First Round of the Year

Back in the saddle again...

Gasp, there were were strings of 3 days where I didn't pick up a club!  The holidays must end!  My gentle life style is at stake!

Actually now that I think about it, I played on the 2nd and on the 3rd.  So I'm going to yak about the 2nd round of the year.

I was playing with my Monday group.  I'm the young guy and they like to play from the forward tees.  Since they are 65 to 87 or so, this makes some sense.

I also saw a stat the other day that the average golfer hits a driver 220, a seven iron 135 and a pitching wedge 74 yards.   I find this interesting in that I'll buy the driver and 7 iron numbers, but the pitching wedge?  I'll play that out to about 110.   I'd like to think I can carry a 7 beyond 135, but reality sets in on occasion.  So maybe I deloft the pitching web to make it into a 8 iron or something.  Golly, one more thing to think about.

But back to that second round...

Short tees, which make the par 3 holes delicious short irons for the most part. 

Without going into a ton of detail, I play pretty well, though the driver is again absent.  I manage a 74 with 3 birdies and an eagle on a par 4 where I hole out from 133.  It was kind of fun, I could actually see the ball vanish and the guys in front of us on the next tee were watching and they went nuts.  All fun.

I made the turn at two under, but the driver puts me in jail on the 13th and I take a double.  Indifferent play from there and I'm 2 over for the round.

I did manage a rare "barky" birdie.  A barky is where you hit a tree then still go on to par the hole.  This was on 12 and I hit it to 3 feet from 140 yards with a ...  7 iron.

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So I'm upset with this stupid driver and I have some time today and go to the range.  I get the happy bucket of 150 balls.  Most of which I hit with the driver.  My worst drive on the range was better than my best drive on the course.  Sheesh.

But I thing (ha!) I've got a better handle on what I am doing.  Tom Kite wrote in a book decades ago, "that golf is a game played from the side."  To embrace this I have to feel that the right arm stays under the plane of the swing, while the left arm stays on it.  This keeps me where I ought to be when I hit the ball -- which is the big problem with on course drives.

When I find something like this, I try to apply it to all shots.  That seemed to work well too for irons and chips.  So, once again, I'm filled with optimism for tomorrow's round.  Perhaps the weather will be gentle as rain is scheduled. 

It was a glorious 67 today and a wonderful day to hit balls -- ok, all days are wonderful for that, but shirt sleeves and a cold Slurpee to finish.  Chili Mango is the flavor with a bit of spice to it.  Even Barb likes it!