Wahoo..!

I wasn't planning on playing yesterday since weather.com gave a 90% chance that there would be thunderstorms..NOT! But due to that bogus forecast it caused me to lollygag and eventually it got too late, for me, to even consider it. I started making a pot of coffee, Melitta coffee is absolutely great..bought it at Ralph's, and then everyone started getting up. My wife saw me and was surprised I was still in the house. I told her weather.com was to blame and then a few minutes later my friend Peter, usual golf bud, gave me a call to play..it was like 10:45 am at this point.

I told him the story about the bogus forecast and told him I couldn't play now since it's too late for me. Surprisingly, my wife told me to go play! I was surprised since it would put me getting back into the house probably past 3:00 pm. She said she knew how I eagerly wait the whole week to play Saturday mornings..but she said that once I get back we're ALL going to Chuck E. Cheese..yes, the kiddie pizza arcade place. She told my son that we were going this week and he loves that place. No prob! DEAL!

I brought my DV camcorder again and took some more footage which are up if you look on the sidebar of the page. I need to get a mount..it's getting to be a pain to retrieve the camera and put it back each time.

I'll save you guys and won't go into the details of every hole but I finished with an 83. My driving wasn't accurate and I only hit 5 out of 13 fairways, but the key to the day was that my iron game was strong..for me. I had five GIR's that day and was able to convert those into two birdies and three pars. What I focused on were three things with my iron shots:

One, I kept my stance at address just a hair, slighlty, open to the target line. Two, my backswing went only as far as I felt comfortable with and didn't force it to get to parallel. Three, on the downswing, I made a conscious effort to come down shallow, not steep (normally for me), and "push" through the contact with the hands staying low and following the ball..yes, it's like a punch shot..but wow, what a difference! This maybe a bad way to vision this but I was thinking of a my clubhead being a plane and how it's coming down for a landing. It's smooth and shallow..but also needs to dive into the turf at the end for that good contact and divot..scary huh.

I know that this is the proper way to play with windy conditions, and it was, but I've decided to play this type of swing from now on. The contact and trajectory was amazingly pure. It was lower but a boring shot and it had quite a bit of backspin when it hit the green. My golf bud was amazed on how I was spinning the ball back on a few holes..me too.

I actually wore shorts and a windbreaker yesterday and everyone thought I was nuts but I hate wearing pants and will only wear them if I really need to. I just got the windbreaker a few days ago (made by Sun Mountain..didn't even know they made clothes) and it worked like a charm. It did rain a little bit but was windy which made it cold. My legs were cold but the upper body was feeling good..and it was quite windy the whole day. It is a really well made jacket. When I inspected it it actually has taped seams on the inside, like those rugged North Face jackets, and it's got that waterproof/windproof coating througout the inside..bottom line..it works.

I bought one of those STX putter clips to keep my putter at bay, instead of constantly pulling it out and back in. It just clips to the side of my bag and I just slide my putter into it. I also bought a pack of these plastic tees called "Zero-Friction". It supposed give you longer and straighter drives. They are literally indestructable since they're made out of a plastic..how do they plan on making money on this stuff..? I liked them but I wish they were a half an inch longer, but looks like they're coming out with a longer version mid-March. I ended up going back to my longer "Texas" tees.

The funny thing is I've now played my best rounds of the year in miserable conditions, St. Andrews here I come.