Going Pro Golf Blog

I opened my eyes at 8am to the sound of rain pouring down on the roof on my house so I set the alarm for 9:30 and got some much needed sleep.  I eventually made my way to Hamilton Golf and Country Club and entered the gates at 11am.  There had been an hour rain delay so I hadn’t missed much.I walked into the gates and was bombarded by sponsors pushing everything from Authentic Canadian Open Flags to a golf comic book.  Once I push my way through the crowds and stock up on hundreds of free gum samples, I make my way to the VIP tent for some free VIP beer.  Turns out the VIP beer costs $5.25 but it is served by a great looking waitress so that takes some of the sting off the wallet.  As I drink my beer I check out the pairings for the day.  Due to the rain, the golfers are now playing in 3s.  The other great thing about the rain is that the place is relatively empty (and remains that way all day) so I can basically get as close to any green or tee box I choose. I start by watching the players at the driving range.  Vijay, Furyk, Camilo Villegas and Rory Sabatini are all hitting balls while a small crowd watches.  A lot has been said about Furyk’s swing but it is something to behold in person.  But no matter what people say, you can’t argue with results.  I also couldn’t believe what great shape Villegas is in.  He isn’t a big man but he is built and hits the ball a long way.  Other big observations were how they warmed up.  Vijay swung a weighted club for about 10 minutes then would swing it again in between practicing his irons.  I also watched as both Vijay and Villegas spent a long time working within their self-made training stations.  Jon has me using these all the time which made it so weird to see these pros doing the exact same thing.  They had their clubs on the ground helping with alignment and take-away, the exact same thing I do at the range.  I guess you always need to return to basic fundamentals. I won’t bore you with the hole by hole details but I basically ran around watching as many different groups as I could.  I spent time at tee-boxes, in fairways watching approach shots and around the greens watching short-game.   A couple of things really jumped out at me – While they all drive a long ball, I can’t believe how great they are with mid to long irons!  It blew me away watching the control they had.  I was also impressed with their chipping and pitching.  Regardless of lie or slope of the green, these guys are always within gimmie range.  What did shock me was how few putt they make.  The guys I was watching weren’t sinking very many 10-15 foot putts at all.I also loved watching how precise each player is with their shot selection and how involved some caddies are with their players.  Many players spend a long time talking with caddies before each shot.  Speaking of shot selection, I was standing beside Vijay on a Par 3.  The hole was slightly elevated and it had just finished raining.  After spending 2-3 minutes reviewing his yardage book, Vijay got ready to hit.  Just as he was over his ball, a slight gust of wind kicked up.  Vijay backed off, watched the wind the consulted his book once again.  He then switched clubs, tee’d the ball slightly higher and proceeded to stick it pin high leaving him a 10 ft look at birdie.  That was simply amazing. What did I learn from the Open?  Practice makes perfect.  I also learnt the need for a consistent and deliberate pre-shot routine.  Just as Jon talks about all the time…there is the Think Box and the Play Box.  All the pros do this and you can’t argue with their results!

It is getting darker very early these days and this September has been much cooler than it was the past few years.  All this signals the end of golf season.  I am hoping to squeeze in a bunch more rounds but I can feel the end coming fast.

I have a lesson with Jon next week to cover sand play.  This is something we haven’t covered yet.  Last week we met to go over short-game.  My chipping has been a disaster mainly due to my fear of using anything but a SW around the greens.  We worked on distance control and using different clubs when the situation calls for it.  In the end, this is all about putting in the proper time to improve.

I still haven’t reached my goal of a high 80s score yet but there is till time! 

I am going to the big time people!  My good friends at Thundering Waters called up and invited me to play in the John Day Pro-Am on September 12!  Sure, I might not be playing with John himself but it is promising to be a fun day of golf and John will be there as well.  I am trying to book 2 more lessons with John before I go so I don’t embarrass either of us!

I was looking forward to playing golf tomorrow morning but then I got an email from a friend last night saying she had a VIP pass to the Canadian Open for Saturday and I jumped all over it!  As much as I want to play, I also want to see what this is like as I have never been to a professional tournament…the free drinks also might have caught my attention.  I report back Sunday! I also have a lesson with Jon this afternoon where we will be working on my short-game. 

It has been 16 days since I last played golf and I have the shakes!  It is time to get out and swing the sticks.  I am going to book a round either tomorrow or Wednesday.  I also have my first lesson with Jon this Friday (It has been a month since we last worked together) and I will try to get at least one more round in this weekend.  The potential to golf this week is the only thing keeping me going. Also, I hurt my ankle playing soccer this weekend.  I usually play twice a week in a mens league.  My first thought when I hit the ground was weather I was going to be able to golf this week…how awesome is that?  The ankle is pretty bruised but I think I can tape it up and swing the club. 

I was strongly considering taking a week off but I just can’t do it.  I am heading away tomorrow afternoon for a weekend of sun and beers with my friends.  We aren’t leaving until 2pm so I am going to squeeze in a quick 18 bright and earlier at Cardinal! This game is like crack!

Isn’t golf an amazing game?  Just when one part of your game feels so good…it can just go south in a hurry?   After my horrible putting display last weekend, I am really rattled.  I just don’t want to even see a putter.  I am heading away this weekend (it is a Canadian long weekend) and wasn’t going to bring the clubs…but I just got a call and found out we aren’t leaving until later Friday so I may sneak in 18 Friday morning.  I just hope I can shake my putting troubles. Isn’t it also funny how sometimes things just click?  Granted it is easier for things to fall apart but sometimes on a given day, you can just swing with your eyes closed the the results are outstanding.  Those days are few and far between but it really gets you thinking about how weird this game can be!

Thanks to Heits for the comment a few days back.  Basically, Heits stated the summer is almost half over (damn, where did it go?), how do I feel and how am I doing so far?  Great question, I think I have been so focused on writing about my scores and lessons that I have gotten away from how I am dealing with the lessons, changes to my swing and my entire mental state.  I will start making this a regular update from now on. It is funny this comes up now because Jon recently asked me this question and I had to stop and think about it for a while.  My answer was that I felt like I am the best worst golfer out there.  I love stupid logic but that is really how I feel.  I am not shooting low at all but I know so much about the golf swing now.  When I hit a bad shot, I right away know what went wrong, I can even tell what other people are doing wrong (to some degree), although I never say anything because I don’t want to be “that guy” who we all hate on the course. I really feel like my game has come so far yet I still hit around 100 on average.  The reason is that we completely dismantled my swing and started from scratch.  Some friends will go for lessons and immediately shave 5 strokes off their game so they wonder how I am still shooting the same scores.  It is simple, they have gone in for a quick fix and adjustments to already bad swings.  While they may shave 5 strokes, that is about as good as they will ever do with that swing or with the knowledge they have.  My swing and golf is now a lifetime work in progress and I am fine with that.  Jon has conditioned me not to worry about results, just focus on where I will be next year and each year after that. Right now I love my short game.  I feel great from 100 yards in and am very comfortable putting.  I really need to keep focusing on my long game.  If I can ever get my driver working, I will shave a lot of strokes off my game.  This is an incredible stat but in my last 2 rounds I have only hit 6 greens in regulation.  5 were Par 3s and 1 was a par 5!!  This is not good at all but is all about my long game.  I am never in a good position to hit the green.  I have a horrible mental block that takes over me when I stand over my driver.  I have no problem with my 5 wood but the driver is 4 times the size and just scares the hell out of me.  I am going to dedicate 90% of my practice time the next 2 weeks to nothing but driver.  Let’s see if that helps. That being said, I am nowhere near the goal I set for myself.  Going into this season with never having taken lessons, I was hoping to consistently hit in the high 80s-low 90s.  There is still time but I will need to bear down and put in some serious work at the range!

This past weekend I encountered my first brush with a bad mental game.  Anyone who has golfed at any level has struggled with their mental game from time-to-time but I have hit a very serious wall.  It all revolves around my driver.  It isn’t that I can’t hit it, it is that I can’t even bear to look down at it as I address the ball.  It is pure fear.  I think about missing the ball at address, during the backswing and again during the downswing.  I don’t have this issue with my other woods but something about the driver scares me and it is killing my game.  I haven’t had a lesson with Jon in weeks but will be seeing him this Friday.  Jon has done a lot with mental game development and I plan on talking to him about this at length.  Pray for me!