Been thinking about my aspirations as a golfer, and one of them is: I want to have a perfect technical swing.

But not for perfection’s sake alone. I want it for the sake of being able to more easily isolate factors that introduce variability.

The nice thing is that there is so much good information out there about what constitutes good technical characteristics.

For example. In the September issue of Golf Digest, there’s an article by Steve Atherton of GolfTEC on slicing. The article is great because it’s based on motion analysis of video to compare the swings of of 180,000 amateur and 150 pro golfers.

Can’t get much more technical than that!

GolfTEC’s conclusion: the takeaway has to be a rotation of the shoulders, not a lifting of the arms. Use your arms, and you set yourself up for timing & position issues during the transition & downswing.

I slipped away to the driving range after I read the article and sure enough, that tip is a keeper.

There’s a swing that I make sometimes that feels like butter. Smooth; solid connection with the ball; ball flies straight off the club, goes a mile . . . every golfer knows how that feels — it’s why we golf, I think, because of the pleasure we feel when we make that swing.

As soon as I made that little change to my backswing, that swing started appearing more often.

And tagging along behind came the golfer’s truly Special Friend, confidence. I had a chance to take my game out onto the course on Wednesday (Victor Hills North) and shot my best round to date — thanks to a 43 on the back nine. Part of that was my swing, but frankly, most of it was because I trusted my swing. And I trusted my swing because, little by little, I’m becoming aware of the technical aspects of a golf swing, and how to tweak them to let that effortless swing make an appearance.

Now let’s see if I can do it again tomorrow . . .

Played Sodus Heights CC again this weekend. Got some pars but didn’t score to my potential at all: I’ve had a slice/push/push-slice creep into my swing again so was missing fairways and greens too much.

Frustrating because I started out so well — I was only five over after 6 holes — was shaping up to be a terrific round for me.

Then I tripled bogeyed the par four #7 and never really recovered . . . I didn’t play horribly, but I definitely didn’t play to my potential.

So I spent some time on the driving range yesterday — and I think I’ve fixed it.

I made two slight adjustments. I changed my grip, using this tip (which I found via swingtweet on Twitter). I made my left hand grip stronger. (The idea is, my hands can get back to address more easily, so the club head will be square at impact — it had a tendency to be too open before.)

I also checked my alignment and discovered that I tend to line up slightly right of my target. (With my alignment off, even if my club head was back to square I’d tend to push the ball.)

By the time I’d worked through a small bucket of balls, I was nailing my driver, fairway woods, and long irons.

Now, if only I could get out again and play!

Soon, soon

(BTW, recommend the course — they held their club championship this weekend  & it’s in terrific condition. Greens were fast fast fast!)

Took a mini-vacation last week and met my parents to play at a nice old course in Binghamton, New York: Traditions at the Glen.

Locals know it as the old IBM course.

Very pretty course. In fact, as I went through the photos I took, I realized that I took lots of pics of the views — the course overlooks the Susequehanna River Valley and Johnson City, and it was a beautiful day — but not so many that give a feel for the course itself.

Here’s one, for instance, taken from the first tee. Nice view of the view, but not the info you need about the double bunkers on the left . . .

Which is too bad, because if you’ve never played Traditions, a bit of course intelligence would be very helpful. On the front nine, in particular, there are a lot of elevation changes — and many times, you can’t see the surface of the green on your approach shots. Makes club selection a bit tricky!

Here’s a look down number 7, a long par 5 with a creek you’ll need to carry on your second shot — don’t leave your drive short — and a green guarded by bunkers. The overpass in the background is Route 17.

The back nine, otoh, is a completely different course: it’s located on the river flats, and so is . . . a lot flatter. Needless to say, it’s also a bit easier to score on — I beat my front nine score by 3 strokes.

Here’s another view of the valley, this time from the 18th fairway. I was up in the rough on account of a blocked drive, sigh. My mom had hit a beautiful drive right down the middle of the fairway. Good one, Mom!

So there you go! Definitely recommend this one if you’re in or passing through the Southern Tier — beautiful course, challenging holes, perfect combination for a great golf outing

Here’s another course I played this summer — and which I can wholeheartedly recommend to anyone looking to golf in Western-Central NY: Lakeside Country Club in Penn Yan.

Lakeside is a semi-private course overlooking Keuka Lake — one of the prettiest Finger Lakes.  Here’s one of the views of the lake. Isn’t it lovely?

The course was also in great condition.

Lakeside has some interesting holes as well, like this par 4 (sorry, can’t remember which number this was but I’ll update the post if I figure it out):

Your tee shot has to clear that mini-ravine and navigate between the trees to gain a perch on the fairway. As you can tell from the pic, you can’t really see the landing surface very well; you have to judge whether your shot will go through the fairway if you hit it too long . . .

I played the course pretty well. Three pars, only one snowman — hit my handicap number pretty much on the nose.

Definitely a course I’d recommend — nice enough to merit a day-trip to the Finger Lakes.

View of Keuka Lake from the #10 tee box, dogleg left par 4.

Finally! Got Wordpress upgraded for my Golfolicious blog and can start posting here again

First order of business: post some pics from a few courses I’ve played this summer, starting with a 2-day getaway from back in late June.

There are three golf courses altogether at the Turning Stone Resort, which is located in Verona, New York, east of Syracuse.

The one we did not play is the pro course, Atunyote. We did, however, swing by to grab lunch in the club house the day we arrived.

Gate to the Atunyote Golf Course.

We had a little trouble finding the course — its sign is about the size of a deck of cards. If you look down the driveway, though, you know you’re there: you can tell by the gate.

The grounds, needless to say, were gorgeous.

We ate out on the clubhouse veranda, which overlooks the course. You’ll see this on television when the tour plays there in September.

Here’s the view we had while we ate.

The picture can’t begin to do it justice. The course was obviously in mint condition. A young course — you can see that many of the trees are still pretty small — but just breathtakingly beautiful.

The tee for the fairway on the far side of the water is off the photo to the left. It looks like it plays like a very very long par 5!

We watched one group tee off on that hole, and another group play up on #18, the hole in the foreground.

One odd thing about this course: it was pretty much deserted. Apparently it gets only about 20 or so people on a typical weekday. The greens fees are pretty steep — $200 or so, I believe, discounted some if you’re staying at the resort. Maybe pre-recession more people were willing to play. On the other hand, it’s not exactly a part of the state that is rolling in cash, even during good times. So who knows? Maybe it never gets much traffic.

If you do have the means and want to play a spectacular course in central New York, it should definitely be on your list.

That said, the other Turning Stone courses are pretty special as well.

By chance, we played the more difficult of the other two courses, Kaluhyat, first. It’s a links course and takes full advantage of the fact that it’s built in a very rural area: the holes lead further & further away from the clubhouse until you begin to feel like you’re in the middle of the woods somewhere.

Hopefully the photo will give you an idea of what I mean when I say “difficult.” There are tons of forced carries, and on top of that most  approach shots require some pretty precise target golf.

I lost six — yes, six! — balls during that round. And I thought a couple of sleeves of balls would be enough to bring on the trip. Hah. Big mistake.

The course attendents told us that the last of the three courses, Shenendoah, would be easier. After getting beaten up for 18 holes by Kaluhyat we were skeptical, but they were right. Shenendoah was a more forgiving course. Lots of forced carries, still, but at least the fairways were generally a bit wider.

I didn’t lose a single ball, and I broke 100 easily — shot a 94 — 13 strokes better than at Kaluhyat the day before

Both courses, btw, were in wonderful condition. About as nice as you’ll get on a public course in this part of the world.

One other note of interest: the Shenendoah course was designed to comply with Audubon International standards for environmental protection and preservation. Apparently it passes muster with the critters — we came across a mama turkey with a bunch of poults who scattered into the weeds when they saw us. I had to hustle to get any pictures — turkeys are very fast and stealthy!

It hasn’t really been unseasonably cold, but it still seems like spring is taking an awfully long time to get here!

So it was nice to get out for 18 yesterday.

I’d never played Sodus Bay before, either, so I took my camera along. It’s a pretty course. There are views of Lake Ontario from the holes near the club house.

I thought the back nine was the nicer part, mostly because I like the hole that run through interesting terrain. This is number 14, a dogleg right. How about that fairway?

Here’s a view looking back on number 15 from the 16th tee. What you can’t see from the pic is the creek that runs across the fairway, which I cleared on my second shot with my three wood btw, one of my nicer played fairway woods of the day.

It was late afternoon then and the sun had come out — it was pretty chilly for the front nine!

I managed three pars for the day but didn’t break 100 so I’m disappointed at my score. But in my defense I’ve made a slight change to my swing — my left wrist was flat at the top of my backswing, so I’m trying to change that. I think it’s increasing my club head speed but its not really grooved yet so its made my shot direction a bit more erratic than it was. In fact, since it’s going to get cold and rainy after today, I’m thinking I might stop by the driving range to hit a few balls in a bit — to work on the wrist thing specifically . . .

As for Sodus Bay, it will be interesting to see how they fare in the new economy. The course was in beautiful condition — the greens had just been rolled and were super fast (another reason for my high score!) But on the downside, it’s a pretty long drive from Rochester and the club’s greens fees are on the high side for a semi-private course — especially considering how far they are from Roch (or Syracuse for that matter) ($50 on weekends during the summer season). If they want my advice, I’d say they need to run some “can’t pass it up” specials to lure golfers out — then trust they’ll fall in love with the course and keep coming back.

If you go, do plan to sample the food in the clubhouse restaurant — my friend had the house specialty soup, a tomato and roasted red pepper bisque, and it was excellent — as good as any soup you’ll find in these here parts!

Best wishes to Tony Korologos (who also blogs at Hooked on Golf) for his success at creating the Internet’s most active (& friendly!) golf networking space. Three years old now and going strong! Nice!

I joined the EWGA (Executive Women’s Golf Association) two years ago and it was one of the best things I ever did.

I’ve met some great local women golfers.

Members run a variety of leagues — lots more chances to get out & play.

And members can can compete in the EWGA championship, the largest amateur women’s golf championship in the U.S.

So if you’re a women who golfs, now’s the time to get involved. Here in Rochester, our chapter is holding its season kick-off brunch on March 7, from 10:00 – 11:30, at the Midvale Country Club in Penfield. It’s only $20, there will be door prizes, and Patty Jordon, the LPGA pro from Brookfield Country Club, will be giving a talk.

Hope to see you there!

Late last year, I decided to put a little money into my other golf-related site to give myself a prettier (and more easily updatable!) interface.

The site has been live now since late January, and I’m very happy with the results. So check it out and let me know what you think!

Managed to sneak away for a long weekend in Florida, and golfed while there, of course

Unfortunately we got rained out after only nine holes during our first round at The Timacuan on Thursday afternoon. We did get to play a couple of really interesting holes, including number 2, where you have to carry water on both your drive and your second shots — meaning that if your drive is too long you’re wet — and the seventh, which is surrounded by a sand bunker. Well, 85 percent surrounded.

I didn’t take too many pictures, but here’s one. Can’t remember now if this is 4 or 6. But it’s pretty, isn’t it? With the dormant grass of the rough setting off the fairway and green?

We had better weather on Saturday. Cool — it never got out of the low 60s — but the sun felt fantastic.

That day we played Victoria Hills in Deland. Beautiful course, very well-maintained. Here’s the view from the first tee . . .

Here’s another hole — number three if I recall correctly — to give you an idea of how many bunkers you have to face down to play this course. 100-something altogether.

The fairway on this hole is a dogleg left — the green is over there somewhere near the edge of the pic. Fortunately I was doing okay on my drives . . . my irons, on the other hand . . . I have no idea what was going on. Something to do with not swinging a club since early December, I suspect? Kept hitting them thin. I did manage to bring home a few pars but I matched those with a number of blow-up holes, so my scores weren’t great.

Not that I’m complaining! Especially after coming home to the drifts and drifts of white stuff

(For a couple more pics — course wildlife –drop by my other blog.)