| Golf Traveler eNews: Updates on new and existing golf course affiliates, club benefits, golf tips, golf rules and other informative items. |  | |  |  | March 2010 |  | | | Welcome to Golf Traveler eNews, our monthly email newsletter for golfers. Golf Traveler eNews provides updates on new and existing golf course affiliates, club benefits, golf tips, golf rules and other informative items.
 | | | | Keep receiving free or discounted green fees at nearly 3,000 courses across the U.S., plus Canada and the Caribbean. Use the Golf Card just a few rounds a year and your membership pays for itself.
Renew today | | | | | | | | Travel Spotlight - Spring Training
There’s something fresh and pure about spring training. Mostly day games, where the intensity is low and so are the prices. Where you can see fundamentals practiced before your eyes. Where players look like they’re having fun. Where there are no luxury boxes, waterfalls, swimming pools, domes or other artificial intrusions on the most natural of games. Where baseball and apple pie still go together.
 | |  | | |  | |  | |  |  | | Arizona National (Tucson)
520-749-3636; arizonanationalgolfclub.com
Arizona National Golf Club is a visual stunner designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr. in 1995. Nestled in the foothills of the beautiful Santa Catalina Mountains adjacent to the Coronado National Forest, the course follows the rugged natural flow of the land across shady mesquite-lined arroyos and skirts craggy rock outcroppings. Along the way, Arizona National Golf Club’s diverse 6,785 yard layout will present classic golf-in-the-desert challenges, especially risk-reward options. | |  | | Palm Valley GC/Palm Course (Goodyear)
623-935-2500; palmvalleygolf.com
Designed by renowned golf course architect Arthur Hills, Palm Valley Golf Club's Palms Course is not a typical desert course with rough desert terrain surrounding the fairways and greens. Instead golfers find transition areas, large shallow patches of firm sand dotting each hole. These transition areas make golf more enjoyable for most recreational players – they are easier to hit from than waste bunkers and the desert itself. | |  | | San Ignacio (Green Valley)
520-648-3468; sanignaciogolfclub.com
San Ignacio Golf Club is a 6,704-yard, par-71 Arthur Hills-designed course that is located 20 minutes south of Tucson, Arizona, in Green Valley. It sits nestled between the Santa Rita and Tumacacoris Mountain ranges at 3,000 feet elevation, providing for a spectacular and unique desert-golf destination. | |  |  | |  | |  | |  | Relief from a cart path
 During the Bob Hope Classic, the Golf Channel’s cameras showed Stuart Appleby taking relief from a cart path, but still standing on it. He was trying to get as close to the path as possible to create the best angle for his next shot and avoid hitting a tree in front of him. Fortunately, Appleby and his caddie knew the Rule for taking relief from an immoveable obstruction – that after you drop, your stance and intended swing must avoid interference from the obstruction. In this case, Appleby dropped again so his stance was completely off the cart path. It’s important to note that when taking relief, you are only getting relief from the obstruction. So if Appleby’s nearest point of relief from the cart path put him directly behind the tree, he would need to play from that spot if he chose to take relief. Of course, the player always has the option of playing the ball where it lies (except for certain local rules prohibiting play from flower beds and environmentally sensitive areas). |  |  | Rotating around a still head
 Have you watched 60-year-old Tom Watson swing lately? He is actually swinging the club better today than he did 30 years ago. Which explains why he almost won the British Open last year and recently finished 8th at The Dubai Desert Classic on the European Tour. It’s not far-fetched to think that if Watson finds a hot week with the putter, he can still win a big tournament, possibly a major. At the Dubai Classic, Watson gave a clinic and someone in the gallery asked him, “What is the most basic fundamental he has relied on over the years?” Without hesitating, Watson said he tries to keep his head as still as possible and rotate everything around it. It’s that simple. Basically, Watson still swears by the old “swing in the barrel” visual that was a cornerstone of golf instruction for a hundred years before the “modern” swing and its reliance on big muscles “muscled” in. You can’t argue with Watson’s remarkable record over the years and the durability of his swing. The advice here is to take Watson’s advice and concentrate on rotating your spine around a still head.
If you have a swing problem or other flaw with your game, e-mail us at memberstee@golfcard.com. Please include a brief description of what your tendencies are, what you want fixed and our Instructional Staff will consider your submission for response
| | | | | | | By Ken Cohen
 There's a certain hypocrisy in Scott McCarron describing Phil Mickelson’s use of a 20-year-old Ping Eye 2 sand wedge as cheating. As you've probably heard, the Ping Eye 2 irons were declared legal to use on The PGA Tour despite the recent ban on wedges with such grooves. The reason is simple – The PGA Tour had no choice. The Ping wedges were approved for play through a lawsuit filed by Ping against the USGA and the PGA Tour back in 1990. That decision supersedes any subsequent rule changes instituted by the USGA or the PGA Tour. We know it as a "grandfathered" law.
| |  |  |  | | | | Views from Our Readers
 I really agree with [Ken Cohen] this time about Kelly Tilghman, who is over the top in awe of "Sir" Nick Faldo. This may be a reaction to the flak she took after the Tiger Woods slur.
Another puzzle has been Inga Hammond, who I understand is "out" along with Vince Cellini. They don't look like people who are attempting to broadcast golf, with exotic clothes and long glamorous hair. Too bad there is only one Judy Rankin and Donna Caponi!
Joseph McLaughlin | | | |  | |  | |  | Save on Books, DVDs and MORE...
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|  | Course Reviews
 We encourage all members to submit reviews of Golf Card courses they have played. Just click on the Review Now button below, find a specific course and click on the log-in link under the Course Ratings section. You will be asked to rate a course on playability, conditions, amenities and whether you would recommend it to a friend. You can also offer personal comments.
|  | Get In on the Golf Card Giveaway
 Another Golf Card Giveaway is underway and that means another 40 prizes are up for grabs for Golf Card members. If you're a Golf Card member, just click on the Enter Now button below, sign-in and click the Enter button. The Grand Prize is a weekend golf package at the Villa Roma Resort in upstate New York. Even if you have won a prize in previous drawings, you can win again! Be sure to enter before March 1, 2010!
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