Yes, she’s got a pretty face, but this girl can play golf. I’m happy she finally won, I was getting way sick of hearing about how she’s the Anna K of golf. No way. Rock it Nat.

Hmm.. have you seen her official site? Very slick.

She’s also got a wicked sense of humor as this video shows.

Played 9 holes late yesterday and despite hitting no fairways, I managed to shoot a 49. I only lost one ball due to the “big slice” which was great.

I keep hearing all the best players talk about a pre-shot routine, so I’m working on one. Two quick practice swings, focusing on my back elbow and hands in the slot. Step up and get aligned. 2 quick take-aways and hit it.

I spent 30 minutes on Sunday chipping in my backyard and lo and behold, it seemed to work well. Even my putting picked up.

Let’s see what happens next time out…

My lessons have been very helpful so far - I’m hitting the ball further and further and with a bit more accuracy. One of my biggest issues is my elbow coming up too high which among other things is causing me to not get the club face in the right position at impact.

Watch the video below to see what I’m talking about.

Who wants to go low anyway? Don’t you get more for your money when you shoot in the 100’s?

Think about it - I get mad when I pay $9.50 to see a movie that is less than 2 hours. I get angry when I pay a jazillion dollars at disney and only get on 6 rides all day long.

So why would I want to shortchange myself in golf? I’m getting 20% MORE value out of my greens fees than a player who shoots 80.

Right?

I had my 2nd of 3 lessons last Friday before my round on Saturday. I ended up shooting a 101, which all things given wasn’t too bad. I’m working on so many different things, it’s hard to keep track.

The main thing we did in the lesson was focus on swing plane and impact. My swing plane is terribly steep, so I’ve been visualizing flattening it so that it feels almost completely flat. It’s a totally new feeling and in order to feel it and get into the proper position, I need to open up my hips faster and keep my elbow down.

I’m a baseball player (or was one) - so my right elbow wants to come up. This may be my big problem. I used a nerf looking training ball in between my forearms and took a few swings - no way to raise my elbow!

I believe alignment is a huge issue as well - once I got my swing groove and was blasting away with no slice, I realized everything was going way, way left. I adjusted by laying down 2 clubs and immediately, I was on target.

The next day, I hit 6 fairways and came very close on 2 others. Getting there… slowly.

We took my 2 girls to see the finals in New Rochelle today at the HSBC Women’s Match play. First of all, the Wykagyl Country Club is simply gorgeous. The grass was so green it hurt your eyes.

Secondly, before even talking golf, the place was empty. No idea if this is because LPGA isn’t a big draw, or because the top players were all knocked out early or because the Open (I knew Sergio couldn’t go wire to wire!) was on. The good news was that we got close, real close to the action. The bad news was that it was QUIET, unlike when I saw Tiger last year at the U.S. Open. That was loud and exciting.

The golf however, was great. The accuracy and precision of the shots were stunning. The women were so athletic and solid looking in person - it always amazes me at how big athletes are when you see them up close.

Seon Hwa Lee of South Korea jumped out to an early lead and held on the entire way for the victory.

Afterwards, we got Maria Hjorth to sign my girls hats which was pretty cool. HSBC also did a great job with freebies (chairs, water, granola bars) and had a terrific spectator area set up with putting, golf simulators and even free lessons (no, I didn’t get one!).

All in all, a terrific day! I just wish Natalie, Morgan or Paula had been playing.

I had an incredible experience at the PGA Superstore in Roswell, GA this week. I took a break from my trip to check it out and ended up sending almost 2 hours inside the place. After wandering around for 30 minutes and seeing some incredibly cool things I asked how much the simulator bays cost. When I was told it was free, I was just about in heaven. With just about every club known to man in demo racks, I started right away hitting balls.







I also want to mention that the genius who figured out the licensing agreement to put sports teams and college logos on hats deserves a free round somewhere. When I first saw a Titleist hat with a Yankees logo, it never occurred to me that they might also be licensing colleges as well. They are!!!





After hitting balls for about 30 minutes, one of the store pro’s came over and we got to talking. He offered me a free club fitting (wow!) and watched me hit some balls. I had no consistency hitting the ball off the sweet spot on the driver head. We tried a few different clubs and different shafts but still got very little. With my swing between 88-95 miles per hour I was only hitting the ball about 230 yards or so.

The guy grabbed a Ping and asked me to hit it. Straight shots every time but only 200 yards of distance. I looked at the club and saw it was a “2” - he told me that the club was basically a fairway wood with a driver head. Looking at the tape on the club head, I managed to hit the dead center just about every time. Hmmm…

Perhaps I need to add a fairway wood back to my bag and leave the driver at home. We talked a lot about how the longer shaft makes it even harder for high handicappers to get consistent shots. We both agreed that I should play my fairway woods or hybrids off the tee for now, presumably I’d get a ton more consistency and would not be giving up much distance. I’m playing on Saturday, so we’ll see!

Finally - when I made my hat purchase, the PGA store even gave me a cool black bag loaded with golf tips!

I’m in Atlanta a few miles from the PGA Superstore - anyone need anything?

Shot 107 today. Lots of possible excuses: heat, humidity and more. Bottom line was I simply didn’t drive well and lost tons of balls. It was very frustrating and I struggled to keep my zen on. I played the back nine first (54) and had a good run on the front, but 2 late disaster holes really killed me.

A guy we played with on the last hole took 4 shots just to get out of the sand trap. Whoo - he was so pissed! He tossed his club like 20 yards. If not for golf etiquette, it would have been funny. What can you do?

I have noticed though that with the lesson I took I am finally starting to drive the ball a lot further than ever before. On 2 different holes I really let it go - hitting one at least 250 if not further. With golf, there is always a silver lining!

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