First trip to Cali - Torrey Pines and more

Last month, my friend Mike and I spent a long weekend in San Diego, CA to play as many holes of golf as possible. We played 5 rounds in 3 days, including The Vineyard at Escondido, Mt. Woodson Golf Club, Coronado GC, Torrey Pines - North Course, and Balboa Park GC. If you haven't been to San Diego, its absolutely beautiful out there and filled with nice golf courses for the right price. Coronado GC, my second favorite course we played after Torrey Pines, costs $20 after 12pm and is right on the Pacific Ocean. The course condition is as good as a top tier public course in Massachusetts.

The highlight of the golfing experience was our round at Torrey Pines. We chose to play the North Course to save ourselves $100. This is still a recession people! We pulled into Torrey at 530am and there were a dozen cars already in the parking lot. Mike and I both walked up to the Pro Shop area looking to the check in. Come to find out, we had to go up to a random car with its heading lights on and trunk open in the parking lot to claim a spot in line. By the time we figured this out, we probably lost a few spots in line. Torrey Pines has a first come, first serve policy between 6am to 730am. After that, its tee times. We got the 12th or 13th spot. This number got us off the North tee at 7am with two gentleman, one from Long Island and one local from La Jolla. The local guy plays the course for a mere $40!!! Why can't we get a marquee course in the Boston that gives significant resident discounts?? It just doesn't exist. Granite Links costs $125!

At Torrey, you are welcomed by a stunning view looking out into the Pacific Ocean over the cliffs at 7am with a soft breeze and high 60s in mid-February. Its light enough to play at 6am as the sun rises. The fairways are cut tight and narrow and you feel the joy of walking on the same grounds as the greatest golfers in the world.

Mike and I played a different type of match play (hole-by-hole, quota, etc.) each round on the trip. For Torrey, we chose to play USGA stroke play. Finish everything out, tournament style. Winner takes all. We battled it out in a Tour-like finish and tied with 77s. Mike and I were both a 2 under par on the last 5 holes. On the 397 yard par 4 15th, Mike made a mammoth putt of about 50 feet for birdie and then a drained a 25 footer from off the green to save par. On the par-3 17th, about 180 yards, we both hit nice approaches to pin high. Mike went first and drained a 18 footer. Then I preceded to drop a 15 foot putt right on top of him to go all square into 18. We both made par on the par-5 18th. We couldn't have asked for a better day weather-wise and our golf games made us smile even more. Even better, after Torrey, we were on our way to round #2 of the day and the final round of the trip at Balboa Park.

As we New Englanders know, the golf season is short around here, so it was a treat to split up the winter break in California. Mike and I spent our time outside the golf course in Los Angeles to see my cousin Jay (who is the Jing Master out in LA at Erewhon Foods), at a famous Mexican restaurant in San Diego (El Indio - two visits), and a few trips to In-And-Out Burgers.

I left San Diego thinking wouldn't it be nice to live out here...

Namaste,
Kurt

Still Golfing and Offseason Tips

Its often rare to have 50 to 60 degree weather a few weeks before Thanksgiving. Please keep it coming Mother Nature. Remember, we patiently waited for you to give us sun after a month full of rain in June!

I played yesterday, 11/7, with my Dad and Mike 'the Irishman' Murphy at Lexington. We cruised around the course in less than 4 hours. I take November rounds as 'bonus' days in New England, adding to my appreciation of the game. I can honestly say my game has held up well this deep into the season. I played a stretch of 8 holes at 2 under par and 12 holes at 1 under par. The other six holes pushed me back the relative to par, so I closed with a 77. My Dad's sand play was picturesque with deft touch on #8, #10, and #14, each settling close for pars. The Murph man drove it well and scored around par on the final 9.

How do I think my game has stayed consistent this late in the season? Couple things: 1) I highly recommend serious golfers or non-serious golfers looking for a new workout program to pick up Mark Verstegen's 'Core Performance Golf' golf book. I picked it up for less than $20 on Ebay and its become my off-season bible (and likely year-round for the foreseeable future). The front cover says it will increase your drive 25 yars, lower your score, and play pain-free. Within a matter of a month, I feel like I've gotten to a higher level with my understanding of golfing energy. By focusing on the right muscles and movements of the golf swing, I feel like I have total control of my game. In the past, I've struggled this time of year and felt like I couldn't coordinate a golf swing, i.e. "no feel" for club position, transition, etc. Using this program, I've opened up my golfing muscles and have come to the course with the most important tool in fine shape, THE BODY. The book includes nutrition tips, at home workout options, on the road workout options, and easy to understand workout descriptions. Verstegen is known to be one of the top trainers in the country and works with several professional athletes.

I must warn you that you might feel uncomfortable doing some of these workout moves at the gym or find it tough to pull off (such as medicine ball throws). There is also some equipment worth buying. The cost of investment is covered multiple times over by the benefits, yielding a strong NPV for those investment saavy people. I'd be happy to pass along tips to anyone interested. Even if you are scared off by the workout routines, you can still pick up great on-course nutrition tips, daily nutrition tips, and simply adopt the pre-round stretching routine. You will walk to the first tee feeling fully warmed up and stripe your first tee shot down the middle. Non-golfers or non-serious golfers will gain more flexibility and more functionality, improving everyday living.

This is a big part of my offseason plans. More to come on my plans this winter and some tips on how to improve your game during the winter blues in New England.

Keep on golfing!!
KF

Oh yeah, #2 thing for consistency this late in the season is practice putting at home. My routine is to take at least 10 practice putting strokes per day against a straight line, such as the the edge of a rug or the base of a wall. I do it before work or before bed. Only takes a 1 minute. You don't even need to hit a ball, but pretend its there. Focus on maintaining a steady head and keep the putter on a straight line, internalizing the feeling of a straight backstroke and making a confident stroke THROUGH the ball at a pace that matches the pace of your backstroke. Take notice how it feels to make a good putting stroke down the line. When you get to the course, even if you haven't played in weeks, you won't be pulling back the putter like an intoxicated human, but more like a sharp precision machine with confidence to make any putt.

Day 2 at the Mass Mid Amateur

What a difference a day makes on the golf course - today, the weather was in the high 50s, winds were up to 15mph, and scores were rising. In round 1, the average score was roughly 75. In round 2, the average score rose 2 shots to 77.

My tee time was in the morning wave at 8:45am. Mr. Drama (Russ), my playing competitor from yesterday, decided to no show..a no no at these events and blatant disrespect to the Massachusetts Golf Association. Marcus (other playing competitor) and myself tee'd it up on 1, facing heavy winds. On the first hole, I got under my 3-wood, leaving myself 230 yards to the par-4 compared to 110-yards yesterday. What a difference! And I hit hybrid off the tee yesterday. Believe it or not I made par in this round and bogey yesterday.

Prior to the round, my swing felt terrible on the range. I worked through my mind different solutions and assumed certain problems. This is not how you want to start your preparation for a tournament round. I beat up my swing for 30 minutes and then decided to go with what I had for the day. This played out as one might expect...no consistency in ball striking and direction. I played from everywhere and I made up and down from everywhere.

I must say Haverhill CC has greens that are close to the best, if not the best, I've ever played on. They run as true as any greens you will putt on and they are consistent. Every putt I looked at I thought I could make and it showed. I had 11 putts on the front nine and 27 putts in total. I had 8 one-putts and a chip in. After the round, I was kicking myself that I didn't make more. Trust me, I needed every one of them.

Through nine holes, I was Even par. My best shots on the front nine were a chip in for birdie at the par 4 5th and a 140-yard approach on the par 5 8th that set up an easy birdie. Also, making up and down on 1 from 60 yards was a great way to start the day. My back nine did not create any necessary sparks to post a great score. I missed good birdie opportunities on 12, 13, and 14. I finished with 4 bogeys and 5 pars to shoot 39 in. Total score was 74 (+4). Two day total was 152, 5 shots over the cut line.

My Dad did an excellent job caddying for me, steering me to good decisions on many shots that put me in position to save pars when I could have easily turn those into doubles w/ one mistake. We both wish we put more focus on shooting a number on the back nine. After my front nine, I was in good position to make the cut if i posted -1 or better on the back. We didn't know what I needed to shoot at the time, but it was clear that my front nine score was ahead of the field and I needed to go low on the back too.

Overall, I am very happy with my short game and I feel like this experience will only make me better. I walk away learning from mental mistakes (swing fixes on the range, not using basic techniques like 1,99 and 4 (tempo and grip pressure relaxation techniques) to relax myself, and not stating specific goals). Remember when you get to tournament day, the warmup is a chance to get your muscles loose, see how the ball is flying in the weather conditions, and focus in on your goals for the day. Its good to check for basics, such as alignment, tempo techniques, and routine. Don't go crazy on backswing positions, follow through positions, transition, etc. Once you get to a tournament, your swing is not going to completely change...its simply a matter of calming your nerves, focusing on your basic swing checks, and setting your sights on the big picture. I got too caught up in the details of my swing this week and it caused me to lose my confidence over the ball.

I feel good about my resolve to score well on Day 2 despite many bad shots. Good players know how to score even when the swing goes bad. I'll be back stronger next year and will keep improving.

No tournaments scheduled for the near future. I will be posting something in the near future related to offseason plans.

Mass Mid Amateur: Day 1

August 15th - The first day of the Massachusetts Mid-Amateur Championship kicked off at Haverhill Country Club. The field was 120. The format was 54 hole stroke play with a cut down to the Top 30 after 36 holes.

I drew an afternoon tee time on Day 1 at 1:21pm. What do you do before an afternoon tee time? Do you squeeze in some practice, go to the gym, watch a movie, sleep, do errands?? One thing for sure is you get to sleep in. I chose to eat a nice breakfast at the Spot Cafe in Watertown with my brother and my friend Samuel. After gathering my golf equipment and attire and driving to my parent's house, I was left with less than an hour to stretch and eat some more food. We departed for Haverhill at 11:30am. All in all, if you like to arrive at least an hour prior to your tee time and have to travel many miles to get there, the amount of morning time goes quickly.

The weather conditions were close to perfect - temperatures in mid 70s and mild winds in the afternoon. The morning conditions were slightly better because of less wind. Overall, it was a fair comparison of playing conditions between morning and afternoon groups. The course conditions were excellent. Greens were in perfect shape and running around 10.5 on the stimpmeter. I started on the 10th tee, a 181-yard downhill par-3. My 9-iron missed short right and I failed to get up and down for par. Off with a bogey on 10 and then doubled 11. Its painful to start like that!

My brother was caddying for me and my Dad was spectating. It was awesome! After a tough start, I missed an easy birdie on 12 and then hit a towering 3-wood in front of the 300 yard par 4 13th. I pitched it to 20 feet and drained the birdie putt. After parring 14, I made bogey on 15 and missed a short birdie putt (10 feet) on 16, bogeyed 17, and parred 18 for a front nine 39.

On the back side, I started poorly by hitting my second shot into a hazard on 1 (my 10th hole). I made a great pitch shot from 60 yards to save bogey. On the par-4 3rd, I hit the shot of my tournament. My drive went way right into fescue. I was lucky enough to draw a good lie. However, I had a slightly sidehill lie (ball above my feet) and a huge maple tree 10 yards in front of me. The yardage to the green was roughly 135. My brother and I discussed the options. I felt it was best to try to go over the tree. My brother said you can do it no problem. I slightly opened up from pitching wedge and put a full swing on it. The ball launched straight up and barely over the tree, landing on the front of the green, rolling to 15 feet below the pin. It was Tiger-esque. Unfortunately, I missed the putt, but par was still exceptional from that position.

I birdied that par 3 4th, making a slippery 25 footer down the hill. My brother called me making this shot too! The rest of the round included many bunker shots and a great up and down on the par-3 7th (from a downhill lie with patchy grass and mud on my ball). I doubled my last hole to shoot 78, three strokes above the field average on Day 1. My round included 2 birdies, 8 pars, 2 doubles, and 6 bogeys. Total putts were 33.

Looking back on this round, I did not capitalize on the good playing conditions and put myself in a tough position to make the cut.

Thanks to my brother for being a great caddy. He gave me confidence in a lot of my decisions and kept me well energized throughout the round.

Additional Notes:

-My Dad took notes on all my shots and was having a good time, even took a beer to go after nine holes

-Playing partner Russ forgot to bring his driver to the tournament and left ALL his wedges in the car (he figured this out on our 2nd hole and drove his golf cart off the course to get them)...the drama continued with Russ having a ruling issue on the par 3 7th hole...his ball rested on an abandoned, embedded ball in the woods, the ruling did not go his way and he made 7

-Bob 'PGA' Green fired 75, a good start to the tournament

-Defending champ Brian Higgins shot 66 and held a one-shot lead

Dennis Four Ball Tradition

Mike Murphy and I finished T6 out of 80 teams at the Dennis Four Ball this past weekend. The event took place at Dennis Highlands GC and the format was best-ball gross over 36 holes. We shot 69-68 = 137 (-5). The winners were -9.

The field was strong including many of the top amateurs in the state (e.g. Mike and I, as well the 2006 Massachusetts Amateur Champion and 2009 Massachusetts Public Links Champion).

Highlights included making up and down off of a tree root, rimming the cup on my tee shot on the 222 yard par 3 sixteenth, and making bird on the final hole of the tournament (it was a 6 footer downhill with a 1 foot break). Mike was hitting crafty shots throughout the weekend, including a 20-yard hook shot around trees to approach the par-4 14th. His shot landed on the green and he made par. Also, Mike reached the par 5 8th in two after hitting a spectacular 3-wood from 250 yards+ off a downhill lie. He missed the 15 foot eagle try, but made birdie!

This was the 4th consecutive year Mike and I have competed in this event and it keeps getting better. I already have it marked on my calendar for September 18-19, 2010. One thing for sure is we expect rain to hit that weekend in 2010. For the past two years, we have played in the rain at least one of the rounds. The first round this year was some of the strangest and most annoying weather I've ever played in. On the front nine, it would be sunny and dry for one hole and then rain the next hole and it continued to alternate. On the back nine, from 14-17, it was downpouring. We actually saw lightning in the distance on the 13th green. On the 17th green, the green went from wet to under water in less than 20 seconds, lightning struck overhead, and we were called off the course. Mike and I managed to play 14 thru 17 in even par. Play resumed 40 minutes later and the course played fine. Dennis Highlands might be the best draining course in America. I was amazed. I shrivered my way to a par on the final hole after the rain delay. Then, we flew back to our guest house in Dennis and took a hot shower.

p.s.: I thought I would tell you that a house on the 12th hole had a massive poster reading OBAMA = SOCIALISM. Everyone could see it. As I've said in the past on political subjects, I'll let the reader make his or her own judgment. Such a political comment, ain't it!

KF

All-Star Team

During 2004 - 2009, either myself or Annie Sperandio or Ally Dunn or Rob Lynch was a winner of the Men's or Women's Club Championship. The four of us teammed up for the Play for Pink Tournament at Lexington GC yesterday. Its an annual 'pink' event to support a fight against breast cancer. All the girls come out with dazzling pink outfits. A few guys sported some pink as well; i'll leave opinions open to my followers on whether or not guys should wear pink. The tournament included 18-holes of golf, raffles, mulligans, pink tee gifts, dinner, and team prizes.

The tournament format is two best ball of four. A typical format in most cases, however, this tournament adds a big twist. Each team receives a pink ball (a Precept Lady which is suprisingly a good ball) that MUST be counted as one of the two best ball scores. Each player must use the pink ball at least 4 times during the round. The player who tees off with the pink ball is required to finish the hole regardless of their score. Pink ball = added pressure = added attention. I found myself looking at the pink ball differently than the white ball and turning my head multiple times a hole --- whos got the pink ball? where is it? what does it lie?

So how did we do??

We cleaned up on the Gross prize by shooting a team total of 151. The next best gross team score was 159. All four of us contributed to the victory. In fact, we had a side match between us that came down to the final hole (all-square after 17). It was Rob and Annie vs. Me and Ally. On the par-3 14th, Rob made a clutch 8-footer for par to halve the match. I'm all too familiar with Rob making putts (for those who don't know, Rob won this year's club championship). As a group, we played steady throughout the day. We didn't find ourselves in a stretch of bad holes or string of great holes. The pink ball caused us a few heartaches, but we didn't lose the ball and even made a birdie with it! My shot of the day was a lefty shot on the 2nd hole. I was pinned up against an out of bounds fence and proceeded to punch it out lefty. I didn't get back to the fairway, but I was able to give myself a third shot to the green (2nd hole is a par 5).

This was my first mixed event of my career. It was an awesome day. I'm looking forward to a repeat performance in 2010.

Thanks to Eileen Flanagan, John Flanagan, and the rest of the Social Committee for running the event. The show of support was solid and I'm sure we raised some good money for breast cancer.

I'm in full preparation mode for the Dennis Four Ball and Mass Mid-Amateur over the next two weeks. See you all soon for more inside the ropes.

K

Ticket to the Mass Mid Am

Today's event was the Massachusetts Mid Amateur qualifier at Highfields GC in Grafton, MA. Its an 18-hole stroke play qualifier. The Top 20 qualify for the Massachusetts Mid Amateur Championship at Haverhill CC on Sept 15-17. The golf course is public; a par 72 7,000 yards; slope 140; course rating 74.5. It plays shorter than the yardage, but the difficulty level is true because of well placed hazards, out of bounds, and firm greens. Its the type of course that will eat at you if you don't drive it well. The temperature was hot, probably low 90s, feeling like high 90s.

I'll cut right to the chase...the two highlights of the day were: 1) having my brother caddy for me (first time!) and 2) qualifying for the championship. The second highlight was a result of having my brother on the bag. He really turned my mental game around after I made consecutive double bogeys on the 6th and 7th holes. He basically lowered his shoulder into me (at least once) and said snap out of it, you are stiff as a board out here (I was tense, this happens frequently when i get under tournament conditions and it causes me to make poor transition moves, leading to both pull and pushes)...this game is a dream...think about it, you gotta enjoy this or else go sit in the office; the words came out a lot better out of my brother's mouth. It worked and we had a great time together. I responded by going 1 under on my last 10 holes. Fired a 35 on the back nine to shoot 78 (tie for 12th place). (Check out the results at http://www.ghintpp.com/mgalinks/TPPOnlineScoring/results.aspx?id=8 or http://www.mgalinks.org/championships/midamateur/midamateur.html)

My brother was even close to Y.E. Yanging the golf bag on 18, but I missed the birdie putt to justify it.

The low score of the day was 74 by three players. It was proof of a challenging golf course. Typically, someone shoots par or better in these events.

I played with two fine gents today, Jeremy Benedick and Walter Riley. Both were enjoyable and friendly playing partners (makes a difference in a round). Walter used a minature golf putter and made everything. He qualified by shooting 76. Fun to watch!

My friends Mike Murphy and Chris Bates were in the field. It was neat because both of them were in the groups ahead of me and we all played a practice round together yesterday. I did get to see Mike's shots on a few holes. He had a tough round and didn't qualify. Knowing Mike and his game, it was a fluke day for him and he will easily come back with better results. We are playing together in the Dennis Four Ball in less than a month. An absolute blast of a tournament and can't wait to compete with Mike.

Awesome job to my brother today. One other thing he did was keep my energy levels high throughout the day by good hydration and good nutrition (clutch stuff on a 90 degree day). I was eating food every 4-5 holes. It surely helped me make solid golf swings down the stretch.

I'm really looking forward to a big golf month in September. Its my chance to make a statement against the Frank Vanas of the world.

Celebrate with me...

Cheers
Kurt