine about lip outs like we do.  You don't get those on faster greens so that aspect made it fun to watch ...........for a change.  RT

July 6, 2018  I am in the mountains right now, it was too cold today to play, 62 was the high.......ok ok, so a little rain didn'tm help either....tomorrow it is forcast to be 70 a tee time around one and clear so if I get a note from the boss I'll be there.  Meanwhile I had nothing much to do but watch the tournament at the Grenbriar not far from here in WV.  In a word....boring.....and I asked myself why?  It is a nice setting a handfull of good players were there.....can't put my finger on it but it was flat out boring....the coverage?  I dunno......the leaders?  Maybe, they are all golf school robots.  I want to see some personality, I wanna see a guy beatin and frammin the ground, swearing once in awhile, slamming clubs around.....smiling, laughing when they sink a gasser.....nuthin like that....boring.....The Charlotte Observer said today that NASCAR is declining in popularity and they lack "stars"  the old guys are fading away and the new guys are ..... uhhhhh.....robots so to speak.  No Dales bumpin and bangin, no Richards blowing away the field....I could help NASCAR REAL QUICK.....quit restrictor plates, go back to racing real stock cars and lets see who can buiild the fastest ones and who can drive those fastest ones.  I loved Smokey the way he built up Chevelles using all kinds of crazy gadgets nobody ever thought of and they had to change the rules every year because of him....it was fun.  The golf majors are still interesting I really enjoyed the TPC but not so much the Open.....it was boring toooooo, the USGA made the course so ridiculous.....kind of like NASCAR....nobody could do much of anything worth watching.....ain't no fun watching guys putting for par all day.  I'd rather watch paint dry.

Hopefully the PGA will be good, only time knows....only time and time isn't that far from the PGA and the real OPEN.....don't get me wrong I have little use for the R & A either......back when I cared about the USGA Sr I made match play, won a match and was eligible for the British Sr for two years....the first year, it was in Wales.....yuck....the next year it was Scotland.  I called R & A and asked how to get my entry in.....the guy said, "we changed that rule"  I asked you made it retroactive?  He said yes.  I said okayyyy I'll come over and quality....he said I could not do so......I blew up and called him and the R & A chickenspit....he was not amused and I didn't care.....I told him I guess that's because you have zero Euro senior amateurs who can play a lick and you are tired of guys like me coming over and beating their brains out......he gruffed something and I told him again....I had recently played the US Sr that year with a former British Sr champ in my pairing and beat him like a rented mule.  Oh well, think I'll play with the mob at one tomorrow and throw my twenty at risk.....70 n fair will be a nice day at Mountain Glen.  RT

 

Wow, the longest day already.....speaking of which one of my brothers doing a little research on our father who was part of the 8th Air Force, found out he was in the air on the longest day providing support for ground troops he say according to British records he made numerous runs that day and every day thereafter over the next few weeks.....hard for me to grasp him as a 23 year old doing that.  Me being the oldest I knew some of it but he wouldn't talk much about it....very little.

Anyway, my two friends left asked me recently what I thought about the U.S. Open.  My response was normal the same as always these days.......committee screwed up the golf course made the tournament boring, and bombers dominated.  Koepka is no nobody.....he is obviously a gym rat.  No slouch off the tee, he was step for step off the tee with Johnson.....but then wait a minute, this guy named ....uhhhh....named.....aw hell nobody remembers who fiished third.....anyway he is a Brit and masquerades as an American moonshiner......he hits it pretty big too despite the fact he is skinny compared to most gym rats.....I think he has the speed cause he is wirey......tough as an old boot guarantee you.  The tournament never got interesting to me till the last hole when Koepka yanked his second into the grand stands and was left with a tough chip.  The announcers were fretting whether he should putt or what to get a five......looked to me the ball was sitting up on perfect astro turf....an easy chip for a good player even if it was foor a major.....ended up it was easy.....if he was gonna choke he woulda done it a long time ago you don't hold a lead all day to blow it on that shot ..... ain't gonna happen.  USGA in their usual fashion tricked the course up so bad that only the high ball bombers had a chance......no fun to watch.....Michelson provided some much needed displeasure I think we all laughed at that one.....yes I have done that too and yes I made 8 or 9 whatever it was, usually just picked it up and marched.

I was absolutely amused how many short putts the pros missed, I keep saying if hey had to putt on the crap we have to in senior tournaments they wouldn't make 95% inside ten feet......when they get six footers breaking 8 inches they missem too.  On tour in the average tournament they never have go play it out of the hole inside ten feet.....never ever.

Interesting to see NFL, NBA and Movie interest is waning.....even in a booming economy.....I wonder whyyyyyy?

So, how is Ronnie doing?  As I approach 70 my game approaches 80.  Modern medicine keeps me barely going but I don't think there is any medicine for the game.  The great Taylor Adams came to visit yesterday in the high country, he played great recording a 76 first look at Mountain Glen.  We were both under par thru 8 holes but I ended up with 84 and he went 5 over the last ten.  Mountain Glen is easy and fun the first six holes then the game begins.....just the way I would design one....a pushover the first 6 holes, middle six a little tough and the last six down right hard.  As it should be.  This way you can run to the first tee with a sandwich in one hand a cold drink in the other,  swat it dead cold and be okay till you get warmed up aroud number 7.

Here's one for you.....I have dozens of  balls piled up on my staircase in the garage.....I have balls from 2016-2018.....three years worth yet every ad I see for Titleist says the "NEW" pro V1 and proV 1X....longer and straigher than ever.....common mannnnnn who are they kidding.....can't tell the difference can you?  At least the cost is the same.  I do see more long hitters hitting Callaway balls, Taylor was using Callaway black balls yesterday but when you can fly it 280 I suppose you could use a U.S, Tiger......remember those when you were a kid?  Couldn't cut one with a hatchet.....they cost 25 cents and weren't worth it either  RT

May 30, 2018  Jeepers has it been three weeks?  Man, there has been a lot of water go under the bridge the past couple of weeks.....and its still coming.....and coming......Alberto?   In May?  The good news forecasts for the Lupton in Ooltewah was rain rain but they were wrong as usual....dry as a bone not a drop.  Chanticleer in Greenville is going to be sloggy this week,  I am afraid,  but Ronie won't be there.....at 69 I just can't compete in SSR on a long course any more hopefully I'll see 70 and mayyyyybe I can win a dozen or so late next summer.   Anyway, as some of you may know I hate tournaments who have a cut....for many many reasons but Lupton Cup has a cut and I wouldn't miss it even if I miss it.  Missed last year for the first time in 12 yrs and missed again last week but I will go back I am sure.  Honors Course is one of the great venues in America.  So good that many of my friends missed the cut and didn't mind, some withdrew with various ailments but all were happy to go home after a few great days in a great place.  I had to laugh at my good friend Fred who played with the SSR winner Bill Leonard.  Fred hits it 50 by me sometimes at least 10 every day.  His miss goes past my whack.  We always talk on the phone driving home and he was just carrying on about Leonard hit it 50 by Fred!  That's a hundred past meeeee.  How you gonna compete with that?  You can't but hey Bill uses what he's got and I would too. There was a time in another life in a galaxy far far away that I was he last to hit the second shot and I won most of the time unless I played lousy and sometimes I won anyway cause my 9 iron got closer than everybody else's 6 or 7 iron.....the same applies today.  I see the USGA is asking for comments regarding the ball......fat chance I'm gonna answer that one.  They listened to no one about tall putters....the fix was in on that one and I suspect the fix is in now.  What they do is anybodys guess.  I have the solution.....tighten fairways as you go out from the tee.....30 yards at 200, 25 yards at 250, 20 at 300 tapering down to 15 yards from there to the green.  Then grow the roughs taller as you go out.....knee high hay would be at 250 if I were king.  That my friends would level the playing field and the best players today wouldn't spend as much time in the gym and drug store and more time on the range like olden days.  So much for all that.

If tightening courses, I Personally  would soften the ball and make a "big hit" in the 250 -275 range.  This would save a lot of golf courses.  Why is it baseball still uses wood bats and stringed balls with horse hyde?  Use oversized  golf balls and aluminum bats and center field would have to be 900 feet, you would need 20 guys on the field to defend, the diamond would have to be doubled in size or the infielders and pitcher would get killed!  Tennis uses rackets big as garbage can lids now but at least the ball is same same I think.  Never was a tennis fan but to each his own. I find rarely is a golfer a tennis fan and vice versa.  Hey, how much money could Rose make if he had a personality?  5 times what he makes now and thats a lot.  Betcha Rickie makes five times what Rose makes and Rose makes way more on the course than Rickie.  Ahhhhhh, I'll just wait till this rain quits and start all over again.  This is a forced layoff.....my back actually feels pretty good my knee is okay for now and my ankle feels great.  I get a big kick outa guys who gripe about aches and pains.....if you were an all around athlete growing up you have football injuries, baseball injuries......I was a pitcher and short stop and I couldn't throw any kind of ball overhand today more than ten feet.  I loved to ski and tore up my shoulders and knees but man I had fun.....if you are going to play learn to play hurt you guys who never played hurt before......its part of old mans golfin and aint nuttin gonna change.  See you soon I hope.  RT

May 7, 2018  The Wells Fargo tournament in Charlotte is history and everybody who is anybody is just up the road at TPC.  I turned TV on Sunday just in time to see Jason Day blast what I am told was a 7 iron 230 yards and clank the pin for a gimme birdie and guaranteed win.  That got me to thinking......If they ever showed the Shell Wonderful World of Golf anymore, you would see Sam or Jack or anybody else who was a "big hitter" hitting a 7 iron 140 yards!  Wished they would show those old shows more often but I guess newbies and kids would not appreciate them, I do.....guess it shows my age.  Anyway fast forward to 20 years ago.  Brendt Everson from Palatka (a PGA tour caddy) was carrying for Micheal Bradley before he hooked up with Justin Leonard.  Brendt was home one week and I asked him how far did Bradley hit the ball?  He said long.  I said okay how far does he hit a 7 iron?  Brendt said, "170 but we can step on it and get 175 out of the seven".......I was impressed.  At that time I hit a good 7 about 160 on my best day....a couple of times I remember stepping on a 7 coming down the stretch with the lead and hitting it 165.    Blade Mcgregor, s300 shaft, rubber band Titleist, v grooves.  By the way,  Bradley played the Azalea in Palatka as an amateur and didn't even sniff.  Anyway, is the game getting crazy or what?  7 iron 230?????  It ain't all ball but it helps....it ain't all shaft but it helps.  Hells bells, these guys are super strong and gym rats!  I understand all that but this is insanity.  When did they turn into gym rats?  I think it all started with Gary Player but nobody picked up on it much....my roomy in college made the tour and I went to the TPC to watch him play one year about his third year on tour in the early 80s I think it was,  and I went to his dad's condo way before tee time and Pat was gone.....car there, but gone....about that time he comes puffing up the street holding a couple of small dumbells.  I was aghast!  Patrick, you never lifted a weight in school, you never ran anywere except out of a bar room when a pool game went bad.....that is another story......what the hell are you doing?  He said as he cooled down, "everybody works out and runs out here,  if you don't you will lose yardage, its all about steel drivers and hard balls and working out these days on tour"  He showered changed and hit balls an hour then shot 69 opening round which led the field for the day.  He was all over TV for a night but it waned quickly when Jack got it going.

My friends, Jack Lalane (spelling?)  I ain't , and never was and never will be.  Think I will be content to hit my 7 iron 140 these days, next year it may go 130 but I ain't running anywhere unless something dreadful is chasing me.  RT

Cinco de Mayo-  Why does Ronnie not get along with tournament officials especially state and USGA guys?  Let me preface this commentry with the fact that i was once on a state association advisory board and I saw first hand how the rules guys got their cookies boasting of how they penalized this guy and that guy for this and that.  Made me sick.  The "tin badge" gang as i call them were not there to help players they were there to hand out penalties!  No, not all of them but enough that it got my goat pretty good.  I did not return to the board but I had seen enough.  Now for a bit of my blemished history.  Lets go back to the 70s and the Florida State Club Team Championship.  Palatka won that championship several times back then and the bigger clubs around the state were not happy about a bunch of north Fla crackers beating their brains out.  We were at Port St Lucie and we had the lead after the first round, I was at the score board and it was clear it was going to be tough, it was cloooose.  Billy Tuten was next to last to finish and Fergie was in the last group.  Toot hung around 18 green to watch Ferg hit up and finish......all Ferg had to do was make par.  He did,  we won by two. ....we thought.  We all went to the score board and the director of the assn gave Tuten a 2 stroke penalty for a "late score card" it just so happened we won by two but now we were even.  Did this have any odor to it?  We lost the playoff.  In the mid 80s I was leading the State Amateur and was penalized for a wrongful drop....then later disqualified for the wrong score posted.  I appealed to USGA and PJ  Boatright answered the phone.  I told him what happened and he said I was  perfectly correct.....he then talked to the rules officials at the tournament in Orlando and asked for their story.....he told them they made a bad call and to put me back in the tournament.  The rules chairman was obviously embarrassed.  The final round, I was shadowed all day by that official hoping to bust me for something.  I shot 78.  Not happy.  Now lets go to the State Amateur at Bay Hill in the early 90s I think it was because that was when my game began to falter from a contender to cannon fodder.  I was in a twosome after one guy quit, we were nowhere near the hunt.......we had two guys, two carts.....I was on the green so I drove to the green and waited while the other guy played his third shot up.  He hit onto the green and out of nowhere some "daddy" following his kid came sprinting across from another fairway hollering did I see that?  I said see what?  He said your playing partner took a drop over there in the rough.  I said so what?  Daddy said,  he didn't call anybody over to look at it.  I said mister, I don't know who you are but I advise you go back over there to the kiddie group and keep our nose out of it.  If the man took a drop I assume he had a drop coming and its none of your damned business.....by this time I was yelling at him....I was pissed.  The player in question said he had one foot on the cart path and took the drop....I said fine and once again told daddy to haul ass.  He sprinted to the club house and here comes the Director Cal , who was a good friend, and Cal's first words were "what have you done NOW?"  Cal knew I got confrontational when people made unwarranted accusations.  I told Cal what happened and he said.....oh man.....can't you stay out of trouble?  Cal, I was minding my own business trying to figure out how to enjoy shooting 76 on a wonderful golf course,  that jack ass over there started it.  Tell you what I'll just go home and Sammy over there can finish by himself that might be the  best thing to do cause I might slug that daddy if he comes over here again.   Cal calmed me down and asked me to finish.  I did and shot my 76.  Now lets go the USGA Sr in California a few years ago....we are at Bel Aire CC and I was in the late tee time for the first qualifying round.....it was getting late.....virtually too dark to see the break on a green when an official comes roaring up cracking the whip, " you guys gotta get going!".....we all said "we can't see"  He said keep playing we gotta get this round in today.  I told the guys quietly let's slow walk this thing.  The big boss on the radio is up at the clubhouse on top of the mountain where it is still day light we are down here in this hole. We all made bogey on the next hole when they finally blew the horn.  I was not happy but the next day I was over it and finished well,  then had low round the second day to finish in the top ten and make match play,  but I'll never forget being harrassed to play faster when it was dark-thirty.  State senior a few years ago.....at Old Corkscrew....I am in contention, its the second round with pre determined pairings......we have waited every single shot the first 8 holes and a guy with us not in contention lost is ball on 9.  Had to go back to the tee.  An official on the 9th green said all three of you guys get two for slow play you are an entire hole out of position.  I went ballistic.  I yelled at the director....yelled at the official.....they finally dropped the penalty when we finished but the damage was done.  I lost the tournament the next day by two.  Stupid.  I have more stories but here's one from this year recently.   I'm NOT in contention of course these days.....second round I'm in the second group off.....just after sunrise.....nobody around.  After 6 holes I am only 1 over hitting the ball really good today for a change and my riding partner is even (hard golf course).  The other guy is a very nice fellow and a club member but is having  a hard time.  He has made a fist full of doubles already maybe a triple I lost count.  We are a hole behind.  I never get bothered by guys playing poorly....I have my share of bad days myself so I'm trolling along just fine the guys behind us are not waiting.  My riding partner is happy he just got it up an down the last 3 holes in a row.  Out of nowhere a tin badge shows up and says you guys gotta pick it up and play faster......just like that I went from 98.6 to 110 in the shade.  The tin badge had not seen us play a single shot.  He just assumed and wanted to show his authority.  I barked back and told him to talk to the other guy over there in the woods.  I dubbed my next shot, my riding partner skunked his iron right of the right bunker then I hit another lousy shot and that was it.  I looked at my phone, we had covered 6 holes in less than an hour and he's on our ass for slow play and we got a guy 10 over.  Rather than show my ass as usual, I simply drove to the clubhouse and packed it in.  In my old age I'm not going to start a fight with a volunteer official, and embarrass a nice guy club member over dumb doings.  I'll just pack my bag and go silently to the beach, I am learning......it took 40 years,  but I am learning.  I never made a friend by hitting back......just ask Trump.  RT

April 25, 2018  I played a Miller Lite sponsored event in Dothan , Alabama last weekend and had a great time on a very good Robert Trent Jones course in Dothan.  The final round I had my usual 8 on the first hole but didn't get too pissed off about it, we teed off at daylight trying to beat approaching storms.  My buddy Fred started with a 7.  We hate early tee times.  Anyway, I was playing with a great guy named Doc......he has the same last name as a famous dentist from the old west days.  Doc is a very good player, he birdied the first hole while the rest of us hacked it up real good.  Short of the long is Doc shot 72 Sunday and was fit to be tied.....he was steaming mad.....me?  I shot 86 and tickled pink walking off the last hole.  Fred was happy too with 80.  So, what gives?  The same old story I have always said.....how you play the last couple of holes is how you feel about your round.  Doc was 3 under and poised for the low round of the day no question, this is a hard golf course.  He missed the pin on our last hole by 12 feet, the ball shot dead right into a muddy hazard 10 yards right of the green.....he whacked it out and over the green into a bunk at least 12 feet deep.  With mud all over his shoes and shirt he hit a great shot out of the bunk but it is like a ski hill......Back over the green back down into the mud again.  We were quite sure he would dive head first into the mud before this was over if it ever ended.....he ended up making a pretty good triple and a 72.....pissed off as wet cat.  Me?  I made my only birdie of the day and it was good for a skin.....Fred birdied the hole before.  Fred and I are happy and laughed all the way home while Doc stewed all the way home I am sure.  How many times have you finished poorly and saw the finish as a total waste of a good round?  I have many times.  One thing is a constant in this game.....play a good last hole or two and you are ready to go right back out tomorrow.....hack up the last hole and you want to go to the office and burn your bag in the dumpster out back.  RT

March 12, 2018    The 2018 event is in the books.  The Lord has smiled upon us once again with absolutely perfect weather with clear skies every day, temps in the low 70s every day.  Light winds.  In 2019 there will be no time change the legislature in Fla has adopted a permanent clock for savings time from now on....that is good.  This year there is a lot to talk about, but lets just look at some facts.  Don Marsh won the legends division, no surprise the Atlanta area bomber still bombs it and he is the first Legend to finish under par for the tournament in our history at 209 one under.  The great Joe Pavoni was talk of the tournament shooting a superb 67-70-73 for even par good enough to win every year except this one.  In the SSR Pete McDade shot 2 over 212 which is the average winning score every year except John Darr's four under performance several years ago.   Denny Taylor from Oregon shot 213 a fine performance.  In the SR the great David Anthony from Jacksonville Fl came from behind with 64 the final round to run down Marcus Beck from LA near Tallahhassee.  Marcus started with a 3 shot lead the final day only to watch Anthony shoot a final day flawless 64.  Becks final 68 was a shot shy.  They both  finished birdie, par, birdie...what a show.  Defender Doug Hanzel shot a final 66 but his opening 71 blemished his chances of the fourpeat.  Pat ODonnell renowned state champion from Oregon also finished under par at 208.....the top four were under par, quite remarkable,  A testament to the golf course condition.  It was unanimous the greens and fairways were perfect....fast and smoothe.  I expect to see some really low scores this week in the Florida Azalea where the best amateurs in the world will be competing starting Friday.  Of note, we have two tour caddies playing this week, they begged off to come play, hopefully we will get that started as a must play but I don't think Bay Hill will allow that for the most part but you never know.

You can see all the scores at the Palatka Golf Club website just google the club.  Of particular note we had another hole in one, Bill Sontag in the legends division from Banner Elk, NC aced the 14th the first day and won four dozen balls and a skin on Friendly Friday.  Sucker Saturday we stashed a few pins here and there.....all fair mind you,   just not dead center like they were on Friday. Average score went up five shots!   Sunday we putem back friendly again and the scores were low again.  We have no desire to make the course hard....that is no fun.....but we did give guys a taste of hard the second round and the scores reflected such just look at the second round scoring in all three divisions....it is very interesting.  Hope to see everybody back same time same station next year....may we all be able to return.  RT  

Feb 23, 2018  February heat wave continues...temps have been in the 80s every day the past couple of weeks.  Our permanent grass is starting to grow and the overseed is having a hard time.  That said , the course is still in great shape and hopefully conditions will hold.  Our biggest challenge will be green speed.  We have lowered the mowers to "tournament height" from last year but when we cut at 6am with the warm weather,  greens are downright slow by 2pm.  Our plan is cut greens at 11am tournament days and lower mowers a whisker more and even roll'em  at least one day.  Don't want to see greens too hard they are small and hard enough to hold as it is.  We have so much grass around the approaches even a chunky 7 iron will not bounce up.  The Moot Thomas Memorial is next weekend and we look forward to playing in "The Moot"  I learned something else about Moot yesterday playing with one of his friends in Ocala for a warm up.....he is/was/still is  the second oldest man to ever qualify for match play in any U.S.G.A. event.  Moot was a great player, a great man and a great friend to many for many years.   Moot silently helped a lot of young people coming up who needed help and he did so silently.   He fell victim to what I am told was a freak happening.  In a nutshell, here's my last conversation with Moot.  I had just qualified for the U.S. Senior in Fernandina Beach and Moot came up smiling at the scoreboard and congratulated me and said insistently "now when you head north to the tournament I want you to stop in Linville and play a day or two and stay at my house"  I said I surely would.  A few days later I am told Moot was cleaning up yard trash and a stick he picked up poked a small hole in his arm.  No  big deal I get cut up and scratched up every time I work in the yard don't you? Staph infection killed Moot a couple of days later.   This story is just as crazy tragic as the death of Ted Smith two years ago, one of our former SSR champions.  Ted was killed by a falling limb in his back yard.  He also was a great player, great man, great friend who silently helped I am told dozens of kids go to college in his area.

Another Moot footnote:  He played regularly at Moutain Glen G.C. where I now play in the summer and where the Mountain Man will be played this September.  I made it there but it took me ten years Moot, I wished I had been able to play with you there......then again, maybe I have.  RT 

Feb 12, 2018...wow we have gone from freezing cold in January to hotter than hot now....it was 84 yesterday....a very nice change.  Can't imagine what it will be in May maybe?  I dunno I'll be gone to the hills.  How about Ted Potter Jr!!!!  We can add that name now to a list of greats who have played Palatka many times.  Ted has won our big scratch pro am played in December several times.  He lives in Ocala home of the Moot Thomas Sr which is played the the week before us.  Ted won low pro several years in a row, he even played after winning a PGA tour event a few years ago.....he got hurt really bad, laid out a couple of years.....came back and standing on the tee with DJ yesterday NOBODY gave him the chance of the last donut at the cop shop.  Palatka is proud for Ted......man has this weather been tough on the course....freezing in January now roasting in February.....yesterday I noticed some hot spots in the greens....we were supposed to get rain but it didn't happen so far.  I swear in my next life I am going to be a weather man.  The only profession that gives you a 50% chance of being right.  Summers all you have to do is come on TV and say good evening it was 90 for a high today, tomorrow's forecast right after this.  Commercials.  Okay lets take a look at tomorrows forecast.  Low tonight will be 72, the high tomorrow will be in the low 90s with a 50%  chance of a thunderstorm.  Winds will be light and variable.  The sun comes up at 6:25 and will set at 8:24.   I'll be back at 11 tonight with the latest weather.  I'm Ronnie Tumlin and I'll break in with weather bulletins if any severe weather sneaks up on us.  

Feb 3, 2018.....weather has been a little bit better lately, yesterday it was 70 and perfect but supposed to rain tomorrow then warm up again next week.   The course took a beating with hard freezes several days in January but it is starting to bounce back with rain and warmer temps.   Several guys have come in to play who are in the tournament and they all said it is in great shape especially the greens.  We have had a few unfortunate withdrawals so a few guys on the wait list have gotten in.  I suspect we will have more withdrawals.  Most have been health and injury related.  Best of luck to Jim Kamis who fell on ice at his house last week breaking his ankle in three places.....outch!  All our best Jim hope to see you next year.  Several guys are telling me they are iffy with shoulder problems but they hope to get better.  I once wrote young guys talk about women, middle aged guys talk about business and the old guys talk about their operations.  The older I get the more that is gospel my friends.  The Moot Thomas senior in nearby Ocala is still not filled yet.  They play the weekend before we play in March.  Call Ocala Golf Club and get in.  I am playing.  Above you will find the Mountain Man entry form for a fourball I have been working on for a year with the local pro at my summer home in the mountains of NC.  I hope you will come I guarantee a good time and fun golfin.  RT

Jan 18, 2018.....brrrr damnit....this is ridiculous....the annual Golfweek January tournament honoring the year's champion points leaders is now in the books and it was right in my backyard at Conseratory in Palm Coast about 15 minutes south....they called off the last round for COLD IF YOU CAN BELIELVE IT!!!!!.This year's recipeint of the Yancey Ford award was Urquit Morris the tournament director of the Azalea Senior in Charleston.  His tournament is why we call ours the Florida Senior Azalea.  Urquit has some health problems and we wish him all the best he deserves our best.

The Conservatory is a hard golf course.....no, I take that back it is an unfair golf course.....no I take that back, it is ridiculous.....UNLESS you hit very long tee shots and straight at that.  Tom Watson built this course, its rumored it was the first course he built sober....I think he should have waited to quit till after he built it.  I was a member there for a while so I can curse it all I want.  The winners in each division are all bombers in their own right.....despite the fact the course set up was very good and not too long,  they prevailed.....and "they" were the usual suspects.  Dr Doug Hanzel, Dr Rob Hess and General Bill Engel......all three winners by the way are entered in the 2018 Florida Sr Azalea.

So I ask my self.....why isn't this a great course?  What makes a great golf course?  In a word:  HISTORY   plain and simple.....I do not think the National is a "great" layout....it is good, the conditioning the best there is.....the greens tougher than tough.....but overall is it a great layout?  No, what makes it great is the history of the Masters.  Winged Foot.....I have played it many many times....is it a great layout?  No, but the history of the course and the history of the majors there makes it great , simple as that.....HISTORY......Oak Hill in Rochester.....okay, I have played it at least 50 times maybe more.....I give the layout a "great" .....it gets the nod......BUT.....the history of the golf course makes it super great....Opens, PGAs, Ryder Cups you name it......the history of the winners there is who's who in history....the last hole has produced spectacular 7 irons to 6 inches to win a major, Faldo coming from way behind to beat Strange on 18 in the Ryder Cup, Pavin chipping in from behind the green to win the match front right, an impossible up and down where the pin was....3 aces on 7 the first round of the Open.....HISTORY.....a member there told me many years ago one of my favorite Oak Hill stories.  He said in the pratice round before the Open back when.....Hogan was playing with Souchek....Mike asked Ben on the 7th tee gazing down the fairway "Hey Ben, can I hit driver here?"   Hogan said in a word.  "Yes".  Big Mike whacked his driver right into the crick crossing the fairway and yelled at Ben that ball went in the crick!  Hogan simply said in a dry sober manner and without cracking a smile, "Mine did the same thing yesterday"  as he teed up a three wood.

What kind of history does Palatka Golf Course have?  I'll give you a few greats who have played there.  Snead, Moe Norman, Tommy Aaron, Dan Sykes, Mickey Wright, Ky Lafoon, Bob Murphy, Dan Sykes, Tommy  Bolt was a regular, Pete Cooper......and more recently David Toms, Fuzzy Zoeller, John Daly was a regular too, Wayne something..uhhhhhh......hmmmmmm....brainlock....hell I went to school with him he won the TPC back in the late 70s or early 80s......remember the year a while back when Greg Norman almost won the British Open when he was fifty or so?  He played Palatka a month before that with his son who was playing the Azalea.  I met him and was surprised how small he really is...but I was also amazed how far he bombed the ball....he had about a 30 inch waiste and about 40 inch long arms....he shot 68 first look and quipped this place reminds me of Harbor Town....I guess the small greens huh?  I just remembered it was Wayne Levy.....he was a big time winner for awhile.  Wayne was form NY and when he got enough money in the sack I am told he quit playing and played the stock market very successfully.  When he was in Palatka he was driving a ten year old beetle that blew smoke when he shifted gears....he did not finish in the money in an Open I started back in the 70s.  It petered out when I turned loose of it though....we drew all the winter tour pros in Florida at that time.  Another guy played a few times in one of our tournaments Tom......uhhhhh.....I can't think of it but he won the U.S. Open and the Sr Open and played on the Ryder Cup.....Tommmmmm.......you know who I'm talking about.....anyway, the history of the players and stories I don't hae the time to write about are all there.....HISTORY.....Palatka was built in 1925 by Donald Ross......few courses can boast this kind of History.  There are a lot of great courses but history will have to make them GREAT....and they are too young....but time will probably make them great like one of my all time favorite layouts.....Muirfield Village.....give it another 50 years and it will be one of the greats.....TP is getting there too.....right on the cusp of greatness....... RT

Jan 5, 2018 brrrrrr.....in St Aug its been in the 40s for days ...... and days......Palatka the same......in fact Andy tells me they had one....count'em one boys....one player in Palatka yesterday.  The day before the same.....and it was the same guy.....he is from Canada......surprise surpriose.

Nobody hates cold weather golfin worser than meeeee.  My eyes water, my hands turn purple....I can only remember one good round in my life since high school (when I had to carry my bag and walk).  That was the first round in the Sr Azalea in 2014.  The second round and third rounds it was 70 degrees.   Being a cracker from north Florida I have a few things that do help.....the trusty hand warmers you buy in the plastic wrappers you all know about those....I also have a pair of mittens from my skiing days....I put the warmers in those and take my hands in and out lots of guys laugh at me but I also carry a blanket.  I wrap up in it like a buffalo robe....stay wrapped up till its time to hit then right back around.  Next I will switch to a hat instead of a visor.....the top of your head is the number one area of heat release.  Finally I grouse around in the bottom of he bag and come up with a soft ball....softer the better,  cause when its cold a soft ball is hard.  Of course all this goes without saying you gotta have an enclosure attached to the cart and a propane heater inside.....you know one of those things that stands up in the cup holder and glows and hisses all day but it puts a lot of heat inside the cart cover.....lastly, a tip to the wise....do not drive, let the other guy drive so you can keep on the mittens and buffalo robe.........ORRRRR.....the hell with it and just don't play when its below 55 degrees.

I did play 11 holes with Doc Beckett a couple of days before the winter bomb hit.....he keeps talking about "old man golf"  which means rather than fly it to the hole and drag it back....we bounce it up and hope it rolls on.  He complains that when we were kids all those old guys would land a 5 woodie  short of the green and bounce it right up every time.....they would chip with 8 irons stiff from around the green.....those old guys would wear us out......today, we can't play old man golf.....the ball doesn't bounce up anymore....fairways and greens are too soft and most greens are elevated.  Todays golf courses have huge bunkers in front of the greens, water hazards right up to the front of the green....old man golf doesn't work these days.  Tee balls do not roll at all, the only time you see a ball roll in the fairway is on TV cause the PGA bakes out the fairways before a tournament.  Senior amateur golfers have to play in the mud even during a drought.  Case in point:  Inverness in Toledo hosted the PGA previous to their mid-am/senior.  I distinctly remembered the pros complaining the course played too short....during the tournament I asked one of the marshalls what on earth were those guys talking about,  the course short?  The marshall said he was there and during the PGA the course was hard as a pool table.....he said you guys are playing in the mud.....they turned the sprinklers back on.  He said those guys were hitting 3 irons off the tee and the ball was rolling 50 yards or more.  Our drivers went splat a month later.  The course was brutally long with zero roll.  I wish they still played that tournament it was a great event and fun, splat or not.  

I am seriously pondering a fourball at my summer course in North Carolina in the mountains....and guess what?  You can play old man golf, the ball bouces up and bunkers are to the side not in front.  Working on details right now to see if I can get dates we need and times we need.  Temps on July and August are in the low to mid 70s.  Stay tuned on that one.  RT

Dec 22, 2014  Today or either yesterday was the shortest day.....finally!  Of course being the son of a WWII aviator every soltice, I can't help but think about my father and what he was doing on the shortest day in Dec of 1943 in flight school and waiting to ship out to England.  I think about what he was doing at the age of 23 in February 1944 when he got there.....and what he was thinking on the longest day in June of 44.  Hard for most of us to even comprehend.  He rarely would talk about it.  I distinctly remember in the 50s when he was still a fighter pilot instructor after the war he would be asleep on the sofa and if I made any racket he would suddenly awaken and start yelling as he vaulted off the sofa.....He left home in 1961, we stayed in touch up until his death just a few years after he retired from the service.  I don't know if he ever got over the panic rush to get to his plane from a dead sleep to intercept whatever was coming across the channel. I do know he was in the air on D-Day and I do know he was haunted by what he saw and did even from the air. I had a couple of old golfin buddies who were on the ground after jumping into France that day....Harvey was 101st and said he landed on the ground and couldn't see a thing, didn't know where he was or anybody else was.  He learned real fast to throw the clicker away...... that thing would get you killed he said.  Harv said he was in Africa first and after they won that fight he had to go to Europe......he said he walked from west of Normandy all the way to Berlin.  He saw guys die, he did some killing himself he said.  He said he was just trying to stay alive.  Most all those guys are gone now but their stories are forever with me as long as i'm around.  Gene said he was a medic and one day at the club he started telling how guys would knock out German tanks that were running on alcohol.....he said they tried hard not to explode the tank....they just wanted to capture it so they could drink the gas tank dry......Harvey piped up and loudly proclaimed he had drunk many a mug of tank alcohol while walking to Berlin.  One thing my father did tell me was the guys at the grass field air base in England,  sat around playing cards when not flyhing and they bet loosely cause they figured they would not be back at the table tomorrow unless they got lucky.  WSe allknow how many of thed 8th Air Force were lost.....of the 20 original guys on my fathers fighter squadron when he got there, only 4 went home.  In Nov of 44 he was sent home to teach new guys and the first lieutenant who took over my fathers P-47 only lasted a few weeks.  Hard to imagine huh?  My grandmother told me he sent her wads of cash in the mail he won playing cards and used it to pay his way through Univ of Fla after the war and finish up his degree then went back to full time service.   Hard to comprehend isn't it?  My wife's father spent a couple of years in the Pacific on a tin can, he had some stories too.....like an old chief jerking a rookie out of a machine gun station and told him to feed the ammo....he said that chief shot down three kamakazis in just a couple of minutes......Mr Mangum told me that chief was shsooting for his life and everybody else's on board that day.  Hard to imagine the terror of a plane trying to crashinto you and you watching and looking into the suicide pilot's eyes as he killed himself and tried to kill you too.  Hard to imagine.

ANYWAY-I was playing with my old high school buddy Warren yesterday for a few holes after lunch.....I talked him into closing his ofice and coming out for a quick 9.  He mussed something we all muss about this time of year.....He said:  Before I die I'm gonna ask somebody in charge why the hell do we have standard time?  We need daylight savings time all year......I can't get anything done this time of year....its dark when I close the office my game stinks and will stink till April.  You know, he's right.  Make sure you play on the longest day this June and think about what your father was doing on that day and what he went through to survive.........so you could play on that day 70 some years later.  RT

 

Dec 9, 1949  I am wondering why playing lousy in a tournament these days doesn't bother me at all anymore.  I see guys slamming trunks and roaring off in a cloud of dust and disgust......I know exactly how they feel, I used to get pissed off if I shot over par.  Today?  I'm happy just to be playing......I have friends with torn rotators, replaced knees, needing hips, doing radiation, planning tournaments around surgeries you name it!  Trust me on this.....the day will come you are just happy to be able to play.  I said a final farewell to yet another old golfing friend this week.  He was a local icon.  I named a tournament after him back in the 70s while he was still young and alive.....he single handedly created and ran for many years a cancer fund raising tournament every spring in Palatka.  It was called "The Cancer Tournament" and Ronnie Clark organized it from the ground up, involved the entire community, threw three parties that all raised money.  We had a pairings party where teams were drawn out of a hat, whiskey flowed and so did the raffle tickets....he got merchandise from everybody down town donated and he sold tickets for drawings at the pairings party.  The next night we had a calcutta party.  He cut the pot 10%, whiskey flowed, syndicates were formed and auction prices soared.  The whole town turned out for the calcutta and people who never hit a ball were there every year gambling.  Saturday was what he called the tiger tournament where it was a two man full handicap best ball as a warm up to the finale on Sunday.  Sunday it was 3 men and a woman, full handicap best ball.  Sand baggers were not welcome this was serious stuff.  My team won when I was a 19 year old.  I was captain and we shot 17 under par.  I'll never forget figuring out my guys tendencies on their putting and lining them up on the final holes.  Charley was an old crusty retired marine....he tended to push his putts.  I lined him up a foot left of the line on 17 and sure enough he pushed it right into the hole from 20.  On 18, Jim Elrod who was an 18 himself, had a par putt from 12 ft and I told him to aim at my feet as I tended the flag.....a 12 footer remember....he never questioned I was tending from that close....he aimed at my feet, yanked it and the ball went dead center.  My cut of the calcutta was 200 bucks.....at 19 in 1968 it felt like 10,000 today.  Those were great times my friends, great times. 

Anyway, Ronnie Clark  raised at last count north of 400,000 from the mid 60s to the mid 80s when he gave it up and when he quit the club quit.  The big deal was liability.....alcohol.....everybody got leery of heavy drinking at the club and wobbling home and it slowly disappeared from the social event of the year into history.  The tournament I named after him was the Clark Open and I had a pro flight and we drew real tour players and mini tour players ...you would recognize many of the names.  It was a huge success for about ten years until I turned it over to the mens golf assn, I had guys like Tommy Bolt and other pros who wintered andlived in Florida playing.....the guys who took it over wanted to be able to play with the famous players......they turned it into a pro am....and it died.....dead.  The big names quit coming and so did I.  They started selling sponsorships and got a tournament sponsor and changed the name......this hurt Clark's feelings and mine.....they knew not what they did.  Ronnie Clark was one of the few left alive that I grew up with on the golf course.  I have one of he old guard who survives today and he is not doing well at all fighting cancer and I don't feel so good myself.....maybe we will all hit again....meanwhile do not dispair at playing lousy...yu are playing......the day will come you can't and you wished you could make a double.  RT

Nov 22, 2017 The tournament is fully subscribed at this point.  That said, we usually have 10-15 guys get in off the wait list so go ahead and send in your entry.  This is a senior tournament and things happen, they always do.  All our 2017 champions are returning!  Roughly 90% of our 2017 players are returning.  I guess that speaks well for the event huh?

I had the pleasure of playing the Crabapple four ball north of Atlanta last week.   Here is why I am quite sure I am close to the last stop.   It was miserably cold for a Florida boy, in the thirties when we teed off the first two days.  A shirt, a jacket and that was covered by a wind breaker.  Long pants.  If I had to count all my shots those first two days I am qauite sure the first numbers would have been a nine.  The final day it toasted right up to 48 at tee time and ended up at 72 which is about what I shot.   What tipped me off was when the people I was playing with just carried on about how well I played the final round! one congrat after another.... damnit.......I guess I am at the point where a 72 is fantastic.....that is a sad state of affairs my friends saaad.  The worst thing about being a has been is your reputation follows you......a few years ago when I showed up with a 4 handicap no matter where I was there was howling from fellow players.....all they could remember was when I was a plus.....the pro would usually knock me down to a two.....hell, I couldn't play to the four!  I played a lot in NC this past summer....I told the pro for the noon game to put me in as a 6.  He said fine, he didn't know me......after four rounds he changed me to an 8.  That is how I know I am close to the last stop again.  After approx 40 rounds this summer I wound up an official 7.9 handicap.  I have come to accept that, I don't like it but I accept because as many of you know I grew up s  kid playing with the men in Palatka.  I watched them all go from scratch to five to ten then dead.  I think I'll go hit balls today I don't wanna get to ten.  My new goal is to shoot my age.....I thought I could do it by the time I was 65...I'm now 68 and no news.....I just hope I can live long enough to shoot my age but if I do, it won't be any good at this rate.

politics:  I think we should investigate the investigators who investigate the politicians.  How bout all these so called sexual advancement charges......I talked to a very liberal lawyer friend of mine in Texas yesterday.  He is a die hard democrat so I thought I would get his take on all this fire storm.  He said he thinks Harvey is surely guilty as hell, but for the rest of this firestorm of accusations coming from everywhere I am not so sure he said.  40 year old charges coming up right before an election?  Even my liberal friend said "I question how many of these are legitimate actually......He went on to say he suspected only 3 out of ten women claiming atrocities are truthful and two of those three probably exaggerating and maybe one is legit out of ten in his opinion!  He thinks its all about money one way or another.  That my friends came from a liberal democratic politically involved attorney in Texas of all places!  What do I think?  I think times change....just like Jake McCandles told the Indian in Big Jake.....times change......40 years ago if a 32 year old young man was eyeing a 14 year old young lady.....wellllll......even she said they did not have sex....I started dating my wife at 15 she was somethihg man.......today, maybe a big deal but back then?  Wasn't it 20 years ago a President was diddlin around with a 22 year old intern in the white house and walked away unscathed?  Image if Trump did that today......or anybody in government today with a young innocent intern!  It would cause a national uproar......"they" are howling about Judge Moore asking 18 and 19 year olds out on dates forty years ago when was 32......last time I checked they were "legal" so to speak.....?????  Times have changed.  Nobody said anything about the late Hugh Hefner at 80 having two live in girlfriends in their 20s.....why not?  I saw that on TV and Hugh introduced them with a smirk on his face......times change my friends times change.  I don't know how we can hold somebody accountable for moral behavior forty years ago that was no big deal 40 years ago.  Now if a woman has provable evidence of misbehavior in the past few years then okay, lets investigate.  RT

Nov 11, 2017   We are at 75% full right now  for our 2018 event.  I invited a few friends over this week who live in the area for a play....they were all not only surprised but astonished at the condition of the course.  It was not a busy afternoon so we played six and had a skin game.  12 holes were birdied and many were double birdied I think only six skins were out.  Amazing.  I told Andy and the new super get ready for offers to go elsewhere.  The last time we had a super doing this well with what we have one ended up at Sawgrass the other ended up at Bay Hill.  The pro ended up working for AP Golf....yes, that one.  The winter seeding was done this week and we expect an exceptional hatch and superb playing surfaces by January.

I am so pleased so many of our old friends have sent in their entries and are coming back......some of you were here the first year of our senior experiment.  The course was 50% weeds, 40% sand and 10%  something that resembled bermuda....328 I think or maybe just common.  Bill Zylstra won going away with 3 over.  But you came back and every year we have gotten better and better.  I played this morning and played it down....seriously....down.  In the tournament we will roll it because during winter we get lots of walkers and no dirt buckets.....I do not want a divot making the difference between winning and losing coming down the stretch.....I have seen that before in other tournaments....in the Open and on Tour they don't get bad lies....public golfin you get bad lies.

We will have a big waiting list this year so if you want to play please get it in nowwwww.

Politics:  I was surprised we had a couple of liberals hanging about....but that's ok....one said take him off the tournament list.  I am regularly amused at how different professions view politial goings on......I pay attention to who says and thinks what.....its fun......I have studied it for 50 years.....I can tell you without doubt young people are liberal....till they get a job and start paying taxes....middle aged people are moderates then late middle age are conservatives and old folks many times revert back to liberal/moderate......it all depends on where your pay check comes from.  I have many friends in the DC area, family too.....they are ALLLLL democrats and vote straight line...... but of course, they all get their living one way or another connected to government or their clients are government.....nothing wrong with this at all....its just the way it is has been and will be.  The same observations apply to the "fly over" part of the country....government does not control their occupations and consumptions.....so they are pretty much conservatives and republicans simple as that.  Pubs believe in self improvement while crats don't have to.  If my income came from the state or DC hell, I'd vote dem tooooo!  If I was a state or county employee I would vote dem tooooo!  There is no better retirement than fed state or county or city retirement......a bunch of my high school friends who went that route are retired and living well and never have to worry about their funds running out before they do....us self employed have done good but we absolutely have to plan and worry about retirement funds....we have zero guarantees......that is why we bitch all the time but had we gone to work for big brother we would have no worries.....just the way it is.  My brother inlaw kicks himself in the ass regularly beause he turned down a state job 50 years ago...he says had he taken it he could have retired at 48 after 25 and be fat and sassy......without a care.....or he could have goten a job as a consultant for ten just for kicks and extra spending money like a friend of his did who took the job.....thats just the way it is......so why didn't Ronnie take a govt job?  I could not fly a desk, I could not function where I  had to show up for work every day......I was and am a salesman of sorts....I make my own hours and control my own income by how hard I feel like workin and I personally would change nuttin....I'm doing just fine and thats just the way it is.  My game suks but thats okay too I had my times with no regrets.  I played alot in my 20s,30s and early 40s.  My mother would ask when I was going to start working hard....I clearly remember telling her I would when I got too old to play well.....I did and I am.....simple as that.  RT

Oct 19, 2017  Politics for a moment then a golf observation.  I can't believe how dumb....not stupid but dumb....our politiians are and how bad Trump's communications people are....they need to hire me to explain things so the folks can understand.  Trump executive order stopping federal payment subsidies for obamacare was designed for a couple of things.  First to get the congress into panic mode to do something.....they are now drafting extenions , minor changes etc.  Trump says no extension of the federal payments to insurers but he screwed up explaining....he said " the subsidies are making the insurance companies rich...too rich"  Here is what I am sure he meant:

Obamacare subsidies pay for the pollicies for those who supposedly can't afford premiums.....so Harvey goes down to sign up for insurance, he finds out it is freeeeeeee.....so he loads up with a zero deductible policy.....the federal govt pays for it......the insurance company knows this and charges 3 times what it ought to cost.......THIS  is what Trump is talking about but doesn't explain so he gets tagged as mean and nasty towards the poor.  I have close friends, even family ..... who took and still take advanage of the system.....one friend told me he got the cadillac of all policies and it costs him and his wife 85 dollars a month to upgrade to the best money can buy.....errrr the government can buy.....when he paid out of pocket for insurance he bought a catastrophic policy with 10,000 deductible....now he gets a zero deductile for 85 dollars a month!  And we pay for it!  THAT is what Trump is talking about but can't explain.

Golfin:  I had the opportunity to play Grandfather CC last week....twice!  I have to tell you guys, it is absolutely one of the greatest pure golf courses I have ever played.  The entire facility from course to clubhouse to community is really unique and special.  It costs a bloody fortune to belong but worth every dime in my opinion.  Only downside is it closes late October and will stay closed till Spring.  But hey if you gots the bucks to belong and play for six months then you gots the bucks to belong to another place farther south for the winter right?  I think one of the reasons you don't hear a lot about Grandfather outside of NC is that it is a tough ticket and if you can get a ticket its expensive.  I have a couple of friends who are members and I look forward to getting another play at one of the greatest courses I have ever played all things considered.  They hosted the NC Senior Amaeur a few weeks ago and the scores were skyhigh....so they do share the course time to time which shows they have class.....all high.  I think many of America's great courses share the course now and then for state and regional events....those who don't share now and then really aren't great are they?  RT

Oct 10,2017 Lets have some fun.  Politics are fun these days.  From a young age I learned quickly that if you get involved in political commentary you can hope to only piss off half your friends and audience.  What qualifies Ronnie to do a political commentary?  I interviewed George Wallace one on one in the 70s before he got shot.  I have interviewed senators, governors and city commissioners.  All this was aired......okay okay it was on my own radio station but hey in those days I used to say "its my radio station and I can say anything I want, political correctness be damned"   Yes thats what I used to end my shows with.  Anyway, Trump is providing fantastic entertainment these days.  I have no idea what makes him tick.....I do know how to get him all wound up, just criticize and he goes nuts.  I do believe what he wants to do tax wise is all right.....but I still think he has a hard time explaining why what he wants to do will work.  I listened to his speech in Pa tonight.  He said we will give instant depreciaiton for new equipment, tax breaks to small business etc.  What he did not do was explain the trickle down.....for example, if you give me an instant write off for my new car I use in business......lets see who benefits.....the salesman who sold it to me, the dealership owner the salesman works for, the insurance agent who gets to charge me more..... his office people who keep up with the paper work.....the landlord who owns the building......the truck driver who delivered the car across country, the fuel dump that sold the diesel to the trucker, the clerk in the station who rung it up.....the guys who built the car, the guy who painted it .....the guy they bought the paint from.....on and on and on.....no tax break and I don't buy a new suburban every two years simple as that.  I ride it till it dies and that cycle only happens every 8 years instead of every two.  How abourt the NFL guys who will not salute the flag or anthem......I hate the trickle down effect of that.  I heard tonight right here at a Boone high school game last week the players refused to take the field till after the anthem......these poor down trodden ball players in the NFL, making more money in a year than most of us make in a lifetime are protesting life in America.....perhaps they should play in the North Korean Football League and play for food.  I personally am not watching NFL at all, I quit for now.  I do not know when I will watch again.  I am sure I will,  cause sometimes thats all that is on.  I think the damage is done.....this is the same league that black balled Tim Tebow because he was religious.....the same owners, the same people in charge......the same coaches......a close friend of mine told me about Tebow when he was at the Jets......there is no way they will give him a chance to play because they don't want to look like fools for not playing him if he does good.  That's what happened at Denver.  They stunk the place up, and finally the coach gave him a try when the season was lost......he turned the crippled up team immediately and  took them to the playoffs and actually beat Pittsburgh in the first playoff game before getting drummed by New England.....everybody got drummed by those guys......but that did it.....despite half the starters hurt and out Tebow won and won and won but they dumped Tebow,  he got shuffled off to the Jets who were afraid to play him despite a losing record.....Eagles refused to play him despite a losing record.....that was it......his religion was shunned by coaches and owners and players......the same crowd who refuses to acknowledge the national anthem today.  The American pblic has hit them in the pocketbook lately and they are changing but its too late their true feelings are out there for all to see.....the hell with nfl.    RT

Sept 14, 2017  Us folks in the southeast haven't been paying a lot of attention to the Golf Channel the last couple of weeks.  I really appreciate so many friends around the country calling and texting about how we are doing during and after the storm.  As concisely as I an put it here's status of our area.  Suzanne and I grabbed her mother from Palatka and took off for our house in NC last Thursday morning.  I took in all the deck furniture at our beach house put down all my overbuilt shutters.  Assuming I would lose electric I left gate unlocked.  We tried to make it all the way from the beach to Mountain Glen but couldn't do it.  Traffic was worse than the news depicted.  We dove off 95 around Savannah and went back roads all the way to Orangeburg SC where we luckily got a room.  That is normally a four hour trip.  It took 8.  We got to the high country the next day that took another 6 hours. 14 driving hours that normally take 8.   Like everybody else we watch TWC for the next week.  Crescent Beach got whacked Sunday by a tornado that totaled many condos on the beach and a couple of houses severely damaged.  It hit my house (which I have no insurance on) but I built it tough and strong.....manageable risk.....I lost soffits on the ocean side, it ripped off my rain gutters but other than that no further damage and I have a contractor friend who has already fixed.  The big deal is water blowing up into your attic and wetting the sheetrock in the walls and ceilings.  I had the attic spray foamed 8 years ago with heavy closed cell foam.....that worked, kept rain water from getting into attiic.  My neithbors suffered big time water intrusion they had regular insulation and no metal storm shutters but they have insurance.  I would rather spend the insurance money on making the beach house bullet proof.  That dice roll may come up snake eyes one of these days but so far so good.  Electric was off on the island for 4 days.  Freezers melted, people had no ac, no gasoline.  Myyard man called saying he couldn't mow cause no fuel and he only had about 30 miles left on his truck.  That afternoon he said the Lord answered....he saw a fuel truck going down US 1 and followed it.  Luckily it stopped about 10 miles down the road and he was first in line......a good gamble....us crackers know how to survive......Irma didn't do much damage in northeast Fla,  it was the twisters that ripped roofs, power poles, trees.  In Palatka they were without power for 4 days as well and things were pretty tough they tell me half the town is  back on now.  The golf course suffered severe tree damage......Andy says trees will not pose a hazard for years to come we will have to replant or just play it like it was built.....few trees at all like Oakmont, Oak Hill and the like where they have removed thousands of trees the past few years only in Palatka we have let Irma do it.  The new putting green many of you helped build is going great.....Andy has mowed several times and has verticut already.....number 11 is just as good.  So far the project is a 100% success!!!!  We will overseed the first week of November.  The course right now is the best shape for summer I have seen in 40 years when Dwight Kummer was the super.  Good shape in the summer means a better overseed for winter.  We are in such good shape the FSGA has scheduled a state junior championship of some sort for January I am told, other groups from north Florida are booking outings for 2018.....we are excited.  Build it and they will come.......errrr so long as its cheap......and as you know Palatka is cheap but we are good for the money.  PAlatka itself suffered severe tree damage all over town.....the only upside is we have a whole new electrical system being built.  Golfwise I am playing in NC every day its above 65 degrees....this is Palatka north....cheap and really good and a good game 7 days a week with roughly 40-50 guys who drift in and out every day.....we usually have 12-30 guys on any given day for a 23 dollar game.  I have been able to break even so far this summer.....this place is just like Palatka was 40 years ago.....everybody here plays ...... store owners, farmers, retirees, all ages from 20-80....everybody plays.....everybody plays and plays hard.  The only industry now is Christmas tree farms....Newland NC is the Christmas tree capital of the world they ship roughly 3 million trees a year out of here I am told....everybody with an acre or more plants trees so guys have plenty of time to play.  We have regulars from Boone and even Johnson City an hour away they drive here for a game and good golfin on any given day.  We have roughly a dozen scratch players in the bunch...another dozen single digits.....the rest are 10-15 for the most part.....in my old age I am clinging to a 7 and with 7 I can break even against this crowd....man they take their golfin seriously......these mountain greens are fantastric but crazy to read maybe in a couple of years I will know putts that look left actually go right.  Thank you all for calling and asking I appreciate the concern.  I tell clients from the north all  the time , hurricanes down here are like blizzards up there......the news people over blow it and we simply deal with it down here like folks up there do in the winter.......common down this winter and play Palatka its gonna be good......and cheeeeeeap.   

Wanna know more about where I am hiding out......google it....Mountain Glen Golf Club Newland, North Carolina     RT   

Aug 30, 2017  I am sad right now and I gotta write a little about it.  I have laid to rest 5 good friends in the past 12 months, the latest is one of our Azalea players, Scott Dickstein who was taken off life support today.  Doctors say he will not last a day or two.  He was a type A personality, was a Will Rogers of golf, he never met a stranger and never met a man he didn't like.  He was one of the first contributors to our putting green fund and it was a very large contribution.  I played with him two weeks ago.  He was missing short putts and shanked a couple of shots totally uncharacteristic for a 75 shooter.  His wife asked me what was going on with Scott....I told her I thought he was just going through one of those old age funks at 64 when your game changes.....he would get it back in the slot in time I thought.....A week later we found out why he was having trouble with his game.....he collapsed and they found he had a brain tumor.....he was operated on and was doing fine the next day but as often happens threw a clot the day before being released from the hospital.  I talked to him via text that morning....by that afternoon he was in a coma and long gone just like that.  Golfin aint fair and neither is life my friends, none of us know when we will catch our last fish or hit our last shot.  I am missing Scott real bad he was one of those guys you just loved to play with.  Our last round together was an alternate shot affair and I had hit a 9 iron on the last hole a foot, I atayed in the cart while he went to tap in....he jerked and hit the putt 4 feet past the hole....I am so thankful I didn't say a word except "damn partner I hate 4 footers on the last hole," I made it and he walked off the green like a deer in the headlights...neither of us discussed it on the way to the clubhouse.........I know now why he was so quiet....I think he knew something wasn't right.  A few days later his world came crashing down.....his wife's world came crashing down.  I will miss him a lot.  The great Ted Smith died in a tragic accident just about a year ago, he was our first large conributors and former Sr Azalea champ.  Most of us knew Ted and we miss him dearly as well......I hate getting old I thought the golden years would be fun.....they ain't so fun afterall.  RT  p.a. the putting green in Palatka looks great and we shold be putting on it within a few weeks.

August 18, 2017  Ronnie's equipment commentary:  like most of you I have always been an equipment fiddler.  I still test balls by going out on the golf course....that is the only place you can really tell the difference in how far they fly how far they roll how well they chip etc.  I have a couple of friends who have gone to the Macdaddy wedges by Callaway.  I tried them off and on and finally ordered a 56 and 60.  let me tell you boys, those wedges cut through the hay better than anything I have ever used.  It takes some getting used to cause you will blast it by the hole at first cause the club cuts through that 6 inch long stuff around the greens so well.....no wonder Michelson chips it so well.  I give these wedges the five azaleas rating.  I am still a big fan of the Callaway jail bird driver......I swear it goes farther when hit a whisker towards the toe.  I see more and more in good player's bag....I think it was a quantum leap for Callaway.  Here's my big question about the jail bird: after trying four different shafts and flexes I have settled on the Haszard (sp?) stiff.....how come the stiff goes better for me than the regular?  I swing it 80-85 tops.....somebody explain that one.  I have guys with regulars who hit those farther than a stiff and farther than me and it makes no sense. 

I have tried various cut sole irons by several different club makers and the results are all the same.....uncontrolled distance.  Take a 7 iron with that hollowed out sole to give it spring effect.....one time you hit it 140 the next thing you know it jumps 160.....now now,  this is in my case at 80mp driver speed I'm afraid to ck my 7 iron speed.....its getting to the point I don't need but one short iron the 7,8,9 all go about the same these days. I'm still on the Apex heads with f3 recoils....most consistent irons, not longest at all but most consistent.....like I tell kids these days why you gotta swing so hard?  You got a whole bag fulla clubs.  Take a bigger one and swing easier your back will last longer.

 I do really like the Titleist hybrids.  I cashed out a ticket and got a 5 with a  Diamana reg 70 gram flex....I can work it left and right,  high and low and it goes really good.  I actually hit it on the green most of the time from 160-168 yards or so.  Wow, it seems like yesterday I could push a six iron to 180 if I had to and cruised it 170......times change.   I have tried out the 3 but so far I don't get the same feel as the 5 gives for some reason.  SHOES:  Ronnie has never liked the soft shoes like Freddy wears....I never got the support my fat ankles needed....those softies always felt like I was trying to hit it with roller skates on......anyway at the Timuquana Sr this year they gave us a pair of Footjoy SL Pro shoes.....I was skeptical as usual since they were so light....just another pair of tennies with rubber spikes......how wrong I was.....I love these things....they weigh nuttin, they give me good support and stick like glue on hills.  My Classics and Dryjoy Pros are on the shelf for now.....speaking of Acushnet products.....Titleist balls are still my favorite with Callaway Chrome Soft really close...depends on temperatures....when its 60 or below its the soft at 70 and above its the x....Nooo I don't play when its between 60 and 70 okay?..the V1X is still the same ball it was two editions ago to me....I can't tell the difference between 2013 balls and 2017 balls....they all wear the same, they hit the same.  I still swear the Chrome Soft putts better than anything else.....how can that be?  My favorite chippin ball is the V1.....so go figure....RT

July 8, 2017  I dont have much clever to say these days, I have played four tournaments since the Sr Azalea.  The last was The Picard four ball at Canterbury.  Dr Hess played good the first two days but i didn't help much a par here and there he needed which was rare. Hard to help the best SSR in the world.  Coming down the stretch I did manage to finish par, birdie, birdie to help him 3.  It's in Cleveland where it always rains and is cold....remember the old western song by Willie and Waylon?  When they laid ole Poncho low, Lefty split for Ohio.......and Cleveland's cooooldddd.......Anyway, the final round we were in a tie for sixth way back of the lead.....sr and ssr players are all in the same division but they give us the tees...that said ten yards on average ain't near enough, the fifty somethings blew it 40 past even the great Hess....60 by me.  Anyway, the final round was typical.....45 degrees, raining and blowing....hard.  We started on 12. The great Hess played the greatest stretch of holes from 12-18 I have ever seen on that golf course.  The last seven are harder than hard not to mention the conditions.  He playedem two under!  I couldn't even make a par in that miserable weather......I got us pars on 1,2,3 which made me feel a little better, a counter on 5....then he hit a wood on six from 240 in the rain to four feet and sunk the eagle. I finished off our last four holes ....it finally got above 50 and quit raining.  Here's the best part.  We finished fourth overall alone, passed all the SSR teams, had low round of the day by four....low round of the entire tournament by two.  WE got lap money etc and ended up collecting big....I think we were the happiest team in the field finishing fourth overall.  Three senior teams beat us and they all tied for first and were still playing after we cashed out and flushed....we only lost the whole thing by 2 after trailing by 7.  Conclusion:  I don't think I have ever before been happy finishing fourth in anything.......like John Wayne in Big Jake told the Indian at the end of the movie, Duke told the Indian as he cut off a plug...."when this over, we oughta head up to Montana....I hear the the elk are big as buffalo this year"......the Indian mumbled back...."I wished they were buffalo Jacob"......Duke frowned and said, "yeah, times change".  My friends times change and we can't get back yesterday.......take a minute to look at those old trophies for a smile about how it was......and remember, its better to be a hasbeen than a neverwas.  Times change my friends, times change.  RT   

 

June 20, 2017  My best friend of the past 50 years is on his way out the door.  He hung up his clubs six months ago after doctors told him time was very limited.  He says he still feels okay but is tired and weak.  The man shot his age from 69 to 84 and was shooting his age throughout his 70s all the while taking chemo and all kinds of experimental drugs that kicked his ass daily......Douglas is a very funny man, always has been.  He is the one who I told a couple of years ago on the 18th tee, man you are lookin tired.....he spurted out without hesitation:  "Hell, i was tired when I got here!"   He provides me with a look into my future ......  I hope.  He told me yesterday he misses golf but just doesn't feel good enough to miss it much.  No man on this earth has played more holes than Douglas the past 50 years.  He was good for 9 every afternoon except Wed, Fri, Sat and Sunday when he played 18 and during the summers he would slip out  after supper and play nine more on weekends.  He wasnt a range rat he just played and played and played.  This was in Palatka where golfin was a cult of sorts.  Speaking of which,  I see Billy Tuten listed as being from Houston,  just qualified for the U.S.  Senior Open.  Billy grew up on the Palatka golf course.....He departed for Houston after the great coach Dave Williams flew into Palatka on the Houston Jet and said "son, I want you at Houston we have some good players coming named Fred and Billy Ray and another kid from Australia named Steve"  Tuten signed right there and never came back home except summers to visit and practice, he won two U.S. Public Links championships and numerous national amateurs around the country.  He played on and off the tour several years, he was on the leader board of the U.S. Open the final round two different years...he played the Masters.....he is now a high school golf coach in Houston and this is the second Senior Open he has qualified for.  Billy Tuten is really from Palatka he lives in Houston now.  We wish him best of luck.  

June 4, 2017  Dilemma:  either I'm getting old and my game is not recoverable or the golf courses are getting harder.  The only way to really figure this out is go play the tournaments then come back and hit it at home on the range and see if you can break 80.  I just played 4 tournament rounds in the past ten days on two different courses and never broke 80.  Came home to my NC hideout at Mountain Glen and promptly shot 36 no problem.  Thusly the plot thickens so I have no idea what is going on.  I revert back to a converstion with Schwenk a few weeks ago when he declared he was through playing individual events at age 68, he was team tournaments only from now on.  I am about ready to subscribe too.  My problem is there just aren't enough partner events to keep me busy.  So why are my scores in the 80s?  It seems that I am able to play 14 holes at par or better on most courses even the hard ones.....but double, triple even quads slip into the lineup.  Take Chantileer this past week.  The hardest two starting holes for my short hitting game are one and two.  My final round goal was to get past them one over....I parred both!  Then promptly made triple on the third from the middle of the fairway.  Damn.  Two quik hits and get me outahere bogies followed then calmed down and birdied three in a row only to make double on 9 again from the middle of the fairway!  Get me outa here......okay lets play the back well..... hit a tee ball 145 from the hole barely in the rough......divot.....muddy divot.....yep, double then a couple of pissed off quick hit bogies.....then played the last five holes under par!  Slam the trunk and go.  Love the golf course but its getting really hard to hold'er in the road for the entire trip.  Your hole partner.

Tiger:  Well, as I said a long time ago, Tiger is done....it seems all the blasters eventually have the bad back problem....I don't think backs were designed to twist back and forth at a hundred mph for years......Jack never had the bad back, he only bombed it when he had to, the rest of the time it was 80%.  None of the old greats I remember had back problems but ALL the current greats have back problems.  An old pro told me a long time ago when I was a kid that golf is like a race car.  Drive that race car faster and faster and sooner or later you will run it off the track and crash.....keep it fast but not wide open all the time if you want to make it to the next race in one piece. Learn to drive the track, not every race is a drag race.   RT 

May 14, 2017   As we all get older, we fan feel our games slipping away slowly but surely. For a third time in as many months I have had an old tournament buddy tell me he has had it with individual tournaments.  He said he just doesn't have the discipline or patience any more.  Yes he has won plenty and knows how to play , but said his frustration grows from missing a shot here an there and making double or worse and that pretty much fries any chance of a good showing in individual play.  Here's a perfect example.....just 4 weeks ago my horsie Rob Hess and I won the SOS fourball championship in Scottsdale.  He played great and I played good.  We won by 9 !!!  So I'm feeling pretty good, I made some crucial putts for par, made 9 birdies in 3 rounds....not bad on a very hard course.  What I had dismissed though were my escapades in the cactus.  At least once a day I whacked one in the cactus , hacked it around then picked up and watched Rob make a par or birdie and I strolled to the next tee with a smile.  In individual play, I would be fuming.  I had two nine hole stints in Arizona under par but the rest of time I was shooting anywhere from 38-40 maybe worser.  I then teed it up in Melnyk's tournament at Timuquana...a hard golf course playing harder than hard.  I never broke 80.  I was able to play 14 holes every day  but on the other four  the triples and quads killed me.  In the second round I had four birdies on the back side and shot 39.  Common mannnnn.  Yeah, a quad on a par three with no water nor out of bounds nor bushes.  In best ball I would have said "your hole" after the 3rd whack.  So here we are in our late 60s early 70s frantially searching for four balls to play in.....but wait a minute I gotta find a partner willing to play with me and my sorry ass game.  I have a few lined up so far, Farm with Fred, Canterbury with Rob and Peach Blossom with Doc Beckett.  Its tough to find four balls....I would start one, but I am scared of a huge commitment and not getting many guys to play.....some four balls have turn away entries some have a hard time filling.  I'm not sure why but I'm gonna study on it some more.  Slowly slipping away.... RT.

April 14, 2017  Well, the smoke has cleared and everything in Palatka is getting back to normal.....almost.  We have paid all the tournament bills and awarded a ton of prizes to our contestants and we actually broke even this year!  The golf course was almost perfect.  I still wished we could get more speed out of the greens but we have to remember Ross built the course for greens rolling about 8 on a good day.  We had them at 9.  I have played Tillie courses that were designed for 8 in the 20s and the course was rolling 13....nearly unputtable.  Here's a page form my book of bragging on myself but it is a clear lesson to be learned and I have since forgotten.  My first try at the Sunnehanna Senior,  I got in as an alternate at the last second.  Never saw the course.  I distinctly remember playing super conservative.  Made sure I was on the front of every green and lagged every putt outside ten feet for the first 49 holes.  I found myself in the leader group just a couple of shots behind the great Paul Schlacter from Pennsylvania with 5 to go.  I knocked one in from 20 feet on 14 and it was the first putt in 3 days I really tried to make outside 10 feet. On fifteen I yanked my tee shot in the bunk by 13 green....uggglyyyy.....I thought about the next shot a long time and decided to do what Arnold Palmer once said.  Only take a stupid chance if it is to win the tournament.  I pulled out a four iron and hit it between two Christmas trees about 40 yards infront of me.  Nutted it.  Had a six left to the green but bunked it on the downhill short side.  Had a 12 footer for par but uphill.  Made it. Still one down, 3 to go.  Had another 20 footer on 16 uphill running away to the right....decided to try and make it.  Even with two to go.  On 17 had a ten footer  uphill breaking its neck left up the hill.  One up on 18 tee.  Yanked it in the woods then chipped out left handed into the fairway bunk.  Hit a helluva shot out of the bunk to 10 feet above the hole.  Paul got easy par.  I have this ten foot down hill slider to win.  Decided to lag for the tie and take my chances in extra innings.  I hit it on the front of one and lagged up for par to tie.  On two I nailed a four iron ten feet.  Hardest hole on the course.  Paul did not hit the green and hit a tough chip outside me.  He missed I lagged again and walked away.  Miracle in Johnstown.  I lagged for 51 out of 56 holes from outside ten feet.

Over the next ten years I have returned but only threatened twice.  My mistake?  trying to make putts on a Tillie golf course rolling 13 maybe 14 sometimes.  I still think I can attack the course and I cannot no matter how good I hit it, no matter how good I am putting. Every year I walk away saying what did you do .....  again....??  I will go back maybe and I will attack again and I will shoot myself in the foot again.  My wife says correctly I have a hard time learning lessons even when I am teaching the course.  

Now here's a new quandry.  I joined The Conservatory in Palm Coast late last year.  A bunch of my buddies quit Marsh Creek and went there for a good game couple a days a week and great greens that roll like pool tables.  Good practice for playing up north in summer tournaments.  Watson designed the course and it is stupid hard.  I keep thinking I can learn it and play well.  My average score even after 6 months is 80.  The fairway bunks are pot holes so deep and so soft that getting in one is auto bogey probably double or worse.  Green sides are just as bad.  Every green is up in the air and hard to hit.  On first look it appears great but the more you play it the more difficult it gets. The fairways are classic punish the short to medium hitter and reward the bomber with rolling artificial hills in the fairways at 210 off the white tees.  My tee ball hits into the upslope and dies right there leaving me with 3 wood-5 iron in on most holes.  Ten yards farther on the fly and it runs 50 yards down the back of the slope and a reasonable short iron 7-pw.  So, instead of cruising the driver and keeping it in play I find myself jumping off the ground trying to  fly the hills.....do it now and then but so many shots wind up in the pots left and right in the landing zone.....thats the other thing , the bunks are at 200-220 off the tee right in my wheelhouse.  Longer hitters don't even know those penalty boxes are there.  Result:  80 most every time and pissed off.  So, whats the upside?  I recently played the SOS fourball in Scottsdale with my friend Rob Hess.....the great Hess.  The only shots I hit close in 3 rounds were wedges and I only hit 8 I think in 54 holes.  The rest of the time it was like my current home course.....3 wood - 5 iron in.  I was able to save par most of the time when Rob got in the cactus.  I was able to can half a dozen from off the greens.  So it paid off to a degree.  I went back to my new nightmare course yesterday thinking I am playing good now.....wrong.....it punished me real good.  I made par or birdie every hole with 7 iron or less in, made several doubles and 4 bogies with 6 irons and longer.  If its not a perfect shot it just richochets off to who knows where to an impossible up and down.  Maybe its just my old age I don't know but I do know I am getting more and more fond of best balls instead of individual play anymore in these twilight years......your hole partner.  RT

Feb 10, 2017  As the ball rolls and the world turns.  I tell ya boys, its tough getting old and wanting to play well.  We had a withdrawal this week from a good friend and regular player in our tournament since year one.  He is also a former ssr winner, not only our tournament but sos tournaments and state championships too.  He withdrew this week saying he blacked out, fell face first on a cart path, smashed bones in his face and hand.....damnit......he says doctors cannot figure out what happened and neither can he...damn the bad luck.  We had many regrets this year, all kinds of injuries from torn rotator cuffs, to replacement hips, new knees, wives with health problems, wives giving guys grief...... you name it.  Hell gettin old and wanting to play. In fact I don't feel too good myself after tripping backwards over a floor dolly at a Home Depot two weeks ago.....I'm still on the shelf......their manager told me the insurance company would call me within 72 hours.  No call, nada.....wobbled back to talk to manager a week later,  she said she would call them again.  Can't swing, can't do much of nuttin except go see doctors, eat and get fatter.  Even sleeping is tough when I'm sleepy.  I'm sure my attorney will say shut up so I will.....I gave them two chances to make it right without attorneys and no call nada.........

So Titleist has come out with a new ball this year.  That was inevitable.  Chrome Softies advertised themselves as the ball that changes the ball. It has.  I have been a Titleist man for 60 years.....when we were kids we saved Club Specials we found for cold days.....remember those things?  65 cents brand new in a big jar in Willard's shop.  They were great on cold days....didn't sting too bad when you boned a blade with steel shaft....they were just low compression Titleists I think with a thick cover....you couldn't cut one with an ax.....   On hot days in the summer they wouldn't go anywhere.  Anyway, the Chrome Soft (..)  is a really good ball.  It is soft and stops and goes.  Titleist claims their new balls will do the same now.....we shall see if I can ever swing again.  My ball of choice has been the Callaway softie when its below 70 degrees and a V1x when its above 70.  Nothing like a V1x then you hit it right in the mouth.  Wasn't it Ben who said how it feels is everything......My new jail bird driver came in yesterday and its just sitting there in jail waiting for me to get out....damnit.  Enough whining.  

Hey big news!  I took a few bucks from our saved up tournament fund and rented some equipment for a day.  Andy got all hands on deck with Dana the super and they built an absolutely beautiful new tee on 18.  Its 45 yards back from the old tee making the hole a legitimate par 5 at roughly 450 yards depending on how you measure.  We measured to the end of the dog leg and you gotta hit it 210 off the new tee to have a peek at the green from 235.  If you can roll it down the hill and keep it in the fairway you have to move it 235 to the 200 yard out post.   We think the trees in the right corner of the leg will keep bombers from clearing the corner on the fly now which shortens the hole 50 yards or more when you go over the trees.  We lost the fartherest tree out in the bend of the leg so its now an easy carry from the old tee thus making 18 a pushover for a good player just a good drive and wedge.  That party is over.  I'm itching to see how the best players, who are usually the longest players,  play 18 now and how they fare hitting 200 yard shots at the skinny 18th with big trouble surrounding the green if you miss.  Us shorties should be able to roll it down to the corner and whack a fairway metal to the green or just short for an easy chip.  All this is IF you hit a straight tee shot.  We had a few long hitters take a look at the new tee and Andy told them to take a cut at it.  One guy hit it straight up the middle and was 205 out...the other guy pulled it a tad and had 240 out.....you see,  if you can't bend a bomb right and hit it straight or with a draw of any kind..... straight and long doesn't help cause the green is 90 degrees to the right....hit it straight away 300 or straight away 230 and you still have 200 to the hole.  I think lots of long hitters, if they think about it,  will hit hybrids straight and leave themselves 200 or so out from the middle of the fairway...making it a nice par 5....The nasty little bunk straight away is now 265 out,  but what do I know...ok so you hit it 300 straight away or even 255 or so.....now you have an angled shot requiring a draw into the skinny green or a long high shot over the left bunk from 200ish.........can't wait to see what happens in March.  We sodded the tee and it will be ready.  Come practice and hit a few off that back tee, its not a trick....its not too far....you just gotta think about it a little bit.    If you try to saw a bomb and you get into the trees right you gots problems so you gotta think about it.  Ross courses make you think.....most others are muscle courses.  Flash! while writing this I just heard Tiger withdrew again.....that should seal the deal of the demise of one of the greatest players of all time.....note I did not say greatest people.....but no doubt one of the greatest players.  RT

Jan 30, 2017  So, Tiger makes his debut in 2017 out in California or lala land......Tiger had a lala 36 holes too.  My wife said where are all the stars as I was casually watching Sunday because nothing else was on.  I think its because the big dogs who don't need the money simply play themselves into tournament shape they don't work real hard during the off season and I don't blame them.  The young turks work hard right through Christas and come out in January swinging for the fence.  The super stars who did play didn't play much.  Phil had a good tournament for an old guy.  His resilience is rather remarkable.

From Ronnie's observation deck, I am beginning to see a trend of senior fields getting older in many tournaments.  New 55 guys are scarce and our tournament is no exception.  I always wanted a balance roughly 35 guys in the senior, super senior and legends each.  This year we have 40 in the senior, 35 in the super and 25 in the legends.  This is a clear trend as our field grows older and thats fine.  My goal should come to fruition in 2 more years.  The deck also is seeing a new trend in equipment.  I used to see lots of Mizuno irons in guys bags.  Driers were all over the board.  In the past 12 months I see more and more Callaway irons in bags, Taylor Made drivers still in the majority but Callaway is catching up.  The only Nike clubs I see in bags are duffle bags at flea markets.....$2.00 apiece by the way.   Me?  I am still on the wagon with my 3 year old Callaway hybrids they to me are still the right head and right shaft so no changes.  I finally benched my Mizuno 900s with reluctance for the 2015 Callaway Apex which I am still playing.  I go back to the Mizunos now and then, they are still good but the new shafts in the Callaways are good real good.  My 3 wood or fairway metal 3 , is still the High Heat and is still the best 3 I have ever hit since my Macgregor persimmon of 1968 vintage.  I am playing at a different club at the beach these days and either the course is long or I'm getting shorter.  I hit the metal 3 at least 5 times a day and 4 out of 5 I get it on the green and sometimes I can see the hole without the pin.  Now the driver.....I have bounced back and forth the past two years between a High Heat driver and Callaway Alpha.  My youngest brother called me two weeks ago just babbling about a new jailbird Callaway driver he hit at a demo....he ordered one.....I was at the club last week and they had a demo to play with so I used it.  I am more than impressed, a 9 degree is on order right now.  It seems to go real good with toe and heel hits and when I hit it in the hot spot it jumped which is what I've been looking for a long time.  The guys I played with were all taking a cut with it before we finished they couldn't believe I was hitting it with them consistently and every third hole or so,  I blasted it way by the pack.  When I wacked one on 13 30 by the boys they all wanted to hit it on 14.  One of them has one on order.  Try one, trust me its straighter and longer than anyting I have hit.....but remember my swing speed is 85 on a good day these days.  The shaft was a 50 gram stiffie which I think is about right....a soft stiff....most of you guys know exactly what that is.  I may try a regular if it ever warms up again and if I am able.....seems like the older we get the worse aches and pains get.  We have had several withdrawals from our tournament lately because of freak injuries and frankly I don't feel so good myself after falling over a floor cart at Home Depot yesterday.  Hopefully if nothing is broken I'll try to hit in a few weeks or so....hopefully.  Jury is out on the injury. Sometimes you heal up real quick sometimes not.

Talking about freak accidents:  my great friend Marty who was just recovering from a bout with cancer last year and starting to play better was standing a wee bit infront and to the right of a playing partner.  The hitter toe shanked a three wood.  Marty ducked but he got clobbered.  Broken clavical and cracked skull....3 days later he got out of intensive care.  That was August he is just now starting to play good again.  Marty has a new jailbird on order too he tells me, after hitting one at a demo.

Golf balls:  Chrome Soft (..)  thats two dots .....the first one was a single dot and was too hot for chipping and wedge shots.....anyway, Callaway advertised it as the ball that changed the ball.  That was a great slogan and it is true I guess.  I see the new Titleist ads saying they are softer ad spin a wee bit less.....I guess Titleist is watching the Chrome Softies sailing out of the shops.

If I sound like a Callaway billboard.....well......I am simply pointing out  some observations which I think explains why Callaway is slowly taking a big position in the club and ball industry while others are faltering.  The M drivers are obviously good but I think TM psys too many guys too much to be a profitable company.  I see few Callaway bags on tour.  I think Nike overspent to oblivion, and maybe TM is on that track  too.....but what do I know?  RT

 

January 24, 2017  We finally got a light rain this week believe it or not.  We got just a little off the south end of that deadly storm that devastated south Georgia.  Golf course wise the winter overseed is excellent tee to green and greens are a 7 right now.  Fewer dirt spots than ever but still a few.....no big deal though we don't plant pins near the dirt bowls and hopefully we will have those seeded by tournament time.  It is a constant war with maintenance to get some green speed.  This is true most everywhere and rings true here too.  Andy and Dana would love to get me a ten speed but it's like pulling teeth with tweezers.  I am scraping around right now trying to extend number 18 tee back another 20 so it will be a true par 5.  If we can get the dirt work done we will sod it and be good by tournament time hopefully.....maybe.....30 - 30 chance......

So, who do we have in the 2017 field?  I never know who the next Chip Lutz or Z man or Doc Doug will be.  We have some newbies playing I never heard of  but I can't hear much anymore and I travel little these days and I certainly don't make the leader group any more.  I can tell you we have some pretty good sticks from Alabama, California,  Oregon, Canada and throughout the midwest and northeast.  We have a great sampling of real players I have never head of.  Years ago a guy named Chip played and didn't even sniff the lead.....the next year he shot 64 the final round to win by one.....then won it by a shot again the next year, since then he has won the Canadian Sr Am, British Sr Am and U.S. Sr Am.....I never know who the next Chip Lutz will send in his entry.    As I tried to do from the get go 9 years ago by recruiting the best I could,  I knew by getting the studs to come play our little dog patch the others would want to come and it has worked great.  We have the best players in Florida many of whom have places here in the winter, some who are lifetime residents like meeeee.  You guys up north never heard of them and that's because most of them still work and can't or won't take off an entire week to play.  That is also part of our success we play Fri, Sat and Sunday.  Dr Doug Hanzel former U.S. Senior Amateur Champion is returning for a threepeat......we have a few sticks who will have something to say about that.  He barely won both times which reminds me.....what is barely?  We had a game warden measuring a lobster on the boat one time and he says hmmmmm......this one is barely legal......one of the guys got indignent....."what the hell is BARELY?'  It's legal or it ain't!  The warden seemed a little shocked at a fisherman yelling in his face but Jeremy had a point.  The man then measured every lobster in the boat as the entire crew chanted in unison..... "barely!" every time he measured....he finally got off the boat shaking his head and finally laughed and said ya'll go on but I'll have an eye on you.  Anyway, Dr Rob Hess is back after winning the Golfweek Magazine world points championships in 2016 as well as our tournament.  He just won the Golfweek January tournament in Orlando so he hasn't slowed down yet.  Dr Jim Carley, a former Florida Senior champion, will defend the legends division and this year we have 25 in that division!  Doctor Jim will have his hands full this year I guarantee you.  We had some fine players turn 70 this year.   I have some headliners to brag about in the field too.....like Berger Warner, like John Darr....Fred Peel, Zman is back and and anddddd.....Don Marsh one of the greatest amateurs of all time.  Don has won everything for the past 15 years I have known him....he finally decided to give us a go and will be playing in the ssr divison at age 72.  Trust me, he will give Dr Hess and anybody else all they want.  Don still bombs it 300 dead straight on soft fairways....hits deadly irons and flat out works that flat stick with the best of them. I can't wait  to see what the great Marsh man can do on this 5600 yard Ross.

We have several celebrities and legends such as Randy Yoder tournament chair for the Lupton Cup at Honors outside Chattanooga, Fred Silver tournament chair for the senior Porter Cup in Niagara Falls and Marty Carmody chair of the Merit Am outside Chicago.  We have one of Canada's best seniors Chris Kelos "the Greek" I can't tell you how many former state champions we have but we have lots and lots.

Many ask why are the scores so high with great players, on a super short course without any real trouble and in good shape?  I will toot my own horn a bit here too.....is the golf course impossible to score on? 2 or 3 under wins the senior division every year......???   Not at all....in 1985 I think it was,  I shot 13 under in the Florida Azalea Amateur on this course.....Ruji Imada tied that record a few years later before he went on tour.....nobody has really scared it before or since and we have a pile of tour players who have tried their game at Palatka over the past 60 years.  It can be done.  I keep thinking it will be done as we get the best young players in the world coming in the week after the seniors.  Year after year some kid lights it up only to screw it up the final round trying to force birdies and making bogies.  I think today's kids don't know how to bump and run, don't know how to "score" from tough lies, from behind trees.....I watch them bomb it 325 on the first hole and be ten feet off the green only to walk away with a 4 sometimes a 5.  They swing hard as they can and get away with it 12 times but the other one goes gone gone bye bye.....double or triple, round ruined.  Enough of all that, see ya'll later, practice your tee shots and wedges.  

Rt

January 9, 2017  The golf course is in superb condition with the overseed tee to green.  Storm damage has been fixed.  Greens are the best I have seen in a few decades but we can't cut them close yet.  They are rolling about 8 for an every day speed.  Our goal is a speed of 10 by tournament time.  A few people have asked me why not faster?  The course was built in 1925 and  back when Ross was roaming around, they didn't have the grass nor the equipment to go any faster so they could build what some would consider today severe greens.  I have seen these greens rolling 12, 13, 14 in the past back in the 80s and it took over 5 hours to play a tournament round.  If we got them to sayyyyy  12......it would take way more than 5 hours for the old bucs to play unless I stuck every single pin dead center then it would take a little more than five hours.  Looking back at scores of our seniors the past 8 years I think the winning scores speak volumes.  First lets look at the winners themselves:  Bill Zylstra was the number one ranked senior in the world at the time and he shot 2 over par to win.  Chip Lutz holds the record at 4 under for 3 rounds and he has won the British, Canadian and U.S. Senior titles.  Doug Hanzel is a U.S. Senior champion he won last year with 1 under par.  Weather was perfect.   Even meeee, your host, I won with 2 under par and was in a playoff with former senior tour player Doug LaCrosse who has won about every amateur title in the south and Florida.  IS the golf course unfair?  Is it too tough?  Is it long?  None of the above.  It is short, it is easy,  it is fair.....its just hard.  Small push up Donald Ross greens, you do not want to be long, you do not want to be short....you have to know how far you are going to hit the ball and like the great Tommy Bolt said, you will hit every club in the bag on this course and you better know where it is going.  RT

Dec 9, 2017    Update on Palatka Golf course conditions:  We took a big hit from the storm in October, we lost a couple of huge 250 year old oak trees, one was behind the 8th green which crashed and caused no damage to the green, another giant live oak behind 9 tee fell on the tee and tore it up pretty good.  Our super and volunteers have sawed it up and repaired the tee.  We will not be using the back of that tee anyway.  The overseeding was done about four weeks ago and believe this or not, but we had zero rain since the storm till this week....zero.  7 weeks of zero rain.  That said, Andy and Dana report the overseed is looking real good, today it is 55 degrees which is perfect for the overseed to get going real good after a good rain Tuesday.  As many of you know, Bobby Weed is no longer with us but his influence on the improvements done to the course over the past 8 years will remain significant.

Pet Peeves:  I got to thinking about a course here at the beach and several others i play at now and then......I keep going back to build it and they will come.....I have just joined a course that is in superb condition and has been in superb condition for the past couple of years.  I had half a dozen golfin buddies quit where they were playing and join there.  They have a good game Wed and Fridays anywhere from 20-40 guys all handicapped from plus to 8 or 9.  The games are pretty much no handicap team play and it is fun.  The course being consistently in pristine condition with fast greens proves the deal, build it and they will come.  The courses guys have left i classify as "good enough" according to the ownership and maintenance  people for what members play.  Guess what?  Bottom line, good enough isn't good enough with serious golf players.  I want a course is very good shape all year, I want a good pratice facility....not a range thats good enough.   I see too many clubs keep the course "good enough" for higher handicappers, hit and giggle type member play......people who took up the game late in life and don't really know what great condition means.......these clubs also concentrate on food, parties, socials etc that sell alcohol and high dollar dinners.  This is all fine and dandy but the truth of the matter is real players don't care much about all that best I can tell.  In my own survey they, I , we.....just want a good golf course and a good game.  Boys, these types of courses are gettin fewer and farther apart.  One course in Jacksonville, Timuquana CC has it all, a fantastic conditioned course, superb food and beverage, member events etc and it is reasonably priced.  Guess what?  They are thriving.  Imagine that.  No, I am not a member there but have several friends who are.  The new place I joined is picking up new members left and right and they are players!  The place I left is kind of flat best I can tell.  I was there for 25 years it was just time to move on I became tired of greens that were good enough, fairways and fringes that were good enough, traps that were ankle deep in sugar.  Okay, lots of guys ask me how much I play in Palatka.....I would guess 10-15 times a year.....there is no game like I enjoy playing anymore.  I truly wished there was I would play but I don't have time to organize it and run it.  Where I joined recently there is one guy who runs the game every wed and friday......he makes the player list of who is playing he schedules the tee times, he makes the pairings.  He is a player, 61 yrs old and scratch , he understands what it takes to keep a good game going and is willing to put in the time and effort. Some of the guys are trying to organize a game for Saturdays and I think it will come. We had a guy like that in Palatka a long time ago, then he had a predecessor. The game ran for 30 years but once Johnny quit doing it the game fell apart and never came back.  IF RONNIE owned a golf course, I would get me a "game manager" who would recruit and run a game Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays for lower handicappers, tuesdays, thursdays sundays for ladies and higher handicappers.  He would make a big difference....oh, the pro can do that....or assistant.....no they can't.... they have too many other things to do to "keep it going" which isn't easy.  Just running off at the keyboard.....and reminding you, in our world good enough isn't good enough  RT

 

Dec 1, 2018  Gentlemen, this is the first instance of a golf course textwreck I have ever heard of.  One of our players who has been with us since our very first year reports he has a whiplash and neck injury and may have to miss this year......he is going to enter anyway since I give refunds and he hopes to be able to play by March.  He says he was in his cart sitting still when a fellow player was driving a cart and texting and ran into our guy wide open,  no brakes......he got whiplash and other injuries.  Folks I can't make this up......I have no other details but this is scary.  Beware my friends.  I have quit texting and driving....if I gotta talk to somebody I call instead of texting.....text is great when you do not have a critical time frame.  I find my business associates in the real estate industry are using text more and more for showing appointments, info reaquest you name it....it works best of anything better than voicemails.  I have no problem with guys who still work and use their cell on the course so long as they do it in a reasonable fashion occasionally but I do have a problem with a guy who is on the phone the entire round.  I turn my ringer off and check messaes or texts whenever we have to wait on a bunch of old farts to putt, I check at the turn and as soon as finished......that's it.  So if you are after me today, I'll get back to you after 4 when I walk off 18.  AND I will not be texting on the course, can you imagine calling your insurance agent and telling him you just put a guy in the hospital with a golfcart and it was your phone's fault?  RT 

Nov 28, 2017  now we can get back to golfin instead of eatin....not much to talk about golfin wise but they say Tiger is making a comeback.....humbug....he can't putt like he used to and ain't never gonna putt like he used to....lots of kids hit it farther so he lost that advantage too...Tiger is done as a force in golf and it all came down to women on the side........in the final analysis that was when it started to slide.....back in old days the tour guys could get away with it but not today in the age of 24 hour news and sports coverage.......that's that......But hey, there is lots to talk about in politics:  So that wackjob Jill wants to have a recount.....fine, at least tell the truth that Hillary is paying  wackjob Jill  to order the recount.  Jillary claims her computer experts think Wisconsin, Michigan and Pa were hacked and tampered with by the Russians.......key word is the computer guys say it could have happened......well boys, if the numbers get turned upside down and a big fight erupts who is to say those so called computer checkers didn't alter the vote counters after the election so they could demand a recount after THEY rigged the computers?????   Why the hell we need computers for votin anyway?  What's wrong with counting the chads?  By hand.......it only takes a few weeks......think of all the ads the TV people could sell while watching the counting going on all over the country.  What a circus!    Here is what I think really happened......Hillary's computer people hacked hard as they could, the ground people got as many dead voters to vote as they could, they rounded up illiterates, illegals,  dogs, cats you name it and hauled them to the polls.....they loaded up all the dumbunny college kids they could and still lost!  They are still gagging saying it is impossible Trump won those midwest states......impossible after they rigged as hard as they could so lets recount!  I guarantee you Trump won by a landslide in order to win by a whisker....now they are trying to recount and shave down that whisker......this is going to be fun to watch.  If I were a supervisor of elections in any county in any of those three states I would see to it Trump got more in the recount than he got in the election.....I would be insulted they have questioned my job publicly............to change the votes would be for the election supervisors to admit they were incompetent from the get go......who would own up to that?  Even if they are democrats!  You just thought the last 15 months was fun........watch the next fifteen days  RT

Nov 18, 2016 I am still reeling from the election results......I lost every bet I made but fortunately nobody wanted to bet on Trump.  This amazing election got me to thinkin boys.....I think most of us took exception to Finchem moving the Doral from Miami to Mexico City.  I will not watch,  I will not buy a damned thing they advertise if I accidentally turn it on and see a commercial.  I am also laughing at the stupid move.  Just yesterday i read in the newspaper that the NFL is playing a game in Mexico City this week.  The teams have advised the players not to wear any jewelry, do not take any cash to speak of, do not leave the room, do not order room service, do not eat the food or drink the water.  They are insructing all the players to eat only at the NFL mess hall they have put together for the players and coaches only.  This boys about says it all.  I hope most of the players on the tour will boycot the Mexico City event that Finchem moved from Doral because he is a big Clinton supporter and doesn't like Trumpster.  I can see Ricky raring back to swat one and having to run to the club to change pants.  I have played in tournaments in South America and Central America back in the day.  You have to be extremely careful today.  Back then our only concern was getting stopped and searched by the police.....today  I undersand you have to worry about being stopped and kidnapped.  If our guys were afraid to go to Rio I can only imagine the talk about Mexico City.  I once played in Peru at their national country club and there was a wall around the entire club and course.....there was a manned machine gun nest every two hundred yards on the perimeter.  I felt fine inside the wall but when you left your head was on a swivel.  Good luck Tom with moving the Doral.....all the best to you and Hillary.  Yes boys I did vote for the winner and I still have my sticker on the back window and haven't drawn gunfire yet......St Augustine and Palatka went strong republican.  If I go to south Florida I will peel it off.  Right now I want to irritate the left.  I had to look at obama stickers for 8 years and payback is hell folks and I am going to enjoy the next four years of squeelin and payback.  The only thing I don't like is pending prosperity and stability will benefit the squeelers too.  RT

Sept 28, 2016  Thank you so much for the dozens of calls from all over the country.  Suzanne and I bolted the day before the storm to the panhandle not knowing what was going to happen.  One of my neighbors on the beach stayed and reported wind and rain as long as she could.  She said the road was flooded and white capping during the height of the storm.  Luckily or smartily maybe....... I had underground electric installed to the house many years ago.  FPL got the main line up within 2 days and i had power and we came home and the house was just fine, no damage.  The big damage was on the waterway where homes got flooded and I mean flooded big time.  Ocean front houses if built well had no problems.

So, how about Nike not turing in a scorecard?  Rory is driving with Taylor Made now I see by the news.  Yesterday I was playing with a small mob in Ocala at the replica course and our group all had relatively old drivers. Two Taylor Mades and one Titleist.   Me?  I had my High Heater......while we were waiting we all discussed drivers and how the old ones are as good as the new ones.  They are all pretty much same same with a good hit.  Mayyybe the shaft makes a difference on the launch monitors but I don't see it on the golf course.....how about you?  My High Heat is still in the starting lineup after nearly six months....I think it simply hits the ball straighter than anything else I have tried and misses seem to be a wee bit better than my old driver....maybe?  My Callaway irons are still the trick man.....I see now Callaway is the number one selling iron....I like the Apex.....the new Steelhead is tricky to me....they go long, really long kinda like those cut sole Taylor Mades....the problem is once in awhile one will jump out of the park.  I don't get rocket launches off the Apex irons but they are shorter on average than the new Steelheads.  Balls?  I have become partial to two different balls.  When the weather is over 70 degrees the V1X is my boy....when its gets cooler I prefer the Chrome Soft,  simple as that.  They perform almost the same same.  I do think however , the Chrome likes the hole better on the green.  Makes no sense what soever....none, zero.  At least two other buddies report they believe the softie goes in the hole better than the X.......is there anybody else out there that has noticed this?  I swear the softie does not bounce along the track like the Titleist it seems to hug the ground.....or am I crazy in my old age?  Could beeeee.

I see by the Golfweek rankings that our super sr champ this year is leading the world in points, Dr Rob Hess.  He just won the last two events here in Florida.  Rob bested one of the all time senior greats,  the Zman,  by 3 in the Oswald in Ocala Sunday.  Winning is always great but when you beat the best to win it makes winning more special.  

I can't finish up without a word about Arnold Palmer.  I am sure today's young people will only recognize the name like we do Nelson or Vardon etc in decadeds to come.  Perhaps the Arnold Palmer Childrens hospital will endure, I hope so.  I suspect his children will keep it going sgtrong as ever in years to come.    Just think about that one thing a minute.....a children's hospital funded by one guy who kept it going and made it an icon?  What a legacy.....huge legacy.....how many zilliionsaires in the world have done such?   I do think anybody whoever met the man will always remember what a special man he was.  I met him several times going back into the 70s at Bayhill, again in the 90s (of course he did not remember me) and again maybe 7 or 8 years ago at Latrobe, he stopped to talk to our group of which his dentist was a member.  Billy Turner from Palatka worked for AP and was a personal friend when Arnold Palmer clubs were on the market.   Alpha Pappa  landed in Palatka more than a couple of times.  Palmer hired Dwight Kummer from Palatka as his head superinendant at Bayhill many years ago and was godfather to Dwights sons.  Dwight said he always felt like his family was Arnold Palmer's family too and I think that is what made Arnold Palmer a special man for the ages.  He used his influence and wealth to benefit others in many ways.   He will be missed,  but trust me on this,  he did not miss a thing.  RT

Sept 26, 2016 today is a sad day for all of us and you know why.  I met the man several times, at Bay Hill in the mid 70s.....at Latrobe CC ten years ago.  He took the time to converse a little about this and that and various mutual friends.  He was gracious and I actually felt like I knew him fairly well although I didn't.  I have and had many friends who knew him well.  Everybody spoke and speaks of him the same.  A great man who will be missed by all.  All flags at all courses should be at half mast this week.....or maybe for a month.

In other news, I had little interest in the Fedex playoff at East Lake yesterday.....I told the guys at the club there was no way Reed or Chappel could beat Rory in a head to head for millions.....ain't gonna happen.  Chappel as predicted dropped out quick.....he flamed out with 3 to go....just couldn't keep it on the rails.....Reed on the other hand showed us all a lot of grit...a lot of grit.....Rory just hits it too far too straight and when he is on he proved he can whack all the weeds down when his blade is sharp no matter how much is on the line. RT

Sept 21, 2016  Is it just me?  Maybe old age?  I'm not sure what it is but I find my grit for individual competition waning.  Perhaps its because my patience with the game is getting thinner.  I think I am tired of grinding 18 holes, several rounds in a row.....I don't want to go to the range when I finish, hell I don't even want to hit balls before I tee off these days.  I get bored with practice putting....if they all go in thats no fun and if I miss everything that's really no fun.  There is no inbetween anymore.  September is usually my favorite time to go play tournaments.  This year I skipped the Porter Cup, skipped Oak Hill and only played Sunnehanna last week.  I three whacked the first hole the first day and was ready to bag it right then and there.  I enjoyed the course, the weather was spectacular but the play.....wellllll I just couldn't get into it.  I found myself wishing it was a best ball so I could take a couple of holes off here and there.  After thinking about that a while I discovered my best 14 holes each day was under par but my worst 4 holes each day were way over.  Mostly doubles with a couple of bogies each day.  Why did I make double?  Bad shots?  Not particularly.  I think most were due to marginal shots that wound up in a hole, a lip, a gigantic wild blob of tangled grass the size of a wash tub sitting out in the rough all by itself....one foot in any direction and I had an easy shot to the green.  How on earth does a ball hurdle a stick the size of a cigar then somehow manage to come back up against the stick that if moved will move the ball.....I challenge you to throw a stick down in the grass and roll or bounce a ball towards it from five feet and see if you can stop the ball up against the back side of the stick.  A circus knife thrower couldn't do it.  I guarantee you can do it with a handfull of errant tee shots traveling over 200 yards if its a tournament.  Remember HATLO'S HISTORY?  They'll do it every time.   I used to be strong enough or good enough (not sure which) to overcome bad breaks, bad lies.....bad shots.....but not any more.  Seems like I pay dearly for each these days and that's why I am losing patience with individual medal play.

I can't tell you how many guys tell me these days they wished there were more four balls to play in on a national scale or even regional.  Doc and I are playing at Idle Hour in Macon in a couple of weeks.....we had to enter back in June and barely got in.....I understand Crabapple filled immediately.  The Farm tournament in June has a loooong waiting list to get in every year.   Fred and I absolutely will not miss it as long as we are alive.  All the while great venues such as Sunnehanna and other spectacular tournaments don't fill till the last minute if  at all.  SOS doesn't cater much to four balls.  The speed at which Idle Hour and Crabapple filled tells me someting here.  We can take 4 holes off and still have a good time.  I love to sweat over a five footer for par now and then with my partner in his pocket.....and even if I miss I can look up and say YOU should have made par instead of leaving it to me!  The stories of screw ups in the clubhouse at four balls are fun to talk about....hilarious.  Individual screw ups are no fun to talk about cause there is nobody to laugh at.  Think about that a minute and you know I am right.

Marty does a team tournament at The Merit Club and has a waiting list every year.....great golf course, great people, great club, great format.  Why oh why aren't there more four balls?  Maybe you should push your club and buddies to start one.....especially in Jan or Feb down south or July up north....July is dead for good tournaments most of the time.  Okay.....your hole.

Politics:  I still say in my other blogs that Hillary will prevail much to my chagrin.  I do believe there is a huge under current of silent Trump voters out there.  At Sunnehanna there was notable discussion about the Trump signs all over town in peoples yards but no Hillary at all.  One local told us yeah all of Pennsylvania is for Trump except the big cities....and the big cities will out vote the rest of us.  This boys is just like Florida.....Trump will carry every county north of Orlando....Hillary will take Orlando, Tampa, Lauderdale and MIami.....they will outvote the remaining 90% of geographic Florida and Hillary will win the state most likely.  Had Trump just had some discipline during the primaries he could have won,  but he pissed off too many women, latinos, etc.  They are basically not recapturable...is that a word?.....Even the Bush family is going to vote for Hill?  I understand their disgust for comments by Trump but at least they could stay quiet.  How about Kasich?  Trump never bashed him much....yet he is in Hillary's corner....common John I thought you were a better man than that.  If nothing else think about the Supreme Court.....I honestly think one person could bail out the election for Trump and that's John Kasich......but he is sitting on his hands coddling to obama and Hillary.  I just can't believe it.  Finally, the only Trump chance there is, lies with the silent under current.  I do believe there are millions of us who don't answer the phone at night for surveys.....who don't put on a Trump sticker for fear somebody will egg your car or scratch it up with a key.......that right there tells us all something that most ignore.  Repubs do not go deface people's cars with Hill stickers.....but crazy dems will do it.  Not all,  but a few.....that's because ultra liberals are down right nuts.....ultra conservatives are not.....they are just hard core conservatives who don't take up arms against those on the other side.  Your hole......RT

Sept 8, 2016  We lost yet another great friend and friend to golf this week.  The great Ted Smith was tragically killed Monday by a falling tree in his back yard.  Ted was not only a great player and competitor with national competitions but he was a great person.  I never heard anything from others  about Ted except that he was a gentleman, a great person, friendly to all, generous and loved his family.  Ted's word was good.  I talked to him a few months ago about our putting green project.  He was enthusiastic about it and pitched in big time and he as always was upbeat and friendly.   Ted and his classic grin will be missed by all.  Life is short my friends.....go play  RT

Aug 9, 2016  We lost another friend this week.  Corky Hancock passed away this week after a 3 year fight with cancer.  He was a good man.  He was an SOS member and when Doc and I met him many years ago at Canterbury he was a real character.  He played every tournament he could get into.  Cork bragged he played over 300 days a year and had memberships from Adios to Grocille and everywhere in between.  He played at Atlanta National in their four ball about 15 years or so ago and walked in the pro shop after the first round and said "I want to join" and he did!  I was there.  Many times Corky picked up the tab for a group dinner at a tournament, He would take a gang of guys to one of his courses and pick up the whole tab.  He took me and some other thieves to a tournament at Secession where he was a member and he wanted to win a scratch 4 man event at the club.  We won, he paid for everything.... would not take a dime.  He picked me up in his plane here in St Aug and it was one of the greatest three day trips of golfin I ever had. Corky had called John Benson a great birdie man,  and told him to get two more that could win....John tapped me and another player from Palatka , Sean Pacetti. We won the putting contest, broke the all time scoring record and Cork was thrilled.   Corky was a yankee but he fit right in with us crackers down south.   I found out over the years he had put as many as 30 kids through college mostly kids of his employees at his aluminum gutter fitting factory in Detroit.  Corky called me a few weeks ago just to talk he said.  I got the feeling it was more of a goodbye call ...... and it was.  He will be missed by many and was a good friend to golf.

So Furyk shoots 58!  Never mind a kid from nearby Jacksonville University won the tournament.   Good for Jim, he lives in Jax Beach too.  Many times I have reminisced bout how in olden days when the stars lined up just right, we would have that out of body experience when everything went at the hole and all the putts went in.  That usually occurs in your 20s and early 30s.  Furyk had it happen in his 40s!  Good for him.  I would really like to see the entire round but they only have shown highlights.  I guess the TV only shows a few shots of guys teeing off before daylight.

Politics (first i have no idea what I hit to put this slant in the text....damned computers with tiny key boards that fat fingers dont fit)

So obama paid 400 million ransom for 4 guys.....now wait a minute folks.....as I have said many times I am not convinced whose side obama is on.  He may have done it just to give ayatola a bundle.....and why cash?  the explanation was ridiculous.....iran wanted the cash cause the terrorists deal in cash and i can guarantee you that money is already at work funding terrorists who want to kill us.  obama is an idiot or either an evil genius.  I am not sure which.  Tell you what I would have done if Iran was hollering for the 400 back the shah paid for a bunch of airplanes back 30 some years ago and never got.  I would say fine, he paid for a bunch of phantoms.....I would go to the Phoenix bone yard and gather up a dozen or so phantoms and ship them to iran and say here is what you paid for!  Sorry for the late delivery but you took our people hostage during jimmy carter days and we forgot where the planes were.  They were runnning when you took our guys hostage at the embassy and they have been sitting in the desert ever since so here you go, debt paid.  And by the way if you don't release those 4 hostages you have right now we are coming to get them in 48 hours and if we come, hell's coing with us....you guys think we are the devil?  Guess what

Of course if I did that they would be aligning me with Trump and say I am putting America in danger by giving iran some jets. ....................... That wont fly.  Wish I had the gumption to go write smart assed remarks for Trump to use, but I'm just trying to figure out how to make a birdie.  Wonder if Corky remembered his last one......bet he did.  RT 

July 21, 2016  How bout the Open across the way?????  I gotta tell ya, Phil did not lose the Open, he simply got beat.  It is so rare a guy plays great and does not win but it happened this time.  Close to the epic battle between Watson and Nicklaus......not taking anything away from Stenson......he deserves all the accolades he beat one of the best of all time playing at his best and that cannot be denied but had it been somebody like Day, Spieth, Rory or Dustin it would go down as one of the greatest tournaments of all time.....the two combatants beat the rest of the field by more than ten!!!  Epic my friends epic.

Rough this summer......I am beside myself how nasty roughs are these days at tournamens I have gone to.....now let me say this I hit more than my share of fairways.  Last week at a tournament on a good golf course I hit 13 of 14 fairways so I have a right to gripe about roughs.  At Canterbury's Picard Cup a few weeks ago my partner and I won the SSR division.  I don't think we missed 10 fairways between us in four rounds so I got a right to bitch.  At Marsh Creek yesterday here at the beach I hit 12 of 14 fairways.  BUT GUYS.....what is going on with supers these days?  The rough was so bad in Tallahassee we lost balls one step off the fairway no way to find it unless you stepped on it.....at Canterbury the roughs were 4-6 inches tall I remember hitting two shots out of it but with hybrids up north the ball comes out just fine.....not so with bermuda.....at Marsh Creek if you are one foot off the fairway you have to claw it out with a short iron.....whyyyyy?  Stupid what the supers are doing......new players get frustrated and quit, kids get frustrated and quit....new prospective members walk away saying to themselves no way I'm joining here......where is it written that roughs have to be a severe penalty?  This my friends is stupid as stupid can be.  In Tallahassee last week at a Light Scratch Tour event I went to,  I lost a ball that hit the edge of the green and one bounced into the hay pin high....we never were able to step on it.  I think I'll take snow shoes with me next time.  I ask you supers this....what are you trying to prove?  Not one member of our course here at the beach likes the tall rough....not one.  I told the super it costs not a dime more to mow it at 6 inches than it does at 2.....you gotta mow it no matter so lower the mower....hell put it at one and mow every two weeks instead of once a week....common mannnn, if we are going to grow the game we gotta adapt to new players or one of these days there will be not many golf courses and the fewer there are the more it will cost to play and the more crowded they will be.......think about that a minute before you stay silent about horrendous roughs.  RT

July 1, 2016 standard golfer greeting:  So how are you doing?  I'm doing fine, how bout you?  I'm good.  How is your golf game?                       As if your buddy really cared he will always ask how you are playing.  I hate it when people ask me how's the game.  Hell, I don't know from one day to the next these days if I'm playing good, bad, fair ....I don't even know if I'm playing tomorrow for crying out loud.  My new standard answer is "my game stinks, I stink....but I'm still playin"   

So, what's the word from the herd?  I just came back from Beachwood and the Picard Cup.....I talked to dozens of guys who know their way around a golf course and tournament play.  It was absdolutely unanimous.....the USGA rules people at the Open should be quartered and drawn.  They upheld their reputation for stupidity in the ultimate situation.  Nobody can believe the rules committee, the rules guy on site.....rules anybody......they tell Dustin Johnson they will review the tapes when the tournament is over and decide whether to penalize him or not....stupid stupid stupid.  Unfair to Johnson and unfair to the competitors.  Nobody knows what the situation is.  Nobody knows how they stand.  Common mannnn.  I have been in a last hole situation many times where how I stood dictated how I played the hole.  I have gone for broke and pulled of impossible shots to win, I have also gotten the broke bit too.  I have been leading by two and played for a safe bogey and make the other guy make a birdie to tie if he can.....he usually does not.  I have played for par leading by one, taken big chances coming down the stretch being tied and knowing my opponent isn't going to falter. How you stand dictates how you finish....the USGA left everybody hanging and then.....then.....made the wrong deciison, probably based on the fact Johnson won by several shots and their final ruling made no difference.  Sounds like the administration huh?  I have no defense for USGA rules at the Open and nobody I have talked to is defending or making excuses for them 100% of my golfin discussions agree.  My hat off to Johnson he performed above and beyond in a pressure cooker with not only worthy opponents but with a rules commitee working against him too.  I have a whole new respect for him, hats of boys the man deserves more than great respect.

June 23, 2016  How many of you watch much ladies golf on TV?  I would just soon watch paint dry or an ACC football game.  I have never had much interest because back 40 years ago I played with Nancy and Donna and Marlene in some pro-ams here and there.  I beat every one of them like a tom-tom.  They hit these rolling hooks off the tee, rolling hooks to the greens which hit and rolled 15 feet or so.....their putting was okay but not even close to friends of mine on the tour at that time.  So, where am I going here?  Listen carefully.  Many of us old guys have no idea how far the women on tour hit the ball for really.....they play on concrete fairways and soft greens with fat pins best I can tell,  so I have no real idea how they hit the ball these days.  I do know the ladies on tour today look a lot different from some of the horses of yester year.  Goes for the men too huh?  Remember Mr X, Orville, Casper and a big collection of fat guys on tour?  Today they are all gym rats.

 Meanwhile back on radio road.....I really had my eyes opened this past week.    A young lady fresh out of college and the ladies NCAA was playing in our men's game and i got paired with her.  She was playing the blue tees!  Just for the hell of it, I moved back to the blues I wanted to see how she hit the ball compared to me in my old age.......surely no "girl" could beat it by me if I hit it decent.......wrong.....she was consistently 3-10 yards past me no matter how good I hit it.  She and I hit the exact same irons to the green though.  She was playing with men's apex Callaway irons with recoil shafts 760 f3....same as me!  Now here's the bad part.....she putts the eyes out of it.....never missed anything inside six feet and made a couple of gassers.....yes, she drummed everybody including me, took all the money...... despite the fact I made 12 pars in a row from the blues!  She played the same stretch 2 under!  Damnit to hell and gone........Okay how big is she?  5 foot six weighs in at about 125 I would guess.  She had perfect mechanics and a big swing arc.  That my boys, is what golfin has evolved into these days.  Yeah yeah the young men this age who can play would beat her handily but if any of us think the women's tour today is like that of our time?  wrong wrong wrong.......wished I could be here 50 years from now when today's young bucks get old and have new young ladies busting it by them...I suspect history will repeat itself.  RT 

June 10, 2016 I am not one to beg much but sometimes the situation dictates extreme measures.  Mr Bobby Weed has landed a couple of huge contracts, one to design and build from scratch "the bdest golf course facility in the Palm Beaches"  it is headed up by famous athletes and sports figures you would all recognize instantly.  He also landed a huge redesign project in the Carolinas....that is all I can say right now.  He will be leaving his post as manager of the Palatka Golf Course operaiton this fall.   Our head pro, Andy Heartz who doubles as manage rof operations wants to stay on.....and with my and everyone else's blessing.  The superintendant wants to stay too.  Weed has made it clear he will make himself available for consults free of charge any time we need him.

Now here's the deal.....Weed's going away gift to the course is going to be the remaining 8 fairways (1-8) are to be scraped, leveled, redesigned with Ross in mind and grassed with Champion which seems to be the grass of choice these days for courses with recycled water.  He is also going to scrape level and sprig Champion in the roughs about 20 feet from the fairways.  NOW, here's the deal......Weed told us he would build us a new putting green at the club house ... dig down 18 inches to 24, haul off all the old bad dirt, install drainage, rocks, cloths and whatever else goes into it.....bring in new top soil, shape design and finish the putting green and sprig with new grass....it should be puttable by early fall!!!   IFFFF we can raise the money to pay for materials.  Weed will supply his labor, his equipment, his men, his time to do the job no charge.  The materials are gong to cost $8500.  I have checked around and as I figured a new puttin green averages 25-30,000 dollars for a small one lots more for a big one.  This will be a huge feather in our cap if we an quickly raise the dough.  If you are interested in helping out, any aount will be greatly appreciated.  Just mail me a check made to the "Palatka Men's Golf Association-putting green fund"

I don't think I have to tell you but I will anyway.  the course is owned by the city not a single commissioner nor the mayor cares anythihg about the course, they would love to close it and sell the land for public housing but they have a problem....nowhere to put the wastewater......the golf course has to absorb it, so I think this Donald Ross gem is safe for now and the more we fix it up the more play we get and the healthier it will get.  I remember in the 80s all to well when the course was in pristine condition even the locals had to make a tee time a week in advance ....so what happened?  The city thought they had a gold mine on their hands....they started milking it dry and by the late 90s the place had gone to hell and play was virtually dead.  That was when I left and came to the beach to play along with several of my best friends who wanted a good golf course.  Weed has a soft spot for us as do many who have played here in the Senior Azalea.  We have put dozens of kids on college scholarships for golf, we have produced half a dozen club pros, we produced two superintendants who enjouyed world famous status at Sawgrass and Bay Hill.  $8500 doesn't sound like a whole lot but when you are asking out of towners to help locals do something they can'tafford to do .....wellllll........lIf you can help, please m ail me a check straight away.  Send it to me

Ronnie Tumlin

7060 A1A South    St Augustine, Fl  32080  make check to "Palatka Mens golf assoiaiton-putting green"

OKAY BY POPULAR DEMAND FROM NORTHEY.....I will rehash a couple of my crazzy happenings over the years and all were in tournaments.  Rules officials are sitll wondering about what to do 30 years later.  I was leading the Keystone Invitational in north Florida in the late 70s and drove my ball in the woods to the right of number 7.  I decided to try and hit the ball throught a small opening to the green......you gotta stay down real good to hit shots like this.  I never saw it but heard it and felt it.....the gallery (yes we had galleries in those days of club invitationals)said the ball hit a small tree about ten yards infront of me shot up in the air hitme on top of the head and bounced into my bag on the cart.  No, I don't remember much more about it except the pro told me to drop the ball where the cart was and hit it again.  You can't makethis stuff up. About ten years ago in the Moot Thomas memorial over in Ocala , I wasn't playing particularly well.....I got to the 12th hole and went for the green in two but bunked it short of the flag.....this thing was a crater man....I tried to hoist it up real high to get it out but I double hit the ball....the ball shot up in the air came down hit me on th ehead then I stumbled around in the bunk and stepped on it burying the ball.  The guys in the group were shocked.....what on earth is the ruling on this they said?  I proclaimed real quick I didn't know and didin't care.  I picked up the ball , threw it in the woods, took my bag off the cart and walked all the way back o the clubhouse and my car.  They musta laughed thier asses off at me, I woulda.

Now, lets look at a shot in a big best ball I was playing in in Georgia with Doc BEckett.  I was in a bunk again and took a swipe at a ball.....yes, double hit it again!  It all happened so quick my short stop reflexes took over ..... yes I played ss and pitched....I was the fattest pitcher and short stop in the history of little league and Baber Ruth ball.  Nobody could throw one by me, and nobody could hit one by me....I had the reflexes......now back to the bunk and double hit.....the ball on the second hit kind of popped up and back at me.....I simply relfexed and caught it and in one motion rifled the ball to the cart and proclaimed the runner was out at first!  Doc, your hole.  True story.

June 2, 2016  Common mannnnn.....this my friends is a political commentary.  So, Finchem moves the "Doral" as we all know it to Mexico???????  out of the blue?  Now, I know we have at least half a dozen liberal democrats in our golfin family and that's fine if we were all conservatives or republicans there wouldn't be anything to disagree on and that's no fun!  But the PGA Tour moves the tournament to Mexico?  We all knew Finchem is a big buddy of Jimmy Carter who by most all accounts was the worst president we had in the 20th century.  Not a bad guy, but an idiot to be polite about it.....yeah yeah I know he was a nuclear engineer or something like that......he was a street wise idiot.  Anyway, Finchem denies the move to Mexico had anything to do with Trump....really?  Really?  I don't care if you like Trump or not, this was really stupid.....and does anyone believe Finchem did not let politics enter in to this?????.....Even my demo friends are shaking their heads......Doral is a huge tradition in this part of the world, moving to Mexico will most likely kill  normal interest....I think.....and if I were a player I wouldn't go....talk about a target on your back, man there will be desperados licking their chops waiting for zillionaires to show up in town all around the golf course and in hotels and homes etc.  I damned sure wouldn't go....would you?  I suspect guys on the list from 125-200 will have a fair shot at getting in cause who wants to kidnap for ransom some kid struggling to pay his bills and not on any collector's cards?  I'm crazy?  Folks I have a close friend in Texas whose son had a girl friend in Mexico.....one trip to visit he didn't come back.  His father (my friend)  is a prominent Texas attorney his mother is a prominent society philanthropist.  The son disappeared, was a week later found in a ditch with no clothes not even his boots.  His truck was  photographed being driven around by Mexican police, my friend had photos from a private detective he sent in looking.   He went to the state department and every political connection he knew......nobody seemed to care much and told him nothing they could do.  He did get his son's body back but that was it.  You wanna go tee it up with Finchem south of the border?  I think Mexico is a beautiful country but it is lawless run by the drug cartels in my opinion and I ain't goin. IF I WERE TRUMP.....I would have a huge invitational at Doral and invite players from all over the world and put up big prize money.  I predict when he gets time he may do just that and if he does he will make Finchem look like the "Jimmys boy" or "Hillary's boy" he apparently is.  RT

May 21, 2016  The rattlesnake in your bag.  This topic is going to take a while but think about this long and careful.  Ely Callaway spent a fortune designing a fairway wood that would not slice.....he was aiming at the masses who naturally hit a weak banana ball especially with the long clubs.  His clubs were so successful I am quite certain all the other manufacturers followed suit.  The end result has been fairway metals that have a natural hook built in.  How many times have you seen guys under the gun pull a three wood into the gunch on the final hole when in the hunt....yank a three wood in a playoff?  happens all the time.  Me?   I am more comfortable choking a driver and taking a short swing to keep it in play than pulling out that snake.  If I am 190-210 from the green the best chance I have of getting it on is with the three wood....BUT...I have to have a nice lie, if the ball is down the least bit its a really hard shot...the ball will come out low,  probably tail right.  

​So what makes Ronnie an expert of fairway metals?  Gentlemen I have spent at least ten grand on three woods the past 20 years and I hated every one of them...5,4,3 you name it.....adjustable or not they are all hooksters and do not like to fly high off lousy lies.  Oh, its just me right?  Not so fast my friends.  I have said countless times if somebody would build a fairway wood like my old Powerbilt but outa metal I could hit it guaranteed....(did balata help?)....I have even dug out my old woodies and hit them now and then...they fly great and straight but I am not strong nor good enough anymore to actually play a woodie.  The misses are ugly and short.

​I have been a sucker for every new claim of a better fairway metal.  Hitem all, Taylormade, Callaway, Titleist....Sonartech was it that started the spring face revolution?  I thinksoooo.   you name it.  One of my golfin buddies who I think is the greatest fairway wood player since Bill Zimmer is John Benson from Pennsylvania.  When I first met him 20 yrs ago he was hitting this thing called an Excaliber....he killed it, high straight and long.  I tried it but I couldn't do much with it....that thing was a man's club.  Next thing I know he's got these Mizuno fairway woods 3 and a 5.  He hit those even better!  Since then  I have watched him try other bats but none work for him as good as those ten year old Mizunos.  I guess no matter how good you are with a fairway metal you are always looking for something better no matter.  i only bought two clubs last year, second one is better but still will bite me left soon as i look the other way.

​Now to the present....I get emails all the time from upstarts claiming this n that...just like you i delete,......but one i scanned guaranteed money back if not happy.  So, I called the guy, had a nice conversation, he swore this club is the magic wand for lousy fairway wood players like me.....soooo I gave it a go out of curiosity if nothing else.  Surely the majors could design something this good if they wanted to.  But then the Sonartech thing kept coming back....all the tour players had onein the bag in the early days, I got one too....it went like a bat outa hell but it was hard for me to get up....it went like a rabbit on fire when it landed...only good for tee shots for the likes of me and I prefer a driver.  I thought who knows maybe this Dean Kanuth is on to something I'kk give it a go.  When it showed up I ran straight to the club.....no, not to the range that is the last place to try a new club.....I went to nine a straight par 5 with ob near he green both sides......got out two new sleeves....this my friends is a real test.

My best 3wood punch today is about 200 on the fly....my best.  The first hit I started laughing.....dead nuts dead straight nice and high and bounced up on the green.  Hmmmm....fluke.  My next hit was off he toe my old nemisis ..... same high flight a slight draw went on left side of the left side of the green.....I aimed right and tried to really turn it over....it hooked alright but not violently and settled just a chip from the green....I really started to giggle by now.  It was half hour before dark and I hit it over and over......low heel, high toe, dead nuts.....every one of these was an acceptable result.  Headed to the Ga Senior the next day I decided it would make the starting line up.  In three rounds I hit 2 par five holes in two every day......astonishing....last year I never even sniffed on the same course.  My final 3 wood shot was on the 18th uphill from 208.....a loooong shot for me especially up a pretty good hill.  I had a lousy lie in the fairway....down a bit....and down hill lie too.....I would never ever pull a wood out for this shot but said what the hell and kicked up one leg and let'er go.  Before I looked up I knew I had hit it a groove low and wee bit towards the toe.  Guaranteed short of the right bunk right...a little low skunk tailing right right?  To my amazement the ball took off kind of knuckley straight at the pin....it landed short climed the hill and was green center.....every body said great shot.....I never told anybody I missed it....and I shouldn't tell you I three whacked it trying to make 3.

I haven't hit a ball since but off to Tennessee it goes this coming week.  I will put it in the hands of some of my buddies including the great fairway metal hitter Benson and see how he hits it.  If you wanna talk to the "High Heat" guy who sells these things call me or send me an email.   No, they did not pay me for this report, nor did they even give me the damned club!  But for my worst club in the bag to become my new favorite?????  I am a loss for words here.....RT   contact Ronnie

 

May 20, 2016  back from the Georgia Senior at Eagles Landing in Stockbridge.  My two traveling buddies finished first and tied for second.  Florida took those Georgia boys to school.   I actually was competitive for a change..All I had to do was par the last nine holes to finish alone in second.  The damnedest thing happened....Lets go back 6 years ago at Honors and the Lupton Cup.....I was on the 8th green getting ready to putt and my nose just started gushing.....literally running down onto the green....by the time we got to 9 I was a wreck and withdrew.  It was a long ride home and the next week was bed.  This past week same thing....I was sailing along just fine and still struttin after holing a 130 yard 9 iron on the front side...I'm thinkin I can shoot 3 or 4 under the last nine and have a chance.....on 10 I started coughing, on 11 my nose started running....I shot ten over the last nine and staggered to the car....that was Wednesday...today is Friday and is the first day I've been out of bed.  Wife thinks I'm a leper.  She puts food in the elevator and sends it up....calls my cell on the house phone from down stairs to check on me......She says I shake too many hands at tournaments.  I am beginning to think she is right....mayyyybe thats why guys bump fists all the time instead of shaking hands?  The champ, my friend Dr Hess, called last night to check on me.  I complained I got the flu shots, I got the pneumonia shots and here I am about to die.....he said those shots work on about 90% of the viruses.  I am sick and tired of being in that 10%.

​So, guys...what is going on with Jordan Speith?  Our hero...the kid who doesn't fly it 340 but hits it straighter than straight....the guy who drains everything......the kid who won 23 million last year?  Will he be back or take the David Duval highway to oblivion.  I have said a long time ago Tiger was done.....still think you can stick a fork in Tiger.....Jordan?  We know he has the talent and dedication....but is this year's Masters meltdown then missing the cut at The Players.....is this a sign of mental woes?  I am not sure but it ain't lookin good.  You can fix a swing, you can fix most everything in this crazy game but one......between the ears....you can't fix the head.  I am sure he has been in demand from sponsors and friends making appearances and outings like crazy because he is a good kid.....my advice is to go back to where you were 2 years ago and start all over again.  Once you lose it you usually can't get it back.....how many guys ran to the top of the mountain only to fall off and disappear all together....just think a moment about how long Jack and Arnold stayed on top....even Player.....Spurrier says its easy to get there but harder much harder to stay there.  Jason Day is pretty special huh?  This kid may stay there a looong time....or until his back gives out which it will guaranteed.  Nobody's back can hold up under that kind of force and stress.  Nobody's back....Nobody's

May 9, 2016  Captain's Log:  It's no fun being a has been but its better than a neverwuz and besides that you can take advantage of your long ago escapades......I can usually talk my way onto fancy courses.....I can usually talk my way into big time tournaments that would never let me play on my current record so its not all that bad.  Last week at an SOS event outside Atlanta, I even got a fantastic pairing.....in the first round of course......they pair by scores after the first round so as you figured I would never otherwise see the likes of Taylor Adams and Don Marsh.  Man what a pairing......on the first hole I announced I was going first cause I would never have the honors again.....I smacked a driver down the middle of a tight dog leg left and watched in horror as Taylor and Don pulled out 4 irons.  You coulda thrown a hoola hoop around the three of us..... I dumped my 7 in  the bunk then Taylor boned it in the bunk.....then Don's flip wedge.... you coulda thrown the hoop around the cup and Don's ball.  Walking off the first green I was 3 down to Don and  1  behind Taylor.  I played pretty good from there, Don beat me by 9 that first round and went on to win the 70 and over division by  ... 9......Taylor filled his sack late and shot 80 after a double dunk on 16 then again on 17 but was under par the next 36 holes...in fact he was under par for the first 15 and last 37....now that's a pretty tough two holes.......  Me?  I didn't finish last, goal accomplished.

​What a gas it was to watch a 71 year old guy at 6 feet and 175 lbs fly it 300 and straight too.  Guarantee you he can't swing it in a barn with those 36 inch arms....I can swing it in a phone booth.....I'm 30 so its like he is cruising a 54 inch driver.  His arms don't move any faster than anybody else's but the club head speed is tremendous.  All this gets me to thinking about reach....you know reach.....Ali had a very long reach....he could stand 3 feet away and hit Joe on the end of the nose, Joe couldn't even kick that far.  Nolan could hum that ball a hundred.....he could also pick up the rosin bag without bending over.  The greatest hoopsters had the "reach"  the greatest receivers have the "reach"....so what about Taylor back at Radio Road.....Taylor can bang it with anybody even Don....but he's a monster....his hands are like shaking hands with an outfielder's glove ... they swallow your whole hand.....I also observed every man in the top five finishers were long ballers.....I mean looooong.  They all have reach. There just isn't any substitute for distance on long wet courses like this one.  Now, about courses....I have a friend who caddies on the tour....I ask why don't they play here or there?  He says too long.....don't like the grass.....etc.....in other words they pick the courses they like and are competitive on.  My problem is these old folks national tournaments move around all over the country so when they say it will play 6500 yards it could play like 6000 if the ball rolls or 7500 if my driver backs up when it lands.....I never know so I have to be content with not being competitive on some courses apparently the tour players do the same to some extent.  It was a pleasure playing with Don and Taylor two fine players and two very nice people to play with.  Don lost a ball late in the round....went back to the tee without a word....whacked it down the fairway on the green and one putted for bogey no harm.....Taylor when he filled up his sack on 16 & 17 he turned purple but never pitched a fit knowing he had shot himself out of the tournament in two holes....he did finish in the money though and that's what great players do.  

Next week?  Off to Eagles Landing and the Georgia Senior....I know that course and I can usually compete there to some degree...... if I make all my ten footers....last year we played the first round in the mud....the second day the pro was handing out snorkels but finally washed the entire tournament before we teed off....I have never seen so much rain so hard so long.....one quickie about the first round a true story.....my good traveling buddy who bangs it 50 by me on the 18th was over the green in two.  I was a foot away from him in 5 (had a few troubles along the way).  Our chips were straight down hill out of the hay and the greens were running about 12.  I beat him on the hole by two! And....and....he didn't have any penalty shots and get this....one putted.  He skates his chip down the hill off the green then dribbles ten yards down the fairway....dubs the chip.....rolls back in his divot laying 4.  Skunks that one up on the front of the green rolls back almost in his divot laying 5.  Bones it long over the green then proceeds to chip it back off the front of the green again laying 7.  Chips up for a gimme 9.  Me?  I chunked my chip and it rolled down for a gimme 7.  Bombers don't alwayyyys win. The names have been ommitted to protect the embarrassed.....:)   RT

​

 

April 30, 2016  Movers,, jumpers and switchers......I have been a member of three different clubs now in my 60th year of golfin.....not many moves.  Keystone CC was west of Palatka near my grand parents home on a lake.  Summers, I would fish and swim till about 4 then my grandmother and I would head to the club for nine.  When I got out of college I joined Palatka in the early seventies.  I stayed until I gave up on the old classic and city lack of maintenance....it was tired and needed help and Doc and I decided we were not gonna die playing a goat farm even if we loved the farm.....the goats just stunk too bad.  We moved along with half a dozen others to the beach and Marsh Creek CC in the early 90s.  Been here for 25 years.....but.....a one man ownership bled the course dry....deferred maintenance abounds....grasses reverted back to their rough origins......then voilah!  Just as I was going to hunt another golfin home Club Corp buys the course at the end of 2015.  Sooooo here I am hooked again waiting to see if they turn the course around.....fairways are wild bermuda and grainy as hell, greens are severely grainy.....not a good practice scenario for good players playing tournaments on fine courses around the country.  Many of my friends have given up and left for greener pastures about 20 minutes south.  They have some new grass, I don't know how to spell.....I call it pisspalum......it apparently thrives on recycled water which is the big problem these days in Florida.....recycled water.....it is loaded with salt I am told and wreaks havoc on old traditional bermudas.  Anyway, I got to thinking how often have jumped?  It is a hard decision for some to leave friends, familiar surroundings and the like..... for an unknown.  So, you take friends with you....some are reluctant to jump....some say I will if you will.......me?  I have decided to wait another 6 months and see if they turn it around or not.  I can jump for 25% less money a month and a better conditioned golf course.......imagine a no grain summer green in Florida that consistently runs 12....that is 20 mins south of me.....I have friends too who already jumped......but I have one huge problem.....my best two golfin friends are still here so I shall stay until I can't stand it.  We shall see.  Just venting a bit......there is nothing worse than a tournament type guy which many of us are , who have no place to practice for ......tournaments......I honestly couldn't care less about playing just to play I want to prepare for competition, unfortunately I am a very small minority....very very small.....best I can tell only two guys are in that category in the whole club....me and 
​Doc.......how many guys are there in your club?  Come to think about it most of my road tournament friends are the only guys from their club who travel and compete nationally......we are a strange lot and who cares to cater to us when they have a mob standing at the pay window happy with an 8 speed and fairways that need a haircut more often than not.  Yeah yeah I know you guys north of the line have perfect greens and fairways every day......I agree......but you only get 4-6 months a year.....3 are cold and 3 are hotter than a fever on the fourth.....but you have the best conditions by far......I guess we could too if we were only open 6 months a year and overseeded every winter then closed up mid  May till late October.  Reminds me, I know you guys will not believe this but I swear the greens in Palatka are perfect right now......the overseed is still there and the bermuda has filled in the holes we saw in early March.....they are running 9.5 and smooth as a baby's behind.  Fairways are perfect too......it will change though along about middle of June.  Seeding will begin again in October.  Meanwhile, I am on the middle of the board seeing how it flexes before I go to the end and take the dive......I wanna make  darn sure the pool is full first.  I was a freestyle sprint guy....never much for jumpin boards.......oh, yes.....I was......alright a quick true story.....my last quarter of college I had to have a PE credit for graduation.....our assisant golf coach was a PE guy.....I asked him if I could sign up for his class and would he pass me?  He said okay but you gotta show up for the swim test at the end of the term and I'll give you a C.....fine with me!  Since I was a little kid at Grandma's lake I swam all day long every summer.....raced up and down with buddies all day.......I showed up at the olympic sized pool and had to swim a freestyle 100 without stopping......now get this.....he lines me up with the swimming team!......bathing suits looked like they were painted on.....with golfballs inside......skull caps and goggles......I said common coach what gives?  He laughed and said get on the block.....I said hey coach make me a deal if I can beat half of them down and back you give me an A?  He laughed again and said sure......smoked their best man by half a link.  Of course I was outa shape but at 21 and carrying my bag every round of practice and matches I was okay I guess.....I jumped outa the pool and hollered at coach and said thanks for the A!  I walked swiftly to the locker room and collapsed on the bench for 15 minutes.......he later asked me why not the swim team?  My usual smart assed self said.....coach, I like doing stuff thats hard like golfin....swimmins too easy.....RT
 

April 6,2016  Masters week and I can finally get interested in watching some pro golfin.  I got to thinking though.....Augusta is a bomber's course....always has been that's why Arnold and Jack did so well.....Why Bubba has won a couple of times lately, Freddy killed'em several times, Tiger did it by killing the ball.....okay so he could putt too....a little bit.........but it is also a player's course.  I don't think Omeara was  a bomber, we all know Jordan isn't a bomber.....so guys who can putt can win even if they don't bomb it but bombin sure helps.  Then I got to thinkin bout bomber backs......how often do we see a career shortened or a bomber who cant play a lick on the senior tour after he did so well on the junior tour?  Often in fact.  Back in woodie days.....way back now.....I have read Jones could kill it past everybody when he wanted to but usually kept it on the road at three quarter throttle.  Jack did the same.  They had to cruise it because with woodies and rubber bands the ball could get away too easily.  Today Jason can swing 190 miles an hour and the ball goes reasonably straight but how is his back?  Already he has problems....Tiger is out.....Freddy has problems in his old age of 55 or so.  So you long knockers......think about that....us shorties will keep bumping it around.  I keep watching Ricky trying to figure out how long he can swing that hard too.....Butch has his arc huge now.....that is where the distance is coming from.  Before Butch Ricky took it inside and low and hit it okay....but now he takes it way out way back and way out through the hit.....results are astonishing.  Remember Hal Sutton hitting a mid iron into the 18th at TPC to dust off Tiger? Sutton was no shortie......last year Ricky hit a flip sand wedge into 18.  Times change my friends, times change.  I want to see what Jason does with Augusta this year he has been pretty good....Rory?  I don't know what's going on there either he is getting bored, too rich.....or the new guys are just too good for him to dominate.  We shall see.  I think Rory's putter has cooled.  So has Jordan's this year....will be interesting if he can sink the no brainers again this year like last.  RT

 

March 22, 2016   So, what did the young bucks shoot a week after us old folks tried out the benign 5600 yards in Palatka?  The first round a guy shot 65 only to follow it with 73.  I think he thought he could shoot 59 and attacked the pins which were the normal tournament pins.  A young ladd who shot even par for the first two days attacked the final round and shot 63 to win by two.  Once again now going on 60 years, the Azalea Amateur and the little golf course with no real trouble to speak of and simple straight forward golfin saw a winning score of only 7 under par for 3 days in perfect 75 degree weather with young bucks in their teens and early 20s from a dozen countries throughout Europe and Asia and 30 states.  The 60 year all time record shot with persimmon and balata still stands at 13 under after 60 years.  Wonder who shot that?  The greens were better than we played on during the senior for sure.  Bobby Weed said the maintenance people could hardly tell the seniors played the course.  We left it perfect.  The warm weather continued to sprout new fine blades on the greens and they were better than what we had.

 March 15, 2016  The ides of March.....and for our volunteers, my wife Suzanne who keeps the money and entries straight....probably the toughest job of all......our staff at the golf course it's time to sift through the rubble and get organized for normal life again.....except for the staff this week the Florida Azalea kicks off Friday.

There were a total of 312 rounds completed for the 2016 Senior.....we set up the course "easy" in my opinion.  Short for sure.  The fairways were running fairly well and the greens held just fine if you hit a good shot.  You could not bounce it up with a mid iron you had to fly it on but missed greens were in good shape on the perfect aprons.  Some say I'm crazy but hey, I chipped in 3 times!  Okay, so I missed ten greens a day but that's still 3 outa 30.....10%

Congratulations to one of the best five senior amateurs in the world Doug Hanzel for a repeat win.  Doug Snoap from Apopka, Fl has finished in the top five three years in a row his time will come I am sure.  Both shot 67 the final round Hanzel bested Snoapy by 2.  Rob Hess wrestled last year's winner and legend Berger Warner all three days and came away with a 1 shot victory.  Hess this year has finished 1st in the Golfweek National Championship at Adena, second at Jones Cup and first at Fla Senior Azalea.  Jim Carley prevailed over last year's Legends champ Brian Sachs with 6 over par for the three days.  Pretty darned for the over 70 crowd.

Final scores below!  RT

SR DIVISION		NAME	R1	R2	R3	TOTAL
1	SR	Hanzel, Doug	71	71	67	209	Trophy, Bag, Shoes, Umbrella
2	SR	Snoap, Doug	74	70	67	211	$   500.00	2 Dozen Balls
3	SR	Elliott, Randy	69	73	72	214	$   450.00	2 Dozen Balls
3	SR	Fritz, John	73	69	72	214	$   400.00	2 Dozen Balls
5	SR	Taylor, Denny	75	70	71	216	$   400.00	2 Dozen Balls
6	SR	Cunningham, Robert	70	74	73	217	$   300.00	1 Dozen Balls
6	SR	Dean, Roger	73	72	72	217	$   300.00	1 Dozen Balls
6	SR	Hall, Jack	73	74	70	217	$   300.00	1 Dozen Balls
9	SR	Kelos, Chris	73	71	74	218	$   200.00	1 Dozen Balls
9	SR	Russo, Philip	75	73	70	218	$   200.00	1 Dozen Balls
11	SR	Zylstra, Bill	71	73	75	219	$   166.67	1 Dozen Balls
11	SR	Anthony, David	80	66	73	219	$   166.67	1 Dozen Balls
11	SR	Mears, David	75	73	71	219	$   166.67	1 Dozen Balls
14	SR	Antoniou, Vance	70	74	76	220	$   100.00	1 Dozen Balls
14	SR	Macy, Kevin	74	72	74	220	$   100.00	1 Dozen Balls
14	SR	Starnes, James	77	72	71	220	$   100.00
17	SR	Russell, Don	72	73	76	221	$   100.00
17	SR	Rollefson, Jim	75	74	72	221	$   100.00
19	SR	Marshall, Blake	73	77	72	222	$   100.00
20	SR	Benson, John	72	76	77	225	$  100.00
21	SR	Dew, Robbie	80	70	75	225
22	SR	Casamento, Bob	74	72	80	226
23	SR	Shealy, Bernie	76	76	76	228
24	SR	Hardaker, Bill	76	75	78	229
24	SR	Milthorpe, Michael	74	77	78	229
24	SR	Walker,Cory	76	75	78	229
24	SR	Zabytko, Stan	78	78	73	229
28	SR	Niles, Dave	77	76	77	230
29	SR	Staples, Roscoe	76	75	80	231
29	SR	Trott, Eric	79	78	74	231
29	SR	Nathan, Andy	78	80	73	231
32	SR	Coyne, Patrick	75	77	80	232
32	SR	Cotten, Larry	79	79	74	232
34	SR	Greene, Phillip	78	77	78	233
35	SR	Wallace, Holley	73	76	85	234
36	SR	Heffernan, Paul	74	84	77	235
37	SR	Fitzpatrick, Mike	77	78	81	236
38	SR	Piett, Doug	82	75	80	237
38	SR	Vollmer, John	81	76	80	237
38	SR	Yoder, Randy	80	80	77	237
41	SR	Anderson, Dana	80	76	82	238
41	SR	Sherman, John Q	81	80	77	238
43	SR	Bowman, Randy	79	85	75	239
43	SR	Himelsbaugh, Walter	88	76	75	239
45	SR	Soule, Craig	81	79	80	240
46	SR	Camadine, David	82	80	83	245
47	SR	Moore, Marion	82	85	81	248
47	SR	Heist, Jeff	85	85	78	248
49	SR	Kerrick, Brooks	91	89	82	262
50	SR	Carmody, Marty	81	77	WD	WD
51	SR	Dickstein, Scott	83	79	WD	WD
52	SR	Elledge,Jeff	87	85	WD	WD
53	SR	Gabelman, Andrew	76	WD	WD	WD

 

 

SUPER SENIOR		NAME	R1	R2	R3	TOTAL
1	SSR	Hess, Rob	70	72	68	210	Trophy, Bag, Shoes, Umbrella
2	SSR	Warner, Berger	71	68	72	211	$   400.00	2 Dozen Balls
3	SSR	McLoughlin, Shawn	73	71	70	214	$   300.00	1 Dozen Balls
4	SSR	Melnyk, Steve	72	71	75	218	$   300.00	1 Dozen Balls
4	SSR	Smith, Ted	73	75	70	218	$   300.00	1 Dozen Balls
6	SSR	Dial, Frank	73	70	76	219	$   266.33	1 Dozen Balls
6	SSR	TenBroeck, Rick	72	71	76	219	$   266.33	1 Dozen Balls
6	SSR	Howe, Bob	72	73	74	219	$   266.33	1 Dozen Balls
9	SSR	Darr, John	77	73	71	221	$   250.00	1 Dozen Balls
10	SSR	Engel, Bill	70	73	79	222	$   250.00	1 Dozen Balls
11	SSR	Washburn, George	74	73	76	223	$   100.00	1 Dozen Balls
11	SSR	Ferguson, Ron	76	74	73	223	$   100.00	1 Dozen Balls
13	SSR	Schwencke, Kim	76	73	75	224	$   100.00	1 Dozen Balls
13	SSR	Briggs, Randy	77	76	71	224	$  100.00
15	SSR	Meyer, Wyatt	76	73	76	225
16	SSR	Wilhite, Warren	74	75	77	226
17	SSR	Tumlin, Ronnie	73	76	79	228
17	SSR	Castagna, James	76	76	76	228
17	SSR	McCreary, John	81	76	71	228
20	SSR	Crocker, David	71	76	82	229
21	SSR	Osborne, John	78	76	76	230
21	SSR	Heinemann, Jack	80	78	72	230
23	SSR	Beckett, Steve	79	72	80	231
23	SSR	Perry, Frank	78	76	77	231
23	SSR	Pearce, Ed	75	81	75	231
23	SSR	Watson, Carey	78	78	75	231
27	SSR	Brady, Des	77	78	77	232
28	SSR	Castro, Max	81	74	78	233
28	SSR	De Leon, Jim	82	77	74	233
28	SSR	Daniels, Danny	82	79	72	233
31	SSR	Pass, Jerry	78	80	77	235
32	SSR	Kifer, Larry	81	79	79	239
33	SSR	True, Jeffrey	77	84	79	240
34	SSR	Santo, Jim	81	82	79	242
35	SSR	Boettcher, Tom	83	73	87	243
35	SSR	Huff, Byron	82	79	82	243
37	SSR	Lesley, Dick	84	78	84	246
38	SSR	Henry, Meredith	87	82	89	258
39	SSR	Fields, Mitch	86	88	85	259
40	SSR	McDade, Pete	77	73	WD	WD

 

 

	NAME	R1	R2	R3	TOTAL
LEG	Carley, Jim	75	68	71	214	Trophy, Bag, Shoes, Umbrella
LEG	Sachs, Brian	73	72	74	219	$   350.00	2 Dozen Balls
LEG	Liberato, William	74	72	79	225	$   300.00	1 Dozen Balls
LEG	Martin, Walt	77	77	73	227	$   250.00	1 Dozen Balls
LEG	King, David	71	81	77	229	$   150.00	1 Dozen Balls
LEG	Pavoni, Joe	79	76	74	229	$   150.00	1 Dozen Balls
LEG	Rendell, Mills	75	76	79	230	$   100.00
LEG	Kozina, Gus	76	79	76	231	$   100.00
LEG	Brown, Bill	79	80	78	237
LEG	Cahall, Fred	82	81	75	238
LEG	Spannbauer, David	74	81	85	240
LEG	Layman, Robert	79	78	86	243
LEG	Manning, Kirby	81	78	85	244
LEG	Achenbach, Jim	83	86	82	251
LEG	Broxton, Robert	92	97	WD	WD
LEG	Fischer, Rich	WD	WD	WD	WD
LEG	Wiley, Neil	WD	WD	WD	WD

Feb 16, 2016  okay okay, another friend reminded me of one of my rants several years ago that warrants a rehash.  I entitled it:

The Hustler .... I am an expert on such.  I have seen the best there is from real honest to goodness traveling one man shows to traveling teams to local members who are the best there is.  The traveling guys used to stop in at Palatka all the time back in the day because we had a reputation for taking on all comers we used to say anybody from anywhere for any amount in the rocky mount.......fortunately most played for no more than a hundred till they figured out the local Palatka gang was more than they wanted to chew on.  We had a guy come to town from Houston one day (name with held he may still be alive and I don't wanna blow his cover)......he rented a house, worked nights and  played every day.  He soon figured out he was outgunned and started picking up guys to go out of town and play other guys he set up.  He later moved on to St Augustine where he hustled the daylights out of the "noon group" back in the early 90s.  I transferred my letter along about the same time.....he told me to keep my mouth shut and I did till I couldn't stand it.  He was wiping the floor with those guys and they didn't even know it.  This brings me to the ultimate hustler:  You know this guy....you have one at your club guaranteed.  He is the guy who wins every club event in his flight.....every time and barely wins by one or two......you know this guy.  His handicap never seems to change.....he posts scores like crazy....one good round will not screw up his handicap.  He loves games that involve best ball or points especially....you know this guy he can rack up a plus 8 on the front side and still shoot 44.  Look closely at his card and he made x7 every time his partner played the hole well, he makes a 7 on a par 3 while shooting two over on the other 8 holes....you know this guy.  Chances are real good he is a card player too....he operates the table like a ballerina......bets dumb on small pots but rakes in the big ones or plays them very close to the vest he either has a winning hand or he folds quickly.  He knows the hustle very well.  He never burns anybody up just keeps nibbling around the edges when he loses he hollers bloody murder how much he lost.....cry cry cry......makes sure they all can hear easily....does the same with this golf game......you know this guy......when he wins he is quick to proclaim he was lucky everything bounced his way for a change.....the best part of it though, he is friendly, likeable, smiles a lot, tells good stories and is always agreeable, volunteers for committees you name it.  This m/o keeps his victims off guard....you know this guy ....every club has one......sometimes two and if there are two,  watch for them playing together a lot.....if you don't know who this guy is in YOUR club,  then you my friend are bieng hustled.......RT

Feb 10, 2016  I asked a friend Scotty for some suggestions on what I could complain about......he quickly respoded which reminded me of some past rants I wrote long ago so here's a rehash.  Let's start with slowwww play then the club changer episode.  Scotty and I do not have a lot of patience for a guy who is playing his home course, (which he plays regularly and has for years) and takes forever to playyyy.  Common mannnn.  You have driven the ball down the first fairway to 140 one thousand three hundred and 47 times.....you know exactly how far it is no matter where the pin is, you have played today's wind a thousand times.....yet it takes you 3 minutes to select the same damned club you have hit 1347 times, to shoot the distance for the 1347th time, throw grass up in the air for the 1347th time.....all this and you didn't start the routine until it was your time to hit!  The older guys get the more they play like women!  If you will go out there on Ladie's day and just watch a little you will notice a habit many groups have.....they all pull up to the ball that is away, they all get out to identify whose it is.....they all freeze right there.......the hitter selects her 3 wood and takes a hit....they all load up and go to the next ball and same routine again.....no such thing as taking a couple of clubs and walking over to your own ball and getting ready to play soon as the other lady hits....noooooo.  Old men tend to do the same thing.  I suggest to you it is a scenario that they have nothing else to do but play today....zero........kind of like the "person"  (not saying it is a lady now)....who goes to the grocery store and doesn't pull her checkbook out of her purse until the entire basket is rung up and the total is ready....then she pulls the purse, then the check book and then writes the check from scratch, then has to chat with the clerk awhile then pulls out her id then chats some more with the bag boy.......this drives me nuts!  I submit this is because she has nothing else to do important today......time means nothing.  Same at the golf course, the old retired guys hope they can figure out how to stay at the club as long as they can rather than going home and having to listen to it.  Step one is playing a round as slowly as they can.  Me at the grocery?  I have my cash or card out before they sack the first bag of chips and cookies......as soon as the total comes I'm swipin mannn.  I gotta go....gotta get home before my ice cream melts.

The  Changer:  This story is true and goes back about 5 years.  I was playing The Farm with my long time friend and partner Fred from L.A.  We are paired with the greatest demonstration of club changing I have ever witnessed.  Fred probably saved my life that day.  This guy on the first hole changed clubs in the fairway....countem now.....four times....four.  I swear he finally hit the original club.  If he hit the green he would even take several clubs and his putter to the green.  The only time he didn't fumble with a variety of clubs for the pending shot was a tee shot....unless of course it was a par 3.  On the 8th hole I swear he pulled his entire bag off the cart and took it to the tee....a long very interesting par 3 you hit down on to and depending on where the pin, you have to land the ball accordingly which includes short of the green and right of the green for certain pins.  I started laughing and Fred said shhhhhh.....Freddie is polite and a gentleman....me?  Well, you know the answer.  The creschendo occured on the 14th hole....by this time I was a wreck, we were holding people up, Fred and I were quick hitting everything trying to keep us moving....this is a tournament man,  I hate having to quick hit cause some jackass is draggin his ass.  Anyway, the club changer has hit a pretty good shot that trickled off the green to the short fringe about 15 feet from the hole.  No tall cut behind the ball, perfect lie, it is straight and slightly up hill.  Now what are you going to pull for this shot? It's 15 feet.   Every tour pro on the planet takes a putter to the hole and that's it.  The club changer?  nooooooo, he takes four clubs.  A wedge, sand wedge best I could tell, some club that looked like a seven and his putter.  I swear once he started he didn't quit.  He stroked then changed then changed, stroked,  then changed.....pulled out the putter than went back and changed three times again after practice stroking each time.  I had a five foot twister for birdie I wanted to go hit real bad.  Fred was way ahead of me when I started toward my mark.  He grabbed my elbow and said no no....please no.....I wispered back I had had it with this clown.  I was gonna go putt.  Fred said man we've only got a few holes left if you were gonna start a fight shoulda been on the second hole.  Okay, I calmed down and so help me this clown finally hit the ball.....with....with....yep the putter....and it went right in!  I couldn't stand it and announced "something woke me up , was it the sound of a ball being hit and going into the hole?"  I asked the clown "what club did you finally decide to use?"  Fred broke up when the guy looked at us dead serious and said.........I finally decided putter was the best shot.  He had no idea.  Of course my smart ass replied I sure was glad he made it on the first try the sun was going down fast.  That went right over his head too......Slow play I can tolerate, club changers?  That's another whole deal.  Thanks Scotty for reminding me of the "changer"  RT

 

Jan 24, 2016  The making of a nationally recognized senior tournament from scratch with a good recipe but not much for ingredients.  The following is a rule book of how we built the Florida Sr Azalea from the ground up.  I get calls and questions from tournament directors all over the country regularly asking for advice.  They cannot understand how we have a huge waiting list every year and they can't fill with fantastic golf courses to offer.  Here it goes in pieces, I will add to it as time allows.  I will start from day one.

I tried and tried to get the men's golf association and friends of mine to get involved and let's start a senior tournament.  Our Florida Azalea Amateur is a Walker Cup Points tournament and players from all over the world show up every March.  I just couldn't get any traction so back in the late Fall of 2008 I told myself I was going to take the bull by the horns, it can't be that hard if I can get some help but somebody has to get it going.  The golf course was in turmoil, a city manager and commission that did not know much about golfing operations but was willing to listen.  Bobby Weed Management Group was in the forefront trying to work out a deal to take over operations of the course.  I pledged to the commisioners I would conduct the senior tournament that will add to the revenue immediately and I would do it as long as I possibly could and Bobby Weed was in the mix.  They approved the Weed contract so now my big mouth has me a new day job.  Starting a tournament.

1.  Most senior tournaments are played during the week thusly many great senior players can't easily play if they still work.  I scheduled the first one for 36 holes Sat and Sunday.  The next year after consultation with Golfweek we went to 54 holes Sat and Sunday playing 27 each day.  It worked out because the pro shop did a heroic job of wrangling carts and pairings on the fly.  By the third year we settled permanently on Friday Sat and Sunday with one key factor:  1pm shotgun Friday and Saturday 9:30 Sunday.   I figured a lot of Florida guys could drive in before noon and hit it at one.  It worked out very well, still does.

2.  Recruiting the best of the best to come play from the get go.  Bill Zylstra at that time was king....absolute king.  I called Bill who was wintering in Ocala about 50 miles south and he said sure he would come play.  That got me going.  I issued challenges to my buddies who are great players in south Florida.  They agreed to play.  I had to get help throughout the country so I enlisted a couple of friends Marty Carmody from Chicago who knows everybody and runs a tournament himself at the Merit Club.  Told him I needed him to round up some good players and he did.  I got Fred Peel to be in charge of L.A. and round us up some players from his scratch tour that plays in lower Alabama, the Fla Panhandle and Mississippi.  He did.  I asked John Benson in Pennsylvania to help me get some guys from up there with credentials.  He did.  His biggest catch was Chip Lutz who did not win his first try but has won everything since including two of our titles, The Canadian Sr, British Sr Am, and last year the USGA Sr Am.  Kim Schwencke from Tampa stepped up..... he has and still is recruiting players from the Bay Area and as far away as Oregon.  I coaxed Bill Ploeger from Columbus Ga to come play he is a former USGA champ  I got Greg Reynolds , who winters in St Aug, to enter he is a USGA champ.  By going after renowned players we used that as a springboard to attract other great players.  Zylstra won the first one, then Rick Woulfe from Ft. Lauderdale won in a playoff over David Brookreson from Huntington Valley in Pa.  Those two have their names on clubhouse walls coast to coast. Those kinds of headlines make for a reputation. To help entice some of these great players I enlisted several volunteers including my wife to house some of our most renowned players.  Special thanks to Dr Steve Beckett and wife Cathy, Suzanne Tumlin my wife, John and Angela Benson for helping out a lot in these early days and still do.

3. Publicity:  From the get go,  I called every golfin magazine writer I knew, told them about the studs I had in our tournament.  I got us listed in the SOS tournament calendar and other publications friendly to senior golfin.  I got the Florida Times Union to do a couple or stories.....that was the hardest thing to do get a Jacksonville newspaper to promote a pig trail tournament in Palatka but Weed helped me get that done.  I absolutely pestered the Golfweek people to death about the quality of our field being stronger than other senior tournaments.  Finally one of the writers entered and came and played.  He was astonished at how deep our field was in Sr and SSR as well.  That was a key ingredient to getting us to 1000 points (top status) by the 3rd year which I think is still the fastest a no name tournament in a no name town has every vaulted to top status.

4.  Budget and computers:  I decided from the get go we would do this entirely electronically, no mail outs , no invitations.  That costs a fortune and if my recruiters around the country spread the word and round me up email addresses we can pull it off for free dollar wise....it just took time and my time is cheap.  We have never printed a fancy application never paid a dime in mailing costs.  All the money saved goes into prizes.

5.  Entry Fees:   Another factor I looked at from a player's perspective is the cost of entry.  I had paid as high as 500 to play here and there and it weighs on you after awhile man.  I said let's make it cheap and let's pay big.  I got total cooperation from the pro shop which you can't always do at fancy country clubs.  We made food simple, fire grilled burgers next to the putting green, hot fries in the grease at all times, hot breakfast eggs and bacon on Sunday morning before the shotgun.  Buffet style and serve yourself.  It's cheap and enjoyable guys sit with each other and tell stories and visit.  Makes for a friendly atmosphere.  The first entry was $195.00 we are now up to $295.00 but 100% of the increase goes into prizes save a small ten bucks a man that I give to the men's golf associaiton they use for improvements to the course, in 2015 we bought the first roller the course has ever had.  The combinaiton of cheap and good cannot be beat.  I hate to pay 500 bucks to play somewhere and the membership couldn't care less and most wished you weren't there.  If you win something it is almost laughable.  Sure, most senior players are not there for the prize money.......but I never saw but one guy that didn't cash out with a smile.  That one guy still donates his winnings to our high school golf team and trust me they need it.  When I played high school golf in Palatka we got a shirt....one shirt....that was it.  No bags, no balls, no clubs nuttin but we didn't care, we just wanted to play

6.  Shotgun Start every day.  Now this guys, is one of the most important ingredients.  I hate to go to a big tournament with tee times.  Old friends I never see, nobody is around to talk and tell stories before or after play.  It's like you are playing with only 3 guys each day nobody else is around.  I like to visit with guys I don't see often, old friends like to catch up with old friends, have a few laughs.  Eat something together go to the range together, downright comraderie my friends is what golfin is really all about when you boil it down to the bottom of the pot.  Tee times get screwy, sometimes they are delayed or changed.  With a shotgun nobody asks what time do I play tomorrow?  Pairings are made after play and come out late......toooo many variables.  Guys traveling together can go to the course at the same time.  Shotgun makes the playing field fair.  I have won tournaments when other guys got rained on and I have lost tournaments playing 18 in the rain only to have it clear and somebody beat me by two in perfect weather that afternoon....that really pisses me off.....with a shotgun we all get rained on, we all freeze, we all sweat together and may the best man this week win.....let's not have the weather determine who has the best chance to win.  With tee times,  if you finish late you miss the groceries or go to the dinner in sweaty clothes....if you played in the morning you get tired of waiting for the dinner and your buddy is playing in the afternoon and you are bored to tears.  With a shot gun you can plan things with your friends go to dinner, go to a show etc.  Everybody is on the course and off the course at the same time.  To hell with tradition.....shotgun makes more sense period and makes for a good time for all.

7.  Pay deeep  Another thing that aggravates me at tournaments is a top heavy payout.  50 guys and they pay 5 and 5th is a dozen balls.  We pay roughly 1 of every 3 entries....I usually pay 1st and second very well, 3rd-5th the same....6th-9th the same....10th on out the same etc. just depends on how many guys are in the division.  Guys muss and fuss over that 3 footer on 18 cost them 50 bucks in prize money and go home pissed off at themselves....this helps eliminate most of that angst.  They forget the missed 3 footer when they find out it didn't cost a thing, 6th, 7th , 8th, and 9th all paid 200 bucks.  I want guys who played well to be rewarded well....afterall there isn't much difference between 3rd and 12th is there?  Why not have everybody who played fairly well go home happy.  All ties split.  Another thing I do is tell the shop if we have a payout to 12 places for example and they get two dozen a man from 10th-12th pay all ties for 12th the same too, don't split it out.  I hate splitting at the end of the payout that is silly, keep a little back in the budget for ties.....we have never been burned badly doing that and the guys who all tied for last place money go home happy instead of splitting a couple of dozen.  You can do stuff like this if your pro shop is not greedy.  Afterall this is big money in the till for a few days work I ask.....  my guys respond if you don't ask for help you ain't gonna get it.  I guess by now you can see this is a total team effort if you are going to do it right.

8.  Grease the help   Nothing like showing the help a little gratitude.....I noticed the first couple of years our employees working during the tournament gave our tournament a little extra towards all our guests.  After thinking about it the third year,  I decided  to show a little gratitude.  I cut the pot roughly 10-15 bucks a man and hand everybody a little tip the week after the tournament.  They never asked for it they do not expect it but I do it and trust me it goes a very long way towards good will and cooperation with a smile.  Our volunteers ask for nothing but I usually buy them all a high quality shirt all the same color to wear during the tournament.  They wear them with pride to show they are volunteers.  I get the paid staff a shirt too so everybody is on the same page.....it just makes people feel special and that is important.  All volunteers eat free during the tournament too it makes them feel like they are part of the whole deal.

9. Skins   In the early days I asked Kim Schwencke to help me with getting guys to sign up for the skins pot.  He is a good barker and did a great job.  Today it is so popular the Buck Brothers take care of it at registration and Mike Aaron goes around double checking and coordinating with those we missed.  It's ten bucks a day all three days.  We post skins daily on the big skins board....guys always want to see who the hell cut their eagle on 10!  I'll contnue on that one in a moment.  We pay skins on Sunday too Suzanne sends out the money for Sunday in the mail the next week.  I feel guys have somethig to play for if they are out of contention on Sunday.  Quite often we get one guy with the only skin.  Happens all the time and its usually an eagle two or an ace, rarely eagle 3 holds up which is a good thing....the bombers all tie each other and some short hitting guy who holes a 7 iron takes the pot.  Skin story and why I post the skins daily:  A few years ago at a nationally recognized venue whose name I will omit.....Doc Beckett and I were playing a team tournament and there was a huge skin pot.  I holed a mid iron on the 7th hole the final day.  Guaranteed skin.  Hardest hole on the golf course....may win the whole pot.  That was the final round Sunday.  By Tuesday I had heard nothing.  I called the shop and got a little run around from some assistant.  By Friday i got the pro on the phone and he said somebody had won all the skin money but not me and he couldn't  remember who tied my eagle two,  end of story.  You and I both know who got the only skin on Sunday.  WE post the skin scores on the big board daily and tell everybody who won what Sunday via email no later than Tues or Wednesday after the tournament.  Money goes out before Friday.  Big skin games are fun and the way to keep them fun is to do it right and be totally transparent......transparent.....I don't like that word for some reason .....how bout you?

10.  The Set UP:   This has nothing to do with Paul Newman and Robert Redford.  Traveling to senior tournaments for over ten years I heard it from day one and still hear the same things about course set up.  I have seen tournament directors fuming about pin placements, tee placements, green speed etc.  I have one rule:  Nobody selects pins but meeeee, nobody sets tee markers but meeeee, nobody sets the distance but me and I harp consistently to get the greens rolling ten.  Not nine, not eleven but ten.  Here is my theory on each.  Pins:  You cannot allow the super nor the pro shop nor a committmee man from USGA to set your pins.  They will do a fairly good job but guaranteed they will have a few crazy ones here and there every damned time.  I select the pins for each day and sometimes modify according to the wind and weather.  I will be out there with the super every morning double checking where the pins are cut.  I roll the ball around the selected spot from all directions to make sure it is okay.  We take the cup cutter with us and yes we have changed the cut after the first cut.  The last thing we want is people screaming about a 3 footer breaking a foot.  I want pins to be friendly, if you play and putt good you are rewarded simple as that.  The final day I usually try to have 14 easy pins and 4 not so easy but I am very very careful about the not so easy ones.  So why set it up easy for the final round?  Easy answer.  If you make the course too hard nobody can make a move.  Set it up easy so guys back in the back can have a great score and threaten.  Last year we had a man shoot 7 under the final day to win from 4th place starting off.  Leaders cannot sit on pars all day and I like it that way you ought to have to try hard every round.  If a course is set up super tough the final round you can make pars and cruise and nobody can touch you.  Tees:  Everywhere I go I hear guys muttering about the tees are too long here and there.  I set the tees daily the day of the tournament and take into consideration wind direction and other weather factors.  You CAN NOT set tees in advance.  How many times have we seen a 350 yard par 4 playing down wind and a 450 yarder against the wind?  That is stupid.  Set the tees according to the weather and be ready to modify the morning of the round.  Do not depend on somebody else to do it they will screw it up.  Distance:  The only guys who complain about short holes are the big hitters and they are a huge minority.  We all know and have known since day one big hitters have a huge advantage in amateur golf, senior amateur golf even on tour.  (Jordan is the exception but he is exceptional in all aspects of the game he has to be the first medium hitter in my life time to dominate to the extent he does but he does it with phenomenal accuracy with long clubs and a putter that is every bit as good as Tiger in his hey day).  Back to distance:  Short can be fun and it is fun.  Some of the toughest holes you will ever play are short such as 18 at Inverness, such as 14 at Muirfield Village such as 17 at TPC Sawgrass.  I like to take short holes and use testy pin positions....not crazy but testy.  Such as our number 6.  I play it from 125-140 yards and I use the corners.  Miss the pin six feet left and you are dead.  Fly it two steps short and you are dead.  We use 6 for our playoff hole and the final day we play it around 130 yards and stuff the pin left rear....long or left you are dead but it is flat near the hole so have a go at the stick if you gots the guts, a perfect shot will be close and stay close.  In playoffs over the years the championship has been decided immediately on a 130 yard hole.  The bomber does not have an advantage over a guy with accuracy, it is fair and square.  I play the long holes  from the front tees, I play the par 5 holes from falling off the back so hopefully nobody can get there in two.  The average hitters do not feel like they are giving up three shots going off the tee.  Competitive and fun can be same same but you gotta think about it and think about it a lot.  I want everybody happy when they leave on Sunday.  If you don't score well its your fault not the guy who set up the course.  I don't care if somebody breaks the course record,  I don't care if guys shoot in the 60s every day I have nothing to prove.  I can set up the course so nobody can threaten par.....I mean nobody.....but what does that prove?  Nothing, our guys have fun, they have to think their way around our little golf course and they love it that way and so do I

11.  Keep It Cheap:  The first year we started at $195.00 and have followed the golden rule of business ever since till next year.  We have increased the entry every year so long as people are beating the door down to get in.  The key is to keep costs to a minimum for tournament expenses and give the increases to players in the form of prize money.  This year we are at $295.00 and we are the cheapest major senior tournament in the country by a wiiiiide margin.  Our prize money will be close to $20,000 this year.  I intend to hold the line at $295 for the next few years.  We can do that number and still pay better than any other tournament anywhere. Another thing that is important DO NOT BILL players for carts after they go home.  Include carts in the entry fees.  I hear my friends grumbling every year about bills coming in after the tournament they just forked over 500 to play in.   So, what do we not offer that other venues do offer???  Most big clubs want to put on a big dinner one night, the club takes a big  bite out of the entries for this.  Best I can tell only about 60% of the guys show up for the dinners....(me? I always show up its an insult to the club not to)......it is a huge financial windfall for the club.  That is fine,  I do not criticize for any club needing  to make money.  I simply think truth be known,  most players would prefer to play for the 50 bucks a head in prize money rather than eat it.  If I want a fancy meal, I'll  buy one.  My favorite food tournament though is at The Honors and the Lupton Cup run by Randy Yoder.  He has it right.  Players order off the menu breakfast and lunch every day.  The food is better than good.  He has a big buffet one night after play, that is really really first class guys get to mill around talk, visit, move from table to table and it goes on for a couple of hours players drift in and out at their leisure.  Get anything you want from the snack bar during the tournament that is first class all the way.   Now that is truly great and his entry fee is worth every dime for golfin and for eatin.  I could duplicate it with a catering job but Palatka is different, we wouldn't know how to act with lamb, seafood and chateau buffets......we'll stick with burgers for lunch buy your own drinks and bars......and leave it at that.  Besides,  it all comes out the same in the long run.

 

Jan 20, 2016  HEADLINES FROM LATE DECEMBER:  TUMLIN INDUCTED TO THE PMGA HALL OF FAME   HEADLINES GOLFWEEK MAGAZINE THIS WEEK:  RONNIE TUMLIN 66, AWARDED THE YANCEE FORD AWARD FOR 2015

My wife asked me what's goinng on all of a sudden, they all think you're gonna die?  I said yes of course they do but I'm gonna fool'em all.  I have always been the master of illusion whether competing for a championship coming down the stretch or promoting a new tournament as the best tournament of all time.  Tell you a very old story that my oldest friends saw and still tell today, those who are still alive anyway.  I think it was back in the late 70s around 78 I think...holy smokes I was only 28....seems like yesterday......the Florida Azalea Amateur was coming down to three guys, Walker Cupper Billy Tuten from Palatka was already out of it, which left another Walker Cupper from Atlanta and a club salesman (names forgotten to protect the innocent) and meeee.  All day long those guys kept looking in my bag to see what clubs I was hitting since I was on the tee first most of the time and not being a bomber I was usually first to hit from the fairway.  We got to the par three 16th, a nasty little hole of only 165 up a steep hill to a tiny green.  The speed that year was really quick probably in the 11-12 range.....against the wind at about 10, 75 degrees.  Pin was dead on the back, last place you want to be is over.... thats a guaranteed 4, 5 or worse.  I can feel it like it was yesterday.  I had the honor and a one shot lead.  I had been waiting all day for the right moment and the con. My caddie handed me the perfect club, a 6.  I quietly made a fuss about it was "not near enough club"  and told him to gimme a five, you have to try to do it quietly so as nobody can hear.... but make sure they do.  He looked at me like I was nuts.  My old buddy Fred Bacon (father of my caddy) was in the gallery of a hundred or so and was standing next to the tee and he looked me right in the eye and winked with a slight smile.  Fred knew me well and he was right.  I hit the five a groove high with a cut....I can still feel it....it was perfect...I talked to it saying get down get down..... it  crawled up on the front of the green about 35 feet short of the pin....I talked quietly in a whisper to my caddy in disgust there must be more wind up high than we could feel as I clearly slammed the 5 back in my bag.  The other guys then pulled 5s.  Yep both of them swallowed hook line and sinker....one guy  landed on the back of the green barely dribbled  over.....and dead. Next guy flew it!  I easily two putted to take a 2 and 3 shot lead with 2 to go.  Game , set , match.  My opponents were astonished,  I said walking to the green  "humph.....wind musta quit for a minute".......now this guys,  was back when I could hit it ... hardly any of you guys knew me back then nor did I know you but you know what I am talking about.  Golfin like that is funnnnnn.  Can't trick'em all,  only suckers fall for a trick like that but when the heat is full blast sometimes people take the bait.....I have always trusted me and the true distance, temperaturer, wind, lie, etc.  not what some other guy hits for a shot.....you never ever know when there's another Ronnie standing there.....waiting for just the right moment.

About the Fla Sr Azalea in the early years:  it stands on its own now but in the early years I personally challenged the best players I knew throughout the country that they could not beat Florida guys who they never heard of.....I pounded it over and over.....I told guys you have no idea how many tough players we have but they just don't travel.....and then of course I got guys like the Z man to sign up, Wolfeman and challenged others..... see who's already signed up?  These nationally acclaimed players aren't afraid,  why aren't you?  I got guys like Marty Carmody from the Chicago area to help recruit, Fred Peel from L.A. to help recruit, Jawney from Western Penn to help recruit.   I got a lot of responses like:  Palatka is a goat farm little dinky middle of nowhere place why i want to spend a couple of days there beating around in the sand?  My answer was simple, do you play for the competition or do you just want a nice playpin to play funsies in?  If that's the case, find a member you know at Augusta and go have fun.  Or go sign up for your member guest this spring....those are easty to win with your brother in law for a partner with 18.  If you want to find if you are as good as you think you are you gotta beat the best.  They came and came.  I had to play on people's deep inside ego.....our list of champions is phenomenal from the Zman in that first one to USGA champions, we have had at least 8 USGA champs play , only two have won so far....Chip and Dr Doug.....we have had several Golfweek SSR Champs win the SSR that would be Berger Warner and Ted Smith....Zman won the regular sr points championship several times so has Chipper.  The tournament today stands on its own, the conditions are night and day different.....it plays like a real golf course now but its still a Ross original at 5900 yards....and its still hard to break par.  Looking back at scores over the years 2-4 under wins every time for 3 rounds....amazing for a small course wide open, nothing stupid or tricky.....you just have to think of where you want to hit and putt from and be able to do it.  RT  p.s. Our Legends field this year is the biggest and strongest ever ever ever ever.....!!!  20 guys and I guarantee you they are studs!  Last year, Brian Sachs, originally from Penn and a state champion there, now resides in Gainesville blitzed the Legends....This year its gonna be a real tussel guaranteed,   I figure there are at least 5 other guys who can give Brian all he wants.....Brian, go hit some balls man it's tough to repeat....We have never had a repeat Legends Champion....something to play for. Speaking of something to play for we are still aligned with Callaway and Titleist.....show me a tournament anywhere where both manufacurers are friendly to the tournament.....they help a lot and are greatly appreciated. 

 

Jan 10, 2016  This is ridiulous, I haven't written so much for so few in years but spit keeps happening.  I had a casual friend ask me a couple of days ago if I had any clubs he could buy?  I said sure....I always have clubs....you know the drill .... every year all the manufacturers claim the new models fly farther, roll farther, higher straighter yada yada......yes you got it, I bite now and then.  So, what am I playing right now?  A set of 12 year old Mizunos.....I do have some new recoil shafts in them though....I do have a 2015 Callaway Alpha and my hybrids are 2013 vintage Callaways.....sure I tried the new hybrids....do every year but for me the 2013 models are still the best for me.  How good are those old MX900 irons?  Better than good I have yet to find a club as consistent on mis hits.....hell, any club hits good when you get a center cut....they're all good ..... but how bout that half inch towards the toe .....which is my big miss zone....my Mizunos will crawl up on the front of the green on the toe ball....most everything else I have tried falls in the bunk just short.  Anyway, back to the sale.....I have a set of 2015 Taylor Made irons SLDR...I got'em wholesale but they were still expensive.....I figure to sell my friend those,  I only played a few rounds with them they look like new....I look on ebay to see what they are selling for and am astonished to see I can buy like new irons of the same variety for 50-60 bucks apiece!  My God,  my closet reminds me of my brokerage account.....so today I will take another big hit ... yet I haven't learned a thing I'll probably bite on the next best longest club ever built.  I am the ultimate sucker.  I think we would all be thousands ahead if we simply dialed back our calendars and don't try any new clubs till they are 2 model years old but then again my 12 year olds are still the best...I now own three sets of heads of those things.... I wore the first faces completely out and am now working on the second.......footnote:  I see my old Mizunos,  if you can find them , are still holding at high prices I must not be the only one.

Footnote:  Nobody, no manufacturer, no rep pays me anything , nobody even gives me anything.....so I say what i want to.....if you want to buy some ads for this site then I am all ears, I can be bought but then I wouldn't be me would I?  Okay okay so a Callaway rep gave me a dozen of the new chrome softies coming out in a month or so....yes I like them very much way more than the curent chrome softy.....they are absolutely as good as v1 and v1x  and they feel better I swished I had a robot cause I swear in some conditions the softie goes better than the titleist but then again on other days the titleist out flies the softie....but, a robot in my hands would be a dangerous thing. RT

Jan 8, 2016  So much for global warming Al......Barack......a week ago in western North Carolina just above Ga line, I was checking out a couple of courses near a place my wife wants to rent or buy for summer inhabitance.  It was 80 when I got there, perfect golfin weather, by the time I figured out where to play in the neighborhood the high was 40 that day.  I get home yesterday and the high is 60 today with wind that ain't good here at the beach.....feels like 25.....no0000, degrees man.....the humidity amplifies the temperature with wind.  Anyway I'll take global warming in the winter.....it was 72-80 from late October to last week....now bang......winter weather.  supposed to be 72 by Saturday and a hit and giggle scramble at the club I got roped into.  Golfers are the second biggest group of suckers for fund raiser tournaments....every organization thinks golfin guys are rich and love to play scrambles for funsies and donate a hundrefootnoted bucks while doing so to the cause and the best you can win is an umbrella that won't even provide shade.  Your friends and clients who don't know much about golfin are miffed if you come up with a real good excuse why you can't make it.....they think you are on the starting blocks every weekend waiting for a fundraiser on Monday at noon.  You can't wait to get a white box with a tennis shoe in it called a sub sandwich....bread as big as Lebron's Nike....tough as a boot.....one thin slice of ham, a slice of cheese and a soggy piece of lettuce....you get a squeeze tube of mayonaise or mustard.....that my friends won't get it started down without hanging up, a tiny bag of chips and if you are lucky a store brand soda you can use to wash it down.  There might be a cookie in there too, it was baked last week.  Surely they don't......but again surely they do hire the same company nationwide to provide the dreaded "box lunch"....they are all the same.....no wait, I got it there is a manual out telling them, whoever them is......how to make a box lunch for 75 cents!  That has to be it.  Anyway, when you get through you are making it to the car fast as you can to unload, grab your phone..... play like you have an important call so you can bolt, shake hands and say how much you enjoyed it smile and tell the team to turn in the card, I gotta run.......yep, I'm an ahole ....to avoid the tennis shoe lunch and a clearly unhappy participant I do all I can to be busy on Mondays....all Mondays.....I simply tell them I will be glad to donate to the charity and leave it at that.  RT  

New Year?  Okay, hopefully we can all turn over a new chapter instead of suddenly realizing we are on the last page.  I was thinking about something my grandmother always used to say:  "A leopard doesn't change his spots"  I think what she meant was no matter how nice and pretty a person is, no matter how they smile and greet people they are still the same person they were before you walked into the room.  Now I think about Tiger.....an end to an era?  Will he ever be back?  Does anybody care?  Jordan has put us all past the Tiger era?  I was with a group of guys in a tournament a couple of months ago and while we were waiting on the snails ahead of us to plumb bob a 2 footer, somebody wondered if Tiger would make a comeback.....the group's response was in essence....who cares?  This tells me not many care any more just like Maguire....who cares he smashed the home run record...Why?  Arnold was loved long after he lost his game, Jack same thing......Norman respected to this day.....but Tiger?  You answer.  I guess it could go back to basics like these two stories I have been told first hand.  First an old friend named Jay ran a huge locker room at a huge nationally recognized and revered club.....he told me after the PGA one year, Tiger had refused to sign any autographs for the locker room staff, never said thank you for anything, expected his shoes to be shined up and ready to go every day and so on.  After the tournament Tiger stiffed them.......I didn't have to ask Jay what he thought of the man you could hear it in his voice.  He went on to tell me Phil came in after the tournament signed pictures, thanked everybody and unrolled 1500 and said pass this out to the guys as you see fit with a smile.

Another man told me a story about the local sheriff being asked to guard Tiger during a big tournament....for six days the sheriff and his deputies followed tiger on the course to the hotel , guarded his room.... the works.....not one time did Tiger acknowledge their presence or say thank you....the sheriff told the tournament committee next year hire somebody else to do the job he was done.  I can't even imagine being that full of myself with disregard for those trying to help me......go figure.

My question is this:  Tiger is on the way out....will he be held in the highest esteem like some of the other greats of the game?  Or just heralded as a great player and leave it at that.  I see on interviews lately he tries to put on a smile and seem friendly......but I keep remembering spats with Fluff, then Stevie who they say is now ready to talk.......all I remember about Tiger these days is... his play ....not a great player who is a great person.....am I wrong?  Or does anybody really care......and will Tiger change his stripes?  I know what my grandmother would say.....RT

 

December 28, 2015 Okay so I'm getting keyboard happy.....its just that these crazythings just keep happening.  As I begin my fourth career golfin comeback I am having trouble reading greens!  Why is it on TV that when I am watching a tour event the guy with a four footer ALWAYS has it straight in.....or at worst inside left or inside right......every course I play these days four footers break at least a cup....all of them!  On tour I watch as guys roll 20 footers that gently break off the left lip for a total of 4 inches of movement all gently in one direction.  At my own course here at the beach a 20 footer is likely to move three times......and the third one is away from the hole!!!!  I think these green builders/architects can't putt a lick themselves and don't want anybody else to putt either but howww is it on TV these putts seem to gently break and all in one direction.  No wonder those guys sink everything.  Not even Bubba makes anything on my course with the every day pin positions.  We all say we were puttinjessies when we were kids......now that I think about it I know why.....the greens  at the courses we grew up on were flat and tilted one direction or the other.  Most Ross greens were flat tilted down from back to front.  If you were pin high right it went left the whole way and pretty good left too, pin high left it went right and pretty hard right too.....right under the hold at six oclock dead straight and into the back of the hole....behind the hole at 12 dead straight softly and nuthin but net.  Today a down hiller from above the hole and it can go three directions and I usually have no clue which and quite often it will move three times!

The only times I see on TV the pros playing 4 footers out of the hole is in the majors and they miss a lot of them too just like we do.  Of course I know we can't putt like those guys we can't even putt like the old guys.....if we could we would be out there most likely...errr...would have been.  I've had several close friends try the tour and senior tour......when they gave it up the response why they gave it up is always the same....putting, I can't putt like those guys....even the average players are great putters.  

Exception;  In my opinion Adam Scott is the worst putting super star on tour  When he won the Masters with his tall putter a couple of years ago he missed everything he looked at the final 9 holes and hit it closer than close all nine, Mr. Magoo would have made at least 2 of'em!  When Scott finally sunk a long one to win  I said oh no, that seals the deal with out lawing the tall putter and so it came to pass.  Nevermind he didn't een hit the hole six times from inside ten.  I think the only reason he made the 20 footer to win was he n Stevei misread it!

Scott was so bad with a tall putter they should have MADE him use it forever.  I saw not long ago he won a big tournament using a shortie.....sure he did.  He hits it closer more often than anybody.....so close so often he has to make a few.  You never ever see him go on a sinkfest , he just outstrikes everybody now and then.  Hell, he can kick at it and do as good as he can with a flatstick, any flatstick.  No, not a knock on Scott just the facts......he is a great player with a jet, you don't have wings unless you can really play and he can really play he just can't putt a lick compared to the other top ten guys....not even close.  When they play majors and tricky greens he does good cause nobody sinks much except the new kid on the block.  Can you imagine Speith and Scott playing a scramble.....?

Okay, one more....who was the worst wedge player you ever saw who was a great player?????........tick tock tick tock tick tock.....bzzzzzzzz  Greg Norman.....a fantastic ball striker deadly putter but with a full wedge in his hand the gallery better keep heads up.  I have seen him hit into the grandstands with wedges many a time and when he was in the hunt..I think I know why too....he came to Palatka and played a round a few years ago when he was 50 something.....he is not tall at all, size 28 waist still but arms as long as Lebron....his arc was astounding....he still bombed it too, his long irons were superb but sure enough I saw him pull a wedge out on 18 and right into the bunk.  Great big arcs just don't like short clubs.  I still don't know why Scott can't putt a lick.   RT

 

December 22, 2015   subject:  Ain't what it used to be.  As I rapidly see another year coming to a close, I realize what Albert my barber means when he says all the time, "life's like a roll of toilet paper....the smaller the roll the quicker it disappears"  Huh?  I think that may be a Yogisim or perhaps an Albertism.  Anyway, as my roll gets smaller and smaller I reflect back on a time when I could see cars coming from each direction while sitting at a stop sign, I could look back over my right shoulder to see if anybody was in my blind spot....today I ease over and hope.....and dread hearing a horn and seeing the surely to follow finger.  Remember when you took for granted you could wait till the next hole and a group of trees?  When if it was a tweener, you took the shorter club and goosed it a little to get it there.......remember when the old guys you played with beat your brains out bouncing shots up on the green....or chipping with 7 irons from ten yards off for gimmes.......now that its my turn,  the courses are impossible to bounce a ball up on and there is no such thing as chipping you have to lob everything out of hay.  I used to love to roar up to the first tee from the office at noon on Wednesday,  in my loafers, stone cold, spikes in hand, throw'em down and drill one dead center.  No need for warming up.....now I hit balls 20 minutes, stretch, swallow pellets and still can't take a full swing till the 12th and by then its too late to bail out the round.  Today when I get to the first tee its like what my friend Douglas says:  "every day I have to invent the wheel all over again"  i.e. I can't swing it like I did yesterday so I have to start from scratch every day  and figure what is going to work today.  I long for the day again when my buddies kicked back 3 footers cause they knew I would make every single one.....today they kick'em back cause they don't wanna watch what's fixin to happen.  Remember when you didn't need Bubba for a partner?  My friend Lindy Infante, who passed away a couple of months ago, used to say his partner was a monkey.  He would send his tee shot out in the trash, reload and right down the middle and he would grumble "a monkey can hit it the second time"....walking off the green,  he would call out "Monkey made 4, Lindy made 6"  sidebar: I'll never forget after the Packers fired him the season before Favre,  he came home and said he needed one more coaching job before he could totally retire.  After his post firiing checks quit coming in several years later, he announced he would go hunt a job.  Next thing we knew he was offensive coach at the Colts, then was head a year later....then he got fired.  He came home all happy and said that should do it.  He never went back.  I asked him what happened at Indy....he said "I didn't have a pitcher, if you ain't got a pitcher you can't win"  then the next season  they drafted Peyton.....he said after the draft "see?  watch what happens,  Peyton can play and the new coach will look like a genius."  It came to pass.  Lindy was funny and a grumpy player, about a solid 8 I would say.  If he hit a good one off the tee I would say nice shot and he would growl "ahhhh it was off the heel"  One day he claimed it wasn't going anywhere after a good hit and compliment and I said "I would hate to have played for you......If I kicked up one leg and threw a bomb for touch down you would probably said I did something wrong on the play.............he grinned and said "nahhhhh ....lucky catch"  I guess he had a right to be grumpy getting fired the season before Brett and the season before Peyton.  If the Pack and Colts would think about it he should have a statue......one man made'em both champs with first rounders and he wasn't even there.

Nongolfers do not understand how we all make lifelong friends as a result of the game, near and far.  My best two living friends came to me through golfin....I have  more,  and have lost more than I care to count.  A golf buddy is special, kind of like a fishin buddy or an old dog.  Most women don't understand and that's fine.  Your real friends call out of the blue to see how you are doing, just to visit and catch up.....you know what I mean.....they care.  Some golf buddies are casual friends, but some are friends like brothers and no other past time I can think of gives such rewards.  When you get in trouble with business woes, personal tragedy or health problems you find out real quick who gives a damn about you as a true friend.  I guarantee you some true friends will surface where you least expected and some you thought were true were casual afterall.  I call the casual friends the ones who are your buddies when they see you....I have lots of those.....its not a bad thing its just the way it is......the real ones are your buddy when they don't see you.  Merry Christmas hope to see everybody in 2016.  RT

 

December 1, 2015  subject:  Tournament golfer's word is good.  Tournament golf players are always on time.  I have found over the years that when a guy calls you and says he is out of town but he is entering the tournament and will mail a check the day he gets home I can put him down on the list as entered.  I have yet a single time to get a commitment from anybody in 8 years that they do not get the check in without me having to bug'em.  

Now an extensie sidebar that is relative: I have been in the commercial and residential rental business since I was in my early 20s and I gotta tell you, there is a renter's handbook out there somewhere and I wished I could get my hands on it.  The book is probably entitled "Excuses for not paying the RENT"     Trust me, I have heard all 100 chapters of this masterpiece.  Some of my favorites:  I mailed you a check last week you should have gotten it by now, The baby was sick and had to go to the hospital and they wouldn't take us without cash in advance they took all we had,  my boss was out of town last week and isn't back yet and I got no paycheck, We ran out of baby formula and it took all we had, the electric company cut our lights off we had to go post a big deposit and pay all the back bills, the bank screwed up my checking account ,  I got audited and the IRS froze my bank accounts...that is my absolute favorite....common now, a dead beat gets audited by the IRS and they froze his checking account with 20 bucks in it?  I really hope I don't look as stupid as you think I am.  When was the last time a renter got audited?  What would the IRS squeeze out of a guy making minimum wage anyway?   Oh yeah, here's another:  My accountant messed up my book keeping and I am overdrawn......right.... like a guy paying 500 dollars a month rent has an accountant.....must be Elmer Fudd and Associates.  I had one woman swear her husband beat her up and she went to the hospital and they took all her money......several days later she told me her husband stole all her money and took off with his girlfriend?  Common, most liars can't remember the last whopper they told.  yes!  I am out of the residential rental business....been out a long time.  Sold my last commercial rental property this year.  The worst night mare from that property was an insurance company rented it, the owner was a young lady in her 30s, came highly recommeded.  She paid right on time for about a year then slowly got behinder and behinder.  She got hooked on cocaine, noooooo...I had no idea.  The rent quit coming so i went to investigate, she said the insurance companies hadn't paid her commissions on time....okay.....that's a new one,  gave it a week.  Went back only to discover a window smashed out in the back of my building and was boarded up with.....get this....cardboard.....she said she had been robbed and they stole her commission checks.  This rat was getting ripe my friends......I went by one night and saw a light on and peered into the window and she was in there sleeping on a blow up mattress......that's it!  The next day I talked to her X husband and he told me she was on crack.....I was shocked but after 30 days or so and a lawyer bill I got her thrown out and two days later somebody else threw her in......jail thank goodness.  Bottom line is there is no golfer's excuse book for not sending the entry, they always deliver when promised.

 I was once told by a wise old hustler by the name of Steve (last name with held to protect the next hustle) there are a couple of rules you must ALWAYS obey if you are going to be a golfin gambler.  First, you always pay off even if you have to go rob the 7-11 down the street, if you don't pay off word will get around fast and far.  Rule number two, never ever cheat......if you do , you will get caught eventually and you are through....and if you are in a nasty game a fat lip could be the least of your worries.  3, practice lipping out 4 footers and practice it a lot....never ever make them all especially when you don't need'em....lip'em out and cry about your bad luck...... don't make'em all till the money is right.  Lastly and rule 4 here applies to all walks of life......he said "if a man will cheat you on the golf course he will cheat you in business"  Those my friends are words to live by and remember.  We all know guys who will fudge, beware of those guys off the course.  Exception to the rule is the high handicap beater......most don't know the rules, many will fudge in the Saturday game.....new comers will tell me..... so and so just marked his ball a foot closer to the hole......my reply:  he's 79 years old , can't break 90, he's puttin for a six,  and he's on our team with a 25 handicap.  His handicap is based on his fudging.....if he didn't fudge it around he would get 36 leave it beeeeee man leave it beee, he'll probably miss it anyway..  It's just a ten dollar team bet and all the D players are about the same deal here.  Now if you see a 9 flippin the mark.....thennnnn that's another story.

Golf players are always on time  Have you ever noticed how your golfin buddies are always on time to the house to pick you up?  How they are always on time for dinner?  always on time and ready to go when you leave the hotel?  Waiting for you in their garage when you arrive 2 minutes before the appointed pick up time?  I have traveled with lots of different guys, they are always on time for everything.  This however, applies only to golfin guys.  Is it a habit from tee times?  Or is it a way of life for those who play?  Here's my own theory:  For me, time is crucial every single day......I have worked full time for over 45 years....I managed to squeeze in 3-4 rounds a week usually Wednesday, Friday, Saturday......I always had a knack for getting stuff done at the office by 11am on my golfin days....always....I always do something right now rather than tomorrow even if it did not require doing till the day after tomorrow.  I would get back to the office check messages and be home by 6 on golfin days......thatttt was before cells and texts.  But it became a habit and my secretaries over the years were amazed at my efficiency with time.......Golf players HAVE to figure it out and they do if they are going to be tournament players.  I also worked on no golf days until everything was done I never put off a job till tomorrow.   What I call casual recreational players who work are different, they show up 2 minutes before tee time with a sandwich in one hand , cell in the other....they shoot their 82 and they are happy....they don't play tournament golf.....but I'm happy they are happy no big deal.  Golfin needs recreational players.  RT

 

November 20, 2015  I think my best golfin buddy Doc Beckett may have figured out why he hits a V1 farther than a V1X and why I hit the 1X farther than the V1.  It never dawned on me.  We think it is because he is more of a sweeper taking small shallow divots if any.  His spin rate is rather low with all shots including the driver.  My spin rate is much higher so the V1 really spins and doesn't go as far for me.....duhhhhhhh.  I have always been a Titleist man since i was a kid, but the Callaway rep has me real interested in the new chrome soft coming out in February 2016.  He gave me a couple of sleeves and said try'em.  Never one to turn down free balls I did indeed and discovered immediately my objection to the original chrome softie has been corrected.  I couldn't control the original around the greens at all or with short wedge shots it went wild....he said they tamed that part down and the ball was a wee bit harder than the original softie but softer than the X ball.  He is right it is and it feels good.  It flies  exactly the same for me as the X and it stops just as good same same only it is softer which I like.  It chips the same too.  BUT I find one huge difference so far and I cannot figure this one out at all.  This 2016 chrome soft likes the hole.  No, I swear ..... it doesn't lip out, it lips in!  I have switched back and forth dozens of times the softie likes the hole better than the X and its not me man, I want the X to be better .....hells bells I have 12 dozen at the house piled up.  I am down to one softie right now so I don't dare tee off with one in a tournament but just fooling around in the Friday game I am telling you it likes the hole noticeably.  Maybe I'm nuts its going to take a scientific physicist to figure this one out I am at wits end.  I do make this prediciton.  The "new' 2016 version of the chrome soft is going to put a big dent in Titleist sales with guys who have to pay full price for balls even with better players.  I gave a couple to different buddies and they all said the new softie feels good and goes as good and puts better.....every single one of them......and my friends the best testing facility is with players themselves in real playing conditions.  I am not ready to shuck my X balls not by a long shot but I think a biiiiiig marketing fight is on the horizon cause the softie will be much cheaper.  RT

November 16, 2015  I had the pleasure of playing golf with a legend from the Vero Beach area this past weekend Mr. Dick Bird.  He said he played a year at UF with Aaron, Beard etc....I nodded......told him they won the Fla Azalea Amateur when it was a two man event in Palatka.....he said Palatka?  I said yeah that's where I grew up....he asked me if I knew Billy Turner a little short guy who fidgeted all the time.  I said sure......everybody knows "61 Willie"  Willie Kay Turner......Dick couldn't believe it and told me all about Turner setting the NCAA record for the lowest round ever shot in an official match a 61 on par 72.  That was back in the late 50s man with woodies, blades and marsh mellow balls on relatively rough greens.  I said yep, that's Billy Turner from Palatka and he is still alive and I know the record still stands for UF,  don't know about NCAA anymore.  Palatka has a storied history for a muni.  Babe Ruth was a regular during the off season.  He stayed down town at my grandfather's hotel or sometimes rented a room at a house down on River Street.  He loved to fish and play golf and put on exhibitions at the ball park. Fishing in the river was world famous for bass.  Still is, ESPN comes to town every year to film a tournament of national interest. Palatka had a Red Legs farm team for years andhe would join in on exhibition games.  Ruth and Bob Feller would come out to the golf course regularly and whack it!  Why Palatka?  Why have so many greats played here?  I don't know exactly why except that it has always been a hangout for hustlers, kids were always welcome to play and dozens grew up there including me who went on to major college scholarships, we have produced a basket full of head professionals who had big time jobs all over the country.  We had a Walker Cupper grow up in Palatka, a two time USGA Public Links winner grow up in Palatka......okay it was the same kid....Billy Tuten who got a full ride to Houston where he played with Couples and Elkington as a starter.  We had a national long drive finalist in the 90s Greg Bacon who grew up on the course.  Just a few years ago Greg Norman showed up and played 18 with his son who was entered in the 58 year old Florida Azalea Amateur.  Norman shot two under par and had just turned 50 I think it was.  A couple of months later he almost won the British Open his last great performance.  Norman told us he wasn't much interested in playing the PGA Senior tour and never did play much either.  I had never been up close to Norman but was big time surprised at how small he really is but he had long arms, big hands, a huge arc and a 29 inch waist even at fiftyish.  He hit the ball a long way.  Norman told us he liked Palatka (probably just being nice) and that it reminded him of Harbor Town. (UPDATE DEC 2015 The great Billy Willie Kay Turner, Mr 61 passed away unexpectedly).

November 12, 2015   Entries are now open for our Florida Senior Azalea Amateur at the world renowned Palatka Golf Club, a golf course originally built to plans drawn by Donald Ross.  The layout is still the same today as it was in 1925.  Changes include a new clubhouse freshly remodeled again in 2015, new fairway grass installed by Bobby Weed golf course management company in charge, new par 3 tees leveled and sodded in 2015.  I can go into some history briefly right now and will be adding to it time to time right here so check back time to time.  When I was a kid in the 50s the golf course had no sprinkler system, the sand spurs were so bad on the course we wore leggings we got from the military surplus store, some of the men still had theirs from WW II which was only ten years ago in 1955.....think about that a minute.  I distinctly remember seeing Mo Norman hanging around the club and usually playing by himself....he carried his own bag a little canvas green stick bag....remember those????  I can remember when Ford Thompson showed up with the first golf cart I had ever seen, it was a one man stick steer job with a gasoline engine.  That was the beginning of the end of the shop renting pull carts for 25 cents a round.  I remember lots of people had their own folding pull carts in their trunk.....when was the last time you thought about that????  Ok ok you guys up north of the line still pull carts I know......come down here in July and try it, if we only played June to Sept we could pull carts too most likely with highs in the 60s and low 70s.  Anyway back in the old days the fairways were so hard it was like playing in the desert.....and on one too.....on the 5th hole we would hit a fade at the left rough and watch the ball roll a hundred yards to the corner of the leg right..... and in high school even short hitters could get there in two.  With the sprinkler system and new grass we now have only bombers can get it past the corner.  It's the same course but its not the same either.

The great Tommy Bolt was a regular visitor and he used to tell me, "son, if a kid grows up playing here hitting the ball outa the trash you got in the rough he can play anywhere"  Bolt told me PALATKA  was one of the few courses he ever played that he usually used every club in the bag during the round....think about that awhile...........  Ben Hogan once said he took his 7 out for the Open at Oak Hill in Rochester saying there were no 7 iron shots on the course....but then that was Hogan.  RT

FORMER COMMENTARY BEFORE THIS SITE WAS BUILT:

SOMETIME IN 2013 I THINK:  Scott Northey asked me to rewrite the one about "the golf course don't care"  in 2013 I was driving home with my friend Rob Hess as we had just completed the September trek to the northlands of Pennsylvania and New York tournaments.  I had played lousy......again......and on the radio came a song called "Highway Don't Care"  its a great one if you listen to it.....it goes on to say the highway don't care if you're alone a long way from home, highway don't care if you miss the ones back home.....I think it was written for truck drivers mostly......it got me to thinkin about my golfin the past three weeks up north.......nobody cares I played lousy, nobody cares but meeeee.  The golf course damned sure doesn't care that every good putt I hit lipped out, the golf course couldn't care less that I landed in a divot on the 18th at Sunnehanna and made double to ruin a good round.....the golf course don't care!!!!

In the locker room everybody asks how you played?  They really don't much care......the guys who played well ask you that because they want you to ask them how THEY played!  You are correct they are the ones who did indeed play well.  In light of this realization I shall make it a point to only ask guys how they played if I play lousy....if they stunk it up too then we can both comiserate on how the golf course gave us the business......then again, the golf course really doesn't care that a gust of wind out of nowhere blew your ball down into the drink......the golf course doesn't care that your perfect shot hit a sprinkler head and vaulted out of bounds.....yes, I have had that happen and come to think about it the damned sprinkler doesn't care one little bit either so why complain to anybody?  I challenge you to do this:  go tell some golf buddy a golfin woe about your bad luck the next round....wait a week or so then ask him if he remember how you got screwed last Saturday?  Hell, he doesn't even remember you were there last Saturday.  In summation no matter how bad the breaks......and yes there are some days and even some tournaments good shots are not so good, marginal shots are bad and bad shots are real badddd, remember the golf course doesn't care, only you do.  I have never heard anybody in the locker room tell tales of all the bad breaks his playing partner had.....you will hear lots about the guy who got a good bounce every time and how half a dozen putts took a lap before falling.

Which reminds me of the craziest bounce sequence I have ever seen.....it happened in the Fla State Club Team Championship back maybe 15 years ago we were playing in Vero Beach and Palatka was in the hunt the final round.....Bill Moore from Tampa needed a par on 18 badly.....I was already on the green and one down......Bill mis hit his 5 iron and it landed on the rocks surrounding the pond infront of the green.  Now picture this.....the ball bounced 30 high and forward left......into a tree left of the green.....it landed on a cormorant.....that's a bird that fishes in ponds.....the bird, startled , flapped violently at this projectile from hell and literally flapped it back onto the green..... for a .....a gimme!  I think in that instance the golf course did care indeed.....this is a true story the names have not been changed to protect the guilty.  I can still see the entire shot, Bill the last time I talked to him did not remember....I doubt the golf course remembers either.  RT