Hmmm...

Well, I got another butt-kicking from Doug on Saturday. I just couldn't get anything going. Sometimes it would be the tee shot or approach shot that wouldn't quite hit its mark. I stopped keeping score after the 15th hole. If I remember correctly I shot a 51 on the front with a something something on the back. I think I had 3 or 4 pars, everything else was a bogey or higher. The swing felt good, but I just wasn't getting the results I wanted. It wasn't until the 18th hole that I hit my best shots of the day...of course they come at the end of the round. Isn't that how it always works? So now I owe Doug a soda but I have a chance to win it back next Saturday.

Here's some video of my current swing. I really like the takeaway but it's still a little long. I'm trying to  stand a little further from the ball, which helps me to bend over more and balances out the weight distribution in my feet. Before I had most of my weight towards my toes. Next I want to work on not going past parallel at the top of the swing, and also on my follow through.

Update

I've been practicing really hard the last couple of days, and am hitting the ball much better than before. I'll be posting some video of the swing later today. 

Doug invited me to play with him today at Sunset Whitney Country Club. If everyone remembers, Doug kicked my butt last time, so I'm looking for a little redemption. I feel today will be a good test of how the swing is coming along. 

I have one week before my official season begins, so I'll be practicing all next week and maybe play 9 holes here and there. I'm really looking forward to playing in some tournaments this year. I also posted a new poll on the blog so if you have time to vote that would be great!

Stuck in a Rut

First, I need to apologize to Gran, Viano, and Doug for my play the last two days.

I played the front 9 with Gran and Viano on Tuesday after work. I had 8 bogeys and 1 par. The par was on the 9th hole - I didn't hit one decent one until the 8th hole. I just couldn't find the swing or any kind of rhythm. It probably didn't help going straight to the tee box and not warming up on the range. I do give myself credit for not having anything bigger than a bogey for the 9 holes.

Today was another one of those head-scratching days on the course. I played with Viano and Doug after work. Doug and I decided to play for a soda, since he owed me one from the last time we played. I think we're keeping an open tab for our betting. Well, we are now even... I couldn't do anything out there. Doug kicked my butt. I think I hit 3 or 4 good shots out there, and to make things even worse the putter was off. Once again no warm-up on the range, and I'm starting to think that not a good idea. So tomorrow and the rest of the week I plan on spending a lot of time on the range. I might even try and bring the wife out to help with practicing. I need to get back on track with the swing and get ready for February 5.

Sunset Whitney with Bud, Friday with Keith

Yesterday's round at Sunset Whitney Country Club was very interesting to say the least. The weather was so nice compared to the last time I played. We started on the back 9 first because of a tournament played earlier in the morning. I pared the first hole and it was downhill from there. I went bogey, +5, triple bogey, double bogey, bogey, bogey, bogey, bogey. I ended up shooting a 52. Ouch! My tee shot was causing a lot of problems for me, though I did figure out what I was doing wrong about the 15th hole. My wrist was cupping durning the backswing, causing the club face to open and making all my shots go to the right. After correcting the problem I was able to get on a bogey streak. The putter was a little off too, but I was feeling good about the swing going into the back 9. What a turn around on the back 9...I started with a par and went bogey, bogey, par, par, par, par, bogey and bogey. I hit a lot of good shots on the back. Bud was really impressed with how I turned things around. I shot a 41 for the back 9, giving me a 93 for the round. If I had figured out my mistake earlier I feel like it could have easily been in the low 80's or maybe even a 79.

I definitely feel the swing is moving along very well. My take-away is much better, now I just need to work on the downswing. I'll try and post some video of my old swing versus new swing. I can't wait for February 5 and to see what this new swing can do. I will break 80 this year and it will be very soon!

On Friday I was finally reunited with Keith after almost two months of him being out of town. We played 13 holes. I pretty much played bogey golf until the last five holes. I went birdie, par, par, par, par. Keith is also in the process of changing his swing. He thought my swing was looking much better than last time he saw it; he really noticed my foot work had gotten better. We're going to try and get together later in the week and play.

Horrible...then Amazing

The title to the blog explains everything about today's practice session. I played with Doug and Bud after work. I rushed out there to meet them on the sixth hole, with no warm-up and barely any time to stretch, and I hit my first ball out of bounds. I teed up another ball and hit a drop kick 3 wood to the middle of the fairway. The next hole I had an easy chip shot and skulled it across the green, leaving me a delicate chip shot coming back, which I hit close to the hole. On the 8th hole my tee sat in the fairway. I hit my approach shot and skulled it to the right, setting up a tricky shot with little green to work with and a bunker to clear. I hit a perfect flop shot over the bunker, it landed softy, rolled towards the pin, and hit the flag stick stopping 6" away from the hole. I looked at Doug and said, "Why is it the hard shots are the easy ones to pull off, and the easy shots are causing the problems?" I really didn't hit another good shot till the 4th hole. I ended up playing 6, 7, 8 and 9 again. Doug and Bud stopped playing with me after the 6th hole. I think they got tired of my bad play. After they left I decided to make some changes to the swing, and low and behold, it was amazing. I hit probably my best ever choke down 5 iron. Then on the 8th hole I hit another solid shot. So solid I almost shed a tear it felt so good. I hit another solid tee shot on number 9. I was sad that daylight was running out because I would have loved to keep playing and see how the swing held up over 9 holes. I guess that's to be seen tomorrow.

As a side note, I talked to Keith after my round and he is finally back in town and coming out to the course tomorrow. I haven't seen Keith in about 2 months. He said he's coming out later in in the afternoon so we can play together. Also I will be playing with Bud on Saturday at Sunset Whitney. It's going to be a full 18 on Saturday but only a practice round.

Practice and Play

I had another good practice session today. It was so good that I decided to play 4 holes. Once again I had a par putt attempt on 3 out of the 4 holes and had a birdie on the first hole. I went birdie, bogey, bogey and bogey. Once again the putter was close but just not dropping in. I'd say my average putt was about 10 feet. I think the putter is just staying luke warm till my round on February 5. Other than that I really like how I'm   striking the ball... I think this could be the best I've ever hit.

Still not sure where I'll be playing yet on the 5th of February. The courses I'm looking at are Catta Verdera, Teal Bend, Timber Creek, and Woodbridge. I haven't played any of these courses yet so I'm looking forward to playing a new one.

9 Holes with Doug

I got to test out the swing today against Doug. He was nice enough to wait and play with me after work, so we bet a soda for the 9 holes. My goal for the round was 40 this time, since after my last goal of 39 it ended up being 50. Well, this was a much better 9 holes. I had a par attempt on every hole today along with 4 looks at birdie. Too bad the putter was misbehaving.

Here's how the little match went down....
After three holes I was up two.
After six holes I was still up two.
After 7 holes I was up one.
Heading into the 9th hole I was up one, Doug's tee shot went right and my tee shot came up short. Doug had a tough chip and my shot wasn't too hard. He hit his shot and nearly made it... I mean, it was in the hole for a split second and rattled out and went about 4 feet by the hole. My second shot ended up about 5 feet from the hole, leaving me a tricky right to left breaker. If I made my putt I would win our little bet, if not, Doug would have a chance to tie. So I forgot about all the close putts I had today that almost dropped and just thought about making this one. I stepped up to take my practice swings, then put the putter behind the ball and take one last look at the hole. Smack.....rolling....rolling.....breaking.....rolling.....breaking.....rattle, rattle, rattle. Yes! I made the putt, it caught just enough of the left edge and fell in.

It was good to test for my swing today and I look forward to many more battles with Doug down the road. I'm really starting to trust the swing. I even pulled out the driver on the 4th hole which I always hit a 3 wood on. Doug had to do a double take because he was so surprised.

On a side note, Doug really noticed a difference in how I was hitting my irons today. I'm happy to see my practicing is paying off.

Video of Swing

As promised, video of my swing from today. I really like where the swing is headed but I still want to shorten it. I'll be going back to the range tomorrow to work on some drills.

Tournament Schedule

This year I plan on playing in a few tournaments. I wanted to try to play in some last year but the timing was never right. Here's the tentative schedule of events that I'm going to try and play:

April 16-17  Roseville City Amateur @ Diamond Oaks and Woodcreek
May 14-15   Plumas Lake Amateur @ Plumas Lake
June 11-12   Sacramento City Amateur @ Haggin Oaks
June 18-19   Sacramento Two Person Better Ball @ Diamond Oaks

2011 NCGA Tournament Schedule

New Title for Blog

My blog is now titled Tickel's Golf Journey.

The new website address is www.tickelsgolfjourney.blogspot.com

9 Holes with Gran and The Range

Yesterday I played nine holes with Gran. Before we played I was finally able to get on the driving range for about 45 minutes. I pretty much worked on two drills the entire time. The first was where I would stick a towel under my right armpit and make a full swing, trying to keep the towel from falling out during the swing. The other drill was, after setting up I would take my foot and put it next to my back foot, take a couple of half swings, then on the third swing make a full swing and step forward, getting the weight on the left side and trying to hit the ball. This drill was harder for me to do than the towel drill. With the towel drill I could really feel it help to limit my arm lift.

My nine holes with Gran weren't very good. Before we teed off I set a goal of shooting 39 for my practice session. I guess that was a little low of a score, since I ended up shooting a 50. I hit the ball really good off the tee, but man, my short game has taken a dive. I couldn't have hit the broad side of a barn within a hundred yards of the green. I would either skull it over the green, or duff it and hit in the bunker. I had no touch around the green; my chips would run 7-10 feet by the hole. The putter was behaving a little. I had one highlight yesterday and it was a good one fortunately! It was on the 7th hole, 170 yards par three. I hit my best six iron shot ever. I played a little 2 yard fade and ended up 5 feet from the hole. Yes, I made the birdie! That hole definitely made up for the whole round. After playing with Gran I went back to the range for 30 minutes working on the same drills.

I will have some video of my swing later today.

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday I played 3 holes with Gran after begging him to play with me. He'd already played 18 holes in the morning and just finished playing another 9 in the afternoon. He won the first hole and I won the second one. I had a tricky 3 footer to tie the 3rd hole and made it. I guess will continue that game another time. After dropping Gran at his car I decide to play the first three hole again, since the range was closed. This time I didn't do so good. I was trying a couple of things from the Sean Foley dvd. After that I went to the putting green for about ten minutes. I gotta say, this might be a really great year for putting.

All day all I wanted to do was hit balls on the driving range but no, it had to rain. We closed the range since the balls were plugging. Once again I played 3 holes trying to work on moves from the Sean Foley dvd. I hit some good ones and then turned right around and hit a "what the heck?" shot. The weather man said no more rain for the next 7 days, so I should be able to get plenty of practice in on the the range.

I've watched all of the Sean Foley dvd and really like. The dvd goes well with the collection of short videos he did for Golf Digest. I've been rehearsing the moves on the dvd in the mirror every day. I'll try and take some video of what I'm working on tomorrow at the range.

Sean Foley DVD

Woohoo, I finally got it! This DVD was a Christmas gift from my wife's grandparents, but was on back order and shipping was delayed because of the bad weather back East. I started watching it and really like it so far; I'm already making a list of drills to do next time at the range. Watch out WORLD here I come!

It's Here

It's Here!!

Practice...

Another day practicing in the cold. I decided to just hit the range and the putting green today. I hit two buckets of range balls and spent a lot of time hitting little 10 yard shots and chip shots. The rest was spent on full shots. After the range I headed over to the putting green and rolled a couple of putts in. There wasn't anyone around to tape my swing on the range so I set the camera on the green. I know what you're thinking, how many takes did it take to get this shot? All I can say is, more than 0 and less than 3. Oh, the putt was from about 15 feet.

I think I've decided on a date for this year's first official round - February 5. Not sure where I'll be playing yet but I have time to figure it out. We're supposed to have rain on Tuesday through Thursday so I'm not sure when I be hitting the course again. I will have some other playing announcements coming later in the week.

Brrr at Auburn Valley

#1

#10

I've never played a colder round of golf in my life than today! It was FREEZING!! I lost the feeling in my hands after the fourth hole. The course was soaking wet from the storms a week and a half ago. My shoes were wet and muddy along with the bottom of my pant legs, my socks were soaked by the 11th hole, and my toes were so frozen that it hurting to walk. So what does this cold do to my golf game you ask? 

It wreaks havoc on it. I think I hit 4 fairways; the driver was everywhere and I only hit one green. I had 4 pars with lots of bogeys and double bogeys. The putter was the strongest part of my game today with 29 putts. The ball pretty much plugged wherever it landed, or at least had mud on it every time after teeing off. It was just too cold and wet to be consistent. So I'll not be counting this towards my handicap. I've decided to start my season in February or March, the weather channel says there's still plenty of rain coming this month. The courses around here are still wet and don't look like they're going to be drying up anytime soon. For now I'm just going to concentrate on practicing and playing 9 holes here and there until the conditions get better. If I'm going to be shooting low rounds I need to make sure I have all the shots necessary. 

All in all I had fun with Ron today regardless of my frozen extremities. Ron and I will definitely be playing Auburn Valley again when it warms up.

New Poll

I have a new poll on the blog. Please stop by and vote if you have time. Thanks

It's a go at Auburn Valley

My first round of the year will be at Auburn Valley Golf Course tomorrow with Ron from work. I'll be cleaning the clubs tonight. Here's the website to Auburn Valley Golf Club:
http://www.auburnvalleygc.com/



Goals for 2011
--------------------
Get handicap down to 0
Shoot in the 70's
Two birdies every round
8 eagles for the year
Hit 50% of my fairways
Average less than 29 putts a round

The Range and More

I finally was able to hit the range today. It was another cold one - the thermometer outside the pro shop said that it was 41 degrees. Oh what I go through to work on this swing! I felt good about the range today; my swing is starting to feel more natural. One of the changes that I'm working on is standing closer to the ball and moving the weight from my toes to the center of my feet. Also, I'm setting up with more weight on the left side at address (55/45). Lastly, I'm working on a steeper shoulder turn. I had Craig from the pro shop videotape my swing today, but it was a little too dark so I'll have to do that again next week.

I may not end up golfing at Catta Verdera on Sunday after all. Instead, we may be going to Auburn Valley Golf Club. I was supposed to go with Freddie to Auburn Valley when he visited in October, but we were unable to because it was raining. I should know which course it will be tomorrow.

No Range, but........

I wasn't able to hit the range today, bummer. The ball picker broke down so they had to hand pick everything and closed the range early. Instead I played four holes in the freezing cold. Seriously it was 42 degrees out there! think this might be the coldest weather I've ever played in.

I was finally able to play a little of the back 9 - the whisky run, which is holes 10,11,17 and 18. I went par, bogey, bogey and birdie! On eighteen I hit an amazing 6 six iron from 175 yards. I stuck it to about six feet...man, that shot felt so good in the cold weather. They say the weather's going to be the same tomorrow. Once again I'm going to try and go to the range and if not I might just play the first 3 holes. I hope the Golf Gods let the sun come out tomorrow cause I'm freezing my ball out there! =)

My Top 10 Courses Played to Start the Year

1.Torrey Pines (South Course), La Jolla, CA
2.Makai Golf Club, Princeville, HI
3.Steele Canyon (Canyon/Ranch), Jamul, Ca
4.Gray’s Crossings, Truckee,CA
5.Torrey Pines (North Course), La Jolla, CA
6.Sevillano Links Golf Course, Corning, CA
7.North Ridge Country Club, Fair Oaks, CA
8.Alta Sierra Country Club, Grass Valley, CA
9.Granite Bay Golf Club, Roseville, CA
10.Sunset Whitney Country Club, Rocklin, CA

New Spikes

Getting Prepared

I just installed new spikes for my big round on Sunday at Catta Verdera Country Club. I haven't tried these spikes before. This upgrade should save me at least 2 strokes. =)

Sent from my iPhone

9 Holes with Doug and Bud

I got another 9 holes in today after work, I played with Doug and Bud. My ball striking was good for the first three holes and then it went downhill from there. I had a couple of pars and plenty of bogeys with two blow up holes. The short game is slowly getting better. We finally opened the driving range today, so tomorrow I plan on hitting the range. The course is really drying up well for all the rain we've had and how cold it's been during the day. I plan on posting a video of my swing on friday.

First 9 Holes of the Year

Woohoo! I finally got to tee it up yesterday. I played after work and course conditions were still really wet. Had a couple of drives plug on me and made it hard to find my ball. I thought I played well for not touching a club for a week and half. I had a couple of long birdie attempts but nothing would drop. I ended up with 4 pars, 4 bogeys and 1 double bogey. The short game is a little rusty but the putter was solid, no three putts.

I'm going to try and play again today. I can't use the range because it's so wet that we had to close it. Ron and I are going to play this weekend at Catta Verdera Country Club in Lincoln, CA. I've never played there so should be fun.

So What's New

I haven't hit a golf ball since December 22nd. We've had a lot of rain and with the holidays just haven't been able to get out and play. The weather is supposed to be dry this week, so I'm hoping to get out there and see where the swing is.

The game plan for the swing has changed a little. The Hank Haney philosophy is out and the Sean Foley philosophy is in. I've already started doing some drills. I'm really looking forward to the new year.

Fresh Start

Bye bye 2010, hello 2011!

I think its time to restart the journey of becoming a scratch golfer. It's been about 4 or 5 months since the last post...I've got a lot of updating to do. So all this week I'll be getting everyone up to date on the game and swing.