Transition to Winter Golf

Come this Halloween morning I shall be playing my first of fall golf. Ok its definately not winter yet, but there is a very good chance i'll be needing some long sleeves and long pants. What i do wonder is if the briskness of the temperature will give me a better game. I've always noticed that on really hot days, the sweatyness and overall baking factor in the sun kills my end game. Playing in the fall I don't see that to be as much of a factor. Hopefully its not too chilly though.

Oh well. We'll see. As for that, i'm not sure there is much more else to say for golf for a while.

See ya in the spring most likely, unless i get some clubs for christmas.

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Driving range tips from the week.

honestly these tips probably will only help me, and my problem. But i like recording them here.

I figured out on the range yesterday that i definately need to keep my left foot solidly planted, to make for a good base.

Next, I'm young, i've got good range of motion, i need to take my backswing back full and open. Use my full range of motion.
--About the above comment: All of the sudden when i did this, I was hitting the straightest longest drives i have hit in a long time. In a verrrry long time.

Lastly, The grip. I need to have a good grip, and grip with my fingers. This is probably the single most useful change i've made in my game all year. I finally started gripping the club right. Because of it, i've gained a whole lot better feel, along with amazingly more consistant and straight hits.

Anyways thats all for my wisdom, mostly targeted at being reminders to myself.

lata

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The Home Stretch

Some days you deliver when you need to and other days you just dissolve. Over the summer I've had my share of both. Though this past weekend, i delivered. I didn't exactly post the most stellar score, though it was good enough to beat my playing partners by about 9 strokes. I was pretty much only 1 stroke ahead at the turn.

There was something that all of the sudden clicked in my swing as we made the turn. I don't know what it was. Maybe its that I remembered I shouldn't be letting my lower body move as much, or that i should pay attention to my left foot staying on the ground in my backswing. Thats a possibility. I don't know but all of the sudden things just worked.

What I think was the standout part of my game, was my use of the fairway woods. Every fairway wood i hit all day pretty much went straight where i wanted to. My driver also was amazingly cooperative when I pulled it out. This isn't to say i didn't hit some bad drives off in the woods. Mainly my biggest problem was unlucky hits on narrow fairways, as well as not picking the right club, and just plane spacing out on some shots, when i should have been choosing my shot a little better.

That'll kill you. If you don't come to address with a clear idea of what you need to do to the ball with the club you have, then how can you even hope to hit it good. You can't. I need to take shots a little more seriously sometimes. Most of my problem on the front nine, was my irons were all hitting a little before the ball pulling up dirt and just flubbing the ball. I don't know why i was doing it, but i just couldn't shake it for those first nine holes. I also missed some key short game hits.

Anyways.. thats all for now, just reflecting.

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Tiger dominiating

As most people may know, Tiger has won 5 in a row right now. He could come out in his next tournament and bomb, but who knows maybe we're on the cusp of something really special to unfold in golf. Could Tiger recreate his tiger-slam, along with not losing a tournament he enters in between? Thats be freakin amazing.

But anyways. Thats just a thought though.

For me, I'm golfing this weekend. I haven't played since the second week of august. I scored my best round of the summer that time though, and I'm hoping I'll be able to bring that same game tommorrow. Maybe I'll play even better. One of the things I always look forward to in a round of golf is having those shots where I feel totally comfortable. I'm walking up to the ball and I know what I want to do, then I just do it. No questions asked. I just take dead aim, and hit the ball where i want it. I've been having more of those moments throughout the summer. Though I've had an equal amount more of shots that just go horribly arye though as well. That sort of thing I need to cut down on. I also need to putt better. My putting this year has been horrid.

Personally I'm not all that great yet. My goals now are to be a bogey golfer. That seems like a high hope, considering my best round of the summer was 106. I think its reachable though. Maybe it won't happen this summer, but who knows maybe I could break a hundred, and honestly I'd be just fine with that.

But anyways I've totally diverged from my post heading. so this Post is fini.

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Tiger 2 majors this year

Here's my two cents for tiger's two majors. Just a short few months ago, sports pundits were predicting the Tiger's rein as dead. They believed with his missed cut at the US Open, he would shrivel up and turn from the fierce golf predator that his name is synonymous with to an indoor cat with his claws removed. How wrong can we be? Very wrong. Tiger over the past week dominated the PGA championship, as a follow up to his dominance in the British Open (where he only used his driver once i might add).

When will Tiger's claws get dull? I have no idea. Its probably no time soon. Nicklaus is still the greatest, but Tiger is the growing legend, and he's just going to continue to grow until we see him dominating on the Seniors Tour in 2035 or something.

I don't think anyone would have predicted he'd win the last two major's of the year after his showing at the US Open. But its history now, you can't take that back.

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Little Red Book

I got the "Harvey Penick's Little Red Book: Lessons and Teachings from a Lifetime of Golf" out from the library, and have begun to read it. I'm about 10 pages into it, and all of it so far is about gripping the club, and putting practice. I like it so far. Its a very ground up approach. A classic golf instruction book. This morning while I was at the gym, riding the stationary bike and reading this book, i realized that what this book was starting out with were things that just hadn't occurred to me to put much thought into. But now that I see it on paper, i realize that i'm silly for not starting with these fundamentals.

I've also come to realize that I should just buy this book. I've got a week at the beach coming up, where I'll at least be golfing once. I'm going to read the whole book through. After that though if i still like all of it, i'm going to buy it, and only focus on one section of it at a time, with things i want to do with my game. Also, this should be a task i do in the order of the book.

In the first three pages of the book, i already had some ideas that I think will really improve my consistancy.

Anyways thats all, go pick this up or go to the library and take a read.

UPDATE: I've tried to start gripping the club with a more correct grip (i.e. more with the fingers than with palms) and while the grip itself doesn't quite feel so natural right now, the swing feels 10 times more natural. I shall continue this, i think it will help me a lot.

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Maybe Sergio's clothes were too tight.

While Sergio seemed to be neck and neck with Tiger going into the final round, it quite possibly could have been his clothes that failed him. He dissolved in the final round of the Open, while Tiger pressed on. Ultimately Tiger won by 2 strokes over Chris DiMarco, with a -18.




No No, really what are you thinkin Sergio. I don't really care about the Yellow. Honestly, the yellow is kind of cool and obnocious. Don't shy away from that. But damnit why does it look like you accidentally went shopping in the pre-teen isle of the department store? Its a wonder he can even breath in that shirt.

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