WHICH COURSES DO YOU WANT TO PLAY?

Golf Card is committed to adding new, quality courses to its nationwide network. If there is a course you would like to see accept The Golf Card, please let us know by E-mailing office@golfcard.com. We will do our best to contact these courses and enroll them. Or have the course call us at 1-800-321-8269.

STILL ROOM FOR FALL MEMBER-GUEST @ WOODLOCH

There's still time to get in on the fun. Just call 1-800-321-8269 to register for the Fall Member-Guest Tournament to be held at The Country Club at Woodloch Springs on Wednesday, October 17.

It doesn't matter if you're one, two, three, four or more - we can accommodate any amount of players. The entry fee is $79 and includes golf, cart, dinner, prizes and awards.Those who have played in the past two tournaments at Woodloch will likely agree - what a great place to spend a day - or if you can - overnite. The staff at Woodloch looks after every need and treats everyone like family.

The 4½ star course that winds around hazards, across ravines and over gorges should be dressed up in beautiful fall colors.

Please note the starting time is a 11 a.m. shotgun.

Tournament Details

Format:     Scramble (best ball of four)
Prizes:       Low gross and low net in various handicapped flights plus various hole contests door prizes and free raffles
Food:        Dinner following golf
Fee:          $79 per player includes golf, cart, dinner, and prizes.

Woodloch Offering Special Overnite Package for Fall Member-Guest

In addition, Woodloch is offering two Bed and Breakfast specials for participants in the Fall Member-Guest. For $115 per person, stay at the main hotel and receive breakfast in the Dining Room. For $220, four people can stay in a 2-bedroom Villa at Woodloch Springs and also receive breakfast. These offers are valid for October 16 and/or October 17.

To make your room reservations, please call Jeanne at 800-453-8263.

TRAVEL SPOTLIGHT - NEVADA

It's not much of a gamble to play golf with your Golf Card in Nevada. From Las Vegas and Laughlin to Reno and Carson City, there is a full deck of quality courses and variety of layouts. In fact, there are 7 affiliates throughout the state that rate 3 stars or higher - and four of those are 4 stars - excellent according to Golf Digest's 5-star ratings system.

Las Vegas area

Just five miles from the Strip, Angel Park Golf Club (702-967-2238; angelpark.com) offers two very good, playable courses. At 3,000 feet in elevation, both the Mountain and Palm courses offer panoramic views of the Red Rock Canyon and the Las Vegas Valley. Both courses are generous off the tee, but the Mountain's elevated and undulating greens demand more precision on the approach shots. The Mountain is rated 4 stars by Golf Digest. The 3-star Palm features some fun risk/reward holes. Angel Park bills itself as the complete golf experience - in addition to the Palm and Mountain regulation 18-hole courses, there the par-3 Cloud Nine course with actual replica holes of some of the world's great short holes, including the Postage Stamp from Troon and the 17th from TPC Sawgrass. Seventh-heaven is an 18-hole, natural grass putting course with real water and sand hazards. Golf Card discount: $10 off.

Among the deep canyons and arroyos of Summerlin, just 20 minutes outside of Las Vegas, Johnny Miller designed three distinct nines at The Badlands Golf Club (702-363-0754, badlandsgc.com), but all true desert layouts. That means generous fairways surrounded by sand, rock, bushes and other types of rugged outcroppings. It's classic target golf which rewards accurate shots and punishes wayward ones. Golf Card discount: 50% off.

The Legacy Golf Club (702-897-2187; thelegacygc.com) in Henderson is about a 10-minute drive from The Strip. There's no bluffing with this accommodating Arthur Hills 4-star design - the golfer sees the multi-tiered fairways, undulating greens and generous landing areas right in front of him. The 10th hole is particularly suited for all golfers - the four tee boxes are in the shape of a heart, club, diamond and spade. Golf Card discount: 20% off.

Aliante Golf Club (702-399-4888; aliantegolf.com) is located 20 miles north of the Strip and was recently honored as the Best New Course in Las Vegas by Vegas Golfer magazine. Architect Gary Panks masterfully routed the course around a meandering arroyo, creating unique contours and varied lies. Locust trees, water features, flashed up greens and desert wash areas are all set against a mountain backdrop. Like Angel Park and The Legacy, Aliante is managed by OB Sports. Golf Card discount: 20% off.

Boulder Creek Golf Club (702-294-6534; bouldercreekgc.com) in Boulder City is another 4-star jewel less than a half hour from The Strip. From palm trees, beach bunkers and waterfalls to arroyos and desert wash areas, the three distinct nines offer a variety hard to find anywhere in the Las Vegas Valley. Golf Card discount: 50% off.

Nestled within three mountain ranges and adjacent to the nationally recognized Hoover Dam, Boulder City Golf Course (702-293-9236; golfbouldercity.com) is a 3½-star Billy Casper and David Rainville design that integrates native plants, abundant treescapes and water features. Tree-lined fairways approach large, receptive greens. Golf Card discount: $12-17 off.

Laughlin

About an hour away from Las Vegas in Laughlin, the Mojave Resort Golf Club (702-535-4653; mojaveresortgolfclub.com) is a unique 4-star desert course with mounding, dunes, undulating greens, lush vegetation and sloping fairways. Golf Card discount: $10-50 off.

Reno

Just a few miles away in Sparks, Wildcreek Golf Course (775-673-3100; wildcreekgc.com) hosted the PGA Senior TOUR's Gatlin Brothers Open in the mid 1980s. A par-72, the front nine features rolling meadows and water hazards, while the backside takes advantage of Reno's high desert terrain. Golf Card discount: 20% off.

In the capital city of Carson City, Empire Ranch Golf Course (775-885-2100; empireranchgolf.com) is a solid 3-star, 27-hole facility wedged between the bluffs on 250 acres of ranch land beside the Carson River. Golf Card discount: $10 off

A Pair of Aces

What Golf Card members say about two of Nevada's best courses:

The Legacy Golf Club

"Great course."

Boulder Creek Golf Club

"This course is only a few years old but is fast becoming one of the must-play courses in the Las Vegas area. I have played most of the courses in and around Las Vegas and I rate this as one of my favorites."

"What a bargain this course is with the Golf Card. Truly outstanding. Every hole is eye-catching/ Highly recommend."

GAMES YOU CAN PLAY - Nines

You're only a threesome, so a team game is out. Skins is an option, but you always play skins. You might want to try 'Nines", a popular games played at courses across the country. Here's how it works: nine points are awarded on every hole, based on the following formulas: 5-3-1, 5-2-2, 4-4-1 or 3-3-3. Simply, the lowest score on each hole gets five points, the second lowest three points and the high score one point. If there are ties, the points are divided up accordingly. You can assign any value you want to a point. At the end of 9 or 18 holes, add up the points and determine who the winner is. "Nines" can be played with or without handicaps. With handicaps, you go by the net score on each hole.

OVER THE HILL

A husband and wife were playing a par-three in northern Arizona. The hole was 100 yards straight uphill to the Gods, so the flag was barely visible. As they were putting out, a ball landed on the green. Upon peering down the hill, they saw a grizzled-looking gentleman - clubs hanging around his neck - slowly trudging up the slope.

As a practical joke, the couple put the man's ball into the cup and waited for him to arrive on the green. When he finally plodded his way - a little worse for the wear - he started looking for his ball. The couple excitedly told him it went in the hole and congratulated him on his hole-in-one.

"Not so fast", said the man. "That's a good seven!"

JUST SAYIN' - Ken Cohen

I'm trying to figure out how Rory McIlroy wins two of the four tournaments in the Fed Ex playoffs and still comes in second - by almost a 50% points deficit! In most sports playoffs, the team that wins the most games, wins that playoff series. Really, the only sport where that's not true is football where one game - the Super Bowl decides everything.

If that's what the PGA tour wants, then it should bill the Tour Championship, the final event of the four-tournament playoffs, as such. In four of the six years the Fed Ex playoffs has been in existence, the Tour Championship winner has won the Fed Ex Cup, including the last three years after the system was tweaked. I thought this is exactly what the PGA Tour was trying to avoid - escalating one of the four playoff tournaments beyond the others - trying to create a "major" when it is not. The Tour already has its "single" big-time tournament that is not a major with the Players Championship.

The idea behind the playoffs was to create a series of four consecutive tournaments which would determine a season champion. To me, the person who earns the most money in those four tournaments - since they all allocate equal prize money - should be crowned the winner. If this was in place this year, McIlroy would have easily won - he earned $3,142,460 in the four tournaments while Snedeker earned $2,628,000. Tiger Woods who officially finished third in the official Fed Ex would have fallen well back in my system - he only earned $1,176,000. Nick Watney earned more than that in winning the Barclays.

Here's another way a champion can be crowned: add up the place finishes of all four tournaments and the player with the lowest number wins. This would reward the most consistent player in the playoffs. Again, McIlroy would have won going away this year - his place finishes were 24, 1, 1, 10 - a total of 36. Snedeker's were 2, 6, 37, 1 - a total of 46. Yes, this approach is a bit more penal as one bad tournament can end your chances. But, hey, this is the playoffs...

Under no reasonable scenario, can I see McIlroy not the playoff champion. He won more tournaments than anyone in the series, more money and placed more consistently. Enough said.

RULES SCHOOL - "Lost" ball found in hole

After hitting a shot to a par three, Stan could not find his ball anywhere. Five minutes elapsed and he headed back to a tee to hit his third shot. After he hits again, his playing partner Joe goes to take out the flag and finds Stan's ball in the hole. Joe tells Stan that's too bad - that since five minutes elapsed, he can't count the hole-in-one ball - it was found too late. Stan argues that once the ball is holed, it's holed - there was no need for a five-minute search rule. Who is correct? Stan had it right. According to Decision 1-1/3, "the play of a hole was completed when the player holed the original ball."

MEMBER'S TEE - Hitting a "stinger"

What does Tiger Woods do to hit his stinger - that low, boring 3-wood off the tee?

Geoff Seward
Waterbury, Connecticut

Golf Card Instructional Staff

The stinger is really nothing more than a low punch shot employed by many players over the years in windy conditions or when trying to keep a ball under trees or other obstructions. Tiger has seemed to perfect it off the tee with a fairway wood. Here's what he does and what you can try as well:

At address, play the ball an inch or two farther back in your stance than normal, setting your hands slightly forward. Choke down about an inch. These set-up positions should cause your arms and the shaft to form a "y". Now, make a rhythmic, complete backswing, and try to maintain the "y" throughout the swing. The "stinger's" low trajectory and extra roll come from a bowed left wrist position at impact - the wrist is firm and bent toward the target. Claude Harmon used to have his students achieve this position at impact by telling them to hit and stop immediately after impact.

If the stinger is executed properly, at impact the arms will still be in the "y" position from address. What you are trying to avoid is the wrists flipping over or rolling over after impact. With the bowed position of the left wrist, the follow-through should take care of itself as the trunk and arms rotate the club around to the left. The result should be a low, running draw. The faster the body unwinds, the farther the ball should travel.

The finish should feel very different from a normal swing where the hands turn over. With a stinger, the wrists stay firm, and the left elbow folds down toward the ground.

The best way to practice this shot is to start with a 5 or 6-iron and try it punch it 40 yards or so. Then work up to a low iron and eventually to a fairway wood by extending the length of the swing and the follow-through.

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.