Trends

The trend lately (completely un-golf related) is that people start letting me know that it is time for a new blog post; that I haven’t put one up in a too many days.  I’m sorry that I have not been more diligent about keeping the blog updated, it’s just been a crazy busy couple of weeks…  But, I do have a lot to talk about and it will eventually be posted.  Promise.

The last couple of days have been amazing as far as weather, attitude towards training and general playing.  I’ve shot some solid scores and played the majority of my rounds’ holes very well.  The aspect that I’m working on is stringing together a full 18.  I’ve been playing 15-16 holes well per round, which is a huge improvement over where I was just a few months ago, but a bit disappointing to not finish out the entire round.

Two days ago I shot an 80 at Heron Lakes on the Greenback course from the blue tees.  And, that was with a triple bogey on the 16th and 17th holes…  Good news:  I birdied 18, but I think either physical or mental fatigue created that back end slop.  We played the back nine first and at the turn I had shot a 40, but turned it up on the front and was even after 6 of the holes, or just 4 over after 15.  Going into 16 (a 205 yard par 3) I honestly wasn’t thinking about the score, rather had decided to hit a 3-hybrid off the tee to the fat part of the green to play it a bit safe.  Before the round, I had hit balls for 5 hours that day, and my legs were a bit tired from that and walking the course to that point, but I knew I just needed a couple more decent tee shots to finish the round.  However, I completely topped the ball into two-foot tall nettles and had to chop it out.  Then, from 160 I left it just short of the green and chipped up to 10 feet then missed the putt for an eventual triple on the hole.  It was surprisingly easy to card that many strokes when you shank the tee shot, as most everyone knows..  On the next hole, the same thing happened with the driver, just topped it to the right about 50 yards down.  I tried to hit a safe 7-iron to 150, but hit it a bit fat and it landed behind a tree.  The next shot went in the green-side bunker and the first out attempt hit the lip.  The next one got out and a two-putt left me with a seven for the par 4.  Again, really easy to do  After that I finished strong with the birdie, but the damage was done.  A quick lapse of a couple of shots and an extra six strokes are carded.

That’s golf and that’s just how it goes sometimes.  These things happen and the real trick is to get over them after just one bad shot, to not string together a group of misses.  This is what I am trying to work on right now and I think that with patience and slowing down my pre-shot routine after a miss I can get over these types of holes.

A relatively similar thing happened the next day.  Playing the Great Blue course at Heron, I made the turn at 39 and was playing solid golf.  On ten, though, I hit the best drive of my day and only had 120 to the pin, which is a perfect 52 degree wedge when the wind is helping a bit.  The 52 is my favorite club right now and I think my mind was already on the next hole when I accidentally hit it fat and sent the ball just 40 yards.  Next shot was also fat and then the next I pulled a bit into a green-side bunker..  From there my out went long and I had to chip back on to one-putt for a triple.  It’s amazing that I, or anyone, can hit so many good shots in a round and then have three or four misses in a row.  After that hole, I don’t think I hit a fat shot again for the rest of the day, something had just temporarily changed in my swing and it took the entire hole to get over it.

That’s what my game is like right now.  Playing pretty solid for the majority of the holes and then have those couple of meltdown holes where nothing seems to go right.  I can get over it pretty soon, but am trying to learn how to break the pattern after just one miss.  That is the goal right now.

Those rounds were especially good as I am hitting about 30 percent of the fairways right now.  I’m working on getting the club-face back to square at impact (rather than open and hitting a block fade as has been the issue for a while) so when I over cook it I pull hook the ball and when I revert I block it out to the left.  It will come with time and a lot of hard work, but for now it’s safe to say getting off the tee is my weakness.  It makes sense, though, because that is the newest aspect of the game for me.  On the short game side, my chips have resulted in a lot of tap ins and I have had an average of under 30 putts per round for the past 4 rounds.

Good things come with hard work, I just need to put in my time and work out those kinks.  Glad there’s a bunch of brand new range balls at CECC:

And, it’s about time for some new wedges, the one’s I’ve used for the past six months are getting a bit slick: