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Hey guys,

 Well I am just a medical mess, one thing after another.  First I went through a bunch of surgeries, I’ve always had some crazy bone tumor above my ankle (making it impossible to wear any other golf shoes than Footjoy eComforts because they are the only ones that don’t have a high back), I’ve had surgery on my left wrist to remove a cyst, and now I have a lot of pain in my right wrist which I think is another cyst.  The one in my left wrist was very big, and these ones in my right wrist aren’t even visible, so hopefully surgery won’t be required.  Chuck and I had to cancel our lesson today because I couldn’t swing through the golf ball without taking my right hand off the club.

Other than that I am doing great, my golf swing (when I am capable of making one) feels 100 times better than it ever has.  I am finally comfortable with my takeaway.  It took so long to get the right feeling for me and it was so simple.  All I am feeling is that my hands go back a little inside while the club works up.  I occasionally err on taking it back too outside, but I will take that right now.  It feels a lot more natural now.  Chuck and I decided to take things a little slower with my swing, as we are both very impatient people and were trying to move way to fast.  I am probably even more impatient than he is, so it has been a struggle for me to only work on small pieces at a time.  Right now we are working on getting more load into my right side going back.  I didn’t feel much load into my leg and foot at all before, so it’s an odd feeling, but one that is necessary both for control and power.  Chuck’s technical name for what we are working on is “finding my ass”, because that’s where I should feel a lot of support for the load.  So far it’s been going well I think, my swing feels a little more in rhythm and a little more powerful, yet it still needs a good deal of work.  Hopefully I can make progress a little faster. 

With my wrist being hurt, I’ve been practicing my putting and little bump-and-runs a lot.  My putting is still the best part of my game, and it’s been getting even better over the past few days.  My bump-and-runs are also pretty dang good considering all I am doing is employing my putting stroke with a more lofted club.  Bump-and-runs are all about just choosing the right club and the right spot to hit.  My stroke it pretty good so all I try to do is feel how hard to hit the ball.

Hopefully my wrist will heal up fairly soon and I can get back to making progress, I am extremely frustrated not being able to swing a club, I get very antsy and bored not being able to play.

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Hey everyone, I know it’s been quite a while since I have posted anything on the site, but I have been working super hard!  Let me just update you guys on a few things that have been going on.

As you saw in the new video, my swing is improving a lot, but will still take a lot more to get it to where it needs to be.  Unfortunately I cannot swing on that good of a plane all the time.  When I really focus on just that plane of my swing, I can do it, but once we start working on other things, I fall back into old habits and the club gets deep and flat.  It has definitely gotten better, my bad swings aren’t as deep and inside, but it’s going to take a long time to get it to where it’s always up on plane. 

My posture is something that I have been having problems with.  I am a bit more relaxed at address now, with not as much S-Shape in my spine, but I really struggle with standing taller and not slouching with my shoulders.  I told Chuck it makes me feel like I am in a straight jacket when I pull my shoulders back.  I need to work very hard both at the course and at the gym to make it more comfortable. 

So my swing is definitely better, a work in progress, but we all know that the short game is where money is made.  Honestly, my chipping has suffered a bit with all the focus being on my full swing, but it’s not terrible.  I have some things I need to work out before my chipping gets really good.  For one thing, I flip the club a little too much, especially if I am trying to get a lot of spin on the ball.  Basically, my chipping is very inconsistent.  The thing that saves my scores is my putting.  I became, in my mind, an awesome putter through working with Chuck on some things and through trial and error by myself.  Chuck has worked with me on the tempo of my stroke and the path.  I went through a trial and error with my grip and speed control.  I used to get the putter very low in my fingers with my thumbs on top of the club, and I struggled with pulling the ball a lot because my right hand would turn over a lot through impact.  What I do now is I have the grip much more in the palms of my hand.  My left hand is much more flat with my thumb running down the center of the grip.  The biggest difference is my right hand.  It’s a little more under than it used to be, my thumb isn’t on top of the grip anymore, it’s more down the side and I feel like I control the speed of my putts with the pads of my two middle fingers.  My stroke is more a push stroke now, I feel like I am just pushing the ball toward the hole.  I don’t pull the ball much at all now and that led to a lot of confidence which in turn helped my speed. 

Hopefully I will be able to post on here more often, I have just been so busy that it’s hard sometimes.  Thanks for reading! Any questions just post in the comments section!

Hey Guys,  Good news and bad news.  First the good news.  I played fantastic in the first round of the Club Championship.  I shot a 75 with only one birdie, so I was really doing well getting the ball up and in.  I putted extremely well and my ball-striking was pretty good, definitely not where it needs to be, but it’s getting there.  I struggled with my chips which cost me a few strokes, so I really need to work on that area much harder.  I was very happy with the way I played and ended up being the Round 1 leader by 4 strokes.

Bad news…after the round Chuck and I went out to practice and we both hit off the first tee.  The Head Pro came running down and told us we were both disqualified for playing on the same course between tournament rounds.  Extremely disappointing.  First, I just should have known that rule, so that’s disappointing from that standpoint, second, I had a very good chance of winning the Championship tomorrow and now I can’t do that.  If I had gone out tomorrow and lost it that would be one thing, but not being able to even have a shot at it is what gets me.  At least I learned this now during a small tournament like this and not later at a larger one.  Looks like I need to go read the Rules of Golf.

Well guys…I had my last procedure, so I should be pretty much recovered in a few days.  The Club Championship at Windermere Country Club is on Saturday and Sunday this week, so the past 2 days after getting back from Virginia all I have been doing is playing and focusing on hitting the ball.  It’s tough for me because I don’t really trust my swing so I am always thinking about mechanical things.  I have played well off and on that past 2 days, so I think I will be all right going into the tournament.  I will let you know how the tournament goes.

    “Tight Shoes is a Mutha’ (Lover), Jack.  Ain’t nothin’ worse than tight shoes.  You wouldn’t never have to torture me.  Put me in tight shoes, and in twenty minutes I’d confess to anything.”  Richard Pryor

     I enaged in an annual golf ritual over the weekend that I hate above all others: Buying a new pair of golf shoes.  Some of you are wondering, “What’s so tough about that?”  All I can say back is, “You don’t have these dogs.”  They’re 10&1/2-Double E and finding shoes that fit is never much fun. 

    But, over the years, certain models and makes have emerged.  I can walk into a New Balance store and buy their gray running shoes model 900-something and they always fit.  Clark has a shoe called “The Tracker.”  In 10.5-wide, that baby is money.  Golf shoes are different.  Models stay on the market for as long as Tulips flower.  Here today, gone this afternoon.  Of course, I don’t make this any easier by eliminating many possibilities.  I walk the course if at all possible…At the end of the day, at least I can claim to have gotten some exercise.  I won’t buy tennis-type shoes…the usual course has “drainage issues”…ok, it’s a “mudball.”  And, the colors are fairly limited, black, brown, or some combination of the two.  I know white shoes are fairly standard.  But, I can’t help but think they’re best reserved for cute nurses…and, even if, they’d be mudballs on that course.  Then there is the whole genre of white/whatever saddle shoes.  This is where life experiences scar the child for life.  I went to an All-Boys Catholic High School a few miles away from the All-Girls Catholic High School.  Guess what the girls wore?  Oh, yeah, white/black saddle shoes.  We’d go over there when they were dismissed for the day in what was affectionately named, “Cattle Call.”  The Kid?   He ain’t wearin’ no Saddle Shoes!  He ain’t wearin’ no plaid kilt either!

  So, into the store we go.  It’s a ritual.  Grab every model and make in 10&1/2 Wide.  Sales Clerk is staring: “Can I help you?”  “Well, frankly, no…this is a procedure.”  Puzzled look: “Let me know if you need anything.”  Find one that has the least amount of “Hot Spots.”  Nothing fits everywhere on the foot.  Of course, Nike made a shoe for a half an hour that did.  It was the SP-5.  Nike was famous in running circles for making a narrow shoe.  The SP-5 was a mistake that felt like a million bucks right out of the box.  They discontinued it only after making various sequel models that narrowed the shoe right off of my foot.  Had I known…

  After three pairs, I had one on my left foot that felt promising.  It was brown, but the one on my right was a white/black saddle shoe (the store was empty, thank God) that was the right size.  “I could order that baby online if…”  The wife walked around the corner: “That’s an interesting pair.”  “I’m looking for my brighter side.”  New Sales Clerk shows up, “Can I help you?”  “Not unless you’re licensed by the State to practice Psychiatry.”  Concerned stare: “Let me know if you need anything.” 

  Right about then, I remembered Bob the Bootfitter.  In my skiing days, I never had a pair of boots that fit.  I stumbled into Ski Chalet over in Arlington one day and got caught looking wistfully at a pair of boots.  Having usually a set of bruises on the lower legs and feet to show for a day’s skiing, new and shiny boots always had a certain appeal.  A Sales Clerk pounced.  “No, no, I’m sure you have great fitters here in the store.  But, these feet…”  “Sir, we have Bob the Bootfitter…and Bob is a Wizard.”  Well, I’d never even met a certified wizard before.  So, what the heck?  Bob, it turned out was a very nice, bald, bespectacled gentleman who took some measurements on my feet…lots of measurements.  Then he simply took them in his hands one at a time.  Getting a little nervous, “Hey, Bob the Wizard, could you turn those puppies into 11D’s while you’re there?”  He grinned, scratched his head and left.  Out he comes in a few minutes with a sheet of paper: “If you want boots that will fit, you have to go to Salt Lake City, Utah and see the boys out at Daleboot.  They’ll thermoset a boot to your foot.”  “But, I thought you were the wizard.”  “I don’t have enough magic in me to fit those feet.”  The next season, I did what he suggested.  The boys at Daleboot knew what they were doing.  Too bad they don’t make golf shoes.

   So, now I’m on pair number ten.  The one on my left foot has been there an hour.  Nothing is numb yet.  I’m hopeful.  The third Sales Clerk arrives: “Do you need help?”  “Do you have a bottle with a Tax Stamp on the neck you’d be wiling to share?”  Puzzlement: “Call me if you need anything.”  I commit to putting the right shoe of the pair on just in time to see the wife round the corner:

“There’s nothing in here I want.  I’ll be next door when you’re done.” 

“What’s next door?” 

“A furniture store.” 

“You know what?  These shoes are ‘it.’” 

   Maybe they are.  I’ll break them in and hope that the best part of the coming golf days is not the part where I get to take off the golf shoes at the end of the day.  We’ll see.  At least the ritual is over for another year.  Now, if that “Gorilla Glue” will hold on those old SP-5′s for just a little bit…

Hey guys, sorry about the lack of posting lately, but it might continue for a little while.  I had to have a minor procedure over the holidays which turned into a disaster and I was on the couch for about 2 weeks.  Today was my first day back with Chuck in over a month.  Unfortunately I have to have probably 3 to 4 more of these procedures before I am healthy, I am just hoping they aren’t as bad as the first one.  Chuck, my father, and I have decided that we are going to get all the procedures out of the way as fast as we can so that we can continue on with my progress without interuptions.  I will work with Chuck briefly in between each procedure just so I don’t completely lose all the progress we made.

Today was a decent day.  I lost a little of the progress we made and we worked on just hitting punch shots out of divots to get my timing better.  My hips are spinning way out of control and my shoulders get extremely steep and open at impact causing a lot of toe blocks with the occasional pull.  I played decently on the course, with some solid shots, it will just take a while to get back.  Hopefully my procedures go well and I can get back to it going full steam ahead.  I’ll keep you posted.

That was the question my playing partner and I were asking last Saturday.  It was a marginal golf day here in Maryland: 42 or 43 degrees with a Northwest wind of about 6 to 10 knots…enough to remind you that you were living.  There couldn’t have been more than 20 people on the course. 

The two of us were walking.  The Clubhouse Pro told us we had at least three open holes ahead of us when we started.  Sure enough, though, we caught up to the group ahead on Number 7.  Four guys in two carts with combined handicap (if they kept handicaps) of about 120.  They were hitting left and hitting right, but mostly hitting short.  And, that was all well and good…but, they wouldn’t let us through. 

So, standing on number 10 tee box, we waited fifteen minutes for them to scurry around like so many water bugs until we could hit.  “Let’s pick up our fairway balls and go to 11.”  We passed them on the green at 10 and wave.  Hard stares came back. 

“Well, at least we’re by them.”  Not quite.  12 and 13 have fairways that adjoin.  I’m over my tee ball on 13 when my partner stops me.  Here comes one of their carts into my fairway.  We’re waving, they’re ignoring.  And the whole time, they’re walking around.  Ten minutes.  Then they leave the cart behind and return to their fairway.  We look through the trees and there are three groups bunched up behind these guys.  Twenty people on the course and we were all together.

Finally, we got to hit and move on.  But, it does make one wonder what in the world people think on a course.  I can understand not being able to play well.  But, to take the carts, ride hither and yon, and then just gum up the flow…that makes no sense.  Playing 7, 8, 9, half of 10 and waiting on 13 took almost 2 hours.  What should have been a sub-four hour round took over five.  And, it was too chilly for all that waiting. 

Golf rounds have definitely slowed down over time.  But, from what I can see, they’re going to get slower.