Goals 2026

Welcome back! It’s been three (3) years since my last post and I’m finally ready to get back into things.

What’s been happening you ask? Well, in July 2024 I went to the ER with blood in my urine and severe back pain. Thinking it was a kidney stone, I was dumbfounded as the diagnosis came back as cancer. Your Hack had a tumor on the right kidney and it needed to be removed - like right away.

The golf game had been deteriorating through 2024 and my handicap index rose steadily to a 5 through the golf season. Now, with this news golf was deep in the shadows. A brilliant surgeon at Temple University used a robot to remove my right kidney in September 2024 and, by all indications, was successful in getting all of the cancer. I only had one kidney, but life could still be lived with few restrictions other than diet and keeping healthy.

Always the optimist, we began therapy in October with an oncologist at Beebe getting monthly infusions of the “miracle” drug - Keytruda. (The type of cancer I had was not treatable with radiation or chemotherapy.) Treatments started off well and I was able to take a trip down to Florida over the winter to play a 2-day Fried Egg Golf outing at Mountain Lake and 4 rounds with some old friends at Fiddlesticks in Fort Myers. Thank you to the Pearson’s for putting up with me for a week. I played OK and thought I was coming back. I was even able to play Cripple Creek a few times in late spring.

While I thought things were getting better, this fucking drug ended up attacking my remaining kidney and internal organs and I ended up in the hospital for 5 days in April of 2025. Again, golf was sidelined as you’d expect and I spent the next few months with doctors trying to figure shit out. Stage 3 Kidney disease, but no evidence of the cancer returning.

Golf for the remainder of 2025 was a struggle as the handicap blew up to a 9 and distance was elusive. Drives are 25-40 yards short and irons are 15-30 yards short causing me to spend the season adjusting to the new reality and figuring out what clubs to hit. For example, my stock pitching wedge has dropped from 135 yards to 105 yards. In short, your Hack ended the season with a 9.8 index. On the good news side, my scans continue to be clear, I’ve lost 20 pounds and haven’t had any alcohol since last April.

Here are my 2025 stats from the GHIN app:

# of Scores Posted: 38

High: 91

Low: 79

Avg.: 83.7

• Get handicap down to 5 or less

• Make 100 birdies

• Shoot my age (71 or better)

• Be walking and carrying bag for 18 holes by April, 2026 (riding in a cart too often)

• Take one golf trip with friends

• Implement Stack System (improve speed and distance)

• Get fitted for new shafts (look at switching to graphite shafts for my irons

• Upgrade Driver (currently using an M1 driver that is a least 5-6 years old)

I’d love to hear your thoughts about restarting the blog, my goals for 2026, or anything. Please feel free to share with your friends.