We are getting some of our normal heat this week. It's been absent all year. There is talk of 104 or so today. I played Monday and it was 94 or so and I felt like I had been beaten with a stick. There were good reasons for that as Rich 2 and I played the short course at 9, then hung out for an hour, then played the long course.
We followed a couple of tournament groups on the long course. The groups had a number of foursomes and when that happens, the course plays slowly. And there was little wind. Heat comes from high pressure systems and they tend to just sit over the area, windlessly, and cook us. The high tech shirts are great at moving sweat around, but require some wind for cooling. Without the wind they are hot.
It was a long day with a lot of time in the sun and no wind. I drank water like a camel at the end of his trip and munched granola bars to keep my strength up. It pretty much worked, but I was done in by our 3 pm finish.
How's the golf? I hear you ask. If you think back to our previous post(s), I'm working on moving my right hip out of the way on the backswing and get my hands back to the address position. To sum it up, it's going quite well, thank you. It seems to be changing a lot of things too. I'm in positions that require different motions and yet they seem to be easy and the natural thing to do. I'm feeling the hands and arms work differently and I'm getting the club to come around and strike the ball solidly and differently. It feels like I'm young and learning the game for the first time, but from a much better base or setup.
It's a bit hard to explain, but new dimensions are opening and abilities are being realigned. It's affected my pitching, which is good, but I need to be more trusting and swing harder on some of the shots.
The last 4 rounds have been deep into the 70s. One was even par and several others were just a couple of strokes north of that. I'm happy with that. I've changed my putting to make sure the face of the putter stays on line after the strike. It feels and looks like the putter is launching into the air. I think I was pulling it left before. With this new stroke I'm making a lot of putts. It feels weird to miss one. Long and short, they are dropping frequently.
And today, I even got the driver going. I worked on making sure my hands got down to the thigh area ahead of my body opening up. That synced the timing and bang, bang, bang the ball went flying. Of course I didn't remember that bit until late in the round.
So the Monday round takes two and a half hours for the front nine and four and one half for the full 18. Today we teed off at 6:50 ahead of the seniors, and got around in three hours and 10 minutes. We even had to wait on a couple of holes, but the early time and lack of heat and fast pace made for a very enjoyable day. I wasn't crazy about getting up before 6, but I was done by 10 and in my easy chair by 10:30.
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