May 26, 2017
Course – Centennial (Carmel NY)
Playing partners – Vak, Tyler, Patrick (All Golfmatch members)
Weather conditions – HOT!
This day of golf was an Outing organized within the GolfMatch app. I've mentioned the app here before. The app has been all over the news lately. Wall Street Journal, Golf Magazine, and other media. As of last week, there were 30,000 members across the country. Outings, such as this one, are happening just about every week somewhere in the U.S.A.
Here are some of the latest articles from the Wall Street Journal, Golf Channel, and Golf.com
Today's outing was organized by GMer (Short for Golf Matcher) Joe Mercurio. Joe put together the outing at Centennial Golf Course, a stunningly beautiful venue of 3 nine hole courses.

Today I was finally going to meet many of my virtual golf friends IRL (in real life) for the first time. All are golf addicts, like me. I also got to Meet Peter Kratsios, the founder of the App. All in all, there were 20 GMer..

Course – Eisenhower Park (White)
Playing Partners – Vak, Dan, Richie
Weather conditions – SPECTACULAR!!
All is right with the world, yet again. It looks like I've righted the ship, and the game is back on track.
We had a 9am tee time at Eisenhower Park (White). As I've posted before, the White course is a pretty boring course (to me) as, for the most part, the holes just go straight out, and straight back. All greens are somewhat the same, elevated protected by bunkers, and it's hard to differentiate the holes.
Well, I'm starting to change that opinion. Nassau county is plugging a ton of bucks into this course. I'm not saying that it will be a Bethpage Black (or even Eisenhower Red), but they are making some major renovations that improve the course. I'll give the course updates at the end of the blog.
After the last few weeks of BAD golf (Capital letters!), I needed to work on my game. As the weather was finally cooperating, I was able to get to practice..

Date: May 7, 2016
Course – Eisenhower Red
Playing Partners – Larry, Steve
Weather conditions – NASTY VERY NASTY

The snapshot of The Weather Channel does not do it justice. It was cool, breezy, and “almost” rainy. Just a continuation of the week's NY weather.
My regular playing partners had other plans for this Saturday, so I had gotten several playing partners from my GolfMatch app. Unfortunately, a series of unforeseen issues had each one drop out.
No big deal – the course was empty. I opted not to warm up at the range due to the poor weather, and figured I'd do some putting/chipping at the putting green by the first hole.
Unfortunately, the starter said I was going right out with a twosome – Steve and Larry. Two nice enough guys who were also “Saturday Morning Eisenhower” regulars.
So, after the last two weeks fiasco's on the course, my angst was high, not knowing which game would show up.
The weather in NY sucked the whole week, so I did not get a chance to hit th..

Course – Eisenhower Park
Playing Partners – Richie, Peter, and Tim
Weather – Chillier that it should be at this time of year!!
After last week's fiasco, I looked at my opening rounds from the past few years. The first few weeks of the season, no matter how I train in the off-season, SUCK!
I have had a few in the 100 range, many in the 90's and those rare 80's.
I guess this means I shouldn't throw my clubs in the Great South Bay, just yet.
Right now, the biggest issue I have is not being able to practice mid week. The weather has been so shitty, that you can't head out to the range or putting greens. This week I had a 30 minute practice session at the PGA Superstore.
It's quite OK to hit in a simulator, but it's not like a range (and especially not like a GRASS range). The “sim” is really good to see what your numbers are. Swing Speed, Launch speed, launch angle, spin rate, etc.
However, most of us don't know what the fuck any of that means -..

Course – Eisenhower Park – Red
Playing Partners – Vak, Richie, Peter
Weather – Rainy, windy, cloudy, sunny
OK – so what's worse than rainy golf?
Windy golf!
And, what's worse than rainy and windy golf?
Rainy, Windy, Chilly golf!
And – What's worse than Rainy, Windy. Chilly golf?
Rainy, Windy, Chilly, BAD Golf!!
It was a bad day at the course, my friends. UGLY golf!
The weather men predicted the rain would move off around 10am. As we had a 9:48 tee time, we figured it would be good to play.
WRONG!!!
Mike and I were at the range around 9am. What was a light drizzle turned into a hard, steady rain.

Still, we hit a few balls and went to the course. There was no backup on the tee (6 cancellations so far that day) and we teed off on time.
My problems started on the first hole. Par 5, I laid up to 75 yards. Being that the green was elevated, and the air was thick with rain water, I opted for my sand wedge – a solid 90 yard shot.
Well, the ball carried the green, and I ended ..

Course – Eisenhower White
Playing Partner – Vak, Rich, Peter
Weather – Windy, mild
Although this was really the third round of 2016, it was really the first round of the season. First of all, in New York, only scores between April 1 and October 30 can count towards your handicap.
Second – rounds in the winter suck, and you play just to get out and not kill yourself.
So, although the title is ROUND 3, it's really ROUND 1.
We had a 10:20 tee time on the white course. This is because the prior Saturday night, when the bell tolled 8pm (when I should be calling for a tee time), I was drinking scotch and not thinking about golf.
So – 10:20 was not so bad, especially when I woke up and it was 39 degrees.
This round's objective was to get through the day without getting injured. I say this because 4 weeks ago I could not walk. My back had seized up so bad, I could not walk. Agonizing pain. Well, if anyone wants a chiropractor, I can recommend one – highly.
So, my back is still sli..

Course – Eisenhower White
Playing Partner – Vak
Weather – cold and windy
Vak and I got to the park around 9am for a 9:56 tee time. The girl checking us in noted that they expected temperatures near 60. Wind was supposed to be around 10 mph.
We were thrilled.
However, we turned out to be severely disappointed, as the temps felt in the 30's, and probably didn't get past 50 until almost the end of the round.
After hitting a few balls to warm up, we got to the starter at 9:30. The starter was a kid that looked to be around 16. As were were on “double deck”, we just started to chat. That's when there was a bit of an argument at the starters booth. It seems that a single that was to be in the 9:32 tee time was never called. The kid/starter forgot to call him, and that group went out as a 3-some. So, this single, was put with us – and he demanded to go right off – which we did.
So, we teed off with Harry at around 9:50. My first hole was memorable – in a way that a boil on you..

Course – Eisenhower White
Playing partners – Ken, Glen, Dave
Weather – mid 50's and windy
It's February 20, and I played golf. What a day. It was 43 degrees when I woke at 6am. I got to the course at 9:45 and they gave me a 10:20am tee time. It's much easier as a SINGLE to get out quick.
Unfortunately, I took my time getting getting my bag and cart ready, and got to the course at 10:10. They had already given my slot away, so they put me in with the next group.
Turned out to be great luck, because the 3 guys they grouped me with were great.
It was Dave's 60th birthday, and they were out playing golf in celebration. They had cigars, a bottle of Glenlevet 15, and some other assorted party additions. I was the recipient of some shots of the scotch, and a nice Honduran cigar. It was like we were old buddies.
The course was in great shape. They had temporary tees, but the greens were open. They did have two holes on each green, so that once you putted, you replaced th..

Course – Eisenhower Blue
Playing Partner – Vak
When you get a day like this in mid-December, you don't DARE complain about ANYTHING with your game. The Golf G-ds were kind enough to throw us a bone, and you don't bite the hand that feeds you.
So, this blog entry will try NOT to analyze my game. It will merely share my enjoyment of the day, and this great game.
Let me start off by saying it's been close to 9 weeks since I've swung a club. Two surgeries, and some recouping time – and I'm back. I had assumed that my next round would be during some yet-unplanned winter trip, or in the spring.
But, we all lucked out.
I went to the range yesterday to make sure I didn't lose the game. I hit well enough to know I'd be ok.
We had a 10:04 tee time, and got to the course early. I opted for a cart, since I'm thinking my first round back should be “eased” into the game.
Weatherwise – this day was incredible. I haven't looked at the weather reports yet, ..

Course – Eisenhower Blue
Playing partner – solo round
After the lackluster round on Saturday, I decided to get up and get my ass out and play again – I needed more torture.
I had made an 8:20 tee time on the Blue course the night before, and got to the course at 7:20 to check in, and warm up. The cashier said she could move me up – to 8:04, and I said that would be great.
In the back of my mind, I actually thought that waiting an extra 21 minutes might let the air warm up a few degrees more. Then I realized that was such an stupid idea – and I took the 8:04 slot.
I took some extra time warming up. Taking it VERY slow, as the air was cooler than Saturday's round.
The one thing about today was the lack of wind. Saturday's weather had a 10-20 mph winds. Today, it was calm. After the warm up, I got to the 1st tee at 7:55.
A twosome was teeing off, and I joined them.
NO WAIT!!!
The pair was George and Shane. Two very nice guys and two very bad golfers. They hit the ball a mile, b..