Last week I attended a fun and truly inspiring event while passing through the Chicago area.  It started as a way to raise a few thousand dollars for a friend going through cancer treatment and 14 years later is a full-on charity golf fundraiser that raised $120,000 this year.  That money is going towards helping 9 families affected by cancer.

In total, the BTB Foundation has raised $750k helping 37 families over the past 14 years, which is an amazing feat considering it started with 30 people out on a golf course trying to help out a friend.  It’s a true grassroots event that has grown from those original golfers to selling out two 18-hole golf courses as well as a 500+ person banquet dinner later that evening.  Very impressive all around.  It is a true charity and community event where friends and families get together to help one another out.  Hearing everyones stories was touching to say the least.

For the actual golfing event, the format was all about having fun and there were random contests on every hole.  I happened to be one of those contests and drove around both courses in a golf cart challenging people to different shots during their rounds.  It might be a putt, chip, approach or tee shot; whatever it was if the player beat me they won a winner pin and if they lost there was a loser pin.  Tom and Bill made the pins, which I thought were pretty funny and great:

It was one of the best golfing days I have had to date as everyone was having a great time, I was fortunate enough to meet most of the participants, and they had everything from bouncy castles to air horns during swings to cheerleaders and even things like this:

Needless to say, it was a great day and all for a good cause.  Tom and Bill have a great way about them and have, with the help of many people to date, created an awesome annual event.  I will most definitely be there next year to participate in the 15th anniversary tournament and will do my best to beat Tom and Bill:

Their goal for the 15th anniversary is to cross the million dollar mark for money raised to date.  An incredible feet.  This is one of the great ways in which golf can be utilized.  It’s perfect for charity outings and these types of events happen all over the world.  I would encourage everyone who enjoys playing golf to find at least one fundraiser a year to participate in.  Not hard to find at least one and at the end of the day you have helped raise money for a good cause while also getting to play a round of golf.  It’s a win-win.

I want to thank Tom and Bill, as well as Dennis McKinnon (aka Silky D, who has been partnering up with BTB for the past five years and who was also on the 1985 Super Bowl winning Chicago Bears.  Great guy and lots of fun to hang out with.) for letting me join in on the fun.  You guys are amazing!  I would also like to thank all of the participants this year.  It was a pleasure to get to know a bunch of you and I appreciate the warm welcome and fun day.

The only unfortunate part of the day was that I still, even after 3 full weeks of no swings at all, was unable to come close to making a full swing.  I could putt and chip and hit half shots, but a full swing felt exactly as it had three weeks earlier when I last played a round.  I figured that amount of time off and all of the treatment I had received at the skilled hands of Shawn and Seth would have made a big difference, but the back was still unable to support a full swing without sharp pain in the right hip area.

With that amount of rest time and treatment resulting in feeling no different, I knew it was most likely not a muscular or tendon issue.  Or, if it was, it was more serious than I had imagined.  A few people recommended getting an MRI and I talked with my sister about that on my next stop in Atlanta.  She is a doctor as well as an accomplished marathon runner and we chatted about everything I had been doing to heal the spot as well as what it was feeling like and she had some ideas of what it may be.

During her running career she had a couple of stress fractures that were misdiagnosed at first and resulted in her being sidelined for a couple to a few months.  How my injury feels is very similar to what she was describing and now I am fairly convinced that a stress fracture is the culprit.  The best way to find out for sure is to get a bone scan, which is much cheaper than an MRI, but she suggested to hold off on that and rest it for a couple more weeks to see if things start to improve.  If it is a stress fracture the only “cure” is rest anyway so that’s the first step.  She told me to try and not do anything that causes pain in that area as pain could signal things getting worse.  The good news is that only rotational things hurt and day-to-day activities do not trigger the spot.  The bad news is that I have to hold off even longer before getting back to practice.  It is a frustrating place to be in, but it is what it is.

After Atlanta I drove down to Hilton Head with my parents and had planned on a number of rounds and practice sessions while on the island, but had to postpone those until the next trip.  It was nice in a way as I had all day to catch up with the folks and that’s not a bad place to rest a back.

Yesterday I began my trip back to Portland with a stop in LA.  The plan, again, was to meet up with Dr. Bob Bjork for a round near UCLA and then to play Friday and Saturday with other friends before heading back to Portland.  Those rounds will have to wait until the next time.  Another good sign, though, was that while walking through the airport with my bag yesterday my back felt so much better than when flying out of Chicago.  In the Chicago airport if I put my shoulder back on either shoulder I could barely walk without sharp pains and even sitting on the flight to Atlanta was uncomfortable.  So, progress is being made with rest as treatment.

My favorite event of the year, the Royal Oaks Invitational Tournament, is from June 5-7 back in Portland.  I signed up two months ago and have already paid for the tournament and very much hope to play, but only time will tell.  From now until June 4 I will avoid full swings and slowly start to get back to chipping and putting and then on June 4 will have to see how it goes.  If I still can’t swing I will have to withdraw, but fingers crossed it’s pain free and I can play.  It would be a shame to miss the event.

Over and out for now.  Sorry for the long delay on posting, my mind has just not been on golf lately as I can’t do it and don’t like to think about what I am missing out on.  Sometimes it’s easier to change your focus rather than linger on something not currently possible.  As soon as I can swing again I will be back on here and social media.

Thursday started with a bright and early east-coast radio interview talking about the trip to date and then I met the group downstairs to head over to the tournament.  I have only been to one PGA Tour event in my life and that was back when I had just three clubs, so I was very excited to see how they managed the course as well as approached each shot.  Today felt like a bit of research for my own future development and I had goals to see how the different pre-shot routines varied.  And, I wanted to see some good golf as well as some entertaining celebrity golf.

Even the walk down to the course from the main entrance was exciting.  Not the best picture, but as you are approaching the course you start to see the ocean and can sense the history of the place:

The first thing that I did was watch some groups tee off on the first hole.  The pros all took long irons or hybrids as you just want to send it out about 200-210 yards and then the Ams were using anything from hybrids to drivers.  I felt for the Ams on this first box as a lot of the ones who were not celebrities and not used to performing were visibly nervous on this first box.  I could only imagine what it must be like to tee it up on the first hole in front of a huge crowd for the first time.  Made me a little jealous as I wanted to be in their shoes, but at the same time empathize with the tension.  A couple of them straight topped or shanked the ball, even though on paper these guys were anything from a 2 to 12 handicap.  It’s one of those things that takes experience to adjust to, I sensed.

After a few of those groups I wanted to head over to the triangle where you can see the green of 6, the entire hole 7 and the tee shots for 8.  It’s an amazing little spot on a peninsula cliff that contains the shortest hole on the entire PGA Tour, the 100 yard par 3 7th:

I couldn’t wait to play this one.  I hear it’s a crazy hard hole when the wind is up that actually averages a 4.7, but without wind it was just a little half gap wedge layup that almost every pro hit.  Still exciting and fun to watch them pitch it down and have the ball spin back towards the hole.  For a fun fact, the longest club anyone has ever used for a hole in one on this hole during competition was a 3-iron.  Playing just 100 yards, that is a ton of wind to knock that thing down.

Later in the day we stopped by the media room and got to sit down at the press table where they interview golfers after their rounds.  It was fun to check out and see the behind the scenes stuff that goes on.  And, got to sit in the same seat as the future winner:

It was a good seat to be in.

After that the final groups were starting to come in and as a special treat we were going to get to chat with Herm Edwards who had just finished his round playing along side John Daly.  Herm was an amazingly kind and funny man who had some great insight in the sporting world, including his thoughts on Tiger’s state, which to sum up is that Tiger needs to go out and focus on finishing four tournament rounds instead of putting the pressure of winning right out of the gate.  First finish a tournament and get back into playing four rounds, follow that up with getting back into the winning circle down the road.  Herm and I chatting with Tiffany giving fist bumps to John Daly:

It was an incredible first day.  One for the ages.  And, there were still three more rounds to watch and enjoy.

To keep it a bit on the briefer side, the second day’s action was watched from Monterey Peninsula Country Club in the AM and then back to Pebble for the afternoon.  Around 2 we decided to go and play 9 holes of golf in order to at least warm up before our Monday round so we headed to Black Horse to tee it up.  After watching two days of pros play and having 4 lessons the day before that there were a ton of swing thoughts going on, so it was good to get them out over 9 holes instead of bringing them all to Pebble.  Nice course, too:

After the round we had yet another treat in store.  We had a chance to meet “The Great One” Wayne Gretzky who had just finished a round with Dustin Johnson:

Not the best picture of Wayne, but fun to meet him and chat some golf.

That evening I was beat.  It had been a handful of long days and by the time we got back to the hotel it was about 8pm.  I think I fell to sleep by 9 and didn’t wake until 15 minutes before we were supposed to meet at 7 for our ride back to the course.  It was good to get solid sleep as the sun and excitement of the week to date had caught up to me.  And, I wanted energy for the weekend rounds as well as for Monday.

On Saturday I explored Spyglass throughout the morning, which I could tell was by far the hardest track of this tournament, and from what I hear is perhaps the hardest course in the area.  It is like Pebble, but longer and tree lined with tight fairways.  The scores were nowhere near what they were on the other two courses even though it was again a beautiful day.

I followed Bill Murray and his partner D.A. Points for a few holes and then Larry the Cable Guy for a few.  Both were quite entertaining and Bill was a surprisingly good golfer.  I saw him hit the par 5 first hole on his third shot from 230 yards after having to punch out from under a tree on his second.  He just tossed the wood in the air in a fit of success.  Always the entertainer, he is a fun one to follow.

Later in the day I went over to Pebble to catch up with the rest of the group.  The ladies had been walking behind the ropes with Jordan Spieth all day and I wanted to catch them on the 18th hole as they were walking in.   It sounded like they had a great time and I was excited for my chance to be behind the ropes with Jason Day and Charlie Beljan the next day.

Tim and I arrived early in the day Sunday to check in as Honorable Observers and then hung out until our tee time with Charlie and Jason was about ready.  We were introduced to them both on the first tee and then were excited to get going and watch some great golf first hand:

They were both nice guys and once the round started were totally in work mode.  It was Sunday and this was their office.  They were each 6 off the lead at the start of the day and you could tell they were hunting for birds and eagles to catch up and make a push.

On the first hole Jason was in the middle of the fairway and Charlie was blocked by a tree.  I have no clue how he did it, but Beljan managed a great shot and they both ended up on the green.  Here’s Tim and I watching Charlie make his shot:

The most impressive part of each of their games, to me, was their long iron play.  They hit their long irons as accurate as I hit my wedges.  Their putting was good, chipping good, driving the ball they hit it far, but the huge difference between where they are and where I am is that fact that 190-230 yards out they are going to stick it to within 20 feet whereas I’m just happy if I hit the green.

Charlie didn’t even have a hybrid or wood.  His set goes from driver to 2-iron and he could really pound that 2-iron.   they both hit the driver within 5 yards of each other and on Pebble didn’t hit driver on that many holes as it’s not a very long course, playing around 6,900 yards.  Even on the par 5 6th hole neither pulled driver and both got on the green in two.  Jason Eagled it from 6′ after having birdied the 5th and then birdied the 7th to bring his score down to 17 under and within 2 of the lead.  Later on Jason had a couple bogeys when he was pushing contention and then ended up 4th overall.  Charlie had a late push and birdied the last 3 holes to end up 3rd overall.  It was great golf on a beautiful Sunday and fun to watch them try and make a charge.

Tim and I walking down the 18th fairway:

Jason Day hitting his tee shot on the 18th box:

After the round we hung out behind the 18th green for a while and randomly ran into David Feherty, who Tim happens to know through his charity golf outings:

He was a nice guy and quite funny.  I reminded him that he was once quoted about my project and when asked what my chances of making the Tour, he said that “I’ll be generous and say it’s a snowballs chance in hell.”  It gave me a chuckle years ago when he said it so I had to get him to autograph my hat:

After spending some time behind the 18th we went up to watch the final groups come in and out of nowhere a fog began rolling into the 18th hole.  It went from sunny to where you could barely see half way down the hole in a little over 5 minutes:

Perhaps this was a bad omen for Monday’s weather.  No matter if it was sunny of 60mph winds, nothing was going to keep us from playing this course the next day.

Perhaps I was wrong with the whole “3-part” thing.  This post ended up being much longer than I thought and I haven’t even gotten to the part of playing the course.  So, the fourth, and finally final, piece on Pebble Beach will have to wait until next time…

The next morning we were invited to the Pebble Beach Golf Academy, which is essentially the main driving range for Pebble Beach with a golf teaching school attached, and were able to individually work with four of the instructors there.  This was an amazing experience as these guys have been around it all and are on the top of their respective games. It was two-fold inspiring: I had hands on work with instructors that have helped countless PGA Tour players and at the same time there were a number of big name players on the range working on their own swings in preparation for the week.  I was hitting balls on the same range as guys from Snedeker to Kenny G, who happens to be a 2 handicap.

The outside of the academy:

After a little warm up the lessons began.  My first one was all about putting and utilized the SAM putting lab, which I had been on years ago.  It looks like this and is a machine made to very precisely measure how you aim and swing the putter:

That is putting instructor Kevin syncing my SeeMore putter with the machine.  What he found was that I have extremely accurate and consistent aim as well as stroke, but my tendency is to cut across the ball from out to in which isn’t optimal as it can put a bit of side spin on the putts.  He gave me a few drills to work on to get the ball rolling more end-over-end and then it was off to the second lesson.  Since then I have been working on my putting stroke and have seen some good results.  He also suggested I look into a more face weighted putter as mine may actually accentuate my own putting flaws.  Something to keep in mind down the road.

The next lesson was outside on the range and it was a little more “old fashioned” than all of the others simply because the instructor didn’t use much technology.  But, he had great eyes for the swing and that’s worth a ton in golf.  This is the two of us chatting swing styles:

The coach’s name was Dan and we talked about some issues I was having with my ball striking and he had some good tips to share after seeing me hit the ball. The one that stands out most is that he said my lower body was overactive and I needed to focus more on hitting the ball with my shoulder turn.  Good stuff.

The next stop was with something that I had never seen in person and was pretty excited about.  It was with Scot Nei and his Robo Golf Pro robot.  It’s probably easier to show this rather than try to explain it:

It’s a robot that you can program to swing any type of swing at any speed and then you hold on to the club and it moves you through the motions that you are trying to learn.  I found it interesting as instructors have told me to “feel” certain things in the past and have even been hands on trying to place my swing in specific positions, but with this robot you can actually feel exactly where an instructor wants you to be through an entire swing.  You let it guide you for a handful of swings and then turn around and hit a couple of balls and you can immediately feel the difference.  I hear there is one up in Seattle, might have to make some trips up there in the coming months to get more reps in.

The final lesson was with Laird Small, who has been the director of the Pebble Beach Golf Academy since 1996.  Laird’s strength, outside of massive experience in the golfing world, is his ability to communicate what needs to be said.  There are a number of people who are extremely intelligent when it comes to golf biomechanics, but far fewer who can reach people in a way that makes sense.  This was the case with Laird and what he told me (we talked about my turn, chess positions, arms, etc) made sense to me and I have been able to implement some of it already.  He’s the kind of guy you want to see weekly and if he was in Portland I would most definitely do that.

That was a great start to the day.  I wish the lessons could have been all day, but with such a busy week there was a lot of work for the guys to do.  We spent a little time on the range watching some Tour players hit balls and then hit the road.

The next stop was lunch and the whole group sat down at a table with a guy eating by himself.  About 30 seconds in I realized it was David Duvall that we happened to be sharing a table with.  Here is Tiffany showing him how to take a selfie:

He was a upstanding gentleman and we all had a nice lunch chatting golf and life.

The rest of the day was filming a few interviews and random things for the story as well as a bit of down time in the late afternoon before heading to dinner.  Where we were able to eat dinner this night was at the players “tent” as part of the Pairings Party that happens after the official tournament pairings are released.  The party and dinner were good and it was fun to celebrity watch. But, the most fun came when this man randomly came over and asked if he could join our table.  Completely random, and amazing:

It was a treat like no other.  Bill Murray just happened to join our table and hung out with us for the better part of two hours.  That is him and one of our hosts for the week Jena.  Bill was incredibly kind and, of course, funny.  He talked golf, wine, life, charity work, art, etc.  I could not have been happier as he is perhaps the only celebrity alive that I really wanted to meet.

Honestly, I could have left that night and felt like it was an incredible trip.  Played an amazing course, had lessons with four incredible people, got lunch with David Duvall and then spent an eve with Bill Murray.  Life was feeling good and it was literally just the third day of the trip.    See, it’s hard not to sound like I’m bragging, but at the same time I can’t imagine not writing about this experience.  I won some sort of fantasy lottery.

The next day began with a historic tour of Pebble Beach. We had breakfast at Pebble Beach’s famous The Bench restaurant and then got in carts and toured the 18 with historian Neal Hotteling (who literally wrote The Official History of Pebble Beach):

Neal showed us around the course and described some of the more interesting ways in which things have changed over the years as well as the history of the property, which was originally purchased for $500 a couple hundred years ago.  We also got to stop by and see Bing Crosby’s house, which has an amazing putting and chipping green in the back yard and overlooks some of the better holes of the course.  It was great to get his insight into the course.

After that I was able to watch some of the celebrity shootout that happens on Wednesday and see the groups come in at 18, which might be one of the most beautiful finishing holes in golf:

And…  Just when we thought the day was over and had been blown away by everything so far, AT&T Fans Eye View had another surprise for us.  We got to meet one of the golfers and Katie was actually able to have a short putting lesson from this guy:

Jordan Spieth was a really good dude.  Wise beyond his years and a nice guy all around.  He signed stuff for everyone and I got the flag on 18 signed for my buddy Eric, who I think loved it:

We were all pretty blown away by everything that had happened so far.  It was incredible and seemed to just keep coming.  So, by the time dinner rolled around and we were away from the course we all assumed that the day was over.  But, there was one more surprise that nobody saw coming.  As part of the kickoff event a bunch of the celebrities were putting on a show down the street.  AT&T invited us to not only watch the show but we also were able to go backstage and shake hands with a bunch of them including Larry the Cable Guy, Colt Ford, Jake Owen, Michael Bolton, Kenny G, Clint Eastwood, Ray Romano, Tommy Gainey and a more that I can’t seem to recall right now.  It was great.  After our 15 minutes backstage, the group was leaving but I kind of “lingered” and got lost and then ended up getting to spend the next couple of hours back there.  It helped that I was a photographer in my past life as there were a number of active-duty marines who got the same meet-and-greet treatment that we did who also wanted photos with the big names and I wasn’t afraid to go up to people like Clint and ask if he would take a photo with those soldiers.

After that I hung out and got to know a few of the guys:

I’m not sure I even scratched the surface of what it was like.  I can’t imagine two more amazing days than these.  And, the tournament hadn’t even started yet.

On the final installment of this series I will talk about the tournament itself as well as what it was like to play Pebble beach from the same boxes as the pros and to the exact same pin placements.  That is coming in a couple short days.

Somehow, someway, I was invited down to Pebble Beach this past week to be a part of AT&T’s Fans Eye View and I can’t get over how amazing the entire experience was.  It was like winning some fantasy lottery and the only hard part of the entire experience is figuring out how to write about it without sounding like I am bragging.  In total, a foursome of golf entangled individuals was chosen to experience the event from very unique perspectives that are usually reserved for high VIP status.  All of us were essentially in shock the entire week as we got to meet some amazing people, play world class courses, walk behind the ropes with Tour pros during the weekend and be in the thick of the entire experience. Before I get to into my story, here is a video of all of us that does a good job summing up the week: Some of the best parts were about building a better understanding of how events like this one make a huge impact in the local community.  We spent time with one of the non-profits that benefits from the AT&T Pebble Beach, the Veterans Transition Center, and were able to meet the vets whose lives the VTC has helped transform.  It was a heartfelt and eye-opening experience and if I sound like a fanboy right now it’s because I have become one, especially when I learned that AT&T has raised over $120 million for charities in the 30 years they have sponsored the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.  That’s amazing. Here’s a shot of the group hanging out in the bright sun of Monterey, sans camera-man Dan: After that we headed over to Monterey Peninsula Country Club and played as a foursome in the Boys and Girls Club charity event, which was absolutely amazing as it was the first time I’ve played a course that was literally going to be a PGA tournament later that week. SUCH a beautiful course, too: Considering we had never played together and had an 8-person camera crew following us for the entire round and considering none of us had hit balls on that course before, I think our team did pretty darn well…  : We are the team right in the center of the shot.  Look for Tiffany’s name on top.  Just three shots outside of 3rd place and four shots from tying first.  Considering some of the names on there I think we held our own. After the event we stuck around and enjoyed a nice reception where I literally ran into Davis Love III.  Then we got to hear some incredible stories from the high schoolers who were receiving college scholarships from the day’s charity.  These young adults were amazing and I wish them the best as they take on the next steps in their lives.  The stories they told about their childhoods would have brought tears to Blain’s eyes (Think Jesse Ventura in Predator).  And now they are off to a whole new beginning. By the end of day one I already knew that I would become fast friends with this group.  When we landed we hadn’t a clue as to who each other were, but after a day of volunteering and a round of golf we all knew each other’s personalities and I could tell we would be staying in touch.  It’s amazing how much you can learn about someone during a round of golf.  That might be my favorite thing about this great game; it’s a great way to explore the human psyche. On the next blog post I will talk about everything else that happened before the actual tournament started, including four lessons at the Pebble Beach Golf Academy, meeting a swing robot, dinner with the funniest man on the planet and a random encounter with an up-and-coming golf star.

The shoot was quick, too.  I basically just taught the TV host how to hit a golf ball as he had zero experience in the sport (a la Dan 2010) and then told a quick summary of my story to date while we played a couple holes of the St Jörgen Golf Club.  I love when these things go well as my journalism background likes to get things correct the first time and be efficient.

Afterwords I had 48 hours to explore and reflect on the trip as well as the past few weeks.

Walking around Gothenburg I was reminded how important it is to have an extremely strong sense of self belief in your vision.  I’m not exactly sure why that thought came to mind while exploring the 17th century neighborhood of Haga Nygata, but I suppose when exposed to the countless options of this world it can be easy to have a wandering mind. It’s important to have a bit of that old fashioned tunnel vision to keep the train moving along.

For me it is also important to step back and appreciate everything that my work has accomplished both on and off the course to date.  Never would I have imagined that I would get flown to both Australia and Europe in a single year to make an appearance.  It’s important for me to relish these experiences as there are a lot of things that have been foregone over the past 4 years in order to get to where I currently am.  Short term (or even longer term) sacrifices lead to the long term payout.  This is true with just about everything in life, not just one man’s chosen path or his golf game.

So relish I did and I had a great time during the trip.  In a way it felt like an end-of-the-summer vacation and seeing as I only golfed a few times and didn’t get much practice in it might as well have been my annual time off.  When I returned I felt refreshed and ready to get back at it, too.  It took about an hour to warm up the body as 15 hours on a plane does no wonders for your golf game, but once I get the swing back on line I hit some good shots, including birdying my first hole back in the states, which is a great sign of things to come.  Of the 9 holes I played I birdied 3 of them and felt good rolling the ball.

Now that I am back and refreshed I am ready to make the next push of the Plan.  The first step is to meet with Michael Neff again and get my clubs better fit for my current swing.  He texted me while away and said he had it figured out and would tell me in person when we were on a range.  We shall meet early this week and I am excited to hear what he has “discovered.”  I have no clue, but trust that he knows what he is doing and will set the sticks accordingly.

The next step is to decide which clubs to play with that new configuration.  I have been hitting my Titleist set for 20 months and still like them, but have a call with Titleist and two other club manufacturers in the near future (i.e. this week).  I have been offered similar deals to what a typical club pro might get (14 clubs, hats, gloves and balls) from three manufactures right now and need to decide whether it makes any sense to try out something new or to stick with what I have.  It’s a good problem to have.

On a side note, here is a story from a Swiss newspaper about my time over there:

The link:  http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/sport/weitere/Spielt-er-2018-gegen-Tiger-Woods/story/22975901

As you can see, I’m decked out in my Titleist, Vokey and FJ gear.  Like the world’s cheapest billboard.  I truly appreciate the gear that I have gotten to date and think I have repaid everyone who has sent it in media and social media outreach.  Seems to be a fair trade in my opinion.

Perhaps it’s time to start adjusting the tone and approach of the blog in order to expand the reach and truly inspire instead of just telling my own story.  The original idea of telling my story seems to be getting stale and I think the more useful information would be to tell the story of what research and findings people across the globe are currently discovering that can help us all improve.  I have met a number of these people and think that focussing more on their work, albeit through my training eyes, is a better approach for both myself and every potential blog reader out there.  It is time to seriously step back and scrutinize the path this blog has travelled down and figure out where it needs to go for my own sanity and the readers’ sake.  I’m not saying that my training or practice will be different, just that I will focus more of this site on human performance in general while entangling it with one person’s expeditions.

At any rate, this wasn’t supposed to be a blog about shifting directions; rather my aim was to talk about the Europe trip and about what comes next, although I suppose the jet lagged mind wanders when wide awake at 4am and what I worry about during those middle-night times is often how to continue funding this expedition.  Mountaineers and explorers have similar issues, although once they finally raise funds and set off their concerns shift from funding to survival.  I suppose I have a leg up in that respect as it is very unlikely that getting lost or an avalanche will be my demise.   Everything has it’s plusses and minuses.

Perhaps that is the point.  You can travel the world and see all of the amazing people doing their amazing work stuffs and fantasize about what their lives may be like but at the end of the day you have to trust your heart compass is pointing you in the right direction.  Without that faith all is quickly lost.

There are countless ways to get from here to there, just pick one and stick to it.  That, in a nutshell, is talent.

And now I shall force upon you a photo slideshow of my 11 days in Europe.  You knew it was coming and like the good relatives you are you will do me a kind and take a look.  Perhaps pretend you just found this in a thrift store laptop 100 years from now and are trying to create a novel around it about the lives of those involved.  Or feel free to skip it.

In a couple more hours the sun will come up, at which point practice is in the equation.  For now I will continue the mental process of organizing my goals for the rest of 2014 and then begin to think about the year to come.

Taking off from Chicago, one of the last images of the states I would have before rising above the clouds was that of the city outskirts snuggled into a nice Fall evening:

I landed in Zurich on what was to be their first true day of Fall and sluggishly found my way from the airport to my brother, who I hadn’t seen in the better part of a year.  He has made this city his home for 3 years and I haven’t had the ability to visit until now, but am very glad for the opportunity to see the life he has created here.

I explored the city the first day, and enjoyed watching the people and seeing the buildings and old cobblestone streets.  My former sister-in-law took me around with her new baby boy:

We got some good coffee and some local dessert and then checked out a handful of architectural sights before heading back to their place for an evening of family catch-up. The next morning a new friend, who found me through this website, picked me up and we set off to play my first round of golf on European soil.  From first appearances, golf in the outskirts of Zurich looked very similar to Oregon with the lush greenery and trees surrounding the course.  It was rather cold that day so Robert and I had on our winter golfing gear for the round:

It was my first round in rain gear since the Spring and it took a while to both warm up the body and get used to golfing in multiple layers again.  The round was fun and the course was quite a challenge, especially for being on the shorter side.  In 40 degree weather with winds and very moist soil you found yourself with long approaches on shorter par 4s.

The rough was different too.  I think it may have been from the fact that the course is closing for the winter next week and because it dumped rain two days prior, but this course had some of the longest and thickest rough I have ever played on. When the ball landed off the fairway in the deep rough you literally had to hit a wedge 20 yards back to the fairway instead of trying to advance the ball.  It took a couple of tries to hit long irons or hybrids out of it to realize that was not going to be possible.  Once you learned what your options were it was a good challenge and a fair course.  Had some pretty holes too, especially the par 3s:

The grass on the greens was different too, it was like a combination between bent grass and bermuda.  I’m not sure what it was, but it looked like bent but had grain similar to bermuda.  I’ll have to do some research and figure it out.

The round was a great introduction to Swiss and European golf and I am excited to explore some more courses while here.  In the meantime, though, I went on a nice hike with my brother the next day to do some exploring and catching up.  The landscape here is incredible, it truly lives up to the reputation:

One more with the author getting a bit lost in the woods:

I have another round scheduled for Monday and some practice to do tomorrow morning and Tuesday, then it’s off to Gothenburg for a couple of days before returning to Portland.  Let me know if anyone is around southern Sweden, I would love to meet up and tee it up if possible.

Denver was an amazing experience and has helped me immensely when it comes to playing my best golf now as well as making a distinction between practice and play.  Too often I muddled that distinction leaving my mind in the wrong place when it came to game time.  That has been pointed out to me, but I always figured that if you wanted to implement something you should think about it on the range and while playing.  I learned this weekend that is not the best way to approach progress.

Going through the program a second time was more than just a refresher of the material.  It added so much clarity to their research as well as what I needed to personal do to improve, it was akin to rubbing the morning eyes.  You know when you first wake up and open your eyes and everything is there but kind of blurry?  Then you give them a little rub and the images become clear?  It was just like that.  Denver was the first light, San Diego the clarity.  Not to say that I couldn’t have gotten clarity from the Denver course, but for me it was good to have more one-on-one time with the coached to better understand the process.

This was particularly the case as they knew me this time and knew my tendencies as well as what I had changed since the last time we all met.  They could see that I had been working hard on changing my swing, but they also discovered that my “swing thought” during current rounds was all about making changes and not about engaging in the target and my swing.  I was so technically oriented that I had been forgetting about playing the game when on course.  I admit that I am guilty of this and as I said above, when I am making a change the only thing I think about is making that change.  For better or worse this has been my experience through the past 4 years.

Over the three days we covered so much material that I am not going to come close to summarizing in one blog post, but one thing that resonated was this ability to switch from practice mode to game time and how to make that switch realistic as well as doing it without worrying about “reverting” to old swing habits.  The point is to really delineate the difference between practice time and game time.  As an example they showed me how I could break a round into both practice and play.  For 9 holes I just work on the new feel that I am trying to implement without any concern for the outcome and then on the second 9 turn it into a competition and true game time.  It is very important to always work on playing the game, not just improving the swing.

We worked on a huge number of tools for practice and playing and by the end of the trip I had built a solid game plan for moving forward.  Another realization that I had was I had not been developing a clear enough focus while on the course.  I had been playing with a handful of “goals” but not really one or two specific aspects that I wanted to work on.  Now, each time I leave practice mode and enter game time I will have a specifically focussed goal.  That could be anything from being fully engaged in every swing, building awareness of grip pressure, staying positive or neutral towards outcomes, enjoying the round no matter the score, paying attention to my balance, or trying to just hit cut shots.  Whatever it is, my goal is to pick one or two things and truly pay attention to those through the entire round.

The class was a 3 day course at Grand Del Mar which was one of the more special places that I have played golf.  A Fazio design course about 15 miles outside of San Diego it was the type of place that I would love to live and train at if funds were unlimited.  The views:

What a range!  You could hit ball from 3 different parts of the range (front, back, side) and it was loaded with Pro V1s.  One of the best ranges I have hit balls on.

The approach on the 18th hole.  Great view of the clubhouse coming in and a fun hole with water coming into play and solid Fazio-designed bunkers all over the place.

One of the Par 3s.  A lot of the holes were visually intimidating as per usual Fazio style.  If you hit it well the course was very approachable, but if you were spraying it an extra sleeve or two could come in handy.

Added to all of this learning, there was a third instructor there helping the Vision54 ladies and half way through the first day we learned that he was Tiger Woods’ first coach. He taught Tiger from the ages of 4-10.  Rudy had a lot of great experience and brought a ton to the table.  We really clicked and after the class on Saturday when Rudy followed along as a friend of mine Horacio, who was also attending the course, and I all went out to play some holes.  Mixing the Vision54 tools that we had worked on with the on-course playing suggestions that Rudy offered was revolutionary.  Rudy focusses his teaching on the course to be about playing the game and it was great to pick his brain about how to approach different holes and shots.  I learned a lot from him this past weekend and hope to keep that connection moving forward.  If he could help Tiger develop as a player I am certain that he could help all of us learn out there.

All of this was a great reminder of what it takes to play good golf today.  It’s not about what type of swing you need down the road, rather a way to truly learn how to use what you brought and love it no matter the outcome.

I have a lot to work on, but have been gathering more tools along the way to make sure each day is building forward momentum.  And, The last scoring round I shot before heading down there wasn’t too shabby, which is a good thought to keep in mind as I get back to work in Portland.  I shot a 73 with a rather nice looking back 9:

A few more of those, please.  :)

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One more thing. Check out some of the fun filming that Golf Getaway and I did earlier in the summer while down in Australia: