The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer

Having a great  week in San Diego with the grandkids. I thought this would be a good time to give a little  synopsis of the blog. I started this blog in August of 2010 with a two fold purpose. One was to keep me playing. Even though I have a played this game a long time, over 50 years I had 2 brief breaks. One was in 1964 because I was helping my Dad with a major remodeling project. I then quit playing from October of 1994 to May of 1996 for various reasons not the least of which was frustration. The interesting thing I discovered, was that I did not miss the game at all. In retrospect I should have sat out another year but came back that year at the urging of golf buddies. When I told people I was going to quit playing for awhile I got various reactions, including had I joined some religious cult where I had to give up something I really liked. I wonder if anybody got this reaction when they quit bowling.   When I came back, I came back with a vengeance. I played in many golf tournaments, had some intense instruction in 2004 and 2005 but again was getting very frustrated with a lack of progress. I was about ready to quit again for good when I came up with the idea to play all the public golf courses with 90 minutes of my house. I came up with the number 90 for the number of courses because it would be 90 courses within 90 minutes. I thought I would be able to do this in about 1 year. Naturally it has taken a lot longer than that. Then I moved the number up to 100. The other purpose was to try to find a way to make this game easier and less frustrating. I have read golf instruction books and articles and have done pretty intense research on the golf swing. Recently I have found what I consider the key to the golf swing and I have described this in previous blogs. Now it is on to the mental game and the less than full swing game. There are  two things that make golf totally unique.

There is no opponent that can influence the results of your play.

There is no standard of a playing field. Just think if they moved the foul line in basketball, the pitching mound, changed the size of football field or width of the goal posts.

The big question I have right now is do we put too much emphasis on the mental game. Golf instruction has become so technologically advanced that there is not one movement of the swing, the pitch, the chip, or the putt, that has not been dissected to the minutest detail. You would think that if you are having a physical problem with your swing that with a good instructor it would be discovered. If everything looks good then your problem is in your head. I am not too sure that is correct. In the coming weeks I will see if I can prove this premise. Last week I quoted an article about advice to hit the ball with a blank mind. This article was written in a magazine The American Golfer that was published between 1920 and around 1935. This advise was given by Stuart Maiden, “the wee Scotsman” in 1922. Stuart Maiden was Bobby Jones’s only instructor. When I say I have researched the golf swing I am not kidding. I will be in San Diego through Wednesday and I will be back on the links by Thursday and adding new courses the following week.   

The grandkids went back home on Tuesday and we had a great week. Golf got into full swing with 4 rounds played but not much success in unraveling the short game mystery. The scores were mediocre starting with 82 and 76 on Wednesday, 81 Thursday and an 80 today. The ball striking is very good but the chipping and putting are just brutal and some of the new things I have tried have failed miserably. A lot of this is between the ears and maybe that will be more of the focus this week. In about 10 days I will be heading out to San Diego to see the grandkids for a week so I don’t see me playing any new courses until I get back May 8th. So far I played 86 golf courses within 90 minutes of my house over the last 2 and 2/3rds year with the goal to reach the 100 mark. Of course during this 86 course trek I have been searching for the answer to make this game play a little easier. The full swing I have found it, which I have covered in previous blogs, but that still leaves the less than full swing game and the brain game, which some people refer to as the mental game. With only 14 courses left time is running out. I have always said if I don’t find the answer by the end of the trek I will throw my clubs into the lake. Of course the final course better have a lake near the 18th green. And yes one of the remaining 14 does have a lake near the 18th green so it won’t be hard to figure out what the last course will be. But on a more positive note maybe I will find the answer. Ah yes, the brain such a wonderful device. Too bad we don’t know very much about it. Do they still do lobotomies? Now theres an idea. Jack Nicholson didn’t look too bad at end of One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. I wonder if he putted better.

With the grandkids visiting, it was a slow week on the circuit for me personally but wow did the Masters make up for that. I had one 9 hole round and an 18 hole round on Wednesday at Village Green. I shot 79 with minimal short game improvement but working again, on something new, so will see what happens this week, as golf will get into full swing on Wednesday. My 3 year old grandson practices his golf swing constantly. I did ask them what the answer to golf was, but they had no idea what I was talking about, and just walked away.   There has been so much written and discussed about the Tiger controversy that I want to write about the subject on a more general level. These call ins about rules violations is nothing new. Paul Azinger and Craig Stadler were victums of these call ins. What I have a problem with, is the decision to assess penalties or disqualifications were made the next day. In every instance the rules committee had all the information they needed that evening on the same day. Instead of sitting down for however long it took and hashing it out, the ruling bodies went to dinner had a few drinks, maybe even got laid(that is if ruling bodies of golf are even interested in such things) and had a good nights sleep. In other words all rulings and decisions should be made on the day of play and the rules committee should deem those rulings final. Nobody should ever go to bed thinking they shot one score and wake up the next morning to find out that it is not true. I feel this happens because committees are just lazy and don’t want to finish job. Not in any other sport where rules are brokien or calls are missed are things changed the next day. Yes I know that games can be played under protest and every once it awhile something changes but it is very rare. I also know the rules of golf is like the holy grail but there comes a time where common sense has to take over. What if some one had a video camera and saw a rules violation that no network camera caught. Then this person decided not to make it public for 6 months and this was the player that won the tournament.  Would the rules of golf put in a statue of limitations or would the player be stripped of his title. What happens happens and when the clock stikes 12 the results are final. In the meantime the search continues.

Well, you could say that the season got into full swing this week as I got in 3and 1/2 rounds of golf this week.  One of the rounds was probably ill advised because it was barely 40 degrees and even though the sun was out there was enough of a wind that made it feel like it was in the 20’s. With the way I played, the whole week was ill advised. I had a total collapse of the short game, which led to rounds of 86, 82, and 87. Needless to say it’s back to the drawing board for the short game. My long game wasn’t too bad considering the condtitons but the short game was was was so bad, that well, let me tell you in a different way. Put any little blues melody you want while I’ll tell you

                                  I GOT THE SHORT GAME BLUES

                                 THE LONG GAME IS PRETTY TRUE

                                I WANT TO GET UP AND DOWN IN TWO

                                 BUT I GOT THE SHORT GAME BLUES 

 

                                         I TRY TO FIND THE CURE

                                        BUT I AM NEVER TO SURE

                                         I   HAVEN’T GOT A CLUE

                                       WHY I GOT THE SHORT GAME BLUES

 

                                             I GET CLUBS THAT ARE NEW

                                BUT NOTHING HELPS THE SHORT GAME BLUES

                                         AFTER THE ROUND I HAVE 6 BREWS

                                  BECAUSE I GOT THE SHORT GAME BLUES

The grand kids are coming in this week so that should cheer me up and the search for the answer will be renewed with more vigor than ever. Maybe a 3 and 5 year old have the answer. You can be damn sure I am going to ask them.  

                                                                                               

The last day of March, thank God. Last year at this time I had played 8 rounds of golf and numerous 9 hole rounds. This year with yesterday’s round I have played 2. Yes, it was a balmy 53 degrees yesterday, and in the afternoon I made it out to Indian Run. After playing fairly well for most of the day, I stumbled home with a bogey and double bogey, but still managed to shoot 77. For the early season I continued to drive the ball well and the putting was very good. At the end, indescision and loosing my tempo caused my final 2 hole collapse.  The weather is going to turn nasty again for a couple of days but then it looks like toward to the end of the week, the season may get into full swing. A slow week on the circuit as the “big” golf story is “Dufnering”. That could be our last image of good old Jason if his game doesn’t start impoving. It will be interesting to see if all the imitators ever win another golf tournament. We could call it the Dufnering Jinx. One thing for sure he looks relaxed but what the hell do you think he’s concentrating on. Maybe this could be his new position to read putts. Of course he would have to lean against his caddy.  Would his caddy get on all fours or would Jason just lean against the back of his legs. Is that against the rules?  I could see it now the Dufner rule. I wonder if  he will Dufnering  while waiting between shots. Will someone  invent the Dufnering toilet. Well let’s hope we get back to more golf oriented stories, like Tiger’s new girl friend finding him in bed with another women. Hey, maybe both of them will be in the Dufner position. What a picture that would be. Maybe I am looking for the answer in the wrong place. See you next week.  

The weather continues to be ungolf like, but I was able to walk 9 holes yesterday under sunny skies and temps in the mid 40’s, but with enough of a breeze to make it feel in the 30’s. You can tell that Pittsburgher’s are getting itchy, because when I finished up, there was someone on every hole with a wait on the first tee at around 3:45pm. I ususally do not go into a round shot by shot because I find this somewhat boring, but it was interesting how this round evolved. The opening hole at Mt. Lebanon is a par 3, and with the wind crossing and the temp being what is was, I decided to hit a 5 iron where I wound normally it 7. Even though I thinned it a little bit, it was hit well enough to get to the front part of the green. I proceeded to 3 putt.On the next hole a difficutl par 4, I hit 2 mediocre shots, and a poor pitch and 2 putted from about 30 feet for bogey number 2. On the next hole a shorter easier par 4, I really butchered 2 shots and had a difficult little pitch to a short sided pin. I hit a pretty good shot, which I thought would turn out better than about 10 feet past the pin. By now, with the wind and the cold, my mood was quickly deteriorating very fast. Low and behold I made the 10 footer for par. The next hole a short par 5, I hit  2 good shots, and was only 30 yards short of the green. My pitch was poor but I managed to 2 putt for another par. The next 3 holes were routine pars, good drives, on the green, and 2 putts.  The eighth hole is solid par 4, that today was directly into the wind. I pull hooked my drive along the left tree line, but I was fortunate to have clear shot to the green, I hit a hybrid with just a little to much hook on it, just short and left of the green, which left me below the green to a short sided pin. I hit a beautiful pitch just on the front edge and stopped only 5 feet from the hole. I made the putt. The last hole is short par 4 which in the summer is drivable but not today. I hit a pretty good drive, but the wind pushed it a little left, where it hit some limbs and dropped further to the left. Again I had an opening and hit a 50 yard bump and run on the right side of the green, and 2 putted for the par. After the opening 2 bogeys, I then made 7 straight pars. What this all means, I am not too sure. Here is  food for thought. If I had not made that 10 foot par save, would  I have made the next 6 pars in a row. Or would that have  sent the round into a further tailspin and the bogey train would have continued for another 2 or three holes. Before I made that 10 footer, I was not thinking that this 9 holes was going to end up only 2 over par. I think we all have had this experience where a round does not start out all that well, but then we turn it around and shoot a fairly decent number.  The opposite will happen when we come out of the gates flying, only to come to a screeching hault by a string of bogeys, or a really bad hole. Since the weather is not going to get any better around here any time soon, I will have plenty of time to think about this one.  

Not a big week for golf as the weather was not co-operating, and it is not looking very good for the coming week. I have the grandkids coming in this week so golf would have to take a back seat anyway. I was able to walk 9 holes on Monday and Friday so every little bit helps. Still fine tuning the short game and the putting and both are coming along. Last week, I forgot to tell about one unusual thing that happened in the opening 18 holes of the year. In fact in over 50 years of golf, this has never happened to me before. The 7th hole at Scenic Valley is a par 4 with a sharp dogleg to the right. It is a short dogleg so you can drive through the dogleg into some trees. You either have to lay up  with a 3 wood, or bend a driver around the corner, and risk going off into the woods on the right. My playing partner hit a low drive down the right side, that looked like it was going to be all right, but when we got down there, we could not find the ball. He had to go back to the cart to get another ball. While he was doing that, I continued to look around and found what looked like a relatively new ball, just sticking out from the dead leaves. I thought this could be his ball, but when I picked it up, it was a ball that I had hit in there last December. It had my OSU marking, and it was a ProV 1, that was marked with a high school golf’s team name on it, that I had been given as a gift. Not bad, lose a ball in December, find it in March. I guess the 5 minute rule is up. I have never had that happen before. Sometimes when I have played the same course 2 days in a row I have even looked for a ball the next day that I lost but have never been successful. That ball sat there for 3 months. You never know what your going to run into when you play this goofy game.