Going For Par

It’s been about two weeks since my last post, but a lot has been going on. For starters, I was part of the 1st place team at a scramble tournament. We finished with a 12-under 60, which included 2 eagles, 7 birdies, and 9 pars. We did pretty well considering we had myself (5 handicap), a 10-handicapper, and two 25-handicappers. Here’s the trophy:

 The next day I participated in another scramble tournament, and while tournament rules had us winning 1st place there with a tiebreaker, we decided to play a sudden death playoff and ended up losing on the 2nd hole. So, that was sort of a win, but not with satisfaction.

When practicing the last two weeks I’ve been focusing on a number of complicated things during my swing:

1. Keep the clubhead outside my hands during the takeaway
2. While doing #1, keep my hands moving straight back until it’s time to start the shoulder turn
3. Hinge my wrists in a manner that keeps my left wrist straight such that my left forearm and top of my left hand are in sync
4. Turn my shoulders and bring my arms up such that my left wrist stays flat through the back swing
5. Downswing with the feeling of the shaft moving through my right bicep and right forearm before coming through to impact
6. At impact, keeping my hands in the proper position in front of the ball
7. Releasing the clubhead out and allowing my hands to rotate freely through the end of the swing

It’s a lot to think about, and while many would advise to not think about these things when you swing, I’ve learned that if I focus on keeping my backswing slow and smooth, then I can not only think about these steps but also execute them and get awesome results.

I still have a lot of work to do, but my swing is starting to pick up some good consistency with results. For example, today I played a full 18, shot a 75, and my GIR percentage was the highest yet – 61.1%. This is the type of stat I need in order to score low. I could have had a great day if I didn’t mess up some putts, but getting on the green in regulation is a great way to have the opportunity for lower scores. See the full stats on the scorecard at oobgolf. I’ve already setup a tee time for tomorrow at my nemesis course – LPGA Legends – it will be my last round of play for at least two weeks..

This week we’re travelling to NYC for my sister’s wedding, so I’ll have about 5 days of physical rest from golf. That can only be a good thing as I’ve been going pretty much full speed ahead the last month. Hopefully the weekend after we get back I’ll have another lesson, and then the following week I have another two scramble tournaments to participate in.

Filed under: Golf Swing, Progress, Tournaments