New Year Resolution (Part 2)

New Year's Resolution (Part 1)

It's been a while since I had a chance to write.  Between the busyness of the holidays, vacationing to visit my family, and getting back to be faced by a lot of household tasks, it's been tough to get on and write a post.  However, I've had time to think and reflect now, and I want to write a two part post outlining my New Year's resolutions.  Part 1 will look at 2008 in review and outline strengths and weaknesses, and try to do a little analysis of what I need to do to get to my next set of goals.  Part 2 (hopefully up tomorrow) will outline what my goals for 2009 are along with what I plan to do to get to those goals.

As I pointed out when I started the blog, I started playing seriously again in June.  My first round was just over 100 (at a fairly difficult course), and my first round at my now home course was a 94.  Over the last few months I've managed to break 80 once and now consistently shoot in the mid 80s (last 5 rounds at my home course have had a scoring average of 86).  My swing has gone through a slight swing change (with an emphasis on some of the fundamentals of Hogan), and although I feel like I have a better swing, my ball striking hasn't always reflected that.  My putting has definitely improved over the months.  I recently had my first sub-30 putt round and have averaged 32.5 putts over my last 10 rounds (down from 33.8 overall).  

But, not every part of my game has been rosy.  Three or four months ago, I would've considered driving one of my strengths (normally hit the ball straight and averaged around 240 off the tee).  Currently, I'm struggling to keep the driver in play and have lost a lot of distance (in a recent round I averaged just over 200 off the tee).  I think I know the mechanical flaw, though, and I'll soon be seeing a pro about it (more on that in Part 2).  

Let me end by throwing out some yearend stats (the more you read the more you'll find that I'm a very analytical/numbers person).  All stats are averaged over every round I recorded for the year (basically from July until the end of the year).  Obviously most numbers were worse when I started in July and better now, although it's not always the case.

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Score: 91.96 (Handicap = 18.1)

GIR: 18.65%

FWY Hit: 52.17%

GIR FWY Hit: 24.48%

Total Putts: 33.79

Putts per GIR: 2.19

GIR 1st putt (ft.): 23.8

Scrambling: 14.15%

Up & Down: 19.49%

U&D 1st putt (ft.): 12.71

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Two main areas of my game stand out.  Firstly, as stated earlier is my driving.  It's been atrocious lately (even when I hit the fairway, it is often ugly looking).  Second is my short/mid iron game.  I need to hit more than 24% of greens when I'm in the fairway.  My course isn't long and I'm usually close enough that I have 6I or less in my hands.  Other than that, I'm not too unhappy with my game.  Up and downs have gotten significantly better over the course of the year, and the bad GIR putting stems mainly from leaving myself almost 25 foot putts when I get on.

In Part 2 of this post I'll look at these problems more specifically and then go in depth with how I plan on tackling them over the next 8 months.  Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Weird Weather Golf

We've had some awfully weird weather here in Texas lately.  And of course I've tried to play through all of it.  Last week we had our first snowfall in my hometown in almost 15 years.  Needless to say golf was out for those two days.  However, the snow did melt (but the cold didn't go away), and this past Monday, I went out for a round with a friend.  

When we teed off, it was about 37* with a windchill of 25*.  I layered up with underarmor, some Thermotec, ski socks, a beanie, and my wind/rain jacket.  To top it off, I kept one of my ski gloves handy to wear in between shots.  After 9 holes, I gave up.  Maybe I need to invest in some better cold weather gear for days like Monday, but by the time I putted out on 9, I could no longer feel my hands, which made having any feel impossible.  By the end of the day, we had freezing rain coating my car.  

Weird weather didn't stop with the cold temperatures, though.  After the freezing rain thawed, fog set in.  I felt like I was living in San Francisco as the fog didn't lift for two straight days.  I still managed to get in a round yesterday (sadly finished with two triple bogeys to shoot an 89).  It was kind of eerie playing when wedge shots slowly disappeared into the clouds only to fall out a few seconds later.  When the fog finally lifted (and temperatures rose into the 70s) today I made it out to shoot an 85 (finished double-double...maybe I need to work on closing out my rounds?).  

Does anybody have any good stories about playing inclement weather?

Introduction

Welcome to my journey.  Over the next two and a half years, I hope you'll follow me as I attempt to go from bogey golfer to assistant pro at a golf course (any golf course!).  Currently, I am 24 years old, recently married, and soon to receive a Master's degree in atmospheric science.  Why, you might ask, am I changing careers now?  I didn't know that I loved golf until about 5 1/2 months ago.  I never played growing up, and while in college took a golf class and played sparingly.  In my first year of grad school, I played more consistently and eventually was scoring around 90 consistently.  However, research soon consumed my life and I quit playing for a year and a half or so.

Fast forward to summer of 2008.  My wife bought me a round of golf at a nicer golf course in the Houston area as part of our honeymoon.  I had only played one round in the previous year and had all but lost the "golf bug."  One round, though, was all it took to get hooked again.  Of course, "golf pro," wasn't something anyone would've described me as that day.  Indeed, with a score of 102, "hacker" might've been a stretch. 

Since then, I've worked diligently at my game, and have been making steady improvement.  Recently, I shot a personal best 78.  Scoring has been hard to come by the last few weeks, though, as winter has descended upon southeast Texas (snow last week, freezing rain in the forecast for today), but my dedication to the game has not.

In this blog, you will be able to follow my journey as I try to lower my handicap to 7.0 by August of 2009.  In September of 2009, I hope to enroll in the Golf Academy of America in Orlando, FL to pursue a job as PGA teaching professional.  Included in this site will be updates on my progress, thoughts on courses I play, thoughts on golf equipment, and of course insight into the mind of a "normal guy" trying to make a living playing and teaching golf.  Join me on the journey, and I promise to keep you entertained.