Golf, the Universe, and Everything

I'm not a distance runner at all, in fact, the longest distance I've ever run was the Four Courts Four Miler. But I've always wanted to know if I had it in me to complete a long distance run. As much as I wanted to do a half marathon, the next logical step in my mind would be to complete a full marathon, which brings me to think of Pheidippides and then I talk myself out if it. So the compromise, a 10 miler. The Race: The Army 10 Miler. Date: 10/13/2019. Worked out perfectly because it gave me Columbus day to recover before I had to go back to work. The Training: I wish I could say I followed the Hal Higdon training plan to the tee. I did not. Instead I ran a little bit each week, tried to walk more and more each day, and show up to my training workouts three days a week. The longest sustained run/walk during my training was 5 miles. Race Day: In all, there was well over 35,000 runners in this race in 10 waves spaced out over an hour. I was in wave 10,...

A wise person once said, "Don't practice until you get it right, practice until you can't get it wrong." This is true in any sport and especially true if you have a child with severe allergies.   Cute Isn't He! In case of accidental ingestion of an allergen, we carry around Epinephrine Auto-Injectors, better known as EpiPens. But just having the tools is never enough, you have to practice giving the injections. Which is why the pack of EpiPens comes with a practice device. As a solid mother and protector, my wife typically insists that anyone babysitting our son go through the drill of practicing using the EpiPen each time we visit, "just in case." The practice EpiPen actually talks you through the process of taking off the cover, removing the protective cap, placing the device on the thigh, and pressing until you hear the click. My wife usually has everyone test the device on her first, then on our son. Not only does...

Sunday 29 September 2019: The Grint Club Championship. For those of you unfamiliar with The Grint , it is a mobile app that tracks your on-course performance and also provides you with a USGA compliant handicap for free. I won't bore you with the details on how it is allowed to do this, but I encourage you to download the app because it's awesome and it will tell you in the FAQ section. But as part of the requirements for the handicap, you have to be part of a group, the group has to have a leader, and the leader has to field a tournament. Which brings us to the beginning: The day started like any other day, I woke up next to my beautiful wife, played with my son, went out and got some breakfast, and quite unexpectedly, endured a little bit of marital discord. Long story short (in bullet form): My tee time was at 11:10 AM The Links at Challedon  is 75 minutes from my house If I wanted optimal warm-up time to be ready for the tournament, I would have to ...

Five months behind but better late than never!!! As amateur golfers, we're all chasing some kind of dream. Trying to break 100, 90, 80, Par, or our personal best. But then there are those of us with bigger dreams, to play with the pros. A friend of mine asked me to be on his bag while he chased his dream of playing in the US Open. I'm no stranger to competitive golf. I've won one tournament on the Golfweek AM Tour (GWAT), finished second in a couple more, and finished 13th overall at the GWAT National tournament back in 2014 (OMG that was 5 years ago!). But, the top prize there was a $650 store credit, the top prize here, the stuff dreams are made of. Character Profile: Allen Easily the best golfer I've ever played with. Met him through Mean Gene and upon realizing he was a Philadelphia Eagles fan (go Birds!), we instantly hit it off. Also a good human being. The Course: Worthington Manor Golf Course Not Quite Magnolia Drive, but Nice! Before the qualifi...

4/15/2019 - Quite a lot has happened since my last post, I won three and a half flag football games (half being a scrimmage), Tiger Woods won his fifth Masters!!! And lastly, Game of Thrones started its eighth and final season. This post is a bit late but wanted to get it out there for pure learning purposes: Course: Prince William Date: 4/8/2019 #1 - My only GIR of the Day The Good: Great weather, great people that work there, awesome pre-round range session The Bad: The 50 I put on the front nine followed by the 45 I put on the back nine without losing a ball The Ugly: An abysmal one for nine (11%) in par saves Driving Range: In a departure from standard Harry Sherman procedure, I actually made it to the course an entire 45 minutes early. Possibly hoping I would get on to the course early but evidently everyone else had the same idea and decided to come out. But no problem, I had plenty of time to hit the range and the practice green!  The Damage Ever had that d...

Saturday 6 April 2019: I managed to squeeze a 45 minute, 9 hole round while running errands. Lake Ridge Golf Course is a 9 hole pitch and putt course nestled in Lake Ridge Park near the marina. Despite the proximity to water, there is none on the course. But unfortunately for me, there were plenty of bunkers... Including this beauty with its own water hazard! You can see the top of my Driver Head Cover. Go Hokies! Included in that 45 minutes was a spirited 10 minute warm-up on the "range." Or more adequately, the large hitting net. Which for a course this size, does the job. Overall I really like the course, it's a nice walk through nature, the greens are well kept, and the holes range from a mere 50 yards to a whopping 173 yards. Sadly my play was not up to par, it was up to 7 over par! The good: One birdie. Also a beautiful morning. The bad: Two bunkers, 0-2 in sand saves The ugly: Yanking (not just pulling) a pitching wedge out of bounds Hole 1: 115 ya...

It has been roughly 654 days since my last post. Quite a lot has happened since then... 1) I have played 51 rounds of golf, not including scrambles, 9 hole rounds, and trunk slams. I also finished second in a tournament! Heritage Hunt Golf Club - Courtesy of Spencer Marker  Best Tournament Round to Date! Four Birdies! (and one Triple...) 2) Two of my favorite golf courses closed for good. Cannon Ridge and Virginia Oaks For all the Golf Courses in that Gangsta Lean... 3) Attended the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale   Royal Birkdale #18, Nice Clubhouse! 4) The Philadelphia Eagles (FINALLY) won the Super Bowl! FLY EAGLES FLY!  5) A royal wedding randomly happened while the wife and I were in London Hey, my name is Harry too!   6) Got to see Hamilton! The irony of course is seeing it in London... 7) And last, but definitely not least.  We had a boy! Isn't he the cutest! Suffice...