Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

 
 

View User's Journal

sneakyhangover71 Journal
sneakyhangover71 Personal Journal
2016 Golf Season Looms: Can I Rediscover and Fall in Love With the Game Again?
The following is probably more for me than it is for you. Read at your own risk.

Its February 9th, 2016. The high temperature here in Salt Lake City for the last month and a half hasnt even reached freezing. The HIGH temperature. Normally this time of year I would be going absolutely nuts, having not golfed, or even seen green grass for three-plus months. This year though? Not the case. I havent once dreamed about hitting a drive, draining a long putt, or cracking a solid 4-iron.

This year is different. Interesting. I havent missed golf, at all.

Why is this year different? Honestly I couldnt wait for winter to come this past fall. I came close to quitting the game forever, several times. I was having some very tough mental battles on the golf course in 2015, despite winning a couple of tournaments with my dad and being one of the last two players left in my club championship (lost by four shots and boy is that another oddball story which pisses me off beyond the realms of imagination).

2015 was a year of some bizarre happenings. Two out of the first three rounds I shot were 71s on a par-72 course, early in the spring. I couldnt help but thinking of how this could be the best season Id ever havewith a start like that. Over the course of 2015 I hit my driver as good as Ive ever hit it and about as long as ever. At the same time my ball striking was very off. Id switched to irons which were apparently not the right ones for me. They were suited for handicap level 6-15 or so. Being a 1-2 handicap I think those irons did their best to bring me up to the 6-15 handicap level. I think that tiny bit of game improvement design and thicker soles messed up my iron game and killed part of my confidence. My short game, despite a lot of practice this year, was not good. Missing a green was going to mean a bogey or worse 70% of the time. And the usual strength of my game that made up for a lot of my other weaknesses, was not as good either. My putting, unfortunately, dropped off. I went froma deadly-great putter to average in 2015. I dont know why.

2015 was also a year of frustration for me from a golf business perspective. One good relationship I had went sour. That hurt. Over the past few years blogs have dropped in popularity and Google rankings. The SEO and big money spent by the big media entities is having an effect. Plus the web is flooded with s**t golf blogs. That hurts the sites ability to bring in money to pay its own expenses.

Golf stopped making sense.

To add to all of the above, my exposure online to so many golf social networks has seemingly had a negative effect. Ive gotten so tired of the same old repetitive garbage out there, from hot tour wives and girlfriends to the one billionth WRXd watermark of some tour players custom wedge Im supposed to have an orgasm over. Whats in the bag? Not my interest. Who is Rickie Fowler dating this week? Who cares? This is golf media now?

I found myself gravitating toward other hobbies. I started getting heavy into the drone world. Ive now built many drones from scratch and captured incredible photographs and video of golf courses and many other amazing subjects. I even started a drone site, found at http://www.ambientflight.com





 
 
Manage Your Items
Other Stuff
Get GCash
Offers
Get Items
More Items
Where Everyone Hangs Out
Other Community Areas
Virtual Spaces
Fun Stuff
Gaia's Games
Mini-Games
Play with GCash
Play with Platinum