Congratulations to Richard Crutchfield who won the Captains Men's Competition with 37 points, beating Neil Tunbridge on countback. Richard Jenner came third with 35 points, beating Phil Rhodes and Graham Gomez on countback. The Ladies' Competition was close, with three players all scoring 34 points. After countback the winner was El Rhodes, in second was Carole Crutchfield and third place went to Judith Ross. 



A Look At Valhalla - The 2014 PGA Championship Venue

Valhalla, the great hall described in Norse mythology where the souls of Vikings feasted and celebrated with the gods, is now the namesake of a modern paradise for championship golf. Valhalla Golf Club is the culmination of Dwight Gahm's dream to build a world-class course capable of hosting a major golf championship. It is also the culmination of a history-making partnership bringing championship golf to Louisville on a recurring schedule and resulted in The PGA of America's first owned championship site.

Valhalla Golf Club's front nine traverses a low-lying parkland setting where 650,000 cubic yards of earth were moved to build up tees, greens and fairways to a level that would protect the course from major storm damage. Valhalla's greens, tees and fairways are a combination of T1 and Penway bent grass strains. Overall, there are 62 sand bunkers strategically positioned throughout the course. Valhalla Golf Club's slick greens feature distinct tiers and sections that provide a variety of challenging hole locations. The primary rough is Kentucky bluegrass with fescue making up the secondary rough. The incoming nine holes were carved out of higher, tree-covered terrain with a shallow creek that would come into play on four holes.

Over the years Valhalla has undergone some minor course alterations to keep up with ever changing landscape of Championship golf. However, in the fall of 2011 Valhalla and the PGA of America embarked on a project to modernize the course, which opened in spring of 1986, by overhauling the drainage and irrigation infrastructure throughout the course. The major focus will be on the green complexes, rebuilding them from the ground up enhancing surface drainage and softening contours. For this project the PGA of America enlisted Valhalla's course designer Jack Nicklaus to handle the work of modernizing the golf course for both member and championship play. 



Rule of the Month

You've just hit your tee shot into the woods. You find it close to a tree. You can hit it, but if you do you will definitely hit your shaft against the tree possibly breaking it. You're faced with the choice of either hitting the shot and breaking your club, or just punching out away from the tree.

That was the decision Tiger Woods faced on the 11th hole during the 2007 Masters. After Tiger Woods' tee shot went into the woods, he found himself in just that situation. He decided to hit it and hit he did. Tiger got it out nicely and saved his par, but he did break the club.

For the rest of us, it's not such an easy decision to make. If you break a club, you'll have to play the rest of that round and probably a few more without it because you will have to order a replacement and that may take a couple of weeks. Tiger on the other hand would have been allowed to replace it because according to the rules - if you break a club in the course of normal play, removing or replacing a club in the bag, using a club to search for or retrieve a ball, leaning on a club while waiting to play, teeing a ball or removing a ball from the hole, or accidentally dropping a club - you can repair it or put a replacement club in your bag as long as it doesn't unduly delay play.

If you have a question regarding any rules, or want some advice, don't hesitate to click here and get in touch.