Dein erstes Forum » Back in the day he could be found throwing back drinks

By nearly all accounts, the LPGA had its best season to date and there are certainly plenty of points to be praised, but also some areas for improvement. So as weve done for the past three years, lets take a look at the good, the bad and the ugly of one of the longest running womens professional sports associations in the world.The Good1. Yearlong competition. At Thursday nights annual awards dinner, the only major competitive award decided was the Louise Suggs Rookie of the Year award, won in convincing style by Koreas In Gee Chun. Still in play were the Player of the Year and Vare Trophy, awarded to the player with the lowest stroke average.Player of the Year was not locked up until the 15th hole of the final round of the final tournament when Thailands Ariya Jutanugarn holed a bomb for birdie, eliminating any chance Lydia Ko, the world No. 1, could win the tournament and capture the year-end title.Even closer was the race for the scoring title, which came down to Ko and Chun. The two golfers played a total of 11,552 shots in 2016 and Chun birdied the last three holes to win by .001 strokes. Thanks for our ace golf researcher, Zach Jones, we had these numbers updated by the minute, stroke-by-stroke throughout the final round telecast. Chun also joined LPGA and World Golf Hall of Fame member Nancy Lopez as the only player to win Rookie of the Year and the Vare trophy in the same year (1978).2. Youth is served. There were 24 wins by players 24 or younger, including 20-year-old Charley Hulls first LPGA title at the season finale. There wasnt a winner who could rent a car -- the age minimum is usually 25 -- until Anna Nordqvist won the ShopRite LPGA Classic in June. The oldest champion was a whopping 30 years old when Brittany Lang captured the U.S. Womens Open.3. Rio Olympics. You can make the argument that it was more important for the womens competition to be successful in Rio than for the mens simply because of the worldwide audience exposure that they do not have on a regular basis.Inbee Parks gold medal performance, when many in her own country urged her to give up her spot on the team due to a chronic thumb/wrist injury, was absolutely phenomenal. Ko took home the silver and Shanshan Feng won bronze, knowing she was bringing the game to millions in her homeland of China and the importance of that exposure. No LPGA-generated television deal can come close to having the impact that week did on an international level.4. Solheim Cup returns to U.S. soil in 2017. Des Moines Golf and CC hosted arguably the most successful and well-attended U.S. Senior Open in 1999 and will host the biennial matches next summer. Juli Inkster will again captain the American squad as they look for back-to-back wins. Strong ticket sales, corporate sales and volunteer signups are all signs pointing to a terrific week, one that is vitally important to both the LPGA and Ladies European Tour.Early momentum points to the Euros being favorites with wins by Nordqvist, Hull and two late victories by Spains Carlota Ciganda this year. The American players, despite a team win in the UL International Crown, accounted for only two individual wins all year.5. Venue change. The KPMG Womens PGA Championships move from Westchester CC in suburban New York to Sahalee CC outside Seattle was brilliant. The anemic support by the New York club and the golf fans in the area made the 2015 event feel like it was on life support when in fact both the LPGA, PGA of America and KPMG had poured enormous resources into the championship. Sahalee and the Northwest supported the event in the manner deserved for the LPGAs second-longest running event and when the championship goes to Olympia Fields near Chicago next year, expect more of the same.6. Expanding horizons. The LPGA has been loosely involved in retail sales through its online pro shop for some time, but it has recently opened its first retail store in Seoul. There are plans to have 100 more in South Korea by 2018 when the UL International Crown will be played at Jack Nicklaus GC in Incheon, site of the 2015 Presidents Cup and the most recent Asia Pacific Amateur Championship. The superstars of South Korea have changed the landscape of the LPGA and its business where nearly half of its tournaments have ties to Asian companies. What an opportunity to grow your retail operations with fans who are enamored with womens golf and the LPGA.7. The 2017 schedule. Well use this topic to transition from good to bad because there are a lot of positive things going on with next years schedule, which will be rolled out in the next couple of weeks. Officials say the gain will likely be a net increase of one event above the 33 in 2016 and a gain of 11 since 2011.New domestic events added to the schedule will be in Indianapolis and Green Bay. The Ladies Scottish Open will be added as a co-sanctioned event with the LET, creating back-to-back weeks in Scotland as the Womens British Open will be at Kingsbarns. The second international addition will be the New Zealand Open near the beginning of the LPGAs fall swing.There will likely be a loss of three domestic events: Ocala, Florida; Prattville, Alabama; and suburban San Francisco. There is also open dialogue between the LPGA and the PGA Tour as officials try to work out the details of bringing back the very popular mixed-team event, an exciting benefit of the organizations new alliance.The Bad1. Addition and subtraction. The new international events are not really new but rather acquisitions, and the domestic growth is not keeping up with international expansion. Commissioner Mike Whan fully expects the loss in Ocala to be replaced by another Florida event in 2018.While the LPGAs schedule reflects its international membership, it is still an American-based association. Televising many of those international events in the middle of the night for what amounts to nearly three months of the total schedule really hurts the momentum that is built up during the bulk of the year.The LPGA left North America for seven events beginning in mid-September, not returning until the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in early November, an event that was not even televised.2. American performance (or lack thereof). Only two Americans won official events in 2016, Lexi Thompson and Brittany Lang. This cannot make the growth prospects of Whans business as commissioner any easier. I am repeatedly asked why the American output is so much below expectation and my opinion remains that U.S. players are out-motivated, out-focused and outdriven by their foreign counterparts, particularly those from the Asia where competition is one thing, but winning is really all that is rewarded.The discipline of those players is jaw-dropping, even to someone who reached the pinnacle as I did. I watch many of the LPGA players on social media and the number of posts of Americans vs. others really is astounding. Everyone has their best way to prepare and connect, but efficiency and focus for U.S. golfers seems to be compromised.Chan-Goog Yang, head pro at Seouls Sky 72 club recently said no matter what form of competition, you are either a champion or nothing. It may seem harsh, but that is the stark reality of this successful mindset. No participation medals. You must win.This isnt the only reason for the American drought and this certainly is not the first time there has been a significant dry spell. In 2011 Americans accounted for just four wins. In 2009 there were just five and only six in 2002. Those entities invested in the growth and excellence of the game in the U.S., while each believing they were helping people fall in love and stick with the game, have diluted each others efforts by not communicating, being extremely territorial and not really acknowledging that the rest of the world was not only catching up, but passing us.Finally we are seeing cooperation between the LPGA, USGA, PGA of America, Augusta National, the AJGA and others that is driving participation numbers, especially among young girls. The PGA Junior League, modeled on Little League baseball, is open to both boys and girls and is playing its national finals this week.A total of 36,000 kids participated this year, up from 9,000 just four years ago. Six years ago there were 5,000 girls in LPGA-USGA Girls Golf programs. Today there are nearly 60,000. There is certainly no guarantee these initiatives will churn out champions, but at least now the conversation has begun to create an American developmental model such as Canada, South Korea, Australia and others have had for many years.Drive, Chip and Putt has been a gigantic success as a partnership between the Masters, USGA and PGA of America and has already produced a significant champion since its formation in 2013 when Lucy Li, a 2014 age group winner, became the 2016 Junior Girls PGA Champion.Operating in silos, regardless of good intention, can only take American development so far. Time to keep talking and doing -- together -- to make American junior golf and, hopefully, female professional golf, rise in a big way again.The Ugly1. Hands off, players. Only one and this one came to my attention last week in Naples, Florida, while walking the course on Friday morning and questioning an LPGA official about why the par-5 17th hole was only 485 yards.Watching the telecast the day prior, I had noticed nearly every player had been able to reach the green in two shots and Jutanugarn even reached it with just two irons. The officials explanation was this: they are trying to create some drama toward the end of the round, but there is also a committee of players who have passed along the directive that at least one par-5 be reachable for everyone each day.I totally get the drama part, but the latter? Really? Players dictating setup philosophy? Now while the CME is not a major championship, it is clearly one of the most important events on the LPGA schedule and the players are telling the officials how to set up the course?While I applaud the players for taking ownership of their tour, what do they really know about set up and bringing architectural features (plus strategy into play on various holes two of which were virtually eliminated on this particular hole) or the setup of an equitable competition? Many dont even know the rules!Further exacerbating Saturdays setup where the par-5 sixth hole was reachable by most, in addition to No. 17, was the par-4 13th being moved up from 350 yards to 212. (No, that was not a typo.) The golf course overall played at less than 6,300 yards for the third round. As best as TV could tell, only one player even used a driver on the 13th!Imagine other sports doing this: Were going to use a shorter rim in the NBA Finals for the shorter team if they are trailing in the final minutes; the ninth player in the lineup in the World Series gets to use an aluminum bat; the final row of Indianapolis 500 qualifiers get to use a bigger engine; if a player is trailing after two sets at Wimbledon, they get to use the margins of both the singles and doubles court.This was more like a made-for-TV celebrity ski competition or a net handicap tournament. The LPGA has terrific officials. Hand off this particular wheel, players, and let them do their jobs.Ah, one last good -- even great in closing.A real offseason for the LPGA.Unlike the PGA Tours wraparound schedule, just about two months will pass before another official shot is struck, giving everyone a chance to rest, rehab, enjoy the holidays and have a true reset before the new season starts. ?I look forward to those two months off before the start of a new year that promises to be even better than the last. Cheap Braves Jerseys .Y. -- Paul Byron and Matt Stajan scored as the Calgary Flames started a five-game road trip with a 2-1 overtime win over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday afternoon. Grant Dayton Jersey .Y. -- Jayna Hefford scored the winning goal Friday as Canada survived a scare with a 4-3 win over Sweden at the Four Nations womens hockey tournament. https://www.cheapbraves.com/963o-chipper-jones-jersey-braves.html . -- Kyrie Irvings last-minute 3-pointer helped seal another victory for Cleveland -- and the Cavaliers longest winning streak since LeBron James left. Shane Greene Jersey . The nimble-footed quarterback got his wish, dashing through the snow and a weary defence all the way into the NCAA record book. Jeff Burroughs Braves Jersey .ca. Kerry, Just watched the shootout in the Coyotes/Leafs game and I have to ask, why was the James van Riemsdyk goal allowed to count? All of the video replays we were shown on TV were inconclusive about whether the puck had entirely crossed the line or not. The story goes that in the fall of 1991, Iowa Wesleyan was putting a hurting on Concordia University in an NAIA contest.Iowa Wesleyan coach Hal Mumme was in the process of birthing his Air Raid offense, co-conceived with his offensive coordinator and fellow Texas expatriate, Mike Leach. The coaches decided the next play would be a quick screen pass and thus did what they always did when that was the call.They removed their fire plug of a possession receiver from the field. His name was Dana Holgorsen, and he totally flipped out. He begged to be back on the field. Hed seen the tape on these guys. He was always watching tape and he knew he could score on this play against this team. To him it made no sense to keep him out.So Mumme relented, sent the kid back out and called his number for the catch. Holgorsen snagged the ball from the air in the open field with a freeway to the end zone. But instead of chugging toward the goal line he started zigzagging, allowing the woefully slow defenders to catch up, only to weave his way through them repeatedly before finally breaking free for the score.It was like something out of a cartoon or some old black-and-white football movie where everything looks sped up, Leach remembers now. When he got to the sideline he immediately went to Hal and said, I told you I could do it! Dana had to make his point and he had to make it his way.It is 11 a.m. Tuesday in Morgantown, West Virginia, and the pace is quickening inside WVUs football offices. Mountaineers players are wrapping up their morning classes and beginning to file into the building adjacent to Puskar Stadium. The training room is filling up with Eers seeking treatment for any dings suffered three days earlier during a 34-10 romping of TCU that moved the team to 6-0 and into a 10th-place ranking in the AP Top 25 poll.In July, West Virginia was picked by the Big 12 media to finish seventh in the 10-team conference, and why not? They finished 2015 with an 8-5 record, crushed by a brutal 0-4 October against four ranked conference rivals. This year they are 6-0 for the first time since 2006. The man leading that team has just blown into the room.OK, OK, here we go, how you doing? Holgorsen says as he walks briskly, legs shuffling and arms bowed out. The stride has Flair ... as in Ric Flair. The expression on his face is that of a man who is in a hurry and would probably rather be doing something -- anything -- else than making small talk. Those who work with him every day say this is the way he always looks, unless hes in a meeting room breaking down film.You could let this job run you over with all of the other stuff that comes with it, the 45-year-old says, settling into his nice but modest (by Power 5 head coach standards) office. The coachs fingers come to rest on the pages of an open three-ring binder. Im doing this because I love to coach football. If I couldnt get in there and really coach football, then I wouldnt be doing what I love anymore.The story goes that the calls started coming in from other schools around the South Atlantic Conference, one of the Southeasts oldest and proudest NCAA Division II leagues. Its member schools are all small and cozy liberal arts colleges and play their football in small and cozy football stadiums. Stadiums where the press boxes are open air and sit only a few feet above the grandstand.So in 1999, when this one particular quarterbacks and wide receivers coach from Wingate University would commence screaming and cursing, F-bombingly frustrated that his players werent running his plays as crisply as they should, the fans sitting below could hear every R-rated word. They would complain to the stadium staff, who would complain to the athletic director, who would make the calls to Wingate asking for the coach -- um, what was his name, yeah, Holgorsen -- to tone it down.Holgorsen knows that nearly every Saturday hes an internet sensation. He is fully aware that his disheveled hair is a thing. (So much so that when typing his name into the Google search bar, it autofills Dana Holgorsen hair.) He knows that college football Twitter timelines nearly vibrated apart during Week 6, when TV cameras caught him chugging one of his beloved sugar-free Red Bulls on the Puskar Stadium sidelines while his team was up by 24 over Texas Tech ... from his custom Red Bull mini-fridge that WVU keeps by the bench.Usually, its one of his three children who will inform him of his social media prowess each Saturday. After the Tech win, the info was delivered internally.When my marketing guy calls and rips my ass, I know it, he says, laughing, when asked about his infamy. I dont do that on purpose. I can assure you that. I dont follow it. What you see is what you get with me. Thats the way its always been. Thats the way itll always stay.Anyone who believes it all might be an eccentric act needs only to take the matter to the coaches and players who are with him each day.Oh no, thats Coach Holgo for real, says safety Jarrod Harper, one of 20 seniors (and 16 fifth-year seniors) on the roster. People will ask me all the time, the Red Bulls and the hair sticking up, hes not really like that all the time, is he? And Im like, thats Coach, man. Hes the real deal.Yeah, hes still plenty wide open, explains wide receivers coach Tyron Carrier, whos in his first year on the West Virginia staff. But you know I played for him back in the day [in 2008 and 09 when Holgorsen was offensive coordinator at Houston]. If you saw him then and then saw him now ... I tell him all the time that now hes more Coach Diet Coke than Coach Red Bull.The story goes that the young offensive coordinator at Houston was sneaky. The same offensive coordinator who would turn Case Keenum into a record-breaking quarterback and who would mentor future Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury and who would boost his boss, Kevin Sumlin, to the head job at Texas A&M.Sumlin worried about Holgorsen because there was no evidence that he slept. Ever. The coach would meet with his coordinator, and the kid would start throwing papers around with plays on them -- crazy plays.He was taking the Air Raid thing to a whole different level, Sumlin recalls. What Hal Mumme and Mike Leach did, running the ball was optional. Dana added a whole other layer to it with the running game. You still see that today. But some of this stuff he was trying to get me to sign off on in 2008 and 2009, not a chance. Routes crossed up and backs and receivers and tight ends all over the place, it looked like spaghetti. No way, sorry man, we arent doing this.Then the game would start. At a crucial point Sumlin might look out on the field, not recognize an offensive alignment and ... wait ... was this that spaghetti play?!Sometimes it would be a total mess, Sumlin said. But sometimes it would be brilliant. Wed bust off a 60-something-yard touchdown and at halftime he wouldnt even make eye contact. Id call him out and Dana would just shrug, like, I told you it would workk.ddddddddddddWhat do I think about the hair and the Red Bulls and all of that? assistant coach Joe Wickline pauses to gather his words. I think Dana Holgorsen makes this a fun place to work. This job can be so grueling if you let it be. But there isnt a day that goes by that he doesnt remind you of how fun this is. And I can tell you this. Ive been at this for 35 years. Ive never sat in a room with a coaching staff and seen it work like this one does.Wicklines official title is listed as offensive coordinator/tight ends-fullbacks. But its Holgorsen who calls the plays, with Wickline and everyone else on the offensive staff really serving as co-authors. That staff describes a scenario straight out of the film A Beautiful Mind, where the head coach walks in, takes a play theyve drawn up, and adds an entirely new layer to it, be it a tweak to a receivers route or one change in one position in a pre-snap formation that might mind-twist a defense.We all go and do our thing with our units and then we come back into the coaches rooms and bring all of our ideas to the table, Wickline continues. Thats how it works everywhere else, too. But how it doesnt work everywhere else is here were allowed to take those ideas, everyones idea, and weave them together. There are ideas we dont use, but there are no bad ideas.Whenever Holgorsen interviews a potential coach or a potential player, he leads with the same warning: You either have to work together with everyone else in the room or we can stop wasting my time right now and both move on to someone else.Thats why, around the halfway point of his six-year tenure in Morgantown, he scrambled the coaches offices, putting defensive coaches next door to offensive coaches. He did the same with the locker room and road roommate assignments. As hes overseen the overhauling of the facilities, hes gone total football feng shui, creating a one-stop world for his players, flowing from tutoring rooms and meeting rooms to locker room and weight room, all with a panoramic view of Mountaineer Field, access to which is denied them until game day.As long as the goal is the same, he will listen to anything you think of, says running backs coach JaJuan Seider, who was a WVU grad assistant under Rich Rodriguez. That goal is winning games. Not moving up the coaching ranks or becoming a superstar or any of that. He says if you win games, that other stuff will take care of itself. So win first.The story goes that he was only going to live in hotel rooms. Thats how he often did it as he moved up the ladder as a young coach. Thats how he did it in 2010 during his one year as offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State under Mike Gundy. And thats how he did it during his first three years at West Virginia, the first as OC, the next two as head coach.His room sat right on the Monongahela River, cold as hell. He told friends that he didnt like to haul a bunch of s--- all over the place anyway because the less s--- you carry with you, the easier it is to move forward. Plus, housekeeping came and cleaned his room every day. That was nice. And there was a bar nearby. That was nicer.In June 2011, four days after taking over as West Virginia head coach, Holgorsen celebrated by going skydiving with the U.S. Armys Golden Knights and crash landing into the New River Gorge. When he returned home that night a hotel employee congratulated him on landing the job.Thats not the only thing Ive landed this week, the new head coach replied. I just landed my ass in the river from 10,000 feet.Those stories -- skydiving, showing up to practice in a helicopter, shooting muskets with the Mountaineers mascot -- it only plays as long as the coach is calling winning plays. In that first season of 2011, Holgorsens team went 10-3 with a now-famous 70-33 throttling of Clemson.As a result, the tales of Holgs going off the rails came off as sort of cool mountain man tales, a Red Bull-chugging Paul Bunyan. One of the original head coach in waiting experiments, he was swept into the job controversially, replacing folksy Bill Stewart after it was reported that Stewart was running a smear campaign to keep the heir forced upon him at arms length. But the same stories initially used against him -- being escorted from a West Virginia casino in the middle of the night, supposedly just one of multiple such inebriated incidents -- became part of his legend.Then the winning stopped. A move to the Big 12 in 2012 created a climb too steep for even a Mountaineer. A 5-0 start boosted an AP poll climb that peaked at No. 8, but ended with six losses over the final eight weeks. Suddenly, those whod once praised Holgorsen were turning on him. Now stories of Holgorsen sightings in random bars around the nation, from Charlotte to Houston, were presented as signs of a man barely hanging on. He moved to the top of the Coaches Hot Seat lists, especially when the man who hired him, former West Virginia QB and AD Oliver Luck, left to work for the NCAA.The head coaching deal is so much harder than you think its going to be, he admits now. Theres so much else that comes with it that it can eat you up. The spotlight never goes away. And then you throw in a move to a Power 5 conference. Its a lot, man. You have to reinvent a lot of what you do.Like a new attention to defense, an overhaul headed up by longtime West Virginia coach Tony Gibson, who took over defensive coordinator duties in 2013. Like maintaining what has become a pleasant but largely unrevealing relationship with the media.But most importantly, like keeping the tales of Crazy Holgs confined to nothing more than those internet screengrabs of visor-bending on the sideline. He still goes out, but not where people are looking for him. Back in the day he could be found throwing back drinks at The Varsity across the street from the stadium. He still does, but in a room where only friends and family are allowed.When he goes to see his middle child, Logan, play quarterback for Morgantown High School, he keeps a low profile, sitting with his parents, who have moved to West Virginia from Iowa. They all hang out at his place, and that place isnt a hotel room. Its an 8,000-square-foot home in Cheat Lake where he holds summertime parties for several hundred people, a cross-laminated-timber home nationally recognized for its energy efficiency.Wait ... groundbreaking energy efficiency? Thats a long ways from the guy in those wacko stories. An 8,000-square-foot house in Cheat Lake? That doesnt feel like the kind of home a man builds when he is worried about the hot seat, or a man looking to jump at the next job down the line, even as he put contract talks on hold last winter. Thats the kind of place that would seem to run counter to the dont haul a bunch of s--- all over the place philosophy.But yes, it does have plenty of sugar-free Red Bull in the fridge. ' ' '