My Favorite Shots from The Blizzard of 2014

I've been tweeting some blizzard photos over @mlyhlssgolf (featuring such immortal hashtags as #futilitymeetexercise, #moveoverSisyphus, and #blizzardhacks), but that doesn't allow me to arrange related shots.  So here's a little tour of The Constructivist Family's neighborhood from Tuesday to Friday.

Let's start with the view from right near the end of my driveway on Wednesday morning.

Compare it to the view from my neighbor's flat roof looking in the opposite direction from a few houses to the right of mine relative to the previous picture.  This one was taken Friday morning.

Next up are a couple of shots of our front entryway (which fortunately we never use anyway), first from Wednesday morning (in the aftermath of round 1) and next from Thursday night (in the midst of round 2):

The snow and ice formations on our back roof were strange and beautiful.  The first 2 are from Wednesday morning:

This one's from just about 25 hours later:

Let's go back to some street views, these ones featuring my trusty shovel (which for maybe the 2nd time since we moved to Hamburg actually needed an assist from a neighbor's snowblower)!  First from Thursday morning (this one I did by myself); you can see half of the neighbor's house across the street that kicked off this photoessay:

Next is the same time, opposite point-of-view:

Here's a close-up from Friday morning:

I was excited because I had just reached the edge of my driveway.  Yup, I probably spent about 5 hours just shovelling off the road this week.  The plows just couldn't keep the streets their normal width.

So here are my 3 favorite shots of the week.  The first is from about lunchtime on Wednesday, when I had cleared my flat roof off for the 2nd time of the week and all seemed well with the world:

Next up is an action shot from Tuesday (while onechan and imoto were still excited about playing outside!):

I'm nostalgic for how low those mounds at the end of my driveway were back then!  Didn't realize my shovel photobombed that shot until just now, either!

Here's the Full Metal Archivist wishing everyone a good night yesterday evening:

Here's hoping this turns out to be the worst one we have to deal with in our entire time in Hamburg!

[Update (2:58 pm):  Onechan has other ideas.  After the Full Metal Archivist and I cleared enough snow off our garage roof that the girls could climb up onto and slide down it safely, she exclaimed, "This is the best day ever!!  I can't wait for the next huge storm!"  Here are some photos from this morning:

And to top it off:

Yup, hot chocolate and the FMA's own twist on kimchi jigae!]

Farewell, Dai-chan: Daisuke Takahashi Retires from Competitive Figure Skating

The Constructivist household is in mourning for the retirement of Daisuke Takahashi from competitive figure skating.  Ever since we found out, I've been asking the Full Metal Archivist to write something celebrating his career, but she's still dealing with the shock of the news and is just too sad to put her feelings into words.  What she has told me has been poetic:  "he flirted with the music, seduced audiences, and challenged judges...he was a shaman on the ice."  So I'll just point you too her April 2010 "Luv Letter" for now.  More on his legacy later!

Recommended Reading: Year-in-Review Stories

The LPGA has been counting down the top 13 stories of 2013.  What do you think of their choices?  You can tell what I think perhaps by the made-up titles I give them....

#5:  Suzann Pettersen Surfs Solheim Cup Wave to Late-Season LPGA Dominance
#6:  Rain, Rain, Go Away!
#7:  Hi, I'm Inbee Park, and I'm the #7 Story of 2013.  You Heard Me Right.  #7.  Yup.
#8:  Shanshan Feng Wins 1st LPGA Event in Home Country's Mainland with Walkoff Eagle.  And Is #8.
#9:  Look Out, World, Lexi's Learned How to Putt!
#10:  Meet the World #1s of 2013.  You May Have Heard of Them.
#11:  Karrie Webb Wins #39 for Grandma
#12:  Ariya Jutanugarn to Inbee Park:  After You!
#13:  The LPGA's Back, Baby!

Perhaps more imaginative (although it takes a lot of imagination to put Inbee's run for the Grand Slam anywhere but #1!) is bangkokbobby's approach of profiling the top 30 LPGAers and WTAers by pairing the #30, #29, and so on from each sport together.  I won't link to them all, but here are my faves thus far:

#3:  Li Na/Stacy Lewis
#4:  Maria Sharapova/Shanshan Feng
#5:  Agnieszka Radwanska/So Yeon Ryu
#7:  Marion Bartoli/In-Kyung Kim
#9:  Na Yeon Choi/Angelique Kerber
#11:  Paula Creamer/Roberta Vinci
#22:  Ji-Yai Shin/Hsieh Su-Wei
#27:  Ai Miyazato/Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
#28:  Morgan Pressel/Lucie Safarova

So what have been your favorite year-in-review stories?  I found The Sports Network's to be all right (although there was no rock involved in Feng's approach on 18 in China)....  Haven't had time to read Golfweek's multifaceted approach.  But I did enjoy Randall Mell's incredulity that Inbee Park didn't win the AP's Female Athlete of the Year award.

[Update 1 (12/31/13, 10:11 am):  Here are the LPGA's top 4 stories of 2013:

#1: The Year of Inbee
#2: Enter the Ko
#3: Euros Take 1st Solheim Cup on U.S. Soil
#4: Stacy Tames the Road Hole

OK, so move the weather story to #13 and make it clearer that the intermediate Inbee story is just that and I'm pretty ok with this list, as snarky as I was earlier....]

[Update 2 (10:15 am):  Inbee only made #6 in Golf Channel's year-end review.  What do you all think?  Behind "controversy" and "anchored stroke"?!  Come on!]

Merry QSMS from Mostly Harmless!

QSMS is of course how onechan first tried to spell Christmas.  Speaking of which, we don't celebrate it in this Jewish-Buddhist-not-very-religious Constructivist household--and imoto doesn't like it.  So she hung up one of her socks by the fireplace and tried to stay up for Santa as long as she could.  I was glad for the company while I was up grading (she was paging through some Simpsons comic books I took out from the local library until they put her right to sleep, but before that we had a fun discussion on whether Santa is real).

Ah, I should call it a night so I'm fresh for Mongolian buffet for dinner tonight!  Hope your Christmas is going to be as awesome as ours....

RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup Update: Jee Young Lee and Ai Miyazato Are Partying Like It's 2007!

Ai Miyazato opened the RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup with a sizzling 63 (capped off by a birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie run late in her 1st round), but she couldn't stay ahead of Jee Young Lee, who started the tournament by birdieing 7 of her 1st 9 holes and followed it up with a bogey-free 64 yesterday.  A walkoff bogey on Ai-sama's final hole, the par-4 9th, dropped her back to -14, 1 shot behind her fellow LPGA Class of 2006er.  With Stacy Lewis lurking at -11, a mix of veterans (Candie Kung, Lindsey Wright, Amy Yang) and newbies (Danielle Kang, Gerina Piller) playing well at -9, and proven performers like Cristie Kerr (-8), In-Kyung Kim (-8), Anna Nordqvist (-8), Sandra Gal (-8), Ji-Yai Shin (-7), Katherine Hull-Kirk (-7), Hee-Won Han (-7), and Jimin Kang (-7) one low round away from putting themselves in contention (not to mention a host of hungry youngsters from Jessica Korda and Lizette Salas to Daniela Iacobelli to Sydnee Michaels), it's too soon to declare this a blast from the past, a 36-hole showdown between 2 of the top "Young Guns" (as I used to call the LPGA generation now known as the "Tseng Dynasty"), but indulge me while I take a walk down nostalgia lane and fantasize about what might go down this weekend.

Back in 2006, Ai Miyazato and Morgan Pressel were the 2 biggest names in that year's rookie class--Miyazato because of her record-breaking win in '05 Q-School and Pressel because of her near-win at the U.S. Women's Open.  Both had solid seasons--they both finished in the top 25 on the money list (Miyazato with around $532K and Pressel with about $466K)--but they were passed by Duke's Brittany Lang (who also had a great shot at winning that same Open as Pressel!) and overshadowed by 2 relatively unheralded South Korean golfers, Rookie of the Year Seon Hwa Lee (1 win and #12 on the money list, near $1M in winnings) and Jee Young Lee (#20 on the money list with around $575K in winnings).  Seon Hwa, who would garner the moniker "Stone Buddha," was a classic straight shooter, #8 in driving accuracy with 78.7% of fairways found and #2 in putts per green in regulation at 1.75.  Jee Young, who came to be known to her fans as "Jelly," was a bomber with touch, ranking #4 in driving distance at 275 yards a pop and #6 in putts per green in regulation at 1.76.  Both would continue to excel on the LPGA over the next 2 seasons.

In 2007, Seon Hwa would move into the top 5 on the money list and break the $1M barrier, Jee Young would almost follow her, and Pressel joined them in the top 10, while Miyazato moved into the top 20 with nearly $800K in winnings.  Jelly moved up to #2 in driving distance that year, while the Stone Buddha got her 2nd LPGA victory.  Seon Hwa was the only '06er to really shine in 2008, again breaking the $1M barrier and notching her 3rd and 4th LPGA wins, but both Jee Young and Morgan had solid years (top 25 on the money list, near $800K and $700K respectively), staying ahead of the resurgent Lang and the surging Sun Young Yoo, while Miyazato suffered an injury in the 2nd half of the season after losing to Seon Hwa in the finals of the Match Play Championship and compounded her problems with ill-advised swing changes, causing her to drop almost entirely out of the top 50.  If you look at my early rankings of the '06ers (from my first in May 2007 to my year-end ones in October 2008 and December 2008), you'll see it was pretty clear that the Lees were doing great, Pressel was doing pretty well, and Miyazato was doing all right, but definitely underachieving given her double-digit win total on the JLPGA before coming to the LPGA.

9 Miyazato LPGA wins later and with both Lees still in the midst of deep deep deep slumps (Jelly needed wrist surgery late in 2010, and I still don't know what's really gone on with the Stone Buddha the last few years, but at least she made the cut this week), everything has changed.  But once upon a time, Jee Young Lee was the golfer many LPGA watchers thought had the best chance to hang with the dominant Lorena Ochoa and the rising Ya Ni Tseng.  Hound Dog and I in particular kept expecting a breakout year from her.  Well, it hasn't happened yet.  I would love to see her get her 1st win as an LPGA member this week!  (Her only win so far was as a non-member in the LPGA event in Korea in 2005.)  Of course, I'm not going to be rooting against my favorite golfer on the planet, who's fighting for her 10 career LPGA victory!

Yes, I know Stacy Lewis can take over the #1 spot with a win (Ya Ni made the cut on the dot at -2, so she'll need 2 super-low rounds in a row to make the top 3), and there are all kinds of other stories to follow (by this point, it's no surprise to see Michelle Wie and Laura Davies missing a cut, but Suzann Pettersen and Carlota Ciganda??? Brittany Lincicome and Morgan Pressel?? Vicky Hurst and Sun Young Yoo? Chella Choi and Mariajo Uribe?), but I would love to see Jelly and Ai-sama continue playing so well in all facets of their games that they continue to pull away from the field.  If that happens, I'll leave it to others to enjoy watching 2 golfers with such different styles of play duke it out at Wildfire over the weekend.

The Constructivist Family will be driving up to Ontario tomorrow morning for the end of the World Figure Skating Championships, so maybe imoto and I can find a hotel lobby that'll allow us to watch some skating and golf while the Full Metal Archivist and onechan attend the gala?  The terrible coverage of figure skating on US tv and of women's golf on Japan TV is leaving us in the dark, but what can we do?  Better to pay for the girls' Japanese school, onechan's skating, and imoto's gymnastics and to save money for us all to start golfing this summer (the FMA's weakening in her anti-golf resolve--woo-hoo!) than pay for Golf Channel that I don't even have time to watch this semester!

Long story short, I may not even find out the results of the tournament until late night Sunday.  And as for blogging it, we'll just have to see.  Sorry about that!

[Update 1 (11:18 am):  bangkokbobby is also looking back to Jelly's early career! And Ruthless Mike is praising Ai-sama's putting stroke!  Meanwhile, Tony Jesselli is focusing on reports of Natalie Gulbis having caught malaria on the Asian swing, while the Seoul Sisters discussion forum is lighting up with worries about what this might mean about Se Ri Pak's illness....]

If You're Looking for Tony Jesselli's Founders Cup Preview....

...you can find it over at his new blog, Tony's LPGA Report, at http://www.tonyslpgareport.com/2013/03/rr-donnelly-founders-cup-preview.html.  You can always find the link to his most recent post in the "Mostly Harmless Golfarama" section over on the left sidebar.

I want to thank Tony for everything he did here at Mostly Harmless, but particularly for keeping MH alive while I took a long sabbatical from golf blogging for most of the last five months.  For awhile there when he and I were both contributing regularly to MH--and for some time after I took off--it was the #1 golf blog according to Technorati (and was consistently in their top 5 for virtually his entire tenure).  Tony's relentless search for new readers and eagerness to reach out to new audiences on discussion forums and fan sites around the world no doubt played a huge role in MH's rise in Technorati's rankings.  But I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that it's Tony's ability to capture the big picture concisely and zoom in to focus on significant details and emerging trends that's the true source of his appeal as a golf writer.  He always calls it like he sees it, even when it means pointing out that a golfer he likes a lot isn't playing very good golf.  These qualities served him well at MH and will serve him well at Tony's LPGA Report.

Tony, I can't wait to see what you do in and with your new digs!  Here's hoping that every single Mostly Harmless regular becomes a regular at your place and that you continue to bring new fans and better coverage to women's golf!  Best of luck, and don't be a stranger--feel free to cross-post here any time!

OMG! Nadeshiko Japan vs. Team USA Rematch for Olympic Gold

The Constructivist household is going nuts for Nadeshiko Japan, who held on over the last 25 minutes of their semi-final match and held off a scrappy French team to get into the gold-metal game at the London Olympics.  And when Team USA kept coming back against Canada and beat them in the final seconds of overtime, well, you know we can't wait for the rematch of the amazing 2011 World Cup finals!  We love Abby Wambach (a western NYer!), Alex Morgan, and the rest of Team USA, but there's no doubt we'll be rooting for a Nadeshiko Japan repeat Thursday afternoon (our time)!

Recommended Reading: Looking Back on Lorena's Career, Looking Ahead to the LPGA's Future

I'm still too sad to write any more about Lorena's retirement, but wanted to pass along what I think have been the best looks back at Lorena'a career.

• Lisa Mickey's memories of Lorena's amateur and Futures Tour years (and check out reactions from current Futures Tour players);
  
• Hound Dog's video compilation of Lorena's most memorable shots from 2008;
  
• Brian Hewitt's look ahead to Lorena's future (if the link doesn't work subscribe to Global Golf Post).
  

In addition, Hound Dog's preview of and hot 20 list for the Tres Marias Championship are out. But what I really want to call your attention to is Happy Fan's satirical suggestion that apartheid is the only way to save the LPGA. Now that's a must-read! [Update 1 (4/28/10, 5:10 am): Nice career comparison between Lorena and Tiger at age 28 by Ryan Ballengee.]

Recommended Reading: Say It Ain't So, Lorena!

Quick links to the reactions to Lorena's (hopefully temporary) retirement from professional golf (in reverse chronological order):

Annika
Stephanie Wei
Ryan Ballengee
Geoff Shackelford
Brent Kelley
Hound Dog

[Update 1 (4/21/10, 1:27 am): Golf Observer has the press linkage. I'm still floored by this.]

Make It Star Blazers in 2010!

Check it out: there's a new animated Star Blazers movie that's been out in Japan for almost a month!



It goes by Star Blazers: Rebirth in English and Space Battleship Yamato in Japanese.



I encourage you to check out parts 2 and 3 of this promo. Go for the clips from the new movie and original show, stay for the evolving conversation between the cartoony comic relief dad and son--no Japanese needed. Now all I need is the movie to come to the States--with subtitles!

Oh, and there's also a live-action movie starring SMAP's Kimutaku coming out late this year:



The last 5 minutes of that teaser put me in the mood for the theme song of the show my brother, father, and I used to get up at 6 am to watch when I was a kid!



Here it is in Japanese:



Here's are 2 earlier Japanese versions:





Once more, with subs:



There's even a "nose flute" version out on teh intertubes. Now if only I could find a veggie instrument version!

Nice Sunday

I don't say this often enough: thanks, mom and dad. My mom virtually ran a mini-day care yesterday, as onechan's best friend in Clinton, who lives next door to my parents, came over to play all of a rainy morning and most of a sometimes-only-cloudy afternoon with imoto and her, while my dad and I got 13 holes in at a course I used to practice on in my college golf days before we were rained out. And my dad solved my problems with my short irons and wedges with a single phrase. Yeah, I still made a few bad swings, had accuracy and distance control issues on my approach shots, and except for two circus putts couldn't get anything to drop, but I was hitting the vast majority of my shots pure, hitting a million fairways and more greens than usual, and keeping it together with only 4 bogeys and a birdie on a course that was playing long and in a light rain for half the holes we played. Heck, I even played a stretch of 5 holes in 1-under and our last 7 in E (after screwing up the easier opening holes), so who knows what I could have done over the last 5? My dad's game has changed remarkably little, even after 2 rounds of prostate cancer treatment almost a decade apart. He still obsesses over equipment, hits fairways like clockwork no matter which driver he's using that day, has the meanest wedge game in the family, and may even be capable of benefitting from the putting lesson I gave him (after the round, of course!).

As it turned out, we were forced off the course in plenty of time to get ready to watch the Women's British Open coverage on ABC. Sure, imoto and then onechan saved her meltdown for my return, but they got back to having a blast with their friend relatively quickly, and even paid some attention to what was happening at Royal Lytham. Onechan and I both had to deal with some pretty big disappointments--her players Karrie Webb and Paula Creamer and mine Ai Miyazato simply couldn't match Catriona Matthew's magical putter down the stretch and, except for Karrie, suffered through late links golf implosions. But nobody can take being in contention in a major away from them and they're going to learn a lot from the experience. Until Matthew made those 3 birdies in a row from all over the course, it really was anyone's tournament. Getting to watch this with my parents and girls was truly special. Yeah, I didn't get to keep the Futures Tour ladies company in the rain at Syracuse, but it was pretty cool to complain with my mom about how long it took before ABC showed us a leaderboard at the start of their coverage (8 minutes!!) and to see how excited she was for Paula, Ai-sama, and the two Solheim Cup US picks, Juli Inkster and Michelle Wie. And it was fun trying to wake my dad up for the key shots down the stretch.

Plus we got to see Tiger get win #69, take a walk down to the college to see how much had changed since the last time I had been there (a lot!), and almost have a movie night (until Night at the Museum freaked onechan out too much; imoto, of course, was unfazed, but found the Clifford episodes my mom had taped an acceptable substitute). All in all, a nice Sunday. Thanks, mom and dad!

(Next on the Onechan & Imoto Upstate NY Tour: hanging with their best friend in Rochester, Alter Ego's 3-year-old, and catching up with the Full Metal Archivist when she gets off work in Buffalo!)

Condolences to the Dunn Family

Just heard from my folks that Moira Dunn's father, Richard F. Dunn, passed away June 19 at the age of 79. Mostly Harmless regulars know that Moira's an old friend of mine going back to our junior golf days in central NY. We were paired together in my 1st tournament (I believe we tied) and I had one of my best rounds of college golf at Cedar Lake, the course she grew up playing. Moira hasn't pulled out of the Wegmans this week, evidently deciding to honor her dad's memory by playing the game they both love, just as she has done since 1995 as a professional. Onechan and I will be going to Locust Hill for the 2nd year in a row (imoto-less, as our cute little 3-year-old is still convinced her rebelliousness is hilarious), so I hope to catch up with Moira on the weekend to pass along my condolences personally. If all goes well, we'll be back home late Thursday night (or early Friday morning) and driving to Pittsford Saturday morning. Here's hoping Moira plays great while grieving.

Girrlz!

Here's about big long grow-ups post about the antecedents of Sparkychan, Gojochan, Jumpsan, Kongsan, Haatochan, and the Powerpuff Girls, Grrrrr!

And this is the girl who started it all. Her name is Flossie Mackenzie, she's 10 years old, and she lives in Africa, the imagined Africa of Rider Haggard's Allan Quatermain. We're in chapter 4 where Quatermain has asked her whether or not she feels lonely living "among all these savage people and without any companions of her own age":

'Lonely?' she said. 'Oh, indeed no! I am as happy as the day is long, and besides I have my own companions. Why, I should hate to be buried in a crowd of white girls all just like myself so that nobody could tell the difference! Here,' she said, giving her head a little toss, 'I am I; and every native for miles around knows the "Water-lily", -- for that is what they call me -- and is ready to do what I want, but in the books that I have read about little girls in England it is not like that. Everybody thinks them a trouble, and they have to do what their schoolmistress likes. Oh! it would break my heart to be put in a cage like that and not to be free -- free as the air.'

'Would you not like to learn?' I asked.

'So I do learn. Father teaches me Latin and French and arithmetic.'

'And are you never afraid among all these wild men?'

'Afraid? Oh no! they never interfere with me. I think they believe that I am "Ngai" (of the Divinity) because I am so white and have fair hair. And look here,' and diving her little hand into the bodice of her dress she produced a double-barrelled nickel-plated Derringer, 'I always carry that loaded, and if anybody tried to touch me I should shoot him. Once I shot a leopard that jumped upon my donkey as I was riding along. It frightened me very much, but I shot it in the ear and it fell dead, and I have its skin upon my bed. Look there!' she went on in an altered voice, touching me on the arm and pointing to some far-away object, 'I said just now that I had companions; there is one of them.'

She was pointing to Mt. Kenya.

Love Love Love Live

The Full Metal Archivist didn't think my earlier Valentine's Day post was romantic enough. Here's one of her favorite groups from her high school years, Dreams Come True, performing live, impromptu, in a park:



What a voice, eh? Just as good for 50 people as 50,000:

Japanese Star Wars v. Japanese Spider-Man

I would be remiss in my ongoing attempt to unite animation, sf, music, and golf otaku of all genders, ages, and nationalities were I not to pass along these gems from the 1970s:





Which is better at blowing your mind? Note how both the giant robot and Kamen Rider traditions are invoked in the latter. But the former's lyrics must not be underestimated.

Can you top these?

[Update 1 (9:57 am): I vote for the latter, on the grounds that its opening probably influenced The Tick's theme song:



But I'm willing to be persuaded.]

Time for the Terrible Twos

It's Mostly Harmless's second birthday today. On to the terrible twos! Let's give imoto a run for her money. No, wait, better to pass along some tantrum antidotes:







Yup, we're all about the public service here.

On Missing Japan

They do New Year's Eve right in Japan! NHK's "Kouhaku Utagassen" is not to be missed, particularly this year when Jero will be performing (along with dozens of others, including the little girl who sings the Ponyo theme song, and, of course, the Full Metal Archivist's faves, SMAP) in the traditional battle of the J-pop stars. That said, we're missing it for the 2nd year in a row. So sad! Hopefully we'll catch the highlights on youtube or veoh!

[Update 1 (6:10 am): Jero just won the Best New Artist award! Omedeto gozaimasu!]

[Update 2 (6:15 am): Turns out that one was his 2nd such award this year. Here's his 1st.]

[Update 3 (10:48 am): Of course, the nice thing about being here is that you get to catch snippets of the show on youtube and veoh before the evening. Here's Jero's performance...with his mom in the audience!


Watch JERO / Umiyuki (Kouhaku Utagassen) in Music Videos  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Wow!]

[Update 4 (4:28 pm): The Ponyo song was the climax of a tribute to the music of Miyazaki's films:



Wow!!]

QSMS Has Come Early in Japan...

...at least for fans of the Pretty Cure franchise. Behold the trailer for the March 20, 2009, release of Precure All Stars DX, a movie that brings together the casts of every season of onechan's formerly favorite anime...if you dare!



Hat tip: moetron, which is breaking teh intertubes today, apparently.

Oh, and onechan can't take the fighting in Pretty Cure any more--runs out of the room screaming, usually. It seems the magical girl genre has become a lot more Dragonball in recent years. Speaking of which:



Why even try turning anime into live action? Meh.

Happy Birthday, Onechan!

It's great to be 5!



Here are some happy birthday wishes from your favorite characters.

Onpu:



Doremi:



Plus a little Yes! Ojamajo Doremi 5:

Turning Stone Thursday: Oh, the Joys of Central NY Golf!

Reading the PGATOUR.com game story on the Turning Stone Resort Championship and noting the opposite fortunues of Korean-Australian sensation Danny Lee (75, T80) here and Korean-American rock star Anthony Kim (64, 1st) at the KOLON-Hana Bank Korea Open on the Asian Tour, I had some flashbacks to my own college golfing experiences in central NY in the fall. Like the time during the ECAC Championship qualifier at Colgate University's Seven Oaks when the driving rain turned into swirling snow flurries. Come to think of it, it wasn't just during the fall that we had to deal with bizarre weather. My worst-ever round at the Utica City Amateur came during a rain/windstorm so intense that when it both broke and blew away my heavy-duty golf umbrella on the 16th fairway, I didn't even bother trying to chase it. Oh, and then there was the 1 and only time in my life that I qualified for the New York State Mid-Amateur one fall. It was being held in Buffalo that year and I worked so hard during the 1st round in soaking rain and freezing cold to stay only a few over par until it was called when I had only 7 or so holes to go and our scores were erased that when I came back for my early starting time the next day I was so sick and tired that I came in, uh, last. Just like that windy day on Bethpage Black.... (Wait, maybe those last 2 shouldn't count b/c of their western NY and Long Island locations. Nah, it's all "central" NY!)

Why is it the traumatic golf memories stick with you so much more intensely than the good ones--like during that year when I got a hole-in-one and an eagle with the same 3-wood? Or my 66? Just goes to show it's much easier to blog about competitive golf than play it. Do we keep coming back to the game because we love it or because of PTSD?