PGA Here I Come

Today I got quite a sobering email from a site visitor (who is also a master club maker)…

“Your problem is not a lack of money, it’s a lack of tournament experience.

Even if someone stepped up and paid ALL of your expenses for the next year you wouldn’t get any closer to getting your card because you have no tournament experience.

You need to join a course (or club), get your SCGA handicap card, start posting ALL of your rounds and playing in local tournaments. You’ll soon realize that if you can’t break par at the Long Beach Open or Inland Valley Amateur (they have pro flights), there’s no way you’ll get -10 at Q-School (which is probably what you’ll need).

95% of Tour players worked at golf courses while they were trying to get their card (the other 5% went straight from college). They played in local and regional mini-tours , and local tournaments that offered some sort of prize $$, and any big skins game they could find. Ask around at Shorecliffs or Roger Dunn Santa Ana and you’ll find where the big skins games are every day of the week.

You need to work at a golf course so you can play often. Just tell them your plans, I’m sure you won’t be the first guy they’ve hired trying to get his card, they’ll work with you on your schedule.

You cannot skip over playing local tournaments and getting experience posting under par numbers on pro-length courses under pressure. If you think you can just practice a lot and show up at Q-School and shoot -10, you’re fooling yourself.

While I’m sure all the attention this blog gets gives you encouragement, I’ve read all your posts, seen your swing clips, listened to your descriptions of your rounds, and what I can definitely tell you is this: You’re not as good as you think you are. I hope that doesn’t come off as harsh, but it’s the truth.

You’re not going to get your card any way other than what I just described above, so start applying at courses, and ONLY at pro-length courses. Getting good at 6400 yard tracks will only set you up for a shock when you play 7200 yard beasts in tournaments.

Good luck !

Carl”

So I wrote Carl back, first thanking him for the reality check, but more importantly, I asked if he plays much himself, and would be interested in a match…

His Response:

“I like it. I’ve played Shorecliffs a few times so we can play there, that way I won’t have to listen to you cry about not being familiar with the course

We’re probably about the same handicaps, so we can play straight up. I’ll offer you a prize: if you win, I’ll set the lofts and lies on your irons for free.”

So Carl and I are scheduled to play Tuesday. Cant wait to get those clubs lofted my man!

The past few weeks have been a lot of fun. I’ve been playing every day, shooting good scores. Last week I got to caddy for Alan (swing coach) in the SR USOpen qualifier @ San Gabriel CC.

Watching Alan play was a great experience (a former US Tour player and now SR Euro-Tour pro). He was on point throughout the day, but ran into some trouble on the par 5s, and one par 4 with 3 bogeys, hit one birdie later on, but missed the play-off cut by 2 strokes. Talk about a heart breaker.

This week, I’ve had to face the harsh reality that I’m probably not going to make to Qschool next month because, A. there’s a $3500 entry fee and B. Even if I did enter, my gut tells me it’s a 50/50 chance of getting through the prequal & stage 1.

I need more time…

So, at the moment I’m struggling between going back to work for a few years and potentially doing this again in 10′/11′, or, try and scrape by and keep playing for another year…which I’d love to do, but, doesn’t seem realistic as there are bills to pay.

Here’s how it breaks down: I have a car, that after insurance costs about $500/mo, a health insurance policy that runs $230/mo, mobile communication for $100/mo, a gym membership @ $40/mo, the ShoreCliff’s unlimited golf pass @ $300/mo, oh, and throw in another $500/month to put some food in the stomach and gas in the car, and $550 for a place to sleep at night.

So all in, to keep this project going we’re looking at over $2K/month in expenses.

For the most part, my peers provide mixed feedback. Some fellow risk-takers push me to keep going. “live in a tent, get a motorcycle, eat rice and drink water, you went from shooting in the 100s to 70s in 9 months, do you know what you’ve accomplished?!?” while the more reserved ones usually say “You had a great run Erik, but, it’s time to face reality, your resume is getting cold”, and, that is also very true.

One option considered was to get a part-time gig at night to allow me to still play during the day; bar tending seems like and obvious route, but those gigs are hard to come by this time of year and staying up all night working another type of shift job would just cause me to sleep all day instead of play golf.

Getting a job at a course was another idea as it would eliminate the cost of playing golf and provide some income, but, not many places are looking for a guy who wants to work 15 hrs/week just to get free golf.

Giving golf lessons was also something considered investing; I’ve given a few here and there and most people have thoroughly working with me, but punching the numbers, it would require giving somewhere between 40-50 lesson/month to cover the cost of this adventure…

So, for the time being, all options are staying on the table; I’m entertaining putting a suit back on and going to work and still looking at ways to the continue PGAhereicome.

Got any bright ideas???

Yesterday I didn’t play well. Luckily though I pressed the competition and ended up all square on our skins by the 18th hole. Getting back to the clubhouse, not having made any money, I spotted a guy putting quite well on the green.

Greg, a former greens keeper and now lifeguard for the city of San Clemente, informed me the guy’s name was “JJ” and was one of the best putters in their mens club. “Yea right” I though to my self. I quickly grabbed my putter and asked JJ if he and his friend wanted to play first-to-7.

So off we went, and they took a quick lead, 0-1-3. Then I sunk a putt, putting me on the board in 2nd place with two points. Next JJ’s friend sunk a put, there after, I got closest to the cup, making the score 3-2-3. JJ sunk another one, putting him up two points, but, I then hit one there after. Next hole I got closest to the cup for 1 point. Going first, I chose a hole 15 feet a away and left the ball 2 inches shy of the cup…JJs buddy went way left, then JJ sunk it to take the game. Now I was down 5 bucks for the day.

Feeling defeated, I quickly asked for a rematch and they both agreed. But, before we knew it, word spread around the clubhouse and we now had 7 players for a $35 pot. To accommodate the large field, we changed to game to 1-in-all-in, were everyone putts at the same cup, same ball, same putter, and if 2 people make the putt, you start over, but, if only 1 person makes it, they win the pot.

The first cup, not one guy hit. It was a 20 footer that rolled off the back no matter how you hit it. The second cup, one guy hit, but the last guy to putt (who shot a 68 that day) ended up saving the day by draining it bringing us to the 3rd cup.

The placement wasn’t very hard, a slightly down hill 16 foot putt, but for some reason no one could read it. Even though the whole green is built on the down hill slope, some balls were breaking slight left to right, some didn’t break; it was just one of those odd lines.

Going 3rd to last this time, I was taking a lot of heckling from the gallery. Getting on one knee to read the green, I said to myself, “This is a strait putt, don’t let the slope fool you”. From there I lined up, waggled, hovered over the ball, said a quick prayer to Ben Hogan, and let it rip.

I heard the ball, but waited a full 2 count before turning my head to watch it. It was moving at perfect speed toward the cup, but, as it got closer it started bumping around just a bit from the poor surface of the green. “Crap, here we go,” I thought, “it’s going to break right”.

Hogan must have been guiding that ball, with the gallery heckling, “not a chance, no way, etc…” it ended up dropping right in and I won that match. So, off I went with my $35 of winnings and on the way home filled up the car with some gas and had a juicy Carl’s JR 6 Star Burger for dinner.

Not having the financial backing to enter any real tournaments in the area with the Pepsi Tour or GS Tour, I’ve been trying to play along with the daily skins matches that go on throughout the day at Shorecliffs. Today we had 8 guys playing, $10 buy-in, most skins wins, strait up, no handicaps.

I was playing very well throughout the round, but couldn’t get any birdie putts in the hole, and for skins matches, you need to hit birds to win anything. Around the back, only 3 skins had been awarded because off all the pars pushing the holes. Then on hole 15, the new guy, who’s name is Tim (claimed to be 2.3 HCP) decided to show up and play after shooting a 45 on the first 9.

Now 1 under par for the back 9, Mr. Tim hit a daring approach shot with his driver into a bunker right next to the green (par 4). Playing “sandies”, awarding a skin to those who save par from the sand, Tim stuck his shot next to the cup taking the sandy and all the skins for his birdie as well.

Tim pared the rest of the holes to shoot 2 under on the back. Talk about a sand bagger…

No one knows where this guy came from, he claims to have grown up in the Inland Empire, was living in Riverside and I overheard him telling Robby he moved to San Clemente to live with some family because he ruined his business or something. Who knows, the guy is damn good though and I’m looking forward to more matches with him next week.

Picture below: Tim is teeing off, Robby/Kevin (shades) and Greg in back.

One of my new “housemates” snores very loud, another was dipping into my milk in the fridge while I was playing today. I also noticed there’s no toilet paper in any bathroom. This is survival of the fittest.

Got out any played 18 today for the first time in 2 weeks. I didn’t bother warming up at all, so the first three holes went bad, +6, but I then went on to shoot 5 pars and a birdie. The total for the day was 84, not exactly my best, but for a first day back, no bad.

One guy in our group on the back 9 was a very bad and he couldn’t hit the ball more than 10 feet. He also was wearing a one piece mechanic’s jumpsuit with thin white/green lines running up and down it. I later found out he was blind, so, that explained that.

Completely wiped from today’s antics and staying up to watch the Celtics mop-up the Lakers for once! Playing 18 again in the morning, maybe 27.

Here we go. Just scored tickets to the U.S. Open practice rounds from a source that would like to remain anonymous! The plan is to head down tomorrow morning at 5am and take it all in. I’ve never been to a PGA tournament before, let alone a major, so this should be a great experience.

What’s nice about practice rounds is that camera’s are allowed, so, plenty of good shots will be posted up later this week. Bad news is, Torrey Pines has no parking and the USGA had to set up parking 13 miles south at Qualcom stadium with shuttle service back up to the course for spectators.

Also, in recent events…last night I drove up to Huntington to see some friends from college (and watch the Celtics beat the lakers). On the way home I took the Pacific Coast Highway through Newport and stopped off to grab a drink with two good friends who recently moved onto the boardwalk.

Before going our separate we stopped off at the corndog place near the pier for a quick bite. While enjoying some chili-cheese fries a Canadian sounding fellow came rushing in explaining there was a seal caught in a net at the end of the pier (200 yards out to sea).

My friend Asa is the type of guy who’s always ready for action. So, I said “What do you think man, should we go save this thing?” he replied “Let’s do it”.

We asked one of the Corndog employees for a knife, but, we got a pair of kitchen scissors instead…probably a good decision on her part. We ran down to the end of the pier and sure enough there was a seal flopping around below trying to unwrap himself from the net.

There were some people fishing strangely enough at 12:30 AM and we asked a few how long the seal had been down there. They said 30 minutes or so. Figuring we only had a few more minutes we assembled a plan of action.

Jump in, swim over, I’d hold the seal, while Asa cut the net, then we’d climb back up the pier on a safety ladder we spotted.

Preparing for the plunge I started to look at some people around us, and, while this is total speculation, most of them didn’t exactly look like the most upstanding citizens (and mind you, I just came back from living in a 3rd world country for 4 months).

I raised concern to Asa and he agreed that if we went in, we’d save the seal, but likely get our wallets and phones swiped.

So we called for back-up and waited for our third amigo to come hold our belongings. All we could do was wait…

About 15 minutes went by as we watched the seal continue to struggle. A glow-stick was attached to the net, so when it swam down you could see it trying to shake itself free.

We waited and waited, ready to save the poor guy. But, well, a few minutes later the seal went down below, the light coming off the glow-stick went dim, and that was that.

The past few days I’ve been hanging out at Green Way driving range working hard on my approach shots and chipping. Things are going well. From 60 yards – IN, there’s a sense of confidence that didn’t exist before.

I informed my Thai golfing friends at there I’ll be leaving on Saturday. While no one speaks much English, they all seemed sad to hear of the departure and asked (in pigeon English) when I’ll be back, but, my response was, “I’m not sure”…

It might be because of the news, but, the women who run the range decided it was finally time to graduate and use the “ball scooper” when collecting balls with the staff every few hours (there’s no motorized ball retriever, so the range is shagged by hand). It’s a nice tool because you can pick up balls 4-5 balls at once before dropping it into the bucket. In return, they’ve been letting me hit full 2 gallon pails for free, saving me $3/day.

Saturday I arrive in Los Angeles. The feeling is bittersweet; I don’t want to leave, but, it’s time to come home and figure out the next chapter in this adventure. Not having much money left, and needing a place to live, I put an ad up on Craigslist stating my case.

Link:http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/sha/704620155.html

A couple of guys I know once hitched-hiked across 50 states in 50 days all by word of mouth over the web. I figure if they can do that, there’s got to be some folks out there looking to help a golfer get back on his feet.

A few responses came in already. One real estate agent responded, basically saying I’m an idiot and I should plan on “driving a cab at night”, but, a couple others said to give them a ring because we might be able to work something out.

So tonight (2 am Thailand time) I’m going to give these generous folks a call and see if they’ll take me up on the offer to make them 80s golfers in return for a place to live. Hopefully it will work out, and if not, I might just have to drive cross country to go surprise my folks at their summer house! Just imagine the look on their faces if that happens!

A big thanks to Michael Brunelle of Watertown, MA and Dante Isopo of Niskayuna, NY for joining the LeaderBoard. You guys are keeping the golf going during the final weeks here in Thailand!

We played a Siam on Friday and I got killed. But, on the upside the course and facilities were the nicest I’ve ever seen (click photo to see album).

Today we went up to a course called Treasure Hill. Somewhat of a dumpy course, and the showers in the clubhouse didn’t work, so they set up a big communal tub for everyone to use…I guess it’s “Japanese Stye”, though I’ve never heard of such a thing.

For some reason John had us play from the gold tees, so I ended up hitting over most of the landing areas. I played well up until the 5th hole went my left contact lens started to dry out.

Before leaving the States, I bought some cheap contacts from Wal-Mart and they have been nothing but trouble. “Optiplex 2″ is the brand, steer clear (no pun intended). Anyhow, I eventually had to just pull the contact out and play with one eye. And, being that I can’t read the BIG E off the vision chart, it proved to be quite difficult.

Australian Sid tried to give me some confidence by telling me “you only need one eye to play golf, hell, I only have one eye”. Turns out Sid’s only had one eye his whole life, on top of it, he has a metal plate in his neck from a rugby injury in his youth and last week he crashed his motorbike twice and possibly has some cracked ribs. Oh, and on the 16th hole he his knee went out. Never the less he was playing the best round of his year, so he hobbled on to turn ni 37 points for our stableford match.

So, I trudged on my self today with Sid, but having just minutes to practice playing in 1 dimension, I ended up bogeying every hole, but one par 5 (birdie).

Thanks to the recent donors over the weekend, I’ve got some golf money, so heading to Green Valley tomorrow to play in a stroke play event. We have a field of 24, so there’s a decent pot and if I place, it would pay for a 2 day Trip scheduled to Soi Dow, a golf resort near Cambodia on Wed/Thurs.

Almost nightly at The Golf Club an older gentleman comes in for dinner, a couple drinks and watches the replayed tour matches on TV. At first glance he looks like any other ex-pat here in Pattaya, but, I learned recently he’s actually a retired Euro Tour player, Richard Livingston, and has been in 4 British Opens.

(At the end of this blog post I’ve posted an interview done by the Pattaya Mail with him)

This afternoon I went to see Richard at his range for a quick lesson. I’ve been having trouble with randomly hooking the ball so was hoping he could help. He did, and it took him about 5 swings to see the problem. Turns out I was getting too “wristy” at the end of my back swing. Once corrected, suddenly all shots went strait as an arrow.

Richard also helped out with my pre-shot routine. His advice was to square the clubface to the target first, then waggle, something I was doing in reverse.

Thursday I’m signed up for a tournament. Probably my last. But, if I win, I’ll have money to play in another Friday. Hopefully that will be the case.

I played 27 holes today with my friend Roger of Yorkshire and some random guy from South Korea who showed up at The Golf Club last night. It was a perfect day for golf weather wise, but the new guy held us back.

He was a very nice chap. However, he was so particular and excessive in his set-up and pre-shot routine, our plans to play 36 fizzled-out at hole 9.

Let’s be honest. Taking too much time before hitting is quite annoying. I used to do it all the time myself, then I realized that all that time spent thinking about stance, grip, balance, angles prior to hitting just ruined my shots. And that’s exactly what happened to the new guy today; he spent a full minute setting up for a putt, and would then leave it a foot short. Brutal.

My routine is now down to about 6-7 seconds.I look at the target, take 2 swings, approach the ball, waggle and swing away. When I do this I hit the ball fine. And even when skip it all, I hit it fine. But, when I spend 15-20 seconds dicking around the ball I’ll inevitably shank it into the jungle, like the new guy.

Anyhow, tomorrow we have a solid 4-some for the Navy course, And there’s a tournament scheduled for Friday. I’m going to win.

In other news. The PGAhereIcome project is now officially broke.

“All I need is a miracle…”

Tomorrow is the indexed tournament at Pheonix. I’m Paired up with Bob “Gonzo” (+15 HCP), Australian Sid (+22 HCP) (he is from Australia and is named Sid) and some other random guy (+? HCP). We have a field of 16 tomorrow so a win would be a smooth $60 to help cover my visa run to Cambodia Friday.

In terms of readiness, so long as the humidity stays under 10000%, I should be good. In addition I did get 36 in today, with John “The bastard” and Gonzo. The first time around I shot an 82 on account of the front 9s greens being still cored and wet. The second time around I shot X on account of putting too many chilis on the chicken and rice I ate for lunch…swinging and walking was quite uncomfortable.

So, I’m getting up at 5:30 to get a proper warm up in and go kick some ass on the course, anything under 79 will be progress. But a gross 72, Net 66 is the goal.

Stay Tuned.

Balls Hit: 44075
Practice Hrs: 678.35
Fitness Hrs: 129.85
Days to Q-School: 119 

Today I went out for a casual 18. The front 9 greens were aerated however, so all putting and chipping was disastrous. I believe I 3 putted on all but 2 holes and it added up to a 49. Luckily the back 9 was in normal condition and I shot a 39. Now that’s a turn around, and it shows how much I rely on my short game.

Aerated greens are probably the most obnoxious pieces of earth gracing the planet. Ever wonder why green keepers have to do this annoying service? Well, here’s the story behind that…

Accodding to about.com, over time, the traffic from golfers’ feet (as well as mowing equipment) tends to compact the soil under the putting green – particularly when the soil contains a lot of clay. When soil becomes compacted, the air pockets on which the roots depend are crushed, and the roots are essentially left gasping for air. Without oxygen, the grass plants become weaker and will eventually wither and die.

Aerification is a mechanical process that creates more air space in the soil and promotes deeper rooting, thus helping the grass plants stay healthy. In most cases, it’s done by removing ½-inch cores (those plugs you sometimes see near a green or in fairways) from the compacted soil, allowing for an infusion of air and water that brings a resurgence of growth. The spaces are then filled with sand “topdressing” that helps the soil retain air space and makes it easier for roots to grow downward.

Now, while aerated greens cause most of us to have terrible rounds consider this. Just days after the Kansas City CC did their annual aeration the legendary Tom Watson set the course record by shooting a 58…So, we all have no excuses.

Tournament at the Faldo Designed, Emerald GC tomorrow. Let’s Roll!

Well folks, we have our first Black Tee donor on The Leader Board! He has asked to remain anonymous, so, thank you Mr. X, from the USA. This generous contribution will be covering 3 tournaments next week and the gas to get there.

As for today…I don’t want to talk about it.

I will fill everyone in on what happened tomorrow. As for tonight, I’m preparing for tomorrow’s event. I know what my problem was. And, after hitting 100 angry balls in a row at the range tonight, perfectly, I think it’s fixed.

An email I got from one of the site’s patrons a while back really hits the current problem on the head. I need to just starting swinging the damn club (and make sure to bring my elbow back against my hip before releasing my hands). Will post up the results from today and tomorrow’s event in the morning (EST).

Hi Erik

I’ve been following your blog for a few months now and I feel compelled to give you my input. I apologize in advance for the lengthy post, but I’ve had a lot of thoughts about you to post over the past few months and I finally decided to just do it all at once.

About myself: I’m a 5, and a master club builder (in the past), and have given hundreds of “on the spot” lessons where I only had a few minutes to improve someone’s “swing” with visible results.

The first thing you must realize, and very very few do (except for those that make it on a tour) is that the difference between a tour player and a very good amateur is chipping and putting. The game from 100 yards in will account for 80% of your scoring, so if you’re not using 80% of your practice time on your short game, you’ll never make it. If you’re not averaging less than 32 putts per round, and less than 1.8 putts per green in reg, you’ll never make it. ( in 2004 Tiger was actually hitting more fairways and greens than now but didn’t win anything, the past 10 tournaments the ONLY difference has been his putting, he’s actually worse off the tee.)

Regarding your “swing”: Stop trying to fiddle with your “swing”. Very very few people are blessed with a natural hitting ability. Those that are blessed usually play baseball or hockey (I’m guessing you’re good at both). All the swing theories are for those who DON’T have natural hitting ability. “Turn your shoulders”, “extend your arms” , “shift your weight”, “maintain your spine angle”, are all gimmicks to increase clubhead speed for those guys that weren’t good enough to play baseball. You don’t NEED any of that junk. You already have a natural hitting ability better than almost all golfers, including pros. I’ve given lessons to several pro baseball players and in all cases the only thing I had to do was to get them to stop trying to do a “golf swing”.

All you have to do is find a grip that brings the clubhead in square at impact. Some guys turn their hands a lot through impact and need a weak grip, others don’t hardly turn their hands at all through impact and need a strong grip. From watching your clips I’d say you should use a slightly strong grip.

Once you settle on a grip, get into an alignment routine that grooves your natural shot shape, which for you is definitely a fade (left to right shape). Don’t worry about those who say a fade loses distance, you’ll hit it plenty long. Nicklaus won 18 majors hitting a fade, Bruce Lietzke won 12 times on tour hitting a short fade (and he NEVER practiced on the range).

You can practice hitting a draw just in case you ever need to hit one. Just put a right-to-left spin on the ball at impact.

That’s it. That’s all you need to do about your swing, the rest of that golf swing theory crap will only slow you down and hold you back.

Spending too much time on the range is counterproductive anyways, because all it does is groove into your subconcious that each shot has no consequence, because you can just grab another ball from the bucket. I bet there are some players there that constantly beat you but they NEVER practice, and they always seem to come through with shots while you choke. That’s because EVERY shot they take has consequences, and it has removed any fear or nervousness from their game, and gives them the confidence to perform under pressure.

Earlier I said that tour players realize tht 80% of scoring comes from 100yds and in. Tour players also realize that another 10% of scoring comes from course management. Playing to your strengths off the tee and in the fairway, and staying away from your weaknesses. Recognizing red-light and green-light situations and playing a shot accordingly.

So basically 90% (!!!) of your scoring has absolutely nothing to do with your full swing. The moment you realize that and adjust your practice accordingly, that’s the moment your scores will drop.

Good luck !

All right, all right, a new record has been set. PGAHereIcome.com has now had two consecutive days of new members joining the Leader Board. Thank you to Erik Hansen of Sterling, VA and my Mom!

The weather was absolutely perfect today because of some morning thunderstorms that cooled the air and left plenty of cloud cover throughout the afternoon. This made driving out to the Pattaya Country Club enjoyable as for once, overexposure didn’t require a change of shirt upon arrival.

Pattaya CC is located about 30 minutes inland from the city. It’s nestled back into the countryside making it quiet and, one better, smog free! The course is nice as well; exceptional fairway grass, bunkers and level tee boxes. The greens are quick (guessing, speed was 8 ) though there were many rough spots, my only complaint.

I warmed up with 1 tray (40 balls) and teed off solo. However 3 holes in I hit a 5 some and 2 guys from the UK ran into me so we played together. They were both terrible golfers, but, great company.

They asked what I was going here in Thailand, so, I gave them the quick story. That got a kick out of it. On the front I didn’t show much ability for the ambition, I shot a 45 on the front, account of 2 lost balls. However, on the back I battled back and shot 38 for an 83.

One huge find today: Turns out Pattaya CC has an All-You-Can-Play special Tues/Wed so this might be my new home. For only 750 baht ($20), which includes a caddy, you can play sun-up to sun-down. This is truly the best deal yet.

No Tournaments this week. Going to have to wait until next Tuesday or Thursday for an event.