Shaking off the Rust

I haven't played or practiced much over the summer.  First part of the summer I was helping my daughter train for fall softball.  I've played three times this summer.  Shot a couple of mid 80's scores and one 90 while I was on vacation.  I felt discouraged, but I remember an article I read that said that breaking 80 was extremely difficult and that shooting par gets even worse and that you will play worse at times in pursuit of trying to lower your score. 

I played in this group when I shot 90 on vacation with a guy that was just absolutely striping the ball.  After we played about 8 holes, he asked me if I played alot, I said yeah, but playing well was a different story.  He told me I had a hell of a short game, so it gave me a boost to go back and play and practice more the rest of this summer because one of my goals is to shoot 75.  I just need to focus my practice time and focus on what I do well instead of dwelling on the negatives.

War and Peace

I felt great about my chipping last night. Especially I had the chipping green to myself for nearly an hour.  I felt so at peace with the chips I was hitting. My visualization of my shots was awesome and no struggles with mechanics or mechanical thoughts.

The inner war was with pitch or semi flop shots.   I was practicing a shot where I had to pitch it to a pin placement five yards off the green. A tough shot because you can hit a decent shot but it will roll 10 feet past.  

You have to hit a shot with a good amount of spin on it so It can check and stop near the pin. The first ten minutes were frustrating because I hit good shots and sure enough rolled 10 feet past the hole or hit the fringe an stop half a foot on the green.  

As we all know the frustration gives way to doubt then doubt into fear. That's the constant war inside, isn't it. Instead of letting the frustration build I took a deep breath and thought about what I was doing causing the frustration.

Then I focused on what I needed to do. I noticed was taking the club too far inside and I was releasing the club which is a death move when your trying to loft the ball and creating spin.

After that I hit the ball better but not great. But the. I was at peace again because I accepted the good shots and realized its not healthy to try to be perfect in one night.

I remember  former major league all star said when he played in Boston for the Red Sox, he said that they felt they had to win but when he played for the Yankees they felt like the where going to win. In the past I would feel like "am I ever going to be consistent with this shot?". When I left last night  I felt, "I'll learn to be consistent with this shot". That's the piece of mind that is the difference between failing or succeeding at this game.

How Young is Too Young?

How young is too young to be on the driving range?  I’m not referring to prodigies that are “Tigeresque” or have perfect balance like a three year old Rory McIlroy.  Those are kids are physically gifted and   wise beyond their years and have a passion for the game.  I’m not even talking about the kids who whine or horse around the range. 

I’m talking about something I saw last night.  I wanted to take a picture of it, but I didn’t want to be viewed as some freak-pedophile (for those who are old school that would be a pervert or child molester). 

There were two moms, pushing their kids on these hybrid strollers, the ones that are bikes and little trucks that the kids sit, and they were having a mock Indy 500 race behind the golfers on the driving range.  Really?  Look, moms, I know you want your husband to be involved with your child’s lives and you want to be there to support you husband’s passion for golf.

Husbands, I understand you want to show your wife and child that you can make your time on the range quality family time as well.  I get it.  Here’s the bad news, research shows that multi-tasking actually hurts productivity.  Trying to multi-task your practice session with family time may work for you and it’s a noble concept, but it hurts the productivity of other golfers when there are toddlers being pushed on strollers pretending they are in the Daytona 500.

Then five minutes later they are running around with a plastic golf club hitting a ball that could go near a golfer who’s wound up with a driver attempting to hit the back fence of the driving range.  It’s a potential recipe for disaster. Plus the fact that it was 9:45 at night and they started crying because they were cranky from not getting their way with their moms.

Believe me, I have a daughter and at times I found it endearing, but when the kids are making noise and the parents are treating the range as their personal playground for their kids, it lacks courtesy and it’s not fair to the golfers who are making the effort to improve their game.  So Mom and Dad leave the big wheels home and only bring the kids if they want to participate in our great game.

Now, I am a Michelle Wie Fan

I’m a tough cookie when it comes to standards and expectations, especially when it comes to athletes and sports.  I was very weary about the hype surrounding Michelle Wie when she almost made the cut at the Sony Open in Hawaii several years back, then she decided to turn pro. 

I got tired of hearing how great a golfer she was, especially for being 14-years-old and how beautiful her golf swing was to the point they gave her the nickname the “Big Wiesy.” 

I got tired  because in all my years of playing sports in high school and some in junior college and watching sports all my life, it doesn’t matter how talented you are if you don’t have it together in your head, you’ll never win, and you definitely won’t last.  I saw signs that everyone else, including the golf media in its denial couldn’t see, that this kid lacked a certain mental toughness that the great ones have.  They solely focused on her talent.  I understand, focusing on the talent gives you ratings, but sometimes they forget to look at their heart.

  I saw this lack of mental toughness in some of press conferences when she had a bad round or faced adversity and after a couple of disqualifications because of scorecard issues.  Sure enough all the hype ended up catching up with her and the media tide turned and viewed her as an under achiever. 

There was a part of me that said, “See, I told you so,” but there was a part of me that felt sorry for her because I’m a parent of a young girl.  Because Wie was a teen, I was more upset with her parents for letting her play golf professionally at such a young age.  I know it sounds judgmental, but I believe that you need to set boundaries with your children, especially when your child is trying to make such a huge adult decision.  My perception was they didn’t think this all the way through, and Wie’s innocence and optimism about the game deteriorated as a result.

Then she played less and less golf on the LPGA tour because she enrolled into Stanford.  While in her later years at the school she won that elusive breakthrough title at Lorena Ochoa’s event and then when she didn’t go on to win a major or more events, some people were critical of her, but this time I became a supporter of Wie instead of joining the crowd. 

The reason for that was she completed her degree at Stanford.  That is a major achievement.  Think about it, she basically was playing part-time on the tour and she still managed to garner many endorsements, a tour win and played a big role on a Solehim Cup winning team.  We all know there are many players who grind it out full-time on the tour for years and never manage a single win.

She may never be the great player that everyone expects to be, but that shouldn’t matter because she has shown greatness as a person because she’s showing she has it together in her head, that makes her an over achiever.

A Tale of Two Greens

A Tale of Two Greens

The top green is the chipping green at my local muni and the bottom is the putting green. There is a saying, if common sense were common everyone would have it.  Well, five minutes before I took this picture, I was about to grab my last golf ball, by the way the ball I'm talking about is on the bottom picture, suddenly one person walked over, then the next, then you had three to four people on that small green, then two minutes later another person showed up and began chipping for a grand total of five.

Meanwhile, the putting green is twice as big as the chipping green and for ten minutes the ball in the photo was the lone being on the green.  WHY?  Come on people, have some sense and some etiquette and head over to the putting green, especially if you are a high handicapper.  You need to spend more time on your putting anyway, so don't be stubborn just because you want to get your chipping in. This shows that you maybe an impatient golfer, and besides fear and anger, impatience is another enemy of a good golfer.

Finally

I paraphrase Bobby Jones when he basically said that perseverance is one of the most rewarding virtues that a human can experience.  That's how I felt when I finally was able to get together with  the owner of the local golf shop to make the trade for the clubs.  I was able to trade for the Cleveland CG Tour and I was very happy.  I persisted and got what I wanted instead of packing it in and settling on the clubs I didn't want.

By the way since the owner gave me the blessing to send people his way, the name of the place is Eaton's Golf in Long Beach California, off of Woodruff near Los Coyotes Diagonal.  Great shop, but more important great owner and great service. Swing by if  you are in the area.

P.S. Tried the clubs as far as my short game, and love them so far.

Being Number One

I saw this segment on Golf Central last night where they focused on the whole issue of being ranked #1 in the world. Players and analyst on the show gave their perspectives on being number one.  I was struck by Lee Westwood when he basically expressed that he would get annoyed or irritated by people who diminished the number one ranking because they haven’t won a major championship.  He went on to say that being number one is a tremendous accomplishment and he didn’t see why people would look down on the accomplishment.

I agree with Westwood it’s a tremendous accomplishment, but it does really come down to Majors.  Number one to this generation of fans means nothing if you can’t attach a major championship to it.  Think about it, Phil Mickelson was always tagged with the “greatest player to never win a major.  Then, 2004 he finally broke through with the first of his four major wins. 

When looking at Phil’s legacy, everyone will remember his short-game wizardy, his river-boat-gambler style, and how much he was a “people’s champ," no if he was ever the #1 player in the world.

Look at one of golf's greatest tragic-heroes, Greg Norman.  He had the second longest run at #1 since the rankings were created in 1986.  In the span of is career he had a ton of wins and two majors, unfortunately what people remember most about Norman are his mounumental collapses in Majors and there is a segment of Golf and sports fans who see him as the "C" word (Choker), not that he spent 331 weeks at #1. 

 It’s similar to when the FED-EX was hyped on the PGA Tour; it’s a nice accomplishment, but would a player want the FED-EX Cup and the money, or a Green Jacket from Augusta.  Similar question, would Westwood want to be number one and stay there or drop in the rankings and win the Claret Jug?