Tag: goals

Getting Fit for the Fairway

Let’s not lie to ourselves. Aging and fitness do not always align themselves with our personal aspirations.

I’m being serious, y’all!

Regular Exercise

Regular exercise is more like some form of geriatric preventive care equivalent to morning breakfast shakes of Ensure. I hit the gym for a workout at least 4 days per week, adding in 2 days of deep stretching, yoga and cardio.

And, at times, I feel like that doesn’t cut it. It is as if there needs to be an additional workout for making up for the kinks and the aches and pains that the regular exercise create for me. I just don’t think such a thing truly exists for us who are undergoing aging.

Extended Recovery Time

Recovering from an injury seems to take forever nowadays. It doesn’t matter if it’s a twisted ankle or a busted knee, the amount of time to properly recover seems to drag on for ages. To truly recover from an injury these days, you have to spend some time working on your own rebound.

To recover from an injury today, you need the right liquids and supplements to digest along with the proper pain medications in moderation. You cannot simply pop a few Advil and keep it pushing. Recovery does not work like that. You need braces or KT Tape, even the proper medicated sports tape for wrapping areas of soreness for conditioning and rehab during recovery.

No room for softies who cannot take the bountiful scent of Icy Hot after a simple workout.

Finding My Way Back to the Fairway

Due to the recent barrage of injuries, I haven’t jumped back on the course immediately. However, I train with golf in mind. I train with walking at least 9 holes with a lightweight golf bag slung across my back as my goal for summertime this year. I train with golf on my brain.

By the time I make it back onto the fairway, I expect my scores to be regulated by week #3 if I go out there consistently. I plan to play a full round of 18 holes at least 2x’s per month. By this time next year, I will play twice as much. However, for right now, I am suited for increasing my weekly workouts and adding some more cardio with running and hiking. Let’s see where that gets us.

Breaking New Ground in 2026

MyBreaking90.com is still tracking and updating followers on my quest to consistently improve my golf game and break 90 on a regular basis. However, at this point, we’re expanding part of what we do beyond just the website to include some external activities that friends and followers can participate in soon.

Tournaments

We are aiming to host at least 2 golf tournaments per year. One will be held in the summer in the San Diego area, while the other tournament will occur in the winter. More details on these tournaments and how to participate will come out this spring.

Tours

We’re going behind the scenes in the golf industry to tour some top of the line golf facilities and testing centers. My first trip to TaylorMade helped me understand that some of the best golf equipment on the market is not custom-made or specially-designed equipment. I loved the tour and getting a chance to see where and how they test their golf equipment. Drop a comment below if you’re interested in joining us for any of thee golf industry tours.

Trips

We’re going to test out a few trips this year before we market some big ticket items through the website. I know that everyone isn’t game for a road trip to the desert in the summer to play a round of golf or 2 under such conditions. However, I just want to load up a Suburban or 4×4 hitch up a side-by-side and a quad or 2 to head to the sandy dunes and grassy fairways. Our trip testing this year will include some localized, invitation-only golf getaways to get us started. We’ll update you as we get prepared to expand these offerings to our friends and followers later in 2026.

As I mentioned earlier, we will continue to track my game improvement. Injuries plagued my game for much 2025. Scorecards show limited improvement if any. After putting on weight during recovery from my injuries, I have to admit that I am about 25 to 30 pounds away from last year’s weight and 50 plus pounds away from my ideal weight. It all plays a factor into the overall calculation.

Don’t worry about what’s next for us. We’re stepping things up. And by doing so, we’re making it hard to just keep going with the status quo. We’re making some conscious changes to make our goals become a reality.

Keep swinging!

Nelly Korda Wins Seri Pak Championship

I had my hope set on seeing Ruoning Yin defend her title through the final round at Fir Hills, but that fell by the wayside on Sunday as Nelly Korda nabbed the $300,000 prize for herself at the end of the day. Yin’s failure to retain the lead through 18 holes on Saturday became her own downfall for defending her title. This left the title open for anyone to take advantage and dominate.

It took a playoff against UCLA alumnus Ryann O’Toole to give Korda her second win for 2024. Also, this win marks the tenth LPGA Tour title victory in Korda’s career. Including the $300,000 purse from this win, Korda has earned $586,716 in 2024 with 2 victories and 2 top 10 finishes. Yin paid a dear price for not retaining her solo lead on Saturday’s round 3, ending the tournament with tied for 8th and taking home $48,011 on top of finishing the final round 1 over at 72.

It’s still early for the ladies in the LPGA. I can’t wait to see what happens as we go into the summer months. Lydia Ko and Brooke Henderson have yet to break out from the pack in the chase for CME Globe points. This latest victory places Korda in first place just ahead of Ko who is in second with Henderson trailing behind at 5th place. There’s still plenty of golf to play in 2024,

Practice for Playing the Conditions

Two things that I’m certain of no matter how golf I play is that you have to play the course and the conditions as they are. The course has its own particular design and layout. The conditions are just what they are for that given day and even at that moment.

I tend to practice early mornings, especially on Sundays. In many cases, the greens are soaked and my poor little Callaway balls are rolling and splashing around while I’m chipping and pitching onto the surface.

This helps me accomplish a few goals. One of the main goals that I accomplish with this type of practice is that I can get a feel for what effect different conditions have on the ball upon approach to the putting surface. That helps a lot once we start to play on any course.

A Storied Ending of the West Coast Swing

The Genesis Invitational was set to provide a thrilling storyline for pro golf. In fact, this pro golf tournament tournament hosted by Tiger Woods on behalf of TGR Foundation is held at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California. It serves as a befitting end to the West Coast Swing portion of the annual golf season.

What we got from the Genesis Invitational was way more than any of us bargained for along with most probably less Tiger Woods than we originally expected to see. The lineups and foursomes were great pairings for viewers of the event. The struggles on the course called for some sensational news like Cantlay fighting to maintain an early lead or Jordan Spieth getting disqualified for signing the wrong score on his scorecard. That all came around the same time that we heard about Tiger having back spasms and other issues on the course. It wasn’t long before we got word of Tiger pulling out of the tournament altogether.

All of that made for great fodder, but the true story was being etched out day by day on the course. Hideki Matsuyama was delivering sub-70 golf scores daily at Riviera starting with an opening round of 69 and ending with a final round 62. Matsuyama finished the tournament with a 6 stroke lead at the end. Matsuyama took home a $4 million dollar prize and an additional 700 Fedexcup Points.

Watching the final round of the tournament had me looking for who might catch up to Matsuyama and provide another playoff weekend. But that never happened here. Masuyama maintained his lead at a safe distance from his competitors and won this tournament free and clear.

After watching a post-game interview with Hideki Matsuyama sharing about overcoming back issues and his closing in on the course record during this final round, I was motivated. I was motivated to pick up my irons and chip and putt for some more practice around the green. According to Matsuyama, everything was not working for him during the entire final round, but he was able to remain consistent with his short game and his putting. That told me that we all can tee it up high and let it fly, but if we’re going to keep winging we better do it strategically to stay the course.

North County Golf Outing

The tee time was pushing it close, but we knew that when we started. Daylight would rush our play towards the end of the day. Nevertheless, we made our way to Rancho Bernardo Inn in North County San Diego just under 30 miles from central San Diego proper.

From the first tee, I felt good swinging in the tee box. I drove it across a waterway and followed that up with an approach shot onto the green. I putted for par on the green, and then played it too safe on a par 3 that cost me some strokes. Then, I made my second par on a par 5 hole and saw my potential for breaking 90 light up.

Unfortunately, not many highlights pop up after that.

One memorable hole had me trying to work some magic by overplaying a dogleg that got me caught up with some dogwoods and eucalyptus trees. That move had me right along with my foursome who all sat in the fairway, while I wrestled with the tall grass amid the trees. I overworked for that double bogey on that hole.

I never went beyond making a bogey on the back 9. In fact, I stacked up enough double bogeys to keep me focused on fixes for my next outing.

I was too conservative on my putts, leaving myself too much ground to cover on the second putt. Also, I was overplaying a few holes when I was left with under 100 yards to the flag. Playing a 9 iron instead of a pitching wedge under such conditions makes the difference between being on the green or just beyond the green.

I learned one lesson clearly and it has been on my mind since this round. I need to manage my shot selection and choice of clubs in order to set up the next shot. If I don’t do that well, then I’m bound to still struggle breaking 90.

Flooded Fairways and Stormy Forecasts

I saw it for myself. I didn’t have to see it on the local news report. I didn’t have to hear about from others on social media. I saw the fairways of Chula Vista Golf Course flooded like the Red Sea sweeping away the army of Pharaoh in its pursuit of Moses and the children of Israel.

Stormy conditions in the San Diego area have made playing golf a futile aspiration over the past week. Right after the flooded fairways were cleared of the water and debris left from the prior storms to resume regular tee times on the local golf courses, San Diego is bracing itself for another catastrophic level of rainfall and wind over a period of two days.

Conditions like this make it a good time to focus on fitness. Whether it’s hitting the local gym or following the lead of a Peloton instructor at home, you can work out and remain fit and prepared for the next time you hit the fairways. Maybe it’s time to conduct some upkeep and maintenance on your body in order to be prepared for your next round of golf.

My hope is that the storms come and go.

I’ve got a tee time scheduled for Saturday at Rancho Bernardo Inn in the North County area of San Diego. With this storm scheduled to pass away by Friday, I’m hoping for a sunny Saturday morning that could provide a decent round of golf and an enjoyable time with close friends.

I’m going to prepare for another shot at breaking 90 and keep swinging where and when I can.

#golf

Finding Time to Practice

The driving range is notorious for being filled with people swinging like crazy and supposedly working on their game. The truth of the matter is that we cannot be sure of what progress everyone else is making on the range. The only thing that we can be certain of in this regard is our own progress based on goals that we have set for ourselves at one point or another.

My range practice sessions are narrowed down to 20 to 30 minutes nowadays. I focus on specific techniques. I spend a concentrated amount of time working on certain aspects of my game.

What I Do

I have been struggling with my approach shots going awry. I take to the range lately to work on mechanics for such shots, especially with my irons. I will get ahold of a 6 or 7 iron just to work on those shots that need me to focus my address and alignment to a target. For those shots at 100 yards or under, I’m looking at where the ball is at address in relationship to my feet. I use an 8 or 9 iron for such shots, and then I do similar work with a pitching wedge or a sand wedge.

What I Don’t Do

I don’t take my full bag to the driving range anymore.

I will grab 3 to 4 clubs and use only those for specific time allotted. i don’t need a full bag of hybrids, fairway woods, and a driver. I just need clubs that will help me work on the specific aspect of my game where I need more focus.

I won’t work on driving or hit the putting surface. When I work on my putts, I show up with just my putter and 4 balls. I focus on roll. I focus on contact. I focus on the feel. When I am working on my driver, I am focused on tee height and following through with a balanced stance. But that’s not every single time that I hit the range.

Am I There Yet?

Practice is a time-consuming venture. It takes time to match up your progress with your goals. It can get to you.

I’m going to keep things consistent. I’m going to keep working on my game. I’m still a work in progress.