The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer

Today started the 90 golf course trek through Western Pennsylvania. We started however in Eastern Ohio. The first course is an old traditional course called Copeland Hills which is in Columbiana Ohio which is about 12 miles from the Pennsylvania border. It is a long but fair golf course and the tees we played from today were about 7000 yards long. Just about as long of a golf course that this 60 yr older is willing to play. The golf course was in great condition and even though the greens were slow about a 4.5 on the stimp meter they were very smooth and putted extremely well. There are 4 sets of tees so you can play a much shorter course but even from the front tees this golf course can give you a challenging day. All the holes are tree lined and though the fairways are not extremely narrow you still have to drive the golf ball if you are going to score. It is a very enjoyable course to play and definitely worth a one hour to an hour and half drive. The rate for a senior is 23 dollars with a cart. It is a great golf course for anybody, but a low handicapper would particularly enjoy the challenge of this fair but difficult golf course. Yours truly continued his struggles with a laborous 87. Pete and Ron shot 88 and 80 and we are all single digit handicappers. Donna shot a 92 and she is about a 16. The second golf course we played today was Firestone Farms which is about 5 miles east of Copeland. This golf course is a newer golf course about 10 years old. So naturally  there are less trees and more houses near and around the golf course. This golf course is also in good shape but the greens were not as nice as Copelands. They were just a touch quicker a 5 on the stimp meter but they were very bumpy and definitely had some brown areas. Despite this, the course is very enjoyable to play. The senior rate is 25 dollars with a cart.  Little more room for errant drives and not quite as long as we played the tees that made the course play around 6800 yards. There are tees that will stretch the coures to 7200 yards but we will leave that for the big boys. Everybody in the group did a little better on this course as it is not as tough. I shot an 80 with a  pretty nifty 38 on the back. Pete and Ron shot 80 and 79 respectavly. Donna shot 89. The hot dog winner was definitely Firestone if no other reason the condiments. Jalapenos, Banana pepper rings, and a much more flavorful dog. Copelands dog wasn’t bad, I have had a lot worse but it couldn’t compare to Firestones. Very nice day 48 dollars for 36 holes. It was hot and humid and we were lucky that the thunder storms went south of us for the most part and we only had about a 10 minute delay on the back 9 at Firestone. Is Firestone worth the trip, barely. Hopefullly they can fix the green problem. Having many houses around the golf course is not something that adds any esthetics to the course. Did I find any answers today. HELL NO! It is all very frustrating. My game is in such disaray that even health insurance couldn’t help it. I started the day by trying to get back to what I thought was some fundentals and ended the day by just hitting the damn ball. The putting today was bad but I had good speed all day but really could not buy a putt. The short game was worst, and well, with the heat and the humidity I mostly thought all day that at least bowling alleys are air conditioned. So it is back to drawing board but I am lost.      

 

During the next 24 months I hope to play 90 different golf courses in the Western Pennsylvania area. These golf courses are all public golf courses and will be no more than an hour and a half drive from my home which is about 5 miles south of Pittsburgh. These are all regulation golf courses with the shortest being about 5800 yards and we will play from tees when this is possible which will make the course play  about 6700 to 7000 yards. Will not play from tees that are over 7000 yards long. I have been playing this game for 53 years missing one year in 1964 and not playing from October of 1994 until May of 1996. Some years I have played more than others. Some years over this period of time I have played as little as 12 to 15 rounds and other years I have played over a 100 rounds. Golf is one of the oldest games known to man and I still think we really don’t know how to play the game on any level even at the highest level which is the PGA tour. On each of these blogs I will give an example of why this game for lack of a better term is just plain goofy. About 13 years ago there was a young man who won one of the biggest golf tournaments on the PGA tour by a whopping 12 strokes. After such a dominating performance he spends the next 12 months changing his swing. Now he goes on to dominate the golf world but what would people be saying if he had not won another major tournament. Why did you change your swing. The young man of course was Tiger Woods. Why would you go through a major swing change for the next 12 months when you just had won the Masters by 12 strokes. Tiger addresses this by saying he wanted to get better but how much better can you get when you destroy the field at a major championship. Granted he went on to win more Majors including a unprecedented 4 in a row. Do you think he could of done that if he didn’t change his swing, we will never know but its what makes golf a goofy game. Other players have done similiar things after having great success on the PGA tour with not as good of results. In fact some have been career ending moves. What makes an individual do this when he is having success at the highest level of golf I will never know. I am in one of the worst stretches of play in my life. My handicap has risen from 2 to 5 which takes a pretty prolonged period of worst than normal scoring to do something like that. It has been very frustrating to say the least. Talk about swing changes. I change my swing on every shot. Do I expect to find the answer to what makes this such a goofy game. HELL NO! But I think this is kind of a cool thing to do and then maybe I will pack up the clubs and do what every golfer wants to do and few actually do and that is to throw bag clubs and ball in a body of water. I will give a short critique on all the golf courses I will be playing including “How is that hot dog at the turn?” I will make comments on the condition of the greens and the course and how overall enjoyable the course is to play.