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Grippy

The last couple months I've been mulling over the prospects when it comes to replacement golf grips. I've pretty much only used the Golf Pride Full Cord Tour Wrap - they came on my current set of clubs, and my previous two sets were equipped with those as well. The only downside to them as been that they're pretty rough on the hands.

Grips look like they've come a long way in the last few years, and I haven't really been keeping up. As luck would have it though, I got to attend a focus group a couple weeks ago that was for golf grips - and I got to hit 15 identical clubs, all with different grips. They had several there that I had been considering, along with the old standby tour wrap.

While I was somewhat biased against Winn grips going into it, they felt SO much better than anything out there that I went and switched. I chose the XF (extra firm, 5XWC) model, as I thought the original RF style was a bit too squishy. At $4 a grip they were pretty reasonably priced as well. I'm still concerned about the longevity, so we'll see how that goes. I've read mixed reviews. For now though, they feel great!

Decisions decisions...

A while back I was putting together a birthday wishlist at the request of friends and family, and on that list were two golf bags. Two, because both appeared to be excellent bags, but I couldn't decide which one I'd rather have. I thought that perhaps I might get lucky and get one, and the decision would be made for me.

But no, I'm in the fortunate situation of receiving both golf bags, and now the ball is back in my court. :-P

(fwiw, I'm looking for a cart bag because I use golfnow.com for most of my golf, and all of those courses include carts. I'll keep my current bag for any time I know I'll walk.)

First up is the Titleist SC75 cart bag. This one is nearly perfect in every way - lots of big pockets, a big lined valuables pocket, a big insulated drink pocket, and it's just a good-looking bag. The biggest downside for me is the 14-way club divider, which apparently is a standard feature now on every cart bag.

Second up is the . Proper 6-way club divider, four big pockets on the ends, looks great, and I've been liking Bridgestone's stuff lately. The downside here is that until the bag showed up at my door, I had never actually seen one in person, so it was really an unknown.

First I did what any good golf nerd would do, and put my clubs in each bag to see how they'd fit and look.


This is where I noticed that the Bridgestone was just a bit shorter than the Titleist. It's certainly easier to throw clubs in the Bridgestone, but I think they're actually displayed a little better in the Titleist. Two big downsides to the Titleist showed up though, that I didn't expect. Due to the narrow slot for each club, the shaft protector on the 3-wood's headcover either has to be tucked in to the slot, or it bunches up at the top. Also, the bag is actually so tall that my putter doesn't touch the bottom, which just feels weird to me. :-P

In operation, just due to the material and design, the Bridgestone feels a lot more solid. Comparing the handles, for example:


The Bridgestone is big and solid, while the Titleist is smaller and has some give to it. I'm sure this is just due to the fact that they were shooting for lightweight cart bag, perhaps one that could be carried occasionally. Honestly, the S74 is a more comparable bag to the Bridgestone, but I didn't really like the way that one looked. :-P

One feature on the Titleist bothered me a big more than expected, and that's the shoulder strap.

For a bag that will only be used on carts, it makes perfect sense to have it there, and it even tucks away nicely in its own pouch. When you do have to carry the bag though, it's upside-down and feels kind of weird. So I can't really get over the non-traditional placement.

Pocket-wise, it's pretty much a wash between the two. The Titleist has big accessible pockets on each side of the bag, plus the previously-mentioned larger valuables/insulated pockets. The Bridgestone has fairly worthless pockets on two sides (the sides with the big Bridgestone name), as they're pretty tight and flat. The pockets on the ends though are gigantic. The biggest one can easily hold a pair of shoes and probably two jackets, without even looking full. The valuables pocket is on the same end, and it's pretty big as well. On the other end are two more really big pockets for balls, tees, whatever. I think the pockets will work out better than I initially expected.

All that said, I'm going to go with the Bridgestone bag, and probably return the other one for a 585.H. :-D

Golfing glory and failure

A couple weeks ago while in Albuquerque with Teresa, I played a round of golf at Santa Ana Golf Club while she had an all-day job interview. I was happy to see that the course had a set of pretty long tees, with the scorecard showing 7298 yards. The par 5's have lengths of 600, 599, 633, and 534. :-o

Despite not playing in a couple months, I was doing really well. I was hitting a ton of greens, and I was pretty solid with the putter from 10 feet and in, for the most part.

The front nine was relatively uneventful. One 3-putt, a couple shots in the sand, and I finished with a 3-over 39. Good start!

Back nine started well, but I just couldn't hit a birdie putt. Starting on the 8th hole I had a string of eight greens-in-regulation in a row, and I didn't make a single birdie. That's terrible. Still, I didn't 3-putt any of those, so there I was through 16 holes sitting at +3.

Then one of the guys playing with me did something incredibly stupid: he says "so you're what, about 3 over?"

He probably didn't know any better, but he totally jinxed my round, and I knew it. Letting myself think about it was surely a mental error on my part. I proceeded to hit my worst drive of the day off the tee, and long story short, I make a 9 on a par 4. :-( Now I have to go -1 on the last two holes just to shoot a 79, and they're both par 5s.

The first is the 633 yard hole, and there's a big crosswind blowing now. I hit a long drive, but it goes off to the right considerably. I catch my 3 wood pretty solid and the ball makes it back to the fairway, leaving me about 100 yards out. I knock my wedge to about 4 feet - perfect! Then I miss the putt. :-(

Last hole is the 534 yard par 5, but now it's going straight into a really strong wind, and there's a lake right in front of the green. I hit a good drive, nice and low and right down the middle. I have to clear about 220 yards to get over the water, and if I don't make a birdie there's no 79, so I go for it. The shot went straight, but I caught it just a little fat. While that wouldn't normally have been a problem, in this case it popped the ball up in the air, the wind caught it, and right into the water it went. :-(

So my would-be 75 turned into an 81. Still a great round given how little I've played lately, but the things it could have been...

Finally back in the 70s

Played in a work-related golf tourament this weekend at the Legacy, and shot a 79. I haven't shot in the 70s for well over a year now, the closest I've come being an 80 at Francisco Grande earlier this year. Still, the 79 included a triple bogey and a quadruple bogey on the card, so really I played a bit better than the score indicates. The triple was a combination of several mistakes - it was a short 330yd par 4, with a trap that I can usually carry with my driver that's about 270 out. The wind was in my face when I was up, I didn't consider it, and I landed in the trap. Hit a poor shot out, a poor approach, and a 3-putt from 12 feet that gave me a 7 on the hole.

The quad was almost funny it was so bad. I don't know what happened on my drive exactly, but despite hitting my driver really well all day up to that point, I stuffed it into the desert 30 yards off the tee box on a par 5. At this point I should have just taken a drop, but for some reason I thought I could hit it out. I ended up hitting the tire on our golf cart, then the ball came back and lodged itself in a bush. So I got the penalty stroke for hitting the cart and the stroke for having to take an unplayable lie, meaning I was barely off the tee hitting 5, great. Hit my next shot solid but pulled, found it in the desert and had a good lie but was behind a tree, so I had to pitch out. Finally made it on in 7, and two-putted for a 9. >:-o. Ugh.

Other than that though, I played pretty well. I hit a lot of solid drives, and hit 10 greens in regulation (last few rounds for me have been more like 4-6). I even made some putts of decent length! Up until now, I've never really felt like I had a shot at making anything longer than 6-8 feet. Yesterday I made a few putts in that range for birdie or par, and a couple in the 10-20 foot range as well.

I feel like I learned a lot from a book I picked up at another golfer's suggestion, Golf is a Game of Confidence. I was able to apply quite a few of the points in the book to my game, and they seemed to help me. Here are some of them, paraphrased.

• Pick out a small specific target, rather than a broad general target. Visualize the ball going there. I especially made a point of doing this on the tee, and I hit a lot more shots right where I wanted to than usual. It also helped me displace other potentially bad thoughts, related to the next point.
• Forget about swing mechanics while actually swinging. I was surprised that I was able to do this for almost the entire round, except for a couple shots (and those shots didn't turn out too well). Visualizing the shot, watching myself hit it in my mind, and knowing I could hit it didn't leave room for thoughts like "swing from the inside" or "turn the club over." Unfortunately, I think there are still a couple instances where thinking about mechanics can help me, namely the unique shots that I rarely encounter, such as hitting out of a fairway bunker. It's different enough from a normal shot that I have to remind myself how to do it. In general though, I liked his analogy in the book to a driver learning to use a manual transmission. Someone that's new thinks about the process and generally isn't smooth, but somebody that has been doing it a while doesn't think about it at all, just does it. In the same way, I already know how to swing, and I shouldn't mess with stuff by thinking about it. :-P
• Swing "freely" with your putter, don't try to guide the ball. The first couple holes, my swing thought while putting was simply "swing free," but after the 3-putt from 12 feet on the 3rd hole, it because "free, not careless." For the most part, I was getting a large number of my first putts within tap-in range, which is a good improvement for me. I made more longer putts as well. I stopped thinking about the line I want the putter to take, I just picked out a specific spot on the green where I wanted the ball to start, had the "free, not careless" though, and hit the putt.

There were a few more, but that was most of it. Whenever I missed the green, I told myself that I know I can get up and down in two, because I have a good short game (as untrue as that may be some times!). Somehow that worked! I got up and down quite a few times, including twice out of the sand. The second time was on the 18th hole, a 490-yard par 5. I hit a great tee shot, the kind where you hit it and just pick up the tee, because you know it's long and down the middle. I was left with 165 to the center, but pushed my iron right into the sand. Hit my sand shot to 4 feet, and made my birdie putt for the 79, which I didn't know at the time thankfully.

Finally, I managed to win one of the closest to the pin contests with a shot that was maybe 8 feet from the hole. I can only imagine that nobody hit it closer because it was a bit windy in the morning, because I figured there was no way it would stand up. ;-)

Golf last weekend

Played at Orange Tree Golf Resort on Sunday, actually had a mostly decent round. The course seemed to be in good shape, though the greens were often a bit on the dry side despite the rain we had been having.

Only a couple highlights to the round - one was on the 2nd hole, a par 5. My drive left me about 220 yards out and with a reasonable lie in the rough, and I hit it perfect, right on the green. Two-putt for birdie.

The other highlight was actual several shots, a string of probably the three best gap wedges I've ever hit. Starting on the 8th hole, I hit a good drive to about 125 out, hit my gap wedge to 5 feet or so, and make the birdie putt. On the 9th, after unfortunately fatting my 7-iron into the water, I took a drop at my gap wedge distance, hit it to 8 feet, made the bogey putt. Then on 10 a good drive left me with a gap wedge again, and this time I put it to 2 feet and tapped in for another birdie.

After that it was all downhill, six bogeys and a double on the back nine, and I shot 40/43 for an 83. Not too bad though. My number of greens in regulation seems to slowly be going up, which I've found is what I really need to shoot the better scores (well, that or a much better short game). Looking back at some old scorecards, I used to actually hit more greens than I remember. These days I've been getting maybe 3-5 GIRs in a round, which isn't any good. Then if I could just start putting, I'd really have something!

The putter, it doesn't work

Played in my league night yesterday, and every part of my game was going well except the putting, which was absolutely horrid. I hit (or nearly hit) almost every green in regulation, yet I shot five over for the nine holes. I three-putted all three par-3s, and both par-5s. I missed a three-foot birdie putt on a par 4. I could have been at even par if the putter had been working anywhere near its capabilities. Yet there I was at five over. We still won our match, but it was somewhat frustrating playing so well otherwise, and having one part of my game just completely fall apart.

Since I didn't say anything about last week's round, I'll just mention my one good hole. Par 5, I hit a decent drive, but after we tee off a dust storm rolls in and we're playing straight into it. I'm 240 out for my second shot, into a strong wind and a bit uphill. I hit an absolutely perfect 2-iron that stays low with a bit of a draw, and it ends up about three feet from the pin. Made my putt for eagle. :-D

Back on course

After hitting the driving range Thursday, I decided my hand was well enough to play some golf on Saturday. I found a cheap time at the Arizona Golf Resort, and made my way out.

In terms of yardage variety, it was probably one of the most poorly-designed courses I've played. There are five par 5s, all 490 ±10 yards. I hit a 3-iron into almost every green. Of course, as par 5s go that's fairly short, but not unexpected for a course in this part of Mesa. What doesn't make sense then is that there were six par 3s, with four of them playing 210 ±10 yards! The guys I played with were taking 3 woods off the tee. I was hitting 3-iron again...I don't think I've ever hit so many 3-irons in a single round, ever.

Overall, my play was spectacularly mediocre. I only hit 3 greens all day, and if missed opportunities were sunscreen, I wouldn't be all red today. I had an iron into each of the par 5s on my second shot, and I only made one birdie. I was +3 on par 5s for the day, and those are the holes where I really need to clean up - especially when they're so short. First hole for example, I hit a drive down the middle and leave myself with a 6-iron into the green. I proceed to nearly miss the ball completely, and almost blade the ball out of bounds. Gah. Fortunately I saved myself on that particular hole by making a 25-footer for par, one of the few highlights. I probably hit 4 or 5 OB as well, that's never good for the score either.

So in the end, I shot an 11 over 46 on the front, and a 5 over 41 on the back for an 87. Meh.

The weekend of little sleep

I tend to sleep in on Saturdays...a lot. So waking up at 4:30am to take my parents to the airport meant I had a lot more free time than usual that day. As a result, I actually got a lot of stuff done! Went mountain biking, golfing, cleaned up parts of the house, and played softball that night.

- Biking was short and a bit too easy, but I followed some paths I hadn't taken before, so at least I know where they go now.

- Golf started out well, but then I got stuck behind this 4-man scramble tournament that was painfully slow. I took a triple on the ninth to shoot a 43, then stopped after that. :-\

Sunday continued the lack of sleep trend, getting up early for the first summer series autox. I was still running a bit late, and only got one course walk in before it was closed. Still, I felt ok about my times and I didn't cone away anything, so that's not too bad. It was also my first time getting results online from start to finish, and while it mostly went ok, I can see some room for improvement. I just hope I can find the motivation to do it. :-P

I actually washed my car on Friday, so it was clean yesterday, albeit a little tilty.

Tucson Golf

On Sunday I played golf at Starr Pass in Tucson, the "rattler" and "roadrunner" nines. It's definitely a course where you can pick up a few shots the second time you play, as you can't necessarily see your landing area on a number of holes, and that cost me almost every time. I lost half a dozen balls on the day as well, that didn't help me either. But I had some good drives when it counted, and that went a long ways - I birdied 3 of the 4 par 5's, two of which wereon the green in two and I was putting for eagle.

Started out well with a 39 on the front, dropped a few doubles on the back for a 43, so I finished with an 82 on a par 71, and I was happy with that. It was actually my first time playing golf in Tucson, after all these years!

I should be picking up my other driver from the post office today, so I'll have to hit the range a couple times with these clubs back-to-back and see which one turns out better. Whichever one I decide against will probably go up on ebay after I get back from vacation, provided I can't find a seller locally (I'm not really betting on that).

New driver on the way

Won the auction I was watching last night for the 9.5° version of the one I just bought a month ago, which was 8.5° (and I was hitting it too low). Even better, this one comes with a pretty good shaft that I'll most likely be able to keep, while the stock shaft would have needed to be replaced. The 8.5° should be going back on ebay shortly after the 9.5° arrives - have to get a club-shaped box from somewhere, after all!

Cheap golf is good golf

Played Sunday at Bougainvillea (formerly Mountain View, formerly Pohlcat), and despite my putter's best efforts, had a decent round. Highlights were probably the 360yd drive on a par 5 that left me a gap wedge into the green, and having two eagle putts during the round. Of course, I made neither putt. Didn't make either of my birdie putts on the two consecutive par 3's where I hit it fairly close, either. I think I only made one putt longer than about 5 feet all day, and I felt like a missed a bunch of short ones. The good news, I hit 50% of the fairways (my average is usually around 25-30%) with good distance, though my tee shots with the new driver are still going pretty low, and I'm not sure if it can be fixed in my swing. I think I'll be trading up to a 9.5° model on ebay. :-\

Sporting goods (and bads)

With my back feeling pretty much all better now, I'm finally able to get back into golf and softball again. I played golf last Wednesday, and it was my first round with the new driver. I was looking forward to seeing how far I was hitting the ball, since it looked like I had gained a few yards on the driving range, but I wasn't quite sure. As it turns out, I gained a lot of yards.
- 2nd hole, 436 yards with the tees about 20 yards up, I had 100 yards in
- 7th hole, 359 yards, I hit it to about 20 feet off the green
- 10th hole, 364 yards, I was 30 yards off the green
- 15th hole, 364 yards, I was 30 feet off the green

Those were just solid drives that hit the fairway, but even the bad drives were going 300 yards, which was amazing. Still, having not played in a while I made a number of mistakes that I can chalk up to just a lack of practice, and I ended up with an 89. I can see 7 or 8 of those shots coming off pretty easily.

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What can I say about the autox really, except that new tires are a lot more fun than old tires, and I never got the top clump section right. :-( I really think that's where I lost most of my time. First two runs I didn't go down to first, third run I missed the gas pedal and couldn't get it into first right away, last run I just felt like I coasted through the left into the clump. I didn't like it at all.

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Softball later that day was my first two games of the season, as I missed the first two weekends with the back injury. My fielding was horrible - I dropped two catches at first, and made a throw that I shouldn't have. Fortunately, I made up for it at the plate. I batted 1.000 for the night, including the game-winning hit in the last inning of the second game that I'd like to think made up for the other errors I made. :-P

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So all that's left now is to get back mountain biking again, but man is it ever hot out after work these days, and before work? Well that just isn't happening. :-P

Stupidity

Well, last Saturday I was feeling pretty good, maybe 90% recovered from the back injury. I thought "I know, maybe I'll go to the driving range to test out the new driver." Bad idea. By the time I was done, I was feeling worse than I did after the initial injury! Had to basically start recovery over from scratch. Starting to feel a little better today though.

The good news is that the driver seems to be working out well. Trajectory is good (though a bit on the low side if I don't tee it up enough it seems), and at maximum height it seems to hang there for a second longer than my old driver. I figure it's good for at least another 20 yards, but I won't know for sure until I get out to Ken McDonald and play a round. I was hoping to get better accuracy with the big driver (and I think I did), but I'll take the added distance bonus any time!

Out with the bad, in with the good.

My biking incident on Sunday couldn't have come at a worse time, because today I received the driver I won on ebay last week. I think I can swing a club, I just can't bend over to put the ball on the tee. :-( Now I need to get all healed up so I can try this thing out! Here it is compared to my previous driver, a Titleist 975D. Size-wise, the 975 is a 275cc driver, while the J33R is 420cc's (new models are 460cc). I'll have to hit the new driver a few times to see how it is, but I think I might get another Harrison Pro 2.5 for this one, as I've really liked it in the 975.

Pics for comparison:

A revelation

Just last night I found the "shuffle" button for listening to music on the 360 while playing games. Would have been nice to know about that a bit earlier.

I'm still looking at new drivers, specifically the Bridgestone J33R. Perhaps part of the intrigue is the fact that I can't even find the club locally. Still, it's big and cheap on ebay, and I understand it has a lower trajectory with more roll than most. I'd probably be looking at the lower-priced 420cc model, which I think is identical to the newer 460cc model (just smaller, obviously). I don't really know what's keeping me from not buying it. Maybe the SVS looming around the corner? Maybe because I've just been to the range a lot lately, and haven't played an actual round of golf? Hard to say.

Unintended purchase

I ended up at DSW last night, as it was next to the Chandler Costco, and Evan needed to buy some shoes. I needed nothing, but in my wandering, I noticed a lone pair of brown Ecco golf shoes with a sale price of $140 and a 70% off sticker on top of that, in my size no less. So for about $45 out the door, I ended up with an amazing pair of golf shoes. Nice.

Golf and car repair

My weekend started out entirely too cold and early, I think I had to leave by 6:45 to be in Casa Grande by 7:30. Still, it's far easier to wake up to play golf than it is to work. I was hitting golf balls on the driving range at about 40°, and every shot that wasn't solid stung a fair amount. Swinging a club in four layers of clothing is a bit restricting as well.

As I mentioned the other day, Francisco Grande is known for it's Black tees at over 7500 yards, fairly long by any standards (except ice golf, perhaps). The allure of those tees was too great, so that's what we played. Even better, the course suited my game perfectly by not having any out-of-bounds. When you went beyond the grass there was nothing but dirt, so an errant tee shot is not only easy to find, but often quite playable.

Somehow I managed to have more luck during that round than just about any round I can remember (because it sure didn't feel like skill, or at least it shouldn't be). My sand wedge around the green was on fire. First hole, pitched it to six inches. Several other holes I put it to 3-4 feet. One of the later holes I flopped it over a tree, over a bunker, and landed it on the green with minimal space to work with. The one place it let me down was out of the actual sand! I was only in one trap all day, and my shot out caught a little ball and I hit it across the green. As I usually consider my sand game to be a strong point, that was disappointing.

I had a couple other good shots as well. One par 4, from 210 out, I had a tree in front of me that I couldn't go over. I managed to slice a 2-iron, moving the ball about 30 yards left-to-right, and landed it on the green. Another hole I was particularly happy with was the longeset par 4 on the course, at 486 yards. I put my tee shot behind a tree, and tried hitting a 3 wood around it from 240 yards. I clocked the tree hard, and the ball went straight sideways into the fairway. Still 240 yards out, I landed a soft 3 wood on the green to about 10 feet and made my par putt. :-D

When all was said and done, I missed my putt on the 18th for a 79, and ended up with an 80. Not bad at all given the length of the course. It was nice to use longer clubs from the fairway as well. Looking at my stats, the fact that I only hit 4 greens in regulation and still shot an 80 shows how well I was playing around the green. I even lipped out 3 putts, so the potential for lower was definitely there.

One point of interest, Hexcel actually has a manufacturing facility in Casa Grande, on the same road as the golf course. Who knew? :-P

My luck either continued or ran out on the way home however, depending on how you look at it. Another coolant hose broke about a mile from home. I ended up pushing it home later in the day with help from Teresa and Evan, as I wasn't able to change the hose there in the Olive Garden parking lot. :-P Since this is the second time a stupid little hose has broken, it's time to replace all of them. I made it to the dealer just before the parts department closed, and while they didn't have most of the hoses in stock, they should be here on Tuesday. Hopefully tonight I can try to take most of the old ones off so they'll be ready to go on the car and I can start driving it again.

I've been putting off replacing this coolant temp sensor in the Neon for a while now because the manual indicated it was going to be a pain to replace. Located on the back of the head, have to drain coolant, blah blah whatever. I just didn't feel like it. Yesterday I was certainly more motivated, as I wanted a car to drive to work on Monday, and I didn't want to drive it in the "lean when cold" condition it was in anymore. I felt incredibly stupid when I look around and find that the temp sensor not on the back of the head, but it's on the intake manifold on the front of the car, very easily accessible! A 2-minute fix, and here I've been putting it off for weeks. Car started up the first time and didn't stall, fantastic. Took it over to Napa for a test drive, and it certainly felt like it was running better when cold, plus it wasn't stalling.

That was yesterday afternoon though. :-P This morning I start it up, and it stalls right away. In fact, it won't hold an idle at all until the engine is fully warm, and then it's fine. So I guess I still have the same problem, but at least it's running a little better.

So hooray, I have to fix my car now, and the Neon still isn't really fixed. That's just how I wanted to start the week.

Tennis frustration

Not so much frustrated with my game (though it was bad last night), but moreso what was required to play. Started at the court at my apartment complex as usual, around 7:10 or so. Maybe 10 minutes into the game, the lights go out! There's no switch on the lights anywere (removed in the last couple months, probably to keep people from playing too late), so we're out of luck only two games into the match.

Closest good court that I know of is in a park by my parent's house, so we head over there - both courts are in use. Corona is close by so we try that next, and for some reason all eight courts were being used. How does that happen?

The last option was Marcos, all but one of the gates to their courts were locked, but fortunately that one was open, so we finished there. Then on top of that I played horribly. :-P

In other sporting news though, I'm playing golf at Francisco Grande on Saturday morning, and I'm hoping that'll go better. If my driver is working on the range, I think we may have to play from the 7500 yard black tees. :-D

A lazy week off

You'd think with eleven consecutive days off or so, I'd find more time to post, but no. Probably spent far less time at the computer than ever, and much more time doing...other stuff.

I played golf a couple times over the break, that was one of my goals. First round was with Lee at the Biltmore Adobe course. It was the first round in a few months for both of us, so it should have been pretty even, and that's how it turned out. We both played poorly, but equally bad. I was hitting my driver great on the range, and totally lost it on the course. I hit maybe 3 good shots all day. I ended up winning 90 to 91, but that's not much of a win. ;-) Regardless, I really like the course, and it was in great condition.

A few days ago I played at Ken McDonald, with much better results. The front nine went well, but I think my luck kind of turned on the ninth hole when my drive ended up right against a tree and I had to waste a shot pitching out to the fairway. I think I had a 40 on that side. The back nine felt like a constant stream of bogeys, but wasn't quite that bad. I lost a couple shots when I put my tee shot on the wrong side of the canal on a par 5, then it all fell apart on the 18th. My tee shot hit a tree, leaving me a long shot to the green. The approach plugged in some mud, then I flubbed my next two chips. Ended up with a triple on that hole, to finish with a 44 on that side for an 84 total. Not too bad. Minus one for the tree, two for the canal, and two for the 18th, and that's practically a 79! :-D

Christmas! I got some good stuff. Video games, I got the super-awesome Guitar Hero, as well as We Love Katamari, both of which have occupied much of my time this week. DVDs, I received the Simpsons Season 7 set, which has many great episodes, including my favorite "Lisa the Vegetarian". It should keep me in front of the tv for quite a while, what with the commentary on every episode and all (as I'm watching right now). I also received the Drawn Together Season One set, a great show, and The World's Greatest Rally Cars dvd, which includes the great video of a really fast Peugeot up Pike's Peak.

Other stuff - I received the really cool Complete Calvin and Hobbes collection, and I'm looking forward to reading them all again. I got a nice E30 M3 t-shirt, even has a rollbar in it. :-D All in all, good stuff. I think the only thing I'll try to pick up that I didn't get is the Battlestar Galactica season one set.

I worked on the new azsolo2.com site for a few hours over the break, and most of the pages are up now. Just a few more to go, and it'll pretty much be ready.

Finally, thanks to the beginning of the new year, going to the gym is going to be awful for about a month. Fantastic.

Blankman

Not that Blankman (though I do have the soundtrack to that exceptionally fine film), but more like blank-site-man. Why bother with a website if I can't post something in two weeks, honestly. You'd think I hadn't done anything in the last two weeks.

Well, I haven't really.

I take that back, I got to play Guitar Hero, and that was cool. I definitely need that game.

Last week I tried to get the Xbox 360 on Tuesday, but I really didn't put forth much of an effort. I just showed up at Costco, and while they had games, there were no systems to be found. Unfortunate. :-( Now I'm left to wallow in the sorry muck of 480p sadness until I can find one (but I don't mind waiting until I can find a premium system, instead of the core).

On Friday I made it to my annual Black Friday shopping trip with the Millers, however this year I bought less than ever. We showed up at Best Buy at 2am to try to get the $379 laptop (I was trying to pick one up on behalf of my aunt), but there were already 200 people there. Fortunately it wasn't that cold, so we stayed there in line anyway, knowing full well that there were no laptops to be had at that spot in line.

In the end, all I bought for myself was a $5 video game and a $6 movie (Pinball Hall of Fame and Anchorman). Bought a router for my aunt, and a couple Christmas gifts for others that were sorta on sale. All in all I saved less than $20 myself, and sat outside the store for three hours to do it - I'm a genius! :-P

Went to Circuit City after that, where I bought...nothing. In terms of purchasing, this was pretty much the lamest Black Friday for me, but the day has been more about hanging out with friends that I don't get to see that often anymore, and that's good.

Of course, ASU played UA on Friday as well, with the result I was hoping for (though it was entirely too close).

I'm supposed to be playing golf around the end of December, so I decided to hit up the driving range this weekend, and it went surprisingly well. Drivers were going long and relatively straight. I was actually hitting irons into some of the nets placed out there, so that was good. Had a bit of a push/fade with the longer clubs, felt like it was from not turning my wrists over enough, but it wasn't a big deal. Shanked a few wedges, that was a big deal, as that should never happen. :-P

On a related note, I thought about joining the Men's Club at Ken McDonald the other day, as it might provide me with some motivation to actually play golf regularly. Tournaments twice a month all year long, plus I'd have a real handicap again. Not a bad deal at all.

Finally, the new Chandler Costco opens up this Thursday. :-D

Golf, good and bad

Went to work a bit early, left a bit early, went golfing! Went to Ken McDonald, and I started out getting stuck behind the Marcos de Niza high school golf team, so I had to wait on pretty much every shot. Ugh. Driving on the front nine was horrible. First hole, I land it on the 2nd tee. Second hole, on the first tee. Third hole, on the 9th fairway. Fifth hole, on the 8th fairway. Bah! I didn't hit a single fairway on the front side, and I only hit one green. Add a couple 3-putts, and I ended up with a solidly-mediocre 43 on that side.

The back side was a completely different story. The Marcos team left, and one guy in my group left, so I hopped on the cart with the last remaining player in the group, and I think we played the back nine in about an hour. I decide to start taking my 2-iron off the tee, and I'm hitting it really well. Tenth hole, I catch a downward slope for a 300-yard 2-iron drive. :-D Eleven is the 578-yard par 5; I hit a bad drive but manage to birdie with a good pitch to about 4 feet on my 3rd shot. The par 3's on the back nine were both good, my tee shots were solid. Birdied one of them. The 2-iron finally let me down on the last hole, where I was even par on the back nine going into 18, and I needed a par to shoot a 79. Ended up making a 12-foot putt for bogey, finished with a 37 on that side, and an 80 for the round.

As bad as I was driving the ball, that shows how forgiving Ken McDonald is. Any other course and I would have hit 4 balls out of bounds on the front nine, turning my 80 into an 88. Finished the round in a little over 3 hours, and my new golf shoes were way more comfortable than the old pair. :-)

All over the place

That describes my golf game yesterday afternoon at Ken McDonald. I was thinking I'd just play 9 holes, but it went so quickly, my group was able to get in 17 before it was just too dark to continue. The only thing that really worked for me on any level was my driver, and even then, it was only the distance. I only hit 2 fairways and 3 greens all day, and I could rarely chip/pitch the ball close enough for a one-putt, so it was pretty much bogey golf all around. If you figure I probably would have bogeyed the last hole, I'd end up with an 87.

One interesting thing, it looks like some group in front of us (probably a HS golf team) moved a lot of the blue tee boxes as far back as they could, including the use of optional boxes, so some holes were playing a lot longer. One par 3 normally played about 180, yesterday it was more like 240. :-0 I'd say the course overall was playing closer to 7000 yards, about 250 more than normal.

Hmm...any highlights? There were certainly plenty of bad shots I can talk about, like the worst layup in history on the 3rd hole. I put my drive in the wrong fairway on the par 5, so I figure I'll lay up with a 7-iron to the correct fairway. Unfortunately I was about a club short, and I ended up about 3 feet short of a tree right between my ball and the green.

My driving distance was big, sometimes that alone was keeping me out of the fairways. Nearly every drive was 300+, and some holes that was probably more harm than good. There are a good number of par 4's under 400 yards there, so I was leaving myself half-wedge shots into the green - not the easiest, when you haven't played much recently. On one par 4 my drive drifted a bit right, and I hit about halfway up the trunk of a 40' palm tree that was about 300 yards from the tee...that was a nice solid drive. ;-) So even if I wasn't hitting the straightest, it was fun to hit it a long ways again. The shots will straighten out as I play more.

Like I said, 17 holes. I haven't walked a round in a while, and I don't think my shoes are up for it anymore. I'm pretty sure I bought them when I was in high school, and they're about worn through, so those might need to be replaced. Only took us a little over 3 hours to get around the course, including 4 holes where we had to wait on each tee, and that was without a cart. Even better, it only cost $6. Pretty good way to spend the afternoon.

What the...golf?

Yes, I actually played golf again on Saturday, this time with Lee and Shaun at Dobson Ranch in Mesa. $20 with a cart on a Saturday morning, tough to beat that. Other than a trip to the driving range earlier in the week, I hadn't played in several months, and it showed. The first hole was a good indication, with my drive nailing a tree about 30 yards out, shooting straight across the fairway, and ending up in the rough next to the 9th green. Solid start.

The front nine in general wasn't so hot. Really, it wasn't the entire front nine, just the par 5's. Being a fairly long hitter, those are usually my best holes, but not that morning. I was +8 on the par 5's on the front nine, +10 on the side for a 47 (so +2 for the other 6 holes, not bad).

The back nine was better, but I still had some difficulties. I put two balls out of bounds (had one OB on the front as well), but my driving was a little better. As it turns out, I just needed to swing a lot harder, and that fixed everything. The first par 5 on the back is 488 yards, I cut the corner around some trees and had 175 to the center of the green. I put it on, and after a horrible first put, made about an 8ft putt for my only birdie of the day. After the 14th hole I realized I had to play the last four holes in +1 or better to break 90. I never play those holes well, but this time I finally did, and in fact I missed some really good chances. On 15 I hid a sand wedge to about 5 feet, missed the birdie putt. On 16 I was on in two, and 3-putted from about 25 feet, so there was my one bogey. 17 was a 190-yard par 3, and I hit my best-feeling iron shot of the day, a 5 iron that was headed right at the pin. Finished about 6 feet away, again missed the birdie. 18th hole, 490 yard straight par 5. I take a big swing and hit it perfect, leaving me 160 yards to the green. I kind of chunk my 8 iron, but I'm still on, leaving about 25 feet for eagle. I manage to 3-putt that one, for another par. So I did finish with my 89, but I had 3 great birdie chances in the last 4 holes, I lost 6 shots to out-of-bounds penalties, and the +8 on the front 9 par 5's really hurt. Other than that though, not bad. ;-)

Thought I'd mention Lee's round, just becuase of its general nature. He somehow managed a great round through 14 holes, I think he was only 3 over. Played the last four with double, double, double, birdie, for an 80. Ouch.

Failed golf attempt

This week I've really been wanting to go play some golf after work, and yesterday I thought I had the chance. I got to work early, and left a bit late the day before, so I took off early, grabbed my bag, and headed to Ken McDonald. Bad news when I got there though - apparently U-Haul had a league going, and they had all of the times from 3:45 to 4:30. :-( I had something else to do at 6:30, so that wasn't going to work. I ended up hitting a bucket of balls, with moderate success. I had a number of perfect shots, which was encouraging. On the whole though, I was all over the place. Maybe it was better that I wasn't out there on the course. ;-) Still, it was good to be back with the familiar sights, sounds, and smells. Perhaps I'll be able to get out there one day next week.

I had some extra time now, so I decided to clean up my car a bit.
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You read that right. I actually washed my car, scrubbed off all of the cone marks (of which there were many), and took a fresh swiffer to the interior. Now I just have to find my touch-up paint to hit a few areas that need some attention.

What's that? More golf?

Yeah, I decided to play again today. Much busier today, unfortunately. I didn't get on right away, so I started around 4:45. While yesterday's 9 took about an hour and 45 minutes, today was around two and a half hours. By the time I was done with the 7th hole, it was really too dark to play anymore. When you can't see the clubhead well enough to tell if it's square when you're addressing the ball, all sorts of things are going to go wrong. It's a shame, too, as I was only one over for those 7 holes, and my game was all-around pretty good. Unfortunately the overseeding process begins next week, so it looks like the course won't be in good shape for the next 3-4 weeks, and by the time it's ready, I won't have time to play after work anymore. :-(

More golf

Decided to go play some golf at Ken McDonald this afternoon...$7 to walk for all you could play after 1! Despite not playing much lately, I did ok and shot a 41. I'd say my mental errors were pretty well balanced by some good luck. My biggest mistakes were trying difficult shots around the green - high risk, marginally higher reward. I hit a 30-ft putt though, that was great. Drove the ball fairly well, too. This is where I would normally say something like "I think I need to get out there and play golf more often", but we all know that's not going to happen. That's like saying "I'm going to update caffeineslug.com every day". :-P

Golfing? what?

Played golf today at Phantom Horse, the course at Pointe South Mountain. I haven't played in...months. Worse, I played softball all summer, and past evidence has shown that softball/baseball swings aren't good for golf swings. Anyway...played pretty bad on the front nine. Lost about 5 balls and shot a 48. The back nine is really short - like just under 2700 yards, versus about 3300 for the front. Almost drove 2 greens in a row on par 4's. Even with a triple on the 18th hole (chunked it in the water), I shot a 41 on the front, and barely broke 90 (89). :-P Hit a decent number of good drives, which was surprising. Lost a lot of shots with my wedges, which was also surprising. Pulled a few full shots left, didn't pitch the ball very well, etc. Was good to get out there again, however.

Golf

This morning I went golfing with some friends for the first time in a while, at Ahwatukee Lakes. It's a short course, par 60. Having not played in a few months, I really didn't expect much. Ended up doing ok, shot a 72. Put a tee shot to within about 2 feet on one par 3, within 3 feet on another. Made 2 birdies on the day. Even better, I used free golf balls from the Mercedes event I went to not long ago. :-P

Lots of stuff

Over a month since the last update. A couple weeks ago I went on vacation in Ocean City, NJ, as my family has for years. Had a good time. Last week, I went to San Diego to see one of my friends from high school get married. All in all, a good 10 days or so. Another month until I get to go to San Diego again! I wish I had paid vacation days, but what can you do.

In the Chicago airport on the way back from NJ, Teresa bought me a book called The Da Vinci Code. It deals a lot with religious history, but you don't really have to know anything about religion to enjoy it. In fact, it's probably much more enjoyable if you don't know anything about history, much in the same way that computer geeks cringe when they read something "technical" that was written by a pseudo-geek. I read a little more than half of it on the plane, and finished it tonight. On the way out to NJ (actually Philadelphia), I read this book my mom gave me a while back. Started it as we left Phoenix, finished it about 15 minutes before landing in Philadelphia. It was pretty good as well. I still have several books that have been given to me over the last few years that I have yet to read. Two of the more prominant are Euclid's Window and The Wizard of Quarks. Hopefully I can get to them some day.

Hmm....what else. I played golf at Club West a few weeks ago, and didn't do that bad. I shot an 85 or something, but had about 10 penalty strokes. Almost had a hole-in-one! I ended up figuring out what I was doing wrong on about the 15th hole, and I was 2-under for those last two holes. I also somehow managed to get into a car accident a couple weeks ago, with no fault for either party. The car is in the process of getting repaired at the moment. At the very least, the whole thing should end up with new paint. Sorely needed, as most of the people that actually read this page will tell you. Right now I'm driving a 2003 Buick Regal LS as my rental car. It's pretty lame, but it does have some nice points here and there. Like headroom, for one. I have about 3" of headroom when seated fairly upright, while I have nearly zero in my car. I still really hate GM's 2-key system. This car doesn't have the ability to lock all doors when I lock the driver's side door from the outside, so that seems kinda weird. Lots of storage space inside. Hopefully I won't have it too much longer, and it takes a bit more gas than any of the other cars we have here.

Finals week! Almost done!

Played golf again last weekend, shot a 79. Still need to get the golf program finished. Started playing GT3 again too - I'm sitting at 96.3% complete right now. Seven more endurance races, 3 more Formula GT races, and 2 races for the series where only "normal" cars are allowed. Then I'm done.

Last month

I no longer feel bad about not updating the site that often. I don't do much that's news-worthy. I'll try to cover the last month here though.

I started playing golf again! Hadn't touched a club in several months, but the weather has been perfect lately, so I went out there. Shot a 44 for 9 holes my first time out, then an 81 (38/43) a couple days later on the same course. I'm really looking forward to more golf this summer - one of my golfing buddies in Tucson is coming back to the game after surgery, and his brother is going to be back up here this summer to work. Plenty of opportunities to play more! That said, I'm going to work on that web-based golf stats program I made a few months ago. I have a local test environment this time, so hopefully things will progress a little quicker. I plan on starting from scratch and planning it out, rather than just hacking the whole thing together as I learn php and mysql a little at a time.

A couple weeks ago I went to Speedway for the first time with some autocrossing friends - it was a blast! Not quite what I expected (in a good way). Results can be seen here. We're going again this weekend, so I hope to make a decent improvement.

Shortly after my last update I started the Atkins diet, and it's going pretty well so far. Today is the first day my scale has read less than 225lbs in a long time. My first goal is 215, then 200, then my driver's license weight of 190 (when I was 16 and only 5'11"). Eventually I'd like to get to around 175 or so.