Monthly Archives: December 2013

Pine Needles….a must visit

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Pine Needles Practice Area

Pine Needles Practice Area

Pine Needles

Pine Needles

HAPPY NEW YEAR’S EVE! Today was a good day for this average golfer at one of the great golf courses in the Pinehurst area, Pine Needles! They have five tee boxes and we played the Executive tee box which is like the gold on other courses. The slope is 115 and rating is 66.8 so a pretty average course from there. I shot a 46/46 for 92 with 36 putts and hit eight fairways today. It’s a beautiful course and a clubhouse that has the old traditional feel to it. Great bar and dining which I have enjoyed in the past. It is indeed one of the jewels of the area. If you come to Pinehurst, it should be on your list of places to play and have dinner.
Lounge area Pine Needles

Lounge area Pine Needles

Whispering Pines Pines Course

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A Maples Course

A Maples Course

Par 5 No. 5 at Whispering Pines

Par 5 No. 5 at Whispering Pines

Welcome to Whispering Pines

Welcome to Whispering Pines

Winter golf started today for this average golfer and as expected I was rusty. The Pines Course has a slope of 122 from the gold tees with a rating of 68.7. A slope of 113 is average, therefore you can see that the course is above average in difficulty. We played from the gold, but for information, the white tees have a slope of 129 and a rating of 70.8. Remember my post about putting? Today was evidence of how putting affects your game….I shot 101 (51/50) with 17 /21 putts! No three putts on the front and three three putts on the back! That tells me I was fairly good off the tee and in the fairway, but the rust showed when I got to the green. The short game has to improve! The gold yardage is 5965 and white yardage is 6409. Not a good day as I was above the average golf score of 100. Another bad indicator was that I only hit two fairways on the front and two on the back! Tomorrow I will be playing Pine Needles, one of the primer courses in the area.

Hand Position

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As I head out today to play Whispering Pines here in the Pinehurst area, I know I’ll be a little rusty as I haven’t played in five weeks. We all know too well what a mental game golf is. Often it seems that we have way too many things going through our head and that just leads to a bad game. I have tried to focus on just one thing each round that will help my game. To do this, I often refer to Harvey Penick’s “Little Red Book”. So, today I will focus on hand position. Here’s what Harvey has to say….”I like to see your hands towards the inside of your left thigh on every shot except the driver. With the driver, I like to see your hands at your zipper. If this moves them slightly behind the ball at address, that is fine. It encourages hitting on the upswing.” I’ll let you know how it worked for me after today’s first round of winter golf! Happy golfing!

Winter Golf In Pinehurst

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I arrived in beautiful Pinehurst yesterday to begin the winter golf season! Today we are having heavy rain, but Monday will be nice and I’ll blog about my first day playing. We have selected the Whispering Pines course to start the season tomorrow. They have two courses, the River and Pines. Not sure which one we will play yet. Later in the week we may be playing one of the premier courses in the area, Pine Needles. Again, I will be giving insight into the courses including rating and slope from an average golfers perspective. I’ll try to get some pics and comment on different holes as well as letting you know how this average golfer scores. Should be fun!

Merry Christmas

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Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year! May 2014 find all your drives long and straight ( finding lot of F’s on your card); your irons hot; your sand wedge in your bag; your fairways woods in the fairway ( where they are meant to be) and one putts on the green! I’ll be blogging from Pinehurst starting the 29th. Stay safe, stay healthy and here’s a cheer to the game we can all play well into our 90’s!