Oscar Sachs - reports from the U.S.A. - December 2011

Hello Akarana Golf Club!

I hope everyone is enjoying the early parts of summer golf. Well the first semester of my 2nd year has come to an end. It has been a very busy but productive semester.

Life here in Silver City, New Mexico is going well, the weather is still amazing we had only two days of rain in the last four months, and just a couple days of snow! On the golfing front it has been a really strong semester for me as I have made some huge changes in my golf swing and entire golf game for that matter. In late August, two weeks before school started, I began working with Brady Riggs, a Golf Digest top 100 in America teacher and the coach of PGA tour players Anthony Kim and Jason Gore. What he has done for me in the last few months has seen a big improvement. We have tried to change my entire golfing “blueprint” and his philosophies are all about power, speed, being dynamic, consistency and all around ball striking perfection. He is unlike any coach I have been around back home in NZ. With all the changes going on, I have had a few good rounds on the course in tournaments with my low round being 70(-2) in a pretty big event in Ruidoso, New Mexico.

All in all my semester scoring average has been 3 shots lower than last year, so things are moving in the right direction and becoming very consistent but I still have a lot more to do which is exciting. The travel has been fun this year, as I have been able to see some different parts of the country such as Alamosa which is in Colorado, a beautiful small town which was really green. It kind of reminded me of Auckland except no ocean and a lot hotter. Phoenix in Arizona was probably my favorite place we visited this semester. It's a big city with a lot going on, and the terrain of dessert and mountains is pretty unbelievable. Some of the views and mountains are much like central Otago and Arrowtown, except for there again being no water in sight. It is pretty cool to see so many different areas of the nation and to be doing it while doing the thing you love is great.

We are spoiled as college golfers as we are treated really well and taken care of like kings. On the very occasional weekend when we do not have tournaments or qualifying tournaments I have been able to go and stay at the houses of some of the guys of my team who live in nearby cities. Some of the highlights were going to the arena football league grand final (not the NFL) which was pretty fun and an amazing atmosphere. A couple weeks ago a few of us went down and watched a big college football game in Las Cruces which is about a two hour drive from Silver City. 50 000 people were there and the experience was awesome as our team's football games draw much smaller crowds.

I was also able to play in one of the Sun Country PGA pro-am events, and teamed up with the head pro at our home golf course, and won a bunch of golf equipment which was a nice little bonus! Academically things are going well, and my grades are at a good level and I am on track to also get my degree in kinesiology in about 2 and a half years. It is a high work load, with classes each day, practice 5 hours a day and team work outs and homework at night. Sleep is hard to come by and much sought after! However I am learning so much about a different culture and a different outlook on life. Being in a small town really shows you what the world is like and how fortunate we are to live in a beautiful city like Auckland and a country like NZ. It makes me feel even luckier to be doing what I am, and being able to work hard to achieve my goals for the future.

I look forward to spending the next month back home during our break and spending some time in some nice summer weather and spending some time and catching up at the Akarana Golf Club! Then I head back in January for another big semester.

Good golfing,

Oscar