Learning Curve: Golf 101 – James Flays the Course

Golf, I’ve always thought, is not so much a sport as a lifestyle, and because my own life-style choices have left me with a fairly noticeable lack of wealth, I’ve never considered golf to be one of my options. This summer, however, I was assigned to write my second “Learning Curve” article for FACES magazine and the subject was to be golf. The publisher arranged for me, because I’d never held a golf club (outside of Pirate’s Cove), to take a lesson from Meadowbrook golf pro J R Hamblet.   In preparation, hoping to be less conspicuously out of place on the links, I purchased an outfit of khaki shorts, a golfishly patterned polo shirt, and a Meadowbrook Golf Course cap. It was in this get-up that I arrived one June evening at the club-house only to find the sky blackening and rain drops beginning to spatter on the paved pathways of the course.  Lightning, according to conventional wisdom, has an affinity for golfers somewhat similar to that of tornados for trailer-parks (lightning, for some reason, being attracted to a higher tax bracket). Nevertheless I got into a golf cart  and went in search of J R. I floored the accelerator and the mighty engine roared to life, propelling me onto the course at speeds approaching five miles per hour as the rain began fall more steadily.   I found J R next to a small hut finishing up a lesson with an increasingly damp and rather anxious looking gentleman. Other players were leaving the course in droves by this time and J R suggested that we reschedule my lesson for a more propitious time. In a sense, this was my first lesson–the point of which was that the golf gods are unpredictable. Golfers must be flexible, willing to change plans at the last minute, perhaps to pursue some other worthwhile activity, such as watching golf on television. (Read the rest of this story in Summer ‘07 FACES)

Joyce Johnson: A Brush with Freedom

This is not exactly a news flash: a HUGE percentage of garages in the U.S. are never used to park a vehicle – at least a working vehicle.  Aside from the usual cache of junk, yard tools, last year’s garage sale holdovers, and other miscellaneous goodies, the neighborhood garage might house a vintage car in various stages of restoration: the prized project of the man of the house.  It’s a guy thing.And for sure, you’re not likely to find a horse in someone’s garage.  That is, unless it’s the garage at Joyce Johnson’s studio.  But when you get to know Joyce, you’re met with lots of surprises.

The Rapid City fine artist creates art, teaches art, and sells art.  In her studio at 712 Columbus Street, you’ll find her teaching watercolor, drawing (on the right side of the brain, of course!), calligraphy, and oil painting. In her class you get color theory, lots of demonstrations, how-to’s in design and materials, and a reassuring share of individual coaching.  And let’s not forget: a lot of fun.

(Read the rest of this story in Summer ‘07 FACES)

Duncan Olney: On Land, Water and Air

It wasn’t that long ago that Lt. Colonel Duncan Olney commanded a squadron at Ellsworth Air Force Base and served as a navigator.  These days he commands a different kind of personnel as manager of Rapid City’s aquatics program.  How different?  Let’s just say that in the summertime, his list of employees swells by more than 100, nearly all of them teenagers.  But he applies the same focused management skills to the task at hand as he did serving more than 20 years in the United States Air Force.Since he oversees all aquatics for the city, you might conclude Duncan has been a swimmer all his life.  Not true.  He didn’t learn to swim until he was 12 years old. “We were living on the East Coast.  A friend of my father’s wanted me to learn to swim so I could be on a nearby YMCA swimming team,” he recalls.  “It sounded like a good idea at the time and it was fun.”A few years later, he was offered a swimming scholarship to Bethany College in West Virginia where he declared a biology major.  He also served a stint as disc jockey for the campus radio station.  At Bethany Duncan met his wife Nancy and after graduation in 1974 enlisted in the U.S. Air Force.  The two married in 1975.Why the military?“I was attracted mostly because I was already a pilot,” Duncan says.  “At that time, the country was experiencing a downturn from the Vietnam war. 

(Read the rest of this story in Summer ‘07 FACES)

Judy Joba: Horseplay the Right Way

Horse sense. Horses know a lot more than you think they do. They possess an inborn understanding of physics and geometry. They have definite ideas regarding inertia (which they prefer) and momentum (which they will occasionally put up with). They know that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, and that it doesn’t make sense to walk around that orange cone, way over in the corner, to get from point A to point B. They know that it’s wiser to go around an obstacle than to jump over it. It requires a strong-willed human rider to overcome all this intelligence.
  Horses, however, are profoundly insightful when it comes to the psychology of potential riders–they can quickly assess one’s strength of will or lack thereof. They instinctively know that if they choose to ignore the orders given them by a seven year old girl, the consequences will be approximately nil. Whatever they can’t surmise about a rider through insight, they will work out via the scientific method, by experimentation and endless testing. They are constantly trying to determine exactly how much work they must do, how obedient they must be, what is negotiable and what isn’t, and how much of their sense of humor will be tolerated.
  Fortunately for the world’s seven-year-old girls, there are people who can teach them to successfully ask horses for various favors, such as “walk,” “trot,” “canter,” and most importantly, “whoa!” Among the best of these teachers here in the Black Hills is Judi Joba, proprietor of Eagle’s Ride Equestrian Center, and she teaches horsemanship to all kinds of people: boys, girls, adults and children.(Read the rest of this story in Summer ‘07 FACES)

Cover Story: Tracy Settle takes South Dakota to Suriname

It’s a cold and blustery late March day but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the man setting up his power point presentation behind the podium at the Camp Rapid Armory.  Strikingly tanned and dressed in military fatigues, Lt. Col. Tracy Settle looks like he’s just returned from a long vacation on the beach—making those of us in the audience who bravely delved into our spring wardrobes for this occasion look suddenly pale and cold in comparison—which, of course, we are.We are a combination of military personnel and curious civilians who have come to hear Tracy talk about a new program he’s helping launch in an obscure and unpronounceable South American country he’s just returned from called Suriname.  On paper, it sounds rather official and a bit difficult to grasp—another one of those “save the world” government programs with lofty ideals.  But soon it comes to life in vivid color and with amazing clarity courtesy of this articulate, gregarious guy with movie-star good looks who, in a matter of minutes, manages to bring us to the edge of our seats.In simple terms, Tracy is hoping to make all of us ambassadors to Suriname.  He delights us with photos, stories and personal anecdotes about the fascinating people, places and culture that make up the small coastal country of Suriname.  An hour later, many of us, given the chance, would sign on the dotted line without a backward glance and ask for the details later. 

It’s a big job—fostering an across-the-board cultural exchange between South Dakota and Suriname—but if anybody can pull it off, clearly Tracy Settle’s the guy.  In fact, after exploring Tracy’s impressive 20-year military career, it seems that all of his professional, military and real-life experiences have been leading up to this particular job.  He’s a get ‘er done kind of guy—and won’t, fittingly, “settle” for anything less.

(Read the rest of this story in Summer ‘07 FACES)