by Gary Williams | Sep 21, 2023 | Blog
Being efficient is a redeemable trait and one likely never frowned upon by anyone. The frenetic existence associated with most everyone today makes us inclined to move swiftly and reflect rarely. Getting places, checking boxes and moving on is society’s pace du jour. Life advancement beyond just the biological is likely predicated on being proficient at not taking a lot of time to do anything. Golf has spent its existence trying to make the exercise faster and I’m here for ready golf and the abolition of aim pointers at the recreational level. However, there is a place which used to… Read more
by Gary Williams | Sep 9, 2023 | Blog
Over time reputations are usually earned and perceptions are usually distorted. People and places validate what we’ve heard about them with exposure to them. Affirmations are the bedrock of our beliefs. We arrive at the positions we hold through observation and experience which makes our evidence empirical. The contaminate at arriving at a sensible and objective position is of course, bias. Guess what, most of our thoughts and feelings are influenced by bias, to varying degrees. I know I’m biased but it won’t change what is empirically true about the state I grew up in. New Jersey’s roster of golf… Read more
by Gary Williams | Aug 27, 2023 | Blog
Life is made up of decisions, big and small. Each day includes countless choices that impact us and those around us and some of the simplest decisions wind up having a profound impact on the course of lives and generations that follow. We can all look back on decisions we have made, and we do, and assess whether they were the right ones and if we would do anything differently. What if the Green Bay Packers chose not to hire the offensive coordinator of the New York Giants to become their head coach in 1959? Would Vince Lombardi have made… Read more
by Gary Williams | Aug 16, 2023 | Blog
Access is inspirational. The impetus for inspiration is not age-specific but we are most impressionable as we form our views and our motivations at tender ages. Seeing sites that are challenging to describe, sharing a conversation with someone who may change the trajectory of your life, and being given a platform to refine a skill that may define your professional life are events and experiences that are not forgotten. They are also likely to instill a level of gratitude that will envelope you to give yourself once you’re in a position to do so. Who gave you a chance, a… Read more
by Gary Williams | Aug 9, 2023 | Blog
Resisting change is akin to breathing while never truly consciously breathing. Whether subtle, profound, sneaky, overt, stealth, or significant, you and everything and everyone around you is in that constant state. In the last three years the NBA has added “play in” games to their playoff format. Major league baseball has added a pitch clock, substitution guidelines, a scheduling overhaul, starting extra innings with men on base, and outlawing of the shift. The National Football League is going to play the Super Bowl in Las Vegas this season after treating Vegas like it was a wagering infested cesspool and den… Read more
by Gary Williams | Jul 12, 2023 | Blog
Being nostalgic is normally predicated on having enough time in life to actually long for things. Likely a byproduct of being raised in a house with curious minds and parents who wanted to know about those who came before them, I was innately sentimental about people and places long before I was old enough to miss either. I enjoyed the company of my elders at a young age and friends found it odd that I was inclined to sit in their kitchens talking to their mom or dad as opposed to the inane things we did for hours every day… Read more
by Gary Williams | Jun 23, 2023 | Blog
Maybe it was the times that Chris Hamill bought a dozen Molitor golf balls for $50 and charged them to his dad’s account. Or the time me, Peter Kiernan, Mike Lynch, and Ed Kieritz tried to dredge the drained pond on One center for the thousands of balls we saw plugged in the mud. Or was it the times we used to rifle two irons from 150 yards, yes two irons, at the employee dorm that was across the entrance road to the club? Actually, it’s all those memories and so many more that made the days of my adolescence… Read more
by Gary Williams | Jun 12, 2023 | Blog
“Nobody ever wins the National Open. Somebody else just loses it.” The words of four-time U.S. Open champion Bobby Jones describing what it takes to win the national championship. It’s an event with a particular identity that for decades was associated with very certain things. But, like virtually every college football fan base, had developed an identity crisis. Ninety percent of college fans think their school should be competing for national championships when reality suggests maybe 10% can or do actually win “Nattys”. The U.S. Open was THE event when I was a kid. The Masters was beautiful and emerging… Read more
by James McCoy | Jun 9, 2023 | Blog
The bond between parent and child is unbreakable. As those bonds strengthen over time there are oftentimes particular things that make that bond grow even closer. It doesn’t matter if it is father-son, mother-daughter, mother-son, father-daughter – any combination. And when you are in that sweet spot of life, the time when you are both parent and child you have an even greater appreciation for those bonds, how they form, what makes them yours and the role they play in your life. Sports create a bond that has always played a role in so many of these parent-child relationships. Whether… Read more
by Gary Williams | May 12, 2023 | Blog
Budgets and expectations are generally separate and exclusive from each other but in golf they converge constantly. The budgeting of major championship victories for players is a frivolous exercise and those who participate invariably over budget once a player with real pedigree breaks through. Winning one usually raises our expectations for more and those who don’t get one early either are deemed as underachieving or destined for a short haul overall. Historically, great players usually didn’t wait long to break the seal on major championship victories, with a few exceptions, but today’s game presents a different approach to determining who… Read more
