The Golfchick

That chick blabbing about anything golf related.

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Am I being hazed by the putting gods?

May 17, 2006 / / 11 Comments

Is this some kind of “true golfer” initiation process I’m experiencing? Let’s check the stats.

After finding my lost swing at the range on Saturday, I was still a little anxious about taking it out on the course. I mustered my courage and played yesterday, only to find myself playing like I did back when I was on a roll and winning. Aside from a couple of disaster holes (a 7 and a 9 – both on par 4’s!), I had a solid round with7 pars and 6 bogeys. It was a really hot day and I was fatigued by the end, but I still parred out the last three holes to shoot a 90, which is my best round in months. I was walking on sunshine (instead of my aching dogs) and thinking to myself “oh yeah, I remember this… I actually CAN play golf.” I was even putting well – only one 3-putt all day and a total of 35!

Then I turn around and play again today only to shoot a disappointing 100. I walked off the course feeling a little dejected but refused to let one round shake my regained confidence (even though I was quite willing to let one round just the day before build it up). I then chalked it up to some kind of golf god’s hazing ritual – like now I’m REALLY not a beginner anymore because all real golfers go through this kind of thing. I know that’s true – we all have our ups and downs, and I’m sure I’ll continue to do that as well. HOWEVER…

…then I checked the stats. I know how important putting is. I do. I also know I’ve been struggling with that aspect of my game from the get go. To some extent, I believe putting is natural talent – you either have it or you don’t. Kind of like music or fine art: you can become pretty good at it with training and experience to develop the skills, but the people with the natural ability to begin with will always be better.

Yesterday I was putting with confidence, feeling the lines and the speeds and knowing that, even from 50 feet away, I could two-putt my way into the cup. Today, I putted like the spaz I am. So here it is: yesterday I had 35 putts; today I had 43. I guess this is why I keep statistics. Had I putted today like I did yesterday, my 100 would have been a 92. Plus, today my disaster hole was a 10! So, I found all the strokes and I feel better about it. I’m still striking the ball well. My irons are back to being relatively solid, and the bonus – my shots with my fairway woods the last two days have been things of beauty. My driver, which used to be my straightest club, has developed an enormous slice, though not unplayable, and I’m working on it.

I don’t know how many posts I’ve written complaining about my putting, but it seems like a lot. Putting, putting, putting, putting. I have to get better at putting. Maybe I’ll read a book. :)
Any recommendations?

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Inventing the paper napkin?

May 16, 2006 / / 1 Comment

Well, it’s a little too late for mother’s day, but here we have a gift idea for any occasion for that special lady golfer in your life. Just watch her eyes light up when she receives this amazing paper napkin! Well, maybe if that special lady golfer in your life is Christina Aguilera.

SHOULDER PAD FOR WOMEN GOLFERS

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” paper napkin…to protect a shoulder part of clothes of a woman playing golf from becoming dirt due to touching of a cheek, the chin or the like of the player to stick a cosmetic, a sunburn cream, or the like on it.”

 

 

 

 

Submitted by Gavin at patentlygolf.com
Check out all the other crazy “inventions” there, like the “Heel mounted sand trap rake for golf shoes.”

Next post.

 

Twenty dollars well spent

May 13, 2006 / / 2 Comments

On Wednesday, I lost my swing. Today, I went back to the scene of the crime to try to find it.

The course where I was going to play on Wednesday was Lost Canyons. I started by hitting some balls at the range and didn’t get any further than that as I explained in my last post.

I found out via the e-mail newsletter of Lost Canyons that this month is “National PGA Teaching Month” (someone should alert Hallmark) and in honor of it, they are holding three one-hour clinics for ladies on three Saturdays in May. I debated with myself over whether attending such a clinic would mess with my head even further or actually be useful and in the end, I won the debate. The clinic started at noon and at 11:45, I decided that it probably couldn’t hurt to go back to basics – not to mention the scene of the crime – and try to rebuild some confidence. As a true procrastinator, I was thrilled to find out that it was a great last minute decision.

The “clinic,” which was the first of three scheduled and was advertised as being for beginners and intermediates, had a low turnout on its first week. There were three of us: one who had never swung a club in her life, one who had been hitting balls at the driving range with her husband for two years but had never actually been on a golf course, and me.

The Lesson

After asking us about our golfing backgrounds, the pro in charge (Paul, you were great!) started with the grip. But having only an hour to work with, he quickly transitioned to the swing. He had us all swinging 7-irons, and after watching a few swings, he told me it didn’t look like I was having the trouble I had described. He said I had a great swing and called some of my shots “money.” Like taking your car to the mechanic and it won’t make that noise. I told him to keep watching. Sure enough, I proceeded to hit the ground before the ball and shank a few after that. Bless his little heart, he immediately said something like “oh, I see it… I can fix that easily.” Since I’m pretty sure my problem was mostly psychological, I think just hearing those words fixed me, but it was good to get some actual advice, and I bet it will actually improve my game beyond where I was before this problem started.

The Real Lesson

So what was the advice? Well, I paid 20 clams for it, but I’ll give it to you here for free, in case you have the same issue. Primarily, it was that I wasn’t shifting my weight correctly. On my backswing, I was transferring my weight to the front leg and on the follow through I was transferring it to my back leg – like a softball swing. DUH! When I say “duh,” it’s because I mean I know I’m supposed to transition my weight back and then front along with my swing in golf, I just wasn’t doing it. However, along with that, my head was staying on the ball, rather than moving back with my weight and then my head should stay back while my weight transitions forward. He actually stood in front of me and held my head while I took a few swings (which felt really awkward but I got the picture). That part I actually didn’t know. Herein lies the golf lesson. I paid the $20 for the confidence, and I got something extra!

His advice could have been “breathe through your eyes” like from Bull Durham and it might have worked to fix my mental problem. I just needed some psychological fix. But once I was feeling it, and it didn’t take long, all was well and I was just soaking up the lesson. We even moved on to chipping and putting and he went longer than the hour because “it was better than working inside.”

Lost Canyons is holding these clinics the next two weeks from noon to 1:00, and if you’re a lady and live anywhere near and want either instruction or confidence, I highly recommend going.

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Strange days

May 10, 2006 / / 6 Comments

Weird: I haven’t felt much like golfing lately. I think I’ll go today just because I can and it’s a beautiful day and see if that fires me back up about it.

Update: I went out and hit some balls at the range and the results caused me not to “waste” my money on a round. It felt so odd! I was hitting my woods & driver solidly, but out of nowhere I had this enormous slice. And my irons? Yikes, they felt so awkward in my hands, as if I’d never held a golf club before. What was going on? Sometimes when things feel wrong, I hit some punch shots to set myself straight, and I couldn’t even do that. Bizarre… I hope it magically goes away next time I go out – probably tomorrow.

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Excessive weekday golf… or not enough?

May 2, 2006 / / 6 Comments

Some of you might have noticed I’ve been playing more golf on weekdays… and not on travel days. That’s because I was recently laid off from my job. Of course, I feel like I should be playing golf EVERY day now. It’s amazing how many things there are to do when you lose your job. Where does all my time go? Plus, there’s the ever-present element that makes me want to save my money now. Perhaps that’s the Capricorn in me, if you believe in that stuff. Wait, the Capricorn thing is supposed to be the element that makes me feel like a lowlife dirtbag if I’m not working my ass off. I never thought I garnered so much of my identity from my work until I didn’t have any. It’s not really that I saw myself as my title as I just need to be working at something to feel valuable. I’d like to spend that energy on golf, but I have to be realistic.

Hey, I just thought of something about where all my time goes. It’s there – I just don’t pack as much into it anymore. They say (damn them) “if you want something done, give it to a busy person.” I’m not busy enough to get enough done. Maybe if I golf more, I’d fit more into the rest of my day. I knew if I circled around this enough I could rationalize more golf!

Oh, and does anyone out there want to hire a golf chick?

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Sexy golf, the LPGA and the BGA?

April 26, 2006 / / 13 Comments

In a recent, unrelated post, some comments were made about the LPGA needing some kind of shot to the arm to increase viewership and interest. While those comments were focused more on the influence of Korean golfers, it seems to me that the “problem” is more fundamental and rests with the fans.

I think it’s a shame that women golfers have to market themselves to the calendar crowd in order to bolster the viewership. It may be a shame, but at this point, it’s probably necessary. You don’t see this happening with the men. I certainly don’t want to see a half naked Singh or Daly, but I love to watch them golf.

Keep your shirt on. Photo from the Augusta Chronicle.

If we really want the LPGA to grow, we need more good players. If it gets to the point that only the beautiful ones get endorsement packages and the accompanying support that goes with them, regular looking but talented girls will be discouraged from pursuing the sport as a profession. Herein lies the catch-22: the purses are too small (though growing) to inspire the same kind of dedication in female golfers as male golfers. To increase the prize money, we need to generate more revenue. To generate more revenue, what do we need? Better golf or better-looking golf?

The LPGA is an association for professional athletes, not beauty queens. That some of them are stunning ought to be a bonus, not the focus. By focusing on the cover-model golfers, we’re kind of growing the interest while narrowing the field with irrelevant standards. One place to start would be with a sponsor (say, Nike) endorsing and promoting the hell out of a good golfer with an interesting personality but maybe not the best looking (say, Christina Kim, or better yet, someone more obscure that we don’t know yet). There’s a saying that “it takes money to make money.” How about some sponsors investing some serious dough for the purses to make it really interesting? And investing in some good golfers to make it about an athletic competition instead of a golf event as the talent portion of some beauty pageant?

It’s the age old dilemma… the media show us what they think we want to see because they want our money. We buy their products because it’s what’s there. Sure, sex sells but so does talent.

Maybe we need an entirely new Association — the BGA (Beautiful Golfers Association) for men and women. We can have a panel that selects the talent (ahem) and they all compete against one another for huge prize money. And we can have judges decide who wins. It wouldn’t be entirely based on score, either – that would just be one segment of the judging. Okay, maybe it’s not an association to rival the PGA and LPGA… it’s more of a bad reality show. But admit it — you’d watch. And it just might stigmatize the selling of sexiness in the LPGA enough to put the focus back on golf there.

I started this by saying that the “problem” might rest with the fans. But only because we’re buying what they’re selling. Will we buy an LPGA that’s about golf?

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Now that’s more like it

April 24, 2006 / / 9 Comments

The day after “The dullest round EVER” I played the same course – Simi Hills – with friends. I even played from the forward tees with another female golfer – for money! Now that’s golfing. We had a great time and will be playing together more often.
**Side note: some of those pollywogs in the lake on 14 looked like they were already sprouting legs… watch out!**

I also played on Sunday at a course I hadn’t played before called “De Bell” in Burbank. It’s a short but treacherous course. I played as a guest in another club’s tournament, so I wasn’t eligible for prize money. Good thing, I guess, because I wouldn’t have won if I was. I had nine good holes – one birdie, six pars and two bogies. The rest were total disasters and I shot a 108! My highest round in recent memory. I even took a 12 on a par 4 – I don’t remember the last time I took double digits on a hole. Blech. It turned out there were very few people who DIDN’T take a double digit somewhere on that course. It was still really fun and I might have eased up on the beer and taken it more seriously if I were competing.

I still won two out of two closest-to-the-pins, with one coming on a blind shot over a hill. On this par 3, you have to wait for the group in front of you to ring “de bell” before teeing off because you really can’t see the green. I stuck my shot about 5 feet from the pin and my ball mark was about two feet closer than that. That felt good!

I’ll be playing Tuesday in another charity tournament. I think it’s probably a scramble, which can be really fun. We’ve got an enjoyable foursome and I’m looking forward to it.

I could have muttered a few times about hating golf during my 12, but I LOVE PLAYING GOLF.

Next post.

The dullest round EVER

April 19, 2006 / / 5 Comments

Today I played at Simi Hills. I walked on and got paired up with THE DULLEST golfer ever. It’s amazing what a difference that can make in a round. He might have said eight words to me the whole round, and never once even cracked a smile. Oowee, Tiara… I hope he’s near the top of the list for the personality transplant, because his has coded and is completely non-functional.

As for my round, it was dismal. I had to go spout off my mouth in a recent post about my consistency in hitting fairways with my driver. I hit a whopping 3 out of 13. A couple were in better position because I cut corners, but still. And as for greens… I don’t know why I carry a ball-mark repair tool. I didn’t hit a single green in regulation today. Maybe I just like being a janitor and cleaning up everyone else’s marks.

On the positive side, it was a beautiful day for an 18-hole walk. And for those of you who know the course, they are repairing that ravine on 11 that got damaged in the rains. Meanwhile, it’s temporarily a par-3 with a green in the middle of the fairway.

Oh, and there were literally THOUSANDS of tadpoles in the lake on 14. That place is going to be swarming with frogs soon. Ribbit! Also, I must have seen at least 50 bunnies. Most of them were in pairs, so that number’s getting bigger as I type!

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Rattlesnake season – be alert!

April 19, 2006 / / 3 Comments

If you live in a climate where rattlesnakes thrive, ’tis the season, so be on the lookout!

Last week I played at Tierra Rejada. There are “caution: rattlesnake” signs posted around the course in certain areas, but I guess I had become complacent over the winter.

I had been paired up with a couple of big hitters from a local college team and their coach, but they left after nine holes so I was a single sandwiched between two foursomes. The course was pretty crowded, so there was no space to play through. It was a gorgeous day, the first one in a long time, so I tried not to let the waiting get to me. I admired the course, the vegitation, the rabbits and squirrels playing. Then I thought I’d go easter egg hunting while I waited. I had lost a few balls and thought I could replace them with a couple quick hunts.

I took two steps into the long grass and thought to myself “this is probably a bad idea – at least go back and grab a club to whack around in here.” Just as I took one step to the edge, a three-foot rattlesnake slithered right by my foot! No rattling, so he probably wasn’t a threat, but I admit I squealed and jumped. Sure, in hindsight that probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do. It was lucky the snake didn’t seem to mind. And I’m glad there was no one nearby to witness it.

The guys I played with on the front nine spotted a baby one just off the cart path by one of the tees. They’re out there, so be careful!

I decided I didn’t really want to find anymore golf balls that day.

Next post.

New addition to the trophy collection

April 18, 2006 / / 1 Comment

Yesterday I played in Tumbleweed Tom’s Elks Lodge charity tournament at Sunset Hills. I heard that compared to previous years, the turnout was quite low, but there must have still been over 100 people playing in the event. It was a scramble/best ball type thing and Greg and I were paired with a couple fun characters. Our handicaps ranged from 15-41, so we didn’t stand a chance against the teams that assemble themselves to win. They gave us 8 strokes, and they didn’t take away strokes from the scratch players. We were just out there to have fun anyway.

Our first hole was 17, a 200-yard, tough-to-hit par 3. I was last to hit and no one had hit the green. I landed mine 16’7″ from the hole (we measured for the KP) and we made par there. My closie didn’t hold, as one guy stuck it in to 12’4″ to win the $75. Darn!

The greens had recently been punched, so putting was unpredictable. Balls were bouncing all over and no two putts from the same spot went in the same direction. There was a lot of muttering about it back at the lodge. We felt like we did well for our skill levels and got out of the round with a gross score of 1-under. It turned out to be around 10th place.

Unbeknownst to me, there were three foursomes of just ladies (I was playing with three men) who were competing in the “ladies division.” Three foursomes with first, second and third place trophies. They all won! However, I did sneak in there and claim the ladies long drive contest.

It was on the 14th hole and we were the second to last group to play that hole and there were only men behind us. I saw the ladies long drive marker in the fairway only about 120 yards out! I have to admit, for a moment I considered just sticking an 8-iron out in the middle to ensure my victory. But we were a team and we could use a nice drive to get a good score on this hole. It was into the wind and I risked missing the fairway, but I nailed a solid drive over the bunker on the right and out into the fairway to just past the 150 marker. So it was only about 220 yards, but it was way more than I needed to win the trophy, plus we used my drive and worked out a par there.

Here she is. Same style trophy, but bigger, and gold-ish. More like an Oscar. :)

Since I haven’t been playing so well lately, I’ll take what I can get. My drives and fairways hit percentage is the only thing that’s staying relatively solid and reliable. Actually, I got us on a lot of greens yesterday, too. From the tee on par 3’s and with my irons from the fairways. Hard to say how I’d have done on my own overall, especially considering that nightmarish putting surface. Ah, but we all had a fun day!Next post.

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