Joey's Golf Bag

I went to practice and play today at the Hank Haney Golf Ranch in Lewisville. The weather was nice when I arrived, but rain had been falling all morning. A light breeze from the west was almost unnoticed.

I started out hitting short iron shots at the green in the center of the range. My distances started out short and lengthened to their usual (short) distances after I warmed up. Today, I was completely inconsistent, hitting a perfect shot to the center of the green, followed by a shot so poor that I wondered if that was me hitting the shot. I hit some fades and some draws with the short irons, and then hit a few balls with the longer irons, mostly soft fades or soft draws.

Next, I got out the SasQuatch 3-metal and hit a few, starting out with towering slices. I managed to get that under control and hit a few nice straight shots. I finished up with short wedge shots into the water just short of the center green. No sign of fat or thin wedges, but that would be the bane of my game today.

My score:

* Hit green in regulation.

Themes:

• Hit into 3 bunkers today. On the first hole, managed to get out onto the green, but 2 putted from there. On the fifth hole, hit into the right bunker, had an easy bunker shot but hit it poorly about 2 ft. into the lip. From that very difficult lie, hit a good shot to 10 ft. from the hole. On the ninth hole, hit a 7-iron pin high into the left bunker, SW went over the green into the rough. Needs much work.
• Hit two of four fairways. On the sixth hole (my nemesis hole), hit a perfect fade into the center of the fairway, but it monster-bounced just to the right edge behind a tree. I hit a SW thin (again!) into the hazard. On the eighth hole, since I actually hit a 3-metal through the fairway and into the rough the last time I played, hit a perfect 23-hybrid into the center of the fairway. Unfortunately, it landed in a divot and a tree blocked the shot to the hole, so I had to play a 10-iron to the right of the hole. I hit a nice chip from there, but missed the par putt. On the second hole, hit a fade into the right rough; on the fourth, hit a draw into the left rough.
• Short wedge shots haunted me all day. The only great wedge shot I had today was on the 3rd, where I hit a pitching wedge to 8 ft, but missed the par putt.
• Putting was merely adequate. Although I had no 3 putts, I didn’t hit any putts beyond 5 ft.

Yes, I sucked again today, but had fun.