Month: August 2013

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The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer

Another disappointing week with just average play. The rounds went like this: 82 at Lindenwood, 76 Indian Run, 78 South Park and 78 at Rolling Acre today. Nothing new to report on the mental game, only that I’m mental. I thought I would talk about the one thing that I have been doing with some success, and that is the system I devised for choosing the right club. We all know the drill that you should know how far you hit each club but how do you go about that and then how do you apply it to the course. The thing that you read most of the time is to hit about 10 or 20 shots with a particular iron and take the average. But how many times in play do you hit your “average” iron shot. So here is what I have devised and so far it has worked out pretty well. I want to know the distance that my iron goes when I hit my best shot. In other words, what I call my max distance with that club.  Here are my max distances with each club in the bag

3 wood 240     5 w00d 225   7 wood 210     5 iron  195    6 irons  180    7 iron   165

8 iron 150   9  iron  135    PW   120    GW  105    SW  90    LW 75

Now whatever my yardage is to the middle of the green even if it is just one yard beyond my max distance I drop down to the lower club.  Example if I have 151 to the middle of the green I will hit 7 iron. Now naturally if this is a big green and the pin is way in the front and to  the front is 133 then I will hit 8 iron. There will be other factors like wind, elevation and lie but rather than think whether this is one or two clubs different I try to add and subtract yardage and then select the club.  In Western Pa. there are lots of changes in elevation and this has really helped me in choosing the right club. When you try to calculate an average distance with your clubs it is always hard to judge just how bad you miss hit a shot. But when you groove a 7 iron everybody knows that feeling. That is a much more reliable distance to play off of. If choosing the right club has been a problem at times try this method and see if you don’t start getting more shots pin high. This is what I call my small victory buried under a quagmire of defeats. The year is passing fast and I am not getting any closer to the answer. It looks like it should be another big week of golf with Labor Day on the horizon. Labor and golf, Labor and golf the perfect combination.

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The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer

This was a busy but a very blah week.  Played four rounds this week and not any closer to the answer. Started the week by shooting 80 at St. Clair, 74 at Indian Run, 80 at South Park and 81 today at Pittsburgh North. The week was typical of what it has been all year. I had a good day at Indian Run, where I thought I had some good mental progress and ideas, only to have a very bad weekend where these same thought processes turn to rubble. This whole thing brings back memories or should I say nightmares, of when I was trying to find a swing. What I have found frustrating is the search for some kind of mental key or process has affected my ability to execute the shoulder swing. Today was a very bad brain day as I was yippy on most of my putts and even though I hit a lot of good shots , my bad shots were really bad due to a combination of bad swings and bad planning. The only good thing that has happened in the last week or so is that I have come up with a way of selecting the right club that is a little bit unique. If this continues to work well the next week of two I will give out that information. In the meantime I will continue to wander in the deep crevices of my pathetic brain trying to figure out this goofy game. The answer could be just a synapse away. This week looks good weather wise and hopefully I can get in another 4 rounds. Does it rain in bowling alleys?

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The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer

This was a busy week and that is why the blog is a day late. The best way to write about this week is to take it in chronological order. On Wednesday added course number 88 by going to St Jude golf course in Chicora Pa. which was about a 70 minute drive. This was an interesting course but difficult to play for the first time. The course played to a Par of 70 and played about 6500 yards from the back tees. The greens were smooth and ran about a 6 on the stimp. There were many blind shots and doglegs, and to get from one green to the next tee was sometimes a great challenge. Little did I know how well this prepared me for the golf course I would play later in the week in the Poccono’s. On one hole, I even went to the wrong tee box and hit my drive before I realized I had played the wrong hole. At time the holes were very tight and hilly and overall not a very enjoyable course to play. I shot an 82 with most of the time putting myself in some real bad positions due to lack of course knowledge. There was no hot dog and this course was not worth the trip. I was going to play another new course but map quest gave me the wrong directions and then the skies started looking threatening and decided to go home. Then I let the dog out and the skies were better so I went over to South Park and shot a lackluster 75 and just beat the rain.  On Thursday I headed to Indian Run and shot one of my better rounds of the year a 2 over 73. I hit the ball really well and seemed to have my swing down, and short game and putting under control. So on Friday off to the Pocconos I go to play in the United States Golf Teachers Northeast Regional tournament. I had a good nights sleep, got to the course in plenty of time, despite getting bad map quest directions AGAIN, and then had a complete meltdown and shot 92. I could make all kind of excuses for this score. First time playing the course, many blind shots and doglegs, and many in course out of bounds stakes, where I knocked it out of bounds on three holes. But the bottom line I stunk. Unfortunately I was only staying on the second floor of the motel and I figured if I jumped out the window I would probably just break my legs and I would still be alive and in pain. There really isn’t any more to write about this, and today I found out the nine hole course I go to about 1pm to work out issues is closed till about 3 for highschool try outs. My next round is going to be at St Clair which is one tough golf course but at least I know it.   They say there is a reason for everything and maybe a day like I had will help me out in the long run. I have had these days before and it hasn’t helped. But another week has started I have 88 courses down and only 12 to go. See you Sunday.

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The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer

This week I was only able to get 2 rounds in because of getting a re check on my orat surgery and an outing on Friday at South Park, that closed the course. The rounds were not that great an 80 at Madison Club and a 76 at Riverview today. This will mark the third anniversary of starting the blog. I have played 87 courses, found what I consider the key to the golf swing and now in search of trying to figure out the mental side of this game. Along the way I have walked off a golf course after the 12th hole, hurled a sandwedge into the woods never to be found, battled the chip yips and shot a 4 under 69. I have read other golfing and non-golfing blogs and have marveled how everyone struggles at this game but continues to enjoy and love the game. The blog and fellow bloggers have kept me going, at a time when I had really thought I was through with this goofy game. This year has been an odd year so far, in more ways than one. The search for some mental answers has brought my game down a notch, just like the search for a key to the golf swing did. Believe me some of the things I have done trying to find the mental keys have been just bizzare as some of the things I tried with the golf swing. Getting a flu cold bug and having to have a tooth root removed has also slowed some progress. But progress has been  made. Right now I am in the process of losing the chip yips. My new putting technique, more mental than physical is starting to show so slow but steady improvement. My swing has suffered some, from the mental challenges. But today I got back to the shoulders controling the swing. Hopefully I may be on to something that can make this game just a little easier for all of us diehards. At the end of this week I will be playing in a tournament in the Pocconos so the blog may be a day late. Meanwhile keep on swinging, the ball will wind up somewhere.

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