Wednesday, December 2, 2020

What Is It About Hole #7 at Civitan?

Written on 8-7-2020.

        It’s 4:07 in the afternoon, and it’s quiet time here in our house.  James is playing video games in his room, and Danielle and Belinda are taking a nap.  James was surprised this morning, but it was because he didn’t think Danielle was coming today.  Belinda accidentally let it slip that Danielle would be coming, and then she tried to cover it up, but James was super suspicious.  He knew something was up.  He just thought she would be coming tomorrow.  Despite the slip-up, they had a great reunion.  Our little family is all together again!  I am just happy I wasn’t the one who let the secret out this time.

We had a wonderful brunch together, and Jess came up to get a picture of the two kids.  James and Danielle went shopping at Safeway for dinner tonight and tomorrow, so we are all relaxing and doing our own things.  I see very few clouds outside my computer room window, and it’s a little cooler than yesterday.  It’s still hot enough to keep the swamp cooler running most of the day, but it’s not super hot outside.  It’s bearable.  It feels like the day is letting go and allowing room for the evening to come out.  

On to golf…  


I am watching the seventh part of the series today.  He is continuing what he said in Part 6 about the proper positions.

Oh, I ordered two clubs from Graves Golf.  I got the Sandy Andy Wedge and the Perfect Impact Training Club.  We got a little extra money from Popo, so that is what I bought with my money.  Thanks, Popo.  I look forward to using both.

Todd is going though the positions.  They are the stabilization of the right knee,  the stabilization of the left knee, and the stabilization of the left shoulder after it goes through impact and behind the body.  He is saying that if anyone of those is off, or out of order, a golfer won’t get the proper acceleration of the club.  The left shoulder blade has very little movement through impact once it goes behind the body.  

Nothing is ever going backward.  That is why Moe simply stands up after the ball is gone.  There is no reverse C.

Written on 8-12-2020.


Eliminate the angle of my wrists.  Arms are straight and not relaxed.  Widen my feet, so my legs are in a stable position.  Turn my lead foot out.  Tilt my upper body, so my golf club is pointing to the lead side of my body, the pivot point.  Keep the space and the width in my back swing, stabilizing against that trail knee.  

I then move into a flexed lead knee (keeping the space made from the address position), and swing all the way through with my arms.  This eliminates variables.  I should be able to swing as fast and as hard as I want.  This is from the YouTube video titled Mistake-proof Your Golf Swing Like Bryson DeChambeau.  If I do all of these things correctly, I have increased my chances of returning my club to square, because I have reduced multiple variables.


Written on 8-13-2020.


I’ve had a birdie to report for a while now, but I have been so busy with the swing change that I haven’t gotten it in here.  It happened when I played at Civitan, and I was working on my swing.


Civitan-Hole #1-Birdie #4 of 2020


I played 36 holes that day, and this birdie came during my third time around.  I chose a gap wedge for the approach and I used a tee on the final 18 holes.  I was getting all kinds of weird ball flights during the round.  This one didn’t exactly pop up, but it wasn’t good contact, so my ball flight was higher than it should have been.  One of my thoughts for the day was to have my short game clean up after the bad full swing player who kept putting “us” in these terrible positions.  I was just short and left of the green this time.

Before I teed off, the guy on the riding lawn mower cut across the fairway chasing the geese with his riding mower.  They would squawk and move away in a group, but after he drove by me, he drove through the middle of the group and half of them circled back and waddled onto the green I was playing.  They didn’t affect my shot, though.  He stopped his mower and kept it running while I played my chip.

I chose my gap wedge again, and I used a putting motion.  My ball popped up easily, rolled onto the green, and stopped when it hit the flagstick and fell in.  I looked over at him and shrugged my shoulders, and he yelled out over the sound of the motor, “Simple game!”

I repeated what he said as I walked over and retrieved my ball from the cup.  So simple.


I had something else that happened at Civitan that is worth putting in here, too.  When I came to hole #7, I pulled my tee shot over the fence again.  It was this hole that I wrote about years ago in my first golf diary, because it is really a straighforward hole, but I pulled my tee shot over the fence then (two times in a row), and I remembered scoring a nine twenty years ago.  I also remember lamenting that I had earned such a high score on such an easy hole.  However, I redeemed myself and earned my first birdie ever on a different day.

This time, I saw my golf ball bouncing towards the oncoming traffic, and I really don’t know what happened (it was too far to be able to see), but I thought I heard the sound of a golf ball hitting metal, like the metal of a car door.

I didn’t hide.  I watched as a maroon sedan (a Ford?) drove by, and the driver stuck his head out of the window and yelled, “You suck!  You suck!”

I don’t know why he said it twice.  I heard him the first time.  I was going to say sorry, but chose not to when he was so rude to me.  Did he think I didn’t hear him the first time?  Did he thing I meant to do that?  I thought he might pull over, but he continued on his way after delivering his insult.  I was set and ready to inform him that I had insurance, but he never gave me the chance.

Afterwards, I was thinking I don’t “suck.”  I am in the middle of a swing change, and I temporarily sucked on that one swing, but I, myself, don’t suck.  I suck things through a straw occasionally.  I made a few sucky swings, but I will get better.  Thankfully, that sucky swing didn’t break a windshield or cause and accident; it just resulted in an insult and a lost ball.

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