Day 3: Tourney Round 1 at the Palms

Day 3 of my trip and the first tournament day started with a hardy breakfast at The Fez restaurant inside the Casablanca hotel at 5:30am.  I'm still on eastern time so no trouble getting up this early.  $3.99 gets you 2XL eggs prepared how you'd like them, hash browns, 3 strips of bacon and toast.

I drive over to the Palms Golf Course and get in some putting and hit some balls at the range in prep for our 8am tee time.  The first thing I notice on the official scorecard is the length we would be playing from, which was 6,847 yards.  Three of the par 3's were over 200 yards and two of the par 4's were over 445 yards. That's a lot of golf course for me.  I usually play from just over 6,500 back home.

Palms Golf course is a tale of two courses really.  The front nine is mostly flat and the back nine has extreme elevation change.  My foursome is assigned the 10th tee to start.  Here are a couple of pictures from the back nine.

I played very well on the back nine, shooting a 41.  The back is actually the longer of the two nines but some of that distance is due to the elevation changes.  There are several drives that are from high cliffs and hills way above the fairway.  

Here are a few pics from the Front nine:

The front nine reminded me of golfing in Florida!  Flat and long!  I shot a 47 on the back for a total of 88.  My round of 88 was good enough for 15th place going in to round 2.  The leaders were at 81 in the 30 Man flight. 

Next post: Day 4: Round 5.

Day 2, part 2: Mesquite Amateur registration, demo day and dinner

After golf on Monday at Wolf Creek, I wandered over to the Casablanca Casino & Hotel to check in to my room and register for the Mesquite Amateur.  Upon completing registration we got some golf swag:  Hat, golf shirt, repair tool and ball mark, and a towel.  Everybody loves free golf swag!

After unloading my gear in the hotel room, I drove over to the close by Casablanca Golf Course for the Mesquite Amateur Demo day.  Callaway, Titleist and Pure Grips were on hand for golf tourney attendees and the public to try out.  There was also a chipping contest a la "The Big Break" with the fear inducing flop shot wall.  I made it over the wall and on to the green to a measurement of around 15 feet but was not the closest which ended up being 4 feet. I looked over the Pure Grips and almost bought some but ended up heading back over to the Hotel.

Dinner was at 6 and was a big welcome party for the 600 participants:

 

I hit the sack around 10:00pm so that I'd be ready for my 8:00am tee time.  Speaking of which I need to get to bed now so I'll be ready for my Wednesday round.  I know I'm a day behind and I'll do my best to try to catch up tomorrow afternoon by blogging about my Tuesday and Wednesday round.

Day 2, Part 1: Wolf Creek

Wolf Creek......spectacular, stunning, jaw dropping and many other adjectives were used by myself and the two fine gentleman that I was paired with to describe this amazing golf course as we were playing it.  This picture was my first look at the course:

After seeing it in person Wolf Creek is tied at the top in my personal list of most scenic courses played.  The other course is The Challenge At Manele on the island of Lanai in Hawaii. Wolf Creek is featured in the last few versions of EA Sports Tiger Woods video game and that is were I first got my taste of it.  The video game is so stunning that if you've played you might even ask if its a real course or one just made up for the game.  The real thing was even more amazing. It is a very tough course and a bit on the steep side to play.  I'm here in the off season and it was $125.  The course is ranked in Golf Magazine's Top 100 You Can Play list.  I played from the "Masters" tees which are rated 68.2/134 and are the recommended tees for 9-19 hdcp indexes.  I shot an 86 (45,41).  Every single hole could be a "signature" hole on any other course.  Here are a few more pics:

If you ever find yourself in Vegas it is worth while to drive the 1 hour and 15 minute trip up to Mesquite to take in Wolf Creek.  The only negative thing I have to say about the course is that their driving range is very short and is irons only.  You'll quickly forget that though when you step on the first tee and see how beautiful this property is.  I played with two older guys who were also in town for the Mesquite Amateur.  Alan (69) and Norm (85) were a pleasure to play with and they enjoyed the course as much as I did. We sat down in the club house after the round for lunch and talked about our fabulous time at Wolf Creek.

Day 1 - Paiute: Snow Mountain course

Departure day is finally here! After a fitful night sleep I woke up at 6:00am and drove to the airport and boarded my 9:00am Southwest flight (golf clubs and my clothes bag checked for free!  Take that Delta!).  I scored a high A boarding pass and was able to grab an exit row window seat for the flight to Las Vegas.  Landed 10:30am local time, got my bags (clubs arrived on time and safe).  Got in the rental car and started heading out to Paiute which is about 25 minutes NW of the strip.

Lunch - By this time it was 11:45am and my stomach was thinking it was 2:45.  I saw a sign for In-N-Out Burger and figured I'd give them a try since I've met many people that love it.  I got the Double-Double and it lived up to the hype.  Great burger.

Paiute has three Pete Dye courses.  I played the Sun Mountain course last time I was in Vegas which was about 6 years ago.  The site is on the Paiute tribe reservation so there are no houses to distract from the views. The only complaint you may hear about these courses is that it can be very windy where they are, much more so than on the same day down in Vegas proper.  Fortunately I caught a very mild day with winds blowing from just 5-10mph.  Here are a few pics of Snow Mountain:

I shot ok, a 91.  The greens were faster than what I'm used to back home so I struggled with putting and chipping.  I had 4 three putts and a four putt.  I was happy with my game off the tee and approaches so there was at least a partial good feeling.

Ok, running out of time and I've got to get to sleep.  I should have more time tomorrow so I'll try to write posts for Day 2: Wolf Creek and Day 3: Mesquite Am opening round.

Bags packed - Nevada here I come!

Off to the airport first thing in the morning!  Game is feeling pretty good, just have to avoid the big "others" and I think I'll be ok.  My last 5 rounds were 85, 84 (combined 9 hole rnds), 84, 81, 83.

Packed my bags and have my clothes all picked out for 6 rounds of golf!

Next I gave my clubs a bath.  All washed and clean and ready for the course!

Tomorrow's round will be at Paiute golf on the Sun Mountain course in sunny Las Vegas.  Looks like great weather tomorrow with a high only in the low 80's.  Temps will climb quickly as the rest of the week in Mesquite looks to have temps in the high 90's to low 100's.  I'll try to post pictures here on the blog from rounds throughout the week.  If you're on twitter you can also follow my rounds I'm @cpljohnst

Now to see if I can get any sleep.  I'm like a little kid before any trip and rarely sleep well.  If not I'll try to catch some winks on the 4.5 hour plane ride! 

Next Post from Vegas!!!!!!!

Preparation + Perspiration = ?

Let's talk a little about what I've been doing to get ready for The Mesquite Amateur (http://www.mesquiteamateur.com/).  I committed to the event in mid-February and was determined that I do everything possible to get my game back to the shape that it had been in last summer and fall.  I had four main goals:

1. Play as much competitive golf as possible
2. Practice short game frequently
3. Lose 15lbs or more
4. Play a few rounds at courses I've never played before

Goal 1: Competitive Golf.
 I joined a regular weekend group at my home club that plays in a points game.  The group consists of about 15 guys of varying skill level but the points game keeps it level.  Points are awarded for Eagle (8), Birdie (4), Par (2) and Bogey (1).  Each golfer has a points quota to reach each week based on the average of their last 5 rounds.  The competition is lively and was a fun way for me to get those juices flowing each week. 

The second competitive outlet was through my golf league.  The course I'm a member at is part of a larger group of clubs under one ownership.  Canongate owns 23 courses in the Atlanta area and I get playing privileges at all of them.  The Canongate Golf League is played between members of all 23 area clubs.  There are 7 flights in the Men's category, and each flight has about 30 players.  The flights are then further broken down into brackets of 5 to 6 players.  The season starts April 1st and runs through end of August with each participant playing 7 matches in match play format.  Play continues through 18 holes however and points are awarded for holes won and tied.  I've gotten in 3 matches in the season already (played 1 early) and have a 1-1-1 record, with 20 holes won, 17 lost and 17 tied.  This is another great way to play with the heart pumping a bit!

Goal 2: Short Game Practice
I have not done well at this one at all.  I travel with work a good bit so I have taken my putter on the road a few times and gotten a little practice in by putting in my hotel room at night.  It's just not the same as getting in time on the practice green though.  I'm not a range rat at all!  I actually tend to avoid the driving range as I don't keep a good routine there and get faster and faster to the detriment of my swing.  I don't mind the short game area as much but I'd just as soon be out on the course.  I did get in one extended bunker practice session, hitting about 50 balls from the sand.  I could use some more of that before I go to Nevada!  I'm going to try to get in 2 long short game sessions before I leave next week though.

Goal 3: Weight Loss
By late February I was tipping the scale at the heaviest I've ever weighed.  I really wanted to try to drop some pounds so that I'd be in better shape to handle 4+ rounds of golf in desert heat.  I started watching what I eat (still have bad days though), and tried to walk as often as possible when playing for the exercise.  Since March 1st, I'm down 12.5 lbs, and yes the half pound matters! 

Goal 4: 1st time rounds
I find that I play most of my golf at one of the two eighteens we have here at my home course of Mirror Lake. (You can see scorecards and a course tour here http://www.canongategolf.com/Mirror-Lake/Mirror-Lake-Golf-Club-831.html if interested.)
I'll be playing the courses in the Mesquite Amateur site unseen so I wanted to get the feel for how I'd do on some courses when playing the first time.  The results were encouraging with only one "bad" round:
Bentwater Golf Club - 85
Suncity Peachtree - 88
Links at Stono Ferry - 96
Braelinn - 81


Lastly here is my prep schedule these last two weeks before I leave:
May 14th - Walked nine holes after work - shot 47
May 15th - Walked nine holes after work - shot 40
May 16th - Walked eighteen holes after work - shot 84
May 17th - Short game practice after work
May 18th - Walk nine or eighteen holes after work
May 19th - Work event most of day - no golf or practice
May 20th - May 23rd - Work trip to Orlando - no golf or practice
May 24th - Short game practice after work
May 25th - walk nine holes after work
May 26th - Short game practice

May 27th - Fly to Las Vegas - eighteen holes at Paiute
May 28th - Drive to Mesquite - eighteen holes at Wolf Creek

May 29th - Go Time! - 1st round of Mesquite Amateur

As for the equation in this posts title, we'll have to wait and see what the answer is. Next post will be late next week as I give a last pre-trip update and pack!  Thanks for reading.

Strengths, Weaknesses and Prep

11 days left til I board a Southwest flight (free checked bags - Golf Clubs baby!) to Las Vegas.  I'll self evaluate my game a bit here and try to be as objective as possible.  Then I'll layout what I've done so far to prep and how I plan to practice these last remaining days before leaving.

Strengths

1. Driver: my TaylorMade Rocketballz Tour driver has increased my distance off the tee and my accuracy.  Averaging right at 250 off the tee which is a big help.  I've had a couple of loose rounds with the driver in the past couple of weeks but I tuned the driver before yesterdays round and had better results.  Still consider this a strength.
2. Fairways & Hybrids:  All TaylorMade in this category - '98 Burner 3W, '97 Burner 5W, Rocketballz 19degree Hybrid, '97 Burner 22degree Hybrid.  Probably the strongest clubs in my bag.  I have a sweeping swing and really strike my fairway metals well.  I'm not a long hitter but get me about 215yds to 175yds out and I know that I can be around the green if not on it using one of these clubs.
3. Putts 5 feet & less: I'm putting the ball really well from 5 feet in right now. I'm no Luke Donald but I feel real good from this distance.  Unfortunately putts longer than this will end up on the Weakness listing.

Weaknesses

1. Irons: My weakest area by far.  I was hitting them so well last summer and fall that I could be aggressive and fire for pins.  I have little confidence in them now which goes back to my recent shank troubles.  That stupid s-word is in my mind for any iron shot that I take right now.  Very inconsistent with pulls, thins and slices and yes the occasional s-word.  My GIR percentage is very low right now forcing scrambles.
2. Lag Putts:   A problem issue since I got a new putter last August but slowly starting to improve.  The face insert in this putter is much softer than my previous one and I haven't figured out how to get lag putts to the hole.  I frequently come up 5, 6, 8 and even 10feet short on any putt 25fee and longer.  Just can't seem to make myself hit the putt harder.
3. Greenside Bunkers:  A place where many of my decent rounds go to die.  Sometimes takes me 2 or even 3 shots to get out OR I'll catch the ball clean and go sailing over green and all. 

Neutral

1. Wedges: Very average in my wedge play.  I feel good with a full PW, GW and SW.  Chipping is just OK.  Have been working more with using 9i or 8i and playing a bump and run shot from thin lies (getting better and better with this shot).
2. Putting 5ft to 20ft:   Average here.  Make a few and tend to have decent distance control from these measurements leaving 2 to 3 footers on misses.

I think I'll leave my review of my prep and practice plan for the next post.  Thanks for reading!

The State of My Game - May '12

A quick recap on my golf game.  Until last year I'd always been between a 14 and 16 GHIN index.  I played high school golf and was middle of the pack on a very average team.  I quit golf for about 6 years starting in college but rediscovered my love for it in '92.  I have always had a very smooth swing with good tempo and was never a sprayer of the ball.  What was holding me back from being better was simply not playing enough and a swing that was very upright.  When my teenage son started playing golf in the summer of '10 and my teenage daughter started playing last spring, my course time went way up.  We frequently walk 9 holes in the evening at the course that we live on.  With this increase in play and a swing change I'll cover some other time, my game became more consistent and my index moved lower.  My goal then became to achieve a single digit handicap index.  By summer and fall of last year I was routinely shooting 80 to 85 on my home course. I finally broke the 80 barrier on a legitimate length course with a 77 in September. I reached my goal of a single digit index on 11/15/12 when I reached 9.9. 

All sounds great doesn't it?  I only held that single digit for 2 weeks.  In late November an occasional shank started showing up in my swing.  I played occasionally over the winter but the scores were so bad that I didn't record many of them on my index considering them "practice" scores while I worked the shanks out.  After signing up for the Mesquite Amateur in February I started playing frequently again and recording all of my scores.  My index climbed up to a 12.6 as my very good scores from the fall "fell" off my handicap and I worked through residual shank issues.  Here is a chart from GHIN that shows my index history for the last 6 months. 

I've played a lot of golf the last 2 months as I prepare for the Mesquite trip and I seem to have finally turned a corner. I expect my index to drop again with the revision that will come out tomorrow, maybe to a 10.5 or so which I'll be happy with going to the Mesquite Am.  Here are my most recent 20 scores that will count toward my May 15th index revision.

In my next post I'll cover my current strengths and weaknesses and the preparation plan for Mesquite that I've been working on these last two months.

14 Days til Nevada

I'm heading to participate in the Mesquite Amateur golf tournament in Mesquite, NV (www.mesquiteamateur.com) in just two weeks.  The tourney runs May 28th - June 1st and will have over 570 participants playing in 3 rounds, with the leaders competing in a 4th championship round.  I first heard about this event through the Twitter posts of the one and only Golf Chick.  I started following her about 3 weeks before last years Mesquite Amateur and I so much enjoyed reading her blog and twitter posts about the event that I vowed to do everything I could to attend one day.   Well that day will soon be here as I leave on Sunday the 27th for Vegas.

Mesquite is about 1 hour NE of Las Vegas.  Its been about 6 years since I was last in Vegas so I'm going to take advantage and stay there overnight on my arrival day.  Of course golf will be involved as I'm heading directly to Paiute  (www.lvpaiutegolf.com) for a round as soon as I step off my plane.  

Early Monday morning will have me heading towards Mesquite for a round at Wolf Creek (www.golfwolfcreek.com).  After that warm up round I'll head in to registration for the Mesquite Am and the demo day that they are offering.  The tentative course rotation for my group will be Palms on Tuesday, Casablanca on Wednesday and Conestoga on Thursday.  If I finish in the top 10 of my flight I'll get to play in Friday's championship round; if not I'm thinking of playing The Chase at Coyote Springs on my way back to Vegas.

I'm going to use this blog to record my thoughts leading up to, during and after this wonderful golf experience that I'm about to undertake.  I am the competitive type so my hope is that I'll concentrate on having a good time enjoying some wonderful desert golf and not get so wrapped up in the competition.  If I can do that successfully I'll be a winner regardless of the standings.

Next up a bit about my prep and the current state of my game.