IT’S A BIG job but every year the famous man clad in red, Santa Claus, comes to town bestowing gifts on deserving boys and girls.
Sometimes he’ll leave a nice sleeve of Titleists, a designer putter-head cover, one of those fancy Sun Mountain or Ogio dual-strap bags or other golf merchandise or apparel.
A question I’ve always pondered about the whole affair: How does St. Nick relax after circumnavigating the globe and delivering presents to billions all in one night with the speed and accuracy FedEx, UPS, and the U.S. Postal Service can only dream of?
Well, you’d have to ask him. But I bet he takes a little break from the North Pole and heads somewhere with warm surf, white sand bunkers and greens made of poa annua.
By Dec. 26 he’s probably tired of anything Christmas-related, so I wouldn’t expect him to travel to play Christmas Lake Golf Course in Santa Claus, Indiana.
Besides, the southern Indiana course is expected to see snow flurries on Christmas Day and Dec. 26.
If he wanted to stick close to home, the closest 18-hole golf course to the North Pole, North Star Golf Club in Fairbanks, Alaska is of course, closed for the winter season.
If you are ever up in the Last Frontier with a desire to play, visit www.northstargolf.com for more information.
Another spot that Mr. Claus will need to wait for the spring thaw to play is Christmas Mountain Village in the Wisconsin Dells area of Wisconsin.
If ever in the land of cheese curds, brats and beer, visit www.christmasmountainvillage.com/golf.html.
Midwinter scramble
Sequim’s SkyRidge Golf Course, 7015 Old Olympic Highway, will host its Midwinter Open three-person Scramble on Saturday, Jan. 15.
The tournament will open with a frost-free 9:30 a.m. shotgun start.
Cost is $90 per team with gross and net prizes, range balls, two team KP’s, and a late afternoon lunch included.
The optional honey pot is $60 per team, and a team long putt is available for $5.
Each team must have a total handicap index of 15 or higher to play.
And each team has to use at least three drives per player.
For more information, stop by the course or phone 360-683-3673.
PT golf happenings
Port Townsend Golf Club’s Hidden Rock Cafe has upped the ante and placed four rocks out on the course for players to find.
Sleuths who find one of the rocks will receive a free breakfast or lunch.
Seven “Rock Hounds” have sniffed out a free meal so far since the promotion began.
The golf course holds an all-day $10 skins game on Saturdays.
It’s $10 for the game and $10 for greens fees.
The course’s three-month long Winter Eclectic will begin on Jan. 1.
Port Townsend’s next tournament is the Ice Cube Open on Jan. 8.
Make sure to reserve your spot for the annual Arctic Open on Feb. 12-13.
That tournament goes on in any weather, even snow, and is always a popular and full event.
For more information on any Port Townsend Golf Club event, phone the course at 360-385-4547.
Golf’s ranking system
A reader e-mailed me last week, asking me to delve a little into the Official World Golf Rankings.
Like most things professional golf-related, the question concerned Tiger Woods.
The reader wanted to know how Woods has maintained a second-place ranking despite not winning any tournaments in 2010.
Comparisons to college sports, NASCAR and tennis ranking systems were offered.
This explanation comes from the Official World Golf Rankings website at http://tinyurl.com/yqzyzs.
“The official events from the six professional tours together with the Canadian, OneAsia, Nationwide and European Challenge Tours are all taken into account and “Ranking Points” are awarded according to the players’ finishing positions.”
Strength of the field at each event is considered with weight given to the top 200 overall players and top 30 from the “home” tour.
Simply put, the better the field, the more points awarded.
Major championships count for 100 points for the winner, with regular PGA Tour and European PGA Tour events counting for 24 points and reduced points for the lower tours.
The rub for the rankings lies in the fact that they are compiled over a two-year span.
The point total is scaled down over the two-year period.
Bear with me now, this is where it can get a little complicated.
At least for me. Algebra was never a “gimme” in my scholarly career.
A scaling system is used, with more recent results weighted more heavily than those from two years back.
This is how they do it.
A tournament is valued completely for 13 weeks, but is then reduced in equal weekly increments over the remainder of the two year period, in order to give priority to recent form.
Each player’s adjusted points are tallied and this number is divided by a minimum of 40 events and a max of 58 events.
Tiger’s rank explained
Tiger’s six PGA Tour wins, one victory in Australia, two second-place finishes in 2009 and his steady but unspectacular play in 2010 keeps him right near the top of the pops.
If he keeps underperforming (relative to his own past dominance) then you will see him slip down the rankings ladder.
But it’s going to be a steady drop, if it occurs.
One last rankings note
The rankings were devised in the mid-1980s by the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews and super agent Mark McCormack.
McCormack, the first agent to really understand how powerful it would be to use professional athletes to pitch products on televison, had been publishing an annual reference book on golf that included unofficial rankings.
These rankings became the Official World Golf Rankings in use today.
He did all this while founding and running International Management Group (now IMG), which has become a global sports media titan.
McCormack’s first client? Arnold Palmer.
The two met while playing golf in college.
________
Michael Carman is the golf columnist for the Peninsula Daily News. He can be reached at 360-417-3527 or at pdngolf@gmail.com.