Meeting an old friend again

Greetings!

Over the past year, I've seen my golf game improve. I can see it in my scores, and in the far fewer times when I get angry over some stupid swing of the club. But there's a way that I can see it which may not be apparent to those who aren't as addicted to it as I am.

Because you are called upon to hit a golf ball lots of specific distances, with the ball on the ground in many different combinations of grass, dirt, and sand, blocked by shrubs, rocks, and trees, a golfer learns how each of the clubs in his bag can be used to do what is needed.

What I'm beginning to learn, and be fascinated with, is that your relationship and understanding of each of your club's capabilities and value should be revisited as your overall golf game improves. As an example, let me tell you about my nine-iron. When starting out, most golfers use it to hit a distance of between 80 to 110 yards. It's a comfortable club in your hands, and hits the ball in a high arch which stops in a relatively short distance. When first starting out, there are lots of times when you have opportunities to hit those distances. Short tee shots with a driver, followed by reasonable fairway shots, often leave the ball in that range to the green. And during that period, just getting it on the green is satisfying. Few can explore any other capabilities of the club.

With improvement comes a change in the routine of reaching the green. Far more often, the combination of drivers or hybrids off the tee, followed by hybrids or fairway woods, will reach the green. The distance to the green from the last, long fairway shot gets shorter. There becomes less need for a nine-iron to do its 100-yard pitch. It gives way to wedges for 70-yards, then 40 yards, then 0.

But with improvement to the green comes a concentration on getting more quickly to the pin. The excitement of constant greens in regulation (reaching the green in two strokes less than par) sours if the ball lands so far from the pin that it takes three puts to sink it. In addition, those times when your approach to the green lands off of it, you want your next shot to end up as close to the pin as possible.

The edges of a green are the most varied territory imaginable for a ball to land. I've chipped out of tall grass, over sand traps, and across thirty yards of up and down surfaces. For those short shots which need to go straight up and stop quickly, 56 and 60 degree wedges do well. But I have found that my old friend the nine-iron is coming back into use for those low arc pitches to long, well-controlled rolls to difficult pin locations. If it leads to 1-putts on half of the holes, it's going to deliver even more pars.

One of the joys of golf, an there are many disappointments, is that it isn't a static game. A good lesson is to keep re-evaluating your skills and resources as often as possible.

Gregory

Using my SkyCaddie

Greetings!

Just bought a SkyCaddie 5, and I'm figuring out how to use it to improve my game (or to give me even more to think about on the course). One of its features is that it can be used to record and display the scores each time you play, and build a database on your play.

Here's what I have after two days of play:



So far, it's pretty fun. It can be used to keep track of your shot distances if you push the right button at the start and end of each shot. If you also indicate which club you used, you'll have charts and graphs displaying how well you are progressing with each club over time. Of course, you have to enter into the SkyCaddie what clubs are in your bag. You should have seen my wife's look as I carried my bag from the back o the car inside the house to the bedroom to examine and record the clubs.

Golden Gayt Golf

Greetings!



2007--- The year that was, for GGG!!!

FEBRUARY: We began at Blue Rock Springs in Vallejo. It was very clear and VERY COLD. Needless to say, we had a wonderful time re-connecting with some of our golf friends and family.

MARCH: We found ourselves again at Franklin Canyon in Hercules. Although the lunch business was a little “iffy”, we still played some awesome golf. We will still keep working on the pre-paid outings for future events.

APRIL: Presidio Golf Course, San Francisco. Started out drizzling and foggy (as San Francisco would have it) and it stayed foggy! You could hardly see if anyone was in your path down the fairway. Bravely, we stuck it out, but as the saying goes… “Oh well”. Next time maybe autumn would be best for this course. Afterward, we headed to the Castro for Pizza at the Sausage Factory. Everyone had a great time...(please enjoy the photos)!!

MAY: This was Adobe Creek in Petaluma. As always, it was a terrific time and we took lots of pictures. (See inserts) Hey, how about some of those bunkers, eh Craig??

JUNE: We journeyed to Lone Tree in Antioch. We were given the royal treatment, I must say. A lovely day it was with “Mother” getting a little goofy at the bar. (Well, an old guy has to have a LITTLE fun??)

June 24th. SF Pride Parade with yours truly “Mother” marching for the first time, along with Danny-boy. The wait was interminable, but once we started it was simply grand. Maybe next year, we can entice more of our gang to “represent” and join us for the frolicking…

JULY: Our Annual Breakfast/Luncheon meeting at beautiful, beautiful Mira Vista Country Club in El Cerrito. Again our many thanks go out to Deb Knowles and Chuck Smith for making this a spectacular event with the years best turn out. They are truly a treasure. We all played well, despite the capricious wind.

AUGUST: This was a trek up north to Monte Rio where we played Northwood, Danny's home course. I love this place. It has so much history for some of us, and “Mother” played, well, not too badly, I must say. Our dinner at the Union Hotel, followed by pub-crawling was also delightful. Ah, the Rainbow Cattle Company!! It hasn't changed a bit. And the Union Hotel...well, I'm sorry about the flies, but they just HAD to leave that door open, didn't they.

SEPTEMBER: This outing found us at Spanish Bay in world golf Mecca of Pebble Beach!! What a great place, right by the ocean. Who would have guess that we would have the incredible turn out that we did, thank you all. What began as a rainy, windswept day miraculously cleared up again, for Golden Gayt Golf, and we were treated to sea and sun from there on along with fantabulous golf! Myself, I had a terrific time, despite that my lunch got stolen by two big seagulls, (but they are BOLD little critters, eh?) Heck, Sam even had his own personal ball retriever! Just so he never lost one of his fashionable pink golf balls. Our day ended with the sound of bagpipes blowing in the breeze followed by a wonderful dinner at "Forge in the Forest" in Carmel. What a great place and time spent with great people.

OCTOBER: Can you say “ENDURO!!”? Here we separated the men from the boys and the women from the girls. Our host for this inaugural two-day event was Rancho Solano in Fairfield, and what a great course it is. They're a little tight on pace of play, and you HAVE to watch your tee shots on most of the holes, or else you could bean somebody rather nicely! But no body was hurt and we all had a swell time.

NOVEMBER: We shall see our season finale at Windsor. This is a real find, located in the heart of Russian River Wine Country! It rivals Oakmont for lovely scenery and playability. The bar is sure to be great . . . (skol!) They would like having us again for next year . . . should the participants’ reviews turn our favorable! And, what wicked, wicked par threes they have!!

Ours is such a great club. We wish to thank each and every one of you who joined us at some point along the way. United, as we are, by our own individual identities, and by that enticing, intractable game with the little white ball (or pink in some players case). It is so great that a collection of “diverse people” can come together and do something that is wholesome and fun. It does our community good and I am proud to be a part of it. I personally have enjoyed this year as your leader, and thank you all for the privilege of doing so.

Please, continue to help us with your great support as you have in the past, and we will have many, many more wonderful outings in the future. Plans are already in the works for 2008 and it looks to be another fabulous year of friends, family and golf in a diverse way on the fairways of San Francisco Bay Area’s golf courses.

If you wish to share your comments, please feel free to do so. You can send them to Danny at drbeaver1@comcast.net &/or myself, Gerald at geraldfitz4@comcast.net, thank you very much.

Meanwhile, do have a Blessed Holiday Season and…be ready to roll in February, Dears!!

If you are interested in keeping up with the plans for the 2010 Gay Games, click on the 2010 Gay Games in Colone website, and bookmark it.



Sincerely,
Gerald Fitzsimmons (a.k.a. Mother)
2007 President
&
Danny Beaver
Golden Gayt Golf
Team San Francisco