A Top 100 Public started by the Longaberger Basket Co? + Do you have a 1-cheek or 2-cheek swing?

TIPS & DRILLS
Do you have a One-Cheek or a Two-Cheek Swing?
Don’t leave power on the table, as Cam McCormick states

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To Recap…

The visual here does all the work for us on this one. If you want to add more power to your swing, you need to get your hips fully rotated such that an onlooker from behind will see your full rear end at impact. If you’re not able to make that happen, it’s likely that you’re losing distance and experiencing consistently fat contact. To achieve two-cheek status, try this:

-STEP 1: Step up to the ball as you normally would, but instead of first taking a practice swing, simply practice rotating your hips such that your toes are pointing slightly toward your target line at impact (if the ball is 12 o’clock, point your toes towards 11 o’clock as Cam states).
-STEP 2: As you practice this hip rotation, try to straighten your lead leg at impact. Phil Mickelson calls this “the spring effect,” whereby when you straighten your lead leg, it acts as a spring and whips the clubhead downward to create more speed.
-STEP 3: Once you have this feeling at impact ingrained in your head, hold that thought and take your real swing.

COURSES
From Wooden Baskets Collected By Moms Across America to Top 100 Golf
Longaberger Could Do No Wrong in the late 1990s

The Virtues Golf Club
Nashport, OH

Remember Longaberger baskets? You know, those hand-crafted wooden baskets that became a status symbol in every household in America in the 1990s? The company that had the headquarters shaped like a basket? Maybe your mom was even part of their suburban MLM sales force? Well, they went bankrupt in 2018, but in their heyday, they owned a golf course. And believe it or not, it’s a REALLY nice course. In fact, it’s one of the best courses in Ohio and has been ranked in Golf Digest’s Top 100 Public rankings every year since 2003 (currently sitting at #93).

Formerly known as Longaberger Golf Club, it was renamed The Virtues Golf Club when it was sold in 2013 to new owners. It’s an Arthur Hills design nestled in the rolling countryside about an hour east of Columbus, Ohio. If you don’t know Arthur Hills, he’s the man behind Half Moon Bay in California and Bay Harbor in Michigan. And The Virtues Club might be his best work. Hills called the land on which The Virtues Club sits "probably as beautiful as piece a property as I've had to work with." He was instructed to leave as many trees as possible intact, and the end result was an incredibly well-routed course that at times can feel like an exhilarating roller coaster ride. Uphill, downhill and sidehill shots are quite frequent, but the elevation changes were all strategic on Hills’s part. The course “walks a very fine line between good and gimmicky but provides very high shot value,” as one reviewer put it.

When it opened in 1999, it received some great exposure by hosting a “Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf” match between Karrie Webb & Dottie Pepper. As such, it was named the Best New Upscale Public Course in 2000 by Golf Digest. But it’s since flown under the radar. Despite it’s strong ranking, you might never have heard of The Virtues Club if you’re not from the Midwest. Lucky for us, this means rates are reasonable, topping out at just $120 on the weekends and $80 during the week, an incredible value for a Top 100 Public venue. So go snap a few photos in front of the Longaberger Basket company’s old headquarters, and swing by their course on your way out of town.

Rates: Peak Summer rates = $80 Monday-Thursday, $120 Friday-Sunday

Check out this overview from The Boss Golfs

STATISTICS
Stat of the Day: PGA Tour Pro Hole-out Odds By Distance
presented by…

The Stat: Each time the distance doubles, the odds of a PGA Tour Pro hole-ing out effectively triples.

The Takeaway: Obviously, any time you can hole-out, it’s a bonus. Very rarely does anyone expect to get the ball up-and-in with a single shot. Or perhaps not?

It’s pretty incredible that a Tour Pro will hole-out 1 in every ~100 shots from 25 yards. 1 in every ~300 shots from 50 yards is quite the feat, as well. Considering the volume of golf these guys play, they might experience a hole-out every 1-2 tournaments, which is pretty mind-blowing. That said, the hole-out odds drop significantly when they get beyond 100 yards… you know, just like the rest of us.

TODAY’S TRIVIA
Answer to Win a HackMotion Core Wrist Sensor Training Aid
(1 winner chosen on 9/30/24 across all September trivia entries, 1,000 correct respondents minimum)

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