Keep Going.
“Never give up. Never surrender.” A few weeks ago, my friend Mark and I, hit up a short course in the mountains around Lake Tahoe. With 4 par fours, 14 par threes and an overall par of 58, I thought for sure I’d finally be able to break 80. Not that I would actually accept…
Simplify.
These kids are growing up watching 8 hours of YouTube a day. Well, you’re looking at an all-star coach. Yup, I’m pretty much a big deal. Joking aside, I think there was really one major reason why we did so well this year (aside from the fact that I’m a talent scouting legend). I made…
Sesquipedalian Lexiphanicism.
“Also, I do cuss a little.” “Also, I do cuss a little.” Katie and I regularly send each other memes and Tik Tok videos. This one, in particular, has made its way into our everyday lives. Anytime one of us begins a sentence with “also,” the other is quick to throw this quip out there.…
Obsession.
“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” Some people know what they want to do in life at a very young age. Many of the best soccer players, the best football players, the best racecar drivers, start their careers before they speak their first words. They begin early and their discipline becomes the…
Big Picture.
Admit it, you walked right by it, didn’t you? Have you ever stood over a putt and watched it break in the exact opposite direction of what you were expecting? I’m sure you have. You play a ton of golf. (Hey, me too! Did we just become best friends?) Anyways, it really does happened quite…
Stepping Stones.
I’ve got the picture of where I’m going, but I keep missing the mark. “Today is the day.” The words leave my mouth before we’ve even pulled into the parking lot. “I’m going to break 80 today.” I can feel the confidence pulsing through my veins as we stand on the first tee. I see…
Pressure.
Along with all of the responsibilities of everyday life, the struggle is real. Hello friends. Masters week has come and gone. Now, it’s time for another newsletter. I’ve been thinking about what to write for 3 days now. We’ll, maybe 5. I had some brief thoughts after finishing last weeks. I’ve had a few good…
Mountaintop.
“I thought it’d feel different than this.” Golf is hard. PGA Tour golf is harder. On most general weeks, 156 players tee it up in a tournament. That includes one, maybe two, of the hundreds of aspiring golfers attempting to gain full-time status on the PGA Tour. I’m sure you can imagine how difficult it…
Decisions, Decisions.
When almost any outcome is possible, why does everything feel so impossible? The smells overwhelmed me. Hazelnut, caramel, and is that some kind of citrus? It’s funny, while the rest of the world was losing their sense of smell to Covid, I feel like mine is only getting stronger. As the last shopping cart abandons…
10,000 Hours.
I can hit the ball 300 yards, why shouldn’t I be able to stick it to 3 feet? Heyyyy. Yeah, I know, I’m late. But, I still showed up. Better late than never, they say. Fashionably late is right on time, I say. Not to be surprised though, I’m always late. I used to tell…
Card That Score.
We look at the iceberg but overlook that the majority of its bulk lies under the surface. 72. 144. 67. 94. 78. 103. Most likely for me, 83. It’s ironic how much emphasis we put on the score written on the card at the end of a round. Like that number matters at all. Okay,…
1028.8.
“Yup, it’s possible,” My brain said. “Just not likely.” As I pulled out of the gas station Monday morning, I hit the reset button for the trip meter in my car. It now reads 1028.8. It’s Wednesday evening. I might’ve mentioned this before, like everyone else, I have a day job. One that requires driving.…
Snap the Shutter.
How the heck am I supposed to level up when I’m working with this? I’ve been wanting to take photos of golf courses for awhile now. We’ll, I mean, I do take photos of golf courses and even golf related stuff, but I mean, professionally. I’m sure that the life isn’t as glamorous as it…
Find Your Foreground.
I just look at the target and swing. As a beginning photographer, one of the lessons you learn is to “find your foreground.” Foreground is the part of a photo that is closest to where the photo was captured from. It’s the first thing your eyes land upon when looking at an image and can…
Manifest Destiny.
Little did he know, it was the 16th green at Cypress Point. Do you think manifestation really works? Like you can just will something into existence? I’m skeptical but then again, maybe it does. I still haven’t “willed” that 79 onto my scorecard yet, but I did make it to Fiji once. I’m convinced that…
Playing Through.
I’m not sure my kids even knew what’d happened. I almost punched an old man the other day. Okay, that’s a lie. I have too much self-control for that. But I wanted to. A lot. I typically play golf fast. Not like sprint in between every shot fast, but I figure if you’re gonna suck…
Impasta.
I’d painted their picture of me before they’d even known I was there. Sometimes, I wonder, who I am to tell you how to live your life. “Who does this guy think he is, getting all up on this newsletter, blog thing and telling me what to do?” To be honest, I’m not, mostly just…
Now You See It.
It could be right in front of you and you’d never know. Hello out there in the blogverse, and welcome to another edition of whatever you call this thing. my sincerest apologies for cannonballing into your email inboxes so late, I was caught up with a little something else. It’s called a job. Yes, you…
New Year, New You.
“That way, I can deduce what’s actually preventing me from achieving my goal.” I’m not much of a resolutions kind of guy. At least not in the normal “New Year, new me” kind of way. I can’t imagine that most people can just wake up with the discipline to change something about their lives overnight.…
Pursuit of Passion.
Passion is a force unlike any other. I saw a meme yesterday that talked about someone doing the thing they loved. It started with a lot of happiness and ended with a lot of kicking and screaming. Your happy place, your sanctuary, the place where you go to forget all your worries and just relax.…
Iron Sharpens Iron.
The challenge was on. Golf is pretty important to me. If you couldn’t tell. Pretty much every goal that I make relates to golf in some way. I mean, I’m not crazy. I have a few goals that have nothing to do with golf but with all sincerity, they don’t seem as immediately important as…
Easy 86.
In that moment, I realized that the achievement was in the progress, not in obtaining the goal. Sometimes, I wonder if I’ll ever get it right. I wonder if I’ll ever achieve the goals I’ve set out for myself. Am I ever going to break 80? Am I ever going to hold a single-digit handicap?…
Put Me In, Coach.
Anyone can give advice, but you decide whether or not it’s good advice. There’s a lot of people out there that are all to willing to give you advice on how you should live your life. You know what they say. Opinions are like assholes. Everyone’s got one. Sometimes though, you really need some advice.…
White Rabbit.
Hurry, hurry, you have to win and you’re slowing us down. “I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date!” the white rabbit exclaims. “What could a rabbit possibly be late for?” says Alice. The excruciating feeling of being late is something I often find myself feeling. There’s always somewhere to be or something to…
No Shirt. No Shoes.
It’s time for the narrative to change. No shirt. No shoes. No service. Or so they say. We’ve come to accept that, in order to patronize someone’s business, we have to wear a shirt and shoes. It seems like it’s been posted on the door of every business I’ve ever walked into in my 30…
The Marathon Continues.
“Run,” the voice screams in your head. Do anything to get away from here. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve birdied the first hole. And yet, as we talked about last week, I’m still trying to break 80. Everyone’s heard that it isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. That first hole is usually…
Stop Digging.
Why didn’t I offer to finish the round on foot? I wanted to break 80 pretty badly this year. If you aren’t sure what that means, I wanted to finish a round of golf in under 80 strokes. I made a list of golf goals at the beginning of the year. This was objective #1.…
Keepin’ Up With the Joneses.
I would love to go to the gym every day but when can I spare an hour of my 24 to make it happen? I once saw a meme making fun of all the things you have to remember during your golf swing. It was a golfer, holding his club at the top of his…
Which Way is Up?
“You’re just kinda there, wondering which way to go next.” Have you ever been on a golf course you weren’t sure where the next hole is? There are no signs or clearly laid paths to follow to find the next place you’re supposed to go? You’re just kinda there, wondering which way to go next.…
Hurry Up and Wait.
“Pain and pleasure are never far apart.”-Carol Storm There’s nothing like the anticipation of waiting to hit on the first tee. Or at least that’s what I thought. Now I’m standing in line at Disneyland, waiting to board another roller coaster, and the more I wait, the more intense the anticipation gets. It’s hard to…
Mashed Potatoes.
“Distracted from distraction by distraction.” -T.S. Eliot If you’ve ever watched golf, in person or on television, you might’ve heard someone yell out, “mashed potatoes!” or maybe even “Baba Booey!” Most likely, not the most original thing you’ve ever heard and to be honest, it gets a little annoying. It’s not that big of a…
Nice Drive, Five
“Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.” -William Feather About two months prior to the world closing down, I got the opportunity to play golf in Fiji. It was an amazing trip and I was also hitting the ball pretty amazing as well. Surprising, after the chain…
Find Your Balance.
People regularly repeat cliches like “find your purpose” and “enjoy the journey” but no one ever tells us to find enjoyment within the purpose. What is it that makes you happy? I ask because I read an article today. Amazing, right? Anyway, the author, Arthur C. Brooks, laid out 4 rules for identifying your life’s…
Par for the Course.
“We grade the qualities of our complete character against those standards set for a person who is extremely skilled in a specific field.” We all have expectations. For ourselves, the people around us, the world at large. We all have expectations. We wait for their arrival, the thoughts and ideas we foresee coming to fruition.…
Just Keep Swingin’…
Sometimes, I just don’t want to. Some days, I just want to stay in bed. The world seems to be getting more and more like that these days. It feels like less and less of us Earth-dwellers have the motivation to keep moving forward. Every new day brings a new challenge and it gets harder…
Persistence pays.
“Golf is stupid,” she said. “It’s literally so hard, and yet, all I want to do right now is go back and keep trying to get better.” I agree. Golf is hard. Like really hard. Maybe even, the hardest game ever invented. The idea of getting a ball, less than 2 inches in diameter, into…
It’s on you.
“Through cookies, all things are possible.” – TeeJayye 1:37 Sometimes I just don’t want to. I’ve been sitting here for a while, staring out the window, knowing there’s a golf course right up on that hill over there, only shielded from view by my next-door neighbors’ big ugly house. But I’m not gonna go. I…
Just Throw Another Dart.
Most days I wake up asking myself, “Do we really know what we’re doing? Do we really know how to achieve what we desire?” I’m not exactly sure who the “we” is, just that I seem to refer to myself in some weird multi-third person sense. I suppose I’m allowing the voice in my head…
Every great journey starts from the beginning.
That’s what tee boxes are. I mean, metaphorically. They’re the beginning. The start of a journey that will take you across a few acres of land, and, if you’re anything like me, on a roller coaster of emotions. That’s why they say, “The battle is always won on the tee box.” Okay, no one says…
This might be the greatest photo I’ve ever taken…
That’s why I decided to make it the first image you see on my website. It pops. But not like pops. Like POPS. (Maybe throw in an exclamation mark for effect.) I mean, the sky, the clouds, the grass, and the way it all came out of the edit are just magnificent. The warmth and yet…
The Art of Growing Grass
I’m not sure why, but ever since “Fake Spring” began all I’ve wanted to do is mow some grass. Fake Spring, as Andy Johnson would describe it, is when you get those first few nice days coming out of winter. Then, right as you start to think spring has sprung, you get slammed with another…
It’s Master’s Week and I’m Bored.
How do you get your juices flowing? How do you get excited when you feel like nothing is terribly exciting? Why does it all feel so boring? It’s Masters week and I feel like I should be ecstatic, but, for some reason, I’m just not. Jordan just won the Valero, Brooks is in Augusta only…
Make Yourself Bigger Than You Are
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”-Ralph Waldo Emerson It’s easy to believe you should follow the herd, to believe that you should have what everyone else has, to want to be who society thinks you should be. Oftentimes, we make ourselves feel…
Breathe Deep
Anxiety: a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome. It’s frightening, not knowing where you’ll end up. You can’t always predict obstacles and impediments. It’s overwhelming knowing that you don’t have complete control over everything around you. But this is where we must adjust our…