The Legend of the Muni

My Muni Bachelor Party


Unfortunately, of our 4 regular readers nationwide, maybe only one of you is from Jackson, MS. Regardless, I must comment about the wonderful Sonny Guy Municipal Golf Course in Jackson, MS. If you've never played at the course affectionately called "muni", it is your loss. The course is located in picturesque south Jackson with Woodrow Wilson Avenue separating the front and back nine. The front nine has 2 bunkers and no water hazards, while the back nine has a great layout in front of abandoned "Hawkins field Airport" and contains on bunkers, no water hazards, and for that matter no dog-legs. The back nine is straight away on every hole. As a matter of fact, you can put that nasty (Roach hook) 0n any of your shots and still be fine. It simply lands smoothly in the fairway on another hole and you easily hack it back towards your hole.

The Jackson newspaper wrote an article today about the playing shape of the course. One local golfer was quoted as saying "The manicuring of the course could be better," Garland said. "The fairway should be cut at a different length than the rough. I don't think they cut the grass often enough." That about sums up the Muni in all its glory. The fairway should be cut at a different length than the rough. Most people assume the rough should be a different length than the fairway, but not at the Muni. In order for there to be different lengths, there must actually be rough. And at the muni, its all fairway. Anyway, the muni is in poor condition and people want something done about it. However, I for one, am a satisfied customer of Sonny Guy. I mean there is nothing quite like the feeling of telling the woman at the desk that you want to walk 9 holes and hearing "That will be 6 dollars." 6 dollars! No matter what the condition of the course, for 6 dollars I can have a good time. Besides my poor game doesn't warrant a better course. So I can't really blame anyone for the poor condition of the course. If you do, I think you forget the grand total of your green fee...$6.

The Muni is home to many, now legendary, golf stories. Just for our readers I would like to name a few. Feel free to add any of your personal stories if you desire.

1) Who can forget my bachelor party at the muni. Something like 12 guys hacking around all day at the muni. I can remember standing on the first tee box in my sleeveless shirt getting ready for my opening tee shot. The course pro ( i guess that is what he's called) comes walking our way. I think to myself, "oh boy, we are in some kind of trouble, look at all of us. standing around in sleeveless shirts." But the Pro simply says "I hear your getting married, let me give you your money back...this round is on us" You can't find that kind of service just anywhere.

2) On that same day, Local Golfer and friend David A. Black hit the shot heard round the world. He whacks his first tee shot and it hooks sharply into oncoming traffic. In slow motion, the ball and the windshield collide and for a split second everyone panics. However, the driver carries on. He must have known that if your coming down Woodrow Wilson, the players and golfballs always have the right of way.

3) The numerous days I almost threw my back out laboring to push my tee into the ground. The ground is so hard it might as well be concrete.

4) My good friend Gray Hardison was lining up his approach shot to the green when a dumptruck turns off of Woodrow Wilson, rumbles across the #1 fairway and proceeds to park directly in front of Gray's line to the green.

5) Who can forget the guy that waits behind a tree in between holes #5,#6, and #7. If your shot goes off into the "rough" he might beat you to your own ball, pick it up, and try to sell it back to you on the next hole.

6) My favorite Muni memory is seeing my cousin Andrew Luter walk into the clubhouse/pro-shot without a shirt on. He was completely shirtless in the pro-shop and no one even gave him a second look. Only at the Muni. Other "classy" course would actually demand a shirt...a collared shirt at that. Not the muni. The muni believes in accepting all kinds,types,races, and economic classes of people.

I love the muni. I got kind of teary eyed when I thought about all the memories. I could go on and on. I hope even if you live outside of Jackson you are developing a love for this place as we speak. If you ever come and play at Sonny Guy, the course might not be in good shape, you might not can tell a difference between the rough and the green, but you will walk away with a great story/memory. And at the end of the day you will utter the now famous phrase "only at Muni."

Reflecting on Tiger Woods...

I've tried putting this off all week to give myself time to digest just how impressive Tiger was last weekend at the British Open (It's not "The Open championship"....I think US Open is better). Not only was He flawless, but He now has 11 majors...11...11...unbelievable. I'm not a Tiger guy or big fan, but it's like the Bulls in the 90's--you have to watch. I had a four yeard debate with a few of my friends in college about who had to be more mentally tough, a pro golfer or a pro QB? I have immense respect for both sides, but i always defended the pro golfer (i have a 4fold reason list if you disagree). Now after 11 amidst the height of competition, Tiger Woods has got to be bar none the most mentally tough athelete ever (i would think it valid though to challenge that with Michael Jordan). Can you really disagree with that? Anyway, the way He won last weekend despite the Hellacious summer he's had emotionally...one of his most impressive wins. To me, this is the order of his most impressive major wins in descending order:

11 - 1999 PGA Championship...Held off 19 yr old Sergio to win 2nd Major at Medinah
10 - 2002 Masters...Held of Retief Goosen to win btb Green Jackets, but was barely challenged
9- 2005 British Open...Dominant, Colin Montgomerie was chasing him--basically Tiger chuckled for 18 holes
8- 2005 Masters...#16 is forever remembered, beat Dimarco in a playoff-but should have closed the deal (he bogeyed 17 and 18)
7- 2002 US Open...Bethpage killed everyone, but Tiger
6- 2006 British Open...For Pops, Flawless on Sunday and once again held off Dimarco
5- 2001 Masters...closed off the Tiger-slam
4- 2000 PGA Championship....maybe most exciting of them all, Remember he and Bob May in that Playoff the putt where Tiger starts walking to the hole when the ball was half way there b/c he was so sure it was going in...he also hit a 8 foot par putt to send it into a playoff
3- 2000 British Open...I don't think he stopped playing after the US Open that year, I think he just kept hitting the ball from California to Scotland. He absolutely dominated St. Andrews
2- 1997 Masters...-19, 12 shot victory at 21 yrs old. Basically that's When the people at Augusta decided to change the course and coined the term "tiger proofing"
1- 2000 U.S. Open...It was the most impressive thing i think i've ever seen in sports. Broke every record, won by 15 shots....15 at the US Open. He was the only player under Par.



On top of all of this, maybe the most impressive thing about him is how he dresses. It's almost unfare how sharpe he looks in Nike compared to some of those fatties out there...but then again, other golfers wearing Nike to me would be like other NBA players wearing 'Air Jordans' in the 90's.

A grill, gunpowder, and alcohol = a great combination

I had a blast from the past the other day when I came across an article. My old carpool buddy Torrent and I used to ride to school together while listening to a radio show entitled "The John Boy and Billy Show." It was usually filled with a good laugh here and there. But the funniest reoccuring joke was about idiotic things people did. They would tell true stories about people's dumbwitted actions and then usually wrap it up at the end by saying "and investigators found that SURPRISINGLY ALCOHOL WAS INVOLVED."

With that being said, I stumbled across an article about a man in Magnolia, Delaware. Yes, people actually do live in Delaware...I was surprised as well. Anyway, he was about to slap some steaks on the furnace when he began having trouble lighting the grill. The man then came to a conclusion that we all would, "I'll just use gunpowder." You can predict the outcome. The gunpowder ignited, caused a flash fire and gave him 3rd degree burns on his hand.

I was dumbfounded. How could someone do this. And then it all made sense. One of the last sentences of the article read, "investigators believe alcohol played a part in this incident." Ah yes, I chuckled. Suprisingly alcohol was involved.

relieved!!

Well, this was meant to be posted a few days ago when the news was rumored here. But Gray my friend, i think we can stop sweating an NBA Catastrophe. I'm just so happy he's going to stay here. I think i'm just speachless right now. The rumor i've heard is that GM Billy King decided to keep Iverson when he humbly confessed that he struggled last year with a measly 33.0 ppg. He promised to have a better year and when asked how he planned on going about that, Iverson said "I just need to get off some more shots."

living in the old times....not for me

I'm not sure of the nationwide coverage of the "Katrina aftermath" that hit the northeast last week, but it was pretty severe. It was a hot tuesday evening and i was outside grilling these huge steaks that my mother-in-law was kind enough to supply. It went from blue sky to pitch black in 2 minutes and then trees started falling over, lighting was striking in synchronized patterns, lights were flickering, local pets were floating away in the air like kites. I thought at first i might need a raincoat to finish cooking, but i quickly realized i was going to need to a huge rope to lassoe my feet to the barn. Needless to say, we were without power for 40 hours. Since our water runs on a well, with an electric pump...we were w/o water too...it sucked. The next morning i went to the postoffice (really to just ride around in my air-conditioned car, i think i went to just buy some stamps in case i had a "mail emergency") and got scolded by this old geezer who overheard me grumbling to someone about how the power company still hadn't got the power back on. He told me to get over it and realize that for years no one ever had AC in the summer time and did fine, He said i should just be thakful to have a roof over my head. He started giving me ideas for keeping cool and entertaining myself (as if i had a handy pen and paper and was about to take notes), apparently things he still did. I have to say he was a bit right on some things, becki and i enjoyed talking sitting in a candlelit house. I read alot, rested, cleaned--it was all very productive. I was appreciating it some until i began to clean my entertainment center and ran across an old Tennessee/Florida football tape, immediately the sensation of college football overwhelmed me. The old man soon became an idiot in my thoughts and i began to again curse the power company. I can't wait for COLLEGE FOOTBALL!! If i ever see that old man again and he asks me if i'm thankful for my roof, i'll say "not as thankful as I am for Thomas Edison!!" and then laugh and run away. Crazy old bastard.


...For all my friends, don't ever let me think down those lines again!!!

The Dontae Jones Degree

Dontae now has a successful career with the Nashville Rhythm, but that is not even close to his most impressive achievment

If you are outside the state of Mississippi you surprisingly probably don't know about the latest Ole Miss football situation. The Ole Miss football season hinges on quarterback Brent Shaeffer being eligible for next season. His arrival date at Ole Miss keeps getting pushed back until he graduates from the College of the Sequoias in California. This story along with Auburn's latest academic fiasco jogged my memory of an incident back in 1996. Who can forget when Miss. State's star basketball player, Dontae' Jones, managed to squeak by in his eligibility requirements by passing 36 hours of summer school at Northeast Miss. Community College. Let me say that again, 36 hours of summer school.

I remember hearing that number and it sounding big back in high school. Then I arrived at Ole Miss in 1999 and took 16 hours of class my first semester. It dawned on me, he took over 1 years worth of school in a summer. My question is, What's the problem? Let's get Brent Shaeffer on the Dontae' Jones degree program and be done with it. Heck, we get him on that program and he'll graduate in May and play his senior year while only enrolling in 1 class a semester. What the heck, I might check into this program and see if I can get my Masters of Business or maybe even a doctorate by Christmas.

Oh well, it's all just a part of the being on the rollercoaster known as Ole Miss sports. Hopefully, by Christmas you will be referring to me as Dr. Sorgenfrei.

P.S. While looking for a picture of Dontae', I came across this quote about his name. "An apostrophe was intentionally placed on the end of his first name by his mother, for no apparent reason, according to him."

Gatorade Big Head Commercial

What hits me about this commercial is that i'm quickly intrigued to see K-G and Dwade goin 1v1, then Peyton hitting KG on a bomb. It's inventive to see Peyton pitching to Jeter and remembering that these studs were once kids as we were. They probably dominated their little league in ways i thought i was. This is a cool commerical, but what i want to know is who in the HELL that blonde chick is and why does Gatorade think she belongs on the same stage with Wade, Garnett, Manning, and Jeter? Embarrassing.



....can someone please forward this blog to Michelle Wie?

Skewed Reality?

Thank you Chuck Rounsaville...Embarrassing?


Ever interacted with someone who lives in a false reality? Chuck Rounsaville, editor and owner (i think) of the heralded Ole Miss Spirit, is one of those people. Year after year, at the beginning of each football season our football team is analyzed by Chuch. And the results are always the same: if we play up to our potential with a couple of breaks, we might be 11-0. According to Chuck, almost every player at every position can go toe to toe with the best in the country. His all-time greatest string of articles was in 2002. After the 7-4 2001 season by the Rebs (with an embarrassing late season collapse) Coach David Cutcliffe shuffled things up a bit by hiring Clemson Defensive Coordinator Reggie Herring. In Rounsaville's column the next week, he babbled on about Reggie being the answer to our defensive woes, he's the best out there etc. Herring just a few weeks later left the Rebels to go on to professional football (smart move coach). Cutcliffe then makes a quick hire to replace the departing Herring in Churck Driesbach, better known as Dr. D. Rounsaville's next column said something to the effect of "I was never comfortable with the Reggie Herring hire...I felt like Cut had to make too quick of a decision. Driesbach is the perfect guy for the program at Ole Miss...his 4-2-5 formation is the "cutting edge" defense of the future."

It still makes me laugh to this day. Gray, my brother, and I bring it up at least once a football season. Needless to say, Driesbach wasn't cutting edge, the rebels didn't live up to expectations, and the fans were left hurting again. The point is, when someone lives in a false reality, it will eventually cause disfunction. It causes disfunction because you are living against true reality. Don't get me wrong, every year I read chuck, get excited, mention a few of his observations to my friends....and low and behold find myself looking at the schedule and wondering how we cannot win 10 games this year. I love Ole Miss Sports, always will, but the "false reality" hurts at the end of the year.

We can carry the "false reality" notion over to life itself. In Exodus 20:4, God gives the 2 Commandment. It states "you shall not make for ourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below." The commandment has far-reaching implications. One of the implications is that we are not to falsely image our God. God is God and has revealed himself to us in His Word. Therefore, anytime we "imagine" God to be something opposed to His Word then we are living in a false reality. For example, the notion of "prosperity gospel" is a false image of God. Prosperity gospel tells someone to come to Jesus and all of life will be easy, there will be no more problems etc. But God has clearly shown us in His Word that Jesus went to the cross and those that follow him will face hardship as they in turn take up their cross and follow him. One more example of how easily we fall prey to "false reality." We worry ourselves to death. God's Word tells us not one sparrow will fall from the ground apart from the will of your Father. (Matt. 10:29). In addition, and we know than in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Rom 8:28). Nothing, not one detail of life happens outside the sovereign will of God. And for those who are in Christ, He promises to work every circumstance, detail, action, etc in your life for your ultimate good. Ultimate good of course doesn't necessarily mean happiness, but it does mean Christ-likeness. Why do we worry? When we do, we are living with a false reality of God. We are living with a God we don't think has our best interest in mind.

So what's the answer? We must let God shape our perception of Him and not vice versa. Therefore, our minds must be shaped by His revealed Word contained in the Scriptres, and we look to Christ Jesus, for He is the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15).

False reality leads to disfunction in both Ole Miss football and all of life. Somebody please remind me of this post come September 1st. I can't wait for football season. Will the rebs go to a bowl this year. You bet ya. In conclusion, did anybody see where the WNBA team, the Seattle Storm, might be moving to Oklahoma City? Big Loss for Seattle...good grief who cares, but thats a whole post for another day.

She Had a Baby....

Well, this is where i've been the past week and a half. Please excuse the absense. It was quite crazy how this all came together, long story (2 car wrecks in an hour, 1 week in the hospital, 2 more visits to emergency room, ect...but everyone is fine now). I do have to say that this is all very sureal and hasn't exactly forced me to crap my pants in fear. I do have to say, last monday was one of the greatest days of my life though. As a guy, you don't ever get the actual concept that there is a little person inside your wife's belly. Even the sonogram pictures kinda leave you wondering "Where is his thing?...Are we sure that's a boy?...And that he's mine?" But, when He comes out and you hear that first cry---pretty overwhelming. For those who know, it's like getting married. I really hated going to your wedding, in fact during the ceremony all i could think about was that there better be Beer at the reception. Weddings are not exciting....but mine was. As it was to you...please, don't tell me you enjoyed my wedding. I know when you got the invitation you read "Saturday, it's on a Saturday....danget....i was gonna buy a Kayak or something..." Well, I do promise though, I will be more excited to see your first child than your wedding.

Forgiveness

A pastor once said "until you realize you are capable of something, you cannot forgive it." The quote strikes at the heart of our inherent arrogance. Ever notice how we are much more understanding and forgiving of ourselves than others? If someone is upset at me for something I said about them, well then they have blown what I said way out of proportion. However, if a person slanders me behind my back than there better be some serious repentance (and perhaps buy me a couple of dinners) before I think about forgiving them.
Or maybe another way to put it would be: we conveniently minimize our own sinful nature, and minimize our own capacity to sin. This enables us to feel better about ourselves than others. Perhaps this is one of the reasons God speaks so harshly against it. Proverbs 6:16-17 There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: Haughty eyes...
God detests haughty eyes because prideful eyes only come from having a false perception of myself. And when I minimize my own sinfulness, I have minimized Christ's love. My understanding of Christ's love is directly proportional to the understanding of my own sinfulness/helplessness before the throne of God. For example, i sure will love someone who pays off my house loan more than someone who buys me dinner.
All that to say, we are more forgiving when we realize how much we've been forgiven. We're more forgiving when the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to our own capacities to sin. Then instead of looking at others with our arms crossed wondering how they could do such a thing. We look at others and see our own sinful capacities in them, and praise God for his saving Grace in our own lives.

Longing for football season

There is no doubt that the coming weeks are the longest in the sports calendar. Basketball is over, baseball seems like its been going on forever but we've only reached the All-Star break, therefore everyone is looking forward to football season. Every pre-season magazine that hits the shelf is gobbled up because people just want a glimpse of football season. It's probably a little bit like the Christian life... Living in the present with the future in mind just longing to go home. With that being said, I thought I would provide a little entertainment to get you through these hard times. What better to fill your football appetite than a good John Madden impersonation. I heard Frank Caliendo on the radio today and it was hilarious. I immediately searched youtube for him and watched this video. Let's just say I was by myself and laughed out loud a couple of times at his John Madden and President George Bush impersonation. Hope this helps bring you through the dry sports season. Just remember, when you wake up tomorrow, its one day closer to football season.

Philadelphia

Brian has asked me to at times do my best to give small windows about the Philadelphia community. While i am a southerner at heart, and will always be, living here has given me new sights to unique communities. This is a rare area, a big city, blue collared, and deeply angry about something. You know those acquaintences/friends that you have that no matter how serious and tragic the situation in your life is,and they can only talk about themselves? You can be talking about how your parent just died, and they cut you off saying "I don't know what i'm going to do for vacation this year, i mean it's such a big decision." Well, thats Philly. This city believes it's on par with New York, Washington, Boston...but deep down, it knows its getting the shaft-- and they are pissed about it! They take out their frustration in multiple ways, regularly noticible in the news.

Here is my example from last night, the local news sports segment, this is how they spent their 5 minutes: 30 seconds of Phillies highlights and 4 minutes and 30 seconds reading excerpts from Terrell Owens new book entitled 'T.O.'--the sports anchor tried to make a case that the book was absurd and not worth reading at all. I thought it quite funny, that as he was pleading fans not to read it....he was reading it. Then in passing remarks as he turns back to the 'anchorman' says "Oh yeah, and France won the world Cup game today and I think that puts them in the finals."

Now you don't have to love sports at all, in fact you can hate passionately hate soccer, and still you know with me that the WORLD CUP semifinal result is a bit more important than an ex-philadelphia eagle's new book...am I alone on this? Remember Paul Rudd's character in 'The 40 year old Virgin'? His girlfriend had broken up with him 2 years ago and he still daily talked obsessently about her, it drove everyone around him crazy. Well, Paul Rudd's character...That's Philadelphia!

Proud to be an American

One more reason to be proud of the red, white and blue!

During the July 4th season, everyone is expressing reasons of why they are proud to be an American. This country is indeed great and there are 1,ooo's of reasons to be thankful. Being the cultural savvy blogger that I am, I thought I would give my 2 cents of another reason I'm proud to be an American. Sometimes, all it takes is a look at another country. When you study another country, because when doing so you usually think to yourself, "thank goodness I don't have to put up with that in my country," and therefore reminded of why you are so proud to be a part of the red, white, and blue. Case in point: I beamed with pride for my own country when I heard this stat on the radio a few days ago: In a recent poll Canada has named Celine Dion as their country's most priceless star/celebrity.

Hello, and thank you Canada. Because of you, I have been reminded yet again of just how great this country is. I mean how embarrassing for Canada. Their most priceless star is a singer who shot to the top of the charts because of her cheeseball song in the movie TITANIC (And please don't get me started on that movie). She wouldn't have a prayer in a poll from the USA. I'm pretty sure if you polled the United States, you might get some wacky answere here and there. However, for the most part, our poll toppers of most priceless stars would be people such as Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Nolan Ryan, General George Patton, Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa in Rocky IV, Ronald Reagan, Chuck Norris, John Wayne and others. Am I proud to say Larry Bird, Ronald Reagan, and Rocky Balboa are from the U.S.A. You bet I am!


(I said I wasn't going to talk about Titanic but here we go) For the record book, I saw Titanic for the first time this week. I had witheld from seeing it for so long for a number of reasons. But the main 2 reasons were. 1)it was only rated pg-13 instead of R even though it had explicit nudity (they called it historical nudity).
2) But foremost, I refused to go see the movie because I was ticked off/embarrassed for America that it beat Star Wars at the box office and therefore as a Patriot refused to support it. I am proud of that decision, and stand by it.

the 4th...a manly holiday

I am all about the 4th of July. I think it is one of the few holidays where Men can actually take over and make it there own. In fact if you don't take advantage of it, you have some serious issues. Here are some solid tips on what to do to make this your manly holiday fantasy:

- Spend the whole day outside, it's probably best to not wear a shirt most of the day. Sunblock is for wimps. A real leather thick sunburn shows you spent your day well.

- Have friends over, lots of them. Neighbors, co-workers, people you went to pre-school with if you have to dig that far. Invite your local butcher if he's not booked, but only if he'll bring some huge meat.

- Grill out. Grill out. Grill out. In fact, do like me...start the night before. Try to grill so much meat that 'tree-huggers' start writing you hate mail on the 5th. Also, try to be more creative than just burgers and hot-dogs -- something with a barbeque sauce.

- Have music playing all day. You should probably only stick to Bruce Springsteen. In fact, "Born in the USA" ought to just be on repeat.

- Play lots of outdoor yard games: botche, yard golf, horshoes, badmitten. These games are lots of fun. Also, gambling makes things much more interesting. Be sure to challenge guys who have a beer in their hand before 1pm. Sure money.

- Fireworks are the most neccessary and crucial way to end your day. Shoot lots of them. In fact, shoot some bottlerockets at some people or even better at the neighbors cat (if you can hit the cat, your an excellent shot). These are the most fun when people are just screaming, it'll be sure to give you a laugh.


Whatever you decide to do, I hope you do try to really keep it manly. There aren't many days like this a year where we can totally make it our own. Also, remember speak only in 'imperatives' (This is classic advice from Brian).This will remind everyone what this day is really about....stupid declaration of Independance.

Biblical Calling

Too many times the word "calling" is used only to describe someone going into the ministry. However, the Bible teaches that God equips people for all kinds of different work. God freely bestows His common grace on all people and equips them with different gifts and talents. Therefore, all Christians are called to their vocation. God has sovereignly equipped every individual with certain gifts and abilities and he is to honor His Savior by using the to the best of his ability and to the glory of God. Whether a person is in the ministry, coaching a football team, being an accountant, or entertaining people on TV, he/she must bring out all the potential of the talents God has given them and honor God through them. We are all "called" to our various vocations.

However, we are all not gifted in the same way. This video hilariously shows how some people attempt to work in ways they are not gifted. This guy has gifts and abilities, just not in the area of TV/Broadcasting. And please don't misunderstand me.... I also am not gifted in many ways...If there was a video of me attempting to sing, you would be laughing just as hard. But man, this is good stuff. The awkwardness in the studio had to be unbearable.