Greetings Golfer,

Tiger Woods. Obviously the man can play golf. No one disputes that. But he is involved in a lot of disputes.

People get pretty wound up about Tiger. The other day, a guy posted on YouTube a recap of Tiger’s shot that went into the water during the last round of the Players Championship. The poster believed that Tiger took an improper drop. The comment section went crazy! Not angry at Woods – but angry at the YouTube poster.

Most of the angry comments were not even rational – just ugly name calling. I have a hard time understanding that kind of hero worship. I respect loyalty – but this is different. This is blindly defending a person they’ve probably never even met, and then reacting by foaming at the mouth – maybe they need rabies shots.

Earlier in the Players Championship, while playing in a twosome with Sergio, Tiger pulled out his club while Sergio was in the middle of his swing – the crowd roared and Sergio hit a poor shot. After the round, Sergio complained about Tiger’s action, and Tiger replied that the Marshal had told him that Sergio had already hit his shot. The other day, two Marshals denied telling Tiger that Sergio had hit his shot. And the next day, two other Marshals announced that they did tell Tiger that Sergio had hit his shot. What do you think really happened?

Let’s go back to Tiger’s drop on Sunday. The YouTube poster believes that Tiger’s shot immediately went over the water and that Tiger shouldn’t have dropped so far up the fairway. Tiger’s playing opponent – Casey Wittenberg – agreed with Tiger’s drop, so the Rules Officials didn’t need to get involved – all you need is the agreement of your playing opponent. So… what if Sergio had been Tiger’s playing opponent on Sunday when Tiger hit that ball in the water?  How much of a “dispute” do you think that would have turned into?

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com

Greetings Golfer,

It’s been a wobbly start to the golf season. Usually the first week of April is the Masters, ice out on the lakes, and the start of the MN golf season.

This year, the first/second week of May is the Players Championship, ice out/fishing opener, Mother’s Day, and the start of the MN golf season.

Pretty different start.

But now we’re rocking – wobbly no more. In fact, to celebrate the new season, we are hosting FunPlayFriday on May 17.

We have been bombarded with requests for the FPF schedule for 2013. Though such a schedule does not exist, we hope to host a FPF every month.

Our mantra for the last five years was “Fun at the Run”. Our new mantra is “Welcome to the Real Magic Kingdom”. Thus the theme for next week’s FunPlayFriday. Does this new theme mean that the fun is gone from Deer Run? Hardly. We will always have fun at the Run. But DRGC is even more than fun. DRGC has always respected the roots of this game of Scottish shepherds – the ancient, magical, mystical experience that is golf.

Maybe we started a little late this year, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be a great year at “The Real Magic Kingdom”.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com

Greetings Golfer,

The latest issue of GOLF WORLD is all about slow play. It’s mostly focused on the PGA Tour, but also on how Tour slow play affects recreational golf.

What’s hilarious, is that the article cites a 1965 GOLF DIGEST cover story headlined “Crisis in American Golf”, that’s all about slow play. Think about it – that was almost 50 years ago – not a lot of progress has been made on the Tour or with recreational golf. That’s because both controlling organizations – the PGA Tour and the PGA of America – don’t want to make anyone mad. That’s a pretty wimpy attitude. They’d rather make a lot of people angry than have to deal with a confrontational situation.

So, the Masters got “tough” and penalized a 14-year-old amateur from China for slow play… on the 17th hole! Really? Go after the big-name guys who are slow – there’s a ton of ‘em.

And golf courses need to enforce pace of play. Obviously this involves common sense – a quality not so common. For years, my Ranger meetings were all about the 3 C’s – Courtesy, Communication, and Common Sense. That pretty much handles every situation for a Ranger. But, I once had a Ranger who used to plant himself on the 17th hole… he never thought that hole 17 is a little late in the round to ranger people?

Why was he on #17? Because he didn’t like confrontations. Most of us don’t. But, some of us have a responsibility to keep play moving at a reasonable rate – the PGA Tour and PGA Club Pros have that responsibility.

If slow play wasn’t tolerated on Tour or on golf courses, GOLF WORLD could have articles about fast play. How about an article about the 3 C’s – Courtesy, Communication, and Common Sense?

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com

Greetings Golfer,

The big word in sales nowadays is connection. I love it. In my youth, I went through a lot of sales training and sales seminars – they were not about connection. They were about manipulation.

If you want to break a connection with someone – make them feel manipulated.

Ignoring isn’t good either. Ironically, people connecting on cell phones are often ignoring the people they’re with. How messed up is that?

There has been a lot of emphasis on connection in the golf swing. Jimmy Ballard was probably the first teacher to emphasize connection. Ballard also emphasized “firing the right side” – which I love. The old Jack Nicklaus idea of pulling the club down with the left side doesn’t work for most people. If you’re swinging right-handed, you’re probably better off firing the right side, rather than pulling down with the left.

Here’s the test – would you deliver a more powerful blow by back-handing someone with your left hand, or punching them with your right hand?

Most people’s golf swings becomes disconnected because they don’t fire the right side – they hang back and slap at the ball.

So, this is our year for connection. Let’s connect with the people in our life… and keep our swing connected by firing the right side.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com

Greetings Golfer,

This is ridiculous – you know what I mean … I won’t even talk about it.

But, I will talk about South Carolina. Did you watch any of the PGA tournament yesterday at Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island? It was sunny and in the 70’s. Our local lad – Tim Herron – posted a 1 under par, 71. He’s always played well there – you have to be a good ball striker to play well there – that’s one of the best courses on Tour.

Harbour Town is the natural next stop after the Masters – Augusta is just a couple of hours away from Hilton Head. How good was the Masters? Every year I say “That was the best Masters ever”. Seriously – I really do … and I said it again last weekend. Obviously the back nine at Augusta National makes for an incredible finale – Bobby Jones and Alister MacKenzie knew what they were doing.

I’m not going to go into the whole Tiger Woods/penalty situation here. I’m not running from it – hardly. Just not enough time to do it justice. But, if you do want to read the rant of a madman about the whole situation, read my column in the May issue of Tee Times magazine – the golf magazine of MN.

We are hoping to open before May (words I thought I would never speak). As I said last week – I’ll keep in touch.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com

Greetings Golfer,

I wouldn’t call this Christmas in April. Seeing school closings running on the bottom of the screen while watching the Masters is pretty weird.

As everybody loves to remind me – we had already been open for a month at this time last year. But don’t worry about us, we’ll be ok. Business wise, May is the make or break month. The summer is pretty consistent every year. A long, late fall is not the big deal everybody thinks it is. By November, we don’t have any sunlight and usually have frost – the window to tee off is about from 10am – 12:30pm. Not worth the damage done to the course.

But May has tons of daylight – 6am until 9:30pm – that’s when we can make hay. Make hay? Yeah – we’re like farmers – dependent on the weather.

Now you know “The rest of the story”. But what about the Masters? That’s a better story. Obviously T Woods is the favorite, and off to a good start. Sergio Garcia has been playing well and this could be his time. You’d have to think Sergio will win a Major during his career, and the Masters is a pretty good fit for his game.

But what’s really interesting is the 14 year old kid from China. Think about it – at that age playing on the High School Varsity Golf Team is a big deal… but playing in the Masters? Unimaginable. Hope he makes the cut.

We were planning on opening Monday the 15th… I’ll keep in touch.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com

Greetings Golfer,

Have you seen the video of the Rutgers’ basketball coach throwing balls at his players? He was going crazy, also hitting and kicking the kids. This wasn’t an isolated incident – this was his “coaching style.”

Leadership comes in many forms – some not so good, some very good. I just read an article in the Sun-Sailor about the retiring principal of Minnetonka High School. He said “If you really want to have a good high school, it has to be about the culture within the high school. It’s more about expectations than rules. Culture’s tough to build, but when you do it, you know it.” That is what good leadership is all about.

Throwing balls at players? That’s lazy leadership. It’s not putting in the time and effort to build a culture where people grow and thrive.

Let’s hope that the Gopher’s new basketball coach can build a strong, healthy culture – it can’t happen overnight. I hope he’s committed and not just using the U of M as a stepping stone.

At least the U didn’t hire that Rutgers’ coach.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com

Greetings Golfer,

It’s not fun admitting when you’re wrong. I didn’t think that T. Woods would come back to the top after his “accident.” In fact, I publicly said so in a newspaper column.

So here it is: I was wrong about Mr. Woods. Why did I make such a brash statement in a newspaper? Well, I thought that Woods was a front-runner. I didn’t think that he had the fortitude to pull himself up from a hard fall. He’d been a star ever since he was a kid – on the Mike Douglas Show as a 2 year old – and won everything as a junior golfer.

He then won 3 US Amateur Championships in a row and took the PGA Tour by storm as a professional. But for all of his success, he seemed to only win tournaments that he was leading after the 3rd round. He was not known for coming back from behind.

But, he has come back from behind – with his golf game. He has won 6 of his last 20 tournaments, and 3 of 5 in 2013.

Will he top Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 majors? Who knows? But he will beat Sam Snead’s record of 82 wins.

Is Woods a likable guy? I don’t think so – but he has been good for golf – especially tv ratings. Is he arrogant and disingenuous?  That’s your call. But he has more guts and fortitude than I thought – have to give credit where credit is due.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com

Greetings Golfers,

Last year at this time (March 15) we were open.

That was crazy – happens about once every 20 years. Normal opening for us is around April 5 – which is what we’re shooting for this year. That’s only 3 weeks away.

So while we’re getting the Course, and the Shop, Clubhouse, Restaurant, Carts, Events, and Leagues ready to go … you need to get your golf house in order, too.

How are your clubs doing? Your golf shoes? Balls? Bag?
Golf swing? Flexibility? Attitude?

I’m pretty fired-up. Watched the Doral on the tube last weekend. How good was that Leaderboard? How about Tiger’s putting?

We’re selling rounds of golf at a discount – known as our Loyal Player Packages – it’s a good deal. As you know, we’re not discount central – we can’t be … not if we want to provide a good product. We have the ground-breaking mission of providing a good product for a fair price. That’s why we’re still in business and still have a nice place.

Enough talk of economics. The golf season is a blink away. Let’s get ready.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com

Greetings Golfers,

‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

Did you know that Lord Tennyson was referring to his golf game? Well, maybe not his… but that’s how I feel about mine.

What I’m trying to say is that it’s still worth the heart-ache to keep playing golf. Some people get older, or hurt, or whatever… and decide that it’s not worth playing anymore because they can’t play as well as they used to.

I played a lot of golf this winter. Was it razor sharp? Hardly. Was it frustrating? Golf – frustrating? Naw… never. Of course at times it was frustrating – but most of the time it was a gas… and worth it.

Years ago we had a dog named Woody. I was ridiculously attached to Woody. When he died… I almost died – it was beyond heart-breaking. I told my wife that we could never have another dog – I couldn’t go through that again.

But, a few months later… she started sending me pictures of puppies. Well, you know what happened… we got Harvey. Just a few minutes ago, I looked at Harvey sleeping in his bed – he’s almost 9 years old. I know that I’ll probably out live him, and I don’t how I’ll deal with it… but, it’s still worth it.

Golf, dogs, love, getting old… it’s all worth it.

Lord Tennyson was a wise man.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com