2024 Golf Season Review

 

 

Intrigued by that picture? Allow me to explain.

This past year, my brother and I played much of our golf early in the morning.  

 

Very early. 

 

Nine-holes-before-work early. 

 

At times it would still be dark when we got to the golf course. 

 

Now, at some point my dad learned of how early we were meeting up. And being the corny goofball that he can sometimes be (I mean that in the best way possible), he immediately bought us some novelty LED golf balls as a gag gift—a whole dozen, in fact. You see a few of those golf balls in the photo above, on the practice putting green.

And although they don't fly as far as standard golf balls (and feel like rocks when you hit them), you can actually play golf with them. One morning we did try them out for a couple of holes just before sunrise, and I have to say, it was fun seeing a little glowing orb sail through the darkness, bounce down the fairway, and come to a stop. And as you can imagine, even if we hit them off target, they were rather easy to find. Most of the time, however, we just putted around with them on the practice green until it got light enough for us to tee off.

In any case, I thought that would be a fun image to lead off this post to recap my 2024 golf season. (Note: For those of you more interested in trading cards than golf stats, feel free to skip to the bottom of the post, where I share a couple of recent golf card pickups. For those of you who like stats, read on.)

 

I'll start by mentioning that last year I used an app called Golfshot throughout the season. It not only allowed me to enter my golf scores during each round, but it also kept track of some stats and data to help me analyze my strengths and weaknesses. I found the app so insightful that I resubscribed for 2024.

One of the coolest things about using the app for a second consecutive year? I can now filter the stats in order to compare my 2023 season to my 2024 season. 

Did I improve in some categories? Regress in others?

 

Let's find out with a side-by-side comparison.

Fairways

This is an analysis of the percentage of fairways I hit from the tee. I did improve my accuracy a little bit this year, but I know I can do even better. It's interesting that similar to last year, I missed about half my fairways to the left side and half to the right side.

Greens in Regulation

A green in regulation (GIR) means that you've hit the green with at least two shots remaining to make a par. For example, on a par 4, it would mean hitting the green with your second shot. That way, you have two putts to make your par.

I improved in this metric as well, which is great. However, in the real world, a 6% increase in GIR equates to just one additional green hit per 18 holes. If I want to reach my goal of breaking 80 next year, I'll have to get this number up even higher. (36% GIR means I'm hitting about 6 or 7 greens per 18 holes. I'd like to get that up to at least 8 or 9 next year.)

Recovery

When I don't hit a green in regulation (which usually means I'm somewhat close to the green, but have to chip the ball on and try to make that first putt to save par), I was only successful 32% of the time this past year. That's a tick lower than last year. I did save more pars from bunkers around the green this year, but it's a pretty small sample size, so I'm not reading too much into that.

 

The bottom line is that I've got to do better in this category. When I'm pitching or chipping the ball onto the green, I'm just not getting the ball close enough to the hole to make saving a par easy. It's true that there are times when I'll get the ball within tap-in range. However, if I were to average out all of my chips and pitches over the course of the year, I'd guess that my ball is finishing about 10 or 12 feet from the hole. Not quite good enough.

Putting

Another improvement! The 1.89 number in 2024 means that when I hit the green in regulation this past year, I was a little more likely to finish in one putt (birdie) than three putts (bogey). A score of 2.00 would mean that I was averaging exactly two putts per GIR.

Pars

Interesting data here, and more improvement all around. I like how I've gotten the par 3 and par 4 averages down to the "point-5" mark or lower compared with 2023. That means I'm parring those holes about half the time, and bogeying them the other half. I did even better on par 5s, which is cool.

Scoring Pie Chart

The 2024 scoring pie chart confirms the statement from the previous paragraph. Overall, I'm parring about half the holes I play. The birdie percentage went up, too, while bogeys and double bogey+ numbers went down. (Next year I've got to make an eagle!)

Best score

 

 

This year I have to go with a score from a 9-hole golf course. This particular course is referred to as "executive". That means there are only par 3s and par 4s, and even the longest par 4 is fairly short (about 360 yards). Regardless, a score of 1-under 31 is something I'm super happy with. The fairways are pretty tight there, and some of the greens are rather small and hard to hit. 

That birdie on the 3rd hole was actually a chip-in from short of the green, which was great. However, the best shot of the day came on the 9th hole. I'd hit a good tee shot and was only about 110 yards from the green. Unfortunately, my next shot came up in the rough just short of the green, and my chip onto the green also wasn't great, finishing about 10 feet short of the hole. I knew I was 1-under par as I lined up that 10-footer. And I really didn't want to miss that putt. It would have meant a bogey on the very last hole to drop back to even par. As you can see by the scorecard, I rolled in the putt and saved par. I'm a pretty calm and cool guy on the golf course, but I have to admit that I did give a pretty big fist-pump when that putt dropped.

Okay, stats portion over.

To thank those of you for reading this far—and because this is a trading card blog—here are two golf cards I recently picked up in a TCDB trade.

2024 Upper Deck #35 Collin Morikawa and #94 Billy Horschel Season Highlight

 

Collin Morikawa is only 27 years old, but already has 6 PGA Tour victories to his credit, including two majors (2020 PGA Championship, 2021 British Open). Impressively, at the time of this writing, he's made 103 cuts in 122 career PGA Tour starts. And in those 122 starts, he's finished in the top ten 42 times. That's really something!

Billy Horschel is 38, and has collected 8 PGA Tour victories, along with 2 international wins. I picked up his card because he's a gamer. To explain: In the summer of 2023, Horschel was having a really tough time with his golf. He'd fallen well down in the rankings, and even broke down in tears at a press conference after a particularly rough tournament. Since then he's fought right back, gotten his physical and mental game together, and had seven top-10 finishes plus a tournament victory during the 2024 season. At the time of this writing, he sits at #18 in the Official World Golf Rankings.

 

So that's my 2024 golf season review. Overall, I improved almost every metric in 2024 compared with 2023. I'm very happy about that. And Golfshot has shown me pretty clearly where I need to make the most improvement next season.

Playing golf regularly over these past couple of years has also helped me realize a few things about keeping the mind strong and focused throughout the round. For example, a bad score on one hole does not dictate your score for the entire day. And neither does a good score on one hole. As soon as you finish that hole—whether you made a birdie or a bogey or anything else—you've got to put it behind you, settle yourself down, and get focused on the next hole. There's a lot of interesting stuff like that going on in the game of golf. Good life lessons, for sure.

 

One other thing I'm happy about is that I played golf with my brother very often again in 2024. We've been pushing each other to improve, and it's been such a cool experience. This year, our dad even made some appearances! The three of us got out there for 9 holes quite a lot, which was fun, for sure.

 

As for next season, let's list some goals:

• Hit even more greens in regulation
• Save more pars from around the green when I don't reach in regulation
• Get my golf swing a little more consistent and dialed in
• Break 80 at least once
  

 

I look forward to the season, and also to checking back on this post next winter to see how I did with my goals. Similar to the softball season recap from a few weeks ago, I think recording my golf goals here will help keep me motivated and accountable.

Thank you all for reading, and for any encouraging golf-related comments in advance of the upcoming season. 

Any golfers out there? Anyone else motivated to get out on the course or hit some golf balls at the range this coming season? Share in the comment section!

Winner of the Chili Peppers Custom Card Giveaway

Alright everyone, it's time for the results of the Red Hot Chili Peppers custom card duck race and giveaway!

 

Here's the list of contestants who entered within the one-week submission window, plus links to their associated blogs:

 

 

Mark (The Chronicles of Fuji)

Gavin (Baseball Card Breakdown)

Crocodile (Crocodile Sports Cards)

Matt (Diamond Jesters)

Jon (A Pennysleeve for your Thoughts, My Kind of Nonsense)

Wilson (Tenets of Wilson)

 

In the original Chili Peppers post from a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that if 10 or more people entered the contest, I'd not only give away a card to the winner, but also a card to the second- and third-place finishers.

Unfortunately, only six people entered, so that offer is off the table. But we'll still have a good time. And if you haven't seen the duck race in action, or don't remember it from last time, here's how it works: 

Each entrant is represented by an animated rubber duck that is sitting at the starting line on an animated river. The starting gun fires, and all the ducks begin floating randomly along the river as the screen scrolls horizontally. Eventually the finish line appears, and the first duck to cross the line wins. 

 

This time it's a little more complicated, because if Matt or Jon win, they're going to defer the prize to one of the other contestants. I've explained this to the ducks in a way that ducks can understand, and they've assured me that there will be no tomfoolery going on. I trust they'll give us an honest race, because they're honest ducks and they race hard.

 

Anyhow, yesterday I ran the script and recorded the action. Want to see how it all turned out? 

 

Play the video, find your duck, and here we go.

Wow! Jon motored out to an early lead and held it for a while. Then Fuji, Diamond Jesters, and Crocodile all made a late push, but what a burst of speed from Crocodile at the bottom! Congratulations, Sir.

 

Here's your prize:

 

 

I don't think I have your mailing address, so please contact me. You can find my email address on the blog here, or you can message me through TCDB here.

Congratulations again to Crocodile, and thank you all for participating!

Danny White: QB-P

A couple of months ago on the blog, I shared my newly completed 1982 Topps football set. It might be my favorite football design of the 1980s. Quite a few cards stood out to me—some for the action depicted, and others for the noticeable lack of action. Then there were cards that caught my attention for other reasons, including one that I thought deserved some research and a post of its own. 

 

Here it is:

 

Have a look at the playing position on the right side of the banner.

QB-P

Quarterback. Punter.

That's right. Danny White is listed at both positions on his 1982 Topps card.

Now, you often see multiple playing positions on baseball cards. You've got designations like 2B-SS, OF-DH, and so on. Hockey cards also sometimes feature players who spend time at multiple positions, like C-LW, or RW-LW.

But football players? I'm not as knowledgeable about the sport, but aside from maybe a wide receiver who also returns some kicks (WR-KR), a dual-position player feels pretty rare—especially the "QB-P" designation. And it sure seems like a lot of work for the poor guy. I mean, he tries his hardest to advance the offense far enough down the field for a touchdown or field goal, but every time he fails he's got to punt it away, too?

 

Regardless, there it is, right on the card front. And check out the card back!

 

 

The evidence starts right away, with the statistical highlight printed under Mr. White's name:  

 

Danny tossed a 73-yard pass and booted a 60-yard punt in 1981.

Impressive. 

 

Below that, the card goes on to list White's career passing, punting, and rushing stats.

 

Even more impressive!

 

So here's the story:

Danny White was punting and quarterbacking even in his college days at Arizona State University. The Dallas Cowboys selected him in the 1974 draft, but with Roger Staubach as the main man taking snaps at the time, the team was only interested in White's punting skills. Not happy with that idea, White signed with the Memphis Southmen of the World Football league, where he had the opportunity to punt and quarterback. 

 

Welp, a couple of years later, the WFL folded. White then signed with the Cowboys, settling for a full-time punter and backup QB role. (Backing up Roger Staubach isn't such a bad thing, I guess.) When Staubach retired after the 1979 season, it was White's time to step into the starting QB role, while maintaining his punting duties. So he took the ball and ran with it. And threw it. And punted it.

 

Because the 1982 Topps card above mentions some of White's 1981 accomplishments, let's look more closely into his numbers that season.

 

1981 Punting Record

Category	Total	NFL Rank
Punts	79	T-14th
Yards	3,222	14th
Yards per Punt	40.8	T-15th
Long	60	T-22nd
Touchbacks	7	T-14th
Punts Inside 20-Yard Line	19	T-8th
% Punts Inside 20-Yard Line	24.1%	11th

 

 

Those numbers show that Danny White was a pretty serviceable punter. With 28 teams in the league at that point, I'd say he was at league average—maybe even slightly above. Let's look at his quarterbacking numbers now.

1981 Passing Record

Category	Total	NFL Rank
W-L	11-4-0	4th
Attempts	391	15th
Completions	223	15th
Completion %	57.0	11th
Yards	3,098	12th
Touchdowns	22	T-8th
Interceptions	13	T-21st
Long	73	15th
Yards Gained per Attempt	7.9	T-3rd
Sacks	30	T-8th

 

 

White also rushed for 104 yards in 38 attempts, for an average of 2.7 yards per carry. His longest rush was 17 yards. And looking at all those passing numbers and rankings, you can see that he was a pretty good QB, too.

But what about the modern NFL? With the enormous salaries of starting quarterbacks these days, a team wouldn't dare use one as a punter as well, would they? It's just too risky. And let's be honest. If you were a linebacker on the punt return team and you saw that the starting QB was back there to take the punt, you'd probably try extra-hard to break through the line and block it, right? 

 

I would.

 

So I think we've got to tip our collective hat to Mr. Danny White. He held down the full-time quarterback and punter responsibilities for a good part of his career (from 1980 through 1985), was a Pro Bowl participant in 1982, and earned a Super Bowl ring in 1978.

Pretty remarkable.

Can any of you football fans out there think of other quarterbacks who punted? I did a little research, and a couple of famous QBs like Terry Bradshaw and Randall Cunningham made the list. However, those cases seemed more out of necessity, like when the regular punter was injured.

 

There's also the example of Tom Tupa, a punter who filled in at quarterback a few times. That's pretty cool too, but it's still no Danny White.

Share any info you have in the comment section, and thanks for reading!

A Red Hot Custom Card (And a Giveaway)

I suppose the title of this blog post could be a little cryptic.

But if you happened to have music or rock bands on your mind, you might have guessed where this was going.

 

It's the Red Hot Chili Peppers on a custom card!

 

Design-wise, the 1974 "rookie" template worked very well, as it provided plenty of room at the top for the band's full name. And the red color seemed the right fit, for obvious reasons. 

 

As for the personnel, I had to go with John Frusciante as the guitarist—although that takes nothing away from the other guitarists who've been part of the band, like Hillel Slovak or Dave Navarro.

Regardless, because the templates I use for these customs are usually taken from sports trading cards, something I try to do with these posts whenever I can is to tie sports into them. And in this case, there's a pretty cool sports tie-in.

 

Did you know that the Chili Peppers teamed up with tennis star Andre Agassi to make a Nike commercial back in 1991?

 

Check this out!

 

 

 

Man, that was such a fun time for American tennis.

And the fun kept going and going after that. Andre Agassi won his first major championship the following year (Wimbledon, 1992). He won 8 majors in all, the final one coming at the Australian Open in 2003. He collected 60 career ATP tour titles from 1987 through 2005.

 

As for the Chili Peppers, they've created 13 studio albums, starting with their self-titled release in 1984. Their most recent releases were in 2022. It's impressive to me that the band has written hit songs and maintained a certain amount of freshness across all those years.

My favorite Chili Pepper era spans the late-80s and early '90s. (Think Mother's Milk and Blood Sugar Sex Magik). I do like the Californication (1999) and Stadium Arcadium (2006) albums as well, but they just can't hold a candle to that earlier stuff.

I think it's because to me, the Chili Peppers are guys that should just never get old. And I know you can say that about almost any rock band that ever existed. We tend to remember rockers when they're young, and full of raw energy. But I don't know. Maybe that's not always the case. I mean, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards don't need to be young, right? I don't necessarily picture them as young guys when they come to mind. Anthony Kiedis, however? Somehow I always see him as that young punk up there on the top left of the card.

In any case, I'm glad to have some copies of this card in hand now, including a few extras. And here's a question for you that has a Chili Peppers–themed answer:

What am I going to do with one of those extra copies?

 

The answer:

 

Give it away, give it away, give it away, now!

 

(How many of you saw that one coming?)

 

Last year I tried the fun and goofy duck race to choose the winner of a giveaway, and that seemed to go over pretty well with readers. So I think I'll do that again. And just like last time, all you have to do to enter is leave a comment below. If you have a favorite Chili Peppers song, add that to your comment as well.

I'll start out by offering one custom Chili Peppers card to the winner of the duck race, but how about this? If at least 10 people enter the giveaway, I'll award a Chili Peppers custom card to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finisher.

Sound good? 

 

Alright. Get to it, then. Comment below. You have until next Sunday, January 12th, to enter. After that I'll close it up and get the ducks ready to race.

 

Thanks for reading, as always!