EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK: Wedging in some respect for golf

Maybe I owe my friend Brian Robin an apology.

For probably a year when we worked the Sunday shift at one of the Inland Valley papers for the Times, we used to have the “Is golf really a sport?” argument. We both share a deep love of sports, but when it came to golf the discussion usually devolved into smack-talking.

“How can golf be a sport if a fat guy like John Daly is a champion athlete? I mean, you’d think all that walking around the golf course would help him shed some pounds. Oh wait, they don’t actually walk. They use those little motor scooters.”

This would usually be enough to work BR, as most of his friends like to call him, up into a mouth-frothing rant about the intricacy of a golf swing and how so many golfers are now workout fiends.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I’d say. “Let’s face it. It’s basically pool with a club and a lot of grass. Football’s a real sport. Guys put on body armor and slam into each other at full speed. You could die playing football. I guess you could die playing golf, too, if you’re out of shape and you get heat stroke strolling through the park...”

And on it went.

So when I called Brian recently because he’s handling some of the media for the Toshiba Classic tournament this week, we both thought it would be amusing if I asked Newport Beach Country Club golf pro Paul Hahn for a lesson. Hahn, being such a good sport, squeezed me in Wednesday.

“This is basically a fish-out-of-water thing,” I explained to him. “Can you take a city boy who has never played golf and show him a few things? It’s all supposed to be tongue-in-cheek.”

Trust me, the closest I ever got to the links is miniature golf. It wasn’t exactly on the agenda ever with my group of friends in the neighborhood. We spent hours, sometimes from sun up to sundown on the weekends, playing sandlot football, baseball, basketball, soccer and even field hockey.

But I’m the city editor for the Pilot, Toshiba is one of the most significant events we cover, and I figured I ought to take a closer look at the game, er, uh, sport.

That’s right. I’m willing to capitulate now that I may have been too harsh.

First of all, Hahn is an excellent teacher. You’d do well to sign up for one of his lessons. He charges $60 for a half-hour tutorial.

Hahn took me out to a practice spot to learn a little about chipping. He teaches golf “from the inside out,” meaning he wants his students to learn the short game first. Then you can learn how to whack it as far as possible. If you aren’t successful at chipping on to the green or putting it will never matter how far you can club it from the tee, he said.

I really didn’t understand how much actually went into each swing. Stand up straight, but bend the knees a little. Put your butt out like you’re resting on a stool, but not sitting on it. Keep the left arm straight to the ball, pull it back a little, but keep the wrist straight. Work your right elbow like a hinge. Then bring the club through, but chip the ground before hitting the ball.

Man, I thought, that’s a lot to remember. He kept telling me to get closer to the ball. When I was just practice swinging I did it pretty much right, but then when I had to hit the ball — a different story. I drove one of the first balls too far, drawing some chuckles from the other golfers. That bummed me out. OK, so it started out tongue-in-cheek, but I can’t help it when it comes to sports — I’m really competitive, and my worst nightmare is embarrassing myself. So I tried to focus more and hit a few of them OK. The main problem is trying to remember that complex sequence of instructions to hit it right.

I tried not to waste much more of Hahn’s time with the chipping, although I was starting to enjoy it, so I continued with the interview.

“Tell it to me straight. For someone who never golfed before, was I that bad?”

“Oh no,” he said, shaking his head and then adding with a chuckle. “I’ve definitely seen worse. I think a few of them were on my Pro-Am team on Monday.”

“What would it take for me to get decent enough to go golfing with company executives or something?”

Three months of weekly half-hour lessons and practice three times a week would probably do it, Hahn said.

Sounds tempting, I thought. But I’ve been bowling a lot lately, too, and since I’ve been averaging about 150 and racking up some 200-plus games I’d like to join a league. I’d never have enough time for both. Well, I’ll think about it.

In fact, golf really is like any other sport. The key being a lot of practice to develop that muscle memory. A golf swing is a lot like a baseball swing. The important thing is to learn the fundamentals from great teachers like Hahn and then you can expand on it, making it your own swing. In other words, whatever works. But don’t try something new until you’ve learned the basics.

One of the pitfalls of teaching, Hahn said, is some students will either not put in the practice time or they’ll start taking advice from other golfers.

“Then it’s just too many cooks in the kitchen,” he said.

As for that apology, yep, I called Brian after I got back in the office.

“You’ve finally come to your senses,” he said.

We compared notes about how tough it is to consistently hit a golf ball. He still thinks it’s the hardest thing to do in sports, but I don’t know — hitting a major-league curveball has always seemed much more difficult.

“Look, just to give you an idea how tough it is, we’ve got two players in our field, Ben Crenshaw and Nick Price, who combined have won five major tournaments on the PGA. And neither of them have won the champions tour yet,” Robin said. “Oh wait, and you can add Mark O’Meara, who has two major championships.”

It may be a senior tour, “but these guys are still brutally competitive out here,” Robin said.

Brian won once on “Jeopardy.” I’d do well to just nod my head more often that not, but what can I say? I’m a reporter. I like to argue.

City Editor PAUL ANDERSON may be reached at (714) 966-4633 or at [email protected].