Author: golfatnd

Let’s be honest here, Rickie Fowler is pretty cool, and more importantly Rickie has been busy these days making golf pretty cool. His influence through social media is quite impressive, as he chronicles every major event he plays. He almost has 1 million followers on Instagram and I would imagine even more followers on Snapchat…maybe take the amount of followers I have and add 6 zeros to that number. Luckily I don’t base my self-worth by the amount of followers I have…or else I my life would be pretty sad and pathetic…I mean awesome and amazing! It’s players like Rickie that give golfers like you and me an inside glimpse to the life of these players, it’s also players like Rickie that can reach to players outside the game to drive more newcomers to the game. He’s a pretty cool dude giving us a pretty cool view into a world that we can only dream of, and it’s because of this I firmly believe Rickie needs to be a captains pick in the Ryder Cup. For a game that’s not struggling to find writers willing to write about how this game is struggling, he’s not struggling bringing people to the game…boy did I struggle to make sense of that sentence. Moving on, he can bring the younger generation to this wonderfully frustrating sport. For a game that says its losing players it needs to have Mr. Fowler playing a major part of all our more popular events. On a side note, he’s pretty good at golf…come on DL3 why wait!?! What do you think?

The title seems like a real attention grabber, doesn’t it…the best ‘How To’ ever. But in all seriousness, this is a tough post for me, because my grandmother passed away last week. And after re-reading that last sentence in my head, I feel as if I shouldn’t put myself before my grandmother, but my grandmother always put myself before her so it’s nothing new. This post might also be a little longer than the others so please be patient because this is an important post regardless. I typically stay away from posting personal issues, but hopefully golfers of all abilities can learn from my experience of playing golf after losing a loved one. Here is a quick background: 

Quick Background: My grandmother was the best grandmother you could ask for…if there was a maximum amount of love you could give someone, she gave ten times that and more to everyone…if love could be jealous, love would have been jealous of her! If love had a goal it would be working out with a poster of her on the wall. I could go on, but the most important thing you need to know is she made an impact on everyone she met. Her physical health had been deteriorating for years, but she was sharp as a tack, and getting sharper every day! She taught me, or passed down to me, depending on how you look at it, a stubbornness that not many possess. I love golf and had a stubbornness about it that my wife can attest to. That stubbornness that has led me to where I am today, and kept my grandmother alive through all her health problems. The other night, no amount of stubbornness could keep her alive. I found out the morning of a tournament that she was not going to make it long and was not going to wake up. I knew at that time that she wanted me to play golf no matter what and so I did, and during the course of that day and the next few days I learned a couple things. Here is what I learned:  

1. The One Time Losing Doesn’t Help: You constantly hear how losing only makes you stronger. Who hasn’t seen that poster telling you if you get knocked down 7 times, you get up 8. That holds true for ‘losing’ other ways, not really this way. I got the call mid-round that my grandmother had passed away near where my parents live…I knew she was in the hospital before I played, but I didn’t know how much longer she would live. When I found out she passed I thought she would inspire me or lead me to victory. I felt like she was with me and going to guide me to the victory circle…how could it not! But that was far from the truth. Her memory and spirit left me too distracted to reach the winners circle and too distracted to swing a golf club. I proceeded to hit my next three shots in the worst manner possible. I topped a second shot into the next hole and I can’t tell you the last time I topped a shot…maybe 30 years or so. From this I learned that you can’t play golf for someone else or with someone else in mind. Well, you can, but that can’t be your focus. You must maintain your same state of focus (if that’s even possible) as you have always had, and instead just play the round in their honor. Easier said than done!

2. Life Goes On: This is probably the toughest lesson to learn, especially losing a loved one. You don’t want to move forward, you want to go back…you want to go back to talk to them, be with them, or heck play some golf with them. You miss them and all you want is to hear their voice one more time or just play one more hole. My grandmother was in my Favorites section of my phone…if she called I wanted to know! The sucky thing is I know I will remove that number from my phone and to be honest I don’t want to. I am afraid to and I’m afraid to admit that life goes on. 

Now that all the smoke has settled from the past two major USGA
events, let’s talk a little bit about what went down from the bigger picture. Let me begin this post by saying I agree that something has to be done in regards to video replay if they are going to implement something like that in the future, but let’s look even bigger! Thinking as big as possible, it’s easy for the both of us to agree golf is the best…it’s one of the only sports where the team is you, the one and only! It’s the only sport, and I could be wrong about this one, where you can call, and etiquette-ly speaking, should call, a penalty on yourself. If I could only find a way to write only, only more time in this post…if only! My point is, you don’t see LeBron raising his hands in the final minutes of Game 7 telling the ref it was his foul. You don’t see offensive lineman raising their hands in the final minutes of the Super Bowl telling the refs to take the game winning touchdown away because they didn’t see that accidental hold and should have thrown a flag. Golf brings out the best and worst of people, and YOU are the ref. You call the fouls and throw the flags, and best of all, call the penalties on yourself. But technology is seeming to take away the YOU and most importantly downsizing the integrity of the game. Now people are calling penalties on players from the comfort of their homes. It’s not our responsibility to have enough integrity to call a penalty on ourselves, it’s our responsibility to get over someone else calling a penalty on us…and that isn’t golf. I feel proud to play this game, when players like Shane Lowry call a penalty on himself, as dumb as that penalty may be, when they are in the hunt to win a major! And I feel embarrassed, when DJ is told he may or may not have a penalty after his round or Anna Nordqvist is penalized from a HD camera. Yes it is a penalty, but let her call it! And if she didn’t notice then let it go…I let go all the penalties the Broncos had against the Patriots in last year’s playoff game! What do you think?

If I had a quarter for every time I’ve heard ‘the US Open is my favorite major,’ I would have less than hundred dollars. Actually, I would have less than one dollar, unless of course you count me saying it every year for the past twenty years. In that case I would be paying myself, which would be as silly as me continuing on this tangent for another couple sentences. Getting back to the topic on hand, I love the US Open and it is without a doubt my favorite major. The Masters is a close second because it’s the start of the year and it is so beautiful with its vibrant colors and manicured fairways, but the US Open is a test unlike any other. It’s the toughest test in golf, and winning this tournament is no fluke. You have to play your best golf against the toughest competition and against the toughest course. This tournament can bring out the best and the worst in people, and it can make the best in the game look like they just started playing golf after watching the Masters! The toughest test in golf is about to start…put down your pencils…turn on your TV…and lets watch the best and brightest in the game look like amateurs. Who’s with me!?! What do you think?

The one word that can wreak so much havoc on our lives and more importantly our golf games. If doubt were a person it would the Tom Brady of words. Doubt would be innocently just sitting on the bench, always ready to come in, and when he gets the chance to play he will dominate every aspect of the game until he gets injured or retires. You must agree that doubt isn’t nearly as good-looking as Tom Brady, but can be just as dominating. Let’s take a look at Graham Delaet, who just withdrew from the Memorial this past week, citing anxiety over his short game. If you were to take Graham’s anxiety and multiply it by everyone’s anxiety on Tour (not just add, I mean multiply or possibly square it), you would catch a small glimpse of what’s going on in my noggin as I stand over a chip shot with a tight lie that must carry a bunker . That anxiety is a form of doubt that even the best in the world can succumb to! We all do it at times in different forms, but it takes practice and sheer determination to injure or hopefully retire that doubt. How much work are you willing to put in to crush your doubts or calm your anxieties? What do you think?

I don’t know about you, but I’m STILL trying to get over Jordan’s collapse at the Masters.  How does someone get over a collapse of that magnitude and get back to the same dominant player he was before?  Well, how about a guys’ trip to the Bahama’s with some of the other young guns on tour!?!  That COULD work, but I would have to see it to believe it.  Thanks to social media I saw it and I believed it!  I think they found the recipe for greatness…if you work hard you must play hard, and they sure did that.  If you don’t follow Rickie Fowler, Justin Thomas, Smylie Kaufman, or Jordan Spieth on Snapchat or Twitter I would recommend it.  They know how to have fun and they show it.  Jordan, take me with you next time!  This is a great way to build comradery with guys you see week in and week out.   This could easily cure a golf hangover and could also make the US a better team come Ryder Cup time.  Either way I know what I’m doing next time I lose a major on the back nine.  Do you think this gets Jordan back on track?  What do you think?

Don’t you remember when you were 13 years old and pounded a drive 259 yards down middle of the fairway on national TV at Augusta?  I sure don’t!  I think I hit my first 259 yard drive last weekend and it wasn’t even in the fairway.  When you sit down and think about it, it’s really pretty neat to be able to have an opportunity like that as a junior golfer.  The Drive, Chip, and Putt event that is hosted at Augusta gives kids a great opportunity to grow in the game, show them what they are capable of when the pressure is on, and hopefully get at least 15 minutes of fame in the coolest way ever!  A lifelong dream of mine is to play in the Masters.  That dream has changed a bit these days to hopefully get to walk on Augusta, and I will have that dream until I am just hopeful to be able to walk.  The talent is out there and events like this can showcase that talent.  Way to go PGA! Oh, and to walk the grounds at Augusta!  Kids have it so easy these days!  What do you think?

Congratulations Jordan Speith on winning your second consecutive Green Jacket!   After watching that collapse on TV, you can’t help but feel bad for Jordan.  It’s a tough pill to swallow, but after that bogey on 17 I started to ask myself a couple questions.  Who is Danny Willett?  Did that really happen or is Jordan just messing with me?  I thought about those questions for a bit and then started to realize I couldn’t help but feel bad for Mr. Willett too.  I know I wasn’t rooting for him, and I would put money down you weren’t rooting for him either.  The only one rooting for him might have been his brother…who, by the way, is pretty funny (you should check out his Twitter account).  With all that in mind I will give you the single biggest reason why you didn’t want to win The Masters this year…no one was rooting for you.  Sure, Danny Willett might be grinning from ear to ear as he dives into a bathtub full of cash while wearing his Green Jacket from winning this weekend, but would you want to be in his shoes!?!  What do you think?

Do you remember when you were a kid on the putting green trying to make that last putt to win the Gold Medal in the Olympics?  Or maybe that putt was to win the Masters or the US Open?  Apparently Adam Scott only remembers making that putt to win a major and not a gold medal, because he took himself out of contention for the Olympics earlier this week.  “My decision has been taken as a result of an extremely busy playing schedule and other commitments, both personal and professional,” meaning no gold for Adam.  He would have been paired with Jason Day and would have been heavy favorites to win.  However, in the three weeks leading up to the Olympics there will be two majors, and the FedEx Cup starts two weeks after the Olympics is completed.  It’s a busy couple months for the guys on tour.  It’s only been 112 years since Golf was an Olympic sport, and now we have one of our top players in the world opting out of the chance to win the Gold.  I’m not claiming to know the reason why he said he’s out, but let me put this another way and ask you this question, which would you rather win: a Gold Medal or $11 million?  What do you think?