Happy New Year!

Hello all,

This is the first post of many this year for me. I've just graduated college and just last summer got hooked on this crooked game we call golf. I hope we all had a happy and safe new year!

This happy little blog of mine will focus on a variety of things, but first and foremost, golf. I enjoy other sports so occasionally I may post some blurbs at the bottom of a post about something happening in other sports that I found interesting--don't worry though, the focus is on the right game here.

Growing up, I loved hockey. So naturally, when I started swinging a golf club as a young teenager around 12 or 13, I had a fluid, strong swing. This swing was actually a terrible golf swing I was just athletic. But, my dad saw potential and bought me some clubs and we went out maybe once or twice a year through my high school years. That was all the golfing I ever did. I played a par 3 course with my girlfriend once to up my rounds in a year to 3 a while ago.

But for the most part, I was pretty terrible. I played my two rounds a year with my dad, my uncle, and my grandpa. We'd always go out on Father's Day, and occasionally we'd go out on a weekeend just one more time. My dad used to golf a lot, he was pretty good. Not great, as I know now that he's lacking quite a few fundamentals in his short game, but he was solid. He consistently drove the ball a long way and fairly straight, has a decent approach from outside 100 yards, and is a very good putter.

My uncle is more like me in that he does a lot of reading. Now, growing up I did zero reading about golf, and focused more on video games guides and short stories. But my uncle reads all the time. He has subscriptions to a couple golf magazines and reads and he just can't seem to get to the level that he's really happy with. I admire his tenacity and he does seem to know where things are supposed to be in your swing, he just can't quite put them all together for himself for 18 holes. He is still a respectable golfer, just a little worse than my dad most of the time.

And lastly, my grandpa. I love my grandpa dearly, he's the sweetest old man and I can't say enough nice things about him. He loved the game, and played all the time. He was always in very good shape as he aged, and when he started having back problems it was misdiagnosed and operated on. It didn't get any better. Finally, doctors realized that what he had was actually Lou Gehrig's disease, and that because he was in such good shape, they didn't realize it until it had progressed significantly. My grandpa finally retired and instead of enjoying his golden years he's confined to a wheel chair and needs help getting up and down. It's truly a crime to see him so helpless and know that he waited his whole life for these last years only to have them taken away.

As a golfer, by the time I started playing, grandpa and I were close to the same ability level. So I'd guess that in his prime, he was probably shooting around the same scores that my uncle did. He moved around alot in his back swing, I always remember watching his foot twist and shake when he would get ready to swing a golf club. He beat me, but I was always hoping that I could put together a few good shots and maybe sneak out of last place just one time. It never happened, though.

So, this year for the first time ever, I was invited to play with a friend of mine that I went to high school with. Mike was a good friend of mine, but between the four of us that always hung out, golf was never a conversation. So when he asked me to play I was surprised that I wasn't the only one that did it. Naive of me to think, sure, but I did. He told me that he'd been out and played a course called The Myth and that it was cheap. I liked that.

We had to stop and get me a new golf glove on the way (pro shops are expensive, I knew this much at least) because mine had a hole from last year that I never bothered to replace. We arrived as one of the only people on the course and I was excited but nervous. I knew I was a bad golfer. How bad? Well, I couldn't actually tell the last score I posted prior to this year. But it was bad. Was Mike bad too? Or would this be something that he was better than me at?

To know our group of friends is like knowing any other group of young guys: we mock each other every opportunity we get, we play sports together, and we're always competing at everything. So, being a slender, athletic frame compared with Mike's heavier build, I hoped I could continue my domination in the realm of sports. Basketball was our main game and while Mike did have an advantage in that he outweighed me by around 80 pounds and could go to the basket a lot easier, I was quicker and could hit a jump shot. One-on-one it was no contest. But golf was a different animal.

I don't remember much of the round, just the final number. I remember getting frustrated and holding it in. I remember that I lost more balls than I ever have before probably in my whole life. And I remember playing as well as I ever did in the past. So when I almost had to ask for a calculator, well, it wasn't good. I shot a 123 that day, sincerely embarrassed at how badly I had played. Mike scored in the 110s, but it was enough to beat me.

Mike and I weren't the closest two in the group so I did still enjoy the outing and had a good time talking just the two of us and getting to know him a little better. I tried to get out with him again but it didn't happen that year. But what did happen was a transformation. As much as I hated that outing, I loved it. Being with a friend, talking, laughing, even though I still lost, I didn't lose to people that I considered to be pros. And I wasn't embarrassed because he wasn't trying to give me pointers or advice to get better.

And that's where it all started for me. I ended up being a very dedicated golfer for the remainder of last year. I played all the time. There's a par 3 course near my house that I played two or three times a week, which was a good eye-opener for me because the greens are about half the size of standard course greens. I had to sharpen my approach shots quite a bit before I could really find anything resembling acceptable. And I still never quite did.

My scores improved over time, particularly for some reason on a fairly tough course called Blackheath. Blackheath is a Scottish-style links course with tough heather grass that grew up over a foot tall wherever it was on the course. It was generally the second cut of rough, but that didn't stop me from putting more than my share of balls in. I found about half of them though, I was a pretty diligent searcher. In spite of the difficulty of the course, I actually got better there than I did other courses, even if they were much easier. Familiarity was a huge factor for me.

I started playing around April or May. I finished with more than 30 rounds of golf played, more than $1000 spent on a game that a year earlier I literally spent zero dollars on, and a new addiction to explain to my girlfriend. I finished shortly before Thanksgiving, which was a bit early but after my final round I was scared to go back out. My last round on that mid-November morning was an 85. Eighty-five!!!!
It was cold out, and a little windy, but I scored better than I ever had. I had one blow up hole but I bounced back and focused and just found a zone that I never had before. I was hitting greens in regulation like it was my job to start the back nine and before the day was done I could barely feel my hands enough to write down those last few scores.

After my last outing though, I knew that my game was going to get better. A lot better. If I could shoot an 85 with no instruction and only reading through one book, who knows what I could really shoot. In the coming months, everyone reading this blog will. And I'm going to try really hard to keep things interesting, upbeat and, hopefully, low!