99

Well I broke 100, in just over three weeks... it definitely felt pretty good playing with three guys today from University of Iowa, and they thought I was hustling them (because they couldn't believe I'd only been playing for three weeks). I guess it's kind of a compliment.

Last night while watching the rained out coverage of the U.S. Open I was watching a video help site called Video Jug, they had a few videos that really clicked for me and made sense why I was slicing, so I immediately jumped in my car and drove over to the range 30 minutes before they closed. I tried out the new idea which I think is called a strong grip? I could be wrong, but essentially the person in the video said your left hand should impact the ball at the same angle as when your hand is hanging at rest by your side. I now walk up behind the ball lining up where I intend to drive the ball, then while the club is in my right hand I leave my left arm at rest by my side. I lift my left hand and mimic the left hands grip around the handle (even though the handle is only in my right hand. I then slip the handle into my hand (making sure the club face is lined up perpendicular to my intended line of travel) then place my right hand on the handle properly. It makes my left arm feel like it's on the right side of the club more (the "v" created by my thumb and index finger for my left hand points upwards to the right of my face more than I was before). It seems to limit my range of rotation for my left arm (which may or may not have been causing the slice but it seems to be working). Anyways I was super excited last night after I tried out the new technique so I went to be early to wake up and play... well it paid off, I broke 100 in way less time than I expected. My goal was to break a hundred by the end of the summer, but since I have so much time left in the summer, I'm so excited about the sport, and I don't want to end this blog on two posts, I'm going to create a new goal of trying to break 90 and truly become a bogey golfer (with a 20 or so handicap average) and I'm going to play on at least three other courses than the one I always play on.

We'll see how it goes...

I'm planning on playing again Wednesday, and the next thing I'm going to work on is putting& chipping. Right now I'm averaging about 2.222 per hold putting with about a 3.074 per hole chip & putt. The two techniques I'm going to be trying on Wednesday will be...

1. Looking at the hole instead of the ball on putts - Apparently this has been proven to get the ball closer on putts than just looking at the ball, I think it has to do with distance and being able to better anticipate how hard to hit the ball. I practiced it a little bit today when I got done with eighteen holes (mainly because I played so well, and I was so excited I didn't want to go home yet) and it definitely got me closer. (Example: I would be shooting a say... forty foot putt, when looking at the ball I would end up three putting 4 out of 5 times, where as when looking at the hole I would two putt 2 or 3 times out of five. I was getting much closer each time. Granted I only really feel comfortable making six foot putts about 95% of the time.)

2. Bump & Run - instead of always trying to use a pitching wedge to drop the ball in front of the hole within 20 yards of the pin. I'm going to try a 5 iron or so, and bump it onto the green to roll towards the pin. I tried it once today and over shot the pin, but I was definitely feeling more confident about the trajectory than a say five foot pitching wedge shot where I may blade it, or do something else to screw up the flight path.

3. ACTUALLY practice before the round - Pretty much every time I've gone to sign up to play, I've had at most 20 minutes of warm-up time. As a single golfer it's much easier to fit in on the reservation schedule so they slide me in as soon as possible. On Wednesday I'm going to hit the range first, then go in and sign-up, so the 20 minutes or so I might have will be on the putting green instead of hustling through a small bucket of balls because they just called my name. Hopefully this will get me warmed up more and I will feel more comfortable with my line of sight for putting.

Looking forward to Wednesday!