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.

UDM, Sommerfeld Take Second At The Bullock Intercollegiate

Led by senior Mark Sommerfeld, the University of Detroit Mercy men's golf team recorded a second-place finish at the Norm Bullock Intercollegiate, held at the Greene Country Club in Dayton, Ohio.

The Titans posted a team score of 882 (295-294-293) placing them in a tie for second with Dayton, just seven strokes behind Cleveland State. Detroit was awarded second outright through the tournament's tie-breaking system.

Sommerfeld also ended in a tie for second after carding a 216 (71-73-72), but the two-time Horizon League Player of the Year took second all to himself after winning the first playoff hole.

UDM returns to action on Saturday, April 12, as the Titans head to Illinois to compete in the Fighting Illini Invitational.

Detroit Mercy Women Finish 5th at UC Invitational

The University of Detroit Mercy women's golf team finished fifth at the University of Cincinnati Spring Invitational at the Elks Run Golf Course in Batavia, OH, with a team score 1007.

Junior Rachel McHenry was the top UDM athlete as she placed 11th after posting a 244 (83-80-81). Teammate senior Mandi Dupuis was five strokes behind to place 17th, while freshman Alainna Stefan tied for 20th after firing a 253.

Cincinnati placed first with a score of 943, while Butler (990), Youngstown State (992) and IPFW (1006) rounded out the top-4.

The Titans will return to action when they participate in the Loyola Invitational at the Pine Meadow Golf Course in Chicago, IL, April 14-15.

Grand Valley State Women Ranked #8

NCAA Women's: Division II Teams 
Division I - Division III
                                   Adjusted   Avg.            Rank 
                        Division   Scoring   Drop   Versus#   of  
   Team                  *Record   Average  Score   Top 25   Sced  Wins@
  1 Rollins College       102-  0    75.96   80.02    13- 0   185     3
 2 Nova Southeastern U.  101-  1    76.15   80.84    12- 1   201     1
 3 Tarleton State        100-  2    77.93   83.31    13- 0   327     8
 4 Florida Southern       99-  3    75.35   81.31    11- 2   222     4
 5 Barry University       98-  4    76.83   81.81    11- 4   209     1
 6 Lynn University        97-  5    78.47   86.01     9- 4   205     1
 7 Ferris State Univ.     96-  6    77.74   83.59     7- 5   242     3
 8 Grand Valley State     95-  7    77.33   82.54     4- 1   217     3
 9 Northeastern State U   93-  9    80.96   88.37    11- 3   265     0
10 Upper Iowa Univ.       92- 10    80.27   89.43     5- 3   306     3 

Detroit sweeps athlete of the week honors as Dupuis and Sommerfeld lead Titans to strong start

Men's Athlete of the Week
Mark Sommerfeld, Detroit
Waterloo, Ontario * Senior
Sommerfeld led the Titans to the team championship of last week's Fort Lauderdale Spring Classic at Grande Oaks Golf Club. He finished third individually with a pair of sub-par rounds on his 68-70--138 score card, two strokes off the winning pace. Sommerfeld has now posted 24 sub-par rounds during his college career.

Women's Athlete of the Week
Mandi Dupuis, Detroit
Tecumseh, Ontario * Senior
Dupuis posted top-10 finishes in both of the Titans outings last week. She finished in the top-10 at the GVSU Invitational with a total score of 153 (77-76). Dupuis then helped lead UDM to its first-ever win over Butler as the senior finished in a tie for seventh (78-77--155) at the North-South Invitational in Jacksonville, Fla. The Titans also competed in a Ryder Cup-style meet against Oakland (Mar. 1) in Naples, Fla., and Dupuis won her match to net three points for UDM.

Gull Lake View Recognized for Role in Junior Development

The junior golf program at Gull Lake View Golf Club & Resort in southwest Michigan is not a major revenue source for the family-owned facility. But that doesn't seem to bother anyone at a resort that's long been a favorite among golfers in the Midwest, Great Lakes and Canada.

"It's probably a breakeven for us," Ashleigh Kosin, Gull Lake View's director of marketing, said of the five-year-old program that targets juniors 7 to 13. "But it's the long-term investment in golf that we're going after."

The Gull Lake View junior program, which won the National Golf Course Owners Association's 2008 Player Development Award, includes three weeks of instruction (two hours per week) led by Bill Johnson, head professional at the resort's Stonehedge course. The program ends with a tournament that gives many of the young players their first taste of competition.

But in many ways, the instruction and the tournament are just the beginning for many of the program's participants. "We encourage them to see this as more than a month of golf lessons," said Kosin, who was introduced to the game as a junior at Gull Lake View. "We want this to be the start of a lifetime in golf."

Gull Lake View extends the program's reach by giving participants a card that entitles them and a family member or friend to playing privileges at a reduced price on weekdays. "Our first goal is to get the kids hooked, and then we just want to keep them coming back," says Kosin.

Kate Moore, executive director of the Michigan Golf Course Owners Association, won the NGCOA's Champion Award, which recognizes a member whose work has benefited fellow owners and operators. Moore led a lobbying effort that successfully thwarted the state's plans to levy a 6 percent sales tax on Michigan courses. "We argued that golf is Michigan's No. 1 form of leisure and tourism business and brought in millions of dollars in revenue to the state. We felt it wasn't fair to tax golf courses on top of the taxes they were already paying," Moore said.

The Association's Paul Porter Award, given to a person who leaves an enduring mark on a chapter or international affiliate through the highest levels of commitment, service and leadership, went to Raymon Finch Jr. Finch, who died in February, built and owned golf courses in Florida and South Carolina and was a longtime supporter of the NGCOA and amateur golf. He helped the NGCOA take on the IRS over an owner's right to depreciate greens, tees and bunkers. Finch founded the Florida Golf Council, which helped defeat several state tax initiatives aimed at the golf industry. He also helped establish the "Hook-A-Kid on Golf" program and an Executive Women's Golf chapter in south Florida.

Michigan Hall of Fame Greets New Group

A full spectrum of golf in Michigan will be honored May 18 at Indianwood Golf & Country Club in Lake Orion when Ken Janke, Meriam Bailey Leeke and John Morgan will be inducted into the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame. The Buick Open will also be given a special award as it celebrates its 50th anniversary as the state's long-running PGA Tour event.

Janke and Leeke have had multi-faceted careers. The self-taught Morgan compiled a strong playing record which led to his being named Golf Association of Michigan's Player of the Decade for the 1980s, a period in which he won the Michigan Amateur, won three GAM Championships and two of his three Michigan Mid-Amateur Championships. Morgan qualified and played in three United States Amateur Championships and four Mid-Amateurs. Playing first as a member of the Michigan Publinx Golf Association and making its Honor Roll in 1981 and '82, Morgan made the GAM Honor Roll 11 times in a span of 1983-95 during which he was an Oakland Hills member and now at Detroit Golf Club.

"I joke that I got my competitive nature from my Dad but not his golf swing," said the 6-foot-1 Morgan, whose golf swing has the easy grace of Tom Weiskopf. Morgan thought he was headed for a Division II school in Pennsylvania after two years at Oakland Community College on a team that went to the national finals but five hours at the Michigan Amateur changed that. "I was on the range and hitting next to Jim Lipe who was the Assistant Coach at the University of Michigan. I'd lost to Bud Stevens in 19 holes and Lipe said, 'We want you at Michigan.' "

Leeke is also a Big Ten product but when she played at Northwestern University, women's golf wasn't recognized as a varsity sport. She was inducted into the Northwestern Athletic Hall of Fame in 1992, although the school didn't hand out varsity letters to all the past women athletes until a special ceremony at halftime of a football game in 2002.

Leeke's father, who played football at Illinois with Red Grange, introduced her to golf and she broke 80 by the time she was 12. She began playing national events at 13, played high school golf in Evanston and in 1956 won the Chicago District Golf Association Match and Stroke Play titles and the Illinois Women's Amateur. In 1957 she won the National Intercollegiate and the Women's Western Amateur and in 1958 was named to the U.S. Curtis Cup team.

Although she played in a number of women's professional tournaments, the purses averaged only $2,000 and Leeke decided against turning pro. She and her husband, Lyle, took over the family course, Old Channel Trail in Montague (MI) in 1966. It was a nine-hole course by Robert Bruce Harris on 90 acres, and in the years since, nine holes designed by W. Bruce Matthews and nine more by his son, Jerry, were added. Meriam has been on boards of banks, charities, two colleges and currently is director and treasurer of the National Golf Course Owners Association.

Janke got an early start in golf, caddying at Plum Hollow Golf Club when he was nine years old. While always a strong player - he captained his Dearborn High School team for two years of unbeaten match play events and won the 1957 U.S. Army Military Championship in Chantilly, France, Janke is better known for his contributions to the game.

Establishing the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame was Janke's idea in 1982. He also was the father of major charity golf events beginning in 1967 when he and former Detroit Lions All-Pro Ron Kramer founded the Walter Hagen Invitational to benefit the American Cancer Society. That led to similar tournaments around the country and Janke was awarded the Cancer Society's Founder's Award.

Janke also has organized the Babe Zaharias Invitational, March of Dimes, Tournament, St. Jude Invitational tournaments and B'nai Brith Championship. In 1979 he was instrumental in founding the Detroit Lions Alumni Golf Outing to benefit the NFL Alumni Dire Need Fund and the format has spread to 28 cities. Janke also found time to compile a comprehensive collection of golf memorabilia and write four books on the game's quirks, laughs and facts.

Since its inception in 1958 with the then-unheard of purse of $52,000, with $9,000 of it going to the winner, Billy Casper, the Buick Open has brought big-time golf to Michigan. The game's greatest players have played in the Buick Open, including Casper, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Julius Boros, Ben Crenshaw, Hale Irwin, Tom Weiskopf, Fred Couples, Vijay Singh, Jim Furyk and Tiger Woods.

Thanks to Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club in Grand Blanc, its members and the thousands of volunteers have made "Buick Open Week" one of summer's major events in Michigan, the tournament has raised $8.8 million for southeast Michigan charities.

When Buick introduced the tournament, it was the first major corporate sponsor of the PGA Tour and, while sponsors have come and gone in other tournaments, Buick and Michigan golf have enjoyed a long, fruitful relationship. In recognition of the Buick Open's great influence on the game in Michigan, the Michigan Golf Foundation will honor the tournament during the Hall of Fame induction ceremony at Indianwood.

Golf on the Old Course at Indianwood will be at 1:00 with the reception, dinner and induction ceremony immediately following golf. Tickets for golf, reception, dinner and induction ceremony are $175 or $50 without golf.