Post by Richie3Jack on Nov 4, 2013 10:28:36 GMT -5
Course: Deltona Club
Ball: Callaway Hex Black Tour
Weather: 75°, 5 mph wind, cloudy
Stimp: 9.5
We are hitting that time of year where the price of golf steps up, so we headed out to Deltona Club, a fun course design that only cost $15 a person. The greens were in terrific shape. The fairways were mediocre, but for $15 with a cart and on this design, well worth it. It had rained that morning and the weather was making the shots play about 1-club longer.
#1: Hit a driver down the left rough well. Had to hit a 6-iron over the tree, which I did, but I thinned it and missed short. Good pitch with a LW to 5-feet and saved the par putt. ( E )
#2: I’ve been working diligently on not trying to hit hooks on purpose off the tee. I want to work on hitting a ‘1-way curve’, particularly off the tee. Meaning, I want to hit a draw, over-draw, under-draw or a straight push. No fades, unless I’m trying that on purpose. I’ve found that I can do that now with the improvements in my swing. And I can usually hit a fade on purpose. I just can’t hit a hook on purpose. Every time I do I either over-hook it or push it way to the right.
Anyway, I tried to hit a fade here and hit a pull-draw into the woods. Lack of pre-round practice got me there. I had a shot, from a difficult lie. I hit a beautiful hybrid that went just short of the green. It was a tricky, but short chip (20-feet) and I left it to 6-feet and missed the par save (+1)
#3: Struck a nice 7-iron here, but I missed it a bit left. If we didn’t get rain earlier it would have bounced right and onto the green. Clumsy chip shot and missed a 10-foot par save (+2)
#4: Good drive right down the middle. Thinned a 4-iron just short of the green. Good pitch to 3-feet and saved par (+2)
#5: This was one of those drives that starts out well and then hooked hard into the left rough on a severe slope with the ball well below my feet. I hit a hybrid well, but pushed it under a tree. Then I thinned a 90 yard shot over the green. Chipped to 6-feet and saved the par (+2)
#6: Another good driver down the middle. Hit a 6-iron that I pulled a bit. Then an awful chip and a 2-putt for bogey (+3)
#7: This one I tried to fade and I did nicely down the middle. I thought about hitting driver off the deck, but reconsidered and hit Gonzo Wood instead which I struck it well, but pushed it a bit. I then had an awful lie in the rough, next to the cart path. Punched it on the green and then lipped out the birdie putt from 20-feet and made par (+3)
#8: This one I hit really well off the tee and then I hit a mediocre shot from 70 yards to 20-feet. I drilled the birdie putt (+2)
#9: Hit a nice 7-iron right at the flag, but it landed just short and rolled away from the green a bit. I then chipped with a SW and knocked it in for my 2nd birdie in a row (+1)
#10: I tried to hit a fade here, but hit a small draw. It still ended up okay. Hit a borderline wipe on the 2nd shot with a 6-iron and missed well right. Hit a beautiful pitch to 5-feet on a short sided shot. And then made the par save (+1)
#11: Hey, 247-yard par-3. And I hit a Gonzo Wood nicely to 40-feet. Had the perfect speed, but mis-judged the read a little. However, I saved par (+1)
#12: I B-O-M-B-E-D this one off the tee. Everything I have been working on my swing clicked here and I hit it 330 yards, on a day where it rained and the weather was cooler with the humidity up. I was in between clubs and caught a ½ PW a little thin to the front of the green. 2-putted and made par (+1)
#13: Another driver right down the middle. Hit driver off the deck and found the green with a 50-foot eagle putt. I had good distance control, but the break was more severe than I thought. I canned the 5-footer for birdie anyway ( E )
#14: This was only 240 yards par-3, but it is straight downhill. I hit another Gonzo wood, this time to 20 feet. 2-putted and made par ( E )
#15: Hit a straight push into the right rough. Had to guess where the green was as I could barely see the flag. Thought I hit a nice 9-iron close. Well, it was close to the hole, but it left me with a tricky chip. I hit a decent chip, but didn’t play for enough break and that left me with a 5-footer that I missed badly. (+1)
#16: Pretty good drive down the middle of the fairway. Hit a Gonzo Wood off the deck and found the green. 2-putted from 40-feet to make Birdie ( E )
#17: This is a tough hole and I made matters worse by hitting a straight push well to the right. Punched out with an 8-iron and had 185 into the green. I hit 5-iron, but caught it a little fat with a closed clubface and missed the green left. Chipped up to 8-feet and missed the bogey save (+2)
#18: Lay-up shot off the tee with my hybrid down the middle. Hit a SW flush for about the first time in 2 months and had a 15-foot birdie putt. One of my better putts of the day that just missed. (+2)
A lot of good things happened here. I started making some putts. My driving was pretty good, again. The Gonzo Wood really paid off. And I think I hit a lot of good Short Game shots.
However, I’m still not quite hitting the irons like I should, particularly the short irons. I also miss too many short putts and hit too many bad short game shots.
I started to focus on some different things like ‘the gaze’ that Geoff Mangum talks about and trying to apply that to all of my shots. I started to find that it works well if you avoid letting things like swing thoughts get out of the way. I’ve been also working on getting the CoP to trace towards my left foot on the downswing and when I did it, like the drive on #12, I could hit some real impressive shots. Now I have to work on when I hit a tee shot to stop making double bogeys and come away with bogey or a par.
37-37=74 (+2)
9/14 fwy
8/18 GIR
29 putts
-8 G.I.R.O score