Menu
So there’s good news and bad news: the bad news is that I played poorly for 28 holes, making 3 doubles and a quad, and then played the last 8 holes 2 under. My putting was adequate, my short game spectacular, my ball striking horrendous. The first day I shot 78, and I would just as soon forget the whole thing, except that I had 29 putts with 2 three putts. The second round was more interesting, so I will go over it with you. I usually don’t like to listen to blow by blow accounts of anyone’s round, but you don’t have to read this if you don’t want to.
Suffice it to say that unfortunately I hadn’t been able to find the face for the entire first round. It easily could have been a worse score had it not been for my ability to get it up and down. So you can imagine that I was a bit apprehensive about the second round, although after I finished the first round I was making a few swings in the parking lot and decided that I needed to get more open with my upper body so I could take the club back more toward me without whipping the clubhead inside. My warmup went decently (the range is bizarre- you hit directly into a huge hill that makes all your shots look like they aren’t getting up in the air), and I was somewhat hopeful on the first tee. You can imagine my relief when I hit a solid drive down the middle (the day before I had hit a shank into the right fairway bunker about 230 out and had a 4 iron to the pin, which I chunked but got up and down from 50 yards), then missed the green just left with a 9 iron. I pitched it up to a foot and tapped in, so a decent start.
The fun started on #2. I hit a low, hard snap hook off the tee that hit the trees about 80 yards out, and when we went to look for it, it was nowhere to be seen. Fortunately it had kicked out into the rough short of the fairway, and I hit a 2 hybrid up to about 60 yards from the pin. I hit a great 58 degree up to about 5 feet above the hole, and made the downhill curler for par. Number 3 is a short, tight par 4, and I hit a 4 iron and a gap wedge to 5 feet above the hole, but missed the touchy putt. I hit a fairly solid 5 iron on the 4th, a par 3, missed the green left and pitched it up to a foot again. The 5th is a long par 5 where you hit straight out, then up and over a hill to a green that sits way down and left. I hit another immediate snap hook that dove into a hazard that probably no one else in the tournament hit into, then dropped into thick rough and chopped it out back into the rough up on top of the hill, about 240 yards from the green. I tried to hit a 2 hybrid from an iffy lie and topped it, but it rolled down to about 60 yards from the green, where I hit it on 20 feet and 2-putted for double. On the sixth I hit a 2 hybrid into the fairway then missed the green with an 8 iron, then got it up and down again, pitching to 2 feet from the left rough. On 7 I flared a drive that caught the fairway, and then hit a solid 5 iron to about 20 feet past the pin, a nice solid shot. I 2-putted for par, then missed the green long and left again with an 8 iron, presenting me with a short side shot out of the rough to a downslope and a tight pin. I hit a ridiculous pitch that went straight up, landed on the fringe, and trickled down for another tap in par. On 9 I hit a pull-hook into the trees (but at least it went somewhere), then hit a beautiful 40 yard hook around the trees onto the green and 2-putted for par. So: 2 -over for the front with 8 pars and a double.
The 10th hole was a disaster. In the first round I had fanned a 2 hybrid off the tee into the right fairway bunker, and now was faced with having to cut a 5 iron around some trees to a green that sat way below me and to the right. I topped it down the hill, knocked that on the green from 120, and proceeded to 3-putt for a double. This time I hit the exact same tee shot, then the exact same fairway bunker shot, except this time the ball kicked left over a cliff, never to be found. I dropped in the bunker (where of course it plugged), blasted that one down the hill, and then knock it on and 3-putted for a nice quadruple bogey 8. Don’t ask me how, but I just kept trying to make decent swings, and all of a sudden I started hitting the ball decently. I hit the par 3 11th with a nice, solid 8 iron, then hit the next 3 fairways and 5 greens, making one birdie in that stretch, and birdied the par 5 16th after missing the fairway to the right and laying up, hitting a 58 degree from 80 yards to 5 feet. I missed my drive to right again on 17, but again laid up and knocked it on, 2-putting the par 5 for a par. 18 is a 180 yard par 3, and I pushed my tee shot into the right bunker, from where my bunker shot ended up 6 inches from the hole. So I played my last 8 holes 2- under, which salvaged a 74.
My take on the two days is that my body is not really ready for tournament play. However, the only way to find that out is to play in a tournament, which in turn means that the results may not be so pretty. I did survive the rounds, and while my legs felt tight, weak and tired, nothing really hurt and it felt like I was going to be able to keep working at it to make it better. My goal now is to go back to conventional stance and start using my pivot the way I teach it. I think that I am now physically capable, but after so many years of not being able to engage the muscles in my lower back I have developed some defense mechanisms that protect me against the movements I really need to make. In other words, my brain is trying to help my body avoid injury even though it doesn’t need to anymore. Today is a holiday, and before I took my wife to Annapolis for lunch I went to the local public course and hit a bucket of balls. I went back to a square, wider stance, and just tried to work on the things I know will work if I can do them correctly, such as starting the swing with my upper body, lowering into the right leg and hip after the takeaway, pushing off the inside of my right foot (which I have taken extra care to make sure it stays braced in) while keeping my head still and rotating my left hip immediately behind me and out of the way. I have been working out diligently and I am convinced that I will be able to eventually make a good swing and play some decent golf. I will keep you up to date with my efforts.
Join the forum discussion on this post