Classic Club

Classic Club
Yards: 6229, Par: 72, Slope: 71.0/129
Score: 99, Putting Average: 1.83
Miles Walked: 7.1
Total Miles Walked: 22.2

Happy Easter everyone! After 2 days of not playing golf, I was itching to get out there an hit the course again. Today I played the Classic Club in Palm Desert. Classic Club is designed by Arnold Palmer and hosted the Bob Hope Classic (now the Humana Challenge) from 2006-2008. The course is managed by Troon Golf and since I purchased a National Troon Card, I thought I might as well play it to get the reward points. So glad that I did.

The past few rounds have been hit or miss with my swings and I decided to take a lesson to work out some kinks. I hooked up with Jason Smith, one of the PGA teaching Pros at the Classic Club yesterday and he worked on my swing for about 1.5 hours. Comes to find out, I've been using my hands too much with my swing and not using the big muscles (legs, hips, shoulders) to hit the ball. This caused to me casting the club at the ball and resulting in either a pull or a ballooning slice. I also have a tendency to come out of my swing and lift up and again resulting in the slice. Now I just need to remember to stay behind the ball and coil instead of having the right to left shift that I'm so accustomed to. Since Jason fixed that problem, I'm starting to hit a nice draw on the golf ball. I've been trying to do that for years....thanks Jason! If you are ever in Palm Desert, go see Jason. He'll get you fixed up.

My original tee time today was at 10:50am and since I wanted to walk the course today I got there at around 8am to see if I can get out early before it got too hot. I was lucky enough to get out at 9:10am and was paired up with 3 locals that knew the course very well. The next 4.5 hours was probably some of the most enjoyable golf company I've had in a long time. Blue, Gino, and Joe were great guys who played golf with each other on a regular basis. I have never laughed so hard at some of the jokes they told. I guess the kind of joke you told when you were in your late-teens are still funny 30 to 40 years later. Overall, it was just a good time with great company.

The course itself was in great shape. Lush fairways, challenging (but fair) holes, and smooth greens. It was a classic Palmer course with lots of fairway bunkers and water on the right. This course was different from a lot of the courses in the area since it is located North of the I-10 freeway and it had no palm trees. The course has some smaller pine trees that will grow out in the next 5-10 years and make this course a nice change from the rest of the courses in the Palm Springs area. It still amazes me that the ball will turn towards the Salton Sea on your putts even if it reads uphill. I've seen it it 2 different courses now and I'm definitely a believer.

After my round with the 3 amigos I treated myself to a nice Easter Steak dinner at Mastro's. I figures that I burned off enough calories today that I should at least treat myself to a nice Easter meal. I'm playing again with Blue, Gino, and Joe tomorrow at Terra Lago North. Will give you all an update on that course after my round.

Don't worry, I still haven't forget about reviewing my new irons. Just need a few more rounds with them. Enjoy the pics below.

Me and Jason Smith, PGA teaching pro.

18th hole

Blue, Joe, and Gino

Birdied the first hole with a 50 yard blind pitch in.

Dirty Martini with Blue Cheese Olives

Easter Dinner. Filet, Creamed Spinach, and Gorgonzola Mac & Cheese

PGA West - TPC Stadium

PGA West - TPC Stadium
Yards: 6408, Par: 72, Slope: 71.5/138
Score: 100, Putting Average: 1.94
Rode in Cart

The TPC Stadium course ate my lunch yesterday. Period. This is probably one of the hardest courses I've ever played and I can tell why they have the Q-School here. The course was designed by Pete Dye, the same architect that designed the Westin Mission Hills course I played on Tuesday, and is considered the hardest course he's designed. There are fairway bunkers and water lining just about every hole so you basically have to hit a perfectly straight shot or you're in trouble all day. The second shot isn't any easier, you basically have to carry it over some water to a very small landing window just to lay up on a par 5. On par 4's the green side bunkers are about 12 feet hight and nearly impossible to hit out of. You also have to carry water on just about every par 3 on the course. If you are lucky enough to hit the green on your approach shot, the green does not hold and the ball will trickle to the back for a 30 ft putt. But hey, at the the course was pretty :)

One thing I do have to gripe about is golf etiquette when being paired up with a stranger. I completely understand if you need to take an emergency call once in a while on the course. We've all had to do that one time or another. But if you are on the phone for about 2.5 hours out of a 4.5 hour round, don't bother being out there. The person I was paired up with was doing just that. The rest of us in the group basically had to wait for him to finish his call before he hit his every shot. Also, be truthful with you score. I just saw you hit the ball into the water on your drive, take a drop, shank your approach shot, and 3 putted on the green. You clearly did not get a bogey so please don't "tell" me to mark that for you. Golf should be an enjoyable sport and being paired up with someone with poor etiquette just plan sucks. Just my 2 cents...

I have 2 days of rest before playing another full 18. My body definitely needs it. Enjoys the pics!

17th Hole, Island Green, 146 yard, Par 3

17th hole from the back

Silver Rock Golf Resort

Silver Rock Golf Resort
Yards: 6263, Par: 72, Slope: 70.1/127
Score: 95, Putting Average: 1.9
Miles Walked: 7.3
Total Miles Walked: 13.6

Yesterday I played an Arnold Palmer Signature Course called SilverRock Golf Resort in La Quinta, CA. The course is situated against the Santa Rosa Mountains with lush fairways and greens. I pack my bags on my push cart again and ventured on to the driving range. Since my new irons were being re-gripped, I played with my old set one last time. It was a fitting retirement for those clubs I've had for so long. 

As I was hitting at the range, a gentlemen by the Tour Lock Pro tent was watching me hit. "Your shoulders are lined up wrong," he said. He take a club from my bag and showed me where my shoulders should point and had me hit my driver. I took a nice swing at the ball and the slice/fade problem went away. I thought to myself, "Duh, so that's what I've been doing wrong in these past few weeks." I had went back to my old swing and this one little adjustment changed everything. "My name is Brad Benkey. Do you want to trying something with your driver to make it hit straighter and more solid?" he said. Um yeah, who wouldn't! He took my driver to his tent and measured the balance of the club and found that it was way off balance. Not surprising since I had my driver re-shafted a few months ago and it never really felt right. He proceeded to put in a counter weight inside my grip and remeasured. I took a swing with the newly balanced club and BOOM, 280 yards down the center. The driver did feel much more solid and the drives were nice and laser like. Thank for the fix Brad!

After the range I walked up to the first tee and got paired up with Steve, Paul, and Mark. Steve is from Minnesota and played the course last week. Paul and Mark are from Edmonton, Canada and has winter homes in La Quinta so they come down here a few months out of the year. Steve could hit the ball a mile and would easily outdrive us by about 20 yards. I could tell that Paul and Mark have been friends for a long time. The way they joke around and talk trash kinda reminds me of my golf rounds with friends. I only hope I'm fortunate enough to have the same kind of banter with my friends 20 years from now. Overall it was a great course with lots of areas to get into trouble. You have to be pretty accurate with your shots or else you are either in the sand or water. We got up to the 17th hole and it was a 209 yard par 3 over water with a 3 club face wind. I had to hit my 3 wood to even have it hit land. I posted a picture of the hole below so you can see how intimidating that hole was.

I'm off to playing the TPC Stadium today but I think I'll ride since my legs are kinda tired from walking 2 days in a row. Enjoy the pics from yesterday.

17th hole, 209 yard Par 3

Paul, Mark, and Steve

Westin Mission Hills - Pete Dye Resort Course

Westin Mission Hills - Pete Dye Resort Course
Yards: 6158, Par: 70, Slope: 69.6/126
Score: 93, Putting Average: 2.0
Miles Walked: 6.3

Today was the first round of the trip and I played the Westin Mission Hills - Pete Dye Course. I wanted to start of the trip with a fun resort course and that's not too long but has some challenges. A lot of the courses in Palm Springs are designed by Pete Dye including the course I'm playing on Thursday, PGA West TPC Stadium Course. I had the pleasure of pairing up with an awesome couple from Calgary, the Charney's. Part of this trip is to meet new and interesting people and I couldn't have started off the trip with better company.

It's a different feeling walking a course versus riding in a cart, especially a well designed course like today. Most of the time we are so quick to hop into a cart and forget to actually get a feel on the design of the course. Since I brought my push cart with me, I loaded up my clubs on it and walked it today. After being in the nice, cool Northern California climate you get spoiled walking courses in that weather versus the dry, hot desert. I might have to take it slow and get acclimated to walking in hot weather again. Now, I grew up in in Texas where we use to play tennis in the middle of summer with on court temperature reaching 110 degrees. But I'm also not 16 and 120lbs anymore. You can expect to walk about 6 miles and burn around 1500 calories per 18 holes of golf. Given that I've gained a few pounds these past few months, I really need to get back into my normal weight. Besides, I need to get in shape for that 10 mile hike out of the Grand Canyon in about a month.

Today was also the first time I played with my new irons. Getting use to a new set of clubs is like driving your new car for the first time. You know how to drive it but you just don't know how its gonna perform until you've been driving it for a while. I didn't hit them particularly well today but hopefully that will change soon. I did end the round with 3 straight Pars, so that's at least some good news there. Here are the pictures from today. Enjoy!

5th Hole, 508 yard Par 5

 8th Hole, 171 yard Par 3 over water

18th Hole

The aftermath

First Day of the Trip

Miles Driven: 468 Miles

Today is my first day of the trip and I drove 7 1/2 hours from Fremont to Palm Desert. I use to drive a lot for work between SF and Sacramento but I had forgotten how tiring these long drives could be. Before I left, I downloaded a few audiobooks since I'll have a lot of windshield time in front of me these next few months. I've always wanted to read more books and this is a great way to kill two birds with one stone.

I got into Palm Desert at about 4:30pm and checked into the Airbnb place I'm staying. My host Gail had the room all set up with a mini fridge and coffee maker in the room. Not bad for $55/ night! This just means I can shift my budget to playing better course while I'm here. After I got here the UPS guy came and dropped off my new toys for the trip.

Last Thursday night I made an impulse buy at 3am during one of my usual sleepless nights. I've been playing with the same irons since 2006 (Mizuno MX-23) and have been thinking about upgrading to a new set for a while now. I had reshafted the MX-23 with the Project X 5.5 and found it to be a bit harsh to play with than the S300 I had before. While I liked playing with the MX-23 I started thinking that technology must have changed over the past 7 years. If you think about it, the iPhone wasn't even out when I first started playing with these irons! After being honest (and I mean harshly honest) about the way I hit my long iron, I wanted to go with something more forgiving in the long irons (3-6) without giving up much feel and control in my scoring irons (7-PW.) So I went on ebay and found a set of the new Mizuno MP-H4 irons with the Project X PXi 5.5 shaft. These irons had some great reviews and it came with the new Project X shafts that's suppose to be lighter and softer than the current ones I have. I'm going to compare them tomorrow with my old set and will provide a full report in my blog after a few rounds. So excited!!

I'm in Palm Desert for 10 days (until April 4th) and have already booked some awesome course. So far I've booked Westin Mission Hills - Peter Dye Course, Silver Rock Golf Club, TPC West Stadium Course (don't hate), and Classic Club Golf. I'll end up playing Indian Wells - Players Course next week when I meet up with a friend. More to come on how I play these courses.

Fremont to Palm Desert

Not a bad way to travel

The set up

This is much easier than a suitcase

The new clubs!

Prepping for the Road

It's not often that we get a chance in our lifetime to take a break from our everyday lives and do something just for ourselves. With the pressure of career, family, and life expectations, sometime I just want to press the reset button and figure out the next steps of my life. These past few months have not been the easiest but I am fortunate enough to take some time off from work and do some traveling.

Ever since college, I've always wanted to do a cross country road trip. There is something romantic about the open road. I think this fascination started when I watched the movie "Forrest Gump" many years ago when he just took off on a cross country run and saw the beauty of different parts of the country. So often we only see pictures of places like Cathedral Rock in Sedona, the whitewaters of the Grand Canyon, or the winding road of the Blue Ridge Mountains. But the ability to experience all that in a lifetime, let alone on a single trip, is something very few people get to do. What better way to do it then to couple it with one of my lifelong hobbies, GOLF! That's right, I'm doing a cross country golf road trip.

My friends and family were a bit shocked when I told them about this trip. "This is so out of the norm for you..." This is exactly the point. It's nice to have some freedom from everyday pressures and let loose for a while. What other time do I have in my life to actually do this? Once I start my career again, it'll be back to building for the future. But until then, it's time to do something fun and unexpected.

In preparation for this trip, I've been brushing up on my golf game by playing 3-4 times a week for the past 2 months. I've been trying to get in shape by walking the courses a few times a week. I just finished spending 3 days in Monterey, CA last week and played both the Bayonet Blackhorse courses (see pics below) and the Half Moon Bay Ocean Course. The trip officially starts on Monday, March 25th. My first stop is 10 days in Palm Springs, followed by Phoenix/Scottsdale, Sedona, and then whitewater rafting in the Grand Canyon. 

I'll give you guys the run down on the courses I play and the people I meet along the way. I'll also post the stats of my round so you guys can make fun of the hack job I'll manage to do on these courses. I'm currently a 18 Handicap and my goals is to get to single digits by the end of the trip. 

I look forward to sharing my experience with you guys and please let me know if we are ever in the same area to meet up for a round of golf or drinks!

Bayonet Course, Seaside, CA

Blackhorse Course, Seaside, CA

17th Tee, Half Moon Bay Ocean Course