GOLF IS JUST A GAME...

A Couple of Personal Stories:

"Mama Cuy": (trust me, the lady pictured below is "Aunt Ana"!!) as we all called my mom, probably the most avid golfer in the family, never played better than an 18 handicap. In addition, she never used anything longer than a 6 iron with the short clubs or a 5-Wood with the longer ones (caddies loved her, because she did not even carry the clubs that she did not use).

At meal time, we all had stories, and my mom always had the last word: "You who claim to play so well, never seem to have fun at this game. All I hear is 'I could have shot this or that', or 'if I hadn't hit it in the trees on 16, I would have broken 70, or, that three-putt on 15 cost me a 34 on the back nine. By God, you must be miserable remembering all those 'bad shots'! You may have a lot of fun for the better part of 4 hours, but regrets the rest of the day. On the contrary, for 4 hours, I'm looking for that shot that will make my round, and when I finally hit it, i remember it the rest of the day! We all need to be more like her!

Handling "sandbaggers": first you need to know which one of the two types you are dealing with. The first type is the one who "plays down" his skills, simply don't bet against him and don't do business with him. Sandbagging is cheating, plain and simpe. If possible, don't even play on his team, you'll get a bad reputation. The second type, the "backwards sandbagger" is easier to handle. If you must, call him on all his bets, chances are you will win, but earn an adversary down the road, and that is not good either. Never ever, use him as partner, you will lose your shirt, they are bad for your game and your pocket. If you must play as his partner, don't bet with the other team! At all costs, stay away fronm cheaters.

Keeping Score: Years back, I took Paola, then 16, to play a tournament in Farmington and Anya, 10 years younger, tagged along with us. As it turned out, parents could not follow the golfers in the tournament, so Anya and myself went to a little 9-hole course called "Civitan", as I recall, it is par 28: eight Par-3 holes and one short par 4 hole. It was a busy day, and Anya and I were paired with two young ladies in their 30's, both very poor golfers, but they seemed to be having a lot of fun. After two or three holes, we had to wait for the group ahead so we waited on a bench.

They were writing their score of the last hole, and I could not help but try to see what they had scored.. I saw no numbers, only letters: "B's" or "G's". Curious, I asked what was their methodology: "Oh! We just like to have fun. We are very bad, so we only write "B" for Bad and "G" for Good. If we have 5 or more "G's" we are very happy", "What do you consider a 'G'?".. "Oh, 7 or better is a well earned G!" ...

Junior Wisdom: Once, during a practice session with juniors, I was trying to get the point across on the importance of practice, so I asked point blank, what was their definition of practice? I had kids from 6 to 15 years old. No one seemed to have an answer -and to be honest, I was looking for someone smarter than me, as I could not find words to describe it either. All of a sudden, a small kid, about 6 years old said, "Mr. Alvarez, 'practice' is something we learn from". Now, who said kids don't know the right answer? ...

"Drive for Show" L:ive: In 1971, I saw Lee Trevino play for the first time ever. I followed him at my home course in Mexico City during a practice round for the Mexican Open, which was played in November. That year, Trevino had won 3 national championships in a span of 5 weeks: The U.S. Open, Canadian Open and British Open. During this practice round, he was paired with a very long hitter. On the first hole, this professional out-drove Trevino by some 25 yards, and here is where I overheard the following: Jose: "Lee, what did you hit off the tee?" Lee "Driver" Jose: "Wow, I hit a 3-wood, did you hit it good?", "I killed it" said Trevino. Trevino scored a birdie, Jose a three-putt bogey. On #2, again, Jose out drives Trevino, this time by 50 yards (with a driver). Score: Trevino birdie 4; Jose par 5. Sitting on the bench of #3 waiting for the group ahead to clear the Par-3 # 3 hole, Trevino asks Jose: "Hey Jose, how much are they paying for that driving contest tomorrow?", Jose, bewildered, answers: "There is no driving contest tomorrow. Not that I know of anyway", Trevino: "Oh my. You really had me worried!" (in that practice round, Trevino shot 66, Jose shot 74). ...

Reputations: Joe and Rick played in a tournament together. Joe had a reputation for being the best "club breaker" in Gallup. Rick had one too, but, since he played with a smaller group of people, not many knew of his little temper outbursts. After the tournament, we saw Joe walking to the shop with several broken clubs in hand. Everyone assumed that he had had a bad round and that he had broken not one, but several clubs during his "journey around the course". Everyone was laughing at Joe as he walked right up to the display counter and said: "Pro, I want you to know that I was a very good guy today on the course... I helped Rick pick up all of the clubs he broke on the way to his 97!"... Never judge a man by his reputation alone!