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I’m a jock. I’ve played sports and have been active all my life. As a jock, I hate getting older. Every day I wake up my body hurts in places I didn’t know existed to remind me of the abuse I give it and the pounds I need to shed. One of the reasons I love golf is that it’s a sport players can continue to improve at even though other physical skills may be declining. It’s a sport in which a 50-something guy like me can thump a 25-year-old guy in good shape. There’s another sport/recreation that’s all the rage in which age doesn’t matter when it comes to your level of fitness: poker. You can hardly pick up a newspaper, turn on a TV or surf the Internet without finding a poker story, poker tournament or poker web site. Last month, a 39-year-old former osteopath became one of the biggest poker winners in history, taking home $7.5 million from the 2005 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Ten years ago, the winner only had to get through a couple hundred players to claim the top prize. This year more than 23,000 players signed up for the competition. In reading the thumbnail biographies of the nine players at the final table, five listed “golf” as their other favorite hobby. CHIP SHOTS: Last month I wrote about two area golf courses (Trump National in Rancho Palos Verdes and Angeles National in Sunland) that use poker chips that can be redeemed for discounted green fees. I’ve also seen a few press releases from golf courses offering Poker Nights, such as Tierra Rejada in Moorpark, which had one a few months ago. Aaron Rhine, the director of golf at Cottonwood Golf Club in El Cajon, has found a way to combine the pastimes with great success. Rhine and Cottonwood will hold the third annual Golf and Poker Tournament on August 13. For a $90 entry fee, players get a round of golf, dinner and the chance to participate in a Texas Hold ’Em poker tournament with lots of fun prizes at stake. FUN AND GAMES: I know what you’re thinking. How much fun can it be if you don’t like to gamble? Well, that’s where Rhine shines. He has created an atmosphere that feels like gambling, where each player is issued a certain number of chips and wins a prize that correlates with the number of chips left at the end of the tournament. And we’re not talking about a dozen balls or a bad hat. The grand prize is a set of TaylorMade irons, and everyone who makes it to the final table wins something, including free rounds of golf or clothing from “I’m All In Wear,” a company that manufactures shirts, hats and accessories with poker lingo as graphics. Golfers can earn extra chips depending on how they finished in the golf tournament or what skills contests they won. “The longest drive winner earns 500 extra chips,” said Rhine, adding that “we’ve even turned it into a fund-raiser for our community.” The Kiwanis Club will provide the dealers, and a raffle and silent auction will be held to benefit the organization. I don’t know about you, but I’m all in. STARS ARE OUT: The Battle at the Bridges late last month was another showdown of big hitters as Tiger Woods, John Daly, Retief Goosen and Phil Mickelson sent the ball deep into the night. The ABC made-for-TV exhibition hasn’t drawn big audiences and rumor has it that the event will be cut. Regardless of what happens, The Bridges at Rancho Santa Fe has been the big winner with a national spotlight shining on the course the last three years. But if it’s stars you’re looking for, check out the member list at The Farms a few hundreds yards to the south. Names on the list include Phil Mickleson, Liselotte Neumann, John Schroeder, Rolf Bernishke and Michael Jordan. TIGER TRACKS: The day after Tiger’s British Open win at St. Andrews, the New York Times sports section ran a photograph I’d love to have on my wall. It was such a terrific piece of art that even the text-heavy Times enlarged it to fill half the front page. With the Royal and Ancient clubhouse and Swilcan Bridge slightly blurred in the background, Tiger is shown at the left of the frame about to hit a shot. His posture, head position, shoulders, hands and weight shift are as perfect as if a golf illustrator had drawn the image. I mention this for a couple of reasons. First, to predict that everyone entered in this month’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol will be playing for second place. There is too much history at the New Jersey club for Woods not to notch it up a bit, including Jack Nicklaus winning two major championships there. The other reason is to point out that 23 months ago, Woods decided to change his swing to get better. It worked. And I have the picture to prove it. n Eric Tracy can be reached at eric@themulliganman.com. |
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