108

Well, I wish I had thought of this sooner, but I just stumbled across the idea to blog my progress on the golf course. It all started recently on a trip to Indianapolis with my girlfriend, who landed a job with the NCAA for the summer. In helping her make the move from Boulder we stayed with her family (in Indianapolis) for several days where I was indirectly introduced to the sport, nay the WORLD of Golf...

It all started when Dan, her step-father, needed an extra person for their tee time on the day I was leaving to fly back to Colorado (to start a new job myself). I was dreadfully nervous and the being the realist I am, knew that I would not only embarrass myself terribly, but would impede the game play of Dan's party and likely the entire course. I really wanted to go, as I love spending time with her family and find Dan to be quite an interesting guy, so I made a point to let him know that I would love to another time.

Well the following weekend I came back in town for the Indy 500 (this is another long story that may warrant further blogging in the future but for now my return can best be summed up in the words, "200+ mph"). Anyway, Dan and I tried to somehow get on a course one way or another, but Mother Nature was not about to let this happen so soon, after all I have still never picked up a golf club in my life. In all honesty not two weeks earlier I was telling Alexa (my girlfriend) how I by chance flipped on a golf tournament and never realized how peaceful it was, this was to be prefaced with me wiping sleep out of my eyes, as I had slept through its entirety. However, I was hooked. I may have mentioned before I consider myself a realist but, I also consider myself somewhat of a hobbyist. Alexa can vouch for me, I will try anything once and many times I will focus much of my time and energy into "mastering" this new activity, before finding something else. Now for anyone about to argue that this shows a lack of "stick-to-itiveness" on my part, Alexa can also vouch that I am a "creature of habit" and maintain a strict routine that I seldom stray from on any given day. I digress. Dan and I were unable to put something together on this trip, so I flew back home with an agenda. I was going to figure this thing called golf out.

I'm currently in my third week of playing golf, and today I shot a 108 on 18 holes at Flatirons golf course. It's a public course on Arapahoe Ave in Boulder. Simple course but affordable. I've come a long way, but my goal is to by the end of the summer be able to break 100, and ultimately be a bogey golfer (which is said to be at or around a +20 handicap). 108 for Flatirons is my best and is about +38 (par for this course is 70 from the blue tee boxes). I plan on giving the "low-down" of what I learn each week and things I notice in my gameplay as I progress. Seeing as how I have missed a few important weeks I will try to skim over some key points that may be of interest to someone somewhere.

a few days before May 27th, 2009 - I check out craig's list to see if there are any cheap sets of clubs and what the price range might be. My goal was to not spend more than a hundred bucks on everything I need to learn. Upon finding some potential sets, I decided in my impatience I would check out play-it-again sports. Who I must say has a great selection and price range of used and new clubs. Now keep in mind at any given point on this blog until stated otherwise, I only know what I can find on the internet be it youTube, google, whatever (and I will try and post some of the better articles or sites as I find them). At this point however, I knew nothing. I wanted the most bang for my buck, and stumbled across a set of wilson clubs and bag for I think $75. It had 1,3, and 5 metal woods, 2-9 irons and a pitching wedge. I bought a separate putter. The best thing I bought and it was totally by accident, because I was not consciously looking for this feature but the bag had a stand built-in and in retrospect I believe this to be one of the top five things to have when starting out for any serious player. I will eventually make a top five as I get a chance.

Anyways, I'm all squared away with clubs and everything, bought a hand-full of tees for like $2 I think and out the door the proud new owner of some swingy-whacky thingies...

a day or so before May 27th and the day after I bought the bag of clubs - I went to the driving range, I being the deal-finder I pretend to be, had been reading up on all of the locations around town with driving ranges and deals. Flatirons had a magnetic key deal that gives you a discount on each bucket of balls, so I, knowing I would be trying to learn the sport at least for the summer, took them up on the deal and purchased the magnetic key and quickly went out to get the biggest, baddest bucket of balls I could find. Assuming I would be able to practice as long, and hard as I possibly could. Keep in mind I've seen this sport on TV how hard could it be. Well let's just say I shouldn't have slept through the first tournament I ever watched on TV, because 130 some odd balls later, and my hands are bleeding from blisters. These are lessons 1-5 in Cecil's As-You're-Learning-How-to-Golf guidebook.

#1 - Don't hit 100+ balls on the first day, build up to it (which may or may not be explained in further depth later depending on a book deal)...

#2 - That's why THEY where gloves (THEY being the all-inclusive world of professional anything... in this case golfers)...

#3 - [Which I will probably move to #1 for the book deal we mentioned] If it hurts, stop doing it... (simple I know but, I did not just spend all that money to just give up on a bucket of balls... and besides my mother always told me to clean my plate, and I guess that just carried over to other aspects of my life)

#4 - [I can't take credit for this one, I found in an on-line article] Take time in between swings on the range, you play golf for over four hours hitting almost a hundred balls for eighteen holes, so why go on the range and belt a hundred in fifteen minutes?

#5 -Don't grip the clubs so tight... (again something I learned in an article but only after this painful experience)

Funny thing about this whole situation, the night before I went to the range I googled everything I could on proper stance, technique, grip, everything I could on learning to play golf, nothing spectacular. However, after the blisters and pain, I searched for different criteria, (ie: blisters+golf swing) and found everything I needed to know on golf grips...

I then switched from the baseball grip to the two finger interlock one (with right pinky and left index fingers interlocking) and loosened my grip considerably. I also should probably mention on a side-note that my new job works with kids, which requires fingerprinting to prove I'm not a child offender. Of course needed to be done the week of Blisterfest and they turned out lovely. My thumbprints looked like they were made with Swiss Cheese.

Anyways, needless to say I took a break for a day or so before going back out on the course.

May 27th, 2009 - I must have eaten my Wheaties this day because for some reason I wasn't satiated by just practicing on the range so I went over and signed up for nine holes of golf... boy what a disaster that would turn out to be.

As a single player (meaning alone on the course not in terms of marital-status Lexie, I PROMISE!) I was placed with two gentlemen who had clearly been playing their entire lives. In fact I'm pretty sure it was Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan, because I just looked silly. 16 stokes later, and they were politely asking if they could play ahead on the second hole. I mean it took me three strokes to get from the advanced tee box to the beginner, which was maybe 30 yards. I was so embarrassed. I finished out with an 83. Now in case anyone has already forgotten, I was only playing nine holes, which means I was about 48 over par. My score would have been great for 18 holes, that's how poorly I did.

Three days later I tried it again with much more confidence, and with blisters beginning to heal, and I shot a 74 on the same nine holes.

I'm getting tired, and it's rather late, so I'm going to clock out for now, but I'll be back to talk about changes I've made and other little tips I've learned in learning how to play golf.