Apr 9 2023 - Easter Golf

 

Tiger Woods has made the cut at the Masters.  That's 23 consecutive made cuts in Augusta and tying Fred Couples and Gary Player.  So it is 23 in 2023.  Today is a golf day.  That solves Easter for most Americans.  Most holidays are solved with a sports game.   That seems to make sense given how Easter - the word - is unclear.  It has unknown origins or uncertain ones at best.  Britannica says it parallels the word Ostern in German.  Likely it is uncertain as the closest expression is Eostre and that's the goddess of spring and fertility.  So it seems another win for Pagan traditions. Or is that a steal from pagan tradition to rationalize using the event to overlay a Roman Catholic event.  The Britannica entry continues that there is widespread consensus that it derives from alibis the Latin phrase that is the plural of alba which is albes and is dawn.  I thought alba was white How did eggs get involved?  "As the story goes, Ēostre had once saved a bird from the winter cold. The bird's wings had frozen and could not fly away. So she changed the bird into a rabbit, and since the rabbit was once a bird, it could lay eggs." And today we reveal our own social celebrations via the Guinness Book of Records for Easter - there's the largest chocolate Easter egg weighing in at 7,200 kg. Then the most expensive non-jewelled chocolate egg sold at auction for 7,000 pounds. The largest chocolate rabbit came in at 3,850 kg. And a real Flemish giant rabbit is the largest rabbit at 4 ft 3 inches long.   Which is its today?  Easter lilies or foot long hotdogs at Easterbrook's?   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Jan 20 2023 - Winter Golfing

 

This is a beautiful aerial view of the golf course in Niagara along the Niagara River located at the Whirlpool Rapids.  What a beautiful view.  No worries there about the water engulfing the golfers.  What caught my attention is their advertisement that they  have an all-year plan.  Does the course have snow golf?  Seems like the advertisement vs reality differ - it is open April 1 to October 30th on its website, rather than "golf in all the seasons". Winter golf is an official sport. The tips for winter golf include spending more time warming up.  Winter golf rules include allowing you to lift, clean and place your ball.  There can be so much mud on a golf ball that it would be difficult to play.  When it is cold or raining, the ball just isn't going to go as far.  The air is heavier when it is cold, so the advice is to take the club that's needed.   Southwestern British Columbia claims to be the only region in Canada that offers year-round golf.   But it isn't winter golf there - not Victoria or Vancouver.  I find that Hamilton Ontario offers winter golf at Cherokee on the Martin Course. There can't be any large accumulations of snow or rain and no freezing rain or icy conditions. It wouldn't be snow golf today, but I wonder if people will be out there golfing.  Their tips - winter mitts or pocket warmers, carry your bag, keep a ball in your pocket, winter golf gloves, waterproofs, don't layer too much, wear spikes, and so on. What about changing your expectations?  That's an obvious one.     This is more of what you are likely to find in the Niagara Falls area - it is colder and has a lot of  moisture in the air, so there is ice everywhere.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Jan 15 - Pebble Beach arrives on the Golf Course

 

Lake Ontario has some big waves - that would be in November during the storm season.  But imagine California's waves.  We've been to Monterey and Carmel, and the waves are beautiful, rolling in one after the other.  A few weeks ago a 45 foot wave crashed onto the Pebble Beach golf course.  This was caused by atmospheric rivers that have "pounded" California over the past several weeks. There's nothing like the Pebble Beach course overlooking the ocean. You can see below that we've driven by, and you can see it easily from Carmel beach. I can't imagine how one actually gets a golf game in with that spectacular view.   To golf there?  It starts with a green fee of $575 US, a cart fee of $45 and a caddie fee of $145 plus gratuity for a single bag. To book a round, one must be a resort guest - and that starts at around $570 a night.  The Lodge at Pebble Beach is more expensive - $990 and up a night. So these fellows who took the video of their wave experience likely paid the minimum cost of a round of $1,445 plus travel.  And what did they experience?  Priceless! One of them captured a video of the experience on the 14th hole - here's the quote: "It's going to hit us, dude," someone in the video says, and then the video begins shaking as Butler runs away from the incoming waves. "Go, go, run!" See the wave - here's the LINK.   There is a professional tournament January 30 - February 5th - in a few weeks, so they will be working hard to clean-up.     This first picture is, indeed, the Pebble Beach golf course. The second is motion blur  in the Monterey Aquarium wave exhibit. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca