It is the time of year where my golf swing starts to show signs of wear and tear. I have played a fair bit this year and come September, I find my longing to rush to the course waning. This is nothing new because my other life interests (coaching basketball at the local high school and preparing our yard for winter) start to take a leading role in how I spend my time. Knowing this, I must stay focused as I still have two events left before putting the clubs away for the season. One is tomorrow and the other in two weeks, thus I need to keep my game sharp and ensure my swing is ready for competition.
Continue readingScramble Format
What To Do When I Am Not Playing Strong Golf
There are times during my season when I feel I am not playing my best golf. This happened yesterday during a fun scramble I played in at Pine Grove Golf Course. It is my yearly event with some great friends (Bruce, Jack and Blair) where we have an opportunity to have fun and shoot well. Pine Grove is a fun course that is short, but have fantastic greens. It is an event look forward to playing each year. This year we finished third, one stroke behind the dual leaders. As with most teams, we felt we left many shots on the course that could have propelled us to the top of the leaderboard. Alas, we did not get there and the score did not diminish the great time I had with my playing partners.
Continue readingPlaying Last In A 4 Person Scramble – Is it Important?
The scramble format is a fun. It helps erase poor shots and accentuates good shots by players. Last night, I played in a 9 hole scramble format for Men’s Night. It was our usual team of Mike, Barry, Charlie and I. We normally shoot six under or less, but last night we shot better. As I look back at he match, I wondered what the difference was that allowed us to record a lower than normal score. It was not anything out of the norm, we seemed to make more putts than normal……but why?
Continue readingPlaying Golf With Long Hitters
The ultimate goal of every golfer is to shoot as low a score as possible. When playing stroke play, the responsibility to play our best golf relies solely on our shoulders. This is a challenge I relish and as I enjoy the pressure of figuring out the best shot for each situation. Playing in a scramble format, however, this strategy is less advantageous because there are other players we can rely upon to make the most out of any shot. This situation occurred last Thursday when I was invited to play on my friend’s team of long hitters. I was by far the shortest off the tee and my normal role of anchor was relegated to a different player.
Continue readingForgetting How To Play Golf
Golf is an amazing game that requires a great deal of knowledge and understanding to play well. I do have to say that “well” is a relative term. It seems that we are all on the ‘three steps forward – two steps back’ path to success sometimes, until it stops. Then it starts all over again and the process moving forward can be slow in challenging. It is as if I forget how to play golf from time to time. Unfortunately, playing in a two person senior scramble was on of those times for my game!
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