First, I must apologize for not writing a blog during my recent journey to Florida to play in a tournament and attend the PGA Merchandise Show.
It was my one-year anniversary of blogging, which has been fun. I’m looking forward to continuing this feature in 2009.
Let’s start with the golf. I teamed up again with the veteran Larry Ziegler for the Winter Senior Junior Championship at PGA Village in Port St. Lucie, Fla. We got a couple practice rounds in, and the weather was great. But as we looked toward the forecast for the tournament, a cold front with high winds was heading our way.
The first round of the tournament started out slow for us as we made the turn only 1-under par. The winds were really starting to pick up as we had an afternoon time, which means that our second round would be in the morning, when the cold front arrived with stronger winds.
We finished the second round with a 4-under-par 68, and we both felt good about the round except for not making any putts longer than 8 feet. Our ball-striking was pretty good, and we just didn’t make any putts.
The next morning was absolutely brutal. The high temperature for the day – 62 degrees – was recorded at 7 a.m., and the wind was whipping at 30 mph with gusts over 45 mph.
Needless to say, it was tough.
We started OK, making pars on the first three holes. Then some unfortunate events happened. We had things like our balls ending up in divots, started three-putting, and before you know it, we were 3-over par on our first nine and really struggling.
Larry started the back nine with a birdie, and I thought that would be the turnaround. Wrong. We proceeded to bogey the next two holes from about 100 yards or so.
At that point, we just tried to keep it under 80 and finish the round with out hurting ourselves. We ended up shooting an embarrassing best ball of 79 and obviously missing the cut.
I must say I enjoyed playing with Larry. As I told him, I think we were probably the oldest team in the field at a combined total of 117 years.
But I will not miss those back tees, as this was the last time that I would be playing as the junior member of the team. So goodbye back tees, and hello Senior tees next year.
As always, Larry kept working with me on my short game, and he also emphasized how important it is to stay in shape and, more importantly, maintain your flexibility. So my goal now is to continue working on my short game as I struggle with wanting to flip the club head at the ball to help it up in the air, which is just totally wrong.
The other important thing I will work on is regaining my flexibility, which will help me with some distance.
Next week I will talk about the PGA Merchandise Show and the happenings from Orlando from last week. Till next week, you just might see me in the gym.
Jeff Schroeder
PGA Head Professional
Brickyard Crossing
Happy New Year to everyone, as this is my first blog since going bust in California back in November.
As the saying goes, out with the old, and in with the new. That is more true these days as the economy has hit everyone pretty hard. Here at the Brickyard, we say goodbye to a part of our operation we have had since 1963, the Brickyard Crossing motel.
The motel was built in 1963 and has housed many a celebrity, including The Beatles back in 1964. They did not play golf here, but they did create quite a stir when the fans found out they were staying here. The motel housed quite a few golf stars as the PGA Tour played here in the 60s and the Champions Tour back in the 90s.
For 2009, Brickyard Crossing Golf Course will ply host to many events, including the Indiana State Open along with the U.S. Senior Open qualifier. The Senior Open championship will be played at Crooked Stick in nearby Carmel, another Pete Dye design. The Senior Open qualifier will be my first event as a senior, and that will be nice to have it on my home course.
Once again, I am heading to Florida to play in the National Senior Junior Championship with good friend Larry Ziegler. The tournament is team, best-ball event and features teams from all over the country. Larry is fun to play with and knows a ton about the golf swing, so I always walk away learning something new.
I will keep you posted on how we are doing. The tournament starts Monday, Jan. 19 and finishes on Jan. 22. After the tournament is over, we head up to Orlando for the PGA Merchandise Show, which is the largest golf show that I know of in America. This is where you see anything and everything that is remotely related to golf.
That is it for now. Remember to do some stretching in the winter months to keep your golf muscles in shape.
Jeff Schroeder
PGA Head Professional
Brickyard Crossing
Editor’s Note: Brickyard Crossing PGA Head Professional Jeff Schroeder is blogging from the PGA Winter Championships sponsored by Taylor Made-Adidas in Port St. Lucie, Fla. He is playing in the tournament with friend and former Champions Tour standout Larry Ziegler.
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The first two rounds of the tournament are done, and we have successfully made the cut. The field started with 144 two-man teams and has been cut to the low 65 teams and ties. Our scores for the two rounds were 68-67, for a 9-under total of 135. The leading team is at 128, which is 16-under par. So we need to do some making up to get in the hunt for the championship.
Our first round on Tuesday, Jan. 22 was somewhat uneventful. We started out with eight straight pars, and then I happened to chip in on our ninth hole for our first birdie.
I have to thank my partner, Larry Ziegler, for the great chipping lesson he gave me before we played. He noticed something as we were warming up for our round, and it has made a huge difference in my short game. He basically got me to stop trying to help the ball up and had me somewhat “pop it” to get the ball to come off the club face faster, but with control.
Editor’s Note: Brickyard Crossing PGA Head Professional Jeff Schroeder is blogging from the PGA Winter Championships sponsored by Taylor Made-Adidas in Port St. Lucie, Fla. He is playing in the tournament with friend and former Champions Tour standout Larry Ziegler.
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Now that the PGA Merchandise Show is over, one of the nice things that the PGA does is to offer a series of winter tournaments for us to play. They are called the PGA Winter Championships sponsored by Taylor Made-Adidas. The tournaments are held at the PGA Village complex in Port St. Lucie, Fla.
I am fortunate enough that the Brickyard allows me to stay down and play in one of these events this week. The event I am playing in is the Senior Junior Team Championship. I am playing this year with my good friend Larry Ziegler. Larry is a past Champions Tour member and a huge racing fan. Larry played all the Senior Tour events at Brickyard Crossing and now only plays in a few events during the year.