So here’s the thing. This game has consumed my life for more than two years. I think about it from the time I wake up to the time I go to sleep. I gravitate to people who play the game. I share my enthusiasm with whoever is willing to listen. It’s an addiction.

My first exposure to golf was when I was around 12 years old. My grandfather had a job at the Garden City Country Club, first in the bag room, then as the starter. I remember visiting the course and taking a golf cart with him around it. Shortly after that, he enlisted me as a caddy. Starting at age 12, with the bags bigger than I was at the time, through 18, the majority of every weekend, and during the summer most days of the week were spent at that golf course. I can still close my eyes, more than 20 years later, and play every single hole in my mind. A picture of the course hangs on a wall in my office today.

Admittedly, I didn’t take advantage of the benefits that caddying had to offer. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I played the course. For shame!

Between turning 18 and my late twenties, little golf was played. As my wife jokes, I turned 30 and started playing golf. Friends from high school and I started hacking it up at muni courses around Long Island. I spent too much time in the Bethpage State parking lot at 3:00am trying to get a tee time.

While a great time, little investment was made in my golf game. Good shots were few and far between, but laughs were had. I would show up at the range, grab a bucket, and smack away until I was done. No thought to anything to improve my swing, practice chipping, or putting. Grip it and rip it. Although, my ripping was typically a slice, skull, or shank. You’re on this page. You get it.

A few years after this on-again, off-again, affair with golf, my wife and I moved to the wonderful state of Colorado. There, I played a few rounds with co-workers, marveling at the extra distance my slice would carry in the elevation, but, still, no conscious effort to improve my game.

Then, change. Like millions of other people, I turned to golf during CoVid. In the spring of 2020, my wife and I took a road trip to Vegas. There, I booked a tee time at Las Vegas Country Club – this is the course made famous in the plane scene in Casino. A light was switched. Weather aside, there have been a few weeks in which I did not play a round of golf since then.

In June of 2020, this love affair began. I began playing nearly weekly. With that, I began going to the range more often. This time with a focus on specific things to improve. I googled drills on stopping my driver slice, focused on contact with irons, and practiced chipping and putting. My game began to improve, little by little.

Around a year later, I upgraded my 20-year-old Callaway X-14 steelheads for Mizuno Irons. New driver, going from a Nike to TaylorMade SIM, to Ping G425. New wedges, then new wedges again. Added a hybrid and new putter. Overall, my bag has continued to evolve as my game has improved.

Wrapping up this trip down memory lane, in the summer of 2020, I was a mid-90s golfer, sometimes going over 100. Amazingly, my most recent 18 holes of golf saw me shoot a 74.

Tons of work has gone into that result. Articles, YouTube clips, questions to peers, practice time, and lots and lots of rounds.

So, back to the title. What are we doing here? This is dedicated to those who are on the quest for their average drive to be 280+. For those looking to eliminate three-putts and chipping it closer to the hole. The sand saves and with being comfortable with a 200+ yard iron shot. Not being afraid to go for it on a par 5, but recognizing that a 7-iron followed by a gap wedge is the better play. The quest to increase greens in regulation and wanting to play the tips.

The objective is to track my progress, from an 8.6 handicap to a 4. It will track my practice sessions and rounds – what I am working on and how it transferred to the course.

Won’t you join me?