Twin Rivers with a New Pair of Pants

Oh Twin Rivers...it had been two years since my last visit and it wasn't fun then, but thankfully, it was better this time. We only played the whites at 6100 yards because - as we were told by our friendly starter - those are the tees we will be playing from for the Autism Speaks tournament later this month. 

Overall an 86 (+14): +6 on front and +8 on back; typical Tony really. Lots of 1-putts thanks to some good chips, the issue really was is approach shots. I hit a lot of shots to back of green or slightly over - had a few chips do the same and realized this: when I look at the pin and take my practice swings, that's where I tend to hit/land the ball. So mid-round I started focusing on where I wanted the ball to land and not even looking at the flag ...made a huge difference!

I was a little soft with my putts today, but I never three-putted which is always good. I found myself playing a lot of draw today...even with the driver! I found myself swinging slower and making better contact, which I'm not really familiar with ...haha...?

So in summary, a lot of good things but a lack of real consistency from hole to hole. The good news is I had a lot of good-feeling shots and its something I can move forward with.

On a side note...check out these sweet pants! Craig Norman brand, nice and light, and only 10 bucks!

This Month in Review: Part 2

The last post was a summary of the self-critique I did with the loads of free time I had (and still have). Now I get to summarize how I have played since addressing my swing issues.

I played Red Tail with Eric, Palisades with Cullen, and took a trip to St. Pete to play with Danny, and after looking at my swing on video it was no wonder I hit the ball inconsistently there. Mid-80's for all of those, but the scores on the individual holes were so up and down it was crazy. I would play one great hole and par, then double-bogey, then par, and so on because of inconsistent shots. It was after these three rounds I started to break down what shots were causing me problems and I decided the only way to really know was to write down every shot I took during the round. So the next time I went out (at the Pines with Greg), I played the round, went to Chili's, then came home and wrote down each shot, hole by hole, to see if any glaring issues arose. SIDE NOTE, I drove the second green with is 300 yards and putted for eagle, but missed). For that particular round I saw that I kept every tee shot in play (even though I pulled 3), but I had a lot of trouble coming up short (haha) with my irons, both off the tee and on approach shots. After looking at my notes I realized I chunked a lot of chip/pitch shots too, so I knew I had to work on ball striking.

I next played at Rolling Hills and again, after looking at my shot-by-shot notes, realized I was chunking a lot of my approach shots and chips as well as had a hard time keeping some drives in play. My next two (and most recent rounds) have been huge for me, not because of scoring, but because of course management and not getting pissed off. I played Ventura on a hot day and started off with a bogey or worse on the first 6 holes. I looked at my scorecard and realized that scoring well was just not going to be an option today, so I took Eric's advice and just focused on hitting the ball solid and having good shots, not focusing on the score. Oddly enough, the hole I started with that thought was the 210 yard par 3 that I have NEVER reached in regulation. I took a deep breath and took an easy swing and put it to 10 feet from the pin. From that point on my game turned around. I bogeyed the next, then birdied the 9th to finish 10 over on the front. I flipped the card over and proceded to go +4 on the back with 3 birdie attempts and one actual birdie. I had never felt so good about not scoring so well, because I could have (and probably should have) completely fell apart after the first 6 holes.

So yesterday I went back to Ventura, looking to redeem myself on the front 9 that caused me so much pain a few weeks earlier...redemption is sweet. I lost one ball all day off of the tee (driver), and had some really good approach shots because of my ball-striking practice: +5 on the front and +5 on the back. I will say this: the greens were aerated and upon agreement with the others in the group, everyone had some putts that clearly were going into the hole that either hit an aeration hole and jumped or hit a hole and stopped. So the decision was if everyone thought the putt was going in without the crappy greens, we got to have the putt. We all had a few of them, but score or not it was a great day because I used what I learned from taping my swing and kept it simple all day. I also had fun and enjoyed the scenary because it wasn't 105 degrees outside.

Okay, I've typed enough...someone find me a job for the love of God...

This Month in Review: Part 1

So unemployment has allowed me to have lots of time to watch The Golf Fix and make some upgrades to my swing. I started by recording my swing from down the line and face-on with my PW, 8i, and Driver to see what things I needed to work on. Here is one swing that really shows everything I have been doing wrong.

Set-up position - okay, but standing way to straight up and maybe even slouching too much, which creates a steeper angle of attack = catching ball fat/thin.

Backswing - holy bad. Your left arm is supposed to stay straight the entire time, and if you pause at the top of my swing you can see that it clearly does not. Also, my right foot comes off of the ground, which causes my head to slide back/up, and also would contribute to catching the ball fat/thin.

Impact - Probably could use a little more body movement to drag my hands through from in to out a little bit more.

Follow through - not bad considering all that has happened in the swing up until that point :)

So after all of that, here is what I researched and found I should do to address these issues:

Practice making swings with just left hand and really focus on keeping arm straight/using body to drag the club. Also helps to use both hands take half-swings to feel what it's like to keep arm straight.

Place a ball under your right pinky toe to keep your right foot on the ground as long as possible and maintain balance (Don't do this with lots of people around, because if you fall, you look stupid).

Hit a ball and look at where your divot is: is it in front? Behind? Is there one at all? The divot should be slightly in front of your ball (left foot for right-handed player). Now put two tees to mark where you want to hit the ground and take practice swings with a divot.

If anyone else has any ideas or sees something I need to fix (other than being unemployed), let me know!