I had a friend from college that put that hashtag on all of his Instagram posts. Today, I am using it to share that I’m officially a CSCS - Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. Looking forward to becoming better and better at designing my own and others’ workouts to fuel results 💪🏽 and enjoyment of the game!

PAT a.k.a. the Player's Ability Test on my way to a PGA certification! I signed up for the test back in March, and since then have wondered if the certification is something I want to pursue. It takes on average 4 years to complete after the initial phases. Nevertheless, the test is something I have wanted to do for about the last 3 years. I hadn't felt ready enough to make the leap until this year, thanks to a lot of work on my short game this past year and really putting in work on my game over this past winter at Denver Golf Performance. My game isn't where it could be, but that is going to be the case for all of us! It comes down to the decision making calculus/the tradeoffs we are willing to make to pursue golf. And, as a plug for what I do, the right type of coaching. I chose to go about it the hard way - on my own. Without resources to pay somebody, I decided that the only way was to do it on my own. Furthermore, no (other) coaches are really invested in helping you achieve a certain result. It is a "by the hour" situation, where you might see improvement, you might not. Not me! Regardless of how long it takes, my coaching is based on your actual improvement, depending on what YOUR GOALS are! For some, it may be to increase club speed by a certain amount. For others, they may want to achieve a certain "record" score, others may want to shoot a certain average score/scores within an acceptable range. Defining the problem scope is so key. That is where I am so glad that I have an engineering background to think about these problems in a way that is completely out of the box relative to the status quo, and allow US to optimize your coaching experience around the goals YOU have. Regardless of how much time it takes, we are going to get you there. We simply need to define the parameters and then we can outline the process. Granted, the speed of your results are still based on your personal commitment to practicing what your coach tells you to do. That is where appropriately defining expectations and incentives is huge. Only you can decide how badly you want it, what you want exactly, and how much you can/would like to invest in the process, and how much support you would like.

Shoutout to @Ryan Noel for coming out with me for an early morning tee time Wednesday at 6:20. Funny enough, we both were at the airport late Tuesday night and got out there nonetheless. As he mentioned to me privately, the greens were rolling true at Kennedy. It's always great to have companions on this golf and life journey where the pressure feels so squared on our shoulders to perform and prove ourselves. When you have great companions, the internal pressure shifts to a desire to "match" the other person, at least in my experience. This is why it is further of great importance to surround yourself with golfers who are at or even slightly above your level, so that you can push yourself to rise to the occasion (without really doing anything different). That is just one aspect of the vision I have for this group! I have exciting ideas for how more people can make money from golf (from me lol), once our June challenge is complete. Btw, I will give more detailed instructions on how to be eligible as we get closer, but a reminder to invite your friends who would be interested in this chance to win $1000 in June at the lowest price this group will ever be! You can tell them that there will be even more opportunities to make money from this group, and that this will be the time to get the absolute greatest ROI by joining at $33/month. Once they join at that price, it will be locked in as long as they stay in the group. God bless you all!! -NRP P.S. A reminder that the person who refers the most people by June 1st will get a special mystery prize that will blow you (and the people you refer) out of the water! My birthday is at the end of this month so consider it a birthday present from me lol. I want to keep it a surprise but I promise it will be more than worth it. I'm feeling very generous!!!

Last week, I caddied in the U.S. Open Qualifier at Walnut Creek in Westminster. It was the first professional tournament environment I have been a part of. After the experience has had several days to settle in, I wanted to offer some insights that it delivered. I will state the headlines and then expand on each. 1. Every player has his own process and desires different information from a caddying relationship. 2. Wind, temperature, and green speed can dramatically change performance, even for the best players. 3. Not a lot of people like the CGA. 1. During a practice round with my player (where we were both playing our own game), I asked him several questions regarding what he would like from me during the competitive round. For the most part, he wanted to go through his process/routine and just have me clean clubs, balls, etc. Other than that, I would just go about analyzing things on my own and he would ask me any questions if he wanted another POV. One thing he did want, though, was to have us both get the yardage via our respective range finders, since his was glitching on him in recent rounds. Mine also, however, has had issues, but more data points gave us increased confidence that we were looking at the right yardage. There was one instance during the round that we both got the wrong distance repeatedly, and it was costly. More on that in point 2. Over the course of the round, as we got more comfortable together in the caddy-player relationship, I noticed him leaning on me a tiny bit more in terms of debating club selection and overall strategy for the hole. One thing he took complete ownership over was putting, going through his routine to get speed and line right based on his own extensive practice at Walnut Creek's facilities in advance of the round! 2. Ah, the wind. The gusts got to at least 35 and I think up to 45 mph at times throughout the round. Some drives ended up >430 yds. >270 yd. 8i. 185 yd. 5i. It was a wild ride with the wind. Temperature variations also played a factor, especially starting at 8 am, vs. later in the day the ball was clearly jumping more off the face. Greens were rolling at a 13, I don't know that I've putted on anything that fast before. As it is, holding a green would have been extremely difficult. Add to that a tail wind, and it was a pure guessing game - or a game of luck and timing. One example of this phenomenon in its extreme: hole 13 at Walnut Creek is an uphill, 613 yard par 5. And on this day, it was into the jaws of the 25+ mph wind. So, it was playing close to 700 yards, maybe 750, maybe 800. Driver, 3w, 5i. For the 5i, this is where we had a mishap. We both were getting 200 yards on the range finder, but in reality it was about 170. My player hit a flush 5 iron and we thought it was going to be right next to the flag. It was barely long of the green, and it was puttable. So, he did. When he did, we both thought the ball was going to get caught up in the fringe. It did make it onto the green, and it was at this moment that the wind picked up, downwind now, and ended up blowing the ball OFF the front of the green and down into a collection area, begetting a chip shot for his 5th, and a subsequent 2 putt to result in a double bogey 7. Absolutely brutal. The whole day was like this. And it was like you couldn't do anything about it. But someone could have, which brings us to... 3. The CGA. They did suspend play on Tuesday, which was when the event was supposed to be, but on Wednesday it seemed to be a decision of "well we just have to get this done," rather than deeming the conditions appropriate to play in. One player 7-putted on Tuesday which (I believe) was finally what caused them to suspend play in the face of the brutal wind conditions. The following day truly wasn't much better, if at all. Many people were not happy with the way it was handled, and there seemed to be an overarching sentiment of displeasure with how the organization handled it. Many people withdrew from the event, either due to their own play/lack of chance to win, or simply with the unwillingness to put up with the conditions.

Tomorrow, Tuesday 05/07 I am going to be caddying for one of my coworkers at the U.S. Open qualifier at Walnut Creek. We tee off on #10 at 9:09 am. Hoping to beat the wind in the afternoon! If you happen to be free and would like to come watch, we’d love to see you there! If you come in the middle and want to find us, text me and I will let you know where we are at that time. He’s been working hard getting his game ready so fingers crossed something special can happen. Top 5 out of 85 move on to the next stage of the qualifier. Super blessed to be a part of it!