I grew up playing the game at Corral de Tierra Country Club in Monterey County (1963) when it first opened, so I have watched the gentrification of the “private” club first hand. When I was a teenager during the summer’s I would ride out to the club each day with my brother who was the pool lifeguard and tee it up around 7:30am and play 18, then swim in the afternoons and play another 9 before we would go home. I won my club championship at 16 or 17, of course this was the days of Power Built persimmon and balata balls, so it is kinda fun that my 56-year-old self would kick my 17-year-old self’s butt.

I played till almost 30 when work, business, marriage, kids, and divorce all took its toll on my time and patience for the great game.

I have been an entrepreneur and consultant for about 25 years … and in the media in one form or another too. In 1996, I hooked up with a local radio station (KNRY am1240) on Cannery Row, Monterey, CA and become an on air host of several types of news/entertainment programs as well as producing other Shows.

One of those shows happened to be a two hour golf program, which eventually went to the Armed Forces radio and around the world, and it was from this show that I was handed a new set of clubs and found that much like riding a bike, I could still knock the ball around okay.

When the radio station was sold I moved on and took a job with FEEL Golf, a Monterey based manufacturer most well known for their wedges and stayed with them for two years becoming their national sales/marketing guy and learned the in/outs of the equipment golf universe. I left FEEL to form Maxwell Media Marketing and helped grow Balance Certified Golf; the team of NASA engineers out of Alabama who have developed the most advanced Counter-weighting club tuning system.

From there, I took on other clients and began writing for Golf Today magazine adding them to my arsenal of assets to help grow golf companies.

I have progressed since coming back to the game from a 14 to as low as a 6.6, but my index is an 8.1 only because I am always tinkering with my swing, clubs, putters, and techniques. My best round has been a 3 over a few times and I have had three hole in ones, in three consecutive years.

I love the game of golf for a lot of reasons. It always reminds me of my youth, and the carefree days I spent playing then. I naively believed everyone played and belonged to a “club.” My mother taught me the game, (she was a 14 and club champion, too) and I can still hear her voice (she passed away many years ago) about playing smart, and playing fair. I also remember that my un-athletic father could never beat her. I love the quiet solitude of the game if I am playing by myself late in the evening and watching the shadows drape the course, and I love the fact I can completely put aside the chaos of business, politics, war and money the minute I step on the tee. I love the fun and competition of competitive play when the adrenalin starts pumping and the challenge of either channeling that bolt of excitement into outstanding play, or succumbing like a ninny into missed putts, choked approaches and generally play the fool.

I had the privilege of watching Tiger Woods tune up at Pebble Beach at the AT&T for his 2000 run at the U.S. Open, which I covered first hand. Wow, what amazing charisma! You could cut it with a knife. Sitting in the press room in the front row and watching him work the 400 journalists who just love to hear themselves talk and ask the most STUPID questions you can imagine, and him sitting there with that huge smile with his trophy … well, it was something I will never forget.

I am critical of the industry at large because I believe that between the arrogance of the PGA, the greed and avarice of the manufacturers playing the consumer for fools, and the lack of civility in many of today’s daily fee players are ruining the gentle and noble game I grew up playing.

The American Tour players are by in large corporate cut-outs and simply play each week for a check. I mean the only guys I see really playing to WIN are Tiger (of course), Chris DiMarco, Jim Furyk. Phil Mickelson is a complete disappointment and washout in my opinion and doesn’t have the guts or the stamina to compete against Tiger, now that Tiger has regained his ascendancy in the game.

So, for now, signing off!