A birthday and something orange in the sky

One of the above happens every year (this time I was the lucky one!) and the other... well... it seems like it has been a year since we've seen it here in Florida. The weather finally broke this afternoon after about 2 days of rain and that big orange thing in the sky was a welcome sight. We've put in a couple good days on the course despite the weather. Killearn Country Club is plenty soaked. The tee boxes and greens are in awesome shape. The fairways are a little thin in spots but you can generally get good lies.

The cool thing about our practice rounds is that Brian will let me hit a tee shot every now and then and depending on the situation I'll play the hole. We started out yesterday with a couple guys fresh out of Kansas State. They bailed at the turn and it was just Brian and I the rest of the way. The 12th hole is an shortish uphill par 4 with a slight dogleg right. No warm up I get up and throw a little fade out to the right side of the fairway. A full 48 degree wedge up the hill to 3 feet. Birdie. Games kind of easy every now and then! But Brian and I just walking the course is a treat. We don't have to rush for others behind us. We don't have to wait on others in our group. We're just out there in our element.

Today we played with a couple guys from Michigan State. One of which was the leading money winner in the NGA Winter Series this past year. Those Sparty golfers are everywhere!

Those who know me know that I won't ever pass up a sushi dinner. Brian had to laugh tonight at the volume of sushi that I took in. 15 pieces of sashimi, 5 pieces of this Osaka's Louisiana Roll, 8 pieces of Rainbow Roll, 6 pieces of Alaskan Roll, half an order of edamame, and let's not forget the Miso soup!

The one thing I couldn't pull off tonight was the Jimmy Buffett concert. Hated to miss it but paying $50 for nose bleed seats inside an arena didn't appeal to me tonight without by fellow Parrotheads back in Indiana. Fins up!

Relaxing the rest of the evening was our MO tonight. Only disappoint was Sparty not winning tonight. But always a good time watching Big Bang Theory. Penny (knock knock). Penny (knock knock). Penny (knock knock).

The NGA released the pairings today and we tee off in the last group on Thursday at 2:27pm. We're honestly hoping we can just finish the round that day. We're gearing up for the possibility that we'll be back at the course early Friday morning prior to teeing off around 9:30 on Friday morning for Round 2. The weather doesn't look good either. We're not worrying so much as what we'll happen but just preparing ourselves for what could be a stop and go type of round and the potential to play a lot of golf on Friday.

It's late on Tuesday night and a full day has been had. Thanks to all for the birthday wishes. I can't really process words and thoughts any more. However, I'll leave you with the words from Thomas Edison - "There is no substitute for hard work."

Match Play and Pterodactyls

In the spirit of the Accenture Match Play event going on in the PGA Tour, Brian and I decided that Saturday was going to be a match play event between the two of us. Earlier in the morning we had gotten in about 3 hours of practice out at Shingle Creek. The wildlife out at Shingle Creek was incredible. We had a visit from a bald eagle earlier. I didn't have a chance to get a picture of it as I was caught up in the splendor of the size and beauty. I did however get a picture of a slighter slower blue heron.

Because of the NBA All Star game in town the course was pretty much packed with golfers. Because of the NBA All-Star game in town pretty much all local course's tee times were filled. We were able to find a tee time at a course that Brian had actually played a few months earlier (and played well with a T7) at Harmony Golf Preserve. I was going to as ready as I could be to play.

Being the nice guy Brian is he gave me 3 strokes a side. I gladly took that bit of charity and promptly made a sweet sandie (up and down from the bunker) on the first hole to go 1up. The lead increased to 2up after 3 holes with a solid par by me. It was a bit of déjà vous for Brian back to his final round in November when he double bogeyed the same par 3 before putting down 6 birdies the rest of the way in for that tournament. Nonetheless I was trying not to let the fact I had this big early lead get to my head but the enviable was coming. A couple less than stellar chips kept me from getting up and down and my lead was gone just like that.

The pterodactyl sightings were our find friends pictured below. It was rather humorous to see these creatures. And they were loud too. If you could imagine being immersed in Jurassic Park then you could have sworn these crazy things were there!

I can't say I really played poorly just more like someone having not played in 3-4 months. Some things were already improving in my game. However, it was a slow leak the rest of the round and Brian eventually closed me out on the 15th hole. Couldn't have played a nicer course though. It's kind of out in the boonies so they don't have a lot of golfers clogging up the course. Well except for the drunk 4some ahead of us. Figures, right?

All round we'd been jonesing for pizza. As luck would have it we had a flyer slipped under the door. We figured it was worthy. Well... nothing more disappointing then waiting over 90 minutes for a piece of cardboard with some cheese and toppings on it. Sort of a sour end to the day. I'm sure it was good when it was warm at some point on its journey. But on any return trip Romano's Pizza will not be on the menu. If that's the worst thing on this trip I think we'll be ok.

Another night in the books. Sunday was a travel day. No real news other than the jam and karaoke sessions in the car. Pretty funny stuff really but that gets filed under the player/caddy confidentiality agreement!

Good night all! I'm only a day behind now on the blog. We're out early on Tuesday morning for a practice round. Will catch up tomorrow night. Something says I'll have a little to say. With that, I'll leave you with this quote:

Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness - James Thurber.

Rust and Relaxation

Yes I said rust. That's pretty much for me. Brian's been down here for over a week. I haven't hit a real golf ball since my last blog at Thanksgiving. Before that may have been October-ish. Needless to say that I've had a lot of excitement brewing up to get down here to Florida to get away from Iowa for a bit.

I'll back up briefly though. I received a text from Brian last Monday morning prior to going into work. It simply said "stay in the present, focus on the task at hand today, do what you do." Prior to his tournament rounds I usually send him words of encouragement and thoughts to keep in mind during his round. It's a long distance version of what I remind him while I caddy for him. Roles were reversed this time as I got the advice to approach my 4 day work week just as you would a 4 round golf tournament. After all I could have checked out pretty easy and coasted through the work week. I've read countless books on the mental side of golf but never had given serious consideration to how I could implement it into more than golf and especially into a work day. If you follow me on Twitter (@finsupgolfer) then you probably saw some curious tweets each day. Combining work and golf mindsets really worked. I did have some fun with some spinoffs on tweets I've seen from PGA Tour golfers.

Arriving at the wee hours of Friday morning Brian and I arrived at Shingle Creek around mid-morning after I was able to catch up on some sleep. But I'll admit that I was too excited to really sleep late. We put in some good work. The Shingle Creek course in Orlando is where Brian's "office" is during his prep for upcoming events. Short game. Putting. Long game. Most of the clubs in the bag had some attention paid to them. Needless to say my back was pretty sore. The one cool toy I bought early in the year at Brian's advice was the Pelz Putting Tutor. I probably spent about a third of time just using that device on the putting green. I'm telling my golfer friends if you truly want to improve your putting then this can help (no I don't get a kickback from Pelz). Or don't take my advice and I'll just take your money now!

Dinner was Kobe Japanese Steakhouse and Brian realized the potential of my sushi eating capacity. Brian usually will pick up dinner for me during tournament week but we have the unwritten agreement that I'm on my own for sushi. For him that's a wise choice!

Friday ended quickly. With mid to high 80 temperatures and 20 mph winds we were both sun and wind burned. I vaguely remember watching the NBA Rising Stars game on tv (and for the record it's generally the only time I watch any NBA action).

Day 1 was in the books. All in all a good start. I found it prophetic that I saw a quote from Marcus Aurelius prior to going to bed that said "When you rise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive; to breathe, think, to enjoy, to love." My reply - yes please!