Joey's Golf Bag

I went to Hank Haney Golf Ranch this morning to practice and play nine. The weather was cool, with a slight breeze that didn’t affect golf at all.

I hit a small bucket of balls to warm up. Immediately, it was obvious that my tempo was not really good today. I tended to push the short irons, fade or slice the middle irons, and hook the longer clubs. I never got the driver to do anything but hook today, and I should have left that club in the bag. I did hit some pretty good 3-metals, but inexplicably used the driver instead of that club. What a mess!

My score:

* Hit green in regulation.

Themes:

• Tee shots. I did a very fine job off the tee on the par three holes, hitting four of five in regulation; the one I missed on the 7th hole was a mere foot off the green. Contrast that with the par four holes, where I missed every fairway (except the fourth hole, which rebounded off the net into the fairway) and even managed to hook a 4-iron into the left hazard on the 8th hole. The rest of misses were nasty duck hooks with the driver, including hooks into the nets on two and four (had to take an unplayable on the 2nd hole). The driver shouldn’t have come out of my bag today.
• Approach shots. Miserable performance on the approach shots today. On the second, pushed a pitching wedge right of the green. On the fourth, I pushed a 7-iron layup into the trees, and had a terrible time to reach the green in 4. On the sixth, where I had hooked the driver into the rough left behind those evil ball-eating grass bushes, I had a choice of trying to punch out through a mass of the grass bushes or go over a tall tree. I elected to go over the tall tree (given the number of balls I’ve fed those grass bushes), but just hit the top branches, and the ball fell into the rough on the right side of the green. On the eighth hole, after hitting a 4-iron into the hazard, dropped from the hazard, but had the ball well above my feet. My 5-iron chunked the ball into the hazard again.
• Wedges. I had a very good day from the tee with the wedges, hitting all three onto the greens. Other than the chunked layup sand wedge on the sixth, I had a good day with the wedges, though tending to be a bit long.
• Chipping. Surprisingly, I didn’t have a chip all day; I putted from the fringe on several holes.
• Putting. No three putts today, but still tended to leave putts short. I also holed two long par putts, but didn’t make any birdie putts, even the 9 footer on the fifth.

I was extremely disappointed with my play on the par-4 holes, but did have a very good day on the par-3 holes. If only I could play both well on the same day…