Golf’s been a grind lately, motivation-wise, but looking back at my last few rounds, there’s actually some good stuff in here. Did really see the good until I wrote this down. Glad i did.
The Rounds
August 29 — South Suburban (18) Played during the Lauren’s bridal shower weekend with my brother-in-law Jim, Rick, and Kyle’s dad Brian. Just didn’t have it that day — shot a 97, a couple of triples in there. Not much more to say about that one. Plus its been a while since this round and I don’t remember it real well. As well as pounding a few beers, haha.
South Suburban (9), twice Followed that up with a 44, then a 43. The 43 was actually a good day. Ball-striking was solid even though my alignment and putting weren’t doing me any favors. Good contact, good contact — that’s really the whole goal for me right now, and I felt it that day. Amazing how 2 rounds with very similar scores can feel so different. What in the world does that mean exactly?
Lesson with Chris I always seem to hit it better when I’m with Chris — not totally sure why. Maybe it’s just concentrating harder or just easier on the simulator? He liked my backswing, even though it feels a little inconsistent to me sometimes, and had me working on really turning my hips through the ball on the follow-through instead of swaying toward it. Also trying to release the right are at the follow thru, it should get me a little more distance. That’s progress — I used to barely turn my hips at all coming through, so at least I’m swaying in the right direction (pun intended).
Raccoon Creek with Lucas This one was chaos before it even started. Financials were due at work, our meeting with the new CFO got pushed, and I had to bolt straight from that meeting to make my tee time — thank god I had my clubs in the car or I never would’ve made it. No range time to warm up, which always throws me off. I also had to wear the work slacks on a pretty warm did. Just felt weird.
It showed. Shanked my first tee shot, and the first six holes were rough. Shot 51 on the front. But somewhere in there I started pulling it together, and the back nine was a different round — only one double bogey the whole nine. Hole 13, a par 3 over water, I hit a shot right at the pin , on my second shot after putting the first in the water, that had me thinking it might go in — it settled about 5 feet away. Player B! Shot 42 on the back.
The Takeaway
Looking at all of this together, two things keep showing up: I play better when I warm up first, and good contact is the whole game for me right now. The Raccoon Creek round is basically the proof — no range time, bad front nine, then once I settled into that hip turn Chris and I worked on, the back nine looked completely different.
Next step: keep the swing thought simple — turn the hips through, don’t sway — and protect at least 10 minutes on the range before I play whenever I possibly can.