How Did it Go?

I'm sure my loyal reader(s) are interested in the Friday golf and how it all came together.

I'm saddened to report that while progress has been made, I wasn't able to do what I wanted to.

I did play pretty well and scored reasonably. 

I started with a couple of boring bogeys to start, then a routine par on a 4 par.  It didn't require a driver and I hit two nice shots to get to a back pin about 12 feet away.  Then a nice sandy par on the third.  My group commented on the most excellent "thump" of the club hitting the sand.

What kind of golf do I play, well let's look at the 5th hole?  It's a bit long usually.  I slice the driver (this is new as the usual ball action is a short hook), then have about 170 in but I'm behind wispy trees and sure enough hit two of them.

Then I hit it to 6 feet with a wedge and make the putt for a routine par.

More highlights:

I can't get to the green on the 6th and don't get it up and down either, though I hit a nice pitch to the green.

Then it clicks a bit and I par the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th. and 13th, before going off the rails on 14, where the drive puts me against a tree and have to I hit it backwards and do that left handed to boot.

Par on 15, and I don't remember 16 and 17.  18th seems muddled too.

Bottom line I was happy with a lot of ball striking.  I'm good about my takeaway with the irons and it's tough to remember on the driver.  Then from the top, a struggle to get it right with driver, but not any other club. 

 I was on the range on Saturday as Barb was off making cards with her gal pals.  I was chipping, my usual practice when warming up, and found that if I waited for the club to get to the ball before I made a gross shoulder movement, I got very good club ball contact and nice effective loft. 

That feels like a much slower swing and less power, but by waiting and probably slowing down the upper body, there is more energy in the club head and it might be going faster.  So much of this stupid game is anti-intuitive.  It sure would be nice to less inclined to think about all of this and just to do it.

I then went to strike full shots with this slower swing in mind.  This worked well.  It may just be a better explanation than "spin the shoulders" as a means to swing. 

I've been invited to go back to work tomorrow for a bit, but I told them I needed to be done by 10!  late tee time tomorrow!  Even if I get hung up working, I can still make the back nine with the pals.

I'm feeling good about all of this.  It seems right and doable.  I've getting less sore spots on my hands and while my back seems a little unhappy, I don't feel that I'm getting beat up hitting the ball.