That was a humbling experience. LPGA International beat me up pretty bad. I scored a 98. The worst round I’ve had since May, before I started playing better.
My stats were pretty rough, but I didn’t get the scorecard so off memory I hit 3 greens in regulation, which translated into my three pars for the day, and I hit only 2 or 3 fairways. Putting was worse than normal with 37 total putts for a 2.1 putt per hole average. LPGA’s greens were the fastest greens I’ve played on in at least a year, so I’m not too concerned with the putting stat. It just means I need to play on some more difficult courses.
It was my first time playing at LPGA, but that certainly wasn’t the reason for my poor play. I simply didn’t swing well. Overall the course is not nearly as difficult as everyone makes it out to be. If I could have hit the ball straight and consistent then I probably would have been fine, and putting would have been my biggest problem of the day. Strategically, the course suits my style of play well, and I believe if I can cure these problems then I can go back there and get a better result.
I probably should have seen it coming since my swing has been “off” the last week. Something didn’t feel right, but I couldn’t quite pinpoint it. Symptoms included pulling the ball and hitting the ball fat (hitting the ground behind the ball), both of which I did plenty of at LPGA.
I was so mad after the round yesterday that I threatened to go to the range to figure things out, but with the 95 degree weather I decided to take a break from golf and come back to it this morning. I’m glad I did.
This morning we went to the range and I worked on one thing: getting my arm across my chest on the backswing and back in the slot on the downswing. Basically, making sure my downswing maintained an inside-out path. After the first 15 or so swings, I realized that this was definitely resolving the pulls I’ve experienced, but the fat shots were still there and something still felt “off”. It was still too much effort to swing.
So I thought about some of the causes fat shots – lowering the right shoulder, too much angle bending over at address, etc. I realized I have been feeling like I’m bending over a little too much addressing the ball, so the first thing I did was stand up a little straighter.
The first swing after that adjustment felt great. My arms fell into place on the downswing, I didn’t feel “off”, and the ball was right on target with a slight draw – signs I had a good swing. After a few more swings I switched to the long irons to test out what I was feeling, and sure enough the hardest clubs to swing suddenly became just as easy to swing as a 9-iron.
I finished the rest of my range balls with swing thoughts focused on the backswing-downswing and standing up. I need to get some more repetitions in for muscle memory, but after feeling pretty down from that 98 yesterday these small adjustments give me hope.
Now I’m looking forward to the next round, which could come tomorrow if the weather cooperates. If not, I’ll definitely get some more practice in at the range.