Quick Trip

With swollen eyes and barely breathable nasal passages, I recount my last two days in North Carolina.  The pollen must have been something else up there as at some point yesterday my head decided to stop fighting and give in to the swelling.  They might be aesthetically pleasing, but these Spring flowering things are making life quite uncomfortable right now:

But, the story is about the trip, not the current state of discomfort.

Early Tuesday morning I popped in the car and started the drive to Greensboro, NC.  I was scheduled to meet Dr. Michael Kane at 1 pm on the University of North Carolina Greensboro (UNCG) campus so had to be in the car before sunrise to ensure that I would not be late.  I was heading up to have some cognitive baselines established for potential future research.  Dr. Kane is a psychologist who specializes in concentration and we are interested in whether my ability to concentrate will change over the timeline of The Dan Plan (especially compared to people not doing The Dan Plan).  Ideally, we would have done these tests two years ago when the project began, but at that point most people were skeptical about whether I would actually follow through, so it has taken 2 years to prove intent.  Later is better than never and we can still track the change over the next 4+ years.

The tests were a pretty brutal 2 hour time period where you have to intently watch tiny objects flash on a computer screen then remember orders of letters, numbers, patterns, etc.  After sleeping for 5 hours and driving for 6, it made for a brain-drain afternoon.  Especially as this was the most exciting thing between Atlanta and Greensboro:

The idea is to take the same test once a year or every six months to track changes.  I wish that I could have shot this for a Dan Plan episode as I think the science side is a huge part of the project, but I just don’t have the budget to bring a camera guy on a road trip, perhaps down the line this can be integrated into the visual aspects of the project.

Afterwords, I stayed the night with some dear friends who, in a “small world” type scenario, happened to live across the street from the UNCG building where Dr. Kane’s office is located.  I had not seen these two friends in about 3 years, and had a lot of catching up to do.  One of them is a drummer and I traveled with his band for a while in what seems like a past life, although it was just 5 years ago.  Sometimes worlds can change in small periods of time.

I slept on a slowly-leaking air mattress that I brought up with me and in the morning is when the allergies really kicked in.  With a stuffed head to the point where I actually felt as though a bit of vertigo was setting in, I took off for Pinehurst in the morning.  I had been invited to play there by Eric Alpenfels and Dr. Bob Christina.  Unfortunately, Dr. Christina could not make it this time, but I was lucky enough to meet Eric (who is the director of instruction there) and he got me a tee time on Pinehurst No. 4.   Thank you to Eric for that and to Pinehurst for letting me play!

Beforehand, I warmed up on what I hear is the oldest driving range in the country, Maniac Hill:

The range and all of the practice facilities there are amazing.  With 8 solid golf courses basically under one roof you can’t go too wrong and I know I’ll be back some time this fall for a proper visit.

Eric put me in a 1:51 tee time with a three-some from Texas.  They were on a business “vacation” of sorts and were an amiable enough group so I was happy to join.  They were playing from the whites (instead of blues) and I decided to just join them up there instead of teeing it from my own box on every hole.  Much to my surprise, the round started off very well.  On the range I felt like I couldn’t keep my balance or hit the ball square.  My head was stuffed and ears plugged and the allergies were making me feel a bit dazed and half asleep.  I thought it was going to be a disaster, but decided that it was a good chance to see how I could perform under far-from-optimal conditions, so went out there with the goal of hitting solid shots.

Hit the first two greens in regulation and had par on the holes.  Then ran into some trouble on my approach shot on number 3.  I hit it well, but the wind was whipping at about a two club force and the ball got pushed over the back of the green.  I was in a bed of pine straw behind a tree and my only hope was to chip up to a fat part of the green far from the hole, but when it hit it rolled fast and ended up on the other side of green in the rough.  I had to chip again and finally got the ball up on the green and two-putted for a double bogey.  The good news is that this was my only double of the day and I didn’t have anything worse, which right now is exactly my goal.

I played the front nine in 43 with 18 putts and too many bogeys, but it was solid golf without any major mistakes.  My approach shots were scattered by the wind and some directional issues, causing my first putts to average longer than 30 feet, but 2-putted every single one on the front.  I did have one 8-foot birdie chance that just missed and one 12-foot par save that also lipped out.  To describe the wind:  on the 5th hole I had a good drive that landed center fairway with 160 to the flag remaining.  The flag was in the center of the green so I decided to go pin hunting and hit my 160 yard club.  I caught it well (but nothing unusually well) and right when I hit it a big gust came up behind me and sent the ball 20 yards past the green.  It was an easy and open shot that ended up under the trees in the pine straw, but that’s how it goes in golf

After a front 43, I was determined to make some shots on the back and started off with a couple of birdie chances that just missed.  But, I hit 7 of 9 greens in regulation on the back for a total score of 38.  It was again the approach shots that killed the score as I was putting from 30-50 feet every time and didn’t sink any long bombs so ended up with 36 putts total: one 3-putt and one 1-putt.  I was proud of a couple of shots, one in particular was a 210 yard water-carry approach shot into the wind that I nailed to the back of the green.  And, on 18, I hit my 145 yard approach shot to 4 feet then actually made that putt.

Here is 18:

My typical putting distance: (not ideal for a low putting count)

My shot of the day, it was from just in front of these guys and over the water to center right:

What I learned is that I need to work on fairway bunker shots.  I landed in four fairway bunkers with my next shot ranging from 80-200 yards and each time I caught the ball a bit fat and that killed all of the distance.  In three of them you could actually ground the club because they were a different type of bunker, but still the fat shots killed it.  Today, then, I shall work on these shots and find my feel for fairway bunkers.  It’s good to have a goal.

Off to the course.  There are only 5 more days for me in sunny Atlanta so I have to take advantage of them.