[Bigvivec]

Nov 27


So I played today fresh off my lesson yesterday…I’ll just put it in a word: WOW!!!

The stuff the pro showed me works…and it translates to the course…really felt good out there and shots came off feeling easy…effort was reduced and I had less anxiety over the ball…

Stats don’t show the whole picture…the quality of ballstriking today was very high; I really hit it solid with a lower trajectory and more spin (essentially playing the ball back from where I was and swinging more shallow…felt like I was plowing through the ball)…the improving swing has made a big difference and I’m coming into the ball more shallow, taking a different kind of divot and can feel the ball compressing much better off the face…it’s early days yet, I just was given these movements (at least a refinement of them) yesterday and am still tentative, not really trusting them yet, but I can see the potential and the good swings felt so #$%#$ easy and natural I feel a little dumb that I had to work so hard to learn something that feels as natural as throwing a ball…not yet sorted on the aiming...the ball goes right at what I’m aimed at, sometimes to my consternation…

So it wasn’t all roses…I overshot a few greens because I surprised myself and hit the ball better than I thought I would, and followed up those with some shots coming up short due to taking less club as a compensation…those kind of misses are a lot easier to live with than mishits though…the misses were on the fringes or in greenside bunkers anyway…my alignment with the irons was off for the first 5 holes or so until I figured it out and started to play better…I hit a lot more greens the last time out, but wasn’t hitting the ball like I was today…just goes to show that in golf known quantities are the way to scoring, regardless of their quality; it’s the consistency and predictability that wins out…

I hit the Adams driver with the axivcore red in it for the first half of the round and then my usual driver the second half (yes, I had extra clubs in the bag, but wanted to test them out on the course using the same swing I had for the day)…I officially don’t care for the axivcore…I nutted one and the ball went as far as a mishit with my usual, and later in the round I proved it to myself when I caught one with my burner driver and sent it nearly as far as I’ve ever hit the ball on that particular hole…I’m going to put some lead tape on the head of the Adams and give it a few more chances; it is pretty accurate, but it’s not looking to threaten the first string at the moment…

Had the 13* TEE fw in the bag today with a prolaunch platinum shaft in it…first time I’d hit it save for the net at the shop to check the swingweight feel…it’s a keeper! Trajectory is up from the last shaft and control was good…felt solid off the deck as well…the 15* also feels good with its respective reshaft, but not as good as this one, and the gaps between the 13* and 18* 5 wood that is a permanent fixture in the bag are better…one big thing that is a good thing in terms of matched clubs that fit is that I can use the same address face angle from wood to wood now (three of them, just not all at once) and get similar flight and shape from club to club…that’s huge when thinking about consistency over the course of a round…if I hit a shot with one club that doesn’t come off like I thought, I can adjust for it the next time a fw shot comes up regardless of the club choice…the driver (burner) matches pretty closely as well and was using identical face angle addresses for all three for similar shot shapes today…I think that’s part of the problem I have with hybrids; I haven’t found a setup that matches closely enough to irons or woods that allows for continuity of adjustment from shot to shot; I setup differently with the hybrid than with either of the aforementioned types of clubs and have to depend on trying to remember the feel of that club on that day from shot to shot, which could have an hour or more between them…haven’t tried a hybrid with the new adjustments yet; maybe it’s sorted as well but I doubt it…anyway, as far as the 13* fw prolaunch plat goes, one time out and it got a starting position in the varsity, it fit that well…if I have a bad day with it I’ll have to remind myself that it isn’t the club…feel that way about all the clubs in the bag now save for the putter and hybrid/3i spots, and the putter is holding its spot pretty good at the moment…

Putting was off and on…distance control was good and I’m probably just expecting too much…narrowly missed a few good birdie chances from distances that have been in the wheelhouse lately…unless I practice putting more I can’t really get upset about missing 10-15ft putts though; they’re just not all going to drop anyway no matter how much boring putting practice I do…I made a 35 ft birdie putt (stepped it off) which only negatively added to my expectations…

With the new mechanics I’m better able to feel the pressure on PP#3 at impact and was able to direct the energy into the shot better towards the end of the round…still a long way to go with the new swing but balance was better, swing speed up, ballspeed up, contact much more crisp and I’m a happy man at the moment…I know the direction that I need to go…

Short game was a struggle…all of the full swing practice has taken the feel out of my hands…need a little time around the practice green to touch things up…was long on most every chip and was only saved by good putting…I did get up and down 2 times from the sand…one needed a 10 ft putt and the other was 3 in from the cup and only required a laugh…

Been struggling with long irons most of the year…kept getting lessons and trying different things in an effort to improve, but managed to lose my iron swing in the process for most of the year, the long irons being the worst part of that equation…soldiered on using hybrids but have always felt that when I’m “on” nothing beats a long iron, and for enjoyment’s sake, there is nothing like hitting a pure long iron shot in golf for me…anyway, like I said, the swing still isn’t quite there, and the scrappiest shot I hit today was a 3 iron that I pushed to the right of the green…it was high and straight right though, and I managed 200yds with it into the right bunker that I managed an up and down from…hit two four irons that were good but not great…flew high and straight anyway, just a little tentative with them still, didn’t snap them like I wanted to and was short of where I ought to have been with them both times…really need to cut loose a little more but these clubs have been breaking my heart all year, tough to give them the unconditional treatment one day after the revelation…


Things are looking up though…I got the pro to put his thoughts and my practice plan on my phone’s voice recorder…he got a kick out of that…

A bright spot at the end of the round; unsolicited, my caddy made the comment that I’m sure he was reserving until he was sure that we were done for the day as after I walked off the final green of the day and announced that we were done and took off my glove, he immediately made some comments about my play (he knows to wait)…he said that I looked a lot better swinging, more stable, no lunging forward, more power with less straining…I told him I cheated on the course pro and saw an outside instructor yesterday and he laughed and said that it looked like it was working out…I told him to keep it to himself and laughed inside to myself for feeling like the backdoor man in the situation…

The bad news is that my nanny is taking a week off to go home for a family wedding…I’m off the course until she gets back though I’ll drag the kids to the range every chance I get in the interim…


10/11 fairways, 6 gir, 24 putts, 1 birdie, +1 for 16…