Grip it and Rip it by jimbeauphoto

Changing Your Grip - One particular day, Marci Diehl's youngest son found her in tears. After learning what was the matter, he told her "You need to change your grip." This inspired Marci, a writer and former PGA Tour wife, to not only make some changes in herself, but to explore other golf experiences, tidbits, analogies, slang, axioms and terms actually apply to life lessons for the rest of us. You'll find from Marci's blog that she learned a lot from life on the PGA Tour, except perhaps how to play.

Labels: Golf Blogs, Marci Diehl

Gain 30 Yards Distance In One Golf Swing! - Nick Bayley at Consistent Golf shares a video of Padraig Harrington gaining 30 yards off the tee using the "Happy Gilmore" drive. I pull out this swing once every few rounds to gain a little distance. It really makes you focus on the ball!



Padraig explains, "The best player in the world always tends to be the longest hitter or close to it - he always has a length advantage. Because I plant a little bit like a javelin thrower in my Happy Gilmore, I get a much better stretch and then my left hip stops much quicker so I get that acceleration."

Labels: Golf Blogs, Happy Gilmore

As of this month, I've now played golf for exactly 4 years. It took me a year to reduce my index to 8, another year to get down to 4, and as of today, another 2 years to get down to 2! I shot my first 4-under 68 today and finally broke through the 2 handicap barrier to a get to a personal best 1.6 index! The key? Lots of golf and making lots of putts!


Desert Willow Golf Resort, Palm Desert

Last week, my wife and I drove to Palm Springs for a small vacation. She spent the mornings at the pool, I headed out for golf. We then enjoyed the afternoons and evenings together. We planned to stay for a week, but after spending four days in 100+ degree heat, we headed home early and continued our vacation at home here on the California Central Coast. I just finished playing my 8th round of golf in 10 days!

While in Palm Springs, I played Tahquitz Creek, Terra Lago, Cimarron, and Desert Willow. Tahquitz Creek's Legend Course provided a nice, affordable warm-up for the following rounds. I shot 78, loosing all my strokes to par in the middle of the round after pushing practically every drive right. I finally found my driver on the 450 yard par 4 18th where I finished with a birdie. Terra Lago's North Course beat me up on the front nine where I found myself in sand on practically every hole! My driver was on all day, but I just couldn't score. I found every possible way to follow up an incredible drive with a bogie! I doubled 18 to finish with a disappointing 83. But the following day, I played the tips at Cimarron and finished just 3-over, even after loosing a ball on the final hole!

But I saved the best for last. I played my final round at Desert Willow's Firecliff Course with a pleasant couple from Vancouver. I was even par on the front nine, but managed to throw in 3 double bogies on the back nine thanks to a few errant drives. With one birdie on the back, I came into the 513 yard par 5 18th at 5-over. I hit a bit of a hook off the tee, leaving a hefty 250 yards to reach the green in two. There was a narrow opening to the green with a lake to the right. After letting my good round get away from me, I decided to go for it.

I hit a 3-wood right where I was aiming, leaving me just short and left of the green. As I walked to my ball, I observed that we had quite a gallery seated outdoors at the restaurant in the clubhouse up on the hill above. I got my focus back on studied my upcoming shot, a 60-70 foot chip breaking hard to the left near the hole. I picked a spot, looked down at my ball, and took the club back slowly. I made crisp contact, but started the ball a little right of my intended line. After watching the ball get started though, the speed looked good. The ball rolled towards the mound located right of the hole, took a hard left as I anticipated, then continued to roll towards the hole and dropped for eagle! An applause erupted from the restaurant! Not only did I eagle the final hole, I had a gallery to enjoy it with me. The couple I played with even treated me to a beer after the round to celebrate!

My wife and I headed home the following day, but I continued my vacation by playing local courses on Wednesday and Thursday, then returned to work on Friday. I planned to just practice and check out a demo day on Saturday, but ran into three friends and joined them for a late afternoon round from the back tees. I shot a solid 4-over 75 and one of my friends shot his career best round, an even par 71 with a birdie, birdie, eagle, par finish!

Today, I finished my golf marathon, playing in our monthly Men's Club tournament. We played the same tees where I shot my 3-under 69 just 2 weeks ago, but I let go of any expectations of repeating this success and decided only to enjoy the round and hit some good shots.

On the first hole, I hit a horrible hook to the left on this par 4 dogleg right, leaving a lengthy approach. My subsequent shot came up short and right of the green with a back-left pin. I hit a perfect lob wedge that stopped pin high and spun left and rolled in for birdie! Another player in the foursome then chipped in from well off the green for another birdie, and another player then chipped from below the green to within 1 foot! We had a nice start to the round!

I managed to par the next 5 holes, then birdied 7 to get to 2-under, but then came the difficult par 4 eighth!

My drive hit the large eucalyptus tree at the inside corner of the dogleg right, leaving a 210 yard approach. Like the first hole, my approach came up short and right. This time though, instead of holing my chip shot, I came up 15-20 feet short. My long putt for par was on line, but also came up short. Somehow, I missed my 2-foot bogie putt and walked way with a discouraging double bogie to get back to even par!

I let her rip on the par 5 9th, leaving only 220 in. I hit a 5-wood to just in front of the green, pitched to 2 feet and made my putt for birdie! I finished the front 1-under.

Pars on 10 and 11 kept me 1-under, but a horrible wedge from 80 yards out on 12 put me in a deep greenside bunker. A good bunker shot gave me a shot at par, but I settled for bogie and got back to even par. I had 5 holes left to get back under par!

Another good drive on the par 5 13th gave me a chance to reach in 2, but I missed a little left from 220 yards out. I got up and down for birdie to get back to 1-under!

I had a decent chance at birdie on 14, but read too little break and tapped in for par. But on 15, I made a nice downhill breaking putt from 10-15 feet for another birdie! Back to 2-under.

I gave myself another good chance for birdie on 16 after hitting a pitching wedge to 8-10 feet. My right-to-left putt dropped and I was now 3-under!

I missed the green on the challenging par 3 17th, but chipped to 1 foot and saved par.

I walked up to 18 at 3-under with 6 birdies, 1 bogie, and 1 double bogie. Two weeks earlier, I was also 3-under when I approached 18. I often reach this par 5 in 2, but 2 weeks ago, I 3-putted for par. Today I planned to birdie!

I hit an acceptable drive, leaving a 200+ yard carry over a lake to consider going for the green in two. Instead of protecting a good round, I decided to give it a go. I hit a choked up 5-wood, but pulled it left. It didn't look like the ball would carry the lake, but we didn't see a splash. We also didn't see a bounce. Most likely, the ball had come up short and landed in the lily pads bordering the lake.

The twosome in the other cart rode to the other side of the lake to take a look for me. They found my ball just 2 feet over the lake, in the hazard, but playable! I had a pretty good lie and a clear shot at the flag. I stayed relaxed, looked at the flag, visualized my shot, and made my swing. Like my chip on 17, the ball rolled right towards the hole and stopped just 1 foot short. I walked up and tapped in for my 7th birdie of the round, finishing 4-under! I'd just birdied 4 out of the final 5 holes!

My round beat the next best round for the day by 6 strokes! This was not only my first 4-under round, but my first tournament round under par, and my first first-place finish in a tournament! I posted my score and learned I'd finally reached my goal for this fourth year of golf - to break the 2-handicap barrier! My index is now down to 1.6! In my last 20 rounds, I've shot 2 rounds in the 60's, 15 rounds in the 70's, and only 3 rounds at or above 80!

My game doesn't seem that much better than it did one or two years ago. But one difference is my putting! I'm finally putting with trust, and without an attachment to the outcome. I'm just stroking the ball with trust and accepting what comes. The more detached I become, the more my putts are starting to drop!

Labels: Detachment, Rounds

My normal week of golf consists of 9 holes in my Tuesday night league and another 9 or 18 holes later in the week, then an 18-hole round on the weekend, which is often a tournament. This weekend however, I played two full rounds -- no tournaments, just golf with my friends... and I shot my best back-to-back rounds ever! These rounds also bumped my "under-80" streak to an all time high 13 rounds, a streak which started with my 500th round!


Golf with friends by Michael Vaughan

On Saturday, I played with my regular playing partner on one of the easiest golf courses I've ever played (70.8/112, 6642 yards). It's only about 45 minutes from home, but I've never played it before. It's a links course -- wide open, windy, firm fairways, good greens, and no houses! However, the greens were recently punched, so putting was a challenge. Winds were down though, so hitting fairways and greens was relatively easy. I learned quickly to just hit my putts firm, right at the hole.

I started off with a string of easy pars. I hit the fairway, hit the green, made my 2 putts. I finally got a birdie after 4 or 5 holes, then hit a par 5 in 2 from 200 yards out after a good drive and made the putt for eagle! After a couple more pars, I finished the front nine 3-under -- my best ever nine!

I missed a 4 foot birdie putt on 10 to get to 4-under, but a punch mark veered the ball away from the hole with 6 inches to go. I kept my string of pars going until the middle of the back nine, where I failed to get up and down for par on a 220 yard par 3. I then bogied the following par 5 with a poor drive, poor second shot, too much club on the approach, and a poor chip shot. Pars on the final two holes limited the damage on the back nine and got me in with a 1-under 71.

This was my second time ever breaking par on a course I'd never played before!

The next day, I joined some buddies from my hockey team for a round at one of my two home courses. We played the "combo" tees - half white, half blue tees (70.0/126, 6140 yards). It's still a challenging course from these tees, but moving up to the white tees on some of the harder holes certainly makes the course more scorable.

I started the round with a bogie on one (3-putt) and bogie on 2 (chip and 2 putts). On the par 5 3rd, I hit my drive right into some trees, clipped another tree trying to punch out, then clobbered a 3-wood from the rough to get within 40 yards of the green. A perfect shot from a hilly lie in the rough with my lob wedge put me 4 feet from the hole. I made the putt for par. After a poor lag putt, I made a 6 foot putt for par on four to stay 2-over.

Then things got going.

I birdied five by sinking a 20 foot putt, barely missed an 8 footer for birdie on six, but tapped in for birdie on seven after driving the par 4 green and barely missing my eagle putt. My two birdies got me back to even, but a plugged lie in a greenside bunker on the difficult par 4 eighth and failing to get up and down after my next shot resulted in my first double bogie. I then hit an errant drive on the par 5 ninth but recovered nicely with a strong 3-wood from the rough. My following approach came up just short of the fringe in front of the green, but close enough to putt. I drained the 15 footer from off the green for birdie to finish the front with 3 birdies and a 1-over 37.

I parred ten and eleven, then birdied again on twelve from about 12 feet to get to even par. I missed a 4 foot birdie putt on thirteen, but then birdied fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen! Now 4-under on the back nine and 3-under for the round, I hit my 7-iron into the trees on the long downhill par 3 17th. Fortunately, I had an opening to the pin and pitched to about 10 feet where I then made a slippery breaking putt for par!

So I walk up to the par 5 eighteenth 3-under for the round with a career high 7 birdies (I average about 1.5 birdies per round), and I often birdie this finishing hole! I hit my drive 285 yards leaving about 200 yards to the back left pin over a large lake. I decide to go for it. But I bailed right during my downswing with my 4-hybrid to avoid the long carry over the lake, leaving a long 60-70 foot putt from the right fringe. From here my lag putt came up short of the hole, leaving me with a left-to-right breaking 6-foot putt for my 8th birdie and career round of 4-under! I made a good stroke but read too little break and had to settle for a tap-in par.

I finished the back nine with a 4-under 32 and the round with a 3-under 69!

My artful weekend included 36 holes at 4-under par with 10 birdies, 7 birdies in a single round to beat my prior record of 5, my first 3-under 33 for nine holes followed by my first 4-under 32 for nine, and my second-ever round under 70! These two scores also got my index back down to my career best 2.4! A couple more good rounds and I may finally break the 2.0 barrier!

Going back over my Sunday round, I found that I only hit 7 fairways and 13 greens in regulation, but I 1-putted 8 greens! I 3-putted the first and last holes and missed a very makeable birdie putt on thirteen.

An artful round is rarely a perfect round.

Labels: Rounds