After taking 2 weeks off because of my trip to Las Vegas (Day 1 and Day 2 summaries), I sure made up for the lost golf this weekend. On Saturday I played 27 holes and 18 more on Sunday. My friend Jere was up for the weekend and our plan was to golf, golf, golf. It was over 90 degrees both days here in Michigan and the humidity was high, especially on Sunday. Last night I was exhausted and I’m still feeling a bit tired today to go with a sore back.
Tag: golf
Tiger Woods is not Lebron James
…I just read that LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers signed a new three-year contract for $60 million. Obviously, that’s a great deal, but I wouldn’t trade places with him. Most NBA players only have two options: a team contract and a shoe deal. That’s the only exposure they get.
Tigerwoods.com Newsletter
I bet there a few athletes in other sports that would be willing to trades places with Tiger Woods. He gets to play golf for a living, has a beautiful wife, and is one of the richest athletes in the world. What a dream!
Back on the Course
It felt good to be back out on the course yesterday. On the first tee I pulled out my 3 hybrid and took a nice easy swing, hitting the ball right down the middle of the fairway, about 120 yards from the green. Then I hit it fat and ended up in the ditch for a penalty stroke. Walked off with a 6. On the next hole I pulled out the 5 wood and hit a horrible topped shot off to the left. In the thick clover I couldn’t make good contact, but advanced the ball to the fairway about 70 yards out. Shanked one into the water off the right of the green and took a 7. Not the start I was looking for.
On #3 I hit a 4 hybrid right down the middle, stuck a sand wedge to about 8 foot, and just missed the birdie putt. Fourth hole hit a 3 wood just off the right of the fairway on a hill. Pulled the 2nd shot well left and took a drop. Escaped with a bogey 6. Pulled my driver left into a ditch on the drive-able 5th hole, but saved bogey. Played 5 holes and lost 4 balls already. It couldn’t get any worse. Sixth hole is a par 3 that played right into the wind and I thought my shot was all over the flag, but it held up in the air way too long and came up a few yards short. Bad chip up, but then sunk a 15 foot putt for par. Pushed a 5 iron out to the right on the next long par 3, but pin high. Chip and 2 putts for bogey. Popped up a driver on the par 5 8th hole, smoked a 2 hybrid to the front right of the green, made a bad chip, and lipped out the birdie putt. On the last hole of the day I made it on in two and 2 putted for par.
Ended up with a 44, which isn’t too bad considering I hit into 4 hazards for penalty strokes. Made 15 putts which is right around average for me, especially when I really only made one putt of any real length. It felt good to be back out on the course after two weeks away from the game and I’m looking forward to getting back into the “swing” of things with my golf game.
2 Weeks Off
After starting off the summer with a record number of golf rounds, I haven’t played a hole (unless you count mini-golf) in two weeks. The last time I swung a club was two weeks ago today for golf league. I didn’t get sick of the game or give up on trying to improve. Life simply got in the way. I made a 5 night trip out to Vegas and it took a few days for my body to recover.
I’m actually hoping the time away from the game will be good for my swing. It’ll be like learning everything I’ve taught myself so far this year all over again. Wish me luck!
Booked Sunday
An hour ago I didn’t have any plans set in stone for the weekend. Now my Sunday is booked solid. First, my Dad invited me up to play a golf course in Harrisville called Loggers Trace at 12:30. He has some type of connection and we are golfing for free. Can’t argue with that so I said “Yes” right away. As I looked at Google Maps to find out where it was, I noticed Hubbard Lake was only about 30 minutes away from Harrisville. The light bulb went off over my head and while chatting with Mo we decided to meet at 9am and bike around the 23 miles around the lake. After looking at the maps a little closer we probably could have pushed it back to 9:30 and I’d still have enough time to find the golf course, but I’d rather have more time than I need so that I can clean up a bit and find some food. I love packing a lot into a short little summer day trip like this. Keeps me active and busy.
Same Old
Not much change in my golf scoring lately. I’ve only broke into the 30s once this year and haven’t been in the 50s in weeks. Every time out on the course I’m shooting somewhere between 41 and 47. I just can’t get over the hump. One round my driving will be great, but my chipping sucks and the next it could be just the opposite. I continue to work on my driver when I go to the range because I seem to shoot the best when I’m driving the ball well.
My putting has been the best part of my game all year and I’m usually making16 putts or less for 9 holes. I think I just need one of those breakout rounds to get me going and get that final boost in confidence.
How to Break 80 Newsletter
How to Break 80 is a site where you can purchase an eBook (along with many other free bonuses) of golf tips for $37. Travelling Golfer was doing a review a few weeks ago, so I visited the site and found the free newsletter. Each week I get an email with 2 golf tips in an effort to help me break 80 in an 18 hole round of golf. It hasn’t worked yet, but the tips are very good. Simple, but very understandable.
In just the few short weeks I’ve been receiving the newsletter I’ve read some great tips I had never heard before. Eventually I’ll probably dish out the cash for the eBook and free lifetime upgrades to “How to Break 80” but for now I’m enjoying the free golf tips in my inbox each week. Sign up and you won’t regret the extra email message once a week.
Stuck Around 43-46
For the past couple of weeks my scoring has been stuck in the 43-46 range. I did break 40 once this year, and over the weekend shot a 40 and 41, but I seem to be giving away too many shots on most rounds. The inconsistency of my driving is the part of my game that gets me most often.
Two weeks ago I wrote a post about the driving range and I haven’t been there since, which I know is my problem. I’ve found out what’s wrong with my driver swings, but haven’t had the time to put in the repetitions and get comfortable with the changes. When I do things right I’m smoking my drives, but the confidence isn’t there yet and it’s costing me several strokes each round.
I’m definitely stopping at the range tonight after work.
Review: Brush Tee
I had always wanted to try out the Brush Tee, so when The Savvy Golfer sent me a package of them for testing, I was all for it. The whole idea makes a lot of sense…less resistance against your ball and club at contact and the ball will fly longer.
Last week while golfing a round of 9 by myself I pulled out the Brush Tee and decided to give it a try. The first thing I noticed was that it’s not all that easy to tee this thing up. With a normal tee most players will use the ball to help them push the tee into the ground. Since the top of the Brush Tee is, well, basically brush bristles, you can’t use the ball to get this thing into the ground. You either have to try and grab the tee around the middle, where the brush part ends or you have to put a finger down the middle of the bristles and push it down. Teeing the ball up for a drive shouldn’t be this difficult.
The next thing I noticed was that a golf ball doesn’t sit particularly well on the Brush Tee. It’s not possible for a golf ball to sit crooked, since it’s all rounded, but I constantly felt like my ball was leaning one way or another. When you’re trying to go for it with a driver the last thoughts you need to be having are that your ball is going to fall off the tee when you swing.
Brush Tee simply isn’t for me. I’ll stick to normal tees.
Review: TurfTee
“TurfTee is a revolutionized way of hitting golf balls versus the old fashioned rubber tees.” The idea behind the tee is great in theory and something I’ve always wished for. Hitting off the standard rubber tees at a driving range has never been one of my favorite ways to practice and never will. With TurfTee I thought those days might be over.
Savvy Golfer, sent me a TurfTee to give a little test drive about a month ago and I was finally able to give the product a try. At first it took me a minute or two trying to figure out who the tee actually worked. It didn’t seem to want to go into the longer whispier matt surface, where the rubber tees are, so then I tried the other part of the driving matt and it stuck in right away. I tucked the green end of TurfTee under the matt and teed a ball up. After two swings with my driver, the shorter yellow tee had broken. The little plastic tie down at the bottom of the tee where the string is held in place snapped. My TurfTee testing was over rather quickly because the taller blue tee puts the golf ball much higher than I like it for driving.
If the company behind TurfTee could come up with a better design for the leashes and holder, I think they’d have a great product. The current system doesn’t work though. I’d be pretty mad if I had purchased the item and had it break after two swings of the club.
Thanks to Savvy Golfer for the opportunity to try out TurfTee.
Nick Momrik 