Fall-ing
The fall can be a unforgiving mistress.
On one hand, Fall is the aesthetic champion of the year. Seems like most people are in agreement here. But if you don’t believe me, check out the photos below, it’s hard to capture a bad image with the sun at an angle and the leaves full of color:
This next one is a straight on shot of the chipping area at CECC, a rather plain photo any other time of year:
And, the range at Pumpkin Ridge:
It’s a good time to be outside. That said, there are a couple caveats (aren’t there always?) that come with this time of year. First and foremost is that Fall is the harbinger of a long, dark, rainy winter here in the Pacific Northwest. Second, things just hurt more in the cold weather. Third, Keep your eye on the ball, it seems to be overly easy to lose a golf ball in the fall…
Here’s what lies just to the left and right of the fairways right now. If you miss by just a few feet you can gain a penalty stroke with a lost ball due to the needle/haystack principle:
It’s not only the leaves, but it’s plugging season too. Seems that any ball which rises above 30 feet in the air has a good chance of getting plugged. For the non-golfer out there, a plugged ball is one that, upon landing, buries itself in the ground; at times deep enough to be completely covered by mud and unfindable. This rarely, if ever, happens in the summer as the ground is firm, but in the winter it stops balls in their tracks and prevents much rollout (what you get in distance after your ball hits the ground).
Yesterday I spent about 20 minutes looking for different balls during the 18 holes I played and got on penalty stroke for not being able to find a ball that I swear missed the fairway by an inch. So, keep your eye on the ball more than ever right now.
The cold. I’m starting to feel like Old Man Dan, but I know it’s just the cold getting to my bones. It’s taking longer to warm up and things just hurt more in the cold. Shanks send spikes of vibratory pain up through the hands and the body doesn’t want to bend like it does when the temp rises above 50. I’ve been having to keep a careful eye on my wrist in particular:
It hadn’t been moving “right” for a while and just felt odd and a bit painful, so when I saw Shawn Dailey for the winter workout routine I had him look at it. He said I had signs of Teno-Jackson Five-Itis (technically, I think he said Tenosynovitis) which is inflammation of the sheath (synovium) that surrounds a tendon. This is an injury born from overuse and/or strain. Makes sense that it would happen in my right wrist due to the amount of swings I’ve been doing this previous year. Not to fret, though, these things come and go and as long as you make sure you do as you are told by your doc all should be well. I’m applying ice in the evenings and when not golfing trying to rest it as much as possible. Injury is the one thing that doesn’t fit into The Plan. (In the picture) For the wrist, Shawn applied an ionically charged anti-inflammatory medicine and the small battery back on my wrist applies a polar opposite charge which pushes the medicine into the joint.
Fall. What can you do? It’s a beauty, but will bite you if you aren’t careful. I hope everyone is keeping warm and getting outside to enjoy these days before winter sets in!