Lot going on

This past week was filled with wholly new experiences.  I’m a bit uncertain where to start, but guess a little recap will work, beginning with the first golfing tournament I have have ever played in..

It was the PSU Viking Classic, a fund raiser for PSU athletics and I played with the tennis coach and two of his friends, Sarah and Brian.  The format was a four person scramble, which was fortunate for me due to the fact that I play with nothing longer than an 8-iron  For those of you not familiar with a scramble, what it means is that everyone hits a shot and then the team all hits their next shots from the best hit ball.  So, if one member hits a 270 yard drive straight down the middle, all four get to hit an approach shot from that spot and so on until the ball is in the hole.

Right off the bat I was nervous.  Even though I was playing for nothing in the sense that there wasn’t money on the line and I was playing with friends, it was still nerve wracking to put everything that I had done to date to work for real.  On the first tee, I could feel my nerves creeping up and with the three of them and the foursome behind us watching, I managed to barely pull off an 8-iron shot off of the tee box.  But, after a few shots, I swallowed my stomach and started to get my swing back.

After that, my game had some highs and lows, but the thing that I learned more than anything else was that there is no substitute for competitive playing and I will be putting something of consequence on the line any chance possible, even if it’s just five bucks or lunch in a putting competition, because that is real golf.  Nobody cares what you can hit in a practice round, you are tested by the scores you sign off at the end of the tournament day.

Speaking of scores, our team of randomly skilled players ranging from a man with limited shoulder movement, me with an 8-iron to putter and a former Cactus League player actually ended up with a solid round of a 62, placing fourth of about 30 teams.  Here’s a little proof:

Looking at the net score: 54, I think that might have been my biggest contribution to the day..  however, I did make a few putts and stuck a green or two.  All in all, it was a beautiful day, made a couple of new friends and had a great experience with my first tournament.  I will be back and already feel like I’ve learned so much about how to concentrate in this type of situation.  Nerves come with practice and that’s what The Dan Plan is all about!

The team on the first fairway:

After that, it was a couple of days spent with a crew from the Golf in America program of the Golf Channel.  It was a group of great guys who knew what they were doing, which is great to be around because no time was wasted and they had a vision for what they wanted to film.

We met up Monday night and then filmed some out at Pumpkin Ridge on Tuesday.  Wednesday was spent filming at my house for about five hours and then a bit on the Mason course out at CECC in the afternoon.  Here’s a shot of my living room taken over during the morning interview with a stand-in Dan:

Definitely a pro setup.  We did so many different types of shots that I can’t wait to see what the final cut looks like.  Not sure when it will run, but I’m assuming some time in the mid to late summer.  Will definitely post it when it runs.

There were some funny shots including the exterior of my house where the grass was about a foot long due to my lawn mower breaking a couple weeks back…  classic.

When we went out to shoot on the course there was an entirely different type of pressure but it felt very similar to teeing off during the tournament.  I put a lot of pressure on myself because I wanted to hit like I knew I could, but when the camera turned on my muscles just didn’t want to work how they do when nobody is watching.  So, there were a couple takes before I managed to get a good shot in, although perhaps the shanks would paint the picture of average Dan better than a solid 140 yard 8-iron  We’ll see which direction they decide to go.  No matter, it was a good to have the pressure turned on.

Moral of the week and this long blog:  I’ve got the practice swing down, now it’s time to get the pressure swing going.  Baby steps towards the goal, there’s always something new to learn: it’s the beautiful part of life.

I have about 20 hours of sleep to catch up on now.  Can’t wait to get back out to the course tomorrow and get back to my deliberate days.