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I am back!

It has been a long time since I have posted on my world famous blog - All World Par (only famous in my mind). The plan is to post on a twice a week basis. One post on Wednesday's regarding the upcoming tournaments and news and then a post on Sunday detailing the outcome of the Fantasy Golf league (a league of 2). Right now I am two up. I will also spend some time updating my details....got some new sticks and have been playing a bit, so will try and get some good stories down about some rounds I played (a few holes with a pro). I also plan to go back and review some old post and see how they stack up. One of the ones I just saw was a comment I made about the fact that Azinger should have kept the pods system to himself and passed that on to the next Ryder Cup Captain. Low and behold, several years later, a Ryder Cup task force is formed and we are focused on putting together a winning formula as opposed to letting each Captain do it on there own. I also plan to throw in some stuff about my favorite things....beer/wine, traveling, London, paleo, Manchester United, my family and my new dog Koda.

In early November 2012, I went to my doctor for an annual physical. I have always been told that I my cholesterol numbers were high. About 4 years ago, I started taking a statin to lower my numbers. At about that same time, I got into cycling and triathlons. I tried to eat what was considered a healthy diet, but given all the exercise I was getting, I wasn't too worried about what I ate. However, even with all the exercise, I still couldn't get my body where I wanted it. There was always a few extra pounds to loose. Anyway, In November 2012, my Doctor tell me that my bloodwork shows that my cholesterol numbers are back up and that we need to change dosage or medicine. At this point, I had been having pain in my lower legs as well as occasional back pain. I talked to the Doctor about it and she said it might be a side effect from the statin. That night I started doing some research on the side effects and concluded that I did not want to take that stuff anymore. I also had been reading some about the Paleo/Primal diet (lifestyle) and thought it was interesting. I convinced my Doctor to let me go off the statins for three months and get a new baseline number. Also, during this period, I have been following a relatively strict (not always) Paleo/Primal diet. I haven't changed anything else, execpt my diet. Well, since that time, I have lost 5.2 pounts and my body fat percentage is down 2.4 percentage points. Keep in mind, my starting point was 153.6 lbs and body fat of 21.7%. Now I am at 148.8 lbs and body fat of 19.3%. I am scheduled to go back to the Doctor and do a set of blood work the first week of February. I am really excited to see how my numbers come out after making this change.

Algonkian

Played at Algonkian yesterday. Took the day off and had a very enjoyable round. Walked 18 and played from the blue tees (6,909 yards). This was a round that could have been a great one. I was hitting the ball really well. Made 11 pars...the problem is I also made 2 bogeys, 4 doubles and a triple. I had three penalty strokes as well. On just about every par I made, I had a reasonable putt for a birdie, but could not convert a single one. My first putts were good in the sense that I gave myself tap ins for par, but it could have been a great round.

Algonkian is in really good shape and I recommend players get out there before the heat of the summer....it usually gets a bit burnt in the summer heat.

Don't want to jinx it, but I am heading up to NY for business and am going to try and play Bethpage Black.....that will be my fourth US Open course.

A New Year

A new year and it time to get back to this blog. I am not a big fan of new year's resolutions, but I do plan on trying to post on this blog at least once a week. The posts may span more than just golf topics as I will need to find lots of things to say, but so goes it.

Snowing outside at the moment, so I am not feeling like I will be playing golf anytime soon. The last time I played was in December. I went down to Miami on a business trip and got the opportunity to play at Doral. I played the Great White course, not the Blue course. The weather was really nice...80 degrees. Shot an 82, which was pretty good considering I hadn't swung a club in about 3 months. The fitness level is in really good shape at the moment, so I am really excited about how I will play in 2010. Going to really make an effort to play this year....will be good to get the boys out to play on a regular basis.

The tour is on the west coast swing and Torrey Pines looks very inviting. Probably will log some TV time this weekend. I have no interest in the Tiger Woods situation and will not say anything about it. What I am interested in is the new groove situation. I don't know all the facts, but I do not believe that players should be allowed to play the Ping Eye2 wedges that do not conform to the current rules, even if they are grandfathered in. In my mind, they are not playing conforming clubs and should be disqualified. I have always been proud to be a golfer and a major reason is because golfers play with honor and police themselves. Unfortunately, I think any player who relies on this "loop whole" has taken the honor out of the game. My prediction is that something will be done about this within the next couple of weeks. Not sure what the PGA tour can do, but I believe that this is diminishing the brand and is detrimental to the game.

Golf Simulator

Yesterday, my buddy EB and I went to a golf simulator. Dan, over at Keep The Swing (http://www.ktsincgolf.com) have a real nice setup. They have two simulators and then a couple of indoor driving range areas. The simulator is in Hi-Def and has a selection of 14 courses you can play. EB and I played Pebble Beach. We had the simulator for an hour and a half and got in 17 holes (we skipped 16 so we could play 17 and 18). You play with your own clubs and real golf balls. There is an overhead camera and then two cameras in the corners. The cameras, in addition to sensors on the screen determine your trajectory, ball speed, launch angel, etc and then when you hit the ball into the screen, the ball then shows up on the screen and goes down the fairway. The tee shots and shots from the fairway are very realistic and accurate. The chipping and putting is a little far from reality, but still fun. One of the great things is that the cameras show you the swing path and location of where you hit the ball on the club face, which gives you some great feedback. You can really tell when you hit the ball a little off as it just does not go as far. The technology is so good that you can even play fades and draws. From a distance standpoint, I felt like my irons went further than I normally hit them and that my driver was shorter. I think part of it was that I was swinging pretty hard.

On to the results; I shot 75 and EB shot 80. We skipped a par 4, so need to add 4 or 5 strokes to that total. I will certainly be back to this place very soon as the practice and instant feedback is great. I am going to try and get to this place about three times a month during the winter and then when the weather warms up, it will hopefully be like I have been playing for 6 months.