The Green Jacket of 2011-DELSOL TOUR

Well, this year 2011 Company Golf  Tour-Best Ball, We/Me, Wife-Mindy, Daughter-Sam, Gary, Rae Won 1st place -4 and we a got Blue-Ray DVD player which was pretty nice and I Findley got the Green Jacket (My Goal for this Year) if it wasn't for my wife i would not got the green jacket.
Everybody did really well, my daughter Sam can hit (Driver) about 160-170 yards now.
Rea on a par 3 hit it on the green (First time golfing) which did beter then any one of us, i thought it was pretty cool.
My Wife and Gary did really well on the greens and short game.
Me, I did Really well, been working on my driving-Driver/3-5 Wood alot and it showed, the beginning of the year playing on the NPGT, when using my Driver the ball went all over, i didn't do to good so i've been working on it for the next National Professional Golf Tour.

   My Team:Gary, Sam, Rae, Mindy, Me-Doug and Jeff P President of DelSol

Next year goal: -6 to -8 under and take 1st place again.

"To succeed, you must believe in yourself"

 Joan A. King, Sports Hypnotist - www.positivementalimagery.com
This website I came across (Positive Mental Imagery) It is one of my Top 3-Mental & Positive Thinking Websites, I just wanted to share something from this website (I hope they don't mind) that worked for me and should work with you.
"This is somethimg I totally believe in"




What do Hilary Lunke, Ben Curtis, Annika Sorenstam, Jim Furyk and Tiger Woods have in common?



                    They all believe they can win.



To play at your best you must believe in yourself. You must believe in your body's ability to perform. You must believe that you can get better.



Self-doubt means that you question your competence to hit the ball where you want it to go. As you begin to doubt, you tell your body how to swing the club, which then becomes more difficult, mechanical and forced.



Anxiety begins when you first doubt your ability. There is no doubt in sinking a 1-inch putt. When you feel the pressure and miss a 4-footer to win, you create a self-fulfilling prophesy that you can't sink 4-footers.



These world-class champions know that no matter how much pressure there is to win a major, they feel less anxiety when they do not doubt that they can win. They trust their competence even when they are surrounded by doubting voices.



Playing to his potential is every golfer's dream and involved much more than just swinging the golf club. The inner or mental game of how you think and feel about yourself is equally as important.



To play the game to your potential means believing in yourself by controlling your thoughts, emotions, memories, personality and reactions.





Here are Eight Mental Techniques for training your brain to trust in your competence:



Have a Positive Attitude: Golf is a game of misses and your have to lay your missed shots. All misses in golf are mental errors. Your brain tells your body what to do. If you don't give the right messages, you don't get the results you want.



Stop thinking of the missed shot and focus on believing that you can recover with the next shot.



Champions control how they react to what is happening to them. Have realistic expectations. Your golf game does not reflect on who you are as a person, but your reaction to your golf shots does. Remember that you play the game for fun. Perfectionism only increases stress and tension.



Trust your ability: Once you have learned to swing the golf club, you don't lose your swing. It is recorded in your brain. Once a motor skill is learned it is never forgotten, and after a year without practice, the performance level returns to 80 percent after 10 days of retraining.



Don't fall into the trap of constantly thinking there is something wrong with your golf swing. Thinking will make it so! Believe in your ability no matter what the results are. Trust that you can improve.



Use positive self-talk: When you tell yourself, "Don't hit the ball in the water," your subconscious mind produces an image of the ball going into the water. Unless you change the image (hitting to the target), your body will respond accordingly. It wasn't your swing that was faulty; it was your failure to run your brain correctly.



We all have negative thoughts that we replay in our heads. These are voices of fear from your past experiences, or anxious thoughts of the results that you think might happen. To stay in the NOW, put all self-talk in positive, present tense, active verbs. Instead of saying I can make this putt, say I am making it.



Let go of mental interference: Your body knows without conscious thought how to hit the golf ball. Being in the zone is the absence of mental interference. On the golf course, stop giving yourself instruction and judging your performance. Relax and let your unconscious mind do what you have trained it to do.



Let go of all thoughts and feelings stemming from doubt and fear of failure. Use your energy to program what you want, not what you don't want. See the good in every shot. If it wasn't the result you wanted, learn from your mistake.



Relax your body and mind: It is physically impossible to be relaxed and anxious at the same time. When you are playing, you must be in a relaxed state to play well. The way you relax your mind and body in golf is by controlled, deep breathing.



Changing your breathing can change your thoughts and emotions. Taking a deep breath through your abdomen before every shot will relax your mind and your muscles. Your swing will be smoother and easier.



Focus on the task at hand: You have a very active mind. Be decisive! Once you make up your mind, don't change it.



Don't hit any shot until you have completely prepared your mind. To stay in the process of creating your shot, use the same preshot routine every time. Your brain will then know automatically what you want and give you consistent results.



Anchor your good shots: Compliment yourself after hitting a good shot. Don't negate it by saying, "It's about time." Smile inside and congratulate yourself and anchor that good feeling.



You created the good feeling. This is what success feels like. This is what you are waiting for. Anchoring your good shots with good feelings will train your brain to bring up the memory more easily, especially under pressure.



Mental rehearsal: Practice makes perfect, but only perfect practice makes perfect. The only place you can practice perfectly is inside your head. At night or in the morning while you are half-awake is the best time to practice your golf game.


The mental process to practice is:
-See yourself practicing hitting every shot perfectly.

-Feel prepared.
-Visualize yourself playing; calm, relaxed, and confident.
-Experience the good feeling when you have played well.





Rehearse what you want to happen. Program your mind. Scientists have found that your mind is actually programming your muscles as you visualize yourself hitting the perfect shot.

Teaching School - USGTF

When I was going to golf school (United States Golf Federation - Arizona) I learned these topics:

Common Sense Golf Teaching Ideas
Understanding Ball Flight Laws
Teaching the Golf Swing - Full Swing, Short Game & Trouble Shots
Psychology of Teaching Golf
Rules of the Game
Marketing Yourself as a Golf Teaching Professional
Club fitting - What Teaching Professionals Should Know
Faults & Cures for Teaching Professionals
Use of Video in teaching

Typical day:
Both Classroom Theory and Learning on the Golf Course.
After the classroom theory each morning, groups break up with the various teaching professionals. Again the focus is on learning to teach but this time you are on the practice facility itself. You are also with a different teaching professional each day so you can gain the knowledge and methodology of several teachers. You have the opportunity to hit plenty of balls as well as become familiar with the golf course.

We usually break for lunch at noon and reconvene in one hour. Each day you have the opportunity to practice teach with your fellow students. In this scenario, we make it a point of never putting people on the spot or making them feel uncomfortable. For the most part, practice teaching is done one on one and not necessarily in a class type format.

Afternoon play on the golf course is scheduled after 2 pm with your fellow students. Your teaching professional is present with you until 3 pm. Participants have the opportunity to play 18 holes per day.

The Playing Ability Test and Verbal Teaching Test take place on the last two days. The multiple choice Written Rules Test is issued to you on the 3rd day after the rules talk is completed and turned in the following morning before class begins.
Every day after school, we get to play out on the course to get ready for the playability test, playing with people from other countries - Sweden, Japan, Korea, Germany and it was fun to get to know other people, i remember when i was hitting balls on the range with the other students there was this guy that was 6'4 to 6" or so that was next to me and people around him, later I found out that he was a Long Distance Champion, hitting his 7I about 190-200+ yards to his Driver 320+ yards almost hitting the other people on the other side of the range, he was showing how he hit the balls so far and telling them it's nice to hit that far but on a normal golf course i hit my 4I or 3I and sometime my 7W or 5W unless par 5 straight fairway maybe slight dog leg to left or right then he uses a driver but not very often he uses it which sounds logical unless the course has no trees like ST. Andrews. 
First day of the playability test was a challenge, I was with a guy from Sweden, Japanese and Korean and the 2 Asians keep telling me and the guy from Sweden that we won't pass this and your not going to make this shot, they said something on every hole to us and the funny thing is that it was not a tournament, you just had to score 170 or less to pass the course. (85 or less on each day)

Second day of the playability test was hot,
played with a guy from Las Vegas (James) and a married couple, the husband just came to pass his playability test to get his level 3 certification which he passed.

Had some wonderful shots like a par 3 with a pond in front of the green, I hit the ball low right above the water flying about 1 1/2 to 2 feet from water then skipped 2 times then landed on the green about 10 feet to the hole and miss putt but made par.

Saturday was banquet night when we get our certification papers if you passed saying, your a Teaching Professional or Certified Teaching Professional. (Looks like a Diploma) other than that, i thought i was a pretty good course to go through to be a Teaching Professional.

My wife was a good sport helping me on what I have learned each night, could not do it with out her and helping me with every thing in my life as well.LOL

http://www.usgtf.com/index.html

First Pro Tournament of the year - Painted Desert GC, Las Vegas

When we were leaving to go to Las Vegas, we had at least 2-3 inches of snow at our house Sunday morning, 39 Degrees, Salt Lake weather was very different this year.
Monday morning (Day of the Tour) I went out and hit balls with the other professional golfers, it was one of the best feelings I've ever had playing golf but still nervous as hell, my wife and daughter was their for support, Dan the tour director said he put me with the best players ( BRET PARKER & MIKE DUHAMEL) We tee off at 9:28 am.
My first tee was not that good cause i was nervous plus have not played the course  but i got more relaxed as i got to the 7th hole and feeling more confident in my self which i drop the driver that caused most of the problem (My nervous) and hit my 4 iron instead and drop my score in half.
Playing a course I've never played before, i thought I did pretty good, but next time I'll play the course before the tour. (Lesson learned) but learned allot for the next tour.

The NPGT was a well run golf tour, Thanks to Dan Presta (Nice Guy) who was running the tour.

"It was one of the best experience I've ever had".

http://nevada.nationalprotour.com/leagues/homeNPGTR.cfm?leagueID=0&clientID=4957&link=NPGTR

Golf Art

This first cartoon i see a lot of amateur thinking of the same thing on all water hazards and i do really relate as well on some hole, for being Pro i don't thing to much about the water hazard, i think more on the green (Target) then anything else. but anyways.
I like this cartoon and the humour this artist has. (I don't know who this artist is, but I'll find out)

Russell Houston is one of my Cowboy/Golf Artist

Different tours through the years.#1

2006 and 2009 (South Mountain G.C. in UT.)  Picture Below.

Tour - 2006 was a pretty good tour,  weather was good, the wind, everything, got 2nd place (-6)
that was the year i won $5,000



Tour - 2009 The weather was pretty hot that day and wind was at least 15 to 25 mile winds, which i still scored a +3 and got 5th place, my friend took this picture of me and put Golf Digest on it so it looks like the magazine cover, just to be funny





The Players  Tour.

 Was pretty fun, it was an amateur mini tour in UT (Early 90's to mid 90's), it was ran like a PGA Tour, once a month you travel to different golf courses in UT to play and win stuff and little bit of money$ but not much. below was my bag tag.

Painted Desert Golf Course, Las Vages

End of March is the first pro tournament for me this year, after getting new clubs and fairway woods, I've been hitting quite well, but still waiting for the golf courses to open to practice on course, today 2/25/11 I've had about 3 inches of snow at my house and it supposed to snow to 6 inches by Saturday.
I been getting ready for this tour, since i have not been there, i have been looking up on the internet getting info on the layout to type of grasses etc; the Sunday i'll be there, i'll play it or walk the 18 holes with my wife  to find out the slopes of the greens to the yardage of the hazards etc.
This course has narrow fairways and deceptive greens.

Heated Driving Range

Well it snowed again, about 3 1/2 inch today and cold-20 degrees, thinking to go to the driving range again.
Indoor training is starting to suck, but it looks like it going to get into the 40's this Saturday so i can go chip and putt on the putting range.
The tour is getting closer so I've been training every day, indoor of course, unless i travel out of state which I'm thinking about.
The last time i went to the range was last week, it was around 35 degrees at that time did really well with my new clubs and fairway woods, then it started, the snow then the hail came down, you could not see the ball in flight any more but it was fun.
Every year I wrote down my distance with every club/woods/driver i have, with the 7:30 / 9:00 / 11:30 swings and with the new clubs, it's about the same and alittle more, so I've wrote it down then when i get to the range again I'll write it down for the second time and maybe a third time to make sure on my distance for the first of the year then I'll do it again in the summer and then the fall.
Couple of weeks ago, I had a guy write me back on a golf site (Forum) and wondering what the hell is a heated driving range looks like, kind of funny thou, when I take the picture I'll attach one here as well.

NPGT

I just Registered for the National Professional Golf Tour - http://www.nationalprotour.com/  on 01/01/11 and now my journey begins on the pro tours.