Joey's Golf Bag

Today, I practiced and played nine at Hank Haney Golf Ranch in Lewisville. The weather was warm and sunny, with just a trace of a breeze.

I started off warming up with the 7-iron, and began tempo training using Tour Tempo at 27/9 with the 5-, 7- and 9-irons. My tempo was pretty poor today, and I never really got my swing working well. I guess nearly a week without the time to hit the range was too long to go and not expect my swing to degrade.

I had a rough time practicing with the longer clubs, failing to hit the driver or 3-metal decently. I did hit a number of good shots with the HALO 3i club, and the 5-iron was mixed.

My score:

* Hit green in regulation.

Themes:

• Tee shots. On the par 3 holes, I hit a pitching wedge to 12 ft on the first hole, and a 7-iron to 8 ft on the 7th hole. Those were the good ones. My sand wedge tee shot on the 3rd hole was just short of the green, my pitching wedge on the 5th was pulled and hit the tree to the left of the green, and my 4-iron on the last hole was chunked but ran pin-high left of the green. On the par 4 holes, I hit only one fairway, on the 4th hole, hitting into the hazard left on holes 2 and 8. On the sixth hole, pushed the 3i HALO into the trees to the right of the fairway.
• Approach shots. My approach shots on the par 4 holes were disastrous all day. On the 2nd, hit a pitching wedge thin over the hole. On the 4th, although I had a clear view of the green, the pin was protected by an overhanging tree, forcing me to attempt a punch 8-iron, which I pulled left onto a hump in the rough. On the 6th, disaster struck, starting with a pulled pitching wedge layup hit thin into a ball-eating grass bush. On the eight, pushed a 5-iron off a drop right of the hole. Very poor approach shots all day.
• Wedges. Short wedges were very good today, getting up and down on the 5th and 9th holes with beautiful lob wedges. My only poor short wedge was on the 2nd hole, but the ball still ended up a foot from the hole. Longer pitching wedge shots were either hit thin or chunked.
• Chipping. No chippping today; putted from the fringe on the 3rd hole.
• Putting. Putting was very good today, didn’t miss any from inside 6 feet and no three-putts.
• Sand shots. Terrible. Hit two very poor sand shots on the 6th hole, leading to triple bogey.

I played the final hole with Kevin, one of the instructors at HHGR. He hit an 8-iron to 2 ft and tapped in. I chunked a 4-iron, but got up and down from the rough.

Even though I played poorly with the long clubs, my short game enabled a pretty good score, in fact, the best score I’ve had on this course.