Author: revbruce

Sharing insights and ideas as a man of God and a concerned citizen...

Year-End Golf Game and Golf Goals for the New Year

During the Christmas break, I usually work in a few rounds of golf here and there. I was able to squeeze in a round at Carlton Oaks in Santee, California, the day after Christmas. This is a course formerly used to qualify golfers for their tour cards. I love the challenges of the front nine versus the wide open fairways of the back nine. You can plan out your approach and attack plan, but the angled fairways and elevated decks make adjustment a big part of the game.

I love how Carlton Oaks gives off a mystique of a course much older than its 1958 start date. Its first tee has you veering to right, only to quickly force you to dogleg left for a par 4. Launching my approach shot over the green, I lost my nerves and flubbed a chip shot onto the green. That forced me to put my pitching wedge to work around the back end of the green to come out with a double bogey.

From there on, the rest of the course gave me grief. Somewhere around the 7th hole on the front where I realized that my finish on my pitches and chips had too loose and light. After that realization, I added some changes to my chips and pitches. But those approach shots were killing me.

Finishing off the front nine, I messed up by using a fairway wood instead of a hybrid to carry my third shot over a waterway. The shot went wide to the left and barely still within the stakes. I scrambled my way to pitching a nice roller onto the green, but that wasn’t enough to save par or even get me bogey on a par 5. I walked away with a 7 on that hole and a bad attitude on the 10th tee.

The remainder of the scorecard tells a different story. I didn’t do anything drastic except cut down my double bogeys. I marked down a double bogey on 11, and then I pretty much settled down. In fact, on hole 16, I hit a par from the fringe muh like I have done in the past on the same hole. Simply cutting down those double bogeys, cut down an additional 4 strokes compared to the front nine.

A New Set of Golf Goals for a New Year

I looked back at this game and considered my golf goals for 2024.

Let me correct that with complete transparency.

I walked by the mirror coming from the restroom prior to my tee time. . .

. . . and I was disgusted at what I saw.

My belly was protruding out like Santa on an off day from his sleigh. Not that my multi-striped golf shirt helped any, but I looked a lot more like a lost Christmas ornament than a golfer.

I’m an athletic coach and a former athlete, so I surely did not like seeing my reflection at the moment.

I was reminded that one of my most popular articles of the past spoke of a focus on fitness. That gave me motivation to do more than try to just shoot for breaking 90. I was motivated to leave the course after my round and work on overall health.

https://twitter.com/RevBruceJ1/status/1743347631391375679/photo/1

Part of 2024 is going to include me running 5Ks again, maybe even that Hot Chocolate 15K, and daily pushing myself to take on new adventures in health. From food to fitness, I’m taking my health seriously to combat the effects of a poor diet of the past. If that means walking around a nearby downtown venue to speak to the homeless and get a feel for what type of outreach ministry that can take place there, then let it be so. If that means pulling on some hiking books or trail runners in order to hike a local peak with a group of folks who have been body-shamed and seek to create a new image of themselves, so be it.

In 2024, I’ve got more than just golf goals. I’ve got life goals.

Fun on the Fairways in Florida

I usually don’t get out of the state much to play golf, but when I do, I like to have an enjoyable time. Good people and gracious golf course usually make for a good round of golf. And, me being me, I’ll take that every single time.

On a warm and sunny Monday in December, I got an opportunity to play golf at MetroWest Country Club in Orlando, Florida. I thought that I had seen some picturesque courses in Southern California, but MetroWest had a luxurious feel of its own.

This par 72 course made playing it so much fun that I can’t wait to get back to Orlando and take another shot at it. I mean I’d bypass a visit to see Mickey Mouse or Universal Studios in Orlando for a chance to play this course’s wide open fairways and tree-lined gateways to its smooth and lush greens. Somebody said that there was a drought in Florida, but from the look of these fairways and greens, it looked like it totally missed this part of the state.

Did I get closer to breaking 90?

Nope. I was using someone else’s clubs and playing without a glove. We even started on the back nine instead of at hole #1. Breaking 90 was not quite in the picture for me that day. But I had a great time despite all of that.

What was working?

My drives were looking solid with the exception of about 3 holes. My putts from the off the fringe were conservative plays, but they kept me in position to make bogey many times. Taking a 5 wood off the fairway on long holes also proved to be working for me as opposed to engaging a hybrid.

What wasn’t working was the approach shots and uphill putts. I was coming up short too much on both. If I could have pushed about 3 more putts by half an inch, then I’d have dropped a few more pars on this course. But that’s just part of the game.

Special thanks to Cousin Lamar for hosting me in Florida. I was glad that he shared his clubs with me, especially that weighted putter that he laid on me for the day. It had an extra thick grip that I could get used to on the course.

I might not travel with my clubs there the next time, but I will definitely travel with an optimistic attitude and a strategic outlook to continue towards breaking 90.

I know that I still have some work to do as I come back from injuries and illness, but in the meantime, just keep swinging.

Back to Playing 18 Holes Again

How I Got Here

Imagine a cloudless sky overlooking an elevated tee box that leads to a wide open par 5 split by running water.

That’s how I got back to playing 18 holes again.

Normally, Cousin Robert comes to town and we get worked up over when we’ll play golf. Circumstances caused this to be a 1-round visit for our golfing together.

The last time he hit town and we played together, we got to witness some stunning swinging from Mark Teran in our foursome at Cottonwood.

Mark Teran swinging on the approach at a long par 5 at Cottonwood in San Diego.

We took on Mission Trails Golf Course in La Mesa, California. It’s a course with a variety of terrains. The front 9 is hilly while the back 9 flattens out and runs along Lake Murray for a portion of its course. This par 71 course is picturesque with green fairways and sand trap-guarded greens. It remains a go-to course for many golfers in the San Diego area.

How it Went for Me

Truthfully, the scorecard only tells part of the story.

I entered play with a nagging shoulder injury that had me stuck with limited motion on my right side. About 90% of my chips and pitches had me leaning into my left side trying to overcompensate for the injury. Truly, it only effected about 3 holes the entire round.

What Worked:

  • Tee shots were hitting the fairways most of the time (higher than normal)
  • Putts produced precision, not perfection
  • Some key recovery shots got me in position to have a shot at saving par or at least keeping scores reasonable

What Still Needs Work:

  • Approach shots with mid irons from 125 yards and further
  • Par 3 hole accuracy

Where to from Here?

I’m playing again with a cousin from the other side of the family on the other side of the country within a week. I think I’m going to squeeze in a short 9-hole session a few days this week before taking off for Florida.

In the meantime, like I said, I have to hit the range for some swings at 125 to 175 yards on the range. I used to be able to depend on my 7 iron up to about 150 yards, but over the years my range of motion has dipped a little bit. With my shoulder back to normal, I need to see where my mid iron game stands.

Until the next time, take care of yourself and hang loose. But most of all just keep swinging.

Shop Local and Online on Small Business Saturday

Small Businesses Need Our Support

Annually, on the Saturday following Thanksgiving, many of us celebrate Small Business Saturday. We go to the little mom and pop shops as well as some specialty shops to spend our dollars directly with local small businesses.

Share about local businesses on social media. Talk about your experience and interaction with ownership. Add an Instagram Reel or a YouTube Short about your shopping experience and encourage others to join in supporting local small businesses. You could even comment on a local neighborhood site The Patch or Craigslist to spotlight a small business.

Check out podcasts and YouTube channels focused on small businesses and entrepreneurism. Offer positive feedback and encouragement to content creators and artists sharing their work via online galleries and websites.

#ShopSmall #ShopLocal

More Golf During the Holidays

I haven’t played in a long time. Yet, despite such a long layoff, I didn’t do too bad. In fact, I had some pretty good moments.

I’ll dig into that later on, but for now I want to just say that age and injuries along with life’s letdowns are going to come. You brace yourself for them and ride it out. You play golf to enjoy being outdoors and among like-minded folks as well as having the courage to face any challenge these golf course designers could throw your way.

Play on and just keep swinging!

Rahm Wins at Augusta

Jon Rahm is due all congratulations and celebrations of his recent victory at the Masters.

Jon Rahm won it like a pro.

The golf world has seen it happen before.

Let’s not play like great pros don’t claim monumental moments at major pro tour events.

Rahm’s a pro and deserved the win. He’s been on fire.

What Jon Rahm did was ignite a fire in the golf world as he earned his green jacket. He deserves the congrats from golfers around the world. He deserves the oodles from onlookers who only tune in to watch just one of pro golf’s major events. As the world turned its eyes to Augusta, Jon Rahm turned up the heat and overtook Brooks Koepka in the final round of the tourney for the win.

I had my eyes on Koepka holding strong, but you could see Rahm edging up and eventually edging out Koepka by just 4 strokes. I was even impressed by Lefty getting into the fray despite a struggle in the other rounds. Good golf was still being played despite everything surrounding this 87th Masters Tournament.

Rahm had 2 final rounds that were impressive as he went on to become the fourth pro from Spain to don a green jacket.

Let’s see where the remainder of golf season takes us.

Been Away But Been Busy

I took some time to recover and heal properly before jumping up and playing 18 holes of golf. I know I’ll be rusty once I hit the links, but I’ve been preparing mentally and physically for the challenge.

In the meantime. . .

I recently released an ebook of poetry called Words from the Underground. It comes from the perspective of a person living on the streets of urban America with mental illness and suffering from poverty. It is in “the Underground” where I find my ministry work. It is in “the Underground” where I feel most connected to living out God’s Word coming alive in my life as I can serve and support others.

Buy a copy of my ebook during April (National Poetry Month) and the profits will go towards Life Path Mobile Ministries. It is through Life Path Mobile Ministries that I have focused my ministerial work on serving and supporting the poor and needy.

Poetry’s not your thing? Help us serve and support the poor and needy in San Diego through our GoFundMe campaign for Life Path Mobile Ministries.

You can get more of the story behind launching Life Path Mobile Ministries via my blog and also through Live @ Lunch Bible Study which I host weekly on Wednesdays at 9 AM PST via YouTube.

Injuries, Illness and Inspiration

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”

John Lennon

I learned about this John Lennon quote in my younger adult days. It always seemed to make sense logically. However, at the time, my circumstances did not truly reveal how much the quote actually speaks to various situations in life.

Injuries

I’ve been trying to get out onto the golf course for nearly 2 months now. Initially, my schedule of work and coaching interfered with finding free time. Then, the rainfall and winter storms came crashing into town.

But that wasn’t the worst of it all.

Injuries plagued me almost at every turn when the sun did come out and the grass dried up from the rain. First, the ankle was swollen and aching. Next, the shoulder became limited in its rotation. And, of course, aging in general never helps.

Injuries are a definite setback to any plans of playing 18.

Illness

In the midst of struggling with inclimate weather and injuries, I fell ill. The type of illness that the health professionals identify as not being anything close to COVID. That’s the only consolation when you’re told that it could be a severe virus or just allergies.

It’s never been my thing to be out long term with an illness. Even when I had a “serious illness” some years ago, I still did as prescribed and took a short-term period off work like a Thursday and Friday, rested on the weekend, and returned to work on Monday.

This was something different, though.

Inspiration

Downtime doesn’t have to lead to a downturn in all that you have on your plate.

Im involved in the inspiration business. That’s part of what I do. It’s an indication in part of the why behind me doing what I do. I’ve been saying for a while, but maybe some haven’t heard it yet.

Just a little bit of what I’ve managed to do during my downtime:

I’ve come out the illness and I’m back on track. I think I’m ready to hit the course again. My cousin Robert is town again and I might be able to get out there soon. Let’s see what happens.

Keep swinging!

John Lennon

John Lennon was an oftentimes misunderstood musician and the epitome of an enigmatic idealist. He is misquoted many times. His message of peace and love got overshadowed by many of his offhanded and flippant comments as he searched for his own identity and the meaning of life.

Open Box contains flower quotations including one by Lennon. Plenty other bloggers quote Lennon on everything from peace to imagination.

Please, take the quote used in this post for its application to what is described here, not how it might have been used outside of it in other situations.

Tiger, Tee Shots and Tampons

Poor taste doesn’t even begin to explain it.

I wrestled with how to entitle this post, but I just went with an alliterated title based on the topic.

I was tempted to call it Tampongate. Maybe it’ll go down in golf history as just the Tampon Prank.

Hopefully, with the pro golf season fully underway, it’ll just drift off and die away amid other news.

If you haven’t seen video of the incident or read any reports on it, please start with the Wall Street Journal article or the report offered by an Australian news site. Tiger’s recent apology for the incident has been pretty well documented by the media as well.

Beyond Tiger Being Tiger

Tiger Woods isn’t immune to messy media coverage.

Think car crash and cheating scandal. It seems like ages ago, but that sex scandal was in 2009.

This comes out amid a comeback to the pro golf circuit that has included pairings with his young son on the course. As noted by some, Tiger isn’t the squeaky clean and polished PR juggernaut that he once was back in the early days.

This goes beyond much of the prior controversy related to Tiger. In the past, Tiger has been the spotlight of a 2009 sex scandal and a few published books and articles centered on his rigid upbringing and rise to success. One could look over Tiger’s storied past and see where Tiger has been both victim and villain. Public sentiments driven by the media coverage have gone the full gamut of typical sports idol worship and fandom.

The Prank = PR Problems in the Public View

Someone will hit the cancel button on Tiger, calling for his removal from PGA golf events and endorsement deals with sponsors. Others will shake their heads and simply say that it is just “boys will be boys” ameteur and adolescent behavior at play as these pros joke around and let off steam.

There’s a certain level of uneasiness and division within society at such a deep level that people are considered “on edge” these days. It’s like a ticking time bomb waiting to be triggered by the slightest movement in one direction or another.

We’ve seen it in the January 6th Riots of patriots storming the Capitol. We see it in the case where censored and cancelled celebs get their Twitter and other social media accounts reinstated without any apologies or agreement to do things differently of the platforms. It is prevalent in the social arena as LGBTQ advocates argue for or against transgender rights in public forums. It is partly revealed as a Black man is tasered and beaten to death at the hands of the primarily Black police officers in Memphis. It is an era of people on the edge with very few people standing in the middle of the road or on the fence.

People are living on the edge.

It won’t take a lot to take some folks over the edge.

A Closer Look at a Higher Cost

Whether you see it as a prank or not, the situation puts a spotlight on how much can be read into anything that we do. Cell phone cameras make everything accessible immediately. Social media’s ability to allow live feeds to stream across the Internet. Today’s TikTok-style short attention spans do not have to offer the full story behind the snippet that became a snapshot with captions.

I wouldn’t want a slew of media cameras following my foursome on a weekend round of 18 holes. I sure wouldn’t want to be “mic’d up” as I flub a flop shot around the green or miss an easy putt. I can’t imagine what a news reporter’s perspective would be as one of he members of my foursome starts out with:”So, these two nuns are sitting at bar. . .”

Aside from picking sides, we need to pick apart what society is truly craving at this time. People who don’t even play golf, watch golf or give a hoot about golf are flying off the handle on social media in response to this issue. Looking beyond its misogyny and chauvinism, there seems to be something less cavalier about such a prank during a time when female pro golfers are just coming into their own for both recognition and compensation.

The OC Register labeled it as an “unfortunate distraction.” That’s a nice way of putting it. I’d see it more as another part of the blowback of infusing sports coverage for the public to get up close and personal with an inside view. The public craves it and even clamours for it, but when it hits the fan no one really wants to be too close to see what comes of it or even smell its lingering intrusive odor. But everyone wants a bird’s eye view from the tee box and data-driven graphic of the the arc and distance of the drive for that tee shot.

Truth be told, ‘fun and games’ don’t go along with fame and fortune.

Flu Blues

I want to play golf.

I got flu-like symptoms a few days ago that threw off my plans for some outdoor play, and then the rain hit again.

And guess what?

I did not get any better than before the rain came.

Watching Golf on TV

I don’t know about you, but when I get sick on the weekend I tend to curl up in the bed and turn on the TV.

NFL playoff championships were on. The Farmers Insurance Open was in full swing. After all, it was in my town San Diego, a dream golf destination to be experienced by any golfer.

However, watching golf on TV tends to do something to me. On those days where golf pros are in the hunt for the holy grail of the tournament win, it makes me uneasy. I’m ready to hit the course and take a full swing. I just get really jazzed.

But being sick puts a damper on that. Like the site says, it’s an “annual nuisance.”

Once I get over this cold, flu or whatever it is, I’m making my way back to a local course for a few holes of the stuff that golfers live for time and time again.

In the meantime, while I still got the flu blues, y’all just keep swinging.

I’m still working on getting Mark Teran on my YouTube channel for Coffee & Chat with Rev Bruce. It might be a while since golf season has kicked off again for the pros but we’ll see what we can do.

Stay tuned.