Anyway, it’s a good sign. I have roughly 3 days to get ready for the TPC Sawgrass tournament, and I’m feeling good about my game.

After last night I decided to change up my practice plan a bit. Instead of banging around balls at the range, putting green, and short game area, I’m going to try to either work on the practice course or play a round today, play my round at Sawgrass tomorrow, then keep it light Friday. Yesterday’s 9 holes really helped me from a mental standpoint in terms of my course management and pre-shot routine, and I realized I need to get a little more comfortable being on the course with the latest changes to my swing and swing thoughts. So, “play, play, play” will be the game plan heading into the weekend.

For this update I’ll try things a little different and go hole-by-hole following a format I’ve seen on other blogs:

Hole 1 – Par 4, 355 yards

Good drive down the middle of the fairway. Aimed slightly left of fairway because I have a slight fade with my driver right now (I know why, and that’s part of what I’m trying to correct). Drive measured about 290, leaving me about 60 yards to the pin. Decided to use a 1/2 Lob Wedge (58′) swing, but it was more like a 90% swing as the ball flew to the back of the green. Used 9-iron to chip, but was left with a 15 foot putt as I didn’t take into account a ridge in the middle of the green and the overall chip distance – should have used an 8-iron. Downhill putt from 15 feet rolled past the cup about 4 feet. Made the uphill 4 foot putt, slight left to right. Bogey 5

Hole 2 – Par 4, 414 yards

Again played for the fade, but ended up slicing to the right rough because of a poor takeaway on the swing. Played a 3/4 swing 9-iron from about 150 yards to the pin from the rough, landing about a foot short of the green in the fairway/fringe. The 3/4 swing wasn’t necessarily intentional – I was just focusing on my swing mechanics. Outside of the poor distance, the shot was on target and had good ball flight. After the chipping experience on the first hole, learned my lesson and better gauged the green and distance to the pin for the chip on this hole. Used a 9-iron to chip up to about 2 feet left of the pin. Didn’t see the severe right-to-left break around the pin. Made the 2 foot putt. Par 4

Hole 3 – Par 4, 336 yards

Again played the fade on the drive, landing on the fairway about 50 yards away from the pin. Used 58′ Lob Wedge with a 1/2 swing to pitch it up to the elevated green about a foot to the right of the pin. Made the putt. Birdie 3

Hole 4- Par 3, 155 yards

This par 3 is over water with a forward sloping green. Pin location back left of the green, which was around 9-iron distance, but decided to use the PW since solid contact would put me around the middle of the green. Sure enough, solid contact, landing in the middle of the green. Lag putt to 6 inches, tap in. Par 3

Hole 5 – Par 4, 328 yards

Again played the fade, landing middle of the fairway with the driver. Left about 55 yards to the pin, which is located middle right with a bunker in the middle. Used 58′ LW at 1/2 swing. Made solid contact, resulting in massive backspin. Landed on the green about 3 feet from the pin, but backspin kicked in and combined with the green slope the ball rolled off the green, off the severe fringe slope, and into the rough. Still had a good lie though and used 58′ LW to pitch it up to be 2 feet from the pin. Made the putt. Par 4

Hole 6 – Par 5, 525 yards

Severe dogleg left around a tree line and water, almost like a half circle. Decided to attempt a draw with the Driver. Had success, but not enough hook. Hit the ball over the fairway and into the right rough, but near the apex of the half circle, leaving me about 245 yards from the center of the green. Had a very good lie in the rough, but a tough slope. Decided to gamble and go for the green with the 3-wood. Mishit it and landed left of the green and short in the rough about 40 yards from the pin. Used 58′ LW to pitch it up, but used too much swing and hit it to the back of the green on the fringe. Used 9-iron to chip it to within 3 feet. Made the putt. Par 5

Hole 7 – Par 3, 175 yards

Used 8-iron since the pin was in the front of the green. Severely pushed the ball to the right of the green in the rough. Had a tough, deep lie. Used 58′ LW, but didn’t hit it cleanly. Watched the ball land in the bunker next to the green. Sand shot barely made it on the green leaving about a 6 foot putt. Made the uphill, fairly straightforward putt for an up-and-down. Bogey 4

Hole 8 – Par 5, 476 yards

Again played the Driver fade, landing right in the middle of the fairway at the turn of this dogleg right leaving a perfect approach view to the green from about 220 yards away. Used 5-wood, but did not play the fade that came out of the swing (all my woods and longer irons have a fade right now, but that’s not the case for shorter irons). Ball landed just to the right of the green and about 2 feet to the left of a bunker. Had a good lie and used 8-iron to chip across the green to 6 inches of the hole. Tapped in putt. Birdie 4

Hole 9 – Par 4, 393 yards

Went into this hole knowing I was even par. Probably shouldn’t have thought about it. Played the fade for the Driver but ended up hitting it straight to the left side of the fairway, which is actually the perfect place to be for a clear shot to the green, leaving about 135 yards to the pin. Decided to use 3/4 swing PW for approach shot but instead of playing it safe to get on the green, played aggressively to try to get close enough for a solid birdie putt. Mechanics broke down on the swing a bit and I pushed it and hit it a little fat into the right bunker in front of the green (ball landed about 18 feet from the hole). Sand shot was pretty poor, again barely making it onto the green, leaving a 12 foot putt. Ball rolled past the hole about 3 feet, but I made the 3 footer. Bogey 5

Next Steps

Not bad. +1 for 9 holes, and I’m not even playing that well yet. Chipping in particular really saved me, minus that first hole.

My sand game needs some serious work. I’m having a lot of trouble getting out of the sand with my new wedges. In general my swing was pretty decent, but as you can tell most of the round was a driver-partial wedge style of play since we were playing from shorter tees. When I did have to use my full irons I tended to have bad results – just means I need to keep working on the swing changes. As I work on the changes and get better at the short irons I’ll need to work my way up to longer irons and woods to help get rid of the fade. My main problem there is that I’m holding off the club face instead of letting it come through, but that’s what I’ll be working on.

I have a lesson this Saturday, so maybe I’ll ask for help with the short game and sand shots while I continue to work on the swing.

Last post I recapped last week and how I finished off Sunday with a 78 (+6) round of golf. Well, I did better this week. You can see my scorecards on oobgolf:

• Tuesday, Indigo Lakes: http://www.oobgolf.com/golfers/score.php?id=676556
• Friday, Cypress Head: http://www.oobgolf.com/golfers/score.php?id=683623

On Tuesday I shot a 39 (+3) during the 9-hole round, which is my best Tuesday score so far this year. To add to the great score, I made an eagle on the first par-5. I started with a 280 yard drive, leaving me about 196 yards to the pin (pin in the front) and about 210 to the center of the green.

This is where SkyCaddie is useful. If I didn’t know the yardage to the front of the green, I probably would have used my 5-iron, which would have put the ball on the back of the green or over it. But SkyCaddie let me know that I really only needed a 6-iron. So, I went through my pre-shot routine, put the one swing thought I’m working on right now in my head (keep the right wrist hinged through impact), and let’er rip. I came on top of the ball just a little, but it had a small fade on it leading the ball right at the pin. It landed about 10 feet short of the pin, took a bounce to the right, and came to rest.

As I got up to the ball I realized that the putt to the cup was fairly simple – not much break left or right, just uphill and straight. The green did seem to have a slight lean to the left, so during my preshot routine I aimed my ball mark slightly right of center of the cup. For once, I wasn’t all that nervous about one of these putts – I’ve had eagle chances before and missed them. Once I did my preshot routine, I pulled back, let the putter clubhead go, and watched the ball roll into the center of the cup. Eagle. My first one ever.

After 5 holes I was even-par, which got me excited about possibly making par for the 9-holes. That was dumb of me. I shouldn’t have even thought about my score because I ended up getting a bogey on the last 3 of 4 holes to end +3. Oh well. Lesson learned.

Which brings us to today: 18-holes, same course as last Sunday, shot a 75 (+3). The new best round ever and very close to the whole goal of me starting this blog (how funny will that be if I make par this year – I won’t be “going for par” anymore!). I made two 30 foot putts, had 3 birdies, had my highest green in regulation percentage, and didn’t think about the score much at all. Instead, I focused on “winning” each hole (par or better).

My focus was so good today that I didn’t even realize I made even-par on the front 9 until I added up the score before starting the back 9. That’s another first: even-par for 9 holes. Awesome. I only had 13 putts for those 9-holes too – real awesome. I finished with 28 putts total for the 18 holes.

The only unfortunate thing about today’s round is that I started getting tired as I got to the 10th hole. I attribute the tiredness to the 2 hour practice I went through in addition to the lack of food before playing. Plus it was a hot 90+ degrees Farenheit. Oops.

But I went into grind mode after I got tired of making bogeys and even got one back with a birdie on the 17th hole. It’s unfortunate that I got tired because for this particular course the back 9 tends to be much easier than the front 9. I usually average 3-5 strokes less on the back compared to the front. Today was a reversal of that statistic.

I took two days off this week (Monday and Thursday), but I had a nice practice on Wednesday. I’ve learned to stop when my body starts feeling fatigued, and it’s interesting how well it bounces back with just one day off – not just in strength but also in muscle memory.

I may be playing one more round this weekend, but so far I’m having a great week with my scores. I have to credit the Tour Academy instruction I received for helping with the improvements. I’m just applying the information I learned, and it’s paying dividends already.

To start, the 9-hole Tuesday round went fairly well as I shot a 43. It could have been, or really should have been, less than 40. I’m still in the process of applying what I learned at the Tour Academy, and sometimes that application doesn’t go so well. On Tuesday it was the chipping and short pitch shots. I can count at least 4 shots I screwed up on pretty bad (the ball went anywhere from a few inches to 2 feet), but right after the screw up I would try it again and get awesome results. So, take away those 4 shots and I’m at 39. Good stuff.

I was happy with the round on Tuesday and felt that I played better than my score indicated. I’m happy with the progress. On the negative side, Tuesday was the day I realized that with the new swing my club distances are all messed up, and I need to re-evaluate/learn them. For instance, I hit a PW (pitching wedge) 150 yards out of the rough on a downhill lie to land over the green and in bushes on one particular hole (another shot that shouldn’t have been added to the score). My PW used to be 125-ish yards. Now I use it for shots between 140 and 150 yards – at least, that’s what I’m learning to do now.

On Saturday a couple of us went to LPGA International to play on the Champions course. A few weeks ago we played on the Legends course, but until Saturday I had never played on Champions. From what we hear, Champions is the easier of the two. I can agree with that. I think it’s the links-style, which makes it more difficult to lose your ball unless you hit it in the water or really screw up on your swing.

I had a few saucy shots at LPGA International, and perhaps the one I’m most proud of from that day is the 6-iron out of a fairway bunker (something I learned how to do at the Tour Academy). I know it doesn’t sound like much, but hitting out of a fairway bunker is a difficult thing to do and I’m proud that I was able to do it – it’s progress, and I’m all about progress in the forward direction right now. I shot an 84 at LPGA, which I’m very happy about. It’s a challenging course with fast greens.

And Sunday I decided to play another round at Cypress Head, a course a few minutes down the road from me. Despite the rain and horrible practice at the range beforehand, I played my best round yet with a 6-over par 78. Very happy about that. I’m finally starting to swing my 3-wood more consistently, and my driver started to show some promise. Of course, now that I’m hitting my 3-wood 270-ish yards, I almost feel like I don’t need my driver right now.

The short game is keeping my score lower than it probably should be right now. I attribute that success to what I learned at the Tour Academy. Because I’m struggling with my club distances, I tend to hit the ball either short of the green or over the green, which keeps my GIR percentage low. So I’m often hitting a little chip or short pitch, but with the techniques I can get myself to a makeable putt distance easily. And with what I learned about putting, that makeable putt distance has increased to about 6 feet. I’m not missing any putts less than 6 feet often anymore, and my scores are starting to reflect it.

You can view the scorecards for my two rounds this weekend at oobgolf:

• Cypress Head – http://www.oobgolf.com/golfers/score.php?id=669731
• LPGA International Champions – http://www.oobgolf.com/golfers/score.php?id=665708

In addition to the rounds, I practiced every day this week. For that reason I’m going to take Monday night off and let my body soak in the hard work of the past week. I’ve found that sometimes my body’s muscle memory really kicks in after heavy use if I take a day or two off from physical activity. And if that isn’t enough reason, then the excuse that I just need to rest will have to do.

Probably the best thing in my golf game right now is my confidence. Before the Tour Academy experience, I would run into situations on the course where I wasn’t sure what I should do or how to execute the shot I was trying to make. For instance, pitching. I didn’t have a framework for how to control my distance, so I just thought I needed a lot of practice hitting at different distances until I “got it”.

Since the Tour Academy, I know what to do in every situation, or at a minimum I know my options and can pick one. I’m not afraid to be 50 yards from the green, or buried in the bunker, or in deep rough. I know what to do now, so instead of trying to figure out what to do I can focus on execution. With this kind of confidence I’ve already noticed a difference in my attitude and abilities on the course. It’s exciting, and I am starting to believe that these last couple weeks may be the true beginning of my journey toward playing par golf (and better).

For instance, on a par-5 hooking dogleg left, my tee shot clipped a tree branch, which led to my ball next to the lake that the dogleg left wraps around with an almost-open shot to the fairway on the other side. Basically, I had about a 200 yard shot I could attempt to cut across the dogleg and land on or near the green instead of getting my ball back on the fairway and playing it safe.

Since I don’t usually get to attempt these types of shots, I decided “why not?” The only issue was one tree limb that I was hoping my shot would go underneath on its way out. I grabbed my 3-iron, took my swing, and watched the ball barely scratch the bottom of the limb, followed by a beeline into the water, falling short about 3 yards of the other side of the lake.

Feeling brave, I took another one of those shots, only to hit a tree on the other side of the lake, which caused a ricochet back into the lake. Doing stuff like that adds those shots up quick.

Even though I was playing around by trying out some shots – the kind I call my ESPN shots – I included the penalties on my score and ended up with an 8 on that par-5. In some ways I was impressed I still had a triple bogey on the most difficult hole of the course despite those two water hazards.

There were a few other holes I decided to play around with on my shots and it sort of artificially inflated my score. I didn’t really mind this time, though. I had opportunities to try shots I wouldn’t normally do, and I think it’s good to practice them when you can.

Besides, it’s my last Tuesday golf outing before I head to the Tour Academy for 3 days. I figured I’d have some fun.

Since it’s been raining every afternoon I’ve been practicing putting in the living room. I use a mock cup and a yoga mat to represent the putting surface. The main issue I’ve noticed with my putting is that I can be inconsistent on the takeaway, which leads to inconsistency on the forward swing. I’ve narrowed it down to focusing on keeping my hands in sync as they move back and forth. When I keep them in sync I can put the ball wherever I want. If they get out of sync then I either push or pull the putt.

Weather permitting, I still may try to play a round on Friday. If I don’t have that chance on Friday, then I’ll probably just hit a few balls on Saturday since I probably need to take care of a few things before I head out of town.

Putting wasn’t very good, though. My guess for that is because I didn’t focus very well once I was on the green. My dad was playing with me on the course, and I had to share my putter with him which sort of changes your pre-shot routine on the green.

I’m glad of the way I was able to scramble after hitting a poor shot. Every time I had a poor shot I followed up with a series of good shots. And as I’ve been suspecting, the poor shots are coming from a lack of concentration. Nothing more, nothing less.

Today was a little different, though, with family riding and playing along, particularly family that hasn’t played the game in 15 years. It’s just a little more difficult to concentrate the full round. But that’s okay. It was fun.

I deliberately took the last two days off, which is why there hasn’t been any updates. After about 10 straight days of golf and working out I needed to give my body a rest. I’m glad I did. On the course I felt strong, my timing felt great, and I could control my swing more than I was able to last week.

Since family is in town I won’t be able to practice tomorrow, but Thursday I’ll get back into it. Despite my below average scores lately I feel like I’m on the verge of consistently breaking 80. The various aspects of my game appear to be converging, so now I just have to put it all together for a full round. I’m proud of my progress so far. Much more to look forward to.

Really, I should have had 40 or less today. I was playing that well, at least compared to the last two rounds I’ve played. There were a few problems of course. If there weren’t then the score would have been much better.

One problem was that I couldn’t make my 4 birdie putts, ranging from 5 to 15 feet. Four birdie opportunities out of nine from a short distance like that is pretty good, I think. But that kind of statistic isn’t worth much if you can’t capitalize on it.

Another problem was the mental game. I hit a lot of good shots today. I also hit a few bad shots. The bad shots cost me. I scrambled pretty well overall, but when you hit a ball out of bounds on one hole and in the water a few holes later you’re automatically down 3 strokes.

As mentioned, the problem was the mental game. I can go through the scorecard, remember each shot, and know exactly which shots I did not concentrate on well – the ones that got me in trouble. Take those away, and I’m looking at a near-par score for the 9 holes.

Having played another sport at a highly competitive level (baseball), I can attest to the concentration and focus required to excel at sport. I know better than to lose focus. When I played baseball I had to be able to focus on every pitch, every inning, of every game. It wasn’t easy – in fact intense games can be downright exhausting. 

From a mental game standpoint, my biggest challenge is going to be focusing on every shot of every hole throughout a round. I know I’m better at this since I started this journey a couple months ago, but this is an area that will always require improvement.

From a statistics standpoint, my GIR was 4 out of 9, although two of the misses were on the fringe and puttable. Similarly with fairways, I hit 4 out of 7, but all three misses were about a foot into the rough. The work I did last night at the range on my driver and 3-wood really helped.

Chipping and pitching were awesome. Because my shots off the tee were doing so well, I often found myself pitching onto the green from 50-90 yards out. Most of my chips and pitches were within 10 feet of the hole. Definitely can’t complain there.

But that’s why putting hurt. I had 16 putts for the 9-holes for a 1.78 average. Not bad, but it could have been better. As I already mentioned I had a number of birdie opportunities from short distances that I should have made (and barely missed).

Overall, it’s progress, and I’m happy about it. Still a long ways to go, but things are turning back around to progress.

That’s the funny thing about golf, I suppose. As your play improves you get to where you expect nothing less than your best. At least, that’s how it works for me. I know I can shoot 40-43 per 9-holes, so anything higher than that is disappointing.

Some say I’m just being too hard on myself – after all, a lot of amateurs would be happy to shoot a 45. But I don’t think they understand. When I get disappointed or upset about not playing to expectations, I don’t mean the definition of disappointed or upset that leans on the side of depression. Using the words disappointed or upset mean that I’m even more motivated and determined to get better.

Anyway, the 45 could have easily been near 40. I started trying a few things out on the course that I haven’t tried before, particularly with my pitching and chipping, and the more I play the more I learn that if you’re trying to shoot a low score then it’s a bad idea to try things out on the course. Next time I’ll leave the “trying out” for the range and practice greens.

I had a 3-putt. My first one in about 30 holes. Still, I only had 17 putts for the 9 holes to give me a decent 1.88 average. Fairway percentage wasn’t great (43%), but on only one hole was I in a poor position and lie because I missed the fairway. I’m starting to learn that Fairway percentage can be misleading, depending on the course.

The killer was the greens-in-regulation stat: 1 out of 9. It’s hard to get birdie opportunities or even just pars with that kind of play. I had two pars, two double bogeys, and the rest bogeys – yeah, 45 is bogey golf.

So what does all this tell me? From a skills practice standpoint, I need to put more emphasis on:

• Approach shot accuracy – if I can get on the green in regulation, an opportunity I have almost every hole these days, then I won’t have to rely on great chips or pitches so often.
• Chipping – the short game is key for those lower scores when you don’t hit the green. I’ve put a lot of emphasis on these in practice, but I need to work on my accuracy to try to get myself within at least 6 feet of the hole on chips and closer as I get better.
• Pitching – more of the short game, of course. I struggle with shots in the 40-100 yard range. My sand wedge is too inconsistent right now to provide a reliable club at the upper end of that range, and I have trouble gauging distance with my pitching wedge. I just need to practice it more. I’m also trying to minimize how often I have to take these shots by changing my course strategy.
• Swing consistency – 5 strokes could have been taken off my score today if my swing were more consistent (i.e. not hitting behind the ball, topping the ball, hooking, or slicing). This particular area has vastly improved, though, and is probably one of the major reasons why my scores have improved so much.

And of course putting. Putting is fine, and I think I’m pretty good at it.

Tomorrow I plan to do a work out. Not sure if I’ll get any practice time. If not, then I’ll get some heavy practice in on Thursday in preparation for Friday’s round at LPGA International.