Bob Friend played professional golf for many years, spending time on the Nike and Hogan Tours as well as the PGA Tour. He’s played in 4 U.S. Opens, including 1994 at Oakmont Country Club. Friend is the director of golf at Pikewood National Golf Club in Morgantown, W.Va. As a member at Oakmont, he’d very much like to play there in the 2007 Open in June. Each week leading up to the Open, Friend will provide a diary of how his preparations to qualify are progressing. Disappointment shows its ugly face at Quicksilver Golf Club in a local qualifier for the U.S. Open. Thursday’s round was very disappointing because I have worked hard in my preparation for the qualifier at Quicksilver. I was able to get two practice rounds under my belt and finally, for the first time in over two months, my ball striking had come around. I hit 14 of 18 greens on Thursday and drove the ball well enough to put up a good number. Little did I know that my putter would go ice cold. I hit it like Nick Price and putted like Vincent Price. I cannot think of the last time I played a round with NO birdies. In fact, I played 21 holes, 3 of which in a playoff, without a birdie. Frustrating to say the least. Oh well, I have heard the sun will rise again tomorrow. My Dad was correct in saying “If you can’t handle disappointment, don’t play tournament golf.” I will be relegated now to handling Player Relations for the U.S. Open and that is OK. I will have more time for my kids that week.

What’s the rule? You hit what you think is a very good approach shot into a green. For whatever reason, the sun, a blind green, whatever, you didn’t see the ball come to rest. Once you get to the green, you look around but eventually are forced to declare a lost ball and take the stroke-and-distance penalty. You hit again and when you hole out, you find your first ball in the cup. Which ball counts? The first ball counts. As per the very first rule in the golf rule book, “The Game of Golf consists of playing a ball with a club from the teeing ground into the hole by a stroke or successive strokes in accordance with the rules.”

Golf tip Bob Salera sees golfers of all skill levels and all ages in his head golf professional at Cool Springs Golf Center in the South Hills. He’s become one of the best teachers in the Tri-State Section and was honored as the teacher of the year by the Tri-State last year. Salera will provide weekly tips for Tribune-Review pages, hopefully helping to shave some strokes off your score. This week: Alignment. Sometimes the words alignment and aiming are confused. With alignment, it’s more important to have the parts of the body lined up in relation to one another. That means shoulders-hips-knees-feet all over top of each other. Trouble comes for golfers at times when they get out of alignment by aiming a little bit to the right or left. And even that’s not a bad thing, when all of those parts are aimed together. It’s tough to hit a ball correctly if your shoulders are aligned one way and the rest of your body is aligned differently.

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