bwdial

Sugar Hill Golf Club - White Tees - 69.1/129 46 on the front nine in my Spark Golf match. I really had problem focusing today. At one point, I absolutely thought that I had lost my putter headcover only to find it right where I normally put it on my super awesome SandTrap.com alignment sticks. I did go on a three hole par run, but I made an unfocused mess of several holes.

This is it... a 270 drive. Everything else was a hot mess, except for the blind 6 iron from near the 10th green to the first green.

Sugar Hill Golf Club - White Tees - 69.1/129 I shot an 84, but it was a tale of two nines. 45 on the front... 39 on the back. On the front nine, I started par, bogey, par. The bogey on the par five second was due to a four iron going too far to the left and into the water beyond the green. Then I got on the double-bogey train for four, five, and six. Pulled my three wood left into the water on four, bladed a pitch across the green on five, and hit a fat wedge into the bunker into a fried egg lie - I got it out, but it hung up in the fringe and left me a long chip - for the caboose. Had a routine par on seven, then crapped the bed on eight, and then narrowly missed a birdie the par five ninth after almost getting home in two. On the back nine, I started with three pars and then I hit the par five thirteenth in two and made a birdie. Made a mess of the fourteenth with a chunked tee four iron off the tee and an even worse four iron from the fairway into the water. However, I was pretty proud of the double I managed after pulling my seven iron fourth to the back left of the green. This green is a severely sloping monster that almost always results in a three putt, but I managed to get down in two. On the fifteenth I hit a fat 58° wedge well short of the green - but right on line - but chipped to inside two feet. Missed the par three sixteenth to the right, but once again, my chipping bailed me out and I made par. I bogeyed the last two holes, a par four and a par five, to finish with a 39. I was pretty pleased with how I responded to the adversity on the front. A lot of times, I would follow a spate of doubles by collapsing with triples, quads, and simply putting an X on the card and moving on. However, today I was able to keep the ship off the rocks and manage to score well as the round wore on. Also, it was hot. The temp was hovering around 95° and the heat-index was well over 100°. My misses are getting better, and my short game is starting to come around. It's not perfect, but it is not costing me as many strokes, and my chipping and pitching is really becoming a strength.

Sugar Hill Golf Club - Hole 13 - Par 5 - Playing only 440 yards today. Hit my drive shorter than I hoped, a little fadey and high into the wind, but it still was okay. Had about 230 yards off of an upslope so I hit my 16 degree 3 wood. Hit it pure, and it never left the flag. First time hitting this green in two, and two putted for birdie.

I am making real progress toward a more powerful, consistent swing. When I keep focused and minimize my wrist and hand action from my swing, I am bombing the ball. I have been hitting towering drives that have been finishing 270 to 300 yards away from where they started, and I am now hitting my irons two clubs farther than a buddy that I was two clubs shorter than. I'm hitting my i210 five iron farther than he is hitting his TMB 716 3 iron. When I avoid cranio-rectal insertion, I am hitting some really nice wedges into the greens. I played one hole - over two rounds - three under this past weekend. Birdie-Eagle.

So, I've been away for a while but I finally achieved an eagle on a par 4. Colonial Golf Course - Meridianville, AL - Hole 15 - 286 yards - Saturday, June 4, 2022 Drove the ball to the front edge of the green and narrowly missed (less than 6 inches) the eagle putt on Friday. Came back on Saturday and pushed my drive into a mound on the right and had 39 yards left. Hit a little quarter gap wedge into the fringe and watched the ball trickle into the cup.

It's online scoring, so we don't know until they are posted. They were reported by pretty much everyone in the league, and they stopped coming.

Conditions and Layout for me. Inconsistent greens are probably the worst. One place I play has a practice green that is a completely different pace than the greens on the course, and every green is a different speed. And when I say different speed, I'm talking about carpet to linoleum, sometimes on the same green. Layout is generally a problem in this area because of the hilliness, and there a a lot of holes where good shots run completely off the opposite side of the fairway. Also, poorly placed cart paths that run diagonally across a hole with a blind tee shot.

The only issue I've had was during my Spark league last season, and I'll preface that by saying that everyone else I played with were really cool. One pair were d-bags because they cheated. Two off the tee counted as one, and they had a real problem counting, because there were several instances where they made a seven at best on par fours, and reported it as a par. The course's bunkers are in terrible shape, so there is a local rule that you can play them as ground under repair. All of us would pull the ball out of the bunkers and play over them. They took this as an opportunity to toss their balls onto the green. The league also has an "inside-the-leather" rule, and these guys would give themselves pretty much anything within six feet of the hole. When called on it, they got all huffy and tried to say the league is not serious and supposed to be fun, but there are skins awarded for holes, and they wound up winning a bunch of skins. It got to the point that no one would play with them.

I take lessons from Chris Therrell there.

Steel Canyon Golf Club - 4th Hole - Par 3 - 175 Yards This hole plays significantly downhill, so it plays a bit shorter. However, it was about 45 degrees with a 10-15 MPH wind in our faces from the left. I pulled a six iron and took dead aim. I hit that shot as solidly as I have ever hit a golf shot, and it took off like a rocket cutting through the wind. It drifted ever so slightly on the wind and landed about ten feet right of the pin and just stuck where it landed. Burned the edge of the cup with the birdie putt and made par. Everything else was 💩

I know it's not the same since he's a coach, but Nick Saban's six national championships over the past 15 years is pretty remarkable. However, this stat blows my mind; Alabama has either won the national title or lost to the team that did in 14 of Nick Saban's 15 seasons in Tuscaloosa. The lone exception was 2013, when Alabama lost to Auburn. Auburn lost the national championship to Florida State with 0:13 remaining in the game. In the world of motor racing, Tom Kristensen has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans nine times; six consecutively. Graham Hill won the Monaco Grand Prix five times in the 1960s. Juan Manuel Fangio won the World Championship five times - with four different teams - from 1951 through 1957. Michael Schumacher won seven World Championships from 1994 through 2004.

I was born and raised in Tampa, Florida. I was four years old when the Buccaneers were formed in 1976, and became a fan at that point. I remained a fan through the lean years, the first Super Bowl, and until the 2015 NFL Draft. When they drafted Jameis Winston, I was done. My fandom had begun to wane during the Gruden era when he ran Rich McKay off and got Bruce Allen installed as his rubber stamp of a General Manager. Not only did he run off the architect of the team that he steered to the win in Super Bowl XXXVII, but he also ran off the core of the team full of players who could have won the Walter Payton Man of the Year for a bunch of dudes with lots of emotional and legal baggage. Now that I live in Atlanta, I root for the Falcons, but I am no where near the die-hard I once was for the Buccaneers. Since I am an Alabama grad, they get most of my support, and I tend to simply root for players that played for Alabama in the NFL. As for my other professional fandom, I am a supporter of Atlanta United, the Tampa Bay Lightning, and the Tampa Bay Rays. I am also a supporter of West Ham United in the English Premier League, and I tend to follow the progress of USMNT players in leagues around the world.

He definitely reached for the back on one swing that I saw.

It does have a certain "Roy McAvoy alone in his trailer with a case of the shanks" look to it, doesn't it?

I know that I was somewhere north of 130, and that was probably a conservative estimate since I probably didn't assess penalty strokes properly. I remember a lot of whiffs, tops, and chunks. Within a year or so I was down to shooting in the low 90s and mid to high 80s. My best round was in college, and I shot an 83. After college, my game suffered because I didn't play as often, and here I am. As for people shooting a great score their first round out, a friend of mine in college did. He started working at the course and got some lessons from Conrad Rehling - the pro at the University of Alabama's course - before he stepped onto the course. When he did, he immediately started whipping our asses and eventually became a teaching pro himself.

Maybe they are having issues with availability of the shafts so they've dropped them to be able to continue to keep their delivery promises.

I do this with my children. They are 10, 9, 9, and 9 (yes... triplets) and I will map out a strategy on the scorecard for yardages on each hole before we go. They were younger when we started, so obviously they weren't able to hit the ball as far as they can now. If you are an adult who can't hit the ball 100 yards with any club in the bag, perhaps Top Golf or a simulator with accuracy games is best for you.

Since I am doing something similar to what you are talking about, I figured I'd weigh in. I have taken two lessons, and have another five to go. Honestly, I feel like I will keep going after that, but this was only the second time I've committed to lessons. (The first place closed down after three of six lessons, and the pro had changed for the third.) First Lesson - Tuesday, November 16, 2021: The pro had me hit some shots with a seven iron. He videoed them and then had me come over and showed me the issue. I was laid off badly at the top and my hips were too far forward. I had gotten this way through a flirtation with Stack and Tilt when I was trying to get the pronounced sway out of my swing about a decade ago. What it had done was caused me to have a severely over the top swing which chopped down on the ball. This created glancing blows that produced weak, low flying shots After showing me what I was doing wrong, he had me change my stance and focus on staying on plane. For the stance, he had me move my hips back toward the center so my weight was distributed evenly. For the plane, he had me "feel" as if I was pointing the club at a flag right of the target line on the range. Yes, this is "across the line" and had everything going pretty hard left. However, the contact was completely different and powerful, and my shots went from low and weak - going about 120 yards - to towering huge draws traveling over 150 yards. This was it for the first lesson, and I have been making practice swings in the mirror, the reflection on a glass front cabinet, and with my shadow outside to practice staying on plane. This was my homework, and for the first time in my life (and sadly, I'm a teacher) I have been diligently working on it. Second Lesson - Tuesday, January 4, 2022: For this lesson, he had me hit some seven irons and took video. He always uses video, as well as Trackman. He showed me the progress that I had made, and then we looked at my hips through impact. He showed me how they were pushing forward and bringing my head forward with it. We worked on getting my hips turning and opening up through impact, and keeping my head still and back just a touch. This has been the piece that I have been working on in slow motion and with full swings. I have gotten a new net, and I am going to be rebuilding my frame to accommodate the larger size (15 feet tall as opposed to 10) so that I can practice more at home. Whoops... forgot the other piece we worked on. He noticed that I tended to make contact toward the toe a lot, and had me do a drill to combat it. He laid one of my authentic Sand Trap alignment sticks along my target line and and set a ball just the other side of it. He had me set up as if I was swinging along the line of the alignment stick but hit the ball on the downswing. After doing this a few times, I found myself making much better contact. This drill is difficult without the net, but I can do it at the range. I just haven't been. My next lesson, we will be working on wedge play.

Well, it's official. The entire family has it. My youngest son tested positive first, followed immediately by my oldest daughter living at home. Then my wife, other daughter, and finally my older (by a minute - they're triplets) son. Now, I have tested positive. Felt like I was hit by a truck yesterday, but I'm feeling much better today. Runny nose, congested, and a little soreness.

Aaaaannd... now two of our four kids are positive. One had some sniffles for a while and the other had a day of feeling crappy, but now they are fine. Fully vaccinated, but the concern I have is for unknown, long-term effects. The boy was a triplet, and thus premature, and he had lung issues in the NICU. I just hope that there isn't some impact that we don't see for a while.

Sorry... it looks like I started a trend. I played a much more difficult course on Saturday. I have a lot of work to do, so I think March is off the table. I parred two holes, one of which was the second - a 140ish yard par three - and the tee shot was probably the best I hit all day. It was really cold and windy, and I'm sure that played a part, but my ball striking was less than ideal. My short game is a mess as well. I threw away a ton of strokes on and around the greens. As I mentioned previously, I have a series of five lessons lined up. My coach mentioned that he wants to work on wedges during my next lesson. Based on my performance on Saturday, this will definitely be important to reaching my goal.

My mother has dementia. Her condition has worsened quickly since the end of 2019.

I found out a couple of hours ago that my eighty-three year old father has COVID. This is after he told us on Tuesday that the nursing home that my mother is in had nearly 20 staff members AND nearly 20 patients had contracted it as well. She doesn't have it... yet.

... thank you!