Joey's Golf Bag

Today I went to practice and play nine at North Texas Golf. The day was beautiful, sunny skies, with a slight breeze from the south. I planned to practice everything: full swing, wedges, chips, putts. It has been more than a week since I last practice, due to the cold, rainy weather we’ve had lately.

I started off hitting the practice 6-iron blade I made a few weeks ago. The first shot was hit a bit thin, but the next few shots were pretty well struck, going a bit farther than usual. Once I warmed up, I pulled out the 3-, 6- and 9-irons, and proceeded to alternate shots with each. I was concentrating on an inside-to-square path and keeping the start of my downswing slow. I’ve found over the last few weeks, that if I do those two things well, I have a slight draw or straight shot with good (for me) distance.

Today, things were a bit weird. My usual problem, as with most beginning golfers, is the slice. Today, the slice was gone (with the exception of 2 or 3 shots with the hybrid or 3-metal) to be replaced with pulls (on short irons) and hard hooks with the longer irons. The better shots were straight or slight draws, with poorer shots tending to hook or pull. Occasionally, I would hit a push with no side spin at all. Distance was pretty good for me, as long as I kept the downswing slow and smooth. As soon as the downswing got quick, I tended to hit the ball a bit fat, which reduced distance.

Bad luck: after I had hit about 1/3 of a medium bucket, 60 junior golfers descended onto the range, covering it from one end to the other. I decided to finish practice with a few full wedges (about 5 balls each of the pitching, sand and lob wedges) and then hit the course, hoping to get going before the juniors got going.

No luck. I played the first hole (badly) and then made par (with an outstanding chip to 3 ft) on the second when the junior golfers fanned out all over the course. I’d (stupidly) assumed they would start off from the first tee, but instead send a group of 4 juniors (with accompanying adults) to each hole on the course. I gave up at that point and went home, bummed out.

Oh, well, everyone has to learn. Usually, the juniors play on Saturday, but the rainy or cold weather of the last two weekends must have pushed them to Sunday. Live and learn.

After work, I went to the Golden Bear Golf Center to hit some balls. The weather was warm, with a strong wind directly in my face. I planned to work exclusively on the mid and long irons today.

I started off hitting the 6-iron, trying to draw but hitting fades. My two main themes today was to make sure I didn’t rush my downswing, and to make sure to swing on the proper inside-to-square path. At first, I was rushing my downswing a bit, which caused the ball to fade. I had some difficulty getting my tempo right, so I went back briefly to hit some 9-iron shots, which helped get my tempo back. After that, I went back to the 6-iron and gradually worked my way down to the 3-iron, returning to the 6-iron whenever I had difficulty. I found that as long as I didn’t rush my downswing, I had pretty good success making the balls fly straight or draw slightly. Too much delay in the downswing caused hooks, rarely, and too quick lead to fades or worse. In general, this was the best day of mid and long iron work I’ve had in a while.

Next up was the new 21-degree hybrid club I built. I set the weights so that there was a neutral setting with two 8-gram weights. I never managed to get a reliable draw, hitting mostly fades or worse. I need to try a draw bias next, and see how that works out.

Next, I hit a few balls with the 3-metal, with poor results. Mostly, I hit skyballs or long fades. I never got the draw working, and never really had any consistency at all.

For the last 20 balls or so, I planned to pin hunt. I did pretty well with the short irons, but had trouble hitting fat with the wedges. I finally figured out that I was (again) rushing my downswing, which caused the fat shots. I did pretty well with the mid and long irons hunting pins, once I made sure to follow the proper inside-to-square path.

I had only a few minutes remaining to putt, and didn’t really get it grooved.

I had a good practice with the irons and struggled a bit with the wedges and woods/hybrids, but a good practice overall.

I practiced and played nine at the North Texas Golf Center today. The wind was howling from the west or north, anywhere from 1-3 clubs; otherwise, the weather was very nice and sunny.

Since it has been about 2 weeks since I was last able to practice, due to overseas travel and poor weather, I expected to have a pretty mediocre practice, and it was, for the most part. I spent most of practice trying to get the swing path on the proper inside to square path, and having little success at it. I finally got it working a little near the end of practice, but in general, was not a good practice day. I was hitting with the wind behind me, which greatly increased distances, hitting 9-irons as long as I usually hit 6-irons.

The wind was really howling at the end of full swing practice, and especially when I tried to hit short wedge shots. Basically, it was impossible to hit high wedge shots, as the wind took them and sent them sailing. I spent that practice time hitting long chips, a skill that I’ve allowed to lapse, as I prefer to come in high and soft. That type of shot was a complete impossibility today. I also spent a considerable amount of time practicing short chips as well (really my only successful practice today).

I spent a few minutes before hitting the course to practice putting, which I thought went well, except my long distance putting distances were all short. That trend would continue on the course.

My score:

* Hit green in regulation.

Themes:

• Tee shots. Despite my poor practice today, I hit the ball very well off the tee. My main difficulty was doping the wind, which I consistently under-compenstated for all day. On almost every hole, into the wind, I under-clubbed, and with the wind, over-clubbed. Also, when hitting against a side to side wind, I also under-estimated the effect of the wind. Thus, I was short into the wind, long with the wind, and left or right more than expected with a side wind. I hit only two greens in regulation, but never was more than 8 ft from the green on any hole.
• Chipping. Despite a very good practice, my chipping was pretty poor all day, mostly chipping short. I got up-and-down on only two holes today.
• Wedge shots. Other than off the tee, didn’t hit a wedge shot all day, since I was close to the green on every one I missed.
• Putting. In short, I sucked today. Three putted twice (four times if you count putting from the fringe). My distance control from 20 ft and in was very good, but beyond 20 ft, distance control was very poor, which led to the three putts. My score would have been much better if I had putted like I usually do.

Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want, so I’ll be a lot smarter about reading the wind after today.