Fast Greens And Fairways

Driven by his passionate hatred of slow play in golf, Jay Larson has spent the past three years as the champion of what he deems the cure: extreme golf.

The premise is simple. Competitors play a round of golf as fast as they can. Upon completion, the score and the time are added together to formulate an extreme golf score. For example, if you shoot 85 in 70 minutes your score is 155.

USGA rules apply, with the only exceptions being you must run and can leave the flag in the hole while putting to save time. Larson, whose best is a 75 in 39 minutes 9 seconds, says most participants can play in a little over an hour.

“It’s mind boggling to see how slow golf has become,” said Larson, the world’s No. 1-ranked extreme golfer. “There’s so much messing around. Slow play is the biggest issue in golf today.”

Brad Kearns, a Taft High graduate and a top amateur, says the amazing part about the sport is that golf scores don’t vary much from regular golf.

“The average golfer can go out there and run around as fast as he can and shoot just as good,” he said. “My scores in an hour are just as good as a five-hour round.”

Originally developed five years ago by a foursome of bored golfers on a desolate golf course in Borrego Springs, extreme golf, or XGolf, has developed into a popular tournament sport.

Larson, a former golf pro and professional triathlete, began running tournaments about three years ago and popularity has been growing ever since.

At first tournaments were invitational, but last month Larson staged the first Extreme Golf Open at Morgan Run Resort and Club in Rancho Santa Fe.

The second Extreme Golf Open will be held Thursday at Camarillo Springs Golf Club in Camarillo.

“Since we started having opens, interest has been phenomenal,” Larson said. “We have tournaments in Sacramento, Connecticut and Canada.”

Players are coming from as far as Oregon for the Camarillo event. With the sport’s popularity growing rapidly, Larson says he is excited about the future of extreme golf.

“We’re at a crossroads right now,” he said. “We have to decide where and how we want it to go. But it does appear that there is a market.”

Larson does not have any delusions that extreme golf will one day replace regular golf, he just wants there to be an option for those who don’t have time for a 5 1/2-hour round.

“A lot of people have quit golf because they didn’t have time to play,” he said. “This not only fits into the schedule of today’s typical American, but you can stay in shape playing it and work on your golf game.”

Morgan Run Resort and Club is the only course offering tee times for extreme golfers. Those wanting to play can tee off on Thursdays from 7-8 a.m. for $10. Larson said concerns about greens fees have turned other courses away.

“It’s tough to charge full price for somebody who is only out there for an hour,” Larson said.

Despite it’s name, XGolf does not appeal to Generation X. The median age of players is 40, though 20-somethings and 60-somethings have been known to put up some pretty good scores.

“This is golf where you run, not running where you golf,” Larson said. “It behooves you to play good golf because you can shoot 10 to 15 strokes better than someone, but it’s not likely that you will run 10 or 15 minutes faster than anyone.”

An essential part of the sport is the caddie, who rides in a cart with the scorekeeper with the player’s clubs. The caddie stands in the fairway as the players hits, finds the ball and as the player runs down the fairway, the caddie yells out the distance and lie.

The player yells out which club he wants, hands off the previously used club and the caddie motors off in the cart to repeat the process.

Information about XGolf and how to get involved can be found on the World Wide Web at www.extremegolf.com or by calling the Extreme Golf hotline at 619-793-2711 ext. 102.

The pursuit of the perfect golf swing has led a Calabasas-based physical therapist to go to extremes.

David Dennies runs Sports Motion Physical therapy in Calabasas. He has arduously studied the complex muscle and joint movements involved in making a golf swing and, for $85 a session, will study yours.

Dennies has set up an indoor driving range and surrounded it with three high-speed cameras that will record your every move from front, side and rear views. He transfers the swing video to a computer and breaks it down one frame at a time with the aid of a telestrator.

“I just wanted to do something different,” said Dennies, whose Calabasas office is a full-service physical therapy center. “I started going out to tournaments and everybody loved it. I haven’t had one person go through it who didn’t like it.”

Dennies makes no claims that he is a golf pro.

Instead, the 14-handicap golfer is more concerned with getting the right muscles involved and getting the joints into the correct angles. Anybody who undergoes a session is given a video cassette copy of the entire breakdown process.

“We want you to take it to your pro,” Dennies said. “We’re just an adjunct to being a guide. We don’t want to ace the pros out of this. Pros are welcome.”

Dennies has stored the swings of several PGA Tour professionals and puts your swing next to that of Steve Elkington, Ernie Els or Curtis Strange for comparison.

Most clients are 18 handicaps or better, golfers Dennies says are better able to understand the golf swing and recognize the flaws in their own.

“We get beginners too,” he said. “But I think you get more out of it if you’ve had a little experience. I expect people to use it three to six times a year because what we really want to do is check your progress.”

Though a little pricey, the session is helpful in improving your swing. There is no substitute for seeing, and once you stop cringing at the flaws in your swing, you will have a valuable guide to fix them.

Sports Motion Physical therapy can be reached at (818) 224-2090 or on the World Wide Web at www.sportsmotionpt.com