August 26, 2008 - Century Round

Welcome again to the President’s Corner. Here we update you about what is going on with us and with the company. There are a few items of business and then I’ll discuss what you really want to know about.

We ordered bags for My Golf Book™. The bags can be used to make a great gift package for a fellow golfer. The bags are approximately 6” x 9” and will be available in Navy and Black. Additional colors will be added in the future. We will add them to the website once they arrive. Since the bags will have our name and logo, we expect them to take several weeks to arrive due to art approval and actual printing time.

Again, we’re still working on the blogs/forums. We expect to have them fully functional, in our desired, easy to use style, within the next several weeks. The current forums are up and ready but I really do not care for the layout. I feel that the user is being cheated having to use the same style of forums that everyone else has. Our forums will be different and you will easily see and experience a difference.

The race track is completed for our Races page. The idea here is to show you how your favorite My Golf Book™ cover style is doing compared to the others based on sales. The first race will be held in September 2008 and will span the entire month. Each month a winner will be declared and the race will be reset.

The new Travel Center featuring the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, located in southwest Pennsylvania, will be up shortly for your review. Check out the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort at www.Nemacolin.com. Since winter is approaching in the Northeast, remember that Nemacolin transforms from a golf resort to a ski lodge in the winter.

As the last President’s Corner message explained, we recently returned from a trip to the Midwest, where, among other courses, I played the Straits course at Whistling Straits. I find it interesting that I traveled 1,200 miles across the country and was paired with two guys from the Houston area, which live about 20 minutes away from me. You never know who you’re going to meet on a golf course. Our fourth player at Whistling Straits was David from Iowa. David, please share the pictures you took at Whistling Straits by emailing them to me at information@mygolfbook.com and I will forward them to Mike and Bob.

Please continue to send in ideas for resort reviews to information@mygolfbook.com. Along with some of the most popular resorts, we also like to bring you information about lesser known but still great golf destinations. We appreciate your ideas.

In the President’s Corner dated July 31, 2008, I posed the question of whether or not it was possible to play a century round, 100 holes in 1 day. As the days became shorter and shorter in daylight and the weather in Houston became less predictable due to afternoon thunderstorms, I wondered if it could still be done.

As you may already know, on Monday, August 25, 2008, I completed a century round. That’s 5 full rounds of 18 holes, plus an additional 10 holes. So yes, the 100-holes in 1 day century round is possible. The 100 holes took 11 hours and 44 minutes. I started at 6:50AM and finished at 6:34PM.

Now for some stats; the first round took 1:50, the second round took 1:55; the third round took 2:01; the fourth round took 2:05; the fifth round took 2:00 and the last 10 holes took 1:09. I stopped for about 10 minute breaks between the rounds. I shot 457, which was 57 over par. The total course length was 38,576 yards. That’s a long way. There were 6 birdies, 43 pars, 39 bogeys and 12 double bogeys. I found the sand 20 times. I hit 45 of 78 fairways (58%), 50 of 100 greens (50%) and had 192 putts (1.92 putts per hole). My scores, in order, were 81, 81, 82, 86, 79 and then 8 over par for the last 10 holes. All these figures are respectable but I guess I have a few things I need to work on. This year was a trial run to see if the 100 holes were possible. Next time, a little more effort will be made to score better.

I do my share of cycling and ride 100-mile bike rides from time to time. I have to say that I was as exhausted finishing 100 holes of golf as I am when I finish 100 miles on a bike. Maybe it’s because 100 holes of golf takes longer out in the sun or because it’s more mentally draining. Whatever the reason, playing 100 holes, even in a golf cart, is an endurance test. By the way, the golf cart was necessary because walking or running 100 holes is almost impossible. One round of 18 holes is approximately 6 miles which means that slightly more than 5 ½ rounds is over 33 miles. There simply is not enough time in the day (in Houston) to complete 100 holes on foot. At least I don’t think there is, yet.

So why would someone try to play 100 holes in a day? Take your pick of answers: adventure, something different; challenge, insanity, nothing better to do. I don’t know which of these are mine. Maybe all of them are, maybe none of them are. I think my reasons may be the same as the reasons people run marathons or climb mountains or do anything else that they don’t do on an everyday basis. I used to do the same routine every day and I refuse to do it anymore. Maybe the 100 holes was my little way of refusing to accept “normal”.

I believe in different experiences and golf is no exception. I like to experience different courses, different environments and different playing conditions, all of which take my game, and maybe me, to another level. A round of golf anywhere is great but a round of golf under unknown circumstances is even better. Whether it’s playing in the heat, the wind, the mountains or along the ocean, there’s no one way to play the game. This is one of the reasons we do the Travel Center: to give people ideas about different courses to play and different destinations to visit. Golf may be just a game but it’s my game and it’s your game. Enjoy it, whatever that means to you.

I would like to thank everyone at the Houstonian Golf & Country Club for making this a possibility including Head Golf Professional and General Manager John Kennedy and Assistant Golf Professional Sean Mack as well as the entire maintenance crew and golfers on the course that let me play through. I consider each one of you part of this achievement because without your support, the century round would not have been possible.

If there is a question about our books or our website or you would like more information about the century round please let us know at information@mygolfbook.com. Contact us if you have any questions about the resorts we have visited or for recommendations.

Thanks for visiting our website.

Enjoy your game.
Chris