The bi-annual competition between Europe and the USA produced some of the best competitive golf of the year, and the players put on a show for the ages.

Perhaps the most poignant aspect of this event is that none of the players get paid to play in it. They play to represent their country or continent and they play for the sheer love of competition and the pride that comes with representing your country. It is perhaps these reasons that make the Olympics or the World Cup in soccer or the mens version of the Solheim Cup, the Ryder Cup, so special.

The first two days of better ball (aka four-ball) and foursomes (alternate shot), was a see-saw of emotions and superb golf. After the first day the US team lead by a score of 4 ½ to 3 ½ which did not augur well for the underdog European team because no team has ever won the Cup after trailing after the first day’s play.

Saturday was a day filled with remarkable shots and nail-biting finishes. In the morning four-ball matches, the European team were inspired by a run-away 5 and 4 victory by Helen Alfredsson and LET’s, (Ladies European Tour) Tania Elosegui. The 27 year old Elosegui is from Spain and 2009 is her first year on the LET. The elegant Spaniard has had a very accomplished Amateur career and has all the tools to become a really good player.

By mid-afternoon, the US had not only lost their lead but with only two afternoon matches remaining on the course, the Euros’ had an overall 8-6 lead. At this time two young American players really showed their best form. Playing against the long-hitting duo of Alfredsson and Europe’s best player, Suzann Peterssen; fiery US players, Morgan Pressel and Kristy McPherson played flawless alternate shot golf. McPherson and Pressel shot 5 under par in the most diabolical of all golf formats, and won their match 2 up on the final hole.

There were heroes on both sides but perhaps nobody was as spectacular as Michelle Wie.

The 19 year old phenom whose star has dimmed in the last two years, finally made her entrance into the world stage that so many have expected for so long.

Wie played absolutely inspired golf in the Friday and Saturday matches going an undefeated 2-0-1 before dispatching indomitable Helen Alfredsson in a thrilling singles match to finish the event with a 3-0-1 record. It will be remembered as one of the great rookie performances in the history of the Solheim Cup.

Up until now, there has been a reticence on behalf of the LPGA players to embrace Wie (largely of Wie’s doing). Too many times, Wie has seemed to be going through the motions while playing tournaments, and has played without passion or success.

That all changed this weekend at Rich Harvest Farms in Illinois. The players clearly warmed to Wie and the galleries thronged to her group more than any other. Wie played with emotion but more importantly she played brilliantly. Only time will tell, whether this serves as the catalyst which will propel her into the superstardom that so many have predicted for her, but Michelle Wie must certainly feel, that she now belongs.

The timing of the Wie’s resurgence and the electric atmosphere of the Solheim Cup, could not come at a better time for the LPGA Tour. Struggling to replace sponsors that the Tour has lost in the last year and in the process of finding a new Commissioner (the Tour fired Carolyn Bivens last month after her disastrous tenure at the helm) this may be the ‘dawn of a brand new day.’

“These girls can play!”

And play, they did.

There were the established stars, like Paula Creamer, the ageless Julie Inkster and Christie Kerr for the Americans and Europe’s, Peterssen, Laura Davies (playing in her record-11th Solheim Cup) and Alfredsson but there were a lot of unheralded players who captured the spotlight as well.

You would be hard pressed to find a better golf swing than that of Welsh player Becky  Brewerton who has played predominately in Europe. Twenty-one year old Swede, Anna Nordqvist, who won the LPGA Championship earlier this year, is most definitely one young star. American, Brittany Lincicome (you have to love a player whose nick-name is “Bam”), who won the 2009 Kraft-Nabisco Championship, and who hits the ball a mile, is another.

The 2009 Solheim Cup was the most competitive of the 11 contests to date giving us drama, fun and a lot of incredible golf. The outcome was in doubt until the last minutes of the afternoon, with the Europeans appearing to have the edge twice, during the singles matches (the ebb and flow of match-play can be the best of golf theater), but in the end the Americans were victorious.

The final result was Team USA 16 to Team Europe 12, but the real winner here was, golf.

Tiger Woods had up until today, never lost the lead of a Major Championship, after holding the over-night 3rd. round lead. He was a perfect 14 out of 14, until today.

Paired together in the last two-some, Yang and Woods played good solid golf on the front 9, on a course that was becoming increasingly difficult. Up until Sunday’s final round, Hazeltine, while by no means easy, had not really bared its teeth.

Combining difficult pin placements with gusting winds which blew in a different direction than the first three days, Hazeltine was not only the longest course in Major Championship history, but today it became one of the hardest. The lowest round of the day would be a 2 under par 70.

Yang made up his two shot deficit on the front 9, shooting an even par 36 while Woods was 2-over par. Even though they were still tied on the 14th. tee, one had the feeling that it was only a matter of time until Yang would capitulate, and Woods would win his fifth PGA.

Both players hit good drives on the reachable par-4 14th hole. Yang was just short of the green and Woods was in the greenside bunker. Tiger hit his bunker shot 12 feet below the pin. And then Yang, did to Tiger what Tiger has been doing to everyone else for 14 years. He chipped in for an eagle two. Woods made his birdie putt to leave him a stroke behind, but the pendulum had firmly swung.

The last three holes at Hazeltine are perhaps the three hardest closing holes in Major Championship golf. Both players parred the 16th. and made bogeys on the 17th.

Faced with a shot of 208 yards from the first cut of rough on the left side of the 18th, fairway, Yang hit the second best shot of the Championship, a high, fading, 3 utility to within 8 feet of the cup. Woods’s approach drew a little too much and he was unable to hole his chip shot, before Yang sank his birdie putt to cap a 3 stroke victory.

37 year old Y.E. Yang becomes the first male Asian player to win a Major Championship, which is in and of itself a wonderful accomplishment. That he did it by beating the greatest ‘closer’ the game has ever known makes his achievement even more remarkable.

Once again golf proved that there is no such thing as a “sure thing” and that we are humans playing an esoteric sport that will not be mastered. Tiger Woods has made us believe that he was immune from the failings of other golfers in some situations. Today he proved that while he is as close to perfect as we have ever seen, even he is human.

A former weight lifter, the South Korean is in his second year on the PGA Tour (this is his second win this year having won the Honda Championship earlier in 2009). The self taught Yang will now become an icon, and it is so richly deserved. He did not play professionally until he was 32 years old having been in essence a club professional in South Korea and New Zealand until he joined the Asian Tour in 2004. Today at Hazeltine, he became part of golf history.

In every way, Yang put the YE into YE-S! You can.

Courage is an over-used word (like ‘great’). We often call a golfer courageous because they sink a 4 foot putt on the final hole to win an event. That’s not courage.

Chris’s golf hero, is Ben Hogan. For those that are familiar with the “Wee Ice Man”, as Mr. Hogan was known, you will remember that he was the most meticulous of people. Mr Hogan was the first professional who kept a yardage book and who would want to know the exact distance he had to the hole. He once asked his caddy how far he had to the hole and the caddy responded that it 173 or 174 yards; to which Mr. Hogan replied “Which is it?”

While traveling to a tournament in 1949, with his wife Valerie (in those days all the top players would travel from event to event by car). Mr. Hogan’s car collided, head-on into a Greyhound bus. Just before the impact, Mr. Hogan threw himself across Valerie’s body to protect her. Valerie suffered minor injuries from the wreck, but Mr. Hogan was not so fortunate. Courage.

Mr. Hogan suffered from a series of traumatic injuries and was told that he would probably never walk again, much less play competitive golf. Less than 12 months later Mr. Hogan was back on Tour and finished second in his first tournament. Courage.

“People have always been telling me what I can’t do,” he said. “I guess I have wanted to show them. That’s been one of my driving forces all my life.”

16 months later, Mr. Hogan won the 1950 US Open at Merion Golf Club. Before playing Mr. Hogan would have to wrap bandages around his legs, and each step he took was a painful tread. What made this feat even more remarkable was that he won in an 18-hole playoff, thereby having to play a fifth round that week. Courage.

Earlier this week, we found out that Chris Bassett has been diagnosed with mantle cell lymphoma cancer. It has progressed to a stage (4) and is residing in his neck, back diaphragm, colon, and bone marrow. The cancer is very aggressive, so the chemotherapy treatments need to be equally aggressive.

In Chris’s words: “Somewhat distracted from golf right now but I keep a magazine by the bed. I look forward to swinging the clubs again soon.

I am gaining a new perspective on so many things. Most sound like old clichés. Live with no regrets. Decide what you would do if you had but (24) hours left, and pursue that. The future is now.

Never give up.”

Courage.

The measure of a person is never how they handle the good things that this Life brings us but rather how they deal with adversity. Mr. Bassett and Mr. Hogan are both heroes.

Chris Bassett is going to beat this terrible disease. He will not let this disease, beat him. Chris is a tough man, who will look you in the eye and tell you exactly what he thinks. When Chris plays golf he does it so by honoring the traditions of the game. He is a gentleman in a gentleman’s game. Chris is made up of all the things that we should aspire to be.

Chris is courage.

It may be that we have come to expect the unimaginable to be the norm, for this incredible athlete, but make no mistake, what he is accomplishing is epic.

There are sports records that defy reality. Ones that are so “out-there” that we cannot imagine them ever been broken. Among them are:

1. UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden’s 10 basketball titles
2. Cy Young’s 511 wins in baseball
3. Rocky Marciano’s, 49-0 career record in boxing
4. Carl Lewis winning 9 Olympic gold medals in Track and Field
5. Wayne Gretzky’s 2,857 career points in hockey
6. Sam Snead’s 82 career PGA Tour victories

#6-Snead’s 82 victories are indeed extraordinary. Detractors will point out that Snead did this in an era where there was not nearly the depth of good players that are today; true. The flip side of that argument however is that Snead did this in an era when he competed against more, ‘great’ players. They included, Gene Sarazen, Walter Hagen, Jimmy Demaret, Lloyd Mangrum, Cary Middlecoff, Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson.

On today’s PGA Tour any player good enough to be there is capable of winning. If a player has a “great” career (and would most probably be elected into the World Golf Hall of Fame), he wins 15 tournaments.

15 wins are what Tiger has averaged, for every three years, of his to-date, 14 year career.

At the beginning of the day at Firestone, Tiger trailed over-night leader, Padraig Harrington by 3 shots. Woods was phenomenal, shooting 30 on the front 9 and appeared to be on cruise-control until making very un-Tiger like bogeys on the 13th and 14th holes. Those bogeys combined with a Harrington birdie gave the indomitable Irishman the lead by himself as he stood on the 16th tee.

The 16th hole at Firestone is one of the hardest par-5’s in all of golf. At 667 yards it is a monster in length but that does not tell all the story. It has two doglegs so you need to shape two different shots to navigate safely but the real difficulty is the green. Guarded by a lake in front and bunkers and deep rough in the back, the green is like hardened concrete. More than half the players in the field (hitting sand-wedges) could not get their ball to stop on the green

After two wayward drives, both Harrington and Woods had to lay up on their second shots. It was at this moment that Tiger played one of “those shots” (the ones that only he can). Faced with 182 yards, a pin that was only nine feet onto the green and a significant left to right wind, Tiger hit an 8 iron (yes, an iron) landed 13 feet past the hole and spun back (nobody had done that all day) to within 10 inches of the cup.

Harrington’s third shot did what most players had done all day and went over the green. Playing an immensely difficult ‘flop-shot’ out of the rough, Padraig’s fourth shot went sailing over the green, into the water, and he went on to make a painful, triple-bogey 8. Game over.

Tiger Woods is not only going to break Snead’s record of 82 wins, he is going to shatter it. He will undoubtedly also break the other golf record that everyone says “could never be broken”, Jack Nicklaus’s 18 Major Championships (Tiger has 14 so far).

When it is all said and done, Mr. Woods may have the one record in all of sports that will never be broken. We will watch history being written.

A quixotic blend of ecstasy and agony that were simultaneously addictive. Stewart Cink’s name will deservedly be engraved on the Claret Jug; but Tom Watson won our hearts and it is he who will be indelibly etched in our minds.

In no other endeavor is heartbreak so routinely abundant. Golf has a way of humbling even the finest of human beings but it also bestows on those same people the desire to try again. It teaches you that failure is acceptable, and it will embrace you for those failings. Golf embodies the mortal spirit because it is such a human game.

For the first 71 and a half holes, we felt as though we were watching something historic. A 59 year old man was going to win the sport’s oldest Major Championship, and it would become a victory of epic proportion. It was Samson and Goliath; The Little Train That Could and Rocky all rolled into one.

In the course of any competition there are winners and losers. Such is the nature of any arena. Except for today, because Tom Watson has left us with something that will endure so much more than any of his 8 Major Championships.

Tom Watson inspired us. Young, middle aged and old alike. He was magnificent in his play but even more so in his comportment and he taught us so much:

That golf is a game for all ages.

That we should never, ever, give up.

That winning and losing are secondary to “how you played the game”.

That to those who would tell you that something is impossible; say to them; “watch me”.

That no matter how many times we fail; the only real failure is not to have tried at all.

Mr. Watson; thank you. Thank you for 4 days that we will never forget. Thank you for being a supreme Champion. Thank you for the lessons that you taught us and for showing us the very best of man. And thank you for showing the world, why Golf is the greatest game ever played.

Tom Watson is continuing to defy every conceivable reason why a 59 year old man “can’t” do something.

After 54 holes of the ‘Open” Championship Watson leads golf’s oldest Major Championship. After a superlative opening round of 5-under par, 65, we thought to ourselves “Wow, isn’t that wonderful that Tom played so well at his age; I hope he makes the cut.”

After watching Watson starting to unravel on the front 9 of Friday’s second round, we were hoping that he could somehow gather himself to play on the weekend. Watson made a heroic birdie on the 9th hole before shooting a sensational 32 on the back 9. Watson was tied for the lead after 36 holes but logic told us that he would run out of steam in  Saturday’s, third round. The man is 59 years old.

Watson played an almost flawless round of golf on Saturday, and carded a one over par, 71 to leave him alone at the top of the leader-board. From the impossible to the “it can really happen” in three days.

32 years ago in the Open Championship at this very venue, Turnberry, Watson was the leading man in one of the game’s greatest head to head battles of all time. Playing with Jack Nicklaus they waged what many consider to be the finest weekend duel in Major Championship history. Nicklaus shot 65 and 66; and lost to Watson’s pair of 65’s.

At that time, the golf world had not embraced the 27 year old Watson. He was a freckled faced young man from Kansas who was usurping the throne of the greatest player of all time, Nicklaus. Courteous, quiet and unassuming, the mid-west boy was not your prototypical superstar. That victory at Turnberry was to be the second of Watson’s, 8 Major Championships.

At the end of the 1980’s, Tom Watson could no longer putt. His swing was still the same beautiful flowing motion of before, but his once-legendary putting stroke had completely abandoned him. Over the next few years, Watson had many chances to win but the “yips” would routinely ruin all of them.

Watson never complained. You never heard any “why me’s” from him. No excuses, either. When asked about his putting, Tom would look you in the eye and tell you the truth; as much as it must have hurt him. Watson was as gracious and generous in defeat as he had always been in victory. A gentleman in every sense of the word.

There is still a big difference between leading a tournament after 36 holes and then to be sleeping on the lead after 54 holes. Not to mention competing with young men who could be not only your son; but your grandson.

If Watson were to complete this unimaginable journey and win tomorrow; and that is still a big “if”, it would be the most remarkable victory in the history of golf, if not all sports.

But Tom Watson has already taught us that the unthinkable is indeed possible. That golf does not have age limits; it is timeless and like Mr. Watson, remarkable and eternal.

Craig has been a regular member of the Top Ten in Golf Digest’s annual ranking of teachers by state, but this is his first time as #1.

Of course, all of the students who have had the good fortune to be taught by this incredible man would have told you that he was already their top choice and that Craig is a teacher without peer.

Here are some excerpts from a few of Craig’s students:

“Craig is an excellent coach and his style of coaching is very productive and attractive. I know understand why golf is truly a wonderful game and why it is never too late to learn”.

Zdzislaw Chabowski, Poland

NOTE: Zdzislaw was a brand new golfer, when he came to his school with Craig at our flagship site at Wild Horse Pass Resort and Spa. He was breaking 100 within 3 months of seeing Craig, and later in the year had broken 90.

“Craig Waryan is truly a “Master” teacher.  I came to the school with one thought which was to see if there was any more game in my 60 year old body.  I am a 7 handicap and have a few moments every year when a sub par round appears in my game.  My issue is that I have never done this on a course over 6800 yards.  I wanted to know if “given my personal limitations such as age, flexibility and strength” there was another 10 to 30 yards hiding in my body somewhere.  Craig very skillfully gave me the tools in such a manner that I was able to incorporate them immediately into my game.  His ability to both explain and demonstrate in a manner that got me to respond has made a very dramatic improvement in my game.  Armed with this new horizon I am now excited to practice for the first time in years.  Craig showed me that I not only could but that I should get more length.  By the end of the school I had added and easy 20 yards off the tee and had the occasional 60 yards.  More importantly I have renewed confidence in my ability to take my game to a new level.  His understanding of the short game was masterful.  He taught me a variety of very useful shots and concepts that I am sure will lower my scores and add to my enjoyment of the game.  The course management help that he provided during the playing portion of the day was wonderful, particularly when he “talked the talk and then walked the walk”.

Michael Sorensen, President
Reoxcyn Medical Research
Salt Lake City, Utah

“I consider myself extremely fortunate to have had Craig Waryan as my instructor for the better part of the next 3 days.  Craig is my age, and a very interesting and amicable person, in addition to being a Master PGA instructor, with a history of tournament play and current college team coaching.  (I think he took me on as a charity case!)  From the outset, it was obvious that Craig had done this before.  He had a great system of building on putting, chipping and pitching into the full swing, all viewed through the perspective of a holistic approach to the game.  So instead of dissecting my swing, Craig focused on balance, rhythm, timing and for me (a severe left brain type) getting out of my head and into the “swing” of things.

Without further ado, let me just say that I never had more fun on a golf course.  The concentrated 3 days of instruction did more for me than 10 years of intermittent lessons could ever accomplish.

It will be another month before our snow melts in New Hampshire, but I can’t wait to get out on the course.  I hit the best shots of my life during my 3 days at Bird Academy, and they have a special program that allows me to stay in touch with my instructor, and to even send videos for analysis if I lose memory of any techniques.  I call that special.  Special people, special place, special memories.  Go Golf!”

Jack Cronenwett MD
Hanover, New Hampshire

Craig Waryan is a very special person, a gifted teacher and is beloved by so many. Craig has won so many awards in his life that he probably forgotten most of them, but being the type of person he is, Craig would tell you that it’s not about awards but it is the joy that he receives from helping people. Our students are testimony to that.

Congratulations, Craig!

Glover played in the final group for the last 36 holes (over three days) of Golf’s most difficult Major Championship and handled himself and his game perfectly. This quiet, softly spoken, gentlemen from South Carolina outlasted a star studded leader-board to become the Champion of the 109th Open.

Glover was able to endure the monster that is Bethpage Black and the interminable delays which the weather wreaked havoc with. This was the second win on Tour for the 29 year old and certainly not his last. Glover has a classic “older” golf swing in that he relies more on rhythm and timing more than most players, and he produces a fluid and very powerful move at the ball.

The US Open demands of its winners that they are composed and patient and Glover displayed both of those qualities in abundance. After dropping three shots on the front 9, and with the game’s biggest names, Woods and Mickelson, making charges, Glover stayed his course and played perfect, “Open” golf. After dropping out of the solo lead by making a bogey on the hardest hole on the course, the diabolical 15th, he rebounded by making a superb birdie on the 16th and then parring the last two holes for his two shot victory.

This was Phil Mickelson’s fifth runner-up finish in the US Open, which gives him more second place finishes than any other player in history. It appeared for a while that this would be the year that Lefty finally won the event that he has been so agonizingly close to winning, so many times.

With his wife, Amy, recently diagnosed with breast cancer, and who begins treatment in 10 days, being foremost in his mind, the thought was that maybe the “Golf gods” would let this be Mickelson’s year. In addition to which the New York fans have a love for Phil that they reserve for very few athletes. But it was not meant to be as Mickelson faltered by making bogey in two of the last four holes.

But for us, the real memory from this year’s thriller, was the return to prominence of David Duval (see our previous article).

Just as he did at last year’s British Open after contending for the first two rounds, Duval began his day by making a triple bogey, 6 on the par 3, third hole. Comeback over, right?

No.

Showing an immense refusal to give up, Duval made 5 birdies over the next 15 holes and was tied for the lead with Glover at 3-under until Glover made his birdie on the 16th to re-claim the lead that he would not relinquish.

David Duval has had exactly, one Top Ten finish on Tour; in the last 7 years. He has adamantly insisted that his game was on the way back, but had offered no proof of that until this week.

The sheer will and determination that Duval displayed this week, was remarkable. That he has, for almost a decade, wandered the professional golf abyss that comes with not knowing where your next shot will go, and has persevered, is Homeric. Duval would not quit. He would not abandon hope and stop trying to get better.

The character and human qualities that David Duval has shown us far outweigh his skills as a golfer; and those skills are prodigious.

Except that this is no Cinderella. This man is the only player in the last 15 years who has truly challenged the dominance of one, Tiger Woods. He was the #1 player in the world for most of 1998 and 1999. He won the 2001, British Open and the 1997 Players Championship. He shot a final round, 59, to win a PGA Tour event (the Bob Hope Classic). He was unstoppable.

David Duval is an enigma. As a child he was deeply affected by the death of his brother. So much so, that he blamed himself for his brother’s passing. Duval was a very shy and withdrawn teenager and was even more reserved after finishing his brilliant career at Georgia Tech, where he was a 4-time, All American, before he began playing, for a living.

On Tour he was a loner, who kept quietly to himself and seemed to do anything to avoid the spotlight. You rarely saw footage of Duval without his Oakley sunglasses and while he always answered reporters’ questions politely, you got the feeling that his doing an interview, was for him, right up there with having a root canal.

For the first 4 years on the PGA Tour, Duval came excruciatingly close to winning, before he actually did finishing second, 7 times before breaking through in 1997. Over the next 4 years, he won 13 PGA Tour events, was the Player of the Year, and three times a member of the US Ryder Cup team.

At the dawn of the new millennium, a funny thing happened. David Duval fell in love. Duval married his wife Susie in 2001 and moved to Denver, Colorado. Susie had three children from her first marriage that Duval was soon devoted to. Instead of practicing, he took kids to their soccer games. Instead of doing corporate outings the family went skiing.

And Duval’s golf game hit the slopes. In 2003, he started trying to swing the club differently. Duval’s swing has always had a few quirks, but they were quirks……that worked. In particular his club-face was “shut” at the top of his backswing and he “trapped” the ball (produces a left to right ball-flight).

Duval also became a fitness fanatic. Always a little on the pudgy side, by 2004, he had trimmed down to 170 lbs. and looked, great. In 2004, he made a grand total of one cut, playing in 20 Tour events.

But it didn’t seem to matter because David Duval was perhaps for the first time in his life, truly happy. In 2007, Susie gave birth to their son after a precarious pregnancy and earlier this year, they welcomed their second baby.

Over the ensuing years, he has become something of a novelty. Playing between 15 and 20 tournaments a year, Duval was someone the announcers would talk about when they needed to fill some air time, and was never a competitive threat.

Last year, at the British Open at Royal Birkdale, Duval seemed to re-light the fire of old and after two rounds he was only 3 shots out of the lead. Duval opened his 3rd. round with a triple bogey before ballooning to an 81. So much for the comeback.

Over the last few months, Duval has been telling people that he is “really close” to re-capturing his old form. The scoreboards have not reflected that confidence, with his best finish being a tie for 55th. at Pebble Beach.

Lately, however, it’s not just been Duval that says he is close; but other Tour players, have been hinting that the old Duval might be on his way back. For one thing, his swing resembles the “old Duval” a lot more than the “perfect Duval”, as does his physique.

In the first round at Bethpage, Duval played beautifully and shot a 3-under par, 67. He then started his second round by making 4 bogeys in 5 holes, and you couldn’t help but feel that it was Birkdale all over again. Duval then played almost flawless golf and made 5 birdies in the last twelve holes to finish at 3 under par at the halfway mark. He is in a tie for 4th. place, 5 shots behind third round leader, Ricky Barnes.

There are still 36 holes left to play and it will be in the crucible that is the US Open, but this may be the corner that Duval has been waiting to turn.

“Twink” Carothers is 85 years young. Mrs. Carothers is a keen golfer who has played for over 20 years, and regularly plays once a week. Her goals were to be able to increase her distance and to learn to pitch, more accurately.

From L-R Sharon Miller, Ellen Kerr and Mrs. Carothers at our magnificent golf school site at the Sedona Golf Resort in Sedona

Mrs. Carothers was joined in the school by her daughter, Ellen Kerr. Over the years, we have had hundreds of Mother/Daughter and Father/Sons schools, but perhaps none was more special, than this.

Ellen Kerr and her Mother, the amazing, “Twink” Carothers

Ellen and Mrs. Carothers spent three days at the Sedona Golf Resort, with Bird Golf’s National Head professional, the incomparable, Sharon Miller.

Mrs. Carothers was a superb student who learned with the appetite of student studying for a Doctorate. She accomplished her goals easily and we look forward to hearing about her success on the links this year. Of greater meaning though, was the lesson that she taught us. We applaud you, Mrs. Carothers, and rejoice in the opportunity to be a part of your golf game. Thank you.