Golf Grammie

I wanted to take this time to welcome the new writer to the blog, Golf Grammie.  Named thus by her Great Grand Children, she has agreed to send me golf articles to post from her experiences on and off the course.  Not only is she my golf inspiration she has also inspired me to write about it.  For many years she has written stories for the local newspaper about small town life and life in general.  I sent her (via "Snail Mail") the first few posts from this blog letting her know what I was doing.  While visiting her over the weekend she said to me, "Oh, by the way, I really loved your Blob...I mean blog."  I look forward to all her posts and I hope you all enjoy her stories and insight as much as I do.

Cheers to all!

A Monday treat

When Monday rolls around, you begin the work week all over again and it can be rather drab.  To add insult to double bogey, TV programming on the Golf Channel is usually open to infomercials and reruns of old tournaments of which we have all seen Tiger win again and again.

This past Monday I came home, sat down comfortably on my sofa with a fresh home-brewed beer and prepared myself to have to watch HGTV with SWMBO because nothing else would be on.  To my delight I realized that the Bob Hope Classic did not end on Sunday but Monday, and to make it a real treat, four players had a real chance at taking the tournament.  Far too often in golf it comes down to two players, and even sometimes just one.   It is really great to watch that many players have to shoot it out over a small number of holes to see who comes out on top.  The last three holes, in and of themselves were their own nail-biting tournament.  Congrats to Bill Haas who, although looking like a floundering fish on his last approach to the 18th pulled off a last ditch birdie to capture him the win.  I hope to see him in the last groups of the final rounds again.  It was nice to see the emotions show so plainly on the players when so much pressure was being put on them.

Here's to golf on Mondays!

Cheers to all!

How I fixed my slice

Disclaimer: Do not assume that because I am posting about fixing a part of my game I am in any way taking on the role of golf teacher or analyst.  But, if you choose to try what I did and it works . . . in such case I take credit for everything. :)  

As mentioned in a previous post I was a, "banana baller," a “slicer," or a "strong fader" of the golf ball.  By my early twenties I had more or less given up on ever being able to hit the ball straight, let alone a draw.  In every shot I lined up, as every slicer does, 30 - 40 yards left of my intended target with small hopes of ending up where I wanted.  The "light bulb" moment for me was while watching "Playing Lessons from the Pros" on the Golf Channel.  The featured pro was Corey Pavin, and although not the longest hitter, he is known for being able to work the ball both ways.  In the show he talked about his back foot position changing based on what kind of shot he was trying to hit.  He would move it slightly in front of his stance for a fade and slightly behind for a draw, meanwhile never aiming away from his target.  His next advice was to let your swing follow your feet.

I took this little tidbit of advice to the range months later.  I would set my self up square to the target, dropping my back foot twelve inches or so behind my stance.  Once I figured out how to maintain my balance in this configuration I took my first few swings, trying my darndest to bring the club back following the line of my feet.    The first few shots did not change from my original swing trajectory; except that they were more of a pull fade then before.  Finally everything clicked in the swing and I connected squarely with the ball.  It flew straight and true for one of the first times ever.  Before long I became used to the awkwardness of the swing and started to snap hook some shots.  I had never done such a thing before, and it was great!  I played this way for a few months, dropping my back foot behind my stance as far as I could manage and using my foot pattern as my swing guide.  Eventually I was able to square out my stance and still hit a draw.  Putting my foot that far back forced me to learn a new swing path.  I still use this stance if I don't play for awhile and start coming over the top again.  

Again, this advice worked for me but may not work for all.  Any golf teacher/pro will say, if you line everything up square to your target the ball should go that way. In my case, I needed a little kick in the butt to figure it out but the statement still holds true.

Cheers to all!

Learning the Game

When I was  about twelve years old, I tried my hand at playing golf on a “real course.”  The only person willing to take me on as a golf student was my Grandmother, a relatively new golfer herself and in love with the game.  My first course was in Rangely, Maine at Mingo Springs.  At the time golf was $25 for 18 holes walking.  My Grandparents were both members and played there nearly every day.    My clubs were hand me downs, Service Merchandise specials.  I wasn't quite tall enough yet to really be able to swing the driver, so the largest club I carried was a 5-wood.  Eight strokes was the highest score my Grandmother would let me take; even back then I remember she was always there to make sure I counted every stroke.  I was never really any good to begin with, as the extent of my training up until then had been trying to swing a Medicus® club (not counting hitting rocks into the woods of course, see previous post).  Unfortunately in the long run, this  probably hurt me more because I quickly learned to manipulate the Medicus® to keep it from bending.  For many years, especially in the beginning, I never saw the left-hand side of the course except from a distance.  I was a “banana baller” from the start.  I could slice a putter I was so bad.  

Back in those days the fashion of a twelve-year-old was not exactly on the “golf approved list.”  Luckily in Maine things were a bit more lax.  My pants were always hanging off my butt with some sort of patterned boxer-short showing.  I would have to keep pulling my pants up before each swing so they didn't fall down to my knees during the back swing.  I remember playing once with a really nice couple-friend of my Grandmother’s, the gentleman was some sort of political figure.  I tried incredibly hard to be polite all day and show my best golf etiquette.  I played horribly as usual, but the folks we played with were very patient with me.  A couple of weeks later, my Grandmother told me that the woman we played with came over to visit; she walked right up to my Grandmother with her pants pulled part-way down doing the waddle and said, "Who do I look like?"  I guess “old folks” do have a sense of humor!

Cheers to all!

Where has single golf gone?

I am finding that it has become harder and harder to be a, "walk on single." I feel like I used to be able to walk into most any club and get right out on the course playing in any open slots.  Nowadays, when you walk into a club house without a full foursome in tow you often get treated as the bottom of the barrel, and more often than not told there aren't any openings today.  Does one have to have friends in-tow in order to play golf?  I know I am not the only one who likes to play "walk on golf." Besides not having to find three other people on the same schedule as yourself (which usually is damn-near impossible), you often get to play with very interesting people.  Some courses will let you call ahead and set up a tee time for just a single, but I am seeing more and more courses switching to the ‘no tee times for singles’ policy.  I often hear, "oh yeah, just come on over and we'll try to get you out," then when you do as they suggest, you get the ugly look from the starter and an invitation to hang out on the putting green for an hour (which in my case may not be a bad thing).  I am probably being too hard on the courses.  I should be understanding that they are busy and need to cater to the people that thanks to modern technology are making tee times a week in advance.  I guess I am just selfish and think some things shouldn't change.  Or, maybe I just need to make more friends (prerequisite they have the same schedule of course). :P

So, I say to all golf course owners out there, "be nice to the single walk-on golfer," and understand that, "no, I don't mind waiting for a tee time, and yes, I would love to join up with another group."

How it all began

The first club I ever put my hands on was an old wooden 5-wood with the plastic insert on the face.  I was around 10, scrawny and full of more energy then any parent should ever have to handle.  The club came from my father's golf bag, which at the time had not been used but maybe once a year for a long time and sat in the barn collecting dust and debris as things tend to do in barns.  As was not all that strange in the back woods of small town Maine, myself and my brother were home alone.  Now before you go saying, "why would his parents leave him home alone at his age?" I'd better explain what "small town Maine" means.  If you have ever read a novel by Stephen King you likely know, but for those of you who have never partaken in his books this should sum it up.  During the summertime the population averaged around 5,000 people and sometimes more.  Once winter came the actual residents of the town numbered somewhere closer to 500 people.  My nearest neighbor was more than a mile away and to get to the bus each morning I really did have to walk a 1/2 a mile up-hill in the snow.  You have likely heard of one-room school houses, for instance the one from "Little House on the Prairie" or "Anne of Green Gables."  Well, in my little town we were an upgrade from this -  which increased the school to two rooms.  One room for K-2nd grades, and the adjoining room for 3rd-5th grades.  My family and I moved to the town during my 3rd grade year and at that time my class consisted of myself and four other classmates. (Must have been a warm winter in town the year I was conceived.)  Life was quiet and leaving the kids home alone at younger ages was certainly more common.  What trouble can kids really get into that far out in the woods?

So, I was home alone with my father's 5-wood wondering exactly how one should swing such a contraption.  I knew the basic principle, put a ball on a stick in the ground and swing the club over your head before hitting the ball.  Of course, the first time I tried to swing the club I quickly realized that trying to keep that four foot pole with a weight on the end of it steady as I swung was not going to be easy.  I have mentioned that at the time my father was really not playing a lot of golf, so unfortunately for him there were no golf balls in his bag and I was forced to improvise.  There were of course plenty of tees, which came in handy when all we found to replace golf balls were round rocks.

It took a few swings before I was ever able to connect with the rocks.  I am sure that my stance probably looked very similar to a little league base ball stance and less like anything a golfer would do.  Stance and swing aside, the first time I connected with a little round rock was brilliant. This was my first experience with the satisfaction that is known by all golfers of making that perfect connection with the ball and watching it fly away.  It flew straight, high and long (I say long but it was probably more like 80 yards.).  I won't say that I was able to hit every shot perfect.  There were many that came off the toe and probably came close to breaking windows, but at the time I did not care.  I was having way too much fun.  It's too bad real golf balls could not be more like solid little round rocks.  I don't remember any kind of slice on those shots that we took, when I did connect with the ball they flew straight and into the woods.  As I am sure you can imagine, the golf clubs of the early 90's were not necessarily built for hitting rocks as hard as you could into the woods.  It was not long into our latest escapade that the "crack" of hitting the rocks turned to "crunch" and little white pieces of plastic went flying through the air.  A corner of the plastic face plate in the head of the club had broken.  We of course stopped at this point and looked at each other with a "oh crap, now what?" expression.  Back into my father's bag the club went with nothing said to anyone about what we had done.

Months later the club was found and I forcefully confessed to using it as a rock thrower one afternoon.  My punishment was one of irony and in my opinion pure brutality.  The club was passed down from father to son and became the first part of what would later be my first set of clubs.  It was years later before I seriously picked a club up again.

Cheers to all!

Golf Izzim #1

PBFU - "Post Birdie F$%# Up"

Note: Told to me by an old man very casually after I followed up a nice birdie with a  four putt quadruple bogey, "That was a nice PBFU" as we walked to the next tee.

Somewhere to Start?

So I said to myself, "self, what am I going to do this winter if i can't be out on the Golf Course?  What can I do to make up the time spent making bogeys, 3 putting and hitting out of the sand?  Why not write a Blog about how miserable I am without Golf.  Why not talk about why I came to love the game and what makes it so appealing to so many people."  I am by no means a writer.  I spent most of my high school years stoned so I am lucky I came out still speaking English.  My wife will likely spend as much time editing my posts as I will in just writing them.  So, to all who have come to read, welcome and enjoy.

 I, like many people that live in states where winter is still considered a season, spend 5 months of the year with my clubs hanging in the garage.  I trade in my  polo shirt, shorts and golf shoes for sweaters, long johns and heavy boots.  My driver becomes a shovel and the only balls I see are those made from cheese.  Outside, everything green is now white and the only golf I get comes from tiny little men on a 42" screen playing in places that I could never afford, and hitting golf shots that defy the rules of nature.  At the office, "golf talk" is over.  No more, "Where did you play this weekend?" or "So...I was on the 15th hole with a choice to hit driver or 3 iron..." or, "I got my butt whupped by a chick on the course..."  Oh no, we are back to hibernating in our cave-like offices hoping no one comes around to strike up conversations that we have absolutely no material for.  Life for the North Eastern golfer will go on and golf season will again come around, but for now we can spend time looking at reviews for the latest golf toy, browsing the latest edition of Golf Digest for training tips that we cut out to try in the spring, clean our golf shoes and clubs...again, pick the tees, balls and ball markers off the night stand and put them away, and maybe spend some time with whomever our significant other may be.  But, make no qualms about it, the golf fever will be back in a few short months and all can go back as it should be.  Until then there will be this blog to get me through.

Cheers to all!