Golfin' with AJ

May 18, 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Tad Radish) — Mon, 19 May 2008 03:36:00 +0000

Various Bars
Too Many $$$
Notables: NOTHING

I don't want to talk about this. And I certainly have nothing to say to you people.

Considering never playing again. Wonder if that's actually happened to anyone else.

Day 3: 5/16/08

noreply@blogger.com (Tad Radish) — Sat, 17 May 2008 04:17:00 +0000

Cahill's on Durham, Houston, TX
$1
4 holes on The Swamp (I think), -2.

These numbers are a little contrived. A Happy Hour with coworkers went into Extended Play, with No Golden Tee the entire evening/night . . . and then just after last call at our final stop, I paid a buck and snuck in 4 holes. Results? Birdie, Birdie, Birdie, Bogey.

Bogey??? That hole's a par 5! Well, three reasons. One, I don't know how to curve. I tried to curve my 2nd shot onto the green to be on in 2, but I hit the wrong curve and put it in the water. 2, a lousy 8 iron from the fringe kept me from being up and down for the part. And 3, I may have played the hole wrong anyway -- there are some nice little landing areas, and using one of them would have given me a better crack at being on on 2 without needing the curve in the first place.

Moral?
- More work on 8 iron
- More work on curves
- Playing 4 holes at a time is kinda cool

Day 2: 5/13/08

noreply@blogger.com (Tad Radish) — Thu, 15 May 2008 04:53:00 +0000

Location: Einstein's Pub, Katy, TX
$ spent: ???
Notables: Personal bests on Cypress, Misty, and Swamp Thing

Einstein's is a part of Golden Tee history, as the site of the famous Golden Tee Champ Plays 12 At Once youtube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpIkTA0He10). If I have my way, it'll soon be part of Golden Tee history again. But more on that.

It became a part of MY history last night. The short version - due to a miscommunication, I ended up NOT meeting up with someone there as I thought, but instead was stuck there alone for hours, with nothing to do but drink beer, play GT, and talk to a cute waitress.

For some reason I decided to just keep on drinkin beer, and to see how this affected my play. The results are unclear. I believe the following were the scores from my last 3 rounds . . .

Swamp: -14
Cypress: -15
Misty: -14

I'm not sure of the courses but I'm pretty sure of the numbers. What was odd is HOW I got the scores: during one back -9 I was -7, with 5 pars, 3 eagles, and a birdie! I NEVER do that.

I don't have any lessons from the games because I don't remember them, and could barely follow while what was going on. I don't want to say that drinking obviously helps your play, because, well, I just don't want to be responsible for that message. Maybe the fact that drinkin gravely impairs cognitive function ends up helping, because you don't overthink. Maybe. I don't know. I just don't know.

Till next time.

Day 1: 5/11/2008

noreply@blogger.com (Tad Radish) — Mon, 12 May 2008 04:05:00 +0000

Total spent: $20
1 beer,
2 18 hole rounds
6 practice facility rounds

Started with 4 practice rounds: Driving, Chipping, Sand Shots, Putting. Putting was probably the most helpful, especially since I noticed you can change greens via fly-by. Chipping was useful, though nothing really carried over to the game. Same with sand shots. Driving, eh. Probably most useful to gauge the machine.

Then played 2 rounds.

1st round at Cypress. Just a bad round. Started with a couple of birdies, but then just started going at every pin and introducing way too much risk. Think I finished maybe 6 under. Decided I could easily do much, much better, and break 10 under, just by being smarter.

Thus, 2nd round at Cypress. Decided I'd just try and birdie every hole. Forgettable first 3 -- and then Eagle, Bird, Bird, Bird, Eagle. 7 under through 5, possibly a PB. Par on the ninth. Then a solid back 9, to get me to -14 after 17! And then sadly a double on the 18th. First, underplayed the curve on the approach, to leave me in the sand right of the hole. Then, a chip that left me in the rough. Then, a too-strong 8-iron from the rough nearly holed -- but then ran into the sand behind the cup. Needed a long chip from there, then a 2 putt from 85 feet.

Final result -- a 12 under.

What was the secret?
1. Taking it easy and going for birdies instead of pins
2. Making every 20-30 ft putt

What could have been better?
1. Chips from the fringe, esp 8 irons
2. Sand shots
3. Not overestimating mild crosswindws
4. Understanding curves

Soooooo after the round I played 2 more practice rounds with the 2 bucks I had left over -- one for driving, and one for chipping. Driving was for getting curves down, and chipping was for . . . chipping.

On driving, the curve practice definitely helped. It was frustrating trying to remember every A-1/2-1.75 combination. All that's gone. It's much simpler:
1. A to B determines amount of curve. A is max curve.
2. 1 to 2 determines how far out it starts. 1 is max swing.

That knowledge could have saved me between 2 and 4 strokes on the previous round.

The chipping was helpful as well, although it lacked variety. All I tried was 37 yd chips into a crosswind. I learned that taking a backswing almost vertical, and then curving it quite a bit, and using roll, all worked fine. In fact I holed ball 25.

I'd say the next step is to work on the 8 iron cjips from the fringe. I missed that over and over again. The only thing I really learned was that it takes verrrrrry little to move it . . . even a back swing up to my shins put some mustard on it.