Short, Short, Short!!!

Yes that can be used to describe my stature. It can also be used to describe my putting over the weekend.

Apart from making a birdie on the first hole, my putting for the rest of the round was terrible. I left a lot of first putts short, leaving me many testing 2nd putts. My chipping was also shoddy. Tee shots and irons were kinda average. When I think about the round, there was nothing too great about it. But I did finish the round with the same ball I started with :) It's always good to end it without losing a ball.

Considering how bad the round felt, I still managed to shoot a +12 off the stick for a 69 net. Another two or 3 strokes less would have been enough to win the monthly medal.

Oh well... I'll try again next month.

Tiger Upgrade Friends?

Tiger decided he couldn't have a best friend with only two majors, so he upgraded to Roger Federer.

:)
Courtesy of Hot & Not.

And what's with Sergio spitting in the cup? Pretty gross if you ask me.

CPGC Matchplay Trophy - 2007

CPGC Matchplay Trophy - 2007
Originally uploaded by ZanMan77.

Well... after 4 rounds of grueling matchplay, I got to take home my prize. It wasn't easy though. My game was a bit shaky for most of the 18 holes, and it completely fell apart on the 13th with me hitting my ball out of bounds. I conceded that hole to go one down with 5 holes to play, my opponent was hitting it pretty solid and it looked like he was doing it easy.

But I pulled my head out of my butt and put in some pretty solid shots to par the next 4 holes to win the match 2 & 1. I was pretty happy with those 4 holes but I wish I could play like that for all 18. :)

To top things off... I also won 3 beers at the club raffle after the game.
:)

Shanks!!!

There is nothing more terrifying than hitting shank after shank on the driving range 10mins before teeing off for a match. Well that's what happened on the weekend, and I was in a panic. I managed to hit a solid first drive with everyone watching, but then went ahead and topped my next shot. :(

I was two down after two holes and it was looking bad. But I managed to grind out the rest of the front 9 to pull even by the turn. I scored a birdie on the 10th (free ball.. yay!) and managed to pull out a 3 hole win on the match.

So I've got one more match to go before the final. And I'm playing against the club captain this weekend. Here's hoping for another win. :)

Matchplay: Through Round 1

Our club started rnd 1 of our matchplay comp and I'm happy to say that I made it through. I got to the second round last year but had to withdraw because I wouldn't be available the week after. This time I've set aside 4 weeks to try and make it to the final. I think I've got a good chance of progressing because my current HC is 15. I know I can play better than this.

And I did on Saturday. Overall my game was solid. I would have shot around 82 if it was stroke play. The good part of the day was winning 3 balls for my effort. I got two closest to the pin prizes and one for a birdie. It would have been 4 balls if I didn't get pipped by a few meters on the long drive hole.

Looking forward to this weekends play. Here's hoping that I can make it to the 3rd round. :)

Scott Nofriends

Being a regular golfer I often come across people wandering the current hole I'm playing looking for their wayward balls. But this was a first. Upon seeing a guy looking around the fairway, we told him that no balls were spotted coming through the fairway. He replied:

"I'm looking for my friends"

in a think foreign accent. I thought I misheard him but he told us that he lost his group of players.... what the!

Not knowing what to say we just wished him the best of luck finding friends and kept playing. We saw him a few minutes later playing by himself behind us, but lost him after that.

I sure hope he found his friends. :o

Tiger Trap

Not being a huge fan of Tiger Woods when he burst onto the scene many years ago, I've grown to admire his ability and his achievements. I now count myself as one of his many fans. :)

I'd be pretty pleased if he suddenly rocked up to my tee and asked to hit off with us. :)
It's hard not to like the guy when you see how he interacts with average people / golf hacks like us.

Golf stat tracking application

As one of my friends know, I've been planning for years to write a Mac application to track golf scores. It was a good idea, but I find it hard to sit down to write code after doing it all day at the office. I did write one about 4 years ago. It was called StatCaddy and was about a version 0.7 type of standard. I would have continued on with this app but it was a Windows application. This was before I discovered the joys of OS X. :)

A couple of years down the track and no lines of code written (but lot's of dreams of raking in a good living from sales of StatCaddy) I got sent a link to an application that looks like it does all that I planned.

It's called Scorecard



The demo allows you to enter 5 rounds. So far I've only added one ... but it looks quite good and polished so far.
I'll evaluate it over the next few rounds to give a buy or trash verdict. :)

Hot Hot Hot!

Itching for a round of golf, I headed out to Burswood yesterday. On a day forecast to be 41' it was a crazy idea. The worst part of the day was the humidity. I usually soak a small towel to wrap around my neck on hot days but that was close to useless. My game was out of sorts for most of the day. Overall I'd sat my game was bad... with flashes of brilliance (I did get two birdies). I was only +1 on the back 9 until I choked on the last hole with a double bogey. Overall an 80 in those conditions isn't too bad.

I've also been watching the Women's Australian Open this weekend. It's great that someone like Karrie Webb still returns back for the Aussie tourneys. As for the quality of the golf... it's outstanding. Their golf is something that I can relate to better then the men's game. I can't bomb my drives 290 meters like the guys but my distances are more similar to the ladies.

It looks like it'll be 2 weeks before my next game. I'm hoping to get out with the club for a bit of competition play and the schedule says that we're going to be playing at Meadow Springs. So I'm looking forward to that. I just hope that I'll get a chance to head down to the driving range for a quick tune up.

Golf-fest

I've had a good couple of weeks over the holidays with 2 sometimes 3 rounds of golf a week. Thanks to my awesome wife who is encouraging me to get out there with a mate who is visiting from interstate. Thanks Pessimistic Golfer for visiting and playing heaps of rounds :P

Overall I'm pretty happy with my game. I've shot two rounds in the 70's and have been striking the ball well (most of the time).

We've been trying out courses that we used to play years ago. Places like Wembly and Carammar. It's been nice to see how my game has progressed over the last 3 - 4 years. My driving distance has increased by 10 - 20 meters and I've been able to put the ball in places that I haven't been able to reach before.... and that includes an additional 10 meters into the bushes too. :)

Looking forward to the golfing year ahead.

iCareerEagles++

For those that are not geeky enough... I added another eagle to my career tally (3) with a chip in from 10m on a par 5.

It was sweet and it was the icing on the cake on my Saturday round of 81 off the stick. Which is a score that I didn't think I had any chance of getting. It had been about a month and a half since I got out onto the golf course and the day was a stinker at 38°. So a score like that in those conditions has given me back a big shot of confidence in my game.

Looking forward to the many rounds of golf over the next few weeks of the holidays :)

Don't be scared... let it go!

I didn't get out for a round this week, but I did take a trip down to the range. I struck the ball pretty well and most shots were straight or draws. But for some reason this doesn't occur when I'm out on the course. I think it's a mental thing where I'm scared of releasing the clubhead fully. I'll just have to trust my swing more and loosen up the tension in my hands.

It doesn't look like I'll get a chance to get out with the club this weekend either :(

I might have to try and squeeze in a midweek round :)

Lame Duck

We played a game of stableford yesterday. I finished with 35 points.. which equates to a one over my hc. The first 9 was a bit hit and miss with 17 points. But it got worse when I started my back 9. I hit a duck hook on the 10th and was lucky to find my ball. Another hook on the 11th and one on the 13th where I had to scratch the hole really hurt.

I think I was starting to tire and that was causing my bad swings. It was also a pretty difficult day because of the wind. I really have to try and play better in windy conditions.

But I was pretty happy with the way I finished off the last 3 holes. I knew I needed to score some points to get close to shooting my hc and managed to get par's on the final 3 holes... I think that's what they call 'grinding it out'.

What could have been ...

I had a day off for an electrician to come and do some work on a rangehood installation. And I was off to the golf course after he was done.

I had a ripper of a front 9 with a +2 (38). My tee shots were a bit hit and miss. But I was able to recover from all the bad drives with some pretty good saves.

With great anticipation I headed to the 10th to start my back 9... but 3 holes into it, my stomach started to play up. I couldn't take it anymore and had to return to the clubhouse.... quick! The runs was the last thing I wanted on a day like this. I went back out feeling quite light on my feet and played one more hole before needing to head back in again :( ... oh well, at least I par'd the hole after my detour to the clubhouse :)

I'm not dissapointed.. it's quite amusing looking back on it :)

I think I would have shot in the high 70's if I could have played on. It gives me some good things to take into this weekend when I tee it up with the club again.

Let's hope I get to stay out for the full 18 holes this time :)

Wilson - 17' Hybrid

Didn't get a chance to play a round this weekend. But I did manage to sneak down to the course to buy myself a hybrid. It's a Wilson Staff 17' hybrid. Something to replace my 3-iron, which like my 2-iron is just in my bag for show.


There was also a Cobra demo day down at the driving range, so I tried out their new driver with the carbon composite crown. That 460cc head is huge! Something I noticed about the strikes I hit was the height of my ball flight (9' & stiff shaft). I think a regular flex shaft would suit me better. But the biggest difference was the forgiveness. The Cobra was longer than my current driver by about 10/15m but at $575 I'm not sure if it's quite worth it. :)

Maybe as my Christmas prezzie :)

11 Shots better

Went out for a round with some old uni friends today. The weather was just awesome. Overcast and cool all day :)

I shot a pretty average 46 on the front 9 and it was looking like another ho hum round. But a couple of pars and one birdie (can't remember the last time I got one) to give me a back nine of 41 sure made it better. The biggest thing that helped was my misses... I didn't make worse than a bogey on the back.

Looking forward to my next round :)

Tragic...

I shot 98 ... said that I would be happy with an 85 but I was nowhere near that. 

The day started great with me nailing my tee shot straight down the fairway with a 250m drive. I had a look at the club face and there was a big ball inprint right in the center. So I centerd it and really compressed the ball well. I thought this might be my type of day.... until I found that my ball landed in a nice big pork chop size divot. From there I struggled to an outward 9 of 48. A 50 on the back 9 just completed the shocking round. 

I didn't actually strike the ball that badly... I just can't put it all together at the moment. 

Oh well.. I'll just keep persisting. As long as I stay under 100 :)

Return to the club

Finally getting a chance to play with the club group tomorrow. Looking forward to it since it's been about 1-2 months since I've played with those guys.

I'll be very happy if I shoot 85 (That kinda indicates how bad I've been playing recently).
:)

I'm close :)

Close to getting back my good golf scores again. I shot an 87 on the weekend. Not very spectacular but there were some promising developments. I hit some good long drives, decent mid irons and my putting was solid. 

There was a bit of fade in most of my shots but nothing too distance zapping. I also switched to the Callaway HX Red ball. Cheaper than the black tour version and probably more suited to my swing speed. I can hit the range more often with the money I save :)

Where I did falter was my short / wedge game. This plus a few wayward drives really hurt me with some double bogeys.

One of my buddies that played was swinging his new R7. Now I used to average about the same distance with him on our drives. But I was quite suprised to find that he was outdriving me by a good 10m / 20m. Even when I hit a solid 240m drive, he was 10m past me eventhough his ball rolled through the rough. I'm using a Callaway Hawkeye 9' (old tech) and now I'm wondering if I should upgrade my driver. It'll make me hit further... but that's no good if I'm just going to be further into the bushes :)

I was considering a hybrid to help me with those shots out of tricky lies. Maybe that's the smart purchase. It would be a good club to use on those long par 5's when I'm not too confident with my 3w. It might be a little Christmas present to myself later this year. :)

A new hope.

No not the movie but my golf game.

I haven't touched my clubs for a month or so and I'm itching to get back out for a game. I've just been too busy with working weekends and planning a holiday. Anyway, my wife and I were in Phuket last week (I should have brought my clubs) and I picked up a golf magazine from the resort library. While flicking through it by the pool and sipping mocktails (yes I lead a hard life), I picked up some tips that I thought could help my shameful ball striking.

My bad ball striking leads to a weak fade and sometimes a slice... and this robs me of so much distance. I used to have a pretty strong grip with both my hands, but I tried going to a neutral grip (left) and slightly weak (right). Combined with some tweaks to my backswing, I started to hit some powerfull draws with my irons and driver. There were some big hooks but not enough to cause worry. And those weak fades were pretty rare.

So I've got a game scheduled with some mates tomorrow at Collier and I'm looking forward to it. Let's hope I can shake my bad form and get a good round in. :)