My golf shorts supply needed an update so I wandered over to the local Golf Galaxy. Sadly they are going to close the store and move in with Dick's, which is down the freeway.
I've been buying Under Armour shorts for a while. They are pricey, but comfortable. They are a bit strange in that their sizes are not consistent. You've got to try on every pair.
They only have two dressing rooms and one has been occupied by a mom and her son. Maybe they were getting an entire wardrobe or something, and they were in there a long time. That left the other one for the rest of us.
There were three of us waiting to use the room. One of the store workers came by and while he couldn't empty a room for us, he did stop and chat.
We eventually got around to theft. The store policy, and it's not unique in this part of the country, is to not interfere with people stealing stuff. They can walk in and walk out with their arms full and no one will chase them into the parking lot. No one will take a bull whip or cattle prod to them. No one will follow and get a license plate number. No one wanders the outer sidewalk with a baseball bat.
The idea behind all of this is that one injury or lawsuit wipes out any profit in tackling the brazen perps. Sadly, but expectedly, the crooks all know this. So more and more stores are becoming victims of this entrepreneurial activity.
As long as it doesn't get too frequent, I suspect that nothing will change. But I can see a day when you will need to show ID to get into a lot of stores. As long as ID is not needed to vote, then I guess we can live with it.
As for golf news, not much worth reporting at this point. I'm playing well and pretty happy with my game. Still looking for more consistency, but so are all the pros. Most of the work around the house has calmed down. I've replaced the carburetor on the mower and it worked! I'm pretty relaxed at this point and am looking forward to some play this week.
Sunday, August 19, 2018
Monday, August 13, 2018
Monday's Round
After a long two day layoff, it was back to the grind with the usual Monday group.
The heat has broken and the termometer is down 10 degrees. We teed off at 9 behind the senior league, who have all of the early tee times on Mondays.
We might be old, but these guys abuse the priviledge. They play slowly and walk slowly. However, they are out there playing and I can't find fault with that.
I find that a little slower pace is better for me. I tend to just get up and hit the ball and with a slower tempo as part of the play, I'll use the time to be more thoughtful about the upcoming shot. With a more consistent swing, there are more aspects to think about. The game is becoming more complex!
No great scores to report. I managed a 40 foot putt on the first for a par. I lipped out about 4 others. A chip in on 12 for birdie -- it wasn't that tough a shot.
My driver continues to improve. Now my misses are pushes and I found myself in a couple of bunkers on the right. This is much better than the old bush on the left, so I'm content with that. But it is something new to think about. When I do pay attention, the center of the fairway is available.
Irons were their usual happy selves. I continue to tinker a bit. I'm paying attention to my backswing and making sure I don't slide backwards. The driver misses were due to my sliding forward during the start of the downswing. Since that's not happening, I have to be more careful on the take away.
I topped a shot on the short 17th, then hit a hybrid 200 yards with a gentle draw to 12 feet of the pin. Sadly the putt lipped, but the hybrid turned a poor tee shot into a good birdie opportunity.
Scoring was a bit uneven with new swing thoughts going on. I think I shot 77 or so, which is pretty good since I was 5 over after 10.
The game is, as said, more complex. I've got more tools that I can depend on. It changes what I can do and try. I'm finding my focus shifting from making pars to making birdies. The new swing is easier on my body as I'm where I should be when generating speed. There is less conflict and more athletic "dance."
Executive summary: It's all good and we'll talk again!
The heat has broken and the termometer is down 10 degrees. We teed off at 9 behind the senior league, who have all of the early tee times on Mondays.
We might be old, but these guys abuse the priviledge. They play slowly and walk slowly. However, they are out there playing and I can't find fault with that.
I find that a little slower pace is better for me. I tend to just get up and hit the ball and with a slower tempo as part of the play, I'll use the time to be more thoughtful about the upcoming shot. With a more consistent swing, there are more aspects to think about. The game is becoming more complex!
No great scores to report. I managed a 40 foot putt on the first for a par. I lipped out about 4 others. A chip in on 12 for birdie -- it wasn't that tough a shot.
My driver continues to improve. Now my misses are pushes and I found myself in a couple of bunkers on the right. This is much better than the old bush on the left, so I'm content with that. But it is something new to think about. When I do pay attention, the center of the fairway is available.
Irons were their usual happy selves. I continue to tinker a bit. I'm paying attention to my backswing and making sure I don't slide backwards. The driver misses were due to my sliding forward during the start of the downswing. Since that's not happening, I have to be more careful on the take away.
I topped a shot on the short 17th, then hit a hybrid 200 yards with a gentle draw to 12 feet of the pin. Sadly the putt lipped, but the hybrid turned a poor tee shot into a good birdie opportunity.
Scoring was a bit uneven with new swing thoughts going on. I think I shot 77 or so, which is pretty good since I was 5 over after 10.
The game is, as said, more complex. I've got more tools that I can depend on. It changes what I can do and try. I'm finding my focus shifting from making pars to making birdies. The new swing is easier on my body as I'm where I should be when generating speed. There is less conflict and more athletic "dance."
Executive summary: It's all good and we'll talk again!
Friday, August 10, 2018
Snacks and Ball Position
I've been frustrated with the lack of distance with my long irons. So who do you turn to? YouTube of course.
There are some bloggers in the UK I enjoy and think they know what they are talking about. Basically the idea is that the longer irons, say 5 and up, should be played up a bit in position and whacked with almost an upward swing. Well, it's supposed to feel that way.
I tried this today and was most happy with the results. Yes, I over hit a green or two, but by the gracious lord shots were up in the air and happy with their destinations.
I was also working on driver ball position and staying behind the shot. Another way to think of that is that the left shoulder should be at the ball at impact. I did hit one poor drive today, but managed to chip out and get it up and down from 145 yards for a simple par. Otherwise I was down the fairway about 225 on average. On the course I play, that is long enough.
I shot a smooth one over 73 and am quite pleased with it.
One of the other points the psychologist mentioned was that most golfers don't eat enough as they play. He thinks they go into starvation mode a couple of times a round. When that happens the mind shuts down before the body does and it's easy to do stupid things.
I went through more granola bars that normal today and spaced them out. I did feel very good all day with no real flat periods.
It does take away some of the excitement of the post round hot dog, but I can live with that.
It's been hot the last couple of days, but I was impervious to most of the heat. It's an easy game when it's all going well. :-)
There are some bloggers in the UK I enjoy and think they know what they are talking about. Basically the idea is that the longer irons, say 5 and up, should be played up a bit in position and whacked with almost an upward swing. Well, it's supposed to feel that way.
I tried this today and was most happy with the results. Yes, I over hit a green or two, but by the gracious lord shots were up in the air and happy with their destinations.
I was also working on driver ball position and staying behind the shot. Another way to think of that is that the left shoulder should be at the ball at impact. I did hit one poor drive today, but managed to chip out and get it up and down from 145 yards for a simple par. Otherwise I was down the fairway about 225 on average. On the course I play, that is long enough.
I shot a smooth one over 73 and am quite pleased with it.
One of the other points the psychologist mentioned was that most golfers don't eat enough as they play. He thinks they go into starvation mode a couple of times a round. When that happens the mind shuts down before the body does and it's easy to do stupid things.
I went through more granola bars that normal today and spaced them out. I did feel very good all day with no real flat periods.
It does take away some of the excitement of the post round hot dog, but I can live with that.
It's been hot the last couple of days, but I was impervious to most of the heat. It's an easy game when it's all going well. :-)
Thursday, August 9, 2018
The Psychology of the Game
I just listened to a webcast at the Bobby Lopez section of YouTube. They were talking to Bhrett McCabe, a sports psychologist.
There were some interesting points that he made and I'm going to discuss a few here.
He says that there are about 5 types of people -- and we are talking about folks who are competing. I'd guess there are a few more if we open up a discussion about other things. But, hey, maybe not. Maybe the human race is that simple.
He lists these as the worrier, who thinks about every possible disaster that might happen. There is the guy who is ice cube cold -- at least on the outside. There is the guy who gets hot, one who throws the clubs, the guy who attacks, etc.
Bhrett says that if he had a young athlete with some of these things, he would not change them. Some disappear as the people get older. (But that might be 15 years!). He makes the remark that this is what makes us human and to try to change that or hide will not be in our best interest.
Maybe "be yourself, and try not to hurt anyone," would be a reasonable way to look at this.
He is selling methods and processes to help athletes get better. One of these is a golf journal. He says that golfers are very bad at journaling. I've run across this in the shooting world. There it was common for shooters to keep track of problems and solutions -- at least on the elite levels. Shooting is a lot like golf in that the problems return and if you don't remember the solutions, you waste a lot of time. So write it down and read the notes!
I'm at the driving range a few years back. A guy I had talked with was all excited. "I found it!" "Did you write it down," I asked. "No, I've got it. No need." Two days later, "How's the new swing?" "I've lost it," he said. I've never seen him since. He may have given up the game for all I know. We've all been there. I've written down a lot, but I can't get into the habit of reading through it.
When I run across notes from years ago it's full of things that seem strange and not applicable. Have I moved on and changed? Hard to say.
One other point Bhrett made was that it was not his job (or perhaps not possible) to change a 78 golfer to a 68 golfer. But he would seek to make the 78 guy shoot 76. It looked like it was small increments if your issues were mental in nature. Maybe swing changes would make the bigger difference, but implementation is a mental thing, so maybe it's all back to that.
His talk in re golf seemed to make a player more efficient. The best goal for the shot. Every shot should have a goal. The goals ought to reflect what the golfer can do. Not what the golfer expects to do or dreams of doing, but what is reasonable. He talks of a pin on the right of the green. Easy picking if you fade the ball. But the goal for a player who plays right to left may correctly be the center of the green. You'll take a short sided disaster out of the probability pool. Then regardless of the results of the putting, you should feel good about goal management and shot selection.
I should talk about my own game as mom likes to read what I am up to and it might be insightful for me to try to summarize.
As I see it, my game has gotten a lot better lately. The driver is about 90% from about 25%, and some of the longer clubs have been behaving better as well. Those changes are allowing me to get to more greens in regulation than before. The putter is doing some amazing things as well. 5 putts through the first 5 holes the other day. That takes the pressure off of getting to the greens as chipping and putting is fairly reliable.
I would have to say that there are technical changes that are helping. I'd also suggest that my play is fairly low key and low expectations. My philosophy has been to hit it, find it and hit it again. Not too much planning as I would suggest that not every shot is critical.
It occurred to me that the shot one before par was the critical one. That might be the putt for birdie or the short pitch to get to the green. Obviously if the first shot or second was outstanding, then this "critical" shot maybe irrelevant. Think of hitting it stiff in regulation and the putt is a gimme.
So a lot of shots for me have no value or pressure attached to them. I'm going to hit an iron to a short par 4 and I drop into automatic mode. My short irons can be godlike and I just hit them at the pin. I don't know how I do it. I wish I had that consistency with the other clubs.
Now, let's go back and think about the driver which has been a problem for longer than I will admit to. There is the tendency to try to get more out of it than I have any hope of doing so. Sadly, it is very difficult to step back and try to hit an ordinary shot. But I think I've gotten better at doing that and of understanding what I am trying to do and better at banishing what I do when I duck hook it into the bushes 150 yards off the tee. Oh, I've made more than my share of pars from the bushes, but it's not fun and it lacks elegance.
Mostly I'm wandering the course, hitting the ball, commiserating or complementing my fellow players and having a nice time. I don't think about score much. I pay attention to where the pins are and from where I want to come into the greens. It seems to me that my fellow players don't seem to notice these things.
There may be reasons for that observation. If you don't have the control to hit to a particular side of a fairway, then aim for the middle and hit away. Some of the guys I play with are much longer than I am and they may have different problems than I do. Others are shorter and their first shot can't get them into trouble -- fair enough.
When I don't pay attention to score, it does a couple of things. It makes it hard for me to remember the round and what I had on each hole. I normally just keep strokes to par in my head, which on a good day, doesn't move a lot. This mode also seems to make each shot more of an individual challenge. Prior bad shots don't affect what I'm trying to do with the current one. Each shot is a separate challenge and I'm happy to have a lot of challenges on a hole or just a few.
I also get a great deal of satisfaction from a nice up and down; more than I would get from a GIR and two putt. It's the extra challenge of a shot that may require an amount of touch and delicacy.
That is a my post work life. I've got these interesting challenges in a beautiful place with like-minded golfers. It's quite a wonderful thing and I'm enjoying it immensely. Will I get bored and discard it and move on to something else? It's happened before. I've not played golf for decades as the years rolled along. But for now, it's working wonders for my mind and the 25 miles of walking a week can't be bad either.
Today was day off and a visit to the range. And tomorrow is another round. Stay tuned!
There were some interesting points that he made and I'm going to discuss a few here.
He says that there are about 5 types of people -- and we are talking about folks who are competing. I'd guess there are a few more if we open up a discussion about other things. But, hey, maybe not. Maybe the human race is that simple.
He lists these as the worrier, who thinks about every possible disaster that might happen. There is the guy who is ice cube cold -- at least on the outside. There is the guy who gets hot, one who throws the clubs, the guy who attacks, etc.
Bhrett says that if he had a young athlete with some of these things, he would not change them. Some disappear as the people get older. (But that might be 15 years!). He makes the remark that this is what makes us human and to try to change that or hide will not be in our best interest.
Maybe "be yourself, and try not to hurt anyone," would be a reasonable way to look at this.
He is selling methods and processes to help athletes get better. One of these is a golf journal. He says that golfers are very bad at journaling. I've run across this in the shooting world. There it was common for shooters to keep track of problems and solutions -- at least on the elite levels. Shooting is a lot like golf in that the problems return and if you don't remember the solutions, you waste a lot of time. So write it down and read the notes!
I'm at the driving range a few years back. A guy I had talked with was all excited. "I found it!" "Did you write it down," I asked. "No, I've got it. No need." Two days later, "How's the new swing?" "I've lost it," he said. I've never seen him since. He may have given up the game for all I know. We've all been there. I've written down a lot, but I can't get into the habit of reading through it.
When I run across notes from years ago it's full of things that seem strange and not applicable. Have I moved on and changed? Hard to say.
One other point Bhrett made was that it was not his job (or perhaps not possible) to change a 78 golfer to a 68 golfer. But he would seek to make the 78 guy shoot 76. It looked like it was small increments if your issues were mental in nature. Maybe swing changes would make the bigger difference, but implementation is a mental thing, so maybe it's all back to that.
His talk in re golf seemed to make a player more efficient. The best goal for the shot. Every shot should have a goal. The goals ought to reflect what the golfer can do. Not what the golfer expects to do or dreams of doing, but what is reasonable. He talks of a pin on the right of the green. Easy picking if you fade the ball. But the goal for a player who plays right to left may correctly be the center of the green. You'll take a short sided disaster out of the probability pool. Then regardless of the results of the putting, you should feel good about goal management and shot selection.
I should talk about my own game as mom likes to read what I am up to and it might be insightful for me to try to summarize.
As I see it, my game has gotten a lot better lately. The driver is about 90% from about 25%, and some of the longer clubs have been behaving better as well. Those changes are allowing me to get to more greens in regulation than before. The putter is doing some amazing things as well. 5 putts through the first 5 holes the other day. That takes the pressure off of getting to the greens as chipping and putting is fairly reliable.
I would have to say that there are technical changes that are helping. I'd also suggest that my play is fairly low key and low expectations. My philosophy has been to hit it, find it and hit it again. Not too much planning as I would suggest that not every shot is critical.
It occurred to me that the shot one before par was the critical one. That might be the putt for birdie or the short pitch to get to the green. Obviously if the first shot or second was outstanding, then this "critical" shot maybe irrelevant. Think of hitting it stiff in regulation and the putt is a gimme.
So a lot of shots for me have no value or pressure attached to them. I'm going to hit an iron to a short par 4 and I drop into automatic mode. My short irons can be godlike and I just hit them at the pin. I don't know how I do it. I wish I had that consistency with the other clubs.
Now, let's go back and think about the driver which has been a problem for longer than I will admit to. There is the tendency to try to get more out of it than I have any hope of doing so. Sadly, it is very difficult to step back and try to hit an ordinary shot. But I think I've gotten better at doing that and of understanding what I am trying to do and better at banishing what I do when I duck hook it into the bushes 150 yards off the tee. Oh, I've made more than my share of pars from the bushes, but it's not fun and it lacks elegance.
Mostly I'm wandering the course, hitting the ball, commiserating or complementing my fellow players and having a nice time. I don't think about score much. I pay attention to where the pins are and from where I want to come into the greens. It seems to me that my fellow players don't seem to notice these things.
There may be reasons for that observation. If you don't have the control to hit to a particular side of a fairway, then aim for the middle and hit away. Some of the guys I play with are much longer than I am and they may have different problems than I do. Others are shorter and their first shot can't get them into trouble -- fair enough.
When I don't pay attention to score, it does a couple of things. It makes it hard for me to remember the round and what I had on each hole. I normally just keep strokes to par in my head, which on a good day, doesn't move a lot. This mode also seems to make each shot more of an individual challenge. Prior bad shots don't affect what I'm trying to do with the current one. Each shot is a separate challenge and I'm happy to have a lot of challenges on a hole or just a few.
I also get a great deal of satisfaction from a nice up and down; more than I would get from a GIR and two putt. It's the extra challenge of a shot that may require an amount of touch and delicacy.
That is a my post work life. I've got these interesting challenges in a beautiful place with like-minded golfers. It's quite a wonderful thing and I'm enjoying it immensely. Will I get bored and discard it and move on to something else? It's happened before. I've not played golf for decades as the years rolled along. But for now, it's working wonders for my mind and the 25 miles of walking a week can't be bad either.
Today was day off and a visit to the range. And tomorrow is another round. Stay tuned!
Monday, August 6, 2018
Shaft Loading
I ran across a couple of YouTube videos that talked about shaft loading.
This happens when you begin a downswing while the club is still going backwards. You can feel this in your hands as you come down. It feels like you are pulling or swinging a heavy object in a circle.
The question is, is that a good thing to do? We are adding energy into the shaft by bending it. We will get some of that out when it straightens. This is a storage and release object.
However, is it better to put that energy into just accelerating the club back to the ball?
I played around with this some during today's round. I am able to do this. I didn't see any difference in distance. It felt like I was swinging the club harder since the amount of resistance was higher, but no real benefit.
I wandered over to Tutelman.com, my golf physicist. He did not address this point specifically, but he talks a great deal about trying to use your hands to impart a late swing hit to the ball. The use of your hands can actually speed the club, but your timing has to be perfect. It's not worth doing unless it's easy for you to do.
So we are back to the natural release, which is to maintain the wrist cock as long as you can then let go of all control and let the dynamics of the swing act on the club.
I was also thinking that my right hand was too strong a position to my left. I had a strange callous on the left thumb and my hands never felt like they worked together.
I tried to move the right hand more on top into a weaker position. This didn't seem to make much of a difference either, but I hit the ball very solidly today and maybe this is part of it. It seems the thing to do and I'll continue to monitor this.
That's the technical wrap up for today. played pretty well, bunch of birdies, but lost most of my strokes to errant drives. The driver is getting better along with the longer clubs. The game is getting easier and the scores remain lower.
This happens when you begin a downswing while the club is still going backwards. You can feel this in your hands as you come down. It feels like you are pulling or swinging a heavy object in a circle.
The question is, is that a good thing to do? We are adding energy into the shaft by bending it. We will get some of that out when it straightens. This is a storage and release object.
However, is it better to put that energy into just accelerating the club back to the ball?
I played around with this some during today's round. I am able to do this. I didn't see any difference in distance. It felt like I was swinging the club harder since the amount of resistance was higher, but no real benefit.
I wandered over to Tutelman.com, my golf physicist. He did not address this point specifically, but he talks a great deal about trying to use your hands to impart a late swing hit to the ball. The use of your hands can actually speed the club, but your timing has to be perfect. It's not worth doing unless it's easy for you to do.
So we are back to the natural release, which is to maintain the wrist cock as long as you can then let go of all control and let the dynamics of the swing act on the club.
I was also thinking that my right hand was too strong a position to my left. I had a strange callous on the left thumb and my hands never felt like they worked together.
I tried to move the right hand more on top into a weaker position. This didn't seem to make much of a difference either, but I hit the ball very solidly today and maybe this is part of it. It seems the thing to do and I'll continue to monitor this.
That's the technical wrap up for today. played pretty well, bunch of birdies, but lost most of my strokes to errant drives. The driver is getting better along with the longer clubs. The game is getting easier and the scores remain lower.
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Making Progress
If you test something, you must, if you want to find the limits, go beyond sanity to the breaking point.
I'm recovering from a migraine, so this post might be a bit dark. The sky is full of fire smoke, then there was the spackle sanding and finally the paint fumes that may have something to do with my sinuses being unhappy.
Ah, yes, back to testing... Per a previous post the intention was maintain a better wrist cock during the swing. But how much angle can you hang onto and how late until the swing? Can you hold it too long?
What I found today provided no answers to these questions.
But I did find that by holding the angle I could hit the ball a long way. A very long way.
Let's talk about the 14th. This is about 350 from the tees I was playing today. Normally I find myself at about the 140 to 150 yard range for my second shot. This is a tee shot of about 200 yards. I'm getting old it seemed -- last week! Ha. Today with a bit of angle I am down to the 85 yard line. I'm about 50+ yards further along the hole.
On the 13th hole, a par 5, I get to the green in two without using a driver. I won't talk about the putting as children might read this, but I got there and the 4 wood off the tee went an extra 60 yards.
And so it went. I was having problems because I was getting too close to the greens.
Did I mention the irons were going longer too? Well, they were. Take the 17th, a short par 4. I normally would hit a 5 iron to leave 120 or so into the green. Today, getting a feel for things, I hit a 6 iron. It doesn't end up 120 or even 100 out, it goes so far that it goes past the 100 yard stick and bounds into the pond. The pond that was supposed to be out of reach! (It was not all bad -- I found 3 balls in the pond fringe before I found mine.)
The 7th hole is a short iron to start with. It's a par 4. Maybe a 6 iron from today's tees. But I try a 7 and I'm 30 yards passed where I normally am. Yikes!
So my score was not great, but the potential is lighting my imagination. If these changes turn the long holes into medium ones, I may have to branch out and play other courses.
I'm recovering from a migraine, so this post might be a bit dark. The sky is full of fire smoke, then there was the spackle sanding and finally the paint fumes that may have something to do with my sinuses being unhappy.
Ah, yes, back to testing... Per a previous post the intention was maintain a better wrist cock during the swing. But how much angle can you hang onto and how late until the swing? Can you hold it too long?
What I found today provided no answers to these questions.
But I did find that by holding the angle I could hit the ball a long way. A very long way.
Let's talk about the 14th. This is about 350 from the tees I was playing today. Normally I find myself at about the 140 to 150 yard range for my second shot. This is a tee shot of about 200 yards. I'm getting old it seemed -- last week! Ha. Today with a bit of angle I am down to the 85 yard line. I'm about 50+ yards further along the hole.
On the 13th hole, a par 5, I get to the green in two without using a driver. I won't talk about the putting as children might read this, but I got there and the 4 wood off the tee went an extra 60 yards.
And so it went. I was having problems because I was getting too close to the greens.
Did I mention the irons were going longer too? Well, they were. Take the 17th, a short par 4. I normally would hit a 5 iron to leave 120 or so into the green. Today, getting a feel for things, I hit a 6 iron. It doesn't end up 120 or even 100 out, it goes so far that it goes past the 100 yard stick and bounds into the pond. The pond that was supposed to be out of reach! (It was not all bad -- I found 3 balls in the pond fringe before I found mine.)
The 7th hole is a short iron to start with. It's a par 4. Maybe a 6 iron from today's tees. But I try a 7 and I'm 30 yards passed where I normally am. Yikes!
So my score was not great, but the potential is lighting my imagination. If these changes turn the long holes into medium ones, I may have to branch out and play other courses.
Monday, July 30, 2018
The End, My Friends
I've gone through all of the old stuff, you may be happy to learn. There is The Ballad of Marty, but it was printed on thermal paper and is in pretty bad shape. Too bad, as it was pretty good as I remember.
Marty was hired by Nuclear Data and worked in the service department. He had terminals for sale. These were the days before we all had terminals on our desks and if you purchased your own, you didn't have to share and could get more work done. Sounds strange these days when two or three monitors on a desk top are normal.
Now Marty had them for a good price. Monochrome of course as the color guys had not come out yet.
Sadly, the prices were too good. It seems that they were not Marty's to sell and at some point it was found out. The terminals were collected and so was Marty. This, per rumor, was not his first bout with the law. Away everything went and we never saw the terminals or Marty again.
So we must return to golf until the next bit of interruption arrives.
It is Monday as I type this and it was a play day. Which is good because otherwise we are working major miracles in the garage and it would "have killed a normal man," if I may quote Nuclear Bob. I have all these small stomach bruises due to carrying heavy, pointy objects that wanted to puncture me. They did not, but they left their attempts plainly on view. No bare middriff outfits for awhile I am afraid.
It's been hot and I am glad to escape to the great outdoor for a day. Of course upon return I am back in the garage killing spiders and spackling and sanding. I'm currently drenched in sweat and have retreated to the cool of the indoors.
The usual Monday group teed off about 9, which is usual. It was a slow day, though we are getting spoiled as it didn't take much over 4 hours.
My goal was to hit the longer clubs with same effort and long swing path as the short ones. I own the short ones and there has been diminishing returns in re distance as I move to the longer clubs. My current theory is that I am trying to help the long clubs. I hit the shorter ones with the confidence of a high priest; cool and serene that distance will be proper and the line laser like.
This pretty much worked. (Have I used those lines before? Yes, and too often it seems!) I hit the ball more solidly than I ever have. Now, this did not lead to an incredible score. The front was a mess as a couple of lines were wrong. I hit it into a pond. Some of the shots were too long. But a lot of then were very well behaved.
That led to another observation. I was not carrying a full wrist cock into a lot of shots. If one swings too quickly things that happen are that backswings are not completed and the wrist cock can also suffer.
Once that was addressed I picked up more yardage. I was getting off the tee about 10 yards longer than normal. It was all going straight as well.
I shot one over on the back nine with just a few one putts. I was getting to the greens quite easily. This is pretty exciting for me and I look forward to incorporating it into my game.
I've decided that technically I'm comfortable and I'm going to work on consistency for a bit.
The problem with shooting low scores and having no disasters is that the round is not remarkable. Pars pile up and GIRs are common and then it's over. It devolves into a putting contest, which is ok. My putting was quite good today. No three putts and I didn't miss any short ones. I finish a round and can't remember much about it. I think part of that is when it's going well you don't think much as you are playing. All the shots are normal and no heroic actions are required. Can be boring, but I'll see if I can't tread that path for a while.
Marty was hired by Nuclear Data and worked in the service department. He had terminals for sale. These were the days before we all had terminals on our desks and if you purchased your own, you didn't have to share and could get more work done. Sounds strange these days when two or three monitors on a desk top are normal.
Now Marty had them for a good price. Monochrome of course as the color guys had not come out yet.
Sadly, the prices were too good. It seems that they were not Marty's to sell and at some point it was found out. The terminals were collected and so was Marty. This, per rumor, was not his first bout with the law. Away everything went and we never saw the terminals or Marty again.
So we must return to golf until the next bit of interruption arrives.
It is Monday as I type this and it was a play day. Which is good because otherwise we are working major miracles in the garage and it would "have killed a normal man," if I may quote Nuclear Bob. I have all these small stomach bruises due to carrying heavy, pointy objects that wanted to puncture me. They did not, but they left their attempts plainly on view. No bare middriff outfits for awhile I am afraid.
It's been hot and I am glad to escape to the great outdoor for a day. Of course upon return I am back in the garage killing spiders and spackling and sanding. I'm currently drenched in sweat and have retreated to the cool of the indoors.
The usual Monday group teed off about 9, which is usual. It was a slow day, though we are getting spoiled as it didn't take much over 4 hours.
My goal was to hit the longer clubs with same effort and long swing path as the short ones. I own the short ones and there has been diminishing returns in re distance as I move to the longer clubs. My current theory is that I am trying to help the long clubs. I hit the shorter ones with the confidence of a high priest; cool and serene that distance will be proper and the line laser like.
This pretty much worked. (Have I used those lines before? Yes, and too often it seems!) I hit the ball more solidly than I ever have. Now, this did not lead to an incredible score. The front was a mess as a couple of lines were wrong. I hit it into a pond. Some of the shots were too long. But a lot of then were very well behaved.
That led to another observation. I was not carrying a full wrist cock into a lot of shots. If one swings too quickly things that happen are that backswings are not completed and the wrist cock can also suffer.
Once that was addressed I picked up more yardage. I was getting off the tee about 10 yards longer than normal. It was all going straight as well.
I shot one over on the back nine with just a few one putts. I was getting to the greens quite easily. This is pretty exciting for me and I look forward to incorporating it into my game.
I've decided that technically I'm comfortable and I'm going to work on consistency for a bit.
The problem with shooting low scores and having no disasters is that the round is not remarkable. Pars pile up and GIRs are common and then it's over. It devolves into a putting contest, which is ok. My putting was quite good today. No three putts and I didn't miss any short ones. I finish a round and can't remember much about it. I think part of that is when it's going well you don't think much as you are playing. All the shots are normal and no heroic actions are required. Can be boring, but I'll see if I can't tread that path for a while.
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