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Without a doubt, when a golf course is wet, it plays longer, sometimes significantly. Just about all shots will roll less after landing, if [...]]]> We’ve been getting a lot of rain around here recently. When that happens, even if the sun has started shining again, the course gets saturated and the game changes some. With an awareness of the issues and a few adjustments, you’ll be ready to tackle a round on a wet course.

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Without a doubt, when a golf course is wet, it plays longer, sometimes significantly. Just about all shots will roll less after landing, if they even roll at all.

On a wet course, club selection is critical. Depending on how much water the course is holding, it may make club selection very easy. If it’s wet enough where you’re seeing little or no roll on shots, then you simply play to the full shot distance. In other words, if you normally account for some roll after a shot lands, you’re going to want to play the shot to land where you would normally expect it to finish rolling.

Adjust Your Course Management Plan

You really need to consider the makeup of your course and how it handles water when you’re trying to come up with a course management plan for the round.

Consider my course, for instance. When it’s holding a lot of water, the fairways and rough get very saturated. So much so, that you can hear the turf squishing as you walk. On the other hand, the greens were very well made and drain well. Most times, the greens dry out much faster than the rest of the course.

This adds a wrinkle to my course management plan on wet days. I have to account for shorter shots off the tee and less distance on lay-ups. When it comes to approach shots, though, unless the rain was very recent, the greens will react much like they would on a normal day (at least until they get hard during the hottest stretches of summer).

It’s a minor point, but something worthy of consideration. You have to adjust your plan to your course and to the way it plays during wet conditions.

Tend to Your Hardware

Water and mud can have a serious effect on the quality of the shots you’re able to hit. The big thing to be aware of is the presence of mud on the ball. See below for some of the rule implications, but in general, if the Rules allow you to clean the ball, then do so. Mud stuck on the ball will affect its flight.

On the putting green, a little mud on the ball will have a more profound effect. It will tend to pull a putt off line, and with such a small target, it can mean the difference between missing a putt or making it. In Dave Pelz’s Putting Bible, he describes his experiments where he moved a ball’s center of gravity (from mud being applied to the surface). He showed that, depending on how drastic the center of gravity moves (how much mud is on the ball), a putt of 9 feet can be guided several inches off line. That is more than sufficient to miss a putt.

Another thing to consider when playing in wet conditions is that you’re keeping the grooves on your clubs clean. The grooves will tend to fill with water and mud, reducing the amount of spin that they impart on the ball. Make it a habit to clean your club’s grooves after each shot, making sure to towel off excess water. One gotcha to avoid - picking up water, mud, and grass on practice swings. Be sure that you clean off anything picked up during a practice swing before attempting the real shot.

Rules Implications

When the course is wet, there are a few rules implications to keep in mind.

One situation you’re much more likely to encounter on a wet golf course is an embedded ball. Luckily, Rule 26-2 addresses this. When a ball is embedded in its own pitch mark in any closely mown area through the green (basically anything mowed to fairway height or less, except for the tee or green), you can lift, clean, and drop the ball.

You may have noticed sometimes when watching golf on television, that they play “lift, clean, and place” when the course is wet. The Rules of Golf provide for the ability for the Committee to create a local rule to handle this situation. It is covered in Appendix I, Section 4b. Remember that in the absence of a local rule, you must play the ball as it lies.

Another provision in the Rules that you definitely want to be aware of is the allowance for relief from casual water. Casual water is temporary water on a golf course that is not within a hazard. Casual water may be visible either before or after you take your stance. Just to confuse things a little, snow and natural ice are either casual water or loose impediments, artificial ice is an obstruction, and dew and frost are not considered casual water.

If you find yourself affected by casual water, refer to Rule 25-1 for the proper relief procedures. Depending on the extent of the casual water, you may prefer to play the ball as it lies. For instance, if the nearest point of relief puts you at a disadvantage, you might just choose to not take relief.

Knowing is Half the Battle

Playing golf in wet conditions holds the possibility for bad scores, but nothing is written in stone. Understand the situation and adapt. Adjust your course management plan, tend to your equipment, and let the Rules work for you and you’ll be able to overcome the little twist that the weather has thrown at you and shoot a good score.

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I’ve never read a book that covers the mental game that advocates anything but a positive attitude on the golf course. I’ve never heard otherwise in a lesson or from a pro or from watching an instructional program on television.

So why is it that so many players have such a poor attitude on the course? I’ll [...]]]> That’s right. I said it. You want to play better golf? Positive attitude is a great way to do it.

I’ve never read a book that covers the mental game that advocates anything but a positive attitude on the golf course. I’ve never heard otherwise in a lesson or from a pro or from watching an instructional program on television.

So why is it that so many players have such a poor attitude on the course? I’ll tell you why - they don’t realize the importance of the mental game and they let their emotions get the best of them.

Golf is an expensive game. It takes a lot of time to play, and a LOT more time to play well, in the form of practice and exercise and lessons. Why would anyone want to get anything less than the maximum out of a round?

I’m sad to say that I succumbed to negative attitude on the course a week or so ago.

I was struggling with my finesse wedges. I had just duffed about a 100 yard wedge up to about 60 yards. I tried to regain my composure as I approached my ball. I rehearsed my next swing several times and felt like I had it. I stepped up to the ball and did the same thing again. Fat city.

Add together a few bad shots a stressful couple of weeks at work and I was drowning in negativity. I slammed my club down, clenched my teeth, and grunted. It was not a pretty picture and somewhat out of character for me.

Eventually, I pulled myself together and recovered. I regained a good attitude after a few holes, but the damage was done.

Emotions are a very powerful thing, both positive and negative. Drawing upon positive emotions can give a boost when things are looking grim.

Let me ask you a question - what’s the worst shot you ever hit? Most of us can’t even easily come up with a list of candidates, except maybe from the last several rounds. See? You’ve already learned to get rid of those negative thoughts. It just took longer than it should have. Now, what was the best shot you ever hit? I bet you already have a few possibilities in mind. How does it feel thinking about it? Good, I bet.

If you can find a way to harness that kind of positive energy, it feeds back into itself. It shouldn’t just be the product of good shots - it can also be part of the cause.

We can’t control all the adversities we face on the golf course. We’re going to hit bad shots. We’re going to get bad lies. We’re going to get bad breaks.

What we can control is how we deal with those things.

Let the negativity creep in and you’re going to drown. Find a way to stay positive, and you’ll suddenly find the game a whole lot easier. You’ll feed off that energy and find that these bouts of adversity are just tiny bumps in the road to success.

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It’s true - when addressing a chip shot, the hands should be ahead of the ball (closer to the target). But how much? I personally use the technique that [...]]]> Most conventional teaching has a player keeping the hands ahead of the ball at address to promote a crisp, descending blow. Unfortunately, many players try to do too much of a good thing and take that bit of advice way too far. I’ve even caught myself doing it.

It’s true - when addressing a chip shot, the hands should be ahead of the ball (closer to the target). But how much? I personally use the technique that Dave Pelz describes in his Short Game Bible. He recommends that the hands be aligned with the inside of the left thigh.

To recap his chipping address technique: stand with the feet very close together and the ball opposite your right ankle (for right-handers) and your weight slightly more on the left side (about 65%). The feet should be flared about 20 degrees toward the target. It’s helpful to align the ball to your right ankle before turning your feet toward the target, because the change of perspective makes it hard to tell where the ball is really aligned, at least until you’ve had time to practice. You should be standing close to the ball, enough to get the heel of the club slightly off the turf and you should be aligned parallel left of the target.

When considering how far ahead the hands should be, the key thing to consider is that the feet should be very close together. This means that even with the ball aligned with your back ankle, the hands aren’t all that far ahead of the ball.

Try an experiment: address a chip shot as I described above, and set your hands so that they’re aligned with the inside of your left thigh. They’re not all that far ahead, are they? Now, move your front foot toward the target maybe a foot or so so your stance is about as wide as you’d use for a finesse wedge shot. Make sure your hands are still aligned with the inside of your left thigh and your weight is still favoring your left side (about 65%).

See how much different that is? Your hands are waaaaaaay ahead of the ball now. I see players fairly regularly chipping like that. They take a much wider stance than necessary and set their hands too far ahead. Or, some will take a narrow stance but still set their hands much further forward, toward the middle or even the outside of the left thigh.

So what happens when you do that?

That will cause a much steeper angle of attack and you run the risk of bringing the club right down on top of the ball. Or, even worse, you may start to incorporate some body sway when you make a chipping stroke because your subconscious is astute enough to realize that you’re going to bring your wedge down on top of the ball and it doesn’t want that to happen, so you end up stubbing it into the turf. Either way, you’ll probably experience some inconsistency.

Remember that the club should hit the ball with a slightly descending blow. Address the ball as I described above and don’t let those hands get too far ahead and you’ll be on your way to making a much more consistent chipping stroke.

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After last week’s video analysis, I started to work on improving my hip action. I have a tendency to slide laterally toward the target on the down swing, causing several problems. Unfortunately, this isn’t going to be one of those quick fixes that just clicks into place suddenly. It’s a long-standing problem of [...]]]> It always seems to get worse before it gets better. I already knew that, but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

After last week’s video analysis, I started to work on improving my hip action. I have a tendency to slide laterally toward the target on the down swing, causing several problems. Unfortunately, this isn’t going to be one of those quick fixes that just clicks into place suddenly. It’s a long-standing problem of mine.

At the driving range yesterday I tried to key on really rotating my hips instead of laterally sliding. My swing thought was a common one for this type of situation: pull my left pocket behind me.

Of course, such a drastic change threw me all out of sync and I was hitting the ball pretty poorly. Every so often, I started to catch on and would hit one that felt great, but I wasn’t able to make it repetitive. On the course later on, it was more of the same. More often than not, I found myself reverting to the old hip slide.

That’s natural because I just started to work on the new move, so it’s a long way from becoming muscle memory. On the course, you have to trust your swing and let it become automatic. That’s one positive thing I had going for me. I wasn’t getting too mechanical in my swing thoughts, so my body just reverted to what it knows well. It’s nice to know that my mental game is improving that way.

I’m interested to see how this will progress my overall move toward the one-plane swing. Right now, I’m keying on my hip turn, but Jim Hardy’s one-plane swing concept focuses on turning the torso and shoulders hard because of the rotational action of the swing. I’ll need to make sure that as I progress, I eventually start to incorporate that into my learning.

This is one swing change that I’m going to have to dig out of the dirt. It’s going to take a while, so that’s a little frustrating. It looks like we’re in for some rain today, so I’m going to have to just sit here and stew over it.

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Sounds simple, right? Not exactly. The USGA handicap system is extremely sophisticated and complex. If [...]]]> One of the great things about golf is that it allows skilled players to compete with not-so-skilled players on a level playing field, all through the wonderful handicap system. Through the miracle of mathematics, players enter scores into a computer and presto, they get a handicap index. Then, they turn that into strokes on the score card and everyone is happy.

Sounds simple, right? Not exactly. The USGA handicap system is extremely sophisticated and complex. If you’ve ever wondered what it all means - well, I can’t tell you what all of it means, but let’s cover some of the basics and get your understanding of handicaps up to scratch (sorry for the handicap pun).

Before we get into it, I want to mention that golf handicaps are serious business. The USGA handicap manual is the final word on the subject, and it should be consulted for the latest official rules and regulations. Click here to access it online.

Handicap Index

Let’s start with the most basic concept: the Handicap Index. According to the USGA:

A “Handicap Index” is the USGA’s service mark used to indicate a measurement of a player’s potential ability on a course of standard playing difficulty. It is expressed as a number taken to one decimal place (e.g., 10.4) and is used for conversion to a Course Handicap.

This is where it all begins. This is the number that the Golf Handicap and Information Network^® (GHIN^®) system spits out every two weeks after you’ve entered at least five scores. Once you have a handicap index, then you’re portable. You can go to any other course that has been rated and compete against another player with a handicap index.

To do that, you need to convert your Handicap Index into a Course Handicap. Each course is different, so there are a couple of pieces of information that go into the computation: The USGA Course Rating and the Slope Rating

USGA Course Rating

The USGA Course Rating is defined as:

A “USGA Course Rating” is the USGA’s mark that indicates the evaluation of the playing difficulty of a course for a scratch golfer under normal course and weather conditions. It is expressed as strokes taken to one decimal place, and is based on yardage and other obstacles to the extent that they affect the scoring ability of a scratch golfer.

What that means is that the USGA has come and evaluated a particular course to gauge the difficulty. Aside from yardage and obstacles, things like effective length are calculated. For instance, the prevailing wind or relative quickness of the fairways is considered.

It’s quite a comprehensive analysis of a course.

Less well known than the USGA Course Rating is the Bogey Rating. It’s like the Course Rating, but instead gauges the relative difficulty of a course for a bogey golfer instead of a scratch player.

Slope Rating

The other piece of required course-specific information is the Slope Rating. The Slope Rating is defined as:

A “Slope Rating” is the USGA’s mark that indicates the measurement of the relative difficulty of a course for players who are not scratch golfers compared to the USGA Course Rating (e.g., compared to the difficulty of a course for scratch golfers). A Slope Rating is computed from the difference between the Bogey Rating and the USGA Course Rating. The lowest Slope Rating is 55 and the highest is 155. A golf course of standard playing difficulty has a Slope Rating of 113.

For men, the Slope Rating is computed using the following formula: 5.381 x (Bogey Rating - USGA Course Rating). For women, the formula is: 4.24 x (Bogey Rating - USGA Course Rating).

Wow! That’s a lot of work to get a handicap!

The good news is, you don’t have to do any heavy math. The Course Rating and Slope Rating are done for you ahead of time. Your handicap index is calculated through a very complex formula. Now, you just need to turn that into strokes given or gotten.

Some courses have handicap charts where you just look up the Course Handicap in a big table. The other alternative is to compute it by hand.

To do that, you simply multiply your Handicap Index by the Slope Rating and divide by 113, then round to the nearest whole number. Let’s say your Handicap Index is 10.2 and your home course has a Slope Rating of 121, as mine does. That results in a Course Handicap of 11 strokes. That means you’d get 11 strokes when competing against a scratch player.

Applying The Course Handicap

Now, all that remains is to apply your handicap to your score. If you get 11 strokes, as in the example above, then you’d get one stroke back on each of the 11 most difficult holes. If you look at your scorecard, there’s a handicap listed for each hole (one for the men and one for the ladies). These are used to order the holes by relative difficulty. On each of the holes numbered 1 through 11, you’d adjust your gross score by subtracting a stroke.

That’s it! Welcome to the level playing field.

Equitable Stroke Control

Equitable Stroke Control is a mechanism that keeps handicaps from making huge swings as a result of blow-up holes. Handicaps are supposed to be representative of potential playing ability. Even a scratch player can have a bad hole now and again with a really high score. Without some protection in place, handicaps would fluctuate too drastically.

ESC is a cap placed on how large a score you can count for handicap purposes for an individual hole. For a scratch player, no score of higher than double bogey can be counted. For instance, say that a scratch player scores a 10 on a par-four hole during a round. For handicap purposes, the score would be adjusted before entering it into the handicap system. The score for the hole would be a 6, dropping 4 strokes from the final score.

Players with higher handicaps are allowed to post scores composed of hole scores higher than double bogey. Refer to the handicap manual for a table of ESC limits.

Criticism

The USGA has put a lot of effort into developing a robust handicap system. The question you might have: is it fair?

One of the criticisms I’ve heard is that low-handicappers are at a disadvantage when playing against high-handicappers. The reasoning behind that is that for a scratch player, scores don’t vary much. On the other hand, high-handicappers are much more likely to have wide swings in scores. It might be a 95 one day and 80 the next. In competition, a high handicapper is more likely to have a “round of a lifetime” and end up with something crazy like a net 60 score. A scratch amateur is less likely to do that.

That’s part of the reason that competitions use flights, so that there are several levels of players. That ensures that there isn’t too large a gap in skill levels.

Another issue that crops up is sand bagging, where players enter purposely inflated scores in hopes of getting a higher handicap and thus undeserved strokes. This isn’t really a weakness in the handicap system, though. Like golf itself, the integrity of handicaps relies on the integrity of the players. Cheating is cheating, and sand bagging is cheating.

There’s another class of pseudo-sandbaggers: players that keep honest scores, but who don’t really try as hard, and don’t score as well, during rounds that don’t count. These players may not intend to cheat the system, but the end result is the same: an inflated handicap.

In spite of the criticisms, my personal feeling is that the handicap system does a fairly good job of leveling the playing field for players of differing ability. It’s certainly better than negotiating strokes on the first tee, or not at all.

There’s So Much More

Believe it or not, this post barely scratches the surface of the handicap system. It really is that complex and extensive. There are caveats for tournament scores versus practice scores, nine-hole scores, unacceptable scores, and so much else.

The good news is, players only really need to know a few of the concepts, and I pretty much covered those above. Play honest rounds (by the rules), keep and accurate score, enter it with ESC applied and you’re doing your part. Your Handicap Index will be as valid as it can be.

As I said at the top, refer to the USGA website for all the details about the handicap system. If you’re interested in learning more, the online reference has more information than you probably want to know. Enjoy, and remember - keep accurate scores and post them all, or else I’m not giving you any strokes (I’ll take strokes, though).

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Further Reading:

USGA Handicap Information

Golf Handicap and Information Network^® and GHIN^® are registered trademarks of the United States Golf Association.

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My main goals were to see how [...]]]> It’s been an interesting week. My swing went south, so it seemed like the perfect time to do something I’ve been meaning to do. I broke out the video camera for some analysis. I’d like to share the video here, but my technology is a little outdated, making it difficult to get the videos uploaded in a usable form, so we’ll just talk about it until I work that issue out.

My main goals were to see how I’m progressing with the one-plane swing and to see if I could figure out my swing problems. Over the last week, I haven’t been playing terribly, but I’ve been seeing the following symptoms:

• Contact with the ball has degraded slightly
• I’ve been smothering the ball, especially with the driver
• I’ve been blocking the driver way right

With those things in mind, I broke down the video this morning when I got home and took a lot of notes. I was very interested with what I saw. Some things were better than I thought, and some things were worse.

One positive thing I saw was that my swing plane on the back swing was pretty good. My perception was that I wasn’t quite on plane yet. However, my left arm was just about perfectly on plane. On some of my shots, the club was in good position, but sometimes it was getting on top of the plane.

Another positive I saw was that my posture is pretty decent. I’m bent over a little more at address, which is a fundamental of the one-plane swing. One thing I’d like to change is a little slumping in my shoulders, and I’d like to get my chin a little higher.

Also, one other good thing I noticed was a full 90-degree shoulder turn in the back swing. That’s right where it should be.

There weren’t a lot of notable positives beyond that. There were quite a few negatives, though.

One big one that I had perceived without the video is that my left wrist is not flat enough at the top of the back swing. Often, it was very cupped.

If you don’t understand what I mean by “cupped”, here’s what I’m talking about. Hold your arm out in front of you with your palm facing the floor. Bend your hand toward the ceiling without moving your arm. Your wrist is now cupped.

Doing that at the top of the back swing causes the club face to be very open. To get back to square, the hands need to be flipped closed near impact. This is a possible cause of some snap hooks I’ve been seeing.

The biggest problem I saw was a serious hip slide on the down swing. So much so, that my weight was getting to the outside of my left foot my impact. That’s causing me a whole slew of problems.

The one-plane swing is very rotational. The player’s head remains fairly steady during the swing, and the idea of “staying behind the ball” is not part of the one-plane swing philosophy. The player is encouraged to stay centered during the swing and turn the upper body hard through impact.

What I saw on video was the down swing starting with that lateral slide, starting a chain reaction of other problems. The club immediately got very steep (more vertical than the swing plane) as the down swing started. That forced me to get my head behind the ball and tilt my spine more to the right as I approached impact. This is a defense mechanism to keep me from smothering the ball. With my weight shifting so far left and the club getting so steep, it’s the only way to keep from coming right down on top of the ball. Obviously, I’m failing at times on the course and seeing some smothered shots.

Tweaks

The biggest tweaks coming up are going to be on the driving range.

By far, the most important thing I need to work on is conquering that lateral hip slide. That will help me iron out several of the problems I’m seeing. I also want to work on getting my left wrist flatter in the back swing.

Those two things are my immediate concern.

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The Masters has concluded and Trevor Immelman has been awarded the green jacket as 2008 champion.  Congratulations to Trevor for a great victory.

That also means that the Life in the Rough birthday giveaway has concluded and a winner chosen at random from the comments.  The winner will recieve a dozen Callaway Tour ix golf balls.

Without further ado, the winner is….

…A.J. for his comment about Larry Mize’s win in 1987 over Greg Norman in a playoff.

Congratulations, A.J.  Hit ‘em long [...]]]> It’s over!

The Masters has concluded and Trevor Immelman has been awarded the green jacket as 2008 champion.  Congratulations to Trevor for a great victory.

That also means that the Life in the Rough birthday giveaway has concluded and a winner chosen at random from the comments.  The winner will recieve a dozen Callaway Tour ix golf balls.

Without further ado, the winner is….

…A.J. for his comment about Larry Mize’s win in 1987 over Greg Norman in a playoff.

Congratulations, A.J.  Hit ‘em long and straight.  I will be contacting you via e-mail shortly. 

It was a fun contest and there were some great moments shared.  To those that didn’t win, I thank you for your participation and appreciate the great moments that were shared.  I wish you better luck next time.

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I’m off to a decent start already, mostly because I was able to play somewhat regularly throughout the winter. Not as much as I would have preferred, but I wasn’t forced to put away my clubs for months.

That has given me [...]]]> It looks like spring has finally arrived. We’ve had great temperatures lately, though a fair amount of rain also. Still, it has allowed me to start to get into more of a mid-season practice and play routine.

I’m off to a decent start already, mostly because I was able to play somewhat regularly throughout the winter. Not as much as I would have preferred, but I wasn’t forced to put away my clubs for months.

That has given me a head start this year. Looking at my statistics for this year so far (I’ll put them up on the stats page near the end of the month), I’m already better than I was at this time last year, but definitely not where I want to be.

I’m hitting a lot more fairways, more greens, and taking fewer putts. These are due to changes I’ve made with my swing and putting stroke, as well as the fact that I’m more sharp, with having been able to play sporadically throughout the winter.

If I had to point to a single reason why I’m not close to where I want to be, it’s physical conditioning. I haven’t dropped the weight that I expected to and am not in the physical condition I want to be in. However, I am making progress in those areas. Still, fatigue affects my golf game.

After putting up a not-terrible 42 on Thursday (with a triple-bogey blow-up hole), I followed up with a bad 46 on Saturday. I had done a range practice session a few hours before and was a little rubbery in the legs. Had I taken a cart, maybe I would have been more fresh, but that’s beside the point. I should be able to condition myself to practice and play without fatigue causing me to be so sloppy.

That aside, I hit some really good shot and my ball striking is coming around.

Tweaks

I’ve fallen behind in some of the planning activities I want to accomplish for the season, including developing my updated practice and exercise plans, so I need to get on top of that.

Obviously, I need to ratchet up my workouts, because I’m very disappointed with where I’m at.

It’s time for me to resume my lessons, as well. I’ve been waiting until the weather is decent, so I could make sure I’m able to do my post-lesson homework effectively. It doesn’t make much sense to get a lesson then be stuck not being able to practice for a long period.

All in all, in spite of several areas that need vast improvement, I think I’ve made a lot of progress and I think it’s going to show as the season gets going. I’m really looking forward to getting into a good groove.

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When I started out a year ago, I had no idea how long it would live. How long would I enjoy doing it? Would I be able to keep my stamina? Would it be of value to me and to others?

It turns out that I enjoy doing it as much now as I did in the beginning. Probably even more, because [...]]]> Wow! I can’t believe it. Life in the Rough is one year old today.

When I started out a year ago, I had no idea how long it would live. How long would I enjoy doing it? Would I be able to keep my stamina? Would it be of value to me and to others?

It turns out that I enjoy doing it as much now as I did in the beginning. Probably even more, because I lowered my posting frequency to find a balance between work, blog, and developing my golf game.

Keeping my stamina has been tough. Not so much the stamina involved in finding the time to write, or getting enjoyment out of it, but more in the search for new and interesting things to write about in the world of golf. I do enjoy the challenge and look forward to tackling it.

Is it of value to me? You bet! Writing about golf and interacting with readers helps me stay focused on my goal of becoming a golf pro. I learn new things all the time. The research I do for posts keeps me constantly learning more and more about the game of golf.

Is it of value to others? I hope so, but I’ll let you be the judge of that. Readership continues to increase, so that’s a good sign. Value to others is a main focus of mine, so I want to hear what you think about Life in the Rough.

Last time I asked that question, one of the things that was requested was more detail about my personal journey. Subsequently, I started increasing the number of posts centered on what I’m doing to better my golf game and what I’m learning in the process, and I’ll continue to do so. Now that the season is kicking off, I have a lot to report in the coming weeks about my experiments with a new putting grip, a new swing, and much more.

I also want to share more tips, information about rules, talk about golf history, and cover anything else golf-related that I can fit in. Most importantly, I’m continuing my charge to become a golf pro and I’m taking you with me!

Kick back, enjoy a piece of birthday cake, and give me any suggestions you have about how to make Life in the Rough more interesting and useful. I love hearing reader feedback, especially if it’s constructive criticism, because my desire to improve is big in every facet of my life (actually improving is a different story, but I try).

I’m glad you decided to come along on my journey, and look forward to another year.

-Mike

P.S. - Don’t forget to submit your entry into the Life in the Rough Birthday Giveaway by Sunday April 13, 2008, for a chance to win a dozen Callaway Tour ix golf balls.

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