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Some days, nothing is working

jerry — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:28:36 +0000

I went out out to Teal Bend by the Sacramento Airport last week and the last two rounds were ok. One was solid, and the next round started off w/ three beers on the first three holes and was obviously a day where you have fun w/ the boys and have driving contests on each hole. Sometimes, I ask myself whether a beer or two loosens me up, or messes up my game. I think I can say with confidence that it doesn’t help.

So, I go to out to Teal Bend. I hit a great drive w/ people watching. That’s usually a good sign of a decent day. My approach shot was a little fat, but I was just short of the green. Bogey. Not a bad start. So my new approach to golf is to not over-analyze everything, but to try to focus on clean contact and feel. It’s been working well so far, but I could not get out of the fat shots funk! On top of that, I wasn’t making any putts outside of 5 feet, which you need to get your putting going.

Anyways, it was a disappointing round. Even my driver started to lose its effectiveness due to a slip in confidence.

P.S. - There is nothing more to write about Tiger’s U.S. Open victory. It’s all been said. It was phenomenal. Tiger further immortalized himself that weekend. Although, I can’t believe what Retief Goosen said. What was he thinking!?!?

Wildhorse in Davis, CA Minus the Wind

jerry — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 04:52:40 +0000

Wow, I played Wildhorse Golf Club in Davis last weekend early in the morning and what a difference. Two months ago, I played that course and it got windy in the afternoon and I scored close to 110. This time around, I scored 93. The three biggest differences were 1) wind 2) teed it up from from the whites this time 3) I made a handful of 5-8 footers.

I think I’ll try to avoid that in the afternoons now. This day came after a horrid day at Gleneagles in South San Francisco. Boy, was that a tough course! I read the reviews on Yelp, but I thought, How hard could it be!? But the trees are so high, if you miss the fairway, you can forget about recovering, like on some other courses. Next time I play this, I would err on the side of laying up.

Anyways, I was quite happy to bounce back from a poor performance with a decent one.

Busy Busy Busy

jerry — Fri, 23 May 2008 20:11:04 +0000

Took a bit of a break from writing due to work, travel, etc., but I’m back.

So I played a few courses since I last posted:

Wildhawk Golf Club - 22-Mar-08
- 91 - Did pretty well here. I almost broke 90, but I was 3 over on the last two holes!!
Blue Rock - East - 29-Mar-08
- 95 -Not one of my better days
Black Gold - 3-Apr-08
- 102 - This course is pretty tough - never a flat lie, and a lot of blind turns. Unfortunately this course was not as nice as I thought it would be . . .
Black Gold - 3-Apr-08
- 102 - No, not seeing double - played it twice in one day! The funny thing is I made the exact same mistakes on the same holes! Weird how your eyes get fooled by layouts.
Davis Golf Course - 20-Apr-08
- 84 - I was putting very well that day! This is a par 66 course, so I can’t count this.
Blue Rock Springs - 26-Apr-08
- 98 - NOT playing well!
Teal Bend - 29-Apr-08
- 98 - not bad for this course, but definitely making some mistakes!
Genoa Lakes - Lakes - 2-May-08
- 89 - Scored 40 on the front and tanked a bit on the back with a 49, but finally broke 90 on a full course!!! woohoo!!! I accomplished one goal this summer!
Haggin Oaks - MacKenzie - 17-May-08
- 92 - This course was easier, drier, and flatter than I expected. It was 105 degrees, but it was kinda disappointing for a MacKenzie course.

So, now we’re all caught up!

P.S. My rebuild is still a work in progress. I’m definitely keeping my head down more, but it always creeps back to bite me!!! ARGGGHHHHH!!!

Beginning of My 2008 Golf Season

jerry — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:39:49 +0000

I haven’t had time to write about my first few outings, but I’ve gone the past 3 weekends. I’ve been going to the range and working on rebuilding my swing, but I haven’t actually played on a course since December. I had to many swing flaws that I was trying to work on some basic swing mechanics first as part of my off-season swing rebuild. I don’t think I was 100% yet, but I went a few weekends ago to try out my new swing . . . will it ever be 100%? Is there such a thing? Tiger’s swing is a “work in progress“. So I can’t feel bad. I saw that interview after the WGC match play victory and I thought Johnny Miller was asking him about his swing changes, but I could have mis-remembered.

So anyway, the biggest thing I was trying to fix in the past few weeks was to stay stacked at impact. I tend to stand up out of my swing and slice the ball. I swing with my body instead of with my arms. A major off-season fix I had was to shorten my swing so I don’t have force my backswing past parallel and bob my head. Two weeks ago, I surprisingly drove the ball really well with this fix, but was unable to get my irons working for me. I scored a 106 which was extremely disappointing. I did not do myself any favors with my short game either.

Two weekends ago, I actually did incredibly well when I tried my best to keep my shoulders as square to the ball as I can at impact and loosening my arms during the downswing to allow maximum lag and staying down kept my contact square. I scored 47 on 9 holes so I was ready for last weekend.

Last weekend, I played at Chardonnay in Napa Valley and luckily the short practice has paid off, but the old habits I thought I kicked had surfaced again!! ARGGGH!! I guess old habits are hard to break. I scored 99 on a very very tough course I saw for the first time, but it’s back to the drawing board for me.

Golf Ball Sweet Spot Finder and/or Line M Up Tool

jerry — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:46:25 +0000

So recently, I lost a bet to a buddy and I owe him a Line-M-Up Alignment Aid. My wife also found a Golf Ball Sweet Spot Finder Tool at Marshalls for $2, so I guess I’ll have a few more toys to play with. I know the pros line up their balls when they putt. I do too, sometimes. I’m not sure if I should do it more often though.

So the idea behind this tool, is that no two balls are the same and it spins the ball at such a high speed, that it finds the optimal balance point. Here’s an article at Clubmaker-Online.com. Although mine is not a Check-Go brand tool, I assume it works the same. I found a Check Go Pro Electronic Ball Liner on Amazon that has super saver shipping.

Tiger Tiger Tiger

jerry — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:54:29 +0000

So I’ve been really busy at work this week . . . so no time to blog. I even missed Tiger’s performance last weekend! I’m actually not sure when it was on TV since it was a few time zones away, but Tiger never ceases to amaze.

Here are a few stats:

largest comeback in 8 years
3rd time Tiger started 2-0
72nd win worldwide

One of the crazier things is that in 2007, 5 players had multiple wins on the PGA tour:

K.J. Choi
Phil Mickelson
Steve Flesch
Tiger Woods
Zach Johnson

Granted, this is not a PGA event, he’s 2-0 in the second week!! Boy, that’s not fair . . . what is in store for us this year in terms of making history? It’ll definitely be exciting!!

Tiger Taking Care of Business at the Buick Invitational!

jerry — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 19:04:06 +0000

As predicted, Tiger killed the field, and made it clear that he OWNS Torrey Pines. I think the players on tour practically conceded the 2008 U.S. Open to him this year. Nick Faldo seems to think Tiger will complete a Grand Slam in one calendar year . . . . which would be just incredible. This will be an exciting year indeed.

See Tiger’s putt from 11th - like he needs any more luck!!

Roger and Tiger’s Grand Slam Race for History

jerry — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:35:35 +0000

Roger, Roger - loses in Australian Semis! His amazing streak of 10 straight Grand Slam Finals appearance has been broken by the up and comer Novak Djokovic! And he lost in straight sets too! Our expectations of Federer and Tiger have been so high, it sometimes seems outrageous, but the way they have performed in the past few years have been incredible. Federer has 12 Grand Slam titles, chasing Pete Sampras’ 14. Tiger has 14 chasing Jack’s 18. It’ll be interesting to see who gets to their goal first. But now that Nadal and Djokovic have shown up and proven themselves, Tiger’s 4 to go doesn’t seem so far. This should be an exciting year!

2008 ECHL All-Star Game In Stockton

jerry — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:05:45 +0000

Before I log off, I’d wanted to talk quickly about hockey in Sacramento. I’m a Sharks fan, but it’s a little far for me to drive out to San Jose for games unless it’s the weekends, so that’s a little depressing. But I just heard that The ECHL (East Coast Hockey League) had a the 2008 ECHL All-Star Game In Stockton last night and it went really well. They had 7,455 fans there and it was a good show. Everybody has always heard that hockey live compared to on television has the biggest improvement. I just hope that it continues to gain momentum and we get some more hockey love in Sacramento. C’mon Maloofs!! I’ll have to check out a Stockton Thunder game one of these days.

Tiger’s 2008 Opening Day at Buick Invitational

jerry — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:56:00 +0000

I was happy to see K.J. Choi win the Sony Open in Hawaii, but here is where the excitement begins! First of all, Tiger is the defending champion. He’s actually won 5 out of the last 9 Buick Invitationals. His record at Torrey Pines is SICK!! To add on top wanting to win one of his favorite tournaments on one of his favorite golf courses, it’s the spot of this years U.S. Open in June. So if he gets a good start winning this tournament, the intimidation factor is at an all time high. They might as well just save some time and present the U.S. Open trophy to him this Sunday.

It’s pretty insane that we have such high expectations for this guy. Golf is one of those sports that is so hard to win so many tournaments. If any one guy in the field has an amazing string of rounds, he can do some damage. Then again, Tiger just always stays in the mix til Sunday and that person still knows that he can’t make a single mistake, or else Tiger will catch him with his clutch play.

Anyways, I’m excited!! Time to bookmark the Buick Invitational Leaderboard and hit refresh all day!