Round: Tedesco Country Club

4 Players (Me, Scott, Mike, Bruce)

Pre-round practice: 20 balls

18 Holes

Much anticipated round since getting the invite to play with Scott Boal, family friend, to play at his members-only Country Club. Tedesco Country Club is a beautiful course located in Marblehead, MA. Coming off a few frustrating rounds with the shanks, I seemed to clear those demons early-on while hitting balls on the range. Scott quickly found me and we both headed straight to the first tee. The first tee was an elevated shot onto a lengthy par 4 fairway. We were playing a friendly skins game between myself and Scott vs. Mike and Bruce. Scott and Bruce are both low handicappers so I was excited to finally see some good players for a change. I opened up on the first hole with a nice straight shot down the middle. After a chip on the green, I was truly surprised at how a "true" the greens were cut. I'm not familiar with greens cut this close and as a result, I began blowing all my putts way past the holes. After about 9 holes, I began to get the feel and made some impressive putts. There was an interesting issue with many of the holes on the course involving hundreds of thousands of dead worms. These worms were living beneath the grass in the rich soil and creating destructive turd mounds on the fairways. The club sprayed a chemical all throughout the course and eventually killed all the worms. On this day, the sun was out and literally baking all the dead worms producing a rotten fishy stench. It was so bad on some holes that Mike preferred to cover his face and breathe into a sweaty old golf glove. It didn't bother me at first but on the back nine there were a few gags. Moving on, for the remainder of the round I relied on my scrambling abilities and putting to eventually get the win over the other twosome. I won my first dollar in competitive golf! After the round we met up with my girlfriends family and had lunch at the BEAUTIFUL clubhouse (See photos below). All in all, it was a really great experience and it worked out as good as I had hoped. Now, back to the range!!!!

Score: 92

Notable
Scrambling and pitching

Practice
Hitting it straight off the tee

18th hole, clubhouse

3rd hole, Par 3

Round: Presidents Golf Course

4 Players (Me, Lynch, Laura, Erik)
Pre-round practice: Nada

18 Holes
Not a round worth talking about. I hit two good 8 irons and shanked everything else. So, let's reflect on the positives and enjoy all the beautiful images we captured throughout the day.

Overlooking the 3rd hole

Overlooking the 14th hole

Lynch and Laura

Me aka "The Third Wheel"

Hero shot, almost holed the chip off the fairway

Intense sun hitting into the short par 4

Diabolic elevated green

Retro edit

The Dreaded Shank

The dreaded shank has surfaced, shown its ugly face and won't go away. I'm hoping this will be the first, last and only post I ever write about this topic. I do not want to pay any attention to "the shank" other than right now. I'm having serious issues getting rid of this errant shot that is plaguing almost 1 out of every 2 short irons shots. It's creating such a destructive, confidence eliminating mindset. Every time I stand over a shot, I'm saying to myself, "Don't shank it, don't shank it, don't shank", and then THWACK! that horrid sound results. I'm seriously on the verge of tears of frustration out on the course but I'm addressing the problem thanks to tips from the pros (see video below). I'm determined to get back on track.



Drill: Try this drill: Place a headcover just outside the ball, and practice hitting wedges. To miss the headcover, you have to swing from the inside with the face more open (left). If you're hitting shanks on the course, imagine the headcover in place and miss it from the inside.
—Butch Harmon / Golf Digest Teaching Professional

Round: Paul Jensen Tournament 2011

4 Player Team (Me, Erik, Tony, Joe)
Pre-round practice: Chipping, putting

18 Holes
Much anticipated first career best ball tournament hosted by my Uncle Russ. I was able to assemble a team of four with myself as team captain. We knew we weren't going to win this year because your supposed to select a team of A-B-C-D golfers, "A" being a low-handicapper and "D" being your worst. With me being the unofficial "A" golfer, it's safe to say we weren't going to be destroying the field. We were out there to have fun and get our blood pumping. We went into the tournament with no expectations, except to just play our best and regret nothing. To my amazement, we did that and more carding a final score of 69 (-1). We should of ended with a 66 (-4) but fatigue and lost focus eventually crept into our game. Overall, I was very impressed with everyone's performance. My strategy was to have Joe shoot first (no pressure), followed by Tony, Erik and myself. The lineup proved to be very effective. Joe made our lives easy by holing some great putts. Tony was the middleman, delivering an occasional safe iron shot or lag putt. Erik did exactly what I wanted him to do and that was putting us into the fairway with deep drives. I delivered an occasional clutch wedge shot and putt. After the round all the participants met and had a steak dinner at the clubhouse. There was also a raffle in which I came away with an oversized golf glove. Wicked pissah. I had a blast and can't wait to play again next year.

Score: 69 (-1)
Winning score: 63 (-7)

School of Golf: Spinning the ball

As seen on the Golf Channel's "School of Golf"

Spin is needed for 

• fast & firm greens
• when there's no green to work with
• for downhill & downwind shots

The Spin Formula
The quality of the golf swing + the ball you use + grooves of the club.

• Ball should be in the middle of stance.
• Need for speed! Acceleration.
• Hit down on the ball w/ a descending blow. Weight should be on left-side.
• Short backswing, long finish.
• Be sure to always clean your grooves.

Never focus on "impact"

I've been getting caught up lately with the impact position of the swing. So much that I've seemed to develop a bad habit where my hands and body completely stop almost immediately after impact. I'm not "releasing" the club and following through to a balanced finish. The reason I bring this up is because I find it so easy to lose focus of the relationship between the club and the body. I heard some great advice about the concept of the swing by acclaimed instructor Jim Waldron. I think his quotes would be helpful to any golfer as a refresher course in understanding how the swing should feel and be executed. Jim notes...

"The impact happens in the middle of the forward swing, not the end."

"Never focus on the impact."

"Impact is something you should let happen, not make happen."

"Never focus on hitting the ball. Instead, focus and visualize sending the ball to the target."

"Don't try to control the club. The club controls you. The club and its proper path should manipulate the swing motion of your body."

Round: Ponkapoag Course #2

1 Players (Me)

Pre-round practice: None

18 Holes

UNEXPECTED BREAKTHROUGH ROUND!! I happened to record my first career eagle! And I wasn't able to share it with any one but myself. Today is labor day and a beautiful one at that. I had the day off and hadn't recorded a round since early August, so it was a good excuse to get out and get back some feel before Russ' upcoming tournament. Without any expectations, I drove to the course, paid my greens fee and stepped onto the first tee without any pre-round warm-ups or playing partners. I started by rifling a 270 yd. drive to the right and then wedged it to within 15 ft. I left with a par moved on but quickly put on the brakes as the players up ahead were scanning to woods for their balls. Slow play continued through to the 10th tee, but it was at the drivable 5th hole, 270 yd. par 4, where the special moment occurred. Now, I've had good luck in the past few rounds with getting my tee ball right around the green, so I pulled out the driver once again, envisioned a cut shot and executed it perfectly. The ball stayed on a low trajectory and landed dead center of the green, 15 ft. from the pin. I got up to the ball and saw it as an uphill putt and knew that I MUST not leave it short, which was what happened last time. The putt was very straight, I put my head down, put on a good strike and as I looked up the ball slowly krept to edge and dropped in. WOOOT!! I actually lifted my arms to the sky and let out a big scream of fulfillment. Embarrassingly, as I came back to my senses, I noticed two dudes staring at me laughing. I packed my putter and continued to the next tee. The rest of the round included many ups-and-downs with another highlight on hole #14, 400 yd, par 4. I crushed a 310 yd. drive right down the middle leaving me with only 90 yds. It was one of those rare moments when the swing was in perfect motion and the body was in complete unison. I swung at about 90 percent and I caught the ball square and dead-center of the club-face, feeling the ball compress and explode in that split second. Effortless.
Notable
Tee shots and ball-stiking

Practice
Irons

Scorecard

Monster 310 yd. drive!

Converted eagle putt!