The three-round event will consist of 54 holes on Monday, Feb. 20 and 18 holes on Tuesday, Feb. 21, with a 7:00 a.m. (MT) shot gun start each day.

“I’m look for us to be in the last group in the last round with a chance to win,” head coach Mike Dirks said. “We need to start the spring off on a good foot. Our team has been playing a lot of golf and now we need to take it outside of Las Cruces and go play and compete.”

The Aggies will travel Justin Shin, Gaston De La Torre, Zachery Fullerton, Derek Baade, Simon Miller and Brett Walker.

This year’s field will consist of teams from around the nation, including; Rice, Air Force, Florida Gulf Coast, Houston Baptist, Houston, Kansas State, Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana tech, Missouri State, Northwestern, Texas State, UTSA, Wichita State and Winthrop.

Last season the Aggies won this tournament with a three-round score of 11-under par, 853, a tournament record. Senior Gaston De La Torre was the tournament’s individual winner, carding a 9-under par, 207, also a tournament record.

Fans can follow the action on www.golfstat.com with live scoring from the event.

As the chairman of the Nationwide Tour’s Player Advisory Council, Brigman was the first player offered the opportunity to play in the pro-am Wednesday with former U.S. President Bill Clinton at the Pacific Rubiales Colombia Championship.

“There was no hesitation. I said, ‘Absolutely, I’d love to do that,’” said the 36-year-old former University of New Mexico golfer.

Then things got more intense Wednesday morning when Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos was set to join the all-star team, bringing plainclothes officers from the United States and Colombia together at Country Club de Bogotá to scan the media, gallery and the periphery of the course, located in the center of the city of 8 million.

“I was pretty calm when I found out last Friday, but then I got a little frazzled walking to the first tee today,” Brigman said. “I couldn’t get in the ropes. The Colombian Secret Service wouldn’t let me on the tee. I don’t speak much Spanish, and I tried to get across that I’m a player. Finally, someone from Clinton’s security group came up. They frisked me, and I guess I was OK.”

Brigman played from the championship tees, while the remaining four players in his group played a scramble from the member’s tees. Clinton, who received a handful of mulligans and nearly holed a utility club for an ace on the par-3 12th, was quite vocal in rooting for his teammates, including the first hole when Brigman sank a long birdie putt from the front edge of the green.

Because of the crowd and much picture-taking and handshaking, the group was forced to end its pro-am round at dusk after 16 holes. Clinton participated as a part of his Clinton Foundation’s international outreach.

“President Clinton was great. He interacted with us more than we interacted with him — telling jokes and stories, asking about my life and family,” Brigman said. “He was such an engaging guy. He made me feel like I was a longtime friend right after the first hole. It was such a memorable experience.”

Brigman also used the day to gain some more experience in a harried golf environment.

“This will definitely help me,” said Brigman, who played on the PGA Tour in 2011. “Being in a situation like this helps me to grow more as a player.”

Plus he got a keepsake for the three kids at home — a visor signed by Clinton and Santos.
— This article appeared on page D1 of the Albuquerque Journal

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For instance, an association of golf course owners is giving each lawmaker, as well as Lt. Gov. John Sanchez, free passes that allow each holder to play one round at each of five golf courses around the state.

The total cost of this gift is $28,500, according to a lobbyist report filed by The New Mexico Golf Tourism Alliance.

“Really, it’s just to expose the legislators to tourism facts about golfing, what golfing does for the state” said Domonic Silva, a lobbyist for the alliance.

“New Mexico has more five-star golf courses than Arizona,” Silva said. “It produces $317 million just in wages. There’s golf courses in 27 of the 33 counties in the state.”

Silva said his client got the idea from the ski industry, which most years provides a free “VIP card” that allows all legislators to try out the slopes at ski areas all over the state, including Ski Santa Fe.

“Ski New Mexico gives passes, some people give movie passes,” Silva said. “We thought, why not golf courses?”

The five golf courses where the lawmakers can play for free are Black Mesa Golf Club at Santa Clara Pueblo; Paa-Ko Ridge Golf Club near Sandia Park; Sandia Golf Club at Sandia Pueblo; Sierra del Rio Golf Course near Elephant Butte and Rainmaker Golf Club near Ruidoso.

The group hasn’t yet distributed the passes to all the legislators, Silva said. The passes, which have a photo of each recipient, are nontransferable, he said.

A lobbyist for the ski industry said last year that a legislator — whom he wouldn’t name — was found trying to sell his ski pass on eBay the year before.

Silva said the Golf Tourism Alliance is not pushing any legislation affecting the industry this year.

“Last year we did have a bill to create a special license plate for golf,” he said. The profits from the plates would have gone to the Tourism Department, earmarked for promoting golf in the state.

House Bill 418, sponsored by Rep. Jimmie Hall, sailed through both chambers of the Legislature with nearly no opposition. However, Gov. Susana Martinez pocket vetoed that bill.

While lawmakers are in session, lobbyists are required by law to report expenditures larger than $500 within 48 hours of the spending.

Under the state Gift Act, which regulates presents bestowed upon lawmakers, lobbyists are not permitted to give items valued at more than $250 to individual legislators.

Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com. Read his political blog at roundhouseroundup.com.

Annette Sieben of Albuquerque, N.M. was able to handle the early morning frost delay and tough course conditions and lead wire to wire firing a first round 83 and following it up with a tournament low 80 holding off her nearest competitor Susan Daniels of Albuquerque, N.M. by 12 shots.

Congratulations to both Mike Sauer, and Annette Sieben for claiming the 2011 New Mexico West Texas Mid Amateur Championship.

Thank you to all the participants an a special thank you to Pinon Hills Golf Course and their staff for allowing us to host such great tournament at a fantastic facility.

Jan 8 (Reuters) – “The Big Miss”, a book written by Tiger Woods’ former swing coach Hank Haney, will be released in March and offer a personal account of the six tumultuous years they spent together before the golfer’s life imploded in scandal.

The book, described as a “candid and surprisingly insightful account” by publishers Crown Archetype at Random House, Inc., reviews the highly successful partnership between Haney and Woods which led to six major championship victories.

However, the book also addresses Haney’s two biggest challenges while working as swing coach for 14-times major winner Woods – arguably the greatest player of all time.

“Always haunting Tiger was his fear of ‘the big miss’ – the wildly inaccurate golf shot that can ruin an otherwise solid round,” Crown Archetype said in a synopsis of the book on the Random House, Inc. website.

“It was because that type of blunder was sometimes part of Tiger’s game that Hank carefully redesigned his swing mechanics.”

The book will be published March 27, a week before the 2012 Masters.

Haney’s biggest task was to try and solve “the riddle of Tiger’s personality”, Crown Archetype said.

“Wary of the emotional distractions that might diminish his game and put him further from his goals, Tiger had developed a variety of tactics to keep people from getting too close, and not even Hank – or Tiger’s family and friends, for that matter – was spared ‘the treatment’.

“Toward the end of Tiger and Hank’s time together, the champion’s laser-like focus began to blur and he became less willing to put in punishing hours practising – a disappointment to Hank, who saw in Tiger’s behaviour signs that his pupil had developed a conflicted relationship with the game.”

SIX-YEAR PARTNERSHIP

Haney took over as Woods’ swing coach in March 2004 and over the next six years he helped the American win 31 PGA Tour events, including the six major titles.

In late 2009, Woods’ life on and off the course was seismically transformed following revelations of his marital infidelities. He parted company with Haney a month after the 2010 Masters, where he tied for fourth after a self-imposed, five-month exile from the game.

During those six years, however, Haney enjoyed a unique front seat as Woods maintained his position as the world’s leading player.

Haney was with Woods for 110 days a year, spoke to him for more than 200 days a year and stayed at the player’s Florida home for up to 30 days a year.

He observed Woods in a wide variety of circumstances, including during tournaments, on the practice range, over meals, with the player’s former wife and while relaxing with friends.

Haney, who had succeeded Butch Harmon as Woods’s swing coach, described his liaison with the game’s top player as “a dream come true” after the two parted ways in May 2010.

He added: “I will always appreciate the opportunity that I have had to contribute to his successes. However, I believe at this time that it is in both of our best interests for me to step aside as Tiger’s coach.”

Haney has since been replaced as Woods’ swing coach by Canadian Sean Foley. (Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by Frank Pingue; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)