Jmikecpa

The casualties included a new SLDR S driver (guy claims he bought it the night before to replace a broken R1), Nike Covert Driver and some old Ping Eye 2s from the guy riding with me. Needless to say I am sticking with my normal group from now on during the weekend and if they don't play then I don't play.

Was able to get out and play on Saturday morning at a course about 45 minutes from my house with an early tee time. Decided to ride since I was not sure how my back was going to hold up and that turned out to be the least of my problems. Got paired with three guys that I did not know and by the fifth tee all three had snapped clubs after bad shots....the guy riding with me took the prize with five broken clubs in 18 holes. Could possibly be one of the worst times I have ever had on the course in the last decade and after about 8 holes I just wanted to be done and head home; even considered just unstrapping my bag and walking off. If I had been able to play the last few weeks I think I would have done just that. From the golf side I hit is pretty well and the back held up decent. Ended with a 75 for the day and made an all world par the par 4 15th. Tried hitting a cut up and over the trees and hit a tree 50 yards off the tee, two four irons later I was 122 out and hit wedge to a foot for a tap in for par. The guy riding with me made quad from the fairway and that was the hole his putter met its demise.

Played in a scramble today at the Cedarbrook Club on the North Shore of Long Island. Not the longest of golf courses, but the layout uses the elevation changes really well to make the shorter holes play longer than the number on the card. Had a really nice day out with three nice gentlemen and it did not hurt that we shot -10 62 to win by four shots. I put a new set of irons in the bag on Friday and after my second round with them they are exactly what I was looking for.

Played at Plainfield CC in New Jersey today, site for next year's Barclays, in a private outing hosted by one of my banking contacts. Very nice track and very challenging with rough that just swallows the ball. The format was best ball of the foursome with one member of the foursome playing the tips on every hole...I got nominated to play the course from the tips for the round. Managed to scrape out an 81 with three doubles all caused by the rough. I had two lies that my caddy laughed and told me to hit it hard and hope it goes ten yards back into the fairway. As an added bonus I got a few minutes with Phil Mickelson after he finished his practice round.

Played very early Sunday morning in a sustained 25 MPH wind that seemed to be always in my face. Was one over par heading to nine and hit what I thought was a great tee ball that got caught in the wind and knocked it out of the sky.....went 195 yards. Had 210 to the front dead into the wind and managed to hit 3 wood 165 yard and then a nine iron on....add the three jack for a double. On the back we gave up on stroke play and ended up playing match play of partners which was just a lot more enjoyable. Highlight of the day was hitting a Bubba hook off the tee that rode the wind and bent about 90 yards into the middle of the fairway. At some point this year I will get a round without wind and rain.....hoping that day is Tuesday when I am out playing at Plainfield CC in Jersey.

I like it so much that I picked up the matching three wood with a Matrix Black Tie over the weekend at Golfsmith for under $100 new. Even my wife would not let me pass up that deal.

Played in a Saturday morning game in an absolute monsoon, bad enough that I had to get a second pair of rain gloves at the turn. Scrambled my back side off to shoot a one over 72 with the best shot of the day being a wedge that I hit to 6 inches as the club flew out of my hand at impact. As a sign of my luck the rain stopped and the sun came out just as I was driving home after my round.

Played in the Poconos on Friday morning and froze my rear end off. First 9 was played to frozen greens and on a frozen golf course so scoring was not optimal. Swatted the ball around for a few hours and walked away with a terrible 81. Got out yesterday on the north shore of Long Island and played in shorts for the first time all year. Made 16 pars and two terrible bogeys to shoot a 75.....yes it was a par 73 thanks to the closing hole that was a 644 yard par 6.

Got out for a round before work this morning and could not be more pleased with where my game is at early in the season. Played a local course near my house and shot 38-33 for a one under 71. On a whim I picked up a Razrfit Xtreme with and 'ilima and this thing is a fairway finding machine. Capped my round with a 50 footer for birdie that was quite a nice gift from the golf Gods.

Got out Saturday morning for the first round of the year. Topped my tee ball on the first tee.....and it got better from there. Hit the driver well, irons solid, short game so so, and putting was okay. Ended up with 40-36 76 for the day and very happy with even par on the back considering the wind kicked up to a sustained 20+ MPH.

Finally was able to book my first tee time of the year for Saturday morning at 7 AM......so I assume that it will either snow or a monsoon will move through eastern long island.

Getting ready for a tournament with my little buddy......hard to imagine he turns 8 tomorrow. I think he was maybe 9 or 10 months old in this picture.

Played an early round today after working until 3 am. Nice smooth 75 in the wind but anytime I can play in temps above 60 * on Long Island in November is a win. Shot of the day was a five iron to a foot on the 220 yard par 3 that juts out into Great South Bay.

I was fortunate enough to get an invite yesterday to play Trump National in Westchester, NY yesterday and was in awe for most of my round for two reasons. First reason was the overall views and condition of the course which were both fantastic. Second reason was the difficulty in the course from the back tees; very demanding on every shot and extremely penal if you did not hit your spot off the tee. I had to grind all day and shot a very solid 81 from the tips and just to show the difficulty the differential for my index was 2.7 with that score. Really nice day on the course and I can honestly say that I hit some shots that I hope I never have to try to hit again this year.

Just got back from a week in Orlando with the family. Played Oak Trail at Disney with my 7 year old on Wednesday and was in at 33 (-3) on a relatively short and benign 9 hole course. Played Magnolia on Friday and started on the back and posted a respectable +1 for the back nine and then on the front something clicked and shot -5 for my second nine ending at -4 for the day and a solid 68. Must have been the putter I bought in the pro shop before my round that made the difference.

Switched putters for todays round and rolled it a lot better. Played 11 holes at Great Rock on the north shore of Long Island and after almost 4.5 hours to play 11 holes I walked off at -2. The starter kept squeezing in groups in between times and the group in front of us playing extremely slow I could not take it anymore. First and last time I will ever play the course which is a shame because it is not a bad track.

Played a new track on Long Island this morning and shot 74 with hitting 17 of 18 greens. Putted like an absolute dog so I guess that means off to Golfsmith to putter shop

60* with a driving rain and absolutely no rain gear, not even a wind breaker to get me through was bad enough. Then the two hours that it took me to get there turned into close to five on the way home because of the weather. Also my trade off for playing yesterday is working tomorrow........and turn down an invite to play Bethpage Black tomorrow afternoon that I found out about today.

Got invited to play in a scramble yesterday in North Jersey at Crystal Springs and it was just a disaster. Two hours to drive there and it started raining the minute I got out of my truck in the parking lot. After playing 9 holes in a cold driving rain with no windbreaker or rain gear I called it a day and went to the bar. As a team we were -6 through nine holes thanks to an eagle on 8 and a tap in birdie on the 137 yard 9th that I hit 5 iron into. One of the only days that a day working in the office would have been better than a day on the golf course.

Played a tournament today at Westchester Country Club's West Course and it was just a frustrating round. The frustration was more on the caddy for giving me terrible yardages for the first six holes and then I pulled out my range finder and took care of it myself. Ended up with a 77 from the backs and played a great 16 holes of golf......and two that would not qualify as even playing golf.

I am a 36 year old father of three, married for 12 years to my college sweetheart and by training I am a CPA in a few states with an MBA in International Finance. Spent most of my career doing really technical geeky accounting work for SEC registered companies until a few years ago when I went into the family business. I am currently the VP of Finance for a casino property in Queens NY and soon to be CFO for our parent holding company. I still do most of the geeky accounting stuff and work a lot on financial modeling and planning for the NY property as well as the other properties that we have in the US and Bahamas..........I know really of life of danger and excitement. Best perk of working for a casino is that I get some sweet golf invites and play a lot of courses that are tough to get on......oh and my boss encourages me to play in a ton of "charity" events that we support in the NYC area.

Was fortunate to get an invite to play Friar's Head today on the north fork of Long Island. Just an absolute fantastic track and a real Coore & Crenshaw masterpiece through the sand dunes on Long Island Sound. I got the option of giving my playing partners 4 shots a side or straight up with me playing the tips..........and like the dummy that I am played it from the tips. Overall shot a very solid 38-41 -79 from what I would gather was around 7,300 yards. Some interesting points on the course are there are no yardages or handicaps on the scorecard so you have to rely heavily on your caddie to get you around the course. The guy carrying for me was just fantastic and did not give me a bad number or read all day......although I hit some poor shots anyway. Here is a quick blog on the course and I can say that the pictures do not do this place justice. http://top100golf.blogspot.com/2008/01/friars-head.html

My stock response is normally that me and my "vanity handicap" will play you straight up for fifty a hole............and I have yet to have anyone actually take me up on that.

Could not agree more. I experienced my share of meltdowns before I changed my mindset and it helped me to understand what the triggers were for a meltdown. I had a qualifier for my club championship that playing off of scratch I should have had no issue getting into. Played the first five holes in even par and the made a quad and three doubles to shoot 46 on the front nine......had a nice talk with myself and then went out and shot 30 on the back to take the #4 spot in the tournament and assure myself an easier road into match play. On the other hand I have also had events where I replicated my front and back 9s to shoot some really big numbers and left embarrassed. Nothing worse than someone telling you that you have a "vanity handicap".

Don't over think the shots and stay in your comfort zone. When I first starting playing in college I struggled a bit with nerves and to overcome that I tried to just hit shots naturally and stay in my comfort zone. If I hit a bad shot I would focus on the recovery and not the poor shot and the main thing is just stay confident. I stopped playing competitively for a few years after college and when I got back into it I started to get the same nerves. At the end of the day I just put everything into perspective.......if I shot 90 in the club championship my wife was still going to be there when I got home, my kids could care less what I shot and life would move on. Once I stopped putting so much pressure on myself and gained some confidence the nerves went away and I was able to finish the round as strong as I started it.