Joey's Golf Bag

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.

Jarvis and I played nine holes from the back tees on the Lake Park Executive Course today, and stunk up the place. My score:

* Hit green in regulation.

Themes:

• Did not hit a single green in regulation.
• Short irons were short by 5 yds all day.
• Long irons / hybrids were mostly pin high, but all were fades.
• Two drives: I hit a draw on the 5th that wants a fade, and a fade on the 4th that wants a draw. I thought I hit the draw out of bonds on the 5th, but it bounced back in bounds. The provisional was also a fade.
• Sand wedge was working well, except on 6 & 7, where I hit it fat.
• Chipping was poor, all long.
• Putting was mediocre, didn’t hit anything beyond 5 ft. Two putts from the fringe were 8 or 10 ft long. Three putts on 6 & 7 (yeech — nothing I hate worse than 3-putting).

To sum it up, I had a very poor day.

Today, Jarvis and I practiced and played nine at the North Texas Golf Center. The first half of practice, with short sand / lob wedge shots, went well. After that, practice was a complete disaster, all my short iron were pushes. Putting practice was also poor, speed control was awful. Fortunately, how I practiced didn’t dictate how I played today. Jarvis hit an awesome putt on 8 from 25 ft, down hill, with a 1 foot break to the right and another putt from 15 ft. I hit only one putt beyond 6 ft.

Scorecard:

*Hit green in regulation

Highlights: Hit two excellent 10-iron shots at holes 7 and 8, but missed both birdie putts, from 12 ft and 6 ft, respectively. Hit a very nice lob wedge over an 8 ft high hump to 6 ft on the final hole, but lipped out the putt. No three putts today.

Lowlights: Short tee shot on 1, pushed tee shot on 9, caused bogeys. If I could have hit some 6 to 10 ft putts today, I could have scored 28.

Still, a good day, as 31 is my best score ever on this course. Considering it was 101 degrees by the time we finished, I’m pretty happy with the way I played.