Blog

The Golf Diet

The game of golf can be compared to many things in life and many golfers, and for that matter non-golfers, philosophize about golf and it's place in the world. For me, golf is like going on a diet. The harder you work at it and the more dedicated you are to achieving your goal, the better off you will be in losing weight or getting physically fit and in shooting lower scores or improving an aspect of your game.

I gave up eating bread for lent. That doesn't really qualify as a diet per se, but the same effect is in place. I absolutely love bread. All kinds of bread! I've been extremely disciplined and I have lost about 9 pounds and I may actually dip below the 190 mark for the first time a several years.It's been hard. My wife's friend showed up one night with 3 different kinds of specially stuffed Italian bread. St. Patty's day came and there was Irish Soda bread abound! At one of my favorite local watering holes they serve the most delicious hot pretzels during happy hour. I haven't had even a pinch of bread.

In the latter part of the season here in the northeast last year, I "gave up" some distance and started swinging a little more smoothly. Down in Florida this past February, I was stripin it like a tour pro. Ask my Dad...I swear! I also "gave up" trying to always hit the perfect shot. I took my medicine and my scoring improved. Instead of a double or triple, I was making a bogey and the occassional par save from quite some distance.

I intend to practice more this year. I'm going to put more into my game to see if I can get better fundamentally. I'm going to couple my end of year thought process with some quality practice and see what happens. When Easter comes...I'm going to eat some bread (okay, a lot fo bread). But I'm going to remember losing the weight and that it was worth the effort and I won't eat as much going forward. As for my golf diet, playing golf was fun again and I really was striping my irons, but I couldn't make a putt!! Maybe I'll try giving up pasta next time?!?

Spring Time, Excitement & Opportunity

For me, spring time always breeds excitement and opportunity. This year when the first day of spring rolled around yesterday, there were quite a few remnants of snow piles around, but my attitude about Spring remains intact. Earlier I wrote about SwingStation System's golf-at-school program and how it is a part of our plan to help grow the game. Well, sign up forms are rolling in and we are very excited to get started April 2nd. Seeing as I am targeting local schools, I run into people all the time who are asking questions and seem eager to sign their children up. It's truly energizing and invigorating.

We have been working on developing our SwingStation System for about 4 years or so and even though the system is a small part of the golf-at-school program, the excitement bleeds over to the ongoing development of that product. We want to make the system better and even easier to use than it already is. We have found (not entirely surprising) over the last two years that kids are not only more acceptable of the technology behind SwingStation...they are much more comfortable using it. Couple that with the youthful energy and brutal honesty, SwingStation benefits with real criticism and commentary about the system. Setting that aside, I also coach baseball and basketball and being around the kids is not only helpful in obtaining valuable information about what you are trying to accomplish, it is also truly energizing and invigorating just being around them.

Package the fact we launched our new sleek web site (thanks to the guidance of Mike Sansone), the spring time feeling, the golf-at-school program and working with kids and you've got a recipe for excitement and a good start to what hopefully will become a great success!

I can hear the game growing...can you?

Psychology of Golf...makes you NUTS!

Anyone who follows the PGA Tour on a regular basis either saw or read about Mark Calcavecchia at the PODS Championship a couple of weeks back.  His travails over those four days is exactly what golf is all about.  And what is golf all about you ask?...It's about driving you absolutely nuts!

Calcavecchia packed his bags after shooting 75 Thursday, checked out of his hotel and was heading down the road.  Then he shot 67 and made the cut.  Checked back into the hotel, unpacked, went out in the 3rd round and shot a 62 for a share of the lead!  Earlier that week he purchased a putter for $256.18 and he started using it Friday...what golfer hasn't done that??  Sunday he hit some solid shots, made some long putts and missed some short ones.  On 18, he had about a 6 footer to win with his opponent about 5 feet for birdie to tie him if he misses.  Calc hit a good putt (according to the announcers) and it didn't go in.  Looks like a playoff.  Slocum, his opponent with the 4 footer to tie, misses and Calc wins.  Give me a break!  My emotions changed 5 times...what went through their minds?

I'll tell you what went through their minds, "That's golf."  Anything can happen in golf and the best way to deal with it is react to it and move on.  I had the pleasure of hearing Bob Rotella speak a few yeras back about his take on the psychology of golf and basically his take is you need to react to your experiences on the golf course but don't dwell on the negative experiences.  I'm not a big believer in reading books to fix your game, but I have Rotella's books (as a result from a father trying to be the funny gift giver) and although I haven't read them from cover to cover, I have read different parts and for a round or two, it was helpful.

Calcavecchia reacted to his poor round Thursday by packing his bags.  He relaxed, went out made the cut and then put himself in a position to win for the first time since 2005.  Slocum reacted to his experience of having a putt to go to overtime by missing a putt badly and handing Calc victory.  I don't know either golfer personally...but they're over it because that's what golfers do...we're NUTS and we LIKE IT!!