RFKFREAK's Journal About Golf Past, Present, and Future

[RFKFREAK]

So, I'm starting this thread because this is my 1000th post and I figure this is a good place to write down my thoughts on my golf  journey, where my game is today, what I'd like to see in the future for my golf game, and anything else I think is worth sharing.

Although I played very sparingly when I was younger, and really enjoyed the two or three rounds I played at the end of 2012, my golf journey really began in the Spring of 2013 when my passion for the game really developed.  Since 2013, I have played roughly 75 rounds and, if I'm going to be honest with myself, my golf journey has not only been pretty unspectacular, it's been dreadful.  My first time out in 2013 on a short easy course, I put up a 143.  A week later, it was a 130, and the following two rounds were in the 130's.  I set a goal for myself to break 100 before the year was out and, finally, in my 27th round of the season, on a course with a rating/slope of 69.6/117, I shot a 96.  I was very proud of myself and a week later, thinking I had this game figured out, I put up a 123.  A month later, though, I shot a 97 on a 70.9/123 course.  I finally played my 42nd and last round of 2013 on December 27th and put up a 107 on a 69/116 course.  From where I began in 2013, to break 100 twice, I felt very confident, felt I had made some strides, and set a goal to regularly break 90 in 2014.

In January 2014, I signed up for account on Evolvr.  For the price, you really can't beat what you get.  My girlfriend and her parents were kind enough to give me a net and mat that feels like grass for Christmas and I planned to put it to good use.  It didn't matter if it was cold or windy (had a few adventure hitting balls into the net and trying not to have the net fall down) I was going to use the net and Evolvr to meet my goal.  I played my first round in 2014 in mid April.  Work was very busy in March when most of the courses opened up here and waiting until mid April to play my first round was painful.  The rust showed and I put up a 105 on a 63.7/108 Par 67 course.  OUCH!  But, hey, first round of the season, gotta get back into the swing of things, surely things would change.  Unfortunately, they didn't.  Two weeks later, on a Par 71 course, a 113, three weeks after that, a 110.  Three weeks after that, a 114, followed by a 113 two weeks later.  Not only was I not playing as often as I'd like, I was regressing.  Finally, in July, work stopped getting in the way of my playing golf and I started to play once or twice a week and shooting between 102-112. By the end of August, I still hasn't broken 100 in 2014 and I was starting to question if I would or not.  However, in late September, I finally broke through and put up a 99, shooting 8 over Par on the front 9.  That felt amazing.  I played one more round in September, none in October (thanks work) and put up a 96 on a Par 70, 70.1/123 course in mid November.  What was awesome about that round was that, for what I believe was the first time ever, I didn't have any holes where I did worse than double bogey.  To have no (for me) blow up holes, felt amazing.  Two weeks later, I shot a 94 on a short course.  My last round I put up a 107 on a soggy and wet course I had never played before.

So, as I assess why I didn't reach my goal to lower my handicap in 2014 where I'd shoot in the 90's on a regular basis, I have come up with a two main reasons although I am sure there are more.  The first is that I really didn't utilize Evolvr to it's fullest potential.  Yes, work was hectic this year and I had a lot of things come up but, ultimately, I wasn't disciplined to keep at it.  When I look back at my swing at the end of 2013 and the swing I have today, I have no doubts that I have made improvements in my swing,  That said, improvements could have been made better and quicker had I put in the work.  Second, I was reading a post in a thread @DrvFrShow recently started and @Abu3baid made in this post ( http://thesandtrap.com/t/77978/the-julia-plan-a-5-handicap-in-5-years/72#post_1083789 ):

So, right now when I go to the range to do drills...I am working on my lateral head movement in the downswing as I need to keep it centered and gain secondary axis tilt.  How am I doing it?  I am putting a long stick that goes right next to my head and I am working on taking half / 3/4 swings trying while making sure that my head doesn't go through the stick.  I am hitting a lot of bad shots, but it doesn't matter.. if I am able to be patient...eventually the picture will change and I will be able to mimic this swing in my real swing, and be better for it in the long run.  That's it, that is the only thing I am working on, I don't care about the direction of the ball, I don't care about contact.

Because I'm either thickheaded, seek immediate gratification, or need to feel immediate success, the not caring about what happens to the ball never sunk in.  It's been said a million different times and ways on this forum but it just never stuck with me.  I think the reason it it's hit home with me right now is because I'm going to be doing this drill because @mvmac has, as per usual, been very gracious with his time and sharing his knowledge to help others get better.  If I want to see improvements sooner rather than later it better stick with me this time.

So, as 2015 is only a few weeks away, what does my golf future hold?

Well, for one, I've recently set up a goal for myself to lose 50 pounds in the next 4 months.  I'm 38 years old and whereas my 6'2" frame carries the 275 pounds I weigh pretty well, I've set this goal not because of health concerns or because I don't like what I see in the mirror, it's to, selfishly, improve my golf game my getting stronger and more flexible.  I think this goal is quite doable with a change in diet and regular exercise.  One good trait I posses is that I can be very disciplined when I really want to do something and I'm pretty good at dropping weight.  Four years ago I was in a similar boat and lost roughly 60 pounds in three or four months when I was working with a trainer.  Then, little by little, I started giving myself more and more leeway until I got comfortable and gaining back most of the weight didn't matter to me.  This time around, instead of having a trainer, I'm going to be doing it all from home.

Living in NY and having shoveled snow today, I realize that outdoor practice isn't something I'll be able to do much of when there's snow on the ground.  That said, there's still indoor practice and things like mirror work can still be done.  And, I still have my net and mat for when it's not that cold outside and the snow gets plowed.

I currently face an uncertain financial future where I might have to tighten the belt some.  However, should things work out as I hope they will, I would also like to buy myself a new set of irons and also get myself an Edel putter.  I expect that between the two I'll have to spend a minimum of $1,200.  Earlier this year I had been doing a good job of saving money for at least one of the two and then I ended up spending some of it and got another visit from the Undisciplined Fairy.  And I thought she only visited me when it came to my gaining back weight.

By accomplishing at least two of these three goals and implementing the some of the knowledge in LSW, I feel confident that by May, I'll have put up my first sub 100 round of the season.  And by August, I'll have strung 3 sub 100 rounds in a row and reached my goal of shooting under 100 regularly.

For now, I think this thread will serve as a way for me to look back and provide updates on my weight loss goals and how my practice is progressing.  One thing I can say is that this community is so helpful and I have to thank @iacas for being one of those people and for creating this site because if he didn't, who knows where my golf game would be right now.

I ended up writing a lot more than I thought I would but, hey, it's my 1000th post so spending a bit more time on it than I have on the other 999 seems justifiable.

[Ernest Jones]

TL;DR

...but happy 1000th post anniversary @RFKFREAK

[David in FL]

Congrats on your 1,000th post. Thanks for everything you bring to our community! :beer:

[RFKFREAK]

TL;DR ...but happy 1000th post anniversary @RFKFREAK !

[quote name="David in FL" url="/t/78581/for-my-1000th-post-a-journal-about-my-golf-past-present-and-what-i-hope-my-golf-future-will-be/0_100#post_1084160"]Congrats on your 1,000th post. Thanks for everything you bring to our community! :beer:[/quote] Thanks, gents! Scale this morning said I've dropped three pounds since Monday. Tonight I drove down to NYC. Except for having three eggs this morning and a grilled chicken salad, I was a bad monkey. Left for NYC at 7:50 and because it's about a three hour drive, stopped at McDonald's and had a quarter pounder and fries for dinner. Blah. Also didn't work out today. On the plus side, thanks to @Slice of Life I'm on the road to getting a good workout routine and picked up some weights today. Will be down in NYC until Sunday so will work on the getting in better shape part on Monday.

[RFKFREAK]

So, workout wise this weekend was pretty bad eating.  No only did I eat a lot of crap on Friday, but Sunday it was wings and iced cream; so yum but not good.  Didn't work out either.

Today being the first day of a new week I refocused my efforts.

Golfwise, there's still snow on the ground so can't really use my net and mat outside.  However, I've been doing mirror work and I have been working on tucking my hips under and extending my spine in the follow through.  I think I made a breakthrough here and hope to be able to work on this with my net and mat soon.

On the workout/weight loss side, this post (http://thesandtrap.com/t/54241/your-workout-today/1260#post_1085605) has more details but in general, I started a new workout plan this week and am trying to figure out how much weight I should do on each exercise.  I also realized that I'm not eating as much as I probably should so have to find a way to rectify that by eating more of what I should eat rather than just eat.

[RFKFREAK]

Just wanted to do a quick post that after starting at 277.4 pounds a week ago Monday, I'm at 272.6 this morning. Kind of cool that I've lost almost 5 pounds in a week.

[dbuck]

Next time you go shopping, be sure to read the ingredients on the package. If the word "sugar" is in the first five, put it back on the shelf.

Don't eat anything that contains white flour.

These two things alone are worth 10 permanent pounds.

I am off the wagon, but must get back on. After the holidays. And stay on.

[iacas]

Next time you go shopping, be sure to read the ingredients on the package. If the word "sugar" is in the first five, put it back on the shelf.

Don't eat anything that contains white flour.

These two things alone are worth 10 permanent pounds.

I am off the wagon, but must get back on. After the holidays. And stay on.

Bah.

Maybe that's okay for someone who is looking to lose a lot of weight, but it also seems like one of the surest ways to make someone hate their diet. Humans deserve and appreciate the odd "treat" now and then.

Now of course I'm not saying you shouldn't care about the ingredients, but the best reality is likely somewhere in the middle of "eat all the sugar you want" and "never eat sugar or white flour at all!"

[saevel25]

Bah.

Maybe that's okay for someone who is looking to lose a lot of weight, but it also seems like one of the surest ways to make someone hate their diet. Humans deserve and appreciate the odd "treat" now and then.

Now of course I'm not saying you shouldn't care about the ingredients, but the best reality is likely somewhere in the middle of "eat all the sugar you want" and "never eat sugar or white flour at all!"

I agree with this.

Though, I would say don't stock your house with a lot of bad processed foods.

It is very very hard to moderate when it is at hand. If I want something sweet, I have to get in my car and drive somewhere to buy it. I do not keep it on hand because it is hard to not just constantly snack.

[dbuck]

Bah.

Maybe that's okay for someone who is looking to lose a lot of weight, but it also seems like one of the surest ways to make someone hate their diet. Humans deserve and appreciate the odd "treat" now and then.

Now of course I'm not saying you shouldn't care about the ingredients, but the best reality is likely somewhere in the middle of "eat all the sugar you want" and "never eat sugar or white flour at all!"

Actually, once you adjust, it makes you able to sustain your diet. I agree with you about the odd treat now and then, but the odd treat is what knocks you off the wagon. My weaknesses are ice cream and pecan pie, so I am definitely sympathetic, but you are better off if you just swear off white flour and processed sugar.

I stayed on this diet for about 18 months, lost about 35 pounds and kept it off as long as I stayed on the diet. I felt better probably than ever. You can do without white bread indefinitely. I am not saying no bread and no sugar, just not white bread (which your body basically treats the same as sugar) and white processed sugar. Stevia extract has no calories, is natural, and sweetens just as well as sugar.

The diet is not restrictive, and not faddish like some, it eliminates no food groups, but makes better choices within. Things like cheddar cheese instead of American, Swiss or Provolone instead of the processed equivalent.

Anyway, I am getting more verbose and further off topic as I go; maybe I will start a thread about it. I plan on getting back on after the holidays. I am planning on several odd treats between now and then.

[iacas]

Actually, once you adjust, it makes you able to sustain your diet. I agree with you about the odd treat now and then, but the odd treat is what knocks you off the wagon. My weaknesses are ice cream and pecan pie, so I am definitely sympathetic, but you are better off if you just swear off white flour and processed sugar.

The odd treat doesn't knock you off the wagon if you don't let them.

If you're so weak-willed that you can't eat one cookie without eating seven more, then yeah, eliminate sugar. If you can't stop at one PB&J; now and then and instead eat the entire loaf, then yeah, eliminate bread from your house.

If you're not a total push-over, though, these kinds of things always bug me. At the end of the day, it's still mainly a matter of ingesting fewer calories than you burn. If some of those calories are from sugar because it makes you happier and you enjoy life more, great. If you can enjoy life just as much without an occasional treat, good for you.

But… I hate the assumptions that run rampant in these kinds of discussions. Figure out what works for you, and go with it. Be healthy - don't just eat two Snickers per day because it gets you 1500 calories - you'll be hungry and you're not getting your nutrients. But that doesn't mean you can't enjoy a small cup of froyo or something now and then.

There are plenty of healthy people out there who eat some sugar, eat some carbs (pasta, potatoes, breads), etc. (And of course, many fruits are full of sugar.)

[Lihu]

In January 2014, I signed up for account on Evolvr.  For the price, you really can't beat what you get.  My girlfriend and her parents were kind enough to give me a net and mat that feels like grass for Christmas and I planned to put it to good use.  It didn't matter if it was cold or windy (had a few adventure hitting balls into the net and trying not to have the net fall down) I was going to use the net and Evolvr to meet my goal.  I played my first round in 2014 in mid April.  Work was very busy in March when most of the courses opened up here and waiting until mid April to play my first round was painful.  The rust showed and I put up a 105 on a 63.7/108 Par 67 course.  OUCH!  But, hey, first round of the season, gotta get back into the swing of things, surely things would change.  Unfortunately, they didn't.  Two weeks later, on a Par 71 course, a 113, three weeks after that, a 110.  Three weeks after that, a 114, followed by a 113 two weeks later.  Not only was I not playing as often as I'd like, I was regressing.  Finally, in July, work stopped getting in the way of my playing golf and I started to play once or twice a week and shooting between 102-112. By the end of August, I still hasn't broken 100 in 2014 and I was starting to question if I would or not.  However, in late September, I finally broke through and put up a 99, shooting 8 over Par on the front 9.  That felt amazing.  I played one more round in September, none in October (thanks work) and put up a 96 on a Par 70, 70.1/123 course in mid November.  What was awesome about that round was that, for what I believe was the first time ever, I didn't have any holes where I did worse than double bogey.  To have no (for me) blow up holes, felt amazing.  Two weeks later, I shot a 94 on a short course.  My last round I put up a 107 on a soggy and wet course I had never played before.

Shoot more of these! Congratulations on 1000 posts too!

[DrvFrShow]

Nice 1000th post. Good luck in your pursuit next golf season. And good luck on the weight loss. I know it's hard.

[dbuck]

Congratulations on your 1000th post and your progress in the game.

[RFKFREAK]

Nice 1000th post. Good luck in your pursuit next golf season. And good luck on the weight loss. I know it's hard.

Congratulations on your 1000th post and your progress in the game.

Thanks!

So I'm down 5 pounds since I began my fat loss/build muscle journey 12 days ago.  It's been kind of up and down instead of a steady weight loss.  Not sure what to make of that.

I arrived at my mom's place this evening so working out will likely not happen for the next week or so, therefore, I'm going to try and focus on eating healthy.   What I've found hardest is that I can't get to my daily goal of 193g of protein a day.  I eat eggs, ham, chicken, red meat, and just can't get there.  I've designated one day of the week as cheat day and that's tomorrow so wings, here I come!

On the golf side, I brought my clubs to my mom's so I'm going to try and play some golf on Monday and maybe try and work on some of my full swing and send in the video to Evolvr so as to keep with the weight forward drill while not lunging forward.  On my indoor work I feel I'm doing a complete hip turn so hopefully I'll see where I'm at soon.

[mailman]

RFKFREAK,

Here some stuff that has helped me drop weight over the last 12 months and has also helped with my general fitness over all. So this is what I did to take control of my diet, my weight and my lifestyle;

1. Cut out processed food . It probably helps that I love to cook plus if you are cooking your own food you can control what goes in to your dinner AND cooking your own dinner not only saves you money but in many instances can be done faster than ordering take aways!

2. Cut back on sugar.

3. Cut back on white bread, flour, carbohydrates (potatoes) and have grown to love brown rice (its the texture!!!:). I do allow myself a few slices of bread on the weekend BUT its always wholegrain brown bread (or soda bread or sour dough bread) but it is NEVER white bread.

4. Found substitute foods for sweets so that instead of smashing a large bag of potato crisps or chocolate or bag of sweets Id instead reach for nuts or fruits.

5. I developed an appreciation for salads for lunch (which replaced white bread sandwiches!).

6. Gained a greater understanding of the impact that food can have. I stay away from food labelled low fat because of the artificial ingredients added! I love butter, cream, full fat milk and meat with thick layers of fat! I avoid low fat milk (because it tastes like boiled water) and margarines (a processed food) like the plague! Fat is your friend and it should be viewed accordingly because it can help ward off hunger pangs and it also acts like a metaboliser (much like caffein).

In regards to weight loss I noticed you mentioned that you had lost 50lbs previously but then put it all back on. This seems to be fairly common when large amounts of weight are lost quickly (been there, done that!!!). The key seems to be in managing the weight loss so that you sustain the weight loss over a longer period of time.

Key to losing weight is changing your mindset as well. You HAVE to want to lose weight and you most certainly have to WANT to keep it off! For me the weight loss is only the first, and perhaps easiest, part because once the easy part is achieved (weight loss) we then have to move on to the hard part (keeping it off!). Hence why mindset is so important. You literally have to retrain your brain to look at food in a new, more realistic and healthy way.

Once I had control of my diet I then started to work on my general fitness levels. At the start of the year my wife and I joined in with our local park run group which meets every Saturday morning for a gentle 5km run around our local park. The first run I did god damn well nearly killed me and it took me 52 minutes to get around the 5km course!

My running objective for 2014 was to break the 30 minute barrier and that finally happened in October. Actually... I didn't just break the 30 minute barrier but I smashed it with my best run of 28 minutes and 11 seconds! My 2015 objective is to get under 25 minutes and eventually Id like to think that I could cut 30 minutes off my 5km run within the near 2 years!

Since then I am now regularly running 10k un my lunch hour and in fact Im now nearly running 10 kilometres in the same time that I used to run 5km in!

All of this running was in addition to playing golf because I could always count on a round of golf being an 11 mile, 4 hour walk on the weekend (if I could hit the ball straight it would actually only be 7 miles!). So this was a good base to start with because carrying nearly 130kg around 11 miles was, and is, great exercise. Plus I like to look at exercise like this...as long as you are doing something, it is better than doing nothing!

I was also fortunate as my walk to the train station in the morning was 2km, plus I had another 2km walk on the other side from the train station to work and then got to do that all again in the evening on the way home. So paired with running and playing golf I was always doing something that would help with the weight loss. Additionally I get to work from home regulalry so can go for a run when it suits (I try to go in the morning as that really sets me up for the rest of the day).

So anyway, after 12 months of hard work I now feel more alert, focussed and "with it" than at any other time over the course of nearly the last 20 years! The weight has dropped by 32kg, the waistline from 46 to 34cm and, most importantly of all, Im now posting competition rounds in the 80's! :)

Regards

Mailman

[RFKFREAK]

In regards to weight loss I noticed you mentioned that you had lost 50lbs previously but then put it all back on. This seems to be fairly common when large amounts of weight are lost quickly (been there, done that!!!). The key seems to be in managing the weight loss so that you sustain the weight loss over a longer period of time.

Key to losing weight is changing your mindset as well. You HAVE to want to lose weight and you most certainly have to WANT to keep it off!

I ended up putting the weight back on over time because I got a gf who in the beginning liked to make me cupcakes and brownies when I'd stay the weekends at her place when we first started dating and so then I'd indulge.  Then I realized she didn't care how much I weighed (and still doesn't after 4+ years; crazy girl must love me or something).

Quote:

Originally Posted by mailman

So anyway, after 12 months of hard work I now feel more alert, focussed and "with it" than at any other time over the course of nearly the last 20 years! The weight has dropped by 32kg, the waistline from 46 to 34cm and, most importantly of all, Im now posting competition rounds in the 80's! :)

That's awesome, dude - keep it up!  Hopefully one day I can shoot a round in the 80's a non-executive course.

I'm back from my mom's and the holidays.  I did a good job of keeping myself from overindulging and from 12/20/14 to 12/31/14, I lost 5.5 and have lost 11 pounds since I began this journey roughly a month ago.

Since it's winter outside, I haven't done much outdoor practice except for one day during the holidays when I practiced for two hours.  However, my last round of 2014 I posted a 99 at Bethpage Yellow (Par 72, 68.6/118) in Long Island, NY on the day after Christmas and began the year by posting a 97 at Mohawk River Country Club (Par 73, 70.7/120) in Rexford, NY - about 20 minutes from Albany the day after New Years on grounds that I struggled to put tees in and greens which had a few of my approach shots fly off of.

I did take a video of myself yesterday and I can't seem to drill into my head getting my hips forward and doing a secondary axis tilt.  I think part of it had to do with trying to film a video outdoors and rushing because it was 20* outside because when I did it indoors later in front of a mirror, it looked a lot better.  Sadly, there's snow on the ground and it's expected to be cold the next few days so hitting into my net might not be on my agenda nor will I be playing golf.

[mailman]

Nice one Freak :)

Id love to play bethpage at some stage before I move on to my next addiction!

Just as an aside. I've been watching a few of those "Obese: Dead within 12 months" shows out of morbid curiosity and the common theme through them is a lack of will power to make the changes required (because they have all pretty much ended up dead within a month of gastric bypass ops) and also its the people around them that keep feeding them their high calorie diets that keep them where they are. Mind you, when you get to the stage many of the morbidly obese get to it pretty much comes down to a change in their mental state that stops them from helping themselves.

Regards

Mailman