The Legends Golf Club at Temeka Hills.

Between waiting for decent weather and trying to allow some time for my elbow to potentially heal a little I was looking forward to finally playing my new "home course", The Legends Golf Club at Temeka Hills. Its about a twenty minute drive from where I live in Temecula and it looks like a pretty nice place overall. The course is in a development of some sort but I never felt the houses were crowding the course much at all.

The par five 13th hole at Legends

My elbow seemed fine after hitting a few balls on the range while wearing this brace thingy I bought a while ago, however by the end of the round it was fairly sore. I suspect that might be to the fact that once I ran into all the foursomes in front of me my body cooled down between shots. I had to wait 10-15 minutes at times, even while the people were letting me play through. Today it doesn't feel bad at all but I'm going to try to leave it alone until I hit the range on Tuesday.

As far as the round itself, well, it was kinda strange to me, especially the back nine. I started off well with a good par on the 1st and a nice birdie on the 2nd, but I doubled the par-3 third after hitting over the green and leaving myself pretty much dead above the hole. I should have salvaged a bogey but a 3-putt killed that idea. In fact, outside the short birdie putt on the 2nd I was pretty horrid with the putter. I couldn't find the right speed all day.

This is where some of the good luck/bad luck started. The fourth hole was an uphill par five that had a strange cement access structure right in the middle of the fairway. I wish I took a picture of it, though it was "guarded" by a big mound designed to deflect shots around it I guess. Anyway, I was close to the green in two and hit what I though was a nice pitch to a front hole location but I landed the ball right on the edge of the fringe and it stopped dead in its tracks instead of bouncing and releasing to the hole. No real loss as it was a simple up and down from there. The fifth was another par five, my tee shot was left and in the trees. Fortunately I had a shot out and laid up for a wedge to the green, which was over water. That next shot didn't look like it was going to make it but it just caught the green and I was lucky I didn't back it off the green. Two shaky putts for par there and a par on the par-3 sixth led me the the first of many foursomes I'd have to get through the rest of the day.

The eighth was another bad break/good break hole. Its a short par-4 with the green protected by water short and right. I hit 3-wood, but a little left, certainly in play. However, the ball was hanging on a check of grass to the point that I thought if I put my club near it it was roll away. It was sitting below my feet as well so the stance was awkward also. I only had sand wedge in so I had that going for me. However, I didn't play enough to the left to account for the lie and the ball hit the very right side of the green, then spun to the right and down a hill toward the water. Luckily, I found another little chunk of grass that was strong enough to keep the ball from going any further. I took par and ran.

A bogey on nine finished off a front side 39, not too bad with all things considered since I had to work through another foursome on that hole. I roll up on the tenth where yet another group was teeing off. However, they didn't offer to let me play on so I had to wait about fifteen minutes for them to clear out. Right about there it seemed that I first really felt my elbow getting sore. I hit two really nice shots there though, the second was right over the flag but a bit long. I missed the par putt by about 600 yards though and got took bogey there.

I got through that group on the eleventh (bogey) and headed to the par-4 12th. My drive was decent enough but I hit the next into the greenside bunker. I found the hard pan portion of the trap though and worried that I wouldn't be able to get through it enough without bouncing off and skulling it to parts unknown. Instead I holed out for birdie! I hadn't done that in, shit I don't know, fifteen years maybe? I've holed out a bunch of chips and pitches from grass but I never seem to get any luck from the sand, until now.

On 13, I caught a shitty lie again but was lucky on the second shot that it didn't roll into the water. The shot I hit was just fine, I thought, but it took a hard kick right and kept rolling. I had thought the water was near the green, not the layup shot on this par-5. The ball managed to stop about a foot short of the hazard and was actually in a good spot. I still took a bogey as the putter failed again.

After a par on 14, I had to play through another group on the par-3 15th. Like on the 3rd, I was in between clubs and had to hit a choke-down 5-wood since I do not have a 3-iron in the bag. I probably backed off the swing a bit also and hooked it left, pin-high but on a hill short-sided to the hole. Nothing that a lob wedge can't fix! I hit what I thought was a perfect shot, just landing on the fringe and taking a soft hop, however when that first hop landed it just stopped dead, finding a little bare spot between the fringe and the green and rolling halfway out of it. I thought there would be almost no way to keep that ball short and yet I found a way to do it. The good news? I only had about a 12-foot chip so I simply knocked that in for par. Easy game.

On to 16, a shortish dogleg left par four. I hit driver since it was playing uphill and into a breeze, however the dogleg was a bit shorter than I thought it was and my ball went through the fairway into the bunker. The trap looked like it was recently worked on as the edges were about a foot or so lower than it would normally be if it actually had some sand in it. My ball decided to roll up against said lip so I had no choice but to blast out to the fairway, where I hit an awful wedge into a greenside version of the same thing. So what might have been my most solid drive of the day lead me to laying three in this dirt hole. No worries, I nearly holed that one out too! It hit the pin and instead of going in the ball decided to hang on the lip. Simple bogey, really.

However, all of these shots in the sand wasn't good for the elbow, I could feel it aching now. All the start/stop play while waiting for people and eventually playing through didn't help either. On the 17th I hit another dirt hole with my tee shot and promptly chunked that out, that one really hurt. But, even with a pretty severe downhill/ball above my feet lie I was able to coax a wedge onto the green and actually had a decent look at par, which I raked horribly toward some unknown destination.

Right then is when I got a call. Seems that while my phone was in my pocket it decided to call 911 for me. It took me a bit to explain that I was using an app on the phone as a GPS while playing golf and it most likely left the phone open to bounce around other stuff and call by mistake, but that merely killed a little time while yet another foursome managed to tee off on 18. I still had to wait what seemed like an hour for these guys to finally clear out of the way. Despite that delay, I managed to make one last solid swing with the driver. I couldn't see it land but the line looked perfect so I jumped into the cart and chased it. Instead of the middle of the fairway, my ball somehow decided to bounce/roll/skip left and found another dirt hole. I was fairly stunned, I had to double check to make sure it was my ball. I didn't think I was even close to the trap when I hit it. Anyway, after another lengthy wait I tried to hit 5-iron out so I could wedge up to the green since this was a par-5. Instead, I caught the lip and left it in the trap/dirt hole. The second time got out though, where I managed to hit on and somehow 2-putted for bogey to shoot 80 on the day.

So, if I could have figured out the greens a little I could have shot something like 76. Without some of the hole-outs and stuff, I could have shot 85. After thinking about it all, 80 does seem about right. I only hit five fairways and five greens but it sure seemed like I hit more than that. I did catch the fringe on a few approach shots, from which I then did a horrible job trying to get down in two. Technically I had 29 putts but it felt like I had 40, I just couldn't do anything on the greens at all. I actually spent about 30 minutes on their practice green trying to figure out what the hell was going on, which I think I have. Maybe.

So, the swing still doesn't feel right. I still feel like I have to do it with mirrors or something. There is too much "effort" to get the ball going where I want it to go. Even when I hit a solid shot, it feels forced. My gut feeling is telling me to try to get the ball back further in my stance, or at least feel like it is. I still have this scooping feeling at the bottom of the swing, like I'm coming up at the ball. So, assuming I have no trouble with the elbow this week I'll give it another go on the range and then end up playing somewhere else on Saturday. I'm not sure where I'll go but I have plenty of options to choose from around here. Maybe by then I'll have a better idea of what I'm doing. We'll see.

Rancho California

I finally found some time to post a bit about my latest round of golf. I decided to stay in town and play a local track called The Golf Club at Rancho California. I had practiced a few times here as they do have a rather nice short game area along with a pretty decent range. I noticed that the place looked like it was in pretty good condition, especially compared to the other courses I've played so far.

I didn't play particularly well, shooting 85, though the course wasn't the easiest I've ever played. Part of that was my right elbow giving me some trouble. I originally had issues with it around July and while it will bother me when I first start to warm up it usually goes away and I don't even think about it the rest of the day, however this time was different. I wonder if it may have been due to what I was trying to accomplish with my swing (obviously wrong) and thus the extended trouble. I was definitely doing something different as I was missing to the right instead of left like I usually do.

Despite that, I really liked the course. The first hole is a par five that goes significantly downhill, giving you a nice view of the valley.

The first hole at Rancho California

The third hole was even more pronounced, again giving another terrific view from the tee down to the fairway of this pretty cool par four.

The third hole at Rancho California

While these were the most pronounced elevation changes on the course, the track did have a good bit of change in elevation throughout. One thing that I wasn't ready for was the speed of the greens. I ended up above the hole quite a bit during the round but two time in particular was just absolute death. I had an 8-footer for par that nearly holed out but ended up as a 20-something-footer for bogey. I haven't seen a putt like that in a long time. I found something similar on the last, where I tried to putt from the fringe from about 40 feet and it ended up traveling about 65 instead.

The quick greens didn't bother me, next time I'll be ready for it and just try to remember to stay below the hole. One thing I didn't like were the bunkers, which I had occasion to find a few too many times. They were lacking in the actual sand that a bunker generally requires, leaving me to bounce into a few of those shot no matter how much I tried to adjust for it. I imagine all of the rain we've had was a big reason why they were like that so again I can't be too upset. I'll just see if I can't avoid them when I play it again.

My elbow is doing better now so I think I probably just pushed it a bit too much. I had been going out to hit the range for lunch during the week and then try some more on the weekends whenever the weather allows. If a string of good days comes along I want to take advantage before the next storm front comes through and I probably shouldn't be doing that quite so much. I need to learn to mix in the short game a bit more often. Once the spring and summer comes and the rain becomes a nonfactor I'll be better able to pace myself when it comes to that. I broke down and bought one of these elbow strap thingys, just in case I end up needing it. Will it help? Maybe for healing and recovery, I don't know if it'll really help while I play. Maybe we'll try wearing it the next time I practice and see what happens.

Diamond Valley

Last weekend I ventured back out to the Hemet area to play Diamond Valley Golf Club. Since I had read that this place wasn't located within a housing development I figured it was worth a try. Its a little desolate, there isn't a whole hell of a lot out where the course is, in fact I have no idea where Hemet even was in relation to the course. Still, the views were nice and the course seemed to be in decent shape compared to what I've seen recently.

I played pretty well overall, shooting 80 from the regular tees. The course is a little quirky, which I generally like even when it might cost me a shot or two from the eventual surprises. The greens are huge, like what Rock Springs Ridge was like in Apopka. Perhaps even bigger. They certainly had some undulations, the greens that close out each nine were triple-tiered. They also had several holes where there was a cliff-like effect to the fairways, if you missed to one side or drove through certain areas your ball would be ten, fifteen or even more below the level of the short grass.

One hole on the back, I think it was the 14th, was a short par four that could be considered reachable. The guys that were playing with me said to be careful of going to the right. No problem, my miss is left at the moment so I felt I'd give it a go. I hit it what looked like about ten feet left of my target line but a little high, so I figured I'd be a little short-left of the green. Nope. Seems the left side also had a cliff falloff and it seemed quite severe. My ball ended up pin high but it rolled waaaay left down the hill onto the fairway of the next hole. My lie was horrid though and I pitched over the green, ended up with a bogey. Could have been worse. If I play there again I think I'll just punch a five-iron down the fairway and take my chances that way.

As far as my overall play, I started well. I was 1-over after six holes but ended up with a 41 on the back, going bogey-double-bogey to close the nine. I then started the back bogey-par-double as things just weren't going my way. I had two three-putts, a chunked wedge, and a couple of poor drives that did me no favors. The last six holes I managed to get back on track, going even par the rest of the way to finish 41-39=80 for the day. I birdied the 15th (a bounce back after the aforementioned 14th) and had good chances on 16 and 18 that went begging.

It wasn't the most difficult course despite what some people would consider the tricked-up greens and fall-away fairways, but for the most part you could see what you were getting into. There was a few holes with some water in play that gave the place a little different look from the rest of it but overall I thought it was a fun track. The pace of play, on the other hand, was kinda horrid. We teed off just after noon and finished just as it was starting to get a little dark, nearly five hours. Since some of the holes had more of a desert/waste type rough it could be difficult to find a ball after having it bounce around in there. That seemed to be the issue with the group ahead of us anyway.

So, I don't know if I really made improvements on what I've started. I hit ten greens and a number of those iron shots were pretty good but overall I felt pretty average. Putting was fine, I made the short ones and the two three putts were from quite a distance on these big, undulating greens. Off the tee I had a little more trouble that the last time. I have a feeling I'm releasing the right arm early, trying to cover the ball and get my hands in front as I come into contact. Since I pull it left pretty much every time I miss I'm thinking that needs to be something to address in the next week (as I write this I don't think I'll play tomorrow, possible rain and it could be a bit cooler than I like).

I think next time I play I'll actually try to play somewhere around here if I can get a good enough deal. I'm technically a member of the golf club at The Legends Club Club at Temeku Hills since that is where I was assigned by the SCGA when I got my GHIN number, I'm thinking I oughta play there a couple times. Murrieta itself has two courses, California Oaks Golf Club and The Golf Club at Rancho California. The first one is a short par 70 track within a senior living development of some sort. I've walked up there, from what I've seen its in decent shape. The latter I've seen from the road, its a bit more run down but its a Robert Trent Jones Sr. design so it might have potential.

We'll see what happens next.

Who told me it doesn't rain in SoCal?

Liars.

No golf to report due to the weather here the last couple of weeks. If there isn't rain its been a touch on the cool side. Being one that lived in Florida the majority of my life I have to admit I'm a bit of a wuss once the temperate drops below par. To be honest its not as bad due to the (generally) lower humidity, sometimes 60 here feels better than 68 in Orlando or Houston ever did.

While I haven't played I have planned on playing. I took the plunge and put together a golf trip to Hawaii over Memorial Day. I figured I'm as close as I'll ever get so I might as well take advantage of that fact. I decided to go to the Big Island since I have always wanted to play Mauna Kea. I'll also play the Hapuna Golf Course since I'm staying at that resort. Since they will be doing maintenance at Hapuna in the weeks just before I'm to arrive they're letting me play Mauna Kea three times instead of going twice on each. Seeing that Mauna Kea is the premium loop I'm coming out just fine on that deal.

I'll have some time on Saturday afternoon so I'm either going to take a look around as a regular tourist or find another course to play on my own, maybe Big Island Country Club or Waikoloa Village.  The Champions Tour is playing at Hualalai this week and from what I've seen on the tele its pretty nice. Its not far from where I'll be but I'm not sure I can play there without staying at the Four Seasons so that might not pan out.

In the slightly more immediate future I do have a trip to Las Vegas in early April, just a weekend trek so that I can play with my good friend Bill Zimmerman once again. Since I want to use my GolfNow Hot Deal gift card thingy I can't really plan out anything so far in advance but I have some ideas depending on the April rates. I've played at The Paiute Golf Resort in the past and enjoyed it so that's an option since they have three good tracks to choose from. One course thay I have always wanted to play in the past is Reflection Bay but I had read that they may have had some trouble recently, I'm not sure of its status. There are a host of others in the area and we might just have to see what the cost is and go from there, however if Wolf Creek is listed on GolfNow then I will definitely have to take Bill out there. I've played it twice in the past and there just isn't anything quite like it. Its about an hour drive to Mesquite, NV but it is so worth the trip.

If I don't get to Wolf Creek in April, well, I am going back in July so I'll just have to play it then. Since I'm using the timeshare that I was convinced into getting (against my better judgment) by my wonderful late wife all those years ago I figured I might as well use it and not have to spend any money for a hotel. They allowed me to split the week in half so it worked out well enough. I'm not sure I want to go to Vegas twice a year each and every year though so hopefully I'll figure out a way to trade it for a golf package somewhere else next year.

Hmm, its not raining anymore, how nice. The army of frogs are out in force, I can hear those bastards over the television, sheesh. Anyway, hopefully my next entry will actually involve playing golf instead of dreaming about the future.

First Round of 2017 : Seven Hills Golf Club

Seven Hills Golf Club is about 30 minutes from me in a place called Hemet, California. This was a typical residential community course that winds through houses in a over-55 neighborhood. It reminded me a bit of Royal Oaks Golf Club in Ocala, Florida. This course isn't as good or as fun as Royal Oaks could be but for $21 on GolfNow I figured it was worth taking the new sticks out for their maiden voyage.

The sticks did just fine, the operator had issues with a snap hook on the range and to my dismay I carried it to the course for the first two holes, going bogey/double on two fairly easy looking holes. Fortunately I found a way to straighten it out for most of the day, though it crept back on me late in the round. The best thing I took away from the day were the three 7-irons I hit on the back nine that gave me reason to think I'm doing something right.

The first two came on the par three holes. The first one was 154 to the pin, but with a slight tailwind. I  made what felt like a nice swing and saw the ball fly the pin by about 6-8 yards, a solid poke for me with a 7. Two putts gave me par and I was on my way. The next par three was at 155 and no wind, but from what I could see from the tee being short was better than long so again I hacked at it with the 7. Again, the ball landed about 6 yards deep and settled at the back of the green.

The last was on the 18th. I hooked my drive so I had to punch out down the fairway on this par 5 and left myself with 152 yards to the pin according to ye olde rangefinder. The ball was sitting down just a little so I figured we'd try the 7-iron again since the pin was in the back and had plenty of room short in case it came out low. Nope, I caught it pretty clean and flew the green, about 5 yards past the pin. All three had a nice little draw also, starting just right of the flag and crossing over just left of it.

Those three swings were solid and in pretty calm conditions. I hit a few other solid iron shots but with shorter clubs, I hit my gap wedge about 105 a couple of times, which was about 5 yards longer than I'd have expected. Of course, I had a bunch of other swings that were not so good so they were tough to judge for correct distance. I hit a 6-iron about 165 but I hooked it, another 7-iron I had felt a little heavy. Overall, it sure felt like the irons were giving me something more than the old ones were.

The driver, when I wasn't yanking it left, was also nice and solid. I hit it a little higher than I had on the range but it felt better than the old King Cobra did overall. I never had a chance to try either of the fairway metals though, I'll have to wait until next time to see if I get a spot to try them. The new putter worked out well, I think I had 28 putts for the round, making a couple of knee-knocking short par putts and drained a 25 footer for birdie on the seventh. I'm thinking the heavier putter could be to my liking.

Oh, my score? I recovered from the bad start to shoot 78 (39-39), though the course was only rated at 69.7/118 and was just over 6300 yards. Again, my bad shots didn't find a lot of trouble except on the second hole and my indifferent ones that missed the green gave me some fairly simple chips and pitches (which the new 60-degree wedge performed beautifully with). Naturally I was pretty happy about it.

I still have a lot of work to do on the swing though, I need to be able to repeat what I did on those three 7-irons more consistently with all of the clubs more often. I also need to figure out the right combination of ball position and tee height on the driver. I won't be playing forgiving courses every time and a few of these wayward shots would have cost me a bit more somewhere else.

Hopefully the weather holds up next week so I can try again, with rain in the forecast I'm not sure I can get any practice in during my lunch in the coming week. For now, I'll close this out and finish watching the National Championship Game. I'll root for Clemson though I feel Alabama might be the eventual winner. We'll see!

2017

OK, now that we've kicked 2016 to the curb we can concentrate on the future, right? Sure.

To update the blog thingy here I thought I'd at least put down on internet paper the fact that I did get new clubs for myself. I am fully decked out new G-series irons, driver and fairway metals. I even bought a new Ping putter since the one I messed with at the store really felt good in my hands. I almost didn't get the putter because of the sentiment I had with the old Ping Anser I've been using for years but I always suspected it was too light. I can always go back to it if I want.

If the weather here will clear up by next weekend I'll try to play as I'm itching to see how the new sticks fare out on the course. I did get to try them when I had another session with the teaching pro but that's just not the same. The biggest change won't be the clubs but this swing improvement I'm trying to incorporate. I've always been a hands player and I know that I use them too much in my swing. I have some pretty good hand-eye coordination (from what I'm told by these pros) so I can get away with it when I play sometimes, but I know I'm losing out on some power and consistency.

So I've been trying to improve my weight shift so that it starts the downswing, allowing my arms to stay back a bit and create some lag and stay behind the ball like one should, but I couldn't figure out why I was having so much trouble with it. I was once known for having an extended pause at the top, which was the time I'd make the shift. I'm wasn't necessarily looking to repeat that but, as one does in the 21st century, I started using Google for stuff. One place led to another, and another, and then after a while it hit me as to why I couldn't stay behind the ball. I wasn't starting there to begin with.

In my ever constant fight to try and align myself properly I ended up getting my head in front of the ball at setup. From there I would either have to sway back or dip my head to get behind it, or do some other move to get into a position to strike the ball, like flip my hands. When I went to try and do that with a club in hand, I also discovered that I was leaning too far forward also, my shoulders were quite a bit in front of my toes, so I could lose my balance also.

After making those adjustments my swing now feels a lot more like the one that the teaching pro has had me rehearse with him directing the swing. I can keep my head in a steady position now while my body rotates around my spine better, especially on the follow thru, after where contact would be. With the crappy weather here lately I haven't been able to hit a ball and see the results as there is so much you can do with a shorter swing, hitting a ball into an oversized bed pillow leaning against a wall. The last thing I want to do is create some holes in the apartment.

So for now, we wait. We'll fiddle with it some more indoors and hope the light comes on a little brighter in the future. But until I can get outside I have to wonder if I've actually made any progress.

Poker is gone but I have this blog so I might as well use it for golf

I forgot I still had ownership of this until today. I figured that since I'm now focused on playing golf again after what happened in the summer I might as well look into using it, even if no one in the world outside of myself ever sees it.

Since relocating to Murrieta, CA I've had the chance to play four times with scores staying the the low 80s. They haven't been the toughest courses but its still better than I thought it would be. I took some lessons in hopes of rediscovering a few things and so far its helped. I've made a few purchases (a new bag, a rangefinder and of course some golf balls) and I've started a stretching routine as well. I need shed a few pounds, well, more like 10-15 (but who counts those anyway) and I realize I'm closer to 50 than 40 years old also.

Still, until the calendar turns to 2017 I won't feel that I've really turned the page on the old stuff and started something fresh and new. There is too much in 2016 that I'd like to leave behind and I'd avoid revisiting it as much as I can. I don't know if I even use this blog or if it'll even see the light of the internet day, but if I do it'll start in January. Don't hold your breath, though.