The day started off well, got in my workouts and cognitive training exercises and then picked up Brendan (a new videographer who is working on the filming of The Plan) and headed out to Pumpkin.  I wanted to get there around one, but we ended up arriving just before the 2pm lesson and unfortunately missed a potential meeting with a man, Dan O’Brien, who is writing a story about The Plan.  The people at Pumpkin told me a reporter had been looking for me and I had a feeling it was Dan, but our paths just didn’t cross this time.  It’s too bad too, because it was a great lesson!  But, there will be more time for the story (roughly 3.6 more years..) so I’m not too bummed, just feel bad the he drove all the way out there for nothing.

At the beginning of the lesson Christopher and I played a nine-hole putting game like usual.  But, this time we bet five bucks on it (something that I knew was a bad idea, but I was up for the challenge anyway and it’s good to have a bit of pressure on the putts).  I started off in the gutter, three-putting the first two holes where he two-putted, so two strokes back.  I never had much of a chance from there, but at least putted better ending the game just two back.  Perhaps next time I’ll be a little frazzled from the get-go and make it more of a competition, it would be good to finally win a couple bucks too instead of buying everyone else coffees and lunches!

After that we went over the the driving range and concentrated on the new swing grip.  It is an intricate process he has me doing as far as gripping the club goes.  I’ll hopefully put a video of it up soon so as to better describe it, but basically I grip with my right hand, have a few “checks” I look for, then grab the club just under the ferrel (not sure if that’s the correct spelling, but it’s the area just under the neck of the club) with my left hand and then drag that hand down to join my right.  I’m supposed to do this every time I hit a ball in order to burn the correct grip into my mind.  A lot of swing problems arise from an improper grip, Christopher informed me.  Makes sense to me!

I then hit about 30 or 40 balls into a sand trap (that was actually my target, not just a lot of miss hits!) and they flew pretty well, if I must say so myself.  I was going to go back out to Heron and give it a whirl, but by the time I finished some dinner it was getting a bit dark and I figured it would make more sense to approach it with a fresh mind tomorrow morning.

Here’s to actually using a pitching wedge properly tomorrow!  I’m very ready.

After that I went home and greeted my new roommates, Dierdre and Adam.  They seem really great, so I think the house will be nice and settled soon.  After we all met and they got a bit settled, I went back out to Heron for 1.5 more hours, but it wasn’t that good either, so ended up calling it a week and going to play pool with my friend Peter.  I played pretty horribly…  All in all, i’m glad the week is over.

I heard from the camera guy down in Los Angeles and he got the parts to fix the camera and it is going to arrive tomorrow, so we’ll have it to film the first swing lesson this Sunday!

I’m ready to start swinging now..

When I woke up around 8 this morning I was so tired and already in a frustrated mood from tossing and turning all night that I realized I would be doing nothing but harm to my golf game if I went out there tired and frustrated.  So, Marijke and I had a good breakfast and then I sat down and took care of a number of administrative type issues for The Plan.  Now, I feel very refreshed and excited once again about going out tomorrow.  It’s funny, but sometimes all it takes is a day away from your passion to reinvigorate your beliefs!

Other news for The Plan is that I met with Shawn Dailey yesterday and got a new workout routine scheduled.  It was really great working with him and I think he will be a large piece of this projects puzzle.  After just one day with him I have a good feeling that we are on the same page and right track.  I also think that it’s about time to step it up a notch and get fit for the first time in my life!  And, looking at what he has in store for me on a daily basis, this is going to be a tough but rewarding path; I’m going to need a few great massages in the coming months…

I hope it was just a “wrong-side-of-the-bed” kind of Monday and tomorrow is a much more wide-eyed morning!

You really can't beat putting into the sunset out at Heron Lakes.

I had a few realizations while out there putting today.  First and foremost, I realized how important tempo is in a golf swing.  I was using the putting tutor (a putting aid that helps let you know if you are starting the ball on line, as well as help you with a few other putting aspects) and for the life of me could not get the ball to go straight through the marbles.  I’ve been having problems with that for a couple weeks, but then today I was using my metronome and found that I could hit it straight through time after time..  I haven’t a clue how slowing down my swing straightens it, but it does and that’s all I really need to know.

I also realized that I have a speed problem.  It seems that I have a tendency to overshoot the hole by four or five feet on a putt as close as nine feet away, which is not good..  But, I discovered a new game where you hit a ball from 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21 feet away and you have to hit each ball past the hole, but within two feet.  It took me about 30 minutes, but I finally got through all of the distances three times in a row.  Think that with a few weeks of this game under my belt I will have much better speed control in the future, or at least I hope!

A final realization I had is that there are a lot fewer “problems” in my putting game that I am encountering these days.  Two months ago, there was so much wrong going on in my swing that I was having realizations on a daily basis.  Now, I have one or two a week, a much better scenario!

With these realizations in mind, I think I’ve started off the week on the right foot.  I’m going to end the week out at Pumpkin with a two-hour lesson on how to grip and swing a club for real.  There’s excitement in the air, I can’t believe that the time is coming nearer where I might actually be playing golf!

To celebrate 500 hours, I took it a bit easier on the greens today.  I was feeling a slightly under the weather and decided that I needed to take a few hours off of my normal schedule, so just put in three hours out there.  I did, however, go down to have a two hour physical evaluation with my new physical therapist/trainer Shawn Dailey in the middle of the afternoon.  It was good to start working with Shawn and I’m excited to have him working on The Plan.  His gym is down in Lake Oswego and is the same gym that Darren (the cognitive trainer) works at, so I can kill two birds with one stone, as they say, when I make the trip down there.

As far as the evaluation went, Shawn told me that there was not any reason why I could not make my goal of becoming a PGA tour player.  There were a lot of things that I need to improve and strengthen, but nothing that screamed out that I wouldn’t be able to hit a ball 300 yards one day.  This is all good news.  So far, everyone involved (from my golf coach, cognitive trainer, physical trainer, performance experts to deliberate practice specialists)  has encouraged me to pursue The Plan.  I’m not surprised that people are encouraging, but I am somewhat surprised that nobody, yet, has said they think it is an impossible goal.  The more hours I put in, though, the more I realize that anything really is possible as long as you have the patience and are willing to put in the hard work.

Speaking of hard work, tomorrow’s back to the normal training day.  I hope to get another 7 hour day in, but will be content with 6 hours of training.  On Friday I might head out to Pumpkin to see a bit of the LPGA Safeway classic event going on out there.

Not the best photo by any means, but you can see that Pumpkin is transforming for the LPGA even this week.

Is it just me, or are these a bit patchy...

The above photo could have been taken at any of the greens around town and is a fair representation of the overall condition right now.  It seems there are multiple types of grass growing in most of the greens and one of the types, Poa (as far as I’ve heard or can tell) does not like the dryer summer months as much as the Bent grass variety.  It definitely makes for an interesting roll on putts and I think, or at least I’m blaming the grass, that the current condition has made it tougher to get my percentages up on short putts..  But, there are a number of excuses and if it’s not patchy grass, it’s sanded greens, or dead winter spots, or divots, or footprints, or slow greens, or fast greens, or ridges, or “lumpy donuts,” or……  Long story short, you got to accept what’s in front of you and play the best you can!  Everyone else out there has to overcome the same obstacles.

I also went to East Moreland for the first time today and was pleasantly surprised with what they have to offer as far as practice space goes.  They had a large putting green which was fairly flat, but there is enough slight variation to allow for some interesting putting.  They also had two chipping areas, one for short chips and another area that was about 100 yards by 30 yards and completely surrounded by trees.  At first, I thought it was an actual hole, but then I realized there was no tee box and saw people practicing in it.  This area will definitely come in handy in the next year, once I start working on some distance with my wedges!

Surrounded by trees, East Moreland has a nice, and very large, chipping area

Speaking of working out, it’s about time to really start emphasizing that aspect of  my training.  In a few months I will be swinging a golf club hundreds of times a day and in order to prevent any potential side-lining injury, I am going to need to get as fit as possible.  The last thing I need is a back injury!

I sent the video camera off today to repaired by Panasonic in Los Angeles.  It cost about 40 bucks to mail down there and will probably take a few weeks to make it back.  In the meantime, there is a lot of interesting stuff going on between the first real swing lesson with coach Christopher, my physical evaluation next week with Shawn, progress with Darren, as well as just nice summer shooting out on the greens.  I would like to capture all of that, but not sure what to do really.  I don’t know whether I should try and rent a camera until I get the Panasonic back, or be a bit more Buddhist about it and accept that it is out of my hands and not worry about video until the camera is returned..  Think I will probably go with the latter, but still, it would be nice to have those things on film for future use.

Speaking of electronics, my phone seems to finally be dying and my laptop is on the fritz.  Think it must be a bad month for all things digital around the Dan household.

Golfing was good today!  I got out early to see a friend, Denny, before he gave a lesson out at Heron.  We chatted for a bit about his move back to Portland and then I hit the greens.  It’s so calm and peaceful out there before the men’s clubs, women’s clubs, retiree golfers, groups of children, etc start coming out to practice that I will have to do that more often.  Only problem is that I’m really not a morning person, so was pretty exhausted by noon after just 5 hours of practice.  Think that also might have been from not eating much dinner the night before, too.

Still, my putting is slowly coming along.  I have been working on my shorter (it’s all pretty short at this point, eh?) game this week  and I think I can see a bit of result.  The main issue is that I start the ball just slightly off line.  Typically this is to the right, or pulling the ball seeing as I’m a lefty, but at times I overcorrect and hit a bit to the left.  The main thing I want is to just be consistent and so have been working on starting the ball on line for both short and long putts.

In the world of chipping, I sank one from 81 feet out today!  By FAR my best shot ever, and it felt good!  I have a feeling chipping and I are going to be good friends one day.

On a side note, I tried to do a bit of an interview today and when I got the camera out it would not turn on for some reason.  No clue why, it’s basically brand new and a very expensive panasonic camera.  I’m going to have to send it back to Panasonic, I guess, because it’s a crucial part to documenting The Dan Plan, and we have a big lesson coming up where we are going over the “full swing,” something that definitely needs to be covered.  My phone is also not seeming to work correctly, so perhaps there is a “bermuda triangle” of sorts converging over my house..

Speaking of my house, my roommates moved out last weekend and Marijke is out of town, so for the first time in the past three years I have a week completely on my own.  It’s a little quiet around here, almost too quiet…  New roommates are moving in soon, so I will try and enjoy a bit of peace while it lasts.

Other news:  I’m meeting with a new potential physical trainer tomorrow.  The current situation is just not working and I have a person in mind that I think will work well with The Plan.  Hopefully we can work something out because as I get into a full swing soon I could use a solid physical foundation to prevent any potential injuries.  I’m especially concerned with my lower back.  I’ve never had any back problems, but I have met a LOT of older golfers who have thrown out their backs, so I’m up for doing whatever I need to do to keep that from happening.  And, I haven’t met anyone, yet, who practices as much as I do on a daily basis.

I’m going to try and get out to Heron early tomorrow to get in five hours before my meeting with the potential PT at 1:00..  And, I think I can go out and putt around on the 18th and 17th hole greens if I get out there early enough, before the early birds make it to that point.