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Renowned saxophonist Kenny G played a different tune of sorts at the Mark Christopher Charity Classic presented by Adelphia last month at Empire Lakes Golf Club. Kenny G, who is a scratch golfer at Sherwood Country Club, missed the cut with rounds of 82-83. G plays three to four times a week and was disappointed by his putting, which he said led to his poor performance. “I should have shot 75-76. My putting, I just couldn’t get aggressive enough to get the putts to go in. I was scared to hit putts.” To improve on putting he plans to install a synthetic green that will run to an eleven on the Stimp meter. He also plans to enter a psychical conditioning program to gain some distance off the tee. As far as improving on his short game, Kenny G plans to find the right environment. “I am going to find some place that has crappy rough, and not give myself nice lies,” he said. G also gave Southland Golf Magazine some insight about himself and the great time he had at the tournament. Can you talk about the similarities of learning the game of golf and learning how to play music? They are both alike, because when you play each of them you have to feel the shot or hit the note. What other sports do you take part in? Downhill Skiing, I am a far better skier than I am golfer. Have you every gotten advice from a professional golfer? Tiger once told me that “If you know what you need to do, just do it.” But the best advice he told me was to get the cashmere insert out of my driver. I hear you're not much of a gambling man, will you be incline to gamble now that your index will go up? I don’t think it will go up. I think the computer will see them, and spit them out. They are too high. From the blue tees at Sherwood, you could tie one hand behind my back and I wouldn’t shoot higher than a 75 or 76. This is different. This is the big boys out here. If you were to choose a musical piece to describe you performance this week, what would it be? I wrote a song called “The Champion’s Theme.” It’s about being a hero. Its all in my mind; no words. It’s about feeling strong. Can you tell what you are going to take away from this tournament? It was a great experience. This is going to sound funny, but it’s almost like if you got into some kind of accident, but you didn’t get hurt. You learn a lot from those things. You don’t learn anything when everything goes your way. I can take that and grow from that. I know something else and how I can get better. I had a chance to get into an environment that beat me up. It beat me up out there as an athlete and as a golfer. I can take all that and I can grow from that. Had I never had that chance, I’d be happily skipping along on my little member’s kind of course with my zero handicap feeling like I’m somebody. Now I know something else and now I can get better. I had a great time out there because I went into it with the attitude I was going to learn a lot out there. I know that may sound selfish, but when I first started playing gigs in high school, I stunk. I played pretty good at home, but I’d get on stage and I stunk. Well, after listening to myself a few times, I went you know what? I’m playing a little out of tune. I’d tune it up a little bit, work on my licks a little bit and the next time, I said I’m getting pretty good. Had I not stunk, I wouldn’t have gotten very good. Things can’t go your way all the time. I made a lot of mistakes in terms of my golf score, but I take a lot of positives out of this. Everyone welcomed me, all the players were nice. They said enjoy yourself out here; we’re glad you’re experiencing our world. I have deep respect for them as golfers. It’s been a wonderful week out here. Is there any long term plans to turn pro? No, I’ll stick to playing the sax. I know when I play, there’s not 150 guys trying to take my gig away from me. This is a hard life out here and I have the utmost respect for what these guys do. N MATTESON WINS NATIONWIDE TOUR EVENT IN INLAND EMPIRE Troy Matteson won the Mark Christopher Charity Classic at Empire Lakes Golf Course in Rancho Cucamonga. It was his second Nationwide Tour victory of the year. Matteson, who began the final round two shots off the lead, closed with a 67 to finish 13-under, good for a two-stroke victory over Johnson Wagner, Mathew Goggin and Spike McRoy, who led after the third round. Matteson’s final round included a 31 on the front nine. “Winning is great,” said Matteson, whose first victory was at the Virginia Beach Open in April. “The second one reinforces the first one and makes you feel like you kind of belong.” One more Nationwide Tour victory before the end of the season would earn Matteson a “battlefield promotion” to the PGA Tour, just like his friend, Jason Gore, accomplished earlier this summer. Winning an event on the PGA Tour — like Gore did at the recent 84 Lumber Classic — would be a dream come true. “Jason is just a wonderful guy,” Matteson said. “I saw his name on top of the leader board and I just knew he was going to pull it off.” — MARCELO ARAUJO |
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