Black Friday is coming… Details will be revealed soon!
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Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Black Friday is coming…
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Weekly Update: Lots of exciting stuff coming up!
THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING THE OPEN FORUM!
We had a very productive and positive Forum Meeting last week, thank you to everyone that came out and shared your ideas and input with us. Our Committee is going through the final formation process and we are excited and thankful for our member support. Fall has been a great time to play golf here, we have had some great weather and awesome events. Make sure you come by and support the EOY Halloween Bash!
Ryan Talbot – GM
UPCOMING EVENTS
10/25 | “End of Year” Halloween Bash |
Come join us for some snacks as we bid farewell to another great season here at the Club! We will have LIVE MUSIC from PAPA TIM & The Desperate Man’s Blues EXPLOSION! Wear your best costume and bring your party pants! 
5- 9 PM
We will be closed on Saturday, 10/26 for a private event beginning at 5 PM
10/27 | Halloween Paint Event with Brandy Marshall of Canvases and Cocktails | 1 PM | Open to Wizards of all ages! Don’t forget your costume and wizard wands! You can purchase tickets HERE.
11/8 | Improv Night with the “Dopple-bloopers” | More information to come
11/15 | “Friendsgiving” | Please join us on Friday 11/15 for a family-style Thanksgiving buffet with all the fixings! Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, carrots, the list goes on! The price will be $12 per person. We will take care of all the traditional fixins’, bring a dessert to share with everyone!
Feel free to bring as many friends and family members as you would like! If you can, please call ahead of time to give us a headcount. Dinner will be served from 5- 7 PM. We hope you can join us! Download our flyer HERE.
2020 MEMBERSHIP IS HERE!
2020 membership is HERE at the Bath Golf Club & it’s better than ever! Great rates, great benefits, & great golf. Don’t forget about our referral program.
MAKE SURE YOU INQUIRE ABOUT YOUR 2020 MEMBERSHIP TO SAVE $200!
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Learn more about the members that make up our golf family!
Member Spotlight: Todd Flaherty
Todd Flaherty, long-time member and friend to us all, has such a personal connection with the Bath Golf Club along with many of its members.
He is someone we all look forward to seeing, playing golf with, and spending time with! He appreciates the history of the club and will always consider this place part of his “home”.
He, along with his wife, Kate, are two friendly faces who enjoy playing in Sunday morning matches and Tuesday afternoon member games.
As the Colonial League President, he is a huge supporter in the club “comradery” and has nothing but positive things to say. We appreciate all of the time and effort he takes to keep the league running smoothly and encouraging players to have a cocktail and relax on the porch afterwards. “Put it on the Todd-Tab.”
Thanks for your continued membership and support of the Bath Golf Club.
GIVE BACK TO THE COMMUNITY WITH US!
Every Tuesday in October, we will be donating 10% of our green fees & 10% of our food sales to Midcoast Humane!
Midcoast Humane provides nearly 3,500 pets with essential care every year. They provide vaccinations and exams, medicine, spay/neuter procedures, healthy food, enrichment and love! Book your tee time today to support this great cause!
FOOD & DRINK SPECIALS
This week, Aaron will be offering Chili Dogs with fries for $8! 
Another great way to enjoy his award-winning chili and warm up from the cooler temperatures that have been creeping in!
FALL HOURS
Sunday | 10 AM – 3 PM
Monday | CLOSED
Tuesday | 2- 8 PM *Taco Tuesday & Cornhole League
Wednesday- Thursday | 11 AM – 6 PM
Friday- Saturday | 11 AM – 7 PM
Don’t forget our weekly specials:
Taco Tuesday | $5 House Margaritas & 2 for $6 tacos
Thursday | Ladies Day | 10% off food & drinks for all ladies
Saturday & Sunday | Drink Specials | $5 Bloody Mary’s & Mimosas
The post Weekly Update: Lots of exciting stuff coming up! appeared first on The Bath Golf Club.
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
See what’s new at the club!
UPCOMING EVENTS
10/15 | Fall Cornhole League starts | Cornhole League is officially FULL! We are always looking for SUBS! Come out and support the competition, enjoy the fun, and stock up on tacos and margarita specials!!! Sign up for Spring Cornhole League has begun as well, ask your bartender for details!
10/25 | “End of Year” Halloween Bash |
Come join us for some snacks as we bid farewell to another great season here at the Club! Wear your best costume and bring your party pants! 5- 9 PM
We will have some great spooky drink specials and music! And also a Costume Contest with a 1st prize!
We will be closed on Saturday, October 26th for a private event beginning at 5 PM
10/27 | Halloween Paint Event with Brandy Marshall of Canvases and Cocktails | 1 PM | Open to Wizards of all ages! Don’t forget your costume and wizard wands! You can purchase tickets HERE.
2020 MEMBERSHIP IS HERE!
2020 membership is HERE at the Bath Golf Club & it’s better than ever! Great rates, great benefits, & great golf. Don’t forget about our referral program.
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Learn more about the members that make up our golf family!
Bill Turcotte
A long-time member of the Bath Golf Club, Bill is always a wonderful friendly face to see around the course.
We appreciate the time and effort he puts into the annual Pipe Shop Scramble, a Bath Iron Works tournament, that brings out a ton of golfers to the course for the day! What an event we enjoy having!
Bill enjoys bringing his wife out to enjoy dinner on the porch after an afternoon of golf.
He is always the first to support the club in sharing our upcoming events on facebook, dining with us on Prime Rib Night, and playing in weekly leagues and games.
Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to many years of golf with you to come!
GIVE BACK TO THE COMMUNITY WITH US!
Every Tuesday in October, we will be donating 10% of our green fees & 10% of our food sales to Midcoast Humane!
Midcoast Humane provides nearly 3,500 pets with essential care every year. They provide vaccinations and exams, medicine, spay/neuter procedures, healthy food, enrichment and love! Book your tee time today to support this great cause!
FOOD & DRINK SPECIALS
It’s Back! It’s Back! Aaron’s Award-winning Barbacoa Chili is officially on the menu! End of the Season Hours – Starting Tuesday, October 15th
FALL HOURS
Sunday | 10 AM – 3 PM
Monday | CLOSED
Tuesday | 2- 8 PM
Wednesday- Thursday | 11 AM – 6 PM
Friday- Saturday | 11 AM – 7 PM
Don’t forget our weekly specials:
Taco Tuesday | $5 House Margaritas & 2 for $6 tacos
Thursday | Ladies Day | 10% off food & drinks for all ladies
Saturday & Sunday | Drink Specials | $5 Bloody Mary’s & Mimosas
The post See what’s new at the club! appeared first on The Bath Golf Club.
Monday, October 14, 2019
Learn how to invite a friend when you book online!
GOLF IS BETTER WITH FRIENDS.
Did you know that you can book a tee time online & invite friends to golf with you for your tee time?
Our online booking engine makes it simple for golfers to invite other golfers so you can tee it up with your friends! Here’s how:
1. BOOK YOUR TEE TIME ONLINE
Click the button below to book your tee time online, then select the time you want to golf.
Need a little extra help? Click HERE to watch our “How-To Video” to learn how to book online.
2. ADD ANOTHER GOLFER
When you confirm your tee time, add the friends you want to invite to golf with you!
DONE!
Your friend will receive an alert that you invited them to play!
The post Learn how to invite a friend when you book online! appeared first on The Bath Golf Club.
Monday, September 30, 2019
Check out this week’s Weekly Report!
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 30
UPCOMING EVENTS
On Sunday, October 13th, we will be hosting our annual Parent-Child Scramble! There will be a shotgun start at 2 PM. This great event will consist of a 2-man 9-hole scramble. Children 17 and under play from the reds, and everyone 18 and older play from the whites. $40 per team will include greens fees, a cart, and a pasta dinner buffet to follow. Please call the pro-shop to sign up and for more information.
10/13 | Parent-Child Scramble | 2 PM Shotgun start | 2-man, 9-hole scramble | $40 per team | download the flyer HERE and spread the word!!
10/15 | Fall Cornhole League starts | The best competitive cornhole around. To signup, give us a call, stop by the bar, or email Jaime at Jaime@thebathgolfclub.com and she will get you all signed up! If you can’t find a partner, we can help you out!
Grab your best buddy & head on over to The Bath Golf Club every Tuesday for our much anticipated Fall Cornhole League!
Only $25 per player every Tuesday from 10/15- 12/17.
*Please note our Fall hours have changed slightly, but the weather has allowed for us to continue sitting on the porch and we would love to have you join us!
2020 MEMBERSHIP IS HERE!
2020 membership is HERE at the Bath Golf Club & it’s better than ever! Great rates, great benefits, & great golf. Don’t forget about our referral program.
COURSE CONDITIONS
We are happy to announce that we have successfully punched ALL Greens and Tees! They have responded exceptionally well, and we are in great shape to finish the rest of the Fall Season strongly, as well as to set ourselves up to hit the ground running to begin the 2020 Spring Season.
We apologize for any inconvenience, but hope that everyone understands this is only temporary. Before long, our course will be in much better condition because of this process.
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Learn more about the members that make up our golf family!
Anne Page
A favorite among all of us here at the Bath Golf Club, Anne Page has been a crucial part of our “member family” for many years.
She is always one of the first to step up and support the club in any way she can, has nothing but positive, loving things to say, and will “recruit the troops” to enjoy beautiful days on the fairways and on the porch. Spending her Friday afternoons with the girls on the course, and enjoying Taco Tuesday with the “Barracuda” Tacos, Anne will always bring a smile to your face!
You can hear her laugh above the crowd, and you will not meet a warmer more loving person. We are so happy to have her as part of our family.
GIVE BACK TO THE COMMUNITY WITH US!
Every Tuesday in October, we will be donating 10% of our green fees & 10% of our food sales to Midcoast Humane!
Midcoast Humane provides nearly 3,500 pets with essential care every year. They provide vaccinations and exams, medicine, spay/neuter procedures, healthy food, enrichment and love! Book your tee time today to support this great cause!
FOOD & DRINK SPECIALS
FALL HOURS
Monday – Thursday | 11 AM – 7 PM
Friday | 11am – 8pm
Saturday | 11 AM – 7 PM
Sunday | 10 AM – 6 PM
*Please be advised, The bar and restaurant will be closing at 2 PM on Saturday, October 5th, for a Private Event for the Evening.*
In the next week, we will be transitioning to our Fall Menu with a couple of great new options for all guests! Be sure to come and see what we are offering! Aaron’s award-winning Chili, Chicken and Sausage Gumbo and fresh from the boat, and Haddock Fish and Chips to name a few!
Don’t forget our weekly specials:
Taco Tuesday | $5 House Margaritas & 2 for $6 tacos
Thursday | Ladies Day | 10% off food & drinks for all ladies
Saturday & Sunday | Drink Specials | $5 Bloody Mary’s & Mimosas
The post Check out this week’s Weekly Report! appeared first on The Bath Golf Club.
Monday, September 23, 2019
See what’s new this week at The Bath!
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 23
UPCOMING EVENTS
9/29 | Shipbuilder’s Scramble | Outside Event, please call the Pro Shop for details.
10/15 | Fall Cornhole League starts | The best competitive cornhole around. To signup, give us a call, stop by the bar, or email Jaime at Jaime@thebathgolfclub.com and she will get you all signed up! If you can’t find a partner, we can help you out!
Grab your best buddy & head on over to The Bath Golf Club every Tuesday for our much anticipated Fall Cornhole League!
Only $25 per player every Tuesday from 10/15- 12/17.
2020 MEMBERSHIP IS HERE!
2020 membership is HERE at the Bath Golf Club & it’s better than ever! Great rates, great benefits, & great golf. Don’t forget about our referral program.
COURSE CONDITIONS
In the last few days, we were able to repair the cart path headed to the tee on hole #14.
We also continued our preparation on the aeration of the greens and our plan will be to start this project in the next week.
Our staff has been very appreciative of the patience you have shown, and we look forward to having your continued support in the weeks to come.
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Learn more about the members that make up our golf family!
Johnny Johnston
If you stop by the course any day of the week at 10 oclock, you will see Johnny Johnston out here running his game like he has been for as long as we can remember.
His presence here can turn anyone’s day around with his amazing personality and his enthusiasm to build member morale with participation in his match games. You can always hear his Corvette as soon as he turns onto Whiskeag Road on his way to his “home away from home.”
Johnny was a long time employee of BIW, and has spent many years at the Golf Club during his time employed and during retirement creating friendships and bonds with members and families alike. Thank you Johnny for your countless years and effort in support to our golf community.
GIVE BACK TO THE COMMUNITY WITH US!
Every Tuesday in September, we will be donating 10% of our green fees & 10% of our food sales to Oasis Free Clinics!
Oasis Free Clinics are the only clinics in Midcoast Maine offering free medical & dental services to those who have no health insurance & cannot afford to pay for care. Book your tee time today to help us support this great organization!
FOOD & DRINK SPECIALS
FALL HOURS
Monday – Thursday | 11 AM – 7 PM
Friday | 11am – 8pm
Saturday | 11 AM – 7 PM
Sunday | 10 AM – 6 PM
*This week, we will be closing at 4 PM on Saturday for a Private Event.*
In the next week, we will be transitioning to our Fall Menu with a couple of great new options for all guests! Be sure to come and see what we are offering! Aaron’s award-winning Chili, Chicken and Sausage Gumbo and fresh from the boat, and Haddock Fish and Chips to name a few!
Don’t forget our weekly specials:
Taco Tuesday | $5 House Margaritas & 2 for $6 tacos
Thursday | Ladies Day | 10% off food & drinks for all ladies
Saturday & Sunday | Drink Specials | $5 Bloody Mary’s & Mimosas
The post See what’s new this week at The Bath! appeared first on The Bath Golf Club.
Monday, September 16, 2019
See what’s new at The Bath!
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 16
UPCOMING EVENTS
SEPTEMBER
22 | 2nd Annual Parent/Child Scramble | 2-person 9-hole scramble | 2 PM shotgun start | $40 entry per team includes golf, cart, & pasta dinner
28 | Hickory Stick Invitational | 18 Hole, 2 Man Scramble, with both Gross & Net Divisions. $25 per player w/ optional $10 per player cart.
29 | Shipbuilder’s Scramble | Outside Event, please call the Pro Shop for details.
Click HERE for a list of this year’s golf events.
An event we would like to highlight coming up on September 28th is the Hickory Stick Tournament. This will be the 1st event of its kind held here at the Bath Golf Club. Hickory Golf is a tradition that this course was built on & is a growing society across New England gaining much traction over the years. We encourage our members & guests to participate in this great event or to come out & see some of the action.
Please call the pro-shop at (207) 442-8411 for more details and information.
2020 MEMBERSHIP IS HERE!
2020 membership is HERE at the Bath Golf Club & it’s better than ever! Great rates, great benefits, & great golf. Don’t forget about our referral program.
COURSE CONDITIONS
Maintenance has taken many steps to ensure that going into the 2020 golf season, the greens and tees will be in premier shape.
The weather will be great for the next few weeks, & we will continue these efforts to ensure a great outcome. We hope to see you out here next year!
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Learn more about the members that make up our golf family!
Paul Raymond
“Paul Paul” Raymond, has been a beloved member here at the Bath Golf Club for 20 years. In between costume changes, Paul plays in the weekly Colonial Club League, throwing bags in the off-season corn hole league, & enjoying the many member “money games”.
Paul is a huge supporter of the course both on the greens and on the porch. In his time away from the course, he is a proud father of 3 beautiful girls; Kelsey, Allison, & Carly, & a wonderful husband to his wife Karen. He coaches Mt. Ararat/ Lisbon/Morse Varsity Ice Hockey & has worked at Bath Iron Works for 40 years.
He always makes sure that nobody gets too “scurvy”, & makes us all feel like a friend. Thank you Paul, for always making us laugh & your continued support of the Bath Golf Club.
FALL CUP RESULTS
Flight 1:
1st- Todd Marco & Mark Harrington
2nd- Tom Bennoch & Scott Upham
3rd- Denny Barrett & Dave Lynch
Flight 2:
1st- Don Shiminski & Mark Metcalf
2nd- Mike Hart & Todd Flaherty
3rd- Troy Turner & Mason Lovett
Flight 3:
1st: Mike Roman & Phil McCarthy
2nd: Doug Green & Scott Intermont
3rd: Ron Lowy & Tom Gould
Shootout Winners:
Brandon Clark & Kevin Crosman
Fall Cup 2019 was a roaring success this year! After play concluded, we held our shootout to determine our Overall Champion. With the top two teams from each flight, along with our wild card team, we competed in a 4 hole playoff, with the highest scores being eliminated on each hole. It was a shootout for the ages with our final two teams, Flight 2 winners Don Shiminski and Mark Metcalf meeting our Wild Card team of Brandon Clark and Kevin Crosman on the 9th Hole and final hole. After 4 rounds of intense sudden death action, Brandon Clark and Kevin Crosman emerged victorious! Congratulations to our new Champions, and a giant thank you to all who participated. It was a truly great weekend!
GIVE BACK TO THE COMMUNITY WITH US!
Every Tuesday in September, we will be donating 10% of our green fees & 10% of our food sales to Oasis Free Clinics!
Oasis Free Clinics are the only clinics in Midcoast Maine offering free medical & dental services to those who have no health insurance & cannot afford to pay for care. They believe all people should have access to quality health care regardless of ability to pay, & an opportunity to prevent & treat health problems before they become serious & costly emergencies.
Book your tee time today to help us support this great organization!
FOOD & DRINK SPECIALS
Beginning this week, please be aware of our updated Fall Hours.
Monday – Thursday | 11 AM – 7 PM
Friday | 11am – 8pm
Saturday | 11 AM – 7 PM
Sunday | 10 AM – 6 PM
Please join us for our Final Prime Rib Dinner of the Summer! We have enjoyed having all of you out here during the beautiful summer days to enjoy Aaron’s famous Prime Rib with all the fixings. This week, we will be offering our special dinner for $20, still to include salad, sides, & delicious dessert, & $5 glasses of house wines. As always, we will still have our full menu available.
Don’t forget our weekly specials:
Taco Tuesday | $5 House Margaritas & 2 for $6 tacos
Thursday | Ladies Day | 10% off food & drinks for all ladies
Friday | Final Prime Rib Dinner of the Summer
Saturday & Sunday | Drink Specials | $5 Bloody Mary’s & Mimosas
The post See what’s new at The Bath! appeared first on The Bath Golf Club.
Monday, April 22, 2019
Five of the most unusual golf course settings in the world
Source: GOLF.com
By Evan Rothman
Uummannaq
Greenland
It’s not pronounced “you maniac,” but maybe it should be. Nor is Uummannaq, a small island in Greenland, a traditional golf course; a “greens committee” would be oxymoronic, given there’s no grass, simply ice and snow, and you roll the rock on “whites” (yeah, that’s what they call the greens).
Royal Thimpu Golf Club
Thimpu, Bhutan
Talk about rare air. Overlooking the Tashichho Dzong Buddhist monastery and fortress, Royal Thimpu GC rests more than 7,700 feet above sea level and is believed to be the highest course in the world. Cows and dogs are not uncommon sights on the fairways and greens of this remarkably scenic nine-hole par-35.
Brickyard Crossing
Indianapolis, Ind.
Winning the Indy 500 at the “the Brickyard” (aka the Indianapolis Motor Speedway) is straightforward—go fast and make a lot of left turns. Navigating this Pete Dye layout, which features four holes inside the famous racing oval, offers somewhat more complex fare—and many thrills of its own.
Ile Aux Cerfs Golf Club
Mauritius
Island greens? Meh. An island course? That’s rare. Ile Aux Cerfs GC isn’t a course on an island—it essentially is the island. Reached by boat and composed of 18 holes of Bernhard Langer–designed golf, it sits in the largest lagoon off the island-nation of Mauritius.
Merapi Golf Course
Yogyakarta, Indonesia
If golf next to an active volcano brings to mind a pairing with Pat Perez after he three-putts, you haven’t seen Merapi GC throw a fit. The course is nestled in the shadow of Mt. Merapi, and when that last erupted, in 2013, dust and ash rocketed nearly a mile skyward. When these contents returned to terra firma, they blanketed the adjacent countryside, including the course. Lift, clean and place—or, better yet, just run for it.More Travel
Link to article: Click here
The post Five of the most unusual golf course settings in the world appeared first on The Bath Golf Club.
Monday, April 15, 2019
Monday, April 8, 2019
Study shows modern golf swing causing more back injuries to players, and at younger ages
Source: GolfWorld
By Joel Beall
Tiger Woods is beginning the second year of his latest comeback campaign, a return from multiple surgeries on his back. While Woods has remained relatively healthy over the past 15 months, precisely what caused Woods’ woes remains a debate. Some point to the staggering amount of swings he’s taken in his lifetime. Others assert Tiger overdid it in the weight room, former caddie Stevie Williams claims it is self-inflicted from Woods’ fiddles with military training, and parts of the Internet subscribe to more cynical theories.
However, according to a new study, Tiger’s injuries—and injuries of other modern golfers—can be distilled to a far more elementary notion.
In the latest issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, a group of doctors from the Barrow Neurological Institute make the case that the modern “X-factor” swing favored by many professionals may hit balls harder and farther, but it can also put extra strain on the spine.
Comparing today’s players with legends like Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan, the doctors maintain today’s players are more muscular and have more powerful downswings, and this can put increased force on the spinal disc and facet joints, which leads to repetitive traumatic discopathy.
“We believe Tiger Wood’s experience with spinal disease highlights a real and under-recognized issue amongst modern era golfers,” writes Dr. Corey T. Walker. “RTD results from years of degenerative ‘hits’ or strains on the spine resulting in early onset breakdown, instability, and pain. We hope medical practitioners, and surgeons in particular, will be able to diagnose and treat golfers with RTD in a specialized fashion going forward.”
The group continues that, not only are current golfers experiencing more back injuries than their predecessors, but that they are victims to such issues earlier in life than non-golfers in their age range.
This line of thinking is not new, as Phil Mickelson has long been a proponent of these findings. “You can play golf for a lifetime and injury-free if you swing the club like Bobby Jones did, like Ernest Jones used to teach—where it’s a swinging motion rather than a violent movement,” Mickelson said at the 2016 Masters. “A lot of the young guys get hurt as they create this violent, connected movement, and I don’t believe that’s the proper way to swing the golf club.”
While the report can be worrisome for golfers both professional and amateur, other health experts maintain stretching and improving your core muscles can stave off injury. Golf Digest Fitness Advisor Ben Shear says back discomfort can be avoided by “Strengthening the muscles at the bottom of the spine, and improve flexibility in the mid and upper back.”
Link to article: Click here
The post Study shows modern golf swing causing more back injuries to players, and at younger ages appeared first on The Bath Golf Club.
Tuesday, April 2, 2019
How to hit the deceptive ‘fluffy’ lie chip shot, according to a three-time PGA Tour winner
Source: GOLF.com
By GOLF Editors
PGA Tour player Russell Henley explains how to hit the tricky, fluffy chip shot…
You missed the green, but hey, the ball’s sitting up in the rough. Good, right? Maybe. In this situation, it’s not always certain how the ball will come out. As with all short-game shots, crisp contact is the key.
Step 1: Even if you’re short-sided, refrain from opening the face too much. With the ball up, you risk sliding the club right underneath it if you add extra loft. The ball won’t go anywhere. I keep the face square in this situation, or barely opened if I really need more loft to stop it close.
Step 2: I swing as if I’m hitting a little draw, with the club moving in-to-out and my hands rolling over slightly through impact. This helps the club remain shallow, which usually results in cleaner contact. My main thought is to get as many grooves on the ball as possible. Think “glide,” not “chop.”
Link to article: Click here
The post How to hit the deceptive ‘fluffy’ lie chip shot, according to a three-time PGA Tour winner appeared first on The Bath Golf Club.
Monday, March 18, 2019
WHEN (AND WHERE) SHOULD YOU LET A GROUP PLAY THROUGH?
The Etiquetteist: When (and where) should you let a group play through?
The progression of golfers around a course is similar to traffic on city streets, replete with slowpokes, speedsters, bottlenecks and breakdowns.
The difference is that traffic on a course is mostly self-policed.
In the absence of strict laws and rigid enforcement, we’re left to follow the unwritten rules of etiquette, which brings us to this week’s comportment dilemma: When should you let another group play through?
The first commandment is as simple as a tap-in: If you’re holding up traffic, let the folks behind you pass, just as you should if you’re puttering along the freeway at 40 miles per hour.
Faster travelers always deserve the right of way. Unless, of course, they’ve got nowhere to go. On jam-packed tracks, there’s no point playing leap frog. Doing so helps no one. It can even make things worse.But let’s assume congestion isn’t an issue (and if there’s a hole open ahead of you, it’s not), and your group is on the green, with golfers standing, arms-crossed, in the fairway behind you — the golf equivalent of flashing the high beams. If this happens once, it might be an aberration. If it happens a second time, guess what? You’re the problem. Proper etiquette requires you to step aside.
There’s a good chance this will happen on a par-3, where slowdowns are most common. The process here is easy, says Lou Riccio, author of Golf’s Pace of Play Bible: “Wave them up while you are near the green, let them putt while you are planning your putts, then let them go to the next tee first.”
If they catch you on the tee box of a par-4 or par-5, Riccio says, “Let them tee off right after you have hit, then let them move down the hole with you but at some point let them go ahead.”
Riccio’s emphasis is pace of play. But pace and etiquette are interrelated. Most golfers understand this. Sadly, a myopic few do not. They refuse to let folks through, or they piss and moan about it. Why is sometimes hard to say, though it often boils down to ego or entitlement, or, most likely, a little bit of both. It’s never too early in a round to do the right thing (if your foursome’s on the 1st tee, and a single ambles up, let the single go). But is it ever too late? The 16th tee is a reasonable cutoff, unless the group behind you is shattering a land-speed record. Though the rules of etiquette do not require it, you’re wise to let them through whenever they catch you, even as late as the 18th tee.
That’s a rare occurrence. But golf’s a funny game; odd things happen. Good thing is, when it comes to waving through, two fundamental rules should cover all scenarios: apply common courtesy and common sense.
Link to article: Click here
The post WHEN (AND WHERE) SHOULD YOU LET A GROUP PLAY THROUGH? appeared first on The Bath Golf Club.
Monday, March 11, 2019
Michael Breed: Try My Secret Move To Flush It From Any Lie
Here’s a good tip we found from GolfDigest to help you with muddy lies.
Source: GolfDigest
By Michael Breed
If winter for you meant no golf, I know you’re itching to get back out there. First, we need to do a little prep work. I’ve learned from all my years in New York that spring lies—those muddy ones with no cushion under the ball—are prime territory for fat shots. And when you hit a few of those, you can lose it fast. Let’s talk.
Golfers who are afraid of hitting the ball fat tend to bend over too much, with their weight on their toes. They feel more in control if they’re closer to the ball. But your body will find its balance as you swing, so you’ll pull up and dump the club behind the ball (fat) or hit it thin. To stay in the shot, set your weight in the arches of your feet. Next: ball position. With an iron, play the ball in line with a spot on your body between the buttons on your shirt and your chest logo (short irons in line with the buttons, longer irons farther forward). I’ve got a 6-iron here (see below).
Image: Click here
Now I’m going to give you just one swing key to think about: Drive your left shoulder closer to your left hip as you start the downswing (far right). That’s probably a strange concept for you, so let’s break it down. I want you to shift toward the target and feel like your upper body is leaning that way, your spine tilting left—we call that side bend. That will shift the low point of your swing in front of the ball so you hit the ball, then the ground. You’ll love that crisp impact, and your confidence will soar because you won’t be worrying about the next iffy lie.
That move—left shoulder toward left hip—also causes your upper body to turn open slightly. Perfect, because that brings your arms and the club back in front of your body, which is another key to avoiding fat shots. Golfers blame fat contact on a steep, choppy swing, but a shallow swing will often skim the ground before impact—and that’s fat, too. The common denominator is, the club hits the ground too soon. Driving your left shoulder forward will prevent that and add compression to your strikes.
So get the ball in the right spot, set your weight in your arches, and focus on that left shoulder. You’ll have the pieces in place to hit it solid—and beat those muddy lies. Come on, spring!
BUTTONS TO THE BALL
Focus on two positions at address: (1) Weight in the arches of your feet, never on your toes; (2) Ball just ahead of your shirt buttons (for a middle iron).
TURN INTO YOUR RIGHT SIDE
Let your weight shift to the heel of your right foot, and be ready to drive forward. What you do next will determine how solidly you strike the ball.
LEFT SHOULDER TO LEFT HIP
This is the key move for solid contact: Drive your left shoulder toward your left hip to start down. When you feel like your spine is tilting left, you’ve got it.
Michael Breed is Golf Digest’s Chief Digital Instructor.
Link to article: Click here
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Tuesday, March 5, 2019
Why speed is the key on every putt
Source: GolfDigest
By Michael Breed
You’re looking over a long, breaking putt, and in your mind you start drawing a picture of the ball snaking its way to the hole. What’s wrong with that image? Nothing, as long as you don’t forget about speed. Speed is the biggest factor in putting. Good speed with a bad line almost always puts you closer to the hole than bad speed with a good line. Think about that.
“IF YOU USE AN AIMING POINT, MAKE SURE IT’S BEYOND THE HOLE.”
What you need is a way of combining those two elements. You probably already pick an aiming spot on long putts. For a lot of golfers, that spot is the high point of the break, which might be halfway down your line. If that’s what you do, don’t be surprised if you’re leaving putts short—you’re aiming at something halfway to the hole!
For better speed control, try this method. First, estimate the high point of the break, then draw an imaginary line through that point to a spot even with the hole. Second—and this is the big one—move that spot a couple feet farther out on the same line (below). Why? Because you want the ball to have a little roll left when it approaches the hole. To quote Yogi Berra: “Ninety percent of putts that are short don’t go in.”
Here’s one more image to help you get putts to the hole: Picture one of those annoying speed bumps three or four inches before the cup. You want to hit the ball with enough pace to get over the bump. You can even practice this concept with an alignment stick on the green.
The best part about getting the speed right is, you become a better green-reader. You’ll have a mental database to access when you’re reading a putt. The more putts you’ve hit with proper speed, the more experiences you have to guide you. Putts hit with poor speed poison the database.
Michael Breed is Golf Digest’s Chief Digital Instructor.
Link to article: Click here
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Friday, March 1, 2019
How A Doorframe Can Help Your Golf Swing
Source: GolfDigest
By Keely Levins
Learn how to turn back, not sway.
Let’s talk about hip turn. James Kinney, one of our Golf Digest Best Young Teachers and Director of Instruction at GolfTec Omaha, says that from the data GolfTec has collected, they’ve found lower handicap golfers have a more centered lower body at the top of the swing. Meaning, they don’t sway.
If you’re swaying off the ball, you’re moving yourself off of your starting position. The low point of your swing moves back when you sway back, so you’re going to have to shift forward to get your club to bottom out where the ball is. That takes a lot of timing, and is going to end up producing some ugly shots.
So, instead, Kinney says you should turn.
“When turning your hips, you are able to stay more centered over the golf ball in your backswing and the low point of your swing stays in the proper position, resulting in consistent contact.”
To practice turning, Kinney says to set up in a doorway. Have your back foot against the doorframe. When you make your lower body move back, your hip will hit the door fame if you’re swaying. If you’re turning, your hips are safe from hitting the frame.
Remember that feeling of turning when you’re on the course and your ball striking is going to get a whole lot more consistent.
Link to article: Click here
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Tuesday, February 19, 2019
The 30-second guide to the Genesis Open: Who won, best shot, best storyline and more
Source: GOLF.com
By Josh Berhow
Justin Thomas led heading into the final day of the Genesis Open, but J.B. Holmes, Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods and others were lurking in what was a long and cold day at Riviera Country Club. Here’s what you missed.
Who won: J.B. Holmes (one-under 70, 14 under overall)
How it happened: Lots of golf was played on Sunday. Thursday’s rain delay pushed the entire tournament back and players returned to the course early on Sunday to finish their third rounds before teeing off for their final round. Thomas was two holes into his third round and led by one when play was called on Saturday, and when the third round was complete he was at 17 under and leading by four. But a lot changed Sunday afternoon. Thomas bogeyed three of the first five and Holmes took his first solo lead with a birdie on 10 when Thomas made bogey. Thomas birdied 11 to Holmes’s bogey to retake a one-shot lead, but Thomas needed seven putts on the 13th and 14th and made double bogey and bogey to fall two behind Holmes. Thomas birdied 16 to cut the lead to one, but couldn’t make a final birdie to catch Holmes. Thomas signed for a 75.
Key hole: Holmes and Thomas alternated two-shot swings on the 10th and 11th holes, but Thomas four-putted for double bogey on the 13th. That costly error gave Holmes a lead he never lost.
Why it matters: It’s the 36-year-old Holmes’s fifth win of his PGA Tour career and first since the 2015 Shell Houston Open. Holmes’s first two victories came in 2006 and 2008, and he later overcame brain surgery in 2011 before rejoining the PGA Tour in early 2012. The 2014 Wells Fargo Championship was his first victory after returning from surgery.
Best shot when it mattered: Holmes, leading by two with three to play, hit his tee shot on the par-3 16th into the bunker, but he made a key par save from 11 feet. Thomas followed by knocking in his short birdie putt, but Holmes’s clutch par kept him out in front and prevented the two-shot swing.
Notables: Woods closed with a 72 and finished T15, McIlroy shot 69 to finish T4 and Jordan Spieth made quad on the par-4 10th and shot a 10-over 81, his highest score in relation to par in his pro career.
Best secondary storyline: J.B. Holmes’s sluggish pace was noticed by the broadcast team — and social media.
Up next: Phil Mickelson defends his title south of the border as we gear up for the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship. Woods is also in the field.
Link to article: Click here
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Monday, February 11, 2019
Can meditation make you a better golfer? Yes . . . eventually
Source: GolfDigest
By Sam Weinman
Accompanying video: Click here
An experiment with three golfers revealed the practice can make a difference. Just not the one you might expect
A few months ago Golf Digest set out to answer a question almost as old as the game itself: does alcohol make you play better, or worse? The experiment and resulting video with three too-eager participants, was illuminating, comical, and fairly conclusive: a little bit of “swing oil” has some residual benefits owing to a decrease in tension and inhibition. Too much, however, leads to deteriorating focus and coordination, and then you just stop caring about advancing the ball at all.
A subsequent experiment with marijuana yielded similar results: some weed might take the edge off and loosen up your swing, but anything more than a little becomes counterproductive.
That brings us to our recent experiment exploring the effects of meditation, structured like the first two, but also plenty unique. Here, too, we submitted three golfers of varying playing ability to a series of golf tests while interspersing the influence of an outside element–beers and tokes became 15 minutes of meditation. The difference is that while meditation does induce some immediate physiological effects and boasts several long-term health benefits, we’re still talking about a rather nuanced exercise that is difficult to quantify. And if you really wanted to measure it well, best to do it over a few months instead of a couple of hours.
Still, a few hours is what we started with one day this summer, and I, along with colleagues Keely Levins and Ben Walton, was selected as one of three golfers who would spend the day hitting golf shots and meditating to see what type of difference we’d see. Although Keely and Ben had limited experience with meditation, I’d recently begun dabbling in no small part because mindfulness, as it’s also known, has been hailed as perhaps the best way to temper the freneticism of our modern lives. And no doubt I was a worthy candidate: a digital editor who spends his days tethered to one electronic device or another, a father of two high-energy boys, and someone who can overthink everything from family dynamics to what club to hit off the tee. As I said in the video, I first told my wife that I thought meditation would help because, “I run pretty hot during the day.”
“No,” she corrected me. “You run hot all the time.”
So in terms of how a few minutes of meditation a day can calm the mind and harness focus, I was already sold. What I hadn’t explored, and what we sought to discover that day, was how it might affect one’s performance on the golf course. Plus, we saw it as an opportunity to debunk misconceptions about meditation — what exactly it is, what you do, and why it might mesh well with the mental and emotional demands of golf.
The day was broken into segments of three different golf challenges–driving for distance, approach shot accuracy, and putting–followed by brief sessions with meditation teacher Jonni Pollard. Pollard is the founder of a meditation app, 1 Giant Mind, and a personal mentor to a roster of clients that includes corporate executives and professional golfers. With a clean-shaven head, an Australian accent, and an affable manner, he spent the day convincing us of the ways meditation can not only help us think clearer on the golf course, but at work and home as well.
Among Pollard’s central arguments is that for all our technological progress, the human body has remained virtually unchanged from man’s earliest days fending off regular physical threats, which is why we process stress the same whether it’s an unpleasant email or a bear attack. This disconnect between how we live now, and the biological constraints of our bodies and brains, can explain why we often feel scattered so much of the time, and why even the mundane stresses of everyday life can elicit profound physical reactions.
“This is the little glitch in our system,” Pollard said. “We are entrenched in a dysfunctional state of defensive living because the way we’re living now is so far removed from how we’ve biologically evolved.”
What does this have to do with our ability to hit a drive in the fairway? Plenty, actually, because the same forces that leave us feeling frequently disjointed also factor into our performance on the course.
Almost every golfer has to negotiate the chasm between the shots he’s capable of producing, and the those he actually hits. We’re too quick, we’re too distracted, we’re worried about the pond on the left–when the result falls short of our potential, it often emanates from somewhere between the ears. By contrast think about the time you mindlessly hit a shot on the range and it soars perfectly off the clubface; or when you rake in a conceded putt from afar without even trying, and it rolls straight into the hole. It’s precisely because you “weren’t thinking” that it worked out so well.
This, Pollard said, this is where meditation can make a difference.
“What it does is it hits factory restart and restores our natural capability,” Pollard said. “Our natural capability is there and we need to allow it to be there, so what is the thing that’s inhibiting it? From my perspective it’s the hyper stimulation of the thinking mind.”
Which is not to say that each meditation session sets you on a path to a truer golf swing. Not exactly at least. As the afternoon unfolded, my driver carry improved, but my approach shots were looser, and my putting stayed about the same. To think of meditation as some type of performance enhancer in deep-breathing form is to misinterpret the underlying machinations at work. As Pollard said, when you meditate for 20 minutes, focusing on your breath or a mantra and allowing outside elements to recede into the background, it’s similar to doing a set of bench presses at the gym. The act itself may make you stronger, but it’s really repetition and time that allows the effects to take hold
“The conversations I like to have when talking about meditation is one, it’s really wonderful to alleviate short term the symptoms of stress,” Pollard says. “But also it creates the internal infrastructure for us to be able to become resilient in this life, rather than feel like life is taxing you.”
Beyond technical improvement, what we really detected was an underlying sense of calm, noteworthy on what could have been a stressful day. Although Keely played college golf, Ben and I were not used to the strain of having every shot measured so precisely. Throw a handful of cameras and a crew of about 10 into the equation, and under normal circumstances I’d question if I could even draw the club back. But after each session with Pollard we began to mind the attention less, and distractions subsided.
“It became easier to be over the shot,” said Keely. “I had this odd sense of detachment to where it was going, like I didn’t want to look at the result. Not every shot was great, but there was some freedom and ease in not feeling painfully invested in how straight my drives were flying.”
This is what Pollard means when he describes the “infrastructure” meditation helps construct. Scientific studies of meditation have shown that the practice strengthens the pre-frontal cortex portion of the brain responsible for concentration, focus and problem solving while shrinking the amygdala section that triggers our panicky “fight or flight” response. So even though I didn’t hit the ball markedly better that day, the ingredients were all there to do so–I was more focused, less fatigued, not nearly as wrapped up in the shot I just hit or the one still to come.
And therein lies the real breakthrough, because golf is nothing if not an opportunity for self-sabotage. You start a round poorly, you stress over wanting to play better. You start out playing well, you wonder how long it will last. Pollard and other meditation experts like to say that the practice improves “present moment awareness,” which is a variation of the old golf cliche of “taking it one shot at a time.” Roll your eyes if you must, but think about how much easier the game would be if your mind were free of competing narratives and you just played.
Our Max Adler played a round of golf last year with Sadghuru Jaggi Vasudev, a spiritual leader with millions of followers and a surprising affection for golf. Adler attended one of the guru’s workshops to better understand how Eastern practices like meditation can translate to athletic performance. Sadghuru, too, emphasized the value of getting out of your head.
“People trip on their own minds,” Sadghuru said. “They need to create a little distance between what they think and what they do.”
So, to get back to the original question: Does meditation help you become a better golfer? The short answer is yes. The longer answer might be encapsulated by an experience from a few weeks after our session with Pollard, when I developed a wicked case of the shanks.
For about 10 days in the heart of the golf season, I had a hard time hitting an iron or wedge without the ball screaming off the hosel right into some unspeakable place. Golfers who’ve experienced the dynamic know no more maddening affliction, and in the grips of it, I couldn’t hit a simple 30-yard pitch without panicking. Then I recalled an exercise we learned with Pollard for right before address. We’d stand behind the ball, place both hands on the grip of the club, and take in a deep breath before proceeding. For an entire round, I did this over every shot –a mini-meditation session that attempted Pollard’s version of “factory restart.” My head clearer, my breath slower, the panic receded, and solid contact soon returned.
So if you’re asking, no, I don’t think you can measure the efficacy of mediation by saying it will drop this number of strokes from your score. But what I have noticed is that it can work to flush out our worst instincts–both on the course and everywhere else. I, for one, need all the help I can get.
Link to article: Cick here
LInk to video: Click here
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Thursday, February 7, 2019
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
Thursday, January 24, 2019
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Only Available through January!
THE RESURRECTION PASS
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Now, when you purchase a Resurrection Pass, you will receive a digital voucher within 48 hours. Print this out & present at check-in to redeem.
EACH PASS INCLUDES
- 2 passes for 18 holes w/cart good at Old Marsh Country Club, Penobscot Valley Country Club, or the Bath Golf Club
- 1 pass for 18 holes (green fees only) at Highland Green Golf Club
4 COURSES
The Resurrection Pass gives you the best of Maine golf with access to 4 different Resurrection Golf properties.
Enjoy access to Old Marsh Country Club, the Bath Golf Club , Penobscot Valley Country Club, & Highland Green Golf Club , home of the Duck- Pub, Market, & Restaurant!
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We have multiple ways to purchase- call, order online, or fill out our mail-in order form!
Call the Resurrection Golf HOTLINE at (207) 405-2000 to order over the phone.
SKIP WORK. PLAY GOLF.
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Monday, January 7, 2019
The Golfer Who Died And Came Back To Life
Source: Golf Digest
By Max Adler
Lightning won’t strike the same place twice, but what about a higher force? If one exists, it’d be hard to say it hasn’t taken some swings at the third hole at Kennett Square Golf & Country Club near Philadelphia.
There, during three months in 2012, a straightforward, slightly elevated tee box to a downhill par-3 green, framed by two bunkers and a backdrop of oak, transformed into a stage for the unfurling of all life’s tragedy and comedy. Vic Dupuis, now 57 and still playing to an 8, can’t get to the third tee without taking a moment. He just stares at the ground.
“When you tell people the story, they just look at you and say no way. But it’s true. I was there to witness all of it,” says Jeff Hollander, a member for 25 years and the father of the current women’s club champion.
It was a July Friday, and Dupuis—normally an outgoing and positive person—was harried from battling traffic returning from a business meeting in Harrisburg. He wolfed a turkey wrap in his car and ran to the first tee with shoes untied. His oldest daughter was moving to a new apartment, and he felt conflicted about not being there to help. But he’d committed to a partner, his neighbor Tom Henry, to play in The Devil’s, a much-ritualized club event featuring six holes of alternate shot, six holes of scramble and six of better ball (6-6-6). Dupuis apologized to his partner for his uncharacteristic state, for there was a not-insignificant pot up for grabs. But the agitated financial advisor appeared to settle, sinking a slippery 15-footer for bird on No. 2. In almost all other possible worlds, it would’ve been the last golf shot of his life.
Kennett’s halfway house is really a quarter-house, as the routing passes it four times. The first look comes after the second hole. You then cross a road to get to the third tee.
“The last thing I remember is walking out of the restroom, sweating,” Dupuis says. “My thought was, I’ve never been this hot on my golf course.” He sat in the cart’s passenger side, crossed the road, and at the third tee rested there while the rest of his group got out and gabbed, the logjam on the first par 3 predictable in events like this.
At first, no one noticed Dupuis die. When you stop breathing and have no pulse, the complete cessation of brain activity isn’t far behind. Henry glanced at the cart and saw Dupuis’ head back, his eyes oddly fixed.
“My first thought was, he was sleeping,” Henry says. After a good-natured taunt got no response, his partner’s earlier complaint of mild indigestion now clicked as a major harbinger. Henry, a burly man, immediately pulled Dupuis from the cart and began pounding his chest. Henry didn’t have CPR training, but his twin teenage boys had been recertified just weeks earlier. On the pick-up from the YMCA pool, they’d given Dad a decently thorough explanation. “I’m hitting hard, screaming at him to Come back! and all I can think about are his four kids,” Henry says. “Vic’s too young. They’re too young.”
Paul Dittmer—the remaining member of the foursome—called 911 as Hollander sped away in the cart. Back at the halfway house was a wall-mounted AED (automated external defibrillator) and the last sighting of William Ashton, M.D., whom they’d watched tee off on 17. Hollander delivered the AED, then went for Ashton. For more than a decade, in his car, at home and in his golf bag, Doc Ashton has stored a syringe of epinephrine. Not an EpiPen, but a more powerful dose for cardiac emergencies. He’d never used any of these. Never removed the box. It was just something an anesthesiologist like him did.
In the second fairway, Lee Russell wondered why play had stalled. He couldn’t see the crowd of 30 around the third tee, but did he hear shouting? A fistfight? That bizarre notion dissipated the moment he arrived and saw the row of stricken golfers relieving one another of the physical agony of compressing Vic Dupuis’ chest (effective CPR is performed at 100 beats per minute, or about the same tempo of the Bee Gees’ song “Stayin’ Alive”). Most onlookers were frozen, not knowing what to do other than maybe cry and say, “Vic’s gone.”
“His face was navy blue,” Ashton says. Speaking about the realities of medicine and statistics and death, you get the sense this doctor has never used hyperbole in his life. “By a traditional definition, he was dead. We were attempting to reverse it.”
Unable to find a vein, Ashton stuck the syringe under the tongue, the next-fastest way to infuse the drug. He repositioned the electrode pads of the AED on the chest. Each charge nearly lifted Dupuis’ 210-pound body off the third tee.
Kennett Square’s head pro at the time, Tom Carpus, had played a tournament that morning at another course and was driving back when he saw the ambulances and commotion. “When you consider the configuration of our course, it was very lucky it happened where it did. There are so many holes where he would’ve been a lot farther from the defibrillator, far from a spot where the ambulances could drive right up and, of course, Doc Ashton.”
That Dupuis took his first breath in 10 minutes, that his color changed from purple to red to dark pink, that he then opened his eyes and said, “What’s going on?” even though he has no memory of it, isn’t a miracle. That comes later. But for the story to make sense, we need to pick it up at Chester County Hospital, where Dupuis’ wife, Faith, was driving after listening to a series of increasingly frantic voicemails from Henry. What happened there is almost crushingly mundane. Dupuis didn’t report walking toward any white light or tunnels. Awaking a bit groggy to the familiar sight of his wife of 29 years, he asked her to call his assistant to cancel the appointment he’d intended on making after golf.
“I love you, too, honey,” she said.
A former nurse, Faith wasn’t surprised when the cardiac-catheterization test for her husband, who maintained a balanced diet and drank moderately, returned as only 10-percent blocked. As in, nowhere near clogged enough to cause a heart attack. Over the weekend, as the blisters on his chest caused by the waves of electric current began to subside, the prevailing diagnosis was that severe dehydration on a hot day had caused this golfer to faint. Faith wasn’t buying it, and on Monday morning she expressed her skepticism to fresh personnel. Dr. Clay Warnick agreed the case warranted more investigation and even suspected, correctly, a far rarer thing.
Sarcoidosis is a collection of inflamed white-blood cells that collect in little lumps called granulomas. More often they’re found in the lungs or skin, and just as often there are no, or only mild, symptoms. But when one migrates to the heart, it’s a deadly matter. At the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania—where Dupuis was transferred by ambulance despite the mischievous and nearly successful attempt of a male nurse with whom he’d bonded over Penn State football to secure him a helicopter—he’d spend a week awaking each morning with a team of doctors and students alert at the foot of his bed. “We only ever get to study cardiac sarcoidosis in cadavers” was a line Dupuis heard too many times. He and Faith discussed laminating a synopsis of his account to show new medical staff who always asked, “Please explain to me how you’re alive.”
What most concerned Dupuis was the prohibition against swinging a golf club for 90 days, lest his newly installed pacemaker not settle right. Every country club has its “mayor,” and the gregarious Dupuis had earned the nickname at Kennett for making things happen wherever he stepped on the property, be it at the golf course, tennis courts, pool, and the men’s and mixed grills. Staying away in the glory of late summer was hard. As soon as he was able, he started coming to the club to chip and putt. He also went back to work, and five weeks after his cardiac arrest, he sipped one glass of cabernet.
Carpus, the head pro, felt for the guy. So he said, “Come on, Vic, let’s get you fit for a new set of irons.” Swinging isn’t the only requirement for a custom-fitting, so the two killed a playable afternoon paying extra-persnickety attention to lies, lengths and grips.
“It was important to capitalize on his excitement about playing again. Give him something meaningful to look forward to,” says Carpus, who recently became a rules official on the PGA Tour Champions. In all, he worked 20 seasons at Kennett Square, all of them close with Dupuis.
“Vic was the chairman of our junior golf committee for 19 years. He’s the kind of guy who’s always giving back and volunteering,” Carpus says. “When I tell Vic’s story, people think it ends there.” With a new set of clubs. Or with the dinner party Dupuis threw at a local orchard to thank everyone who had played a part in saving his life.
Dupuis returned to golf the first day he was permitted, which happened to be an unseasonably warm one in November. Unwrapping the plastic from his new set of Ping i20s couldn’t be performed without a sense of ceremony, but everything else about the day was loose.
Several of his closest golf buddies were playing in—ironically, if you choose to see it that way—a memorial paddle tournament for a former member. Despite that draw, the first tee was packed. So Dupuis and two others snuck off No. 10. Walking off this first hole, whom did they see teeing off No. 9? None other than Ashton.
“I had seen everybody since the event except Doc Ashton, so that was an emotional intersection,” Dupuis says. After a long hug, the doctor removed a syringe from his golf bag, raised it for them all to behold, and said, “Don’t worry, Vic, I’ve reloaded!”
Maybe because Dupuis was free from three months of negative swing thoughts, or maybe just because, he played a decent nine holes. At the turn, they picked up Hollander, who’d finished his paddle match early. Given the routing, Dupuis shouldn’t have been surprised for the reencounter. Still, it was eerie passing Ashton on the 17th tee as they drove across the road to the third. The doc back in place like it was all happening again.
Dupuis asks Hollander to show him. “Right here,” Hollander says, and points to a spot of rough on the bank of the box, a few paces up from dead middle. “That’s where you were lying.” Dupuis presses. He needs to know more. Needs to know everything. Who was standing where? What was the exact sequence of events? But more happened in that eternity than can be reliably relayed.
All Hollander can say is, “Your first breath was the greatest relief I have ever felt in my life. In my mind, I had just seen you die.” Hollander doesn’t dwell on what happened next, at least not in this first retelling.
Tom Henry will say it later. “The ambulance has taken Vic away, the crowd has dispersed, and the three of us are standing there. Vic is with the people he needs to be. For us, it’s either go drink all afternoon in the bar or keep playing. I told Jeff [Hollander] and Paul [Dittmer] I’d be their marker for the tournament. So we teed off.”
Everyone bogeyed the par-3 third, understandably, but then the duo of Hollander/Dittmer had a red-hot card the rest of the way and won The Devil’s. “I feel a little guilty about that,” Hollander can now joke, “but to keep playing was the right thing.”
Months later, all’s well that ends perfect: 162 yards with a slightly helping breeze, Dupuis knows it’s a 6-iron. Always better to be short than long on this green. Plus, he hasn’t hit the 6 yet. Not this 6. Ever.
When it’s in the air, Hollander says one word: “Perfect.”
Two hops and in.
“I should’ve retired that 6-iron then and there, because I haven’t hit it anywhere near as pure since,” Dupuis says.
There’s yelling. And expletives. Dupuis falls flat to his back, and from the obscured vantage of the 17th tee, Ashton has a dreadful thought: Not again. But it flips when he sees the high-fives. These shouts of “Oh, my God! Oh, my God!” are for something wonderful. They call the golf shop, and the word spreads. The remaining six holes are a blur. When the group reaches the 19th hole, there’s a crowd waiting unlike any other.
“It happened to be a busy day at the club, and so everyone is in there, yet we walk into a room of total silence,” Hollander remembers. “Everyone was in awe. People kept asking me, ‘Did Vic really get a hole-in-one on 3?’ “
As the hole-in-one insurance is claimed and reclaimed, again and again, the men’s grill turns boisterous. Doc Ashton, scotch in hand, gets a glint in his eye followed by a loss for words. “To come back for the first time to the hole he died on and make a hole-in-one, and with a brand-new club, well . . .”
Dupuis has attended church all his life. Sometimes it can be impossible to believe in God more than one already does. “He’s not a changed person. He’s just more himself,” Faith says. “He’s always been a glass-half-full kind of a person. Since the event, we both like to say his cup runneth over.”
“My belief is that the great fisher of men threw me back, and that he has an incredible sense of humor to add a hole-in-one,” Dupuis says. “But if I’ve come to realize anything, it’s that the people around me were most affected. They had to watch me die.” One witness quit smoking that day. Another had AEDs installed at each of his four business locations. More than 50 members have since taken CPR training. What can’t be counted is how many appreciate life with greater preciousness.
Every year on the last Friday of July, the anniversary of his “death,” Dupuis plays with the same foursome of Henry, Hollander and Dittmer. On the third tee, he has the club leave champagne on ice. The tradition started with one bottle and four glasses, but more and more members have requested to join the celebration, so now there’s a case.
If there is anyone who can raise a glass and not believe there is a higher force, then theirs is half empty.
Link to article: Click here
The post The Golfer Who Died And Came Back To Life appeared first on The Bath Golf Club.
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