Be Better, Brad! (Update 4-11-2024 with new swing videos)

[betarhoalphadelta]

Okay, so I played 9 yesterday with my son.

 

The course: 1115 yards, par 29. Obviously it's short. It can be a bit deceptive with green shape/orientation and size, so it's good for practice. I like to use it for practicing wedge play and simulating playing off turf though, so except for the two par 4's, I don't tee up my ball. It was in poor condition yesterday as they'd just aerated and sanded the greens, so the greens had punch marks and every time a ball landed it would throw up some sand. Not ideal. 

 

The goal was to get there early enough to split a small bucket to warm up. When we got there, the range ball dispenser was out of balls, and there was a big line of people built up waiting for it to be refilled. Due to COVID restrictions, there was also a line to get into the clubhouse to pay for the round, so all we were able to do was pay and roll a few putts on the putting green. 

 

Hole 1 - 85 yards, par 3, HDCP 9: Green is protected in the front right by a bunker. There's a creek running down the left side of the hole, so anything left or long/left is dangerous. I bladed a ball left over the green here last time I played and lost it. Tees were a little bit back, but the pin was up front, so it was playing to about 80 yards. I pulled my SW slightly choked down with a plan to hit a 3/4 or 7/8 shot. As is common on the first tee when I've had no warm-up, my miss yesterday was hitting very low on the face. Not quite bladed, but definitely not the right loft. It was straight to slightly right of center, hit the back of the green, but then rolled out about 15 yards off the back end. I pitched from there coming back, but only made it about halfway between the back of the green and the pin. Left with a long downhill slightly left-to-right putt, which I hit slightly long and it fell off more to the right than I'd thought, so I had about a 3-footer coming back up to the hole, which I made. Bogey, +1.

 

Hole 2 - 100 yards, par 3, HDCP 3: Long but narrow green. There's a pond between the tee and the green that's not in play unless you chunk it, or hit short and right, as the pond extends a little up to the right. The green is protected on the left by a bunker, and if you go long/left here, you can very easily lose a ball as the creek winds around back there. Tees are WAY up, pin is in the center, so I'm estimating only 75-80 yards. Again, plan for a SW, choked down a bit, easy swing. This time I catch it flush... TOO flush. Perfect contact... Which means I end up on the back of the green with a very long putt for birdie. Hey, though, at least it's a GIR. The birdie putt is downhill (toward the pond) and I'm expecting some decent left-to-right break. I strike it well, but start it too far right, so I end up right of the hole with about a 4-footer left for par. I make the par putt. Par, +1.

 

Hole 3 - 95 yards, par 3, HDCP 6: Back to front sloped green with bunkers on both sides. Today the tees are about center but the pin is way in the back. I'd call it ~115 yards. So I plan to choke down on the PW and take a 3/4 swing, which is my typical for this distance. I hit the ball alright, dead straight, and I think it's looking good, and it drops right on the FRONT of the green. Distance control isn't doing great today. I pace off the putt and it's 18 1/2 paces, so I'm guessing this is around a 50-footer, up the hill. I don't recall exactly where it ended up actually... But I know I left myself enough distance that I still two-putted from there, so I 3-putted this green after making GIR. Bogey, +2. 

 

Hole 4 - 88 yards, par 3, HDCP 7: Despite the lack of length, and this being considered the 3rd-easiest hole on the course, I disagree. The green is very narrow and long. Anything left of the green rolls off into the creek. Anything long will likely be in the creek. The green is flat to sloped away from the tee, so it's not going to hold shots without spin. Yesterday the tees were way forward and the pin was way forward, so I estimated about 45 yards with not a lot of room to stop a ball. I take more of a pitching stroke with my SW, and actually hit it about perfectly. It lands on the green softly in front of the pin... And rolls. Ends up going about 25 feed past the hole off onto the left fringe. My putt coming back, up the hill, I strike poorly and leave about 8 feet short. Putt from there to within a foot, and make the next one. Bogey, +3.

 

Hole 5 - 210 yards, par 4, HDCP 2: How is a 210 yard par 4 the second-hardest hole on the course? Depends a lot on where the tees and the pin are. It's designed as a dogleg left. The green is protected from direct shots by a pond that goes down the left side of the fairway. If the tees are in the left location your shot straight to the green is blocked by trees anyway, unless you're really adept with a draw. The green itself is also extremely tight front-to-back, but very generous left-to-right, and is bounded by bunkers behind. If you're long/right off the tee you can also end up in the pond from #2... So it's tricky. Today the tee is all the way left, so there's no direct angle to the green. My goal is just to hit a little 7i out to the right side of the fairway and give myself a good angle at the pin. As I'm taking my practice swing the swing thought of keeping my back to the target and getting good hip rotation creeps in, because it's the first time I've swung anything above a SW all day... And I hit a low worm-burner barely 100 yards, which tails off the slope towards the left and THANKFULLY stops before it ends up in water. Grr... Now I'm about 100 yards out, and pull out the SW because I should be able to stop that on this green... And I blade it over the green and onto the #2 tee. Coming back, I don't have a shot... There are trees between the #2 tee and the #5 green, and I can't hit anything that will roll because I've got those back bunkers between me and the green. I figure I'll try the LW and hope that I get through the trees, but I have a crap lie. Well, a 60* wedge with 14 degree bounce in a tight lie doesn't work very well, and I chunk it into one of the bunkers. At least I didn't go over the green into the water... As you can imagine if you're picturing the quality of this course... The sand in the bunkers isn't exactly like Augusta--and I'm not a very good sand player. That said, I manage to get out in 1, but half-skull it all the way to the front edge of the green. I'm now left with ~40 foot. I leave that put about 8' short, and 2-putt from 8 feet. Triple, +6. 

 

Sidenote: my son hit his driver short right off the tee, and was probably left with 120-130 yards. He pulls out his fairway wood, and hits a low screamer dead on line for the green. It's rolling nicely and looking like it's going to run up for his first GIR of the day... Until it hits the foot of a duck and stops 3 yards short of the green! The duck was okay, but that's just some terrible luck for a kid playing only his second real round of golf ever!

 

Hole 6 - 66 yards, par 3, HDCP 9: Very short hole, with a decent side bunker protecting the front right of the green, and safety everywhere else. Pin is in the back, so I estimate it's playing to 75 yards. I choke down for my short SW shot... And chunk it only about halfway there. Second shot pitching with my SW I make good contact and get the distance right, but I pull it well left of the pin. I have about a 30 foot putt for par, which breaks left-to-right back towards the front of the green. I hit on about the perfect line---and leave it 7 feet short. Two putt from there. Double, +8.

 

Hole 7 - 116 yards, par 3, HDCP 4: Narrow and long green, VERY narrow in the front as it's protected on both sides by bunkers. I don't believe this yardage number on the card is accurate--it usually plays about 140-150. Today the tees are back, and the pin is forward, and based on my watch I'm getting 140 to the center and 120 to the front. So I pull the choked-down PW and the 3/4 swing. I make what doesn't feel like great contact, but the ball is tracking just left of the pin and drops about 3 yards short of the pin, on the front left of the green. Hey, it's another GIR and a chance at birdie! I'm left with about 10 feet. Uphill left-to-right break. I strike it well and pretty close to the intended line, and leave myself within a foot for a tap-in par. Par, +8.

 

Hole 8 - 85 yards, par 3, HDCP 8: Pretty generous round green for this course, with bunkers left and right. Tees are about as far up as they go, pin in the center, so I'm getting 75 yards here. Go for the choked-down SW... Chunk it halfway there. Hit my pitch, and leave myself on line, 9 paces under the hole, so I'm thinking it's about 25 feet. It's uphill and mostly a straight putt, and I strike it well and on line to leave myself again within a foot. Make it. Bogey, +9.

 

Sidenote: My son has been striking much better after the 4th hole when I caught him doing something I've seen him do on the range--taking a beautiful practice swing, and then stepping up to address the ball and starting his swing before he's even set his feet. On this hole he hit a beautiful 9 iron, with elevation, pin high about 18 feet right of the hole. Great for his first GIR of the day. I wish I could tell you he turned it into the first par of his life lol...

 

Hole 9 - 275 yard, par 4, HDCP 1: Prelude--it's been a slow round. #5, #7, and #9 are the typical back-up holes. In normal fashion, as we get off the green of #8, there's a group waiting on the 9th tee and the group in front of them has just teed off and is walking. Hole plays as a dogleg left. The creek runs along the left side of the fairway, so after your tee shot you've got a forced carry over the creek. Two fairway bunkers down the right side make tee shot placement critical here.  Your second shot is to a green that is shallow but wide, so you need to be able to stop the ball once you get over the creek. There's one bunker to the left, but it's far enough that it's generally out of play. Where the tees typically sit it's about 165-170 to the fairway bunker, so I usually just hit a 9i aiming directly at the bunker. If I miss left, I'm closer to the hole. If I miss right, I've got a longer carry to the green but nothing crazy. I could take more club, but I don't want to thread the needle between the fairway bunkers and the creek just to save myself a few yards on the second shot--too much risk. Today the tees are way back, so it's probably 185 to the fairway bunker. We wait for the guys in front of us to tee off, which takes forever, then wait for them to clear the fairway, which takes forever, and it's finally time to hit. I use 7i as the bunkers are farther than usual. I hit a weak push off the toe, not great contact. Ball maybe only makes it 150 and even though it came back a little to the left, it's still WAY farther right than I like to be on this hole, and significantly shorter. I get to my ball and my watch says 155 to center, 164 to the back, and it's a back pin. I see the group in front is still on the green. And I wait. And I wait. They're pointing. They're standing around. They're not putting. What the hell are these morons doing? Group behind us were short hitters so they've already teed off because obviously we're just standing there forever waiting to hit. I swear I'm standing there 10 minutes just waiting to hit before they FINALLY clear the green, and now I'm just fuming. Rather than try to kill an 8i to get there, I just try to hit an easy 7i... But again... I'm fuming and impatient. So of course I just completely mishit this, pulling it WAY left of the target and hear it hit some giant tree trunk in the creek area and that one is lost. Trying to keep my cool because I don't want to be the jerk who acts out while playing with his 13 yo son... Everyone else in the group ends up in the creek, but this course puts the drop area on the other side of the creek near the green, so we all proceed there. I now have a short pitch for my 4th with the penalty stroke, which I chunk about 6 feet. I walk up and re-pitch, and leave it 18-20 feet short of the hole on the green. This is a relatively flat putt with maybe a foot of right-to-left break. I read the line well, but leave it about 5-6 feet short. Thankfully since I already see the line, I end up making that putt. Triple, +12. 

 

Overall, not a good round. That said, it's hard to keep mental focus when I'm also trying to teach my son the etiquette of golf, help him with what he needs, etc. So absent the frustration of the last hole and a 2 1/2 hour round for 9 holes, it could have been a lot worse.
I shot a 41. My son's first round at this course was a 64, and he improved to a 47 in his second round, so that's really phenomenal. He probably left 4-5 strokes out there due to bad putting, which is something that he'll clean up pretty quickly over time too. I think it helps that he avoided the sand this time too lol!

[bortass]

Tell your son congrats on his first GIR and DIR, duck in regulation, lol. Him having a big drop in score like that is also a nice achievement. Hopefully that will keep him hooked. It's great that you get to play with him.

 

I would look at any round you play with your son for the foreseeable future differently than if you're just playing solo or with buddies. The focus is on teaching him and helping him until he's proficient enough with getting around the course on his own. I know from experience this is easier said than done but try to not think to much about how your playing during these rounds. You already know that you're not completely focused on scoring, so it's okay if the round is not stellar. We are playing it to have fun after all, lol. I laugh because I know I have sucked the fun for myself out of a number of rounds because of my mental state after say a pond ball from a chunked iron 120 out....

 

How are you hitting your sand shots? The bunkers at my course are a crapshoot. There may be some sand but it's not deep and it's also not fine. So when I dig in my feet barely sink any. This means that the normal open the face technique is not the greatest since there's a higher risk of skipping the leading edge into the ball. I use a sand shot from a Monte video. It's a square face and you're still trying to hit behind the ball. So wide stance, dig in, weight towards trail foot, and an armsy swing that's not as hard as an explosion shot.

 

Something that kind of jumped out at me is the number of mishits with what sounds like less than a full shot. Do you have a reliable partial shot in your bag? I read about choked down SW with an easy swing and the result was a chunk or near blade. A partial length swing that you practice and hit reliably will open things up for you in the long run. You know I love a partial wedge shot where I get the shaft parallel in the back swing. I know roughly how far it'll go with my PW, GW, and SW. Sure, I will have a mishit at times but that's to be expected as a 25 index, however it has made a big difference when I get inside 100 yards. Where it can open up your game is sometimes I'll use the same swing with different clubs. Need to layup or hit it back into the correct fairway and a full swing isn't an option? Very handy to have a fairly simple shot that will advance the ball without as much risk of being way offline etc. It's also useful when you have an approach shot that's a bit more than a partial wedge but a full shot may not be worth the risk, hit a partial 9i or 8i onto the green. 

 

My disclaimer is I have spent a lot of time hitting wedges and partial shots in the past. I bought into Pelz's multiple wedges and swing lengths from his Short Game Bible very early on in getting into golf in the mid 2000s. My old course's range was limited to mid irons or less because it was short. No woods or drivers, so I spend a lot of time working on drills from my lessons using a wedge. I'm no master like @Obee but I always liked working on the partial shots. maybe it was also from being in the trees so much... Lol. Any way I found it to be much easier to be decent with that short wedge swing than my full swing and it will bleed over into your full swing.

 

As always, just food for thought. Sorry for rambling... Lol.

[betarhoalphadelta]

2 hours ago, bortass said:

 

How are you hitting your sand shots? The bunkers at my course are a crapshoot. There may be some sand but it's not deep and it's also not fine. So when I dig in my feet barely sink any. This means that the normal open the face technique is not the greatest since there's a higher risk of skipping the leading edge into the ball. I use a sand shot from a Monte video. It's a square face and you're still trying to hit behind the ball. So wide stance, dig in, weight towards trail foot, and an armsy swing that's not as hard as an explosion shot.

 

I normally go for a somewhat open stance, somewhat open clubface, and hit an inch behind the ball. When I get new clubs (including wedges) I'll know what the bounce on my SW is; right now it's the set SW and I have no clue. 

 

The worst thing is that I feel like I used to at least be an adequate sand player. Now that I'm back into the game for so long, I'm not sure if it's entirely my lack of ability or if I'm at poorly-maintained courses with poorly-maintained bunkers during COVID and terrible sand. That's more for my usual course I mean--this course the sand is just abysmal. 

 

Quote

Something that kind of jumped out at me is the number of mishits with what sounds like less than a full shot. Do you have a reliable partial shot in your bag? I read about choked down SW with an easy swing and the result was a chunk or near blade. A partial length swing that you practice and hit reliably will open things up for you in the long run. You know I love a partial wedge shot where I get the shaft parallel in the back swing. I know roughly how far it'll go with my PW, GW, and SW. Sure, I will have a mishit at times but that's to be expected as a 25 index, however it has made a big difference when I get inside 100 yards. Where it can open up your game is sometimes I'll use the same swing with different clubs. Need to layup or hit it back into the correct fairway and a full swing isn't an option? Very handy to have a fairly simple shot that will advance the ball without as much risk of being way offline etc. It's also useful when you have an approach shot that's a bit more than a partial wedge but a full shot may not be worth the risk, hit a partial 9i or 8i onto the green. 

 

Actually, less than full shots with wedges is something I work on at the range. Of course that's off mats, so the turf interaction is completely different. But the range has some intermediate targets and I practice trying to fly the ball that distance with PW, SW, LW, with the ball at various positions in my stance, to work on both contact and distance control. Of course I don't know the distance to those targets, and I usually hit off the top deck at the range so it's downhill anyway... 

 

The near-blade on #1 was typical for me on the first tee when I haven't warmed up and hit a ball. My miss until I get warmed up is low on the face. But I have no excuse for the chunks. 

 

Someday I should book some Trackman bay time with my wedges and try to dial in specific swing lengths and how far they go with each club... Just haven't really had the time to handle that one yet. Probably won't do so until I replace my clubs this year either, since these clubs won't be around long anyway, and the only one that I know the loft on is the LW. 

 

[bortass]

Regarding the sand, it's likely a combination. I feel like the bunkers at my home course are kind of like the ones you play the most. They are maintained by the ground crew but there's not much sand in them. There are times there's no sand under the ball. I just found going to a square club face really helped. I practiced it a bit early last year since I never worried about bunkers at my old course. I had to learn a sand shot. I found it pretty easy to learn and I'm not perfect by any means but it gets me out in 1 most of the time. Sometimes I end up real close to the hole which is a bonus.

 

Mats are a pain IMO. It may explain the chunks too. I know I hit the ball better off of mats because if I'm a touch heavy, contact is still very good and I get a nice high shot. On the course that club is likely to dig and the ball will not go as far. The distances with your wedges is best learned by playing, again my opinion. My reasoning is you are using your ball in actual playing conditions. Sure weather will have an impact but you'll get a rough idea soon enough. My range is either hitting up a hill or down a hill. So I never judge distances on the range besides who knows what the range balls are designed to do AKA limited flight and by how much.

 

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the next on course update. For bette ror worse, I can sometimes say 'Hey I've hit that shot!", lol 🙂

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Yeah, I think a lot of my sand trouble is lack of practice. But I think I need to also expand my repertoire of shots out of there--the bunker I was in, I probably could have just tried to pick it clean instead.

 

I hit the PGATSS today hoping to use the Mizuno Shaft Optimizer. Unfortunately all of their iPads were in use and couldn't do so... Guy said "I can fit you pretty much as well as that", and I was already there, so I figured I'd see what I can do.

 

He measured WTF and judged I needed +1", which is difficult as they don't have many shafts available for that. I told him my current shaft was a Nippon 950 Pro in stiff, so he was saying "well, we can start at the 95 and maybe 105 gram shafts" and I told him I was thinking about trying something heavier.

 

He started me with the JPX921 Hot Metal head on a DG S300 105 +1" shaft. It was ok, but felt SUPER light to me. We moved up to a Modus 120 S +0.5" because it was the longest he had, and it felt much better. I had some low-face misses that might have been due to the lack of length, but on good strikes was hitting 130 mph ball speed. He said with the ball speed I might be able to handle X as well, but he didn't have anything in that flex to try.

 

Problem was that almost EVERYTHING was left. Start left and curve farther left. 190 yd 7i that finishes 58 yards left of target. WTF? I know I have a left miss, but I never hit left that consistently. It was only a few rare strikes that even started on the target line. I don't know what to make of that at all... I even tried consciously making sure I wasn't closing the face at address, thinking maybe I was aligning badly because I wasn't used to the clubhead shape. No luck, and the fitter even said he thought my setup was fine. 

 

Has anyone ever had this happen? 

[bortass]

Lie angle because of the extra length perhaps? Good question for the club fitter section.

[betarhoalphadelta]

12 hours ago, bortass said:

Lie angle because of the extra length perhaps? Good question for the club fitter section.

I would think that would go the opposite direction. My current clubs are +2* lie. I would think that if I've got standard lie but I'm a little more upright being tall, that would mean I'm hitting the ball toe-down and it would go right rather than left.

 

[bortass]

13 minutes ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

I would think that would go the opposite direction. My current clubs are +2* lie. I would think that if I've got standard lie but I'm a little more upright being tall, that would mean I'm hitting the ball toe-down and it would go right rather than left.

 

Yeah, I don't know how length impacts lie angle, just that it does, lol. My lack of specific knowledge makes me dangerous.

 

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Toe strikes and still early extension yay... I am at least getting a little more open and not flipping so badly any more. I feel like the rotation has been improving.

 

 

 

I noticed I was having a lot more problems with the lefts than I thought, so I'm guessing maybe whatever happened at PGATSS was entirely me. 

 

Towards the end of the session I think I was doing better with keeping my tempo and trying to feel the back to the target feeling more. I really have too much impulse to try to hurt the ball and it doesn't seem to add distance and certainly doesn't add control. 

 

I hit some 4W shots like that (feeling tempo and holding back-to-target) off the mat and smoked 3 of 5 long and straight, with the other 2 being terrible tops that I felt myself trying to "hit" too much. Hit a few driver too trying to feel the same, and while my good contact wasn't as good as the 4W (didn't get the loft or distance I should) it was better than some of my past sessions. 

 

Hoping to get at least one more session in before I play 18 on Sunday. I really need to get myself to accept that I can just relax and swing and it'll go better than trying to hit...

[Lincoln_Arcadia]

On 3/29/2021 at 2:09 PM, betarhoalphadelta said:

Next--as to why I suck... Much like @bortass, it's hard to really understand a score without everything that went into it. I always like reading about his rounds in a "play by play" format, so I'll give that a shot.

 

The course is Oso Creek in Mission Viejo, CA. It's 3670 yards, par 60. Course rating is 57.4, slope of 95. So this is a short and easy course.

 

Hole 1, 285 yard par 4: My driver and I aren't on speaking terms right now, and certainly not on the first tee of a course that doesn't have a driving range for warm-up. I take 5i off the tee. Nice poke out into the middle of the fairway, ~200-210 yards. Leave myself about 100 to a back pin. I can hit a choked-down half PW or a full swing SW, and choose the PW. Hit it nicely, and straight, and it drops onto the green somewhere around 20-25 feet short of the pin. Hey, it's a GIR! This is a good start to the round! Well, not so much. Lag putt leaves me about 6 feet to go, which I miss, and so I three-putt for bogey. +1

 

Hole 2, 171 yard par 3: Pin is again back, so my watch tells me it's playing about 180. I made two good strikes on the first hole, so I pull my 6i. I get GREAT contact, with a nice high ball flight--started left and curving farther left... I end up pin-high 30 yards left of the green. With a big tree trunk blocking my angle to the pin, and more importantly, blocking my angle to land the ball ABOVE the hole since this green slopes pretty strongly back to front. I pitch with the SW, hit it a bit long, and it hits the green but rolls all the way out to the fringe on the opposite side. Left with a really tricky right-to left putt from the fringe, probably 35 feet. I get it in the ballpark, but again leave myself 6-8 feet, and miss. I clean up for double bogey. This goes on the card as a 2-putt, but I always personally consider it a 3-putt. +3

 

Hole 3, 146 yard par 3: Pin in the middle, tees up a bit, playing about 140. I pull PW and again make actually pretty decent contact. I see it tracking a little left of the pin, but it hits I think the fringe behind a bunker and kicks right. I see it track to roughly in line with the pin, but don't really know how close I am due to the green being slightly above the tee box. I walk up and realize I'm about 2" left of the pin and about 12" long! Tap-in for birdie! +2

 

Hole 4, 266 yard par 4: This hole has trees all down the right side, and the fairway slopes pretty strongly right-to-left. The trees can catch errant balls to the right, dropping them on the slope where they often roll right to the middle. I'm feeling good about my ballstriking so I pull out the 4w. I hit it a little low on the face (common miss for me) and right. The first tree catches it, it drops down, and doesn't go as left as I'd like to stop 6" to the left of the cart path. I'm left with 205 to the green, and I'm still sorta in the trees. I'd be golden if my stock shot was a fade, but it's straight-to-draw[-to-hook] normally. But I pull 5i thinking I might as well go at it. I catch it cleanly but not with a lot of power, and it's dead straight at the green. It clips one or two leaves, and stops about 5 yards shy of the green. I don't think the tree really caused it--I just left it short. I hit a just okay chip with the sand wedge, and two-putt for bogey. +3

 

Hole 5, 168 yard par 3: This is an uphill hole, plays long. IIRC, tees and pin were both back, so I grabbed 5i. Which I proceed to completely s#&@k about 30 yards, but luckily the design of the hole rolled it back left. Left with a PW, which I catch nicely but it's leaking right, landing about 5 yards short of the pin and off the green to the right. Again, a "just okay" chip with the sand wedge leaves me a 2-putt for double-bogey. +5

 

Hole 6, 296 yard par 4: Creek across the hole that shouldn't be in play, which continues up the left side and becomes a greenside pond. I think back to my beautiful 4w shot the previous weekend on this hole and pull the 4w, which I BADLY top. I think I see it hop the creek that shouldn't be in play, but when I get down there I can't find it. So I drop and I'm hitting 3 from about 200 out. Think I pulled 5i, and it was a worm-burner low and left that goes only about 110 yards... I'm left about 90 out to a front pin, over a palm tree, so I pull SW knowing it'll fly high enough to clear--because I've hit over/around/near that tree many times lol. I make great contact but pull it left, and it lands and stops on the back fringe. Which isn't helpful because this is another strong back-to-front sloping green. I putt, terrified that I'm going to run it 20 feet past the hole, and proceed to leave it 12 feet short. 2 more putts for a triple bogey. Again this goes on the card as a 2-putt, but it's really 3 in my mind. +8

 

Hole 7, 148 yard par 3: I think this was playing somewhere in the 150-155 range, so I pulled 9i. Good strike, but it starts towards the left edge of the green and is curving slightly left from there. It hits a berm greenside and kicks back and left. I pitch with the SW, and make really great contact--which means I overshoot my landing area and the ball rolls out to the fringe on the other side. And... 3 putt (again counts as 2 putts but it's really 3) from there for a double. +10

 

Hole 8, 174 yard par 3: The pin is again back, so this is playing closer to 180. I pull 6i and hit it a bit low on the face, heading left. Luckily I get a good bounce and it stops about 3 feet short of the left greenside bunker in light rough, about 1/3 of the way up the green. I have a back pin location and plenty of room, so I pitch with the SW and leave it about 3' short and right. Finally, I made a dang putt, and walk with a par! +10

 

Hole 9, 317 yard par 4: I hate this hole. I really, really do. There's a creek running along the left side and then crossing the fairway right at the 220-230 mark, particularly when the tees are back like they are today. If I hit driver, and strike it well, I can easily carry that. But as I mentioned, I'm not on speaking terms with that club right now. So I've gotta lay up... But here's the diabolical part. I'd love to lay up with a 5-6i knowing that I won't reach the water, but... I will. The creek is in a pretty steep ravine, and anything I hit anywhere near it will roll and roll, and roll, into the water. It also feeds heavily downhill to the left. I've hit 9i here that hit left center of the fairway and rolled all the way down to the creek on the left. So I'm hitting PW off the tee of a 317 yard par 4... Oh well, at least the pressure is off--I hit it beautifully, it rolls forward, downhill, and to the left within yards of the creek as usual, and I'm left with about a 160 yard uphill shot to the green. Being uphill I take the 6i and make great contact, with a straight ballflight just left of the green, but long. Ball comes to rest behind the green on a cart path. I take relief, and chip with the SW to about 12 feet short, above the hole. And then I smack the par putt about 8-10 feed past (grr!). Luckily, I make the putt coming back to save bogey lol... +11

 

Hole 10, 242 yard par 4: Another hole that almost always screws me. It's so short and easy, and playing 225 today, that I figure I can reach with a 3i. Trying to reach this green NEVER ends well for me... I end up catching great contact with the 3i, but heading WAY WAY right of the hole up into some nasty stuff. There's a huge hillside along the right side. But with the carry I had--I'm thinking my ball might have carried the worst of it and be found somewhere near the 11th tee. So I climb the hill, I'm looking around were it might have been, and don't see it. I look back towards the tee, and see a ball in a drainage channel about 10 yards back. Could it be mine? Nope... Bridgestone, not Kirkland, But going back to retrieve that one I see another one 10 yards farther back. Check it, and it's mine! Nice. Because it's in the concrete drainage channel I get free relieve (right?) so I get it out, but I'm still in a terrible spot 30-40 feet above the green with 90-100 yards to the pin over a tree. I run down the hill, grab my trusty SW, climb it again, and take a swing. Actually make halfway-decent contact, clear over the tree, and the ball stops about 3 yards short of the green. Hey, I'll take it! I chip from there to about 6 feet short under the hole, and make the putt for another par! +11

 

Hole 11, 172-yard par 4: It's slightly uphill, and it's a blind green but I can see it's a blue flag so it's in the back. I estimate 180, so 6i. My contact is so-so, with what seems to be too low of a ballflight for a 6i, but I'm on a great, straight, line, right at the flagstick. I see it bounce once on what I think is the front of the green, and lose it from there. I figure with that low ballflight there's no way it stopped on that green and that I'm over. So I'm VERY surprised when I get up there and I'm perfectly pin-high, 3 feet right of the cup. I might be able to do something I don't think I've ever done in my golfing career, and make two birdies in a single round! So, of course, I pull my putt 3" left of the cup and a foot past, and I "only" get par... That's what I get for greedy thinking I guess... +11

 

Hole 12, 118 yard par 3: This is a downhill hole, tees are up a little bit, and the pin is in the front, for I'm guessing about 100 yards [downhill]. I pull out the SW for a full swing. I catch it great, but I'm left, and I'm just HOPING it clears the greenside left bunker... Which it does and it stops on the very back left of the green, a LONG way away from a front-right pin location. I've probably got 50 feet. I line up the first putt, ready for a nice confident strike... And I hit the ground in front of the ball and I stop 15 feet short of the hole. Hit the next put a bit long and left, so now I've got a breaking 4-footer for bogey and I'm just praying that I don't 4-putt a GIR for double... Well, thankfully I didn't... Made the putt for bogey. +12

 

Hole 13, 288 yard par 4: I've been striking it well, so I pull 4i thinking I can get a little closer than some of my other par 4s. Decent but not perfect strike, starts dead straight but with a little baby draw. Hits the front of a berm along the left rough which checks it up so there's no real roll-out. I'm left with maybe 100 to a back pin. Pull out the PW for a choke-down 3/4 swing, ball below my feet. Chunk it and it goes maybe 25-30 yards. Now I'm left with a choke-down SW and the ball above my feet. Naturally, I chunk it again and it goes another 25-30 yards. Finally pitch it up onto the green halfway competently, but now I'm laying 4 after a nice tee shot. Unremarkable 2-putt for double... +14

 

Hole 14, 163 yard par 3: Another uphill par 3 to a blind green. I think this one was at least a center pin. Can't remember tee location or whether I hit 6i or 7i, but I think 7i. I make great contact but push it a bit, and it lands about pin-high in the right greenside bunker. Great... Sand. I hate sand. I've had trouble at this course because the sand consistency is terrible, so I figure I'll change my strategy and use my 60/14 wedge instead of my set SW. I've got a bit of a downhill lie in the bunker. I line up and... Blade the crap out of it. Luckily though, I didn't hit it 30 yards over the green... Because I hit the lip of the bunker and I'm still in it. At least now I have a nicer uphill lie. I take another swing and it actually looks halfway decent, and I'm out of the sand with about 13-15 feet to putt. I two-putt that, for another double. Ugh... +16

 

Hole 15, 162 yard par 3: Tees are up and it's a front pin, so it's only playing maybe 145. So what do I do? S$%@k it to the right, into the trees. It drops and then rolls back just right of the cart path. Now I've got a problem. There's a net to the right of the tee box to avoid hitting OB into houses. I can't go over the net. However, the net starts about 8' above the ground to allow carts to drive through underneath it, and that gives me a window straight at the green. Now... I don't think I am going to be a hero and put the ball anywhere close, but I pull out my 5i and figure a tiny half-punch under the net would be perfect here. And it would... if I didn't catch it cleanly and hit the net 8" above the bottom... Ball comes back, but now it's kicked far enough left that I actually do have a clear look at the pin, maybe 100 yards. So a little choke-down PW should be easy, right? Nope... S$&#k that one underneath the net [thankfully] into the bushes and can't find it. I take a drop, and I'm now hitting 5 on a par 3 and I'm still not near the green. Dribble my next shot about 10 yards closer to the green, finally get on with an unremarkable chip, and two put for... Quintuple bogey. Wheels coming off. +21

 

Hole 16, 136 yard par 3: Tee and pin are back, so it should be playing about 155. Take a 9 iron, and make good contact, but it's starting left and turning WAY left. End up 10 yards short of pin-high, over the creek to the left, with a fluffy downhill lie near the 17th tee box. Got a long pitch over creek and bunker to get to this green. But with the fluffy lie I like my odds with my 60 degree. But that downhill lie screws me up and I blade it into the bank of the far side of the creek, and THANKFULLY get a lucky bounce that it kicks another 2 yards forward and it's not in the water. Another fluffy lie awaits me, and here I actually do think I can play the 60. I do, and I catch it nicely, which of course means I'm long, and I'm yelling at the ball to stop... I can't see it from my angle, but my partners say it actually stopped for me. I don't know what I did, but I actually played a "hop & stop" pitch shot. Granted, I'm still 20 feet long of the hole, but I'm on the green. Manage to save double with a 2-putt. +23

 

Hole 17, 193 yard par 3: Again with the back pin on a long par 3, but the tees were up, so I estimate about a 180 for this hole despite the back left pin. I hit 6i and hit it pretty well. It's tracking slightly left of the pin, hits the green and stops a little past the hole off the green. I'm left with a decision. I've got about a foot of barely "rough" to traverse and then about 5 feet of "fairway" type grass on the fringe and then maybe 15 feet of downhill green to get to the hole. I worry about all the ways I can screw this up chipping, so I grab the putter thinking that's my best option. I end up leaving myself about 6 feet short, so not well executed at all. And I 2-putt from there. So another bogey. +24

 

Hole 18, 225 yard par 3: I still don't know how they get away with calling this a par 3 on an executive course, but so be it. Tee is a little up and the pin is up, so I figure it's playing about 210 today. I grab the 4i. Hit a terrible topped wormburner left, which I'm worried is going to be in the creek, but I bounce over the creek and I'm safe. Left with about 80 yards. Hit a decent SW to the left side of the green a little past the hole. This is another back-to-front sloped green, so I've got a tricky breaking downhill left-to right putt for par. Miss that, leaving myself IIRC 6-7 feet for bogey. Miss that also, and end up with double. +26.

 

So... 42 out (+11) and 44 in (+15). Putting REALLY let me down, and I gave up some strokes in general in short game more than usual. The lesson and range work IMHO actually helped me overall already with ballstriking on full swings. It's still a long way to go but it wasn't destroying my game this time as it has in the past. 

 

But +26 on this easy course is not a good day. The way I played would have been +35 on a regulation course. 

 

Anyway, hope everyone enjoys the novel. 😉

 

Your swing looks reasonable, you light want to load your lead wrist a bit more?

 

Driver should be your main focus.

[betarhoalphadelta]

1 hour ago, Lincoln_Arcadia said:

 

Your swing looks reasonable, you light want to load your lead wrist a bit more?

 

Driver should be your main focus.

 

Two of the things Monte said in my lesson as "things to thing about / try" were strengthening my grip a bit and working more towards a bowed wrist rather than extension at the top and through the downswing. I'd also played around with that on the range prior to the lesson.

 

It's something I definitely want to work on, but I'm focused on ingraining the proper sequencing motions first. I think [and I think Monte would agree] that those are the bigger flaw leading to inconsistency.

 

I can't effectively practice if I have multiple things to work on, so the lead wrist is on the "to do" list after I feel I'm more automatic with the rotation and sequencing.

 

I'm not worried about driver right now... The primary course I can find tee times doesn't make me even pull it out of the bag--there are only 6 par 4s and the longest is just barely over 300 yards. If I can reach every one of them with a long iron and a partial wedge, the driver might just get me into trouble. I do know I need to work on it, but unless I can find weekend morning tee times at a regulation-length course it won't be meaningful to reducing scores. 

 

One thing I did find was that my spine tilt at address with the driver and 4W was not any different from my iron setup. That was something I worked on a little yesterday and it really helped. So I am going to keep working on it, as maybe 10-15% of my range work. 

[Lincoln_Arcadia]

2 hours ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

 

Two of the things Monte said in my lesson as "things to thing about / try" were strengthening my grip a bit and working more towards a bowed wrist rather than extension at the top and through the downswing. I'd also played around with that on the range prior to the lesson.

 

It's something I definitely want to work on, but I'm focused on ingraining the proper sequencing motions first. I think [and I think Monte would agree] that those are the bigger flaw leading to inconsistency.

 

I can't effectively practice if I have multiple things to work on, so the lead wrist is on the "to do" list after I feel I'm more automatic with the rotation and sequencing.

 

I'm not worried about driver right now... The primary course I can find tee times doesn't make me even pull it out of the bag--there are only 6 par 4s and the longest is just barely over 300 yards. If I can reach every one of them with a long iron and a partial wedge, the driver might just get me into trouble. I do know I need to work on it, but unless I can find weekend morning tee times at a regulation-length course it won't be meaningful to reducing scores. 

 

One thing I did find was that my spine tilt at address with the driver and 4W was not any different from my iron setup. That was something I worked on a little yesterday and it really helped. So I am going to keep working on it, as maybe 10-15% of my range work. 

Agree, 300 yards is pretty short, and if it were me playing there, I’d still hit driver for at least all holes over 300 yards and 3W for the shorter ones?

 

Since it’s your regular course, it makes sense to hit irons. Just keep in mind that, the swings are a bit different as you e already discovered. Might be best to practise driver on the range, and play as you already do?

[betarhoalphadelta]

1 hour ago, Lincoln_Arcadia said:

Agree, 300 yards is pretty short, and if it were me playing there, I’d still hit driver for at least all holes over 300 yards and 3W for the shorter ones?

 

Since it’s your regular course, it makes sense to hit irons. Just keep in mind that, the swings are a bit different as you e already discovered. Might be best to practise driver on the range, and play as you already do?

 

Yeah, I'm feeling like I need to start practicing driver an 4w a little more than I currently do. Obviously my biggest thing is just trying to get consistent with my swings with all clubs, and working on ingraining the sequencing. But if I don't start practicing driver, I'll never feel good taking it to the course. 

 

On my normal course there is one hole where driver is necessary to really give a good chance at scoring well. It's a 315 yd par 4 with a creek that cuts across the fairway, depending on the tee location sometimes needing a good 230+ carry to be on the opposite side of it. Heading down to the creek short it's a huge downhill, so it's not like you can plan to hit a 185 yard iron shot and lay up for a wedge. If you hit anything beyond about 160 (depending on tee location), you're probably going in the water. 

 

Depending how I'm hitting Sunday I might try my driver there. Because otherwise I have to tee off with a pitching wedge to keep it far enough short of the water, often (depending on tee and roll-out) leaving myself a 5i or 6i up the hill to reach on my second. 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Got a bunch of work done right after taking the dog for a walk, so ran over to the par-29 course for a quick 9 this morning...

 

They told me I had about 20 minutes to get on the course for a time, so I actually grabbed a mini bucket and hit some SW, PW, and 7i to warm up for once. 

 

Hole 1 - 85 yards, par 3, HDCP 9: Green is protected in the front right by a bunker. There's a creek running down the left side of the hole, so anything left or long/left is dangerous. Tee up and front pin, about a 65 yard shot. Choked-down SW. I catch it a bit fat, but the ball lands about 5 yards short of the green and rolls right up to about 5-6 feet, just past the hole to the left. The putt is left-to-right and I strike it nicely, and it goes in! Great way to start a round! Birdie, -1.

 

Hole 2 - 100 yards, par 3, HDCP 3: Long but narrow green. There's a pond between the tee and the green that's not in play unless you chunk it, or hit short and right, as the pond extends a little up to the right. The green is protected on the left by a bunker, and if you go long/left here, you can very easily lose a ball as the creek winds around back there. Tee is way up and pin in the middle front to back, but pretty far right on the green, about 80 yards. I aim center of the green with a choked-down SW to avoid any of the trouble right. Hit it perfect and flushed, dead on my target line (center of green), and see it land and stop on the back of the green. I pace it off at 14 1/2 paces, so I figure I'm somewhere around 15 yards long. I've got a long downhill left to right putt, which I leave about 5 feet short. I misread and mishit the putt and go about 2" right of the hole and 6" long, making the putt coming back. Not great to three-putt a GIR. Bogey, Even.

 

Hole 3 - 95 yards, par 3, HDCP 6: Back to front sloped green with bunkers on both sides. Tee is a bit forward but the pin is all the way in the back, so I am thinking we're at about 100 yards. Take a full grip SW with an easy swing, and again make perfect contact--so the ball hits about 2 yards off the back of the green on a downslope and kicks about 7 yards farther. Pitch with the SW, make good contact but fly it slightly farther than I want, so it rolls out on the downslope of the green well past the hole. I think it was 7-8 paces, so about 20 ft coming back up the hill. I strike it well and it rolls to within a foot, and make the next putt. Bogey, +1. 

 

Hole 4 - 88 yards, par 3, HDCP 7: Despite the lack of length, and this being considered the 3rd-easiest hole on the course, I disagree. The green is very narrow and long. Anything left of the green rolls off into the creek. Anything long will likely be in the creek. The green is flat to sloped away from the tee, so it's not going to hold shots without spin. This time the tee is actually quite a bit back but the pin is right up front, about 65 yards. I choke down the SW and take a half-swing, which I don't hit cleanly (fat), leaving me 5 yards short of the green. I pitch with the SW, and again make good contact but fly it just a little too far, and it rolls past the hole about 7 paces. Putt coming back to the hole is uphill and right to left. I strike it pretty well but not high enough, and slightly short, leaving myself about 18", which I make. Bogey, +2.

 

Hole 5 - 210 yards, par 4, HDCP 2: Water all the way down the left, and the hole plays dogleg left if played as a par 4. Again the tees are back and left, so there's not even an angle to the green. Which is fine, I like to play this hole conservatively. Take 8i off the tee just trying to get this into the middle. Strike it pretty well, but it's turning left... I see it bounce twice, kicking more left each time, and plop into the water. Grr. Go up and drop a little back from where it entered the hazard, and have about 60 yards. Ball above my feet, just trying to hit a mini-SW and get up there. Catch it fat with the ball above my feet, and short. Ball hits the slope in front of the green, turns hard left, and then rolls back down into the water. Grr again. Luckily I was able to retrieve this ball, so I didn't lose another Kirkland lol. Drop again where it entered the pond, and I'm pitching up to the green for my 5th shot. I pitch up the hill nicely and leave myself 4 1/2 paces short of the hole, guessing about 12-13 feet. Doesn't look like much break, so I aim about two balls above the hole to the right. Strike it exactly how I want and on the line that I want, and hits dead center of the cup. So at least I 1-putted to save double lol... Double Bogey, +4. 

 

Hole 6 - 66 yards, par 3, HDCP 9: Very short hole, with a decent side bunker protecting the front right of the green, and safety everywhere else. Tees are back and pin is back, so in this case it's actually playing about 85+ yards. Take the full-grip SW and planning about a 3/4 swing. Blade the ball over the green. This hole backs up to a fence, so I'm hoping the fence knocked it down. Nope... Can't find it. Luckily I find myself a ProV1 though, so I got that going for me, which is nice. Drop and hitting three for my pitch back to the green. Because I've pitched and landed too long, I of course overcompensate and land it shy of the green and it just rolls about 3 feet on. 5 paces (I think) on the putt downhill and I'm reading it right-to-left. Make a good putt and leave myself inside a foot, which I then make. Another double, dammit. Double Bogey, +6. 

 

Hole 7 - 116 yards, par 3, HDCP 4: Narrow and long green, VERY narrow in the front as it's protected on both sides by bunkers. Tee is WAY up and the pin is in the front. So again we're looking at only about 80 yards, so let's choke up the SW and take it easy. Strike it fat, again, and leave it 12-13 yards short of the green. Again overcompensate on flying my pitches too far and despite decent contact just barely roll it onto the green. IIRC I paced it about 7 paces, uphill, and I think it's slightly right to left. Strike it well but it doesn't turn at all, which wouldn't matter as I left it 6" short as well. Make the short putt. Bogey, +7.

 

Hole 8 - 85 yards, par 3, HDCP 8: Pretty generous round green for this course, with bunkers left and right. Again tees are way up, pin in the center, so I'm thinking we're about 75 yards IIRC. Choke up SW and take a swing. Nice fat divot, a real pelt, which probably would have been great if it didn't start 2 inches behind the ball. Grr. So yeah, fat as hell and didn't make the green. Pitch with the SW up the hill, and again leave it about 8 paces short of the hole. I again have really good distance control on the putt, which doesn't turn quite as far left as I hoped, and leave myself a foot past the hole and barely to the right. Make the putt. Bogey, +8.

 

Hole 9 - 275 yard, par 4, HDCP 1: Again, this is a strategy hole where you lay up short of fairway bunkers, and then have to carry over a creek to the green. Tees are way back, so I figure it's 185 to the bunker. I take the 7i. I catch it on the toe, so I don't get quite the distance I want (with roll-out probably about 165), but had the right line with a slight draw, and with a right-to-left slope on the fairway I leave myself with only about 135 to a back pin. Ball above my feet and a blind shot due to the foliage in the middle of the creek. I take a full PW. The sound was off but it felt pretty clean, and I end up just over the green about 6-7 yards right of the pin. Given how I've been chipping/pitching, I'd love to putt from here but the angle I've got will put me through too much nasty grass. So I pitch with the SW, and overall it's not bad. I leave myself 6-7 feet short. Hoping for my first par of the day, I strike it, but it turns a little more left than I thought and I miss low, left with 6", which I make. Bogey, +9. 

 

Overall I could have played better, and I don't particularly like the fat and bladed shots. But... Practicing those partial wedges is exactly why I come to this course, and play off the turf on the tee rather than teeing it up. At least a hole with two water balls I managed to escape with double, and only had one more double on another lost ball and drop. And I'll take any birdie I can get!

 

Finished with a +9 for 38, so bogey golf, which honestly I feel like I should do better at this course. Given how short these holes are, making only 2 GIR is not enough. With only 2 GIR, bogey golf isn't that bad.

 

Gonna try to hit the range tomorrow before my 18 hole round on Sunday and practice a lot more varied clubs, and pull out the putting mat both later today and tomorrow to get some practice there. 

Edited April 16, 2021 by betarhoalphadelta

[bortass]

Nice birdie! Also congrats on getting in trouble by hitting the ball solid! I know the scorecard don't care how you hit it but solid strikes means what you are working on is paying off. It'll probably be something you deal with more as your swing improves. It's a good sign IMHO though.

 

This course is giving you something that I think will be very helpful for you in the long run. Hitting less than full shots. Yeah, maybe it's not sexy but the more you play this course, the more you'll get better inside 100 yards. That will really pay off in the future on par 5s where you can't quite reach in two but you're long enough to have a third shot from 100 or less. Also great for those times you end up with those yardages from prior mishits, lol.

 

Looking forward to reading about Sunday's round! 

[betarhoalphadelta]

6 minutes ago, bortass said:

This course is giving you something that I think will be very helpful for you in the long run. Hitting less than full shots. Yeah, maybe it's not sexy but the more you play this course, the more you'll get better inside 100 yards. That will really pay off in the future on par 5s where you can't quite reach in two but you're long enough to have a third shot from 100 or less. Also great for those times you end up with those yardages from prior mishits, lol.

 

 

Yeah, it's not a nice course by any stretch. But for practicing partial wedge play, it's perfect. I should probably start playing a second ball with PW on these holes too, just so I can start dialing in partial distances with that one.

 

This is the course that has the "player's club" deal where for ~$40/mo, I get a large range bucket every day. The typical 9 hole fee here is $16 on the weekdays and $18 on the weekends--for the player's club it's $6 and includes a free drink (Gatorade when I play weekday mornings, but also covers a beer on the weekends). I'm not sure it would even make sense to pay $18 for this course, but for $6 and a free drink? No-brainer for practice. 

 

Partial wedge distances are so difficult to dial in... On the range I don't have useful distance markers, I'm hitting off mats, and I'm hitting range rocks instead of my own ball. I could probably do some of it with a couple hours of Trackman time, but it's still off mats and it's not "course" conditions with pressure. 

 

So the more time I spend doing this, the better. 

 

BTW that's why I don't tee the ball up on any of these tees. I don't go so far as to drop it in someone else's divot lol... But I want to try to do the best I can to represent what I'd be doing on a fairway approach rather than playing off a tee and making life easier on myself. 

[bortass]

Sounds like a solid plan to me and the price seems to be decent which always helps. 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Hit the range this morning. Definitely not working. Still getting the lefts and more-lefts. Seems my best ballflights are the toe strikes because it negates my lefts a bit lol... Driver and 4w were all over the place, when I didn't top them. Out of 15-20 balls with those two clubs, I think I can count one good shot (4w). 

 

Seemed like I lost it for most of the session, found it, and then lost it again. 

 

During the stretch that I was hitting halfway decent, I took some DTL and FO videos. I was trying to restrict my sway a little bit because I think the sway has been making it hard to control low point. 

 

Looking at the video, I can see that everything Monte told me to work on is leaking away in full-swing shots. I'm going back to my old ways. So... Early extension and not open at impact. 

 

That makes sense. I've noticed that I'm not feeling the left ankle and left hip the same way I was when I started doing the new move. I thought maybe I was getting stronger in those areas. Nope... I'm not doing the move. 

 

So I'll just try to swing my swing on the course tomorrow morning. Then back to the drills next week on the range. 

[Lincoln_Arcadia]

22 hours ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

 

Yeah, I'm feeling like I need to start practicing driver an 4w a little more than I currently do. Obviously my biggest thing is just trying to get consistent with my swings with all clubs, and working on ingraining the sequencing. But if I don't start practicing driver, I'll never feel good taking it to the course. 

 

On my normal course there is one hole where driver is necessary to really give a good chance at scoring well. It's a 315 yd par 4 with a creek that cuts across the fairway, depending on the tee location sometimes needing a good 230+ carry to be on the opposite side of it. Heading down to the creek short it's a huge downhill, so it's not like you can plan to hit a 185 yard iron shot and lay up for a wedge. If you hit anything beyond about 160 (depending on tee location), you're probably going in the water. 

 

Depending how I'm hitting Sunday I might try my driver there. Because otherwise I have to tee off with a pitching wedge to keep it far enough short of the water, often (depending on tee and roll-out) leaving myself a 5i or 6i up the hill to reach on my second. 

There’s a similar hole at one a course near Santa Barbara. It’s difficult to tell what’s better there? If you’re confident you can layup a shot close to the edge and be left with a 230 yard shot to the pin. The depth of the green is quite shallow, but left to right a at least 30 yards wide. 

 

Or you can hope to carry 255 yards with a light breeze into your face.

 

Needless to say, most attempt to layup. Many play it as a par 5 even from the senior tees.

 

The idea of teeing off with a PW really bothers me. So, I don’t really play that course too much. LOL.

 

 

1 minute ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

Hit the range this morning. Definitely not working. Still getting the lefts and more-lefts. Seems my best ballflights are the toe strikes because it negates my lefts a bit lol... Driver and 4w were all over the place, when I didn't top them. Out of 15-20 balls with those two clubs, I think I can count one good shot (4w). 

 

Seemed like I lost it for most of the session, found it, and then lost it again. 

 

During the stretch that I was hitting halfway decent, I took some DTL and FO videos. I was trying to restrict my sway a little bit because I think the sway has been making it hard to control low point. 

 

Looking at the video, I can see that everything Monte told me to work on is leaking away in full-swing shots. I'm going back to my old ways. So... Early extension and not open at impact. 

 

That makes sense. I've noticed that I'm not feeling the left ankle and left hip the same way I was when I started doing the new move. I thought maybe I was getting stronger in those areas. Nope... I'm not doing the move. 

 

So I'll just try to swing my swing on the course tomorrow morning. Then back to the drills next week on the range. 

Wildly varying day to day variations in performance at your current level of play is expected. Even as you get better, there will be day to day variations. Inexplicable things happen. That’s why you have Monte to help you.

 

Just yesterday, I nearly tripled one hole then barely missed an Eagle putt two holes later. Told my partners, I hadn’t been getting out much lately, and they all responded “We know” in harmony, Hahaha.

 

It’s just golf.

[betarhoalphadelta]

20 hours ago, Lincoln_Arcadia said:

 

Wildly varying day to day variations in performance at your current level of play is expected. Even as you get better, there will be day to day variations. Inexplicable things happen. That’s why you have Monte to help you.

 

 

Yeah, the wild variations don't bother me... It's the looking at the video and realizing I'm getting away from what I'm supposed to be doing that bothers me. I'd be fine if I was making the move but still inconsistent hitting the ball; I expect that during a transition to something new. 

 

So my range sessions this week might just be 7i and PW and focusing on the move.

[rondo01]

6 hours ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

I'd be fine if I was making the move but still inconsistent hitting the ball; I expect that during a transition to something new.

Jake Hutt has a line that goes “if the goal is to change the movement, the feedback has to be the movement.” Bit of an obvious statement, but a good one.

[betarhoalphadelta]

16 hours ago, rondo01 said:

Jake Hutt has a line that goes “if the goal is to change the movement, the feedback has to be the movement.” Bit of an obvious statement, but a good one.

 

Forgive me, but I haven't had my coffee yet this morning and I'm still trying to unpack that one...

 

I'm assuming that he's saying that learning a movement has to have some sort of immediate feedback mechanism to tell you a simple yes/no of whether you're doing it. Which makes sense, but I can't think of any internal mechanism in this movement to key off of.

 

I could definitely set up an external feedback mechanism, as the movement requires me to pull my left hip back away from the target line through transition and impact, so I could place an alignment stick or a folding chair 1" behind me at address and make sure I get tactile feedback if I'm making the move.

 

Is that what he's going for? 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Played 18 yesterday. 

 

The course is Oso Creek in Mission Viejo, CA. It's 3670 yards, par 60. Course rating is 57.4, slope of 95. Course has no range, and I'm a little later to arrive than I'd like, so all I get is some light stretching and to roll a few putts before we tee off.

 

Hole 1, 285 yard par 4, HDCP 11: Straight hole with little trouble. Creek crossing the fairway short and shouldn't be in play. Left-side fairway bunker and green protected in front right by a bunker. I tee up with the 5i, and proceed to top it badly just over the creek. Oof. Left with 200 out over a tree, in heavy rough, so I pull 9i to just advance the ball. Strike it beautifully, with a slight draw, about 155 with roll-out and barely into the left rough. Now I've got a 50 yd pitch, with SW. I feel myself decelerate on the downswing, with the predictable result of a chunk. Just didn't commit to the shot. With ~25 remaining, my next pitch is much better, leaving me about 15' short of the pin. Unfortunately I miss the put, and I'm left with a tap-in. Double, +2.

 

Not the best start to a day. Oh well.  

 

Hole 2, 171 yard par 3, HDCP 9: Straight downhill par 3 with no trouble short, but a bunker right and a bunker behind the green, which slopes back to front. Pin is back but tees are up, so it's playing about 170 or a little more, with a heavy tailwind. Normally it's playing a little longer and I take 6i here, but with the tailwind and the desire to leave it below the hole if I have a choice I pick 7i and plan a nice, easy swing. Again I hit incredibly thin [my usual miss when I'm not warmed up], and it's a worm-burner that ends up running out to be about 30 yds short of the pin. I pitch with my SW and make a good strike and end up pin-high, but just didn't get the face closed and I'm [IIRC] about 8 1/2 paces right of the pin, so in the realm of about 22 ft. I strike a pretty good putt on a strong right-to-left break and leave myself within 3 feet to clean up, which I make. Bogey, +3.

 

Hole 3, 146 yard par 3, HDCP 15: Slightly uphill, with a bunker short left and long right. Pin in the middle, tee is back a bit, playing about 150, into a heavy headwind. I figure that wind is going to knock my ball down, so I club up to 8i. Make a pretty decent strike and start the ball online, but it starts turning left, and the wind not only knocks it down distance-wise, it accentuates the left curve. But thankfully it curves left of the front bunker. I've got a fluffy lie and I survey the landing area, and think this is a time for the LW as I want to land it a few yards past the bunker and it should roll right down to the hole. Unfortunately I leave it short, and it stops in the rough just beyond the bunker. From here I have a much easier chip, and I chip with the SW which rolls past the hole leaving me about 6 feet with a right-to-left break. I barely miss, leaving a tap-in. Double, +5.

 

+5 through three. Going to need some pars to get back to bogey golf.

 

Hole 4, 266 yard par 4, HDCP 13: This hole has trees all down the right side, and the fairway slopes pretty strongly right-to-left. The trees can catch errant balls to the right, dropping them on the slope where they often roll right to the middle. There's a fairway bunker to the left and the only protection for the green is a bunker behind and a pond to the FAR left. Playing again into a heavy headwind, and the tees are back so it's playing 275. I choose 3i because I want to keep the ball low instead of getting it up over the trees into that wind with the 5i. I make a beautiful strike, and the ball starts out along the left side of the treeline and I know I've got the distance that even if it stays straight it's going to clear them. It [as usual] starts turning left, and the wind holds it up and it continues a little more left, landing in the middle of the fairway and rolling out just into the left rough. Overall a perfect tee shot for this hole. I'm left with a 40-50 yd pitch into the face of the wind. I take SW and strike it a little low on the face, which should be good to keep the height down. It's perfectly on line and I'm loving it... And it drops just short of the green. My buddy who was up on the right side ahead of me said he saw the wind just completely knock it down. Ugh. I putt from off the green and I feel the putter get slightly slowed down by the turf before hitting the ball, and leave the putt about 10' short. Simple 2-putt from there. Bogey, +6.

 

Not a bad hole, but after that perfect tee shot a bogey is a disappointment. 
 
Hole 5, 168 yard par 3, HDCP 5: This is an uphill hole, plays long to a blind green. Bunker to the left and anything farther left is a steep slope down to the creek. Pin is back, and I'm estimating 180 yards, uphill, into the wind. One buddy [who has a stroke on this hole for skins] tees off and just perfectly strikes one up onto the green. We can't see how close he is but it looked good. It comes my turn to play and I pull 5i. I've been feeling the lefts all day, so I aim about right side of the green or perhaps even a little off. I strike the ball and don't get the best contact (a little low on the face) but not bad. It starts on my aiming line and has a baby draw pulling it back to the pin. I see it check up right in front of the green and continue on, but it's a blind view. Walking up to the green I see my buddy is on the very front of the green, while I'm a little past pin high and to the right. I've got about a 10 footer for birdie, and I figure my buddy will three-putt from where he is so a par here will push the skin (which is carried over so this hole is worth three). The putt is a right-to-left breaker and downhill. I misread the speed, miss 2" high of the hole and it rolls, and rolls, and rolls. My 10' putt for birdie now is looking like a 9' putt for par. I miss it, at least get to tap-in distance. Buddy makes his bogey putt so with his stroke, wins the hole. Bogey, +7.

 

Hate three-putting for bogey from 10 feet. Just ugly. 

 

Hole 6, 296 yard par 4, HDCP 7: Elevated tee, creek across the hole that shouldn't be in play, which continues up the left side and becomes a greenside pond. Fairway bunker down the right side about 200 yds and the green is protected on the right by a bunker and the left by the pond. I take 4i off the tee, and hit again a low worm-burner starting right and curving back towards the center of the fairway. Luckily due to the elevated tee, the worms are safe, and the ball runs out about 200 yards final distance, in the center. Bad strike; good result. I'll take it. I'm left hitting to a front pin, about 100 yards. I take a nearly-full SW... And fly it over the pin into the right-side bunker. Not sure if it was the strike or the tailwind that did it. I don't play in wind this strong very often, so I don't necessarily know how to adjust. Takes me three to get out of the bunker... Two putt. Triple, +10. 

 

Maybe it's not even 10 AM, but I'm cracking a beer on the next tee. That was awful.  

 

Hole 7, 148 yard par 3, HDCP 17: Straight hole, protected right and behind by bunkers. Pin is in the center and it's playing 150, with a big tailwind. I take PW thinking the tailwind is going to help me here. I get a good strike, but it's turning left. Left of the green it hits a mound, kicks farther left, but at least I'm pin-high. I make decent contact on my pitch but fly it farther than I'd like, and the ball rolls out about 7 paces IIRC past the pin. Now I've got a tricky right-to-left breaking putt, and I do well to at least get myself within about 2-feet. Bogey, +11
 
Hole 8, 174 yard par 3, HDCP 3: Tough hole, always seems to play longer than its distance. Narrow, long green, protected right and left by bunkers. Pin is all the way back today, but IIRC tees are up. The must have been, because I picked 7i for some reason. Either way, that's immaterial, as I s$&#k it to the right. It's knocked down by trees, leaving me about 120 to the center or 130 to the back, but thankfully on the correct side of the trees and I've got a clean look. I pull PW and make a fairly decent strike to land the ball about center of the green. I think I'm now about 14 paces below the hole with an uphill mostly-straight putt that I read to break slightly left-to-right. I read it pretty well, strike it pretty well, and I'm left with about a foot, which I make. Bogey, +12. 

 

Hole 9, 317 yard par 4, HDCP 1: I hate this hole. I really, really do. There's a creek running along the left side and then crossing the fairway right at the 220-230 mark, particularly when the tees are back like they are today. So I can pull driver (which I don't hit) and have a 230 yd forced carry, or I can pull PW because with the way the fairway feeds down to the water, anything longer than PW could leave me wet. I pull PW. I aim a little right because of my lefts today, and hit a slight pull draw which lands left side of the fairway. It rolls and rolls and rolls, but stays literally 1 1/2 yards short of the creek down the left side. I've now got about 145 uphill to a blind green protected short right by a bunker and front pin. I pull 9i. I strike it poorly--way low on the face. It's a low screamer turning left when I catch something in the fairway ~30 yards short of the green that kicks right, and we see it continue running and roll up onto the [blind] green. My buddies are congratulating [or cursing] my luck... Walk up to the green and I'm on the back of the green. I think was somewhere around 16 paces at this point, so probably 40 feet. I strike my putt with really good distance control but pulled left, and it finishes about a foot long but 5-6 feet left of the hole for par. Two players on this hole have taken themselves out of contention for the skin, and one remaining player [who has a stroke on me since it's HDCP 1] holes out for bogey. Now I've got a right-to-left breaking 6-footer for par to push. I strike it, and immediately think I'm high of the hole, but right at the hole the putt dies and all that break I was reading is there, and it falls in. Par!, +12.

 

Hole 10, 242 yard par 4, HDCP 16: Another hole that almost always screws me. It's so short and easy, and playing 230 today, with a bunker short left but otherwise pretty benign. The headwind has died down a little so I pull the 3i, thinking that even if I don't get all the way there, a good 3i strike will leave me close... But I don't make a good 3i strike. I hit a top/wormburner, about 70 yards into the fairway. Left with PW, I strike it and it's turning left, but lands just short of the green and just right of the bunker. I chip with the SW and it rolls longer than intended, and I've got about 10' coming back. I'm feeling good about this putt, but I miss about an inch high and I'm left with a tap-in. Bogey, +13. 

 

Hole 11, 172-yard par 4, HDCP 6: It's slightly uphill, to a blind green. Protected in the back by a bunker but otherwise pretty straightforward. Pin is center, playing into the headwind, but tees are up. I take 6i and make a decent strike, but even with aiming a bit right to start it ends up just short and left of the green. Too far to putt, so I chip with my SW. I don't even remember the putts... But I two-putted unremarkably. Bogey, +14

 

Hole 12, 118 yard par 3, HDCP 18: This is a downhill hole, protected short left by a bunker with a pretty severe back to front sloping green. Pin is up front and tees are middle to front, so I estimate 100 yards, downhill, with a slight tail wind. The last three skins have pushed, so this hole is worth 4. I take a nice easy SW and make good contact. It's turning a little left, and catches the left fringe on the down/right slope of the bunker and kicks right towards the hole. Leaving me about a 15 footer. One other buddy hits his and ends up just on the front of the green, leaving him a 15-footer. So it's a putting contest for 4 skins, apparently. He putts first and puts it a foot past above the hole, and makes his par. I'm left with a tricky left-to-right breaker, slightly downhill. I read it, and stroke it... And put it dead effing center of the cup! Birdie! +13.

 

Suddenly my round is looking up. I'm +13 through 12 holes, just won my first hole but it's worth 4 skins, and I made a beautiful one-putt birdie.

 

Hole 13, 288 yard par 4, HDCP 8: Straight hole, with a bunker protecting the left side of the green and some boulders out on the right rough in the fairway, but overall pretty tame. I pull 5i, and quite literally s$&@k it into the bushes 40-50 yards from the tee. Well, that's one way to celebrate a birdie. I find the ball in the bushes but it's unplayable, so I take a drop and I'm hitting 3. I'm still >200 out, and maybe can reach with a 3i, but I've got a lie in the rough with the ball well above my feet and don't want to chance it. I take the safe play and hit 7i, just looking to advance it to pitching distance. I don't know what happens next. Quite literally I felt like I made a decent strike, but it's like I had topspin on the ball because 50 yards out it just dies in the air and drops--but it rolls, and rolls, and rolls. It's going towards the left side, some trees, and the creek. I see it make a left turn due to the slope, and finally stop JUST right of the creek. I walk over to the ball and to hit it towards the pin [between two trees] I'm going to have to stand on rocks precariously above the creek. Just feels like too much of a hero shot, so I again do the safe thing and turn back towards the fairway just hoping to punch it out. Well, what a time to make perfect contact, right? It goes over the fairway and lands just over the cart path. Glad I made the safe play. Due to the cart path I take relief and drop it on the other side of the path. Proceed to hit a SW that again just dies in the air and now I'm just to the right side of one of those big boulders I mentioned, and I know I don't get relief from those. Being right-handed, I take a weird stance with one foot up on the boulder and hit the SW, and flub it about 5 yards. Great. So now I'm hitting 7 already. Having gone from bad to worse, I hit a great pitch with the SW to leave myself about 8 feet past the pin. I miss that putt by an inch high, leaving a tap-in. Quintuple bogey, +18.

 

Ouch. Just... Ouch. There goes the round.
 
Hole 14, 163 yard par 3, HDCP 10: Another uphill par 3 to a blind green. Protected on the right by a bunker, and on the left by a severe slope down to the creek. Pin is in the center, tee is up... Maybe 155-160. I take 8i, aim a little right due to my lefts today. Contact is so-so and it's a low shot starting right and curving back left... But not enough. I'm in the bunker. From hole 6, y'all know how much I love the bunkers. That said, I've got a good lie and it feels like some of the best sand I've encountered on this course. So I pull the 60 degree 14* bounce LW. I open my stance, open the clubface, and just splash... Ball jumps right out of the sand, lands softly, and rolls about 8' past the hole. Best sand shot I think I've hit since I started playing golf again last July! I miss the putt but leave a tap-in, which I make. Bogey, +19.

 

Hole 15, 162 yard par 3, HDCP 12: Round back-to-front sloped green, with a bunker left and pond more left. Tee is up and it's a front pin, playing maybe 130-140. Two players have already hit and are in makeable birdie territory. I pull PW and hit low on the face, a little right and long, and I'm just hoping it checks up on this sloped green. It does, and I'm left with a LONG downhill right-to-left putt. I think I paced it at about 14 1/2 paces, so again we're in the 35-40 foot territory. I strike the putt, and it's perfect. As it's about 3-4 feet out and dying down to the hole I start thinking it might go in! Well, it doesn't. But I'm left within 6" and my buddy just hits it back at me for a gimme. Par, +19.

 

Sidenote: Our foursome finished this hole birdie, par, par, bogey. That last player had only about a 5-footer for par, but couldn't make it. Had he done so, I think it would have been the first time I can recall, certainly first since getting back into the game last summer, that we could have all looked like real golfers on the same hole with par or better.
 
Hole 16, 136 yard par 3, HDCP 14: Bunkers left and right, but a pretty easy back-to-front sloped round green to hit to. Tee and pin are back, so it should be playing about 150. I pull 9i and aim right, and hit a pretty good shot that starts a little right of the pin, but curves left and lands on the green. I'm barely past pin high and about 8 paces left. I've got a downhill left-to-right breaker for birdie, about 20-22 feet. Unfortunately, I leave it about 4 feet short. Which I miss, leaving a tap-in. Ugh. Bogey, +20.

 

Hole 17, 193 yard par 3, HDCP 4: Pretty straightforward hole but long for a par 3, with a bunker behind the green but not much other trouble. Pin is all the way in the back but the tees were farther up, so I think this was about 175. The tailwind was kicking up again, so I pulled 7i thinking it's better to be short than long on this hole, and aim towards the right side of the green while the pin is back left to play my curve. Well... S$&#k it 50 yards to the right. Left with a PW to the pin, which I strike really well, and end up online with the pin, just off the back on the fringe. Putt it from there to within 2 feed, and make the next one. Bogey, +21

 

Hole 18, 225 yard par 3, HDCP 2: Tough hole, due to length as a par 3, and that it's a long narrow green protected left and right by bunkers, and a pond more left. There's also a creek across the fairway that shouldn't be in play. Tee is a little up and the pin is up, so I figure it's playing about 210 today. I grab the 4i. Top it. Hoping it stops short of the greek or miraculously bounces over, I see the ball kick up into the air but don't have a view of how it finishes. Well, I get up to the creek and find my ball in it. I fish it out and take my drop, now hitting 3. It's a short SW shot, which I strike generally well but leave myself just off the green short and left on the fringe, close enough to putt. I get the lag putt close, and make the next one. Double, +23.

 

Not the best day, but also not the worst. Shot 83, and my last 4 rounds here were 81, 84, 93, and 86, so it's 2nd-best of my last 5. It's a differential of 26, which now brings my handicap up to 24.1. I'm at 19 rounds total for tracking, and 7 scores count. With one more round I'll be at the full 20 and 8 scores will count, so unless I come in low next time I play I suspect my cap might jump a bit again. 

 

Got around in 35 putts, and only two 3-putts. It just sucked when those three-putts occurred, because they were situations that I absolutely shouldn't have 3-putted. One was a legitimate birdie opportunity, and the other should have been safely two-putted for par. Instead it was two bogeys and squandered GIR.

 

I think in general my lag putting was a strength today, so thanks again to @bortass who suggested pacing off putts. That really helped me get better distance control. Also thought my course management was a strength. I accepted that the lefts were happening and played for them, and that got me into better situations on several holes. My par on 9 was due to taking my medicine and taking PW off the tee, and even though hole 13 was a blow-up, and my two "safe" plays ended up terrible, I think it was smart to try to take the safe route on those holes. 

 

Weaknesses were ballstriking and sand. Given how badly my range session went on Saturday, I wasn't expecting much from ballstriking. A lot to work on there. 

 

My golfer's elbow is flaring a little after hitting the range twice and playing 27 holes over a 4-day stretch. So I'm going to cool it until later in the week and just practice putting on my home putting mat, and probably get out to the range late in the week. Putting is definitely an area I can work on improving, because most courses I play have tougher greens than yesterday's. 

[rondo01]

2 hours ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

 

Forgive me, but I haven't had my coffee yet this morning and I'm still trying to unpack that one...

 

I'm assuming that he's saying that learning a movement has to have some sort of immediate feedback mechanism to tell you a simple yes/no of whether you're doing it. Which makes sense, but I can't think of any internal mechanism in this movement to key off of.

 

Yeah that's what he's going for, with video being the primary/ultimate source of feedback. Either you see the desired movement, or not, and within that it doesnt matter if you hit the ball square or not, provided the feedback is there. It's just a fancy way of confirming your thought of "dont care where the ball goes" - provided youre actually accomplishing the movement you want!

[betarhoalphadelta]

11 minutes ago, rondo01 said:

 

Yeah that's what he's going for, with video being the primary/ultimate source of feedback. Either you see the desired movement, or not, and within that it doesnt matter if you hit the ball square or not, provided the feedback is there. It's just a fancy way of confirming your thought of "dont care where the ball goes" - provided youre actually accomplishing the movement you want!

 

Got it, thanks. Definitely on the same page then. 

 

I find that when I'm doing the new movement right my ballstriking improves, but I can also [somewhat less consistently] strike the ball well with the old movement, so agree that it's not good feedback in any way. A new movement can easily cause bad ballstriking during the adjustment period.

 

Especially when we're talking about the range where you're hitting a lot of balls with one club in a row--the movement I'm trying to get rid of can easily get into a good rhythm and make me think I'm doing it right. But video will tell the truth. 

[bortass]

Congrats on the birdie and also snagging those skins. When's the retirement party? 😉

 

 

Wind is a pain. There have been so many times when I change club because of the wind and it doesn't matter. So much for that tailwind helping me get my ball to the green or the headwind keeping me from going over the back... I take into account the direction because of what it will do with the curve of the ball flight and and just hit my normal club unless we are talking something fairly strong. It just seems like a crap shoot unless you hit the ball consistently and can adjust from that. I dunno, your mileage my vary.

 

I think pacing off putts is fairly helpful and will help in the long run. It helps provide more feedback on your actual putting. This putt is 30 feet and I just went 6 feet long.  Sure there's slope and break to take into account but eventually you get to the point where it's 30 feet and your brain takes over, makes all the adjustments, and you just hit the ball. Keep doing it on the same course and it'll get pretty consistent. It can't hurt unless you get analysis paralysis... Of course, I'm a feel putter. I can't tell you exactly where I'm aiming nor how far back I'm gonna take the putter.

 

I agree with your thoughts that playing it safe was correct even if the results weren't. We're almost the same index and who knows when our execution will fail. It's gonna happen and that's not the fault of the plan unless the plan was to try something stupid. Cool, I have a partial GW which I'm pretty decent at for GIR on a par 5 opening hole, after laying up from 200 yards instead of trying to get my 4w real close. Chunk into the bunker... Not the plans fault. Now if the plan always leads to problems, maybe it's time for a new one.

 

Don't take this wrong, since typed words convey no tone or anything else. I had to chuckle when I read about hole #5. Been there, done that so many times. I was like 'Hey I know that putt!", I can do that! LOL. I'm glad I'm not alone. I had a very similar sequence like you did on your 12-13th holes yesterday. Played awesome for a tiny bit and then the universe corrected itself and brought me back to reality. 

 

Hopefully you can get the left miss worked out. It sounds like it's curving quite a bit which is a pain. And the shanks go without saying....

[betarhoalphadelta]

13 minutes ago, bortass said:

Don't take this wrong, since typed words convey no tone or anything else. I had to chuckle when I read about hole #5. Been there, done that so many times. I was like 'Hey I know that putt!", I can do that! LOL. I'm glad I'm not alone. I had a very similar sequence like you did on your 12-13th holes yesterday. Played awesome for a tiny bit and then the universe corrected itself and brought me back to reality. 

 

Hopefully you can get the left miss worked out. It sounds like it's curving quite a bit which is a pain. And the shanks go without saying....

 

No offense taken. We've all been there... 

 

That's why it's about trying to "suck less"--we all know how to hit good shots. It's the sprinkling in of terrible stuff that we want to minimize. 

 

In the "stats for 20 handicap" thread I looked at the idea of counting strokes into the hole from 100 yards in. In this round I counted 57, which is an average of 3.16 per hole. Getting that down to 2.5, even with all the lefts and the s&$@ks, would have transformed my +23 into +11 and my career best at the course. That's 12 strokes and I can easily count 8 wasted strokes within 100 yards, and certainly a few more where a slightly closer chip/pitch or holing an 8 footer would get me the rest of the way.

 

It's not hard to see what I need to do to improve my scores... I need to suck less.

[bortass]

16 minutes ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

 

No offense taken. We've all been there... 

 

That's why it's about trying to "suck less"--we all know how to hit good shots. It's the sprinkling in of terrible stuff that we want to minimize. 

 

In the "stats for 20 handicap" thread I looked at the idea of counting strokes into the hole from 100 yards in. In this round I counted 57, which is an average of 3.16 per hole. Getting that down to 2.5, even with all the lefts and the s&$@ks, would have transformed my +23 into +11 and my career best at the course. That's 12 strokes and I can easily count 8 wasted strokes within 100 yards, and certainly a few more where a slightly closer chip/pitch or holing an 8 footer would get me the rest of the way.

 

It's not hard to see what I need to do to improve my scores... I need to suck less.

Yeah, the fun part is minimizing the wasted shots and trying to limit the scores they lead to. It'll come together for you and you'll have a nice round in the 70s.

[betarhoalphadelta]

1 minute ago, bortass said:

Yeah, the fun part is minimizing the wasted shots and trying to limit the scores they lead to. It'll come together for you and you'll have a nice round in the 70s.

 

Hey, I've already broken 80! I've got a 75 and two 78's...

 

On the par-60 course 😉

 

[bortass]

8 minutes ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

 

Hey, I've already broken 80! I've got a 75 and two 78's...

 

On the par-60 course 😉

 

You are crushing me score wise! LOL. Now hurry up and shoot that 74 already 🍻