Grupo Mayan Golf Lovers

In the world of Golf, there are many different competitions that take place during the year, say the Grupo Mayan experts in this sport.

In the men’s competitions, there are the Majors, which are the Major Golf championships, and are the most prestigious annual tournaments in the world of professional golf, say the Grupo Mayan golf professionals.

The four Majors are: The Masters Tournament, which is played in April at the Augusta National Golf Club in the United States.  Then in June the US Open takes place and it is played at different locations in the United States.  USGA - United States Golf Association - is the Association that hosts this event.

The third Major takes place in July and it is called the Open Championship.  This championship is played in different locations in the United Kingdom and is hosted by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews.  The fourth Major takes place in August, in the United States, and it is called the PGA Championship.  This Championship is played at different locations in the country and is hosted by the Professional Golfer’s Association of America.

The Masters, together with the Presidents Cup and the Ryder Cup are the team competitions that constitute the most important events in Golf world.  All the best players of the world gather together in these competitions to participate.  According to the Grupo Mayan experts in this sport, the number of victories these players have through their professional lives in these competitions is going to be the main determinant for their reputations.

The top prizes given in the Masters may not be the largest prizes given to professional golf players compared to other competitions such as the Players Championship, some invitational events and the three World Golf Championships.  But winning the Masters is much more than winning a big cash prize.  The winner of the Masters is in the public eye, his reputation has a great boost and he would certainly be offered more money from his sponsors.  He will also be in a position where he will find himself able to negotiate better contracts for the future, say the Grupo Mayan Golf experts.

As we have seen before, three of the Majors are run in the United States and the American media covers these events every year, as golf fans love to see their favorite Golf players demonstrate their skills to the world, say the Grupo Mayan golf professionals.

For people and fans of golf who follow closely all the news related to this sport, to learn that Seve Ballesteros was fighting his own battle against cancer came as a huge blow, say the Grupo Mayan golf professionals.

Severiano Ballesteros, better known as Seve, was born in Spain in 1957.  He was the most important golf player for about 20 years, from the 1970’s to the 1990’s.  At the age of 19 he participated in the Open Championship and finished in second place.  From 1979 to 1988 he won five major tournaments, three times the Open Championship and two times the Masters.

He entered the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1999 and played a great role in the introduction of the Seve Trophy in the year 2000.  The Seve Trophy is a team competition, which has almost the same characteristics as the Ryder Cup.  In 2000 the Golf Digest Magazine ranked Ballesteros in 16th position in its ranking of Greatest Golf players of all times, comment the Grupo Mayan experts in this sport.  By this time Ballesteros was without a doubt, the best golf player in Europe.

Ballesteros announced he was retiring from the world of Golf in July 2007 in a news conference, after a long career full of merits and achievements.

In October 2008 the world heard the news of the very poor health condition in which this former champion was, recall the Golf professionals within the Grupo Mayan Resorts.  He was taken to a Hospital in Madrid and there, after a thorough check up, it was confirmed that he had a brain tumor.  After only five days of being admitted into hospital gravely ill doctors operated him in order to remove the tumor.  In this operation they couldn’t remove it completely and by this time, the worst was confirmed:  the tumor was cancerous.  Only 9 days after this first surgery he underwent another one and this time the remaining part of the tumor was removed.

He was discharged from hospital in December and since then he has been in the hands of physiotherapists for his rehabilitation and given chemotherapy as an outpatient, say the Grupo Mayan Golf experts.

Today, he is still on his way to full recovery and more than ever he is convinced that this has been his most important shot in his life.  He has been given the chance to continue living a normal life with all the people he loves and have been touched by all the people who wished him well during all these months through their letters and cards.  How could the world forget one of the greatest golfers or our times?

When playing any sport, the real opponent or enemy in the matches or tournaments is the person we are playing against to.  But this is not the rule in Golf.  According to the Grupo Mayan Golf experts, the main opponent or enemy in Golf is oneself and the surroundings.

This is the reason why in Golf we can feel there is more sense of sportsmanship than in any other sport.  All the golfers taking part in a competition play against each other, but at the same time against the course itself, say the Golf experts within the Grupo Mayan Resorts.

When you are a novice at this great sport, no matter if you are playing for the first time or watching a golf competition, you will need to know some basics to real understand what Golf is about.

First thing you need to know is about the Golf course, say the Grupo Mayan Golf experts.  A golf course of standard dimensions has a total of 18 holes.  Probably this is the only thing in common you will see among all the Golf courses.

When you start the game, the first shot that you take on each hole of the course is done from a tee or teeing area.  You have to place the ball on a wooden peg (sometimes it is also made of plastic) and this peg is also called a tee.

The fairway, which is stretch of grass that is closely mown, gives way to the green where you will find the hole, say the Grupo Mayan golf professionals.  You may also find some other hazards to make the game more challenging, such as streams and bunkers.

The hole, which is your target, is shown by a flagstick that sits where it is located.  The first nine holes are usually flagged with yellow ones and the remaining holes with red flags.

A golf game, say the Grupo Mayan experts, can take about four hours to complete, as the courses normally measure around 6000 yards long.  So making a rough calculation, the distance a golf player has to walk is about five miles in total.

So, as simple at it may seem, golf involves more than clubs and a ball.  It is all about technique, skills and, of course, lots of patience.  When you go for a golf game, be prepared to spend long hours in the golf course with your friends, advice the Grupo Mayan experts in this sport.

The Masters Tournament is one of the four Major Championships of the World for men, say the Grupo Mayan experts in this sport.  It is scheduled to last the full first week of April and in the Golf calendar, it is the first Major tournament played in the year. The Masters Tournament is a tournament of 72 holes, held in four days.  It is schedule in a way that the final round of the tournament is played the second Sunday of April.  This is a tradition that dates back from 1940.

Other Major championships are held in different locations each year, but the Masters take place in the same location: Augusta National Golf Club.  This is a private golf club located in Georgia, USA.  This event is an invitational one and it is under the control of the Augusta National Golf Club.

Grupo Mayan Golf experts say that this tournament has many traditions.  Among these is the awarding of a green jacket to the golfer who wins the tournament.  This tradition was started back in 1949.  The tradition also says that the jacket must be returned the following year to the clubhouse, say the Grupo Mayan golf professionals.

Another of the well-known traditions of the Masters is the Champions Dinner that takes place the Tuesday before the tournament.  As the name suggests, this dinner is only for past golf champions and some of the members of the board of the Augusta National Golf Club, say the Grupo Mayan experts.

The player who has won more Masters Tournaments in his career is Jack Nicklaus.  He has won six tournaments from 1963 to 1986.  Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods have won four tournaments each, according to the Grupo Mayan experts in this sport.

But there have been some changes in the tournament done by the organisers of the event.  They try to make changes in the length of the course and its layout in order to meet the innovation and development the golf equipment have through they years.  These changes started to be made in 1997.

In the Masters that took place last year, the prize money was about $7.5 million.  The winner took $1.350 million.  According to the Grupo Mayan Golf professionals, the first time the Masters was played, the cash prize for the winner, who was Horton Smith, was $1000.  The total prize money for that year was $5000.

Philip Alfred Mickelson was born in the United States in 1970.  His nickname in the world of Golf is “lefty”, as he plays golf swinging his club with his left hand although he is not left-handed, and is currently the second best golf player of the world, only being better than him Tiger Woods, say the Golf experts within the Grupo Mayan Resorts.

He attended the University of San Diego High School and the Arizona State afterwards.  He graduated in 1992 but during his time spent in Arizona State he became famous in the world of amateur golf.  He won three consecutive Haskins Awards, from 1990 to 1992.  In 1990 he won the US Amateur title and it was the first time a left-handed golf player won that title.

At the age of 21 he won the Northern Telecom Open, his first PGA tournament, playing as an amateur.  This was his greatest achievement at that time and the world of golf started to see in him a future Golf Star, say the Grupo Mayan experts in this sport.

But this was only the beginning for this talented young golf player.  After leaving college he continued to win other PGA tournaments.  Among the tournaments won by Mickelson are the World Series of Golf and the Byron Nelson Golf Classic at the age of 26.  At the age of 28 he won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and at the age of 30 the Colonial National Invitation.  In 2000 he defeated Tiger Woods in the Buick Invitational, comment the Grupo Mayan professionals of Golf.

Some of the main characteristics of his game are the power he has for full swings, his typical “Phil flop” shot and his extremely short game, say the Grupo Mayan Golf experts.

Although all these great qualities this great golfer has, until this time he had not won any major competition.  He played very well in majors but never achieved the first place.  From 1999 to 2003 he achieved six second or third places, but never the first, say the Grupo Mayan Golf experts.  This fact, far from discouraging Mickelson, motivated him to refine his psychology and strategy of play on the golf course.

But there is a record Mickelson holds and shares with other four golf player – Jack Nicklaus, Sam Snead and Bobby Jones.  It is the record of having in his golf career the most second-place positions in the US Open, comment the Grupo Mayan experts in this sport.

The Golden Bear is the nickname for this great golf player born in 1940, in Ohio, United States.  He is considered one of the most successful golf players of history.  In his curriculum we can see that he holds the world record for holding the greatest number of Major championships wins, say the Grupo Mayan Golf experts.

Jack Nicklaus became a professional golf player at the end of 1961.  His first major win as a professional golfer was in the US Open in 1962, defeating Arnold Palmer, recall the Grupo Mayan experts in this sport.

1965 and 1966 proved to be great years for the golfer.  The Masters Tournament played these years saw Nicklaus win the first prize and by doing so he became the first golf player to do it in the history of Golf.

By 1980 Nicklaus had added to his record the winning of other nine major championships and overtook Bobby Jones’s world record of holding 13 major championships.  In 1986, at the age of 46, he became the oldest golf player in the world to win a Masters Tournament.  This was his 18th victory in his career, say the Grupo Mayan experts in this sport.

In 1990 he became eligible to join the Senior PGA Tour, much better known as the Champions Tour, and six years afterwards he had already won ten of the tournaments of this Tour.  He continued playing, until 2005, the four PGA Tour majors, comment the Grupo Mayan Golf professionals.

But the activities of this great sportsman are not limited to the golf courses.  He has also been involved in golf course design, having the largest golf course design company worldwide, running the Memorial Tournament ñ his own tournament ñ on the PGA Tour, and even writing books.  One of his books, Golf my Way, is an instructional golf book that is considered one of the best of its kind.

Among other achievements of this great golf player, say the Grupo Mayan experts in this sport, is that the Magazine Golf Digest named him as the No. 1 Amateur golfer of the world for three consecutive years ñ from 1959 to 1961.

In 1971 he won the PGA Championship and this gave him the record of being the first golf player who had won all four majors twice during his golf career.  Without a doubt this remarkable golf player has played a great part in Golf history and his achievements are the achievements that all professional Golf players want, some day, have in their records, comment the Golf experts of the Grupo Mayan Resorts.

When you play golf, say the Grupo Mayan experts, scoring is the way you can tell if you are winning or losing the game.  Making it very simple, your score is calculated on the number of shots you make.  But this score can be affected if you incur penalties while playing, which will be added to your points.

For example, if you are playing with a friend and you take 75 shots to complete the course and your friend takes 80, then you are the winner of the game.  As opposed to most of the sports, here the winner is the person who has the least scoring, as it means it took less shots to achieve the goal.

Grupo Mayan experts in Golf clarify some of the terminology used in this sport.  For example, let’s take the “par” for the course.  “Par” refers to the number of shots it will take a very good golf player to complete the course.  This number is normally between 70 and 72.

Depending on the difficulty to complete each hole, there is a par determined accordingly.  So if you have a par-four hole, it means that you are supposed to make your ball reach that hole with four shots.  If you exceed that number it means you are x number over par.  To make it a bit clearer, say the Grupo Mayan experts in this sport, if your final-score is 110 on a par 70 course your score will be 40 over par.  This same rule applies when calculating scoring for holes, so if you score five on a par-3 hole, then you are two over par for that particular hole.

Handicapping is another term you may come across when starting to play and discover this world of Golf, say the Grupo Mayan experts.  If you play against much better golf players, then you are allowed to have extra shots as a head start.  This is what in golf is known as handicapping.

Handicapping makes golf to be the popular sport it is, say Grupo Mayan Golf experts.  This kind of “advantage” makes players with different levels of abilities and skills keen on playing against each other.  The better the player is, the lower the handicap they are allowed.   This will make the game still competitive although the players may not have the same experience and skills, say the Grupo Mayan experts in Golf.

The Augusta National Golf Club prides itself in being the most exclusive golf club in the world.  It is located in Giorgia, in the city of Augusta and was founded in 1933 by Bobby Jones.  Its beautiful design came to life thanks to Alister MacKenzie, say the golf experts within the Grupo Mayan resorts.

It is well known because it is the Golf course where the Masters Tournament takes place.  As you may already know, the Masters Tournament is one of the main four Majors in the world of professional Golf.

The golf course provides golf players and golf fans amazing views and botanic beauty.  During the month of April, when the Masters takes place, the view of the flowers and trees that border the course are blooming with beautiful colors and you can feel spring in the air, say the Grupo Mayan experts in this sport.

One curious thing about this great Golf course is that it has never been rated.  All public and private golf courses are given a rate, but apparently, the Augusta National Golf Club has never given an official rating.  The Golf Digest Magazine organized a team of raters to evaluate the Golf course and in 1990 it was given a score of 76.2, but it is an unofficial rating, comment the Grupo Mayan experts Golf.

Among the natural features you can find in this beautiful golf course, say the Grupo Mayan professionals in golf, are: The Big Oak Tree, which is about 150 years old, the Eisenhower Tree, or the Eisenhower Pine, which is a pine that is near the 17th hole.  This tree was named after President Eisenhower.  Another great feature in the Augusta National Golf Club is the Ike’s Pond, which was built where President Eisenhower suggested a dam and a fishpond should be.  Rae’s Creek is the least elevated part of the golf course and was named after the previous owner, John Rae, who passed away in 1789.

According to the experts in Golf from the Grupo Mayan resorts, among the architectural features you can find here are:  The Crow’s nest, which provides living space for 4 -  5 people.  It has a cupola with windows and you can only get there using a ladder.  The Eisenhower cabin is another architectural feature, which is part of the ten cabins this golf course has.  As its name suggests, it was built for President Eisenhower, so that is where its name comes from.  There is also a memorial called the Founders circle and it is located in front of the clubhouse.

The PGA Championship is another big name in Golf’s world.  It is an annual tournament organized by the PGA of America and is part of the PGA Tour.  It is considered one of the four Majors (Major championships) in the world of professional Golf and in Golf calendar it is the last one of the year as it is played in August, say the Golf professionals within the Grupo Mayan resorts.

This Championship is also known as Glory’s last shotî, due to being the final event of the golf season.  The total money for prizes last year got to an amazing total of $7.5 million.

It is the dream of every professional golfer to win the PGA Championship, say the Grupo Mayan experts in this sport, as the victory will provide them with many additional privileges and add prestige to their professional career.  In addition to that, the winner of the PGA Championship is automatically invited to take part in the other three Majors, the Masters, the British Open and the US Open not only for the following year but for the next five.  When a professional Golf player wins this Championship automatically is exempted to qualify for future PGA Championships.  In other words, they can continue competing in this tournament for life, if they wish, comment the Grupo Mayan Golf professionals.

Among other privileges the winner of the PGA gets are that they receive a membership for five years for the PGA Tour and also, invitations for five years to the Players Championship.

The first time the world heard about the PGA Championship was in 1916.  It was the year when it was first held at the Siwanoy Country Club in New York.  The first winner of this Championship in Golf history was Jim Barnes, who received a cash prize of $500.

The latest winner of the tournament was Padraig Harrington, who won last yearís competition and took a cash prize of $1.35 million along with the Wanamaker Trophy, comment the Grupo Mayan Golf professionals.

In order to qualify for this tournament, there are criteria that apply, say the Grupo Mayan experts.  People who qualify are previous PGA champions, the winners of the last five masters, the winners of the last five US Opens, the winners of the last five British Opens, the 15 players who scored the lowest in the previous PGA Championship, the 20 players who scored the lowest in the last PGA Professional National Championship, members of the most recent US Ryder Cup team and players directly invited by the PGA of America.

Golf was born in Europe!  Yes, to be more precise in the United Kingdom.  So it is not a surprise that we can find one of the most important events in Golf to take place in this continent.

According to the Grupo Mayan experts in Golf, the PGA European Tour is an organisation that is in charge of operating the main three men’s professional golf tours in the European Continent.  These main three men’s professional tours are the Elite European Tour, the Challenge Tour and the European Seniors Tour.

The main headquarters of this organisation are in England, in the county of Surrey, and to be more precisely, at the Wentworth Club in Virginia Water.  This tour is the second most prestigious world wide, being the United States Professional Golf Association tour the first one.  The PGA European Tour is also considered the most important Tour in Europe, say the Grupo Mayan golf professionals.

Originally established by the British based Professional Golfers’ Association, the European Tour passed in 1984 to an independent PGA European Tour organisation, which is a company limited by guarantee and its main purpose is to maximise the income of the golfers taking part in the tournament.  Professional staff is in charge of running this organisation, with the control of a board of directors.  This board has 12 past and present tour players elected as members of the board.  There is also a Tournament committee with 14 current players.

The majority of the events on the European Tour are played in the Western countries of Europe, being the most lucrative of them the ones that are played in Ireland, Germany, United Kingdom, Spain and France.

Professional Golf was born in Europe, to be more exactly in Scotland, say the Grupo Mayan experts in this sport.  History takes us back to 1860, year in which took place the Open Championship ñ the first stroke play tournament for various competitors in the world.  Only 8 professionals took part of the competition, as it was not open for amateurs.

Years passed, say the Grupo Mayan experts in this sport, and some decades after the first Open Championship took place back in 1860, the cash prizes offered in golf tournaments increased little by little and steadily, although it was still very difficult for the professional golf players make a living counting only on the cash prizes offered.  It is then when, in 1901, The Professional Golfer’s Association represented the golf professionals and eventually, created the European Tour.