I shot another 72, a tie with my personal best, and I managed to birdie 3 consecutive holes -- a new personal record.
The only regret is the miss of a 4 footer for a birdie on the final hole for a 71. Ok, there was the sloppy 3 putt on 12, which was my only bogey on the back 9. 15 greens in regulation.
I had 4 birdies in all for the round, which is also a tie for personal best.
If I ever write a golf instructional book, I'll include the line, "Everything a pro has told you, is probably true."
I'm starting to think that learning to play golf and perhaps everything requires a layered approach. Learn this. Then learn that. Don't try that without being able to do this.
Or, one is not ready to learn that yet. Master the 8 iron, then start going up and down the list of clubs.
What I'm trying to do is swing back and down slowly. Hit all the shots like I hit the 9 iron. This is tough. We all know that to drive a ball a long way requires a massive effort.
Well, maybe it does, but until you can get the club on the ball in a good manner, trying to hit it hard/far is a fool's errand. I'm hoping my amount of fool is decreasing.
I had a nice range session today -- they are usually good. But I'm working on trusting that a smooth slow swing will make the ball go as far as a fast swing. Trust needs to be earned! It's kind of a long process. If it doesn't work on the course, keep trying to pursue the method.
Saturday, July 22, 2017
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
An interesting Nine...
I was determined to keep using the new swing thoughts and for the most part they worked.
It's so easy to regress. It's also easy to concentrate on just one section of the game and not be able to score well. It's so hard to keep all the stuff in one's mind...
I had a strange front nine today. Allow me to flood the post with detail.
So here goes. The first hole is tough with a tee shot that can can run into a pond and also has tree trouble. I hit it into the trees, chipped out and couldn't get to the green; pitched poorly and missed the putt. So I started with a double.
Hole two is 500 yards and par 5. Drive up the middle, utility to 120 yards, iron on and two putts for par.
Three is a dog leg around a pond. Drive ok, but second shot gets knocked down into a trap due to 15 mph wind, no up and in, so a bogey.
Four is back into the wind, par 3 and 160 yards. It's a full carry with huge, deep traps in front of the green. One quickly learns if they really can carry an iron 150 yards. I hit my utility about as hard and as well as I could. That put about 15 feet below the hole. Drained it and we have a birdie. Let's call it birdie number 1.
Five is longish, cross wind, usually a tough scoring hole. The green sits at an angle is 40 yards deep and it's well trapped on the front and back. I hit an ok drive into the fairway. Then another well struck utility to the front of the green to kill the shot, it bounces up and finishes 4 inches from the cup. Left the putter in the bag; Birdie #2.
Six is a par 5, playing down wind. Ok drive, nice utility and then 8 iron to 4 feet. I've never had three birdies in a row and this was quite the chance. One of my fellow golfers hit it on my line and I knew there was a gentle right to left. But it was down hill and I didn't hit it hard enough and it slid buy for a tap in par.
Seven is a short par 4. I lay up with a five iron usually and today was no exception. I hit an 8 iron to the middle of the green, about 12 feet from the pin. Rolled that one in. Birdies #3.
Eight is a 150 yard par 3, all of which is carry across another pond full of ducks, coots, frogs and great blue herons. It plays longer for some reason. I'm thinking the air over the pond is different. Woe to the golfer who is short. I hit a 5 iron across the wind and I ended up above the hole about 20 feet. Well, today was a day where that didn't matter much. It had a foot break from right to left I rolled it right it. Birdie #4.
Nine was a boring bogey on a tough hole. No need for details. But I ended the nine with an even par 36. I've only made consecutive birdies twice before in my long career and here I managed it twice in one nine.
A crazy day for sure.
It's so easy to regress. It's also easy to concentrate on just one section of the game and not be able to score well. It's so hard to keep all the stuff in one's mind...
I had a strange front nine today. Allow me to flood the post with detail.
So here goes. The first hole is tough with a tee shot that can can run into a pond and also has tree trouble. I hit it into the trees, chipped out and couldn't get to the green; pitched poorly and missed the putt. So I started with a double.
Hole two is 500 yards and par 5. Drive up the middle, utility to 120 yards, iron on and two putts for par.
Three is a dog leg around a pond. Drive ok, but second shot gets knocked down into a trap due to 15 mph wind, no up and in, so a bogey.
Four is back into the wind, par 3 and 160 yards. It's a full carry with huge, deep traps in front of the green. One quickly learns if they really can carry an iron 150 yards. I hit my utility about as hard and as well as I could. That put about 15 feet below the hole. Drained it and we have a birdie. Let's call it birdie number 1.
Five is longish, cross wind, usually a tough scoring hole. The green sits at an angle is 40 yards deep and it's well trapped on the front and back. I hit an ok drive into the fairway. Then another well struck utility to the front of the green to kill the shot, it bounces up and finishes 4 inches from the cup. Left the putter in the bag; Birdie #2.
Six is a par 5, playing down wind. Ok drive, nice utility and then 8 iron to 4 feet. I've never had three birdies in a row and this was quite the chance. One of my fellow golfers hit it on my line and I knew there was a gentle right to left. But it was down hill and I didn't hit it hard enough and it slid buy for a tap in par.
Seven is a short par 4. I lay up with a five iron usually and today was no exception. I hit an 8 iron to the middle of the green, about 12 feet from the pin. Rolled that one in. Birdies #3.
Eight is a 150 yard par 3, all of which is carry across another pond full of ducks, coots, frogs and great blue herons. It plays longer for some reason. I'm thinking the air over the pond is different. Woe to the golfer who is short. I hit a 5 iron across the wind and I ended up above the hole about 20 feet. Well, today was a day where that didn't matter much. It had a foot break from right to left I rolled it right it. Birdie #4.
Nine was a boring bogey on a tough hole. No need for details. But I ended the nine with an even par 36. I've only made consecutive birdies twice before in my long career and here I managed it twice in one nine.
A crazy day for sure.
Monday, July 17, 2017
New Approach...
In my viewing of too many golf instructional videos on youtube, I decided that I've been trying to propel the ball with too much hands and arms and not using the shoulders or hips effectively.
So I went the other way. Make sure the shoulders are moving the arms and the hands remaining passive.
Of course to do that, one must use the lower body to move the shoulders and that will lead one to the proper foot work. Which means that a coil into the right leg has too happen too.
In many ways this is the opposite of what I've been doing for a while.
I played Friday and shot 78 and shot 79 today. Regardless of the closeness of scores, the golf today was much easier today than that of Friday.
While applying the above mentioned techniques, I was able to hit the ball very solidly all day. This technique works well with putting too. I was short a few putts, but make a bunch too. Up and downs were trivial for the most part. Oh, I didn't make all of them, but I was well above 50%.
Tee shots were a lot better. I might have lost two shots to being in trouble off the tee, but the rest were in play and the distance was good.
Irons were quite straight and I hit a bunch of them high, which is not my usual ball flight.
The kind of golf I like to play is to be positional. Work the ball around the course and set up for entries into greens. (Some day I'll get interested in putting, but for now, it's a bit of side show to the ball striking side of the game.)
When the ball goes well and you feel in control, it's a different game. It changes what you do. You are no longer worried about hitting the ball off the tee, but the game becomes more complex. Where do I place the tee shot? What part of the green do I play for? What shot shape do I want for this chip?
It's much more fun in this mode and I'm looking forward to the next round.
So I went the other way. Make sure the shoulders are moving the arms and the hands remaining passive.
Of course to do that, one must use the lower body to move the shoulders and that will lead one to the proper foot work. Which means that a coil into the right leg has too happen too.
In many ways this is the opposite of what I've been doing for a while.
I played Friday and shot 78 and shot 79 today. Regardless of the closeness of scores, the golf today was much easier today than that of Friday.
While applying the above mentioned techniques, I was able to hit the ball very solidly all day. This technique works well with putting too. I was short a few putts, but make a bunch too. Up and downs were trivial for the most part. Oh, I didn't make all of them, but I was well above 50%.
Tee shots were a lot better. I might have lost two shots to being in trouble off the tee, but the rest were in play and the distance was good.
Irons were quite straight and I hit a bunch of them high, which is not my usual ball flight.
The kind of golf I like to play is to be positional. Work the ball around the course and set up for entries into greens. (Some day I'll get interested in putting, but for now, it's a bit of side show to the ball striking side of the game.)
When the ball goes well and you feel in control, it's a different game. It changes what you do. You are no longer worried about hitting the ball off the tee, but the game becomes more complex. Where do I place the tee shot? What part of the green do I play for? What shot shape do I want for this chip?
It's much more fun in this mode and I'm looking forward to the next round.
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Good News
I tried to do a couple of things that I saw the juniors doing at the AJGA tournament with my swing. I was able to do them at the range yesterday and on the course today. And they didn't hurt my back or neck or hands or nothin'!
I was trying to do a slow backswing and down swing, while driving my lower body first. I might have screwed this up twice, but it worked a lot more than it didn't.
My distances were the same, but consistency was very good and my driver behaved himself. I topped a couple of shots and took two penalty strokes. Final score was around 80 with no birdies -- though I putted well with but one three putt. Chipped in once and made a few up and downs. But mostly it was hit the green and two putt.
Also Barb and I found some of the stainless steel vacuum bottles at Walmart. They are supposed to be as good as the Yeti models. All I know, as a water bottle on the golf course, they worked great. Very cold water all day long. They cost about $7.50; the Yetis are about $30. Barb bought me one of them and I'll be a happy and grateful user forever.
I've wanted to move a bit from the technical aspects of the game and talk more about other stuff. I thought I would attempt a description of the Lake Merced Golf Course.
The course looks like a number of them which are situated near the coast near San Francisco. The trees are mostly cypress, which grow quite tall, don't have a lot of lower branches. They leaves seem to be oriented to the sky. They look great in the fog and that creates a "minor chord" look to them.
The par 4s were about 360 on average. One was short at 300 and it was causing a lot of problems. It had a tough green and it was elevated with a couple of traps and a tucked pin on a tiny shelf.
On the first hole there is a 90 degree dogleg off to the left. The leg starts at about 200 yards and the hole is close to 400 yards long. The longer hitters were aiming left and hitting the drives over the cypress to find the fairway within 100 yards of the green.
There are also some pine trees, which were used at the 150 yard lines.
The fairways were cut pretty narrowly, maybe 40 yards or less. The rough wasn't long at all and if you missed the rough, you were in thin pine straw or dirt. Not too penal, unless you went OB. The kids, particularly the girls, were quite straight and it was rare to see a ball miss the fairway by much.
The kids were rarely animated. One guy, wearing shorts! (Did I mention is was 60 degrees without any sun?), slammed a club or two. But mostly the kids didn't seem to respond to anything. The long dropped putt or a weak shot to an up hill green led only to grim determination and steely eyes. There was no joy in Mudville...
It was kind of sad to see the lack of elation that I would have had being in those surrounding and playing a game. But it probably is not a game to them anymore.
The course was hilly with a couple of minor canyons running through it. There were some elevated tees and frequently you hit over the top of a hill to a blind landing area.
The driving range is in the middle of course and quie narrow. The fences were not high enough and the kids were banging them over the fence to various fairways. The parents that walked along with the kids would toss the balls back.
There was also a nice short game practice area also in the middle of the course. Nice area, but an unexpected find when we stumbled over it.
There have been some historic matches at the course and there are interesting photos in the club house. The course was designed by Willie Lock in 1922 and build in 1929 by Alister MacKenzie in a patch of farm land. It has changed since then.
I was trying to do a slow backswing and down swing, while driving my lower body first. I might have screwed this up twice, but it worked a lot more than it didn't.
My distances were the same, but consistency was very good and my driver behaved himself. I topped a couple of shots and took two penalty strokes. Final score was around 80 with no birdies -- though I putted well with but one three putt. Chipped in once and made a few up and downs. But mostly it was hit the green and two putt.
Also Barb and I found some of the stainless steel vacuum bottles at Walmart. They are supposed to be as good as the Yeti models. All I know, as a water bottle on the golf course, they worked great. Very cold water all day long. They cost about $7.50; the Yetis are about $30. Barb bought me one of them and I'll be a happy and grateful user forever.
I've wanted to move a bit from the technical aspects of the game and talk more about other stuff. I thought I would attempt a description of the Lake Merced Golf Course.
The course looks like a number of them which are situated near the coast near San Francisco. The trees are mostly cypress, which grow quite tall, don't have a lot of lower branches. They leaves seem to be oriented to the sky. They look great in the fog and that creates a "minor chord" look to them.
The par 4s were about 360 on average. One was short at 300 and it was causing a lot of problems. It had a tough green and it was elevated with a couple of traps and a tucked pin on a tiny shelf.
On the first hole there is a 90 degree dogleg off to the left. The leg starts at about 200 yards and the hole is close to 400 yards long. The longer hitters were aiming left and hitting the drives over the cypress to find the fairway within 100 yards of the green.
There are also some pine trees, which were used at the 150 yard lines.
The fairways were cut pretty narrowly, maybe 40 yards or less. The rough wasn't long at all and if you missed the rough, you were in thin pine straw or dirt. Not too penal, unless you went OB. The kids, particularly the girls, were quite straight and it was rare to see a ball miss the fairway by much.
The kids were rarely animated. One guy, wearing shorts! (Did I mention is was 60 degrees without any sun?), slammed a club or two. But mostly the kids didn't seem to respond to anything. The long dropped putt or a weak shot to an up hill green led only to grim determination and steely eyes. There was no joy in Mudville...
It was kind of sad to see the lack of elation that I would have had being in those surrounding and playing a game. But it probably is not a game to them anymore.
The course was hilly with a couple of minor canyons running through it. There were some elevated tees and frequently you hit over the top of a hill to a blind landing area.
The driving range is in the middle of course and quie narrow. The fences were not high enough and the kids were banging them over the fence to various fairways. The parents that walked along with the kids would toss the balls back.
There was also a nice short game practice area also in the middle of the course. Nice area, but an unexpected find when we stumbled over it.
There have been some historic matches at the course and there are interesting photos in the club house. The course was designed by Willie Lock in 1922 and build in 1929 by Alister MacKenzie in a patch of farm land. It has changed since then.
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
AJGA Tournament Trip
I have a friend, Dan, who is a rules guy for golf. He invited me to ride along for a junior tournament yesterday.
It was at Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City, CA. We left Pleasanton at 5 am to avoid traffic and arrived about 5:45.
Now, it's not well known, but Daly City makes all the cold fog for the rest of the state. Frequently it is quite cold in Daly City and yesterday was no exception. It was in the low 60s with fog and some wind.
It's about 100 degrees in Pleasanton and has been for a while. I'm not used to dressing for 60 degrees. But I grabbed a fleece and a wind shell and even some long pants. I wish I'd tossed in wind pants, warmer jacket, gloves and hand warmers.
The club wanted the tournament to be completed in two days, so the kids went around twice and we were there from start to finish. We got back home about 9 pm. Long day.
I looked in the mirror this morning and found my face red with wind and sun burn. I received a nice AJGA ball cap and, while warm, didn't have the sun coverage I'm used to. My ears and neck and face are under repair.
While it was a long day, it was inspiring watching these 12 to 19 year old kids smack the ball. Most of the kids were on the older side.
They could hit it for sure. Much longer than I am. Skinny little kids and diminutive girls with drives that soared off down the fairways.
Dan tells me the girls are all about accuracy and rarely miss a fairway. The boys however, are more into the "hit it real far and find it mode." But it was all impressive.
I learned a lot about the rules of golf. The cypress trees that dominate the course are good at catching golf balls, so the "what do I do when the ball doesn't come down from the tree" ruling came up a lot.
I spent most of my time with Dan in a cart, but walked a nine with a threesome of boys. I would have followed them more, but after the turn they ran into people just teeing off and pace of play got too slow to walk along comfortably.
I normally play on Tuesdays, but I was so beat up from the cold and sun that I just went to the range today. I wanted to try some of the things the kids do before trying to do them on the course.
The kids do a couple of things that most of the rest of us casual golfers don't do. Things like a very slow back swing, they are just not in a hurry, their hips are the first thing to fire once the club is swung back. Then they also stay behind the ball as the hips are way out in front of the spine.
They also generate a lot fewer divots than I do. Some of their pitches around the green are very low, but very spinny.
I am interested in all of this. But I only tried the slow backswing and aggressive hip movement for the long game. I'll spend some time at the pitching area for some of the other stuff.
I was able to get the hips going and I was quite happy with the resultant ball striking. I was also able to take a slow full backswing with no loss of distance. My balance was good and I'm happy with what I was trying to do.
I've got a game tomorrow, so we shall see.
The AJGA folks that I interacted with were a great bunch of folks. Friendly and social and welcoming. If you get the chance to go to one of their tournaments, do take it in. It's free to spectate and are on some nice golf courses. Just a great day. Bring your lunch and maybe even a jacket!
The web site for AJGA is ajga.org, they are a non-profit and have been around since the 1970's. Thanks go out to Dan and rest of the AJGA staff for a wonderful day.
It was at Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City, CA. We left Pleasanton at 5 am to avoid traffic and arrived about 5:45.
Now, it's not well known, but Daly City makes all the cold fog for the rest of the state. Frequently it is quite cold in Daly City and yesterday was no exception. It was in the low 60s with fog and some wind.
It's about 100 degrees in Pleasanton and has been for a while. I'm not used to dressing for 60 degrees. But I grabbed a fleece and a wind shell and even some long pants. I wish I'd tossed in wind pants, warmer jacket, gloves and hand warmers.
The club wanted the tournament to be completed in two days, so the kids went around twice and we were there from start to finish. We got back home about 9 pm. Long day.
I looked in the mirror this morning and found my face red with wind and sun burn. I received a nice AJGA ball cap and, while warm, didn't have the sun coverage I'm used to. My ears and neck and face are under repair.
While it was a long day, it was inspiring watching these 12 to 19 year old kids smack the ball. Most of the kids were on the older side.
They could hit it for sure. Much longer than I am. Skinny little kids and diminutive girls with drives that soared off down the fairways.
Dan tells me the girls are all about accuracy and rarely miss a fairway. The boys however, are more into the "hit it real far and find it mode." But it was all impressive.
I learned a lot about the rules of golf. The cypress trees that dominate the course are good at catching golf balls, so the "what do I do when the ball doesn't come down from the tree" ruling came up a lot.
I spent most of my time with Dan in a cart, but walked a nine with a threesome of boys. I would have followed them more, but after the turn they ran into people just teeing off and pace of play got too slow to walk along comfortably.
I normally play on Tuesdays, but I was so beat up from the cold and sun that I just went to the range today. I wanted to try some of the things the kids do before trying to do them on the course.
The kids do a couple of things that most of the rest of us casual golfers don't do. Things like a very slow back swing, they are just not in a hurry, their hips are the first thing to fire once the club is swung back. Then they also stay behind the ball as the hips are way out in front of the spine.
They also generate a lot fewer divots than I do. Some of their pitches around the green are very low, but very spinny.
I am interested in all of this. But I only tried the slow backswing and aggressive hip movement for the long game. I'll spend some time at the pitching area for some of the other stuff.
I was able to get the hips going and I was quite happy with the resultant ball striking. I was also able to take a slow full backswing with no loss of distance. My balance was good and I'm happy with what I was trying to do.
I've got a game tomorrow, so we shall see.
The AJGA folks that I interacted with were a great bunch of folks. Friendly and social and welcoming. If you get the chance to go to one of their tournaments, do take it in. It's free to spectate and are on some nice golf courses. Just a great day. Bring your lunch and maybe even a jacket!
The web site for AJGA is ajga.org, they are a non-profit and have been around since the 1970's. Thanks go out to Dan and rest of the AJGA staff for a wonderful day.
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