Golfing My Ball
At 6:15 am Saturday morning I awoke to play
Brookview GC on what turned out to be a beautiful day. Now I enjoy
playing early and I enjoy playing close to home. This means I tend to
play as a single filling out a foursome. Now I think as a single you
have an added pressure when ever you tee it up. If you suck and slow
everyone down you're a scourge to the golfing community, but if you
play well and are social your a welcome companion. People that know me
might be surprised how social I can be with perfect strangers.
Back to golf, The last couple times I've played I've been fighting mu driver and tee ball in general. If you can't put the ball in play your never going to score well. It's kind of like continually giving yourself six foot puts for par, you'll make a few but you eventually miss a few too. Today I decided to only hit my driver on the long par fives and use my 3 wood (not metal, Johnny Miller) on most holes. I ended up driving the ball great hitting 10 of 14 fairways and hit two good shots with my driver (one over 300 yards....with roll).
Since putting the ball in play was my major problem I must have scored great right? Well surprisingly enough this wasn't the case. In fact I shot two stokes worse than the last time I played Brookview a month back. How could this be? I hit 10 of 14 fairways right? Well late any statistic, some times they don't tell the whole truth. Of those 10 fairways, two I hit out of dumb luck on miss hits. Both times I was well over 200 yards from the hole and being in the fairway didn't allow me an easy path to the green.
Still I ended up pushing two tee shots into hazards costing me yardage and strokes. I also missed the green five times from the fairway and four times from the tee box. Part of that was not getting the correct distances because I went long on four of those holes, twice leading to big numbers. I felt I hit my irons crisply, just not accurately. I'm not sure if this is just me getting used to my new grips or me just not being good enough for my irons.
I can't blame my iron play for my score though. I was not good chipping from 20-30 yards away. I miss hit a few shots with my wedge that cost me dearly. I also had 32 puts on the round I holes out from the fringe on 18. I'm two putting too many times because I'm not hitting my chips tight. Clearly I need to work on my short game if I want to break 90 again.
I think I have a better feel for putting the ball in play, I just need to fix up the short game so I can score. It's funny though. I didn't bother adding up my score till the very end and I felt great about my round. I was a bit shocked to see what I felt was a 87 or 89 turn into a 93 when I finally did the math. I can't say if it was good or bad not knowing my score while I played but I think i'll go back to writing the plus/minus scores just to give myself a feel for how I'm playing.
Back to golf, The last couple times I've played I've been fighting mu driver and tee ball in general. If you can't put the ball in play your never going to score well. It's kind of like continually giving yourself six foot puts for par, you'll make a few but you eventually miss a few too. Today I decided to only hit my driver on the long par fives and use my 3 wood (not metal, Johnny Miller) on most holes. I ended up driving the ball great hitting 10 of 14 fairways and hit two good shots with my driver (one over 300 yards....with roll).
Since putting the ball in play was my major problem I must have scored great right? Well surprisingly enough this wasn't the case. In fact I shot two stokes worse than the last time I played Brookview a month back. How could this be? I hit 10 of 14 fairways right? Well late any statistic, some times they don't tell the whole truth. Of those 10 fairways, two I hit out of dumb luck on miss hits. Both times I was well over 200 yards from the hole and being in the fairway didn't allow me an easy path to the green.
Still I ended up pushing two tee shots into hazards costing me yardage and strokes. I also missed the green five times from the fairway and four times from the tee box. Part of that was not getting the correct distances because I went long on four of those holes, twice leading to big numbers. I felt I hit my irons crisply, just not accurately. I'm not sure if this is just me getting used to my new grips or me just not being good enough for my irons.
I can't blame my iron play for my score though. I was not good chipping from 20-30 yards away. I miss hit a few shots with my wedge that cost me dearly. I also had 32 puts on the round I holes out from the fringe on 18. I'm two putting too many times because I'm not hitting my chips tight. Clearly I need to work on my short game if I want to break 90 again.
I think I have a better feel for putting the ball in play, I just need to fix up the short game so I can score. It's funny though. I didn't bother adding up my score till the very end and I felt great about my round. I was a bit shocked to see what I felt was a 87 or 89 turn into a 93 when I finally did the math. I can't say if it was good or bad not knowing my score while I played but I think i'll go back to writing the plus/minus scores just to give myself a feel for how I'm playing.
If you were happy while playing, is it really necessary for you to know your pluses or minuses?
Your g ame will improve if you play, so keep the good mood.
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I'm still not were I used to be five years ago. I think playing at least once a week will help but I still need to practice more. I need to spend the time on the range if I want to perform on the course.
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there is only so much time in the week. Maybe you can focus on one skill at a time. Good vibes to you.
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I try to never spend more than a half hour at the range. I'll hit a small bucket or chip and finish up with putting. If I can get 2 hours a week in that's a good week. I wish I had more time but I don't.
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