Rich S: shot my low round and won

[rich_s2]

2.5 and my short game is that of a 30 cap. First tournament in seven days. Never played the course but it’s short with a easy rating so a good one to start on. I tried going with higher chips with little run out but I am a bump and run guy so I’m going back to that. Need more up and downs. Bunker game is getting better finally but still below average. Going to put in some good work this week!

[BB28403]

how'd ya get away with 2.5 with no short game man!? haha. Thats awesome about the tourney.

[rich_s2]

Short game rust is coming off. Playing more bump and run and only hitting the high/soft when needed. Got a tip from my buddy about bunker shots (swing left) and it is working. Actually had some sand saves the last few rounds. Iron's are very solid. The MP20HMB/MMC combo set launches the ball higher and they don't draw as much as my old 919T. Took some getting used to but now I am aiming at target and playing 3yd push draws unless a different shot is required. Feeling of keeping my right arm straighter during the backswing is helping to not get my left arm over my chest.

If I can hit fairways im good. Bad day with driver is the concern. Played a practice round last night. Never played this course before and its in really bad shape. Some of the holes look like they were made in someones backyard. Tiny greens, tall trees and quirky dog legs. Its only 6100 so I guess it needs to be that way. Tee boxes are super bumpy with tall grass. I was really frustrated with the course the first 3 holes last night. Then I tried to turn it into a positive. I know other guys will be frustrated as well so if I can keep my head, I will have an advantage. Shot even par but had 5 birdies :( I think 68 wins this (par 70). Going to play there again on saturday (tournament is sunday). Lot of irons off the tee. Greens are pretty flat so I know I will make birdies. Just have to keep the ball in play off the tee.

Put a 2i in the bag. This will get used a lot on Sunday. Honestly I don't have to hit driver at all. Its so short that it tempts you but the risk/reward screams 2i. Doing my best to not get too pumped or excited. Stay in the moment and just focus on the shot at hand. Going over and over in my head the club to hit off the tee on each hole and the line I need to take. Dang, I love tournament golf!

[rich_s2]

1st tournament of the year yesterday. I wish I had great news today. Course was short but quirky and we had some good wind but I felt good coming into this event. We had 17 guys in the championship flight. Shotgun start and I birdie our first hole. Next hole is a driveable par 4 but has a big risk/reward ratio. I swiped at it and lost it right deep into the trees. Punched it close to the green and got up and down for par. I used my new 2i a lot and I hooked it twice and also hooked a 4i on a par 3. Those are the shots that really hurt me. I left my 60 on the 5th hole and that cost me a stroke or two.

Tournaments show your weaknesses. I putted good. Approach shots were ok. Tee shots garbage. Chipping-got up and down a lot but chunked one that led to a double. Need to practice chipping off a wet, bare lie to a elevated green. Shot a 77 and tied for 5th.

Im going to shorten my driver by 3/4" and add weight to keep the same swing weight. Going to work hard on the range this week to get the 2i better and spend a lot of time chipping with bad lies. There were a lot of them at this course and I resorted to a toe down putting stroke which held up good to pressure at the end of the round.

I was one over after 12 and gave myself a chance. I felt pressure but was constantly doing heart math to keep me focused. Im happy with my mental game. I had a plan and stuck to it. My only other learning experience was I had a 2' tap in birdie and rushed it since I was making all my short putts and actually missed it. I wont do that again.

As for my handicap, I am a 2.0 right now. Next event is a 3 day event july 10/11/12. I will work on these areas and try to improve on the 77. This event is played on 2 courses and I have not played either. Hopefully get a few practice rounds in this weekend.

Im disappointed but I know that tournament rounds show where your game is really at. Mine is not as good as I thought it was. Now its time to put in the work.

[rich_s2]

Been putting in a ton of time practicing and played several rounds this weekend. As mentioned above, my driver has not been as accurate as I want and struggled with a couple hooks off the tee with my 2i in this last tournament. I cut the driver down to just under 44.5" and ordered heavier weights to keep the swing weight the same. They are still not here but I made a discovery in my practice thats been money for me. My biggest issue is my hips fire to early and I get disconnected and have to flip to hit the ball. Firing the arms from the top and getting my left arm off my chest works but it never felt natural. The feel I started using was to get my belt buckle pointed away from the target at the top and keep it there as long as possible. Instant improvement, in fact this weekend was the best driving of my life. I hit to places I had never hit before. Several drives that rolled out past 300. Accuracy was amazing as I only averaged 2 missed fairways a round over the 3 day weekend (5 rounds). Now the question is do I even put in the heavier weights when they arrive.

 

Chipping. ugh... Changed my technique to use the bounce more like Monte taught me. No question I make better contact but distance control is lacking. I am working hard on it but really struggling on this one. 3 day tournament starts this friday on two courses. I played on of them for the first time yesterday and I play the other tonight.

As for the hooks with my irons, the fix I found is to swing left as hard as possible. Seems to keep me rotating and I hit it straight. I have a hard time shaping the ball with that feel but it will get me off the tee under pressure.

If I can just get my chipping better, I have a chance to win this event. Long game is good and putting is good.

[rich_s2]

Exciting night! My buddy who is trying to make it as a pro was 7 under thru 8 last night with a hole in one!! Played aggressive but just could not keep the streak going and shot a 62. Was very fun to watch!

[rich_s2]

Huge rain storm last night, course was flooded so they moved today to a different course that is also flooded. Range is closed, no carts. I dropped out. Just not my jam but I don't blame them for doing it. What a year

[rich_s2]

Gutted about dropping out but I know it was the best decision. Mini tour player was in this event as was my buddy thats going to play the Dakota's tour. Mini tour player shot 21 under and my buddy shot 10 under (3 day event). 21 under is some solid golf and it was at a easy course but this really motivated me. Club championship is in a few weeks and I am going to put in a lot more practice than I have been. My long game is good but my wedge/chipping and putting needs serious improvement if I am going to go really low. I have always been content with hitting a lot of greens and making par. I like to die the ball into the hole but that leads to a leaving some putts short and costs me too many birdies. I am just not stocking my wedges close enough and not making enough birdie putts. Going to just take a ton of balls out on the course from various yardages and work on this. I tend to get too defensive and that is hindering me from shooting in the 60's. I might take a few vids and post them up of my pitching/chipping and wedge shots.

[rich_s2]

Been practicing hard in preparation for the club championship this coming saturday. Game is better right now then it has ever been. We have a lot of tricky tee shots and one issue I have had is playing a controlled fade which is needed on a few holes. My tendency is to over fade with driver. I hit driver off the deck a lot on long par 5's and it is always a low fade so I thought about trying to tee the ball much lower. Same swing as my stock drive, which is normally dead straight, has a tight little fade that is only about 10 yards shorter than my normal drive! Super easy to hit and should really help me score lower. Been playing this shot over the last week and it is just money.

 

Wedges: my plus buddy does not care for my wedge system and says its holding me back from getting to and past scratch. We had a wedge contest and I did well but he was substantially tighter. We hit around 50 balls from 70-110 yards into a few different greens. It was a real eye opener so that change is coming after the club championship.

 

Chipping: major improvement here. Weight on left side, less wrist hinge and playing Obee's fade and draw shots. Pretty much only using my 54 degree wedge. Vast improvement that I am really happy about.

 

Putting: A few weeks ago I went on a mission to change from die in pace to making sure every putt gets to the hole. At first I was running them past 3-5'. It was amazing to me how much the break changes with that much speed. In the last 3 rounds, I have left 3 putts short, 3 putted once and am averaging 3 birdies a round. As I get the lines better, I will make more. Right now I still miss them on the high side too much from playing too much break. Greens on this course are absolutely brutal.

 

Been playing a lot lately and need to give my body a break. Going to re-read "Mastering Golf's mental game" this week and do some light practice. I feel as ready as I can be for Saturday. Last year I tied for first and lost on the first playoff hole. Hoping to win it this time around.

 

 

[DavePelz4]

Sending good thought to you Rich and expecting an Obee-esque hole by hole summary of the round!

 

BTW, how's Ella's season going?

[ATLgopher]

Good luck

[rich_s2]

I will post up a good review of the round. I got one goal, have a perfect mental scorecard. That's all I can ask for :)

 

Ella: Covid screwed it all up. She was practicing a lot before all that. She is such a good kid but once things got going again, she had just gotten a tad bit lazy. In her first tournament back, she broke down twice mid round. I don't want to ruin the game for her so I just tried to encourage her but I did tell her that happened due to lack of practice. She upped her practice slightly for the next one. My wife pulled into the parking lot the day of the event and Ella would not get out of the car and broke down again. My wife had just about enough of this and took her home. She had been playing video games all day and not practicing nearly enough. I called and talked to her and said we were all done with the video games and it might be time to sell the clubs. She cried and said all she wants to do is practice to get better. I said ok and that was 3 weeks ago. She has practiced almost daily with a plan. Her game is doing good right now and she had a tournament yesterday and played well. She is shooting around 50 every time but is about to break into the mid 40's. If she continues to practice, I think she will be low 40's by the end of the season. She is so far behind now I doubt she has any chance at a scholarship but is just playing because she likes the game and playing with her friends. Her and I are in a good place with her game. I will keep you posted on how she does :)

[rich_s2]

Thank you! Right now, I got one tee shot that I am dreading. Need to get that attitude turned around. Going to practice on that box tonight. The draw came out and I am paired with a guy with a hot temper that is not playing well. Mentally preparing for that. We are the first group out at 7am!

[rich_s2]

Here is the only tee shot I am worried about. Since adding distance over winter, my driver flight is not high enough to go over the tree that is circled unless I play a fade. With that wind direction, a fade is out imo. My 2i is 230-240 so that seems to be the play and I am fine with a bogey on that hole. I can play a draw but the window is tight and with the OB on both side and the risk of hitting the tree, not loving it. I am fine with hitting it into the right bunker but there is a major downslope on the back of it and if I hit that, it will kick it OB. What do you think?

[DLev45]

If you can't get comfortable with playing the draw, I would play it like a short Par 5 in my mind, where par is "birdie" and bogey is "par" and see if that does anything to your mindset. If the tee marker said Par 5 - 436 yards, you would be kicking yourself for making worse than 4.

[SNIPERBBB]

I think I would play the longest, straightest club that you have that will stay short of the bunker or will just trickle in if you nut it. Definitely a big boy par 4 so, playing safe if you're not feeling the draw is the way to go.

[Rocuronium]

What app is that on your second picture?

[DavePelz4]

Good luck today Rich!

[DavePelz4]

[rich_s2]

Thanks Gary! Well what a day. This was the craziest golf I have ever played. Let’s get right into it. This was only my second competitive round of the year and it showed.

First hole I hit a decent 2i and then stick it to 4’ but it’s a slick downhill right to left. I miss it high side.

second hole (par5) I slice the drive almost into the next fairway. I decide to hit a 9i up by the tee box of the next hole. Good shot, could not find the ball!! Had to go back and re hit. Took a triple.

Im pretty ticked off and rally with 3 birdies to shoot even on the first 9. This is a 27 hole championship.

10 Almost hit it OB off the tee but manage a par.

11 is a par 5 and I lose it a little right. I’m 250 out on a upslope but it’s down in the rough. I smash a 5w left of the green, 3’ OB. Unreal. Hit another 5w into the green side bunker and get up and down for bogey.

12 is a 200yd par 3 and I shortside myself but make a 12’er to save par.

birdie 13

its getting windy and 14 and 15 are tough. Monster drive on 14 and wedge it to 6’ but nasty downhill putt. Take par

15 I hook a 4i, hits the trunk of a tree and comes back towards the tee. I got 182, play a low hook 7i to 30’ but it’s another brutal putt, downhill with about 12’ of break. Three putt bogey.

16 par 5 monster drive in the middle but I have to hook a hybrid around a oak tree with water down the right. Hook it into the green side bunker. Par

17 par 3 hit it to 15’ par

18 hook a 2i into the hazard, take a drop but no chance to clear the water to hit the green. Double bogey

39 and am now 3 over. It’s hot, windy and I’m running out of gas.

19 is a brutal hole, elevated tee box with IB left and hazard right. Hit it short of the corner (dogleg right). 20mph wind off the right and I try cutting a 5i around the tree and stick it to 15’. Birdie

20, great tee shot up to a cliff. Just trickled into the rough. Got 160 but massive downhill. Hit a choke down 9i and just falls out of the air into a hazard but playable. Bogey

21, hole I posted about earlier. 2i draw around the corner but hung up in the rough, 187 out. Played a 7i back in my stance and hit it to 25’. Par

22 par 3. Hit it to 10’ and got aggressive. Greens dried out and got noticeable faster. Putted it 6’ past the hole lol. Bogey

23 par 5 great tee shot. 5w to 60y but short sided. Chip hit the pin but stayed out. Birdie

24 tough par 3 brutal wind now and pin. Hung it out right and chipped it to 7’. Bogey

25 par 4 hit it into a waste bunker and then to 10’. Par

26 2i off the tee, wedge to 10’ par. Greens are like concrete now and tough pins

27 par 5 almost hit it OB. Lay up and over drew my 9i left of the green. Bogey

so I shot 36/39/38 with one OB, one lost ball and one hazard. I believe I took 3rd. I was so dehydrated I just left after I saw a guy ahead of me. I’m disappointed in my play but I just need more tournament reps. 2 over is winning and I’m sure it will hold up. This 2i was horrible today but it’s been so good in practice. The nerves got to me a little so I might have to take it out of the bag. I am so proud to battle back to even after the triple on 2 for the front nine. That’s what I will build on. Had fun, learned more about my game and what I need to work on!

[rich_s2]

-2 won, I took 3rd

[Gsea]

I applaud your effort/round. Like u said u had fun. Doesn't get better than that.

[LukeDonaldsTiger]

18 Birdies

[DavePelz4]

Congrats Rich! You made a lot of birdies in the round and take away #2 and a couple of 3 putts and you're right there. Knowing that you review everything, what's your plan to deal with hydration going forward?

[rich_s2]

Handicap is 1.9 and I have 4 rounds to play with.

I talked with the guy I played with in the club championship. He mentioned that on every bad shot I hit, my tempo was crap. Those were the shots that I was not comfortable with so there is a pattern there. Going to really focus on tempo in practice. If anyone has followed this journey, tempo is always a killer for me. I get quick at the top and my lower body just does not have time to do what it needs to do before I yank it hard. Plan is to over exaggerate a slow transition with 100% focus as many times as I can in a row on the range every day until my next event.

Here are my stats for the 27 hole club championship:

10/21 fairways

19/27 GIR

48 putts

sand saves-1/3

up/down from inside 50yds-4/7

3 putts-2

I believe the fairways missed were tempo related. That seems to be the stat that sticks out the most. The putts are high but I would be happy with my putting if not for the 3 putts. One of them was from hitting a low draw out from under a tree from 187 and left me in the worst place on the green and the other was a huge mental mistake from 10' that I rolled 6' past the hole. I got so focused on the break that I did not notice how downhill it was. I need to incorporate a side view of each putt into my read rather than just using my feet.

Mental side, like I mentioned a few posts up, I cannot be more happy do have dug deep on the front nine to get back to even par after the triple. I stayed in the moment all day, focused on the shot at hand. I will be honest though, it was a volatile round. I am usually a tap in par guy, not a bogey/birdie guy. I was WORK keeping my nerves at bay all day. They never went away. I think a few more competitive rounds will fix this. I hope anyways because it was exhausting. I also need to find a better shirt to wear in high heat/high humidity situations. 27 holes in that was brutal. I am going to look for a new hydration drink. Maybe pedialyte. If anyone has suggestions here, let me know

next event is in 2 weeks. Like Dan says, 1% improvement. I got this

[rich_s2]

Been working on tempo. Range work is going great and I played 18 last night to see if it is starting to creep into my game. Good news it has but just a little. Getting too quick was definitely my biggest issue when hitting long irons off the tee. Going to keep at it!

So for the round last night, started out good but went bad pretty quick. Played from the tips 7,000yds 73.1 rating. Hole 3 is a monster and fairway is wet. Left myself 230 in and hit my 5w into the greenside bunker. Should have foot raked but hit anyways and thinned it over the green but got up and down for bogey. Greens are terribly slow right now and 3 putted the next two holes for bogey. Par 5 Hit second shot into a hazard and took another bogey and then missed the green on 7 for yet another bogey. So I am 5 over thru 7 and pretty discouraged.

I change my attitude to positive and grazed the pin on the par 3 8th for a near hole in one but tap in birdie. Par 9 for a 40 :(

Back nine I chunk a chip, miss 4 putts from 6-8' and shoot even par for a 76. Glad I kept it together and I can see a major plateau break thru in the near future. Just going to keep putting in the work and stay on top of my mental game. The greens are so slow and soft right now so the spike marks around the holes are worse than ever. I hit a lot of good putts that just bounced off line. I did leave some short though and that was the case on both 3 putts. Normally our greens are quick so it is hard to convince myself to hit them hard enough when they are this slow.

It's time to get rid of this 5W. Cost me last night. It is just too spinny. It's a TS3 with green/blue evenflow shaft. I hit it really high and it only carries 220-230 most of the time. I need it to carry 240-250. Might look at a low spin 4w or even 3w. I think its the shaft so I might just get a different one and test it out.

[rich_s2]

Not playing great since the last post. Last 3 rounds were 76,77,78. I did however hit the biggest drive of my life on Sunday. It was down wind and downhill but still a monster. Makes all the work I put in over winter worth it :)

 

[rich_s2]

Ella has been putting in the time and it finally is paying off. This was her best score on this nine and it has 3 par 5’s on the ladies tees. This was her tee shot on the last hole!

[DavePelz4]

Wow Rich...Ella's swing is really looking good!!!

[rich_s2]

major breakthru. I think this meltdown she had a few weeks ago was the best thing for her. She has taken it on herself to workout and she practices chipping during the day then we practice/play at night. She has never been as excited about golf as she was after the round last night. Practice is starting to finally get addicting for her but we will take it one day at a time. She had several drives last night that went 200yds. She is just getting better at every aspect of her game. If she keeps this up, she will break 40 for nine holes this year. She has a 2 person scramble this friday and then we will sign her up for atleast one tournament yet this fall.