Inconsistant Golf

Last night I finally played in my third round of golf for the current intramural golf season. I missed most of the first half of the season due to volleyball practices.

Last night was hot and there was a lot of smoke in the air. In spite of the all the smoke I elected to walk anyway. I just have a hard time riding in a cart when I am supposed to be golfing for the exercise.

Last night I think I invented a new golf game that I am going to call "pars and sevens". For the nine holes we played I shot 5 pars all the other holes I shot 7s. Over all it was a good round for me. Five pars in nine holes is great considering I'm a 23 handicap golfer. Unfortunately because I am a 23 handicap golfer, I shot the four 7s also. I have to thank my opponent for one of those sevens. He gave me a 20 foot putt to save me from having to take an 8.

However I may have pulled off that putt. I played nine holes last night and took only nine putts. Actually I only had to make three putts all night. The other six were gimmes that were surrendered by my opponents. I had that one 20 foot gimme. But most of them were under 12 inches. The three putts I did make were about 4, 6 and 10 feet. I only had one lag putt all night and that was on the first hole, the only hole all night that I had two putts.

I shot a 46. That is a net two under par for me, and that includes to out of bounds shots, one on 14 and one on 18 (two of the holes I shot 7 on). Overall a great night. Except that I only managed to tie my match. But I had a good round against a couple decent guys who were good competitors.

I have missed golfing these last two months and am looking forward to the next two months. But considering how much I am also missing my volleyball team, I would give it all up to be back in the gym with my Starlings on a regular basis.

Getting Back to the Course

I haven't been golfing much lately. I was starting to spend a lot of my time on the golf course last year. I was making a point to get out to the range or the practice green at least two or three times a week. I was getting in at least one full round of golf every two weeks. I was starting to really see some substantial improvement in my game. Sure I was still a 20+ handicap. But I was a low 20s instead of a high 20s.

Then volleyball happened.

Normally the middle school volleyball season would cut into my golfing game and practice a bit, but I still had my weekends free to spend some time at the course. But this year I progressed straight from middle school volleyball to club volleyball. The mai difference was the time involved. Between my daughter's club team that I had to be involved with as a parent and my Starlings Club team where I was the director and coach I was busy every weekend and at least 2-4 weeknights a week. Since volleyball was taking up so much of my time, something else had to give, and that was golf.

(And for the few regular readers that I had here, you will also note that my blogging took a big hit also.)

Now, I do not in any way saying that I regret the time I spend on volleyball the last 8 months. I loved every minute of it. I actually had this week off because it was the end of the school year and I really missed my team. I'm not sure what I am going to do in two more weeks when our season ends for good. I guess I will have to spend some time writing, some time golfing, and some time catching up on my honey-do list.

This morning I ran across an article that has kind of rekindled my desire to get back onto the golf course. A study from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet reports:

The death rate amongst golfers is 40 per cent lower than the rest of the population, which equates to an increased life expectancy of five years.

So I guess I have to get back out on the golf course again. At least until the next volleyball season starts. Then my priorities are going to shift again. But this year I may try and make the effort to get in an occasional round of golf during the volleyball season.

Oh, I may try and be a little more consistent writing here also.

Off To State Bowling

I haven't had much time to do any writing this week. I have been putting in a lot of overtime at work. I've been leaving the house just before seven each morning. Then getting home again around 7PM Often with just enough time for my oldest daughter to hop into the truck so I could take her to her evening volleyball camp.

The volleyball camp ran from 7:15 to 9:45 each night this week. I probably could have just dropped her off, but the coach of the camp had 21 girls spread across two courts and he was using me and another parent to toss balls, keep score and shag balls during the drills. Yesterday I didn't get a chance to eat dinner until almost 11 PM.

Besides I needed to be at this camp to finish my duties as a middle school volleyball coach. The high school assistant varsity and JV coach and the new freshman coach were hanging out watching the players at the camp. Both of them were just getting a look at many of the girls that are going to be trying out for their teams in the next two months. So I had a golden opportunity to chat up my eighth grade players to them. In the end, one of my eighth grade players got invited to start showing up to the summer weight training sessions next week because the coach thinks she might have some potential to make the junior varsity team as a freshman.

I would love to take some credit for this but in reality, she had become a great player on her own, she had a great camp and really didn't need me there talking her up to the coaches at all.

Now I'm leaving for Yuba City in about half an hour for the California State Bowling Tournament. This will be my eighth or ninth year of bowling state. Or as my doubles partner calls it - a chance to go golfing out of town.

So have a great weekend. I'll be spraying balls around a couple out of town golf courses and cursing the lane conditions in a couple out of town bowling alleys until sometime late sunday night. Then it's back to work again on monday morning.

Golf Swing Advice

Now that the bowling season has ended its time for some golf. The intramural golf league that I have played on for the last several years starts up next tuesday.

I have to keep this guy's advice in mind when I tee off next time.

Apocalypse Averted?

Apparently today was supposed to have some hidden significance to the radical Islam and their war against western society. Depending on who you read or listen to today was supposed to be an apocalyptical one for all us heathen westerners.

I don’t put much stock in doom and gloom predictions from people who are still living in a 13th century society with a 7th century mindset. After all how many times are tea leaves, tossed bones, and astrological forecasts going to be right?

So I didn’t do anything different today than any other Tuesday. However I did get a little worried around lunch time. I went over to the golf course and hit a bucket of golf balls. I’m afraid I was flirting with the end of life as we know it there. First I chipped the bucket at the pitching green and put over twice as many balls on the green than I usually do. Then I picked up the balls and hit them on the range. This was probably the best bucket of golf balls I have ever hit. I was hitting fades and draws, on purpose. I even hit some straight shots. Out of the entire bucket I only really had about 5 really bad hits. The majority of the shots I hit were really good, or adequate enough that I wouldn’t complain if I hit them during a round. I even hit a couple shots worth bragging about to my golf buddies. But I’ll save you all from that.

So if sometime between now and midnight the apocalypse strikes – I’m Sorry. It’s probably all my fault.