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...