Business Style: May

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Instant Golf Mind Your Tees and Shoes

By Jeanne Winnick Brennan

You know it’s bound to happen. One day you’ll get the call to join a power foursome. Even if you haven’t played golf in years, your game and your look don’t have to be career busters. You just need to know who to call and where to shop.
    In the Sacramento area, there are several well-organized public golf courses with great facilities where you can find a teaching pro, driving range, practice greens and a pro shop to upgrade your game, equipment and even your wardrobe. The county of Sacramento oversees three popular courses that are open 364 days a year — Ancil Hoffman, Cherry Island and Mather — where you’ll find practice facilities, teaching professionals and golf equipment. Visit the county golf program online or call (916) 368-7888 (PUTT) for specific course information and tee times.

The Right Stuff
Four of Sacramento’s city courses are owned and maintained by Capital City Golf, with Morton Golf operating three of them — Haggin Oaks, Bing Maloney and Bartley Cavanaugh. Built in 1924, William Land Park’s nine-hole course is operated by First Tee of Greater Sacramento, an affiliate of a national program that introduces young people from all backgrounds to golf. At Capital City Golf online you can request a tee time up to 90 days in advance, review amenities at the four courses and even brush up on your golf etiquette with a 10-question quiz.
    At the Haggin Oaks Golf Complex in north Sacramento, the area’s largest course, you’ll find everything you need to revitalize your game and your look. There are two championship golf courses; a world-class teaching facility with more than 15 Professional Golf Association instructors; more than 10 different junior, senior, group and private lesson programs; five practice greens and two bunkers. With more than 100 stations, the popular, lighted driving range stays open 24 hours during the summer. The Haggin Oaks Superstore, which has been nationally recognized as one of “America’s 100 Best Golf Shops” by Golf World magazine for more than 20 consecutive years, offers one of the state’s largest selections of name-brand equipment and a highly trained club-fitting team.
    Ken Morton Sr., a national PGA instructor and member of the PGA Hall of Fame, founded Morton Golf almost 50 years ago and runs it today with sons Ken and Tom and partners Terry Daubert and Mike Woods. Morton Golf, which has received awards for its golf instruction, junior golf, national merchandising and club-fitting programs, recently opened an online sales business.

Get Some Help
If you think your game needs resuscitation from years of neglect or bad habits, get professional treatment. Even the pros on the PGA Tour need lessons to consistently stay at the top. According to Tom Morton, Morton Golf’s director of instruction and club fitting, people come into the pro shops weekly with the same lament — getting their game back on track. Often it’s because there’s an impending big game scheduled.
    “When we get a request for help, we direct the player to a golf professional who will ask, ‘What are your goals, and what’s your time frame?’ Then we know where to start,” says Morton. “We’ll focus on the short game, where we can make quicker, minor adjustments to the player’s tempo, balance and set up, and show improvements right away instead of drastically changing a swing.”

In the Bag
With innovations in balls, bags, shoes, woods, wedges, drivers, irons, putters and now hybrid clubs, there’s a lot to consider or update. According to Morton, after your lesson plan, the next step is for the instructor to help you review your equipment. Are your grips worn, do you have the right lie angle, how old are your clubs, and do they fit you properly?
    “The biggest thing going on right now is the setup,” says Morton. “There are now hybrids that are easier to hit than the long irons, and the pro can help the player by reviewing the launch angle, spin rate and ball speed to see what’s working right with the current equipment.”
    Turn on the Golf Channel or pick up a copy of Golf Digest, and you’ll see top players swear a certain club or ball makes all the difference, and there is truth in some of that advertising. Not that it’s probably your chief worry, but a good example is the current dilemma on the PGA tour, where pros using the newest super-performance golf balls are reaching distances unimaginable a few years ago and rendering some classic golf courses nearly obsolete. Check your bag: Some of those same balls could help your game. Also, hybrid clubs are the talk of the 2006 tour as ultimate weapons of 21st century golf.

Expo Extraordinaire
You can try out every hybrid club, new driver and hot putter here in Sacramento April 29-May 3 at the 31st Annual Haggin Oaks Golf Expo. With about 150 vendors of golf products, equipment and the latest in microfibers and clothing, it’s expected to be the largest assemblage of golf vendors available to the general public in the country.
    Manufacturers’ representatives from Callaway, Ping, Cleveland, Titleist, TaylorMade, Mizuno, FootJoy, Nike, Cobra, Bobby Jones, Sonartec and Yes!Putters, among others, will be on hand to discuss their latest innovations. In a further nod to changing technology, there will be several PGA Tour manufacturer fitting vans on site to serve as miniature, mobile manufacturing plants. The same experts who fit tour professionals will fit attendees and make a custom club while they watch.
    Several high-tech launch monitors, including the new Ping Launch Monitor with its Zelocity radar system that measures ball spin for its entire flight, will be stationed at the driving range for free custom fitting, which normally has a $75 fee. A trade-in tent near the driving range will allow golfers to unload old clubs and bags and receive gift certificates for new equipment. Admission to the expo is free, and nearly 12,000 golfers are expected to attend. 

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