Apfelbaum - Golf Unplugged

Golf Unplugged. Copyright by Jim Apfelbaum 2007.
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any way without written permission from the publisher, except incases of brief quotations in reviews.

Contact: Tatra Press LLC, 292 Spook Rock Road, Suffern, NY 10901.
tel/fax 845.357.4843

Text composed by Stephanie Bart-Horvath

Printed in the United States.

Book design by Stephanie Bart-Horvath

U.S. Library of Congress Control Number: 2007926603

ISBN: 0-9776142-2-0

ISBN 13: 978-0-9776142-2-6

To a feature pairing: David White, Mike Brown, Jack Marr and Eddy Davis for continued support and club selection. And in fond memory of Joe Balander who I hope wont mind. Golf, he said, is a game of feel, instinct and resolve.

Here is writing that's subtle, thoroughly self-effacing and informative. a very thoughtful read.

Bradley Klein, GolfWeek

Nothing short of delightful.

Ben Wright, author of Good Bounces & Bad Lies

Mr. ______ respectfully asks that you not contact him again.

Name withheld

Does he play our clubs?

B.H., Fort Worth

The finest book of its type Ive ever received.

G.P., Orlando

Returned mail: Host unknown (Name server: host not found)

Daemon Mailer

With Hagen at Sandwich.

A smiling George Seaholm demonstrates proper club breaking technique.

Q: Were almost at the end of this tape but I want to know if you have any concerns for the future of the game?

A: The future of the game? The future of the game rests on one thing. More public courses and cheaper golf. So that people that work in factories and work elsewhere they can go out and enjoy a round of golf, not give up their whole salary to play one round of golf. All equipment has got to be cheaper. Its too expensive now.

Gene Sarazen, interviewed by Alice M. Kendrick, February 8, 1991

P lease be seated. Weve got a lot of material to cover. Welcome to a source of holistic golf edification. Wait! Come back! Let me explain. Golf Unplugged is, first, an awareness born of a sense of unease. It wasnt the attempts to co-opt the game to sell cars, tschotchkes, or get a cheap laugh in the comics that chapped me. Those ruggedly handsome models grasping a club as if it might bite? Im glad they can find work. No, what finally did it was a club lock for golf bags, with an alarm no less. What is going on? Portable indoor-outdoor ball flight monitors, handheld GPS range-finders, pockets designed for cell phones, computerized golf instruction, bag alarms, who needs it?

This is a game that sprung from the well of Mans imagination. Other than the lawn mower, which sportswriter Waxo Green believed was the games greatest invention, arguably the rest of it is flapdoodle. Feel, instinct and resolve cannot be purchased, downloaded, patented or up-linked. A top teaching pro told me he tries to learn something new about golf everyday. Thats what Im talking about. Thats deh, inner sincerity, basically bringing to the table a good attitude and an open mind. Wait! Come back! Thats the end of the spiritual quest. Clubs, balls, tees, a bag, maybe a glove, the flag, occasionally a rake, and at the start and finish of the round, your opponents hand. These are all that need be handheld. Ones sensitivities and consideration for others and the course are all that need be plugged in.

Golf is best enjoyed on hind legs and, as Harry Vardon suggested, in comparative silence. There are sounds worth savoring. Gary Player has written that he found comforting the click of persimmon, the clatter of cleat on pavement, the white noise on a true links. The sound a cart makes in backing up is not comforting.

I believe that what we have today in the game is the best that has survived, suggested Howard Whitney, a USGA president. That was in 1922. Its true today. Buffeted by technology golf better hold on tight. We seem to have forgotten that less is more.

Golf Unplugged is the legendary Old Tom Morris observed one cold, frosty morning long ago by a bystander who believed he was witnessing a man on the beach trying hard to drown himself. It was only Old Tom, W.W. Tulloch wrote, breaking the ice to enjoy his usual morning dip in the sea, for he made a practice of bathing all year round, not withstanding the state of the atmosphere.

Golf Unplugged is the spirit of George Seaholm. A city champion in the early 50s, George once won the right to caddie for Ben Hogan during an exhibition. The Hawk paid the lad $5 when 65 cents was a decent wage. George played a lot of golf at The Municipal in Austin, as it was then known. He was, looking back with pride and a broad smile, a muny hooter, the golf equivalent of a gym rat. George caddied from age 11 to 19. Later, he arranged his hours with the phone company to allow him to play nearly every day, which he did for probably 40 years. I defer to him for the definitive word on club-breaking. I will never forget, he said. The ladies had an outing and invited all the men and everything. And this ladyshe takes this club and shes going to break it over her kneeand she held it up, and it comes down and hits her knee. Man! She had a big knot. When you break a club, youve got to hold it against your knee, and then pull up.

The two genial codgers on were regulars at another venerable public course, Buncombe County in Asheville, North Carolina. There was an old hospital on that hill, they pointed out as we climbed one fairway. Tuberculosis patients who could make it up were deemed cured; many tragically failed the primitive test. The finishing hole at Buncombe is sublime. A greenside bunker is somehow shielded from the teeon a steep downhill par-three! A sly and unplugged architectural sleight of hand by Donald Ross. These gentlemen were wonderful to me. All we shared was a love of the game.

Since theres a law that golf books must include tips, impress your friends and Master the Fundamentals.

These and the other tales explore golfs unplugged terrain, peeking into inviting historical nooks and crannies. The fuss over the ancient stymie, the early presidential devotion to golfdamn the political torpedoes! - letters exchanged among old friendsthe hope is that they will kindle an urge to kick back and occasionally pull the plug. If these tales inspire an interest in golf beyond the confines of the scorecard, obviously Id be delighted. What do I know about it? Not much. But Im learning, hopefully something new every day.

Hogans office lovingly recreated.

P ete kept a small and neat, if slightly seedy, basement apartment in a forlorn nook of Raleigh. The worn carpet smelled of past floods. The light was awful, the furnishings spartan. His health was not much better than his surroundings but the sparkle in his eyes was bright. Jolly and voluble despite his advanced age and declining health, next to him I felt dull, responsible. His disposition remained so supremely sunny, and he was so passionate about his research that time with him always passed quickly. No writer, Pete nevertheless understood the importance of piecing together threads. Answering basic questions.