Atomic Monster Cafe: Boast Not Thyself Of Tomorrow...

...for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.

-Proverbs 27:1

Ain't it the truth...definitely did not know what that day had in store for us.

That's our 2005 Chevy Colorado on the left after a 20-something kid t-boned us as we were driving through an intersection with the green light.

Thankfully God's angels were on duty and no one hurt, just thousands of $$'s of damage done to both vehicles.

Almost felt bad for him when he was ticketed - anyone can make a mistake and I've made plenty - but his was an expensive lapse in judgment.

I guess, as the old saying goes, "I shoulda stood in bed".

We soldier on.

It's a shame I didn't read Vardon's book...

...when I was just getting started with hickory golf.

It's a mistake to carry a modern golf mindset with you as you venture back to the hickory era, and it's one I've perpetuated for the past 7 years.

Could have saved a lot of wasted time and effort, and avoided at least some incompetence on the links - or "foozling", as Vardon calls it - had I simply begun by reading "The Gist Of Golf".

It's such a great, practical how-to manual, providing clear instruction on every essential, from the grip to the stance to the swing to the purpose of each club and finally to the strategy of how and when to play those clubs.

I had no idea my stance was off, nor any concept I was misusing my mashie and niblick - both of which are considered specialty clubs for specific circumstances.

Vardon's strategy for each shot is "play within the club".

E.g., you're 140 yards from the pin, and if you hit all of your mashie just right, you can make it.

What do you do?

Leave the mashie in your bag and hit a normal mid iron instead.

If you play within your clubs, you'll have far fewer flubbed shots and thus a better round.

That also means knowing the range of each club.

Today, golfers carry 14 clubs so they can have a 10 yard spread between each one.

In the hickory era they carried 6 to 8 clubs, each used within a range that varied based on how you hit it: easy, normal, hard.

Knowing your club range will make those "swing hard with my mid iron or normal with my cleek?" decisions a snap.

He also includes pictures of each swing highlighting stance and form...

...and throws in interesting personal anecdotes along the way, all in 175 very readable pages.

If you're interested in hickory golf - and let’s face it, who isn’t? - you should read this book.

And speaking of...

...it was another glorious day on the links, in spite of my inconsistent play.

Though I'm learning useful pointers about this game - things I should have known when starting out - I'm not at the "monkey see, monkey do" stage yet.

Even so, I did manage to put together 3 complete holes, from tee to green - 1, 8 and 9 - where I was on the green in regulation with a chance to putt for birdie, and happily "settle" for par.

my birdie putt on the par 5 #8...

The other 6 other holes were a frustrating mix of good shot/bad shot, especially from the tees.

Always disappointing to start off badly, and even if my 2nd shot goes well, I tend to think of the hole as a loss.

...and my tap in for par.

On #6 for example, I hit a serious fade from the tee -

bad dog! bad!

- but my 2nd shot (mid iron) landed just a few feet off the green.

Took me 3 strokes to get down for a bogey, which in my world is actually pretty darn good.

In my head, however, my lousy tee shot ruined it and that hole was "bad".

birdie putt on #9...2 putt for par to end my round

Yet another issue for the therapist to hay through, but it was nice to finish with back to back pars; salvaged the round, at least in part.

It's obvious I still have plenty of work to do, but am making some early season progress.

Hoping this is the year I'll finally put together that elusive "complete" round.

As Alexander Pope opined back in 1733 in his "An Essay On Man", "hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never is, but always to be blest."

Just wait 'til next week!