State of the Union

I haven't updated this in a while. On Friday the 13th, 3 friends from Washington came down and visited me for their spring break. It was a great time. My friend Jenni brought an entire plastic tub full of cooking utensils/supplies so she cooked dinner every night. I definitely ate the best food ever in this apartment that entire week. The weather was cold and wet for their first 3 days here, but it cleared up and warmed up for most of the week so we had some nice time in the sun. I think they enjoyed it. They left early Friday morning.

I was supposed to have day 1 of the Medalplay Championship on Tuesday afternoon, but it rained the entire night and through the day so play was washed out until yesterday and today. At the start of this tournament, I was in a tie for 34th on the Order of Merit list, and the top 30 after this tournament qualify for the Players Championship at a super nice course next Monday and Tuesday. That was enough motivation for me to definitely buckle down and play some good golf. Yesterday, I played at the Witch. The same place with the Gators and swamps. I hit the ball pretty well for the most part, but couldn't putt, so I shot 89. That definitely put me in a tough spot to get enough points to qualify for the Players Championship. I knew I wasn't that far off though with my game going into today.

I played at Man o War today, and the course was in great shape. It was super windy, though. I recently put the driver back in my bag for tournaments, and it is definitely paying off from the tee. I bogeyed the par 5 first hole, and then came the par 3 second hole. It's a semi-short par 3 with bunkers on the left and right, with a narrow gap in front for any balls running up. It was playing 155 yds and into a breeze from the left. I stepped up with a 9 iron and hit it solid. It started left of the flag and worked back toward the flag with the wind and then BAM! it hits the bottom of the flagstick on the FLY. Too bad it rolled back down the green to about 20 ft. I missed the birdie and tapped in for par. Easily could have been birdie with such a good shot, just a bad break. Parred the next 4 holes, then hit a wayward drive into a hazard and made a bogey on 8. Played a cool knock down full 7 iron into a stiff breeze from out of the trees from 140 yds to pin high on the green on 10. Hit a perfect 4 iron off the tee on 11 and had 140 yds to the flag. Hit a pitching wedge about 35 ft past the hole and made the putt for birdie. So I was 2 over through 11 at that point. Left a putt 1 revolution short for birdie on 12. Hit a wedge to 6 ft on 14, but the birdie putt did a 360 lip out. And then my only hiccup wasn't even something I did wrong. The hole is a short par 4 with water all down the right side of the hole. I hit a 2 iron right down the middle, but the fairway has 2 levels on the left and right side, and my ball hit the ridge between levels and kicked right into the water. I proceeded to 3 putt that green and make a double. Missed a 3 footer for par on 17. Hit a good drive on the par 5 18th and had 190 yds to the hole. Hit a solid 7 iron hooking right at the flag, but it hit the downslope and rolled to about 45 ft. Left the eagle putt 3 inchs short and made a closing birdie. I hit 12 greens, but had 35 putts, so I ended with a 77. I'm still kicking myself for those 3 shots I lost on 16 and 17, and the 360 lip out, and the ball that hit the flagstick. Might lose some sleep tonight....

After I hit my second shot on 18, the 4th semester kid I was riding with said something really funny. I sat down and he said "I wasn't gonna say anything, but now I have to. Why the **** are you in this tour? You belong on the PGA Tour." (Please note, the PGA Tour he is referring to is the one from our school's tours. Not the one Tiger plays on.) Another kid in my group said basically the same thing a few holes before that, too. He said I didn't belong on this tour cuz my swing is "rhythmical" and it's butter. My handicap is on the way down, so I'll definitely move up at least one tour next month.

Tournament/2nd round match

On Monday I had the second medalplay tournament at World Tour. Coming off the best golf of my life last week, I was pretty excited and confident to win a tournament finally. The weather made it difficult to play, however. It never reached 45 degrees, and it was windy the entire day. I just did not feel comfortable over the ball throughout the day. To make things worse, I made my first 10 and my first 9 on a hole since I've been down here.

The 10 came on the 3rd hole, which is a replica of arguably the most famous hole in golf, the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass. It's a short par 3, only 140 yds, but it's to an island green, with no room to spare if you miss the green. I also learned before I hit my shot, that this replica is only half the size of the actual green. So the green is even SMALLER than the real thing on tv. Luckily for me, the wind was straight into our faces on the tee. I decided to hit a knock-down, three-quarter nine iron to keep it low and out of the wind. I hit the shot, and I thought it might be going in, but then the wind hit it, and the ball fell down and hit the top of the wooden slabs on the side of the green and bounced into the water. The other 3 fellow competitors in my group also put their shots in the water. We proceed to the drop zone, which is still a 70 yd shot over water. I hit right underneath my 2nd ball and it falls short and into the water again. 2 of the 3 fellow competitors hit their 2nd balls into the water as well. I proceeded to card a 10, and our group also turned in an 11, and a 12. So I wasn't happy at all, and I just slapped it around for the next few holes. I turned in a 97, my worst score since I've been here.

I had my second round match on Tuesday against the 2 seed in my Tour. He actually won the tournament the day before at World Tour with an 80. So he was coming off a great round, and I was coming off a horrible round. I won 2 of the first 3 holes, and I just started playing pretty conservatively so I dont make any mistakes and give him easy holes. I was 2 up after 9, and then the landslide came. He won 5 of the next 6 holes and beat me 3&2. It was fun though, cuz he's a really cool guy.

This week has also been midterms, so I've been busy with those as well as my golf troubles. Along with midterms, I also had to give an 8 minute demonstration speech, a 3 minute speech in history about Seve Ballesteros and the second day of the short game skills evaluation. The speech went fine. I demonstrated how to make a paper airplane, and my power point was pretty creative, so I got a 100 there. Didn't do very well on the Marketing midterm or the Golf Facility Management midterm on Wednesday, though. The speech on Seve went fine on Thursday, and the short game skills eval went pretty well. I didn't do as well as I should have on the pitching portion, but I wasn't doing anything wrong. I just wasn't getting the ball to stop fast enough. But the bunker portion went great. I had 7 shots within 3 ft, 2 shots 3-6 ft, and 1 shot outside 6 ft. So I was really happy there. And I feel like I did really well earlier today in the Tournament Planning midterm, so that should be another A.

I'm finally getting my clubs fitted on thursday, so I should be feeling alot better over the golf ball once that all gets fixed.

The Witch Golf Links

Fresh off my dramatic 22 hole match play victory of Monday, I had a practice round at a course called The Witch. I hadn't played it yet, and everyone I talked to said its a great course and it's built on a swamp. They weren't kidding about the swamp part. If you missed the fairway on either side, there was a drop off and then trees sitting in soupy swamp water. The course was in phenomenal condition though. The greens were the smoothest I have ever putted on, and they were the fastest as well. The kid I played in my match on Monday was friends with 2 of the kids I was playing with at The Witch, and one of them challenged me to a match for bragging rights. We decided to just play the round and whoever shot the best score wins.

I started off with a triple and a double. On the third hole, I had a 20 ft birdie putt lip out, and then on the 4th hole I drained a 15 foot birdie putt. I shot 43 on the front, simply because of my triple, double start. And then I shot 38 on the back. This was such a cool course from a design perspective. It reminded me of Coyote Creek in Bartonville because of the elevation changes and how narrow the fairways were. I snapped a cool picture of a really neat par 3 set off in the corner of the course, surrounded by trees. It was completely quiet while we stood on the tee.

Another cool part about this course is the wildlife. On the third tee, we heard a loud pecking noise. We looked around in the trees and we found a red-headed woodpecker pounding away at a branch. I was laughing so hard. It looked so cool hammering away. He was pecking during my swing and I struggled not to laugh. They also have alligators in their lakes and ponds. I tried to get a picture of one, so we'll see how many of you have good eyesight.

So, I had bragging rights on the line against my friend Mike like I explained earlier, and we also did a 2 on 2 match play. I was on my friend Pete's team, and we played against Josh and Mike. Josh and Mike are both 7 hdcp, Pete is a 5, and I'm a 10. Josh ended up shooting 73, Mike shot 83, and Pete and I both shot 81. We lost the 2 on 2 match on the 18th hole, but I beat Mike so I have bragging rights there.

Josh and Mike are both in my classes, and Mike lives here at Flintlake. He's the one I bought the futon from. I've been hanging out with those guys a lot, and they're really cool. Josh is 28 and he's from Toronto, a true Canadian. He loves hockey and saying "eh". Mike is from upstate New York but they recently moved to Raleigh, NC and he's a Duke fan. He went to a game at Cameron Indoor, too, so he has me jealous. He's 22.

I found out today that I'm playing the number 2 seed in my match on Tuesday. I played with him in the first tournament this semester, and I played with him during my match on Monday, and he's just a really fun kid to be around. He's funny, and he's really easy to talk to. So it should be a really fun match again. I finally get to play World Tour in my tournament on Monday, so I'm wayyyy excited for Monday to get here, especially since I'm playing the best I've ever played. I WILL win this tournament on Monday.

Move over Tiger, My match was more exciting!

You guys think Tiger Woods put on a show last June at Torrey Pines? That was nothin compared to my match this afternoon. I am the 10 seed in my Tour, and I played the 6 seed (I played with him last week in a practice round by chance). I knew the kid was good, but I didn't think he was consistently good. I was extremely confident all morning. I got to the course an hour early to warm up like usual, and I had a horrible warm up session. Standing on the first tee was not a confident feeling after that warm up.

I hit a usable tee shot, then made par, so that settled me down. I was 1 down after 4 holes, and then my putter started warming up. I drained a 20 foot birdie on the 5th hole to win the hole. I made some nice putts to halve some holes, but I was 1 down after 9. On the 10th hole, I hit a 4 iron off the tee and hit a smooth sand wedge to 8 ft. Made the putt for birdie, so the match was back to all square. 12th hole is an island green all over water. It was cold and windy all day, and the wind was straight across the water from the right. I hit a wedge to pin high about 8 ft left of the hole. Everyone else in my group hit it closer than me. I made my putt for birdie, they all mised, most importantly, my oppenent missed his birdie putt. Now I'm 1 up with 6 to play.

I left a 15 foot birdie putt 1 revolution short on the 14th hole, and if it went in I would have been 2 up with 4 to play. 15th hole is the hole I almost made the hole in one on last week. It was playing a little longer today, and into a slight breeze. Pin was right in front with 3 huge bunkers guarding any shots short. I hit a 9 iron to 6 feet. My opponenet conceeded my putt because he wasn't even in for bogey yet. I putted it anyway, and made it. So that's my 3rd birdie of the day and it got me to 2 up. We halved the next hole, so I was 2 up with 2 to play, so he was forced to win the next 2 holes or else he lost.

I gave him the 17th hole by hitting it next to the water off the tee and trying to hit it by standing in the water, but it didn't work out. So I was 1 up with 1 to play, and it was a short par 5. I wanted to just make par and force him to make a birdie to send it to extra holes. I had a 3 footer for par, and he had a 12 footer for birdie. He sank his putt and sent the match to extra holes. We went back to the first tee to start the sudden death playoff. We halved the first 3 holes, and then came the 4th hole. The 4th hole is a long par 5 with a long bunker all down the left side, and houses all down the right side. I hit a crappy 3 wood off the tee, he bombed his driver right down the middle. I had 250 yds to the green, so I took out my 2 iron and hit it as hard as I could. It turned over from right to left right at the pin. It settled 12 feet from the hole. My opponents' drive that went down the middle ended up against the lip of a bunker that cuts out into the middle of the fairway. So when I saw that, I knew it was over. He put his third shot about 15 ft from the hole, and his putt for birdie came up short. I needed 2 putts to finally win the match. I ran the putt off the left lip, and left a tap in for birdie and the win. I tallied my shots up afterwards, and I shot a 74. My new career best by 4 shots. This is the kind of golf I've known I'm capable of. I just gotta start doin it!

I felt like I had won the US Open playoff against Tiger. I wanted to throw my arms in the air and absorb the crowd energy. My opponent was very gracious, and he congratulated me on my win and told me to go on and win the tournament. We had a long drive back to the clubhouse as the sun went down, and the entire time we just talked about how cool the match was. That was definitely the most fun I've had in my competitive golf career. So my next match is next Tuesday, and I'm not sure who I'm playing or where it's at. I'm playing at a course called The Witch tomorrow, and all I've heard is that it's built on a swamp. One of my friends, who is a 7 hdcp, thinks he can beat me tomorrow, so we're gonna have our own little match play. It's supposed be cold and windy, so hopefully it won't be too miserable out.

The new addition to the apartment

I went to one of my friends' houses a few weeks ago, and I noted how it's nice being somewhere with furniture, because I have none. So he made a comment that I could buy his futon cuz he never uses it. Well, after a few weeks of negotiations, we reached an agreement and we dragged it over here yesterday afternoon. It's a lot more comfy than it looks, and I slept on it last night, so I'm happy with this investment.

Since I had my phone out taking a pitcure of the futon, I figured I'd just take a couple more to give a better idea of what I live with everyday. Here is my kitchen. There's a tiny wall on the right, and that's where the futon is. The card table is on the close left. Washer and dryer all the way in the back. Adam, note that I have your Torrey Pines scorecards and yardage book posted on my cabinets (you can only see the one on the left, though). The friend who I bought the futon from was pretty excited when he saw those scorecards.

And I decided to snap of a picture out one of the windows. Those huge trees in the background are hiding the second hole on the Lakes 9 of the Arrowhead course I live on. I also have the second hole on the Waterway 9 of Arrowhead behind me on the other side, but it's raining so I didnt wanna walk outside and take a picture of that.

My near hole-in-one

I was playing my practice round yesterday at the course I live on, Arrowhead, when I hit a most exciting shot. It's the same hole I had to hit a 3 wood on last semester, because it was playing directly into a 30 mph wind and the tees were all the way back. But yesterday the tees were up and it was just a perfect day for golf with no wind. It was playing about 140 yds, and the pin was cut on the left front side of the green. I took out a pitching wedge and let her rip. It had a nice right to left flight patter, and it landed 2 feet right of the hole and rolled to the left towards the hole. From my vantage point I thought it was going in. I even had my hands up in anticipation. But once we got to the green, it was about a foot away from perfection. I snapped a picture of the moment on my phone and I figured out how to get it on my computer so I thought I'd share it with everyone. I played pretty solid from this point on. I shot 81.

I'm getting bad at keeping this thing updated

I figured I've waited long enough to make another post. I've actually been somewhat busy so far this semester.

Classes are fine. I have a B and the rest A's in every class. I've given 4 speeches in speech class so far, today being the most recent. I'm definitely a lot better at public speaking than I give myself credit for. Calligraphy class is harder than I thought it would be. It really is an art. If you don't hold the tip at the correct angle, everything is wrong. If you use your wrist too much instead of "pulling" your arm, everything is wrong. Spacing needs to be just right, letter height needs to match, etc. But I'm holding an A so far, so I'm doing something right.

I think I'm enjoying Short Game 2 the most. Our textbook is Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible. Dave Pelz used to be a rocket scientist, and now he spends his time conducting research into the game of golf. He came up with his own, scientific way of playing the game to the best of your ability, and this book is extremely helpful. He teaches what is called the 3 by 4 system. It's 3 different backswing lengths with 4 different wedges that will give you 12 different consistent yardages inside 100 yds. He has found through his research that the biggest mistake golfers make inside 100 yds isn't being off-target, it's hitting the ball too short or too far. So basically we go to the range and practice these backswing lengths with our wedges and we hit into a grid so we see exactly how far each shot is going. After practicing for a while, the yardages become very consistent. I even got to use it yesterday in my tournament, and I was exactly pin high.

I've played in two tournaments so far. The first one resulted in a 6th place finish and some valuable order of merit points and some money. I shot 86. Yesterday, I played a course I'd never played before calling Burning Ridge. It's extremely nice. This tournament was the Match Play Qualifier, the top 16 finishers from each Tour advance into the Match Play like I did last semester. I had tons of confidence going into the round, but I didn't play all that well. But I did hit 2 of the best shots of my life. The first hole, I duffed my tee shot like 150 yds. I was pretty mad at myself. I was in the trees, and I couldn't see the green. So I grabbed my 6 iron and hit a beautiful punch shot through the trees and about 2 yds short of the green. I chipped up to a few inches and had a tap in for par. I was happy with par after that tee shot. But the best shots came on the next hole. I hit a gorgeous high draw with my 3 wood off the tee and split the fairway. I had 180 yds to a pin tucked behind a bunker. I took dead aim and just took a smooth swing. The ball never left the flag. The bunker was hiding the bottom few feet of the flag, so I didnt know how good my shot was till I got to the green. It was 18 inches from the hole. Tap in birdie. What made that shot even sweeter was that one of my obnoxious playing partners hit his shot to 6 feet right before I hit mine. He ended up with par and I with birdie. Take that. I ended up shooting 87, and that was good enough for 9th place, so I qualified for the Match Play.

I had a lesson last Thursday, and I was concerned about my low ball flight. One look in the simulator told me everything I needed to know. I had all my weight on my left side. So now that I have my weight on my right side at address, I am hitting the ball much higher and more consistent. I have also been spending lots of time at the short game area of our practice range. I just spend a few hours each day hitting shots from all sorts of yardages and lies, and it definitely paid off yesterday.

I have a tee time here at the golf course I live on in an hour, so I better get ready. Lemme know if I left anything out.

Christmas Break and 2nd Semester

After spending 3 weeks in the freezer, also known as Illinois winter, I was excited to get back to Myrtle Beach. While the temperatures in Illinois were miserable, I still managed to enjoy my time back with the family and friends. Living on my own for the last 4 months made things different when I got home. I became accustomed to waking up and eating breakfast and getting ready without seeing anybody or talking to anybody. Or when I would go out somewhere, I would always return home and hang out by myself in the apartment. So being back home with the family was different in a way I hadn't experienced before.

Living in a warmer climate made me miss the snow that comes with winter in the Midwest. So I was excited to get home and get my first snow of the year (after all, it just isn't christmas time without snow). But while I was home, we only got an ice storm and maybe 2 inches of snow. That was dissapointing, but the frigid temperatures made me forget my craving for snow.

Christmas was awesome. The Wii that mom and dad got for the family was pretty sweet. Whenever we were bored, we just turned on the Wii and played Wii Sports for hours on end. I even became a Pro at Wii Bowling (I better still be a Pro when I come home again). I made a vow on the drive back to Illinois that I wasn't going to touch a golf club the entire time I was home. Playing golf into December was something I had never done before, so I was pretty burned out. I figured if I took a complete break from golf over break, I would have a renewed excitement to play again when I got back to school. The three weeks came and went, so I made the trek back to the Beach on Sunday. I woke up on Monday morning with that renewed sense of excitement to play golf again.

I went to school on Monday to pick up my new schedule and Driving Range card, but the Range cards weren't there yet, which made me angry, but they came in on Thursday. So classes started on Tuesday, and my first class was Verbal Communications, or Speech as it is commonly known in the college world. The teacher is the same guy who taught my Business Writing class last semester, and he's a cool guy, but he's extremely tough as a teacher. He explained the syllabus, and it seemed like he was winding down so we could leave. But then he said that he wanted us to give an "ice-breaker" speech. So we got into groups and were told to give a 2-3 minute speech on a current event not related to golf or sports in general. We were given 30 mins to do so. I partnered up with the girl who's been in my classes, and that was a bad choice. We went to the computer lab to find an article to do our speech on, and she just sat on facebook and texted her boyfriend the whole time. So I found an article, figured out what I was gonna say, and just left her there to do whatever she wanted to do. When it got closer to our time to give the speech, she started freaking out about how I wasn't helping her and how we weren't given enough time to prepare and blah blah blah. I just laughed and told her tough luck. I gave my part of the speech and she crashed and burned. I enjoyed it. While I didn't appreciate having to give an improv speech on the first day of class, I appreciated watching this girl struggle.

Wednesday consisted of Sales, Advertising, Promotion, and Marketing class with a teacher who I'd never seen before. He seems pretty cool, so we'll see how that goes. And then later in the day I had Golf Facility Management with one of the Pro's who I'd seen around the building and he seems like a really cool guy. Thursday consisted of History of Golf 2, just a continuation of the history class I took last semester, and Short Game 2, again, a continuation of Short Game 1 we took last semester. And Friday consisted of Club Fitting/Repair Marketing with our club repair guru, and then Planning and Organization of Tournament Golf with our British Pro who played on the European Tour. We didn't have class on Monday, but I have Calligraphy class on Mondays.

Having gone to all these classes once (minus Calligraphy), I am really excited about this semester. Last semester was basically getting the general ed classes out of the way, but now we're really getting into things that I'll be doing in my golf career. Learning how to fit people to their golf equipment is a huge money-maker, and I've always wanted to know how to do those things. Planning and Organization of Tournament Golf will be enjoyable, too. The teacher basically sat there and interacted with us, if we had questions about the tournaments or the courses we play, he answered them. He told us that we'll be in charge or marking the golf courses we play for tournaments. That means we'll be spray painting the water hazard lines, out of bounds lines, drop zones, ground under repair, etc. He said that the First Assistant Professional at a given golf club is usually responsible for marking the golf course before any club tournaments, so we need to know how to do it correctly. We'll also be working on the tournament committees for our golf academy tournaments. Each Tour plays at a different course, so there's 3 students and one pro at each course running the committee. Each player has to check in with the committee 30 mins before their tee time to get their scorecard, get a local rules sheet, and sign in. So I'll be sitting out one tournament this semester so I can work on a committee.

We were also informed that the academy graduated 126 students in December, the largest graduating class of any campus ever. But we only had 70 students start their first semester this week. This is a common occurence, simply because the majority of students start in the fall, not the spring or summer. But the 56 student loss means that we don't have 10 Tours this semester for our tournaments. So now we're down to 9 Tours, which is good. Also, more than 50% of the graduating class had a handicap of 2.0 or lower, which is amazing. So that means that there is more oppurtunity for me to move up in the tours if I keep lowering my handicap, because there are a lot less people with lower handicaps in front of me. So I'm excited about that.

I think I've rambled on enough for this post, if I left anything out that you wanna know about just let me know.

Just when you think Society is bad enough...

Opened up the front page of Yahoo! just a minute ago, and I saw a headline that caught my eye. It said "Swiss voters approve pioneering legal heroin program." I assumed that there was some sort of catch; but upon further review, it's true.

68% of voters approved a program that gives addicts government-authorized heroin. At the same time, they struck down a proposal to legalize marijuana. Now, I'm not advocating marijuana should be legal anywhere, but I don't understand how an entire country can approve legalizing a drug that kills millions of people each year, and at the same time illegalize a drug that causes zero deaths. How can people be so stupid?

The heroin program is supposed to reduce crime and improve the daily lives of addicts while making them healthier. It only improves their daily lives cuz they get their fix whenever they want. I don't see any possible way that this would make addicts healthier. It just puts them on track to overdosing even faster. Let's wait and see how long it takes for heroin deaths in their country to sky-rocket.

And of course it reduces crime, that's such a cop out. That's like legalizing terrorism so we don't have to fight terrorists anymore. Making something legal doesn't mean it's going to fix all the problems we were having with it. This is government trying to sweep its' heroin problem under the rug when they should be enforcing strict laws to stop the use of heroin. Even our own country is slowly making marijuana penalties smaller and smaller. Depending on the amount someone is caught with, the person could get off with a small ticket. The way I see it, you are in possession of something illegal, shouldn't you be in jail? I don't care how small the amount is, it's illegal, it's your problem you have it, now you suffer the consequences. Yet for some reason the goverment is deciding to reduce the consequences while they sit back and advocate that drugs are bad. I don't know about you, but I'm getting mixed signals here...

Further down in the article, they talk to a citizen who voted in favor of this program. This guy is a probably one of those addicts who can now get his fix legally. He said, "I think it's very important to help these people, but not to facilitate the using of drugs. You can just see in the Netherlands how it's going. People just go there to smoke." So by admitting that these people need help, he acknowledges that they have a problem. What is the problem? Heroin. So the solution is...? Give them more heroin.... PERFECT! Why didn't I think of that??? And isn't legalizing heroin "facilitating the using of drugs?" What a joke. And to make things even funnier, he brought up the Netherlands, aka Amsterdam, and their smoking problem. Well congrats Mr. Heroin Addict, you helped make sure that people don't come in to smoke Marijuana, but now everyone will come to your country just to do some heroin.

Am I the only person who thinks this is outrageous?

Full Swing Lesson

After Rules class today, I went in for my first full-swing lesson from Brian Hughes. I asked him to save some of the videos onto my flash drive so I could study them here at home and show people what I'm working on. The first video is a Target Line view of my original swing. My shoulders and feet should be pointing to the same spot parallel left of my intended target. My shoulders are pointed to the right of the my feet, so that is why I play a push draw. Push draws start out right of the target and turn right to left back towards the target. This is the most popular ball flight amongst the Pros. Also, my knees aren't flexed enough, and my lower body doesn't turn as much as it should because of this lack of knee flex.

In this video, it's the same swing as the first video, just from the Face-On view. This one is really evident of where my mistakes are coming from. I'm leaning wayyyy too far behind the ball, and that causes my hips to move laterally instead around my body. So the first thing Brian had me correct was that lean away from the ball.

This is so much better now that Brian put me in the right position. I'm a lot more "on top of the ball" instead of being so far behind it. Also, it put my hips in a much better position to turn around my body and produce more power (insert Tim Allen grunt here). Also, by getting more on top of the ball, it allowed my shoulders to return to parallel with my feet, causing me to swing on a much more square path. Another thing he had me work on was making a full turn through the ball. Before, I was basically quitting on the shot once I hit the ball, and that made my finish very up-right with the clubface open. So in these two videos he's having me focus on turning all the way through to the finish, and that allowed me to make a full turn and close the clubface, making it easier for me to move the ball from right to left.

This is the Target Line view of the previous swing. You can see my shoulders are parallel with my feet, and I'm making a much fuller turn through the ball and to the finish.

Short Game Skills Evaluation #2

Today was the first day of the second Short Game Skills Evaluation. We had the lag putting, short putting, and chipping portions today, just like the first time we went through this. My partner Petey and I decided to change things up and do the putting portion first (we did the chipping first last time). So we started at the lag putting circle. 2 Attempts at 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 ft putts, and they have to be inside a 9 ft. circle or else you lose 1 pt. My first putt from 20 ft was one revolution short of going in, so it was a good start. The second putt from 20 ft went in. So a VERY good start. First putt from 30 ft was again one revolution short of going in. The second putt DID go in. So I made 2 and missed the other 2 by 2 revolutions. The rest were all inside 3 ft. So I completely dominated the lag putting. Then we moved on to the left to right and right to left breaking short putts (see awesome illustrations further down in the blog for reference). I made a bunch of putts, and you only get points if you make them. So once we moved on to the chipping portion, I already had 35 pts for the evaluation (I ended up with 57 TOTAL in the first evaluation). The chipping was awesome as well. I made 2 chips from 30 ft and put the other 3 inside the circle. On the 60 ft chip, I put all 5 inside the circle. So when the first half of the evaluation was all said and done today, I walked away with 50 pts. Yes, you read correctly, 50 pts. My partner Petey was the winner of the semester-long Order of Merit race, he had 400 pts or something around that. I only had 76 for the semester. He ended up with 34 pts after today's eval, so I was pretty happy I just smoked the best golfer in the school this semester. After the evaluation, we had to high-tail it back to school in time for fundamentals class, and I was the last one to make it back into class, and when I sat down everyone asked how many points I got at the evaluation. I said 50, and the room just went silent. Pretty much everyyone said in unison "FIFTY??" The second highest total was 39. HAHA. So I enjoyed that moment in the sun. So the week we get back from Thanksgiving will be the bunker and pitch shots portion of the evaluation, and that's the part that I did the best the first time, so I'm looking forward to improving on my score from last time.

I have a lesson tomorrow morning after Rules class, and then we have the priviledge of going to a presentation from one of Golf Digest's Top 100 teachers. I guess he's been trying to come to the school for a while but he usually comes into town on weekends and the school doesn't want him in here on weekends, so he made it down here on a Friday so we can listen. It's voluntary, but I can't imagine why people wouldn't wanna go and listen to what he has to say. I signed up today, and the list of people going is so small. So I'm excited to attend that.

Stroke Play Championship

Yesterday and today was the Stroke Play Championship tournament, 36 holes over two days. Yesterday was a little on the chilly side, the temp never reached 60. I played a course called Wild Wing Golf Plantation, and I'd never played there before yesterday, so I didn't know what to expect. I played pretty bad starting out, played well through the middle, and played pretty bad at the end. I shot 89, but the leader only shot 82, so I still had a shot going into the second round today.

Today, I played Man O' War Golf Club, definitely one of my favorites in the rotation. It's the same course where I played my Match Play Qualifier back in September. So I said the tournament two weeks ago in the mini tropical storm was the hardest conditions I've played in, but today trumped that day. Today the temp never reached 50, and the wind howled and howled the entire day. When I left for the course, weather.com said it was 43 and it felt like 35. When I got home, weather.com said it was 41 and felt like 34. So I was freezing cold the entire round. Once again, I started out pretty bad, played decent through the middle, but played pretty well on the entire back nine. I was making most of my short putts, I even had a 15 foot birdie putt do a 360 degree lip out, I couldn't believe it when the ball came out. My short game was definitely the strongest part of my round. I shot 86, and my target score going into today's round was 85 because I thought with the conditions as bad as they were that an 85 would be right around the lowest of the day. I was wrong, someone shot an 80, but only a few others beat 85. So once all the scores came in, I ended up in 7th place, and I won 20 bucks. So I'm happy.

We have our second short game skills evaluation this week, and I'm looking to improve on my score from the first time. After seeing my short game do so well today, I'm expecting to do better. When I went bowling last Friday night, one of the kids who was with us is someone who I'd never talked to even though he's in my classes. He put his arm around me (partly because he was a little intoxicated) and said "Andrew, you and me, we're gonna be the valedictorians of our class." I guess he's overheard the teachers telling me my grades. I thought that was a pretty cool comment, and I must admit, after high school, I never thought I'd be valedictorian of anything, but if I keep my grades where they are right now, that would be pretty easy to do. I can't believe there's only 3 more weeks till the semester is over...

Golf Clinic #3

Today was the third installment of our golf clinics with the third-semester students at the driving range for golf fundamentals class. The focus was on our positions in our backswing. So they were looking at where the club was halfway back and at the top. I wasn't hitting the ball very well at the start of the clinic, and the student who I was paired with asked what my handicap was. I told him it was a 10 (in october it was 8.2, but in november it dropped to a 10, no biggie). So he tried giving me a few pointers to help me out, and then he had to leave early to go set up another clinic. There were some third semester students who didn't get paired with anyone because some of my class didn't show up, so another student stepped in to help me out. I met this kid when I came down here in July, so we just talked for a little bit about my swing. He asked me my handicap, and I told him it was 10, and the third semester student giving a lesson at the spot next to me stopped his lesson and came over to my area. He was like "You are not a 10 hdcp." I didn't know if he was joking, mad, serious or what, but I told him that I was indeed a 10. He said he'd been watching me swing the whole time and that I'm better than a 10 hdcp. He threw a ball at my feet and told me to hit it. So I had 2 third semester kids and another first semester kid standing behind me watching me hit this ball. I hit a beautiful high draw. The kid looked at me and again told me I'm not a 10 hdcp. He proceeded to tell me I'm sandbagging for gift cards, order of merit points, etc., but I kept telling him I'm really a 10 and that I'm not purposely bringing my handicap to such a poor level. His comments didn't make mad, on the contrary, it was a huge compliment to hear him tell me I'm a lot better than a 10 hdcp. So the two third semester kids told me to hit a ball at one of the targets. I lined up my shot and hit another perfect, high draw right at the target. Both third semester kids called over the two PGA pro's who were supervising the clinic. So now I have 5 people standing behind me watching me hit balls. The pros walked over, one of them is the same one who I played with earlier in the year, and the kids told them that I was a 10 hdcp and to watch me swing. I hit another flushed 6 iron right at the target again. The pro looked at me and was like "what's the problem?" So I told him that my miss has been to hit my shots a little thin. He had me hit another one, and he got a different view of my swing, and again, I hit a perfect shot. The third semester kids were just laughing in disbelief that I'm really a 10 hdcp. So the pro took note that my stance was a little wide, and that I have a little slide forward with my hips that could cause me to get ahead of the ball and hit it thin. So he had me put my feet together and hit some more shots to see if I could stay in balance. That worked, and then he had me take my normal stance and then move my feet a little closer together. So I hit some more shots and they all turned out really great. The pros walked off and I continued to talk with the two third semester kids. The one who started this whole fiasco told me he really enjoyed watching my swing. Again, that's a huge compliment. The kid who was actually supposed to be "teaching" me told me to schedule lessons with the pro who came over and gave me the pointers. All the third and fourth semester guys use him and he's supposed to be really helpful. So the clinic ended and I was walking back to my car and the kid who enjoyed watching me swing ran and caught up to me just to shake my hand and introduce himself. So even though my hdcp is a 10, I'm not in panic mode and worried about if I'm ever gonna get better. I know I have what it takes, it's just a matter of becoming consistent. I still have 3 more semesters to figure things out, and now I have another pro who knows my swing and I'll be getting some lessons from him in the future.

Gotta get this off my chest

I know you've heard just about as much as you can take about the Election. But since I have my own blog, I'm going to put in my two cents.

Disclaimer: These are the reasons for my decision not to vote. I am not trying to force these issues on any reader.

I've told everyone that asks me that I'm not voting this year. I've received much grief and criticism, but thankfully I'm stubborn and don't care what people think about what I say, believe or think. Just because we have the right to vote doesn't mean that we have to exercise that right. We have the right to bear arms yet I don't hear anyone yelling at me for not owning a gun. "Oh but our troops are fighting overseas so you can vote! You're a bad American!" Well guess what? They're also fighting for our right to own a firearm, our right to a fair and speedy trial. I'm not implying I don't support our troops in their efforts abroad, I do support them and I admire them for being able to put themselves in harms way for the good of our country, no matter where they are or the basis of why they're there.

"If you don't vote, you have no room to complain." I want to punch everyone in the face who has ever told me that. Why should Obama supporters get to complain when Obama starts turning our country on the path towards socialism? Why should McCain supporters get to complain when he digs the country an even deeper economic hole? Why shouldn't those who stood against these candidates get to complain? Politics is such a dirty, corrupt monster and I'm sick of hearing about all the lobbyists and "pork-belly earmarks" and scandals going on in Washington. Neither of the candidates will change the corruption.

"Vote for the lesser of two evils." Why vote for any evil? How can someone willingly vote for an "evil?" The two-party system is dead, and we as a country need to do something about it. Supporting a candidate who you feel is going to hurt this country is not the answer.

There's a lot of talk from Obama about our national debt being doubled since Bush took office. Has anyone taken into account that Bush had a war to fund? I don't remember Bill Clinton having wars to fund to take money away from the taxpayers. I know there was a little thing in the Balkans but that's nothing compared to what's going on in Afghanistan. Say what you will about how we shouldn't even be in Iraq so funding that was wrong, but going into Iraq was the right move, weapons of mass destruction or not. So shut up already Barack! Let's see how much money you spend when you let the terrorists attack our country again, because I don't hear you preaching about what you'll do about protecting our country. Ok, I think I'm done venting about this laughing-stock of an election.

Tournament in the Wind and Rain

Today we had our own mini tropical storm blow through just in time to have to play tournament golf. It was windy, and it was pouring rain. The temp was around 60, and the rain was coming down sideways. Definitely the hardest conditions I've had to play in yet, but I somehow persevered and tied for 7th. Due to the conditions, everyone played only 9 holes. I shot 42, and the leader, in my tour, shot 39. Even though my putting was horrendous, I'm still happy with the way I played in such hard conditions, and I'm happy I got more prize money. I played with some pretty cool fourth semester kids who kept me laughing the entire time. One of them was this big burly southern kid with a big southern drawl, and he was having a horrible day playing. He hit his tee shot so bad on two occasions that they didn't even leave the tee box. It was that kind of day for him, but he was just laughing about it and making jokes about how bad he was, it was a good time. I think he kept me from getting too upset with the way I was putting, cuz we'd walk off the green and get to the next tee and he'd already have me laughing with something he said, so I never had time to get mad at myself. Here's hoping I win more prize money next week...

36-hole Tournament

Today was the second day of the Playing Abilities Test. It was 36 holes over 2 days, and we had to shoot 156 or better for the two days. My Tour was assigned the hardest course of our rotation, and the conditions didn't make it any easier. Monday was about 65 degrees and windy. Today was 55 degrees with a constant 30 mile an hour wind. So it was cold and brutal to play golf in. I played pretty bad in all facets of my game yesterday and shot 89. The lowest score was 79, so that's an indication how hard it was to play. So after Day 1 I was in 20th out of 35 golfers. Today was just not fun to play in. Most of the holes were either straight into the wind or straight across the wind, never downwind. I focused on keeping the ball low so it would penetrate through the wind, and I was able to do that for the most part. My putting was good at the start, but it deteriorated as the round went on. I shot 85 for a two-day total of 174. The lowest score today was only 83, so I played one of the best rounds. So the final standings for the tournament have me in a tie for 9th. I passed 11 people today, so I'm pretty happy about that. I played with 3 kids who are in their fourth semester here at school, and they were all really cool to play with. One of them didn't say a word to me until our 15th hole. It was a 150 yd par 3 over water with the wind straight into our face. The first 3 guys hit their shots and they were all short of the green, and I stepped up and just hit a smooth 7 iron low enough to get through the wind and it landed on the middle part of the green. I picked up my tee and as I was walking off the tee box the kid who hadn't said anything to me said "You're gonna be really good when you graduate." I was so shocked he even said anything to me I just kinda stumbled and said thanks. But I'm really stoked about all the compliments I'm getting about my swing/golf game from everyone. So even though I'm not playing my best golf, I'm confident that things will start clicking. So even though today was extremely cold and windy, my group had a blast playing with each other. My riding partner was always complimenting me on my shots or the putts that I made. Most of the people I play with act like you don't exist and don't acknowledge a good shot or putt. So today was fun despite the conditions. Next week is just the standard 18 hole stroke play tournament, 1st place here I come.

I didn't get anything less than a 96 on all 6 mid-terms, so my grades are awesome, FYI.

Wow...

So today was the first tournament in our newly organized Tours. I was really excited to be playing with better competition compared to the other tournaments when I was in the lower Tour. So the best way to summarize my first 9 holes is with two words: Murphy's Law. Whatever could have gone wrong DID go wrong. My first 4 scores were 8-7-6-5. That's a grand total of 9 over par through 4 holes. Not good. The dumb kid who I was riding with kept trying to help me out and calm me down, even though I never lost my temper or hinted that I was going to, and I really wanted to punch him in the face. I never acknowledged anything he said to me regarding my game. I found out after the round that he got Disqualified, not sure why, and he shot 80! I was satisfied with that information. So I shot 48 on the front nine, 12 over par. NOT GOOD. On the tenth tee there was a considerable wait and my playing partners all decided to go inside and get a snack. I stayed behind and gave myself a good verbal beat-down. And it worked. I birdied 3 of my last 6 holes, including 2 putts of 35 feet. I shot 38 on the back nine, with a nice double-bogey 6 on the 18th. So I shot 86. It's one of those rounds where you look back on it and think of what could have been. If I shoot 40 on the front, which isn't asking too much, I shoot 78 and win my Tour. If I don't double-bogey the 18th, I shoot 84 and win 30 dollars in gift cards. But alas, I did not do any of those things, but to my surprise, I tied for 8th, and won some money after all. My first prize money as a golfer!! A random side-note, one of the kids I played with told us on the first tee that he is taking the PGA Playing Abilities Test next Monday. It's the test all golf professionals have to take and pass, and it's extremely difficult. It's a 36 hole tournament, and you have to shoot a total of 15 strokes over par or better for the two days to complete it. It's like the Bar Exam, because hardly anyone passes it on the first attempt. Well, he carded a 15 on the first hole and shot 94. That made me feel a little better about my round... Next Monday we have the Golf Academy Playing Abilities Test. They do this each semester so we get a feel for what the real Playing Abilities Test will be like. I'm excited to see how I do when I actually have a score ceiling going into the round that will determine if I suceed or fail.

Quick Update

Mid-terms have come and gone. Some were easier than others, but even the hardest wasn't too difficult. After all, it is a golf school :) The grading site the school uses has been encountering some problems this week so I don't know the exact grades yet, but hopefully it gets straightened out soon. I'd like to know where I stand.

I do, however, know how I did on the Short Game Skills Evaluation. I talked about this at the beginning of the semester as the only thing that brings everyone's grades down. Last Thursday was the Lag putting, Short putting, and chipping portion. We had 2 attempts at 20 foot putts, 30 ft, 40 ft, 50 ft, and 60 ft and the object was to get the ball within 6 ft of the hole or you lost 1 pt. The teacher had this portion set up on a downhill right to left part of the green, and I made an illustration of how it was setup below. If you made the putt, you got 3 pts, if you were inside the closest cirle, you got 2 pts, if you were inside the second closest circle you got 1 pt, and if you were inside the outter-most circle you got 0 pts. I got 12 pts total on this portion.

Once we finished the lag putting, my partner Pete and I moved on to the short putting challenge. We had 2 attempts at 3 footers, 6 footers, 9 footers, 12 footers, and 15 footers breaking both left to right and right to left. An illustration of this setup is below. For each putt we made, we received 2 pts, and if we missed we got 0 pts. This was the portion of the evaluation where it was a great chance to make up some pts you didn't get in other parts of the evalauation. I made 7 total and got 14 pts.

The chipping portion was on a seperate green out on the course, so once we finished the putting portions, we had to hike across the course to this unused green to start the chipping. I won't waste a drawing on this part, I know you're bummed cuz I'm such a great artist, but it was setup like the Lag Putting in terms of the circles around the hole. There were 2 holes setup on the green, one for the 60 foot chip and one of the 30 foot chip. The setup couldn't have played more into my favor because the green sloped back to front, which meant we were chipping straight uphill, which makes it easier to judge the speed once the ball got rolling, and my chipping style is to keep the ball low, and use a club that allows me to make the ball check, or spin, once it hits the green and then allow it release towards the hole. So I used my 9 iron on the 60 footer and put 4 of the 5 attempts inside 3 ft. Then on the 30 footer I used the 9 iron again and put all 5 inside 3 ft. 2 attempts hit the hole and came back out. So I dominated the chipping.

Yesterday was the second and final day of the Skills Evaluation. It consisted of bunker shots and pitch shots. I arrived early enough to get a feel for the sand we were going to play out of, and based on my past experience in this practice bunker, I knew it was going to be difficult to spin the ball because the sand is just powder. And to make things harder, the teacher set it up so the hole was 6 ft off the green on the near side to us in the bunker. There's a short area of rough, maybe 2 ft, a foot of fringe, then it's 6ft to the hole, so that meant you either landed the ball in the rough and take your chances on it chasing through and trickling on to the green, or take the high route and land it on the fringe and hope it lands softly and doesn't roll too far. We had 10 attempts in the bunker, and I decided I was going to take the high route. The first shot was our choice to use as practice or not. If we hit a good shot, we could take the pts and then the practice option was gone. But if we had a poor shot outside the 6 ft circle, we could consider it a practice and then the next shots would count towards the 10 attempts. Trying to hit the high shots is risky, so I took advantage of the practice option and just tried to hit a miracle spinning gem. As the ball took off like a bat out of hell and a considerable distance into the driving range, I realized I'm not Tiger Woods, so I adjusted my approach and decided to just barely get it out of the bunker and hope it would roll onto the green. In the end, I hit 4 inside 3 ft, and 3 inside 6 ft, with the final 3 outside the circle. I was satisfied with my efforts.

Then we had the same hike to the other unused green out on the course for the pitching portion. It was about 90 ft, and on the exact same line as the chipping portion from the week before. I just took out a wedge, put it in the back of my stance, and hit low chasers up the hill and inside the circle. I hit 7 inside 3 ft, 2 inside 6 ft, and 1 outside 6 ft. I was extremely happy with my efforts here. My two week total for the Short Game Skills Evaluation was 57 pts. The only score in the class that was higher was 63. That doesn't mean I got an A or anything, the teacher will have the grade scales for us next week in class. We do this same thing again for the final, and if we improve our score, he'll take that higher score along with 5 bonus points for the official Evaluation grade. If it's lower, he'll keep the higher one. So I'm happy with how I performed, and if I do better next time, great, but if I don't, I'm not worried.

Match Play

Lost my match today 2&1. Not happy. 2&1 means I was 2 holes down with 1 hole left to play. I was hitting the ball pretty crappy with my irons, so I was constantly scrambling for par, although if my putter hadn't been working, it would have been over after 9 holes. I made 10 of 10 putts inside 12 feet, and probably 8 of those were for par to halve the holes. It could have been worse, but it should have been better.

Also, our first official USGA handicaps were calculated, and mine is 8.9. When we played with the pro that first week, he put me at a 12 hdcp based on what he saw that day, but I knew I was better than that, I just had to work hard to prove it. So with the score cards I turned in throughout September, my hdcp was adjusted to 8.9. That was good enough to move me up 2 Tours to the Golden Bear Tour. I was in the Palmetto Tour, the 8th out of 10 Tours, and now I'm in the 6th out of 10. I know I'm better than an 8.9, so now I have to keep posting lower scores to keep moving up. No golf next week cuz of Mid-Terms, so I'll just keep working on the short game.

Match Play Qualifier

Yesterday was the biggest tournament of the semester so far, and one that I really wanted to do well. The top 16 players from each Tour qualify for the Match Play Tournament, and the winners of the Tournament get a free round at the World Tour golf course (definitely the nicest course in the area, it's 18 holes of replicas of famous golf holes around the world, they have Amen Corner from Augusta, 1 and 18 from St. Andrews, I really wanna play there) 70 dollars in gift cards to the golf merchandise store, and Order of Merit Points. I played a course called Man O' War. It's a difficult course. There's island greens, lots of water all down the fairways and in the landing areas, and deep bunkers. I decided going in that I wasn't going to focus on the tendinitis in the left arm, I was just going to focus on each and every shot and hopefully qualify. I ended up shooting 85 and that was good enough for 14th of the 16 that qualified. I'm assuming I'll play the kid who was 3rd, and I think I can beat him. He's in my classes, and he just got promoted to our Tour from the crappy Tour below mine, and I think his 78 he shot yesterday was a fluke. So I'm confident I can advance past him. Once I signed my scorecard and walked out to my car to load my bag in the trunk, I realized how bad my elbow and wrist hurt. So I'm happy I got through the qualifying, and now I'm going to play again today with 3 kids from class who wanted to play with me, and then I'll take some rest from golf like I did last week.

We had our first quiz in the Rules class last Friday, and boy was it a doozy. Here's a link to a rules quiz exactly like what I'll be taking through this class. Try the 10 question basic, it's a different language. http://www.usga.org/playing/rules/rules_quizzes.html
I got 4 out of 10 right, and that was the class average. Once everyone finished, Lew explained that this would be the easiest quiz we take all year, and because we've never experienced a Rules quiz, he would take how many we got right and add it on to our next quiz. So it was extra credit, thankfully. But he said the more quizzes we do on that site I posted, the better prepared we'll be. So I'll do a few of those each day. I got an e-mail from the Academics Counselor today during class and it turns out my Business teacher is letting me get that transfer credit I've been trying for. John e-mailed me a syllabus from the class I took at ICC last spring, and the counselor said it wasn't good enough, but he let the Business teacher decide, and he thought it was comparable to the class I was in right now. That means no more 7am class!!!!!!!! That is such a relief. Now I can watch the finale of Highway 18 and the premiere of Big Break 10 on Golf Channel tonight! Normally I'm in bed before those shows start, but now I don't have class till 11 tomorrow!!!! Ahhhh how sweet it is.