Mixed mess
This morning, I practiced at the Golden Bear Golf Center on a warm morning, with a light breeze from the south. I started off in the short game area, where someone had thoughtfully piled up about 75 balls at just the right distance for long pitches. I started off with the sand wedge, hitting short pitches at various holes on the green. Unlike my last practice, I didn’t have any difficulty with pushes. After many short shots with the sand wedge, I got out the lob wedge and continued hitting short pitches at several different pins. My touch and feel were far superior to my previous practice, and my distance control was much improved as well. In fact, I felt good enough about my pitching to practice cut lobs, and surprisingly, hit them quite well.
I then spent about 20 minutes chipping from long, medium and short range. My chipping was quite good as well, even holing one from about 25 ft. I then spent some time in the bunker, but never really got dialed in as I was hitting too far behind the ball. I took a short break and went to the range.
I started out hitting gap wedges at the red-flagged green, but soon had problems hitting the ball fat. In fact, that would be a theme all day with full wedge and short irons. So, I figured my tempo was off, so I got out the iPod and…
AAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYY!!!! No battery.
No Tour Tempo to get me back in tempo today, and indeed, I wasted half a bucket of balls before my swing got back in tempo. What did it was an extended practice with my fairway clubs. I hit the Wishon Golf 915F/H club especially well today, right at my expected 180 yard carry (and that with range balls, will probably be 5% longer with a normal ball). I also hit the 949MC 7-wood quite well, nearly nailing the yellow-flagged pin at 195 yards. The 4-wood I didn’t hit particularly well, and the driver never cooperated at all. In general, my irons were all pretty crappy today, but at least I could hit the longer clubs (except that pesky driver) pretty well.
By this time, I was out of gas, so I skipped putting and went and got some lunch.