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Judging athletes is always subjective and the source of great debate, but based on my knowledge and what I saw with my own two eyes last summer, Marcus Dolejsi is the best golfer in Alaska.

Though he did win the state match play tournament, that doesn’t factor in my judgement. I knew he would win that event weeks before it happened, because of what I witnessed. Dolejsi’s game took a leap last year. He gained a control over the golf ball he never had before.

I’m so confident he is the best, I will pay $100 to the first person who can beat him in a challenge match, witnessed by me.

After a week of thoughtful meditation, I’m very unlikely to play in weekend tournaments such as the State Am. Weekends are too valuable to give up, and I don’t have the time to focus on competing at the highest level.

My golfing summer will revolve around playing once a week at Palmer in the Wednesday skins game and that’s pretty much it, with a few exceptions. I will continue a life without practice, choosing to just tee it up and go on Wednesdays.

Range time has few benefits for me anymore, and I’m not sure it ever had much benefit. As my sister said last night, practice needs to be done on the course.

The more you play, the better you score. It’s a simple equation. I wish I could play every day, but life doesn’t allow such luxury, so I’ll play the best I can, when I can and that’s it.

That takes care of my decision at this time, but there is still plenty of mystery ahead. Life and golf are always unpredictable. Can’t wait to see what happens.

Spring seems to have arrived earlier than normal in Alaska this year. After recent cold, snowy winters, we finally got a mild one and I even heard George at Palmer Golf Course has had to chase golfers off the course. The weather is so nice, people are just marching out and playing without permission.

While trespassing is usually a bad choice in life, let us be reminded we all have choices to make every day. In watching Sam Olson’s latest interview on Foretee9th golf, I’m reminded that competing is a choice. Rich Teders talks at length to Olson about the lifelong commitment he made to competing at golf and the payoff that took literally decades to achieve. Teders’ journey from struggling to break 120 at Eagleglen to becoming a state champ is full of educational moments.

The apparent questions: do you want to be a competitor? Everyone loves to win, but do we love to make the sacrifices necessary to compete?

It was 12 years ago that a friend of mine from work talked me into competing. We were playing a casual round and he said you should really try practicing and getting in tournaments. I resisted, but then gave in and started committing to my game for the first time in 20 years or so. I hit balls at the Eagleglen range every day and played 18 holes on each day off from work, so two rounds per week. The grind resulted in reaching the semifinals of the state match play tournament. I played in the final foursome with Adam Baxter, Greg Sanders and Marcus Dolejsi, who eventually defeated me.

It was so much fun, I quit practicing altogether and never returned to that level. Instead, I’ve been focused on seeing how well I can play with no practice, which has been an interesting journey of its own. I’ve started entering tournaments just to secure weekend tee times. Last year, I found myself not wanting to win my first match in the net division of the state match play, because I didn’t want to play 36 holes that day. I ended up playing one of my best rounds of the summer and had to walk another 18 in the rain.

I wasn’t there to compete. I was just there to play golf.

I only had one round in which I can say I was truly competing last summer and that was against Todd Santangelo in the Birdie Juice Cup. When he nearly aced the par-3 third hole to take the lead in the match, my juices started flowing and I honestly tried to beat a very worthy opponent. I barely won, 1-up, on what turned into one of my most fun days of the summer.

Even with that, I look ahead to this summer and don’t really want to compete, because it means total commitment. It means being exhausted all week from mashing work and golf together in an all-encompassing fight for glory that you are more than likely going to lose. Then, again, I want to compete for all those same reasons. Dare I say, it is the full on Shakespearean “To be, or not to be?” staring us all in the face.

Is it all worth it? Yes and no. It is your choice. We all have to make up our minds whether we want to attack this summer ahead and find out how good we can get, to find out what happens if we give it our all and play with passion. To do so means willingness to shed blood, sweat and tears all for Alaskan golfing glory that no one on the planet cares about. It’s amazing when you stop to think about it. It’s possible that Alaskan golf provides the most raw, real, honest competition experience on the golfing planet. Do you want to be a part of it?

A golfer with the initials MM has already been out playing on Palmer Golf Course this year. These are the kind of interesting things I learned while watching the foretee9th YouTube channel this week.

The special guest on the Sam Olson show was Nelly, who is listed as Rob Nelson on most official tee sheets. Nelly was full of stories about how good you really have to be to play golf professionally and about being clearly destined to be Alaska’s best golfer.

When he tried to become more than that, he literally got punched in the face and threatened by the presence of Irish Mafia, all while losing his luggage and being so sick he passed out in the hallway of his hotel and spent his last dime on Portuguese medical care.

There are more stories to confirm Nelly’s position in life was no accident, so check out the video when you get time. Nelly has played high-level golf for like a century or more. He details breaking par at age four and stuff like that.

There is hope of an early spring, as us Alaskans are having the best winter in at least a decade. Little snow and relatively warm weather, as in consistently more than 20 degrees outside, makes us giddy with anticipation.

Nelly and his friends have been practicing all winter in their ice shanty, as seen on the Olson show. Nelly says he still has a competitive fire, so look out Alaskan golf. This could be a good year for the older, wiser gent from Palmer.

If I could give golf flowers and a box of chocolates, I gladly would. Instead, I will continue my habitual Sunday blog posting in preparation for a summer that seems miles away here in Alaska.

Our wild winter has shifted from extreme cold to extreme winds to mellow, warm days. All we can do is allow our mind to wander and dream of what next summer might bring.

Plans change, yet we make them anyway. Mine is to play the Wednesday skins at Palmer next summer, as many of them as I can. I’m leaning toward not playing much of any other type of golf. Life has become comfortably busy. Golfing on the weekends gets more difficult each year.

Last summer, I started using my vacation time for a mid-week escape and it was awesome. Unlike the typical weekend, in which my hours become strained with life’s other tasks, playing on Wednesday allowed me to completely focus on golf and nothing else. I would tee off late enough to create stress-free mornings and early enough to allow a relaxed afternoon and evening.

After a lifetime of fitting golf in hurriedly wherever I could, I am allowing myself to make it more of the leisure activity it deserves to be. I hope some of my golfing friends will be able to join me along the way.

Another wintery Sunday in Alaska is upon us and again, I force myself to sit down and craft to get in the habit.

In this week’s imaginary grudge match, Todd Santangelo challenges Devery Prince to a rematch at Pine Valley in New Jersey. Fuming after his final-hole loss to Prince at St. Andrews, Santangelo pulls some strings to get them a tee time at one of the toughest courses in the world.

Pine Valley is famous for being designed for good golfers, with total disregard for casual swingers who want to sip martinis and have a good time. Santangelo is well aware of this, but hopes Prince is not.

Six holes into the match, Santangelo is 3 up on Prince. The secret is conservative play and deadly hybrid approaches to set up 3-putt bogies. Neither player has made a par, but Prince has four “others” on the scorecard.

As they make the turn and head to the back nine, things aren’t getting any better from a scoring standpoint, as both golfers are on pace for their highest score since they first put pencil to cardboard.

Santangelo’s lead is up to 5, despite Prince making an amazing bogey to win the 11th hole. Prince finally realizes how tough this course is and pulls out his 7-iron he won the Alaskan Masters with years ago. Going to a one-club strategy rights the ship for him and he wins the next three holes.

Prince is on a roll, just two down with four to play, but Santangelo digs deep and bogies 15 and 16 to close out the match 3&2. Mentally and physically exhausted, the friends order two martinis from the cart girl and laugh their way in on the final two holes. Scorecards were quickly thrown in the trash at conclusion of the round after the adding machine indicated Santangelo shot 129 and Prince shot 131.

It is the first Sunday of the second month of 2025, so I’m just sitting down to write something, just to get in the habit. That means there is nothing meaningful to report in the world of Alaska golf or anything else in my world.

Matches were available to play in January, as anyone hankering for competition could have pursued it on a simulator or at some course outside Alaska. The weather outside was frightful as I’ve ever seen in Anchorage. High winds, buckets of rain, roads covered in ice all gave way to bone-chilling days with high temps of about five degrees.

No surprise on my end to not see any matches played, of course, but as I write this I wonder what a match could have been like. Let’s say Todd Santangelo and Devery Prince, for example, had met up at St. Andrews for a match. How would that have gone?

I’ve played a lot of golf with those two in recent years, so I’ll make a fun prediction that will leave one of them bitter and one pleased. I’m thinking Santangelo would jump to an early lead on strength of a couple birdies. The match would level off mid-round and by the back nine, Prince would find his groove and show why I call him Deadeye Devery. As they stepped onto the famous 18th tee all square, which is officially known as tied these days, nerves would be frayed.

Prince and Santangelo would pump nice drives down the massively wide fairway. Both would land approaches on the green no further than 20 feet from the hole and Prince would can his birdie putt to put pressure on Santangelo. After a beautiful stroke sends his ball rolling purely toward the hole, Santangelo would be left disappointed as his putt lips out and loses him the match.

Such drama, such fun.

The new challenge matches and rankings are completely up to the players. I don’t care if nobody plays or a ton of you play. I am providing the opportunity, because many have told me they miss it. I won’t be using any social media. I will post all results here at jjpetes.com.

I will post the latest results on Sundays and Sundays only, so everyone knows when to look and what to expect. The only interference I will provide in the rankings is to either remove someone or gradually sink them in the rankings if it comes to my attention they aren’t actively accepting matches or if they have left town. Beyond that, the rankings are a simple king-of-the mountain format.

If you see someone on the list and you think you can beat them, arrange a match with them and send me the results. If you don’t already know me, you can email results to jjpetes@icloud.com. I will require an official match score, course played, a highlight or two and the parameters of the match.

I don’t care how players conduct their matches as long as both parties think it is fair and as long as only one match is played at a time. If one hits from the reds and the other from the tips, I don’t mind, as long as both think it is fair. Still, I want to know that information for results posting.

You can play any day of the year, indoor on simulators, outdoors in the snow or on an exotic locale in the South Pacific. Have fun and let me know.

If you want to grab your best friend and play a match, go ahead and do so as often as you want. I will insert you both in the rankings after first match results are reported, and will likely insert you much higher than you deserve. The reason for this being, I want everyone to see you have joined the battle. The rankings will always correct themselves in time.

I think that covers it. If not, we’ll figure it out as we go. So, it’s time to get to it, or not. You choose.

Happy New Year!

It is 2025 and what a nice round number. On a personal level it marks the 50th year I will have been living. It marks the 40th year I will have played golf. It marks a full 10 years since I started the Alaska Golf Blog.

I learned a lot from the Alaska Golf Blog, enough to know I won’t be doing it again. That isn’t as negative as it sounds. I simply mean I have changed, my life has changed and my relationship to golf has changed. The changes are dramatic enough that I have decided to start 2025 with a new blog here at jjpetes.com.

It will feature many things about Alaskan golf, including the most popular feature from the Alaska Golf Blog days, challenge matches and rankings.

The challenge matches will be open 365 days per year and can be played indoor, outdoor and in any location in the world. These are not going to be labeled as a list of Alaska’s best golfers. Instead, it will be JJ Petes golf rankings, not limited to just golfers from Alaska. It will likely come to represent more of a collection of golfers I have met in past, present and future.

Golf has provided me with an amazing journey over the last 40 years and it is that journey that inspires my new direction in writing. I look forward to seeing where the next 40 years takes me. If you want to come along for the ride and think you might want to play the occasional challenge match, enter your email below to subscribe.

Details on challenge matches are to come, very soon, before this first day of 2025 is over. Details will be simple and easy to follow. You will not need a golf handicap, just a desire to compete.

Happy New Year to you all. 2025 will be a fun one.