We've been off traveling for a couple of weeks. We were not gone the entire time, but it was a short trip to Austin, back a couple of days and then a short trip to Santa Monica. It seemed like a long trip and I miss my golf course!
We finally got some rain last night and it was touch and go whether it was going to be playable today. The temperature was in the low 50s, too, not lending itself to a fine time.
But the rain kept out those who really don't want to play and while we had a 10:30 tee time, nine o'clock saw Dave and myself off on the first tee.
Per usual I had a a couple of things I wanted to try, because the "secret is out there" and I intend to find it. Don't tell me that these 160 pound pro golfers who hit it 300 yards are special people -- I don't want to hear that! It has to be there for the common man.
What I wanted to look into was 1) Soft, loose arms, 2) make sure I got the right shoulder to get past my head on the downswing.
The arms idea comes to us from Mike Malaska on Youtube. I saw the shoulder past the head on Instagram on Monte Scheinblum's feed.
I was not aware of the arms idea, but I had heard of the shoulder coming around. That's common. As I mentioned in a previous post, everything you've been told by a golf pro is probably true. Their experience has taught them to say the same 5 things in 123 different ways. So get the shoulder past the head is a lot like "spin the shoulders" or "Swap shoulder positions." But sometimes this stuff resonates and sticks and a lot of times it's just get dumped into the garbage disposal of the mind, hopefully to revisited later down stream.
With the exception of the first shot, which found the trees with an iron, I was able to just move my shoulders around and not lurch back and forth in an attempt to wack it.
It was one of my best hitting days ever. I didn't hit everything perfectly, but the long clubs, the driver and all the short guys were straight and consistent.
I think I shot 75 with a single birdie. Hit about 15 greens. I had three three putts as the greens were pretty wet and I got the speed wrong a few times. But I made almost all of the ones I should have.
The nicest part of this was the lack of effort. As the arms were not a big part of it and I was just making a good shoulder turn in both directions. The ball was traveling well and my club to ball striking was very good. I felt little effort, was not trying to hit it. My back didn't even complain much.
I had a few thin irons, so maybe I was leaning forward on a couple of hits.
I should probably mention the trip down to Santa Monica. Barb is a recent grandma for the first time and is understandable excited about it. I consider myself a pseudo grandpa and was looking forward to it too. Who knew, but babies hiccup! It seemed to be in sync with its auto-baby rocker, but I am not allowed to perform experiments; I could only observe...
There was also the expectation that Jay and I might sneak out down to Carlsbad and get fitted for putters. Alas Jay has a bad back and had a surgeon crawl in and try to fix it. He is recuperating and could barely get to the golf store much less dash 90 miles to Carlsbad.
The golf shop in S/M has a full set of the Evnroll putters, which are what I've had my eye on. I've decided not to buy one of these for the moment. For one, they are bit pricey and secondly, I am happy with my SeeMore and really putt well with it, if I pay attention to what I am doing.
I've never really paid a lot of attention to putting. I'm more in the school of Hogan who thought that putts should count for 1/2 a stroke. But with line and speed being conjoined and each requiring some attention, I think there is a more to it than I've given it credit for in the past. If I may sum that up, I've become interested.
We have a green on the local course with a lot of slope and shape and depth. You have to be very careful approaching it and even when on it, you are not well taken care of. When players complain about its complexity I usually respond, "be glad they are not all like this one." But as I played it today, I did think that it would be nice if they were all like this. The challenge of the green in seductive. You can't just hit it to the middle then easily two putt. Being above the pin is a position with the potential of disaster. Being below it requires you to figure out when the left to right break switches to straight up hill and when it will swing back to right to left. The break on the green is upper left to lower right. None of this straight back to front stuff.
The other issue is that the green is on the end of a 530 yard par 5. It requires a number of good shots to get there and then you are presented with this green.
Did I mention the trees and trap on the left and the driving range down the hill on the right? There are an additional two traps in the layup area and then two more to the left of the green and another fall off to the right and rear of the green.
Master hole 13 and you've done some good work. We were playing the forward tees today and I used a hybrid off the tee to get to the arroyo, did I forget to mention it?, then cracked another hybrid to leave me 20 yards off the green in two. I've not been that close in a while. I chipped up a bit short, but a simple two putt put the hole to rest, but there have been days when it wasn't that easy.
I think this is getting long and I've probably lost have my readers, but it was another wonderful day out there where our group had no one in front and the group behind us was 3 holes back. Just playing and moving along. The sun would shine occasionally and light the grasses and warm the back. It does not get better than that; magic times.
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