Movie Review

I saw the new Indiana Jones movies last night.

Go see Iron Man.

Little Revenge

As golf season continues on Squash is coming to an end for myself. I've got a few more games left in the spring leagues and then I'll be gearing down to just 1 night a week for the summer league to focus on golf. You can tell at the club that just about everyone has chosen to ditch the club and maybe spend sometime doing something outside.

Last night a had a rematch with Mary Jane. Some of my reagular readers may remember her as the girl that beat me a while back. Well I didn't forget either and I made sure I got back at her. Again she stepped on the court and started wailing away at the ball. Over and over agian, she's just pounding the ball at the wall, running up and hitting drop shots to her self, really putting the effort into her warm up. Ridiculous if you ask me. I was practically falling asleep inbetween hitting a few shots amongst her madness.

Anyways, she warms up for about 10 mins and finally says she's good to go. I won the toss and begun the clinic. No way this chick was beating me again, especially after I recently lost to a girl in bowling. If i lost to a girl at something again I'm not sure I'd be able to handle it. I started off with a normal serve but wasn't getting anywhere with it so changed up to a lob sreve to the back corners, which turned out to be a great idea. With no answer to my serve I was quickly ringing up the points and before I knew it I was up 2 games, both won with sweet drop serves that she totally whiffed at.

3rd game I got up 8-6, but she came back and beat me 10-8. In the 4th game I fell behind 6-4 but got serious and battled back to win 10-8. I hadn't played in a little while, had someone not show up 2 weeks ago and was on a bye week last week. However, I played pretty well. Made a lot of good digs, and my drop shot was still on point.

I havent' been doing to well in the leagues so far this spring. Not playing enough now that it's golf season and stop taking leassons cause it was taking up golf time. I'll play tuesday nights over the summer to stay in shape for the fall, but thats about it for squash for the time being.

Up, Down, and Up again

Couldn't think of a better title to the post to describe my golf game this weekend.

It started off on Friday when I took off a little early from work to play with my buddy Preston out at Heron Point. We used to play all the time on fridays but now that we've both become a little more busy at work this has become a rare day for us. Luckly the weather was great for the first time this year and we got off around 3:00. I started off bogey, par, bogey and then caught fire. I made a birdie on the first 650 yard par 5. After a crappy rescue on the short par 4 5th, I hit a great 4 iron 210 up hill to the right side of the green and made the up and down for par. Followed up with a great 3rd shot PW into the par 5 6th to about 1 foot for a tap in birdie to get back to even. Bogey on the 7th, but followed with a birdie on the 170 yard downhill par 3 8th after hitting a 3/4 6 iron to about 5 feet. Unfortunatly I pushed my driver on 9 (first bad drive of the day) and had to try and fade a ball around a big tree on the right side of the fairway. Only problem was it didn't fade and I ended up losing a ball and making a double, ala Matt, but shooting a very good 38. I kept it going for a bit on the back untill the 14th hole. I mis clubed on my approach cause I let bd thoughts get in my head. I was worried about flying the green and losing my ball in the woods so i hit it short instead into this awful bunker. Didn't get out on the first try, over hit the green on the second, duffed the chip onto the green, missed the putt, and made a triple. parred the next hole, but doubled the easy 140 yard par 3 16th when i found the bunker again. Made a good par on the long par 5 17th, and a good par on 18 barely missing my 20 footer for birdie to shoot 79. The way I've been playing till now made this a great score from the tips out there. Solid day.

Saturday was a downer day. Maybe due to being tired or something I played horribly. Couldn't hit the ball. Driver was awful, irons were awful, short game was bad, and my putting was o.k. Only problem was even though my putting was on, i was constantly taking +10 footers for par instead of birdie so couldn't score. Shot an 86 that should of been worse. Left the course on saturday very unhappy with my game.

Sunday was the second event of the Niagara Mens tour at Grand Niagara. As previously posted I made a bold prediction of shooting under 80 for my first time on the tour. Thanks to a great tip from Cal and Bernie on saturday I was feeling great coming off the range. Both suggested I narrow my stance, perticularly on my drive. Basically as soon as I did this my swing was amazing. Such a simple change and I was hitting everything dead straight with ease. There was a 1.5 hour delay due to booking issues with the course so I had plenty of time to prepare. Not going to go into huge details cause it was kind of boring round, but i played great. Started off well going par, par on the first 2 holes. Missed a 4 footer for birdie on the first hole. made 3 bogeys in a row next after missing short par putts on each. Got back on track untill the 8th where i made a double after chipping out of trouble, and a bogey on 9 after missing another short par putt. The putter really failed me yesterday. Irons and driver were maybe the best i've been all year, but putter was awful. Made the turn at 6 over but feeling good enough to go 36 on the back. Had a tough chip from behind the green on 10 after shortsiding myself. Duffed my first attempt but then chipped in for bogey. 11th which is the number 1 stroke hole, I hit a great drive to 150 out, 8 iron to the hole which landed 2 inches from the cup and checked hard stopping about 1.5 feet from the cup. Of course, i missed the putt and then proceeded to get verbally abused by my group, but all in good fun. Made a great par on the tough par 3 12th, bogey on 13. Made another good par on 14. After a huge drive on 15 I had 230 left to the green. I hit a very nice 4 iron pin high just off the green, chipped to about 4 feet, and missed the birdie putt again. Just couldn't putt today. made par on 16 and I'm standing on the 17th 1 shot away from my goal. This is where I screwed up. I let some stupid blog post dictate my game when i was putting together one of my best round on tour ever. I hit a perfect drive to 270 yards out. Fully knowing I can't reach the green even with my 2 iron rescue I hit it anyways thinking I'll get it close and chip and putt for a birdie. So instead of hitting a safe 4 iron to 70 yards I go for the other club that will putt me 29 yards away and push it into trouble. I had to chip out again, got it to about 15 feet for a par putt and missed by 2 inches. Stupid. On 18 I hit a great drive to 140 yards. The pin was tucked in the bottom right hand corner of the green with a huge bunker covering the whole right side, and wide open green to the left. I bet you can guess what I did next. Of course, I went right at the pin and got punished for being greedy. Went in the bunker short side, impossible to leave it close cause I'm coming out of the trap with about 8 feet of green going away from me. I left it about 25 feet for par and missed the putt to finish bogey, bogey and shot 82. It's a shame this score could have easily been 80, and even worse that it totally could have been 77 had I made 3 of the 6 putts I had from inside 5 feet. But I still finished with my best score on a tour event, finished 20th (out of 60 i think), and most importantly beat Matt for the first time on tour. So needless to say I was extremely happy with my performance. I was actually very nervous for the whole round cause I was playing well but stayed commited on every shot, didn't let it bother me. Well, i guess it bothered me a little with my putting, especially from 1.5 feet for birdie, lol.

My game is improving. With the stance change I think it's going to get even better. My tournament play is getting better as seen with my improvement from one tourny to the next this year. Now if I could just put it all together this weekend I can get into the Langly Cup and start getting my handicapp down. I'm running out of time to be a 2.

What an awful long weekend

So as the seasons seems to be coming and going a month later then years past, another May 24 long weekend passed with shit weather. saturday it rained, sunday it rained some more, and monday was really cold and windy. What a sweet weekend to play 3 rounds of golf. I guess I shouldn't complain, atleast anymore then I did all weekend, I was playing golf instead of sitting on the couch the whole day.

I showed up to the course bright and early on saturday all ready to test drive my new swing changes. I could hardly sleep friday night thinking about how well I was going to play this weekend now that I could hit the ball again. Hard to day if I actually did play better this weekend. My scores wouldn't really say so, but how much the weather was to blame for my poor scores is debatable.

Saturday was a normal small group of myself, Cal, Bernie, and Gary. I got off to a rocky start taking three shots to get to the 150 yard marker on the first hole. So far the swing changes weren't working very well. Taking a triple on the first hole would make the day a trying one. I believe I was bogey, bogey, bogey, bogey, on the first 5 holes untill I decided to actually start playing. As i started to get in a groove and my swing was doing what it wa supposed to, i finished the round 1 over to shoot 80. we got rained on twice, once having to find shelter to avoid getting struck by lightning, and just played through the second time. I thought this was s decent round, good progress coming off last weekend with something to look forward to for the next 2 days. I played well enough to almost beat Bernie in a straight up match play. I was 4 down walking up the 9th fairway and managed to get it all the way back to 1 down standing on the 18th tee after birdie on the 17th. Only problem was I over swung for maybe the second time of the day and hit a big huge fade over the fence and out of bounds. Very disapointing after grinding so hard for 11 previous holes.

Sunday was a doomed day from the start. Waking up to cold and cloudy skies I pretty much knew we were in for a rainy day on the course. So i chose my group wisely making sure I would be able to play through it without my group quiting. Again, Bernie, Cal, and myself played, this time being joined by Jon. We cleared with Jon before hand that he would play through the rain. On the 11th hole the rain started coming down pretty hard. Of course I look over to see Gary and the rest of the group walking in as the rain stopped half way down the hole. Gary pulled the same shit on saturday so wasn't a big surprise. We continued on in hopes of the rain stopping, but it wasn't meant to be. Playing the whole back 9 in the rain sucked, and it was cold. Again, very difficult scoring conditions, and I was only able to shoot 83. Thinking this was just awful I realized everyone else i nthe group was just as high, even Bernie, so I guess it wasn't that bad. I had challenged Bernie again, this time getting it to 2 down standing on the 17th tee, but we both parred and bernie won again.

Monday was slightly sunny at times but super windy and freezing. With a triumphant return of the greatest golfer I know (Matt) to links it was a new day where I was sure I was going to post a decent score to secure my spot in the Langley Cup. Forcing everyone to play the black tees on this crappy day also probably secured my spot at the biggest asshole in the morning group, oh well. Started out pretty good untill the 5th hole where I made a triple bogey. I also made a double on the 18th (9th hole of the day) hitting O.B. again to shoot 41. Figured I would just par out the back and post a 77, but of course that wasn't meant to be either. The wind and cold proved to much for myself and I ended up shooting another 40 on the back. 81 isn't going to get me in the the Cup, so next saturday I'll have to play much better. Should be better weather so I'll have a shot.

All in all, the swing was drastically improved. Distance was back, I hit the ball well except for maybe 2 or 3 over swings, and I have to continue to concentrate on turning over my hands on the follow through and making sure to fully rotate my upper body through the ball with a nice finish. I am positive under better conditions I could have scored better, so I'm really looking forward to this weeks Niagara Mens tour event at Grand Niagara. I've played the course numerous times. Last year I broke 80 out there in a business round of golf, and I played it 2 years ago in a Tour event, so I'm very familiar with the course. I'll get out to the range once or twice this week, weather permitting, and take one more lesson from Ryan on thursday. This is going to be my best showing at a tour event. Mark it down. I WILL BREAK 80.

In other golf news, my quest for being a 2 still isn't going as planned. The lack of 70's in the handicapp report is seriously hurting my chances at this point. With only 2 scores out of maybe 20 rounds this year, I'm making this much more difficult then it should be. If only I was as good as the best golfer I know. I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be like Matt, like Matt, if I could be like Matt.

A Renewed Love

After my awful showing on the weekend and a quick 10 minute fix on the range, I believe I have found what I was looking for in my golf swing. Ryan had given me a "fix" to work on for the week leading up to a full lesson thursday night and I love the direction it's going in.

Pretty much discovered that my issue is in my hands. I was coming through the ball and leaving my hands open all the way through the swing thus pushing the ball right and leaving the club open through my down swing. This was causing the vast majority of my frustration on the weekend, aswell as causing me to loose so much distane.

So the quick fix he asked me to work on was basically trying to hook the ball on purpose. I'm setting up to the target and then pulling my back foot behind my front (almost like I'm setting up for a draw) and then coming through with the club with a hook swing mostly concentrating on turning over my hands on contact. I hit the range last night with this in my head and actually fund I was hitting the ball better then ever. Perfect ball flight and actually gaining some distance.

I was feeling comfortable with it, so I joined up with our buddy Mike for a quick 9. I got out on the course and it was a whole new world. I get these feelings every so often where I'm so excited about how good my swing is feeling that I just want to play golf all the time to get it down. I was hitting the ball 100 times better then the weekend. I actually even gained some yardage on my clubs. I was hitting 7 irons about 175-180 and back to hittin PW 150. The positive on this was it was a controlled swing, not my over swing from a last year. I was taking nice smooth well tempoed (don't think thats a word) swings and flying the ball perfectly with a slight draw even. So huge progress in only a few days.

I talked to ryan after the round just to see where he was going with this and I'm looking forward to seeing the results. I'd prefer to be a little more square to my target, which I believe I will be, and I need a little more work and understanding on how to use this with my driver. I know it won't be that much different then a swing with my irons, but i do know it will be drastically improved.

So my love of the game is back, not that it really went anywhere, and I'm really looking forward to playing this weekend and trying out the improvements. I could already feel the better contact and see the results even though I haven't got to where I will be after thursday. So check back tuesday to read all about my great weekend of golf.

Weekend of horrible golf

EDIT: add greatest birdie I ever made.


I played golf twice this weekend. Shot 82 both times and wanted to break every club in my bag. I can't remember the last time I was so frustrated with my game. I'm not sure I made solid contact with my irons more then a handful of times. Probably the most frustrating thing is Matt is hitting his drivers and irons longer then me now. I try not to let him know, but it's driving me nuts so I'm over swinging trying to chase him and it's cause me to be even worse. I know i've lost something in my swing cause I'm having to up club almost 2 clubs to get certain distances. My short game is actually pretty good. Very confident in my chipping and putting could be better but is still o.k.

I had a quick fix lesson with ryan right after my round, and have some things I have to practice before my lesson on thursday. Should be better next week.

The one positive of the whole weekend, which I forgot to mention due to the ridiculous high level of frustration I experienced on the course, was the most amazing birdie I have ever made playing golf. On #15 at St. Catharines measuring I think 565 I was realing after 5 straight boogies (lol) and decided to bomb away on the par 5 to try for birdie. Of course over swinging I completely blow my drive and duck hook it hard left about 75 yards off the fairway into a fairway bunker on the left side of the 6th hole. From the bunker I attempted to hit my 3 iron rescue only to lift my head and get it out maybe 30 yards. Still playing from the 6th hole rough and behind a tree with 260 yards to the green I hit possibly the best 2 Iron rescue I have ever hit with a slight fade around the tree and fly it to the green where it landed softly and rolled about 15 feet past the hole. I made a perfect stroke on the putt and rolled it in for the craziest birdie ever and even won the skin for the hole. So there is some good shots in my bag, just need to find more of them.

Did I really just do that?

On tuesday I headed up north (actually just a little north of tornoto) the The Club at Bond Head to play in the Ontario Mid-Am qualifier. This being my first time playing and my first season truly teasting myself in competitive golf I wasn't expecting much other then gaining the experience for fututre tournys.

This can play as a long difficult course will over 7000 yards and a high rating over 140, but they had moved the tees up and cut the yardage down to match the other site where people were qualifiying. So we played at a 131 slope at about 6400 yards. The course had some big changes in elevation thoughout the course but the real challenge was on the green. Lots of undulation and a lot of the pins were either on the crest of a mound or justin the middle of the mound, can't remember and easy pin out there.

Started off a little nervous on the first hole leaving my birdie putt way short and missing the par putt to make boogie. Still nervous on the second hole missed a 2 footer for boogie making a double. Calmed down a little on the par 3 third hole when i drained a 30 footer for par. Took a big sigh of relief after that one. But couldn't put thing together making boogie on the next 3 holes. Thats when things got crazy. On the 7th hole par 5 I swing away with my driver and blast a big bomb down the middle of the fairway. Another guy in my group does the same and ends up right near me. This guy had to the be the most annoying person in the world talking the whole freaking time in my ear. Wish i didn't ride in the same cart as him. We get up to our ball play up the hole and when I get to the green and mark my ball i look down and realize it wasn't my ball. I had played the wrong ball. At first I look back to where i chipped up to the green just thinking I played the wrong ball, no big deal I go back find mine and continue. While I'm looking around the fucking guy who has been yaking in my ear all day takes a ball out of his pocket and sees my green dot on it. FUCK. I couldn't believe it we played each others ball after we teed off. At first this guy tries to say that all we do is switch back balls and chip again onto the green. But after some more swearing from me I tell him we have to go all the way back to our second shot and replay the hole with a 2 stroke penalty. I was so pissed and so embarresed at the same time. There was a group waiting to hit to the green, and a group that had just teed off. so we had to go back behind 2 groups and push them off to the side while we replayed the hole. From 350 yards out i put all my anger in to a rescue club and knock it to 100 yards out. Then i step up to the easy pitch shot and duff that followed by a lot of bad words very loudly while all these people watch. I eventually got up and down for a boogie plus 2 strokes and all of a sudden I'm 9 over after 7 holes. Pissed beyond belief I just start pounding the ball from here on out. No matter how short or how long the hole I just hit the ball as far as i could in the general direction of the green. What i found was not one single missed drive from there. Everyone almost 300 yards and dead down the middle. So i started to play well. I went 4 over for the rest of the round and really should have been maybe 2 over the rest of the round cause I took 1 or 2 chances I normally wouldn't have which cost me.

I went 46 on the front and 40 on the back to shoot a 86 which was atleast 8 strokes off the cut. I finshed T-53 out of 60 people. Not the results I was looking for, but atleast I didn't finish last.

Wet but good weekend

Big weekend for myself on the links. I started on saturday with the Niagara Mens Tour qualifier. Going in I knew it wasn't going to be to difficult to make the cut. Due to low demand this year, they made it so you broke 90 during the qualifier and your in. Out at Penn Lakes with that type of wiggle room I wasn't worried in the least.

So just as I'm about to tee off the rain starts. I had a grabbed a cart in the attempt to stay slightly dry, but that proved to be useless. It rained so much and at times so hard that there was no avoiding being soaked to the bone. It wasn't nearly as bad as the Mens Betterball with Matt where it was 3 or 4 degrees, atleast on saturday it was in the high teens which made being wet for 4.5 hours bearable. I also purchased a rain jacket the night before which helped a lot.

Not going to do the hole by hole recap. My round went o.k. I started off making a lot of boogies. But the key here was I kept my cool. I was only making boogies, no doubles or worse, and I was only making boogies cause of lipouts. The greens were also running surprisingly firm and fast for the conditions. So i didn't get angry. I was hitting the ball well other then a few misclubed shots. So i just kept grinding. Telling myself it will come.

I made the turn shooting a 7 over 42. The main thing was i could have been worse. The back nine went much better. I started making pars. It was crazy that I was playing better on the back cause it rained ever harder on the back 9. With the rain coming down sideways I made a par on 5 holes in a row. By this point I had totally given up on keeping my hands dry, went through every glove I had in my bag, had worked through 5 towels that were now to wet to bother with, but some how was making great shots and pars. I ended up booging the par three 17th to go into 18 4 over for the back when suddenly the rain stopped. First hole of the day with no rain. A short par 5 downwind. I blast a drive to about 210 yards from the pin. Played a nice little 4 iron to the left of the green which took a great bounce hard right and gave me an eagle putt from about 20 feet. I lagged it up and made the short birdie (only one of the day for me) and posted an 81. I was extremely happy with that under the conditions we played.

After playing I found out they were just letting everyone in who showed up. So wasn't that big a deal I made the cut. I took some pride in the fact that I finished 4th for the day. The low was 73, then a 77 and 78, and me. I think 4 or 5 guys didn't break 90, but they made the cut anyways.

So i played the first event on sunday of the Mens tour. Didn't play aswell as I wanted to. I basically had 2 bad holes. Took a 6 on the first par 3 cause I missed the green way short and right, had to chip around a tree, then on to the green. Then I missed my putt and stupidly akwardly tried to tap in for the double and missed a 3 incher. And on the back the nine I played a short 400 yard par 4 horribly and made a 7. So i through away 6 easy strokes and shot an 84. Obviously the old saying of could have been blah blah blah come to mind, but that shit won't work for me anymore. I have to stay focused for 18 holes, not 16.

The positive aspect i am taking from this weekend is that I was very comfortable playing. Not nearly as nervous as years passed and pushed through some rough holes, didn't get down on myself or frustrated. I missed a 2 footer on the first hole for par, and then that awful 6 on the second. Usually I would have just blown up but i cooled off on the way to the nest tee and made a solid par. Hopefully it's nice this weekend and I can get out to St. Catharines for a few relaxing rounds. Already played more tournys then I did all last year. Plus I need to start positing some rounds in the 70's like a true 2er would.

Golf Vaca

Last week i was fortunate enough to take 3 days off work for a quick golf vacation in Palm Coast, florida. Matt and I made the trip down to Ginn Hammock Beach Resort home to the Ocean course by Jack Nicklaus, and The Conservatory by Tom Watson. Everything on site from the condo we rented to the golf courses were top notch. For the price we paid I truly feel we got over on Bobby Ginn, especially with the amount of golf we played.

Our accomdiations were great. We each had our own room, with private bathrooms. There was a full kitchen, dinning area, and living area with a 42 inch plasma, and plasma in each room with Dishnetwork t.v. in the main room. I caught up on all my MTV and thank god for ESPN Sportscentre, i can't stand seeing hockey every other clip as TSN or The SCore does. Needless to say the condo we had was perfect.

On to the golf. The Ocean course was in my mind the lesser of the 2 if you had to chose. It was something like 7300 yards from the tips and I think around 147 slope. The course in general left something to be desired cause it was pretty bland. I should say it was way nicer then a lot of courses I've played, just compared to the other it wasn't as visually pleasing. The playablilty of the course was another story. As matt would try to convince me of, it was a shot makers course. You could chose how risky you wanted to be by using different lines down the holes. There was water on almost every hole and not very many bunkers. Also most of the fairways were very large. Some noteable holes were the par 8th. The par 4 9th was an incredible hole. I believe it was 460 yards or so with a raised green. Each day I was driver and then atleast a 4 iron, except for the first day we played which was in 50 mph winds and I was driver, rescue, pw to get to the green. The back was a little better, and it did have 4 phenomenal closing holes. Called the "Bear Claw" you start on a long par 4 that played into the wind every day and had a raised green that added maybe 25 yards to the shot. The 16th was a short par 4 that turned almost 90 degrees on the second shot to a very small green. The 17th par 3 was a tricky shot cause it played into the wind every time but for some reason the yardage didn't change. On the first day we both played the hole by clubbing up to account for the wind and found our balls soaring way over the green and out of bounds. The next few times we played the yardage as if no wind and ended up pin high eash time. Really weird hole, can't explain why it did that. The 18th par 4 was another great finishing hole. With a huge bunker right in the landing area up the right hand side, and the ocean all the way up the left, long to the tune of 450 i think, and a slightly raised green protected by bunkers and out of bounds, it proved to be quite the challenge. All in all, the course was actually very nice. The greens were some of the best I've ever played on. Perfect true putts, and very quick, and very firm. A joy to putt on, unless your matt and it just highlighted his poor short putting, just ask him about his 4 foot and in putt making abilities.

The Conservatory course was a completley differnet experience. This course really blew my mind, and is possibly my most favourite course I've played. Watson and Ginn obviously went the extra mile to make sure this course was a memorable experience. Starting with the club house (Ocean didn't even have one) which had the feeling of being in an atrium, with all glass ceiling and marble floors (doubt it was marble, but wouldn't put it past Bobby). I would describe this club house as the palace from te movie Coming to America. The course was the true gem. Measuring 7700 yards from the tips and 155 slope it provided a challenge comparable to Oakmont. Bunkers and waste bunkers everywhere you look. The greens had insane undulation (not sure thats a word) and would punish you if you weren't on the correct tier. Every hole was satisfying to the eye. One of the course your step on each tee and say "wow, what a golf hole." I truly enjoyed playing this course 10 times as much as the ocean.

Enough about the courses cause I'm sure Matt will post the most ridiculous posts in the world that push the brink of being to long to read and go into detail that no one but English dave and himself care about. So i'll tell you about how we played.

First bet was for the king size room. I lost it in a coin flip but quickly thought I would bet it on the round of golf. Well it backfired. Playing in 50 mph winds after 8 hours of travlling and flying caused me to shoot a shitty round of 94 from the gold tees at Ocean. Mat was 87 and sleeping comfortably in a king size bed.

Next day we teed it up at the conservatory on the back tees at 7700 yards to start maybe the best day of golf I have ever had. I didn't shoot well from the backs, it was just way to long. Driver-rescue every hole and you still had to make a up and down on almost every hole. I believe I shot 94, but matt played well and was something like 85, though he would go onto to whine about that score for hours no matter how much a reminded him how difficult the course played. We then attempted to go play the Ocean course for the second 18 but found out we would be waiting to long to get on, so headed back to conservatory. This turned out to be the best thing to happen to us. We went back to Conservatory and got right on and played form 2 tee decks up at 6800 yards with a 142 slope. Still very challenging. I also decided to start drinking at this point. After a short rain delay (maybe 20 mins) we were on the course and noth of us were playing well. As each beer went down I started to improve, i think i'm on to something here. All said in done, I lost the 36 hole match badly to Matt, i think something like 8 and 7, but shot an 83 to matts 80. Of course, still not low enough for matt so i listened to him whine about it for another hour or so. Towards the end of the second round i mention to matt I would be up for playing a few more holes. Turns out we played another 18 to make it 54 on the day. Unbelievable, 54 in one day, and our last round only took us 2 hours and 20 mins cause we were the only ones on the course. As i pounded more beers it even seemed like i was gaining energy and some how shot making ability. I ended shooting my best round of the week half in the bag of 77 while matt shot 79, and i went into the next 36 hole math 1 up.

The next day we moved on to the Ocean course but had a late tee time of 12pm. We were paired up with an older guy (had to be 50 or so, so really only old to me, only a couple years older then matt) named Gord from jacksonville. We were playing the back tees this day and he joined us there which was fine. I think i shot in the mid 80's that day, gord was drinking up a storm so i joined in, didn't quite have the same effects on my game as the day before. Upon finishing we tried to get in another 18 but both kind of burned out and left at 27. Still a pretty good day. However lost yet another match to Matt.

Saturday was back to the Consrevatory. I loved that course. We played from the gold tees there which were 7300 or 7400 yards and played at a 151 slope. Today was going to be my day to beat matt. And i actually played pretty good this day. I got a little help off in the start cause matt was feaking out about missing multiple 2 to 4 footers and went crazy on the first 5 holes, but then he got his irons and driver going which helped with his mental part of the putting and we started deuling. Next thing I know, we are finishing the round and we both shoot well (can't remember scores) and he's up 1 going into the last round of the trip which we were playing at Ocean. This caused the only rift of the trip cause I had no desire to go play he Ocean course again, but Matt needed to add to his already taken 100 pictures and get more pictures of the ocean course, so we headed over there. I can't really complain about this round cause I ended up playing really well. Started off the front nine 39, but matt was playing really well and shot 36 which was really good considering how tough the course was, of course he complained about that score aswell cause he started out the round birdie, birdie. We made the turn and I believe i was something like 3 or 4 down. i kept fighting still. It seemed like everytime i got one stroke back, i gave it right back to him, and then we got to the 15th hole and i was down 4. I started to fight for my life here. Taking 15, 16, and 17 and standing on the tee 1 down with one hole to play. Unfortunatly I pressed myself a little to hard and hit the first bad drive of the round and into the huge bunker on the right. Luckly, Matt topped his to the left up against the out of bounds line. He still had a shot and came up just short of the green. I hit a 4 iron from the bunker as far as I could and found myself 20 yards right of the green and behind a trap. Knowing I had to make the best up and down of my life to tie Matt, I duffed my chip and made a boogie. Along with matts boogie we tied the hole and I lost again. 0-4 for the week sucked. But atleast I posted another good score of 78 on a very difficult course. Not much i could do, matt was playing really well (although you wouldn't know it from all the cursing and leg slapping) and shot a 77, should have been 73 but he blew up on the last 4 holes.

All in all, it was a perfect quick, cheap, golf vacation. We had an unlimited golf package, which we surely abused. Each round at these places was something like $140 american, we made that up in one day. I can defintly say I will return one day to the Ginn facility.