Month: July 2013

This week I thought I would index the golf courses that I have done over the last 3 years. After each course will be a number 1 through 5, with 1 being a very poor, 2 poor, 3average, 4 good, and 5 excellent. The ratings are based on what I call the overall experience not just the golf course. This includes, the course, the condition, the facility, the staff, the hot dog, and the price we paid to play.  Later I will rate just the golf courses. The month and year was when the full review was done.

August 2010  Copeland Hills 4   Firestone Farms 3    Reserve Run 3  Kennsington 1 Castle Hills  4   Tam O’ Shanter 3

September 2010  Riverview  4      South Park  3

October 2010   7 Springs 3

November 2010   Cedarbrooke Red 3   Westwood 2

March 2011 Grandview   3

April 2011   Butlers Lakeside 3  Scenic Valley  4  Meadowink 3   Murraysville 2

May 2011  Rolling Green 3  Chippawa 3  Oak Lake 3   Moon 2   Linden Hall 4

June 2011 Cedarbrooke Gold 3    Cloverleaf 3    Madison Club 3  Manor Valley 2   Fort Cherry 3   Pheasant Ridge 3  Rittswood 3

July 2011   Village Green  3   Hartmans 3  Strawberry Ridge 2   Highland Springs 4  Millcreek North 5 Millcreek South 5   Ponderosa 4   Blackhawk 2   Rolling Acre 4  Beaver Creek Meadow 4  Turkana 4

August 2011 Mannitto 4    Quicksilver 4  Lake Arthur 4    Indian Run 3   Oak Tree 3   Yankee Run 5   Castle Shannon 3    Blackmoor 3  Foxwood Acres 1

Sept 2011   Lindenwood 2  Rolling Fields 3  Hickory Heights  2    Fairway Riverlinks 3  Becwood Hills 3  Krendale   3

October 2011 Red Oaks 3   Spring Hill 4   Stonecrest 3  Foxrun 4   3 Lakes 2

November 2011 Timber Ridge 3  Links at Spring Church 2

March 2012 Cranberry Highlands 3   Beaver Valley  3

April 2012  Suncrest 3

May 2012  North Park 3   Birdsfoot 3  Champion Lakes 3  Buffalo 4    Old Stonewall 3

June 2012 Donnegal Highlands 4     Pine Lakes  4   Knoll Run 4

July 2012  Lake Vue North 3  Rose Ridge 1   Lenape Heights 2   Totteridge 4

August 2012 Pittsburgh North 4   Spring Valley 3  Green Meadow 4    Dubbs Dread 3

September 2012  Pittsburgh National 3  Saxon 3   Phoenix at Buffalo Valley 1  Stoughton Acres 4

October 2012 Norvelt 4     May 2013 Conleys 3

As far as the rest of my week went, my mouth was more interesting than my golf game, as on Thursday, I had to have a cracked root removed and a bone graft put in, OOUCHH! Since then I have played 63 holes. I am one tough hombre. Of course drugs help too. My scores for the week were 79, 76, 76, and today a big fat 81. The philosphy of golf was what I was afraid it was, bullshit. However because of it’s failure I feel I made have made some progress on the mental side. My short game is improving some and the scores will come. Hopefully we can hit some new courses this week. See you next Sunday.

With the grand kids in town and a big morning storm on Wednesday, only played 2 rounds this week. Shot a 75 at South Park and a 78 today at Rolling Acre. I totally psyche myself out today on having a good round. I don’t want to get into how I did this, but believe me I did. I continued my new golf philosphy and it worked out pretty well. Even though neither score was anything to shout about I continued to hit more quality shots than the score indicated. As I stated last week anytime you are doing something new with your game even a new mental thing you should expect some ups and downs with more downs than ups. Today I also missed some short putts that hurt and again this new philosphy is even being applied to putting which at times has caused some bad putts. I think for the higher handicap player this is the number one reason he does not improve his game. They just can not develope the attitude that in order to get better you sometimes have to get worse. Any time you change something in your game particularly if you have been playing the game for any number of years, it is not going to feel right and it will lead to some poor shots and higher scores. But if you know what you are doing is sound golf fundementals, then you must gut it out for a period of 4 or 5 rounds, depending on how much you play, and eventually you will be rewarded with lower scores. I have often criticized pros for changing their swings, but even those, where it seems  to work out, there is always that period of adjustment, where their overall game suffers. To me it is a simple fact. In order to get better you are going to be worse for a certain period of time. If you can not accept this then you going to have to accept the fact that your handicap will always be double digits. This is why I like what I am doing now. It does feel akward. Even though I hit many quality shots I have hit some really bad ones. This has helped me with the chip yips but not completely. I made some great up and downs today, but also messed up some routine chips. Next week will be back to normal if the weather co-operates and I have some real challenges coming up. We will see what the new philosphy brings.

Still a little bronchial this week, with a persistant cough but felt well enough to get in four rounds of golf this week. Unfortunately the rounds of 79, 81, 81, and 80 were mediocre at best. The 80 was at South Park where just a couple of weeks ago I shot even par 72. However I see some light at the end of the tunnel. No, it is not from looking at the sun to long. The round at South Park introduced a brand new philosophical approach to the game. Everytime I hit a bad shot or miss a short putt, I go up to the closest person I can find, even if they are not in our group, and spew a slew of profanities right in their face. Even though this makes me feel a lot better, I have been having trouble getting a foursome together. I really didn’t do this, but wouldn’t you just want to do this just once. But I do have a brand new approach to the total golf game. Even though my score did not show any improvement, I hit some of the most quality shots I have hit in a long time, espescially with the irons. Like any new thing you are going to do with your game, there are going to be some ups and downs. Toward the end of the round I made some tactical blunders trying to “save” the round and the wind was tricky changing directions often which I failed to pay attention, which cost me some shots. This approach will be in all facets of the game including putting. On one side of the coin this approach is nothing new, but the way to go about accomplishing this will be a little different let’s say. Naturallly the next few weeks will determine if this approach is something that is worth writing about, or just dust in the wind. Because of this approach I will not play in a couple of tournaments that I had planned to play, because I do think I am on to something here, that will help with every facet of the game. This is all a mental process and has nothing to about any technical part of the game.  At least for now I don’t want the added pressure of tournament golf to affect how I am going about doing this. Depending how things are going I may play in something the end of the month. Hopefully my health continues to improve and we will see how this works out. The grandkids are in town this week, so the golf will be somewhat limited this week but I think I will manage about 3 rounds this week. The game has a little energized feeling and the next few weeks should be interesting as the search gets real serious.