USATODAY: Still men only at Augusta National the Master's Golf Course?

Believe it or not - this story and my blog post about it was published in 2012. Tomorrow they will award another green jacket. The world is still not right...

The Masters is the annual reminder to us all of how the old boys love their men only country clubs as USA Today asked in 2012, "Will Augusta National have its first female member?"

The story speculated on whether the club already had its first female member.

Three of the members of this most exclusive club in U.S. sports, if not in all of American culture, have traditionally been the CEOs of Exxon, AT&T and IBM. They have been invited to be members of Augusta National because they run the three corporations that sponsor the Masters. They've also been invited because they are men.

Last fall, however, IBM made a historic decision. It announced that as of Jan. 1, Virginia "Ginni" Rometty would become its first female CEO. Then, this week, on the eve of Masters week, Bloomberg News Service became the first to ask the logical question: Will Rometty become the first woman to wear a green jacket?

It's possible that the question actually might be moot. It is within the realm of possibility, remote as it might seem, that she's already a member and we simply don't know it yet.

As a famous Orthodox rabbi once told me, "When the women write the checks, then they will get called to the Torah." IBM writes a big check to Augusta National. A woman can join the club.

Yet let us not rejoice that egalitarianism reigns at Augusta. As they say in French, "Un oiseau ne fait pas le printemps."

Is British Open Winner Zach Johnson Jewish?

No Zach Johnson is not a Jew. He is a devout Christian.

CNN reports, "The Open 2015: Zach Johnson -- 'I'm just a blessed boy'".

St Andrews (CNN): It was news to Zach Johnson that he'd won the Open Championship.

So focused was the 39-year-old that when Louis Oosthuizen's crucial birdie putt missed on the final hole it was his caddie Damon Green that broke the news to him.

A deeply religious man, Johnson was busy reciting scripture to keep his concentration, and when he'd finished he'd added the Claret Jug to his 2007 Masters triumph...

My Dear Rabbi Talmudic Advice Column for September: What About Slow Pray?

Dear Rabbi,

I have been attending a 6:30 daily morning minyan at my local synagogue for many years. Right after minyan I rush out to catch a bus and go to work in the city. Many others at the minyan are on tight schedules and must connect with car pools or take their children to school. We always have completed our services at 7 promptly to satisfy our schedules.

Recently a man who is a mourner in shloshim (the first thirty days of mourning after losing a relative) was asked to lead the services, as is our custom. He recites the prayers clearly and accurately but there is a problem. He goes too slowly and sometimes finishes at five or ten minutes after seven. I have had to leave several times before the service is completed so that I could get to my bus.

I want to ask the man to speed up his davening. My friend says that is rude and I should not approach him. What is your advice?

Slow Pray in Bergenfield

Dear Slow Pray,

I play a lot of golf. So please allow me to describe a somewhat parallel question involving slow play that I encountered one recent day in that more profane activity. I was playing on a local course with three friends. The group in front of us was playing way too slowly. After several holes we all became antsy waiting for the foursome ahead of us to hit and move forward.

One of my friends insisted that we talk to them when they are on the next tee, to implore them to play faster. I argued that was poor etiquette, and if we wanted to get the pace quickened we had to speak to the ranger on the course and ask him to reprove the slow players.

We debated the point back and forth in our foursome for a while and eventually we did find the ranger and asked him to intercede. He spoke to the slowpokes, play picked up, and we did not have to confront the offending players.

Of course, slow play is not the same as slow pray. But you need to balance your desire for a steady and predictable speed with the needs of the community of praying people. You probably have a gabbai, a member of your minyan who is in charge. It’s best in a big minyan if you speak to the gabbai about the delay and let him approach the mourner who is leading your services.

If your minyan is small and friendly, you may take a chance on explaining your schedule-needs directly to the slow shaliach tzibbur (leader). It’s likely that he will not be offended and will make efforts to pick up the pace.

I do hope that you find helpful this brief Talmudic analysis and advice for the day-to-day reality of the pace of our contradictory world, where one person’s slow pray may be another person’s perfect day.

Tzvee Zahavy has published several new Kindle Editions at Amazon.com, including “The Book of Jewish Prayers in English,” “Rashi: The Greatest Exegete,” “God’s Favorite Prayers” and “Dear Rabbi: The Greatest Talmudic Advice” which includes his past columns from the Jewish Standard and other essays.

The Book of Jewish New Year Prayers
The Book of Jewish Prayers

Dear Rabbi: The Greatest Talmudic Advice
Kindle Talmud in English

God's Favorite Prayers

Times: Mindful Golf Works

The New York Times in Keeping Your Eye on the Ball reports on studies that prove what we already knew for years, to wit, if you watch the ball at impact as you drive or swing or putt, you will hit a good shot:

Training yourself to keep your eye on the ball -- which most of us don't actually do, it turns out -- can significantly improve golf putting, a new study shows, as well as basketball shooting, soccer penalty kicks and other ball-related activities.

Check out my swing from GE's healthymagination Pavilion at the 2012 The Barclays. http://bit.ly/O9Hws6. That's me compared with golf pro Jim Furyk, I actually keep my eye on the ball too long...

Just about now, by the way, we need some mindful meditative golf.

At the Barclay's Golf Tournament at the Bethpage Black Course

We especially liked watching Tiger and Rory and Zach come around the course together.

The GE booth made us a neat video of our swing, which you can compare side-by-side to the swing of Jim Furyk or Webb Simpson. Neat.

Augusta National Golf Club Admits its First Two Women Members: Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore

ABC reports that Augusta National golf course, home of the Masters, has admitted its first two women members, Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore.

Sigh. 2012 and yet this is news. We are not impressed.

44 New Talmudic Books for Kindle | The Amazing 36 Volume Kindle Talmud in English | Whence and Wherefore | God's Favorite Prayers

WSJ: Golf Practice, Daily Talmud Study, and "the illusion of competence"

We liked this WSJ article for two reasons. First, we agree that spending lots of time at the driving range does not translate directly into better golf shots on the course.

Second, we agree that practice sessions can lull one into the "illusion of competence" in golf and in many other activities in life.

We like the concept and now we are thinking about how it may help us characterize relgious activities (such as the daily Talmud study called Daf Yomi). Here is the article about golf drills.

Not at Home on the Range:

Why Much of the Work Golfers Do to Improve Their Games Isn't Helping Them Get Better

By JOHN PAUL NEWPORT

You're on the range, pounding balls, and suddenly golf seems easy. All the parts of your swing sync and you start striping one career-best drive after another. "By golly, I've got it," you say to yourself. You can't wait to get to the course.

Science has a name for this exalted state, but unfortunately it's not "flow" or "in the zone." It's "the illusion of competence," and the odds are it's doing your golf game more harm than good.

Times Travels to Uman and Rabbi Nachman of Breslov's Grave

Our son Yitz told us he did not like one of the pictures in this story about Uman in T the Times' Travel magazine. We said, what is Uman?

In "One Schlep Forward" Gideon Lewis-Kraus explains in a funny story from his forthcoming book - A Sense of Direction: Pilgrimage for the Restless and the Hopeful - that it is a gathering in the Ukraine of 50,000 Jews:

The big event, we’d heard, was at the Tzion, Rabbi Nachman’s grave, at noon before the start of Rosh Hashanah. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov was a great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism. The three generations following the death of the Baal Shem Tov saw the Hasidic movement — populist, ebullient, mystical, messianic — splinter into all of the sects that jostle up against each other in Brooklyn today, each of which has had its own rabbinic lineage; Nachman’s adherents, called Breslovers, however, have promoted no leading rabbi since Nachman himself, and have thus been called the “dead Hasids.”

Before his death in 1810, Nachman told his followers that if they came to visit his tomb on the holiday and repeated 10 particular psalms, he would grant them redemption in the world to come...

We'll go one day, if they have good golf courses nearby.

Talmudic Books for Kindle on the Talmud, Bible, Kabbalah and Prayer
 The Kindle Edition of the Classic Soncino Talmud in English

The Honda Classic at the PGA National Champion Course Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

At the infamous "Bear Trap," three tough holes on the back nine of the

PGA National Champion Course · Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

 

The Honda Classic will be played there.

Thursday Mar 1 – Sunday Mar 4, 2012

 

We played the course last month. Watch closely on TV to see our divots.

Is Golfer Corey Pavin Jewish?

It's complicated. Yes, professional golfer Corey Pavin was born a Jew. But no, he does not practice Judaism. In religious practice he is a Born Again Christian. We don't understand how he can be a "Born Again" Christian since he was born a Jew. He is fervent in his Christianity, one of the few golfers who in interviews used to openly thank Jesus for his success on the tour.

Whatever his beliefs are now, in the Champions Tour's Allianz Championship last weekend, he made one of the most remarkable short iron shots we ever saw, a talented chip from an impossible lie up against a tree root.



Pavin is right handed but he reversed his eight iron and chipped left handed to within 5 feet of the pin. He then went on to win the tournament in a playoff. Blogger Jonathan Wall said of the stroke, "it probably ranks right up there with some of the best, and most clutch, recovery shots in the history of the game."

Here is the video clip - see at around 2:00 into the clip.



If we ever hit a shot like that one we might say a blessing like, “Blessed [art thou, O Lord, our God, King of the Universe,] who is good and does good.”

Whoops. Times Does Not Adore Golf in the Kingdom

It's a pan, not a praise. Yes, new age golf movies are an acquired taste.

Movie Review | 'Golf in the Kingdom'
Fellowship of the Links
By NEIL GENZLINGER

Golf may be the world’s dullest spectator sport, not counting soccer: it takes a long time for not much to happen. By that standard, “Golf in the Kingdom” captures the game perfectly.

The film, Susan Streitfeld’s adaptation of Michael Murphy’s 1972 novel, will probably draw the same love-it-or-hate-it response the book has: either it’s a brilliant merger of golf and philosophy, or it’s a collection of windy New Age nonsense about a sport played mostly by rich people.

Mason Gamble portrays Mr. Murphy, who on his way to India stops in Scotland. He ends up playing a round of golf with Shivas Irons (David O’Hara), a mysterious fellow with a knack for spinning pithy-sounding phrases that, if examined in any depth, really aren’t. He also mingles with some golf-playing locals and goes on a predawn hunt for Shivas’s mentor (segments so underlighted that you might as well close your eyes).

Everyone spouts nicely turned baloney elevating golf to the level of a religious experience, which grows tedious fairly quickly. The film almost works, though, if you view the whole thing as a very, very dry comedy.

Times: Shivas Irons' Golf in the Kingdom Comes to Film

The Times starts its meaty article about the long-awaited film version of Michael Murphy's famous golf novel, Golf in the Kingdom by saying that the book is "practically a sacred text." We think that they mean that it has mystical and philosophical qualities, that people read the book with veneration, and that it addresses ultimate issues of life and meaning. Indeed, like religion, the game of golf is quite elaborate in its rituals and practices and in its demarcations of space. And the classic golf book in question goes far beyond addressing those surface issues. It's one of the most memorable books we ever read.

We are eager to see how the film treats the highly complex book and the more elaborate realities of the game itself. Charles McGrath's essay on the film's long gestation, "A Mystical Tale, From Tee to Green," for the Times begins thusly:

For many golfers Michael Murphy’s 1972 novel, “Golf in the Kingdom,” is practically a sacred text. It’s about a young man, modeled on Mr. Murphy himself, who on his way to an ashram in India stops off in Scotland, where his life is transformed by an encounter with a golf pro and mystic named Shivas Irons, who knows as much about Pythagoras and the Hindu scriptures as he does about hitting a high fade. Several filmmakers have felt similarly transported by reading the book, and “Golf in the Kingdom” has been optioned or in development since before it was even published. Gus Van Sant was interested for a while. Sean Connery was approached about playing Shivas. Clint Eastwood fell in love with the book and clung to the rights for a decade or so before giving up.

At last, though, “Golf in the Kingdom” is coming to the screen. It opens in New York on Friday in a version written and directed by Susan Streitfeld, who has never played golf in her life, and produced by Mindy Affrime, an independent producer...more...

JW: Rabbi Andrea Myers Calls Morris the Golfer an Apostate

Nothing gets my attention more quickly than a theological discussion involving a golfer. Rabbi Andrea Myers implies in an essay in the Jewish Week that a character she calls Morris, the Golfer, is an apostate, much like the Talmudic character Elisha Ben Abuyah, whom she directly labels an apostate.

She describes how both of these characters, the modern one and the ancient one, took leave of Judaic practice and/or belief because they "had a problem of theodicy: the question of how God can exist if there is evil in the world." Both men, she implies, especially Elisha Ben Abuyah, "went from being a respected scholar to an apostate." We are not sure that Morris ever was a scholar. But he gets to be classed by Myers together with the ancient rabbi anyhow.

Rabbi Myers is sensitive and certainly appears to grapple with serious theological issues and we applaud that activity. She makes two mistakes, both critical, in her essay. First she criticizes a golfer who chooses not to attend synagogue, and who justifies to her his behavior with a theodicy story. Golfers are above criticism on this blog. They can do no wrong.

More seriously though, Myers misunderstands the term "apostate". That word is reserved in the historical and sociological literature to describe a specific personality. It does not fit to use the term for anyone with a theodicy issue who questions God and avoids organized religion. Thoughtful criticism and questioning is a valid part of organized religious life.

David Bromley in his book "The Politics of Religious Authority" says it most clearly. Apostates are subversive leavetakers from a community of faith, "who are involved in a contested exit and affiliate with an oppositional coalition." Number one, they leave the religion with a specific story of conflict, sometimes an escape-from-captivity narrative. And number two, they affiliate with another community.

Golf is not an organized religion, no matter how religiously one plays it. And Elisha Ben Abuyah does not fit the sociological apostate mold as defined by most who use the term. Elisha after all, is still talked about in the Talmud. He is a special case, not an apostate. You can argue convincingly that there is no such thing as pure philosophical apostasy. It is a term that demands demonstrable sociological acts and affiliation changes, most often joining another religion.

Myers makes a bad confusion of terminology and categories and does poor Morris, the Golfer, a major disservice.

Is Larry David Jewish?

Yes Larry David is a Jew. He was born in 1947 to a Jewish family in the neighborhood of Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, New York.

He now has written a twisted essay about golf in the New Yorker, filed under the keywords: Golf; Sports; Elisabeth Kübler-Ross; “On Death and Dying”; Anger; Denial; Bargaining - really strange.

In March 2010 the Times wrote about David's plan for syndicating his show.

The HBO Larry David show is so far out and controversial that on more than one occasion we have come away from watching it shaking our head and saying out loud with a smile, "That guy is one sick puppy."

But he is a comic genius. In transforming his cable show to syndication, David made a deal, then changed his mind. The Times describes the drama, the problem and the solution, which includes adding a rabbi to a panel discussion on the ethics to accompany the airing of every show. Just brilliant. But we simply don't have time to join the panel. Too busy writing a serious book. Sorry Larry.

In Syndication, the Agonizing on ‘Curb’ Is Only Escalating
By BILL CARTER

The new owners of the TV Guide Network believed they had found just the right show to send the message that the channel was getting into the business of broadcasting programs instead of listing them.

In November, the channel — previously known for running a scroll of what’s on other channels — snapped up the first syndication rights to Larry David’s HBO comedy “Curb Your Enthusiasm” for an undisclosed price. There was only one problem: almost immediately after he agreed to the sale, Mr. David had seller’s remorse.

The reason? Almost every episode of “Curb” is 29 minutes long — or longer. That’s fine for HBO, which has no commercials; but in syndication, half-hour shows run only about 21 minutes to accommodate all the advertisements.

“I regretted it instantly,” Mr. David said in a telephone interview. “I knew there was no way they would be able to cut it down.”

The Rules of Golf and the Study of Talmud

We posted this golf analogy on 6/24/2010. Another season, another visit....

A WSJ article last year about the rules of golf ("Rules Are Made to Be ... Completely Baffling") invoked the Talmud. We agree that the intricate interpretation of the rules of golf can at times remind one of Talmudic analysis,

“The main reason there are so many rules and decisions is because the playground is so large and varied, and almost anything can happen. It’s not like tennis, where the courts are uniform,” said Mr. Fay. Every four years the USGA and its fellow rules-making body, the Royal and Ancient in Great Britain, announce new and amended rules to adapt to new circumstances, and new decisions are rendered constantly, all of which rules scholars study like the Talmud.

Fundamentally, however, the rules can be reduced to a few underlying principles—only two, in the opinion of John Minan, a professor at the University of San Diego School of Law and author of “The Little Green Book of Golf Law.” The first is to play the course as you find it and the second is to play your ball without touching it until you hole out—except, of course, when there are exceptions. The rules define and explain the exceptions. And for situations that aren’t covered in the rules, there’s the all-important equity clause, Rule 1.4: When in doubt, do what’s fair.

The Talmudic analogy is a propos. For golf rules, there are basic principles, a set of detailed laws in a code book and case studies on how the laws are applied.

Is the Polara Golf Ball Kosher?

No, the USGA "rabbis" have declared the Polara golf ball is treif, it is not kosher, as the Times reports.

The ball has special dimples that violate the rules. "Polara Golf claims to have engineered a ball that will fly straight and resist the most stubborn slice or hook, at least 75 percent of the time."

The Times (Teeing Up a Duffer Debate, By DON VAN NATTA Jr.) actually says, "...there is nothing kosher about the ball."

The United States Golf Association has already declared the Polara illegal, and there is nothing kosher about the ball. Even its miniaturized arrow flouts the rules. To point the arrow so the ball takes flight in the correct direction, a player needs to move it as it sits on the fairway. That in itself is illegal.

We don't ever hook or slice our shots... so we have no interest in, or use for, this new illegal golf ball.

How to know when you are an accomplished golfer

Irv Dubow was one of the regulars that we used to play golf with at the Braemar Golf Course in Edina Minnesota.

He was pretty good amateur golfer, with about a six or eight handicap. He shot consistently in the high seventies.

Irv was also an inventor. He devised and patented an amazing "Golf ball retrieving device." We are not sure if he ever got it produced and marketed.

One day, years ago, we asked Irv how we would know when we too could call ourselves an accomplished golfer.

Irv thought for a few moments and said, "After a round of golf, if you talk about and think about the few good shots you had, you are still a beginner and should not consider yourself an accomplished golfer.

"However after eighteen holes of golf, if you talk about and think about the few bad shots you had, then you know that you are no longer a beginner and accordingly you may consider yourself an accomplished golfer."

Instantly we knew that he was right and that he was a golf sage.

We've wondered time and again since that day if the same goes for our other endeavors of life in general.

On Time Magazine: A Tiger Woods Swing Midrash

One of Time Magazine's top stories this week during the Master's Golf Tournament is the saga of "Golf: Why Tiger Woods' Swing Overhaul May Hurt His Game."

The gist of the account is that top golfers don't understand why the great athlete Woods is renovating his swing for a third time.

It's no great midrash to interpret what is going on with this golfer.

We speculate on solid ground that Tiger really wants to redo his life choices. He's made some bad "swings" and now he wants to correct them. The only thing Tiger knows is golf and thus he is for a third time trying to "fix his swing." Yes, he should make strenuous efforts to do that.

Here is what Sean Gregory says in Time about the athletic expression of Tiger's personal needs:

Woods first overhauled his technique after the 1997 Masters, which he won by a record 12 strokes. Woods felt that victory had more to do with good timing on his shots, which you can have in any given week, than sound mechanics, which you need to sustain long-term success. Essentially, Woods felt he got lucky. So Woods and his first pro coach, Butch Harmon (who now instructs Woods' longtime rival, Mickelson), worked on slowing down Woods' torso movement on the downswing, which would presumably lead to less erratic shots.

Is Gmail's Priority Inbox Kosher?

Yes, Gmail in general is kosher because it is so good at eliminating spam.

And we all know that spam is not kosher. The actual product Spam was a canned meat made largely from pork invented in Minnesota by Hormel Foods. We used to pass by the Hormel factory where they processed Spam when we went out golfing in Austin MN, home of the Spam museum and the headquarters of Hormel.

According to historians of the Internet, junk mail became known as spam because of a deliberate association with a 1970 Monty Python sketch about a cafe where every dish had spam in it.

Now, Gmail has become glatt kosher (a higher level) because it has launched a priority inbox filter which separates Bacn from your more important emails. Bacn is per Wikipedia, "Email which has been subscribed to and is therefore not unsolicited, but is often not read by the recipient for a long period of time, if at all. Bacn has been described as 'email you want but not right now.'" As Google tells us:

Gmail has always been pretty good at filtering junk mail into the “spam” folder. But today, in addition to spam, people get a lot of mail that isn't outright junk but isn't very important—bologna, or “bacn.” So we've evolved Gmail's filter to address this problem and extended it to not only classify outright spam, but also to help users separate this "bologna" from the important stuff. In a way, Priority Inbox is like your personal assistant, helping you focus on the messages that matter without requiring you to set up complex rules.

See the Gmail blog post here for more details. It's rolling out now. More help here.

This feature has passed our rigorous inspection and now has our official rabbinic certification as "Kosher."

Is Golf Jewish?

No, according to a recent article in the New Yorker (John McPhee, The Sporting Scene, “Linksland and Bottle,” The New Yorker, September 6, 2010, p. 47), golf is not Jewish, it is Presbyterian.

On the second day of play at the Open, Jerris and the writer walked the course with David Hamilton, who lives in St. Andrews and is a member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club. Hamilton mentioned certain “Presbyterian features” of the course—the Valley of Sin, the Pulpit Bunker, the bunker name Hell—pointing them out...more...