Golf

One of the main ways I plan to improve my physical fitness is to play a lot of golf. I work at a fairly popular public golf course and as a result I get to play and practice for free.

Though people think golf is a lazy person's sport, it's a good way to burn off some calories. According to this site, playing a round with a cart can burn over 1,000 calories, using a pull cart can get you to 1,300 calories, and carrying your clubs can burn well over 1,500 calories. Not bad.

In addition, golf is a very flexible sport to participate in. I like the fact that I'll be able to go whenever I want, but if I want to play with my friends, I have that option too.

In any case, I managed to play 54 holes in the last two days. Yesterday, I went out in the morning and managed an 83. Not a bad score, but it was one of those rounds where I knew I could do better. The guys in the pro shop said we weren't busy, so I went out for a second round. I played pretty well on the more difficult back nine (I started on 10), posting a two over par 38. After starting the second nine with two birdies, I followed with a bogey on #3, then three straight pars. With the round winding down, I abandoned my dream of breaking par, knowing I would have to be two under over three holes. I managed to hole an 8-footer for birdie on #7, getting me back to even. Elated, I moved to 8 knowing I only needed a par and a birdie on two fairly easy holes to break par for the round.

I proceeded to push my next shot badly, leaving me about 20 yards from the pin, in the rough on top of a hill. I got a good bounce on my second shot and I ended up tapping in for par. The dream is still alive, especially with a par 5 coming up.

I pull a 3-wood, determined to keep it in the fairway, that strategy failed, as I barely cleared a bunker and ended up in the right rough. The hole makes a jog to the right about halfway through, as if someone picked up the second half of the hole and moved it to the right about 30 yards. So with trees to my right, I aimed at the left edge of the fairway, hoping I could work it right. I ended up hitting a straight shot, leaving a 150 yard shot out of the intermediate cut. Forgetting to account for the fact that a ball on an uphill lie goes to the left, I hit my third shot to the left edge of the green, about 20 feet away. The spot it ended up was about 3 feet from where I putted from during my first round. I tried the earlier putt (a somewhat tricky downhill slider) about eight times and didn't even get so close as a lip-out. Resigned to my fate of even par, I hit the putt, and then, like any good golfer, started talking to the ball.
"Stay up. Stay up. Stay up stay upstayupstayupstayupstayupppppp..."
Plop.
It dropped, giving me a career best one-under 71.

I'll spare you the details, but today I moved back to the championship tees and shot an 83. I spent most of the round pretty mad at myself (making three double bogeys didn't help), but looking back, I'm pretty satisfied with that score. It's nice to know I can play "bad" and still hit the low 80's.

A lot of this blog is going to talk about golf. In a lot of the entries, I'm going to talk a lot about golf strategy. If you're not a golfer, you might want to skip over those posts. If you are a golfer, pay close attention. I think you can learn something from all the things I've learned as I've gotten better and better.