Month: June 2014

Well, this may be the most interesting week I have had since I started the blog, almost 4 years ago. Only time will tell if I have found the true mind body connection, but if this is it, then this game is goofier than even I thought it was. Played four rounds this week and began with an 82 at the easy Fort Cherry and was headed for an even worst round the next day at Scenic Valley until the 15th hole. From that point on I began to do something that I continued  for the rest of the week. I finished the final 4 holes 1 under par, but still only managed to shoot 81. Then at South Park, I shot 77 and at Buffalo shot a 75, and I can say all my drop shots were do to a lack of concentration. This lack of concentration was brought about by the fact, that what I have been doing the last 40 holes is so bizarre, that it is throwing me for a loop. I usually give things a longer trial period before I reveal what I am doing, but this week coming up will be it. I should be able to get in 5 rounds this week with the holiday, and if the weather co-operates.  If I continue to play  well this week, then I will discuss this in next Sunday’s blog.

One of the things that has happened is that I have all new distances for my irons now, and that has been difficult getting use to. Plus my mind was wandering everywhere on certain shots today, which caused me to make some very bad shots. Despite this I still managed to shoot one of my better rounds of the year a 4 over 75. One of the big pluses is that the game has become more fun. The thing that I am doing now has had a positive effect on all aspects of my game and has improved my chipping immensely. Now, 40 holes is still way to little of a sample to say this will become the permanent way I will play golf, but it has been exhilerating non the less. It goes against all good teaching and advice but at least for now it has given me new hope. Like I wrote before, this game is even goofier than I have ever imagined. It will be most interesting to see what this week brings. Happy golfing, skip to the lou my darling.

Its been a busy 2 weeks with lots of golf. Not very good golf but its good to play a lot. Here are the scores of the last 2 weeks, 78,82,77, 85, 88, 78, 81 and 78. Obviously I have not find the key to the mind body connection. I thought I was on to something many times, but each time I was just whistling in the wind. I will admit some of the high scores have been because of this search for the mind body connection, which have failed, or had some brief success only to  fail miserably. I have been putting pretty well during this stretch, with the exception of the 85 round where I had 5 three putt greens in a row.

Now I would like to discuss a couple of things about the recent U. S. Open. Now this is not to take anything away from the dominant victory of Martin Kaymer. It was a truly great performance. But missing the fairway in this Open was a lot different than in previous Opens. There was more of an element of luck involved. Lets say the Open would have been much closer and two players came to the 72ond hole tied for the lead. With Open pressure being what it is both players miss the fairway. One player winds up with a sandy lie where he can hit a pretty much normal shot. The other player only a few feet away end in a clump of whatever and can barely move the ball. With normal Open rough both players would have each had to punch out. I hope we don’t see any more Opens with this sandy off fairway grounds.

The other thing is something I heard a lot during this broadcast of this Open which reinforced one my beliefs that you can not really see the difference between a good swing and a bad swing. Many times I would hear” There’s a nice balance swing” and the ball would go in the rough or some other place of trouble. Just like it is hard to really see a good putting stroke. The difference is the result is much quicker, so the announcer always makes a comment on the stroke after the result of the putt not before. If he misses the putt it was a bad stroke. If he makes the putt it was a good stroke. I maintain you can not really tell. On full shots where the results take longer the announcer says good swing or bad swing before the results, and many times the results are the opposite of what you would have thought you would have seen, based on the swing comment. This happened a lot at last weeks U. S. Open. Even when they slow down these swings, I would love to see if these experts could guess right what the result of that swing would be.

This week I played 128 holes of golf with some 9 and 11 holes played until dark. The golf muscles are really in prime shape right now and I am feeling good. Now if I can just let my brain know that, I may finally find the answer. The search continues.

After a three week hiatus the blog is back. The game seems to be coming around with the last two rounds of 76 and 74. The last round I finished with 10 straight pars. My turn around can be attributed to the usual suspects, improved putting, better short game, and I am swinging with more rhythm. I am also working on something that may solve what I call the mystery of the wrist cock and so far this has really helped my game. Only time will tell if this is worth printing or this will be failed experiment 245. I am in San Diego right now, visiting grand kids and will be returning to the Burgh on Wednesday to continue the experiment.

Today I would like discuss a totally unrelated subject. Everybody is talking about how golf needs a shot in arm, and I agree. It was ten years ago that Annika played in the Colonial. Then Michelle Wie played in several PGA events and missed making the cut at the Hawaiian Open by one shot. I think there should be a series of about four tournaments through out the year where 10 LPGA touring professionals, play 10 PGA touring pros. The tournaments should be played on classic tracks like Colonial, Pebble Beach, and Congressional. The courses could be set up at around 6800 to 7000 yards and they would be 4 round events. I know the possibility exists that the women could finish 11 through 20 th in every event and how would the men feel if that didn’t happen. I think interest in these events would be at an all time high. Look how much talk is going on about the  2 Opens being played back to back and on the same course. If the powers to be want to create a new and needed spark into golf, this is the way to do it.

Hanging out with grand kids for the first half of the week, and hope to get some golf in this weekend. Speaking of getting a new spark, after a frustrating two months, the boys are back in town. See you next week.