Golfing not just a thin man's sport

I love golfing.  Perhaps I should explain.  I love going golfing, but what I do on the course may or may not be what one would call golf.

When I drive it is usually long but more often than not it slices like a boomerang and looks like it might come back and hit me in my face.  Worse yet is my iron play which can go from bad to worse in a matter of seconds depending upon how angry I get.  Very often I can throw the club farther than I hit the friggin' ball.  Then there is my putting which simply put (haha pardon the pun) is horrible.  I can take a great drive, a decent second shot and make it into a gentleman's 8 in a few short strokes.  I love golfing, no sarcasm I actually love golfing.

My friend Kevin introduced me to it.   He would stand and laugh at me as I teed off every ball in my bag as I got angrier and angrier because it wouldn't go straight.  They would curve far into the woods never to be seen again by mankind.  Eventually after I graduated College I used my grad money to by myself a grad present which was a set of new Jazz clubs (canadian made baby!)  Over the course of the summer I broke each club (these were broke on hitting the ball not by me hitting the ground or anything else in anger) which sent me back to the store for another stronger set (bought on warranty).  That summer I actually improved mostly because my friend Doug and I played almost 2-3 times a week as I was needing some serious stress relief after a break-up I didn't see coming, a graduation from College into a life of paying bills and learning about the real world and my continuing in a ministry of a church that was under it's own brand of tension and strife.  Golfing for me became a boon, as did eating by the way and sometimes those things co-mingled!

Golfing can be great exercise.   Lot's of  walking (especially when you play like I do), lot's of twisting and turning your core.  I was pretty excited when my wife and I and our friend Debbie headed out to my favourite local course for a quick round of nine of Saturday afternoon.  I warmed up with a bucket of balls, as this was mine and Amy's first outing of the year with our clubs.  It was interesting to me that I was able to swing more efficiently, and easily than I had the previous year.  My back that had been bothering me since I hurt it last summer wasn't as tight either as I warmed up.   Before we knew it our name was called and we were facing our first challenging hole of the year.  A little par 4 that has a 90 degree dog leg in it making it perfect for a 'shape' iron shot.   I surprised myself by parring the first hole.  The next couple of holes were less than par but I was able to get myself out of trouble and do reasonably well.  The fourth hole something clicked and I unleashed an almost 300 yard drive straight up the fairway about 40 ft. from the green.  My game continued with good shots and bad shots and everything in between but I noticed that my score was relatively low for my first round of the year (which I usually don't count the score on).  By the end of our round I tallied it up and I had shot a personal best for my first round of 46 (par is 36) only 10 over.

I began to wonder what had happened, and what the difference was.  I decided it had to be that because I have lost almost 55 lbs, and I had been doing so much core work that I had more 'control' instead of 'momentum' as my core has been strengthened greatly.  I was still pretty stiff and tired the rest of the day, mostly because of my tired back muscles but after about 10 minutes of some stretching and a back rub by my very amazing wife I was good to go and woke up the next day without any strains or stiffness.

I weighed in on Friday and I was at 372.1 lbs which means that I lost another 2.6 lbs for a total of 53.9lbs total weight loss.

This week will be a good one I think even though it's busy for me with recording, gigs, and travel all coming up soon.  I am going to look at some new goals for the summer as I would like to be down to my high school grad weight which was 340lbs (I was a large 18 year old).  That means I would need to lose 32.1 lbs in just over 2 months (Sept. long weekend).  I think that's doable.  Amy and I will also be measuring me this weekend!

Here's to summer at last !

Take care talk soon
Blake