http://tombedell.com Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:58:09 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Despite outing my anti-football stance in this rant, careful readers will have noted I’m pretty much okay with gambling. And since nothing brings out that instinct (it does seem like an instinct, doesn’t it?) more vigorously than the Super Bowl, here we are again. Last year we wandered from Pittsburgh to Green Bay by way of the White House (and the homebrewing activities going on there, all mentioned here). But for Super Bowl XLVI we’re sticking to ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2312/tap-beers-of-the-week-brooklyn-lager-vs-harpoon-ipa/ Here at The A Position we’re given a topic to address (or not) each month for The A List feature, in a neat 150 words or so. The January challenge was pretty much the same as last year’s--to make fearless predictions about the golf year ahead. Click here to see just how far off the tracks The A Position writers careened then. This year we enlisted the prognosticating skills of Jimmy Roberts of NBC Sports to ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/2291/lucky-jim/ My wife gave me the t-shirt for Christmas (and took the picture). I think she might be on to me. But Happy New Year all, and here's to a fun road ahead for 2012. ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2241/the-big-question/ In the year of his grieving, 2001, Scott Willis would hop in his car and just drive south from Brattleboro, Vermont, on Route 5, the back road through Guilford, into Bernardston, Massachusetts, Greenfield, Deerfield, as far as he needed to go until his equilibrium returned. Then he’d turn around and head home. His father, Ed, had died that June, and then the shock of 9/11 just compounded the dislocation. Golf had been a big part of ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/2222/the-yoga-oasis/ In 1947 Belgian cartoonist Marc Sleen introduced a comic strip character, Nero, who would be around for a long time--as would much more comic art from Sleen’s pen. He is in the Guinness Book of World Records as single-handedly producing more issues of a comic book series than any other artist. In all he produced 125,592 drawings, 20 comic strip series, with 378 album covers and on-the-spot drawings of the Tour de France for variety. So ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2263/tap-beer-of-the-week-nero/ I recently scored a bottle of the Full Sail Wassail at Brewtopia, the fine brew and brewing supply store in Keene, New Hampshire. The shop carries many a beer I haven’t found here in Vermont. Only problem is that Keene is a good hour roundtrip for me, so the danger is blowing a serious wad at Brewtopia in the thought I might not pass this way again soon. But I behaved myself this trip, since I ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2206/tap-beer-of-the-week-full-sail-wassail/   Rarely has a beer been so aptly named as this holiday offering from Sierra Nevada. Mental fireworks blossom each November when I run across it on market shelves. Although following the lead of Anchor Brewing, which first produced its annual holiday ale in 1975, Sierra Nevada was pioneering as well in annually producing a special winter beer since 1981, long before it became a brewing commonplace--and virtually a requirement for a brewery these days. Unlike the product ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2174/tap-beer-of-the-week-celebration-ale/ 1 - Warm welcome 2 - Big rocks 3 - Bigger rocks 4 - Tough lies 5 - Tougher lies 6 - Cacti 7 - Cacti with embedded golf balls 8 - Distant mountains 9 - Famous holes ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/2069/nine-signs-youre-playing-desert-golf/ I had a great day playing the TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course this morning. Not because I was playing well, because I wasn't. I chalk it up entirely to a lack of sleep and my aching back, with nothing left over for an inherent lack of skill. But it was a lovely morning that dodged the bullet of predicted rain. We saw a bobcat on the first tee, eagles in a tree on the second, and a ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/2047/tgi-tpc-scottsdale/ Man plays 36 holes, man gets hungry. Barbecue by the pound should do the trick, and it’s tough to beat the grub at the Buffalo Chip Saloon & Steakhouse in Cave Creek, a short gallop north of Scottsdale. Invoke Cave Creek in these parts and people seem to roll their eyes a bit, as if you’ve mentioned an eccentric uncle who is a lot of fun, even if he asks you to pull his finger from ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2116/tap-beer-of-the-day-eclipse-black-ipa/ Dinner tonight was at the Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale’s modern spin on a classic steakhouse, Talavera. I opted for fish, since we’re heading for a western barbecue joint tomorrow night, but my tablemates assured me the steak was fantastic. And here they are: The beer list at Talavera and the resort’s Onyx Bar Lounge is limited, but it does have some of the stars of the craft brewing show--Anchor Steam, Fat Tire, Dogfish 60 Minute IPA, ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2040/tap-beer-of-the-day-nimbus-pale-ale/ The dance card for a Golf Road Warrior is always full. Maybe a little too full sometimes, looking ahead at our itinerary. Days of 36 holes, massages, lavish dinners at tony hotels, all washed down with local elixirs. It can wear a man down, I tell you. Enough to have you nodding off over your laptop at the close of day. But considering the trepidation I had this morning about my back, I was all in ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/2247/the-golf-yoga-connection/ Though I’d been on Peter Kessler’s “Making the Turn” radio show once, the Golf Road Warrior Scottsdale trip was my first chance to meet him, get to know him and play golf with the Voice of Golf, so called thanks to his stentorian tone, his many years with The Golf Channel and his regular stint now on the PGA Tour Network (SiriusXM). Kessler had chided me about my back complaints in an email before we even ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/2190/meet-and-beat/ I took three golf trips in rapid succession in late October/early November, and I had to pull out of rounds during each trip. Whatever was going on in my back had worsened, to the point where some mornings I could barely walk. Turned out to be a herniated disk pressing on my spinal cord (spinal stenosis), big enough to warrant an operation. As it was the week before Thanksgiving, I proceeded to tell the doctor the story ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/2092/my-aching-back-vs-the-monument-course/ Why land at a destination and go immediately to your hotel when you can detour to a brewpub instead? That’s exactly what fellow Golf Road Warrior Terry Moore and I did when our plane landed in Phoenix. Jerry Rose, a vice president at the Communication Links public relations firm, picked us up. The last time I saw Jerry was atop a barstool at a Yard House near Miami, so this wasn’t hard service for him. He took ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2028/tap-beer-of-the-day-kilt-lifter/ I live in a dream world. The slightest breeze can distract me. I lead the league in Walking Into Rooms and Forgetting Why You Went There, and the concomitant stat, Returning to Your Desk Chair and Realizing You Forgot to Get the Thing You Went Out of the Room For in the First Place. I’m like the absent-minded professor who buttered his dog and patted his pancakes. I’m sure I’ve lost days of my life in ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2009/the-long-haul-luggage-matters-part-ii-changes/ The Golf Road Warriors are converging on Scottsdale tomorrow. For those who haven’t already read about it elsewhere, heading to www.GolfRoadWarriors.com should do the trick, and there’s also a chance to enter a sweepstakes that would basically send the winner on the same trip with a similar shower of goodies. I’m hoping to pull off a TAP Beer of the Day throughout the week, because there will be beer. But no promises, because the days ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2003/tap-beers-of-the-week-golf-road-warriors-scottsdale/ Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off--then, I account it ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/equipment/1988/loomings/ As the plans unfolded for the second Golf Road Warriors trip mounted by The A Position--this one to Scottsdale, Arizona--the good folks at Callaway came on board as a sponsor and offered to custom fit the foursome. Only problem for me in Vermont--no fitting center anywhere nearby. That seemed like a shame, so in full GRW spirit, I went on the road to get the job done. Okay, I was heading off on an assignment anyway, to ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/equipment/1971/let-there-be-callaway/ Part of my admiration for the late Herbert Warren Wind’s writings for The New Yorker was the way he could report on a golf tournament that had been over for months with the outcome well known, and still manage to keep me on the edge of my seat. A similar tip of the golf cap goes out to sportswriters Neil Hayes and Brian Murphy, who collaborated on The Last Putt: Two Teams, One Dream, and a Freshman ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/1951/when-tiger-was-young/ As it did with other withered brewing traditions in the country in the last quarter of the last century, San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing Co. stepped in, or up, to breathe new life into them. One such was the notion of brewing a special beer around the Christmas holidays. Now virtually every brewery in the land, and worldwide for that matter, puts out some kind of holiday ale or winter warmer, usually a strong or spiced or ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2158/tap-beer-of-the-week-our-special-ale-anchor-brewing/ Congratulations to the U.S. team for its Presidents Cups win in Melbourne earlier today. Watching some of the play on the Royal Melbourne course put me in mind of the time I was fortunate enough to play there. So I thought I’d pull this one out of the vaults as a nod to the land down under, part of a trip I took eight years ago, and which remains one of the high points ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/1930/of-vegemite-vineyards-and-the-tommy-tolles-incident/ Here at The A Position we’re given a topic to address (or not) each month for The A List feature, in a neat 150 words or so. The November challenge was to offer our assistance to Presidents Cup captains Fred Couples and Greg Norman in naming celebrity co-captains that might really get the boys going this week in Melbourne. We even enlisted the guest services of baseball Hall-of-Famer Johnny Bench in taking a swing at ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/1900/cameron-diaz-and-cate-blanchett-please/ Nice of Stone to release their Veterans' Day Vertical Epic Ale 11.11.11 a few days earlier than the label date. That meant I actually found a few bottles on the Brattleboro Food Co-op shelves today. And since I'm a vet, my path seemed clear. It also seemed apt that the chilies in the beer--yes, chiles--came from the Hatch Valley in New Mexico, since I was mainly stationed in New Mexico back in my army days. (I ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/1888/tap-beer-of-the-week-111111-vertical-epic-ale/ You learn something every day, but in about 48 hours I learned about giant pumpkins, the Archimedes Screw, the Propeller Brewing Company, Cape Breton golf and meat darts. All this because ‘tis the season for pumpkin ales, which I suspect are now outselling Oktoberfest beers as far as fall seasonals go. I was going to bypass them this year but as I was just on a whirlwind trip to Cape Breton, where the fall colors were ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/1853/tap-beer-of-the-week-propeller-pumpkin-ale/ Here at The A Position we’re given a topic to address (or not) each month for The A List feature, in a neat 150 words or so. The October challenge was inspired by Halloween, and we were asked to come up with treats or tricks--things we're enamored with in our relationship with the game, or the mean-spirited opposite. We asked golf architect Tom Doak to chime in, and he offered a little of each. Click ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/1909/let-it-rain/ As far as I’m concerned, our long national nightmare began again about a month ago, with the start of the football season. What’s this heresy? I could go on and on why I think football is less of a healthy pastime in this country and more of a disease, but why bother? I know I’m in the minority, so I’ll just try to keep my head when all about me are losing theirs, painting them two ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/2139/tap-beers-of-the-week-blacktop-blonde-hefeweizen/ I’ve been to the Dominican Republic several times to see its unfolding development as a major golf destination. But there aren’t going to be a lot of beer tourists heading this way any time soon, unless they’re extremely undemanding. My last visit, chronicled here, turned into a quest to find Ambar Cerveza Oscura, the darker-hued sibling to the ubiquitous Presidente, the flagship beer of the sole brewery in the DR, the Cervecería Nacional Dominicana. With no ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/1812/tap-beer-of-the-week-presidente/ Here at The A Position we’re given a topic to address (or not) each month for The A List feature, and the September challenge was to expose the holes in golf’s bucket list.  We even enlisted the guest services of PGA Tour player Duffy Waldorf, who said playing in the Masters isn’t all it’s cracked up be. Click here to see what golf shibboleths Duffy and my colleagues decided needed toppling. My contribution follows, with the ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/1754/playing-with-tiger-woods-thanks-but-ill-pass/ Why would anyone want to revisit the sordid details of the Tiger Woods sexual scandals? Well, they’re juicy, for one thing. But in the hands of Sports Illustrated writers Michael Bamberger and Alan Shipnuck, they become suspenseful, comic and poignant by turns. The Swinger (Simon & Schuster, 2011, $25) it should be noted, is neither an instructional book nor one you’ll want to let the kids get their hands on. The co-authors have not left the ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/1730/golf-in-the-flesh/ As I recently mentioned on our TAP Forum pages, my soft-sided full-size leather suitcase recently gave up the ghost. More accurately, it almost gave up my underwear, as a side pocket split open and threatened to spill the goods into the streets of Belgium. I could probably have the bag fixed. But it was a gift from the Doonbeg Golf Club in 2004, and I’ve done a considerable amount of traveling since. So the bag has ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/equipment/1705/the-long-haul-luggage-matters/ My daughter sent me the following YouTube link, asking, "One of our ancestors, perhaps?" http://youtu.be/FrRKm_V0lZU You never know, but this isn't my old man, who enjoyed a glass of beer now and again, but was more of a vodka man. This is Tom Green, a comedian in Brighton, England, who appeared in several silent films by G.A. Smith, this one dating from 1897--the earliest days of British cinema. Indeed, according to an article by Frank Gray on the ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/1691/old-man-drinking-a-glass-of-beer/ In the summer of 1869, Jefferson Davis, former President of the Confederate States of America, went to St. Andrews in Scotland. He did not have a tee time. Davis was not in the best frame of mind when he went to Scotland. He was not long removed from a two-year imprisonment following his capture at the close of the Civil War. And while he was relieved to hear of the Christmas Day pardon from President Andrew ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/1658/jefferson-davis-goes-to-st-andrews/ Thanks to Steve Eubanks for unearthing this one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1LM7h5hXIY Steve assisted Kris Tschetter with her book,  Mr. Hogan, The Man I Knew, which I recently reviewed here. I noted that Hogan may have been one of the first to talk about the notion of a repeatable swing, and there are certainly plenty of repetitions on display here. I'm not sure what Hogan, Stevie Ray Vaughn or Jimi Hendrix would think of the clip (Vaughn is covering Hendrix's "Voodoo Child"). ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/1680/rocking-in-the-dirt-with-hogan/ I came out to Seattle this week for the launch of SIP Northwest, a new magazine devoted to the heady libations of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, with a soupçon of Idaho and Alaska. The debut issue includes pieces on barrel-aged cocktails, the merlots of Walla Walla, Portland’s raging coffee scene, and one I wrote on 15 essential craft beers, which I’ll post here soon. I included the Pike XXXXX stout, so I had every intention ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/1723/tap-beer-of-the-week-pike-xxxxx-extra-stout/ There’s not a lot of background on Stingo that I can add over my last entry on the beer, found here (back when I was numbering the TAP Beer of the Week tastings in the misguided thought I’d actually be able to do a write-up a week!) That was the tasting of the 2009 bottling, with a little history on Samuel Smith and its stone Yorkshire squares, beer writer Michael Jackson and his influence on the ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/1646/tap-beer-of-the-week-yorkshire-stingo/ No extended piece about Ben Hogan can go on for long without mentioning the car wreck in February of 1949 that nearly ended his life, but surely elevated the rest of his career into the stuff of legend. Not that the Dublin, Texas native hadn’t already begun burnishing the Hogan Mystique with his play before the accident. (And has the word “mystique” ever been applied to any other golfer with such accurate regularity?) As author David Barrett ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/1626/hogan-lives/ The golf round planned for one of Belgium’s finest courses, Royal Zoute in Knokke-Heist, fell through. The reason? The group I was with lingered unduly at lunch at a restaurant named after the hop plant, Hommelhof in Watou, following a tour of Brewery Van Eecke. So it goes in Belgium, where beer and food trump golf. I never did see a course on a recent trip to Flanders, but toured five breweries and ate numerous meals ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/1596/tap-beers-of-the-week-belgian-beauties/ Back before the 2008 Presidential election I took what was supposed to be a quick in and out trip to see and play the new Pete Dye-designed golf course at the French Lick Resort and Casino in Indiana. It turned out to be quicker than I thought, since the dastardly winds of Hurricane Ike (or what was left of him) had rolled into Louisville, Kentucky about the time I was supposed to land there. The plane ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/1562/ikeandthefrenchlickmaneuver/   Golf course architects may bemoan the sunny 1990’s, when new layouts debuted virtually daily, peaking at 398 in 2000. Such days are unlikely to return: there were fewer than 50 new course openings in 2010. But it does makes it easier to spot the winners. Castle Stuart Golf Links, Inverness, Scotland The accolades are stacking up like revetted bunkers for this Highland course overlooking the Moray Firth, which opened July 2009. On a Golf Tourism Scotland short ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/1512/freshencountersofthegolfingkind/ What do you call a spoof of a spoof? How do you calculate Spoof2? Whatever you call it or no matter how you calculate it, the Golf Boys video has already been sincerely flattered by imitation. Four players from the Ladies European Tour--Sophie Giquel, Sophie Sandolo, Jade Schaeffer and Cassandra Kirkland--have basically copied "Oh Oh Oh"--albeit with a Continental accent: http://youtu.be/M6ZpeIbbmEw It seems somewhat regrettable that there's no chest-baring in this version.  Though the video was shot about ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/1529/ahahah/ Someone had to put this video up on The A Position, and it looks like it’s me. So enjoy--or not, according to your predilection: http://youtu.be/PM2NocuEihw Personally, I think it’s pretty hilarious, and as good a way as any for today’s touring pros to puncture their uptight image. For anyone who suggests that the new breed of player is colorless compared to the linksman of yore, well, try to image Arnie, Jack or Gary romping around like this. Better ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/1481/ohohoh/ There are just no excuses anymore. The news came in February that the 100th American craft brewer had put its beer in cans, and a month later we learned that Sierra Nevada Brewing is going to begin canning its iconic Pale Ale later in the year. This, I thought, is the death knell of Megasuds Bellywash. With superior choices now available in non-breakable cans, golfers need to assert themselves and demand that the cart girl pack ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/1465/tapbeersoftheweeknicecans/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB0HOMjrSGo& All right, I've used some indelicate language here, but I didn't know the exciting conclusion to this international round was going to go international on YouTube. For that I have to thank Joe Whitley, a strapping young Yorkshire lad who is a staff writer for the National Club Golfer and Lady Golfer magazines across the pond. (Some of his Flickr photos can be seen here.) Joe and I played several rounds together in late January in ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/courses-and-travel/1446/tombedellhitsanr-7offthedeckattheabudhabigolfclub/ One thing Vermont has over Oklahoma is a long off season, which gives me more couch time with golf books in my hands. But if I had one hundred years in front of me with nothing to do but read I’d still never reach the other shore on the ocean of golf books. Naturally, there’s some garbage floating around. But greatness, too. When I began thinking about what ten titles would constitute a solid desert island ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/1424/thedesertislandgolflibrary/ Though it’s in rural Connecticut, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, the truth must told--when approaching Foxwoods Resort by car it arises suddenly out of the countryside like the Emerald City in “The Wizard of Oz,” a suggestion that past television ads for the resort have played upon. The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation has indeed created a wonder in the North Stonington woods. Foxwoods began life in 1986 as a single high-stakes bingo hall, but the ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/1409/thewonderinthewoods/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa-VWxRQfSQ& My greatest wish, I thought, was that someday I might get a chance to play golf with President Barack Obama, the golf nut. Now I realize that what I’d really like to do is have a beer with President Barack Obama, the beer geek. Okay, technically, I suppose what I’d really like to do is play golf with the President and then have a beer with the guy. But if only one of these dreams could ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/1392/obamalikestheblackstuff/ The golf season may be off to a soggy start in southern Vermont, but at least the figurative sun shines brightly on those doing good work while swinging the sticks. If we’ve counted correctly, there are ten charity tournaments unfolding at the Brattleboro Country Club this season. If anyone plays in them all we’d like to hear about it for sainthood nomination (or golf addiction treatment). But even teeing it up in one gives you ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/1375/giving-it-back-on-the-greens/ Those wags at BrewDog in Scotland have done it again, this time giving new meaning to the phrase, “Have a stiff one,” and making another appearance in the now apparently continuing series, The End of the Beer World As We Know It. While maybe not quite as gruesome as the company’s 55% ABV The End of History, surely the first confluence of beer and taxidermy, Royal Virility Performance is surely the first professional blending of beer ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/lifestyle/1352/the-end-of-the-beer-world-as-we-know-it-part-iii/ Since business appeared to be trending away from dueling in 1928, the master samurai sword craftsmen of Himeji, Japan, began making the country’s first golf irons. One craftsman in particular, Katsuhiro Miura, went on quietly producing expert clubs for 48 years, often for pros winning major worldwide tournaments. But there was a certain code of silence in effect about the Miura clubs, since the sticks in the hands of the pros bore other name brands, under ... ]]> http://tombedell.com/golf/golf/equipment/1341/samurai-golf/