Joey's Golf Bag

Jarvis and I played nine at North Texas Golf this morning. I put the 3-, 4-, and 5-irons back in my bag this morning and took out the hybrids while I get my swing back into shape. I started out with the 3-iron, hitting soft shots, mostly fades. Next, I hit some 5-irons, also fades. I then went back to the 7-iron and got the ball going straight and even a draw or two. I then went to the driver, which sliced, great big banana slices. Yeech!

I went back and hit many short irons, mostly straight, with pushes more prevalent than pulls. Distance was short; I wasn’t able to get the swing really fluid today.

Next up, I went and hit short and medium sand wedge shots at the target flags. I had some trouble getting my swing grooved in, but finally achieved some decent shots. I also hit a few lob wedges, mostly a bit short. I’ve been having trouble hitting the ball a bit fat with the wedges lately, and this continued during practice.

I then gathered some balls and hit short chips with the pitching wedge and got the distance and direction grooved in again. My chipping has been suspect of late and it was good to get it going again. I also hit some putts, but the putting green was in poor shape (needed mowing). There is maintenance in progress on the greens; many of them had sand spread today, which made putting difficult.

My score today:

* Hit green in regulation.

Themes:

• My main difficulty today was hitting the ball short. My distance was short all day, only went over the pin once. With the exception of one shot on the second hole, the slice didn’t reappear today.
• Putting was very mixed. I hit a 21 foot putt for par on the 4th hole but four putted the 7th hole. I don’t ever remember 4 putting a hole before.
• Chipping practice worked. I hit a 40 foot chip to 2 ft to par the 5th hole.

If the golf was lacking, the weather was flawless, 75 degrees with a slight westerly breeze.

I practiced at GBGC on Friday after work, to work on getting the slice, so prevalent the last time I played, out of my swing. With the exception of the driver, I was able to do that today.

I started off hitting 7-irons, trying to shape the shots into a draw. Though I wasn’t able to draw the ball consistently, I did manage to get the ball going mostly straight, with only a few fades thrown in. After that, I hit 6-irons and had similar results. The straight shots failed, though, when I got out the driver. While I excised the slice, most of the balls were fading, and never managed to get the ball to draw. Same results with the 3-metal and the three hybrids. All shots mostly faded, but at least the slice was gone.

After those clubs, I went through the short irons, hitting pretty good shots mostly straight, little or no fade. Some were pushed, which in short irons can mean the club face was open. I soon ran out of balls, but not before I finally got the balls going straight. Distance was somewhat shorter than usual, but I’m happy with shorter distance if the ball goes straight.

I practiced on Friday at GBGC after work. It was not pretty. I’ve been working on getting my shots to draw, rather than fade, and it has been getting harder and harder to get the draw working. Friday was no exception, nearly everything was fading, and even, gasp!, the slice came back. I’m pretty sure that the main issue is my backswing is not in the proper plane, too flat, and I sometimes keep the club face too open at the top. I draw the ball most effectively when hitting half swings, and find it harder to get the draw to work on a 3/4 swing, and almost impossible with a full swing. Thus, I almost always use a 3/4 swing when I’m on the course, as it gives me better control of distance and direction.

On Friday, I also had problems hitting the balls fat, which I have mostly avoided for the past few months. Both of these issues compounded on Saturday, when Jarvis and I played the Lakes course at Indian Creek. Warming up, nothing would draw except on half swings, and everything else faded or sliced. This was not a comfortable feeling when playing on an 18-hole course for the first time since the spring.

The day started out poorly, made triple on the first two holes. I finally got it sorta working on the third, fourth and fifth, all of which I bogeyed. The remaining holes were very poor, and Jarvis and I decided to call it a day on the ninth hole, as the other two players were playing much better and getting annoyed with our poor play.

The only good thing about my game on Saturday was my putting. Despite the poor scores, putting was not the cause, as I had only 1 three-putt, and that one wasn’t really a three putt as the ball was on the fringe and not on the green. The greens of the Lakes course were the best Bermuda greens I’ve ever played on.

It looks like more lessons are in my immediate future.

After work, I went to the driving range to work on shot shaping. The weather was warm and muggy, very little wind. I started off hitting fades with a 7-iron, trying to get the draw to work. Mostly, though, fades and straight shots were most common. Next up was the 6-iron, no better results than with the 7-iron.

Next up was the driver, where I was unable to get the draw to work at all today. I hit mostly fades or high straight moon balls. The 3-metal, all fades. I tried a few shots with the hybrids, fades. Hmm…

I went back to the 7-iron, hitting half swings and finally got the draw going. By that time, I’d run out of balls.

Next up was putting practice, but putting was disappointing as well. I worked mainly on speed drills, poorly. I never got the putter to feel right today.

No wedges or short iron work today; those clubs worked pretty well last time I played.

A disappointing practice, but at least I got the draw finally going near the end.

I practiced and played at North Texas Golf on Sunday morning, a cool, clear day with a 1 club wind from the southeast.

First, I hit half a bucket of balls on the wedge practice area, hitting 20-50 yd shots with my sand wedge and some shorter ones with the lob wedge. I hit the balls pretty well today, with good distance control and pretty poor direction control. After that, I hit a lot of iron shots with 6-10 irons, only getting out the longer clubs for a few swings. In general, my distances were fairly consistent, but the direction was all over the place, pulls and pushes, only a few balls with any curve to them at all, except for the 6-iron, which mostly faded a bit.

I then used my pitching wedge to chip a few ball, warmed up on the putting green and headed out on the course. My score:

* Hit green in regulation.

Themes:

• Distance control was good today. I was using 3/4 swings to keep the ball down a bit out of the wind, so my distances were a bit shorter than usual. Most of my misses were pushes pin high, although one tee shot was short and one nearly to the back of the green.
• Putting was fair. I three putted the eighth hole from about 30 ft. The rest were two putts; didn’t hit a birdie putt all day. The closest shot to the hole was about 25 ft.
• Chipping was poor all day, mostly too long. Same for the only time I hit a lob wedge over one of those 10 ft tall grass plants at 4, went right over the pin, after a pushed shot off the tee. The first hole was an unmitigated disaster, pushed the tee shot, lobbed short, putted long from the fringe and 2 putted from 8 ft.
• There was a guy out watering the greens in front of me this morning. I had to putt through standing water on 6 and 7. I took a practice putt to get the feel for putting in standing water, as I’ve never done that. The putts were slow. 😉

All in all, a fun day with great weather.

I had planned to play today at Indian Creek, but my golf buddy was not able to play (he wanted to see Texas crush Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl).

Yesterday, I went to practice, and it may have been good that I didn’t play today, as the practice was pretty bad. I started off with the 7-iron, trying to get the draw to work, to no avail. No matter what I did, the ball faded or sliced. I even sliced the driver badly, which I almost never do, and most of my 3-metals were fades as well. Finally, half way through the bucket, I tracked down the cause: my club face was much too open at the top, and I wasn’t able to get the face closed when I hit the ball. I practiced a lot of backswings to get the club face correct at the top and finally managed to get the ball going straight, although I never did achieve a reliable draw.

Putting practice, on the other hand, was the best I’ve done in many weeks. I started off with some short putts around the hole, moved on to the 20 ft distance drill, and then went into my usual routine simulating 18-holes of golf. 3 times 6/12/18 ft, 2 times 9/18/27 ft, 1 time 3 balls from 35 ft. I ended the session 5 under par, my best showing in a long time.

Today, I went to the range to find that half the range was closed due to sand being spread on the grass. I got a bucket of balls and set about trying to get the draw to work again. I started with the 6-iron and most balls were fading. I went through a number of different drills to try to get the ball to fade and the best I was able to do was get soft fades or straight shots. My driving was better today, many straight balls, but also a few fades or slices. The 3-metal was better than the driver today, mostly soft fades or straight shots. I finished the session with some short iron shots, mostly slight pushes, but better than usual.

I started the putting drills with short putts, hitting them all. I then moved on to putts with a lot of break from right to left. After many drills from 6/12/18 ft, I finally started reading the breaks well. I then ran my full 18-hole simulation, as above, but after reaching 5 under par after 12 holes, proceeded to give all those shots back. My putting was very poor on the 35 ft drill, three putted them all. Yeech.

This morning I went to practice at GBGC. The weather was overcast with a 1 club breeze into my face. Since the red flag was at perfect distance for a 9-iron, I started with that club, hitting a variety of pushes and pulls. Distance was a little short due to the incoming wind.

I then went to the driver. I started with a mix of slices and hooks, but soon was hitting the majority of balls straight down the fairway with a mix of slight draws or fades. I hit even better with the 3-metal, nearly every ball was in the fairway with a draw, straight or fade.

Things went south as soon as I got out the 19-hybrid. Every ball sliced, badly. I worked for a while to correct it, finally hitting a few straight, but everytime I thought I had it straightened out, the slice would reappear. I let my fustration get to me a little, I’m afraid. I decided to hit some hard wedge shots, but was hitting nearly every shot fat by at least 2 inches. I gave that up in frustration, and returned to the driver to work out my anger.

Fortunately, that worked. Out of a dozen balls, maybe two wouldn’t have been in the fairway. I followed it up with some very straigth 3-metal shots, though some were a bit fat.

I started putting practice with 20 ft putts to get the speed down. After a few drills, my speed was pretty good. I picked a hole with a lot of break and started the 6/12/18 ft drill. Three drills had me 3 under par for the drill. Next, I ran 2 drills at 9/18/27 ft. The first drill was nicely done, as I holed the 27 ft putt (including 3 ft of break). Unfortunately, I gave all of those shots back, three putting twice on the next 9/18/27 ft drill, and also three putting once on the 3-balls from 35 ft drill.

A very mixed practice session. At the very least, I’m pleased with my progress with the woods, but disappointed that I let my frustration get to me on the hybrids and wedges.

This morning I visited the GBGC to practice. The skies were mostly cloudy, the wind was in my face with a 1-2 club breeze. I started with 7-irons, hitting half swings with mixed results. As I’ve been out of town on business since Sunday, I was a little rusty this morning. After a few shots, I started hitting some decent balls, some fades, some draws.

I got out the driver and quickly started hitting them down the middle of the imagined fairway. Out of a dozen swings, only two were outside the fairway. I even managed a draw or two to go along with a five straight ones. I managed only one slice, so I was very pleased. I also had respectable distance for me, about 180-200 yd carries into the wind.

Next up was the 3-wood, and continued to hit mostly straight balls. I did have one ugly fat shot, but even that one was right down the middle. Carry was about 170 yds.

The three hybrids followed. The 23-hybrid was a mix of fades, draws and straight shots, with a slice or two thrown in the mix. The 19-hybrid was very mixed, some slices and hooks, to go with a bunch of fades. Only with the 27-hybrid did I manage any straight shots of note, but there were also a lot of fades and even a slice.

I moved on to the middle irons. The six iron hooked constantly, but after a few shots managed some straight shots and a push or two. The seven iron was a disaster, hooks and slices. Moving up to the 8-, 9- and 10-irons produced a mix of pushes and straight balls. Distance was shorter than usual due to the strong wind and my high ball flight.

Putting was next. I started out with the 6, 12, and 18 foot drill, but as I hadn’t putted for nearly a week, I went back and hit a few from 20 ft to get my speed and rhythm back. After that, I ran the 6/12/18 ft drill three times, with two birdies and a three putt. Next, I ran the 9/18/27 ft drill twice, with two more birdies and two three putts. I finished up with three balls from 35 ft, and finished up 1 under par for the simulated 18-holes. Ironically, all of the birdies were from the middle distance, none from the shorter distances. As I used a harder set of holes with more break than usual, I was pretty happy with the putting. I still need work on short putts with significant break to get rid of the three putts.

A pretty good practice session today, considering a long layoff due to travel.

Ben Hogan once said, “If I miss a practice, I can tell. If I miss two practices, you can tell.” Well, I haven’t practiced in a week, and, boy, could I tell, you could tell, the whole range could tell. 😉

Not that I’m comparing myself to Hogan, understand…

The weather was cloudy, windy and cool today, the result of Hurricane Rita off to the east. Not a drop of rain to be seen.

I guess it was lack of coffee this morning, but it took about 10 mis-hit balls for me to get the draw working on soft 7-irons this morning, and even then, each draw was surrounded by ugly shots, fat, thin, sliced. Yeech! I moved on to the big stick and things were ugly until I got my setup grooved in, and then I hit some nice straight ones and even some pretty draws. After that, I hit the 3-wood better than I have in many months. I even managed some nice draws, unusual for me. Thanks to the 2-club wind behind me, the balls were also going a lot farther than usual.

The rest of practice was pretty much a disaster, though. I never got any consistency out of any clubs, even my favorite 27-hybrid was fading or slicing today. I just had no energy. I hit a few short irons, mostly pushes and went home when I ran out of balls.

This morning I went to practice, in hopes of redeeming my swing from my atrocious performance yesterday on the golf course. Theme: setup and (lack of) tension. These were to be my only swing thoughts during practice. And the results were surprising to me. Incidentally, the weather was very pleasant, with a steady, two club wind directly in my face.

On setup: I concentrated on proper grip, posture, ball position (about 2″ inside my left foot, constant for all clubs). I also made more practice swings than usual, concentrating on reducing tension, light grip, no forcing of the club face.

I started off with 6-iron half swings using balls teed high. The balls were drawing nicely, so I got out the driver. The first four drives were perfectly straight. The next was also perfectly straight, but I went under it and hit a moon ball. I followed those with some duck hooks and then returned to straight. Next, I hit some 3-metals, mostly fades, but good shots. I managed to turn the fade back to straight flight.

Next up were the hybrids. I started with the 19-hybrid, hitting good shots with a slight draw or fade. I was very pleased with the ball flight. With the 23-hybrid, I was hitting mostly straight balls. With the 27-hybrid, I started with some slight fades, and managed to move them back to straight. Again, very pleased with the ball flight.

Then came the 6-iron. In contrast with my usual fades with the 6-iron, I was hitting hard, high hooks. After being unable to make the ball not hook, I went back to the 27-hybrid, where I hit some nice draws. Back again to the 6-iron, hooks. Hmmm…

I went on to the 7-iron, hitting a mix of hooks and draws. No fades at all, and certainly no slices. Very strange.

I moved on to the short irons, hitting the 8-, 9- and 10-irons with similar results, all mostly straight with only a slight fade or draw on the 8-iron. I went back to the 7-iron and found that I was now hitting draws. Back to the 6-iron, the hooks were turning into draws, until the final shot faded.

Strange practice session. Not a single slice to be found. I guess a combination of reduced tension and a ball position slightly forward of where I’ve been playing it helps.

Now that the weather is starting to cool down, I will be able to practice more often after work.