Starting Over at Gower

Today is the first time that I have played since before July 4th. Some time late in June I pinched a nerve in my neck that has left me a lot of neck pain and also my right shoulder has had a lot of pain along with tingling and numbness from the shoulder down to my thumb. Early last week I went to a chiropractor and he is working on straightening me out. The hard neck pain and shoulder pain are nearly gone but I am still having a lot of tingling down the right arm.

On Saturday I began putting on my cheap little backyard basket. It's a lousy disc catcher, but it gives my something to practice on. After reading the putting practice article in the latest "Flying Disc" magazine I thought that I would give it a try. So I will see if my putting has improved after 31 days.

I played a single round at Gower Park today at +3. I bogeyed 1, 5, 6, and 8 but finished with an easy birdie on 9. After taking some warm up throws from the 1st tee pad, I threw my tee shot straight into the ground about 40 feet out. My warm ups were pretty good, unfortunately they didn't count! But I recovered for a par. I missed a fairly easy birdie putt on 2 and nearly made a spectacular birdie putt on 3. 5 was another poor tee shot and 6 was a terrible approach shot. On 8 I had an easy par but missed my par putt. I was feeling pretty discouraged, but on 9 my sidearm tee shot settled under the basket for an easy birdie.

I expected to play poorly since I hadn't played in 6 1/2 weeks. I was worried about throwing hard but it didn't seem to bother me much. Now I need to work on the getting a consistent flat release on my sidearm. At least I feel up to playing again and not just sitting in front of the TV like I have for most of the summer.