… and I can’t see the tournament I’d like to watch, as the LPGA isn’t broadcasting the Tres Marias Championship, where Michelle Wie leads after the 2nd round (go girl!). And since Tiger missed the cut by 8 strokes in the Quail Hollow Championship, that tournament has lost its luster.
My back is improving, but it is still not well enough for me to get out on the range yet.
The golf gods hate me.
On April 1, I had my latest lesson with Mike Murray at Golf Galaxy. At that time, I felt that we had put in place the last missing pieces that my golf swing needed. That change was quite minor, putting my knees more over my feet at setup. This change stopped my tendency to lunge toward the target and gave me a much more firm, balanced setup. Along with a lot of swings working on making sure my hip rotation was properly done on the downswing, I felt like I now had all the pieces assembled. All I needed was tempo. The following Sunday, while hitting balls on the range at Coyote Ridge, my swing finally fell into place.
Johnnie and I were having a little contest to see who could hit the ball closest to the red flag on the right side of the range. From my position, this was a full pitching wedge shot. Depending on the wind, I would land the ball on the green or leave it just short into the bunker. Since I was having to hit a full shot to get to the target, I decided to just try a soft 9-iron instead of a hard pitching wedge, and suddenly, I’m hitting nearly perfect shots at that flag. One after another, the ball is landing right around the flag, just like magic. Johnnie looked at me while hitting the shots and commented on my smooth swing. I’d found my tempo.
We then went at the blue flag on the top of the hill. On this day, I’d brought along my new TWGT 5-hybrid to try out. With the new tempo, I went right over that flag. I was really liking my swing. I got out my 6-iron, and hit some really nice shots, all of them with a nice high trajectory, just one excellent shot after another. I’m still using that same smooth, soft swing that I’d used with the 9-iron, but I’m hitting the ball farther than usual. What the heck, I thought, let’s try a 7-iron. Suddenly, I’m nailing shots right into that green with a 7-iron, a good club longer than usual. Wow, just wow!
After that, we had a few pitching contests at the chipping green. We both were hitting some pretty decent pitches and some of them were really good. We retired thereafter for beers and conversation in the clubhouse.
The next day, after work, I decided to go hit some balls at Hank Haney. My good tempo from the previous practice was still with me and I had one of the best practices with the irons and wedges that I’ve ever had. However, near the end of practice, my lower back was a little sore, so I finished up by hitting a few pitches at the new targets in the pond. I left happy, ecstatic really, at how well my swing was coming along.
That’s when the agony started.
The next day my back was pretty sore. I thought it was just overuse, so I decided to rest it. That didn’t help. By Friday, the muscle spasms in my back were so bad I could barely get out of bed, and sitting was especially painful. I started back into my stretching and exercise routine that I’ve used before to fix muscle spasms in my back, along with sessions on the TENS machine and pain medication.
Dad came for a visit the following weekend. We usually play golf, but with my sore back, we spent the weekend watching my son play tennis alternating with long sessions in the media room watching Phil win the Masters. No golf was played, but much golf was watched.
By this last weekend, I’d found myself mostly symptom free, though long drives in the car could still induce pain. I’ve not yet gotten back on the range. It’s been more than two weeks since I hit a golf ball, and it may be another week before I feel good enough to hit balls again. I’m missing this month’s GGA tournament on Saturday. This is depressing, since I’m still tied for 6th on the total points leaderboard.
The Golf Gods hate me.
Over the last few days, I rebuilt my wedges (replaced the TWGT PCF Micro Tour wedge clubheads with Micro CX clubheads) and built two new Tom Wishon Golf Technology 331H hybrids. The Micro CX wedges are unfortunately discontinued, but I bought 3 each of the 56° and 60° clubheads before they went out of stock. For me, these are the perfect wedges, so I still have a two year supply before I’ll need to find a new wedge.
The 331H hybrids, a 5-hybrid and a 6-hybrid, were hand-selected for stock lofts, and I shafted them with TWGT S2S Gold Tour Hybrid shafts, S-flex. I used TWGT V-series oversize grips and swingweighted the clubs to D-1. The club lengths were 38.75″ for the 5-hybrid and 38.25″ for the 6-hybrid. I don’t really expect to put the 6-hybrid in my bag, as I hit the 6-iron pretty well. The 5-iron is probably going to be replaced; I’m pretty inconsistent with the 5-iron, though with my improved swing, I’m going a lot better.
The wedges were rebuilt on True Temper Black Gold shafts, s-flex. Both wedges were made to be 36″ in length, with TWGT V-series oversized grips and swingweighted to D-8. The Black Gold shafts have been discontinued by True Temper, so no link available, though the shafts still seem to be available from a variety of sources.
… but not getting the results I want.
Last Saturday, I played a two-man best ball tournament at Grapevine Golf Club. I’d been working hard on my swing, but still had problems keeping the ball on the fairway off the tee. My irons have improved, but my driving, previously the best part of my game, was now pretty poor. I’ve been hitting a mix of pushes and hooks, and in general, not having a clue about where the ball was going to go off the tee. The howling wind didn’t help either. When I hit the shot solidly, I didn’t have any issue with the wind, but most of the day my shots were anything but. I really only had two well-played holes: #2 on Mockingbird (hit my hybrid just over the green and got up-and-down for par), #3 on Mockingbird (hit a very long drive with the wind, leaving me a pitching wedge to the green, which I hit pin-high into the center of the green and two-putt for par). I did manage another par on #6 on Bluebonnet, but that was after a huge push with the driver, a mediocre iron shot short of the green, a pitch hit thin well past the hole and bombing a 35 ft putt into the cup. The one hole that really describes how my day went is #1 on Bluebonnet. I hit a good drive just short of the fairway bunker, a low 4-wood to about 10 yds short of the green, a pitch hit thin over the green, a putt from off the green no-where close to the hole and 2 putts for bogey. And my putting was just terrible all day, which didn’t help.
Yesterday, I had a lesson with Mike Murray at Golf Galaxy. I told him about my struggles with the driver and the longer clubs. He put me on the video, and again, I’d reverted back to not having enough hip turn at impact, with a bit of a lunge toward the target. He changed my setup slightly so that my knees were more over my ankles (feeling a little like riding a horse). He had me hit shots over and over with my 4-wood, making sure to feel like my left butt-cheek was moving straight back on the downswing. Viola! Instant improvement in ball contact. He told me to expect to have to hit 1000’s of balls before fully incorporating that movement into my swing.
After my lesson, I went over to the simulator and hit some drives. My driving improved dramatically, and I hit some of the longest drives I’ve hit yet on that simulator. My swingspeed is slowly improving. I’ve not gotten it to 100 mph clubhead speed yet, but I’m averaging about 92 mph now. My goal is a consistent 100 mph clubhead speed.
As it turns out, Bridgestone was in Golf Galaxy doing ball fitting. We started with my usual ProV1 ball, then tried the Bridgestone Tour B330-RXS ball and the e5 ball. I had the best distance with the Tour B330-RXS ball, and he gave me two sleeves of balls to try out on the course. I’ll play them on my next round and see if I can tell a difference.
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