Orem, UT
Last Seen: April 28, 2008
On Friday night, I received a call from Gasper. His son (who was supposed to be in our foursome) cracked his ribs in football practice, and was withdrawing from the tournament. I scrambled to find a replacement, and fortunately, my brother-in-law, Matt's brother, Chad, was available.
We arrived at Talons Cove Golf Club in Saratoga Springs just after 7 am. We hit range balls for a while, and then I attended the golf clinic. I got some great tips on grip, alignment, posture and standing on the balls of your feet. I was glad that the clinic had nothing to do with swing, and everything to do with giving yourself the chance to make good contact with the ball.
We were the first to tee off on the 8th tee, a par 3. Neither Gasper or I made the green, both of us coming up short, but Matt and Chad gave us decent positions to choose from on the green, but we couldn't get the putt to drop, and walked off the 8th green with a par.
The 9th hole is a par 5, and we were excited to record our first birdie, or even an eagle, but after coming up short on our second shot, and leaving ourselves with a 15 foot putt for birdie, which we missed, we settled for par again.
On the 10th hole, we finally made birdie. We faced a 12 foot putt, which I lined up and drained. My putting game was clutch from that range for a good portion of the day, which is more than can be said about the rest of my game.
For the next five holes, we birdied every other hole, bringing us to -3 as we walked off the 18th. It wasn't quite where we wanted to be, but we were having a blast, enjoying a fairly mild day on a course that was the most pristine that I have experienced. The fairways were immaculate, and there was hardly a divot on the course. When I see a course that is in a condition that good, I'm more inclined to make sure that I replace my divots and even seed them. If you're looking for a great lakeside course, Talons Cove is where it's at.
One through seven yielded the same results as the back nine, and when we turned in our card, we were at -6. If I had shot a 66 by myself, I would be exstatic, but with four of us together, we knew it wasn't going to be enough. The winning team brought in a score of 61 for -11. If we had sunk more of our putts, we would have taken home the trophy for a second year in a row, but luckily, golf isn't all about winning, as I would have given up a long time ago if that were the case.
Tournaments are interesting. It usually costs a lot less money to enter a tournament than it does to play a round of golf at the course that is holding the tournament. Talon's Cove in Saratoga Springs, UT, the host club of the company tournament, costs $47 for 18 holes. That is without prizes, and without a cart. For the company tournament, it is $15 per person, cart included. There are also prizes! It makes me wonder how much of the cost tournament operators absorb. I know that the prizes are all provided by the company, but still! Golf clubs must love to host tournaments because it guarantees that they receive revenue even if the course doesn't fill up. Check out tournaments in your area. They are great opportunities to golf at a cheaper price, at a more competitive level than you're probably used to, and possibly take home some prizes.
I'm excited to play Talon's Cove. I've never paid over $40 for a round of golf, as there are several well-priced clubs in my area. It is supposed to be one of the nicest courses in the valley, and it is affiliated with other highly rated courses such as Sun River in St. George (Utah's golf mecca, as I have mentioned) and The Lodge at Cloudcroft, in Cloudcroft, New Mexico. I'll probably have one or two more blog entries on my preparations, and then on Sunday or Monday, I'll provide pictures of the course, and...the results of the tournament! I'm really getting pumped up!
It's Monday, and I decided to pull out the putter and putt into a cup from varying distances at the office. This is something that I have always liked to do. In fact, if it wasn't for those little putt-into-a-mug games that they have at little fairs, I may not have picked up golf at this point in my life. I used to try every single putting game that I could, and I would usually walk away with a prize. But those were straight, usually flat, putts from about 10 feet. No one told me that I'd have putts that would have to do a loop around the back of the green before finding the hole.
The putt-into-a-mug games caught my interest, but were a poor preparation for real-life putting. On my first round, I didn't have anything less than a 3-putt. I have improved gradually, and though I'm nowhere near the putter that I'd like to be, I'm confident in my ability to sink short putts, and get long putts close. Wanting to hone my long-range putting skills, I set a cup against the wall of my row, and hit balls ranging from 20 feet up to 40 feet. At first, I noticed that I was missing right nearly every time. I found that the reason I was doing this was that I did not have my dominant eye positioned over the ball correctly. After that, most of my putts were on line, but finding the right speed for that distance is tricky. If any of my putts hit the wall with power to produce more than a small tap sound, I would start my count to ten over. Eventually, I was able to get 10 in a row to the cup, or the wall with no more than a tap sound. Tomorrow during lunch, I'm going down to the putting green at Sleepy Ridge, which has a great little 9 hole putting green on which to test every type of putt. I'll let you know how it goes. Until then, I'm getting excited, and my confidence is building. Back-to-back, here I come!
Each year, my company has a 4-man scramble tournament. Last year was my first time to participate, and it was also my first tournament to enter and win! So this year, I'm coming back as the defending champion, trying for a repeat. My team is a little bit different this year, so I hope that we have the skill sets to pull it off.
I've been practicing very regularly to try and prepare. I've nearly eliminated three-putts, and my chips are coming in a lot tighter than before. I'm still working on my driving distance/accuracy, and I will update my blog with my progress.
