Do you remember Mike Donald?

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Kevin Shields

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I practiced and played with Mike Donald in 1994 when I worked at Loxahatchee in Jupiter Florida. He worked with Gardner Dickinson. Both were crusty to the core but nice guys. I can assure you he hadnt gotten over the Open loss at Medinah. I was real fotunate to hang with those two.

Looks like he never did cure that reverse tumble. He always preached alot of hand action and now I know why....he needed it. Hard to time out at the highest level.
 
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trickyric67

trickyric67

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He is trying to drop it more inside now. I stand there and listen because I am not giving a lifetime tour member advice, but he is a pretty open book and he was working on his swing with some other members who might be high single digit. He told a story about how Bernhard Langer had told him that he aims left and swing right and that he should aim square and swing left, I kind of chuckled in my head. He is a total open book though, real nice guy and he filled me in the short comings of the PGA tour pension program which is not at all as good as advertised. I also introduced him to the world of Casio.
 
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blehnhard

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Kevin - I used to do a little practice at Loxahatchee (my brother in law is a member and has a house on the 1st fairway) when I was playing on the Senior Tour in the mid 90's. Gardner's wife Judy would often be practicing also with Gardner sitting in a cart watching.

Bruce
 
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rogerdodger

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Kevin Shields said:
I practiced and played with Mike Donald in 1994 when I worked at Loxahatchee in Jupiter Florida. He worked with Gardner Dickinson. Both were crusty to the core but nice guys. I can assure you he hadnt gotten over the Open loss at Medinah. I was real fotunate to hang with those two.

Looks like he never did cure that reverse tumble. He always preached alot of hand action and now I know why....he needed it. Hard to time out at the highest level.
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Mike Donald should have won the open in regulation, and then had a great chance to win in the playoff. Hale Irwin is just money at the US Open. I hoped Mike would win until that putt at the 18th by Irwin. All of a sudden he got popular. Kevin, did you ever talk golf swing with Gardner Dickinson? I have his book and golf digest articles he has done thru the years and find it amazing how similar Brian's teaching is to his. Brian taught me to turn the right hip fully, take the hands in and up and cross the line at the top. Dickinson sets out in his book that the best drivers of the ball have always had a full hip turn and the club pointed to the right rough at the top. Curious if you picked anything up from him? I saw him once at an lpga tourney in the late 1990's following his wife. He was approachable and actually a nice guy. Classic WW2 attitude, he reminded me of my Dad's buddies.
 
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Kevin Shields

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The only thing I knew or was worried about in Florida in 1994 was where the hottest chicks were gonna be that night. I knew how to hold the club and go find my ball after i hit it....and try to get it in the hole as fast as I could. I did house sit for Gardner one time. A pipe burst and flooded his basement. Almost ruined a bunch of Anthony Ravielli original sketches that were probably priceless.
 
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Kevin Shields

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trickyric67 said:
Kevin,
He had a basement in Florida?
that was probably the first part of a flooding problem :)
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Its a long time ago but it was definately downstairs...maybe not underground. You wouldnt believe what that guy had down there. Glad my scruples wouldnt allow me to take anything.
 
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rogerdodger

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He was a lousy putter so his basement was probably full of them. Must have been a museum down there, pretty cool experience I imagine.
 
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wulsy

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Kevin Shields said:
The only thing I knew or was worried about in Florida in 1994 was where the hottest chicks were gonna be that night. I knew how to hold the club and go find my ball after i hit it....and try to get it in the hole as fast as I could. I did house sit for Gardner one time. A pipe burst and flooded his basement. Almost ruined a bunch of Anthony Ravielli original sketches that were probably priceless.
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Mgranto: LOL. That's your best ever.

Kevin: Freudian slip?
 
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