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.