The putter, sand wedge, pitching wedge, 9 iron, 7 iron, and 7 wood are back in the bag in the garage. The glove is coming with me back to Massachusetts on Saturday. The four balls I spent putting and chipping with over the past few weeks, from every possible lie and angle at the Superstition Springs putting green, are back in the bag as well.

My Arizona prep time for the Goodboys Invitational is over.

120 balls hit at the range. Literally hundreds of chip shots and putts on rocket-fast greens. Results? Inconclusive.

I say inconclusive because balls hit on a driving range and chipped on a putting green are hardly an accurate gauge as to what you’ll do out on a real golf course – especially on a golf course amidst the mind-bending, body-crushing pressure of a Goodboys Invitational weekend. I’ve always said – even in my sleep – if your swing can hold up under the pressure of a Goodboys weekend it can hold up even while a 50 megaton H-bomb is detonated 100 yards away.

I say inconclusive because, like no less than an authority as John Daly says, you can get into a lot of bad habits at the driving range. That being said, what choice does one have? If you want to play golf well you have to put your work in – not just hitting balls for the sake of it, but with a purpose and a plan in mind. Which, for the first time in my golfing life, I did.

I say inconclusive because, to put it simply, I’m not called The Great White Shank for nothing. You don’t get a nickname like that because you routinely blast 280-yard drives down the center of the fairway. I have, and always will, fight an over-swing and lack of hip turn that leads to the occasional shank. The good news is, whereas in years past when they showed up I was toast, both physically and mentally, nowadays I can take a deep breath, go back to my routine and my precious swing thoughts (eye to contact, weight shift, sweeeeeet swing), and recover with some very nice shots.

So where does my golf game stand just eight – eight – itty-bitty days away from Goodboys weekend? I don’t really know. I say that because no one, not even The Great White Shank, is immune to the pressures of a Goodboys Invitational weekend. I can only hope that the good swings I have taken over the past three weeks (I figure 80%, which is not bad at all) have laid a good foundation for replication during my Goodboys weekend rounds. I feel good about my short game; the test next week while I’m on vacation will be to work my tee game (driver, 3 wood) and fairway woods (5 wood, 7 wood, 9 wood, 11 wood) really hard so that my game is as tight as a tick.

Heh. This is such a stupid post. I can hear the collective sound of every Goodboys Nation weblog visitor saying, “who the hell cares??”. Well, at the very least, unlike Tiger Woods, I’m preparing for my next tournament.

I leave this dopey post with a gift for everyone: one of the great – alas, now defunct – modern surf bands, Laika and the Cosmonauts performing their beautiful surf tune, “Fadeaway”. And live!

And if you think that’s a good one, check out the deep penetrating surf sound of “Floating”. Enjoy!

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Pool temp: 93 degrees