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Lorena Ochoa clinched another player of the year yesterday with a convincing victory at the Samsung World Championship.  That makes two in a row and probably the next five.  Ochoa has become the player to beat on the LPGA taking over for Annika.  She had another break through season as she finally captured a major and won 7 times this year.  I don’t see why she can’t win 10 next year with at least a couple majors as she seems to be in contention in just about every tournament she plays.  Forget Michelle Wie this is the next great player.  Even though small in stature she is long off the tee, hits fantastic irons and wedges.  The only weakness I see is her putting which this year seems to be getting better.  Even though the womens game has its best players ever in my opinion she still seems to take out the best consistently.  Morgan Pressel, Paula Creamer, Suzann Petterson, Christie Kerr, Mi Hyun Kim, none have the staying power of Lorena.  I believe she will go on a Tiger Woods like run with majors over the next ten years only giving a few away to her compadres so they don’t feel dejected and quit the tour!

This past Saturday I was fully expecting to get my pants whipped by Tara at the Preserve when I was informed by my golf buddy that we were not playing there.   We played Tara Golf and Country Club instead which was a welcome change.  It was a busy day so we started in a scramble playing a tough par 3 first.  The course was in perfect condition with greens rolling quite fast but true.  The rough was very playable but most of the course was thin fairways with trees or water lurking at every corner.  Most holes turned left or right so course management was necessary for a good score.  Being that it was my first time on the course I did not play so well loosing many balls out of bounds.  I wasn’t the only one though as my three playing partners also shot much higher than their averages with one shooting his worst round in many years.  Play was fast enough, we finished in 4 hours and 15 minutes.  In the end we still all had a great time and we liked the course, tough but fair.

Life is busy, golf is hard.  The combination usually spells bad results for the general population when it comes to golf.  I have been playing for years now and had periods where I would play two rounds and go to the range 3 or 4 days a week and I still couldn’t play well.  Then I broke down and got training, not just how to hit a good ball but why and how it all comes together.  It has changed everything, now I go out once a week and shoot scores I only dreamed about before. One other thing that helped was the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle when it comes to the short game.  I was trying to hit the pitch, sand, approach, and super flopper with the perfect trajectory every time I was close to the green.  Didn’t work, why?  I don’t get to hit 500 balls a day out of the sand, rough, fairway to get all four clubs working great.  So now I pitch with the pitch and send it up high with the sand… simple and effective.  Tomorrow I will test my new game verses a nemisis course of mine, Tara Golf and Country Club where course management is key.  I haven’t played there in a while because I hated playing the course, lots of water, tight fairways, hazards galore, yada..yada.  I will give a full course update after the round.

Hi, my name is Marc P.  I started playing golf semi-seriously 7 years ago when I was invited to join a local league.  I had played once or twice a year for 15 or so years before that and considered to have a nice looking swing.  Decently athletic I figured I could take on and conquer the game of golf…boy was I wrong.  I started to play frequently and hit the range farely often and at first saw much success as I drove my scores from the 120’s down to the high 90’s low 100’s in roughly a years worth of play.  I had it figured I would be in the 80’s by the next year and I would never be farther from the truth.  Natural talent can only take you so far some times and I would stay at my level for the next 5 years.  I got to the point where I couldn’t handle it any more, I was going to quit.  That’s when I finally realized something, sometimes you need to see that you aren’t as good as you think you are.  I went to a swing coach who basically told me I was close but no cigar.  We made some changes and I have over the last year dipped my score to the low 90’s.  I broke 90 once so far and hope I can continue to improve with some more practice with the putter/short game.  It took me 6 years to figure out that you drive for show and you putt for dough.  Anyway if I have any wisdom to impart to all you golfers who struggle out there is this, you are never as good a golfer as you think, so go find a golf coach who can help you be as good as you think you are!