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The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer

Only got in one round this week, as the weather turned colder after Thanksgiving. Wednesday was a nice day in the 50’s, and for the fifth straight time I played Scenic Valley, and for the fifth straight time did not break 80 as the putter was bulky for an 83. The only good thing about this scoring stretch, is we are past the time we are supposed to post scores so I don’t have to look at these scores for the next fifteen rounds.  I thought I would have a little fun with this blog and go through the 10 worst experiences we have had on this 86 golf course trek so far. With fourteen courses to go I thought it would be unfair to rank the best 10 experiences because there might be better ones in future days. Hopefully, there won’t be any worse than these 10. Even some of these weren’t too bad because you can’t have a really bad day on the course. Some of these near the bottom came close. Here are the 10 worse experiences over the last 2 years.

10. Blackhawk July 20 2011 Not a bad course but after playing the front nine in 1 hour and 29 minutes they told us we would have to speed up so we wouldn’t hold up the women’s league. They also stopped us twice to tell us which nine to go to. They have 4 nines which they call, are you ready 1,2,3, and 4. This golf course should have a sign in front saying Keep Out.

9. Moon Township. May 12 2011 Just not in very good shape and maybe looked worse because we had played similiar smaller courses that were in very good shape.

8. Westwood.  November 3 2010 The greens were bad the price high no hot dog at the turn and an attitude.

7. Lindenwood September 17 2011. Real pricey, the greens were slow and no service at the snack area even though people were calling anybody back there. Unfriendly starter.

6. Hickory Heights September 15 2011 Not offered senior rate even though on their web site they said they had one. Poor designed course and sullen pro shop staff. Prozac anyone.

5. Strawberry Ridge July 11 2011 Crazy course only in fair shape Take used balls because you are going to lose some.

4. Roseridge July 2 2012. Even though this course made me think of playing in the 60’s the greens were slow not even a 4 on the stimp. Just in bad shape.

3. The Phoenix at Buffalo Valley. September 9 2012. Again just in bad shape and an overpriced hot dog at the turn.

2. Foxwood Acres August 31 2011. No sign, no hot dog, no nothing, terrible condition. Could crabgrass be the new po

1 Kennsington August 12 2010. By far and away the worse experience of the trek. Nine greens were completely burned out, and the fairways weren’t much better. We were not told this and the price was not discounted. No hot dog at the turn, even though we made the turn at 11am. WOW.

I gave the dates if you want to read in more gory details these wonderful experiences I had playing these courses. It looks like the golf will be few and far between now, but you never know. In the next few weeks I will start to discuss the new swing thing I have been doing the past year. See you next week.

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The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer

Another week, where the scoring was not that good, but there were some positive things that happened this week. I hit the ball very well today but 39 putts will kill any round.  I probably swung at the ball as well as I have in long time. A change in the pre shot routine helped tremendously with the swing and the ball striking. I played 18 holes at Mt Lebanon on Thursday and after double bogeying the first hole I went around the rest of the way only 2 over par. It was on this day that I started the new pre shot routine which really helped me take a solid swing at the ball.  On Wednesday at Scenic Valley in the cold again I went around in 86 blows. Today despite hitting 13 greens in regulation, thanks to the putter I could only muster an 82. So I guess I know what I have to work on. The weather looks pretty good this week, so I think I will be able to get in a couple of rounds this week, even though I am the Thanksgiving day chef, which means I will be cooking something everyday this week, but Tuesday. The key to making a big feast is getting things ready days in advance. Yes, it is this time of the year, to give thanks and be thankful. The first thanks is to Tiger Woods for putting Thanksgiving back on the map. What will it be 3 years since that magical day after Thanksgiving  early morning where it was shown that even the great Tiger can’t drive an SUV to0 well when someone is chasing you with a 5 iron. Thank God Tiger was not a bowler.  I am thankful for many things, but not the least of which is my good health. I try not to take for granted feeling good, and being able to play this game at a pretty good level since 1958. Every one that I really care about is also in very good health with no major problems. After it is all said and done, nothing else in life truely matters. I think I will go on Ebay now to find a new putter, it has to be the club.

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The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer

Another week where the weather and daylight limited play. Wednesday went to Scenic Valley where I shot a smooth 82 and went back there today and shot an even smoother 86.  The 82 I can blame a little on the weather as it was cold 42 but today I can only blame that score on my pea brain. Needless to say tweaking the tweak did not work at all, although a lot of my scoring was due to a very bulky putter. Just like I said my pea brain. The debate that I am having with my pea brain right now is whether to talk about the swing thing I have been doing. I probably will write it about in later blogs since I did write about all the assinine things I tried before I find the thing, despite these last two rounds, that has given me the best success I have had on the golf course in a long time. This week is looking pretty shaky weather wise so we will see how much golf I get to play. Discouraged but not defeated this golfer will carry on.

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The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer

Well no golf this week, as from Sunday to Thursday it rained continuously, but fortunately it was a very light rain most of the time so no major flooding. The temps were between 38 and 45 most of the week, but I am not complaining considering what the east coast went through. The burgh came through again, and avoided truly disasterous weather. I am anxious to play of course, but for a little different reason. I have been swinging the club about the same way for about a year now. Despite shooting one of the best rounds of my life a 4 under par 69 at Rolling Acre, I tweaked the swing about a month after that, because of some research I had done on the function of the muscles of the body. After about a month however I untweaked the tweak as I called it, by going back to the original way I was swinging. Now I am about to tweak the tweak. Only a golfer could know what I am talking about. If this tweaking of the tweak (don’t you just love that) works out I may be ready to reveal what I have been doing the last year.  I have been very secretive about this swing thing, only because I want to make sure it is not crap. There is so much out there that is, I do not want to add to the fertilizer. The week coming up is not looking that great with temps barely getting into the upper 40’s but it is suppose to be dry and hopefully I can get out there a couple of times this week. Chomping at the bit, searching for the answer, we’ll see if I get a little closer this week.

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The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer

A beautiful weather week that turned nasty on the weekend, so just two rounds of golf played this week. Wednesday went to Quicksilver and pretty much stunk out the joint and staggered around to an 84. On Thursday went ot Butlers Woodside and shot a much better 74. This cold dreary wet weather looks like it is here to stay for awhile, so it looks like there might not be much golf played week this either. As I look back on this year it has been a period of the most solid golf I have played in a long time. Is this due to the new method of swinging the golf club or is it due to the fact that I have swung the same way for over 12 months. That answer will determine how much I write about this new swing thing over the off season. I am optimistic, that there is some golf left for the rest of this season, which will help in deciding what I will do. Mean while, the mental game seems to be as perlexing as ever. This year I will have dropped my handicap from the mid 5’s to the mid 3’s, a definite improvement but I have been there before. I have shot the most consistant golf with many rounds between 74 and 78.   I have done all that with suffering through the chip yips and missing more than my share of short putts. So beside putting on some finishing touches on the physical side of the game, I am hoping to find the answer to why we can’t function on the golf course, at times. What makes this game so damn exasperating. The search continues.

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The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer

Finally played a new course this week, as we traveled to Norvelt Golf Club, in Novelt, Pa. about a 70 minute drive. This course was a very pleasant surprise. The course plays about 6600 yards from the blue tees has many diverse holes and was in very good condition. The big surprise was the greens were the fastest we have played during this 2 year plus trek, as they ran a solid 9 on the strimp. The greens had some good slope on them too, so getting above the hole was deadly. The fairways were in great shape and the roughs were grown in well. The course was very hilly and had some really up and down holes.   The course did have some blah easy holes, but more than made up for it, with some great scenery and some very tough spectacular holes. The greens were the thing. It took 86 courses to finally have truly fast greens. The hot dog at the turn was mediocre at best, but I would rather have great greens. I have already experienced the great dog and  just fair greens at Firestone Farms. The only negative note was because of some lack of course knowledge, and some occasional poor ball striking, my 16 consecutive rounds in the 70’s came to end with an 82. Pete had an 84 and with great weather we had a very enjoyable day. This course was worth the trip. Today I went to Rolling Acres  and got back in the groove with a 3 over 76 but it leads to talk about what I consider the most frustrating part of this game, namely the short putt. I missed a couple of real shorties today.  Even when I shot the 69 at Rolling Acres this year I missed a couple of short putts, with one being around 2 feet. First lets define a short putt. I consider a short putt anything from 18 inches to 4 feet. I probably have even missed putts shorter than 18 inches but lets stick to that distance frame. The two most famous short putt misses in the history of modern golf is Doug Sanders at the British Open in the sixties, and Scott Hoch at the Masters in the nineties. What is amazing about both of those putts, is at the most they were 2 feet, and neither player even touched the hole. I’m not being critical because I do this all the time. So what is it about the short putt, that even brings golfers at the top level to their knees. I am going to touch upon some things that make short putts unique and hope to have some answers to the problems, which I do not have now. The short putt puts you in the “should” mode, like you should make it. If you miss a putt in the 5 to 10 foot range, even though  you may be disappointed you still know that it can happen. But when you get inside the 4 foot range, then you think you “should” make all of them, and when you don’t, it can be a confidence shaker. The short putt increases your decision making processes. On a longer putt you are thinking optimum speed. If  you miss it you want the putt to stop close to the hole. But on the short putt you got to think about hitting it a particular speed. The two extremes would be to die the putt in the hole or bang it in the back of the cup. This also will affect the way you read the break of the putt. Finally, the short putt, is just flat out, the most important shot of the hole. It is the final, hopefully, shot of the hole. Miss this and there is no tomorrow. Golf’s version of sudden death. Except it can happen 18 times and the death is your score. Well, with that happey note, I will leave you for another week. Eighty six down and fourteen to go.

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The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer

Back in the Burgh after a great week in San Diego with the grandkids. The best part of the week was that I got to play golf with my daughter on Monday morning with the kids in school and pre school. We played 9 holes on this executive course which had three par 4’s and six par 3’s. My daughter did amazingly well considering she had not played in about 5 and half years. She was able to muster up a 42 thanks to some great tee balls and very nice chipping. She had 2 pars and did have some bad holes but overall played very well. I shot an even par 30 with the help of some great putting. Got back to Pittsburgh very late on Friday night and was in no shape to play on Saturday but got to Scenic Valley today on a very nice fall day with temps in the mid 70’s. It was a very ho hum day with 7 bogies and a chip in birdie for a 78. This week I should get back into the swing of things and may even be adding a new course or two. The weather is looking pretty good for mid October. The search for the answer will continue in earnest this week.

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The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer

The blog is coming from San Diego tonight, as I am visiting the grand kids and golf will be taking a back seat for the next week. Did get in two rounds this week and they were quite contrasting rounds in play and venue. The first round was at Scenic Valley, and was highlighted by some good solid ball striking with many short putts missed, but some lengthy putts made for birdies, which resulted in a nice solid score of 74. Then I traveled to Bedford Springs for some R and Rm, and played a course called Down River. This course was in very good shape and very flat and pretty wide open. The course was fairly long from the blue tees playing about 6700 yards to a par of 72. The greens ran a 6 on the stimp and were very smooth. I played this course the next day after Scenic Valley, and it was a completely different round. Terrible ball striking with only 5 greens hit in regulation, but the short game which has been a problem all year, jumped into high gear and I managed to shoot a 77 which featured 3 up and downs from sand traps and numerous good chips and pitches from some very difficult positions. Bedford Springs is about a 2 hour drive, so Down River does not count as one of the 100 courses, but it was a very nice course to play at a very reasonable rate of 25 with a cart. This is another example of just how goofy this game can be. Even though the scores were only 3 strokes apart there was no comparison on how I struck the ball. I will be getting back home on Friday so again I will only be playing one or two rounds this week. The search will continue with the emphasis now on the mental game. I think there are three areas where the answer to this game lies. One, a permanent solution to the yips. Two a permanent solution to the shanks. Three the solution to the proverbial choke. I don’t mean even  the tournament choke, but the choke we all do when we are close to shooting one of our best rounds and we fold up in the last 3 holes. The solution to these problems have not been found and may not even be close. Please don’t mention that Haney book on yips. A  complete waste of book binding. So the search will go on with some hope, but with knowledge that it may never be found.

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The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer

Did not play any new courses this week and in fact because of weather played less than ususal. Three rounds all in the 70’s but nothing spectacular. Started off with a 76 at Riverview, a 78 at South Park from the blues, and today at Highland Springs in Wellsburg, West Va. shot 77. I’m in one of these spells  right now where I am doing all right but make one or two big mistakes which takes me out of shooting a really good round. Tried a new old putter the last two rounds which did not help at all so will be going back to the putter I have used for almost the whole year except for about 4 rounds. The swing really came together today put the putter really let me down, so again the score was not as good as it could have been. No new insights on the mental game to report on either. Obviously the American Ryder Cup team does not have any new insights either. How about Rory showing up about 10 minutes before his tee time and still playing well. That goes to show you it can  be done on any level. Just show up on the first tee and give it a bang. Going to be playing a new course this week for sure but it will be too far away to put it on the list. Hopefully the weather will be a little better but we are getting into that time of the year where it could be anything, but hopefully we have a lot of golf left. We will see what another week of playing this goofy game will bring.  By the way I will be writing the blog from San Diego next weekend as it will be grand kids time again.

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The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer

No new courses were added this week, but a busy week none the less. I played solid if not spectacular golf all week with scores of 77, 77, 73, and 75. My swing is slowly getting back to the feel of mid summer. This week I would like to write about what I feel is the real key to having success with the less than full swing  game and putting. This has nothing to do with technique or a certain method. The key to success in both areas is to make sure that you do not look up to see where the shot is going until you can focus on the spot where the ball use to sit. You do not too be overly conscious of the ball, just the spot after the ball leaves.  In the case of putting you should clearly see the blades of grass that were underneath the ball before you look up to see where the ball is. In the case of the less than full swing you should clearly see the grass that was disturbed by the shot before you look up. In the case of 40 to 80 yard pitch shots you should clearly see the divot before you look up to see where the shot went. Besides seeing a big improvement in the results of your shots you will discover one other amazing thing. Despite not looking up until you focus on the grass where the ball was, you will still see about 75 to 80 per cent of the shot. For example on a putt about 20 feet, you stroke the ball, focus on the grass, then look up and you will still see the ball about 14 to 15 feet from the hole.  On chips and pitches you will notice the same phenomenon. What this means of course, is this really doesn’t take very long. Like a lot things in golf this sounds easier than it really is but if you consciously try this you will see  a great improvement in that area of the game . Like everything else, this is a process and will take some time but if you really do this, the results will come. What’s great about this is you will improve with no change in your technique. I do not recommend for the full swing because it will restrict your swing too much. Try it you’ll like it see you next week.