In honor of the State of the Union address taking place this week I thought I’d have a little fun and bring you the ”State of My Game” address:
“Greeting my fellow golfers, hackers and purveyors of par. Tonight is a very special night for it is my first State of My Game address that I have given for all you Breakfast Ball readers and it has come at a time when my game is under the utmost scrutiny, and it’s all coming from me of course.
Two years have passed since I decided to take up golf again and let me tell you it has been a blast! I’ve played some fantastic courses from the woods of North Eastern Alabama to the mountains of Idaho. I’ve met some wonderful people along the way and once again I found a passion for a game that I love.
It hasn’t all been roses and caviar though. I’ve had some struggles. Shanks, skulls, fat shots, slices, hooks I’ve had them all. Triple digit scores, heck I’ve even had some triple digit penalty rounds, but that hasn’t swayed me. I keep going back and I’ll keep going back as long as I’m physically able to do so!
Looking back to when I started playing this game again I can see how far I’ve come. What was once a rugged, tattered & torn old Ping hoofer bag that was barely keeping its form to an old set of graphite Lynx Black Cats. A King Cobra driver that was about 10 years past its prime along with some Tommy Armour III steel shafted 3W & 7W, and let’s not forget the Prima putter that was a breeding ground for lead tape. Has now turned into a neatly organized Ogio bag that’s keeping my Callaway Driver, 3W and Hybrid all snug and safe. Put that together with a new set of TaylorMade Burner 2.0′s and a TaylorMade Corza Putter and you can see that as far as equipment goes I’m at least playing in the correct decade!
Two years is a long time and if I was playing 2-3 times a month I would expect my progress would be greater than where it sits today, but somethings are just not possible so I’m taking the time that I do get to maximize my learning and grow with each round played. That being said my improvements I think are pretty good. I started out with a 33.0 HDCP, nothing to cheer about there I know, but I’m managed to get that down to a more respectable 20.9 Not respectable to everyone but for me I’m OK with it. I’m hitting more fairways than ever, making more putts than ever and I’m really starting to understand the mental side of the game, something I’ve been oblivious to for years!
I’ve watched more golf, read more books & magazines, hit the practice range and just practiced more in the past two years than I had in the previous 25 years combined. I now understand the punch shot, the high draw and the “stinger”. I understand the difference between and Titleist NXT and a PROVI. I now understand what the heck bounce is and why it’s so important. Two years ago if you would have asked me what a “Club Fitting” is I would probably have thought you were planning a wardrobe ensemble for a night out at “Club Utopia”
MOI, Lag, Release, Swing Path, Swing Plane, Ball Flight, Shaft Flex, Spine Angle, Club Lie, Wedge Gaps, Launch Angle, Mallet Putter vs. Blade Putter and the difference between a practice range session on a Tuesday night compared to a warm up range session before a round on Sunday. These are all things that I was clueless about two years ago that are now a solid fixture in my golf database. It is simple amazing how fast you can absorb new information and put it to use in this game.
I’ve set some goals along the way and I’ve hit quite a few of them. Tops on my list as of today is a round in the 80′s, and I feel like it’s close. The changes I’ve made recently to my swing (thanks to Dustin at the Nicklaus Academy) are changes I feel are going to propel me to the next level of my game. It’s only been a few sessions with Dustin but the results I’m seeing in my swing are incredible, I just hope to be able to put it all together one day so everyone will be able to fully understand the benefits of taking lessons from a PGA pro.
Along with justifying the lessons by playing better and also showing my instructor that I’m not wasting his time, I also have another goal that I’d like to achieve and that is to beat Bill straight up. I thought long and hard about this a few weeks ago after I played at Revere. Bill has the title of #1 Breakfast Baller right now and want that title to be mine. No offense to Randy (you may recall at the end of this last year I set a goal of beating Randy straight up) because I still want to beat him too, and Pat but I set my goal to low and instead of setting the bar low I’m going to set it to the highest level I know and that’s beating Bill straight up 18 holes no HDCP. It may seem unrealistic but it’s not impossible I just have to rededicate myself and take better advantage of the time I do have to work on my game. It’s a challenge I love making because it’s going to force me to practice better, and I have my work cut out for me. Bill is good!
I’d like to think that I’ve inspired my fellow Breakfast Ballers to play better too. Pat, Randy, Bill, Dan and myself all love the game tremendously and it was because of them that I wanted to play better. Getting your ass kicked round after round can wear on you really quick. So I took it upon myself to improve, and I have, but so has Pat, Randy and Bill and now Dan is taking lessons and Bill is too. I’ve created a monster!!
My growth in the game is something I’m proud of, I think about some of the rounds I’ve played and what I’d do different now. How poor I played a hole that there is no way in hell I’d duplicate today. Trying to take something good from every round and expand on it I consider myself to be a completely different player than two years ago.
I used to get frustrated to the point of throwing clubs and dropping “F” bombs all over the course while shooting a 113. Those days are long gone, don’t get me wrong, you’ll still hear the occasional “F” bomb coming from my way but the only time you’ll see me throw a club is to work on my release! I used to get excited about breaking 100 looking over my scorecard and feeling like I accomplished something, and at that point I had. Those days are gone. I may still log a triple digit score now and then but never will I ever consider that an accomplishment anymore. I used to be pleased with hitting the occasional fairway and from the tee box and if it happened 4 out of 14 times that was a moment to remember. No more, I expect to hit every fairway when I stand at address and anything other than the short stuff is a failure.
Now what excites me is square contact with straight ball flight, not that it didn’t excite me before the difference is when it happens now it’s because I did everything right, before it was just luck. Now I’m excited to stand behind a 40′ chip shot knowing that I can make the shoot without hesitation. Now I’m excited about playing from the back tee’s because I’m no longer intimidated by 6,900 yards it’s just a tougher challenge.
So I’ll keep at, I’ll continue the lessons, continue the practice and continue to play the game that I love so much. With two years of growth behind me and nothing but empty scorecards to fill in out in front of me I’ll keep at it. Doing everything that I can do to make myself a better player of this wonderful game we all call golf!
Lastly I don’t think I would be nearly as involved in the game if it wasn’t for the social media crowed. Yeah that all of you Twitter and Facebook followers! A huge shout out to all of you. I never knew the power of Twitter and Facebook until I starting this blog. I know not every followers reads these and I’m fine with that but the fact that a weekend hacker has spurned the interest of some 300+ strangers is absolutely amazing to me. This site would not be what it is without Twitter and I thank every single one of you whether you read the posts or not!
To my fellow bloggers, all of you out there inspire me to make my site better, have valid content and bring information to our audiences that they not only find informative but maybe inspire them too. It’s all of your hard work and time put in that makes me want to sit here and type out my experiences on these virtual pages and bring my little piece of the game to the world. I thank you for all the support with out a doubt you all ROCK!
Thank you everyone and good night to you all.”
