Today I played my best round ever, scoring 5 birdies to shoot my first-ever even-par round from the tips at Monarch Dunes (73.0/137). I've scored 1-under and even-par rounds before, but never from the back tees. In fact, my best prior score at this course from the challenging back tees was a 6-over 77! And today's 71 could so easily have been my first sub-70 round.


Monarch Dunes 1st

After playing my last few rounds in unusually cold and blustery winds, today I joined two of my favorite golfers for a round that turned out to be sunny, warm, and breezy. The pace of play was perfect too. We never waited once for players in front of us to clear a fairway or green. Golf on the California Central Coast was at its best today! And so was my game.

My biggest struggle lately has been getting off to a good start. I recently played a round with a triple bogie on the 1st hole, followed soon after by 2 bogies. Instead of giving up though, I fought back from 5-over and finished the round just 3-over par after scoring 3 birdies! Today, things changed. I started right off with a birdie on the 3-handicap par 4 1st from 200 yards out!

This dogleg left tempts you to hit your drive towards the 150 marker, but a slight mishit left or short finds the lake. Instead, I played well right today, leaving a 3-hybrid approach into this well-guarded green. I put my hybrid right on line, landed just short of the green and ran up 8-10 feet past the hole. Using my new Odyssey Black Series i#9 putter, I drained the putt!

I just bought this putter a couple weeks ago at a 70% discount from my x-brother-in-law, who works in the IT department at Callaway. I absolutely love it! I can assure you, that's the first time I've ever said that about a putter! It's made me a good putter.

I gave myself another good birdie attempt on 2, but barely missed and happily tapped in for par. I then got up and down on 3 from just off the green, but missed an easy 2-foot putt on 4 to 3-putt, producing my first bogie. Even with this new putter, those short putts can get me.


Monarch Dunes 6th

I got that stroke right back on the 140 yard par 3 5th, sinking a 20-footer for my 2nd birdie! I parred 6, then made an impressive up and down again on 7 to stay 1-under par. On the 200 yard par 3 8th, I landed the difficult upper-left tier of this green, rolling to about 12 feet from the pin. I made a good putt, but had to settle for par.

I then hit a perfect 6-iron into the 9th green from 190 yards out, landing short of the green as expected, and running onto the green to leave me with another makable 10-12 footer. I took my time reading the putt and decided to aim a ball outside to the left. The downhill putt tracked perfectly and went right in. I was now 2-under on the front nine, hitting every fairway and 7 of 9 greens in regulation while recording only 14 putts!

I was relaxed and enjoying the round. My playing partners, who knew I'd been struggling with my game over the past month, were certainly giving me a hard time for saving my best golf for beating them. I was just grateful for the good company, perfect weather, and speedy pace of play. They figured I'd come back to earth on the back nine. I decided to just keep playing one shot at a time and enjoy myself, detached about whether I could keep it up or not.

The back nine starts off even harder than the front with a 2-handicap par 4 dogleg with a split fairway. I hit a monster drive, but caught a bad lie in the mounds between the two fairways. I had to punch out with a wedge. This shot caught another fescue-covered mound beyond where the fairways meet. I managed to get my 3rd shot up close to the green. I then got up and down from there for a respectable bogie.

The downhill 200 yard par 3 11th is a real test. Others in my group decided to hit 3-irons, but I tried to smash a 5-iron into a mild headwind. Unfortunately, I pushed the shot way right into a ditch that borders the green. I was left with a testy downhill lob shot over a large mound. My lob landed just short of the green as planned and barely rolled off the upper tier to continue down to the lower tier just 8 feet right of the pin. The putt was exactly like the one I had on 9, a downhill putt, breaking right about a cup out. I drained another one for an impressive par.


Monarch Dunes 11th

Three great shots on the par 5 12th led to another par, but my 8-iron approach on 13 drifted left, leaving a difficult pitch to a tight left pin. My shot was near perfect, but I barely missed the return putt, resulting in my 3rd bogie, letting my round get back to even par.

But another huge drive left me just 130 yards out on the par 4 14th. I put my pitching wedge just 6 feet above the hole and made another breaking downhill putt for birdie, getting me back to 1-under!

At this point in the round, I knew I was playing well and was probably under par, but I really had no idea of my exact score. I did know that this was only the second time I had ever scored 4 birdies in a round at this course. I only average about 1.5 birdies per round and depend on pars to keep my scores under control.

I followed my birdie with a poor 5-iron into the 200 yard par 3 15th. The shot was so bad that it didn't even make it to the bunker on the right-front corner of the green. But from the rough, I made another excellent pitch shot to a tight front pin and made the easy 2-footer for another par. Still 1-under.

Another good drive on the par 4 16th left me just over 100 yards out. A strong lob wedge left me with a 12 footer that I misread but left me with an easy tap-in in for par.

Over the past month, in addition to shanking short lobs and chips, it's been these long wedge shots that have given me the most trouble. Just last week on the range, a local pro saw me shanking some shots with my wedge and came over of offer some help. He noticed I was not only swaying too much, but was rerouting my downswing too far inside, bringing that hosel into play. He had me practice hitting balls right up against the 2x4 board separating each practice tee. I tried to keep the club in line with the board on my backswing and downswing. It felt weird at first, but I'm now using this new swing with all my irons. I'm just letting my hands and the clubface fall naturally from the top of my backswing. It's almost effortless.

But as solid as my wedge play was today, this was proving to be one of my best driving rounds ever. Up to this point in the round, every drive had been long and straight. I'd only missed 1 fairway so far, the one that barely missed on 10. I kept my drives going on the 490 yard par 5 17th, leaving me with a 6-iron in from 190 yards! I had to hit my 6-iron uphill and well right of the green to avoid a big eucalyptus tree in the middle of the fairway. The shot ran up the fairway and hooked nicely left as it rolled up onto the green, past the hole. This left me a steep 30 foot downhill putt breaking a few feet to the left. I ran my eagle putt just past the hole, but made the 3 foot comeback putt for my 5th birdie, getting me back to 2-under par!

This was the first round I'd ever scored 5 birdies at Monarch Dunes. I'd shot 5 birdies 3 other times on easier courses, but doing so here was quite an accomplishment for me.


Monarch Dunes 13th

So, I approached 18 knowing I was under par, and had a sense I was on track for my first-ever sub-70 round. I knew I had 5 birdies, but couldn't remember whether I'd bogied 2 or 3 holes. I knew a par on 18 would probably get me under 70. I think it was here that I left the present moment and let myself drift into the future. I knew better, but it had been quite some time since I'd had such an opportunity to make such a breakthough.

I stayed calm and hit a strong drive. But tension must have crept in because I pulled my drive a little left. A subsequent bad bounce to the left then threatened to even put me out-of-bounds. Fortunately, I found the ball near the cart path, just 5-6 feet in bounds. I was about 105 yards out, downhill to the green. My lob wedge came up a little short out of the rough, leaving me with 10 feet of fairway to putt or chip across to reach the green. I decided to putt. I underestimated how hard I needed to stroke the ball to get through the longer grass. I did get on the green, but came up at least 15 feet short, leaving another testy downhill putt with a few feet of break. I was feeling my nerves at this point and could tell I'd lost the relaxed and confident putting stroke I'd enjoyed all day. I putted 3 feet past the hole. 3-footers always give me fits, but other than the single miss on the 4th, I'd avoided any other 3-putts. But frustrated that I'd already let par get away, I lost my relaxed focus and missed the comeback putt. I'd actually 4-putted from just off the green, giving me a disappointing double bogie from only 100 yards out!

But I was quickly lifted from the despair I felt when these good friends reminded me what a great round I'd just played! They didn't let me dwell for a second on how it ended, but helped me celebrate a great accomplishment! After all, I beat my best-ever score from the back tees by 6 entire strokes. I finished the round hitting 11 greens, 11 fairways, and with only 29 putts. With the difficulty of the course, my even-par round added a score of -1.6 to my handicap, which for the first time has now broken through 3, to 2.7!

Although, like every round, there were plenty of opportunities to score even better, I played my best-ever round, stayed present for practically every shot, and was able to share it with good friends on an extraordinary day. For that I am grateful. It was a lot more fun getting 5 birdies than it was hitting 5 shanks a few weeks ago!

So, after 3 years of play, I finally got down to a sub-3 index and shot my first par round from the back tees on a championship-level course, and even flirted with my first 69. Before I turn 50, I'll probably break 70 and may even get down to a 2-index. But I'm letting go of all that now and want to focus entirely on just being present and enjoying the game. It's been an extraordinary journey of growth and learning, a journey that certainly doesn't stop here. For any of you that have stumbled across this journal, I hope you've found some helpful resources that inspire and transform your game as well.

Artfully, Richard

Labels: Monarch Dunes, Rounds

A very frustrating slump that began with the shanks nearly 3 weeks ago may have finally ended. Although I've had a few rounds now where I've avoided hitting the ball with the hosel, my scoring has continued to suffer. After 6 straight rounds over 80, with more double and triple bogies than I care to remember, I finally made a breakthrough yesterday.


Sun setting on my slump, by Claudio Marcon at flickr

But my poor play continued as the windy round began.

After an excellent drive and approach, I 3-putted the 1st for bogie. I came up short on the 2nd and 3rd with wedges and failed to get up and down, adding 2 more bogies, then 3-putted again on the 4th to go 4-over.

My gap wedge from 125 yards on the short par 3 5th drifted left with the strong cross wind and my subsequent chip ran past the hole by 10 feet. I settled down and carefully read the putt, slightly downhill with a small right to left break. I relaxed and made a confident stroke, holing the putt for my first par.

Then I managed another bogie on the following par 5 6th. I pushed my 2nd shot a little right, into a fairway bunker, leaving me with a difficult uphill shot from 110 yards. A poor shot from there was at least followed up by a good lob shot from the rough, ending 15 feet from the pin, barely staying on the top tier of the green. A nice putt nearly saved par, but I tapped for bogie to go 5-over after 6.

An impressive birdie on the difficult par 4 7th followed by a par on the 177 yard par 3 8th got me back to a respectable 4-over.

After playing through a threesome on the 3rd hole (which contributed to that bogie), my friend and I caught up to a twosome waiting for the fairway to clear on the 9th tee. We joined them and played as a foursome for the remainder of the round. Apparently, some friendly chatting with our new playing partners helped me get my mind off my scoring and the success on the past 2 holes continued. I shot a ho-hum par on the par 4 9th, hitting the fairway, landing the green, and making the expected 2 putts. I managed to finish the par 35 front nine with a 4-over 39.

An impressive drive down the left side of the split fairway on the dogleg left par 4 10th left me with 160 yards uphill to this well guarded green. I hit such a good 7-iron into the wind that I landed past the pin and rolled over the green. A very poor chip preceded a 2-putt bogie. Still, as anyone who has played this 2-handicap hole will tell you, walking away with a bogie is nothing to complain about.

I pulled out my 7-iron again for my tee shot into the strong headwind on the 180 yard downhill par 3 11th, overlooking the Guadalupe Dunes and Pacific Ocean. Again, I hit my 7-iron so well, it landed the front of the green and rolled all the way off the back. My return chip to the upper tier of the green ran 10 feet past the pin and I missed the comeback putt for another bogie, putting me 2-over on the back and 6-over for the round.

But a rare birdie on the par 5 12th got me back to 5-over. Then after making a nice par on 13, another 3-putt on 14 put me back to 6-over. I walked up to 18 still 6-over after hitting each fairway and green and 2-putting for pars on 15, 16, and 17.

With a 240 yard carry or so, you can get some impressive distance off the tee on the 387 yard 18th. I ended up about 30-40 yards out. I used a big backstop behind the hole to funnel my chip back to the pin, leaving me with a 4-foot putt for birdie. Staying relaxed, I made another confident stroke, sinking the putt to finish the par 36 back nine just 1-over.

This 76 was my first sub-80 round since shooting a 76 in my first pro-am nearly 3 weeks ago. It was pretty rewarding to finish the last 12 holes in even par, especially in such windy conditions. Getting my attention away from scoring and simply enjoying the company of my friend and the twosome we joined seemed to be the key to rediscovering some artful golf.

This round marked my 40th round of the year, the most golf I've ever played in a 3-month period (averaging 3 rounds/week). I finished with 28 rounds under 80 and 12 at or above 80, with half of those high rounds coming in the past 3 weeks.

Labels: Rounds

I thought I'd share an update to yesterday's post about my recent bout with the shanks. I decided to head out to the range after lunch today to hit a large bucket of balls using only my lob wedge to see if I could just make them go away. My full swings, pitches, and chips we're working fine. The only shot that resulted in shanks was when I opened up the club face to get more loft.


Celebrating no more shanks by 70sgolf7 at flickr

After getting through about half the bucket, a friend walked up who've I've played with quite a bit in the past month who played professionally at one time and currently plays to a 2 handicap. He immediately spotted my problem.

It turns out that the technique I developed on my own to hit a lob shot, thanks to not taking any lessons, required too much precision and increased the odds I'd hit the ball with the hosel instead of the clubface.

When I opened up my clubface to hit a lob shot, instead of opening my stance and aligning the clubface with the target, then swinging the club along the line of my stance, I opened my stance, but aligned my clubface well right of the target, then tried to strike the ball with the open toe of the club while swinging on line with the target. This essentially gave me a clubface that was about 1/2 the width of a full clubface and increased the chance that I'd hit the ball with the leading hosel.

After a few swings along the path of my open stance with the clubface pointing towards the target, the shanks were gone and I was hitting amazing lob shots! I quickly figured out this "intuitively obvious" discovery will help my sand game too. I won't even go into all the trouble I get into in bunkers.

Anyway, my friend was headed out to play nine holes, so I joined him. I shot 3 birdies and 1 bogie to come in 2-under par! You have no idea how relieved I am! Following up 7 straight nines in the mid to high 40's with a 34 made my day. It's actually pretty amazing that I made this dangerous lob technique work for as long as I did.

I guess this is a good example of where I could have pursued lessons and learned how to hit lob and bunker shots much earlier, and avoided this issue altogether. But honestly, I like figuring it out myself and then trusting that the right person will show up at the right time to point me in the right direction when I do need help.

Labels: Rounds

I've apparently hit a wall in my efforts to improve. For the third time now, I've flurted with my goal to break through a 3 index. This time I've been holding steady, breaking 80 in 3 out of 4 rounds, but in my last four rounds I've bounced seriously backwards, shooting anywhere from 41 to 47 for nine holes in each round. I've developed the shanks!


A Wall at St. Andrews by WjButt at flickr

Just a week ago, I played in my first Pro-Am, an annual scratch 2-man best-ball tournament at a local private course I'd never played before. I was invited by a local pro who I've done some volunteer website work for. I was told we had a shotgun start at 10:00 am, so I arrived an hour early to get in a little warm-up. I was the only golfer there when I showed up. Turns out tee times were scheduled for 11:00 am.

I headed over to the range where I found a dozen nicely stacked pyramids of balls. As the first golfer to hit the range, it was my job to begin dismantling the first pyramid. I hit a few pitching wedges, then my 7 iron, then my hybrid. I was hitting the ball okay, but didn't feel comfortable and my swing felt tense. I then picked up my 60-degree lob wedge. After hitting a couple mediocre shots, I began shanking everything to the right! I'd had this happen on the range several other times in the past and learned that when I kept hitting more balls, it just got worse. Instead of giving up immediately, I tried hitting my 7-iron again and even shanked a couple of those shots. I decided to stop hitting balls and just go get some chipping and putting practice in. Later, after everyone else showed up, I went back to the range and hit a few more balls, but avoided my wedges to prevent starting the round with images of shanks in my head.

Amazingly, I got through the entire round without shanking a single shot! My driver was long and straight with the exception of one tee shot. My irons were solid, giving me some great opportunities for birdie. Unfortunately, my putter wasn't as hot. They'd just punched and sanded the greens, so that added to the challenge, but my stroke was timid and I nearly missed every putt for birdie. I missed a 3-foot birdie putt on our very first hole after nailing my gap wedge from 115 yards out, but sank a 40-footer on the following long 215 yard par 3 to record my first and only birdie. My pro partner struggled all day off the tee, but put on a display of recovery shots and managed three birdies. He pulled off some incredible shots from behind trees that I'd never even attempt. I fought for some impressive pars on the holes he didn't recover from and we came in without any bogies, finishing 7th in a field of over 20 teams.

I played well, coming in with an individual score of 76, playing from the tips on a new course without recording anything worse than bogie. but I was especially happy that those early morning shanks were behind me.

The next day was the opening day of our Tuesday night 9-hole men's league. I joined a teammate before our match to play a practice round of 9-holes on the front nine to check out pin positions and get some warm-up. My good play continued. I came in 1-over, shooting all pars and one bogie. Again, no shanks!

My match was against one of the course employees who had a matching index. We started on the par 4 dogleg right 9th. The tee box is located about 100 feet above the fairway which dead ends about 230 yards out into a lake. I hit my 3-hybrid solid, landing the fairway, but rolled into the lake. I dropped and then hit a poor 9-iron short of the green. My opponent landed well over the green on his approach, but pitched to 5 feet and made his putt for par. Down 1.

I hit a good drive on the difficult par 4 1st, but pushed a 5-iron well right of the green on my approach and hit the cart path and nearly bounced to the 2nd tee. My lob shot landed on a downslope and ran across the green, just short of rolling into a greenside bunker. My opponent's par put me down 2. We both hit perfect drives on the par 4 2nd, but my approach barely reached the green, while he had a 6 foot birdie putt. He missed his putt, but I 3-putted! Down 3.

Things went downhill from there when the shanks reappeared on the 120 yard par 3 3rd. My gap wedge tee shot went 45 degrees right, ending up short and right of the green. My opponent came up short of the green so I still had a chance to push the hole. I then shanked my lob wedge directly right, leaving me in the rough, still right, but behind the green. I chipped up well beyond the hole and went down 4 after 4!

I finally parred the par 5 4th hoping to keep the match going, but my opponent got in close and made birdie! He closed me out 5 and 4! I may be the first player in our league to ever to loose a 9-hole match with 4 to go! Our match consists of points for match play and stroke play, so we were still playing for strokes. I was already down considerably, but fought on. Unfortunately, I hit 5 shanks by the time we finished and lost all 9 holes! My opponent came in with a 1-over 36. I shot a 12-over 47! I was numb from the experience, but figured these shanks would quickly pass.

But later in the week, I joined some friends at another local course and the shanks continued. I came in with an incredibly ugly 90! By this time, I was really frustrated. The shots I didn't shank seemed to hook wildly left. One of my playing partners told me he thought my weight was on my toes, so later in the round I focused on weighting my heels. The shanks seemed to pass, but I'd totally lost all confidence and touch by then and barely recorded a single par.

I then played a round over the weekend at San Juan Oaks, a difficult course near San Jose, another course I'd never played before. Not only is this course rated very difficult (7100 yards, 74.6/140), but the winds that day were gusting to at least 40 mph! On one hole, I hit a solid 5-iron into the wind from 155 yards out and came up short. I'd normally have hit 8-iron. I needed 4 more clubs to reach the flag! I had a great day off the tee and again struck my irons well. I made some stupid decisions, getting overly aggresive on a couple holes, and recorded some big numbers, but came in with only a single shank!

The highlight of the day though was that my 22 year old son joined me! He had only played 5 rounds of golf prior to this, his last being over a year ago. I was a little worried that such a difficult course might spoil things for him and prevent him from ever taking up the game, but he wanted to try it. I took him out to the range the day before and was simply amazed by his ball striking ability! He was hitting incredible shots with his 7-iron, 5-iron and 3-hybrid. He even came up with some great shots with his fairway woods and driver. However, we both agreed it might be best to increase his chances of keeping the ball in play on the course by avoiding these clubs. He played the entire round with his hybrid and irons.

On the front nine, I shot a 45 thanks to a quadruple and triple bogie. My son managed bogies on almost every hole and shot a 46! After duffing a few tee shots and recording a few penalty strokes from hazards on the back, he limped in with a 51 on the back nine, but did record a couple pars and came in with an impressive 97 overall! My 41 on the back at least kept me from shooting another 90. We had a fun day and plan to play more this summer after he graduates from college. I have no doubt that he'll be shooting in the 80's within weeks, just swinging naturally, staying relaxed, and focusing on the target.

But this story ends with another disastrous round yesterday in our weekly scratch skins game. I was playing well through 5 holes, although I'd missed 4 easy putts that would have gotten me to 2-under instead of 2-over. I hit a great drive on the par 5 6th, then barely got over the lake on my 2nd shot after hitting a thin 4-wood. I was still in good position to hit a lob wedge on and go for birdie or par. But I shanked my wedge into the trees right of the green, then hit a tree on my attempt to get out. My next shot barely got out of the trees and left me with a downhill lie in the rough with a shot across a ditch to the green. I managed to get on and 2-putt for a triple bogie!

After a week of abuse from the shanks and poor play, I'd had it! Instead of keeping it together and grinding it out, I just gave up. I clobbered my drives for the rest of the round, but just couldn't score. I hobbled in with another 90, swearing I was done with golf. I asked a teammate to sub for me tonight in our Tuesday night league and plan to take at least a week off and regroup.


Handicap History - June 2006 to April 2008

I'm especially disappointed since I was getting so close to breaking through the 3-handicap barrier. But I feel like I've really hit a wall and bounced way off it. My ball striking has been strong. Only putting has held me back. Now I can't even stand over a ball within 100 yards of the green with any confidence that the ball will even go forward! I guess I realize now that I just want to get back to where I'm having fun and forget all about scores and handicaps!

Labels: Rounds

Our early morning Super Bowl Sunday golf tournament was canceled yesterday due to rain, wind and cold. But just after noon, the sun started to peek out. Even though the winds were still howling, I decided to head over to the course to at least hit some balls and see if anyone was in the clubhouse to watch the Super Bowl. I arrived to an empty parking lot.


Rackham by DaddyNewt at flickr

I went inside and found a couple employees and a handful of patrons in the restaurant, but the golf course was completely empty. One of my friends from the Men's Club was at the bar. I asked if he wanted to go play a few holes, but he wasn't interested in leaving the comfort of the bar for the cold winds outside. I decided I'd carry my bag and play two or three holes, then head back home to watch the game.

With a monster headwind on the par 4 1st, I somehow got on in two with a driver and 4-wood and 2-putted for par. I hit another good drive on the 2nd followed by a 95 yard lob wedge to 15 feet. I then sank the putt for birdie, aiming well outside the hole and letting the wind bring it back! After a ho-hum par on the par 3 3rd, I got into a rhythm and decided to keep playing. I got a few sprinkles on the 4th, but could see blue skies beyond the black clouds moving southeast. With pars on the 4th and 5th, then a bogie on the difficult par 5 6th, I was back to even. The winds were blowing hard from right to left on the 177 yard par 3 8th. I hit a 6-iron over the green and over the backside bunker, leaving a steep downhill pitch out of long fescue. Amazingly, I should have hit 8-iron off the tee! My pitch ran down and across the green and barely stayed on the fringe, keeping it from rolling into lake below. I nearly made the long putt for par, but tapped in for bogie. I got up and down from just off the green on the par 4 9th to finish the front 1-over, and in only 1 hour.

Although I was playing a good round, I was mostly enjoying the pure joy of being out in the weather and having an entire golf course to myself! I also found myself taking note of the birds and my surroundings more than I usually do. Fast moving cumulus, western bluebirds, tule swans, ducks, kestrels, meadowlarks, red-tailed hawks, and even those messy coots added to the experience.

I caught a bad break on my drive into the wind on the par 4 10th, punched back out to the fairway and bogied, then bogied the par 3 11th after watching the wind carry my 180 yard 7-iron 40-50 yards left. I hit a solid drive and 4-wood on the par 5 12th, but came up short with my wedge and failed to get up and down for par. I made a good par on 13, but bogied again on 14. I missed good birdie opportunities on 15 and 16 and stayed 5-over. I 3-putted the huge green on the par 5 17th to go 6-over and salvaged par on 18 to finish with 77.

I felt a little stiff and tired from carrying my bag on the back nine, but finished without any double bogies. Mostly, I just enjoyed the unique opportunity of having a course to myself and finishing in less than 2 1/2 hours. When I arrived at the clubhouse even the restaurant was empty, so I headed home to watch the halftime show and 2nd half of the game. I was treated to one of the best finishes in football I've seen in a long time! Way to go Eli! Then I watched a recording of Tiger's back nine in Dubai and got to witness his long birdie putt on 18 to secure another win. What started off as a nasty day outside turned into a pretty artful day.

Labels: Rounds

During the last month, between December 14th and January 13th, I played 12 rounds of golf and broke 80 in every round. For me, that's quite an accomplishment (and for this time of year, quite a luxury). I usually sprinkle in a couple rounds in the low 80's for every few rounds in the 70's. I never seem to keep my good rounds going. My previous streak in the 70's ended at 7. But something changed in the last month - my short game. I also got back down under 4 and shot my second hole-in-one!


The 12th at Augusta, by winkman at flickr

Last weekend during a Men's Club tournament, I aced the 140 yard par 3 11th at Cypress Ridge Golf Course! Interestingly, my first ace, which occurred just over a year ago on the 5th at Monarch Dunes, was also from exactly 140 yards. And, like my first ace, I had to buy drinks for nearly 30 golfers after the round, which were thankfully funded by my skins winnings. I got to witness my first ace where I hit an 8-iron straight into the wind and watched my ball land on the green, bounce twice, then disappear on the third bounce. On the 11th at Cypress Ridge, the hole was hidden from view by a hill and frontside bunker. After hitting a solid 9-iron right at the pin, we all jumped up to see how close I got. We saw my ball in line with the pin, but with such a momentary peek, we were unable to determine how close it was or even if it was in front of or behind the hole. The next golfer got up and actually hit the pin on the fly! We saw his ball bounce hard off the pin and roll 20-30 feet from the hole. When we got up to the green, we only saw 3 balls. We soon found my ball in the hole! We finally determined that the best explanation was that my ball had rolled up against the pin but didn't drop until the other player's ball hit the pin.

More importantly, the ace got me to 4-under par! We had a shotgun start beginning on the 5th hole. I birdied the par 4 7th and par 5 9th to get to 2-under. The ace on 11 then put me 4-under - after only 7 holes! This was the first time I'd ever gotten to 4-under during a round. The first time I got to 3-under, which was also after 7 holes, I dashed my hopes for a career round with a quadruple bogey on the 8th hole! This time, although I managed one more birdie later in the round, I threw in too many bogies and finished with a 1-over 73, still tying the lowest score for the day.

My 73 finish also gave me back-to-back 73's. Just 2 days earlier I had shot a 2-over 73 at Monarch Dunes after going 3-over after 7 holes. I finished that round a little stronger, finishing the last 11 holes with 1 bogie and 2 birdies. I finished both rounds with 31 putts, hitting 14 greens and 10 fairways in one round and 13 greens and 12 fairways in the other. Amazingly, my 73 at Cypress Ridge included 4 3-putts! So, although my short game improved, my putting, and one or two poor shots, is all that kept me from that elusive round in the 60's.

In my prior 10 rounds I had kept my scores in a small range between 75 and 79. I had 2 rounds of 79, both scored from the back tees at Monarch Dunes (73.0/137) - quite a challenge - where I also shot an 81 just prior to and ending the 12 round streak of 70's. So, although the streak ended on a challenging course, shooting an ace in the round prior certainly softened the blow!

The streak included 3 different golf courses and 6 different tee locations, one on a course I'd never played before. During the holiday while visiting family in San Diego, I played Encinitas Ranch with my brother-in-law, which was highlighted by driving the green on a 285 yard par 4 and hitting 2 lengthy par 5's in 2. I nearly shot even-par for the round, but immaturely slapped at a couple putts after missing easy birdie opportunities and turned them into 3-putt bogies. Argh!

It was quite satisfying to get the new year off to such a great start, and to so easily identify where I still have work to do - putting and patience! Also, I'm making some decisions to stick with my goal to maintain balance. I've decided to keep playing hockey next season even though it interferes with my Tuesday night golf league and I'm passing up a Men's Club tournament next month to go see Wicked in Los Angeles with my wife and daughter - again!

Labels: Ace, Rounds

Since picking up the game in 2005 with my old golf clubs, I've gradually replaced each club with new ones - except for my Orlimar Tri-Metal fairway woods. I just haven't found any reason to replace them. When I think back to my most amazing golf shots, they almost all involve my favorite 20-degree Tri-Metal. My first eagle came on the par 5 6th at Monarch Dunes after I hit my 5-wood from 215 yards out to just 18 inches for an easy tap-in. My favorite was a Mickelson-like shot from within a eucalyptus grove that after navigating a narrow row of trees, carried a large lake and landed safely back in the fairway, leading to a remarkable birdie. I'm simply fearless with this club.

I initially purchased these clubs eight years ago when I made an earlier attempt to pick up the game, but quickly gave it up due to severe tendonitis. At that time, Orlimar was a renowned club maker. The popular Tri-Metal products had transformed this small company into a big business. It's designer, Jesse Ortiz, had grown up shaping wooden drivers for his father, who started Orlimar in 1960 in the bay area. Although he had devoted clients like Ken Venturi and Johnny Miller, it was his metal designs that put the company on the map and eventually grew Orlimar Golf Company into a $100 million enterprise.


Bobby Jones by Jesse Ortiz

When I started playing again a few years ago and began looking at new clubs, I was shocked that Orlimar was nowhere to be found. I eventually learned that the small company had grown too fast and basically choked to death on its own success, only to be later reincarnated under different ownership.

Then, just a few weeks ago, I happened to run across Jesse Ortiz's new golf blog and learned that he has recently reemerged, designing and building clubs for Bobby Jones Golf. Citing a desire for expansion of the Bobby Jones brand name into equipment, the Jones-heirs and the Hartmarx Corporation, owners of the apparel company, partnered with Ortiz and entrepreneur Walter Rosenthal.

I contacted Bobby Jones Golf to find out if their clubs were available here on the Central Coast, and to share that I was still using my Orlimar woods. I got a reply from their Chief Interactive Officer, Jim McDonough. During our subsequent email correspondence, I learned Jim lived about 30 minutes away from me!

Jim asked if I'd like to review their 21-degree hybrid. I did of course. I then asked Jim if he'd like to play Monarch Dunes. He did. Last week, we finally hooked up. Jim treated me to a Bobby Jones hybrid to review. I treated him to a round of golf.

Just during the short time we stood on the first tee, I learned that we were both hockey fans, both served 6 years in the military, both had worked for local tech firms and knew several common co-workers, both had developed websites for a local golf course, and now both worked from home. By the end of the round, we both loved Bobby Jones hybrids!

During the round, I pulled the 21-degree hybrid out of my bag on 9 different occasions! I performed full swings, punch shots, and choked-up half swings, from the tee, fairway and rough. Other than a couple pushes to the right, the rest of my attempts were right on target with a high trajectory and soft landing. I found the club easy to hit from all lies and was even able to work the ball left and right with little effort. Even with all this experimentation - and a lot of conversation - I shot a pretty respectable round. I didn't get a chance to hit the club from a divot or fairway bunker, but it's curved toe seems designed specifically for such difficult lies.



The Bobby Jones hybrid has the same maraging face as my old Tri-Metal, only it's even thinner. It's now about 1.6 millimeters. No one else is making a face that is thinner on their hybrids or fairway woods. This allowed Ortiz to again distribute weight optimally into his tri-tiered sole, reducing drag and helping to disperse vibration. Their hybrids are also shorter in length to increase accuracy and truly be long iron replacements, not fairway metal alternatives.

When you set the hybrid on the ground, you notice it's longish toe and triangular shape, giving it a classic look, kind of a throwback to the old Cleek or Mashee. This nostalgic look turns out to be very important to the playability of the club. The apex of the club is slightly lowered and the particular location of this apex helps the club to be more stable on off center hits. So, as Ortiz shares, "even though the club looks like something Bobby Jones would be comfortable playing, it actually has state-of-the-art technology built in to it."

I got another chance to hit shots with the hybrid a couple days later in a Men's Club tournament at another local course. With 2 holes to go, I was 3-over and within 1 stroke of the lead. A friend in my foursome was currently tied for first and had just landed the green from 205 yards out on the long, uphill, 2-handicap par 4 8th. Knowing I had to get on too, I pulled out the Bobby Jones hybrid for this shot from the same distance in the rough. My ball faded slightly towards the pin and left a ball mark less than 2-feet from the hole, but rolled towards the back of the green, right next to my opponent's ball. We both underestimated the downhill speed and ended up 3-putting for bogie. He made up for it by sinking a long putt for eagle on the final par 5 9th for a 1-over 73. I birdied to get back to 3-over and my 75 took 3rd place.

It's pretty impressive that with just a dozen prior swings using this golf club, I already had the confidence to use it in this pressure situation... and nailed it. Now I'm eager to try their new 460cc driver!

Jesse Ortiz Design Studio | Bobby Jones Golf

Labels: Bobby Jones Golf, Club Review, Hybrid, Jesse Ortiz, Rounds

My father-in-law passed away recently after a 15-year battle with Parkinson's disease, a disease that usually compounds its physical challenges with that of depression. However, my father-in-law, who often shared that "attitude is everything", showed us what that meant as he faced this disease. As he gradually lost the ability to do one basic function after another, while becoming more and more dependent on others, he demonstrated utmost dignity. He literally never complained and maintained his positive and humorous attitude to the end. He showed us how an old soul faces one of life's very difficult challenges.


Archie Bunker by Rexton at flickr.com

I think of my father-in-law often, even on the golf course. As trivial as golf's challenges are in comparison to something like Parkinson's, learning to meet them with a constructive attitude can help prepare us for those larger challenges we may eventually face in life. I have a pretty good attitude as far as attitudes go, but am nowhere near the stature of someone like my late father-in-law. I admit it, I catch myself complaining or getting upset about a bad break or a bad shot more often that I like. I try to remind myself that golf doesn't have to be about scoring. At its highest, golf can be about learning and transformation, along with enjoyment and recreation. Most of the time, I remember that.

Nevertheless, I still manage to measure my rounds a little too much by score. If I break 80, I'm happy with the round. If I don't break 80, I feel like I failed somehow. Putting too much importance on my golf game has even made me limit other activities I enjoy. I've avoided hockey and snowboarding over the past couple years, in part because I don't want to hurt my back, more than golf already does, and perhaps limit the number of rounds I'd otherwise play. To a degree, I credit the frequency of my play for my speedy improvement. If I jeopardize my ability to play twice a week, perhaps I'll loose the skills and touch I've worked so hard for.

Over the past couple months, I've become more aware of the over-importance I've placed on the quality of my game. This has become evident partly because my game has slipped recently due to my inability to practice as much, but mostly because I've been more aware of my attitude and have noticed more of those little complaints and frustrations. That's really not who I want to be on the golf course.

A particularly horrible finish to a decent round last week really helped me change my attitude.

I walked up to the 18th tee at 7-over. A simple bogie would insure I break my so-important score of 80 (par 71 course). In the heavy fog, my drive failed to carry a mound that encroaches on the left side of the fairway and I found my ball in a tiny little bunker cut into it's upward face. There was really no option but to punch the shot directly sideways back into the fairway. With my feet about 18 inches above the ball, I scalded it all the way across the fairway into a grove of trees. This time, my only option was to actually punch the ball backwards into the fairway. Now, finally in the fairway, lying 3 well short of my normal drive, I hit an iron slightly right of the green and got stuck in some long fescue on a hill bordering that side of the green. My first attempt at lobbing the ball unto the green succeeded only in moving the ball 1 foot forward. I shanked the next attempt 20 feet to the right, leaving me on the same shaggy hill. I finally put the next shot on the green and 2-putted for a quintruple bogie 9!

Although I've had big blowups before, I decided this time to make a permanent change in attitude. I really wasn't that upset about this finish, but I guess I'd grown tired of placing undue importance on breaking a certain score.

The first thing I did was accept an invitation a few days later to start playing roller hockey again, in a 30-over league with some old friends. I played my first game in nearly 4 years on Tuesday night, and although I could hardly breath - or walk a couple days later - I had a blast. I forgot how much fun it was. Committing to playing hockey has already reduced the amount of golf I can play. I was too sore to consider playing until yesterday, my first round in over a week. However, my attitude was much improved, and my game was just fine.

I got through the first 10 holes at just 2-over, but then bogied 5 out of the next 7 holes. Actually, I was pretty happy with some of those bogies. I made some huge putts to prevent recording a single double bogie all round. Like the prior round, I walked up to the 18th needing just a simple bogie to break 80! However, this time, I didn't pay attention to my score. I just looked up and admired some monsterous cumulus nimbus cloud formations building over the Pacific which were just turning red as the sun began to set.

Perhaps distracted by this beauty, but more likely just stiff and tired, I hit my drive so far left that the ball went out of bounds and hit the roof of a house - the first house I'd ever hit on my millions of rounds here! I teed up my second and managed to keep this one in bounds, but only by a couple feet. Now lying 3, well left of the fairway, I shanked my wedge all the way across the fairway to the rough on the right side! The thought of shooting another 9 definitely entered my mind here. But unshaken, I hit my next shot to the far right side of the green, hoping to catch the slope and run across the green to the pin in the back left. Unfortunately, I caught too much of the slope and watched the ball run left with too much speed to stay on the green. Then, all of a sudden, my ball hit another ball that was already on the green, just 5 feet from the pin. His ball moved a little right and my ball went right in the hole! I got my bogie from 80 yards out and broke 80!!

I had to credit my luck to my newfound artful attitude - thanks Dad ;)

Labels: Attitude, Disciplines, Rounds

My wife and I traded our timeshare to visit Kauai last week. We stayed in Princeville, on the north side of the island. I brought along my golf clubs, hoping to sneak out a few times while my wife enjoyed shopping or sitting by the pool. I was able to get 4 rounds of golf in!


The Prince Course, Princeville Kauai

The first course I played was 5 minutes from our condo - The Prince Course at Princeville. I played with a threesome from Auburn, CA consisting of 3 friends and their wives. The wives each drove a cart, the husbands rode along and played golf. We had 4 carts between us! The group was very friendly and fun and made me feel very welcome joining their group. Two of us started off nicely with birdies on the first hole. I had opportunites for several more birdies on the front, but had difficulty dealing with the slow and grainy bermuda greens and turned a couple opportunities into bogies. Still, I had a good round going into the back nine with just 1 mishap on 8 - a double bogie tallied from the frontside bunker. I figured out then that you had to pick the ball out of these sandless traps.

The back nine is where the challenge began. Somehow, I found a way to par the horseshoe shaped par 5 10th after nearly going OB to the far right off the tee, then barely getting back to the fairway. A landed a long approach from there by hitting across the canyon, found inside the horseshoe shaped fairway. On the short par 3 11th I hit a solid PW into the right to left headwind that carried the ball just enough left to loose it forever in the jungle below. I dropped near the green and chipped up close to save bogie.

The course then presents you with a long drop from the tee on 12 to a narrow jungle and tree-lined sliver of a fairway below. I hit a solid 5-wood, leaving me with an easy 9i in. A par here kept me 5-over.

The trouble began on 13 where the fairway is cut in half about 200 yards out by a ditch lined with dense shrubs. I hooked my hybrid and found the ball directly behind some rocks, forcing me to pitch out to the fairway, still leaving me 185 yards out. From here I pushed a 5i right of the green and never found the ball. When it was all over, I'd quadrupled the hole. I followed this with 2 bogies and a double bogie over the next 4 holes to ballon my round to 13-over. A respectable par on the #1 handicap 18th kept me from scoring over 85.

The next day, eager to master that back nine, I invited my wife to ride along with me after showing up early and finding the parking lot empty. Apparently, The Prince Course is empty on weekends since tourists just assume it'll be too busy to play and locals play elsewhere. For most of the round, my wife walked from each tee to green while I played the hole with the cart. She'd show up at the green about the time I'd hole a putt and I'd then give her a ride to the next teebox. She got some exercise and enjoyed the views. I got to play a much better round.


The Prince Course, Princeville Kauai

I made the turn at just 1-over, a score which would have even been a few strokes lower if I had figured out those greens. I made a mess of 10 again, but chipped in from behind the green to get another par! I made the exact same mistake on 11, taking too little club and letting a slight draw get carried left of the green by the headwind. This time I failed to get up and down and added a double bogie. However, I managed another par on 12 and improved on 13. This time on 13, I hit 5i to the end of the 1st half of the fairway, then hit 6i to the green. I caught a little bit of shrubbery trying to carry the ditch and came up just short and bogied. I parred the remaining holes to finish just 4-over! And I only lost 1 ball, on the 11th!

I had the opportunity to play The Prince Course one more time a few days later and played well. This time, although I finally parred 13 with a 5i followed by another 5i, I blew up on 12. I skied a 5w off the tee, then laid up to 100 yards instead of trying to hit this small green surrounded by jungle from over 200 yards out. Somehow, I then shanked my wedge from there and lost the ball right of the green. I stumbled in with an 81, going 8-over on the back! I got to enjoy this round with 3 other singles, 1 who I learned lives just 30 minutes south of me and plays the same home course.

On the afternoon of our last day, just prior to taking the red-eye home, I played my final round at Poipu Bay Golf Club. My wife did a little sight-seeing and shopping, then enjoyed the pools at the Hyatt while I played with 2 other singles. On my first trip to Kauai 2 years ago, my son and I played this course. I was hoping to play much better this time around, but poor play in the wind on the back nine only allowed for incremental improvement over that initial round. I did manage to finish the front just 3-over, but I 3-putted so many times on both nines, that I decided to just let go of the score and enjoy the setting. The finishing holes with the ocean bordering the left side of 15 to 17 are breathtaking, and challenging! The long drop to the par 3 17th green is quite fun. From 185 yards, I first tried hitting a 7i, but went a little right and long. Just for fun, I hit another ball from the tee with my 8i and put the ball just 10 feet right of the pin, carrying the frontside bunker! I nearly birdied 18 to finish off a fun week in Kauai.

As much as I enjoyed the golf, the highlight of the trip was a helicopter tour of the island. The views of the waterfalls and Napali coastline were beyond spectacular. Of course, we enjoyed the beaches, dining, and hiking as well.

Next trip, I'm planning to play the Kiele Course at Kauai Lagoons, whose back nine was closed for renovation; Puakea, which I'm told provides superb scenery and a just a great stretch of holes from the 11th to 17th; and Kiahuna Plantation, a RTJII course that was recently revitalized into a quite interesting course. Looking forward to that next visit!

Labels: Courses, Golf Destinations, Golf Vacation, Poipu Bay, Prince Course, Princeville, Rounds

Within 21 hours, I experienced my worst and my best golf on the same course. In my Tuesday night 9-hole men's league, I continued a slide in performance over the past 2 weeks with a whopping score of 51 to loose my match! 21 hours later, I shot 34 on the same front nine, followed by a 37 on the back to tie my career best 71 at Monarch Dunes Golf Club (70.7/135).


Monarch Dunes 13th by Aidan Bradley

After a run of scores in the 70's in 11 out of 13 rounds, I'd failed to break 80 in my past 7 rounds! In a few of these rounds I was flairing my drives out of bounds to the right. In other rounds I'd shank or scald my wedges. Failure to get out of sand traps with any success and my common 3-putts plagued me in most of these rounds.

I then decided I needed some practice. I'd gotten back in the habit of playing instead of practicing when some time opened up to head to the course.

On the range, I made some minor adjustments to my posture - butt out and chin up. I had recently purchased a book on golf fitness and got the impression from browsing it's photos that I needed to make this adjustment. It seemed to work on the range, however, I learned after my round of 51 on Tuesday night, that lifting my chin up was probably responsible for all my scalded wedge shots. In yesterday's career round, I kept my butt out, but let my head return to its more comfortable position, more in line with my spine angle. That worked!

More importantly, I made a rather obvious discovery when I was practicing my putting last Sunday. It's something most golfers already do, but I never tried it. I've always tried to keep an image in my mind of the desired path the ball will travel when I putt. I'm a path putter and go by feel once I'm over the ball. But with the hole as the eventual target, I think I unconsciously start the ball on a line more towards the hole instead of the path's apex.

Instead, after reading a putt, I'm now picking a very specific spot on the green or blade of grass that is located in line with the apex and is just before or past the hole based on slope or speed. Now when I putt, I let go entirely of where the hole is and simply maintain an image of that spot in my mind and commit to it when I take the putter back. I then succeed in starting the ball on the correct line, and assuming I read the break correctly, the ball just drops in the hole!

I know what you're thinking, "duh, you could have figured that out a long time ago if you'd just take a lesson!" I guess I'm just stubborn and like to experiment and figure it out the hard way!

Anyway, I really concentrated yesterday on just trusting my ability to putt to a very specific spot on the green and to let go of any attachment to making the putt. On all 18 greens, I putted exactly where I intended to, I just happened to misread a few breaks by a small amount.

I finished each nine with only 12 putts!

This is quite a breakthrough for me since I rarely come in with less than 34 putts. I'm the only 4 handicapper I know who putts more like a beginner! I depend entirely on hitting fairways and greens. If I miss a green, I nearly always 2-putt for bogie. If I hit a green, I usually 2-putt for par, but often 3-putt for bogie. An occasional lucky birdie is required to keep my score under control.

Yesterday, I only hit 6 fairways and 8 greens in regulation and managed 3 birdies with my 24 putts! The last time I shot 71 on this course - nearly 8 months ago - I hit 15 greens and 12 fairways with 4 birdies and a whopping 34 putts!

It was simply an amazing round. I had four quality birdie opportunities inside 10 feet and only missed one. I only failed to get up and down for par on 2 holes. I hit 2 extraordinary lob shots to within tap-in distance. One was a blind shot over a mound to the upper tier of a downhill sloping green. I heard others in my foursome sigh after my ball reached the green. I thought their reaction was because I'd almost succeeded in keeping the ball on the upper tier - a nearly impossible outcome - but that it barely rolled down to the bottom tier, 4 feet below. When I walked towards the green, I learned I'd nearly holed the shot, finding the ball inches from the hole!

After birdies on 5, 6, and 11 and a single bogie on 9, I walked up to the 16th tee only 2-under. One of the guys in my foursome - a major league baseball pitcher who recently retired after returning too quickly to play after elbow surgery - asked me if I knew I was currently 2-under. I did of course know, but had succeeded in paying little attention to my score up to this point. His comment inadvertantly removed me from the "zone" I was in and I double-bogied the easy 16th. I immediately realized what had happened and got back to my detached shot-at-a-time routine and nearly birdied 17, barely misreading the putt. Then on 18 I came up a little short on my approach, but nearly holed my chip. Pars on 17 and 18 gave me my career tying round of 71!

I was seriously close to putting the clubs away for a month or two after Tuesday night, but had already committed to playing the next day. As a friend shared after the round, "the Golf Gods suckered me back in big time."

Labels: Monarch Dunes, Putting, Rounds, Self Coaching

After posting an entry recently about a recent breakthrough and sharing some thoughts on how I picked up the game rather quickly, I discovered a better explanation for my improvement, and found out I have plenty more to learn. This morning, I found my way back over to the The Shivas Irons Society website and ran across a new article by Luke Brosterhaus about ability, effort, and luck. While reading Luke's insights, I realized what an important role a deep belief in my ability and dedicated effort to improve that ability continues to play in my learning experience.


Golf by dskciado at flickr

According to Luke, "you'll really struggle to improve if you do not believe in your ability."

I've always thought that anyone who plays golf can develop the ability to play well, and that our ability to play well has more to do with belief than natural talent. We all know we have the ability to hit a straight drive, hit a green from 150 yards out, pitch or chip close to the pin, or make a short or long putt. We've all done it before, so we know we have the ability. We just have to believe we can do it again, especially over the very next shot we're about to take.

It seems that all my bad shots are a direct result of either a lack of belief in my ability to make the shot (often from a bunker) or a decision to make a shot that I truly don't have the strength or skill to make (perhaps a shot over one branch and under another). All my extraordinary shots were born from a deep belief in my ability to create the shot beforehand.

My steady improvement has been a result of first identifying when a lack of ability exists (golf makes that easy), and then making the required effort to practice those shots until the ability is developed sufficiently. Once I've gained the ability, my success depends on believing in that ability on every shot. That doesn't mean I succeed every time, but the simple fact that I believe I can make a shot increases the odds I will. Letting go and trusting in our ability is surely a better alternative than letting doubt and fear creep in, which are certain to interfere with that ability.

As my abilities and game have developed, I've continued to expose myself to new shots and new situations in order to identify new weaknesses and inability. This has required that I get out of my comfort zone and play new types of courses, play with strangers, play competitively, play from different tee boxes, and take some risk and try new shots.

So, after experiencing a string of great rounds over the past few weeks at familiar courses, I got the opportunity to play out of my comfort zone last weekend in two unique rounds, and discovered I have several new inabilities that need my effort.

Last Saturday, I had the enjoyable experience of attending my first event hosted by The Shivas Irons Society. I signed up to play in a golf and wine tasting event at The Alisal Ranch Course in Solvang, CA. In addition to meeting some very interesting new people, I was introduced to an "old style" golf course - the tee boxes were even right next to the prior greens. I'm used to playing a course with very fast greens, ample fairways, and modest number of bunkers. The Ranch Course quickly taught me that I need to develop my ability to get up and down from bunkers, lag putt on slow greens, and tighten up my drives to avoid shots from behind trees. This new experience quickly ended my streak of rounds in the mid-70's, but succeeded in helping me find new opportunities for growth.

Even though I shot a round in the low 80's, I did make several impressive shots. I had one of my best rounds with my lob wedge. On several occasions, I had the opportunity to open the face way up and take a full swing from short yardage to get to a pin protected by bunkers and mounds. These shots required my full trust, which I mustered on each occasion. Unfortunately, I rarely made the following putt to save par. Two other shots I enjoyed included a sand wedge from a downhill lie next to the back lip in a bunker (followed my a missed putt), and a 3-wood that landed a green from 250 yards out in the fairway (followed by a 3-putt). After what seemed like a very long string of bogies, I finally came up with one birdie during the round.

The following day, I played in a tournament with my Men's Club from the back tees (72.9/134). Having only played from the back tees a few times and never in the past nine months, this was practically a new experience too. The back tees really add difficulty to the par 3's and many par 4's, requiring short-iron-like accuracy from your long irons. I quickly learned from this round that I need to practice my distance control and accuracy with my long irons. I did however beat my prior best round from the back tees by 1 stroke, shooting an 80 with one OB and 1 missed 2 foot putt. The round turned out to be the third best score for the day and I took second place net.

In both rounds, I faced new shots that I rarely experience in my normal rounds. In each of these cases, I lacked belief in my ability to make them. Poor results followed. What I learned was that I need to play a variety of courses on a more frequent basis instead of getting too comfortable at my home course(s).

Believe in your ability to play extraordinary golf.

Labels: Ability, Alisal Ranch, Rounds, Shivas Irons Society

I continued a streak of extraordinary rounds today, shooting a 75 at Monarch Dunes Golf Club (70.7/135) in a Travel League I play in. My score came in good enough to win 1st place net and 2nd place gross. Six of my latest rounds have now come in between 73 and 76! This is a real breakthrough for me. Although I've scored in the low 70's plenty of times before, I've never done so as consistently or with as little effort. I'm really learning to just play and not try so hard anymore! I've even become a good putter, the part of the game that I've struggled with most. In fact, I've been playing so well that several golfers have asked me recently how I got so good so fast!


Tiger celebrates a chip-in birdie on the 16th at the 2005 Masters

My standard answer to this question has always been that I started getting better when I simply began playing more than once a week. But, although more frequent play does help develop and maintain better touch and perhaps even consistency, it doesn't necessarily result in better scoring. I've met plenty of golfers who expected to become better golfers once they retired and finally had the time to work on their game and play more, but who actually got worse.

I've also replied that the game came pretty naturally to me, coming from playing hockey. Hockey has a complimentary swing. I've found that hitting down on the ball is much like taking a slapshot. But again, although my natural ability and a natural swing may have reduced my learning curve, it only took me so far.

Another factor I share is that I learned quickly by coaching myself instead of taking lessons and filling my mind with too many swing thoughts and techniques. I've learned to simply relax, quiet my mind, focus on the target, visualize my shot, and swing. I just trust that my body can do what I visualize it doing. I've never seen my swing or had it analyzed. However, after taking my first and only golf lesson just a couple months ago, I can see where getting help from a pro on occasion could speed up the process of improvement even more. I just wouldn't become dependant on one.

What I realize now is that my improvement really began when I changed who I am on the course. Golf is a great teacher, and I was eager to learn from it.

My biggest breakthoughs came when I let go of scoring and winning and learned to just play and have fun. I learned to appreciate the beauty of my surroundings. I learned to enjoy playing with friends and meeting new ones. I learned to be patient when I was struggling. I learned to accept my mistakes. I learned to let go of doubt and fear. I learned to trust myself. I learned that my next shot, my next hole, and my next round could be extraordinary. I learned the "Art of the Possible" from Fred Shoemaker, who shares in his book Extraordinary Golf, to use our time between shots "to put the past in the past, create a future that is powerful and full of possibility, and live into that future."

So, while I take a moment to celebrate my recent breakthrough, I also give thanks to those who have shown me how to play a game, and live a life, that is full of possibility and excitement.

Labels: Disciplines, Extraordinary Golf, Fred Shoemaker, Rounds

I haven't been reading or working on anything new lately and haven't spent any time practicing. But I have been playing, and focusing on some of the methods I've posted recently. I've made a lot of progress in taking each round one shot at a time, with an emphasis on playing instead of scoring, yet remaining expectant of extraordinary results.


Mornington Peninsula in Melborne by alandot at flickr.com

After shooting the 73 a couple weeks ago in match play, I moved on to the next bracket and played one of our club's best players. To my astonishment, I learned his low handicap for the year was one higher than mine, so I had to give him one stroke in our match. He's very capable of breaking par, is known as one of the longest and most accurate drivers in the club, and even won a local pro-am that includes PGA players such as Loren Roberts, Tom Lehman, Aaron Oberholzer, John Daly, Fred Couples, and others. I was up against a real player and was giving him a stroke!

We both made admirable up and downs on the difficult opening hole to get off to a good start. But on the par 3 2nd hole, he hit the green, and I landed a deep greenside bunker. My lie was hardpan wet sand. It took me 2 strokes to get out, then I 3-putted for a triple bogie! Fortunately, it was match play, so I was only down 1. On the par 5 3rd, we both hit long drives. In fact, it was one of several holes where I out drove him, which is no easy feat. He hit his 2nd shot right into a bank with long grass behind a small tree. I was in the middle of the fairway about 50 yards out. I hit the green in regulation, he punched back out to the fairway. I lined up my putt while he hit his 4th shot short of the green unto the fringe. He then chipped in for par! I was sure I had him and would get back to even. Instead, I 3-putted again and lost the hole! I was now down 2. He finally bogied the 4th and I got back to within 1. I was still in it.

I stayed patient and played with an attitude of expectancy. I knew I had a good enough game to at least make it a good match.

I birdied the next hole to get even! Then I chipped in from off the green on the par 4 6th for another birdie and went up 1. His jaw dropped. The par 4 7th is one of my favorite holes. It's an uphill dogleg left which can be driven with a good drive if you're willing to take the risk. You can bail out safely right, but a pulled shot goes out of bounds left. I hit my drive right at the pin, landed the green, and rolled about 15-20 feet past the pin! My opponent tried too but missed right, then pitched up and 2 putted for par. I 2 putted for my 3rd birdie in a row and went up 2!

The par 4 8th is the #1 handicap hole, so I had to give him a stroke. We both made impressive pars, but he took the hole. Still up 1. I hit first on the par 5 9th. I figured with his distance, he'd try to get on in 2, so I decided I'd do the same. I crushed my drive, but pulled it to the left into a dry water collection area with long rough. He hit one just as far to the middle of the fairway. Fortunately, I had a good lie and because the hole was a slight dogleg left, had a shorter distance to the green. I absolutely clobbered a 5-wood and landed just 1 foot short of the green. He laid up, pitched on in regulation, and 2 putted for par. I made an incredible chip to within 1 foot for an easy tap-in birdie! I'd just birdied 4 out of the last 5 holes and went up again by 2!

I was succeeding in staying true to my goal to take the match one shot at a time, let go of the outcome, yet remain expectant for extraordinary shots to come.

However, it turned out my opponent was pretty good at doing the same and he got very focused and hung right in there. He birdied 10 and 12 to get back to even with 6 holes to go! From there he went on to birdie one more hole and I started getting a couple bogies. He took the match on 17 with a par on a very difficult par 3. I still considered the match a success. I'd shot a 76 with a triple bogie and 4 3-putts and he came in with a 2-under 70!

There's no doubt I had no business having to give him a stroke. He's a much more accomplished and experienced golfer whose index has recently been as low as 1. The inaccuracy of handicaps is just a reality of amateur golf that I wasn't going to waste any time dwelling on. I'd played a good match and certainly gained his respect. I had him a little worried after my string of four birdies. In the end, I think he just wanted it more than I did. I just wanted to play and see what an expectant attitude might bring forth! He just wanted to win. We both got what we wanted.

I've now shot a 73 and 76 in my last 2 competitive rounds and shot a 74 yesterday playing recreationally with friends. Just playing golf, instead of trying to score, is paying big dividends!

Labels: Rounds

A golfer who found his way to my website recently directed me towards an inspiring golf story, Golf's Sacred Journey by Dr. David L. Cook, about a rancher with extraordinary insights and a struggling young golf professional. Dr. David L. Cook is an author, peak performance coach and speaker in both the sport and business arenas. Golf Digest recently named him one of the "Top 10 Mental Game Consultants" in the world of golf. The story, available as a free download, shares wisdom that can transform your game, and life.


Bandon Dunes by hole-in-one at flickr.com

In addition to insights about the importance of rhythm, balance, and patience, I was particularly drawn to a chapter describing golf as art, an approach to the game I try to realize. Below, I've included some of my favorite excerpts from the story about golf as art.

"Golf is to art like dance is to music. Dance is a physical expression of the music; a golf shot is a physical expression of art."

"To be a great player, you must be a great shot-maker. To be a great shot-maker, you must become an artist."

"All shots start with a blank canvas. We must paint the shot with our eyes first, before our body can produce it accurately. In essence, the quality of our shot mimics the quality of our painting."

"Your muscles work off of images sent from the eyes. Your muscles will hit the shot, but like a pilot in the fog, they can only respond to the information you send to them. The most powerful information is an image, a picture. A good picture produces feel and feel produces trust."

"First, you must see; second, you feel; third, you trust. Trust is the epitome of golf. It is the freedom to swing and let go. Great athletes compete best when they are free. Trust, you see, is earned. It is earned by feel, and feel is earned by seeing. Therefore, art is the catalyst to a great shot."

"Every time you hit a shot, you are signing a painting. When we fail to engage art, we sign our name to a stick figure outcome. When you engage art, you sign your name to a masterpiece."

At one point during the story, the rancher tells the struggling pro to "be expectant". Although this advice was easy to miss in the story, it really struck me since I've focused so much on not having expectations. But then I realized that "being expectant" isn't about expectations about the outcome, it's about what Fred Shoemaker describes as being open to the art of the possible, being open to and even expectant of extraordinary golf.

Play golf with artful expectancy!

Last week, I had the opportunity to play a competitive round with this newfound attitude of artful expectancy. Our Men's Club Match Play tournament just began and my first match was against a very competitve golfer that I had to give 9 strokes to. Thanks to those strokes, I was quickly behind by 2 holes after 3. Although my opponent's handicap was quite a bit higher than mine, he was striking the ball and putting like a single handicapper. It was looking like I'd have to birdie every hole to stay even.

I decided to be expectant, yet patient. By the end of the front 9, I was up 3! Although I bogied the 1st hole, I shot 6 pars and 2 birdies to finish the front 1-under. My opponent kept it closer on the back, but I closed him out on 15 (4&3). With net pars on the last 3 holes, I recorded my best-ever competitive round with a 1-over 73 (71.2/129).

Labels: Art, Books, David Cook, Expectations, Golf's Sacred Journey, Rounds

"The golf swing, no matter how memorized, is a creative act born out of the conditions of the moment, no two of which are ever the same. Whereas you can reduce the swing to it's individual pieces, you cannot reduce the game to science. It is an art and you are the artist." -- Lynn Molhan

If in fact, there is a secret to playing artful golf, I'd have to say that it's taking the game one creative shot at a time, while letting go of all expectations and judgments before and after each shot. I finally got back in that mindset for a short time this week. After struggling lately to even break 80, I realized I was simply trying too hard to regain my past success. I decided to let go of expectations and just play the game. Better results followed immediately.


Artful shot by konderminator at flickr.com

During my 9-hole Tuesday night league this week, I was matched against a scratch golfer, 20 years younger than me. He had to give me 2 strokes. We both missed the green on the first hole and left our chips too far out to expect par. I 2-putted for bogie. He lipped his second putt and gave me the first hole. The next hole was a long par 5 which I've never seen anyone hit in two. My opponent missed doing so by hitting slightly left of the green with a 3-wood after an absolutely huge drive. I got on in three and 2-putted for par. His chip went a little long and he missed his birdie putt. Still up one. I stroked on the next hole which we both bogied. Up two. We both missed the green on the following par 4, but my pitch from behind the green ran past the pin and went off the green on the other side. He had a slippery downhill putt for par. I chipped in from 15 feet for par! He missed his 10 foot putt and bogied. Up three! We both parred the next par 3. Still up three.

My driver kicked into gear on the following par 4. I hit a 300 yard drive to 60 yards out. He followed with a huge pull left. He got on in three. I put my second shot about 15 feet beyond the pin, leaving me with a difficult breaking putt, but an easy par. He was looking at a makable par putt. I aimed about 3 feet outside the hole and watched the putt trickle in for birdie! I'd closed him out - up four with three to go! We finished the round since we also compete for strokes. We both bogied the next par 5 and parred the following par 4. On our final hole, the course's most difficult, I stroked again. He led off with a monster drive into the wind, leaving himself with a 130 yard approach. Rarely does anyone get inside 160 yards! I surprised all of us with another huge drive and was amazed to find myself only 5 yards behind his ball when we arrived in the fairway. We both made good shots in and 2-putted for par. I won 5 holes to his zero and shot 38 (net 36) to his 42.

The next day, I took the afternoon off to play another local course to practice for an upcoming tournament this weekend. I started off like I left off the night before. I chipped and 1-putted for par on the par 4 1st. I managed a sandy par on the par 3 2nd by sinking a 30 foot putt. My drive on the par 5 3rd went behind a tree. I punched out, but landed a fairway bunker. I left my third shot short and left of the green, but again, I chipped up and made a 10 footer for par. I parred the next 3 holes to remain even par after 6. Then I birdied 7, 8 and 9 to go 3-under on the front, shooting my first-ever 33 for nine holes! I did it with only 12 putts and 5 GIRs.

I started the back nine trying to stay present in the moment and not start thinking about the potential outcome. I missed a 10 footer for birdie on 10 and a 15 footer for birdie on 11. Still 3-under after 11. I hit a good drive on 12, then hit a wedge quite a bit left of the pin to avoid going right over a deep bunker guarding the right-side pin. My long lag putt stayed right on line, but went past the hole about 4 feet. On the front nine and during my round the night before, I sunk every putt within 5 feet. That streak ended on 12 when I 3-putted for my first bogie of the round. Still 2-under.

I got greedy on the following par 5 and tried to get on in 2 with a 3-wood after hitting a long drive. I landed the frontside bunker. The pin was back, so I took a big swing from the bunker, but didn't take enough sand and ended up well past the steep sloping green. I pitched on and barely missed my 15 foot putt for par. Another bogie and back to 1-under. I pulled out a par on the par 4 14th after missing my first fairway on the back. On 15, I hit an incredible drive, leaving me with a short pitch to the green. The pin was back behind a mound which I barely failed to carry. My ball ended up near the top of the mound, leaving me a pretty good chance for a 2-putt par. But while I was walking up to remove the pin, my ball rolled back down the hill about 10 feet! Still, I made a good putt over the breaking mound, leaving another 4 footer for par. I missed. Now back to even par!

With 3 holes to go, I started thinking a little more about what I needed to do to come in even or better. The par 4 16th is the hardest hole on the course, but 17 always proves to have the highest scoring average during tournaments. However, I can usually reach the par 5 18th in 2, providing a nice birdie opportunity. So, I guess I let my mind start getting ahead of the shot at hand and began to focus on the desired outcome. Regardless, I parred 16, then landed the par 3 17th with a nice tee shot. However, I left my 1st putt short and gave myself yet another 4 footer for par. I missed one more time and went to 1-over. I still had my birdie opportunity at 18! I hit another great drive and landed the green in 2 as planned. But again, I was left with a difficult putt over a huge mound. I picked a good line, but came up 3 feet short. I lipped out my birdie putt and 3-putted for the fourth time in last seven holes!

I'd ended the front nine 3-under with 12 putts and 5 GIRs, but managed to go 4-over on the back with a whopping 22 putts after hitting 8 GIRs! Nevertheless, I really had fun during my last two rounds and am excited that my game is going back in the right direction!

One artful shot at a time! One artful shot at a time! One artful shot at a time! Okay, I think I got it.

Stay centered in the current moment with the current shot. The past has slipped away, the future will take care of itself. Remain centered in the artful now.

Labels: Centeredness, Disciplines, Rounds

I just returned from a trip to Sedona, AZ. Sedona is a long 10 hour drive from our home near San Luis Obispo, CA, across a lot of hot desert. Our route takes us along Hwy 58 through Bakersfield and Tahachapi, then I-40 from Barstow to Flagstaff. Sedona is just a short drive south of Flagstaff, through scenic Oak Creek Canyon. In addition to taking several hikes with my wife, I worked in three rounds of golf at Sedona Golf Resort in the Village of Oak Creek. I usually try to play a variety of courses on vacation, but I liked this course so much after the first day that I kept returning.


Sedona Golf Resort, Sedona, AZ

I joined a father and son from Edmonton, Alberta and a local named Ernie for my first round. I thoroughly enjoyed Ernie, a recent Assistant Mayor of Sedona who got involved in local politics in an effort to stop plans for a new 4-lane freeway into this picturesque town. Lots of development including tons of new multi-million dollar vacation homes have already sprung up since my last visit 15 years ago. Ernie succeeded in getting elected to the city council, but the council later filled with pro-development representatives, so Ernie has made plans to leave.

Ernie proved to be a great guide for my first visit to the course, giving advice on the best targets for tee shots and approaches. His biggest advice was to avoid the bunkers, which were more like crushed red rock than sand. What made the round especially memorable was the weather. The winds were up, but we weren't expecting rain. But after playing the first two holes, storm clouds began appearing over the mountains to the west and began drenching us by the time we reached the third fairway. I could tell the other three golfers really wanted to turn back, but I was eager to keep on and mentioned it would probably pass over quickly. Instead, the rain turned to hail. We got hailed on four times, making for interesting putting! On one fairway, I stood over my ball and watched a huge wall of white hail approach us. It was remarkable watching this curtain of white pass over the distant green, then approach us yard by yard down the fairway. I got my shot off just as the hail reached us. The cart made for timely cover! By the time we reached the sixteenth, the thunder and lightning were so frequent and close that sirens began to sound and our cart's display panel informed us to return to the clubhouse. Our Edmonton friends left, but Ernie and I continued on, agreeing that the lightning seemed to have already passed us to the south. The sun finally came out on the eighteenth, casting shadows while we made our final putts! The weather definitely hurt my score, finishing with an 83, but I actually loved being out in it and watching the storm and it's incredible cloud formations among the spectacular red rocks surrounding the course.


Sedona Golf Resort 10th

Wanting a chance to improve on my score and experience the course in better weather, I headed out again two days later in complete sunshine. I played this round with only another single, which made for a lot of waiting over many shots since the course was full in front of us with foursomes. Although the weather was very pleasant, my partner, who was a personal injury lawyer, spent most of the front nine on the phone attending to business. I'm pretty easy going, but it became very distracting. Due partly to his lack of etiquette and also due to slow play, I finished the front nine 6-over. I had shot 4-over on the front two days earlier in harsh weather conditions! Fortunately, my partner had to make a court appearance by three o'clock and had to stop after 13 holes! I finished by myself and shot even par on the back with 1 bogie and 1 birdie, happily ending the round with a 6-over 77! It's interesting what you learn about someone in a single round of golf. I learned that my lawyer buddy is 37 years old, married, 2 kids (5 and 7), is originally from Phoenix, runs the biggest personal injury office in Northern Arizona, and has a 5400 sq. ft. home on Flagstaff Ranch Country Club, which he bought for $875k, including the $75k golf membership. Boy, you sure get a lot more for your money in Flagstaff than where I live!


Sedona Golf Resort 11th

I played a final round the very next day among spectacular cumulus clouds, but no rain. I hooked up with another attorney, from New York, and an old Irish twosome from Long Beach, CA. This attorney was not only a very good golfer, starting the game when he was 6 years old, but was pleasant to play with as well. He also had an appointment which cut his round short, but he never pulled out his cell phone. One of the two Irishmen was an absolute joy. He started the round duffing one shot after another, but putting his lobs right up to the pin. After a few holes, he apparently got warmed up and remembered how to play, and began hitting pretty impressive drives for such a squirrelly swing. I finally got off to a good start, parring most of the first holes, but lost a ball on one tee shot causing a double bogie, then loosing another soon after, leading to a triple! I snuck in a birdie to finish the front just 5-over. I got a little sloppy at the end of the round, trying to repeat some great drives I'd hit earlier in the round - trying to keep up with the crushing drives of the attorney. I landed a lake on both 16 and 18, and finished the back nine 3 over for an 8-over 79. Not a bad finish to a wonderful vacation!

I absolutely loved the course! Not only was the setting spectacular, but I found it much more difficult than it's 120 slope would indicate. The greens were fast and undulating, and well protected by crushed red rock bunkers. Many fairways were tight, with menacing desert shrub grabbing any ball that seemed only slightly offline. But what challenged me the most was the thin air at nearly 4500 feet of elevation. I never quite figured out what club to use on my approaches. Although I loved hitting my 8 iron 170 yards, it usually resulted in finding a bunker beyond the green. On the downhill par 5 eleventh, I crushed a 345 yard drive, leaving me only 189 yards out. I then hit a 7-iron 10 yards past the hole, thinking I'd leave my shot below the hole for an uphill chip or putt! Believe me, I've never hit a 200 yard 7-iron before!

I definitely look forward to returning someday to Sedona, to enjoy another hike to Cathedral Rock, and to play a few more rounds at Sedona Golf Resort!

Labels: Arizona, Courses, Golf Destinations, Golf Vacation, Rounds, Sedona, Sedona Golf Resort

I've experienced some dreadful rounds in the past couple weeks. One of the leagues I participate in plays 9-hole team matches every Tuesday night. Two weeks ago, I shot a 44 after getting off to a good start, but then 4-putting on my 5th green. This week, I went out early to play 9-holes before the match with one of my teammates so we could get in a little practice and to check out the pin placements. I shot a 51, my second worst nine in my entire 2 years playing! I lost 2 balls on the first hole and another ball a few holes later! My putting was horrendous too! But worst of all, I was duffing shots with some of my favorite clubs. My game completely unraveled for the first time since I can remember.


Peaceful Reflections by brunosmi at flickr.com

When we finished our practice round, I learned I was matched against the best player in the league for the upcoming 9 hole match. My handicap has improved so much recently, that I also found out that I didn't even get any strokes. We were both playing as 4's. Honestly, I just don't see myself as being in the same league as this guy. He's at least 15 years younger, in a lot better shape, and simply kills the ball. He has the smoothest swing I've ever witnessed. I strike the ball pretty well, but I can't even come close to keeping up with this guy. I played a round with him last year, and on a 185 yard par 3 where I take a 6-iron, he takes a 7-iron and even goes 8-iron at times. He makes it look effortless, like a pro. Although we both share a background in hockey, he's played golf since he was a youth. I've been playing seriously for just over a year.

Needless to say, I was a little apprehensive and doubtful about my chances after coming off a 51 on the same nine holes we were about to play!

Now, my bad play of late didn't just appear out of nowhere. I've spent the last two weekends ripping up tile and carpeting and installing new flooring at my wife's retail store. My wife's partner's husband had already repainted the store, and I helped him install new wood-like flooring. In addition to all the bending over that's required, moving all their displays back and forth really did a number on my back. As expected, I lost my swing and gradually lost every other part of my game.

So, without an ounce of confidence, I took this guy on.

He starts off with a 300 yard drive on a par 4, leaving him with a short wedge in. He gets it up close and makes his birdie putt. I on the other hand, hit my drive into a hill covered in long fescue. I managed to hit the fringe on my approach, but left myself with an Augusta-like, curving downhill putt with sprinklers in the way. I chipped to avoid the sprinklers and was left with 15 feet for par. I made the putt! Although I lost the hole, I made a great up and down.

I had decided before the round to limit use of my driver because it had gotten me in so much trouble during my practice round. But on the following hole, my opponent hit his drive so far, he only had an iron in to the par 5 green. I pulled out my driver to at least give myself a chance to get close in 2. I then hit my favorite 5-wood left, into some wood chips below a grove of eucalyptus trees. To my amazement, my opponent then missed his approach right. I was still in it. I hit a full lob wedge from the chips that cleared some huge bunkers and landed the green, which was out of my sight, some 25 feet above me. My opponent chipped up, but failed to clear a mound and rolled back off the green! I lagged to 2 feet. He chipped again, this time up to about 4 feet. I missed my 2-footer. He made his. We halved the hole. I had thrown away a perfect chance to take the hole and get back to even.

It turns out that my poor play began to rub off on my opponent as the round continued. On the next hole, I 4-putted after struggling to even get to the green, but he then 3-putted on the following hole. By the time we reached the final hole, I'd pulled to even in the match, and was only 1 back in our stroke play. Unfortunately, I chunked yet another tee shot and lost the last hole with a bogie. We had both played terribly. I shot a 45, he shot 43. We're both looking forward to redeeming ourselves the next time we play against each other.

I finished the round just wanting to quit playing for a while. As hard as I tried, I had a hard time enjoying myself. I felt like I'd regressed all the way back to being a beginner.

Luckily, a good night's sleep changed my attitude.

After work the next day, I headed over to another course to hit some balls on the range. After a few swings, I decided to play with my grip and ended up going a little stronger than my normal neutral grip. Immediately, everything felt better and I reduced the severity of my natural fade. I took out my driver and started hitting some pretty long and straight drives. Then, as I often do at the end of my practice session on the range, I hit a few "Happy Gilmore" drives. I have an uncanny ability to hit some awesome drives by standing back about 10 feet from the ball, then walking up and swinging with everything I've got. It's great practice for hand-eye coordination. All the golfers from the local high school team happened to be on the range with me. Before long, about a dozen of them turned around to watch this "Happy" spectacle. Effortlessly, I sent these "Happy" drives, one after the other, to the ends of the range! One guy commented that my drives were "tight" ;).

I finished my bucket and went up to the clubhouse for a beer, where I ran into a fellow x-submariner friend who lives on the course, is retired, and currently plays to a 3. He asked if I wanted to play 4 or 5 holes with him after we finished our Firestones. Eager to try out my new grip out on the course, I obliged. We played 14 through 18. I hit every green in regulation and only missed one fairway by a few feet. After I hit that one drive a little left. My friend suggested I try strengthening my right hand too. Apparently, I'd strengthened my grip with my left hand, but my right hand was still neutral, causing me to come over the ball and pull it left. I tried his suggestion on the next hole and got immediate results. On the par 5 18th, I hit another booming drive, but still had about 220 yards to the back left pin. I decided to see if I could get a little extra out of my 5-wood with my new and improved grip. I hit it perfectly and cleared the lake protecting the entire green and landed nice and soft with an easy 2-putt for birdie. What was most rewarding about this shot wasn't the extra distance and accuracy I'd discovered, but that this was the very hole I collapsed on the last time I played it, shooting a quadruple bogie after putting 2 balls in the lake during a Men's tournament, after fighting back to get to even par after a poor start.

Now back to the title of this post. I made an artful discovery. However, I'm not referring to my new grip. Yesterday, I snuck away from my computer about 2:00 in the afternoon to go back to the course I had just shot that 51/45 round. I went out as a single. My goal was to get a little more practice in with my new grip, without the influence of the beer or two I experienced the day before.

I was told in the clubhouse that they were starting off on the 10th and that nobody was in front of me for several holes. Perfect!

But when I walked up to 10, I found I was behind 2 young guys that just teed off and were now hacking the ball from one side of the fairway to the other. It wasn't pretty but at least they're giving it a try. After I wait for them to get out of range and tee off, then start walking up the fairway, another twosome comes up behind me, glaring at me with their hands on their hips. I wait in the fairway for the hacker twosome to clear the green, while these other 2 guys are still waiting on the tee for me to get out of their way. I hit a poor 7-iron short of the green, chip up and 2-putt for bogie.

I then get up to the 11th tee and see that another twosome has just let the hacker twosome play through. I wait about 10 minutes for both groups to finish this par 3. While I'm waiting, the twosome behind me catches up and joins me on the teebox. I then learn why they're irritated and why this supposed empty course is all congested. It turned out that the hacker twosome and irritated twosome weren't told to start on 10, so they had just finished the front nine and now run into those of us just starting our round. What a mess. We decided to join up as a threesome. We warmed up to each other quickly and they started smiling again. Finally, the green cleared and we all hit good shots that landed the green, but ended up on the upper tier above the hole. We all 3-putted for bogies.

I bogied the next par 5 hole too with another 3-putt, but didn't care since I was striking the ball so well. After all, I was just practicing with my new grip. I wasn't focusing too hard on my putting or worrying about my score. But then I birdied 13 and started thinking I might as well try to play a good round. I bogied one more hole and finished the back just 3-over - the same nine I'd just shot my 51 and 45! I was feeling good and happy that I didn't actually quit golf like I told myself I would a couple days prior!

My newfound friends left after we finished the back since they'd already played the front, and I continued on as a single. I hit some trees on my approach to the first green, then left myself about 15 feet above the hole after my wedge in. I lipped out on my par putt and made bogie to go 4-over. Then on the par 4 2nd, I overswung and hit another tree. I decided to pull out another ball just for practice and hit it right down the middle. The ball that hit the tree had bounced way back, but into the fairway. I hit a 7-iron to about 50 feet from the pin. Just for fun, I played my other drive too and put a wedge to about 20 feet above the hole.

For anyone who decided to keep reading, this is where my artful discovery comes in!

I took a long look at the 50 footer and decided it broke left and was downhill - a putt that could easily run away from the hole, making for an easy 3-putt. While I was standing over the ball, I got this feeling that I just wasn't lined up right. I started moving my putter alignment further and further away from the hole, then all of a sudden, I just got this feeling that I was now lined up right. Since I didn't have much confidence in my ability to 2-putt from here anyway, I decided to trust this feeling and just putt. As you might have guessed, I sunk the putt and made birdie! I then decided to go ahead and see if I could recreate this feeling with that other ball, sitting 20 feet above the hole. I hardly spent anytime looking at the putt, just enough to get a general idea of which direction it would break. I then stood over the ball and turned my putter until something just felt right. It's not a feeling I can describe, but some type of intuitive knowing. While turning my putter head to change my alignment, I got that feeling again. With total trust (I already had my birdie), I took the putter back and sunk another birdie putt! A double birdie! I was now back to 3-over.

I continued to try out this new putting method for the rest of the round. Although I didn't keep sinking all my long putts, I did leave all my lag putts within inches of the cup for easy tap in pars. On one hole, I even tried this new discovery out with my lob wedge. I was about 70 yards out with an uphill shot to a hard-to-stick green. I waited for this feeling while standing over the ball, then swung. I landed 3 feet out and putted for birdie - now just 2-over!

I missed a curly little downhill putt for par on the 8th, but made an impressive par on 9 to come in just 3-over. I'd shot even-par since those first 3 holes where I wasn't really trying to putt or score well! Shooting a 74 right after those dismal scores I'd shot the other day certainly lifted my spirits!

This little discovery of a feeling or intuitive knowing while putting has me excited! I have no doubt that after my eyes have looked over a putt from all angles, my body has all the information it needs to make the putt. I just need practice working with and trusting my intuition to guide me. Being a naturally left-brained analytical type, this will be quite a challenge for me, but I have a deep sense that what I experienced yesterday wasn't just a fluke. I really did "feel" something different when my putter was lined up correctly, even though the analytical side of me was convinced I was now aiming too high or too low.

Golf can be quite an adventure in self-discovery! If anyone has any insights or experience of their own using intuition in golf, please share.

Labels: Disciplines, Intuition, Rounds

In March of last year, I took my first vacation centered around playing golf. Although I played one round during my vacation to Kauai in 2005, this trip was my first-ever golf vacation. My wife and I traded one of our timeshare weeks to stay at the Desert Oasis Resort in Palm Springs, just a 5 hour drive from our home on the Central Coast. While my wife and I enjoyed time together shopping and dining, I also got to sneak out for 5 straight days of golf! Prior to this trip, I'd only played golf on back-to-back days a total of 3 times.


Silver Rock in La Quinta by golfslo at flickr.com

In all honesty, Palm Springs isn't really my cup of tea. As more of a nature lover, it's a little too upscale for my liking. However, being situated at the base of the snow covered Mt. San Jacinto, made for quite an impressive desert setting. The deeply weathered summit of Mt. San Jacinto stands 10,800 feet above sea level, and is the second highest mountain range in Southern California. That's a pretty impressive backdrop from the 500 foot elevation in the desert, making for the largest elevation gain from base to peak in the continental U.S.

I'm particularly drawn to this mountain since my in-laws own an old cabin in Idyllwild, which we love to visit. Idyllwild is located one mile high on the other side of the mountain, among the majestic Ponderosa and Sugar Pines and Incense Cedars.

With so many golf courses to choose from, I decided to whittle the list down to only those with 4 and 4 1/2 star ratings from Golf Digest Magazine. I also tried to pick a couple courses I could walk.

I decided to start off easy at the Tahquitz Creek Golf Resort - Resort Course (Whites 69.9/123). The Resort Course was designed by Ted Robinson Jr. and opened in February of 1995. The course is a links style desert layout, and like many of the courses in Palm Springs, is lined by homes on many of it's holes. I joined three other singles - all walkers. One of the golfers was in his early 60's, retired, and lives year round in Palm Springs. He plays Tahquitz Creek regularly during the months that all the tourists are in town, but spends the hot, but quieter, summer months playing 36 holes a day at all his favorite local courses. I can't imagine playing 36 holes a day in temperatures over 100! Anyway, the guy could play golf! As