Still going

Saturday was another fantastic Native-American summer day (gotta love the political correctness). I celebrated by golfing of course. I drove on over to the North Park Golf Course again. On the front I shot a 54, but on the back I shot a 47, with a birdie and a par. It takes me a while to remember good form if I don't warm up first. Once I remembered though, it was a lot more fun. I was about three feet away from the green in two on the par-5 ninth hole. Of course, I then tried a tough chip and ended up with a six.

I've started putting drive in the fairway. It's amazing how much easier that makes the game. Go figure.

Total Spent:
Money = $122
Time = 22.5 hours
Handicap = 43

Progress is being made...

and not just in health care reform. Ooh, see what I did there? Bet you didn't see that coming. So, after scraping about an inch of ice off my windshield Friday morning, Saturday bloomed into a sunny, 65 degree day. Perfect for golfing. I decided to take my hard-earned dollars back to the Bob O'Connor course in Schenley Park. I shot a 101. I know, pretty good right? That's 4 strokes better than last time. Also encouraging is that my good shots are getting better, and my bad shots are getting better and fewer. I had 2 pars and 6 bogeys, which is pretty good. Really what I need to work on now is getting rid of the blow-up holes. I had a 5-putt 7 on a par-3 because I lost focus. I should have been wearing a red shirt.

I had a really nice recovery on 2 when I hit a flop shot over some hedges and then hit a a pitch from about 30 yards to within 8 feet, and sank the putt for a bogey. I'm so close to putting it together and watching my scores plunge. Focus. Focus. Focus.

Total Spent:
Money = $104
Time = 18.5 hours
Handicap = 43

Big Break Episode 3

I'm starting to get a better feel for Andrew Giuliani. He's definitely the spoiled smug chubby kid that is always hanging around and can't shut his mouth. The only problem is that he's actually pretty good at this golf thing. Which means he's probably going to be around for a while.

So this episode kicks off with an extended $5,000 challenge made of three parts. There's the classic glass-breaking challenge, a beat-the-pro (J.B. Holmes) challenge, and a putting challenge. The only really surprising aspect was that six out of ten guys hit the glass on their first try.

So Kevin, KMax, and Sean got sent to the elimination challenge, which was a fun risk/reward event. KMax goes for the green and ends up in the lake, which sets the tone for the rest of the challenge. During the course of the elimination, Angry-Guy-Blake and Andrew Giuliani get into a little 'discussion' about the merits of laying up. The 'discussion' is fun to watch, but even more so is watching Vince, who is sitting between them, suddenly become intent on ensuring that his shirt is perfectly tucked in. I can't wait for this week. It might be better than a hockey game. I put the odds on a physical altercation at 50-50.

Hello...

Well, unfortunately I've been nursing an abdominal strain that I picked up while moving two weeks ago, so I haven't been able to take advantage of the relatively good weather. See how old I'm getting? Who gets hurt moving? On the positive side of things, however, I just got a full-time job. I'm going to be teaching science at a charter school. This means two firsts for my marriage. First first, is that this is the first time that my wife and I both have full time jobs in the U.S. together. (There was that whole Morocco thing last year.) Second first, I am now making more money than my wife. I can wear the pants again, which is especially good with those cold winter breezes in the near future. And finally, this means more money for golf, which is pretty much the point right now.

Big Break Episode 2

Here we go again! Episode 2 of the Disney season of Big Break opens at Champions stadium, spring-training home of the Atlanta Braves. Simple concept for the first immunity challenge, home run derby. Each homer is a point, you get 2 outs. The catch is that they have to use restricted flight balls. (Obviously, even I could hit a pitching wedge out of a baseball stadium with a regular ball.) The show was stolen by Tony, one of the brothers, who got in a groove and knocked 22 out of the stadium. He could have had more, but got egged into aiming at left field instead of right, and missed one. The only person to come close was Vincent, with 19. I don't think anybody else broke 10.

Did anybody else notice the caption that said Tony's brother Gipper averaged 360 yards per drive on the Nationwide Tour last year? I realize that this guy is crazy-long, but this average is a bit misleading, as it is calculated over two rounds, and only four holes. You can see all of Gipper's stats here. But hey, I'd love to crank one 360, let alone average that. Later during the the elimination challenge Vincent comments that Gipper hit a gap wedge from 145 yards, in the rough, in the rain. Ridiculous.

The second immunity challenge was an up-and-down from from the bunker match-play event. The players got to choose their opponent for a little mind game aspect. Nothing terribly exciting resulted.

The elimination challenge didn't see too many great shots, as the goal was to hit into a 30-yard circle on the green from three different locations, but it had a ton of bad shots. Angry-guy-Blake and Susan-Lucci-is-my-mommy-Andreas battled to see who could fall apart the worst, with Andreas coming away the winner (read loser). So Andreas goes home, and we are left with the possibility of Angry-guy-Blake committing felony assault with a lob wedge.

Come on!

Last Thursday I went and dropped another $6 at the range. Good news: they had heated tee boxes. Bad news: I spent too much time on the driver and not enough time on my irons. Today I played another nine holes at North Park Golf Course. Surprisingly I hit the driver well...except for the first drive which I popped up to the right. However, I couldn't hit an iron shot to save my life. I had some good chances after good drives, but didn't manage to hit one green in regulation. ARRRGGGHHH!!! I felt like saying bad words. The worst approach was after I hit my best drive ever. 240 yards, laser-straight, dead center of the fairway. I followed that beauty up with a toed slice that almost decapitated some ladies on the next tee. I did have two approaches with a sand wedge that came up just short, and of course landed in bunkers both times.

On another note, the course was jam-packed at noon on a Wednesday. Doesn't anybody work anymore? I know, I've heard about that whole 'recession' thing going around, but really, if you're unemployed, can you afford to be golfing? I can, I have a sugar-mama, so I can spend my substitute money on golfing. What's everybody else's excuse? Go to work people!

Total spent:
Money = $94
Time = 14.5 hours
Handicap = 43

Big Break

As much as I have a distaste for reality TV, I am excited for this season of Big Break on the Golf Channel. It's about golf after all, and they're all essentially trying to do the same thing as me. They are just a smidge further along the path than I am. You have the essential cast of characters, the annoying "I love me" guy (K-Max); the angry guy (Blake); several associated-with-famous-people guys (Andrew, Andreas, Mike); the nice guy (J.R.) and a pair of brothers and an Olympic gold medalist to spice things up.

The thing that amazes me is how unimpressive the first show was. The first challenge was to pick one of three lies; fairway, rough, and bunker; and be the closest to the pin. Even from the fairway lie, nobody was closer than seven feet. The second challenge was to pick a distance between 100 and 200 yards and hit the green. That's it. And three of them missed! Come on, you have to be a scratch golfer to be on the show and you can't hit the green from the fairway at a distance that you chose? I think that's the thing about golf that is so hard to grasp. You don't have to dazzle to play good golf, you just have to be consistent. Be in the fairway, on or close to the green in regulation, and you should par most holes. It seems so easy! I guess it's the nerves.

For now I'm rooting for J.R. for no other reason than he's the nice guy. We'll see how that goes next week. I'm also looking forward to the crazy challenges that the producers concoct.

Moving along

Did you ever have one of those days where you thought that you played well, but added up the score at the end and discovered three digits? Yeah, that was me yesterday. Yesterday I had the opportunity to play the Bob O'Connor course in Schenley Park in Pittsburgh, home of the First Tee of Pittsburgh program. I wrapped the front and back nines around a doctor's appointment that I had at the VA. That's right, I'm a veteran, could I be any more well-rounded? I'm also a cancer survivor, hence the appointment. Why has nobody thrown a reality show at me yet? The course is a short, par 67 layout with most par-4 holes in the 250 yard range. This sounds easy, but the hilliness of the layout leaves many challenging uphill and downhill lies. Also, the routing crosses a road several times, which can be a bit unnerving.

For being a municipal course that costs $15 per round, the course was in remarkably good shape. Given the low rate and the time of year, I expected brown patches in the fairway and bumpy greens. Surprisingly, the fairways and rough were in great shape, and the greens were smooth and faster than average public courses. The course was gorgeous, with the autumn colors coming in and a view of the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning in the background. This course also has a fun leftover from when it was built in 1897. There are several 'hazards' that are just ridges that cross the fairway. These are from the early days of modern golf course architecture when designers were usually just the best golfer around and just wanted to punish anybody that could not get the ball in the air. This is described in the book Golf Course Architecture: Design, Construction and Restoration by Michael Hurzdan.

I shot an unfortunate 105. However, I felt like I played better than last time. I had fewer mishits and more solid contact. My putting and chipping were also much better. I had two solid up-and-downs for par. My best contact of the day ended up hitting an overhanging branch and kicking straight left. That was a tad frustrating. This course would be a great one to bring your buddy who kills the ball with his driver, but can't hit an iron. There are only four holes over 300 yards. An accurate iron player would definitely trump a long-baller. There are two 190 yard par-3's to mix it up, on one of which I just missed the green with my four hybrid and parred.

The bad weather looks like it's starting to settle in for the winter, so the improvement will be tough. Especially since I HATE cold. Yes, HATE. Not an overstatement. I would hibernate if I could.

Stats:
Handicap: 43
Money spent: 79
Time spent: 11.5 hours

Maybe, just maybe...

I've figured it out. Friday I went to the range and hit a small bucket of balls. Made very good contact, but was hitting off a mat. Still, very encouraged compared to the last few debacles.

Stats:
Money spent: $55 + 6 = $61
Time spent: 1 hour

To GPS or not to GPS

My friend and I had a lively discussion the other day about whether GPS systems should be a part of golf. Personally, I love it when a course has carts equipped with GPS systems. It gives you so much information that you would not otherwise have.

His argument is that estimating distance is an integral part of the game. By giving specific yardages to the green or hazards from anywhere on the course, you are removing an integral aspect of the competition. While I agree with him for official competitions, such as the PGA tour, I feel that the GPS can greatly enhance the experience for the casual golfer. Even professionals on tour are given yardage books that show extremely detailed information about each hole. I know that nothing is quite as frustrating as hitting a great shot toward the green, only to discover that I over/underestimated the distance. GPS systems are especially useful at a course that you have never played before, or when there is no coding system to display the pin locations.

On the other side of the argument, golf course designers and architects spend significant amounts of effort to visually confuse golfers about the distance to the green. Having a large, open space with mountains in the background makes the hole look closer, as does a large not-quite-greenside bunker. Using GPS deemphasizes this aspect of the course design.

I don't have enough money to drop on a hand-held system, but anytime the course has the option of a cart with GPS I will always pony up the extra few dollars if necessary.

Why do I do this again?

After spending yesterday at the range trying new drills, I've come to the same conclusion that I always do. I just swing too hard. Like most other amateurs, I take beautiful, graceful practice swings, and then promptly freak out and try to annihilate the ball when it comes time to take the shot. How many of you do this? Tomorrow, I'm going back to the range and not taking anything more than a half swing. I owe it to myself and my loyal readers to get on track here, and right now my play is not acceptable.

To add insult to injury, I was at a local public course on the practice green and got to watch some teenagers from one of the local high school golf teams launch lovely, straight drives onto the fairway. That hurts.

The quest formally begins...

... on a massive low note. Sunday I skipped church to go golfing with my dad. We met at a place called Chestnut Ridge, which is between where each of us live. It's a very nice course, although a bit pricey for me. Dad usually pays. There is another course there, Tom's run, which is even more expensive, but rated slightly higher. The course is usually very well maintained, although it can be a bit soggy in places. The highlights for me are the eleventh hole, a 339-yard par 4 that begins with a severely elevated tee. It plays over a portion of lake, with additional water off the right. It's the ultimate temptation hole. Even for a decent amateur, the green is reachable with the elevation change. I hit a low draw, which barely would have gotten off the ground on a flat hole and still managed to be in the fairway at about 240 yards. However I'm sure that water has swallowed many a slice that resulted from a swing that had a little too much "Watch this!" on it. Holes 14, 15, and 16 go par5, 3, 5 and wrap around a picturesque pond with a stone wall and cattails framing it. Here the course opens up from a typical Northeast tree-lined routing to a links type of feel.

So, given that I was playing with my dad, and on one of our favorite courses, I should have had a great day right? Wrong! In trying to fix my swing, I have managed to destroy it. Even when I hit a good shot, it went wrong. Twice I underestimated my shot and launched a pristine gap wedge over the green. Add some atrocious putting and I scored a 115, one of my worst scores in a significant while. This gives me a tidy 41.0 handicap, using the Swingkeeper page at Sir Shanksalot. Sir Shanksalot is a great site, with advice, drills, a handicap/statistics page, and even a place to upload a video of your swing for review by fellow golfers. I will be using the handicap from this site until getting an official handicap. The good news is that with a 41.0 handicap, there's nowhere to go but up (or is that down?)

Stats:
Handicap = 41.0
Money spent = $55
Time spent = 6 hrs.

Whoops

Hey, remember how I said I was trying to fix that push/hook that I have? Well, the problem is that I haven't practiced my new swing enough. Pittsburgh had a nice break from the rain today, so I tried to squeeze 9 holes in between work and dinner. (Dinner is a big deal around here) Well, when I say that I tried to squeeze 9 holes in, I meant 9 good holes. What I got was about the worst I've played in a long time. So, I'm digging through all the golf tip books that I've gotten from the library. One book that I did find that I like is the Golf Digest "Breaking 100, 90, 80" book, made up of the magazine tips of the same name. It's very fun to flip through and try. Of course, a significant portion of the drills and advice they give you assume that you are the only member of a country club and can spend an hour hitting shots from different angles and lies onto the green. I think that I've reached the point of too much information and need to filter it through practice.

Practice, practice, practice

I must say, having this blog has already nudged me to get out there and practice. I got home today from a job interview (gotta pay for those range balls and greens fees) at about 4:30. Dinner was at 6, so I thought about just staying in and listen to the wind howl from the security of the couch. Instead I took my lazy butt and went to the range. I worked on a drill to fix my push/hook that involved putting an empty range bucket by my right foot to keep me from swinging from too far inside. It worked somewhat, but I ran out of time and range balls.

Thanks readers (are there any yet?) for the motivation.

Clubs

The last few day I've been consumed by a pesky search for a job. It appears that a lot of work goes into this process. So, let's talk about equipment. Come on, we know that we all like to talk about it. My stick is better than your stick. Or, the reverse, it has to be the clubs' fault. "Honey, I could play much better if I bought these $800 irons."

I hit with Wilson Deep Red II irons (3-PW) that I got used at Second Swing Golf in Pittsburgh, which is now closed. I have 3 wedges, 52,56, and 60 degrees, from Warrior Golf that I got for $30 a few years ago. My driver is also a Warrior, their extreme Ti version with adjustable weights. I got the driver for trying a set of fairway woods, which I ended up buying. I spent about $200 for 3-wood, 5-wood, and 5-hybrid. I have a 4-hybrid by Orlimar, which I got for Christmas in the family grab-bag one year and I love it. Finally, I have an Odyssey two-ball putter that my dad gave me for Christmas.

So the only clubs I have that I bought new are the Warriors. I have to say, that in my experience, Warrior is a good company, with great customer service, but fairly poor record-keeping. After I ordered the wedges, they called with the offer to test the fairway wood set and I could keep the driver free. I thought that was a good deal, especially since I did not expect to keep them. Well, after I decided to buy them, they called a few weeks later with the same offer. After informing them that I already had a set of fairway woods (from them) they offered to let me try the irons. At this point I felt that my wife would end my career with a nine-iron to the knee if I spent that much more money, so I refrained. The clubs, however, are excellent in my opinion and look great as well. They also offer a free refitting service, which I did not take advantage of. So, if you're looking for a new set of clubs and want a good deal, check them out, especially if you're a West-Coaster.

Getting started.

My name is Matthew Mills. I'm 27 years old, married, and live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

My goal is to enter a local qualifier for the U.S. Open by the time I'm 30 years old.

Sound familiar? I was inspired by Jason King and his now-hyped quest to dunk a basketball by the age of 30. With this goal, he has increased his vertical jump 9 inches in about two and a half months. That's huge! Most 29 year-old, non-professional-athletes are lucky to have a 9 inch total vertical. That's when it hit me. Having been married for four years, as you other married guys will attest, it gets harder and harder to go work out. Or, to do pretty much anything but watch sports on TV, and compare your biceps to the athletes', make a silent vow to work out more, and then go get another beer. Geez, you can't even watch golf without that feeling anymore. Have you seen Tiger's arms? It finally dawned on me that I need a competition, a goal. Thus this blog was born.

This is going to be somewhat challenging, as I need a handicap of 1.4 to enter, as expressed on the application page of the USGA. I have not ever even had an official handicap, but I would estimate it to be in the mid-20's. I've always been an athletic person and I love sports and competition. I played football and ran track in high school and played rugby in college. I would probably still be playing rugby if my shoulder wasn't shot. I picked up golf the summer after I got married four years ago and took a few lessons from Bill at Bill's Golfland in Belle Vernon. Not THE Bill, the other Bill. I loved the way that golf is always a competition. Even if you are alone, you compete against yourself and the course.

As any golfer knows (as does his wife) the hard part is that golf is freaking expensive! Even after the clubs, balls, shoes, gloves, tees, etc., it costs money just to go play. So, what I need is money, or sponsors, or both. Don't worry, I'm not begging for a handout here. Part of this blog is trying to find said money or sponsors. I'm inviting everyone along for the ride as I track the progress toward my goal. I have some things going in my favor. On the rare occasions that it goes straight, I can drive the ball 300+ yards. Um, well, that's about it for now, except for a willingness to work my butt off when I have a reason to. For your entertainment I'm going to keep cumulative records of money spent, time spent, and my handicap. Along the way I'll hopefully pick up some stories and insights, as well as readers and sponsors.