The Brickyard Crossing and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway lost a good friend this week. Lloyd Ruby passed away this week at the age of 81.
Lloyd was a good friend of my father and our family, and he would come back every May to play some golf and attend the Indy 500. Lloyd was one of the drivers who helped keep the Race Driver’s Tournament going every year with my father, Stan Benge, Parnelli Jones and Jug Eckert. The tournament is now known as “The Rollie.”
The format is a scramble, and every year it was a well-known fact that USGA rules did not apply. The rules of the tournament were known as “Ruby Rules.” Strict golf rules were not followed; it was all about having fun.
If you ever got the chance to play with Rube, it was a golfing experience you would never forget. Mulligans were abundant, and the adult beverages were a must. The tournament always was held the day after Bump Day, and the drivers who participated came to have fun after a long month of working to get into the world’s greatest race, the Indianapolis 500.
There are many stories to tell about those golf tournaments, and I am sure at this year’s tournament a lot of Lloyd Ruby stories will be told. Lloyd was a true friend of the Brickyard Crossing and an even bigger supporter of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He will be sadly missed this May by everyone here at the Brickyard.
The weather here in Indy has been good for March; we are still running our “Pay the Temp” special and are seeing a lot of new golfers here at the Brickyard. The NCAA Midwest Regional is in town this weekend, and we should pick up a few players from that. Other than basketball, right now the golf talk centers on Tiger playing this week at Bay Hill. I think he will have a good showing as he always has played well at Arnie’s tournament. After Bay Hill, everything will focus on The Masters, and will it be Phil or Tiger?
I got out last Saturday, March 21 and played here at the Brickyard with a few members, Gary Martin and Fred Hash, and Sam Foley, one of our teaching professionals. The course was in really good shape for March. Jeff Stuart and his staff did an outstanding job of getting the course ready for play.
If you have not read Jeff’s blog yet, do so and you will find out a lot of interesting facts about the maintenance of Brickyard Crossing and golf courses, in general.
I didn’t hit the ball too bad for the first time out since my disappointing play in Florida back in January. One of my goals this year is to try and practice more and play a round or two each week to keep in competitive shape as I near the 50 mark.
Remember, get out and practice a little before that first round of the year. This also is a good time to go see your local PGA Professional for a lesson. Getting a lesson early in the year can break some bad habits that you might have or even create that first time out.
Here at the Brickyard, we offer an array of programs and packages for lessons. Keep in mind that swing flaws cannot be fixed with just one lesson, so think about doing a series of lessons or – like we offer here – unlimited lessons for the season.
Jeff Schroeder
PGA Head Professional
Brickyard Crossing
The golf season finally has arrived here at Brickyard Crossing.
On Tuesday, March 17, we opened for play with a “Pay the Temp” promotion, which meant the air temperature was the price for your greens fee and cart for the round. We ended up being completely booked.
The weather was perfect. Sunny and high 60’s, with a low around 40 degrees. So we started out the season full bore and ended up extending the “Pay the Temp” promotion for the rest of March.
We had some fun with the opener taking place on St. Patrick’s Day. We had the Gordon Pipers here, and we did a little ceremony with Indianapolis 500 veteran A.J. Foyt IV, Nationwide Tour pro Chad Collins, Brickyard Crossing superintendent Jeff Stuart and myself. A.J. and Chad ended up playing, but Jeff and I were too busy to join them.
Congrats to Chad on his 13th-place finish last weekend in New Zealand. He flew in late Monday and came out to help us kick off the 2009 golf season.
In other golf news, Phil Mickelson finally finished one off over the weekend. Now the debate over whether Phil or Tiger will be the favorite at The Masters has heated up, I think I will take Tiger.
Tiger’s last couple of rounds last weekend looked like the old Tiger, but he has made some minor changes that the experts pointed out. His footwork is better, and his swing looks a little different. Speaking of swings, has anyone seen Hank Haney trying to fix former NBA great Charles Barkley’s golf swing on The Golf Channel? Wow – what a undertaking. But Charles is working really hard at fixing it.
Not much else going on. I’m just glad to see some golfers and actually a promising forecast for the next week or so. It felt good to get back in the swing of things here at the course, see some familiar faces and meet some new golfers that had not played the Brickyard before.
That is going to be one of our initiatives this year, introducing golf to people who have never played the game before. I’ll keep you posted on this as the PGA of America has programs in place aimed at increasing the number of golfers.
Until next week, keep stretching for a new swing. Get out to the Brickyard and “Pay the Temp” or visit your local course and hit some balls.
Jeff Schroeder
PGA Head Professional
Brickyard Crossing