Good day from North Texas

Was doing some closet cleaning the outer day and ran across an old photo album. These pictures were circa 1976. Had to look at the pictures and reminisce.

Among the phots were pictures of me teeing off on the first hole of the University of Miami Invitational and a picture of me hitting my final putt of the tournament. Why is this important? I had a great tournament. Shot 68-70-70-72 and won the individual part of the tournament by 18 shots. That is not a misprint. I won by 18. Needless to say, I was playing quite well.

The tourney was at the Costa Del Sol resort just down the road from Doral. I recall the course being very tight with out of bounds and water on most of the holes. I played one of the Par 5's with a 7 iron, 7 iron, and a 6 or 7 iron to the green. In four rounds, I made two pars and two birdies on the hole. The hole had water on the left and out of bounds right and the only fat part of the fairway was where I hit it.

What is neat about the pictures is they are a record of what I looked like when playing at a high level. When you play your best, do you have pictures or video of your set up and swing? Since seeing the old photos, I have changed my set up to hit full shots and changed my putting set up to match the photos. I will let you know how the changes are working.

Have you ever condisered taking a lesson when you are playing well? Case in point is the story from last years Las Vegas Tournament on the PGA Tour. The winner was Was Short, Jr. What you may not know is Wes is friends with PGA Professional Bruce Smith. They has played together several times at different events through the years and had become friends. They ran into each other just before the Las Vegas Tournament. During conversation, Wes told Bruce his game was not what it could be. Bruce offered to watch and help if possible. During their time together Bruce noticed several things Wes had changed. Bruce had a picture of the old Wes in his mind and got him to return to that set up and motion. The results were his first PGA Tour win.

One regret of mine is I don't have any record of how I looked in the summer of 1981. I had a stretch of six weeks where I holed out from the fairway several times on Par 4's, had a hole in one on a Par 3, and had a double eagle on a Par 5. The worst round I had during that time was a 71. I lost the feel on the 9th hole during the final round of the Michigan Open in Traverse City. It would be really nice to have a picture of video of what I was doing then.

Do you have a record of you at your best?