Joey's Golf Bag

This morning, I practiced at the Hank Haney Golf Ranch in Lewisville. The morning was cool, with a breeze from the west into my face.

I started out alternately hitting pitching and sand wedge shots at the center flag just over the pond. I has striking the ball pretty well, but distances were shorter than usual. I then moved on to alternating the 4-, 6-, 8- and pitching wedges. I had a tough time at first, but once I worked on tempo and timing, my swing began to get better. I was also vexed with slices, and then realized that I was not releasing the club.

Next up, I got out the driver, and things weren’t pretty. I hit mainly slices, big, monster slices. Slice over the net and onto the adjacent 2nd fairway.

I put that beast away and then put impact tape on the driver, the 3i HALO, and the 6-iron. The 6-iron was being struck squarely in the middle of the clubface, so was OK. Both the driver and the hybrid, though, were being struck on the heel. I hit the hybrid very poorly today, never getting a solid strike on the ball. With the driver, I was striking the ball well, but with an inside-to-outside path with an open club face, leading to my high slices clear over the net.

I went back to alternating the 4-, 6-, and 8-irons, concentrating on tempo and timing, and being sure to release the club properly. My last few shots were well-struck and I left the range feeling I’d accomplished something.

At noon today, I went to the full swing clinic at the Golden Bear Golf Center. Alan, my usual instructor, was teaching it today and I was fortunate to be the only student.

We discussed my difficulties of late, and then he watched me hit a few balls. He saw immediately what my issue is: too quick on the downswing. This seems to be a perpetual problem for me. He had me get out the 4-iron, which I can almost never hit well, and he had me pause at the top and then swing down. Once I slowed down my downswing tempo, I started striking the ball cleanly again, and even getting the ball high in the air with the 4-iron. He adjusted my stance slightly, putting the ball a little more forward and giving me a little more shoulder tilt. Once these adjustments were made, I was striking the ball cleanly.

Next up, I got out the driver and did the same drill. I still tended to hit fades or slices, but that’s just a matter of getting my tempo back in order.

Last up were some short wedge shots with the same drill. I had little difficulty getting clean contact on the ball with the wedges.

So, I feel better about my swing again. Tomorrow, I’ll work on tempo and timing, and see if I can get my swing grooved again.

During lunch today, I practiced at the Golden Bear Golf Center. The weather was warm and sunny, with a one-club breeze in my face.

I started out in the short game area hitting short wedge shots using the lob wedge. I had pretty good feel for distance today, though my directionality was a bit ragged. I also hit a number of shots with my 64° wedge as well, probably better than I’ve ever hit this club. Next up, I went to the bunker and hit a number of shots out of the bunker from a level lie. I got all of the balls out of the bunker, though most were a bit long.

Next, I went to the range and worked on hitting 3/4 wedge shots with the pitching and sand wedges. I had no trouble hitting the ball fat today, so at least that improved.

The rest of my day was pretty poor. I never had any consistency at all today, apart from warm-up with the short irons. I spent a lot of time trying to get my “new, improved” swing to work, and it is just a miserable mess of a swing. I spent the first part of practice doing the slot drill, and I was hitting long, high hooks with the 5-iron that at best turned into high draws. I then got out the longer clubs and hit high push slices with the driver and all sorts of terrible topped balls with the hybrids. The best shots I had today were all pulls.

My last drill was the pin-hunting drill. I started out pretty well, hitting the best 4-iron shot I’ve hit in months and a couple of short iron and wedge shots very close to the pins. The rest of the drill was just terrible. The hybrids were all topped, all the long irons were pulls or hooks, the short irons were pushes or slices.

My swing has completely cratered since my last lesson. I know, when making a swing change, that you will get worse before you get better, but this is ridiculous.

This morning, at the crack of dawn, I practiced at The Practice Tee in Plano. The weather was rather warm by the time the sun came up, and there was no breeze at all.

The putting green was closed (it had just been sanded), so I started off at the short game area practicing short lob and X wedge shots. My first few shots with the lob wedge were scattered around, but I soon got my touch back and even holed two shots.

Next up, I went to the range and began hitting full pitching wedge shots. Mostly good, but almost all were a bit fat. I never really got that worked out. Next up, 7-iron shots. I started out making solid contact with the ball, but all my shots were fades. I then got out the 5-iron, and I’m hooking the ball. Hmmm… Next, 9-iron. Pushes. Wow, I’m consistently inconsistent. 🙄

The 3i hybrid and driver were next. My first drive was a booming slice, next one a booming hook. I eventually got that worked out to fades and draws, but the straight ball just wouldn’t show itself today. Most of my 3i hybrids were fades, when I wasn’t chunking them.

I had a fine day with my short game, but my long game was pretty pitiful. Not one of my better practices.

During lunch today, I practiced at the Golden Bear Golf Center. The day was very warm, with a breeze from the north.

I worked first on wedges, starting with the pitching wedge and working my way up through the lofts. At first, I was striking the ball slightly fat, but got it worked out as I went through the wedges. Next up, I got out the long clubs and began alternating through them. It was clear that I wasn’t striking the ball on the sweet spot with the longer clubs, so I attached impact tape to the driver, 2i and 3i hybrids, 6- and 9-irons. Surprisingly, I was hitting the ball near the heel of each club. I reset my setup toward the middle of the clubface and began hitting the ball near the center of the clubface on each club.

That was the end of the good practice. Next came the bad.

Happy that I had been able with my new swing to get the impact point and my setup point to now line up, I went back to the wedges to work on making better contact with the ball. That’s when things got ugly. I hit everything fat. I changed ball position back, hit it fat; farther back, hit it fat; all the way back, solid contact, but now the ball was all the way to my right foot!

Normally, when I hit the ball fat, that means that I’m rushing the downswing. No matter what I did with the wedges today, fat, fat, fat! I finally gave up, completely frustrated.

I’ll try again tomorrow.

OK, Tiger says his streak was over when he lost at the HSBC World Match Play Championship. But that’s not a PGA Tour event, and neither is the Ryder Cup. So, as far as the PGA Tour is concerned, he just won his sixth consecutive event at the American Express Championship. Let’s keep the count going…

1. British Open
2. Buick Open
3. PGA Championship
4. Bridgestone World Championship
5. Deutsche Bank Championship
6. American Express Championship

Tiger’s website says his next tournament is TBD, but will probably be the Tour Championship. Can he make it seven?

This afternoon, I played at Indian Creek on the Lakes course. The day was very warm and sunny for the first day of October, over 90F, and a little breezy. We went off at 2:40 PM and finished at 7:10 PM, so it took us 4-1/2 hours to get around the course. We were waiting on the group in front of us most of the day.

My score:

* Hit green in regulation.

Themes:

• Tee shots. I had a pretty good day off the tee, hitting six fairways and two par-3 holes in regulation. Six seems pretty poor, but most of the ones that missed were just off the fairway (and one went long into a fairway bunker). I had only two poor tee shots, one a slice that splashed into the pond on the 7th hole and another slice that went clear over into the next fairway on the 8th. Not one hook at all, my usual fault.
• Approach shots. Here’s where things got ugly. I hit only one, count ’em, one green in regulation that wasn’t a par 3. Terrible shots. Couldn’t hit the hybrid to save my life. Hit irons long, hit them short, hit them right, hit them left, seemingly everywhere but on the green. 😥
• Wedges. Awful, just awful. When I wasn’t leaving them short, I was hitting them long. My short game just deserted me today; I got up and down only twice.
• Chipping. Didn’t chip very often, had one good chip to two feet, but the rest weren’t close.
• Sand shots. Hit into only one bunker, a fairway bunker on the 12th hole. I hit a clean shot out, but should have used one more club, so the ball got wet.
• Putting. Pathetic. Four 3-putts. I left most long putts well short, in spite of my hard work over the last few weeks. On the practice green, I’m a monster; on the course, I’m a kitten. No insult to kittens, you understand.

The only good thing in my game today was the driver. The rest of my game was a disaster.

Still had fun, though. 😯