Joey's Golf Bag

This morning I went to hit some balls at the Golden Bear Golf Center, determined to work on my longer clubs. The wind was howling in from the south, directly into my position. And the wind was really howling; at times, I had to reset my stance after being blown out of it. At times, the wind may have hit 35 mph.

I warmed up with 7-iron half-swings, aimed at the white flag about 125 yds in front of me. I was coming up well short of that distance due to the howling wind. After warm-up, I got out the 4- and 6-irons and hit many balls, concentrating on getting the ball flying straight. For the most part, I succeeded, striking the ball pretty well today. Of course, distances were much shorter than normal; I could just reach the white flag with a 6-iron, hitting my normal high shot. I could get another 10 yds by concentrating on hitting the ball lower.

I then got out the 3-iron and the hybrid. I hit the 3-iron pretty well, but the ball ballooned up into the wind and made the distance no better than with the 4-iron. The hybrid was just impossible to hit straight today; the best I could manage was a low fade.

Next up was the 3-metal. I concentrated on the three things Alan had me work on yesterday, namely: full backswing with a slight pause at the top, full transfer of weight from left to right on the downswing, and making a complete follow-through. Things finally began to click and I started to strike the ball pretty well, tending to hit fades. I then switched to the SasQuatch driver and, for the first time ever, I finally hit drives I can be proud of. With the exception of one ball (hook), every one of 10 shots would have been in the fairway, with good or excellent distance for me. Even though I was hitting into a 35 mph wind, I still managed to carry the ball about 180 yds. I think when the wind dies down I may be close to my goal of hitting drives 225 yds.

Alan stopped by for a minute just as I started working on hitting low punch shots with the 5-iron. I’ve been needing a low punch shot, given that the wind is frequently strong in Texas, and my dominate shot is very high in the air. He had me put the ball well back of where I had been attempting the shot, nearly back to my right foot. I had some difficulty hitting the ball cleanly, but I did manage a good low shot or two, but most were pushed. I had much better success hitting the punch shot with the 8-iron.

I finished up practice hitting short sand wedge shots into the wind. I hit the ball cleanly for the most part, but tended to pull the ball. After I ran out of balls, I decided to forego putting practice, as the wind was just too strong to make practice useful.