Month: March 2013

Aced the 15th hole!

I had my first hole-in-one today on the 146 meter 15th hole, hurray. The wind was in my face so I choked down slightly on my six iron and hit the ball about eighty-five percent.

The ball started off slightly to the right of the flag, but it arched back in perfectly with the sweetest little draw you could imagine and hit the front of the green. I figured that it would be pretty close, but never suspected that the ball would go in the hole. Since the hole is slightly uphill and the green is atop a slight rise, no one could see where the ball ended up.

Finally when I reached the top of the hill, there was no ball to be found on the green. I paused and looked around, but realized that there was a pretty good chance that I had aced the hole. I walked over to the flag and saw the ball in the hole, bent down and picked it up, holding the ball triumphantly above my head and showing it to my fellow players.

Finally after more than fifty years of golfing I have an ace under my belt. Better late than never. It will take me awhile to equal my father's record of nine, but it's a good start.

Hole 15 from the tee.

Closeup of the flag from the tee.

For ages now I've been pulling the ball to the left. Even when I hit the ball pure and it takes off directly at the flag, it inevitably fades left off of the green, getting a bad bounce more often than not because the ball is spinning that way. If I try to compensate by aiming more to the right, the ball has an even worse fade going farther to the left than usual, like it's attached to some big invisible rubber-band snapping it back around hard.

I had a quick lesson with the golf pro this afternoon, and in no time he solved this issue by adjusting just three simple elements of my swing.

• Weaker grip, rotating my right hand ever so slightly on top so the v-shape formed by my thumb and forefinger points to my chin.
• When addressing the ball, stand a little further from the ball. I have to reach out slightly and align my back straighter up and down.
• Relax my muscles and mind, swing smoothly, making solid contact with the ball but not exaggerating it too much.

Funny how I was absolutely convinced that the pull fade was caused by a weak follow through of my arms closing the club face as I rotated. Rather than being the cause it was a result of the items above. Standing too close to the ball combined with the strong grip made it impossible to follow through high, and my pull left with the arms was because of the restricted motions of my anatomy.

If I can hold on to this three simple adjustments, ingrain the groove in my body and remain confident, I should do just fine this year, maybe even winning a couple of tournaments.

This is my companion during those cold winter evenings. The white light soothes me and puts all kinds of creative and relaxing thoughts in my mind. It feels good being healthy, or at least thinking that I am being healthy. Normally it's the responsibility of the sun to energize me, but this miracle of modern technology is a good enough substitute for the time being. In the meantime, I anticipate the coming of Spring and hope it finally arrives soon. It's been taking long enough.