This past week I didn’t pick up a golf club, and it was the first time that has happened since September 2013.  But, it wasn’t by choice.  The back is just messed up and posting on my lead leg was not physically comfortable in the week leading up to that one; at times so bad that I either fell down in the follow through of a swing or had to walk forward after hitting the ball to not put any undue pressure on the lower back.

It started about two weeks ago when I felt some pinching on the lower right side of my back.  I took a few days off and rested and then came back to hit balls and try to play some holes.  That day I made it through roughly 14 holes before it was obvious that I needed to stop for the day.  I took another day off and then went back out and focussed on good posture and a strong core and made it through 18 holes, although the  last few were a bit off feeling.  I then took Friday, April 24, off to rest before a two-day two-man best ball tournament at Rose City over that weekend.

The tourney was fun, but a bit of a disaster on my part.  I couldn’t really find a tee swing and on Saturday anything longer than a 7-iron approach shot caused pain, and the wrong type of pain, if there is such a thing.  I was determined to help my partner out more on Sunday so iced and rested it that evening in preparation for our final round.  We did much better and managed to at least shoot even par on the day, but tee shots were still feeling physically alien to me the whole day and I knew I was in for some trouble after the round.  Throughout the day, every swing I made felt worse than the previous and a smarter me knew that I should pull out, although I was stubborn and determined to play better than Saturday.  We finished strong at 4-under for the back 9, but that stubbornness, I think, took a toll on my body.

I called chiropractor Dr. Seth Alley after the round and set up an appointment for Monday.  He has been amazing through the entire project and can always diagnose and fix whatever ailments my body has had to date, so I was excited to see him.

On Monday Seth, basically, said I was out of whack and my hips were out of line and the muscles through the back were all screwy.  (He of course used professional terms for everything, but I’m not one to remember the exact terms and don’t want to say the wrong thing, so will just stick with “it was messed up”).  He worked on the area for over an hour and was able to get close to moving some things around but needed to wait for the inflammation to go down before making any adjustments.  Two days later I went in again and visited Seth and this time he was able to straighten out my left side.

It was feeling better and I was hopeful to see him again on Friday to fix up the right side.  But then, unfortunately, my body decided to get exceedingly sick late Wednesday night with Norovirus and  I was bedridden all day Thursday and did not want to potentially spread that awful little bug so had to postpone the next adjustment until Monday.

I don’t want this to come off as a sob story, I’m totally fine and things happen to people.  We all get sick and get injured all the time, but I do want to explain why I have not practiced or played in over a week.  The flu was just a fluke and quickly passed and what I took from it was that having that was a great way to cleanse the system.  As soon as I was able to consume again I set a healthy base and have felt wonderful this past weekend and today.

At any rate, I went and saw Seth again today as the right side just will not simmer down. It literally feels like my hip is jammed inside itself.  He worked it out and told me to go and ice and then do some specific stretches later on as well as visit the range either later today or tomorrow to see how swinging a club feels.  I know it’s going to feel a little foreign as I have not hit a ball in a while, but as long as the pain has gone down and I can post up on my right side all will be well.

Injury is basically my only fear in all of this and I will do however much preventative work or rest I need to do to make sure something like this does not progress into a major injury.  It’s just part of the journey and something we all have to deal with in one way or another.

I wish I could say that I was on an amazing camping trip and taking a week off to hike and contemplate, but this year I think my “vacation” chose itself in the form of forced rest.

I am not very good at “taking it easy,” so this is something I have to be very deliberate about.  When I have some down time I tend to want to do something physical, even if it’s just heavy-ish yard work or moving furniture into my new place.  So, not being able to golf and not being able to lift heavy objects takes its toll on me.  But, like everything, this is a learning experience and I will do my best to do my best.

On a more pleasant note, I will be traveling some coming up for a combined golf and family visit trip.  The first stop will be in Chicago where I am participating in an exciting and fun fundraiser event called the Beat Tom and Bill Foundation.  Check it out here:  http://www.btbfoundation.org

This event is going to be a ton of fun and all of the money raised goes to a wonderful cause.  If anyone is in the Chicago area on May 15 you should come out and play some golf with us all!

No matter what, I will be back to 100 percent before then.  That is my goal and I expect to in full swing much sooner.

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.

When they reached out to me about a month ago I was speechless.  They asked if I was able to make the trip and I, of course, said yes and since that day the details have been filling in.  I fly out Sunday morning and will be down there for the next week.  Much more on that to come as it unfolds.

In the interim, I played the first “tourney” of the year up here in Portland.  It’s in the thick of winter and there aren’t that many events going on, but I played in a two-man shamble event with another golfer last Sunday.  It was the Heron Lakes Super Bowl shamble and Ed and I had a good time, although we didn’t make putts all day and those things really just come down to whoever is hitting their irons and making putts.  At least one of us was on the green on every hole, but we just couldn’t finish the deal and ended up with simply two birdies a piece on the day.  Not that great when a two-man team came in at 60…

The good news is that event, in a way, kicks off the tourney season here in Portland.  December and January are pretty much dead as the winter allows for only so much sunlight and golfing time, but now that the sun sets post 5pm things are looking brighter.

Not to say I haven’t been playing in competitive rounds as at Riverside we have games on Thursday and Saturday which are basically the same as the competition days in Australia and Europe.  What I mean is there is money on the line and the club posts your rounds.  So, in a way, I play in at least to “competition” rounds each week, although here in the states we just call them money games.   I think there is just a subtle difference in perception.  However it is, there are ways to get pressure rounds in no matter what day of the week or where you currently are in your game.

The real tourney season starts up in March with a few “Iceberg” opens around town and then amplify through the summer months.  I’m very much looking forward to those and am excited to test the new swing in events I have participated in through the past.

Speaking of the swing, here is a quick video of my new swing.  I have been working on changing a few things:

and here is a breakdown of how I compare with Luke Donald at the takeaway:

Kind of fascinating how I have changed from being under the line to over the line.  I think it’s time to find a winter coach…  I have been working on trying to get more on plane and after seeing this it’s easy to realize that I have gone over the top.  The good news is that I am hitting a ton of fairways right now.  If my iron play was up to snuff with my driver I would be shooting par or better as I am hitting 10-12 fairways a round.

It’s always something…

Pebble Beach soon!!!  Will post from there as much as possible.  Love this game!

Competition wise my spring was much better than this summer.  I began the year posting a 76 at the ICHP Conference in Orlando which was good enough to be the medalist round for the event and then followed that up with some solid mid-70s rounds at Riverside that won money in the Thursday and Saturday games.  I was in contention in Riverside’s money list (the top 15 earners throughout the year up until today get to playoff for a large chunk of change, all of the money coming from Thursday and Saturday games played up to this point) through May and seemed to place in most events I played in. My swing wasn’t too pretty, but I knew it and could get around the course in the mid 70s.

But, mid 70s isn’t my goal so I began the process of breaking down and rebuilding once again.  I worked on, and struggled at times, getting the swing more on plane and improving my dynamic loft as well as trying to get to a place where I better understood my misses.  This time around it hasn’t been coming easy as it is so tempting to revert to my old swing when I get out there and play golf as I know how to hit the ball one way and when the pressure is on sometimes it’s just easier to relinquish and go with the old, especially during competitive golf. Essentially, I have been stuck between the new and the old.

But, after struggling with this change for a few months I realized that my mind was a bit confused with exactly what I needed to do.  I had seen Bruce a couple of times this summer and I knew that he wanted me to make a better turn and have a one-piece takeaway, but for some reason I had been struggling with implementing these changes no matter how hard I worked on them.  After a long time of working without concrete results I decided to have a fresh set of eyes look at my swing to see if there were any differing thoughts on what I needed to do.

A couple of days ago I went and saw John Bowen at Heron Lakes.  He was one of the first teaching pros that I ever met as I used to do all of my putting practice out there, and I have played a handful of rounds with John so he knows my tendencies.  I happened into him on the range between two lessons he was giving and he had me take some swings to see where I was at.  He noticed the same swing patterns as Bruce has been pointing out:  I take the club up immediately behind me with my wrists/hands and then it gets stuck and ends up flat and over the top.  John suggested that I make a one piece takeaway to help keep the club on plane.  It was the same thing that Bruce has been wanting me to do this entire year and the same thing that I have been struggling to implement.  But, John had a different way of describing the issue and he suggested a new drill that made sense to me.  It was the same information but delivered differently and it seemed to click.

I went back to the range and worked for the rest of the day and the next day and started seeing some concrete results in the videos I took on the range.  It has been a long change process and it’s not over right now, but at least I have a good sense of what I need to do and where I want to go, as well as how to get there.  Both John and Bruce want to see me making a better turn and keeping the club in a better spot through the turn and they both have explanations on how to get there and do it correctly.  Sometimes, though, it’s good to have a second set of eyes on the swing to help explain what it is that you need to do.  The good thing is that they both know where I am and where I want to be and they have a similar idea as to what I need to work on.  The worst thing would be to see two completely different style of teachers as that would lead to grand confusion and this game is hard enough without adding that element.

The summer was disappointing score-wise and probably the toughest summer to date when it comes to competitive rounds as I have not seen the progress that I was hoping to have by now with the new swing.  I know what I am currently needing to work on and that gives me the micro goals that I need to stay focussed.  The scoring goals will come when the rest of the work has been actualized and I have faith that things are moving in the right direction even if a seemingly stalled season is on the brink of passing.  There are a couple more tournaments in September and October that I am excited about and a lot of work to do in the meantime.

To help with these changes, a FlightScope is scheduled to arrive later today. The story about that will have to wait until the next blog post, though, as it is time to get out to the range and continue the forward momentum.

I never realized how much I actually enjoy the competitions until this weekend and I think it might be a new sign.  The feeling of playing in them reminds me of when I first played a par 3 nine hole course back in Nebraska with my brother.  I was nervous and excited through the entire round, played like crap and as soon as we finished all I wanted to do was start over and do it again.

This past weekend I played in the Oregon Mid-Amateur.  The Mid-Am is similar to the Oregon Amateur except you have to be at least 25 years old to enter.  I suppose the point is to take it out of the hands of the college kids.  Whatever the reason for the age limit, it still brings out a field of great golfers (you have to be about a 5 handicap or lower to enter) and the course is usually tricked out and in excellent shape.  That was definitely the case for this one down at Emerald Valley in Creswell, OR.

I had never played Emerald Valley, but through the practice round on Friday and entering into the tourney I could see that it was going to be a really fun and challenging track.  The greens are much more sloped than the courses I usually tee it at in Portland and they were firm and fast.  If you ended up above the hole on a lot of them it was a struggle to two-putt.  The fairways were firm too, so a good shot would release and become a great shot.  It was prime time and the track was mint.

On Friday night I was nervous entering into the tourney and had some negative thoughts as I had been struggling with tee shots lately, again, and was focussing on that instead of positives.  But, I roomed with a friend who has a good amateur golf career from qualifying for the USGA Mid-Am to winning his club championship 6 times.  He was so happy and excited to be playing in the Mid-Am that he said he would probably wake up at 4am ready to go.  I thought a lot about his excitement and realized that I needed to embrace the challenge rather than think of it as something I could potentially mess up.

At that moment I began to see tournament golf in a new light and immediately the excitement started taking over.  I didn’t know what would happen, but I was down there and couldn’t wait to go.  I teed off on the back side of the course and was ecstatic to be playing golf on a beautiful summer morning:

I was excited, but the nerves were evident in that I tried to guide my shots way too much on the first few holes which created a rough start to the two-day tournament.  But, this time, and for the first time in my golf career, I embraced the feeling of the nerves and appreciated everything that was going on in a more analytical way.  Still, it took 6 holes and a rather bizarre happening to really get into the flow of my game.  The start:

1.  Hooked a 3-wood into the trees, punched out, hit the green on the approach but it was firmer than I thought and rolled off the back even though I landed 5 yards short of the pin where I had aimed for. Chipped back on but it was also faster than I thought and the ball rolled well past the hole. Two-putted for a double.

2. Pulled an iron into the bunker on a par 3.  Hit it out and decently close, two putts for a bogey.

3. Hooked a 3-wood into the trees. Punched out and then hit it on. Two putts for a bogey.

4. Finally hit a good tee shot.  Laid up and then hit the green and two putted for a par on a par 5.

5. Pulled the 3-wood into the trees.  Thought I had a line and hit a shot that I was not fully committed to, which ended up clipping a hill and bounding into the hazard. Took a drop from 100 yards and hit the front part of the green but it rolled out to the back as it came from the rough.  Hit a sub-optimal chip and then 2-putted for a triple.

6. Pulled the 3-wood right again and had to punch out.  Hit it to the back of the green which was very sloped and my putt rolled 15 feet past the hole, then two putted for a double.

At this point I had hit mostly tight-gripped nervous shots and was scrambling to get things back into fairways and onto greens.  My approach shots were hit lightly, too, which didn’t put enough spin on the ball so when it landed the ball was releasing through the greens.  It was a bad combo and took this next event to get me to calm down and start playing my golf.

I hit a decent tee shot on the 7th but again pulled it towards the right and the ball ended up in a fairway bunker.  I was about 160 yards out and from a bunker that’s my 7-iron. It’s a shot I’ve hit plenty in my career and I put a good easy 3/4 swing on it, but the strangest noise happened at impact.  I heard a clank and a pop then something hit the lip in front of me and went flying into the air.  I thought it was the ball then I saw the ball come back down and land maybe 5 yards from where I hit it. I looked over and it was the head of my 7-iron that had snapped off and almost hit my playing partner.  Somehow the KBS Tour shaft snapped through the soft sand leaving this:

Honestly, I couldn’t help but laugh and I think it was just what I needed to relax.  I hit an 8-iron to the front of the green (could have used a 7 ) and two putted for a bogey.  I was 10 over through 7 holes which wasn’t where I wanted to be and was pretty similar to the last 2-day tourney I played in, but I took a deep breath and started playing some golf.  I ended up shooting an 87 on the day which if I just look at the score was disappointing, but I am learning how to embrace the challenge of tournament golf and with the help of the Vision54 coaching also am starting to find some swing feels and play boxes that work under pressure.  I learned through those first holes a few things that are not optimal for me when under the gun and have noted them.  It’s a work in progress, but I am also taking note of what does work and collecting that info in my yardage book.  Eventually I will have 4 or 5 tried and true swing thoughts that I can utilize.

The most important thing I realized, though, was that I really love tournament golf.  There is nothing like it and immediately after that round I couldn’t wait to go back out.  It was hard to sleep that night as I was even more excited to get back to it and experience the ride again.  I knew I was out of it score-wise, but I also knew I could learn more and hit some better shots the next day.  All I wanted to do was get back out there under the gun and hit some shots.

Despite my best efforts to enter day two with the mindset I had through the last 11 holes of day one, my body and grip were far from relaxed for the first few holes of the second day.  I played a hell of a lot better but ran into a bit of trouble with two doubles in a row on the 4th and 5th hole, which are pretty tough holes on the back 9 of that course (I started on the back 9 again).  I shot a 42 that go around which was 5 strokes better than the day before.  The rest of the day went pretty well although I didn’t get a birdie for the entire 36 hole tournament.  I shot a 38 on the second 9 to improve from an 87 to an 80.  Of the 75 guys who played in the event (about 12 withdrew after Saturday, I can only guess because of high scores or something similar) I ended up in 45th place.  My goal was to be in the 30s so I missed the mark by a few strokes, but am very proud of the improvement I made from day one to day two.

I think that in the past I was trying to avoid the pressure and nerves and struggled with what it meant to play in events, but I finally learned to accept and appreciate those feelings this weekend.  And, not just accept them, but to fully embrace the challenge.  There are plenty more events coming up to continue working on this.  And work I will do.

I was going to make it a pdf download and ask people to contribute what they thought it was worth, but I thought if I put the book up on Amazon’s website it would be better formatted for all types of digital readers.  If this doesn’t work after a couple of months I may put a link to the pdf up as well, but for the time being please think about supporting The Dan Plan by purchasing the book here:

Amazon Unites States:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MTC0NJA

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And most any other country, email me if you want a specific link or search for “The Dan Plan”.

I wish to apologize in advance as a few external links did not translate to this format.  One of the most blaring absences are videos.  On a few occasions I talk about watching a video and it’s just a blank on the page.  Outside of that the content is whole.  I edited out about one third of the posts but there is still quite a bit of content, too much in a lot of ways.  Down the road at some point I will have a professional editor (or a well versed friend, or myself when the amount of time in a day magically doubles) take a gander at the content and polish it up.  For now, this is the story, more or less, word for word from the beginning.  I hope you enjoy and get some value out of the content.

For every book purchased from Amazon almost $5 goes to The Dan Plan.  Thank you for reading and please help spread the word to anyone potentially interested in seeing what it takes to make such a drastic change in one’s life.

Cheers!

What I am talking about was my second shot on the 13th hole of yesterday’s Oregon Am qualifier, but let’s back it up a bit and start from the beginning.

I had family visit for the five days leading up the tourney and didn’t get out to the course during that stay as we went to the coast and I took some time away from practice.  I wasn’t sure how this would affect my game, but when I went out to warm up yesterday morning I felt fresh and clear headed so I knew it was not going to have any negative affect.  This was a relief as sometimes when I step away from the game for a bit it takes a day to get back into the groove.  Yesterday I felt ready to go and my body was ache free, so all was well.

I was nervous, of course.  This was the biggest tournament I had played in and I knew I could make the cut if I had a decent round.  Also, I have wanted to play in the Am for two years but this year was the first time where my handicap was low enough to get into the qualifier.  To top that, a bunch of friends were following my scores online and I knew plenty of people in the field so there was extra incentive to perform well.  I really wanted this and was excited to get the chance to play.  It felt like a reward, or something that I had earned, to be in the field and my goal was to appreciate that I GOT to play, not to assume anything or take it for granted.

With that mindset I headed out on the first hole of Stone Creek Golf Club in Oregon City.  It was a perfect golfing day: overcast with temperatures hitting 70 and a light wind.  The greens were firm and the course was in pretty good shape all-in-all.  Pins were setup in some interesting and tough locations, but everyone played the same course so fair was fair.  I had played the course once about 3 weeks ago and wasn’t too familiar with the layout, but there were only a couple tee shots that were blind or didn’t seem obvious from the box.  I was a little worried about reading the greens well, but that didn’t turn out to be the breaking point of the round and I only misread one green all day.

The first hole is wide open and I hit a great drive right down the middle to position A.  Then after hitting the green from 150 out I made a downhill putt for birdie.  Perfect way to start: one under through one.  On the second hole, par 3, I missed the green with a little pull and ended up exactly where you don’t want to be on the hole.  The ball bounced down a hill and came to rest 30 yards out to a short-sided pin well above my head.  I pitched on and lipped out the par putt tapping in for bogey.

The third hole has a hazard down the left side and is wide open on the right.  I tried to aim a hair down the right side of the fairway AND hit a draw to go more right, but blocked the shot and it went left hitting a tree, falling on the cart path and then bouncing into a red staked hazard.  This is a crucial moment as I had to make a tough decision whether to punch out or to take a drop.  There was a rules official standing there (he found my ball) and he gave me the ruling as to where I could take relief.  The relief point did not have a clear shot at the green so if I dropped I would then have to punched out and be hitting my fourth shot to get up to the green.  The alternative was to try and punch out from the hazard to the middle of the fairway and then hit on with my third shot.  Seemed like an obvious choice to punch out, but my ball was sitting against a half-inch thick blackberry root jutting out of the ground and over the ball.  My mind thought of a friend, Chan Song, who broke his hand trying to hit off of a root and who told me it was never worth it, even in competition.

I thought about it for a couple of minutes weighing the pros and cons of the situation and for better or worse decided to hit my 50 degree and punch out of the hazard.  I cut through the root and caught the ball clean.  It bounded out over the fairway and ended up propped up in the rough with a clean-ish shot to the green 150 yards away.  It was a gamble that had paid off.  That said, I hit an 8-iron and the next shot hit a branch and fell down 97 yards short of the green.  I managed a good up and down to save bogey, but it had been a tough hole brought on by a big miss with the driver.

The next hole was a par 5 and much cleaner.  I hit a drive and then laid up to 100 yards with a short iron as the green is very protected by bunkers and the one thing I learned from my only other time playing the course this year is that those are not the bunkers you want to mess with.  Unfortunately I thinned a gap wedge and the ball went over the green; chipped back up and two putted for another bogey.  I was 2 over through 4 and my goal had been to be one over, but not too bad all things considered and I was ready to move on to the next group of four holes.

The fifth hole is pretty wide open, but you don’t want to miss right as you get blocked by the trees.  So, I pushed the ball again and ended up hitting a tree down the left side dropping it 225 yards short of the green.  I hit a hybrid that landed a foot off the green and then hit a good putt distance-wise but misread the slope and ended up with a 6 footer for par.  Missed that to bogey the hole.

6  is a par 3 with water then bunkers protecting the green.  It was playing 164 yards and the green visual appears small from the tee box.  My memory was telling me not to miss it long, but short is in the bunkers or water.  I really didn’t know whether I should hit a full 7-iron or try and go with a cut 6-iron.  The wind didn’t seem to be a factor and the guy I was playing with hit first and went long left.  I decided to go with a 6 to not be short, but my last thought before hitting was “don’t be long”.   I hit it fat and sent the ball into the water.  There wasn’t a drop zone so I had to re-tee and hit that one fat too but it just barely made it over the water landing in a hazard with a short sided pin.  I had to hit over a bunker with tall grass in my backswing to a green that slopes away from me and I also couldn’t ground the club as I was in the hazard, but I made a good swing and got it on the green.  I two-putted for a triple.

This was not how I had imagined the first 6 holes of the round going.  I started with a birdie and felt pretty good, but then immediately after hit some off shots and got tight and nervous.  I was now 6 over through 6 holes and knew that I needed to finish around 6 over so had to start playing some good golf.  I loosened up and let go a bit and began to swing more freely.  The next three holes I shot par so turned at 6-over 42.

The back nine is supposed to be the tough nine at Stone Creek and everyone told me that to be safe you need to turn around 38 or 39.  I was a bit behind and needed some catching up.

I hit a good drive on 10 as it was a wide open hole (something after the round I realized: every wide open tee shot I hit really well, whenever there was trouble down a side I barely managed to get out of the box.  This is something I need to address as it killed me yesterday) and hit the middle of the green on my approach.  I had a long putt for birdie with a double break, but dropped it in the middle of the cup.  On the next two holes I hit the green in regulation and almost dropped a bird both times, but at least managed to get it back to just 5 over through 12 holes.  This was very close to what I was shooting for and I was happy to be back in it with a shot to qualify.

13 was where it all changed.

The 13th hole is a blind tee shot over a hill that has OB down the left side and a creek running through the green around 280 yards from the box.  A driver and even 3-wood will get to the creek as once you hit it over the hill the ball runs hard towards the water.  The guy I was playing with (who was a 2 handicap and a member of the men’s club at Stone Creek who says he regularly shoots 74-75 out there) hit his hybrid a little left of center.  I remembered when I last played that the ball can kick towards that left OB and you want to be more towards the center or right side of the fairway so aimed for the middle and tried to hit a little draw with my hybrid.  On a related note, for the past few weeks I have really struggled with hitting tee shots with my hybrid again and my confidence level was very low with that club.  But, driver and 3-wood were too much and I didn’t think 4-iron would get over the hill and the next shot is very long and up a huge hill unless you get down towards the creek.  So, I hit a hybrid and ended up pulling it a little down the right side.

He said I would be fine and maybe just have to punch out at worst and I wasn’t too disappointed with the shot.  I had made good contact, just pulled it some.  When we got to the top of the hill I saw the rules official walking down towards the creek and started to get worried.  Normally there wouldn’t be any way that ball made it through the trees and through all of the rough and all the way to the creek, but it must have hit cart path or hard pan as the official said it just kept going.  We found the ball about a foot into the hazard lying in marsh grass 2 feet tall.  It looked like it would be possible to punch out as it was an easier lie than the one I had on the third hole and I could stand on top of a couple of rocks which gave me decent leverage.  There wasn’t any clean look at the pin and if I had taken a drop I would have had to punch out to the fairway leaving me in the same situation as the 3rd hole where I would have had to hit my fourth shot onto the green.  This approach was up a huge hill and hard enough as it was so I didn’t want to take the extra stroke and decided to punch out the same as I had before.

I should have asked the official what the ruling was and at least thought about what my shot would have been from a drop.  Instead I went for the punch out.  This time, though, there was a hazard across the fairway and my last thought before hitting the ball was to not send it across into the other hazard.  I swung at it and popped the ball up but it somehow managed to go backwards deeper into the thick rough.  I again decided not to take the drop and then hacked at it again with the same result.  At this point I had to take an unplayable and drop four and punch out with my fifth shot.  I hit a 6-iron up the hill just long of the green with my sixth shot then got an up-and-down for a quad bogey 8.

I had just gone from being in the hunt at 5 over to 2-shots off the cut line at 9 over in one hole.  I can’t remember the last time I was 4 over on one hole and was a bit in shock from the entire experience.  I have played it over and over in my head since then and just don’t know what I should have done.  Normally I would have taken the drop and punched out then hit on the green, but I think I was being overly aggressive as I knew I needed to shoot as low as possible to make the cut.  It was an all-or-nothing scenario and I walked away with nothing.

The next hole was a par 3 over a hazard which was playing slow due to the number of balls not hit on the green.  It’s a short hole playing 135 and we had about 15 minutes to sit on the box and wait for our turn.  The entire time I was trying to rationalize my decision on the previous hole while also trying to get back into the game and tell myself that I still had a shot.  When our turn came up my playing partner hit his in the hazard and I hit a 9-iron just over the green to a backstop but the ball din’t roll back to the green how it seems like it should.  I had another 5 minute delay on the green while the rules official decided on where my partner could drop and then I had a chance to chip on.  I hit a good one and the ball looked like it was going to hit the cup the entire way but turned just before it and ended up 5 feet past the hole.  I think my mind had wandered as I missed the 5-footer and came off with a silly bogey to now be 10 over through 14.

I was 4 off of what would make the cut and had 4 holes remaining.  The last shot was to birdie out.  There was a hazard on the left side of the 15th hole and I tried to relax, aim for the center and hit my normal draw, but blocked it left and sent the ball into the hazard.  I had to drop at a point where I didn’t have a clear shot at the green and knew I was out of it for good.  It just wasn’t my day and a few bad shots really added up and I compounded my mistakes on the 13th hole.

There is a ton to learn from the experience and simply by playing in the tournament I learned a lot about the state of my game and what I need to work on.  Two things jump out immediately:  hitting tee shots when there is a hazard in play and knowing when to take medicine and when to be aggressive.  I think the latter comes with experience and I gained some of that yesterday; the former can be worked on with deliberate practice and is exactly where my focus needs to be right now.

Luckily, I was just invited to play the Royal Oaks Invitational Tournament this weekend.  It’s a 3-day event this Friday through Sunday on one of the best tracks in the area.  I’m excited to have three more tournament rounds already on the books and coming so soon and will be thinking about and adjusting my game accordingly after yesterday’s setback.

It was in no means one of my better tournament rounds to date and I know I could have made the cut, but when you hit 4 balls into hazards in 18 holes it’s hard to shoot a good score.

I am very bummed, and even somewhat mad at myself, about yesterday, but am going to take that energy and bring it to practice today.  There is a lot to work on and now I have a better idea of exactly what that is.