Tuesday, January 19, 2010

VCR Alert: Pro Golfers Featured on CSI

Make sure to set your VCRs for this week's episode of CSI, entitled "Long Ball." The episode has the members of the Las Vegas Crime Lab investigating the mysterious death of a former pro golfer during a tournament. What makes this episode so intriguing is the guest stars: pro golfers Rocco Mediate, Natalie Gulbis and Duffy Waldorf, The Muni Golfer's favorite golfer. All will play themselves. CSI airs on CBS at 9 p.m. Thursday night.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

2009 Season in Review -- Part II

Last January, as I do every year, I set forth a list of golfing resolutions -- or goals -- for the coming year. I am currently constructing my list for 2010, but I thought now would be a good time to reflect back on last year's list and see if I achieved any or all of my goals.

2009 Golf Resolutions:

* Get myself physically ready to play golf before the season starts. -- My wife and I began a program of walking 2-3 times a week starting in March. While this certainly benefited my golf game, we did it more to lose weight than anything. Still, as someone who walks when he plays golf, this really helped me out, especially late in rounds when my legs still felt fresh.

* Begin playing as soon as weather permits, but no later than the first week of April. -- I played my first practice 9 holes of 2009 on April 5, and managed 5 practice rounds before my first posted round on May 17. I also hit the Driving Range 6 times.

* Play a minimum of 30 regulation and practice rounds combined. -- As I posted in my earlier 2009 season review, I played about 25 regulation and practice rounds combined.

* Play those rounds on at least 10 golf courses, with at least three being courses I've never played before. -- I played on 17 different courses last season and 3 where ones I played for the very first time: Mainland, Green Pond and Heritage Creek.

* Lower handicap to 20. -- My handicap stayed around 24, but I think the main reason for that was my awful putting last year. It was the one part of my game that was terrible throughout.

* Keep equipment changes to a minimum. -- I continued to be an equipment junkie. I will detail all the equipment I played in 2009 in a later post, but the biggest change I made was going back to predominantly TaylorMade after switching to Wilson Staff equipment at the end of 2008.

* Better emphasis on course management. -- I could have done better in this area, but overall, it wasn't bad. Of course, poor putting didn't help.

* Practice my short game, including putting, chipping and pitching. -- I did practice my putting a couple of time during the season, but after straining my elbow practicing during the spring, I tried to restrict my practice time in order to save my elbow for playing.

* Visit the driving range at least once a week from March through May. -- I didn't make it to the Driving Range once a week during this time, but I did go 6 times, which helped some.

* Break 90 on a course of Par 70 or higher. -- I had two real chances this year. I shot 90 at Mainland after making a 6 on the final hole, and a 92 at Bensalem after making a 7 at the 18th.

* Have FUN playing. -- I ALWAYS have fun when I'm playing golf, so this was the easiest goal out of all of them.

Friday, January 1, 2010

Happy New Year!

I want to take this opportunity to wish everyone
a very happy, healthy and safe 2010!