nathan jara

I love golf. And I love Pittsburgh Penguins hockey. Today, thanks to my friends at American Eagle Outfitters, I was fortunate enough to combine these two things as I attended and participated in the 13th Annual Pittsburgh Penguins Alumni Golf Classic. The event took place at Valley Brook Country Club, located near Canonsburg, PA. This year, the Pens Alumni brought together a great group of past Penguin goaltenders. The elite group included players such as Les Binkley, the first Penguins goalie from 1967, Ken Wregget, from the Pens second Stanley Cup year, and Gilles Meloche, who tended the net from 1985 – 1988 and currently is the goaltending coach for the Penguins. I was actually able to play golf with Mr. Meloche today. What a great guy! He was a lot of fun and also is a great golfer. There were many times today during the scramble format of play that we didn’t think we’d have to even hit our shots after Gilles because he put it close just about every time. It was great to visit and talk with Gilles about golf, life, and hockey of course. He said he has a good feeling about the upcoming season, which was great news. He also gave me a few swing tips :) After our round we headed to the clubhouse for dinner and awards. I was able to mingle with some more great names like Dan Bylsma, the Pens’ head coach, Todd Rierden, the new assistant coach, Bob Errey, Dave Hanson of the Hanson Brothers, Paul Alexander from FSN Pittsburgh, Ed Johnston, Francois Leroux, Troy Loney, Joey Mullen, Bryan Trottier, and Ken Wregget. Check out some photos below to see some of my favorites. It was a super awesome day and one I will never forget. And I didn’t hit the golf ball half bad today either :)

This past weekend, I attended for the third year in a row the World Golf Championships Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio. The PGA Tour event takes place at Firestone Country Club every year. This year, Hunter Mahan was awarded the cup with his twelve under par championship performance. I walked the course during the Saturday round of competition. The tournament was a great time once again this year. It’s so cool to go and see the pros in person. Every time I get the chance to see a live event, I’m continually impressed with how easy these guys make it look. Driving the ball, irons, chipping and putting look so effortless, then I go out on the course and find a different result :P Just seeing the golf course is fun too. The fairways and greens are so well manicured and maintained providing a beautiful backdrop to the golfing. Now I know that there aren’t too many people that get excited about watching golf, but I really think that if you haven’t been to a golf tournament in person, you’d enjoy it more than you think.

While being stuck in the house over this past weekend wouldn’t have been my number one choice for spending my days off, it did grant me the opportunity to watch the 2010 British Open at Saint Andrews. Being one of my favorite tournaments to watch, it was great to be able to catch finest golfers of today battling it out on the grounds where golf was born hundreds of years ago. I’d love to play the course someday. I’m sure it would tear me apart, but I’d enjoy every minute. Tight fairways rolling onto tighter greens. Pot bunkers so big you could live in them. And wind ripping across the grass so hard it’d knock you and your golf ball into the fescue. There was plenty of wind at this year’s Open. The Royal & Ancient had to suspend play for over an hour on Friday’s round because of the wind. Yes, they had to stop golfing because it was too windy. At the British Open! Crazy. Mr. Louis Oosthuizen, who nobody knew of until this past weekend, didn’t seem to let the wind bother him. He ran away with the Claret Jug on Sunday and didn’t look back. It’s cool to see the little guy win every now and then.

I took the new sticks out to the range today for the first time. Mizuno MP-58s for the 3-8 irons and the MP-68s for the 9 iron and pitching wedge to round out my new Mizuno iron set. They are awesome. I had the set custom fitted to my swing. We ended up making the length .25 inches longer, added another layer of tape to thicken up the grips, kept the standard lie angle and adjusted the loft angle to 2 degrees stronger throughout the set. These were most definitely the right adjustments. I was hitting the ball longer and more consistent than ever. I’m sure that I’m getting at least 10 more yards per club, which is a most welcome change. Needless to say, I can’t wait to take them on the course this coming week.

As I alluded in an earlier post, I’m an avid golfer. With the latest positive developments in my golf swing, I have decided that this is the year I purchase a new set of golf clubs. This evening, I went to a local GolfTEC for my first professional golf club fitting. It was great! And so much fun! I was able to hit a number of different club/shaft combinations while “hooked” up to the computer which recorded a plethora of information about my swing. The system uses a high-speed camera to record the rotation of the golf ball off the club face in order to provide ball spin and launch angles along with recording club head speed and various shaft kick angles. The fitting system was really cool. After hitting many a golf ball, several different clubs, and good conversation with the pro, I finally made the big decision. I’ll be getting the new Mizuno MP-58s. They are sweet! Needless to say, I am pumped. And the guys at my work golf league are in serious trouble. ;)

It’s been a busy past week or so. Between being on-call at work last week, preparing for a presentation this past Monday, Olympic-sized distractions, and a new member of the household, I haven’t had a chance to get back to the blogging world. I’m glad to get back to it tonight.

This past Monday was awesome. Two of my past professors from my college invited me to give a presentation to some of their current students concerning my job as a web developer. What a privilege and honor it was! I spoke to a web development class and a web design class. I concentrated most specifically on the amount of teamwork and collaboration with other groups and departments and the types of interactions that are involved in web work. I felt that I was really able to connect with the students. I didn’t catch anyone sleeping, so I must have been at least a little bit interesting :) Throughout my presentation I was able to spark some conversation and dialogue, which made it a lot of fun. The students asked some great questions, and it was very interesting to be on the “answering” side of these questions. Just a few years ago, I was on the “asking” side of the questions. The presentation was such a great experience in this way because I learned a bit more about how much I have matured and grown since graduating college. Thinking of the whole experience now as I write makes me realize how much I have been blessed to have the opportunities I have had to get me to this point. I hope that I was able to encourage the students I spoke with and provide them with some of the knowledge necessary for them to succeed in their pursuits.

I can’t believe the Olympics will be over after this weekend! The two weeks have gone by so fast. I’ve really enjoyed watching all the events and will miss being able to flip to an event just about any time of the day. Of course, with the Olympics over, a lot of my distractions will go by the wayside, which will probably be a good thing. Still, these games have been great. I’m very much looking forward to seeing the result of the men’s hockey tournament, along with curling, and the final speed skating and skiing events. Sometime I wish we didn’t have to wait so long in between Olympics, but I know that’s what makes them that much more, well, Olympic.

The latest and most likely biggest distraction over the past few days is the newest member of the house, Jack. He’s a young mutt my roommate picked up from the pound. He seems to be a beagle, husky, lab mix. So far he’s an awesome dude! Jack is very well behaved and is a ton of fun. He’s starting to settle into his new home and is proving to be quite the companion. He is quite the nosy fellow though. Jack insists on putting his nose into just about everything you do, literally. :) He’s still learning in a few of the discipline areas, but I’m not complaining and I don’t think he is either.

As I said before, I enjoy every winter olympic event. Yesterday the curling competitions began. And I must say, the Norwegian team has got style :)

The pants are made by a European clothing company called Loudmouth Golf. They are most famously worn by PGA professional John Daly.

These tremendous trousers are a definitely on the pricey side at $90 a pair, but, I don’t know, after seeing the Norwegians curling in style, I just may have a pair in my future.

Last night was the opening ceremonies for the 2010 Olypmic Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada. While I thoroughly enjoy watching both the summer and winter olympics, the winter games are my favorite. I enjoy watching every event. Hockey, downhill skiing, moguls, ski jump, speed skating, short-track skating, luge, bob-sled, cross-country, free-styling skiing, snowboarding, and yes, I even enjoy curling. The olympics are such an awesome time of competition. The gathering of the most talented athletes from all around the world, the spectacle  of sport, and the community these events produce are all part of what makes the olympics so great. And to think that the olympics are set in a tradition that was begun by the ancient Greek people over 2,000 years ago? Wow. And that same tradition is kept alive to this day, in the year 2010. It’s just awesome.

The opening ceremonies last night were very cool. Commentators were of course comparing these ceremonies, before they even begun, to the opening ceremonies in Beijing two years ago. While it’s inevitable that this comparison would be made, I don’t think it’s fair to compare the two. These games have a character and personality all their own that were brought forth last night. It was very interesting to see the history and culture of the Vancouver area of Canada. The landscape and country of this area are also very beautiful.

My favorite parts of the ceremony involved the use of the center stage floor. This entire floor area was a giant projection screen. The producers of the ceremony used this screen to projects incredible scenes of canadian wildlife and nature. It was awesome.

I believe my only complaint about the games over the next two weeks will be that I won’t be able to see enough. If it wasn’t for that gosh darn thing called work.