As that Southwest Airlines commercial goes: It’s on.

With only 27 days until the 20th annual Goodboys Invitational, how can it not be?

Today was the official start of preparations for Goodboys weekend. At 11 AM, the thermometer reading 92 degrees on its way to 104, I took from my bag my 7 wood, my 9, 7, and 5 irons, and a hacked up putter, and tossed them into the trunk. I put on my sunglasses, popped The Sandals’ excellent “Spirit of Surf” CD into the player, and headed out to Superstition Springs Golf Club for the first of three driving range / putting green practice sessions to get myself and my golf game ready for the the mindblowing, bone-crunching pressure of a Goodboys Invitational weekend.

In year’s past, I’ve prepared for Goodboys weekend by playing a round or two at Superstition Springs and elsewhere. But I’ve learned that, because of the grasses used around here, you really can’t equate Arizona golf with New England golf. Far better, I think, to think “quality” rather than “quantity” and use this time for not only physical preparation, but mental preparation as well. So, rather than play rounds of gold in searing heat, I’ve decided to just hit a small amount of balls every weeks and then putt a little bit just to get some good golf thoughts in my head.

My last driving range session with my good friend and fellow Goodboy Ben “The Funny Guy” Andrusaitis paid a lot of dividends, even though it didn’t show up in my score when I played with “the Boys” last weekend. My history has always been to avoid the driving range, thinking, as John Daly has said, “you can get into a lot of bad habits there”. But, like light dawning over Marblehead, my last session with The Funny Guy put some swing thoughts into my head that have made me actually want to go to the driving range and work on my game rather than just mindlessly hit balls.

So today I paid my $6 for a driving range card of 60 balls, bought myself a new Titleist golf glove, then stopped the machine after only 30 balls. Why? First, because it was too freakin’ hot by the time I hit the range (98 degrees), and second, because this was a working session, not a ball-hitting session. I approached…

Am I boring everyone here? If so, not much I can do about it. After all, this is The Great White Shank’s blog, and I reserve full editorial privilege over it’s content. If you’re looking for Barack Obama bashing come back Monday or Tuesday; that’s what the military calls a target-rich environment.

Where was I? Oh, anyways, I approached today’s session with three swing thoughts in mind: 1) eye to contact (in other words, focusing less on where the ball goes and more on making good contact); 2) good weight shift (a big thing with The Funny Guy, getting my upper body through and ending up facing the target on my follow through); 3) “sweeeet” swing.

And that’s it. Like most high handicappers, I suppose, I have a tendency to overswing, and these swing thoughts will hopefully go a long way to reduce the amount of times I do that.

There’s an old golf adage that you “drive for show and putt for dough”, but for The Great White Shank, the tee game drives the rest of my game. I think – other Goodboys may disagree – I have a pretty darned good short game (at least for someone of my handicap), and if I can only control my overswinging off the tee I believe I can do some serious damage over a Goodboys weekend. I don’t really care if me and my partner Ron “Cubby” Myerow win this year; my goal is to break 100 for a Goodboys Invitational round – something I’ve come very close to but (I believe) never have done yet – and let the chips fall where they may.

Doing my 30 balls a week practice, I hope, is going to get me to that promised land in 2010. Who knows, maybe I’m just in denial. After all, after Goodboys weekend, there’s really not a lot to look forward to – a week traveling to India and then an operation to have my prostate removed – so to immerse myself in golf and try and employ (The Funny Guy won’t believe I’m saying this) a disciplined approach for the next few weeks will not only be a golf challenge, but a personal challenge as well.

One final note: you Goodboys out there better bring your “A” game with you because my partner and I are totally on the same page. Why, tonight I got an e-mail from Cubby stating he can get me a box of Wilson Smart Cores for $12 and a 20% discount.

Hard to believe that month from today the Goodboys Invitational weekend will be over. Until then, however, the game is afoot, and so is The Great White Shank.

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Pool temp: 89 degrees