It was nice to see Phil Mickelson win the British Open with some great play down the stretch and fantastic putting the whole day. My week was not near as exciting as I got three rounds in this week. I shot 80, 77, and 76. The 76 today was particularly boring with 14 pars and 4 bogies. The short game blues came back today, but the week was different than planned, because in about the middle of the second round I discovered a major swing flaw, which was a little surprising, considering how simple I have made the golf swing. However the arms just refuse to die. My arms were causing my swing to get out of whack and then with today’s round, trying to get back the swing, I lost my new philosophy of golf. This new “philosophy” may never be told because it could turn out to be a bunch of bullshit. It still goes back to the problem, which comes first the the technique flaw or does some mental flaw cause the physical flaw. I admit I am at a loss to explain the issue or come up with the answer. What was happening was that my arms were starting the swing which caused my plane to get too flat. Once a I made sure that turning my left shoulder down and around to start the swing, I started hitting the ball much better. I have been doing this, I fear for at least the last 6 weeks without even knowing it. I think I have been experimenting with the mental side of the game so much, that I let myself develope this swing flaw. Anyway this has been a weird year, with weather, getting a flu bug and some of the guys I play with have had injuries or for some other reason have not played a lot of golf. We have about 3 solid months of the golf season left. Hopefully I will make more progress with all this than I did in the first 4 months. The answer seems to be drifting away into the dark recesses of God knows what.
The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer
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.
The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer
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.
The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer
Doing a Saturday blog because yours truly has been felled by a cold flu virus, and there was no golf this week. I am feeling better and Sunday golf will be played, but rather than just write about one round, I thought I would take this unexpected time off to breeze through a few unrelated subjects that have caught my interest lately.
First off with a little more time on my hands I decided to check in on the Golf Channel, which I don’t watch much anymore, and holy shitballs do they have the good looking women on there, now. Who cares about the quality of instruction when you get to watch that from the mid thigh down. That may sound chauvinistic, but I didn’t make them put on those skirts and shorts. I saw the playing with pros with Graeme McDowell and I don’t even know how he could have hit one good shot. I would have died after she took 2 swings. I would have been carted off the course with that frozen smile on my face.
Then there’s the NFL. Even though this week’s arrest for murder is by far the worst, since the Super Bowl, there have been over 2 dozen players arrested, as reported by the Post Gazette. Just think, if they ever decide to do a third version of The Longest Yard it could be based on a true story. If a franchise ever gets into trouble they could move the team to San Quentin. I can see it now the San Quentin Seagulls.
The only good thing about this virus was, it gave me time to research some courses and I found some in Ohio within the 90 minute time frame, so now I have more choices to round out the 100. I guess another good thing about the virus is, it might help explain my horrible round on Sunday. By body and mind was being ravaged and destroyed by this horrible minute creature. See, I knew it wasn’t me. I always said the yips were caused by a virus.
Finally I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about my beloved and up to now at least, pathetic Pittsburgh Pirates. As of June 29th 2013 they have the best record in all of baseball. However with 20 consecutive losing seasons under their belt, I for one do not think that the 82ond win is a given. I have nightmares about them being 80 and 75 and losing their last 7 in a row to sew up season number 21. Right now the city has got baseball fever and I am loving every minute of it. Last year the Pirates were the first team in baseball to be 16 games over 500 in August and still did not finish over 500 and really weren’t even close. We will see if this will be collapse no 3.
Looking forward to playing tomorrow and continuing the search. This break has given me a lot of new ideas. I am sure many of them will find the toilet, but it is sure fun trying them. This week, with July 4th I should be able to play 4 very nice rounds of golf.
The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer
This was one of the goofiest weeks I have had since I started doing the blog. We went to Millcreek this week which is golf heaven. The course did not disappoint and was in beautiful shape. We played 36 holes for 35 dollars with a cart and the weather was perfect. The next day was the 36 hole South Park mens championship. When I was finished, later that evening I went over to Mt. Lebanon and played 13 holes. In two days I had played 85 holes and still did not feel golfed out. As you noticed I have not mentioned any scores yet. I also played Saturday and today. Now here comes the scores with the exception of the 13 holes at Mt. Lebo. 82, 83, 83, 77, 72, and 84. I am at a loss for words here. The 72 is an even par round at South Park from the white tees but it was a very consistant round. I did not take advantage of some of the easier par 5’s but I had 16 pars, a birdie on the tough 235 par 3 13th where I put a 3 wood within 4 ft. of the cup for a 2. I made one bogey on the 6th hole and shot the even par. I made every 4 to 6 ft putt I looked at except one for a birdie on 17. Then today I ballooned to an 84 and was yippy all day on chips and putts. But this doesn’t bother me as much as the fact, this was one of the worst ball striking days off the tee I have had in almost 2 years. I have no explanation for what happened today and for the generally bad play for most of the week. I had worked on some addrees position things and when I shot 37, 38, and 39, for the 27 holes of the South Park event and to follow that up with an even par 72 I thought I might be getting a little closer to the answer. But today shot that out the water. Going to do a new course next week and we will see what happens. The search continues.
The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer
Well quite a father’s day with the U.S. Open being one, which brought the best players in the world to their knees. Justin Rose played the last 2 holes brilliantly and deservedly won his first major. Phil let the easiest hole on the course eat his lunch and it cost him the playoff. It was amazing watching the greatest players in the world have one mental meltdown after another. We are all missing something here. What that is, I have no idea. Players of this caliber should not see their games slide this far backwards not matter what the circumstances. It is too brutal to even talk about any one particlular individual but if you watched the Open you know what I am talking about. It is one thing to see a guy miss a short putt on the final hole to cost him a major like Doug Sanders did in the British Open or Scott Hoch in the Masters, but this was seeing one player after another make one bad shot after another. How about all those missed putts. This was a three round week for me again, due to some inclement weather and extra work committment. I had a blah week with rounds of 80, 77, and 77. After coming off the very nice even par round on Sunday, my Wednesday round represented a complete mental breakdown by yours trurly. I made one mental error after another. It’s not worth going into the specific details but needless to say some pretty good ball striking was completely nullified but by stupid descisions and lack of awareness of what I was facing on a particular shot or putt. I am still in limbo on how much this game is mental and how much is physical. I am still of the opinion that physical flaws or technique flaws then will lead to mental errors. Having said that, I do not think that is what happened out there today to about 15 of the top players in the world. I know Johnny Miller likes to say it Open pressure or nerves but I still think it runs deeper than that. But I do not know what that deeper is. Obviously nobody else does either or somebody would have walked away with the tournament. This week the golf will step up with a 36 hole day on Wednesday and a 36 hole tournament on Thursday so I may play 6 rounds this week. If anybody doesn’t think this game is goofy then please just keep replaying today’s U.S. Open.
The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer
Due to some inclement weather I was limited to three rounds of golf this week, but they were very good rounds, none the less. I shot 75 on Wednesday at Fort Cherry, another 75 at South Park and then shot the best round of the year, a 71 at Ponderosa which was -0.5 on the index. I putted much better this week, with my putting overcoming some chip yips today. The amazing thing about today’s round was that I started bogey, double bogey, and then hit a drive on the third hole, that took an unexpected direct right kick and landed in a fairway bunker from behind. I hit a 7 iron about 10 yards short of the green, pitched up about 8 foot from the hole and made the tricky downhiller for the par. From that point on, I played the last 15 holes 3 under par,with 3 birdies and 12 pars, to shoot the even par 71. Yes I am doing some mental things different but I want to write about something in general that may be a key to everyone being able to play the game at their best level. As you know I am fascinated by some of the odd swings that you see on the PGA tour, past and present. One of the reasons I started this blog was to find a better way to play this game. I was of the opinion, that instruction has failed miserably in helping people improve their games. Today with video you can see about every inch of your golf swing. Bob Rotella states this in his books that despite all the high technology around, the average golfer’s handicap has never really improved over the years. He of course blames this on the mental game. Maybe what the problem is, is not the teaching methods but the student. What I mean by that, maybe we all aren’t accepting some of the idiosyncrocies of our golf swings. In other words why did instructors allow players to continue swinging the golf club in such odd ways. Furyk’s swing, Goydos’s swing, Daly’s swing, and watching Phil’s big driver swing which despite working with Mr compact swing Butch Harman goes way below parallel on his drive. Is there such a thing as a death move in golf. I am not too sure any more. Rick Smith wrote a book about finding your on golf swing and of course there is the one plane and two plane swings but it goes way beyond that. Wouldn’t you like to see Jim Furyk swing a medicus. Do you think he could make one swing without breaking it. Maybe golf doesn’t follow the final step of the mentor-student relationship. That’s where the student no longer needs the teacher. The point is, the key to getting better in golf, is to allow your swing to have a mind of its own. Don’t fight your bodies tendencies. If something feels good don’t worry about it being right. I think the only exception to this is the grip. Of course the grip is not the swing. In future blogs I will write about how I have tried to apply this to my own game. I have quit trying to fight what I perceived as swing flaws and have done a few things that are against some of the golf fundenmentals. I am not totally convinced that this may have been a fluky week but it sure was fun. Some new courses I think will be added this week as we are heading down the home stretch.
The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer
When we last left the goofy game of golf yours truly was brimming with confidence after a 2 over par 75 at Rolling Acre, where I felt I was getting some momentum to my game. Last Wednesday dawned bright and beautiful and after some morning obligations, I headed out to Indian Run for a noon tee off. Just to prove how goofy this game is, as if I don’t already know, the day was a disaster. I thrashed and 3 putted my way to a nice big 84. Pulled drive, wrong club selection, chunked pitch, 3 putt, and wrong club and 3 putt, led to a 7 over start after 5 holes. I righted ship ball striking after that, but the putter kept the score soaring. The road to and from Indian Run is very winding, and its a good thing I had a passenger in the car because it would have been real tempting just to drive in a straight line and see what would have happened. The next day I went back to the scene of the crime and with some improved ball striking all day and slightly improved putting I managed a 78. Today at Village Green, a tougher track I shot 77, with the putter not my friend again. The big impovement the last 2 rounds has been in driving the golf ball. I started to hit down on the ball with the driver. Because the ball is teed up high I do not take a divot but hitting the ball on a slightly descending blow with the driver really seemed to help. You will hear commentators on TV talk about this some, when you hear them talk about hitting the trap draw with the driver. The old school way of hitting the ball with the driver is to feel you are hitting ball at the bottom of the arc or slightly on the upswing. I still do this if I want the drive to be fairly high when the wind is at your back. Trying to hit the ball on a slighly descending blow with the driver, I had two things happen that seemed to help my accuracy off the tee. I had a much lower ball flight and I rarely went left with the shot. I saw no decline in distance, in fact I think a gain 5 or 10 yards at times. I will see how this works in future weeks. The other thing that was of interest this week is that it seems the chip yips are gradually going away. I know, this sounds goofy but check out the title of the blog. The last 12 holes today the putting was at least mediocre and I played the last 12 holes 2 over. What will next week bring, God only knows. I do know the goofiness will continue.
The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer
Even though I like to call golf goofy, the weather took that honor this week. On Friday May 24th, the temperature never got out of the 40’s and winds were around 20 to 30 miles per hour. Unfortunately this was the day of the 2 man scramble at South Park. These weather conditions were just a little too tough for a couple of mid 60 year olds. Pete and I had a bad day all around, getting only one birdie and 7 bogeys, to shoot a pretty lackluster 78, which was near the bottom of the field. This is Memorial Day and with the holiday, the blog is running one day late. The weather remained on the cool side for the rest of the weekend, but nothing as bad as Friday. The week was fairly blah except for today where I was able to muster a 2 over par 75 at Rolling Acre with some hope being shone for the pathetic short game. On Wednesday under 80 degree temps I shot 81 at Quicksilver and yesterday shot 77 at Buffalo. Yesterdays round was particlularly galling because I played very well but the short game was horendous and thus the 7 over par round. I hit 11 greens in regulation and shot 7 over, I’ll let you do the math. Today I hit 12 greens in regulation but did better in the up and down department thus the 2 over par score. I did make some adjustments in the short game technique and although I am not ready to take them to the bank I did see some reason for hope. The putting could be rated fair at best. Still trying to find some mental keys, but I still think the mystery lies it how much of a problem with ones golf game is physical and how much is it mental. Does one problem cause another problem. Can some kind of mental block or problem cause you to make physical mistakes. Or does some technique problem creep in first, that leads to broken confidence and other mental mistakes and blocks. I do not have the answer to this predicament. If you watched the tournament yesterday, you saw one of the leaders, while he was having one of the great rounds of the tournament. chile dip a chip in the bunker, then failed to get the ball out of the bunker, and barely made a 6 foot putt for a double bogey. This cost him the tournament. Boo Weekly, who won the tournament, missed 2 short putts down the stretch, which fortunately did not cost him the tournament. It is amazing, that even the golfing elite will make big mistakes at the worse times. Today’s round was my best round in a long long time. I may not be any closer to the answer but I have learned one thing during this scoring and short game problem. The answer can only be found on the golf course, not the driving range, the putting green, or the back yard. Next week looks like it is going to warm up and I see myself playing 3 to 4 rounds. We will see if I really have some momentum.
The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer
Finally added course number 87 this week as we went to Conley’s which is on Route 8 just south of Butler Pa. This course is part of a group of golf courses that are very close together right there on Route 8, and are about a 45 minute drive. I have reviewed the other courses Rittswood, Suncrest, and Lakevue North. Conley’s is a nice solid golf course that compares favorably with the other courses except for one thing, the price. Not really any senior rate and even with a coupon it was 35 dollars with a cart on a Wednesday, which is about 10 dollars more than the other 3 courses. We did go on “Weinie Wednesday” where the hot dog was free. The course played about 6400 yards from the tips, to a par of 70. The greens were very smooth and ran about a 6.5 on the stimp. There was a good variety of holes and the course had enough trees to make it a good solid challenge. There was some lakes in play and the 190 yard par 3 18th was 190 yards with a long carry over water. This course like all three of the other courses is not worth the trip but if you live in this area you have four solid golf courses to choose from all within a stones throw of one another. The free hot dog was cooked well and the condiments were ok, but the dog would not crack the top 10. We had a threesome with Andy shooting 78, David after a rough front nine came in with a 41 to shoot 89, and yours truly shot a boring 77. The rest of the week for me was just the continuing saga of a frustrating season so far. The rest of the rounds were 80, 79 and an 82 today. The short game still is a major road block to any scoring chances I have. There may be some hope from today, especially with the putting but the short game continues to be just horrible. Next week will be busy with a tournament on Friday the South Park 2 man scramble where Pete and I did pretty well last year finishing 7th in a field of 60 teams. My brain is tired now and it is time to rest, with visions of chip solutions on the horizon.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 