Played early at Las Po today.
Shot 77 with a 38/39 score card.
I am still working on driver skills. The driver put me in trouble once, but otherwise was a weapon and not a tool of self-fright! So that is a good thing.
The round included a number of double bogeys. I was in traps a lot, but got it up and down 3 out of 5 times. I recently purchased a pair of TaylorMade wedges. The sand wedge has 15 degrees of bounce (56 degrees of loft) and it is very good at getting out of the sand in a nicely controllable manner. They are not cheap. I think I paid $139 each and I had to look for that. The current price is $159 or so. They seem to be wearing well. The last wedges I had were Scor and before that Ping. I hit a lot of shots and the grooves were blunting quickly. I'm hoping for a longer life and thus a lower cost per year. So far, I'm happy with them.
The things I'm trying to do with the driver is to stay behind it during the swing. I have an old annoying habit of sliding or lurching my upper body in the direction of the target, which puts me out of position and then I use my hands to "save" it. That led to a lot of hooks and slices. Tough combination there. I'm still out of position a fair amount, but not as far, so I'm ending up in the fairway. My distance is improving too and I've been pretty straight. Yeah!
I've also getting more realistic in re my iron carry distances. For example in the old days I would hit a 7 iron for a 150 yards shot. Well, that guy probably flies 130 to 140 and the 140 is on a good day. I'm getting careful about getting over bunkers etc. This came about because we've had some rain and courses have been quite wet. The balls are not bouncing up at all, just hitting and sticking.
Of course it is not that easy. Some of the greens will still roll out, so extreme course knowledge is needed. That's a bit tough on a new course.
Finally, the next goal is to make sure I provide a full shoulder turn when I'm hitting. I think I'm not doing that and there is a major power leak. If I change that, then all the carry distances will change and I'll have to start over a bit. But more club head speed should lead to better accuracy as I'll be using shorter clubs for shots.
I may do some range stuff this weekend, but I'm feeling a bit beat up with sore legs. I've played everyday for the last two weeks and walked all but two rounds. I felt good until today, where I was a bit creaky to get started.
The game is getting more fun as I get more accurate and consistent. Having a reliable driver has been missing for 7 years or so.
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