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Ist Wayne wanted me to apologize for the problems he has been experiencing since upgrading to WP 6.0.1.  He said his Technician has spent many hours trying to figure a way around the problems and wants to thank him for ALL those hours spent. Hey it’s been awhile since I last posted.  I has been a long time since I have been anywhere except the Driving Range.  Still not showing much improvement.  BUT I have never been much for practice.  I know i need to practice.  But I have a hard time getting into it.   I have come to the conclusion I need to make myself a list of things to follow for practice.   Without a list I just hit the balls, trying to get through the bucket.  A bucket is 40 balls.  I hit so rapidly,  my back begins to hurt after 20 balls I have to stop. Recently my best half and I did tackle, a course which when I stopped playing  years ago was a nice little par 3 course,  NOW it is a full 18 hole par 72 course.  It has changed so much we skipped a tee and was playing the wrong hole.  I had my best drive this drive this year.  A par 4,  I hit to about 25-30 yards short of the hole. THEN:  The course ranger rode up and informed us we were playing the wrong hole.  Back to the correct tee to start again.  Seems the the tee we were supposed to play was moved forward of the natural tee box placement,  so we had moved directly to the tee box to our left. Some of the greens must have been artificial.  When chipping on the ball might land just off the green then run all the way across to the second cut around.  I hit a high approach to the green.   NO BALL mark.   When putting you had to strike the ball very hard.  I putted a ball that should have went a couple of feet past the hole.  It moved less than half the the distance to the hole.  In the parking lot,  after we finished I was talking to a regular there.  He called those greens, “asphalt greens”, and stated “No one should have to hit a ball that hard on a green.” The thing, I am ashamed to admit.  My best half stands less than 5 feet tall.  Enjoys playing golf, but unfortunately we only get out for 9 every 2 or 3 holes.  But after all this time I just noticed how far away she was standing from the ball at her address.  All this time she has been struggling with regular length clubs.  Then it hit me.  Doing a little investigating I found “JUNIOR  Clubs” , might be the answer.   I looked at pro shops, and sporting good stores, their inventory of Junior clubs was very small.  Also her being left handed did not help.  None carried left handed in stock.  The sporting good stores weren’t even sure they could order them.   However on sports store had some single right hand junior clubs.  I grabbed a couple down and had her try them.  Finally one of them felt good to her and looked like it fit her height.  I made  a note of the driver length. I checked on EBAY for a set.  They had some but looked very beaten up.  Although I went to to my last hope.  I checked AMAZON.com  Surprise they had a 7 piece set of Spalding Molitor.  9-12 year old set, left handed,(right handed available), that fit her height.  No one will pay attention to the fact that they are Junior clubs.  I ordered her a set.  It is a nice looking set. She wanted to try them out.  It was rainy that day,  just sprinkles.  We went to the driving lane and split a bucket of balls.  It was amazing.  Before she was using a 4 wood to drive with.  Usually a “worm burner”.   But with the new driver she started hitting the majority in the air and getting more distance.  Like me; she has some work to do, but things are looking better.  At 78 she continues to work.  So now it’s back to work.  but she has evenings, (if she isn’t too tired after work),  Maybes she and I can get in a few 9 rounds. As for me I was talking to some other senior golfers, and found the majority of them don’t hit the ball much farther than I do.  Gave me a boost, as I have been disgusted because I couldn’t hit the ball as far as I used to.  I still see me going out there and hitting it like I did before my HIATUS.  I know physically I can’t so I will have to make up that difference with my short game. Until next time. OLY Thanks Views: 91

Still have great grandchildren playing softball and T-ball.  It was tournament time so everyday, weekends included.  They did well and I enjoyed watching them.  So NO i did not make it to the driving range or practice green.  I did however pick a package of the FLAT GOLF BALLS.  If you are not familiar with these training aids, The object is to hone your iron play.  If you hit behind the ball your club will go over them.  If you Usually top the ball you will make a divot in front of the flat ball.  The ball is only about a quarter inch thick. So if you actually hit the ball correctly it lift and fly a short distance with a divot in front of where the ball wss.  I haven’t tried them yet but they are something I can go in my back yard a try to hit them correctly.  Of course the other half who likes to mow, and plant flowers, and veggies,  may not like it if i leave too many divots.  So maybe I will take on of  our welcome mats aut there.  Better safe than sorry. But for the first time in a long time, my two sons got together and we went GOLFING  together.  Had a wonderful Fathers Day. My youngest son paid my golf fees and my oldest drove me to a course about an hour away from my home.  It was a Beautiful course.  Compared to my home course it was like playing on a PGA tour course. My youngest son plays a lot and has a golf simulator at his home.  He takes the game seriously, and expensive clubs and balls.  My eldest son hasn’t played for about 8-10 years and either sold or loaned his clubs to someone.  He had a set he bought from Wal*Mart for about $160 dollars.  I of course have the cheap clubs too, (except the driver which was $300 I got for $250 on sale.  That was a Callaway Hot-X. We teed off about 13:00 hours.  It was decided we would do a Match.  My eldest and I would play scramble against my youngest.  We put up a pretty good fight the first nine.  I did surprise him on the first hole, when I putted in a birdie from the fringe.  The look on his face was priceless.  But also he beat us match wise, and stroke wise.  He picked up on the back nine and clobbered us.  He struggled the first nine and was 7 over..  But came in 1 under for the back side, shooting a 78.  Unfortunately our score was a miserable 88.  My eldest kept up his part I let him down on my part.  But we had a terrific day.  I learned somethings from them.   I can barely wait to see if i can do better. Normally my friend and I play the only free day I have to play.  But as “things happen”  I had a dental appt. one week, and he had one the next week. We will try next week. But I want to reiterate:  I HAD A WONDERFUL FATHERS DAY”. I will get back to you when I go again. Thanks, See you next time. Oly Views: 78

Oly here. Learned FOUR  lessons this week. 1. If you haven’t played for a long time; HIT  the driving range before attempting to play. 2. If you have a new set of clubs, (especially if they are GRAPHITE;  HIT the driving range FIRST. 3. If  you are not familiar with HYBRIDS; HIT the driving range; FIRST. 4. If you have a new PUTTER; HIT the practice green FIRST. So I tried to play this week, (without doing any of the above mentioned things.  I did shoot 1 below par, (for 18 holes, unfortunately, I only played 9 holes).  I tried all the  different things the pros, say to do, which is not my game. All in all I did have3 par putts, which I missed.  1 birdie putt, a sure birdie only about 4 feet from the hole.  Have you ever had one of those putts where your putter hits the green juusst before you hit the ball?  Well at least I ended up with a par. The 4th hole only made things worse.  On the tee injury.  My right knee decided it didn’t want to play anymore, and gave out on me, making me nearly fall down.  But I’m not one to let that stop me.  I played the 6 holes. Thank goodness we were in a cart.  I always liked to walk the course because, I liked the exercise, but mostly I always played better.  Even when we played 36 holes on Saturday, Sunday, and Holidays. we walked the first 18, and generally due to the heat, we took a cart for the second round. I was unpleasantly surprised at how our local Municipal Golf Course, has deteriorated.  The fairways were really rough, and not allowing much roll,  about the same for the greens.  The sand traps I found myself in were like cement, (you could not even see the spot your ball landed).  Not only that but there were rocks as big as the golf ball, BIG pine cones, the “sand” was more like pea gravel, and NO rakes.  If rakes had been available I would have raked them for the next guy.  The last time I played there was in 1987.  It was a well cared for course. THEN.  But I know they have a new PARKS SUPERINTENDENT, A new GOLF PRO.  So I guess that is the reason for the shape the course is in.  When I started playing there the Course, supported all of the Park and Recreation in the city.  I can only imagine what PGA TOUR PRO Tyrrell  Hatton, who complained because the greens had not been cut between rounds 1 and 2, would have to say about our local course. If my knee feels better I will try to play again next week.  I hope to sneak in some practice time too.  Hopefully a different course. I would like to play course where I had my membership.  But that will depend on who I play with. I’ll play wherever they want to play. I am unsure about my putter.  Right now I am leaning toward getting my old putter out.  I very rarely 3 putted with it regardless of how far away I was. I suppose that is all I have for now. See you when I play or practice again.                         Views: 70

Hi. It’s me  Oly here, with my second installment of Senior Golfing. Like I told you last time I played most of my days with Wooden Woods.  After my job change my Boss invited me to play a spring charity event with him at his Country Club, and plan to play again  in the fall. When I showed up with my Wooden Woods at the Driving Range a week prior to the event; he politely asked me to get the NEW metal woods.  It wasn’t costing me anything to play, in fact I would be on “Company time”.  I  suppose now would be the time to tell you,  he was a scratch golfer,  in fact had planned on turning pro, until he got married and his wife nixed that idea, because he would be away from home too much. Time now is 1993   To placate him, I purchased a box set of Dunlops with metal woods.   I could not hit those metal woods worth a darn.  The rest of my game was normal for me, but there was no way I could keep up with him.  The second time out he gave me his 1st gen. “BIG BERTHA”.  He had a new driver I  don’t know what it was, but an upgrade from the Big Bertha he gave me.  Let me tell you I couldn’t hit that thing at all.  I still have it.  Tried to give it away several times.  Nobody could hit with it.  Don’t get me wrong my boss could mash the ball with it. To move along.  I never liked the Dunlops, they just felt strange to me. While thinking about trying to relearn this game, I took to the internet.  It appeared that I would be an Ideal candidate, for a set of graphite clubs.  I remembered about a year ago, while walking through Dunhams Sporting Goods, I casually picked up a Callaway Hot X driver.  It was love at first swing.  But my gosh, the thing cost $300.  Everytime I entered that store I picked up the Hot X.  I had considered buying it around CHRISTmas.  It was on sale for $200.  But with my children, there spouses, my grand kids, and great grandchildren I decided I could not justify buying it, (not really planning to play more than I was).   As it turned out I bought it on sale for $250. I priced new sets of graphite irons, THEY were EXPENSIVE.  Deciding that maybe I could find a used set on Ebay.  I found 2 sets that looked good.  One set started at 2 dollars. I followed that sale for about a week,  Thinking although it was Callaway graphites, but it was factory set at 2 degrees flat, it couldn’t be that popular.  Boy was I wrong.   I went as far as $335 counting shipping and sales tax.  Tax is a big thing I watch because in my state shipping is tax exempt, BUT Ebay charges sales tax on the shipping too.  I don’t know why. I then found another set of graphite irons, but it included a number 4 Hybrid.  I had no idea what a HYBRID was.  Off I go to you tube to find out more about this new club. Seems they were recommended highly for senior golfers.  I made several bids on it.  But it kept going up and up. By the way they were PING.  I went all the way to $380 for these, But the bidding kept going.  The minimum it would cost me to try to snipe this set away, with shipping and sales tax, would put me around $505.  Quite a chunk for USED  clubs.  I decided to wait and see if something else came up.  Meanwhile a golfer friend about 12 years younger than I told me he didn’t see why at my age and unsure how much I would play, paid about $265, (including tax) for a driver, and he said quite frankly stop looking at those expensive clubs. He was right of course.  After all I did have to buy that driver after lusting over it for a year. I may regret it. I might be delighted.  I absolutely abhor DICK”S.  While my significant other was shopping at Target, (another store I do not like.  Because things there are so expensive).  I am not fond of Wal*Mart either.  Face It I DISLIKE spending money. Anyway while she was at Target, I wandered down the Dicks store,  Just to look see if they had anything.  I, of course headed toward the golf area.  Lo, and, Behold; sitting in the aisle was a complete set of graphite clubs, both woods, iron, and 2 Hybrid clubs with a stand alone bag.  The only club that isn’t graphite is the putter.   The Woods are Composite.  Whatever that means,. I will look it up later.  I did a quick look up on my phone. The first reference said they were made by Callaway.  It was a  name I knew from long ago.  So, I thought for a couple of minutes.  It said on the box ‘SENIOR GRAPHITE SET”.  I lugged them to the checkout counter and plunked down, $250 (plus that darn sales tax  But at least there was no Shipping).  Oh! the brand is TOP-FLITE.  I know, I know.  Like I said, I may regret it and I might be happy with them. One last thing I considered was the golf balls I have are probably 10 to 15 years old.  Maybe I should buy some new ones. I used Top-Flite XLs before, and Titleist Black Dot.  I quickly decided I wasn’t buying the black dot.  The modern day equivalent Titlesist Black Dot is $50 a dozen, (that is about $4.50 a ball with sales tax). So i picked up a box of Titleist  Tru-feel.  I know nothing about them.  Then I was given a box of  Callaway Warbird 2.  Don’t know anything about them either.  Important thing is I now have 2 dozen… Continue reading GOLFING, PART 2, UPDATING MY CLUBS

Hi !  I am O.L. Thymer, but you can call call me Oly. Wayne asked me if I would be willing to tell an ongoing story about MY possible return to playing a game  I played for many years.  I must admit I was never very good at.  I am talking GOLF !!!  I was never very good at the game, (14 handicap), but did  enjoy it, or addicted to it . I would play at least 9 holes a day, (weather permitting, I didn’t like playing in the rain, cold or snow, I “know it never rains on a golf course”) .  If I wasn’t playing in a tournament somewhere, I would play at least 36 holes weekends and holidays, again when possible. I only remember being on a winning team 3 times in my life.  The first time there was a SCRAMBLE, at our local Municipal Course.  I remember going there early and I played 3 holes.  Played TERRIBLE.  in fact so bad I stopped after the 3rd hole.  Headed back to the clubhouse, and was ready to head to the car. The Golf Pro wanted to know where I was going.  I told him, “HOME” !  He proceeded to tell me their was one team playing in a Scramble that was short a player, and would I play with them.  I said I would if they couldn’t find anyone else. It was near tee time.  He quickly took me to the team and introduced me, (I already knew most of them).  I told them I was playing badly today.  They agreed that was alright, I would complete their Foursome, thereby keeping them in the proper cadence with the rest of the  field.  They were really nice about how bad I played.  To make a long story short they only used my shot one time that day.  Somehow on the 18th green, I managed to sink a 36  foot putt.  Which allowed us the win by 1 shot.  I won a New H&B Driver, 3wood, and a new pair of Golf shoes.  The driver and wood was really wood.  This was before the metal “woods”.  A long time before. The other 2 times were charity events. (This was about 20 years after I quit playing.  The reason I quit was a NEW job, that didn’t leave me time to play).  The only reason we won then was because I was paired with 2 Great players and 1 other duffer, (believe it or not he was worse than me), But only because he didn’t play at all except this charity tournament.  We won both years. No prizes were awarded.  But the next year they split us up.  I was paired with the same duffer, a lady who played once a month with her husband, and her mother  who had played once in her life.  As it worked out I was most proud of this team than any team I had played on.  It was a total team effort.  No we didn’t win.  It was less than a week after having a bout of Bronchitis. The duffer was about a week after coming off restrictions, from back surgery.  But like I said I was most proud of this team.  Somehow we finished the scramble at even par.  Pretty much last place.  But considering our make  up, I think even par was OUTSTANDING, more than any  of us expected to finish. I had played that course only one time, the others had never played there. I never had a Hole-in-One……But 2 days in a row, on my home course, a par 3 over water. The first day I was about 6 inches long. The next day, (same hole), I was about 6 inches short.  Therefore if you average that out,  That makes a Hole-in-One, (doesn’t it) ?  No I guess not. Now other than those last 3 scrambles, I haven’t averaged but about 9 holes every 3 years.   My plan when I retired was to play every day.  But, when you retire, and still have house payments, truck payments.  (Let me say this.  IT WAS NOT MY CHOICE TO RETIRE !  I had planned on working until I was 70.  My retirement came quickly, as the company I was working for CLOSED.  Being not yet 62 I tried to get work.  Anything.  But in my field I was told with 30 years experience,  numerous certifications,   and letters of recommendations from my employer and the companies I had contact with.  I was told “You do not meet the minimum requirements for employment with our company”  Which translates to you are too OLD.  So my FUN goal of playing GOLF every day went by the wayside.  Unemployment barely met my house, truck, and insurance needs.  If not for my significant other (YES my lady),  I would be out on the street,  My 401K was eaten up by repairs to our home,  Which was over 100 years old when we bought it from an estate sale of a woman who lived here all her life.  She was 110  years old when she died. NOW: WHY DID WAYNE ASK ME TO WRITE THIS.  When I stopped playing every day my Club membership was only $250.  Now it is over $1100.  With my house now paid off,  I discovered our local Municipal Course has a Senior discount which brings the cost down to $665 for a year; plus cart fees.  I can take one house payment and pay for a year of golfing, SO. I think I will try it again.  35 years after stopping, (except as mentioned above0). I don’t know  how much I will play.  I do have a touch of arthritis in my left hip, and some other inconveniences from my cancer treatments, which i am now 6 or 7 years free of. If you like I will continue to update you on my new  adventure.  Heck even if you don’t I will update you.  After all I did promise Wayne I… Continue reading GOLFING, PART 1, SHOULD OR SHOULD I NOT TRY TO RELEARN GOLF

              So sorry about being late beginning this.  Have had so many Server and Software problems.  Hope we have it all straight now. There will be changes made as we go along in regard to the bracket. But this is the basic brackett for you to copy and paste.  NOTE the play in games have been moved to the top of the page this year.   MASTER BRACKET [pdf-embedder url=”https://fromthemiddle.blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/2022-NCAA-MARCH-MADNESS-MASTER-BRACKETT.pdf” title=”2022 NCAA MARCH MADNESS MASTER BRACKETT”] Views: 114

Today is the day. A day which is awaited for a year. Unlike CHRISTmas, 4th of July, Memorial Day. Today is a legitimate day to party, eat foods you know better than to eat. Definitely not in the quantities eaten today. A day of CELEBRATION, or dejection. Depending upon which team you are rooting for. I know the numbers favor the RAMS. Playing their home stadium, knowing the subtle quirks, of the field, and weather variations. BY all accounts the RAMS are the favored team. HOWEVER, for some reason my gut is saying “Bet on the Bengals” . I think the 2 teams are very much an equal match. A toss up. BUT, the RAMS, do have that home field advantage. All that said. I am going with my gut. BENGALS by 3. (Possibly in OT) GAME # TV VISITOR SCORE   HOME SCORE CONFIDENCE RUNNING SCORE     SUNDAY     02/06//22   16:30                     1 NBC Rams (12–5)   23 @ BENGALS (10–7) 20     /                   GAMES                 TIE BREAKER   TOTAL POINTS           ACTUAL   TOTAL POINTS           POINTS   OFF                                                                   Views: 82

All Times EST GAME # TV VISITOR SCORE   HOME SCORE CONFIDENCE RUNNING SCORE     SUNDAY     01/30//22   20:20                     1 CBS Bengals (10-7) 27 @ CHIEFS   (12-5)  24     2 0/2                       SUNDAY     01/30/22   13:00                     2 FOX 49’ers (10-7) 17  @ RAMS (12-5) 20 1 1 /2             GAMES       POINTS POSSIBLE   3     TIE BREAKER TOTAL POINTS LAST GAME  45     ACTUAL TOTAL POINTS   37     POINTS OFF   +8                              +8  20 2 Views: 75