I'm Back!!!!

It's been more than a month since I've posted here.  No excuses, just haven't been posting.  

I've been pretty succesfull with my pledge to take myself less seriously on the course, and it's been paying off.  I broke 90 last weekend for the first time since a freakish saturday last spring when I shot 84.  Aside from that, I've been keeping it pretty steady in the mid to low 90's and I've certainly been hitting a lot more fairways.

Stay tuned, I promise I'll post more often.

Trying to take it less seriously

Are any of you out there like me?  I tend to take my golf game way too seriously out on the course.  I am currently playing to about a 20 handicap, but for some reason when I get out on the course, my mind thinks I'm a single digit.  It's gotten a little ridiculous and even to the point where I'm not having nearly as much fun playing as I used to.  I started playing regularly (at least once a week) about this time last year.  I moved to Houston from Amarillo, and I didn't really have very many friends down here.  So I spent a lot of time playing golf because it was better than sitting at home.  I seem to remember having a lot more fun in those rounds the first couple of months after I moved here.  I think the reason I did was because I wasn't as hard on myself.  I hadn't ever played more than a couple of times a year, and I didn't expect myself to break 90 or hit 50% of the greens in regulation.

Well, something happened.  I got better.  I started practicing a couple evenings a week and playing at least once (usually twice or three times) a week, and my game went from  barely getting around the course, to consistently shooting in the low 90's and high 80's.  Then the worst thing that possibly could have happened happened.  Last May I had an amazing afternoon and put up a legit 84.  Ever since that day, I seem to think that I should be shooting 84 at the highest.  Instead, I haven't broken 90 since.  

Two weeks ago, I made an 8 on the second hole.  I hate posting snowmen, especially on par 4's.  I just fell apart and didn't even make a par on the front 9 (I carded another frosty on the eighth hole) and made the turn at 51.  By the way, I really didn't even have any fun during those 7 holes.  It was a nice day, one of my best friends was playing with me, and I just couldn't get over myself.  At the turn we added up our scores and I realized that I had blown up the front.  I decided to just forget it and have fun.  I shot a 47 on the back, not my best score, but you know what, I had fun and even picked up a skin.  

I think that from now on, I'm going to be very vigilant about having fun on the course and not being so hard on myself.  It actually sounds weird to say I'm going to be vigilant about having fun.  I played last weekend and adopted this attitude, and shot 91.  That's pretty good for me.  And guess what, I had a really good time.  I'm also going to try and play a little less (maybe every other weekend).  I think the real test will be if I shoot a 40 or something on the front 9 and then try not to get too serious after that.

My friend Erik and I have also decided that when we play our skins game on Sundays that we're going to walk instead of using carts.  Now, this time of year in Houston, walking is really nice.  Highs in the 70's and a little breeze, not too many mosquitos.  We'll see how long we stick to our guns later this summer when it's 95 and 90% humidity and no breeze and the bloodsuckers are the size of small birds.  Thank god for dri-fit shirts, under armour, and deep woods OFF.

Phil pulls one out of his hat

So Phil just about lost this last Sunday out at Riviera in L.A..  It looked like he was going to pull his patented slide down the leader board after the turn, but he turned it around with a string of birdies on the back 9 and finished 1 ahead of Steve Stricker.

I like to see Phil win.  He has a ton of talent, and I really like to see folks give Tiger a run for his money.  I just wish that Phil could get out of his own way more often.  When they show a close up of him before he hits a shot, he looks like he's got about 10,000 thoughts per second running through there.  I think if he could shut that off, he would avoid some of the meltdowns he's been subject to historically.

Also of note at the tournament, it was nice to see Fred Couples playing well again.  He really has one of the prettiest swings in golf.  Houstonian K.J. Choi finished tied for 3rd, which is nice.

Guess Who's Back?

That's right, Tiger is coming back next week at the match play event in Arizona.  I'm glad he's coming back so golf channel will finally stop asking the "experts" when he'll come back.  Of course, last night they had about an hour and a half on golf central where all they talked about is him coming back next week.  The anchors had that Christmas morning look on their faces.  

It will be interesting to see how he does next week.  He has an incredible record in match play, but the media will be all over him if he loses in the first round.  Match play is a whole different animal than medal play, and a few bad holes in a row can put you out.  

My first round at a TPC course

I was lucky enough to play the Tournament Course at the Woodlands Country Club a couple of weeks ago.  My fiance and I volunteered last fall at the Administaff Small Business Classic PGA Champions Tour event.  As a thank you for volunteering, the tournament committee gives everyone who volunteers a free pass to play the Tournament Course.  My fiance plays golf a little, but was kind enough to let me use her pass for a friend.  

My buddy Erik and I took an afternoon off during the week to play, and had a tee time scheduled for 1:00 p.m..  We arrived at the course about 45 minutes early and checked into the pro shop.  We asked if we needed to buy any range balls, and were told that they were complimentary.  This is probably not anything new for people who play country club golf often, but for the two of us who are used to hacking it up on a muni, this was a shock.  We got warmed up and then went to the practice green.  In retrospect, we probably should have gotten there even earlier because the greens were way faster than anything I've ever played on.  

We teed off exactly at 1 and it was an experience I'll never forget.  The course was in immaculate condition and way nicer than anything I've ever played on.  I actually started out pretty good and piped a drive down the first fairway.  Of course, I then proceeded to chunk my second shot and leave my 3rd short on the par 5 first hole.  I made a decent pitch shot from about 35 yards, and had an uphill 20 footer for par.  I was not yet adjusted to the speed of the greens and ran it about 8 feet by.  I made the combacker for bogey, and we moved on.  I struggled for most of the front 9 and shot a 54.  Erik was also struggling and shot a 52.  

We decided that we should really just try and break 100, and enjoy the round.  Erik really turned on the gas after the 10th where we both triple bogeyed, and shot a 46 on the back to end up at 98.  I never really pulled it together and shot a 51 on the back to finish up with a nice round 105.  It's not the worst I've ever shot, but I think that I could have done a lot better.  

I really enjoyed the experience of playing on a course where so many pros have played.  The course is now the host of a Champions Tour event, but from 1975 to 2002, this course was the site of the Shell Houston Open.  There were plaques on every tee box telling of the heroics that the pros had performed on that particular hole.  It was really cool to stand on the tee box and know that the likes of Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus had stood in the exact same place I had and looked down those fairways.  It's an experience that is unique in golf, and really cool.

Growing up in West Texas, I never imagined that I would get the opportunity to play in such a cool place.

So, if you're in The Woodlands, and you find a proV1 in the trees, it's probably mine.

Keeping track of your golf stats

If you look at the bottom of the page, you'll see a set of graphs about my golf game.  I've decided to keep track of all my rounds on oobgolf.com.  That way, I can more acurately see what parts of my game I need to work on.  They even have a mobile web site that lets you update your scores on the course.  I'm going to try and do this the next time I'm out on the course.

First Entry

Hey there readers.  My name is Matt, and I have decided to start blogging about golf.  I've been playing for several years now, but just in the last year I have started playing more regularly.  I live in a suburb of Houston, Texas called Kingwood.  There is a lot of great golf in the area, and I try to play about once per week.  I'll be detailing my adventures here, along with my feeling on golf news and topics that interest me.  I hope you enjoy reading the blog and welcome any comments or suggestions you may have.