90 the hard way...

Wow, I played REALLY poorly from outside 100 yards today... I made sure I was striking down on the ball to make those divots and get that smash factor everyone is raving about. However, it's not easy to see results when I hit 5 or 6 trees lose 5 balls, and barely got 1 fairway. It didn't help that I had 3 three-putts, because the only thing that was working for me was my chips and putts. I made some really great par putts, but they were lost on a lot of safety shots to get out from the trees. I still shot a 90 though for 18, which I can barely believe. It makes me wonder if it's my short game saving face of poor accuracy on drives, or if I am getting more accurate with my irons to help put me in position for easy chips and pitch. I can't tell yet, but hopefully I'll start seeing results from better ball striking in the next few rounds I play.

I did notice that I was not focusing on making proper wrist-cock on the back swing, so I'm surely losing power but I'm hoping I can slowly introduce that into the swing. The key however to a lot of saved shots has been the lift, clean, align and place routine for my putts. I've been getting a lot closer to the pin on each attempt. That coupled with my peripheral vision and overall feel of "on-lineness" has really helped me feel comfortable on putts. My hybrid punch shots have really been great for getting me out from the trees, and I'm starting to get the feel for how far it goes on easier swings. I've also gotten a lot more comfortable with my 60 degree wedge, and it has helped eliminate a lot of roll on the green if I can now just hone in on the flag with better accuracy it will be a great tool from 60 yards or so out. I did notice that keeping the ball a little further back in my stance and utilizing the wrist-cock somewhat on chips and close pitch shots was really beneficial. I do however need to work on watching my ball and where it lands. I am so sick of losing balls and more importantly strokes due to penalties from not being able to find my ball in the rough. I'm fine (for the most part) with a lost stroke to a hazard, but come on, watching the ball land and then not finding it is silly.

I was really struggling with the last two rounds of 9 being 55 and 56, I had gained ten strokes on 9-holes just from trying to introduce better swing components but it was making me super frustrated. I'm glad it has started to get me back down to where I want to be. Even though (again) it may have just been my short game compensating for lack of solid iron play.

At any rate my goal next round is to play safe and smart onto the fairways so I can set up some solid iron attempts at least. We'll see how that goes. I'm off to see Pineapple Express at an outdoor cinema with some friends from work... I wonder if I'll try and play tomorrow even though I shouldn't for money reasons.