• Skip to content
  • Skip to footer

Jay Stuller

Author, Journalist, and Communication Consultant

  • Home
  • About
  • Books
  • Magazine & Newspaper Features
  • The A Position Golf & Travel Blog

Jay Stuller

Hell 2 Heaven Golf

January 15, 2018 by Jay Stuller

At 214 feet below sea level, Death Valley’s Furnace Creek is the world’s lowest elevation golf course.

While golf routinely subjects players to psychological highs and lows, an upcoming Summer Solstice limited-field event will also expose participants to California’s most extreme physical conditions. In what’s called the Hell 2 Heaven Golf Challenge, 36 two-person teams compete over 36 holes played in a single day, at the depths of Death Valley in the morning and then at the state’s highest elevation course at Mammoth Lakes.

“Furnace Creek in Death Valley and Sierra Star at Mammoth are two of the most contrasting golf courses you’ll find on the planet,” says Robert Kaufman, chief architect of the tournament. “During my global travels I’m always searching for out-of-the-box golf experiences. Luckily, I discovered one right here in California, where Mother Nature created some unbelievable landscapes that backdrop an event that simply cannot be duplicated anywhere else.”

Benefiting the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Southern California Golf Associations Junior Golf program, the Hell 2 Heaven Challenge is scheduled for June 21, the date of the Northern Hemisphere’s maximum daylight.

At $1,900 for each two-member team, the entire event is actually a three-day and two-night affair. It officially starts in Las Vegas, where participants board a deluxe motor coach headed for Death Valley. (Players can also drive directly to the event themselves.)

After spending the night at Death Valley National Park, golfers attack the Challenge’s purported Hell, over the 18 holes of the Furnace Creek Golf Club, which at 214 feet below sea level is the world’s lowest elevated course. While summer temperatures routinely exceed 115 degrees Fahrenheit during afternoons, Furnace Creek’s fairways are actually generous and quite lush.

At more than 8,000 feet, Sierra Star is shines in its eponymous mountain range.

At the conclusion of the morning round, players re-board the motor coach for a more than four-hour drive up and into the majestic Eastern Sierra and a slice of elevated Heaven. At some 8,000 feet above sea level, Sierra Star Golf Club is California’s highest track, part of a four-season recreational playground. “Between these elevation extremes,” suggest Kaufman, “club selection and distance judgment is going make or break quite a few scores.”

The benefit is open to golfers of all skill levels. As noted, the cost for a two-person team is $1,900, but the event is also open to singles, at $950, who will be paired with other individual players. The all-inclusive package includes two nights of accommodations, the two rounds of golf, transportation, meals, a tee-prize package, and much more.

The winning team earns a 4-day & 3-night golf getaway package for four, at The Boulders Resort & Spa in Carefree, Arizona.

For more information and to take advantage of the early bird registration, visit Hell2HeavenGolfChallenge.com.

Filed Under: Charity Tournament, Equipment, Golf & Travel, Uncategorized Tagged With: Arizona, California, Carefree, Death Valley, Eastern Sierra, Furnace Creek Golf Club, Hell 2 Heaven Golf, Las Vegas, Mammoth Lakes, Mother Nature, Prostate Cancer Foundation, Robert Kaufman, Sierra Star Golf Club, Southern California Golf Association Junior Golf, The Boulders Resort & Spa

Wilson Staff Introduces “World’s Softest Golf Ball”

November 15, 2017 by Jay Stuller

One of the oldest and most venerable brands in the golf equipment business has just released the latest entry in the trend toward ever-lower compression golf-balls. With the introduction of its new DUO Soft distance ball on Friday, November 17th, Wilson Staff has put into play a sphere that at impact deforms almost as much as a marshmallow, yet for slower swingers ostensibly flies like a bat out of hell.

And with those pitches, chips and flops around the green, its delicate feel is equal to anything on the market, if not incomparable.

Compression is a term and/or number that refers to the hardness or softness of a ball, essentially a measure of how much it deforms at impact. Most balls carry a rating of 60 to 100, the latter of which is rock hard. The DUO Soft, however, comes in at a record low of 29. With a low spin rate off the driver, Wilson claims that the 2-piece, Ionomer-covered ball is also longer than its direct competitors.

Perhaps best of all, the DUO Soft – – which comes in white, brilliant orange and a cool shade of yellow – – retails for $19.99 a dozen.

That price point will help within a market that’s not for the faint of heart. Titleist and Callaway are dominant brands, while Bridgestone competes in the super-quality category with balls of differing attributes. Srixon and others also grab shares, as has Wilson, a brand with an almost mystical patina.

For older golfers, Wilson Staff is an iconic name, calling to mind those bygone days when serious players purchased clubs only from the PGA professional at a Club’s pro shop – – and they were almost always Wilson Staffs.  Founded in 1914, the company and its sticks have been favored by legends including Sam Snead, Walter Hagen, Patty Berg and Cary Middlecoff. Wilson advisory staff member Gene Sarazen welded a piece of steel to the sole of a Wilson wedge and created the world’s first sand wedge; its “bounce” and performance led to the sale of 50,000 in 1933 alone.

One does not see as much Wilson Staff equipment as in the 1950s, but the DUO Soft has a good chance of doing well in the rowdy ball market, both on the aura surrounding the brand and its unusual compression. I can’t personally say whether the ball is long, having played it only on cold and damp days with heavy air. But I can testify that the softness is noticeable with the stroke of a putter, and performance that’s obvious in the control of pitch shots and chips.

And for $19.99 a dozen, that’s a formula tough to beat.

Filed Under: Equipment

WordPress Resources at SiteGround

March 10, 2017 by Jay Stuller

WordPress is an award-winning web software, used by millions of webmasters worldwide for building their website or blog. SiteGround is proud to host this particular WordPress installation and provide users with multiple resources to facilitate the management of their WP websites:

Expert WordPress Hosting

SiteGround provides superior WordPress hosting focused on speed, security and customer service. We take care of WordPress sites security with unique server-level customizations, WP auto-updates, and daily backups. We make them faster by regularly upgrading our hardware, offering free CDN with Railgun and developing our SuperCacher that speeds sites up to 100 times! And last but not least, we provide real WordPress help 24/7! Learn more about SiteGround WordPress hosting

WordPress tutorial and knowledgebase articles

WordPress is considered an easy to work with software. Yet, if you are a beginner you might need some help, or you might be looking for tweaks that do not come naturally even to more advanced users. SiteGround WordPress tutorial includes installation and theme change instructions, management of WordPress plugins, manual upgrade and backup creation, and more. If you are looking for a more rare setup or modification, you may visit SiteGround Knowledgebase.

Free WordPress themes

SiteGround experts not only develop various solutions for WordPress sites, but also create unique designs that you could download for free. SiteGround WordPress themes are easy to customize for the particular use of the webmaster.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Footer

Navigation

  • Home
  • About
  • Books
  • Magazine & Newspaper Features
  • The A Position Golf & Travel Blog

Connect with Jay

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn

Copyright © 2023 · Webdesign by Fountain City, Inc.