It's a good thing....

It's a good thing I didn't give up my amateur status last year. I went out Sunday after cutting greens at the local Muni and shot a whopping 85. From tee to green I wasn't too bad but the short game and putting was awful. Overall I wasn't expecting much better but it was still a little disappointing. I ahve a lot of work to do to get back in playing shape for this year. I have started a new workout regimen. I found a used Bowflex on Craig's List a couple of weeks ago and have started using it 3 times a week. I am also running on the treadmill for 30 minutes a day for now, just to get back into it. I've got to get back onto a regular practice schedule like last year when I was going to putt and chip before work and hitting balls at lunch. It's a good thing the local Muni is only 5 minutes from my office. Now if we could just get the weather to warm up a little and stop raining for a few days at a time so the fairways will start to come out.

I'm Back

Wow, it has been almost a whole year since I was last on here. Where has that time gone? For the most part it was spent on the golf course every morning and afternoon until September. Since September, work got in the way and with the economy the way it is I have had to do a lot of travelling to stay employed. Last year was both good and bad for me as far as golf goes. I built a great swing and was playing awesome towards the end of the year. My best finish in a tournament was at a Pro-Am in Colorado where my four man team finished in the top 5. I played in a couple smaller tournaments near home and did not do well at all. But anyway, in October I suffered a neck injury that sidelined my training through the beginning of January and I have been working in the field in Brooklyn, NY for the last two months. I went out yesterday for the first time and hit a bucket of balls just trying to start knocking the rust off. It actually went much better than I expected. Granted I wasn't making the best contact but it felt good. It has always amazed me how well I start off playing when I have taken a break. It's like I just swing without thinking about it. Gotta go for now. For all of you that left comments that I never answered last year I apologized. Please continue reading and I would like to hear from you.

Redirecting my focus

Well, since coming back from the Hooter's ranking tournament I have reevaluated my game and where I need to be playing. For this year, I am going to start a little smaller at the beginning and work my way up. I have found several mini-tours that play closer to home and will not require as much travel as the Hooter's tour would. I would still like to play in a Hooter's event or two to see how I do closer to the end of the year. I have started working with a new instructor as well. He has made some minor swing changes that have taken some time to work in but I am now getting much more consistancy with the good shots as well as the bad ones. At least now I have some idea of where to expect the bad ones to be, short and right because I came up out of it. It is nice not having to worry about the dreaded duck hook anymore. That's all for now.....

Not a great start

Well, Hooter's Tour Ranking School came and went last week for me. I had probably the worst four consecutuve days on a golf course that I can remember. The practice round on Monday went well I thought. Then that afternoon the brain started thinking too much and doubts about being out there with "those guys" starting creeping in. I ended up way back in the pack, I have no idea when I will get to play any events this year. I will tell you one thing, there is nothing like trying to tee up a ball on the first tee of your first professional round and barely being able to keep the thing on the tee because your hand is shaking so bad.

I doubted my swing all week and tried to play the field. I checked each afternoon to see how far I was out of the lead so I could try to post a low number the next day and that just did not work. I ended up trying to play the guys in my group instead of playing the course. I must admit, the course was tight and keeping it in the fairway is a must there (duh!), but for someone on their game it was for the taking. One guy shot a 63, tying the course record set by Chris DeMarco, in the second round.

I am chalking last week up to a big learning experience and now know that I need more competitive experience to learn to deal with the pressure of truely competitive golf.

It's all coming together

I got my letter confirming my Ranking School assignment from the Hooter's Tour last week. I will be playing Jan. 7-11 at the Magnolia Plantation Golf Course outside of Orlando. Things are coming together well with my game. I played last Friday and shot 75, 35 going out and 40 coming in. The back side was a little rough. On 11 I was only trying to hit a 3 iron up the right side and ended up chunking it down the left into a really bad sidehill lie in some nasty rough. Gouged it out down the left side still in the rough, almost in the lateral hazard, then got a 9 iron to pin high left of the green down in a swale. Hit a decent flop that took a hard bounce to the right and two putted for a double. Then on 12 I hit what I thought was a great 7 iron that got caught up in the wind and ended up 10 yards short. Caught the chip a little fat and two putted for bogey. Then on 13 I absolutely striped a driver 310 down the left side and caught my wedge heavy. Then hit a decent chip to about 12 feet then lipped out the putt for par - bogey. These three holes killed the round but I was proud of how I finished. 14 - par, 15 - par, 16 - par, 17 - bogey and 18- birdie.

I think that I want to to a hole by hole description of my local course for you so you can have some idea of where I play every week. I am fortunate enough to be able to play for free there as I work part-time on weekends and holidays cutting greens. I play at the Mooresville Municipal Golf Course in Mooresville, NC. The course is owned and operated by the city. The front nine was designed by Donald Ross and built in the 1940's, so it has been around for a while. I am not sure who designed the back and I believe it was built in the late 1970's.

I am going to start my description on the last hole, one of my favorites. As Dr. Bob Rotella says, "you don't beat people on the easy holes, you beat them on the difficult driving holes". 18 is a tough little hole at the local Muni. It is a 564 yard par 5 with a tight fairway sloping left to right with a dogleg to the right that starts at about 200 yards from the tee. Very tall pines and oaks line the right side so it makes it difficult for a draw player like myself. I have figured out that I am best to play the ball slightly more forward and lean a little further back on setup to get the ball up and over the trees to let my draw bring the ball back to the fairway. The second shot is downhill and if played from the fairway, is not too difficult. It can be precarious if you lose it right as there is an irrigation pond beside the green to the right. There is a bunker on the right side of the fairway about 80 yards from the green that comes into play for golfers with average length. Between that bunker and the green the ground slopes to the right towards the hazard. I usually try to play my second shot about 50 yards from the green on the left hand side of the fairway. This leaves the best angle to the green that is skinny (only about 30 feet wide, if that) and angles from the players left to right. The green is maybe 70 - 80 feet deep with a bunker along the front right side and slopes from back to front and left to right. If the pin is back right, it can make for an interesting pitch shot. Last week I was fortunate and the pin was center front, about 4 paces on. I hit a great pitch that stopped 4 feet below the hole to the right and I drianed the putt right in the middle of the cup.

I hope you enjoyed this description of 18. I will work on the rest of the holes one or two at a time for you.

Until next time. Hit 'em straight!

And So It Begins

It all starts tomorrow. I am sending in my application and check to join the NGA Hooters Tour tomorrow! That means I have 8 to 12 weeks to get ready for my first professional tournament. The qualifying tournament will be a great challenge and I am looking forward to playing against fome awesome competition. Hopefully I will finish high enough in the qualifying tournament to get playing priveliges for the entire year. But even if I don't, this is just the beginning of a long uphill road. I will keep you updated as to how the preparation is going. Let me know if anyone is actually reading this. I have some photos from the three courses I recently played on in a tournament out in Beaver Creek, Colorado. If I can figure out how to upload them I will.

Getting Started

I have begun to chase the "Dream". That being said, I guess I need to describe my "Dream". For a lot of golfers, you hear them describe their dream as sinking the birdie putt on the 18th at Augusta to win. For me, the dream is just to be inside the ropes and see how far I can go.

I have been playing since I was 5 years old when my dad cut off a set of his clubs and regripped them for me. I grew up playing baseball and golf, along with football and basketball, but the spring season was always the hardest for me. I wanted to play both sports but couldn't and baseball won out. In hindsight, I should have played golf to see if I could have gotten a scholarship to play somewhere.

Back in the spring of this year I had the chance to attend both the Worldcom Classic at Harbour Town Golf Links and the Wachovia Championship at Quail Hollow. Watching the guys on Tour really got my blood going this year because I know I can play as well as those guys. I know I'm not at Tiger's level, but who on Tour is. You may say Mike Weir after the President's Cup, but I would beg to differ. No one has the mental game Tiger does but I would love to give it a shot.

I am entering the ranks of Professional Golf this year. I am submitting an application to play on the NGA Hooters Tour to start things off. I am looking forward to this immensely. It will be quite a challenge, hopefully I can finish well enough in the Ranking Tournament to get exempt status early in the year.

I would appreciate hearing from any and all that have tried this before. Let me hear from you!