The Grateful Golfer

30 years ago. How time flies! I have the best Dad in the world! I am sure this statement is being lauded around the world again and again. Of course, we think our father was the greatest because of the positive impact he had on our lives, but really, my Dad was the best. Unfortunately, our time together was far too short and over the past 25 years, I sure could have used some of his sage wisdom…

It is a challenge to figure out it our golf game is moving to the next level. One of the key goals is to find out what drives you to improve your game. I have played golf for over 50 years and I still try to find a way to lower my score each spring. This year is no different and I think I have found the area to which I want to focus. I am going to work on my mental game in the area of hitting off…

If you have read some of my previous posts, you will start to see a bit of a trend going on. For the first time, I attended the Ottawa Hickory Open Championship. Organized by Chris Hawes, the Hickory Open Championship is in its third year and has grown to 50 players across 4 divisions. The championship uses the Stableford system of scoring in order to eliminate the high hole errors most hickory…

If you missed the Ottawa Hickory Golf Challenge on 5 Jun 2026, then you missed an amazing time. Organized by Chris Hawes, this event provided 124 golfers an opportunity to step back in time and play golf like many of the greats from the past. Chris hosts an amazing opportunity for any level of golfer to experience golf with hickory shafted golf clubs. There were many golfers who embraced this…

Golf is a funny game because no matter how hard I try, it seems my swing changes from day to day. Okay, that is a bit dramatic, however I have noticed that I do have a tendency to swing differently from time to time. This ‘hiccup’ is most prevalent with my hickory sticks as I am working on my early season game. I am fairly confident that every golfer has this challenge and often seeks remedies to…

My first official golf practice is in the books. A couple of days ago I went to my local golf course, Mattawa Golf and Ski Resort, to avail myself of their practice green. The course is not open until this weekend, but the practice area was open for members. It was my first time this year to practice off of grass and I decide to add a little twist that I will talk about later. Overall, I…

There are so many proclamations about how easy it is to fix any part of our golf game that I thought I would jump on the bandwagon. Working/fixing our golf game is easy depending on the starting point. If you are new to the game or have played for a long time, the progress and success of your development will change. Using myself as an example, changes to my game, with a tremendous amount of…

It is official. Yesterday, I played my first full round of golf in 2026. It was a round of the goods, bads and the uglies! Osprey Links was dry and very playable. The temperatures hovered around 7° C (45° F) and there was a slight wind making it even colder. Overall, the conditions were expected and the results of my round were also expected. I did not play very well, but for the first round of…

Today, I played my first round of golf of the 2026 golf season. It happens to coincide with World Hickory Golf Day. It usually happens that this momentous day happens around the start of my golf season every year. Sometimes, it is sooner and others later. I thought I would bring my hickory sticks to my old haunt of Osprey Links Golf Course. As the course open this weekend, the course was in good…

Many of the local golf courses open tomorrow, Friday May 1st. It is an exciting day for my game as I can finally shake off the cobwebs and hit the links with a huge smile on my face. Every year about this time many golfers in northern climes prepare for a short golf season that lasts between six and seven months. During this preparation, many players go through a well practiced routine that…

WORLD HICKORY GOLF DAY is just around the corner. On May 3, 2026, the Golf Historical Society of Canada will be hosting the World Hickory Golf Day at Cambridge Golf Course. This is an annual event and it is designed to celebrate playing golf with hickory sticks and to introduce players to using wooden shafted golf clubs. I have played this event for many years and I am planning to celebrate this…

The goal of most golfers is to shoot the lowest score possible when playing. If that is not your goal, then you probably do not keep score and loop the links for the shear joy of being in nature. For those rare individuals, this post is not for you. It is focused all golfers, at any level, who are trying to refine their game to go to the next level. If you are a beginner or a player with a…

To be fair, I did not watch any of the Masters yesterday. I was off having fun doing life stuff. I was a bit taken aback with the result from moving day and I was not surprised either. Augusta National is a tough track and Rory McIlroy did not have his best game according to the results on the leaderboard. That is the nature of professional sports. I was surprised at the lower scores that…

All I can really say is WOW! That was quite a display of golf all around, but Rory McIlroy stole the show. Shooting a 7 under 65 with 2 bogeys is amazing. Who would have thought that he would develop such a commanding lead. Knowing how golf goes, most of the pundits will say that McIlroy is a lock to win (given past history of such leads), however moving day starts soon and anything can happen.…

Many amateur golfers struggle hitting their ball out of the bunker. The nature of the sand and the position of the ball have a great deal to do with successfully extricating yourself from this hazard. I consider myself a slightly above average sand player because of my ability to get my ball on the green when required. I do struggle a bit with fairway bunkers, but that is a story for another day.…

The first day is in the books at the 2026 Masters golf tournament. ‘A tradition like no other’ seems to fit the bill this year as 91 golfers vie for the Green Jacket. There are some past champions like Freddie Couples (one of my all time favorites), Vijay Singh, Mike Weir, and José María Olazábal are playing one of their favourite courses. There are many young guns who I do not recognize, but the…

I have never met a golfer who does not wand to lower their score. The number of tips available to all players seems limitless and sifting through all the noise is a challenge. Well, that is what most golf blogs are for and The Grateful Golfer is no different. One of the interesting aspects of finding a drill that works is it has likely been talked about using a different name. This is the case…