Joey's Golf Bag

I went and hit a few balls after dinner tonight at Golden Bear Golf Center. Though the temperature was above 90F, it was still a comfortable evening in which to hit golf balls. There was a soft breeze from the south, about 1 club.

After stretching, I got out the 7-iron and hit a few balls. I wasn’t striking the ball very well, so I got out the pitching wedge and hit a few, striking the ball very nicely. I alternated irons for a while, striking the ball pretty good, and then got out the driver. I had removed the lead tape I had placed on the club. I set up as usual, ball forward, closed stance, club slightly open. Tonight, I was able to hit the sweet spot pretty consistently, but I hit mostly pushes or fades, with an occasional slice thrown in. It was almost a relief to hit a slice, as my usual fault is a hook. Distance was pretty good, considering that I was hitting into a 1 club wind.

Next up, I started to hit some long irons. My main fault is still a hook, and I hit some hard hooks tonight. I never really got the longer irons to work tonight, or the hybrid or 3-metal either. I ran through the irons and wedges, hitting most of them well except for the 4- and 3-irons. With the last few balls, I bombed some drives, pretty well struck, except for one moon ball that launched like a sand wedge and stopped with a single bounce. At least it was straight… 😉

Tiger Woods won his third Open Championship, hitting driver only once. This was the most impressive display of shot-making with long irons I’ve ever seen.

Tiger wins third British Open, 11th career major

Woods was ruthless as ever on the brown, baked links of Royal Liverpool, relying more on brains than brawn.

He hit driver only one time the entire week — the 16th hole of the first round — and relied on iron play that was so impeccable his caddie kept a sheet of paper of all the shots Woods missed.

There were only three of them.

“I don’t think anyone has ever hit long irons that well,” Williams said.

It carried Woods to a 5-under 67 and a two-shot victory over Chris DiMarco, making him the first player since Tom Watson in 1982-83 to win golf’s oldest championship in consecutive years.

I went to the North Texas Golf Center to practice and play nine this morning. The temperature was in the low 80’s when I arrived with a strong breeze from the north. The course was dry and brown except for the greens, which were in pretty good condition (with the exception of the 1st hole that has a large dead spot), though slow.

I hit a small bucket of balls to warm up and also to check my distances. Since my injury, I’m about 5 yards shorter than before, but I hit a few shots that were longer. My ball striking was pretty poor today, never really getting in the groove. I also spent a few minutes hitting the driver, which were pretty well struck, though shorter than yesterday. My final stop was the putting green, where I worked on ball speed, and then hit the course.

My score:

* Hit green in regulation.

Themes:

• Tee Shots. I had a very poor day off the tee. On the 1st, hooked a nine iron out of bounds, leading to double. Chunked a sand wedge on the 5th hole and a pitching wedge on the 7th. My only good shot was a nine-iron into the wind on the 8th hole that ended up 15 feet left of the hole, pin high. I played army golf on the rest, either hooking left or pushing right.
• Wedges. Mixed results with the wedges. Got up and down for par on the 3rd even though I sliced the tee shot nearly out of bounds, by hitting a lob wedge to about 8 ft and nailing the putt. None of the other wedge shots were close.
• Chipping. I had two chips, one on the 1st hole and one on the 5th. Neither was particularly good.
• Putting. My putts were short on the early holes, but starting rolling them good by the end, by nailing a 15 footer for birdie on the 8th and an 18 footer for par on the last.

The round was far from my best on this course, but I was happy to see my putting improve, having only 14 putts for nine holes.

This morning, I practiced at Golden Bear Golf Center. The weather has been brutally hot here in the Big D, and I didn’t practice during the week because of it. This morning was overcast, with a breeze, so was a pretty comfortable time to practice. I started off hitting 8-iron shots to warm up. At first, my ball striking was very poor, but got better as I warmed up. I hit a lot of shots with my pitching wedge, trying to get my feel back in shape. I then got out the 6- and 4-irons and added them to the mix. My distances were longer today, but some of that was due to the wind. I never really hit a good shot with the 4-iron today.

Next up, I got out the hybrid, 3-metal and driver, and put impact indicators on them. I was determined to move the impact area away from the toe and back to the center of the face of these clubs. After much experimentation, I managed to move the impact back to the center, by addressing the ball at the hosel. I had very few hooks, most of my shots that missed were pushes. Distance was very good with the 3-metal, when well-struck; the driver was a bit longer as well. Much work to do here, but at least I’ve managed to get the sweet spot of the clubs back into action.

Next up, I visited the short game area and spent some time working on Pelz-style shots out of the bunker (ball forward, face open, open stance). I had a good practice, getting about 60% onto the green using his technique. Still needs work, but now I’m beginning to get some feel for distance and direction out of the bunker.

I also spent some time hitting short lob wedge shots at the different flags on the short game green. My touch was very good today and I was pleased with my practice, even stopping before I ran out of balls, because of the good results.

Finally, I spent about 30 minutes on the putting green, working mainly on speed. After a rough start, I had a very good practice, holeing a number of long putts and rarely leaving a second putt that wasn’t a tap-in.

Aside from the long clubs, my game is starting to come together after a long layoff due to injury and brutally hot weather. Tomorrow, I’ll hit the links.

Two weeks ago, I fell on some slippery rocks and injured my right shoulder and elbow. I had to ice down my shoulder for a few days. My elbow was just scraped up a little and healed quickly. I had a lesson scheduled for July 4th, but had to cancel as I could barely even move my right arm.

On Sunday morning, early, I finally healed up enough to get back out on the range and hit some balls. The weather was sunny and hot with only a trace of a breeze. I started out in the short game area, hitting short SW and LW shots. Fortunately, I didn’t have any difficulty getting my touch back with the wedges. I didn’t have a very good sand practice, but the sand was very wet and compacted, and I’ve never spent any practice time hitting out of wet sand.

Next up, I got a large bucket of balls and started out hitting full wedge shots. No problem there, other than the occasional fat shot. The short irons were pretty good, other than a few yards of missing distance. My long clubs were just terrible, though. I wasn’t surprised, as I have to spend a lot of time on them to hit them decently. My old problem, toe hits, was back with the driver, 3-metal and hybrid. I spent a lot of time with the driver, trying to move the contact point back to the center of the club face, succeeding only once (and boy, what a great shot that was…). I managed to move my impact point closer to the center, but I’m still an inch away from perfection. I think I need to move the ball a bit farther forward in my stance, as my most common fault, besides short distance, was a push. The hook was rarely in evidence, fortunately.

No time for putting practice, as I was worn out from all the balls I’d hit and from the high temperatures that reached the high ’90s before 11AM. Damn, it’s hot!