Seattle Golf Progression Chart

How do we make golf better and more accessible to people?  In other words, how can we keep the sport alive, when younger generations become less interested in it.

One of the things I saw as a block to getting involved in the sport, was the lack of an easy progression 'chart' tailored to my area. I recently made such a chart for a friend who is considering taking up golf in the Seattle area.  He lives right next to Willows Run, so I made sure to put those in there.  There are a LOT more courses that would fit level 3 & 4, but I have not listed them here.  Please let me know which ones are your favorites that I missed!

Here is that chart for Seattle.  If you have one for your area, please post it in the comments!

LEVEL 1: INTRO TO GOLF

1) Read a book on golf etiquette
    See if there is a Get Golf Ready session in your area
    Visit "Golf for Her" and check out the New to Golf section (great resources for either gender!)
 

2) Local instructor, group lessons:  Do this ASAP, so you don't build bad habits.  Get a 3-5 lesson package, meet/interview instructors ahead of time & with their help get basic club fitting/purchase.

Locations.  Putting & chipping at all these (and most other) locations is free :)

Willows Run (and most other golf courses)

Bellevue Golf Course

Interbay Golf

Puetz Golf

University of Washington Driving Range

Jefferson Golf Course
Jackson Golf Course

 

3) Gear up (in this order)

Clubs, Balls and Bag
   You do not need a full set or new clubs to start.
   But avoid crappy ones at Goodwill.  List of decent brands at bottom of post.

towel and/or toothbrush to clean your clubs

Glove

Shoes (or not! Just use an older pair that you don't care if they get muddy)

Everything else (and there is tons to buy)

LEVEL 2:  GETTING ON THE GREEN

Pitch & Putt, and 9 hole courses

Willows Run: Heron Links
Greenlake Pitch & Putt
Jackson Park 9 hole course
Jefferson 9 hole course
Interbay 9 hole course
  

LEVEL 3: FULL COURSES (difficulty/slope number)

Lynnwood (100)

The Nile (104)

Bellevue Golf Course (105)

Willow's Run Coyote Creek (109)

West Seattle Golf (115)

LEVEL 4: CHALLENGING COURSES
Willow's Run Eagle's Talon (119)

Newcastle Coal Creek (127)
Newcastle China Creek (129)

CLUB BUYING TIPS:
My suggestion is based off of creating a starter set that can grow with your skills.
It may take you a little while to get good enough to make good use of a driver, so don't worry about it at first.  You can add it later when you are ready for it.  Remember, even pros forgo their driver for many shots.  Michelson won tournaments without pulling it out of his bag once.

If you can, it is incredibly helpful to get fit for clubs.  This process gets you custom clubs to match your body. Everyone is a different height.  Everyone leans down a little different when addressing the ball.  The club length & how the club face lies on the ground are important to making a good shot.  Getting fir for proper clubs for your body early on will help you not pick up bad swing habits.

Then, if your budget does not allow for new clubs, consider getting last year's model of the same club.  They are often available to demo as well.  Otherwise, expect them to be a little different than this year's model in how they handle, but may be worth the savings.  Case in point:  I really love how Ping's G30s hit, but for the life of me, the G25 under-performs for my specific swing.

When starting, you may want to consider 'game improvement' or 'super game improvement' irons.  These help the ball go straighter, even when you are not swinging perfectly.

4 wood  (or a 3 or 5 wood.. I just split the difference)
5 iron or hybrid
7 iron
9 iron
Sand Wedge

Pitching Wedge

Putter

If these are too many clubs for your budget, remove Sand Wedge & 9 iron

This setup is essentially removing every other club from the bag, so the spacing on the club distance is most versatile. 

Order in which to add clubs:

3 hybrid

Driver
Pitching Wedge
the rest of the irons
4 hybrid

List of Decent Club Brands
As a beginner, just consider getting a complete Top-Flite set at Dick's Sporting Goods when they are on sale. As of 2022, they cost about $250 for a great starter set.

This is not exhaustive.  There are many off brand clubs that are great (I like some clubs by Pine Meadows)  But, there are tons of crappy ones at Goodwill that you shouldn't bother with.  They'll make hitting the ball decently that much harder.  Brands that make well known game improvement irons are in bold.

Other great clubs:

Adams
Callaway 
Cleveland
Cobra
Mizuno
Nickent
Nike
Odyssey (putters)
Ping
Taylor Made
Titleist
Wilson Staff

The Bus-Cycle. I'm not the first one to think of it.

I was taking the bus home this evening, and reading a copy of Men's Health (because Obama was on the cover & we thought it'd be a neat souvenir. I'm not a health nut, I swear). I realized that I don't exercise enough, mostly because it's not part of my schedule. And I spend a lot of time on the bus, when I could be exercising. Since we've got a lot of hybrid buses in Seattle, is there any way to help charge them with human power? It probably wouldn't help much, but I certainly would like the excuse to exercise more.

When I got home, I remembered that when I was 6 or 7 I already had the idea of a human powered car with bike pedals (maybe my inspiration was from the Flintstones).

Turns out others have made my childhood musings a reality. It doesn't go that fast, but it does work. Check out the Busycle. The video is a bit overly long, and reminds me why I find some more earthy types a bit annoying, but their heart is in the right place.

Other human powered buses:
HPbus

More modern and less hippy, a bus in Brazil. (also in Portuguese?. Check out "Imagens" for pictures):Corpus Super Bike
Just beware of the Flash based lens flare. Double Foul!

I think the two most obvious questions about making something like this a reality is this:

1: How much more space would be taken up (how many less passengers could you fit on a bus like this).
2: Could it be built so they could hose off the areas when done, lest the stench of many make it unbearable?

Shazam, but for Movies & TV Shows

You've probably heard about Shazam by now. No, not the comic book, and certainly not Sha Na Na (why did I always think they were related? their outfits?), the new app for iPhones and Android phones and other stuff, that enables them to identify songs being played over the radio. Not only that, but it then gives you band and album info, and enables you to download the song right then. I have waited my whole life for this, and I don't even own an iPhone!

But, I really want the same/similar thing for movies and TV shows. Particularly for things on cable. There's a ton of movies and shows that I caught the last half of, and for whatever reason, don't get the name of the show. This is especially true in the mid to late 80s, before the TV guide channels were interactive.

So, I should be able to go onto IMDb or Google, and type in a few lines about the plot, an estimated release date, any known actors, etc, and get a narrowed down list of potential movies.

Here's one that I'd really like to know about, tell me the name if you know it:

And old couple are leaving their house for the summer, to be house sat by a family (Mom, Dad, Daughter, and Grandma). At the beginning, you see photos of others who have house sat on a table. Over the course of the summer, all sorts of bad things happen to the people, and they eventually realize that the place is evil, nasty and haunted. At the very end, when they decide to leave, the wife forgets something and goes back in to get it (typical horror plot device, where I always yell to the TV "DON'T DO IT!!"). When she doesn't return, the man goes back in after her. He goes to the top floor, and finds her appearing to be dressed up like an old lady in a rocking chair. Somehow he gets out of there, but when he's outside, bricks from the chimney fall & kill him. The ending shows the return of the old couple, and they add a new photo to their table of previous house sitters.

A little late.

Welcome to my new blog, a place to write down random ideas & predictions. Feel free to steal ideas and make millions! (Just kidding. Seriously, if you want to run with an idea, please at least contact first, k?)

A little late as in, the deadline was October 20th. I'm referring to the contest that Google is sponsoring, project10tothe100.com

Anyway, I had an idea that I sent their way. It's probably already been done, but if not, I would think that the good folks at Google could develop it pretty quickly. The idea is below.


Hi,
I know the contest is over, but sometimes ideas don't fall within deadlines. Also, since it's over I don't expect to be even entered in the contest, but just wanted to share an idea with you.

I know that websites exist to rate charities (such as http://www.charitynavigator.org/), but are there any sites or systems put in place to enable charities to work together more effectively?

I think that if there was an open, free & easy to use way non-profits, charities and other service organizations to work together, that everyone would benefit. There would be less repeated effort. More established groups could help mentor new groups, helping them avoid the pitfalls they faced.

I hope that other people have thought of this and are working on a solution, but if not, just thought I'd share it.

Thank you for your time,
Troy McFarland