End-of-Season Update

The bad news is the handicap season ended two weeks ago in my neck of the woods. The good news is my handicap ended at an all-time low of...

The bad news is that until March 15, none of my scores can count toward my handicap, so the 88 from the gold tees I shot yesterday won't count, even though it would have helped my handicap. The good news is that since I get emailed my handicap update every two weeks, I will be seeing the number 14.5 steadily till spring. It will be a great reminder of what I've accomplished this past season with my humble amateur sports hobby, the great game of golf.

The bad news is yesterday may have been the last round I play till next year. The weather was in the mid-50s and sunny with little wind. At 1pm, I was sweating in my thick, knitted visor hat plus my base layer turtleneck and felted cashmere sweater. Did I ever mention that the warmest clothing for golf could quite possibly be a cashmere sweater that you accidentally washed and put in the dryer? Cashmere is eight times warmer than sheep's wool and the felted fibers form a compact knit that blocks wind but still allows movement. I felt so warm it could have a springtime round. I actually shot just 5 over on the front nine and started having serious visions of breaking 80. But then the afternoon chill set in, and my brain and fingers stopped working properly. 

The good news is that as long as there isn't snow on the ground, I can still make it out to play golf. Might be time to accidentally leave another cashmere sweater in the dryer.

Deep Thoughts About Sub 15

Drum roll please... my current handicap is 14.7! After a couple of solid rounds in the 80s, I've met a longtime goal of dropping down to a 15 or better. The downside is I'm almost afraid of playing golf for fear of ruining my handicap before the end of the playing season on November 14.

So today I went out to a country club course where scoring is not allowed. That is, they happen to be refurbishing all the greens, and in the meantime they've set up temporary greens. This means that the round’s score could not count toward my handicap because the course is under repair. On the temporary tee card, they even printed, "Don’t post this score!"

It's a beautiful golf course, and today was a wonderfully warm fall day. I really enjoyed the autumn colors. And the perfectly flat tee grounds. What a change from public courses, where sometimes the tee grounds are more like baseball mounds.

The fairways were neatly mowed in perfect cross-hatched diamond shapes.



The picture below shows how the temporary greens are set 20 yards or so in front of the real greens.

These temporary greens have huge holes, so putting was not much of a challenge.

After awhile though, I felt something was missing. When I looked at the hole below, I thought, "Pretty picture, but it would have been nice to try and go for this green."

I began to imagine what golf would be like if there weren't any golf holes. But a golf course without holes is like eyes without a face. Or should I say, a face without eyes. 

Albert Einstein once said, “If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.” But a golf course without holes is a course without goals. 

So tomorrow I will play a course with all the holes in the proper places. I will play a round I can post. And I will hope it doesn't ruin my handicap.

When a Door Closes

So ever since the mansplaining ranger incident at the golf-course-that-shall-remain-nameless, I have boycotted the place and taken my business elsewhere. This has resulted in some new experiences I would not have had otherwise. For example, I ventured out to another state for a day trip to a golf course in the middle of some scenic farmland and took home an 86 on my scorecard. I played from the senior tees at two different courses and didn't do too shabbily. I also played a course I've neglected since spring and was rewarded with this fabulous sunset from the clubhouse patio:

And I've enlisted a new code word to start off my tee shots: "Trust." And by that, I mean, trust the line. It occurred to me that the ranger who thought I was out of alignment had no idea what my alignment process was. He thought he had the right to judge me when he didn't even even know what he was looking at. And I was shaken because, like so many women, we forever doubt ourselves.

So when someone tells you you're pointed in the wrong direction, believe in your path. Trust your line. And if a door closes, watch the world open like a window.

Mansplaining on the Course -- by a Ranger?!

So it happened again. This time on the golf course. By... a... ranger...! It was a weekday last week. I had a morning tee time and most of my round had gone well. I had even made 2 birdies and was feeling confident. Then, after I teed off on the 18^th hole, the ranger working that day drove up and said to me, “Do you mind if I show you something?”

Now, I had just hit my drive about 210 yards, which is pretty darn good for me, so I had no idea what this ranger was going to “show” me, but I had a feeling he was going to try and give me some kind of advice, since he had that air about him.

“Are you going to criticize me?” I said. “Because if you are, I do not want to hear it.”

“I just want to show you something about your set-up,” he said. Then he told me to take my normal set-up, while he watched. I complied because I was physically and mentally exhausted after walking 17 holes in 90-degree heat and I didn’t know what else to do. But I felt very uncomfortable while I was taking my set-up because I really didn’t like the idea of this guy watching me. Then the ranger pointed out that even though I had aligned myself using my club across my chest (a technique I learned a long time ago from my golf mentor, Seri), in my actual set-up, he claimed that my upper body was open to the target. Then he grinned and put his hands out, palms up, as if he was dropping some major wisdom and I should be impressed.

But instead, I got furious. How dare this guy try to “mansplain” my golf set-up? “Why are you doing this? Would you try and give advice to a man?” I asked the ranger.

“Yes, I would,” he said. But I doubted that very much.

“I think you’re only doing this because I’m a woman,” I went on. “I just hit a great drive, so how dare you try and tell me there’s something wrong with my set up. I see all kinds of crazy swings from the guys out here, and I don’t see you giving any of them any advice. Why were you watching my golf swing anyway? That’s just gross!”

At this point, the ranger seemed to get the point and drove away. I was so angry, I could barely focus on finishing the 18^th hole. Golf is very much a mental game, and this douche bag's interference with my concentration was uncalled-for. As of this writing, my handicap is 15.4. So I may not be the best golfer out there, but I am definitely not the worst. Since I was clearly not breaking any course rules, endangering the safety of others or even playing slowly, there was no reason the ranger should have stopped me during my round to say anything to me at all.

After the round, I spoke to the starter, and he said that ranger isn’t even a good golfer. Knowing this made me feel even more insulted and patronized. Why on earth would someone feel entitled to give advice when they themselves are not even qualified to do so?

I was so furious, I wrote a 2-page letter to the head pro at the golf course, recommending that they train all new rangers and other employees with the following rules:

1) DO NOT give unsolicited advice to any golfer on the course, especially women. It’s sexist and patronizing to single out women for your so-called advice.

2) DO NOT stare and watch women teeing off. It’s downright creepy.

3) DO NOT judge the technique of people playing golf unless it interferes with the safety of others on the course. Golf is hard enough without feeling like the rangers are out there, critiquing your every move.

The response? Well, I would describe it as "tepid." After not hearing from the golf course for a week, I called the head pro to find out if he had received my letter. He said he did and offered words of apology, but it seemed more like lip service than anything else. If I hadn't called, it sounded like the head pro never would have called me, and when I did call, it sounded like he really didn't want to deal with me. The whole incident and lack of response has really left a sour taste in my mouth.

Luckily, there are a ton of other great golf courses around, so I will have no problem taking my business elsewhere for the foreseeable future.

Magical Rounds and Personal Bests

On my annual sojourn to Southern California with hubby, I played some memorable rounds. The day after we arrived, we promptly went out to Encinitas Ranch, which is known as an "easy course" among the locals. I'm not at the point in my game where any course is "easy," but there is something about this place that brings out my best. The staff is super-friendly and we got paired with two affable old gents who smoked cigars but made up for it with their good-natured humor. I happened to be striping my tee shots all day, and at one point, one of the old guys sarcastically remarked, "Booorrring!" which I took to be a compliment.

The highlight of my round was this 150-yard approach shot that landed within inches of the pin:

Shots like that helped me score an 88, which was a nice way to kick off the vacation. Next stop was taking my goddaughter out for her first-ever round of golf. We went to The Loma Club, a 9-hole par 3 course with a kid-friendly vibe. Close to the trendy Liberty Public Market, it also has a hipster vibe, the kind of joint where you can get a beer and a tee time at the same counter. In fact, there is no proper pro shop, just the bar area of the attached pub, where the bartender doubles as the starter. As I was paying for our tee time, she asked, "Do you want a bloody mary with that?" even though it was only 10am.

At that hour, the course was decidedly more kid-friendly than booze-friendly. There was even a golf dad pushing his bag on a pull-cart with one arm and pulling a stroller in the other, while his toddler daughter straggled along, swinging a plastic club.

But my goddaughter is well beyond her first Snoopy set. Here's her first tee shot:

She's got an amazing swing, after only a year of lessons. Look at that extension! And the Loma Club has some sweet views of San Diego from above.

The course even has formidable bunkers that would have most adults quivering in their cleats.

But my goddaughter handled it all with ease. I'm glad I was a part of her first round, and can't wait to see her game progress.

Next stop was Torrey Pines North. The official webpage of Torrey Pines makes it sound like booking a tee time is as hard as snagging a dinner reservation at the hottest 4-star restaurant in town. Last time hubby and I played Torrey Pines North, we showed up at the course around 9am to put our names on the afternoon walk-on list. But that was in the fall, and I thought it would probably be harder to walk on since it was summer. I called the starter to ask about the likelihood of getting a walk-on tee time. He said it's possible but unpredictable, and the easiest way to get a tee time is through the online booking site. While the Torrey Pines official webpage makes it sound like you have to be a San Diego resident to book online, when you actually visit the Torrey Pines Online Reservations site, there is clearly a button for non-residents. "Just keep checking online," said the starter. "People cancel all the time and tee times open up."

As soon as I hung up, I logged on. Like magic, a tee time at 2:05pm for the next day appeared. I felt like I'd just won the lottery. I mean, this is a golf course that charges non-residents a $45 fee for advance booking. But I managed to score a next-day tee time for free (plus the $105 greens fee, of course.) Hubby even took a screenshot of our reservation in case something happened and we'd need it as proof.

Just for fun during the rest of our trip, I continued to check the site for tee times at Torrey Pines. You can book up to 48 hours ahead online, so as long as your schedule is flexible and you look at booking tee times like playing Pokemon (gotta catch 'em all), scoring a decent tee time is very possible. The South course seemed to have more open slots at any given time than the North, perhaps because the South course costs almost twice the price and is a much harder course. It could also be due to the big renovations at the North course last year, which had everyone saying it was like a whole new course.

So how did I play at the "new" North Course? Well, a heck of a lot better than last time. Back then, the kikuyu grass kicked my ass, but this time, the fairways seemed dry and trim, leading to nice rollouts. Even the rough seemed like a million tiny golf tees sticking in the air, so even if my ball landed in them, it remained perched and ready for striking.

But perhaps the biggest change was the addition of shorter forward tees. Before, there were 4 tee grounds, with the shortest being 6122 yards. Now, there are 5 tee sets, with the shortest being 5197 yards. While shorter distance doesn't always mean easy, the lower slope rating indicates a far easier track for ladies and relatively high-handicappers like me.

Looking at the course maps, the you can see that the routing completely changed so that the front and back nines are switched. Here is the old Torrey Pines layout:

Here's the new Torrey Pines North layout:

At the new course, the most scenic holes are on the back nine, which I think is a great change, so tourists like me can try to focus and score well on the front nine, then relax and enjoy the ocean views a little more on the back. 

And that's exactly how my round played out. 

Of course, so many views at this mecca of golf are idyllic, I found myself snapping pictures the whole time.

And looking out for those ever-present paragliders who seem like they could be landing on the putting green ahead.

On the front nine, I shot only 7 over par.

On the back nine, the ocean views overcame me and I shot mostly bogeys.

In the end, I scored a 90 for the round. I was ecstatic, since that's a great score for me at such a reputedly daunting course.

I almost didn't want to play any more golf on the trip because I was afraid to ruin my buzz. But hubby and I decided to play a few more times at some courses we hadn't played in awhile.

One of them was Balboa Park, which still has the best view I've ever seen from a ladies bathroom window.

The course itself is what I would describe as "dystopian." First of all, there are so many planes flying overhead you feel like you're in a war zone. It's also long and hard from the forward tees, and conditions were tough. There were blind tee shots and crazy uphill sideways tee shots and par-3 tee shots requiring driver. Thank goodness, hubby and I decided to ride instead of walk like we did last time. But I still lost a ball in the canyon, just like last time.

After that round, my left forearm started to hurt, which was a sign that I needed to take a break. Once home back east, it would be almost 2 weeks since I played golf again.

The first time back, I went out and shot an 83 at my favorite local course, my personal best there, or anywhere. I'm not sure how I did it, except I felt refreshed from taking time away from the familiar. Or maybe I brought a little magic from that day at Torrey Pines back home.

Another Dip Into the '80s

When the golf is good, life is good. And when the golf is bad, life's awful. I shot an 84 yesterday (lowest score ever), so life's pretty good for the moment. The photo above from my round yesterday captures how I feel, and by the end of this blog post, you'll understand why.

For most of the golf season, you see, I've been struggling with the 150-yard shot due to the fact that my 5-iron can't always reliably make it and my Ping G30 4-hybrid is about as useful for hitting a golf shot as a ski pole. Once upon a time, I owned a Mizuno ladies 7-utility hybrid that looked like a hard-boiled egg on a stick, and I used to hit that pretty well, back when I was trying to break 100 consistently. But that was more than 5 years ago, which is like 25 years in golf club age.

So this year, I decided to do away with all my ladies' clubs and switch them to men's senior flex so my bag would be more consistent. This meant trading in my beat-up old ladies Ping G5 9-wood and 7-wood for a 5-iron and 4-hybrid. The iron replacement worked out, but I just couldn't get the hang of the hybrid.

A few weeks ago on the range, I was practicing my 4-hybrid and hitting every shot as though I were trying to murder all the squirrels hiding in the woods on the left. A couple of guys in the adjoining stalls offered their sage wisdom, which ranged from "You should read that Ben Hogan book on getting rid of a hook. Saved my life!" to "How about you try putting your hands like this, and your feet like that?" (To which I was thinking, How about you try not standing so close to me?)

But a third guy chimed in with something that really rang a bell with me. "I tried playing a 4-hybrid once. Never took. I went back to my old 7-wood and played great ever since."

"I think I'm going with that advice," I told the other two guys on the range. And I promptly went straight home and ordered a Ping G25 7-wood from a certified reseller online. It was listed in "good"condition and came as described, with a few cosmetic scratches but nothing that would affect playability.

Yesterday was the first time I played it on the course, and it made a world of difference. No more struggling with shots in the 150-160 range. No more indecisive thoughts about whether to just hit the crap out of my 5-iron or choke down on my 5-wood because I was afraid to hit my 4-hybrid. Just pure 7-wood confidence.

Here's a cropped version of the photo above, taken from my round yesterday:

In this close-up, you might be able to make out my pink ball at the back of the green. This was a shot from about 155 yards back of the center of the green. First time I'd ever made it on in two at this particular par 4. Thanks to my new 7-wood, I made a lot of score-saving shots. Yup, life is good.

Shiny Balls

I played a scramble tournament with the ladies league yesterday (my team won). One of the fun add-ons was a game called Mystery Ball. Each team was given a blue Nike Mojo ball, which had to be played by a different player on each hole. The object was not to lose the ball -- not such an easy task, since it was a dark, matte blue and definitely hard to spot against green grass. All teams who still had the blue ball at the end of the tournament would be entered in a raffle for a prize. Turned out, my team was the only one that didn't lose their ball, so we won the raffle by default.

Speaking of balls of color, one of the women on my team showed up with the most blinged-out balls I've ever seen. The silver ball is from the Lynx brand, the same maker of a beloved $16 sand wedge I once had. The gold ball is made by Chromax, a specialist in metallic balls of color. I must say that the silver ball was easier to spot in the grass than any golf ball I've ever seen. Maybe it's because they shine like a light, which is the opposite of those matte golf balls I tried out recently.

I think I'm gonna have to try out these metallic, high-visibility golf balls for myself some day. Because finding one's balls should never be a mystery.

(P.S. Nike discontinued its Mojo balls, so now those blue balls will be almost impossible to find.)

Orange You Glad...?

So I tried out the new Volvik Vivid orange balls. As you may know, I like playing with color balls (or "balls of color," as I like to say) because they're fun. When you're playing a ball of color, it takes the guesswork out of who blasted that tee shot furthest down the fairway when everyone else is playing a boring old white ball. I've been playing the hot pink Callaway Supersoft and the tour yellow Srixon Soft Feel balls for a few years now, but a few weeks ago, I noticed that another lady in my golf league plays the same pink ball, and a few others play yellow balls. So I thought I'd try out another ball in a color no one has. This led me to the Volvik Vivid orange ball.

I've played with Volvik Crystal balls before, and I found them too pastel and glittery to be easy to find on the course. But the Volvik Vivid balls are the first-ever ball with a matte finish. And the color promised to be, well, vivid.

The verdict? Well, they have a compression of 80, which is higher than my usual pink and yellow balls, and I did notice the change in feel. They didn't roll out as much on my driver shots, leading to less distance. But they did feel grippier around the greens. I felt my putts were easier to control and rolled somewhat truer. However, the matte finish made them seem to attract and hold dirt more, so if any mud got on the ball (and lately it's been rainy and muddy out there), I had to spend more time cleaning the ball once I got on the green.

And what about the promise of greater visibility? Yes, they are more visible, almost glaringly, annoyingly so -- once you can actually see them. On the course, from a distance, these orange balls actually seem less visible than white or yellow balls. Perhaps it's due to the matte finish, which absorbs light instead of reflecting it.

On the plus side, if you can spot the orange ball in the distance, you will never mistake it for something else, the way you sometimes do with white balls. (How many times have we been given false hope, spotting something light-colored in the rough, only to find that it's just a crumpled receipt or piece of trash?) So unless you're playing in a grove of trees bearing tiny citrus fruits, the Volvik Vivid orange ball will solve at least that common problem.

When the Rough Gets Growing

It was my first play day with the women’s league yesterday. I signed up for the second year, and hopefully I’ll stay fit enough to last throughout the season. I’m limiting myself to no more than 2 rounds a week, once on Wednesdays with the league, and once on the weekend with hubby.

Yesterday, the league played at the same course where I shot an 88 a month and a half ago. Back then, the fairways were hard from the cold, and the rough grass was still thin. Plus, the greens had just been aerated, so balls landed squarely and putts rolled without much break. By now, the rough has grown as thick as a scrub brush and the greens were firm and fast, so balls landing on them had a tendency to roll like a marble out of a frying pan. 

In the end, I shot a pitiful 107. About 5 of those shots were from chunking my wedges into the thick rough. Another 5 strokes were from bunker shots that didn’t quite make it onto the green, resulting in crappy wedge shots out of the rough. I also lost a ball in the water, and another in a red stake hazard, after overhitting a ball past the green.

Thank goodness handicaps only include the 10 best of the last 20 rounds played, and I have enough decent rounds banked for the 107 to be inconsequential. But clearly, I need to practice my wedges. So it’s off to the golf course practice area. Or, since it'll be raining the next couple days, maybe I could just practice hitting balls off a bristle brush at home.

Mansplaining at the Range

I am seething with rage right now. Just got back from the range. I was practicing with my two brand-new Cleveland wedges with ladies graphite shafts. (I recently decided to switch from using my husband's old Cleveland wedges with the stiff iron shafts.) Anyway, I was at the range which has special targets just for practicing short wedge shots. I was almost done with my bucket when some old short, skinny white guy comes up to me and says, "Have you ever watched the LPGA?"
   Having no idea why he was asking me this question, I said, "Yeah, why?"
   "You should watch the ladies on the LPGA," he said. "I noticed your arm, it's like this--" he makes a motion of bending his arm.
   "You mean I bend my arm on the backswing?" I said.
   "Yeah. You need to keep your left arm straight," he said.
   "Have you been watching me this whole time?" I said, accusingly.
   "Well, a couple times," he said, sheepishly, looking away. "Your arm bends on the backswing."
   "I know it does," I said. "I've asked a lot of golf teachers and they all say it doesn't matter. What's more important is what happens at impact."
   "Well, that's true," he said.
   "Have you ever seen John Daly? Jordan Spieth?" I said. "The straight left arm thing is a myth. But why are you telling me this? Do you feel free to come up and comment on my swing just because I'm a woman?" I looked around, noticing there weren't any other women around. I began to get quite angry. "Would you do that to any of these guys around here?"
   The man kept trying to mansplain the golf swing to me. He had no clue that "keep your left arm straight" is overly simplistic advice, just like the commonly heard admonishment to "keep your head down." This douche bag just kept insisting, "If you watch the ladies on the LPGA, some of them are small like you, and they keep their left arm straight."
   "Oh really? Well, they're a lot younger and have been golfing since they were young. You have no idea what kind of physical limitations I might have. And how dare you criticize me! Who do you think you are, my husband?"
   Finally, the man started to back away.
   "Thanks a lot for ruining my day!" I said sharply.

   Later it occurred to me that this asshole might have assumed that I couldn't hit the ball very far, not even noticing that I am practicing my short game with wedges. But at the time, I was so angry I could have punched the guy in the nose.
   This wasn't the first time I'd been approached at a driving range, but in the past it was usually some random dude trying to start a harmless conversation. This time was different. This time, I almost felt sexually harrassed. Golf is a sport that is overwhelmingly dominated by men, but in this day and age, women on the range or on the course should not be considered an anomaly.
   I'm thinking about writing a letter of complaint to the range. Maybe I should demand that they put signs up at each stall, reminding people that it's rude to stare and comment on other people's swings. And if you're a man, keep your damn mouth shut around the women!

Zig-Zag Golf

This may look like modern art, but this is just an illustration to show how I've been playing so far this spring. On the left was a par 4 where I teed off into the trees, then punched out and hit an amazingly perfect 3-wood shot to land within a few feet of the hole. On the right was a par 4 where I teed off into another fairway, then hit a risky hook shot into the right rough, followed by a well-executed wedge onto the green.

On the first hole, I made the putt for par. On the second hole, I made a double-bogey (but only because of poor putting.) Net score for both holes was a 2. Which just goes to show, sometimes a short distance between two points doesn't have to be a straight line.

Another New Course Record

Saturday began with an inauspicious "Windows is preparing to install updates... " error message on my hubby's laptop. An hour later, the message was still there.
   "We have to leave in 30 minutes to make our tee time," I said. "Can you just turn off your computer?"
   "It says, 'Do not power off your computer,'" hubby replied.
   "If we leave it running while we play golf, what if it overheats and explodes and burns the house down?" I said. I often worry about such things before going to play golf. I worry that I've left the coffeemaker on and it will explode and burn the house down. Or that I've left the freezer door ajar and everything will melt and a pool of liquid will soak through the kitchen floor.
   "It's not going to explode," said hubby.
   "I don't want to leave it running all day," I said.
   "But it says not to turn it off," he said.
   "What do you think will happen if you turn it off, it will explode?" I said. "Maybe we should just cancel our tee time."
   Finally, hubby rebooted the laptop contrary to the screen command not to, and the updates installed quickly and smoothly and we made our tee time just in time.

   It was a good thing, too, as I ended up playing pretty well and I shot an 88, a course record for me at this particular track in northern Baltimore County.

   Here's one of my approach shots with the scenic rolling hills in the distant background.

The greens were aerated, which was a bonus if they happened to align straight with the putting line. But when they ran diagonally to my putting line, I just got dizzy and confused.

Still, I made enough putts to score respectably low. I have to give some credit to my newest club in my bag. I recently traded in my old G20 regular flex 3-wood for a new G25 senior flex 3-wood to match the G25 senior flex 5-wood hubby bought me last year.  (Keep in mind that the Ping G25 series is actually already discontinued, but I can't afford to buy the absolute newest clubs all the time. I can only afford them after a price drop or two.) Whether new or just new to me, I must say that the equipment upgrade helped my game. The clubs really do seem more forgiving and hit straighter than my old ones.

Or maybe I just felt relaxed and confident, knowing that hubby's laptop wasn't going to explode.

Putting Out of a Bunker

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday I was golfing in sunny, windy 65-degree weather. Today I'm stuck inside watching snow accumulate on the lawn. Luckily, the brain has something called a memory that can replay pleasant scenes in just this kind of circumstance.

Yesterday started with a restless feeling, as I checked the online tee times of my local course and found that nothing was available till after 12:30pm. So I spent the morning stretching and washing my clubs and winnowing them down to a set of 10, which would make my bag lighter since I was going to be walking. I ate a breakfast sandwich and headed out to the range to practice before my round.

Golf season is gearing up, and it was nice to see some familiar faces around and engage in some light chitchat about golfy things like recent injuries and performance clothing. I got paired with 3 nice gentlemen who were squeezing in a round before they headed off on a golf trip to Myrtle Beach. Naturally, the talk turned to the weather. While it was a sunny day, the wind had some wicked gusts that were throwing me off my game. But after one of the guys mentioned he wasn't looking forward to the 20-degree drop in temps in the forecast in Myrtle Beach, I decided I had no right to complain. Imagine scrimping and saving all year for a week-long vacation, only to find the normally balmy weather suddenly turn cold and rainy. But as any golfer knows, them's the breaks. And to quote Bobby Jones, "Golf is the closest game to the game we call life. You get bad breaks from good shots; you get good breaks from bad shots -- but you have to play the ball where it lies."

The stakes were lower for me. I was just trying to get in my golf fix before freezing temps set in. The handicap season hasn't started yet, so after the first couple double-bogeys, I stopped keeping score. The fairways were still hard and tight and full of patches of dried-out bermuda grass, so it was hard for me to hit any decent irons shots. But I did hit some respectable driver shots and managed to par a couple holes. (To my 90-year-old self who will reread this blog after my days of golf have ended: Remember that long par 3 with water on the left and bunkers on the right? You set up a couple yards back from the forward tees and pured your 5-wood to within 10 feet, pin-high. Great shot, you!)

And I tried something new on a dogleg-right par 4, which was to purposely try and hit a slice. It didn't work, and I ended up playing from the adjacent fairway, hitting through trees only to have my ball rejected like a coin from a broken vending machine. Finally, I punched through and finished the hole with some unpretty putting. But that's what the off-season is for, trying things you wouldn't normally do if you were keeping score.

I also learned something new from one of the guys who landed in bunkers so often I couldn't help but notice. Normally, I don't stare at people swinging, because it's just not polite, but after one bunker shot, I couldn't help but see that he emerged with a putter in his hand.

"You can use a putter to get out of a bunker?" I said.
"Oh sure," he said, "but only if it's a shallow one with no lip."

I was amazed. This was something I'd never seen a highly paid golf professional do on TV, but something I wouldn't be too proud to try if the opportunity arose. Not that I'm going to be aiming for any bunkers. But it's good to know it's an option when you find yourself getting a tough break like landing in a bunker. It's nice to have a new way to play the ball as it lies.

The Day I Forgot How to Drive

It's February and this weekend was almost in the 70s. Of course we had to play golf. The local courses were booked solid from 8am to 2pm so we tried a course farther afield. We'd played there before many times, but not in the past year or so. It was slow, and the warm weather made me feel sleepy. I felt out of sorts from the first tee. My drive at Hole 1 was okay, but after that I seemed to forget how to swing any of my woods. Add to that the topsy-turvy strangeness of playing an unfamiliar course, and it was a recipe for a frustrating round of dead-left hooks and worm-burners.

Whenever that happens, I focus on other things, like working on my art photography for that coffee-table book I dream of publishing. This photo is called, "Long Shadow Girl with Putter."

At least my irons were working, and I made some pretty decent approach shots.

This one was a shot for birdie... but I missed.

This was a shot for double-bogey... and I made it.

On the 18th hole, my driver started swinging straight again. But I had already stopped keeping score. Thank goodness we're still in the off-season for handicaps. And I can just enjoy chipping it close like this, without it having to mean anything:

How did I fix my driver swing? Well, hubby gently reminded me to take the club back on a straight path, not swing back around my body like a tether ball. It's something I should have remembered from my "list," which I carry around in my purse and refer to whenever I temporarily lose my swing.

My list changes from time to time, but currently, it is comprised of just 6 things:

1) straight back, straight through

2) lead swing with left hip

3) keep eye on ball

4) right hand active

5) use obliques

6) for driver, tilt up head, with slightly open club face 

My list also has 3 additional reminders to do the wrist-hinge exercise before a round (where I take my stance, grip the club and just hing my wrists without taking my arms back), use a little forward press of the grip when hitting irons, and put my weight on the front foot when I am hitting wedges.

So that's my current list. Now all I need to do is remember to look at it.

One Fine Day

It's winter, so I've been keeping an eye on the weather forecast, looking out for a mild day. Last Wednesday was such a day. I hadn't played a full round since late October and I hadn't swung a club since New Year's Day. I was nervous about heading straight out to the course, so in the morning I went to the range and hit a small bucket. I was happy to find that I had no leg pain. It looked like all my strength training and stretching were paying off.

When my tee time came around, I was not surprised to see the course buzzing with activity. I was paired with a beer-drinking solo and a pair of cigar-smoking golf buddies. Luckily, they were all walkers and nice guys. They were avid golfers, too, and the talk focused on bucket list courses played and soon to play. They were impressed I'd played Streamsong and Torrey Pines. They said I absolutely have to make it up to Bethpage.

Most of all, we reveled in the fine weather.
"Isn't this just the most perfect day?" said one of the cigar-smoking duo.
"I know," I said. "I feel like I'm in a dream."

I didn't mention what was really on my mind, that my mom passed away on the day after new year's. And I haven't even begun to process my emotions. In times of stress, golf has been my therapy. It is a chance for me to unwrinkle my brain.

So I focused, with relief, on the game. I played a bright pink ball that day, and the guys marveled at how dependably I seemed to be making all my putts in the 10-to-15 foot range.

"Putting is one of things about golf that seems to get better with age," I told them. "Have you ever played golf with 80-year-olds? They can't drive it as far but they sure can putt."

I told them about an 85-year-old guy I once played with. His name was Eugene. I could tell he was just grateful to be alive and active enough to play golf. He made a birdie on the 18th hole and got so excited he literally jumped up in the air. "I can't wait to get home and call my son to tell him I made a birdie!" he said, as happy as a child.

The men smiled, glad to hear that golf really can be played well into one's golden years.

"I live for golf," said one of the cigar-smokers. He was older, retired, and I could tell something about my Eugene story resonated with him. He was a guy who'd obviously had many accomplishments that, to the world at large, would seem far more important than chasing a tiny ball into a hole. And yet today, that was all that mattered.

We were all quiet for awhile, enjoying the game and the moment while it lasted. Like life, golf is a game that periodically makes you aware of its profound absurdity, as well as the supreme gift it is to play it, all the while knowing it will inevitably come to an end, both joys and sorrows.

Golf Resolutions for 2017

Happy New Year (a few days late)! This will be brief since I only had one resolution last year:

#1: Get fit for golf.  How did I do? Well, my forearm tendinitis is gone, and my gluteal and leg pains have improved but not disappeared. However, I did manage to log 20 or so rounds of golf in 2016, and I held steady with a 17.6 handicap at the end of the season. I managed to break my course record at one of my local haunts with an 88, and I shot an 87 at another local course, tying my personal best there. I even managed to gain some distance off the tee. So, I suppose I was fit enough for some golf in 2016. 

For my new year's resolution, I want to continue the trend and keep it simple:

Resolution #1: Stay fit for golf. While I'm being phased out in physical therapy, I've started up another golf strength training weekly session at the gym, added some Pilates reformer sessions and even signed up for monthly massages. In the off-season, I'm focusing on building up core and upper body strength, while working on rotational flexibility too -- these are all important to the golf swing.

It looks like a cold winter ahead, so I may not post a new update till spring. The pictures in this post are from New Year's Day, when it was unseasonably warm and hubby and I shared a small bucket of balls. Even though I haven't swung a club for 2 months, I managed to get off a decent shot or two. And I didn't hurt myself. A good omen, I think.