Tag Archives: golf

Impulse Buying

16 Mar

Sometimes the act of impulse buying is merely to appease the buying urge than the need for the item itself. That’s why it’s called impulse buying.

Once in a while, I succumb to this impulse when I am cooped up too long doing the daily routine and feeling like a robot. Life has been without excitement lately, and especially so given the pandemic Covid-19 that has gripped the whole world and crippling all sorts of movement and activities.

Like everyone else, we have been keeping abreast with the daily development of the situation and have been dutifully avoiding crowded places. Practising social distancing to stay safe, we haven’t gone to the mall for ages. So much so, routine has become so predictable, dull and boring.

Over the weekend however, I was at my golf club and there was a golf equipment sale and I bought a Maruman Conductor 5-wood! Honestly I don’t really need it because I already have my XXIO MP 900 golf clubs complete with the 3- and 5-woods plus a U-5. So why did I buy it?

Well, the impulse buying urge for one. Secondly, I haven’t bought anything of late and grocery does not count. So the purchase was for some form of gratification to excite the otherwise predictable, dull and boring life.

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My shiny new 5-wood to complement the other two clubs of the same series!

The new 5-wood complements the Maruman Conductor 3-wood and U-4 that I already have and had been retired for some time. Maybe from here on, I might change my XXIO MP 900 woods for this set for variation to make golfing more interesting.

This—my game that is—has been too routine and boring as well; there’s no excitement anymore approaching the game. Same routine, same mistakes, same near misses… so predictable.

Well, put it this way, this impulse buy may be just what I need to vary the mundane, predictable and dull, be it my golf game or my daily routine, the story of my life now.

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Consistently Inconsistent

21 Feb

Just when I thought golf is fun again, back to using my driver and woods, reality sucks. After the Iron Challenge Tournament on Sunday, I played a game on Tuesday and couldn’t get used to teeing off with the driver.

I have been so in tune with my 4-iron to tee off that switching back to the driver felt so strange. My coordination was off and consistently inconsistent. There were times when I could fly the ball off the tee, the ball would go so very far. But when I couldn’t launch it, the ball would just sputter off the tee to a pathetic 20 or 30 feet in front! Terrible.

As a result of this problem, I lost five balls playing at the Lakes course! What a confidence spoiler. Hopefully this setback is a temporary thing. I need to play more games to get my rhythm again for better golfing days ahead.

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Soldiering On

17 Feb

This year the Iron Challenge Tournament was held early, just over the weekend! And I was the only lady golfer amongst the men in the club soldiering on by myself in the event. I was unperturbed by this fact and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge, held on the less intimidating Hills course.

I should stand proud because I held up well in the field of all men, 16 flights in total and tied for 11th placing with a nett score of two over my handicap! A very good achievement.

I was very focused and basically played my own game without any external distraction. With my red tee box way up front, ahead of the field for all the Par 5s, some of the Par 4s and a couple of the Par 3s, it was certainly advantageous for me. One of my flight mates, however, jokingly lamented that it was unfair because their tee-offs would be just slightly ahead of my tee box and I have yet to tee off.

But hey… how can it be advantageous when the men’s tee boxes are also moved up? Also, it’s not like suddenly, I tee off with a driver. I’m also subjected to using just irons for the competition like the rest of the field. Nonetheless, I brushed his comments aside and focused on my game.

Initially I wasn’t prepared in the weeks running up to the competition, having had problems with my long irons and short game, but I managed to resolve these when it mattered most. And this year, no major blow ups or bunker disasters. And not even a loss ball, a big confidence booster indeed. The only big let down was a sudden loss of focus and I four-putted an easy hole. Hrmph.

The elbow pain was hardly felt because I took a painkiller to suppress it. It worked and helped, but today, it’s throbbing to high heaven, I don’t know why. Sigh… a constant battle with this problem.

So now that the tournament is completed and out of my golfing schedule, I will return to using my driver and woods for all my upcoming golf games.

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Chinese New Year Customs

27 Jan

We left home on the first day of Chinese New Year to head for hubby’s hometown. The traffic wasn’t too bad save for two stretches where it was rather heavy and another where a minor accident occurred. I won’t elaborated on this though…

As always with every other Chinese New Year, it’s a family tradition to visit an Aunty residing in another town nearby and to catch up with other family members. Soon the first day passed by quickly.

Day two was more our thing, and that is playing our customary first Chinese New Year golf game at Darul Aman Golf & Country Club. When we got to the golf club, there was hardly anybody else. But after the first tee off, we saw some other golfers.

The pace was slow in front of us. Then again it was a typical four ball flight versus our two balls. I played well again. Maybe it’s the golf set, the XXIO MP900 clubs are getting more comfortable with each game. But after the game, the elbow hurt to high heaven!

When we crossed over, the waiting pace stretched even more. The flight in front of us apparently bypassed the jumbo flight in front of them! So we ended up trailing the six-balls and it was so tedious as they were extremely slow. And annoyingly noisy but we endured because we were not in a hurry and we didn’t want any bad vibes during this festive time.

We will play another game today before we return tomorrow, bracing for the heavy traffic and long drive ahead.

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What a Good Start

21 Jan

I played my third golf game of the year on Sunday and it turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I have always said golf is a funny game and Sunday’s result takes the cake. It’d always catch you unaware no matter how prepared or unprepared you are.

Prior to Sunday’s game, both of us played our first game of 2020 a week ago and it was nice to get back to our usual weekend routine. However, my flight did not complete the round despite the weather being so good and the company pleasant. Instead we did only 15 holes because everyone felt tired for all sorts of reasons.

And I was no different, having laid off for so long when M1 was back, and played golf like a 9-hole player. In short, I held up well only for the first nine and then was out of sorts when we crossed over. So I was really glad we stopped with three holes left to play.

The second game a few days later was weird because I felt unprepared, having only five hours of sleep and my tennis elbow flared up again. In spite of the circumstances, I played one of my better games. But Sunday’s game was a totally different ball game altogether.

Hubby and I were ‘extras’ in our Club’s Interclub game as there were more home club players than opponents. So in this essence we would not be contributing any points for our team because we were playing amongst ourselves. But as the format was Best Ball Stableford, taking the better score of all partnerships would be tabulated to award the best pairs of both respective clubs.

I started out decent. But things fell apart quickly by the third hole–we started on Hole 9–coming back with zero points on the dreaded Hole 11 and unexpectedly on the next hole after that too. I steadied myself and managed a par at the next hole to salvage the situation, and was doing okay until Hole 18, my phobia hole. No surprise when I dunked two balls into the water. Oh well, as it was Stableford points, I did not attempt any further on that hole. When we completed the back nine, I scored only 11 points. Meagre…

I was like oh well, I’d just enjoy the front nine. Then things exploded! To cut a long play-by-play short, I played the front nine with two pars and two birdies! A rarity for me with not one but two birdies in a game. The Scotty putter was red hot, converting a lot of single putts from all distances, thus saving strokes and scoring a whole lot of Stableford points.

The two birdies came on the Par 3s, one off a crazy long putt from the front of the green to the back pin and another off the fringe of the green to the front pin. It was mind boggling! I seriously don’t know what happened because never before had I played to such levels, competition or otherwise, given that I have been constantly in pain with my injuries here and there. But it felt good and I’m certainly not complaining.

That morning, I scored a whopping 28 points on the front nine alone to cover the back nine and return with 39 points in total for my individual attempt. Unbelievable!!!

And to our surprise, both hubby and I were awarded the best runner-up pair for our Club with 45 points for our best ball effort! We couldn’t believe our ears when the announcement was made. And mind you, my golfer’s elbow was giving me problems all this time but somehow I managed and obviously the results showed. What a good and pleasant start to the year for golf. Let’s hope I can keep this up and not let this be a one-game wonder!

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Feels good to be awarded for our effort!

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Progress After the Food Trail

10 Jan

We have dived straight into our 16/8 diet this week and pleased to say we are holding up okay. There’s no withdrawal symptoms from the change in pattern nor from the diet that now consists of minimal meat/protein, some carbo and lots of fiber.

I have gone back to my usual tea only in the morning before the salad lunches and healthy home-cooked dinners at home, all within the eight hours window to eat and no further intake during the 16 hours except for one night where we had fruit cake and tea at a friend’s.

I am also mindful to move to burn some calories but exercising has been a challenge when every evening I’d sit at my little corner to work on my carvings. I’m not too worried though because this would be resolved once we go back to playing golf.

But of late, the endometriosis attacks have been rather frequent and the pain level ranges, it’s unbearable and hard to do much. The night when we were at the airport, I had to take my painkillers twice in a span of three hours apart because the pain was simply horrible. There’s no words to describe this. Sigh…

Other than this problem of mine, I’m glad to say the both of us have adjusted after the food trail, with our weight almost back to pre-M1’s arrival.

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Looking Back at 2019

31 Dec

Well well… it looks like another year has gone by again. Time to file the memories away to recall later fondly and another set of annual resolutions to make. Or break. But the end of 2019 is much more than another year gone by, it’s the end of a decade!

Looking back, I’ve had my fair share of good memories and heartaches with many things happening in the year. After all, there’s 365 days. What stood out most for me can be summed up to these.

Both girls are all grown up, with one having graduated and continuing on with grad school in the US and the other just starting college in Ireland. Proud parent moments. Then there’s me reaching the milestone big five birthday. Happy me occasion.

My carving hobby resulted in a mixed growth in Gigglesville’s population this year. There were only 13 new Citizens to reach 194 (I couldn’t push myself to reach 200), the Whales grew to 48, with 30 new ones while the Gnomes had only two new giant ones to make three dozen as of 2019. It could be better.

But with this carving activity, there was a price to pay: my aggravated injuries. My golf game suffered as a consequence and for the first time, I find myself not giving the sport any priority anymore. I lost the will to excel when injuries persisted. Hopefully this mindset can change to a more positive one come 2020.

Besides the sports injury, my endometriosis pain was well, a pain to deal with this year. More acute than ever, I was at the mercy of a monthly recurrence, it was dreadful. So I started the 16/8 intermittent fasting diet to manage the painful backache and cramp attacks. With a controlled diet and a list of food to avoid, losing a fair bit of weight along the way was a booster and motivation too besides minimizing the agony. It helped.

Not everything was rosy and good though. My iPad Mini has been wonky and unreliable with each passing day, my MacBook Air had to be resuscitated but nothing compared to losing our beloved English bulldog, Rooney aka official pet number one to old age and sickness. It was the saddest day of our lives and suddenly, the house was emptier than ever and our lives changed.

Looking back, if I were to put 2019 into perspective of a phrase, ‘the good, the bad and the ugly’ aptly summarizes the year for me. Now as I ponder what to expect for the new year and new decade, I hope it will be one that focuses on ‘the good, the better and the best’. No resolutions needed though.

To everyone, here’s wishing you an awesome 2020 ahead, Happy New Year and Goodbye 2019!

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A Major Disaster

17 Dec

At the end of July, I signed up for my golf club’s Annual Championship tournament which was held for two days over a weekend in August. Looking back, pairing determination with pain was not a good combination to manage. In this context for me, it was dealing with my endometriosis pain with work deadline and playing in a tournament. It proved to be a major disaster resulting in a mental breakdown of sorts. A first for me.

As time drew close to the tournament, I had another painful bout of endometriosis attack. So bad I almost wanted to pull out but I didn’t because I thought I could manage. I thought wrong.

On the first day of the tournament at the Hills course, I was on painkillers to deal with the pain and discomfort to stay focused. I came back with the most varied score ever, being a stroke-play format. It ranged from a two (birdie on a Par 3) all the way through to an 11 on the Index 1, Par 5 (because of two balls in the water). In other words, I had every number (and several repeated) on my scorecard… except an eight though. Strange.

On the second day, the tournament was delayed because of rain and we teed off at the Lakes course after a 45-minute wait. I started off fairly well and held up okay for the first seven holes. But disaster struck by the eight hole, Hole 17 (we started on the back nine).

The humidity in the air suddenly became very thick and I had an unnecessary urge to tee-off harder to pass the pond. Never do that. When you try harder, the harder you fail. I ended up with three balls in the water!

It was a disaster unfolding before me and I was the star of the drama. That morning on that Par 4, I came back with an eye-popping 14! A 14 on a Par 4, worse than the 11 on the Par 5 on the first day. I told myself to calm down and don’t get too emotional by it.

However the next hole, the Par 5 being another fearful hole, my doubts doubled in my ability to overcome the water factor. Remember, this is the feared Pacific Ocean water hole that I crumbled during the 2018 Iron Challenge tournament.

Thankfully, only one ball went into the water. But a silly pull to the left cost me and I ended up with another double digit. Hmm… not good. But I was thinking the worst was over and I can still recover because the front nine is actually more manageable to play. I thought wrong again.

I suspect the four balls into the water rattled me but somehow I didn’t acknowledged this and when I teed off on Hole 1, I put another two balls into the water! By now I was like, WTF?! The legs were jellied and the confidence zilch beyond comprehension and in a blur, another double digit on the Par 4.

When we got to the second hole, a Par 3, I was so sapped of life and when I put yet another ball into the water, I told myself, that’s it. I’m going to withdraw. I’m not a quitter but with disaster after disaster piling up with every hole, the event was becoming a catastrophe of epic proportions and too much for me to shoulder. There’s no point to go on playing. What recovery would there be at that point, mentally especially? I’m just killing myself out there and if I continued, I would end up detesting the game so much and just chuck away all my clubs.

With my mind made up, I took a drop for the third shot for formality but was convinced I couldn’t launch it across the water and indeed proved myself right. A classic case of a negative thought attracting a negative action! The ball dived into the water. Ahhhh…… speechless. The mental state of mind was just oh-so-cruel.

I could not go on, having a major breakdown dealing with playing golf in a championship tournament; I simply couldn’t golf anymore. Immediately after that, I drove the buggy to see the referee who happened to be nearby and I informed him of my intention and decision.

Looking back, I really can’t comprehend what unraveled that morning. The endometriosis pain was suppressed that second morning and wasn’t the reason yet I crumbled so badly. This outing takes the cake over the Iron Challenge experience I must say. I simply don’t have words for it. I sat through the remaining holes with my flight mates and came back with an ‘NR’ for my attempt at this year’s Annual Championship.

Lesson learnt: if and when there’s pain lurking before and during any important golf tournaments, do not try to be a heroine to pair them. It’s a proven recipe for a major disaster because not only the body cannot withstand but the mind simply cannot cope.

So after that last game of the year, I’m glad I am stepping away from golf and will be resting to heal both the physical and the mental to recoup. When the new year comes around, I hope to find love again for this crazy game called golf and be able to enjoy playing it without issues or disasters of epic proportions.

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Last Game for the Year

16 Dec

I played my last golf game for the year on Saturday and it ended in disaster in terms of performance and results. It was a terrible and unexpected outcome considering I was playing decent golf for two consecutive weekends earlier. What happened?

Maybe during those times, I was more focused and wasn’t in that much pain but with back-to-back games each time, my tennis elbow problem inevitably flared up.

Also I guess the lesson of pairing pain and play was forgotten after my epic August Annual Championship experience which is another story by itself. But this time, sigh… The problem was not even endometriosis-related but the tennis elbow instead.

The painkiller I ate before tee-off didn’t help to suppress the throbbing pain. And with every swing of the clubs, the pain became so obvious and magnified, it marred my focus. The tee-off was so short, the short game was even shorter and the putting was just bleargh.

The only consolation though was not losing that many balls nor have a mental breakdown like I did during the Annual Championship game which is worthy to talk about now after so long to finally exorcise the ghost of that major disaster.

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Mix and Match

10 Dec

I finally got my eyes checked last week and my visual acuity or in layman term, power has changed. Again. It’s no surprise because the Lindberg was causing a lot of strain and discomfort prior to my dropping and breaking the lens.

Over the years my power fluctuated up and down on an annual basis and changing lens was a necessity. At one point I jokingly said that if I ever mixed and matched all my old lens–I was smart enough to keep the lens shape the same all these years–I would be able to find a suitable matching pair for future use. Little did I know this would somewhat happen!

The almost forgotten spare Silhouette that I am currently using is six years old. And coincidentally it matches my new power for short-sightedness. In other words, my power has reduced from the Lindberg. No wonder I can wear the old Silhouette without problems especially for distant viewing; it has been okay.

But that’s where the match ends and discomfort kicks in. The astigmatism does not match for both eyes with the Silhouette being far stronger compared to the latest check. This explains why at certain distance and angle, the eyes have been feeling strained, hence the constant blinking. Playing golf has been the biggest issue with this pair especially when it comes to putting. Looking up then looking down has been so problematic.

Anyway, sometimes finding the right matching lens is rare because there’s long-sightedness and astigmatism (but not limited to these) to consider other than short-sightedness. I was lucky with the Silhouette and remember, this pair is six years old! There have been many lens changes in between it and the broken Lindberg.

Having said that, better some match than none otherwise I would be in a lurch, being visually-impaired without a pair of glasses to go about my daily routine. Thank goodness I will be getting the Lindberg with new lens this week.

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