Rub of the Green

Sometimes its hard to explain where a round starts to go "wrong." Other times, its quite clear ex. a blowup hole, four-putting a green, you get the idea. I had an interested round the other day that was somewhere in between.

I felt like I couldn't hit the ball any better...then came hole number 7. The pin was tucked in the back right hand corner of the green (bordered on the right side by bunkers). Feeling confident, I hit a slight fade into that corner of the green: risky but why not? I was playing well. "Take dead aim" I told myself. Well as it turns out, the wind picked up and carried what looked like a perfect shot that would have left me with a nice look at birdie, right into the bunker. "No big deal" I thought, I will just get up and down (which I just did on the previous hole too).

Once I got to my ball, I saw that my lie was uphill/sidehill but I still thought,"take dead aim". I mis-hit the shot a little heavy, and as soon as I did, I realized where I made my mistake. It wasn't the mis-hit, but by being aggressive with my line, I brought the next part of the bunker into play and guess where I ended up... yup right back in the bunker. In an instant a potential birdie hole turned into a big mess of a hole with multiple bunker shots, and multiple putts. All I had to do was adjust my aim on that first bunker shot to get on the meaty part of the green instead of being greedy and aiming right for the flag. Needless to say I didn't recover and I didn't play very well the rest of the day. More bad breaks even when I thought I hit good shots.

So lesson learned: play aggressively, but don't be greedy. Listen to the "golf gods" or they will put you in your place :)

DEMO DAY/ Free lessons

DEMO DAY Saturday, May 8th from 10am-3pm visit Stonewall Golf Club. Nike, Adams & Taylor Made will be there, win door prizes and take a free 10 minute lesson from yours truly....:)

Never say "I can't"... you CAN...trust me!

I had the privilege of spending time the last two days with some really amazing people. I participated in the Azalea Classic and Clinic at the Piedmont Club,in Haymarket, Virginia, which supports Special Olympics Golfers, Wounded Warriors and Boys and Girls Clubs in the area. Its a wonderful charity www.azaleacharities.com There are pictures from the event online and information in you're interested in getting involved.

I helped 4 great Special Olympic golfers at the clinic on Sunday, Amy, Becky, Kelly and Andrew... all between the ages of 22-32: what great spirits they had and they did so well on the range and putting green! Even with some limitations, they were trying their best, smiles the whole time, and they just astounded me with their ability to hit some great shots. Thank you to all of them for making me remember that golf is fun no matter what.

Even more impressive, was yesterday in the actual Pro-Am I was paired with the reigning Golf Medalist of the Beijing Special Olympic Games, Grace Ann Braxton, of Fredricksburg, VA. She apparently won her Gold by blowing away the field by 36 strokes. She blew me away too!... She hit 200+ yard drives, she made clutch chips and putts and out team tied for 1st place in the event. She was our ringer. If she had played her own ball, she probably would have beat me too.

What was so inspiring was watching her ability to just point and shoot without the over-thinking that so many of us do. She was very even tempered all day, only positive things cam out of her mouth. She swung freely and with a little help on alignment kept the ball in play and in great position. She just would step up, practice swing, line up and hit it. To decide what club to use, she would refer to her GPS Sky Caddie and then to a wrinkled old index card that listed out all of her clubs and yardages. Why don't we all just to that and trust it? It was awesome to watch her process.

Good luck to Grace as she tries to qualify for the Athens Games this year!

So in summary, if you're reading this there are no excuses in golf or life... never say "I can't"...you CAN,trust me: just like Grace and the game yesterday: you just have to be positive and try.

Congratulations Mary!

My student of almost 1 year now, Mary Barbero, soph. at South County HS had a great first event of the year in the Capital Area Golf Tour's Laytonsville Open. She took first place with a 74-82. Great job Mary, congratulations on your win!