dagolfer18

My brother and I played a quick nine yesterday. My brother shot 49 and parred the last three holes, easily the strongest finish I’ve seen him put together. I was +5 through four but played well the last five holes to shoot a 43: three pars and two bogeys. One frustrating thing (and you’ll see this in my blog post too) was that I couldn’t make a putt. I hit the ball well, but my round was pretty much summed up by the sixth hole: decent drive, great wedge to six feet, and a missed putt. I’ve been told we’re playing again in practice this afternoon, so looking to report back tonight with results!

I played two other rounds last week: Tuesday: We played the back nine in practice and had a 2v2 better ball match. I had an interesting round (three pars, three bogeys and three doubles) and shot 45. My partner (the head coach) and I were two up through 14, but lost 15 and 16 to fall back to a tie, and that’s where we finished. No playoff, which was disappointing, but I was happy to be back on the back nine at Umstead. Friday: My brother and I went to The Preserve at Jordan Lake, and I shot my worst round since last September, a 101 from the blues (6612 yards, 72.1/138). I three putted six times and could not seem to keep the ball in play off the tee. I still enjoyed the round though, because It’s a fun course that I don’t get to play very often.

Time to update! Today I’ll be updating y’all on the match that took place last Thursday at Chapel Ridge. Surprisingly (and we didn’t even know this until halfway to the course), we were going to be doing tee times, opposed to the shotgun start we normally do. I ended up playing with one of my teammates, and after a good range session, we were off. I’ll go hole by hole here. No. 1: Par (E). Not a bad tee shot but it ran through the fairway and I had tree trouble. A great punch left me about 15 feet for birdie. I easily two putted to get off to a solid start. No. 2: Par (E). I hit another wayward tee shot that left me with an unstable lie. I hit another great recovery shot that left me just short of the green, and I got it up and down. No. 3: Bogey (+1). Nothing too dramatic here apart from a poor second. Recovered with a good chip but missed the putt. No. 4: Bogey (+2). There was some backup here. This is a drivable par 4 for a number of people (277 on the card but it doglegs so plays closer to 250), and a lot of people took that opportunity. As a result, we got to the tee and there was one group walking off and another group still waiting. We waited for about 15 minutes. Back to the match. I was the only one in my foursome to NOT go for the green, and I split the fairway and left myself 40 yards out. Unfortunately I caught a bad break and my ball had settled in a small depression. I thinned it over the green and had an interesting chip coming back. I did well to hit it to about twelve feet but didn’t make the putt. No. 5: Par (+2). Never been a big fan of this hole, a short but tough par 5. I was thrilled to hit three solid shots and walk off with par. I did leave myself a bit of work for the save but I cleaned it up nicely. No. 6: Bogey (+3). I made my worst swing of the day here and it was a near-shank that left me way right and short of the green. I misjudged the chip and was lucky to walk off with a bogey. No. 7: Bogey (+4). I was able to regroup after the last hole, and my tee ball left me in perfect position to attack this par 5. However, a lousy third missed the green and I failed at the up and down. No. 8: Double (+6). I think the ego got me here. I decided to go at a pin that was tucked behind a bunker. My line was perfect, but my club choice was not, and I found said bunker. Two shots to get out, two putts. No. 9: Bogey (+7). A perfect tee shot and a solid iron to the front of the green were ruined by a three-putt to end the round. FINAL SCORE: 43 TEAM SCORE: 197 (43-46-50-58) Another good match! Chapel Ridge is definitely not an easy course to walk, and we were all tired afterward. The medalist shot a one-under 35, which is the lowest score we’ve seen so far this season. I’ve gotten a confirmation that we are having a conference tournament at Hillandale, which is a week from today. It will also have tee times, and will be 18 holes. We also have a non conference match at Croasdaile tomorrow, so stay tuned for that!

Hey y’all! This post will outline the last two matches we’ve had, the conference match from Thursday and one we had yesterday. It will also outline what the rest of the season looks like. I won’t go hole by hole of either match, but I will just note the highlights. THURSDAY: In practice the day before, the coach gave us the opportunity to choose which hole we wanted to start on. I chose the par-3 seventh, a hole I have historically played well. That also meant I would end on the par-4 sixth, which is a great birdie opportunity. It was a rough start for me. I three-putted the seventh for bogey and made a messy double on the eighth. But, like the two matches before this one, I rallied. I parred the next five holes in a row, the last of which came after I holed a putt from the fringe, then I birdied the fifth thanks to a beautiful approach that I’ve pinned as the best shot I’ve hit so far this season. That meant I would walk to my final hole, the sixth, at two over. No drama here, I ended up three-putting again for bogey and a three-over 38. I finished one shot behind the co-medalists, so a great day of golf! YESTERDAY: Yesterday we got the opportunity to play Hope Valley, home to the fastest greens we’ve played so far. The coach’s advice: Middle of the green all day. I started well here: +1 through three. I’m not going to lie, thoughts started to creep in here, and I paid the price. I went double-bogey on the next two holes, caught a bad break on six that led to another double, then hit two poor shots on the short seventh that left me in front of a greenside bunker. I chipped up well but missed the putt and took a bogey. The eighth is the only par 5 (par 35), and it was playing shorter than the card says at 499 (card says 520). I took advantage and set up an eight-footer for birdie. It hung on the lip, but it was easily my best hole of the day. For the second match in a row, I three-putted the last hole for bogey and ended up with a 43. For my first time around the course, I was pretty happy. The medalist shot 39. So, two solid matches. I will say, and the coach has said the same thing, we’ve come a long way from the beginning of the season. All our games are improving, and we’re looking to keep that momentum going! So, where is the season going from here? Our next match is Thursday at Chapel Ridge, and that’s the last conference match of the season. Our last non-conference match is on the 19th, and it’s at Croasdaile again. Lastly, it hasn’t been confirmed yet, but we will most likely have a conference tournament at Hillandale on the 25th, which will ultimately decide the final standings and will determine which teams (and individuals) will be going to regionals at Pinehurst No. 6 on May 2. Speaking of, I’m not sure where I am in terms of individual standings, but the coach said last night that if I’m not inside the cut line (top four), I’m very close. That gives me even more motivation to keep playing well for the last 36 holes of the season. I will know more info tonight or tomorrow, and I will respond with a comment here!

Hey guys!! Here’s the blog post I promised 🙂 In this post I’m gonna highlight each match, and because we had a great match yesterday (hint: our best of the year so far), I will go hole by hole there. On to the matches! Starred dates mean the match was non conference. 3/2*: The first match of the year was a non conference match at Umstead Pines. I shot a solid five-over 40 with a double and three bogeys, and we shot 208 as a team. This was a solid start to the season. 3/7: Won’t go into this one much. We played Indian Valley (par 35, about 3100 yards) in the first conference match, and it was windy. I shot a pitiful 49 and we shot 211 as a team. 3/10: The next conference match was at Croasdaile, so a good chance to gain some ground. I actually birdied my first hole (the short par-4 4th), but then struggled a little bit on the last eight holes and posted a 47. In the conditions we were in, that’s not horrible, but I definitely blew a chance to move past some people. I don’t remember our team score 3/21: Our most recent conference match was at Chapel Hill Country Club, a course I don’t have a great history with. I started triple-double-triple, but then went on a run, making two birdies, two pairs and two bogeys in the last eight holes to shoot 44, my best performance up to that point. I gained a little bit of ground, but not a ton. And I believe we shot 210 as a team. Not bad considering we all had stretches of solid golf. The weekend following the Chapel Hill match, I learned some pleasantly surprising news: that the top three teams and the next four individuals would be heading to regionals, which I now know is on May 2 at Pinehurst No. 6. My current standing: I’m tied for 5th. So I haven’t even done anything great so far, and I’m one spot away from regionals. That gave me motivation to play and practice a lot over spring break, and then we had our match yesterday at Umstead Pines. It was non conference, so not a lot of pressure, but I still wanted to play well. Here’s what happened, we all went off the first tee: No. 1: Nothing horrible happened on this hole until we got to the green. I had a downhill 10-footer for par, then I three-jacked to start with a double. +2 No. 2: A lousy drive and a poor club selection on my approach left me behind a greenside bunker, having to pitch over it with not much green to work with. I caught my pitch a touch thin, but it had some bite and it left me about four feet for par. Dead center. +2 No. 3: With a front pin on this par 3 I decided to go with a 9I. I threw a dart to about the same distance as on the second hole, and this putt was dead center as well. +1 No. 4: Usually a par 5, but we play it as a par 4 from the front tees (making it 345). Although it leaked a tad bit left, my tee shot with a hybrid was smoked and left 110 in. Another dart, this time with a PW. Made the putt for back to back birdies. E No. 5: I was playing well up to this point, and I did well to stay in the present. After a tee ball that was caught heavy, I had 190 in, all carry. I visualized the shot in my head, and hit it exactly as I saw it. It left me on the front of the green, about 35 feet out. I left my first putt six feet short, so I had some work left to clean up my par. But my solid putting from short range continued, and I knocked it in. E No. 6: Like the first hole, I won’t go into much detail here, but I cleaned up a lousy hole with a seven-footer to save bogey. That was easily the most critical putt of the day. +1 No. 7: I picked the right club here but left it out right, and from a relatively easy spot I managed to chip it close for an easy par save. +1 It didn’t occur to me until this point, but two fours (par-birdie) on the last two holes would bring me home with even par. And here’s what unfolded: No. 8: I think some nerves got me here, and I hit another heavy shot that left me a nearly identical yardage as my approach on the fifth hole. I thought back to that shot and hit another good one: 20 feet for birdie. This may have been my best putt of the day: right on line, great speed, but it caught the lip and somehow stayed out. Still, I was thrilled to walk off with a par after the messy tee shot. +1 No. 9: This was a good finishing hole: I was completely aware that a birdie would tie my personal best for nine holes, and I had a great chance here: a short par 5 with minimal danger. I striped my tee shot down the middle and was even with the 200-yard marker. Normally I would hit a 3 hybrid in this scenario: 200 yards uphill, but the adrenaline was pumping so I pulled the 4 hybrid. Thought back again to the fifth and eighth holes and hit yet another good hybrid shot: pured just to the left of the pin, and it trickled on and started turning right. When I got to the green I saw that I left myself 15 feet for an eagle finish and a one-under 34. I took plenty of time on this one, more than usual, but I didn’t execute, and had about four feet for birdie. With the coaches watching, and knowing they’d say something if I missed, I knocked it in. An even-par 35. Looking back, here’s some stats from the round: FIR: 4/7 GIR: 5/9 PUTTS: 14 Honestly, going two under in the last eight holes, I even surprised myself. It’s been a while since I’ve been in a zone like that. It was awesome to shoot my second even par nine after a rough start like that, so I’d say that’s the best golf I’ve played in a while. I give a lot of credit to my putter, because I don’t think I missed a putt inside 10 feet all day. I’m also happy that I managed to stay in the present, and focus on the shot at hand rather than the score. That’s definitely something that I’ve improved on in the past year or so. As a team, our final number was 186. A team best by more than twenty shots. I think we picked up some shots on the other teams, but we’ve still got a long way to go. As far as my standing goes, we have one non conference match, three nine-hole conference matches and possibly a conference tournament left. It looks like we might get rained out in our match on Thursday, so I’ve got anywhere from 18 to 45 holes to improve my position. If we’re rained out I’ll comment on this post, and if we’re not I’ll post again on Thursday. Stay tuned!

Two more solid rounds in the past week or so: Tuesday: Played Croasdaile after getting off work and shot a solid 88 (45-43) from the blues. Nothing great, nothing horrible, just a good, consistent round. I did, however, double my last two holes (8 and 9 since we started on the back). My brother played very well and shot 55-47 from the whites, with two 10s on the par 5s on the front, so he should’ve easily broken 100. But his game’s improving, and it’s fun to watch. I’m starting to experiment a bit: when he knows his score after 9 he tends to fall apart on the back, especially if his front is in the 45-48 range. I purposefully kept it a secret from him until the round was over, and it seemed to work well. Wednesday: I played Falls Village from the whites (5875 yds, 68.8/123) and shot 87 (45-42). A bit frustrating because I three-putted six times and somehow lost two balls in the middle of the fairway (both on the front). Hit the ball really well though, so I’m not too disappointed. After both these rounds, my index sits at a 12.0.

Hey guys! Sorry for the long layoff (and failing to post in my blog) but I’ve just had burnout from work and school and I just haven’t had much motivation to post anything. But I’m gonna catch up today: eight rounds played in the last month, but I’m only going into detail on two of them. I’ll put my nine hole scores here as well, and any starred score is a conference match score: 9-Hole Scores: 40-49*-47*-41-44*-42 So inconsistent for sure, but apart from the 49, nothing too bad. Now on to my last two rounds! 3/26: Saturday morning my brother and I went to The Crossings to get 18 in before I went to work. I shot a frustrating 44 on the front, but it was only frustrating because my short game was awful. I couldn’t make a putt to save my life. But that all changed on the back. I doubled 11, but then went one over on the last six holes to shoot 39 on the back and an 83 total, which included a strong par-par-birdie finish. 3/28: I’ve recently decided that I want to pursue the PGA Management program at Methodist University, and today one of my coworkers who is a Methodist alum took me and another coworker down to play the course there. I put together a super solid round there, shooting 40-42 for 82 from the back tees (72.6/143). It was a great putting day for me, 31 putts total, 12 on the front. So to sum all this up, I was in a slump for a little less than a month, but I think I’ve found it again. I’m hoping to get out for another round tomorrow, and stay tuned for a blog post soon that will briefly go over our matches so far!

I’ve never been hit, but I’ve had a couple of super close calls. I’ve probably mentioned before that I work at a country club. A few times while I pick the trees on either side of the driving range I’ve had balls land inches from me. I have been hit in the range picker though.

Pretty solid round from both me and my brother today at Chapel Ridge, final scores below. I played the blues (71.6/128) and my brother played the whites (70.2/124). It was a lot drier than I anticipated due to the heavy amount of rain we got yesterday, but it was still cart path only. Anyway, some highlights/lowlights of the day: •On both par 3s on the front I hooked a 7I out of play. But I recovered well both times. •10th hole, threw a dart on my approach to about seven feet. •12th hole, had to hit a flop over a rock formation. That was a fun shot. •16th hole, I hit what may have been my best shot of the day, a 6I from about 180 with the ball above my feet, to about 25 feet. You can see I had a rough stretch of holes on the front, but I’m glad I was able to regroup and finish strong on the back. First match is Wednesday, and I’m planning on a blog post tomorrow to catch up!

Heck no. I’ve had several holes in one in virtual golf but I know it doesn’t mean a thing to my golf game. I feel like the best a virtual hole in one would do is earn you bragging rights.

Forgot to talk about this, but I shot a solid three-over 38 in practice the other day. We played the par-5 fourth as a par 4 from the reds (345 yards) so par was 35 instead of 36. I bogeyed the first because of a lip out, then I parred the next three, one of them coming from a tricky two putt from 50 feet. Bogeyed five, parred six through eight (up and down on seven and eight) and then three-jacked for bogey on nine. Apart from the ninth hole (short par 5, should be par at worst) I played some of the best golf I’ve played in a while. Hit the ball really well, short game was on point. Also, combined with my 40 from last week, my handicap dropped to 12.0. We’ve got one week till our first match, so stay tuned!

I’ll sometimes pull the flag out once I get inside around 15 feet, but 90% of the time I’ll leave it in. The pandemic has converted me from an always-out player to an almost-always-in player.

My brother and I managed to get out for nine holes yesterday. He didn’t want me to keep his score after about the fifth hole, but I’ll guess he shot something around 56 or 57. I started with a double on one and a three-putt bogey on two, but then I parred the next four holes. Three over through six. I doubled seven after a poor bunker shot and a three putt, then made a nice up and down for par on eight. Five over going into the short par-5 ninth, and given my goal was to shoot at least 40 I needed a birdie. I hit one of the best 3W shots of my life off an uneven lie on my second, and left myself twelve feet for eagle. I had the line, but it died right in front of the cup, leaving a tap in for birdie and the 40 I wanted. It was a fun day of golf, looking forward to practice this afternoon!

Not much to write home about today. I shot a solid 42 on the front, but three doubles in a row destroyed me on the back and I finished with a 46 on the back and 88 total. Not my best stuff, but I hit the ball well for the most part. Putting was meh, short game was meh. Oh, and my handicap ballooned to 12.4 because my 77 from September slid off today. Lovely. I think my bro and I are going to practice tomorrow and/or Friday and work on some putting. First day of the season is next Monday!

Second blog post of the season! Today I’ll explain what I did last week for practice, a little bit of new info I got about the season, and plans for this week. LAST WEEK IN GOLF Last week I had a goal of getting to the course four times, but only got out three times because I was sick Thursday and Friday (luckily just a cold). In those three trips to the course, we put in a good short game practice session and two solid nine hole rounds (39 and 43 with only one truly bad hole). It was honestly one of the better weeks of practicing/playing I’ve had in a while, looking to continue that trend this week! NEW SEASON INFO I said above that I found out a few more things about the season. The first day of practice is February 14, which is exactly a week from today. I also found out the dates and venues of the first two matches. Here they are! March 7: Indian Valley (“The Valley) in Burlington, NC. March 9: Hope Valley CC in Durham, NC. So we are four weeks away from the first match! I don’t know a ton of specifics about either match (9 or 18, what tees we’re playing, etc.) but I’m going to assume that both matches are 9 holes. There’s only a handful of 18-hole matches every season, and they’re almost never early, so nine holes is a fair assumption. So I have one month to tune my game! THIS WEEK IN GOLF Unfortunately I won’t be able to get to the course today because it’s cold and rainy in Durham, but my brother and I are looking to practice tomorrow (more than likely a range day) and take advantage of getting out of school early by playing 18 Wednesday. It’s supposed to be nice Thursday and Friday, so we will probably practice at least one of those days. Will likely focus that practice on what was sketchy in Wednesday’s round. The first day of practice is exactly one week away, so my next blog post will most likely be one day this weekend. So stay tuned!!

Well, played again today due to crappy weather forecasted tomorrow. Today’s first five holes were identical to yesterday’s: bogey-par-bogey-par-par. I also parred the sixth, the same hole I bogeyed from 65 yards yesterday, so I was +2 with three to go. I was feeling pretty good, no doubles or three putts in my last 15 holes. I doubled 7 after a weak chip, but I was still in a good mindset, thinking “no big deal, it was just one hole.” Then I bogeyed 8, so I was +5 going into the last hole, a very attackable par 5, easiest hole on the course. Par would bring me in with 41. Blistered my tee shot and was just short laying two, a gimme par. Or so I thought. I thinned the chip over the green, then hit a very mediocre chip back up to about 20 feet, THEN I three-jacked. It all added up to a 43. Two over through 6, five over on the last three. On a good note, my brother played a very solid nine. He started triple-triple, but he birdied the third and bogeyed in for 47. His ballstriking is the best I’ve seen from him in a long time, so I think he’s definitely getting better!

We actually had about ten guys my freshman year. Only six made the starting lineup (this was pre-COVID of course), so four were cut.

First round in about two weeks today, and it was a good one! I made a statement to my brother this morning that I would break 40. I was +2 through 3, so it didn’t start promising, but then I went on a tear: +1 on the last six holes gave me 39. Just a really solid round overall, nothing more than a bogey. The one shot I wish I could have back was my approach on 6. I nailed a drive that just trickled into the right rough, only 65 yards from the green, and I misjudged it and came up short. That was the only bogey in my last six holes. Only 14 putts today (no three jacks), largely because I got up and down four times (once for bogey, three times for par). I was just really happy to put together a truly solid nine holes, planning on playing again Thursday!

We’ve got about 1,200 students at our school, the overwhelming majority of which don’t know we have a golf team. I’ve got a couple of non-golfer friends who’ve said they wanted to try golf sometime, I’ll probably follow up with them.

Hey guys! Finally found a good time to write my first blog post of the 2022 golf season! I don’t really have anything specific to write about, so for the opening post I’ll stick to the state of my game currently and what I know (not much) about the golf season itself. MY GOLF GAME My last two 18-hole rounds were about two weeks ago (the 12th and 13th) and I shot an 82 at Greensboro National and an 86 at Umstead, both rounds from the whites. In Greensboro and on the front nine at Umstead, my ballstriking was the best it’s been in a long long time, but putting was very poor, to put it bluntly. Then my ballstriking went to crap on the back. Putting improved, but the damage was already done. In terms of practice, I’ve unfortunately only been able to get to the course to practice once since those two rounds, but my brother and I made the most out of it with a productive practice session. We went out to play a few holes, but leaned more towards practice. Given the fact that the green we normally practice on is a bit flat and not super representative of the greens on the course, we played the hole, hit an extra ball or two if we felt like we needed it, and then did some short game work around the green. The weather is actually looking halfway decent for the first half of the upcoming week, so I’m looking to get out there at least once, ideally twice, and start fine-tuning my game. THE SEASON As of right now, we only have three players on our team (me, my brother and the coach’s daughter), and we’re supposed to get a fourth soon, but we won’t have near as good a team as we’ve had the last three years. What will most likely happen is that I will play #1, my brother will play #2 and the coach’s daughter will play #3. Hopefully we get a fourth so we can actually post a real score in matches (otherwise you take the triple bogey maximum for every hole for each player missing from the roster). Unfortunately I haven’t gotten a whole lot of information about the match schedule itself, in terms of how many matches we’re playing and who is in our conference this year, but I did note a few dates: Valentine’s Day (not exact): The first day of practice. Again, this date was purely mentioned, so it’s more of an approximation, but I will start counting down to that date as if that was the first day of practice. April 21: The last match of the season before regionals and maybe a conference championship. The only reason I say maybe is that the coaches have had trouble finding a host course for the conference championship, so it’s not guaranteed that it will be held at all. Another little bit of info I’ve heard is a few of the courses we will be playing: Umstead Pines (home matches), Hillandale, Croasdaile, Hope Valley and The Preserve at Jordan Lake. To be honest, that’s pretty much all I know about the season so far, so hopefully I’ll get more info before long so I know what to expect. As for the future of this blog, I will probably post two more times before the season officially starts, once per week. It will include everything I did for practice that week, and any new info I’ve found. During the season, I’m thinking of probably doing one post for every match and one post per week highlighting what happened during the week (will probably overlap with my in-depth match posts, but will work that out as it gets closer to match day). So there you have it. Hoping to get some more info soon!

My first ever ‘real’ round of golf was in 2014, at Lake Winds from the reds, and I shot 103 on nine holes. My dad, brother and grandpa played as well, and the round took about three and a half hours. My lowest score was a triple bogey (a par 3 over water), and my highest was a 16 (one of the par 5s).

I’ve experienced both, but almost never at the same time. I’ll play in a bit of rain (how much rain depends on how desperate I am to play), and my level of tolerance with the cold bottoms out at around 45 degrees, maybe a few degrees colder if I’m practicing or only playing a quick nine.

A little late posting my goals this year, and not as many as the last two years, but here they are! 1. Reduce handicap to 8.0 (11.6 currently). I have definitely not forgotten about my quest to achieve a single digit handicap, but I have been stuck between 11 and 12 since October. Ballstriking feels great right now, but short game is definitely costing strokes, as I note in goal #2. The first thing I will practice next time I get the chance to is short game. My brother and I like to pick spots around the practice green at our club and focus on getting them up-and-down, and we translate our final scores into percentages. 2. Average putts down to 33.0 (34.9 currently). I’ve only played a few rounds with my new putter (a 34” Odyssey White Hot), but it has already seen both sides of the putting spectrum: truly abysmal and, as the putter name suggests, white-hot. The first step toward this goal is being more consistent with putting (ten three-putts in my last 54 holes…yikes!) in terms of distance control. I’m struggling quite a bit with lag putting right now, so I want to focus on that during my practice sessions and find some good drills to work on. I’ll also work on staying sharp inside 5 feet by doing the clock drill, my go-to putting drill, because those short ones will make or break matches this year. 3. Fairways hit up to 65% (61% currently). I am actually a bit surprised that I’m at 61% right now. Looking back at my last five rounds, I’ve averaged 57% in fairways hit, so I’ve got a few rounds where FIR percentage is in the 70s. When I’m able to get to the course again, I’ll focus mainly on short game, but to improve my off-the-tee performance I’ll work on alignment. That’s always been a bit of a problem for me, so I’ll have my dad or my coach work with me on that. Goal number four has three parts, in order. 4a. Make All Conference again this season (top 10 advanced last year). I barely squeaked into All Conference last year, and I feel that I didn’t play great except for one match. We are in a harder conference this year, but my game has also improved since then. I will likely need to average between 40 and 42 to make it, and I’ve realized that I need to start the season strong: low 40s or 30s. I’m looking to practice well for the next month until the first match so I have as much confidence as possible. 4b. Advance to regionals as an individual. This is going to be difficult, but this is my primary goal for the season. Between six and eight players will qualify (last year, it was six), excluding the ones who made it with their team. We don’t have near the team we have had the last few years (I will be playing #1 and my brother will most likely be #2), so my best shot is to make it on my own. I will likely need to average a stroke or two lower than what is necessary for All Conference, so I need to practice efficiently. I will be pinpointing where I need improvement most in my blog post tomorrow, and will start working on those things next week (weather looks pretty crappy apart from tomorrow, so will most likely not get to the course this weekend). 4c. Advance to states as an individual. This is more of a long-shot goal, and only if I make it to regionals. Only four players from the ~50 who participate in regionals will advance to the state competition, and last year, the cut line was 79 (+7). That means I will need to break 80 from at least 6500 yards. I won’t say much more about this now, but I will wrap goal #4 up like this: as long as I achieve 4a and 4b I will consider that a win. For these last two goals, there really is no “How am I going to achieve it?” portion except for just sign up. 5. Play in the club championship at Umstead Pines. I’ve been wanting to play in this for probably four years now, and I will finally get a chance to do so this year. It’s just 36 holes of strokeplay (Sat/Sun) in flights. What flight I play in (blue or white) will be determined by where my game stands the week before. 6. Play in at least three junior tournaments this summer, one of which has to be a multi day event. I didn’t really get to play in any tournaments last year because of work, but I’m looking forward to playing in a few this summer! Well, there are my six (eight?) goals for 2022. A bit more lengthy post than I planned, but writing it out seems to help me pinpoint exactly what it is I need to work on. I’m planning on starting my blog again tomorrow, so I’m looking forward to that!

Despite how easy it would be this time of year to break away and play a quick nine because I work at a golf course, I wouldn’t play hooky. That’s just not me. Even if I wanted to, members live all over the course, so all it takes is one phone call to the golf shop and I’m in trouble. If I wanted to play golf on a day I work during the summer, I could either get one of the first tee times of the day and close, or I could ask to open (usually a 7-2 shift) and play after I get off. Usually I’ll do the latter because it gives me something to look forward to after work. But I wouldn’t play hooky to play golf under any circumstances. It’s just way too easy to get caught.

On Thursday I had a match against a buddy I hadn’t played with in a while. We decided to play the whites at my home course, Umstead Pines. I three-putted four times on the front side, but I was hitting the ball so well that I still made two birdies (the fifth and ninth holes) and went out in 39. I led my buddy by three strokes. Then on the tenth I hooked my tee shot almost OB and made bogey from there, and my lead was cut to two. We went back-and-forth for the next seven holes, mixing good and bad holes. By the time we got to 18, a 157-yard par 3 over a lake, my lead was down to just one stroke. I had the honor, and I hit a 7I that landed on dry land, but then somehow spun backward into the lake. He then sent a laser iron to ten feet, seemingly securing the victory. I then chunked two straight chip shots and eventually faced a 15-footer for double. He had to just two putt from ten feet to win. He hit a good putt to 18 inches…then missed. I was still alive, but I had to drain my downhill, breaking 15-footer to send it back to the first tee. It looked great all the way, but it caught the high side and lipped out. I tapped in for a final score of 86 and a one-stroke loss. However, it was one of the closest matches I’ve had in a long time, and we did a lot of trash talk on the back nine. As for my game, I feel that I played pretty well apart from two ugly triples on the back. Putting wasn’t the greatest, but I’m continuing to hit the ball well. We’ve got one month till season starts, so stay tuned for a post in my blog in the next few days!