Author: The Grateful Golfer

The 2015 Golfing Season is Here!

/ The Grateful Golfer / 4 Comments

The New Year’s celebrations have started all around the world! People are taking to the streets to embrace the sense of hope January first brings. Hope for changes in all aspects of their lives and for some of us in our golf game.

The 2015 golf season is upon us. As I prepare my plan for success, my sense of hope to reach my elusive goal of being a scratch golfer is in my sights and grasp one more time. I plan to build on my positive improvements in 2014 and let them fuel my desire to play even better in 2015.

The Grateful Golfer blog will be making changes as well! I plan a slow evolution towards….well I am not exactly sure yet. This is where hope definitely plays a huge role. Like all aspects of our game, changes are inevitable. Because if we always do what we always have done, then we will always get what we already have.

2015 is going to an awesome year!  It will be a year full of hope and endless possibilities.  I believe that our daily path is created by our intentions and actions.  We all have the ability to create the future we want.  My 2015 golf season will be exciting, focused and full of hope!

I wish everyone a Happy New Year! As the clock strikes 12, your 2015 golf season will officially begin. What are you going to do different to make it your best golf season ever?

See you on the links.  I am a grateful golfer!

It is Golfing Weather – Time to Suit Up!

/ The Grateful Golfer / 7 Comments

Golfers are the best predictors of weather! Better than any groundhog, golfers can sense when the weather is going to cooperate before they hit the links! Some have the innate knowledge of weather by the way the grass leans as they load their clubs into the car and yet others have a divining rod that never fails. Regardless of what they use to determine the weather, it is always “time to suit up”!

Have you ever listen to golfers enjoying a libation at the 19th hole. They can recount every stroke, miss hit, and triumph of their previous round. They know the exact yardage of every shot, the distance of all hazards from their ball and the exact what time their playing partner coughed in their backswing! It is truly amazing the plethora of details every golfer can recount at a moments notice. But, this is nothing compared to their ability to predict weather.

How many of us have been on the links and noticed the weather turning bad. As the clouds start to roll in, (although we heard about it in the morning weather report as we drove to the course) denial of the obvious occurs and the weather predictions start rolling in. Golfers instinctively know exactly when the first drop of rain will fall. Their time appreciation is so exact, Swiss watchmakers use them instead of the world atomic clock!

At all times, golfers know the exact wind speed and direction. By tossing a few blades of grass in the air, golfers make a million precise calculations to determine the exact effect the wind will have on their ball flight. With this critical information, amateurs will compensate their aim by two or three yards! It is truly amazing.

The last important weather factor is temperature. Golfers know that a slight change in temperature will cause their game to improve or not. A couple of degrees is the difference between being too cold and stiff to swing a club or to hot and sweaty to effectively hold a golf club! So, selecting the exact tee time will correspond with the known variations in temperature is as much an art as a science!

Actually, all these weather factors are most important when determining when “it is time to suit up”! Knowing the weather will determine what to wear and this is important to playing great golf.

All golfers have an obsessive focus on the weather. By fine tuning their weather predicting skills, golfers feel they can gain that slight advantage needed to win their next match!

Personally, I think it is all a bit crazy, but it is fun to talk about. Knowing the weather is important because I hate being caught on the golf course without my umbrella!

I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!

2014 GIFs of the Year: The WTFs

/ The Grateful Golfer / Leave a comment

Adam Sarson provides another awesome collage of gifs. These make us amateurs realize that anyone can have a bad day! Enjoy!

adamsarson's avatarAdamSarson.com

11.15.14-poulter-ball

Over the last two weeks, I’ve been posting my 2014 Golf GIF Roundups, broken down into several ‘Best Of’ categories. Today, we wrap it up by looking some of the weirdest moments from on and off the course over the last twelve months.

Previous posts: The Shanks, The Laughs, The Rage, The #TourSauce, The Reactions, & The Shots

Last year’s WTFs

If you’ve played golf for any length of time, you know that the game never makes any sense, even for the pros. Of course, the pros can sometimes act a little strange themselves for a variety of reasons. The GIFs below are the best of those moments from the last twelve months.

View original post

2014 GIFs of the Year: The Shots

/ The Grateful Golfer / Leave a comment

Thanks to Adam Sarson for putting together these great shots of 2014. If you have not seen them, they are definitely worth the look. Enjoy!

adamsarson's avatarAdamSarson.com

Jack's still got it. Jack’s still got it.

Over the next two weeks, I’ll be posting my 2014 Golf GIF Roundups, broken down into several ‘Best Of’ categories. Today, we look back at some of the best shots over the past twelve months.

Previous posts: The Shanks, The Laughs, The Rage, The #TourSauce, The Reactions

Last year’s Shots

Whenever you hear golf commentators talk about “Shots of the Day”, in all likelihood you are about to see a shot where the ball goes in the hole. Putts, chip-ins, hole outs from the fairway or an ace are all possibilities, but what you rarely see are the ones where a player gets creative or when the situation appears to be so dire, that a quality result seems to be nearly impossible. Those are the ones I’m interested in, the ones where the pros get to show off how good they really…

View original post 30 more words

Travelling With Golf Clubs

/ The Grateful Golfer / 6 Comments
DSCF3028

Ice Storm – I need a golfing vacation!

Another Christmas Day is in the books! I hope everyone enjoyed their time with their special someone and had time to relax, eat, and laugh until your belly hurt. For most of us, winter is still limiting our ability to hit the links. With cold temperatures limit our activities, thoughts of sugar plums in our heads has shifted to golf trips to warmer climates. If you are planning on travelling to play golf anytime soon, it is important to pack your clubs with care.

Packing golf clubs properly makes a tremendous difference to their well-being. Additionally, identifying them with a unique tag, cloth, or ribbon is a must to prevent confusion at your destination. But, these are just a few things that every golfer could do to make sure their golf vacation an overwhelming success.  Mark Aumann at the PGA has even more great tips. Here is he has to say:

  • Try to get a non-stop flight, if possible. 
  • Get a durable, well-made travel bag. 
  • If you use a soft-sided bag, don’t forget to pack a golf club protection device. 
  • Don’t forget that golf bags are considered “oversized check-in”. 
  • Add some personal ID marking to your bag. 
  • Don’t wind up with more luggage than you need. 
  • Think about a cab or car service (or ride to airport).
  • Pack your clubs so they won’t move around in the travel bag. 
  • Use your travel bag for additional storage. 
  • Don’t leave your expensive electronics in your golf bag. 
  • If you’re still leery of putting your equipment on a plane, do use a shipping service. 

For more details, you can read his entire article at PGA.com.

Planning a golf trip anywhere warm is always fun. Proper care of your golf clubs only enhances the experience. I am not planning a golf trip this year, but if you are, I would like to hear about it. So drop me a line and let me know where you are going! It is always fun to share golfing stories when snowbound for 4 months!

I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links