Holy crap do I suck at golf

18 holes.
Two days in a row.
One reason I love being single:
No nagging. Just putting.
One birdie. A few pars.
Love it.

 

I'd give anything for a 47. I shot 110 today on a pretty tough course: 56 on the front nine and 54 on the back. I entered the last two holes with a 40 on the back nine, and a par-3 and a par-5 to finish the round. I birdied 16 ... my first-ever birdie on a par-4 ... with a 170-yard approach shot that landed a foot from the cup. Best shot of my life.

Bogey golf on those last two holes would have given me my first-ever sub-50 nine.

*Cue Jim Rome portable buzzer* Nope. A quadruple bogey 7 on the par-3 after losing my tee shot, and a double-bogey 7 on the par-5 after hitting the green in 2 and five-putting.

But I'll be right back out there next weekend ...

 

Good walk spoiled, indeed.

 

WFW.

Well, there's something Zag and I can agree on.

 

I never knew I hated golf until I took up snowboarding. And I golfed a lot. I would have to finagle 5 or 6 hours away from my wife and little kids, drop $75, fume about how bad my game has gotten, and end the day frustrated. I thought this was one of my favorite pastimes.

Then I started snowboarding. I would have to finagle 5 or 6 hours away from my wife and little kids, drop $75, glide repeatedly down a beautiful mountain slope, and end the day in a blissed-out state.

Turns out I hate golf. I just never knew it until I actually did something I liked.

 

Man, Bubbler, that original post had me laughing. Hard. At work. Thanks. I needed it.

I was, growing up, about as good as you at golf. And I had the same temperment. Like you, I quit for years. Then, in 2006 I went with two friends who were visiting me. They love the game.

We went, I was, by my own standards, outstanding. I was shocked. I was older. More mature. More laid back. Didn't care. And didn't "overswing." I had the round of my life. I never went again and sold my clubs for $10 at a yard sale in June.

 

i've played one round of 18 holes. i shot a 156. but, i hit one drive as pure and perfect as you can, got the sweet spot and the ball soared into the vast yonder. that shot made up for the other 155.

 

Went to the range today and did much better. Still several counties from acceptable, but I hit a lot more of my shots straight, several even hit the way they were intended to for the club I was using.

Tried to reach some sort of zen agreement with the club, the ball and myself. Focus is extremely hard to maintain when you're basically a beginner at golf as I am, but the more focused I was, the better my shot tended to be.

Not over-swinging paid big dividends, especially with my woods. I hit one an honest-to-God 200-plus yarder straight off the tee. That felt real good.

I also realized that I was standing way too far away from the ball in most cases. Once I closed in a bit, I was better, again, especially with the woods, though most of the time, distance was poor. Distance doesn't really matter to me now anyway, accuracy comes first.

My pitching wedge and 9-iron need a LOT of work, but I feel better than I did last week.

 

The focus element is one of the hardest -- yet most underrated -- elements of the game.

It's one of those things that makes the game what it is. You KNOW what you need to do. You KNOW what it takes to execute a good, crisp shot. Yet, you can't make your body do that.

I try telling myself the three things I need to do to hit a good shot: stay down (I sometimes tend to slightly move my left knee, thus pulling me up), tuck the elbow and finish. Not surprisingly, when I do manage to do that, good things happen.

And Bubbler, my PW is the worst club in the bag. Always has been. Don't ask why.

 

There always seems to be a shot or two that keeps you coming back. That's why golf is so addicting.

Last time out, I hit my irons better than I ever have. One of them was a 7-iron from about 205 yards, downhill. Normally I'd hit a 5-iron in that situation, but the downhill combined with how well I was hitting my irons changed my decision.

There was an overhang of branches on the left reaching just far enough so that I couldn't go right at the flag. I decided to try and shape the ball around the trees right-to-left. I aimed at a bunker short right of the green and hit what might have been the purest ball I've ever hit. It shaped perfectly around the overhanging branches and landed just on the green before it backed up just on the fringe to leave me about a 20-foot putt for eagle. Of course my terrible short game took over and I three-putted for par, but I've never felt quite as good about a shot as that one.

 

And then there's rounds like I had Tuesday, where I was doing OK before taking a 9 on the 9th hole, and then completely fell apart on the back nine for a 109. Ouch.

But, on the plus side, I probably sweated off at least 5 pounds by carrying my bag on a hilly course in mid-80s temps and high humidity. That's why I never ride on a golf cart: even if you play like crap, you burn off some calories by carrying your bag around 18 holes.