adamgoodman

Were... The rest of the posts moderated or something?

Yup, with school not getting out until 2:15, we only play nine. The only time we'll play eighteen is for the conference tournament and other state tourneys...

Well, I sure as hell wasn't planning on playing golf today... It was steadily raining the entire day and chilly, but we hitched up our trousers and headed out for the hour drive down to Tall Wood Country Club. We lost, again, but this one stung a little bit more than the rest. I played bogey-par straight up for seven holes, and everything was inconsistent. Hit some good drives, some bad drives, some good approaches, some bad approaches, same with the putts. The only thing that was consistent was my consistently poor chipping... No up and downs to speak of. With two holes to play I needed two pars to shoot a 39. I left myself about 180 yards to the pin in the rough. There was a large pond hugging the edge of an elevated green, with some leeway on the right side. I decided to be a stupid tough guy and hit a 3 iron straight towards the pin instead of fading it from the right to left. I got a little TEENY bit underneath it and plunked it about two feet short of the bank... Ended up finishing the hole with a triple bogey, parred the last, and finished with a 42. My opponent finished with a 39, so if I didn't make that stupid decision, we would have at least tied... So in the end, we ended up losing by 3 strokes. If I hadn't make such a terrible decision, we would have possibly tied the entire match... I personally hold full responsibility for this loss on my shoulders... Tough one to swallow.

60 degree wedge is my favorite wedge in the bag, hands down. The flop shot is the greatest tool I have ever added to my arsenal. The Lob Wedge provides me with a lot of versatility around the green.

Adam Goodman, Class of 2012! Varsity letterman my freshman year playing with only 8 clubs. Currently playing number one for Somers High School as a sophomore. Almost played baseball instead. So glad I chose golf!

Easy. When I don't break 40/80.

First time keeping score... I think I shot a 66 at 9-years-old. Luckily those scores didn't last very long and I was double-bogey golf by the time the season ended... Thank GOD those days are long behind me and I can only look forward. Interesting thread, Mr. Fisherman.

I've had a new problem off the tee in the last month or so... At the beginning of the year, I was hitting my tee shots as consistent as ever, but recently I've developed this cutting action on my drives. They will start off straight, but at about 200 yards they will dive down and right. The shot is not destroying the drives, but it is causing me to miss some more fairways and also lose significant distance. There are some days it just disappears entirely, and sometimes reappears mid-round. Any advice? What causes a cut, a quick sharp fade, or a mild slice?

So, we notched our first win of the season against our neighbors over the border, Stafford High. It was a chilling New England day with temperature rarely breaking 50 and a slight on and off drizzle, so scoring conditions were not at a peak. We played at Quaboag Country Club in Monson, which is an interesting course to say the least. Extremely tight fairways and the course was put together like a roller coaster. I can't think of a single easy shot that I had today. I really had the feel for the greens, but nothing was dropping. Lip outs, pop outs, short, long, everything was close, but no in. I struggled off the tee and really just couldn't put anything together today and finished with a 44. Poor round, but Stafford was bad enough for us to take the win. Tomorrow, we face the best team in the conference in Suffield High School at Crestview Country Club, so it'll be an interesting day. Till then. Adam Goodman

Threw in a quick nine holes at the home course, Elmcrest Country Club, for practice today. Played with the two others guys who automatically qualified for tomorrow's match and coach. It was just a very average round of golf. Double bogey on the first hole left me with a sour taste, but I recovered from a weak drive to hit the green in regulation on two. Then my coach chips in for birdie from about 15 yards, I hit a thirty-five footer for birdie, and my teammate knocks in a birdie too. Played so-so the rest of the round, but finished with another double-bogey to finish with a 40. So, +4 on the first and last hole, and +1 the rest of the way. Three putted the final green to stop myself from breaking 40. Driver was all over the place, so we'll see how that goes... It was 5 shots ahead from anyone else today, and I can't exactly complain. I'm swinging better and better and I figure I'll put it all together soon enough. Match against Stafford tomorrow at Quahog. Till then. Adam Goodman

Right now I play with the team provide NXT Tours. How much do those two cost?

Right now, I put minimal spin on the ball, but often it depends on the conditions and I don't have the money to buy spinning balls. I can't do like, like kick ass jumping backward spin either.

I'm planning on starting lessons with the pro at the country club my team practices at. If I could get myself this far on my own, I figure coaching could only do good.

It's just the greens I'm coming usually 3 yards short. My ball trajectory is normally remarkably high, so that's been staying around the same. Today the wind was playing a huge part in knocking down my balls when they were high in the air. It's always mentally tough to take out a lower club selection when I feel confident in my distance control based on other yardages.

I feel like I've just been losing distance recently and I can't explain why. I've been hitting the ball pretty pure... It could just be because I've been playing a lot of away matches lately, and the distances are different than my home course.

The reason I put it by nine holes rounds is because that's what I play for my high school golf matches.

Hey everyone, I'm real excited to finally be able to starting blogging here at The Sand Trap. My name is Adam Goodman and I'm a sixteen-year-old sophomore at Somers High School. I'm currently playing the number one position for the Somers High School Golf Team. As a freshman, I was a surprise letterman for the team playing mostly the fifth position on a team full of seniors. With all of my teammates graduating, the reigns of the team were placed in my tender hands. Today we had a match against East Granby High School at Fox Run at Copper Hill. Fox Run had an interesting set up, but the course was in pretty poor conditions with blotchy greens, clover fairways, gnarly rough, and a whole slew of other lovely things. I started off decently with up and down pars on one and three with a bogey in between. The ball buried in some thick green-side rough made it real tough to get it close on the second hole. A solid par on four left me one over coming into a short par four. Instead of playing aggressive and risking the water 240 yards out and slightly to the right, I played a three iron off the tee and hooked it into the woods, forcing me to scramble to get just a bogey. The next two holes went bogey on a tough par three and a solid par on a par four. With two holes to go I had a small lead on my opponent, and I needed to go even to break 40. I was able to fend off my match-up, but unfortunately I finished weakly with two bogeys thanks to problems in the thick rough. I finished with an okay 41. Not enough greens in reg hit due to wind knocking down my overly high ball trajectory. But thanks to no three putts and pretty good flopping and chipping performance, I salvaged a decent score. My 41 was good enough to medal on a day that was not for scoring, which is my first medaling this year, but the team didn't come away with the win. In fact, we are yet to win a single match this year. But to put things lightly, it's a "rebuilding year." See you all next time. Adam Goodman

Yeah, that sounds about right. I played 27 holes last weekend, and on the par 3 7th, I hit seven iron first time around, and flew it over, then hit eight iron the second time and left it short. Thanks for the advice. I think I'm also going to start getting lessons for the first time since taking up the game.

I shot an 80 last eighteen. 41 on the front, 39 on the back. A mediocre 33 putts in total. Looking at my scorecard, there just was not nearly enough greens in regulation, and they were all just off the green. I don't want to have to go up and down as often as I do. Only one three putt the entire 18, but only 10 pars. No birdies, again. Last nine I shot a 40 with 16 putts. No three putts, only two one putts. Six pars, two bogeys, one double, no birdies.

Yeah, I play eighteen often enough... Same results.

Often I leave my irons just barely off greens, and Im having trouble getting pars off those... When Im not nailing greens in reg, my short game usually doesn't recover for it. :-/

FIR: 69.2% hit, 5.9% left, 24.9% right GIR: 56.3% hit (This needs to be improved) Putts per hole: 1.86

I'm sixteen years old and around an 8 handicap. My scores go from about 37-42, but I'm having trouble getting to over that hump. I can say I've been making steady improvements, last year I was around 38-45, but the problem is my low scores haven't been getting much lower. I don't seem to be birdieing enough holes. Because of this, just a few bogeys kill me, and anything worse is suicide. Anything I can do to birdie more holes, or get over this road block? I've never shot a round of even par, and I'd like to get my handicap below 5. Help please?

An iron used for driving! Bingo, I'm smart. I see it's larger and has a long shaft... So it's just an iron to tee off with that's easier to hit than a long iron?

Maybe I want to pretend Nike is paying ME thousands of dollars to use their stuff instead of vice-versa. ;)