Shot my best round ever yesterday

So this was at my home course yesterday. It's the third time in my 25 years of playing golf that I have shot a 72, but personally I feel as though this was my best round because it was done on a higher slope rating than the other two. And it feels great because just two to three weeks ago my swing was a mess. I couldn't get off the tee to save my life. After getting fed up trying (and failing) to fix it myself, I decided to get a lesson to "reboot" the swing.

It took 4-5 rounds to get comfortable with the swing changes. However, yesterday it seemed to finally gel.

Some notes/thoughts:

I'm irritated with the bogey on 16. Because I hit a perfect drive, and then pushed a sand wedge slightly to the right and missed the green. My chip was a little fat, and I think it was because I knew where I was score-wise and was getting nervousOn that note, I find myself thinking over some of the other bogeys and "what if?". If I just fixed one of those, I could have been under par. On 17, which is a par 5 I hit my 2-iron off the tee and was right in the middle of the fairway. I was about 200 out, and the second shot has to carry some water into a green surrounded by bunkers. I pulled out a 7-iron which I can only hit about 160-165. One of the other guys says to me "why aren't you going for it?". My rationale was that I'm already nervous, and I'd rather hit the safe shot than risk doing something stupid with a longer iron.On 18, an uphill par 3, I think nervousness got me a little again as I hit a 6-iron a little fat and came up about 10 yards short of the green. I chipped to about 4 feet. It was a slight breaker, and I'm not gonna lie I was pretty nervous as I stood over that putt. I don't know how the pros stand over million dollar putts. I can't even stand over a $0 putt that's just for a 72. 6 birdies is my new personal best for most in one round.The 4 birdies in a row from hole 7-10 is also a personal best for me.

Congrats. Nothing like throwing out a new PB.

Outstanding round! How was your mental process on the day?

Thanks! It was good. I had shot a 78 the day before, so I knew the swing changes were starting to come together. I just needed to eliminate the dummy mistakes, and putt a little better.

The string of 3 bogeys early on were really just caused by lapses in mental focus. I managed not to let them bother me much. Then on 7 I hit my approach to less than a foot for a tap-in birdie, and that's when the confidence came roaring back. Of that birdie streak, the only hole that I wasn't within 5 feet for the putt was 9. I had about an 18-foot bender that I was just trying to get close enough for the easy par, and it dropped.

In the late stretches of the round, I definitely switched to favor a more conservative approach. Mentally, was just trying not to think about the score so much and stay focused on hitting the next shot. It was easier said than done, especially on 18.

In the late stretches of the round, I definitely switched to favor a more conservative approach. Mentally, was just trying not to think about the score so much and stay focused on hitting the next shot. It was easier said than done, especially on 18.

My regular golfing buddy just got to a + index on the weekend.

He used to be fairly conservative (which annoyed the hell out of me) but when he made the change from protecting a good score when he had made a few birdies to putting the pedal down and trying to make more that was a big difference for him scoring consistently lower. Basically if you're in a groove, ride that momentum as hard as you can and stay aggressive.

Good job man! Kudos.

Congrats! Hope to be able to say I shot a 72 at some point in my life.

I know that's what I should do. But how do you get through the fear of screwing the round up? I think the answer to that is it's like anything, the more you're in the situation the more you become comfortable with the stress of it.

All I could think of is "don't allow yourself to stumble into a big number". Luckily that strategy paid off this time as I finished birdie/par, but I've had plenty of other times where it didn't go as smoothly.

I think its important to be confident and stay aggressive when you can BUT I also think it makes sense to play shots you are comfortable with...if you don't know you can execute the aggressive shot with a high degree of success, then playing the shot you are more comfortable with makes sense. I.e. laying up on 17.

Try picturing yourself succeeding and going low rather than picturing yourself messing up a good round...you finished birdie-par, so draw on that!

True. Use the visual I already have.

Hopefully I will be in this situation again soon, and will be able to see how I fare if I "put the petal to the metal". Thanks all!

@Roody congratulations!! well done sir. curious why you don't have a fairway wood in the bag. is it because that 2-iron is pure gold?

Kudos!

Yeah, it usually does very well for me. Especially in drier conditions like the other day when I shot this round. It'll land and run for miles. I usually only use it off the tee, as I don't fully trust it off the fairway yet. I occasionally practice off-the-deck shots with it on the range, but don't really attempt them during rounds.

I changed to an all-iron configuration a few years ago. It was when the guy at GolfTec got me doing stack-and-tilt. That swing style worked great for irons, especially long irons. But it really messed up my fairway woods. I tried for most of a season to figure it out, but would just snap-hook the heck out of them. So one day I had a couple hundred bucks in pro shop credit and asked the pro to order me a 2-iron.

Fast-forward to a couple weeks ago, I was starting to have back problems and my game was kind of a mess. I took that lesson, and I've abandoned the stack-and-tilt. I still hit the 2-iron good, but now I'm wondering if I should consider rotating in a fairway wood. Maybe with the new swing I can hit one again?

6 birds is impressive. Seeing that you were given 10 strokes... Are you around a 10-12 index then? Shooting level at that index is pretty nuts. My best round this year I think I hit 11 greens and had 9 par's with 1 bird... I was pretty happy about that but this is a whole other level! nice.

I started the season as a 7.1 index. I climbed to a 9.7 just before the lesson two weeks ago. I believe I got back down to an 8.1 just before this round, so the blue tees on my course give me 10. After this round, I dropped to a 6.9 (which reminds me, I need to update my handicap on my profile here)

Congrats! Now on to 71!

Congrats and good thinking on 17.

So, I'll branch this off to a slightly different discussion.

I went to post another round from yesterday in GHIN, and noticed my handicap dropped even more than I thought. I went from an 8.1 to a 5.9 with that one round.

I then noticed a little "i" icon next to that round, as well as next to every one of my last 20. Every one of them read "a -1 exceptional score reduction has been applied". I did some googling because I was curious, and found this:

When a score differential is 7.0 strokes below a player’s Handicap Index at the time the round was played, an Exceptional Score Reduction will take place.If the score differential is between 7.0 and 9.9 strokes below their Handicap Index, a -1.0 reduction will be applied to the player’s most recent 20 score differentials.If the score differential is 10.0 strokes or better than their Handicap Index, a -2.0 reduction will be applied to their most recent 20 score differentials.This rule will consider all scores, not just tournament scores, and essentially replace Section 10-3 of “The USGA Handicap System.”I'm not entirely sure how I feel about one round having extra weight applied to all 20 of my most recent scores. I didn't see anything about "a +1 lousy score addition has been applied" to crappy rounds. I mean, it is what it is. 5.9 is the lowest I have been in my lifetime, so I'll enjoy it while it lasts. That just seems like a very fast drop.

wow, great job, congrats!

Nice round! Nice club too, a friend from Rochester said it's a fun course.

I can see when you mentioned about going into conservative mode at end, it is easy to keep on being aggressive during good rounds but I like playing with shots that I'm more comfortable in executing.

That is awesome! I enjoy reading stories like this. I shot a smooth 73 today and never hit a great drive...lots of good misses. Iron play was on point (love my PXG’s) and putting was stress free. I love this game...including my bad rounds too.

Thanks! I was pretty excited about it.

So this past weekend I followed it up with a 79 and a 75. My handicap is dropping fast. Not only is the driver working much better, but the putter is hot right now too. Had 28 putts in that 75 round yesterday.

I am really loving this new swing. I should have given up stack and tilt long ago.

During the round yesterday I went aggressive on hole 17 this time. I put a 6-iron pin-high, about a foot off the green. I chipped on and missed eagle by literally one ball rotation.
So @SkiSchoolPro was right. Now that I've "been there done that", lining up to take the aggressive shot wasn't bad at all. Though the question is, can I do it when I've got a sub-par round on the line?

For that particular round, it was the first time all season that I took a riding cart. My knee was bugging me a little, and it was pretty hot out. But until that day I had walked every round.

The other difference was that I didn't hit the range ahead of time. I hit some putts, but that was it.

Congrats, smart play on 17!

Just think, without that back pain you would still be using a stack & tilt and this might not have happened. Great shooting

Funny thing about this after my post, I had my club championships this past weekend so on Saturday, I was cruising along going 4 under after 14 holes but I was fighting my swing and tempo so I sorta tried to play it safe going to the end of my round. I had two stupid bogeys on last 4 holes to shoot a 70. On Sunday, I was just 1 under after 13 holes, playing nicely but not making anything but I was still playing aggressively because my swing felt fine also no one was close to me, kept my feet to pedal, birdied 3 of last 5 holes to shoot a 68. 70-68 to win by 8 shots.

Playing conservatively or being aggressive can work or not. It depends on how comfortable you're feeling with your swing at the moment.

How did you generate that scorecard ?

6 birds and E is tremendous playing for a 10 ... way to go !!

keep doing what you’re doing sir