Well, at least the driver works
Yesterday, I took the afternoon off to go play at Grapevine Golf Club with John. The day was sunny, warm and blustery. We went off at 12:30PM on Bluebonnet and finished up on Mockingbird about 4 hours later. I didn’t keep the scorecard, but it wasn’t pretty, other than my driver was good all day. It felt so good, in fact, I used it on every par-4 and par-5 hole, even on my nemesis holes like #6 on Mockingbird and #2 on Bluebonnet. I hit 10 fairways, and all the ones I missed I still had playable lies. And, for only the third time ever, I had no penalties.
No penalties didn’t help, because the rest of my game this day was just awful. I did have a couple of good second shots on par-5 holes, but my iron play was just atrocious. I had only one green-in-regulation (a par-3 hole), my sand play was a complete and total disaster, and I had three 3-putts and only got up-and-down 3 times. I did make a couple of long putts, but I also missed two putts within 3 ft.
But at least I can hit the driver! My confidence with the driver was very high, and I found myself with shorter irons into the green than ever before. Not that having short irons helped, as I didn’t hit a good iron shot from the fairway all day, typically coming up well short, either hitting it very thin or very fat.
On the other hand, my lessons are going well. I had my third lesson with Mike Murray on Thursday, and although I’m making progress (evidence: my stellar driving yesterday), I still have much work to do to get rid of 5 years of bad swings. We’re working mostly on getting into proper position at the top of the backswing, and then making sure the clubhead is on the right path. This is mostly working with the driver / fairway woods / hybrid, and mostly not with the irons. I also need to be more aggressive with my hip turn on the downswing. I’ve definitely found the right instructor.
This week, I’m concentrating on short game and putting for the tournament next weekend at Grapevine Golf Club.