Another week, another par 3

To start things off, here’s another good view out at the McMenamin’s Par 3 course:

It was one of those rare, yet beautiful, sunny May days out here in Oregon. When this happens, it is basically mandatory to get out and enjoy the day.

I met up with a fellow golfer who I had never played/practiced with, but who I knew was a pretty solid player based on his scratch handicap. It’s always fun playing with new people because you never know how their personality is going to translate onto the course. He had a pretty steady style of play and didn’t get very emotional on the good or bad shots, a consistent golfer for sure.

We played the par 3 course twice, both times he had my number, but the score discrepancy was not too out of reach. I believe that he beat me by about 4 on the first round and roughly 3 on the second. I’ll take this as a good sign, but with the firm knowledge that there is still a lot of work ahead. In golf, you never master the game and there is always room for improvement. And, as my coach constantly tells me for better or worse, I am still in my infancy period of my golfing career. There is a lot of golf left to play.

I want to get this course down to a consistent 3-4 under. This is something that I would like to be able to do, as well as a loose mandate of my coach. He says that all of his students should be practicing on courses like this, it’s extremely good for your short game. So, before I can move up to the next club, I need to be shooting about 8 strokes better per 20 holes.

The first requirement of this is to stop shanking balls. This comes as a no-brainer, and has gotten better every week, but even today I had two hosel shots which led to a double bogey and an unspeakable 5-over… On this 5-over hole, my hosel shot landed on a gravel cart path. I decided to play it as it laid and hit it thin OB past the hole losing the ball and dropping three to hit four from the path again. This shot landed in some extremely thick rough which I Kevin Na’d out in three strokes. Then, chipped up and one-putted to make an 8. On a positive note, I birdied the next two holes. Still, it goes to show you how one very bad shot can lead to an avalanche of strokes.

A lot of good things happened today, though, and the game is definitely progressing. Now, I know what I need to work on and am heading out to get a jump start on practice.

8 Responses to "Another week, another par 3"

deathservants says:

May 24, 2011 at 9:26 pm

from China:
I want to know what kinda of method that you record the amount of practising hour
software or paper?
dan says:

May 24, 2011 at 9:53 pm

Hello,

What type of method do I record the practice hours with? I write them down while out on the course and range and then enter them into a computer program when I get home in the evenings..
Sima says:

May 24, 2011 at 9:56 pm

Dan,

This sounds pretty impressive. Good work.

I’m a little surprised that you’re still shanking a lot at this stage. Has it been a problem throughout?

I’m sure you’ve worked with your coach on how and why it happens. Maybe it’s a good time to try to sort it out once and for all.

That said, we had a rule in our house: never say the word s***k. I’m not sure whether this is a wider convention, like actors talking about ‘the Scottish play’, but the word s***k was never to be uttered. Obviously, there were substitutes. We would say things like, “…and then I had an unmentionable at the fifth and ended up in a bunker.” This shows that unmentionables weren’t entirely eliminated but, as far as I recall, they were kept at a reasonable distance.

Silly as it sounds, after a period of reflection and correction, maybe you can cut the s***k out of your vocabulary and, at the same time, largely cut it out of your game.
dan says:

May 24, 2011 at 10:21 pm

Lol, I love it! Cut out the word S***k altogether and get rid of them on the course too.. Surprising or not, we’re still in the “build a swing” phase, which actually shouldn’t be too surprising seeing that I’ve only been doing full swings since this March. So, yes, there are still some shanks. It’s mix of incorporating new swing patterns and concentration. Regardless, they need to be history and that is priority number one. Thanks for the good idea!
Buddy Lindsey says:

May 25, 2011 at 1:15 am

Am curios if I am getting this correct. Are you supposed to be able to shoot 3 or 4 under par on par 3 courses? Because that is a brilliant way to practice I had never thought about. We actually have a par 3 around here I might have to work a bit harder on.
dan says:

May 25, 2011 at 6:48 am

Hi Buddy,

That’s basically the goal. Shoot under par successfully from each distance before moving out further.. That way, once I get to full rounds I’ll theoretically be shooting better than scratch. Plus, the par 3s are great for your short game.
Juan says:

May 27, 2011 at 8:26 am

Tiger Wood’s high school golf coach,Don Crosby’s wrote a book titled, “Tiger Woods Made Me Look Live a Genius.” One of the ideas from the book that has stuck with me is that Coach Crobsy said, “Every hole is a par 3. Par 3s are Par 3s, Par 4s are a Par 3 once you have teed off, and Par 5s are Par 3s from where you placed your second shot. So if you really want to get good, play a lot of par 3 golf courses.” “And if you can not shoot below par on a par 3 course, you will not be able to do so on a regulation course.”

So Dan, keep playing those par 3s, and when you start shooting under par… you can move back a set of tees as far as you want.
dan says:

May 27, 2011 at 7:19 pm

Thanks Juan! Yeah, it is pretty obvious that I need some more work on my par 3s, but then again I’ve only been playing them for a few months. The shots are getting more consistent, though, and with some more work I should be hitting under par on those very soon and will be ready to move back!

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