Results matching “golf”

Take for instance the third hole which is a short dogleg left par four downhill and a measly 275 meters long. This hole is enticingly short but very unpredictable if you happen to miss the middle of the fairway by more than ten meters.

With wind at my back I grabbed a four iron and hit a most perfect shot high into the air. The ball came down with a slight draw, barely clearing the left-hand fairway bunker, and took a mighty downhill bounce, rolling to within three meters of the green.

The flag was at the front, so this would mean an easy birdie. All I had to do was make a short chip over the bunker in front of the green letting the ball roll up to the hole. I was feeling pretty cocky (my biggest mistake).

This is what I did. Chipped fat into the sand trap. Shanked the ball out of the trap over the green to the right. Flubbed another chip barely onto the green. The putt made it barely halfway to the hole. Amazingly I made the longish put to save a grand six. Could not believe it but kept my cool.

Summary of this most painful hole: the first shot went to within fifteen feet of the flag, and then it took me five more shots to finish off in the hole.

One shot of 270 meters, and then the remaining 5 meters took me five shots, making it a lousy and very embarrassing double-bogey.

Yes, anything can happen in this game called golf, and that's why it remains for me a fantastic and challenging sport. So much of it is mental, no matter how fantastic you hit the ball.

I need to concentrate on rotating better from the waist and not use my arms so much.

Since it was raining this afternoon, I decided just to hit a couple buckets of balls and try out a few slight variations on my swing.

Thinking "relax the arms and rotate the waist" was the perfect combination that helped me hit the ball sweeter and farther.

There are a million and one things about the golf swing that can and will go wrong if you try to think of them all at the same time.

Keep your head down or follow through or don't fall back or stand firmly on your feet or hold your head absolutely motionless over the ball or slow down your swing or imagine throwing your club at the flag or stand farther from the ball or stand closer to the ball or do the waggle twice when addressing the ball or keep your left arm straight or whatever.

Never ever try to remember more than one or at most two tips when trying to hit the ball at the same time.

My golf instructor insists that I swing more from the trunk and keep the club blade perpendicular to the flag on follow through by holding my finish high in the air. Unfortunately over the previous year I've developed the bad habit of swinging from my wrists, limiting my follow through and yanking the ball to the left. This awkward movement has become so ingrained that it's going to take alot of effort and exercise to get rid out of my system.

New job's coming along just fine. There's much new and interesting stuff to learn which keeps my old brain cells in shape. Being surrounded the whole day by psychologists in an academic environment takes a bit of getting used to though. Bridging the theoretical with real world technology is the name of the game, at least second to golf that is. Tomorrow morning early (7:50) I am off to shoot yet another course record.

My first official day out on the golf course meant that I could play the back side. Not a bad nine holes, but the highlight came on the par four sixteenth. Fired a four iron straight as an arrow down the middle of the fairway. Hit cleanly a magical six iron that had a slight draw, barely cleared the front trap and finally bounced just off the left edge of the green. Tapped a six footer slightly to the right and it curved nicely right into the hole. My first birdie this year.

Today I managed to hit three buckets of balls without a single shank. One shot came kind of close and it went slightly to the right, but nothing near to the terrible shots I've been making the previous few days. Looks like I've finally shaken the shanks out of my system. In the meantime I will be keeping my fingers crossed.

Fix the Golf Shanks

Finally after a long cold winter the climate has improved enough for me to head out to the golf course.

As expected, my golf swing was a little rusty but I could make pretty good contact with the ball.

I did have the tendency to pull the ball to the left and whenever I try to correct this I overcompensate and shank the ball.

After a number of adjustments and trying combinations, my successful tactic is to swing back lightly more inwards than I am used to, slow down my swing, and make sure that I follow through and end up with my hands high in the air and pointing to the target.

Indeed I am going to have to do alot of practicing before the real golf season begins if I want to do well in the tournaments.

1. I was born when Sputnik 1 was orbiting the earth making that infamous bleep
2. My father was a navy doctor on a destroyer during world war two. He witnessed the battles of Tarawa, Iowa Jima and Leyte Gulf. Once his ship sunk a japanese submarine and there was just one survivor who was pulled aboard. My father saved his life by amputating the poor guys leg
3. I met my wife in Balestrand, Norway and fell in love with her instantly. After a romantic few days it was time for me to leave forever, but I couldn't bear leaving her. I asked her what I should do and she said just to leave, it was fun while it lasted, just leave. Feeling bummed I packed up my belongings and went down to the port. When it was time for the ferry to leave, I hesitated and at the last second jumped back onshore. Since then we've been together for twenty-eight years
4. I've been living in Holland since 1981 and still wonder to this day what my life would have been like had I decided to stay in the States. Was it the right decision, did I make a mistake?
5. I was named after Kiffin Yates Rockwell, a famous world war one volunteer pilot with the lafayette escadrille who gave his life for freedom fighting the germans. He is buried in Luxeuil-les-bains France and I've paid tribute to his final resting place twice, the first time with tears in my eyes
6. As a teenager I used to be a one handicap golfer and thought I'd become a golf pro someday. I would have played on the university team except that I was afraid I couldn't play golf and get straight A's at the same time. The ironic thing is that I gave up golf for medical school which I never even attended
7. My mother was born in Paris and came to America after the war. That makes me half American and half French. When I went to kindergarten no one could understand me because I had this thick French accent. After many sessions with a logopedist I finally learned to pronounce the 'th' and 'h' sounds. Even to this day some people say I talk kind of funny
8. My favorite subjects at school were always math and science. In second grade I went through the class workbook so quickly that my teacher Miss Bell introduced me to the fascinating world of long division. I looked at the divide symbol and went crazy
9. I bought the first TI calculator that could do square roots and a fun game for me was taking random numbers and seeing how close I could guess what the square root would be
10. During my algebra class in high school I was always very disappointed when the bell went off
11. I almost drowned once while on vacation in northern Crete. I wanted to show off to my wife what an athletic swimmer I was and dove into the stormy waters, not seeing the line of red warning flags. The tide pulled me under water and I thought I was going to die. I remember vividly seeing my wife in the distance and me waving my hand trying to holler help
12. As a kid when I went to bed I could close my eyes and make my bed float and spin every which way by just thinking about it
13. Even though I've played golf my whole life I still have not had a single hole-in-one
14. I once attended a concert with Fleetwood Mac, the Doobie Brothers and Boston, and from then on I became completely infatuated with Stevie Nicks
15. The first time I got drunk was when I shared a fifth of Jack Daniels with a friend, ran outside and jumped into the university fountain, and being completely sopping wet slogged through the freshman library in search of the girl I had a crush on. I must have really made a great impression on her
16. I attended a Stanford vs. USC football game with my father and afterwards got O.J. Simpson's autograph. I was just a kid and he towered over me
17. I was in the car with my sisters and mother driving south on highway 101 when it was announced on the radio that Niel Amstrong had stepped on the moon
18. After having graduated from a university two times I vowed never ever to study again. Since then my life has been nothing but one study after the other non-stop
19. I originally wanted five children but after the fourth my wife had had enough
20. I keep dreaming about Stanford almost every night. In the dream it's my nth year there and I still haven't graduated after so many years
21. After having built up a career in computer technology and having assumed various positions and roles, I still have the most fun when I get to develop and debug computer programs
22. I first started to get bald when I was twenty, I looked in the mirror and panicked. Fortunately it still took thirty years after that before my baldness really is starting to show through
23. I started biting my nails and cracking my knuckles when I was six and haven't been able to break those habits since then
24. One late evening I wasn't paying attention and my car started swerving out of control, spinning around two or three times and finally skidding into the other lane. If another car had been coming from the other direction I probably would have been killed
25. When I grow up I still want to become an astronaut

One of the advantages of being unemployed is that there is tons of time left over to read, workout at the gym and play golf.

Unfortunately, it's still way too cold out there to play golf, so I'm going to have to be patient and wait a bit.

Why couldn't I have lost my job later in the year when it is warmer?

At this rate it will soon be too dark for me to play golf in the afternoons anymore.

Just a few weeks ago, I could make it to the ninth hole although the low-setting sun made my approach to the green slightly difficult.

Last week, the sun had just set behind the trees but I could see the ball on the fairway just enough to whack a nice approach to the green.

Today after the seventh hole it became hopelessly dark, and my drive off of the ninth tee felt like it went down the middle of the fairway, but I was never able to find it.

Tonight at two in the morning winter time will take effect, so perhaps next week I'll have a slight extra crack of light before the winter darkness ruins altogether my late afternoon golf sessions.

When Another Player is addressing the ball. There are only two things that every other player should be doing when a player is addressing the ball: standing absolutely still and watching the player hit. Movement is unacceptable. Talking is unacceptable. Fussing with equipment is unacceptable. Looking around is unacceptable. Stand still and watch the shot. If you can't render this simple courtesy, then you do not belong on a golf course.

You'd be very surprised how many people forget about this very basic rule.

Fall is nice when it comes to the transition of seasons, the trees losing their leaves, the air becoming colder, the late afternoons getting darker along with the prolonging of shadows and the sun setting low on the horizon.

For the avid golfer, this subtle change of nature can become a bit of a disaster. There are so many leaves lying on the ground, that it is very easy to lose a golf ball here and there.

Even the finest drive hit smack down the middle of the fairway runs the risk of rolling and stopping right under a large brownish leave that happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Good-bye golf ball, no hope ever finding you again unless I just happen to peak under the right leave, one chance in a thousand maybe even a million, it's hard to say exactly.

Sometimes one of those green-keepers comes along with his giant leaf blower which slightly alleviates this aggravation, but only as long as you keep the ball on the fairway.

The slightest fade or draw causes the ball to bounce and disappear into one of those massive piles of leaves, half a foot deep and spanning tens of meters of a crumpled brown expanse.

Also the fall means that the sun is lower on the horizon, and more than one longish par four poses quite a challenge pointing you directly into the sunlight. You hit the ball just fine, or so it felt like it, but where did the ball land exactly? Much to my surprise there it is right next to the flag, buried in the bunker, over there behind a tree, or never to be found again.

The game of golf remains a true and honorable challenge despite the different ways that nature tries to make life more difficult.

See also Autumn Rules for an entertaining account about bazillions of leaves.

Perhaps it would make my life more enjoyable if I simply accepted the fact that my golf game just is not as good as it was during my more youthful days.

Otherwise I end up getting overly stressed when losing the ball or hacking my way from one side of the fairway to the other.

I used to come home and my wife would ask how it went, and I'd grumble by saying it went lousy. Maybe, she said, you should just accept the fact that you are simply not as good as you used to be.

I still hate slicing the ball into the water, three putting when hitting the green in regulation, whacking the ball too thinly from the sand trap and watching the ball fly clean over the green, losing yet another ball, etc.

However, by accepting the fact that I'm just another average bogey golfer, I enjoy my occasional pars (and birdies) with pleasure and satisfaction.

In two week I'll be playing in the next golf tournament, so let's see how it goes then.

The other day while minding my own business on the golf course, hacking around innocently from one side of the fairway to the other, I decided to take off my golfing cap. That way the warm sunshine would fall on my face as extra inspiration for better shots to come. I affixed it securely to my putter and continued on unsuspectingly.

After three holes I discovered that my favorite cap had fallen off. Much to my despair as I had gotten it during my USA visit last April, which was a nice souvenir. Now that's probably why I've been playing so lousy. Oh well, better luck next time.

My golfing opponent decided to give me a break on the second par four hole when he could have easily penalized me a couple strokes to his advantage.

The way it started was that the third player in our flight was located on the fringe of the green. Because he was unable to address his ball properly with my ball in the way of his left foot, he asked me politely to mark my ball.

So that is exactly what I did. Without thinking much of it, I proceeded unconsciously out of habit to clean my ball with a couple slight rubbing movements of my palm and fingers.

I figured that since my ball was overhanging the green half way that the usual rules of golf would apply, therefore allowing me to clean my ball after marking it.

However, although to the casual observer it may have appeared not unreasonable to assume that the ball was actually on the green, the official rules of golf are very clear and strict about this oversight of mine.

According to the official rules, the ball is only deemed 'on the green' when any part of the ball is 'touching' the green.

Overhanging half way is NOT the same as touching the green. My opponent was correct, quite observant, and he could have easily incurred the penalty on me. Even though I was requested to mark and pickup my ball, I was not allowed to clean it in any way whatsoever, not even a subtle rubbing motion of my fingers.

Although this action did not lead to any bad feelings or serious altercations towards each other, I was shaken up enough about the whole affair that I proceeded to double bogey the next two holes.

Thereby giving myself the penalty strokes I probably deserved anyway, even golf is not immune to the law of retribution.

That is why the game of golf is an interesting sport in that regard. I've learned my lesson and won't forget it the next time.

Kiffin Rex Gish
Advanced Software Development and Scrum Specialist
kiffin [dot] gish [at] planet [dot] nl

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Have worked for many years in a number of computer industry branches and built up a solid career based on a sound technical background. View myself as young at heart, willing and enthusiastic, with a drive to work with others in a close-knit, hard-working team environment. Enjoy complex challenges where a proper balance between the technical and commercial dimensions makes or breaks a successful product roll out. Have coached and inspired teams of international developers, thereby familiar with the cultural differences and team dynamics that go together when delivering quality products which must meet high expectations of demanding customers. Born and raised in the States, have lived in the Netherlands for nearly thirty-five years, own a Dutch passport, and can speak and write Dutch fairly fluently. My wife is from Holland, we have raised four kids, we own a brown Labrador Retriever, and our home for the last twenty odd years has been in Gouda. Am a fanatic golfer always trying to improve myself, in more ways than one.

Team and project management Coaching and training Software development (SDLC) Agile and Scrum Continuous delivery and DevOps Client/server architecture Web-based products Linux, Apache and MySQL

Release management Perl (OOP) and C/C++ Java, JEE and XML MVC JavaScript, jQuery and REST Ember.js, ExtJS and Backbone.js HTML5 and CSS3 Ruby and Ruby on Rails Erlang and Elixir

Independent Consultant (Freelancer)
April 2016 - Present

I provide professional consultancy on advanced software development, methodologies, tooling, people and processes. Pure front- and backend development from user stories and software programming, through testing, deployment and after-care. HTML, CSS, JavaScript (jQuery, Ember, Express. and Node), Ruby on Rails, C/C++ and Perl. Linux, Apache and MySQL. Agile, Scrum or just plain hands-on roll up your sleeves and get the job done.

Release Manager
May 2015 - November 2015

Defined and tracked process for delivering quality products according to deadlines. Worked closely with Nextail in planning of product roll-outs that was essential in meeting high expectations in the retail segment. The E-commerce backend was based on IBM WebSphere which provided a unified platform for store chains falling under Blokker Holding (Blokeer, Xenos, Intertoys, Leen Bakker, Bart Smit and Marskramer).

Development and Release Manager
January 2014 - January 2015

Was responsible for the development, quality assurance and release management of all of the Zarafa open source email and collaboration software products. The ZCP platform provided an advanced middleware solution based on Linux as a viable replacement for MS-Exchange. Introduced a more agile software development process pipeline based on Scrum and Continuous Delivery. Web-based client is a single-page application using a bespoke PHP/MAPI protocol. Teams located in Holland, India, Germany and Brazil. International partners and customers. Man management, monthly one-on-ones, job evaluations, coaching and training. I get a thrill from motivatig and inspiring a team of enthusiastic technical experts to achieve excellence. Relevant languages: C/C++, Python and MVC JavaScript.

Manager Development
December 2011 - January 2014

Built up a software development factory to support a product suite of advanced web-based content platforms for government, municipalities and provinces. Involved with streamlining the software development processes, as well as the overall process improvement for supporting other departments and external technology partners. Provided second line support to the help-desk with maintenance and trouble-shooting, functional and technical application issues. Built from scratch a new professional software development environment based on agile and Scrum. Relevant languages: Java, JEE, JavaScript, PHP, Ruby on Rails.

Development Team Manager / Lead Engineer
December 2010 - July 2011

Responsible for the search and geocoding development team which designed, built and deployed an advanced web-based map services platform for international customers wanting to leverage their presence in the location based services (LBS) arena. Ramped up an international team of software developers using Agile and Scrum, continuous delivery and test driven development, a key focus being man management and agile coaching. Relevant languages: Java, JEE, Lucene, JavaScript, C/C++.

Head of ICT
April 2009 - November 2010

Responsible for infrastructure, maintenance and support, and new development activities. Migrated legacy systems to a modern high available hosted infrastructure. Web-based computer mediated therapy via the Internet using the Perl web framework called Catalyst, JavaScript (jQuery). Worked closely with expert psychologists in designing and implementing the next generation flag ship therapy product. Designing, implementing online screening surveys and scoring methods/models for treatment protocols, using OO-Perl and Template::Toolkit and open source tools.

Team Lead Dynamic Content & Publishing
May 2007 - March 2009

Responsible for an international team of software engineers designing, developing and rolling out a robust and highly scalable LBS (location based services) platform. In addition to providing geocoding, mapping, HD traffic, travel advisor and POI capabilities, we built a web-based route planner for showcasing the extensive TomTom product portfolio on the company web site (routes.tomtom.com), which received very positive reviews worldwide. Based on agile software development (Scrum), using JEE, Spring, C/C++, Perl, Apache, JavaScript, Ajax and JSON. Did man management, recruitment and bi-yearly reviews. Created from scratch and instructed inhouse Scrum trainings for developers and project leaders.

Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Drs. Physics and Computer Science / 1983 - 1988

Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, USA
B.S. Biology / 1975 - 1979

Salinas High School in Salinas, California, USA
High school diploma / 1972 - 1975

Born and raised in sunny California, came to Europe as an adventurous backpacker and ended up staying in Holland.

Good fiction (psychology, history, philosophy and computer books), watching film classics, (modern) classical music, rock-and-roll, and country, programming for fun, jogging and cycling. Often get carried away playing on my laptop into the wee hours of the morning thinking that I'm some kind of future-famous web developer. Am captivated by the latest improvements of Internet and computer technology, never too old to learn new stuff. Greatest passion is the honorable game of golf (handicap 4) which I play passionately at competition level. Live life like it's a round of golf and play golf as it mimics life.

You can't just go out there thinking you'll simply whack the ball around and expect to play a half decent round of golf.

You need to have a game plan organized well in advance, before you even tee off on the very first hole.

This can best be done during your early morning cup of coffee and then during the ride to the golf course. No need to rush things, just relax and prepare yourself mentally.

Start on the first hole and in your mind put yourself through a number of scenarios. What happens if I pull the ball to the left? What if I fade into into the trees? Suppose I'm right in front of the bunker and the flag is tucked tightly right in front?

Now proceed to the following hole. Should I chip the ball low and let it bounce up to the green or can I better hit the ball high and hard so that it lands right next to the pin? What happens if I misjudge the distance and fly over the green

Before you realize it you've visualized all eighteen holes and you are feeling more confident. Hopefully it won't be raining when you get there.

Welcome to my future famous website! Feel free to take your time and have a look around. Here are some things that might be of interest:

• Read my BLOG
• Go to the ARCHIVES
• Explore my GOLF adventures
• Jump to a RANDOM entry
• Discover KIFFIN the American hero
• Review my SKILLS
• Contact ME

This is pretty much what it all boils down to, a humble website and the eager person behind it who does his best to pen many words of wisdom here and there.

A so-called future famous website is brought to you by a pseudo-Dutch person who of all places lives in Gouda, The Netherlands.

Actually this person is originally American, in more ways than one, born and raised during the wonderful era of the nuclear family.

He grew up in good old sunny California, and after graduating from a fine university he somehow lost his way in life.

Although that was a little over thirty years ago, he continues to search for proper direction in life by blogging on a regular basis.

Many of his blog entries probably do not make much sense to the average reader. However, making sense is not what it is all about. If on occasion this person accidentally gets too near to making sense, then everything becomes too complicated and confusing.

"Too much sense in life is a bad thing and should be avoided at all costs."

Contact me

I've got a really bad case of the shanks lately, and for the life of me I cannot seem to shake them off. Messes up my golf score big city.

Here's a typical scenario. I hit a beautiful shot from the tee which splits the fairway in half and flies way down towards the green. My second approach shot shanks right and disappears into the thick foliage. I lose the ball and have to take a one stroke penalty. As I address the ball for the next shot I'm nervous I will shank it yet again.

Once you get an acute case of the shakes, you approach every new shot with the inner fear that this is going to happen again. The more you think about it the higher the chances it will indeed happen again.

And again, and again, and again.

So in that regard it's mostly a psychological thing. Now I have to straighten out that mental kink and get my act back together.

Either that or give up golf altogether. I'd much rather keep playing golf though.

Shanks Tip Sheet.

I took my youngest son Maarten out golfing with me for a quick evening nine holes, to get a feel of the course, and let him be my caddy.

On the fourth hole, I hit a magnificent shot which landed right in front of the flag, and the ball rolled up to within two inches of the hole.

If only I had struck the ball a fraction of an ounce harder it might have gone in. Maarten was jumping up and down and screaming with excitement. I was also pretty excited but held my cool as any good golf professional would do.

The question remains: when will I get my first hole-in-one? You'd think that after all these years of avid golfing it should have happened more than once by now.

I felt honored and privileged when I was called and asked to join the prestigious English-speaking Ryder cup team, the match to take place some time in August. Not that my golf has been that great lately, but it is nonetheless fun to be part of a (hopefully) winning team. We will have to wait and see.

My first round of golf while back home was just next door at the Laguna Seca Golf Ranch. What a fantastic course it is and quite challenging to say the least. I played with Kevin and Mike who were a couple of nice guys, just as much addicted to golf as me (if that's possible).

By the way, in case you were interested "laguna seca" is Spanish for "dry lake."

There was alot of wind and the greens were really fast, making three or even four putts a higher risk. In fact, although the greens were in perfect shape, sometimes I felt like I was putting on a pool table slanted slightly at 15 degrees. The ball just never stops rolling, rolling, rolling.

Laguna Seca Golf Ranch.

Because it rains an awful lot in Holland, the golf courses tend to be really wet, sometimes even soaked to the rim.

Even if I hit a fantastic tee shot right down the middle of the fairway, the ball plugs into the ground and doesn't roll at all.

The ironic thing is that if I hit the green right next to the flag, the ball does bounce further, sometimes even off the back of the green.

Frustrating to say the least.

I would like to become a Buddhist golfer, but first I have to figure what that means exactly.

From inside I feel that I have a relatively good idea, naturally being one with nature, internally controlling ones emotions, and externally making the ball fly straight and into the whole.

Let's start by pursuing the middle path, meaning that I hit the ball consistently right down the middle of the fairway.

The golf ball is actually an illusion, but through it's connectedness with the rest of the golf course, it becomes an expression of my very essence.

Watch out for those nasty sand traps.

Today marks yet another first in my golf career, namely playing golf in the snow.

At one point the snow was falling so thick I could barely see where the ball was going.

After all these years I finally had another birdie which felt really great.

I had a nice solid drive to the 6th hole, which flew cleanly over the small creek and landed a mere 50 yards to the left of the green. An easy chip bounced twice on the green and landed just short of the pin, slightly uphill.

After checking the lie of the green front and back, I removed various leaves and twigs blocking the way. Holding my ping putter ever so gently, I struck the ball with confidence, watching it roll upwards, before it turned left with a slight hook right into the middle of the hole.

The sound of the ball falling into the cup and bouncing around gave me a fine feeling inside. Birdie!

De Hooge Bergsche

So it's finally my first chance as an official club member to go out and play a round of golf, something which I was eagerly looking forward to the whole week.

Alas, powerful winds from the North Sea are pounding the coast, knocking over trees and power lines, making it impossible to play golf outside.

Oh well, I discovered a huge golfing store in Rotterdam, so I'll be going there with Maarten and look around some.

After having waited impatiently a number of months, I'm now top of the list to become a member of Golfbaan de Rottebergen.

Next step is to negotiate down the price for the membership certificate to an affordable amount, get an official handicap, and it's life as a happy Dutch golfer for me.

It'll be good for me to be out in nature, network and meet new people, and improve my golfing techniques.

My new goal in life is to get a hole-in-one.

Every time now for several month that nice set of irons in the pro shop has been staring me in the eye tempting me to take them home.

I'd already tried out the nine, six and four irons, and they felt true and the ball flew nice and straight. Why not?

So today I succumbed to all temptations and bought the wonderful set of Titleist Forged 690.CB irons.

Since they are last years product line, I received a nice discount (€770).

My complete golf set is nearly complete, now I only need a good sand wedge.