I remember reading in Strokes Gained some time ago that this long iron game was where the best of the best gained the most strokes over the field, but it wasn’t until seeing them in action that that concept fully materialized.

Watching both Charlie Beljan and Jason Day not only just stick a  blind green from 230 yards away but both having a short eagle putt was incredible.  Then Day had a buried downhill lie on the 9th hole in deep rough to a short sided pin from 200 out and stuck it to five feet.  It was truly amazing.

Unfortunately, this is not a strength in my game, yet.  If I have 200-240 yards to a green I would say I hit the green about 20 percent of the time.   I can get an up and down if it’s close, but often that next chip or pitch is in a tough spot and can lead to bogeys or worse.

Since I have been back I have thought a lot about ways to improve this aspect of my game and what I realized was that I need a few things.  First off is to focus on this part of the game as it is a current weakness and deliberate practice is all about improving weaknesses.  Next is to find solid reliable instruction via a coach or world-class expert.  The third thing is to work on swing speed in order to better spin the ball and gain distance.

That last one is something that has been a bit of a worry in the back of my head for some time.  I chat a lot about swing speed with different people who are either experts in the field or working on their own.  One guy, Bill, up at my home course has been trying to increase his swing speed with drills and the swing fan for some time and says that he is seeing some results on the range but it is not translating to the course.  I  brought out the FlightScope to measure my current swing speed as well as work on hitting more up on the ball with the driver to optimize distance and we got Bill on it and after a couple months of working to improve his speed he was basically exactly where he was beforehand, which is a bit daunting.

There are a lot of resources out there, though, and I have been starting to read Kelvin Miyahira’s writing about this subject:  http://www.aroundhawaii.com/speed_training.html

I am going to reach out to him soon as there is a chance I may be in Hawaii in late April or early May and if I can make it out there I would most definitely visit Kelvin to see what he has to suggest about my own progress with speed.

Another reason this is on my mind is that I have been playing with some very long hitters lately and it makes such a difference to be able to carry the ball 280+ yards.  They can take lines on par 4s and 5s that are impossible at my current distance and then they have mid-irons to the shorter par 5s and can still reach the longer ones.  Plus, having a gap-wedge into par 4s is a lot different than having a 7 or 6 iron in.  Changes the game.

This is what I have been thinking about and reading about lately. My swing speed has remained pretty consistent at between 104-108mph over the past two years, just depending on how fresh the body is.  But, when I got FlightScope out to measure my driver I also noticed that I am currently hitting about 4 degrees down on the ball.  For some reason the last time I “changed” my swing I gained a lot of consistency but lost about 20 yards of distance and I think it is because of how much more down I am at impact.  So, improving speed while also getting more neutral to up on the ball at impact should be a great way to gain 20-30 yards.

That is where my headspace has been these past couple of weeks.

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.

I don’t want to keep talking gear, as that’s been one of the main subjects for a while, but it is a large part of my winter focus so it’s hard to not at least mention it.  I’ll try to keep it short; here’s what I found:

With the drivers I was pretty surprised to see just how different the swing path, angle of attack and swing speeds were between shafts and head manufactures.  I made ten swings with each different setup I could get (four different driver heads and a few shafts with each) to see how the averages changed with the club.  Unfortunately I was only able to demo two new TaylorMades (the R15 and the Aero something or other) and compare those with my 913 Titleist and a KZG custom head.  Riverside had just sent their older demo clubs back to Titleist, Callaway, Nike, Ping, etc so I will not be able to compare those brands of new drivers for a couple more weeks until the 2015 equipment gets in stock.  For the meantime, though, it was pretty interesting.

I found that with the R15 my swing averaged 1 degree up on the ball and faster than 106mph.  That’s compared to 2 degrees down on the ball and about 103mph with my gamer Titleist.  I wasn’t trying for speed, but was just making nice normal swings with each club to get some consistent feedback, but found it interesting that the same length shaft and basically the same swing weight between those two sticks created fairly different results, especially in the angle of attack.  I’m not sure yet what it means, but it has opened my eyes a bit more about testing out wide variety of gear along the way.  One club is not in any ways “better” than the other, especially amongst top tier lines at the big manufacturers (who all deal with established coefficient of restitution limits), but one combo may fit my particular swing better.

The KZG was permanently put on a shorter shaft of 43″ as it is not an adjustable head.  What I found with that is that my club path was by far the most consistent, but I was averaging just over 100mph with the swings and my fastest swing of 102 was unfortunately balanced with a few around 98.  I swing my 3-wood faster and the ball goes about as far, so even though I have a great club path and strike the ball pretty well with it, the shorter shaft is limiting to me in potential distance, something I cannot afford to lose being currently a bit on the shorter side off the tee.

I am very excited to continue this exploration and can’t wait for the rest of the heads to arrive at Riverside.  I have heard great things about the new 915 driver and will definitely post my findings as soon as I have a chance to compare it with the rest.

The next step of the week was to decide which wedges to stick with.  My original SM4 wedges are the 50, 54 and 58 degree with 8, 11, and 14 degrees of bounce respectively.  They are also standard lie and have stiff flex S200 shafts.  The new wedges are the SM5 with the same lofts and bounces, but with different (bigger soled) grinds, X100 shafts and are 3 degrees flat.  I like the new ones a ton with the whole and half swing, but cannot seem to chip with them worth a darn.  I have stuck more short chip swings in the ground over the past month than I care to remember, something I never did in the past.

I wasn’t sure if it was adjusting to the new wedges or the new bounces and lie.  So, I took out the old ones for a couple of rounds this week and what I found was that I missed the feel with the half and full swings on the new wedges and after a month away from these old ones my chipping wasn’t much better than with the new ones.  What I realized was just that I need to adjust how I have the wedge interact with the grass for short shots and that the new ones will actually make me a better short game played in the long run as they are forcing me to really consider each shot that I make and to not just have one go-to short shot.  They may not be the answer a year or two from now, but in the time being they are teaching me and that is worth keeping them in the bag.

That was the gist of the week, work on short game and tee shots and get my bag ready for the ensuing tourney season.  It was a good week in that respect as I learned a ton about both gear and, in particular, how I interact with it while on the course.

The end of the week was kind of a bummer as I tweaked my psoas muscle at the end of Friday’s round somehow and later that night it continued to ache/bother my walking and swinging so I decided to take Saturday and Sunday off in order to rest it.  I’ve had a similar strain in the past and I tried to play through it and it ended up lasting weeks, so this time I decided to pay attention to my body and take a weekend off instead of potentially inflaming the issue.  After those two days I went out to Riverside on Monday and hit balls for a couple of hours and was feeling much better.  I think by tomorrow or Wednesday it should be back to 100 percent.

On a side note I am starting a new yoga routine to help mobility, stability, strength and prevent these minor injuries from occurring.  Much more on that soon.

Here’s to a great week!

Inspiration abounds and sometimes there’s so much to go around it almost hurts.  Other times it’s hard to find your way through a day.  Lately, I’ve been finding so much beauty in life that I get to the course full of excitement and confidence.  I can’t wait to get there and can’t wait to tee it up after my practice session ends.  I know my skills and game are better than ever and each first tee I hit I’m ready to go after it and make some good shots, shoot a nice and low score.

The problem, though, is that my on-course confidence is at an epic low.  I’m testing some new drivers, trying to change my iron swing, the new wedges I’m not 100 percent sure how to hit short approach shots with due to the different bounces and my putting is good but I don’t seem to start the ball on the line I want each time.  Outside of that, all is gold.

I know the change is going to come and life happens in cycles, but that doesn’t necessarily make it better while you are in the middle of the old “take a step back before moving forward.”  Everything I am doing is for the long-term greater good and I know that progress is happening, just have to stick to my guns.

I’ve been testing out some new drivers and here are the FlightScope numbers from the most recent one:

There are some things I really like about these numbers, like the club path and face to path, but the dynamic loft is now too low on average which added to lower spin is causing a lot ball flight.

This driver has a 43″ Accra stiff shaft in it.  I tested out one right before the holidays with an x-flex shaft and I only played 9 holes with it.  It felt crazy strange and I hadn’t a clue why I literally could not hit the ball more than 170 yards.  The night before I went to see Jari at Birdie Finnish golf to have him switch out the shafts I picked it up and did a light flex test in my hands, honestly not bending the shaft much at all, but then this happened:

It was one of the craziest things I have seen in golf.  There were maybe 20 swings on the shaft and it just exploded in my hands.  I didn’t put much pressure on it, so it must have had just a randomly weak spot.  No offense to Accra, of course, as they make great shafts, I just happened to have found one with a defect.  They will swap it out with Jari, for sure.  But, I do know that the structure of this particular shaft probably led to how it performed on the course.

At any rate, I now have the Stiff flex version and am liking it, but it’s not quite perfect yet.  I can tell that something is a bit off with either the length, the head, the weight or something.  But, it’s getting closer to the date where I find a driver that really fits me.  Right now I am hitting way more fairways with the 43″ shaft and making center contact more often.  But, I am not getting it up in the air high enough, especially for winter time when the ball plugs as soon as it hits grass and a better trajectory can increase your drives by 15-20 yards.

It’s a work in progress, but at least it’s finally progressing.

I am also still adjusting to my new wedges, which is proving to take longer than I had imagined as short wedge game has always been a strength of mine, but now I am finding myself chunking one or two shots a round and then blading a couple.  It does not lead to confidence or scoring.  The question I have is how long do you try something out before you make a decision if it belongs in the bag or not?  Last year I stuck with a driver that I never “found” for months and then realized that it just didn’t fit my game.  In retrospect I wish that I would have switched it out earlier, but I kept thinking something would click.  I don’t want to replicate that experience, but I also want to do my due diligence with any potential new piece of gear.  What does everyone else do?

I’m going to give the new wedges another week and then if I have not found confidence in them will switch out to the old ones for a week to see if it’s the arrow or the operator.

Potentially, this could be a honeymoon period, but from what I have seen and felt thus far I’d say I have finally found gear that truly fits my swing.  I think for the past 1.5 years I have been trying to adapt my swing to my sticks, but my eyes have been opened and I now truly appreciate how much of a difference small changes can make in your equipment.

I am still playing Titleist irons and Vokey wedges, but with the shorter x-flex shafts and having the lie bent 3 degrees flat instead of 1 upright which my older ones were when I had them checked, they feel like completely different clubs (sticks ).  Completely new.

the divots are flush in the sod creating nice rectangular pelts and I don’t have to hold on to prevent the ball from hooking.  I can really get through it and my two shots are either a nice little draw or a miss of a slight push.  It’s remarkable and the best thing that’s happened to my game in quite some time.

The first day I had them I went out and despite having a couple small chipping duffs, a-la Tiger last Thursday, due to not being used to the different grinds and bounces I shot a decent 78.  A few of those bogeys were directly attributed to tee shots and some others from not completely trusting the new sticks as it was my first time out.  The next round I played with them was last Friday and I won a little match play round by shooting a 74.  It was one of those super easy 74s that could have been a few strokes lower if some of the 8-10 foot birdie putts had dropped.  It was great to hit the ball well again and stick some more greens!

Afterwords I almost felt mad at myself for having tried to make the other fit work for so long.  My iron play had not been up to snuff for some time and I just didn’t know why.  I’m not saying that gear makes all of the difference, but it can definitely make some significant difference, especially if you are like me with needs pretty far away from “standard” stock settings.

Speaking of a standard fit, that is the setting of my driver and 3-wood. I have already taken the hybrid out of the bag and now know that I have to replace all three of those.  No offense to Titleist, but their gear tends to be a bit upright, as does a lot of brands as upright can help prevent the dreaded slice, and for someone like me it is harder to hit.  I can get shorter shafts which may help as that assists in flattening the lie.  Whatever it ends up being, it’s time to find the right big clubs for my game throughout the bag.

The point that I have learned from all of this is that if you have been struggling with something for some time it’s good to look at all of the reasons that may be getting in your way.  At the level that I am currently, a slight change in gear can be a stroke or two per round either way.  In golf, a couple of strokes makes a huge difference.  Now if I can also gain some confidence in my tee shots by having a driver and 3-wood that I trust I can potentially gain a stroke or two there as well.  It won’t make an overnight change, but confidence is key and I now have that from 3-iron to 58 degree wedge.

I talked with the guys at Titleist and they confirmed that this isn’t too uncommon for KBS shafts, but it seems like a big issue seeing as half of my irons have broken during play in the 16 months since I got them.  I play the 9-4 irons right now.

I had the 9-iron fixed a while back by a great repair guy here in Oregon City, Jari, but the 7 is out of the bag and now I’m without a 6, as well as have taken the hybrid out of the bag as I just don’t like hitting it, so have been playing with a few gaps lately.  What I have learned is that it’s very possible to play with the 8 and 5 iron from distances of 145 yards to 195, it just takes a bit of creativity, which in turn has taught me how to better control the ball.  So, it’s a good thing to play with different arrangements, although I am excited to get some new sticks soon.

Here is the state of my 6-iron:

Clean snapped right at the hosel.  Very bizarre the first time it happened, just kind of annoying after 3 times.

But!  I had already placed an order for new irons before it even broke, so in a way this happened at a relatively good time.

I worked with Michael Neff on his new GEARS golf system last week at Columbia Edgewater.  It’s a pretty amazing and is the most accurate club and body gathering system I have been a part of to date.  The site:  http://gearsgolf.com

He put me in the motion capture suit and I hit some irons and drivers and he fit me into new clubs based on the results.  He says that I have the Mike Weir “issue”, which is basically about being the same height as Mike 5’9″ and with relatively long arms for our bodies.  The problem with that is it is very easy to get super flat in the swing making it harder to have a good horizontal swing plane with the longer sticks when they are set to stock settings.  To resolve this issue, he fit me into shorter shafts from 9-iron to driver and set the irons to 3 degrees flat.  He is custom making me a hybrid that will lie flat similar to the irons and then the next step is to find a 3-wood and driver that fits better.  I’m going to go with a shorter shaft with both of those and find clubs that sit flatter as you can’t custom bend either of those seeing as they are not forged metals.

The new irons and wedges are supposed to arrive tomorrow.  Once I get those I will have a slight adjustment period as he says a few of the compensations I do in my swing are to adjust for my current clubs not fitting me how they should.  For the past year I have been trying to adjust my swing to fit my sticks, now he says he has found me sticks that will fit my swing. I appreciate that and have confidence that it will help me grow in my game.

New specs on the irons:

Titleist 714 AP2s with KBS Tour (I know, they snap, but I love their feel) x-flex shafts 1/4″ short bent 3 degrees flat.

rest of the specs I’ll post as the final decisions are made and arrive.

I am very interested in seeing if and how much of a difference this makes.  He says that I have been holding off on the swing to avoid the snap hook and actually hit the ball off of the heel with a swing path 6 degrees inside to out and with a shut face in order to produce my draw.  I have been getting low Smash factor and that with better fitting clubs and a more fluid swing I should gain accuracy and distance as well as ball control with both fades and draws.

Only time will tell, but I trust that this is a step in the right direction.  And, having confidence in your clubs is half the battle in this mind game we lovingly call golf.

I have no clue why this is, but every time I have a bigger trip planned I miraculously catch a head cold a few days before the flight.  This trip is no exception and I find myself masking a cough with some over-the-counter syrups while trying to stay focussed during a very interesting and busy part of The Dan Plan.

While the cold will soon pass, the knowledge I learned today may take a few weeks to a month to truly set it.  I went to get trained on the FlightScope by the NW rep, Michael Neff, who I knew from previous encounters as the golf world is surprisingly small, out at Columbia Edgewater today.  It was good to work with Neff and to be back out at the range of CECC.  We went right into the nitty gritty as a lot of the features and data the FlightScope gathers is the same as TrackMan.  One of the biggest differences is that TrackMan declines to display data if the radar doesn’t pick up enough detail, whereas the FlightScope will give numbers on every swing.   On one hand it is nice that TrackMan doesn’t give any partial data, but on the other hand you can just delete a swing on FlightScope if you think it picked up just as much sod as ball.  I digress, though, and will post a thorough review once I have had the new machine for a month or two.

For the time being the story got more interesting after we went through the training and just started hitting balls and talking about the numbers.  I wish I had taken a screen shot, but the gist of what we were looking at is that my numbers are pretty crazy, really.  I can go into details once I have hit and gathered some data, but for now Michael showed me how off my irons are for my swing.  We played around with different things and found that when I went with a 4 degree flat 1/2″ short shaft in my irons my swing numbers squared up and I was hitting it with optimal smash factor and gaining ball speed, optimizing trajectory and increasing distance as well as improving my scatter pattern.  It was making a huge difference and I was pretty shocked.

He said that he wouldn’t be surprised if my coaches had been having a hard time fighting some of my habits because a lot of the habits were due to compensating for the shafts setup that I had.  When we looked at my arm length compared to my height it also made sense.  During the swing my arms are very low creating a horizontal swing plane (HSP) that doesn’t match up with my iron profile.  But, when we went with the 4 degree flat shorter shafts the HSP got on track and everything else lined up better.  I could then actually swing to the right instead of coming at the ball from 6-8 degrees from the inside (I’m a lefty, remember), which was squaring up the path and face.

Neff said a lot of the issues I have been struggling with were due to my club setup.  He was not trying to sell me anything and I trust his technical knowledge and have known him for a couple of years, so I believe what he says.  And, when we got an iron with the setup he thinks I need all of my balls were flying so consistently and effortlessly.  My 7-iron swing speed got up well above 90mph and the smash factor was right at 1.38, which is pretty optimal for that iron.  With my gamer shafts I was getting a smash factor of about 1.3 and swinging inside out about 6 degrees with a shut face at impact, but hitting the ball towards the heel of the club to compensate for the shut face.

I am not going to change anything right now because I am about to go on the trip and need to be able to play how I know how to play, but it was eye opening to see how much bending an iron can change the impact numbers.  I am also not financially in the market for new irons, but am interested in trying out his setup and bending the ones I have when I return to see what happens.  That’s the beauty of forged irons: you can play around with lie and loft and always go back if it’s not working.

Long story short:  I’m going to work with the FlightScope and figure out what I need to do to optimize my current swing.  That may mean bending some clubs and it may mean getting some new sticks altogether.  Whatever needs to happen, I now have the right tools to figure it out.  After Switzerland that will be one of my practice priorities.  Gear, mental game, swing, physical fitness, diet, etc.  There are a lot of things to continue to improve.

For now, it’s officially the beginning of rainy season here in Oregon:

But I have some new rain gear to dive in with.  I went with Zero Restriction this year and am very impressed with the jacket so far, will try the pants when the stuff really hits the fan. The jacket is easy to swing in and as dry as can be on the inside:

One more, I swear by next summer this ball is going to be completely consumed.  I keep wait for the day when I walk by and it’s no longer visible:

Time for one more round today, some fresh air will help the cold dissipate, and then will get packed up and ready to head to Switzerland.  I have two rounds planned so far in Zurich and am excited to see what Swiss golf is all about.  I have a feeling the ball may fly a bit farther than sea level Portland.

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