My Impetus

I woke up on Thursday, to absolute perfect weather. I had plans to meet my friend Sue after work for golf, and I couldn’t believe how nice it was. All day long visions of the golf course drifted through my head. I was meeting her at Green Knoll Golf Course at 5:00pm hoping we might be able to get 18 in. However, the starter was in a pissy mood to begin with (not the first time I might add that this starter has been in a bad mood) and was not very helpful in when we might be able to tee off. I put my name on the board and walked over to the practice green to work on chips/putts. Sue arrived shortly after, and we practiced a bit. At 5:40 we were able to tee off.

We were partnered with two singles, David and Ken. Ken had already played the back 9, and was hesitant about finishing this round, as he had to wait 15 minutes between 18 and 1, which forebode some time-play problems. I hit a 5 iron off the first tee. I hit it a bit fat, but it went straight and about 150 yds landing in the fairway. I was pretty happy with the first shot, and was already visually marking down the ‘Y’ for fairway hit on my scorecard on oobgolf. I seemed to push the second shot, however it was in a very playable spot about 200 from the green on the far right of the hole (almost near the pitch-n-putt). My third shot I pushed into the woods on the right. So, now mentally, I know I am pushing shots, and am combating my mind to stop trying to perfect the new grip on the course. I drop a ball, take a penalty shot, and shank it into the woods – however, it hits a small sapling and kicks out next to the green with a sand trap in the way. Pretty lucky. I place a nice chip shot about 5 ft from the pin, and it rolls 12 more ft down. I two-putt and take an 8 on the hole. Now, at each shot, I had to wait for the foursome in front of us, and I could already feel the frustration setting in. Golf is such a mind game.

So, we wait about 5 mins on the second hole, and I have an excellent tee shot with the 5 iron. Straight, but a bit into the wind, and it lands about 160ish. Second shot was deja vu – I push it right, and it lands about 25 ft from the hole, just shy of the correct distance if I hadn’t pushed it. I chip on, 9 ft from the pin and three putt…. My friend Sean’s wife Valerie always says ‘three putts are for nuts’ when she three putts. I don’t really know what it means, but it cracked me up, and has stuck, and I was saying it to myself as I recorded the score. Now, +5 over par after 2.

As we were walking up to the second green, I looked over at the third hole and I could see that there were two sets of foursomes waiting to tee off and a third group on the green in the putting stance. When we finished at our second green and walked over, that group was still putting and taking 4 practice putts per shot, and weren’t clear of the green yet. Ken shook his head, and decided he had had enough. So, David, Sue, and I walked over and waited. And waited. And waited. 25 minutes later, it’s our turn.

The rest of the round was like this. Almost impossible to get into a rhythm when it takes longer in between holes then the hole itself. I try not to make excuses. I was playing poorly, struggling with the grip change I had made at the driving range the other day. However, it was compounded with pace of play. At 8:50 we finished and walked over to the parking lot. It was still better than working….almost.

I am playing again there tonight at 4:30 with Sean, Val, and Sue. Hopefully tonight will be much better. I am going to hit the range soon and try and work out the golf grip.

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I was extremely excited for this years 4th of July Fireworks! I was pretty psyched to try out my Canon Digital Rebel XTi and see how well I could capture fireworks, by playing with the aperture and exposure settings. I live in Somerset, NJ and this year Franklin Park was having a celebration and setting fireworks off on July 3.

I packed up my XTi, Slik Sprint Pro Tripod, a Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM Lens, two 2 GB Transcend Compact Flash cards, a nice beach towel to sit on, and I was ready. I would have used my camera bag (which is an excellent bag by the way, the Canon Deluxe Photo Backpack 200EG, and quite a steal at <$50), but I couldn’t fit the beach towel in with all of the padding of the 200EG. So, I grabbed my trusty backpack and packed everything in with room to spare for a water bottle (which I forgot, and left on the kitchen table). My friend Mike was going to pick me up as we were meeting others there, and wanted to have the minimum number of cars.

I got there around 7pm and enjoyed some nice carnival cuisine, a gyro and souvlaki, as we waited for everyone to arrive. My close friends were going to meet us with their two young children, however the kids weren’t cooperating, so they had to cancel. As we were waiting for others to arrive, I tried to scope out some nice spots to set up the tripod. As this was the first time I was at this fireworks festival, I wanted some insider information as to where they would go up. I asked a few of the local police officers, and each one pointed me towards the far end of the complex. As I got closer, I saw a few older people already settled in their chairs, all looking towards the same section of sky. I moseyed on over and struck up a quick conversation, commenting on their apparent local knowledge of the fireworks area. I was rewarded with some nice tidbits of information about where they are let off each year.

I took the tripod out of my bag and began to set up, looking around to make sure no one was in my field of view, and realized I set up right in front of a couple sitting on the ground looking up at me. I promptly apologized and moved about 10 ft over to the access road, and realized I had the perfect spot. I wasn’t sure how close the fireworks would be, and I was hoping the 70-200mm would be the correct focal length choice. As I was aligning the tripod, a police officer walked by and said, “You couldn’t have picked a better spot”, so my confidence was brimming. I screwed the XTi to the tripod, flipped my baseball cap around, and took some quick shots of the area to make sure everything was working. As soon as I had flipped the cap, a man walked by, looked at my setup, and asked me if I was from the Press! I smiled and said no, but inside I was smiling like the Cheshire cat!

Now it was time to make sure I had the correct settings on the camera, and I fired off a slew of shots to check ISO, aperture, and exposure values. At about 9:15 the first BOOM of the launch could be heard, and we were rewarded with a beautiful purple explosion just over our heads – the fireworks spectacular had begun!

I shot off around 400 pictures, and posted the ones I liked the most on my Flickr! account. Looking back, I wish I hadn’t used ISO 400, but I think I did a great job for the first time with fireworks. I used various exposure time to capture the fireworks trails, however, sometimes the smoke caused some problems as well. I think the 2 second exposures came out the best. Also, the altitude of the fireworks continued to change. At times, I could keep the tripod locked and just shoot, however, not all went off at the same height. It was interesting to unlock the tripod, follow the firework shell up in the air, estimate the explosive point, lock the tripod, and get ready to take the shot as the firework exploded, all while trying to enjoy the fireworks myself!

Unfortunately, July 4th was a rainy mess (although I was able to get 18 in at Warrenbrook Golf Course in the morning) and there were no fireworks to capture that night. However, I spent the evening with my friends and we bbq’d some fine chicken souvlaki with tzatziki sauce (which must have been inspired from the carnival cuisine in Somerset) which I had prepped and marinated during the day after the round of golf. Sean’s Smokey Joe worked like a champ that night! You really can’t beat good friends, good food, and mojito’s!

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Eli Salow, a Washington Post Staff Writer, wrote an interesting article the other day about his experience as a weekend duffer playing with a PGA Tour rookie Steve Marino. They played at East Potomac Golf Course in Washington on a beautiful Wednesday morning. Eli was lucky enough to finally answer the question we always ask ourselves, how well would a PGA Pro score at our local public course?

I had asked Marino…to play with me at East Potomac because I wanted an answer, finally, to the question that so many of us duffers ask as we walk off municipal courses and total up scores we hope will end up in two digits: What would a PGA Tour player shoot here, anyway? On a short course devoid of significant obstacles, could Marino possibly score in the 50s? Or would the annoyances of public golf — bumpy greens, eroded fairways, chunky sand traps — throw him wildly off kilter?

It’s an excellent read and brings up some interesting challenges we face on the public course’s, that we have either become accustomed too or don’t think about.

…Marino obsessed over details I had never noticed. Overgrown fairways made it impossible, he said, to generate substantial spin on iron shots. Stiff sand traps caused the ball to release on a flat trajectory, negating the importance of touch.

Give it a read and next time you play remember that even the PGA Pro’s have a tough time on the public courses!

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