This year is starting out just as I had envisioned it. Undefeated in January* — undefeated for the year. Certainly reason to celebrate.
* I should probably mention here that I did not play any matches in January as I continue my self-imposed sabbatical from the game. Rather, I've been in training. Some running. A bit of skiing. And otherwise being utterly averse to anything beyond sitting in the sun on my balcony.
How should I phrase this? In December, I was less undefeated than I would have liked. In fact, I was less undefeated than at any time in recent memory. In fact, in singles matches I may have been completely defeated. I did, however, make a number of impressive birdie dances at some of the finest golf courses in Southeast Asia.
Did you notice that the birdies come preponderantly on one-shot holes or in pool halls? If you saw my drives this month, you wouldn't be surprised. I was featured prominently in this month's issue of Golf Today magazine, but clearly not for my golfing prowess.
So what lies ahead for 2012? A few visits to the driving range are in order. And I'll be starting with a clean slate, undefeated and untested from 1 January, so this will be another chance for that elusive undeafeted year.
How should I describe another undefeated month? A birdie dance in front of the Barah-Khamba is a good way to start.
I was at sixteen golf courses across India this month but I only played one round, a match at the historic Delhi Golf Club that ended, mercifully, on the 14th hole.
Then it was off to Mumbai, avoiding elephants on the roads of Tamil Nadu, searching for gaurs at Kodaikanal, and staring down a wild boar in the midnight mists of the Palni Hills. But I digress. My record in November was one win and zero losses. In short, another unblemished record on the course.
I went undefeated in September, first winning a nine hole match in Shizuoka and making an incredible birdie that I celebrated first by planking the green and then by performing a crepuscular birdie dance.
My second win of September was in Hokkaido. And it had been brought to my attention that planking on golf course putting greens is signally inappropriate, especially so for a turfgrass scientist, so I took the opportunity to practice a new birdie dance that I hope will be appreciated by all.
If you were at Takanodai CC today, you would have seen me perform the new birdie dance after I chipped in on the second hole, only to stand down after I realized I'd just holed out for a double bogey, rather than a birdie.
Takanodai is the host club for this year's Japan Open Championship and as a consequence the rough is grown up to about 150 mm. The Open will be played in two weeks and I found Takanodai with its narrow fairways, firm greens, and penal rough to be a fine test as I make my final preparations for next week's Micah Woods Invitational. I played two matches today, winning one, and fighting back for a draw in the other.
We stopped for lunch after the front nine, and I'd like to think that this hearty steak lunch, a Takanodai specialty, helped to fortify me for the back nine.
What a month! I won four matches to start before losing my fifth and final match of August. Yesterday I was soundly defeated in a high-stakes match at one of Japan's finest courses. Next week I'll be paying off the bet, and I hesitate to go into all the details, but I can say that it involves ramen.
August started with sartorial elegance on a cerulean morning at Higashi Hirono. Two birdies on the day, with accompanying dances, and I was optimistic that I would have another undefeated month. I won the next day at Yamaguchi, and then again in a hard-fought 2&1 victory at The Orchard that we celebrated into the evening.
Then it was back to Japan, and a truly dominating performance in the mountains of Nagano, with three birdies on the fast bentgrass greens of Minami Tateshina Golf Course.
So when I teed it up yesterday, I was expecting another birdie-filled performance and another victory to close out the month. But I won't make excuses. If I were to be so mean, I might say that I should not have stopped after nine holes to have soup, and salad, and wagyu beef served with daikon and soy sauce. Maybe I shouldn't have had the ice-cold jug of Asahi with the beef at 10:30 in the morning. Perhaps the coffee after my mid-round meal caused my paroxysmal tee shot on the 10th. Maybe I should have asked to see my opponent's handicap card before I agreed to play him at scratch. Maybe I should have brought a full set of clubs.
With more big matches coming up in September, and then the Micah Woods Invitational in October, I must make a rapid recovery from this stunning loss.
It has been pointed out from many corners that I have been making a lot of birdie dances recently. I'll personally take a lot of the credit for that, but I also want to share with you a new philosophy that is helping me to make incredible breakthroughs in my golf and in my turfgrass work.
That philosophy? A simple (perhaps too simple?) one:
“it's not rocet science”
I'm not quite sure what that means, but ever since I was introduced to this philosophy at a sporting goods shop in Sannomiya, I've made birdie after birdie, and breakthrough after breakthrough in my attempts to produce more incompehensible bubble charts and heat maps.
I presented the interactive and animated bubble charts in a seminar at University of the Philippines Los Baños last week, at the invitation of Dr. Amihan Arquiza. This seminar was actually a double debut, as this was also my first time to wear my new tie from Barneys New York. Taste, luxury, humor — Barneys New York is … a mecca for discerning fashionistas and clothing connoisseurs since 1923. Of course it is. This is not rocet science, after all.
Nor is the birdie dance.
I almost took the month off from golf, but was coaxed into a match on a hot afternoon in Hanoi. And I'm glad I took part in that skins game. It only took me a few holes to get warmed up and then I started winning skin after skin.
To go undefeated in July after such a disastrous June was an inimitable comeback. There wasn't time to celebrate properly at Hanoi. So I celebrated this undefeated month, then, at a Nepalese restaurant in Japan, with an egg curry, at its highest possible level of spiciness, soaked up with two rather massive pieces of naan.
I won't have time for flânerie in August, with multiple matches already set across the archipelagoes of East Asia. I'll be playing with just a half set in August, relying on a strong mental approach to raise my game to the necessary standard. My clubs have been sent ahead of me to Hyogo-ken, where I'll play a match this very week.
I've been at Japan this week and had a chance to review some of the published Golf Course Seminar articles I have written this year. One could almost say I can't understand a word I wrote, although with a bit of attention I can make out some of it.
The R&A have a new website, The Golf Course, that includes case studies I put together for The Banyan Golf Club in Thailand and Wack Wack Golf and Country Club in the Philippines.
It is great to see these case studies featured so prominently on The R&A's website, right beside Royal St. Georges where I will be for The Open next week!
I find myself wanting to call this the June Hotel Report rather than the June Golf Report. Losing a match last Friday at New South Wales GC after being 3-up on the 10th tee makes hotels a much more attractive topic. More about that later.
I went to Australia early this month carrying an 0-2-1 record after three disastrous matches at Thailand. Things picked up as I played a scramble with this group of fine golfers in which we made eight birdies in a howling gale at Adelaide Shores. I then moved my record to 2-2-1 for the month at Glenelg GC by winning two matches simultaneously. At that time, all was right with the world, and I celebrated (too soon, in retrospect) with a tour of the Barossa Valley, planking at Jacob's Creek, and a dark and stormy night.
I moved on to Victoria, losing a match a Victoria GC, winning at Royal Melbourne GC, bringing my clubs to salubrious places, and standing then with a match record of 3-3-1.
But alas. Umm. I struggle for words. Bringing my clubs to salubrious places doesn't work so well when I can't get the ball in the hole. For I proceeded to lose my next match, won two matches simultaneously at Sydney in a team game (but those are not official victories), and then suffered the epic collapse at New South Wales GC. My record in individual matches thus fell to three victories against five shocking losses and an equally shocking draw.
Now for a less painful topic. I'm listing my five favorite hotels of June.
