Poor Aberg

I caught a glimpse of an interview with Ludvig Aberg, in which he states his hometown in Sweden has a super short golf season, one in which tournaments can’t be played until April and are done by October.

This made me laugh and served to remind me just how short our Alaskan golf season really is. I write this on Easter Sunday, as snow is still melting in Anchorage. Palmer Golf Course is open, but that’s it, and we won’t be holding tournaments until late June. You can bet the courses will still be in poor shape at that time. Alaskan tournament play concludes before we hit September. July and August are really all we’ve got for meaningful competition.

As for competitive significance, Alaska holds a special place worth paying attention to in the grand scheme of things. As I’ve said before, it is fair to categorize us as the least competitive golfers in the U.S., perhaps the world. As I have also said, we are not the least talented golfers, just the worst from a collective, competitive aspect. Our short season makes it impossible to keep up with those in warmer climates. In a game ruled by touch and feel, we are disadvantaged. If real life were like a video game, Alaska would be the first level of career mode.

Watching the Masters last week, it was easy to see how the best in the world are affected by touch and feel. Their scores rise and fall with their ability to judge wind or read greens. Amateur golfers spend a lot of time trying to hit the ball straight, when really we need to be working on touch and feel.

The problem is, working on touch and feel proves a difficult task in Alaska. Greens are basically sand until July, so you can’t practice your short game anywhere. As the grass does start growing, it grows rapidly. So, courses usually let it get rather shaggy compared to tournament conditions, understandably to let the greens fill in.

When competitive tournaments arrive, like our State Am, they shave the greens down and often roll them to make them relatively fast. There is no way to be prepared for that change in conditions, forcing us to adapt on the fly. This is not a complaint, as it is a welcome change and fun to experience quicker greens, but it does likely add three or four shots per round to the average score.

Having played golf for 40 years, my swing and technique are pretty well established. Going to a driving range doesn’t do much for me. I don’t have a digital measuring device to tell me exactly how far I hit each club and since I’m hitting range balls, it wouldn’t matter anyway. I’ve learned over the years that my best practice is playing on the golf course. In recent years, I’ve even started leaving my approaches short of every green on purpose, so I can practice chipping.

There are only two ways to make birdies in golf: You can hit your approach shots to gimme range, or you can hole long putts and chips. It serves me better, I’ve found to focus on the putts and chips as a method of scoring. If I play 18 holes of golf, I can practice that part of the game on every hole that day. The approach shots all tend to vary enough that it’s hard to dial in all my irons to gimme-range levels.

Aside from that, you just have to get off the tee consistently. I’ve found over the years that I am guilty of trying to fit my game to the clubs instead of fitting the clubs to my game. I am not talking about custom fitting services; I’m talking about being willing to discard any club that doesn’t work. I don’t fight it anymore. If a club isn’t consistently flying the way I like, I’ll just get rid of it and keep my swing the way it is. I’ve found that trying to change my swing to accommodate the club eventually ruins my ability to play the game well, with appropriate touch and feel.

I have reason to believe, I will hit the course for my first round of 2025 this Wednesday at Palmer. I’m hoping my injured left big toe heals in time and the temperature creeps toward 50 degrees.

I’m likely going to make this blog a personal journal of sorts this summer. It’s a selfish decision I don’t expect many to have interest in, but it sounds fun to me. My goals for the summer are to play at least once a week in pursuit of shooting 65 or better with no practice. It may sound impossible, but there are already people who do so, albeit while living in warmer climates.