3.13.10 Round

[Richie3Jack]

At Windermere, no shotgun anymore. Course was about as wet as I've ever seen it. Weather was cold and windy as well. Today I was using the Hogan Apex PC's.

#1 - Good driver down the right side. Ball well below my feet and I hit a crappy shot into the drink. 80 wedge to about 15 feet, 2-putted. (+2)

#2 - Pushed a 3-iron a little. Chipped the ball where I wanted to, but the greens were slow and I needed to make it a 'Rule of 11' instead of a 'Rule of 12' in order to get the ball to the hole. Missed the 10 footer for par (+3)

#3 - Pushed a driver into the right rough. Crappy 5-iron from a downhill lie. Hit a nice 9-iron at the flat, but it went too far. 2-putted from 15 feet (+3)

#4 - Little thin push with the hybrid off the tee. Hit a nice 8-iron that I pushed a little, but at the flagstick. Just mised the 20 foot birdie putt (+3)

#5 - hit a decent 6-iron, but didn't hit enough club and went short. Chipped an got up and down for par (+3)

#6 - Crushed a driver perfectly. Caught an 8-iron flush, but the wind took it and it flew the green. Nice pitch to 5-feet, but missed the putt (+4)

#7 - Crappy 6-iron. Wasn't focused on the task at hand. Then I almost knocked in the chip and kicked in for par (+4)

#8 - Beautiful driver down the middle. Played a 7-iron safe and 2-putted from 35 feet (+4)

#9 - Decent driver down the middle. Decent 3-wood short of the green. Good flop to 4 feet. Made the birdie (+3)

#10 - Good drive and a LW to 15 feet. iHit the firt putt too hard and made a nie comebacker from 7 feet (+3)

#11 - Good 3-iron I pushed a little, but it didn't make it there. Good chip to 5-feet. Missed the par save (+4)

#12 - So-so drive that wound up in the fairway bunker. Hit an awesome 4-iron out of the fairway bunker on the green. 2-putted from 25 feet (+4)

#13 - Good drive down the middle. Hit an 8-iron to the green which was held up a little by the wind. 2-putted from 35 fet (+4)

#14 - Good drive down the middle. Lie was downhill so I laid up. Hit a decent 6-iron on the layup. Hit a nice PW but the wind took it and carried it too far and hit the slope and rolled further away. Nice 2-putt from 40 feet for par (+4)

#15 - Toed a driver that found the right side of the fairway. Hit a good 6-iron and 2-putted from 25 feet (+4)

#16 - Great drive down the left side. Hit a 7-iron a tad fat and got down on the bottom tier. 2-putted from 40 feet (+4)

#17 - Great 6-iron to about 1 foot. Kicked in for biride (+3)

#18 - Great driver down the left side. Decided to lay up and punch a 7-iron that I caught a little fat. Then hit another 7-iron, hit well, to about 15 feet. 2-putted from there (+3)

38-36=74 (+3)
11/13 Fairways
12/18 GIR
31 putts
2/5 scramble

I was hitting the Apex PC's pretty well today and +3 isn't bad considering I was +3 after the first two holes. Hit the driver pretty well today and didn't 3-putt all day long. I'm just about done with playing in this crappy weather.





3JACK

[gmbtempe]

Richie,

You seem like a very good player, is the goal to play in some amateur competitions?

[Richie3Jack]

Eventually, yes. Particularly trying to quality for the US Am...that's probably my biggest goal, make it to US Am match play. I really want to get my ballstriking up there. I figure if I have the ability to hit 16 greens on any course (obviously, not doing that every time) on any given day, if I get a little hot with the putter I can do some things.

I don't think I'll ever be super long and for whatever reason, I've lost my putting skill that I had back in my college days. I'd like to get about halfway back to my old putting ways and strike the ball well and give myself a consistent chance to do something.

I figure it will probably take about until March 2011 to get the swing pretty close to where I want it. This year may be tough for me because I think there's a good chance I'll be moving to Florida in the next 2 months. I may try for the Georgia Mid-Am this year and then the club championship if I stay in Georgia.

Either way, 2011 is the year I'm hoping to get into some more tournaments. The one thing I feel good about is that I played a couple of small tournaments this year and the pressure didn't really bother me at all. It was more or less just another round.

That's good because I don't need to get into a bunch of tournaments to 'gain experience.' I think gaining experience is important, but to me it's really just a question of getting to the point where playing a tournament is just another round of golf for you. I think there's ways to do that and my posts in regards to helping out HS/College coaches and players is just some of the things I do to help make it easy come tournament time. I think a lot of mini-tour pros could learn from that and save themselves a great deal of money instead of just playing a bunch of mini-tour events where they are almost guaranteed to lose money in hopes of 'gaining experience.'







3JACK