Ultimate springtime golf fitness tips for "real" golfers

By Tim McDonald,
National Golf Editor

For those of you unfortunate enough to live in the North, you must be salivating at the thought of the spring golf season.

Hold on, Tiger. You ain't the man you used to be. You can't just jump up and go straight to the golf course after a long winter of sloth and mold.

Now, you will find any number of charlatans willing to sell you their total golf fitness regimens. These sleazoids always assume you're a golfer interested in a cleaner, healthier way of living and golfing. I've seen you out on the course, and I know that's not the sort of thing you're "into."

So here is my total golf fitness regimen for the "real" golfer:

• For God's sake, you have to strengthen your core! This involves eating really hard food, like jawbreakers. Eat a bag of those and have your neighbor punch you in the gut to see if your core is all it can be.

Options: Month-old fudge, Purina Dog Chow, pine bark.

• You also have to really work your obliques, I mean really work the hell out of them. Here's the perfect exercise for that. Lie flat on your back with knees bent slightly wider than your hips. If you have really fat hips, you're either going to have to really stretch your knees like in a cartoon, like The Elastic Man from India, or just skip this exercise. In fact, if you have really fat hips, just skip playing golf, nobody wants to see you out on the course.

Now, you slim-hipped people reach your hands to the ceiling like you're crying out for the Lord Jesus Christ to spare you from your miserable existence. You can hold light hand-weights, or not. What do I care? Lift your head and chest toward the ceiling and rotate to reach both hands just outside of your fat, right knee. Repeat on the left side. Now, take a breather. Ask Christ for forgiveness.

• Breathing exercises: Breathing properly and deeply is critical, especially for those tense moments on the course when normally you would start crying.
This deep-breathing exercise involves attending your local adult movie house, or calling up one of those sites on your Internet browser. Follow your instincts. It's either that or follow mine, and then you're looking at jail time.
• Horizontal abduction/adduction: I can't give you much help here, because I always get "horizontal" confused with "vertical," and I have no idea what adduction is. Who came up with that word, anyway? It's a stupid word and should be eliminated from the English language, if it's even English.

• Standing hip rotation: Don't do this. It makes you look like a girl.

• Alcohol fitness: How many times have you lost $2 Nassaus because while you were getting hamboned, your playing partners were just holding up that bottle of Jack Black pretending to drink?

Well, no need to waste good liquor. You can still drink and maintain your competitive edge. You just need to build up a tolerance. Stand upright in a dark closet, with a wide stance, and suck it down. Keep drinking until your wife leaves you.

• Aerobics: Ha! Don't make me laugh. This is golf!

• Putting: Don't bother to practice putting. Putting in golf is overrated. I play golf maybe 200 times a year and I've yet to meet anyone who can putt. You either make it or you don't. If you miss, just keep putting until the ball goes in the hole. Simple.

• Seniors: As we age, our bodies react differently, so seniors must prepare for golf differently than young punks. An important thing to remember is that there is an inverse relationship of increased ear hair to laughably short drives off the tee.

So keep those ear hairs trim and neat. If you're proud of your thick mane of ear hair, don't sweat it. If you're short off the tee, you're probably small in other areas, and I think you know what I'm talking about.

• Excuses: A healthy psychological outlook is a must for Better Golf. If you can convince yourself that the snap hook you hit into the weeds over there is not your doing at all, you'll retain the confidence needed to excel in the game.

The first time you smack one of your all-too-typical lousy shots, turn to your playing partner and snarl," "Will you stop that!" Look at him, looking all hurt and everything. Who would have thought golf fitness could be so much fun?

• Torque development in the downswing: This is so important, I can barely contain myself. This is vital to any golfer who has ever wanted to improve his score. You could even say it is absolutely critical in terms of reaching your full potential as a golfer and knowing what it is to be truly human.

• Alignment and posture: Face the target squarely and stand erect, with your rump jutting out slightly. Feels a little silly, doesn't it? Can you think of another situation in life where you would position yourself in such an odd manner? I can't.

Virginia Tech's Weaver to Compete at the Masters

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Virginia Tech golfer Drew Weaver (Jr., High Point, N.C.) will compete in the 75th annual Masters Tournament, beginning this week at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga.

Weaver, the first Hokie ever to play in the event, earned a berth in the Masters Tournament with his victory at the 2007 British Amateur Championship in June at Royal Lytham & St. Annes in Lancashire, England.

The victory in the British Amateur also earned Weaver an exemption in the 2007 British Open Championship at Carnoustie and a four-year exemption into the U.S. Amateur Championship. He was six-over-par at the British Open Championship and missed the cut by two strokes. He advanced out of stroke play at the 2007 U.S. Amateur at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, before falling in the first round of match play.

Tee times and groupings for the event will be announced on Wednesday, April 6. The Masters will be televised on ESPN on Thursday and Friday and on CBS on Saturday and Sunday.

Weaver will be one of three amateurs playing in the Masters, joining U.S. Mid-Amateur Champion Trip Kuehne and U.S. Amateur runner-up Michael Thompson. Colt Knost, titleist at the U.S. Amateur and the U.S. Public Links Amateur, turned professional over the summer and lost his berth in the Masters.

Joining Weaver in the Masters will be former Hokie Johnson Wagner. Wagner, who played at Virginia Tech from 1998-2002, earned his last-minute trip to golf's most prestigious event by winning the Shell Houston Open on April 6. It was Wagner's first-ever PGA Tour victory and the first-ever win by a former Hokie in a PGA Tour event.

Big South Announces Men's Golfer of the Week

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Liberty senior Parker McKoy (Wake Forest, N.C.) has been selected as the Big South Conference Choice Hotels Men’s Golfer of the Week, it was announced today by the League office.

McKoy tied for fourth out of 100 golfers at the Lacrosse Homes Collegiate Invitational (par 72, 6,761 yards) with a 3-over 147 (70-77). It was his best finish of the season, and he led all golfers entering the second and final round. McKoy and his teammates combated blustery and windy conditions all weekend, including heavy frost to start round two, but still managed to place second out of 19 participating teams for its highest team finish of the year.

Click here to view the 2007-08 Big South Men's Golf Reports.

2007-08 Men's Golfers of the Week
Sept. 21 - Nathan Schenz-Davis, Liberty & Herve Gevers, Charleston Southern
Sept. 27 - Chris Dillow, Radford
Oct. 11 - Jacob Carlsson, Winthrop
Oct. 18 - Kelly Manders, Winthrop
Oct. 25 - Kyle Bailey, Radford
Nov. 1 - Pete Alminas, Winthrop
Nov. 8 - Sam Lyons, Coastal Carolina
Feb. 21 - Kelly Manders, Winthrop & Tripp McAllister, Coastal Carolina
Feb. 28 - Hampton Ballard, Radford
March 14 - Kelvin Day, Charleston Southern
March 20 - Andrew Mespelt, High Point
March 27 - Tripp McAllister, Coastal Carolina
April 3 - Parker McKoy, Liberty

CAA HONORS TOP WOMEN’S GOLF PERFORMANCES FOR MARCH

RICHMOND, Va. (March 19, 2008) – The Colonial Athletic Association has recognized three women’s golfers for their outstanding play during tournaments in later February and early March.

Georgia State junior Anna Scott (Consett, England/Durham Sixth Form Centre) received CAA Women’s Golfer of the Week accolades for the week ending March 4. The junior posted a consistent performance at the SunTrust Lady Gator Invitational with rounds of 72, 73 and 74 to finish tied for 12th (219, +9). This was her fourth top-15 finish of the season.

Towson freshman Sara Eichelberger (Rochester, N.Y./Nazareth Academy) claimed CAA Women’s Golfer of the Week honors for the week ending March 11. Eichelberger led the Tigers to its first team title in the two-year history of the program with a score of 162 for a third place finish in the individual standings. The rookie shot an 83 in the opening round and finished the tournament with an 82 in the final round. This was her third top finish for the Tigers of the season.

Old Dominion senior Meghan Schaefer (Union, Ky./Larry A. Ryle) collected CAA Women’s Golfer of the Week honors for the week ending March 18. The senior placed fifth at the Eastern Kentucky El Diablo Intercollegiate with a score of 234 (77-78-79). Schaefer helped the Lady Monarchs to a seventh place finish in the 54-hole tournament. The senior currently leads the Lady Monarchs with a 79.5 stroke average after two events this spring.

Former RVGA leader dies here

By Randy King
981-3126

The Roanoke Valley golf community has lost one of its most faithful servants.

George Edward May, who served as chairman of the Roanoke Valley Golf Association for 30 years, died Wednesday night from an apparent heart attack at his Salem home.

May, 62, taught advanced math classes for 24 years at Salem High.

The Martinsville native also taught at Martinsville High (1967-76) and James River High (1977-83).

Rob Landis, May's close friend and frequent golfing partner, said Thursday that he knew something was awry when May didn't show for their Wednesday night fall ritual of dinner and then attending the Salem High Boosters Club meeting.

"Every Wednesday, we do dinner at 6 o'clock and the Salem Boosters at 7," Landis said. "George and I spent the last 14 years going to every Salem football game, home and away, then we always went together on Wednesdays to go watch the game all over again. George is always prompt, always early, so I knew something was wrong. I decided to go over to [his] house and found him. A neighbor said they saw him out walking his dog at 20 minutes of 6, and I was there at 10 after 6."

Those on the local golf scene will remember May as a jovial gentleman who gave up much of his free time to run the RVGA tournaments.

"Oh, George always had a story," Landis said. "Everyone in golf around here must have heard that story about him beating Dan Keffer back in the 1980s in the old Valley Amateur about 15 times. Until this day, he's smiling about the day he beat Dan Keffer."

The late Keffer was the 1981 runner-up in the State Amateur and one of the better golfers in Roanoke for decades.

A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Salem. May was preceded in death by his wife, Linda, and daughter, Lauren. His surviving family includes his daughter, Mary Kathryn May.

Women's Golf Finishes 13th At Weather-Shortened Cuthbert Cup

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. - The final round of the Cuthbert Cup was cancelled due to inclement weather, leaving the Richmond women's golf team in 13th place in their spring 2008 season opener.

The Spiders had cut 18 strokes off of their first-round score on Tuesday, shooting a 318 to pull within four strokes of 12th place. Richmond finished the tournament at 654.

Spiders sophomore Anne Sprick and freshman Jillian Fraccola tied for 53rd at 162. Fraccola shot a 4-over-par 76 on the Kiawah Island Resort's Osprey Course Monday, while Sprick shot a 5-over 77.

Senior Alex Latimer finished 57th at 166. She shot an 85 in the second round after an 81 on Monday. Freshman Christina Gray tied for 58th at 167 after shooting an 82 in the second round. Sophomore Lauren Folgosa tied for 60th at 168, after carding an 83 on Tuesday.

The Spiders have almost a month off before returning to action at the William & Mary Invitational, March 22-23 at Fords Colony Golf Club in Williamsburg.

Radford Men's Golf Improves

BUIES CREEK, N.C.—Radford men’s golf improved to finish in fourth place at the Lonnie D. Small Invitational, moving up five spots from its day-one ninth place finish. The Highlander shot a 592 (303-289), an improvement of 14 strokes.

RU senior Hampton Ballard (Pearisburg, Va.) and junior Chris Dillow (Bland, Va.) tied for 15th overall. Ballard shot a 147 (74-73) and Dillow moved up seven strokes to also finish with a 147 (77-70). Senior Nick Little (Crozet, Va.) shot a 148 (75-73) to tie for 21st overall. Sophomore Sean Goshert (Conway, S.C.) finished with a 152 (79-73) to tie for 36th. Sophomore Kyle Bailey’s (Fincastle, Va.) shot a 154 (77-77) to tie for 46th overall.

Host Campbell won the event with a 583 (294-289) and USC Upstate Josh Gallman fired a 141 (69-72) to take medalist honors.

The RU men’s team next plays starting March 31 at the Wofford Invitational.

A golfer's different strokes

NATURAL BRIDGE -- Like the majority of the members of The Vista Links, Bobby Brads' official United States Golf Association handicap can be found in the clubhouse computer of the Buena Vista golf course.

"I have about a 24 handicap right now," Brads, a retired 65-year-old from Natural Bridge, confirmed Friday.

Then there is Brads' other handicap. This one isn't sanctioned by the USGA or anyone else.

It's right in front of your eyes. This golfer has only one arm.

As Bill "Sugarbear" Clark will tell you, that's what is called a real handicap.

"People who don't know Bobby, they'll stop and look and they'll kind of say, 'Look at that guy over there, he's got one arm and he's playing,'" said Clark, one of Brads' frequent playing partners.

"Then they'll watch him, and he very seldom disappoints them. He usually hits it pretty doggone decent. Bobby has got a little hot dog in him. He puts the pressure on himself a little bit when somebody starts watching. It makes him play a little bit better, looks like to me."

Clark will attest to that all the way to the 19th hole. Twenty-six days ago, he saw something he had never witnessed in all his years of playing golf. He watched somebody make a hole-in-one. And it took the only one-armed golfer he's ever seen -- not to mention heard of -- to make the ace.

After Clark and his other playing partner, fellow club member Mark Rogers, had barely missed the green with their tee shots from the longer white markers, Brads stepped to the senior tee and momentarily pondered his club selection for the 103-yard hole.

"I asked Bill, 'You think I can get a 9-iron over there?'" Brads said. "Well, he never said nothing. So I went over there and hit the 9-iron.

"The ball hit about two feet in the short cut around the front of the green, and I knew it was going to be close to the pin. And the ball just kept going and going, and it curved right to the hole. When it fell in the hole, all I remember is my 9-iron went flying up in the air!"

Clark said he and Rogers couldn't have been "more tickled" had one of their balls found the cup in a single blow.

"When Bobby made the ace, I jumped out of the cart and went over to him to give him a high-five," the gregarious Clark said. "Of course, Bobby had to take the club and sit it on the ground and lean it up against his leg in order to give me a high-five. I couldn't have picked a better fellow to see my first hole-in-one with.

"You know, I didn't have a real good day that day, but he and I shot the same score and I said, 'Bobby, I've got two arms and shot a 91. And here you've got one arm and shoot a 91, and had a hole-in-one doing it.'

"I'm telling you, it was some incredible stuff."

Who needs two?

Sure, Brads would love to be like the rest of the 99.99 percent -- and how many other 9s possibly needed to be strung to the right of the decimal point -- of the world's population that takes on life every day with two arms.

But he's got only one. He lost his left arm at age 24 in 1966, when it was cut off in a freakish accident at the Big Island paper mill. His arm was severed instantaneously when it got caught up in one of the ropes required to operate the mill's paper machine.

"The rope hung up and the slack came across another roller that was above my head and it got around my arm," said Brads, who almost 42 years later still vividly recalls the mishap. "When the slack went out of the rope, that's when it jerked me off the floor -- probably some two to three feet in the air -- and it just jerked the arm right out of the socket. Just that quick, it was gone!"

Brads said he would have likely bled to death that night if not for a first-aid member working at the mill, who was trained enough to know how to limit his blood loss.

"Death was close by," Brads said. "I'm only sitting here because the good Lord chose to answer my prayers that evening."

Susan Brads had married her Parry McCluer High sweetheart in 1962 and was at the couple's Glasgow home that night with their two young children, then 3-year-old David, and 1-year-old Tracy.

She thought he was going to die, she said.

"Bobby had lost so much blood," Susan Brads said. "But he made it somehow. But you know what, he accepted it, and I did, too. It just wasn't anything to do but go forward. We had kids. It was the only thing we could do."

A week later, Bobby Brads left the hospital. He was back on the job at the mill three weeks later, performing a less precarious job. He proceeded to toil for 38 more years at the mill before retiring Dec. 7, 2006.

A good-natured man who loves a good joke, Brads said he never let the loss of his arm beat him down.

"There's always somebody who is worse off than what you are," Brads said. "If you look around ... your eyes open up when things happen to you and you see other things that are worse off than what you are. I'm just glad I'm alive."

Getting hooked on golf

Funny thing, but Bobby Brads said he never once thought about ever holding a golf club when he had two arms and hands. However, two years after the accident, some of his buddies at the mill asked him to go with them to play golf. Never one to back off from a challenge, Brads took them up on the offer.

"They said, 'Let's go play golf,'" he recalled with a snicker. "They said you need to play left-handed, that you're going to have to hit the ball with your lead arm. Well, I had always swung things right-handed. So I borrowed some left-handed clubs and the ball went everywhere. I just couldn't hit it. It didn't work."

Soon thereafter, Brads purchased a set of old right-handed clubs and basically learned how to play from trial and error with a cast of friends at Botetourt Country Club in the late 1960s and early '70s. He developed a unique swing set-up in which he stands with his body basically facing the target and strikes the ball in what Clark described "much like a guy swinging a tennis racquet."

Off or on the course, Brads hasn't stopped swinging and having fun since. He routinely plays golf three times a week during the season with a pack of buddies. The best score he's ever carded was a 79 at Ivy Hill in Forest in the early 1990s. These days, he said he routinely shoots about 90, give or take a few shots.

"I've played golf all over the place," Brads said. "A bunch of us out of Buena Vista and Lexington, and people all the way to New York, go to Pinehurst [N.C.] every June for four days. I'm just one of the gang, just one of the redneck boys. I'm holding my own, though.

"I'm competitive on the course. I don't care who sees me play. I just say, 'Here I am, and if you don't like what you see, then you can leave.'"

Brads was in stitches as he recounted a story in which one of his old mill buddies brought a friend from Bedford to join him for a threesome one day.

"I didn't beat the guy from the mill because he was a pretty good golfer, but I beat the other guy," a guffawing Brads recalled. "The guy from the mill, Dennis, told me the next time I saw him that the other guy told him going up the road, 'Ain't this a hell of a note? I let a one-armed guy whip me!'"

Just think if everyone else at the club had to play with one arm. Clark said he wanted no part of that game.

"If we all had one arm, Bobby would beat the tar out of all of us," said Clark, his deep voice rising in tone. "Shoot, he would take all our money ... in a heartbeat."

Former RVGA leader dies here

The Roanoke Valley golf community has lost one of its most faithful servants.

George Edward May, who served as chairman of the Roanoke Valley Golf Association for 30 years, died Wednesday night from an apparent heart attack at his Salem home.

May, 62, taught advanced math classes for 24 years at Salem High.

The Martinsville native also taught at Martinsville High (1967-76) and James River High (1977-83).

Rob Landis, May's close friend and frequent golfing partner, said Thursday that he knew something was awry when May didn't show for their Wednesday night fall ritual of dinner and then attending the Salem High Boosters Club meeting.

"Every Wednesday, we do dinner at 6 o'clock and the Salem Boosters at 7," Landis said. "George and I spent the last 14 years going to every Salem football game, home and away, then we always went together on Wednesdays to go watch the game all over again. George is always prompt, always early, so I knew something was wrong. I decided to go over to [his] house and found him. A neighbor said they saw him out walking his dog at 20 minutes of 6, and I was there at 10 after 6."

Those on the local golf scene will remember May as a jovial gentleman who gave up much of his free time to run the RVGA tournaments.

"Oh, George always had a story," Landis said. "Everyone in golf around here must have heard that story about him beating Dan Keffer back in the 1980s in the old Valley Amateur about 15 times. Until this day, he's smiling about the day he beat Dan Keffer."

The late Keffer was the 1981 runner-up in the State Amateur and one of the better golfers in Roanoke for decades.

A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Salem. May was preceded in death by his wife, Linda, and daughter, Lauren. His surviving family includes his daughter, Mary Kathryn May.

Virginia and Miami finish third and fourth in Hurricanes' tournament.

Qdoba Intercollegiate, Don Shula's Golf Club, Miami Lakes, FL
Par 72, 6,210 yards
3-Virginia, 903
4-Miami, 907

Cavalier Golfers Open Spring with Third-Place Finish at Miami

The 23rd-ranked Virginia women's golf team shot 10-over 298 for the second straight day to place third in the 12-team Qdoba Invitational hosted by Miami at Don Shula's Golf Club in Miami Lakes, Fla. The Cavaliers were led during the final round by Whitney Neuhauser's even par 72 and Jennie Arseneault's 1-over 73. UVa finished the 54-hole event at 903. East Carolina, ranked No. 22, took top honors at 887 while Louisville was second at 901.

Freshman Joy Kim, who was playing as a non-counting individual, posted UVa's best overall finish. She was sixth in stroke play at 6-over 222, including a 73 during the final round. It marked Kim's best single-round effort, her first top-10 finish and the her best tournament score of her collegiate career. She played in one event last fall, placing 57th at the Mercedes-Benz Invitational.

Neuhauser, a sophomore, finished at 224 to place seventh overall. That marked her second top-10 finish and the first time she has placed in the top-10 in a 54-hole event. Her 72 during the final round was the best 18-hole score of her career.

Bailey Mosier Nominated For USA TODAY's College Academic Team

NORFOLK, VA--Old Dominion University senior woman's golfer Bailey Mosier (Las Vegas, NV). is one of two students to be considered for the 2008 USA TODAY All- USA College Academic Team. Mosier, a communications major joins Gordon Tolson, Jr., a senior graphic major as ODU's nominees.

USA TODAY will select 20 students out of the national pool of applicants for its First team, which will be announced Feb. 14. The winners named to the first team will receive a $2,500 cash award and be featured in USA TODAY as representatives of all outstanding undergraduates. Forty more students will be named to second and third teams.

The award honors full-time undergraduates who not only excel in scholarship but also extend their intellectual abilities beyond the classroom to benefit society. Criteria include grades, academic rigor, leadership, activities and more. These criteria Were developed in conjunction with newspaper and the following organizations: National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities; National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, Council for Advancement and Support Education and American Council on Education.

This past fall, Mosier, one of the team co-captains tied for 19th at the Lady Monarch Invitational.

ROLLINS TAKES 14TH AT NORTHERN TRUST OPEN

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – Former Virginia Commonwealth University star John Rollins finished 14^th Sunday at the Northern Trust Open at the Riviera Country Club.

Rollins shot a 3-over-par 74 in Sunday’s final round and finished with a 3-under 281 for the tournament. Rollins was third after Saturday’s third round, but carded three bogeys on the front nine and two on the back to slip down the leaderboard.

The finish is Rollins’ highest in four starts this year. The 32-year-old Richmond native posted four top-five finishes in 2007.

Best Virginia Golf Courses

Rank	Golf Course	Location
1	Robert Trent Jones Golf Club - Robert Trent Jones Course	Gainesville, VA
2	Algonkian Regional Park Golf Course - Algonkian Course	Sterling, VA
3	Laurel Hill Golf Club - Laurel Hills Course	Lorton, VA
4	River Bend Golf & Country Club - River Bend Course	Great Falls, VA
5	Brambleton Golf Course - Brambleton Course	Ashburn, VA
6	Pohick Bay Regional Park Golf Course - Pohick Bay Course	Lorton, VA
7	Penderbrook Golf Club - Penderbrook Course	Fairfax, VA
8	Riverfront Golf Club - Riverfront Course	Suffolk, VA
9	Virginia Beach National Golf Club - Virginia Beach Course	Virginia Beach, VA
10	Stonewall Golf Club - Stonewall Course	Gainesville, VA
11	The Tradition Golf Club At Kiskiack - Kiskiack Course	Williamsburg, VA
12	Spring Creek Golf Club - Spring Creek Course	Gordonsville, VA
13	Golden Horseshoe Golf Club - Gold Course	Williamsburg, VA
14	Cannon Ridge Golf Club - Beman Course	Fredericksburg, VA
15	Kinloch Golf Club - Kinloch Course	Manakin Sabot, VA
16	Bristow Manor Golf Club - Bristow Manor Course	Bristow, VA
17	Highlands Golfers' Club - Highlands Course	Chesterfield, VA
18	Virginia Golf Center & Academy - Virginia Course	Clifton, VA
19	Jordan Point Country Club - Jordan Point Course	Hopewell, VA
20	Pleasant Valley Golfer's Club - Pleasant Valley Course	Chantilly, VA
21	Westfields Golf Club - Westfields Course	Clifton, VA
22	The Osprey's Golf Club At Belmont Bay - Ospreys Course	Woodbridge, VA
23	Reston National Golf Course - Reston National Course	Reston, VA
24	Westpark Golf Club - Westpark Course	Leesburg, VA
25	Old Hickory Golf Club - Old Hickory Course	Woodbridge, VA

Exclusive Club Taking Shape near Roanoke

Construction of Ballyhack Golf Club in the Blue Ridge Mountains outside Roanoke, Va., is gradually providing a preview of the upcoming private facility. Six holes on front nine are rough-graded and drainage is being installed, said golf course architect Lester George of Richmond. In early December crews from Landscapes Unlimited will start clearing the back nine.

"This is huge, huge terrain. It's amazing," said George, best known for his 2001 design of Kinloch Golf Club outside Richmond, rated ninth-best private course in the country. "Some holes are 120 yards wide because the wind howls through there. It's called Windy Gap for a reason."

Ballyhack will be an exclusive golf development, with only 80 home sites and 60 local members. The course is scheduled for a spring 2009 opening.

The property is only a 15-minute drive from downtown Roanoke, but is isolated on undeveloped farmland, according to Ballyhack's director of golf operations, Jonathan Ireland. Because it is federally designated as "view-preserved," no development will ever abut Ballyhack.

The Cascades Makes Golf Magazine's Top 100 Courses

The Cascades Golf Course, VA, USA

The Cascades presents an intriguing challenge, balanced between the sloping terrain on the
front nine (pictured is a view back down the 2nd fairway) and...

...the natural water hazards found thoughout the back nine (pictured is the
stream along the right of the 17th hole).

As noted in other course profiles on this site, William Flynn seems the least appreciated of the great American architects. For forty years after his death in 1945 (which coincided with the end of World War II), not too much was made of Flynn or his body of work consisting of approximately 45 courses. The U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills in 1986 was certainly a major step in correcting this overview. Until then, many did not realize that Flynn deserved full and complete credit for Shinnecock's design, hailed by all as one of the country's handful of best.

In more recent times, authors like Daniel Wexler have shed light on the excellence of some of Flynn's lost courses, in particular the South Course at the Boca Raton Resort & Club in Florida and Mill Road Farm Golf Club in Illinois.

And when the U.S. Open returns for a third time to Flynn's Shinnecock Hills in 2005, one can expect a renewed interest in Flynn. Apart from Shinnecock, the two Flynn courses which never slipped from the public's eye are Cherry Hills in Denver (which was a much more interesting course when Flynn was alive than the course of today whose trees have overwhelmed Flynn's architectural features) and the Cascades Course, which is tied to the world famous Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Virginia. Interestingly enough, both Cherry Hills and the Cascades Course were done early in Flynn's career.

Though The Cascades has always remained one of Flynn's most notable works, it was not an easy piece of property upon which to work. According to Flynn historian Wayne Morrison (email:wsmorrison@hotmail.com), Peter W. Lees was brought in by The Homestead in 1919 to determine the suitability of the Rubino property as a golf course. Mr. Lees determined that it was not proper ground for golf. Then, in 1920, A.W. Tillinghast was retained by The Homestead to review Mr. Lee�s designs for an expanded Goat Course and evaluate the Rubino property for golf. Likewise, Tillinghast said that the Rubino land could not provide what is needed for a golf course.

Flynn was then invited to see the property and walked it along with Fay Ingalls through brier, weeds, bushes, cornfields, the cress lake, and along limestone ridges. By dusk, Flynn, announced that if a � acre site with a tenant�s shack could be obtained (the site of today's 4th green), an outstanding course could be constructed. Thus, The Homestead went ahead and acquired the Rubino property and Flynn agreed to design the golf course. Flynn was chosen in part because he had already established a reputation early on for working with the terrain, making the most of the landscape that nature provided.

It took 13 months to design and build the golf course. Contour maps with 5 foot and 1 foot intervals were made. The design was made on the maps and transferred to a field map. Trees were cut, cleared, and hauled to a mill for use on the construction of the course. Dynamite crews worked carefully so as not to disturb the mineral springs. Boulders as large as 20 tons were removed. A 300-yard ridge of limestone was reduced. Tractors plowed, disc-harrowed and did finish grade work along with horses and mules. An irrigation system was put in. A steam shovel (a novelty back then in that area) filled in the watercress lake using 38,000 cubic yards of fill. Swift Run (a stream with a catchment area of 20 square miles) was redirected westward to the foot of Little Mountain and in some areas and sent underground in others through 76-inch reinforced concrete pipes cast on the property.

Morrison notes that the materials used included: 20 tons of dynamite, 1204 tons of manure, 16 tons of fertilizer, 1287 tons of sand, 6 tons of seed, 208 tons of horse and mule feed, 83 tons of cement, 330 tons of crushed stone, 76 tons of building supplies, 32,000 linear feet of water pipe, 11,400 linear feet of rubber hose, 10,000 linear feet of drain tile, 20,000 linear feet of conduit and cable, 181,000 square feet of creeping bent stolons, 23,000 square feet of steel reinforcing, 38,000 square feet of lumber, 8,000 square feet of roofing, 12,000 gallons of gasoline and oil, and 400 gallons of paint.

Yet, the end result of this large engineering effort is that the land looks like man has done little to it. This is indeed a rare gift for an architect to possess and few other architects have ever matched Flynn in this regard.

The Cascades was an early harbinger of what Flynn had to offer: draping the holes over the land, creating varied stances and lies and small pitched greens. Nothing jaw dropping but highly effective nonetheless at providing an engaging test as witnessed by the championships that it has hosted including the 1928 US Women�s Amateur won by Glenna Collett, the 1966 Curtis Cup, the 1967 US Women�s Open, the 1980 US Sr. Amateur won by William C. Campbell, the 1988 US Men�s Amateur, the 1994 US Women�s Amateur and 2000 US Mid-Amateur.

The more one plays golf, the more one appreciates the lack of clutter at Flynn's best designs and that is particularly evident here. There no mounds anywhere and Flynn's features hug the ground. Green complexes like the 2nd, 7th, 8th and 11th seem to be perfect extensions of the sloping terrain but in fact Flynn moved a fair amount of dirt to prop up these greens and give the holes good golfing qualities.

Flynn's earth moving also taxes the player's perceptions on how a particular shot or putt will play. On the 2^nd, where the fairway slopes hard left to right, Flynn propped up the right side of the green such that it actually slopes right to left. Such a tact makes the green more receptive to the approach, but it can also leave the player scratching his head as to which way his putt will break � should he look at the overall slope of the land or the specific pitch of the green? The 4^th green is an actual illusion. The one-shotter drops sharply from the tee to the green below, which looks like it is pitched toward the tee as an inviting target. However, the green actually follows the slope down the hill, away from the tee. Many players have stood perplexed on the tee as their tee ball continues to drift well past the hole. The 8^th green is a combination of the themes of the 2^nd and 4^th: from the tee of this 155 yarder, the green appears pitched back to front toward the tee. However, the front half follows the sidehill, left-to-right slope of the site as it runs away from the player while Flynn built up the back-right portion of the green, sloping it from right to left.

According again to Flynn historian Wayne Morrison, Flynn and his wife fell in love with the area and the Homestead resort on their first visit. They returned on an almost annual basis over the next dozen years and so Flynn had ample opportunity to refine this design. His hole by hole drawings which hang in the Cascades clubhouse indicate interesting discrepancies with the holes as they play today. For instance, the 6th green was initially drawn left of the stream and both the 16th and 17th holes featured greens prior to the water hazards and were two shot holes. When Flynn moved these three green complexes to where they play today is unclear but he definitely did it. The only green complex which isn't original to Flynn's handiwork is the 14th, which Robert Trent Jones Sr. moved twenty yards back in the late 1950s.

The constant throughout the round is Flynn's requirement on the golfer to think. For instance, stand on the 3^rd tee, a short par four of 280 yards up a slight incline. In front of the shallow green is a ten foot gully and behind it is the steep rise of a hill. The fairway narrows as you get closer to the gully. Beyond that, Flynn provides no indication at all of what to do from the tee. Does one try and drive the green? Hope for a good lie in the gully and an up and down for a birdie? Hit a three iron and leave an 80 yard pitch? Hit less and leave a full wedge? Who knows?

After thirty rounds here, the author still cannot figure it out. Once one lays back off the tee, one certainly doesn't want to dump the pitch into the gully. Therefore, at the last second of the down swing, a little extra is given and one now finds himself above the hole with a quick putt. Not exactly a birdie putt. The first putt nudges past the hole three/four feet and then�.

The course is full of many do-I-or-don't-I decisions. Do I go with the driver on the 2^nd or hang back to make sure I hit the severe sloping left to right fairway with a more lofted wood? Do I go after the back hole locations on the downhill par three 4^th, with death over the green? How aggressive do I want to be on the severe dogleg 10^th? Can I go for the green in two on the 16^th and 17^th holes, with a stream and pond to contend with on the second shots?

The Cascades is certainly a placement course. Distance isn't the big concern, as only four of the two shotters are over 430 yards. The greens don't appear to be frightenly contoured. The bunkers aren't particularly deep, and yet...the score mounts. Hit the sloping fairway and keep the ball beneath the hole. Sounds easy, but consistent with design work carried out in the 1920's, if the land had pitch, so did the fairways. At The Cascades, the 2^nd, 5^th, 7^th and 9^th fairways continually serve up different stances and lies. The golfer then descends down into the river bed bottom of the valley for the second nine, which features a flowing stream of mountain water on five of the holes. The stances are flatter but the penalty for mistakes escalates. Overall, the challenge is balanced between the two nines, and when combined, the golfer appreciates why Sam Snead, the course's first Head Professional, said if you can play here, you can play anywhere.

Holes to Note

4th hole, 200 yards, Carry On; The elevated tee gives the golfer a clear few of the small 3,400 square foot green below, as well as the deepest bunkers on the course on the left and behind. Short right offers a tricky pitch from a tight lie or rough to a green that runs away. Throw in the thinner mountain air at this 2500 foot elevation, and club selection remains a perpetual mystery. The setting's beauty is the only consolation.

The beauty of the downhill 4th can lull the golfer into a false sense of comfort.

In fact, trouble lurks all around the 4th green complex: long or left is certain
death and short is no bargain as the green runs away.

5th hole, 575 yards, Marathon; Throughout his design career and in his writings, Flynn frequently warned that technology was reducing the challenge of the game as the player was no longer asked to hit controlled long shots. He wrote often about the need for distance and backed it up with his 7,000 yard Mill Road Farm Golf Course which opened in 1926 (!). The Philadelphia based Flynn was a definite fan of the genuine three shot hole, no doubt influenced by such holes as the 4th at Merion and the pair at Pine Valley. And to this day, the 5th at The Cascades plays as a three shotter, thanks to Flynn's use of landforms to create separate and distinct island fairways.

The long 5th features two 'island' fairways. The first island as seen here from the tee ends 300
yards from the back markers. The hill's shoulder must be carried on one's second shot
to reach the second island fairway and it is much easier to do so
from the fairway than the rough.

6th hole, 365 yards; The 6th captures Flynn's ability to create a hole that is natural/simple in appearance and yet highly strategic. As Flynn walked the property, he found a section of stream that ran in a straight line for approximately 360 yards. He placed the tee on the left side of the stream and eventually settled on placing a long oval green on its right, parallel to the stream. In this manner, the closer one flirts with the stream off the tee, the better his angle into the green. The more he shys away from the stream, the more oblique his angle becomes into the oval green on his second. Unfortunately, at some point in the 1980s, the section of stream from 150 yards to 260 yards from the tee was run underground, thus robbing the hole of some of Flynn's strategic intent.

The perfect approach angle into the long oval 6th green is from near the stream.

7th hole, 425 yards, Seventh Heaven; The elevated tee soaks up the view down the length of the valley. The hole plays across the slope of the valley hill with everything falling toward the right. A draw is the perfect tee ball as it offers both distance and the hope to hold the sloping fairway. The approach shot is invariably with the ball below one's feet; hitting a controlled mid-iron from this position is a shot of great skill (and satisfaction), but alas few 'flat landers' possess the ability.

A draw off the tee is ideal to hold the severe left to right sloping 7th fairway. The hanging
lie with the ball below one's feet on one's second is likely to produce a fade.

8th hole, 155 yards, Cemetery Ridge; Like the 4th, the initial prospect of playing the 8th is one of pleasure rather than apprehension. However, after just a few rounds, one learns to treat the 8th with great caution. Miss left and the left to right pitched green becomes difficult to hold on one's recovery shot. Miss the right greenside bunker and the ball is kicked twenty plus yards away. A sharp fall off is behind.

The 8th green is a great one to hit in regulation as a big score can result otherwise.

9th hole, 450 yards, The Take Off; The rugged nature of the property is highlighted with this tee ball out of a chute of trees across a ravine to a rolling fairway. The approach is blind unless the golfer can fly the ball onto a plateau some 270 yards from the tee. Some don't like a long or mid-iron aimed at the target board in a tree behind the green, but the green is open in front, giving the player enough margin for error. Such a blind shot actually represents natural golf. Though the 9th fits the land that it is situated on as well as any hole on the course, too many modern architects would have made a cut in the land to give the golfer a better view, thus ruining this natural hole's uniqueness.

To reach the plateau at the top of the far hill is 270 yards from the back marker. A drive
just short will likely roll back down the fairway and leave a blind approach.

Looking back up at the 9th tee, the golfer appreciates the mountainous
property with which Flynn had to work.

Note the white bull's eye target well up in the pine tree as well as how Flynn left the green entrance open.