March 25-29, 2016, I went with two of my buddies, Mark and Arny, down to Alabama.  We stayed in Montgomery at the Homewood Suites.  Nice place to stay if you are down there.  We played 3 courses while we were there.  I'll tell you about each one of them.

Capitol Hill - Prattville

They have 3 courses here.  We played Legislator at 8am, and The Judge at 2pm.  Both courses were tough, but the Judge was just plain impossible.  We are in the teens on handicap, so we played the orange tees.  We probably should have played the whites.  Legislator was difficult, but fair.  It was a nice looking course, and the staff was pretty friendly except for one ranger who was on our butt to speed up.  Not sure why, there weren't that many people on the course.  Lunch between courses was great at the clubhouse.  We had the buffalo chicken wrap, ruben, and some chili cheese fries.  All were awesome.  In the afternoon, we hit the Judge.  On  one of par 5s, the one you have to hit over water on the tee, I had a 13.  All other holes weren't that bad.  But that one, was a bear.  We ate dinner at Dreamland BBQ, but we were not a fan of the ribs.  They weren't baby back like we had hoped.

Grand National - Opelika

Here, we played both the Lake and the Links.  It was raining slightly all day, but we still had fun.  Lunch between courses again was great.  Both courses were similar in difficulty, and since it was Easter Sunday, we sort of had the course to ourselves.  I lost a lot of balls in the water, but the place was beautiful and well taken care of.  The bag guys out front suggested we eat at The Hound, and we agreed.  The Hound was a great choice.  I had the pepper jelly, wild game sausages, and quail.  Great dinner.

Cambrian Ridge - Greenville

Our final day, we played Cambrian.  It has 3 nines.  We started off on Canyon/Loblolly.  Canyon was a bit wet from the previous day's rain, and played tough because it was cart path only.  Lots of drives down to a fairway, then hitting back up to the green.  I felt like I shot 100 just on that 9.  Next was Loblolly, which was an awesome course, and we could take our carts 90 degrees that day, making it even better.  Again, the greens were elevated, and it was a tough test of golf.  Very scenic though.  Probably our favorite 9.  We ate lunch in the clubhouse, but they seemed to not have that much traffic as they were out of many things.  I wound up just having a burger, which was good.  That night, we ate at a cajun place and played pool at a bar.  

The whole trip was great, and I can't wait until we can do another one.

I played with my neighbor Mark.  It wasn't that great of a day performance-wise for either of us, but it was a beautiful day out with perfect temperatures.  I did pull driver out but only 2 times, both when it was absolutely safe.  I stuck to my trusty 2iron hybrid by Nickent.  I can usually hit that in the fairway off the tee.  When I can't I am convinced driver would be worse anyway.

Spending the weekend at Blue Chip in Michigan City, IN.  Golfed yesterday, dinner with family and friends (Audrey's sister and her husband, our friends Tina and Ken, and my Dad Roy were there with Audrey and I to celebrate Audrey's birthday)

Every time I come here I love playing Whittaker.  It's a great track for $59.  We played the green tees, and it was probably well above my skill level.  I wound up shooting 99, which wasn't too bad since I butchered the front with a 53.  I redeemed myself a bit and shot 46 on the back.  I had numerous penalty strokes, so if I could have just kept it in the fairway off the tee, and on the second shot, I would have been near 90.  

The course was in tremendous shape and the greens were very smooth.  There were only a few spots where it was too wet to take a cart.  My drive on 2 plugged in the fairway and I almost couldn't find it.  

I did luck out and birdie 9.  My tee shot was right of the fairway, next to the cart path. I used the 2 iron hybrid off the tee, so I used it again on the second shot.  The ball crept right up and left me with a 6 foot uphiller for bird and I sunk it.  That was about the highlight of the day.  Took too many sevens on other holes to see any bright lights from them.

Last Saturday morning, my 16 year old son Alex asked me if we could go golfing.  I thought it was great that he showed some interest, and we could use some bonding time.  So, we went over to the local course near our house.  

He has barely swung a golf club, so the first thing I did was taking him to the putting green.  We worked on the 1 foot putt first.  Now, this might seem boring, and it probably was to him, but I showed him the basics.  I've read Dave Pelz putting bible cover to cover several times.  So, I took the basics of this and applied it to the 1 foot putt.  The nice thing about that is, you don't have to worry about aim just yet, only focus on keeping it all aligned, and work on tempo.

Next, I moved to the 2 foot putt.  Here I dropped 3 balls and asked Alex to hit them using the basics I just taught him.  He missed 2 of the 3.  Ahh!  Something to work on.  I worked on making sure he checked alignment, aligned the markings on the ball with the hole, made sure the tempo was right, etc..  The whole time, confidence was there.  He knew he could make the putts, and didn't feel intimidated by it.   We made it as fun as possible.

Next, I moved back and showed him basic green reading.  Just major slopes to start off with.  Nothing about the grain of the grass or anything, just basic stuff.  He picked up on that pretty quickly.

Next, we moved on to chipping.  I told him that if he could chip to a close proximity to the hole, he could then finish up with the putt, and get up and down from the fringe.  We worked on chipping and followed up each chip with a putt.  I had him chip, then putt and see how many strokes it took to get in the hole.  At first, it was 5 strokes, then it was 4.  Before long, he got it in 2 strokes.  We stopped on that one.  Always stop on a good one!  It builds confidence.  Confidence is key.

Next, we did pitching.  I first had Alex take each golf ball in his hand and underhand toss it onto the green.  This gave him the feeling of pitching the ball.  We did that a little bit to get a feel for how the ball reacted once it hit the green too.  Next, we worked on getting the ball in the air and hitting the pitch shot.  Once again, the goal is to pitch and putt in the fewest strokes.

Next, I worked on the full shot for a few strokes, just so he know how to do it with a wedge.  We didn't aim anywhere specific, nor did we worry about distance.  It was all about keeping your head from moving all over the place, and doing a full shoulder turn.  He was getting it pretty quickly.

Finally, we worked on sand shots.  We didn't aim for the green or any pins, we pointed the other way out into the rough area and just focused on taking some sand to lift the ball out.  Basic stuff.

At the end of all of this, I thought my son would want to go home, but he didn't.  We actually grabbed a bucket of  balls and headed to the range.  Here is the first time I started to focus about aim.  I put a club down on the ground, aimed it, then showed him how to put his feet parallel to the club, and work on hitting straight shots.  Distance would come later.

I think the first lessons worked out well.  I look forward to teaching him more about the game.  Maybe if you are reading this, you can try this approach with your son or daughter.  Also, feel free to comment on my lesson with Alex.

Enjoy!

Now that the Chicago weather is breaking, I need to get out there.  I started with putting a putting cup in my office at work.  I've been doing putting on conference calls getting ready for the summer.

I'm a big fan of Dave Pelz, and I try to embody his putting bible rules on my putting.  I practice keeping everything in line and being able to repeat that.  I then add pressure on myself to make 10 putts in a row.  My office is only about 10x10, so they are less than ten footers, but still it's a challenge.  Then, once I make 10 in a row, I'll move up to 20.  

Can't wait to go outside on lunch and practice my putting.