Welcome to No Gimmies!!

“Hello World!”

Yes, I shamelessly quote Tiger Woods right off the bat and no, I have no expectations of this blog rivaling him in terms of wealth or fame. I do, however, have expectations of rivaling him in terms of intelligence and humor. (Although you often hear that “behind the scenes” he’s a pretty funny guy…I can’t personally say for sure, but Tiger, if you’re reading this, hit me up so we can chat, OK? I want to know if the sense of humor rumor is true!)

To all–welcome to No Gimmies!!

I call it “the golf blog for serious golfers (and not-so-serious golfers)” because this is going to be a community where golf enthusiasts of all sorts can come to find unique insight, helpful information and hopefully a few laughs along the way.

There are a lot of great golf blogs out there. (You can see some of my favorites toward the bottom of the right-hand column on most pages, by the way.) I hope that No Gimmies!! will become a favorite for most of you as well regardless of your playing ability.

I believe that new golfers and high handicappers will be able to improve their games with some of the information I’ll be blogging about, and I think that low handicappers and professionals can also benefit from some of the viewpoints that we’ll be sharing. Most professionals would agree that the fundamentals are the most important element of a consistent and repeatable golf swing. You’ll see an awful lot about the fundamentals here in upcoming posts.

A little bit about the name–No Gimmies!!…

Six or seven years ago I began to play golf on a competitive level. I’d gotten my game to the point where it was relatively respectable and I entered quite a few tournaments over the span of a couple of years. Most were just local tournaments, but I did play in several state association tournaments and entered the USGA U.S. Amateur Public Links qualifier three times. What I really began to appreciate about tournament play was the heightened level of intensity, competition AND the fact that you truly got no gimmies. Two feet, two inches, it didn’t matter–you were putting it out. That concept ingrained itself into my golf “psyche”, and ever since, I’ve putted out on almost every hole.

Now sometimes people who don’t know me will tap a ball back on the 1st or 2nd hole and I have to explain myself to them. And of course if I’m playing match play, shots are often conceded so I don’t putt out then. And every once in a great while, I’ll pick one up in a casual match if my fellow-competitor says so, but for the most part, I deny myself gimmies. Its just my personal choice.

I also play the ball down. Period. (Only exception is if I am playing in a tournament where the rules committee has declared a “winter rules” exception–I’m not too stubborn to lose an advantage that everyone else is taking when it is within the rules!) And if you’re curious, yes, I eschew mulligans and count ALL of my strokes. And yes, I think that stroke PLUS distance on shots going O.B. is crazy-excessive, but thems the rules, right? Right.

Now if you’re still reading this after all of that, you’re probably thinking I’d be a real drag to play with, but I would contend that I’m not… I don’t try and impose these philosophies onto any of my playing partners, I just follow them myself.

I actually give lots of gimmies. I don’t mind people taking mulligans or hitting a foot-wedge or just dropping a ball when they can’t find that one in the woods.

That is the beauty of golf–there are really lots of ways to enjoy the game and when it comes right down to it, enjoying it is what the game is all about. You against the golf course, nothing more. It’s what Bobby Jones called “the toughest opponent of them all–Old Man Par”, and however you choose to battle Old Man Par (or Old Man Bogey, or Old Snowman Triple-Bogey) I am 100% behind you.

I absolutely believe that this blog is going to be most successful if we have a lot of consistent readers and gather LOTS of input from many of them. After all, I know what I like but really this blog is about YOU, not me. So please, talk back to me! Comments, feedback, suggestions, criticism (even negative criticism or telling me about the stuff you don’t like–just please remember to be respectful) are all welcomed.

I’d also ask that you to spread the word if you like what is happening here. Every post has a little green “Share This” icon at the end–click on that and it is an easy way to email a friend about the article, or you can easily share it with some of the social networking sites around like Facebook, MySpace and the like.

The more people who visit, the more opportunity we have to listen and respond, and can truly make No Gimmies!! one of the best golf blogs around.

OK, enough rambling.

I definitely appreciate your stopping by and I warmly welcome you to the blog. I hope you have fun and find some information of value each time you visit. I’m going to do my best to update at least daily, so be sure to keep checking in. Even better, click on the SUBSCRIBE button at the top and get all of the articles updated directly to you, automatically. (Special this week–two free tap-ins with every subscription! Tell your friends! Cheaper than the $10 mulligans you bought at the last scramble you played, right??!)

Thanks. Be well, and enjoy!!

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