Waddling to the Top

It was a long road to get here, with a couple detours to other minigolf courses, but we've finally arrived in Hendersonville, NC.

Playing Perils of the Lost Jungle one last time was a good detour

Around 3pm I headed to the Par Tee Time miniature golf course at Champions Golf Learning Center and stayed for about 3 hours getting in 4 rather unexciting practice rounds with my fellow Connecticut miniature golfers.  Per usual, I was one of the last folks to the practice party but after getting a good look at the course I'm not sure I would have wanted to spend all week playing those holes. 

I didn't want to overdo it too much on the first day so I called it quits for a good Irish pub dinner and a soothing whirlpool bath. 

A few initial thoughts about the course:

• It's going to be tough to get consistent aces on this course. The holes are long and there doesn't seem to be many "sure thing" ace lines like you can get on some courses.  I've started my shot book but right now I'm worrying about how much it will help.
• There's 4-5 holes on this course where it's easy to blow up and shoot a 4
• Every round is going to be a grind.  There's a handful of holes where aces are possible or the deuces should at least be easy, but the rest of the holes are going to test that mental toughness.
• Not enough shade.  It's hot in North Carolina (at least for this Yankee) and 1/2 the course is completely in the sun.  In the late afternoon sun it was brutal and I can't image what it might be like in the heat of midday.  Water and Gatorade will be needed in gallons.

Hole 8 sucks. It looks like a straight shot but it ain't. Many a 3 or 4 will be had on this hole.

I'll be working on getting a good night's sleep this evening and then it will be back to the course tomorrow morning for another few rounds of practice!

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Happy National Miniature Golf Day! We're less than a week out from the U.S. Open and I will start my trek South tomorrow morning.

Today's theme is the mental part of a tournament. Get your brain ready because it's going to be put to the test at a miniature golf tournament.  As mentioned earlier you could be looking at making 300-400 putts during a tournament and very few of those will be easy tap ins.  Each putt will require concentration and confidence.  You have to consider lie, course conditions, speed, aim and bounce with every shot.  You also need to tune out the distractions, get a grip on your inner putting demons and somehow remember that you are there to have fun - because it's minigolf!

After the opening rounds, the mental pressure increases as you'll be paired with someone who's around the same score as you. So not only are you playing against the course but each hole that passes you also know exactly how you stand against your closest competition. The key is to find a way to be confident in your putting and to keep that confidence up throughout the round.  It’s easier said than done though.  Take for instance, Hole #1 at Dolphin Mini Golf where the 2008 U.S. Open was played and where the Maine State Dolphin Open is played. Everyone starts on that hole for rounds 1, 4, 7 and 9 (in a 10 round tournament), with rounds 4, 7 and 9 having pairings based on where you are in the standings.  In the video you can see when there are times when one person may get a 3 and another a 1, meaning you're already 2 strokes behind the competition for that round. If you don't have some intestinal fortitude that gap can easily widen to 4, 5 or 6 strokes by the time you're through the first 5 holes.  That can make for a long afternoon if you don't figure out how to put those bad putts and holes behind you.

In terms of preparation prior to the tournament, I've got no real advice other than find what works for you.  Music is my normal method of mental calibration.  I always try to listen to some tunes on the way to play the tournament rounds.  Sometimes I turn to soothing melodies and other times I crank up the arena tunes, hair metal anthems and punk rock (warning link has some bad words). I like to find one song to stick with me throughout the tournament that I turn to playing in my head when I need to center myself for a putt.  

I also try not to practice too much on the morning of the tournament.  I like to take a few putts on each hole to get the kinks out but I feel like you can easily "over practice." I feel like I start to wear myself down and over think what each practice shot means in the scope of the tournament. It's not the way I want to go into the opening rounds.  After getting in those putts I like being able to chat with other players or friends as it's something that can keep my mind off the tournament for a minute or two and center me before it's time to tee-off.  Others like to have a little more solitude to get "in the zone."

Oh - coffee - I always need some sort of coffee in the morning to kick start my putting brain.

I've tried many things during the round to keep my mental sharpness and focus but I haven't been able to find anything that consistently gets me to re-focus after a bad hole or two.  Sometimes it takes a good four-letter word to get out my anger, other times it's a few deep breathes and the chorus to a catchy tune and sometimes I just need a good playing partner I can joke around with to take my mind off the game.  

Short aside - you can also affect the mental situation of your playing partner in a positive or negative manner.  Some folks hate talking during the round while others are constant chatters.  You can really get under their skin (intentionally or unintentionally) if you're the opposite way.  Personally, I try to be as nice as I can to my playing partner and always congratulate a good putt and commiserate on a bad one.  I have a hard enough time dealing with my own putting to spend time on gamesmanship with the other players.

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Another Saturday, another round of practice with fellow CT professional miniature golfer John O'Leary.  With less than two weeks until the opening tee-off, it's important that we get in as many swings as possible.

This time we played the course at the Litchfield Driving Range in Litchfield, CT.  While the holes were not terribly long, John felt the carpeting was most similar to what we will see in North Carolina. It is a thicker carpet, with a nappier consistency compared to most miniature golf courses.  It requires a little more firm putt and it doesn't seem like you can trust it as much as the more traditional carpeting. This means you have to put a lot of faith both in your read of the course and in the stroke of your putter.

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Percentage of course preparation for this year's U.S. Open - 0% (only room for improvement!) 

As I've mentioned before, knowing the course is as important in minigolf as it is in a regular golf.  You'll easily save yourself one to three shots per round if you know the break on your next putt or how to recover if you get an unlucky bounce.

Knowing the break on this hole is the difference between a 2 on a tough hole and possibly a 4 or 5

The best way to know a course is to play it a lot.  The second best way to know is a course is to friend someone who plays it a lot.

At most USPMGA tournaments I put myself at a disadvantage because I rarely have time to get there 2-3 days ahead of time to put in tons of practice rounds. When I arrive at the course I try to play one round by myself to get an initial feel for the course.  I like to chart my own way as much as possible and feel a bit of pride when I figure out all the angles and breaks on my own.  However, my pride has limits and I'm always willing to take tips and tricks from other players.  One of the reasons we try to take pictures of all the holes on tournament courses is to give those players who can't make it to the course as early some idea of what they are in for when they arrive. 

Pat and Gary discussing strategy at the 2008 Harris Cup Finals

This leads me to one of the best things about the minigolf circuit - everyone is very friendly and willing to share their strategies.  It's often a hot topic during practice rounds.  You hear a lot of "how do you play this shot?" and "I like to try this approach" chatter between players. While we are competitive, everyone wants to see their friends do well and in the end it always comes back to the ability to execute on those strategies.  So there's really no harm in telling people that the best place to tee off is a club's head from the wall on a particular hole.  That person still needs to hit the shot with the right speed, aim and luck to execute on that piece of advice.

Another important aspect to knowing the course is putting together a shot book.  On the recent Bones episode around the death of a professional miniature golfer Agent Booth looks at the victims shot book and concludes it's some sort of secret code. He wasn't far from the truth.  In most of the local tournaments I play, I don't really use a shot book because I've played those courses so many times I can tell you exactly what each hole does from memory.  In addition, many of those course are skewed a bit towards ace shots, which means if you do miss your first, your second shot usually isn't very long or complicated.  However, on courses like Bluegrass Miniature Golf, where the 2014 U.S. Open was played, and from what I hear about this year's course, you often find yourself having to make difficult and/or long deuce putts.  This is where a shot book becomes invaluable.  Last year I didn't so much have a shot book as I did a bunch of scraps of paper reminding me of a few key putts.  This year I plan on doing a more in-depth book and mapping out all 18 holes, noting the most favorable tee positions, plotting the breaks to the hole and figuring out the most advantage moves for when I inevitably get myself into trouble.  It will take a few hours of repetitive putting but it will certainly help come tournament time.

What it all boils down to is, before you walk onto the course for the first round, you should be at this level of conversation about the course (from The Simpsons "Dead Putting Society" episode):

Lisa: Eighth hole.

Bart: Aim for the octopus's third tentacle.

Lisa: Twelfth hole.

Bart: Bank it off the pink tombstone.

Lisa: Nirvana.

Bart: A state of bliss attained through the extinction of the self.

Hopefully I'll reach my state of bliss before May 15^th!

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We're less than 3 weeks away and I finally got in my first rounds of practice!  John O'Leary, a fellow professional miniature golfer from CT, and I got together at Blue Fox Walk in Simsbury, CT.  You may remember that I played my first miniature golf tournament on this course.  

We had the place completely to ourselves so we were able to get in 3 good rounds of practice.  While it doesn't substitute for playing on the actual US Open course, the style of this course along with the difficulty of some of the shots helps get into the swing of things. As always, I had a penguin with me on the course and today Duffer was the one who got to make the rounds.  

Blue Fox Walk in Simsbury, CT

It took a bit to remember the shots on this course but they slowly came back as I moved my score from 42 to 41 down to a round of 38 with 3 aces.  I won't say that I'm in mid-season form but I was happy with most of my shots. I'm looking forward to sneaking in some practice next week as well if everything goes as planned.  

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