Joey's Golf Bag

Today, I practice and played nine at Hank Haney Golf Ranch in Lewisville. The weather was mid-50s and sunny, with a slight breeze from the east.

I started off hitting 7-iron shots to warm up. I was concentrating on three things today: a slower start to my downswing, an inside path, and a full turn during the backswing. I did well on everything but the inside path; I had a hard time getting into the groove today.

I hit the short irons well, although I had a tendency to pull the short irons, indicating a slightly over the top swing. The mid-irons were not very good, mostly fades or worse, slices. The long irons were bad during practice, and not much better during play.

I hit some short wedge shots during practice, and with the exception of some hit slightly fat, did pretty well. Again, many were slightly pulled.

I spent a few minutes putting to get the speed of the greens and then played nine.

My score:

* Hit green in regulation.

Themes:

• Tee shots. Hit only one fairway and two greens in regulation. I hit 4-irons on all the par-4 holes, except for the sixth hole. Even so, hit one in the hazard on the second and another into the hazard on fourth. I did manage to hit the fairway on the eighth hole with a 4-iron fade. The tee shot with the 3-metal on the sixth hole was launched very high and ended up in the right rough, where I had to lay-up into the fairway.
• Short irons. Hit two greens in regulation. Hit a nice 9-iron to 30 ft on the first hole and a pitching wedge onto the green on the third. My 9-iron after a drop on the second was hit the green but rolled off into the rough just over the green. Hit a perfect lay-up 9-iron on the sixth hole from the rough. My 7-iron from the fairway was pin-high on the eighth hole, but pushed into the rough just off the green. My 7-iron tee shot was also pushed, this time into the right hand bunker.
• Wedges. Mostly short today. Had one disastrous wedge from the rough on the eighth hole that flew the green; the return sand wedge ended up in the bunker.
• Chipping. Good chip on the fifth to save par. Otherwise, none were closer than 5 ft.
• Bunker shots. Had two balls in bunkers, got out onto the green to about 8-10 ft on both.
• Putting. Nothing good to say about putting today, as I hit none over 6 ft and managed to three-putt the third hole from 15 ft.

Despite the perfect weather, had a pretty poor golf outing today.