Last Sunday, January 19th, at the Little River course, Tom Johnson joined the LIV group with his brother, Will Johnson, for a little recreation. Will is a local golfer while his brother is a professional living in San Francisco. On Sunday both brothers shot sixty-six, thirty-three on the front and thirty-three on the back. Will’s handicap is a +4, while brother Tom’s is a +7. The brothers had a combined fifteen birdies for the eighteen with Will sinking nine birdies, six on the back-nine. Tom scored six birdies, three on the front and three on the back. Tom, a professional golfer, is currently playing on the Asian Tour and has formerly played on the PGA and Nationwide Tour. In 2023, Tom won the Northern California PGA Championship. He is also listed as the Director of Instruction at Golden Gate Park Golf Club. It must have been an exciting and learning experience for those local golfers who played with the Johnson brothers. The closest score, on Sunday, to the brothers was Chuck Allegrini shooting a nice seventy-six.

On Friday, January 17th, Chong Mejias chipped in from 30 yards out to birdie hole number one. Then, on hole number two, Chong putted her ball into the hole from the green fringe for another birdie. Back-to-back birdies. First time in Chong’s golf life that she has ever scored back-to-back birdies. The back-to-backs were very exciting for Chong. She finished her front nine with no more birdies, shooting a 44. Nice. On the other side of the fence, on the same Friday, playing in the Stableford format, Rob Rhead, Paul Dutcher, and the Golf Notes guy, me, all got three triple bogies on the front-nine. We don’t have to report our finishing score, do we? Thank you.

Finishing the round last Friday, Peter Barg came, carrying a sack of golf clubs and walking to the Pro Shop. Peter has been a regular golfer, but not recently. Nice to see you again, Peter. Then Charlie Jenkins came strolling by. Soon, inside the Pro Shop were three retired doctors, Peter, Charlie, and John Hewitt, and they were going to play golf together. I mentioned to Lindy Peters, working the check-in desk, that now would be a good time to have a medical emergency. Three doctors right here.

Ok the next lesson, the second lesson, in the mysterious Ben Hogan book that was placed on my car last week, is stance and posture. Inside the front cover was written, “J.D. (John Daly) told me he gave you his book. Oh my God. I think my book will be more useful.” The first lesson was the grip. Stance and posture: Feet placed shoulder width apart, left foot turned 22 degrees to the left and elbows held as close together as possible. The elbow pockets should face the sky, not each other. There ya go from Ben Hogan. Have a great round.