decisions, decisions

I am planning on learning from the following golf experience (which, by the way, I used as an introduction to my lesson in priesthood this afternoon). I was playing the front nine at Champions, in my Thursday afternoon league. On the first hole, a dogleg left, I pulled my drive into the woods on the left. The best shot from there, if you care about your score (and I do) is to chip it back out, into the fairway and move forward to the green. Often, however, there is the temptation which appears in the form of an opening through which a well directed shot can go, a hero shot if you will. In spite of my self promise to almost always pitch out into the fairway when in the woods, I tried the hero shot. Not surprisingly, it didn't work. At that point, I did pitch out and go for the green. When the ball finally rattled into the hole, I had taken a double bogey. Had I pitched out in the first place, I might have saved a stroke (statistically, a golfer will get a bogey versus a double bogey if they pitch out and move on). The temptation of making a great, hero shot was too much and I went for it, paying the price.

Holes 2-5 were good, with solid tee shots, good approaches and pretty good golf. Number 6 is almost like number 1, only the dogleg goes to the right. I put my tee shot into the trees and had the very same decision, pitch out or try the hero shot. I again tried the hero shot, even though this shot was even more exacting than the hero shot on 1. The results were worse, taking me farther into the woods on the other side of the fairway. Eventually, I ended up saving a double bogey. Had I pitched out and gone forward from there, statistically, I might have ended up with only a bogey.

After the round, which was not a good one with respect to score, I noted that there were three give away strokes because I didn't pitch out when in trouble. There were two give away strokes because my chipping around the green was not good and finally, there were three give away strokes because of badly putted balls on the green. I gave away 8 strokes because of lack of discipline, focus, memory, whatever you want to call it (almost a full stroke a hole). From this point on, I am going to stick with the plan, chip it out when in trouble, work on chipping around the greens (even more than I do) and stay with my plan to putt more aggressively, taking some of the break out of breaking putts (that I have been babying a lot and missing a lot).

Also, I have decided to do a bit more blogging because, while I enjoy Facebook, I don't feel there is much depth nor permanence to it. Blogging seems to be a great way to express feelings, note progress and keep a record of what I am doing with my life in the areas I care most about. I'll even look for appropriate photos should the occasion call for it.

By the way, the lesson, which was about developing good judgment, went well and the HP Group liked it, participated and added good insight.

Finally, I started back to running, with an easy three miler from my house to the bridge on Davidson. I'll work into more and more running as the days and weeks come, building to the point where I can think about doing some longer races (halves and fulls).

Have a good one. KipK

My goal is to be doing what I would rather be doing

zip lining?



surfing?

Nah, it's pretty sure that I'd rather be golfing (for suitable picture, go to pga.com and copy paste a picture of Camilo Villegas - I think he looks like me more than any of the other golfers).

Have a good one.

A new year

I am happy that a new year has arrived. But, to be clear, I had nothing against the previous year. 2009 brought many good things. I learned a lot in 2009. I got better in many things in 2009. I read a lot of good books, ran a lot of good miles, hit a lot of good golf shots, prayed a lot of good prayers and received a lot of good answers to those prayers. So, I'll say, perhaps in a more positive way, I liked 2009 and while excited for the coming year, do not regret for a moment, the moments lived in 2009.

Checking back on the goals set at the beginning of last year, I did accomplish some of them. I ran a half marathon (wanted to run two) but postponed the full for a very good reason (my daughter asked me to run a marathon with her this year). We are halfway through the training and will run in an early spring 26.2.

My golf game was good. I broke 40 a couple of times in league. I didn't have a sub 80 round last year but came close several times. My handicap went below double digits for the first time ever. After a mediocre/bad first day and first 7 holes of the second day, I came back and took 4th in my flight in the GCAC (cool turn around).

My goals for this year, in a few important categories:
love - take wife on date every week, something fun every week, have fun with her every day, moment
gospel - serve better and more proactively in each calling (measurable goals are in place - just not here)
reading - read Book of Mormon all the way through (again), read 12+ novels this year (1/2 classic or non fiction)
running - run and finish the marathon with my daughter (her 1st marathon and her goal is to finish), run a 1/2 or two (Columbus and one other), prepare for winter marathon (Jan - Feb 2011)
golf - have fun - always, break 80 or 40 (league) 25% of the time I play, practice 52 times this year (half putting and half short game), play well in GCACC (85 or better at Champions, 83 or better at Mentel)
weight/fitness - lose extra girth to the tune of the 12 I wanted to lose last year (a little less Thornton, a little more visible abs . . .)

Happy New Year and have a good one. KipK