VIDEO: 2016 Raspberry Golf Academy Spring Break Junior Training Program

Check out my video of the 2016 Raspberry Golf Academy Spring Break Junior Training Program. I had the opportunity to film a group of nine high school golfers who spent a week at PGA Village in Port St. Lucie, FL, working with the RGA instructors.

Counting down the Top 10 most bizarre things I've witnessed on the golf course

#10: The lightning bolt that struck the tree that that fell on the carts that broke the clubs, while on a weather delay at a mini tour event.

To set the scene of this bizarre tragedy, I will take you back to the summer of 2013, the wet, I mean wet, summer of 2013 in the state of North Carolina. The weekly weather delays on the eGolf Professional Tour, this time at Rock Barn Golf Club in Conover, were beginning to pile up and the frustration was building amongst the tour’s regular grinders.

This particular event happened to be a riding-event, a rare treat on the East-coast tour. With well over 100 players in the field, there was little room for sheltering all the carts once the dreaded blast of the horn sounded.

Conveniently, there was a very large tree behind the clubhouse that provided great shelter for the carts and, of course, the clubs, from the building rain. Cart after cart piled up under this savior tree, and the players gathered inside.

The covered back deck provided a great spot to sit and watch the rain fall, as I sat comfortably in a white rocking chair atop the wooden surface.

As I was sitting there, I happened to be staring straight at this large, seemingly out of place tree. Well, Mother Nature decided it was out place as well, so she struck it down with one giant flash of her might. Down went the tree, and it took several unsuspecting carts with it as it tumbled to the pavement.

Many poor golf clubs lost their lives that day, but play eventually resumed and their loss was remembered and honored by all.

#9: The country club playing partner who brought fine China with a cup of soup into the cart at the turn.

When playing in a country club tournament, you never know what you are going to get, especially when there is a blind draw for partners. Despite my professional status, the members were kind of to let me tag along for this casual weekend event.

I drew an older individual that I was not previously acquainted with, and I assume the golf course was not acquainted with him either, any golf course. He had the courtesy of letting me drive the cart, which I didn’t realize was part of his master plan until later in the day.

At the turn, this individual stopped inside the clubhouse for lunch. He did not go to the turn stand, but went to the actual dining room, and clearly did not order this meal “to go.” After waiting a bit longer that I would have liked for him to acquire his meal, he returned with a hot plate lunch with fine China that included a bowl of soup. He proceeded to eat this meal, with real silverware, as my passenger in the cart.

Have you ever had the pressure of driving a golf cart while the old man to your right tries to eat a bowl of boiling hot soup? I think not.

#8: My high school playing partner who started yelling at me and crying after I made a putt, and his coach drove him back to the clubhouse for a timeout.

We’ve all had the playing partner who talks too much, or who won’t talk at all, or the one who doesn’t understand proper etiquette, but few have experienced the crier. This is a rare breed amongst golfers that only makes an appearance once in a generation.

On this particular day, I was paired with the top player from local another high school in an after-school nine-hole dual match. On the sixth green, I knocked in about a 30-footer to save par, because it was that kind of day, and this individual was not too happy about it. He began yelling at me, saying, “You would suck at golf if you couldn’t putt,” clearly he has missed the point of this whole golf thing.

Anyway, he worked himself up so much that he began crying, and crying loudly. Loud enough that it drew the attention of his coach, who swooped in and kicked his own player off the course. Rumor has it the player was suspended for multiple tournaments, but we didn’t exactly become Facebook friends so I don’t know much beyond the crying.

#7: Staying with high school, because why not, that kid who showed up to golf tryouts with one club and a plastic bag of balls.

High school has so many wonderful memories, well not for me, but I’m sure for someone. But this memory is one that will forever make me chuckle. Day one of tryouts, which take place roughly a month before school even begins, a young, wide-eyed freshman walked toward the bag drop with his mother, ready to begin the qualifier.

This bashful adolescent did not have a golf bag, he was not wearing golf shoes, and he certainly was not sporting a golf cap. Rather, he was dressed in gym clothes with a single golf club in one hand, an iron of some kind, and a plastic grocery bag full of golf balls in the other. Maybe he was hiding his glove and tees in his pockets, but not likely.

Sadly enough, our coach asked him to leave before we could ever see the kid hit a golf ball. We might have passed on the next Tiger Woods, at least the version of Tiger who had the chipping yips a few months ago.

#6: The crazy wildlife of the links, like the iguana that tormented me after pumping back-to-back drives into the Puerto Rican water

As a freshman in college in my first semester on campus, my golf game caught fire and I was rolling through the season as the team’s top player.

St. John’s used to host an annual event in Puerto Rico, and somehow they must have made a mistake and invited my team. Anyway, round one was smooth sailing for me as I entered a par five on the back nine at three-under, unfortunately I left the hole two-over, you do the math.

This hole turns sharply to the right with water along the entire right side of the fairway. After slicing back-to-back balls well into the lumberyard, my coach was kind enough to capture this image of my one-arm finish and the unimpressed iguana.

Unlike this squirrel, that was very impressed by my spikeless FootJoy shoe and would not leave me alone. Wildlife on the golf course, you never know what you’re going to get.

#5: More from Mother Nature, this time the tornado that rolled through a college golf tournament, which is actual pretty typical college golf weather.

The scene of this bizarre occurrence was the N.C. State golf course in Raleigh. It was an unusually windy day from the start, making the conditions difficult on an already challenging track. However, it seemed to be getting more and windy as the round progressed, almost to an unnatural level.

The sky began to get significantly darker as the gusts reached an unplayable level. One of my playing partners set his ball down on the green, only to have it blow all the way off the surface into the rough.

The weather horns blew, but it was too late. That day, about 100 college golfers witnessed a tornado roll through the great state of North Carolina, hitting about a mile from our location. The clubhouse lost power, our hotel lost power, really the whole town lost power, and many people lost their homes. But the heavy stuff didn’t come down for quite a while...

If only every round looked like this beautiful moment I captured in Arizona.

#4: The cart caddie that took the cart, and the clubs, for a swim.

I was playing in an amateur event that provided each group with two cart caddies, with each cart housing two sets of precious clubs. Naturally, the volunteers for the job were older individuals, to be polite. One particular older fellow tried to park the cart at the top of a hill, before walking down to the edge of the water to help the players look for a ball. The key word in the last sentence is “tried.” Clearly he failed to lock the brakes, and the cart began heading down the slope toward definite doom.

This was the day the golf clubs took a swim, and so did one of the players to retrieve the clubs. Luckily it was a warm, summer day. Between lightning hitting trees and old men driving golf carts, the clubs don’t stand a chance.

#3: The playing partner in a mini tour event who was DQ’ed and didn’t know it, and I had to tell him to leave.

Some professional tours are operated at a higher level than others, after you hear this story, you will know where this tour ranks on the scale, although it will remain unnamed. The tournament was held at the Stonebridge Golf Club in Albany, Ga. The tour at hand has an 86-rule, meaning that if your score is higher than that overly generous threshold, you are not to return the subsequent day.

I happened to be paired with an individual whose scorecard read something well north of that mark, and the letters “DQ” were next to his name on the digital scoreboard. However, when golfers shoot a score as high as this particular player did, they tend not to look at any scoreboards. Nobody told him about the rule, thus he showed up the next day ready to return to the links.

I stared at him as he warmed up, wondering if I should say something. Clearly someone from the tour would tell him, right? Well, on the first tee, the starter has a card ready to go for this player. He was the first to play and the starter announced his name, and he addressed the ball, ready to begin his eyesore of a takeaway any moment. I then stepped in at the last instant like a white knight and saved the day for myself and the third party of the group, as I informed the player of the news.

He didn’t question my information, he simply thanked me, grabbed his antique sticks and headed for the exit.

2. The playing partner in an amateur event who walked into the woods and never returned.

Up to this point, you may have believed me, but now you are skeptical. But to those skeptics I say, who hasn’t wanted to disappear on the golf course at some point in their lives. Well, this particular person was smart enough to do it.

To give this player the proper privacy due for the legendary story he provided me, I will simply say it took place at an amateur event somewhere in Ohio. He was having a rough day, obviously, and had just hit his tee shot right into the woods. The other player in the group and myself were getting tired of helping him look for balls, and got a little lazy in providing aid this time. We both continued to our balls in the fairway and hit our shots while the third player was looking for his ball, or at least we thought he was looking.

After waiting several minutes, we walked back to his location, but there was no sign of life. To this day, I do not know what happened to this individual, your guess is as good as mine.

#1: My college golf coach who spent 36 holes picking nuts and berries for his mom in the woods, only to find that they could actually kill her.

This spectacularly peculiar event needs little elaboration. My college golf coach enjoyed entertaining himself while the lucky five souls he dragged to the links trekked around the course for those long, grueling 36-hole days. On this fateful day, my coach decided to spend his time picking nuts and berries in the woods as a gift for his elderly mother.

By the end of the day, he had a grocery bag full of goodies and a look of satisfaction on his face. That bag of random articles of nature made it all the way back to campus. However, before passing on the sack to his innocent mother, my coach developed an itch and began to have breakouts. After researching the contents of his mystery pouch, he realized he had acquired a sack of death.

In college golf, you must beware of the tornadoes and the berries, they’ll get ya’. Oh yeah, watch out for gators too!

Jordan Spieth continues dominance heading into PGA Championship

I have been playing on developmental professional tours for three years now. What if I were to tell you I have made 18 cuts in 20 events in 2015. What if I were to tell you I have 16 Top 25s and 13 Top 10s, including four wins, three runner-ups and a third. Think you might be impressed?

What if I were to tell you I did this on the PGA Tour?

Well that is exactly what a young man three years my junior has done. His name is Jordan Spieth.

In 2015 alone, the 22-year-old has earned $9,319,715 in winnings, and that doesn't include his monster deal with Under Armour. He is No. 1 in the FedEx Cup standings, well clear of the rest of the Tour, and has climbed to No. 2 in the Official World Golf Rankings, only behind Rory McIlroy. Two of his four victories this season came in the Masters and U.S. Open, the two most important golf tournaments for any American-born golfer.

Spieth has had a lot to celebrate in 2015 (Courtesy ABC News)

Spieth's 2015 scoring average of 68.795 and birdie average of 4.58 per round put him No. 1 on Tour in both categories. Although he may not wow you with his distance or proximity, he has proven to be the best closer and clutch putter in the world. He leads the Tour in putts per round, 27.74, and in one-putt percentage, 44.29%.

In his last five starts he has five Top 10s, including two wins. He finished T4 at the Open Championship at St. Andrew's, just one shot back of the playoff in his effort to complete the rare Grand Slam. In yesterday's final round at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, he fired a 66 to back his way into another Top 10 in an event in which he struggled playing against the best players on the planet.

Well now that your brain is fried from a slew of numbers, it's time to look ahead to this week's PGA Championship, held at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin for the first time since 2010. Golf enthusiasts remember this as the year in which Dustin Johnson grounded his club in a bunker, costing him the title and beginning a chain of tragedies in majors.

This year, all eyes will be on Spieth and McIlroy as the young gun looks to replace the established leader as the world's best. McIlroy, the defending champion, will be making his return to golf following an injury to his left ankle suffered on July 4th. The two will be paired together in the first two rounds, along with Zach Johnson who is fresh off his win at St. Andrew's last month.

Spieth, McIlroy and Johnson have won the last five majors. The threesome tees off at 2:20 p.m. ET on Thursday. Spieth is the odds-on favorite at 5-to-1, followed by McIlroy at 7-to-1. 

Josh Smith says making $6.9 million in 2015-16 will be 'hard'

Josh Smith has had an up-and-down 11-year NBA career. Loaded with talent and with flashes of brilliance, he has yet to live up to his potential. That being said, he has made about $94 million in his career after jumping straight to league out of high school in 2004.

He spent the first nine years of his tenure with the Atlanta Hawks, but has been bouncing from team to team over the past couple seasons. Smith played for the Detroit Pistons for a year and a half, but was nearly invisible on a team with a very low ceiling. Seemingly lacking the motivation to play for a non-playoff team, Smith was sent to a power in the Western Conference, the Houston Rockets.

During the off-season free agency frenzy, Smith signed with the Los Angeles Clippers, a team now looking like a legitimate championship contender. He signed a one-year veteran's minimum contract for around $1.5 million and will be receiving $5.4 million from the Pistons. If the Pistons had not let him go, he would be making $14 million this season instead of $6.9 million.

That brings us to the statement Smith made during a press conference in which the Clippers welcomed their latest signings for the upcoming season.

"At the end of the day, you know, I do have a family," Smith said. "So it is going to be a little harder on me this year. But I'm going to push through it, you know."

Despite having his salary cut in half for the 2015-16 season, his choice of words did not go over well with the general public. Saying he will have to "push through" making a mere $6.9 million does not generate much sympathy. Sorry Josh.

The Josh on the other side of this computer has to think twice before adding guacamole to his burrito.

I played in a one-day professional golf tournament this past weekend and shot 68 (-4). I netted just over $100 for the day and I was pretty darn happy. My largest check this year was nearly $4,000 and that was celebration worthy. Josh Smith will certainly not have any sympathy from developmental tour golfers. The leading money-winner on most developmental tours makes under $100,000 for the year. And that's the leader.

I get that having your expected salary cut in half can be tough, but complaining publicly about making nearly $7 million, putting you over the $100 million-mark for your career, is probably not the smartest PR move. Last I checked, most families are able to "push through" with sums far below what Smith will be raking in this coming season.

The Clippers also managed to resign free agent big man DeAndre Jordan to a four-year $87.6 million contract. Maybe if Smith is running short on cash in the near future, he can befriend his new comrade and borrow some dough. After all, he does have a family to feed.

USWNT bring World Cup to America amidst Independence weekend

Carli Lloyd celebrating one of her goals (Google Images)

American Flags waving elegantly in the breeze, people all around sporting their most creative red, white and blue outfits, the smell of the grill cooking your favorite summertime meal, and of course the fireworks lighting up the night sky.

The first week of July is a great time to be an American.

But none better than the 2015 Independence Day in terms of sense of pride for country, thanks to the captivating performance by the USWNT as they cruised to victory over the Japanese squad. This was the third World Cup title for the American women, but the first since 1999. That was the year all young men will remember as Brandi Chastain ripped of her shirt in celebration. Although the ladies remained fully clothed this time, it was a great celebration nonetheless.

The hero of the day was without a doubt Carli Lloyd, as she achieved a rare hat trick in the first 20 minutes of action. The game was pretty much over from the start as the Americans took a quick 4-0 lead in the opening half before going on to win 5-2 in the highest scoring World Cup final ever. The victory gave the squad vengeance after losing to the Japanese team in the finals four years ago. Lloyd was awarded the Golden Ball, given to the best player of the tournament.

We no longer have to talk about the 1999 team and the shirtless celebration, as we now have the 2015 team of destiny. This team was led by its defense all tournament as Hope Solo had allowed just one goal prior to giving up two in the concluding match. Yet it was the offense that ignited the championship rout over the very team that crushed their dreams in 2011.

It seems fitting that the title game coincided with the nation's most patriotic weekend. Soccer is not the sport America is known for worldwide, but the ladies are proving time and again that there is no better nation for women's soccer. Since winning the first World Cup in 1991, they have been a perennial powerhouse worldwide.

It will be difficult for the men to catch up as they have been participating in the World Cup since 1930 and are yet to win. Whereas women's soccer is relatively new worldwide and the Americans were on the scene instantly, the men's game has been an established entity since the 1800s and the red, white and blue have never been elite. We just hope for a respectable showing from the men, but the women have set the bar high yet again.

With no World Cup to watch next year in early July, it will be back to baseball. I suppose that is pretty American too. 

NBA Playoffs Predictions

Let's start with the East.

Derrick Rose goes down... Okay so we can count the Bulls out. Sure they might win their series against the 76ers but they're not beating the Heat in a seven-game series.

The Knicks got waxed by about 40 points in Game 1 against the Heat, let's go ahead and count them out.

The Pacers lost Game 1 at home to a Magic team playing without Dwight Howard... ouch. Yeah, let's count them out as well. Like I said with the Bulls, they might go on to win this series but they're not getting past the Heat either.

The Celtics and Hawks should be a very competitive series. I could see the winner of this series winning the next series as well and playing the Heat in the Conference Finals.

That being said, nobody in the East can beat the Heat. I mean they just beat the Knicks 100-67! A Bulls team with Derrick Rose possibly could have, but that didn't work out.

Now let's look at the West.

Whereas the Heat are the the only team that can make it out of the East, there are six teams that could make it out of the West-- Thunder, Mavs, Spurs, Lakers, Clippers and Grizzlies. 

What a first round series between the Thunder and Mavs, that's a Conference Finals type of a matchup. I expect the Thunder to move through the West and play the Heat in the NBA Finals, but the Mavs will not be an easy first test, as it took a buzzer-beater for the Thunder to take Game 1.

The Clippers-Grizzlies is also a very interesting series, and it is really a toss-up.

The Spurs should have no problem getting past the Jazz and the lakers should have no problem getting past the Nuggets.

Once it is down to the Thunder-Lakers and Spurs-Clippers/Grizzlies, any of these five teams have the ability to win a seven-game series. If I had to pick, I would have to go with the Thunder-Spurs advancing and the Thunder making it out the West. In the NBA Playoffs, unlike the NCAA March Madness, the best teams nearly always win.

So Heat-Thunder in the Finals... big surprise. There is no question in my mind that the Heat are the best team if they are healthy. But with a player like Kevin Durant, if a game is close he just finds a way to win and hits buzzer-beaters with ease. He is as clutch as Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan when the game is on the line.

So I am going with the Heat, but saying with Durant anything is possible. Hopefully that qualifies as an answer.

NFL Draft Recap

As an Ohioan living in Northern Virginia, I consider myself both a Redskins and a Browns fan... Clearly I am no fair-weather fan. I'm pretty sure those two teams have gone through more starting QBs than any other in the league over the past 10 years, and they have really struggled offensively for years.

That being said, I am very happy with what both organizations did during the draft. Of course the Skins took RGIII with the second overall pick, and the Browns traded down to grab Trent Richardson with the third overall pick and then took Brandon Weedon later in the first round, which I thought were great moves. The Skins also drafted Kirk Cousins, an interesting pick considering they had already taken RGIII, but I was actually really happy with that pick as well. RGIII and Cousins is already better then the two options they had last year.

Aside from the Skins and Browns, I was impressed with several other teams as well.

I thought the Giants had a great draft considering they had the final pick. They took both David Wilson and Jayron Hosley from Virginia Tech and wide receiver Reuben Randle from LSU, all of whom will instantly make this team even better.

Staying in the division, I thought the Cowboys were smart in trading up to grab Maurice Claiborne, who has Derrelle Revis-like potential.

The team I believe had the best draft was the Colts. Obviously they had the No. 1 pick and were able to get the most heralded QB in NFL Draft history-- Andrew Luck. Then they took Luck's TE and favorite target from Stanford, Coby Fleener, followed by another great TE named Dwayne Allen. Then they stayed with offense and took T.Y. Hilton, a wide receiver from FIU who was one of the best WRs in all of college football that nobody has heard of. They even took another QB, Chandler Harnish, who similarly was one of the best QBs in college football that wasn't well known because he played for Northern Illinois. They drafted some serious talent on offense.

Other interesting picks came from the Lions and Broncos. The Lions picked up WR Ryan Browles. On most teams he would be the No. 1 option, but alongside Calvin Johnson he can do some serious damage. The Broncos picked QB Brock Osweiler. He will be able to learn under Peyton Manning for a couple years and then will be able to take over the team, the perfect position for a young QB.