Played good and bad today. Three doubles and a quadruple balanced by 8 pars and a birdie. Finished on 14 over. Holed a pitch on 9 for birdie then chipped in for par at the 10th. Made some lucky pars. 15th pulled my tee shot left into trees. Found it about 60m from the tee in the rough of another hole. Wedge over the trees to 150m and a 6i straight at the pin over a bunker and holed a 15ft putt from behind the hole. 6 one putts and no 3 putts for 26 putts. Only hit 5 gir. Holed a pitch on the 10th last Monday as well. That gives me 4 hole outs in 9 rounds after 34 rounds with no chip ins.
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It rained last night and the temp was super mild this morning so I went out for a quick 9 before work. Played by myself in 53 minutes. My ballstriking continues to get better and better with my irons and my driver has really come around since moving the loft up. Iāve messed around at 7.5, 8, and 9 degrees and 8 seems to be the sweet spot. Plenty long and in play. All I want and need out of it.
35 this morning and had chances at a lower score, but Iām very happy with where my game is at right now. Get some putts to fall and weāre really in business.
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I also played 9ā¦ my swing is definitely back to where I want it and I hit 6 greens and went 3 overā¦ terrible short game day overallā¦ add in the par 5s (where I was within 10 yards of the pin after 2) and I failed to get up and down 5 times.
A couple mental mistakes and mishitsā¦ very happy with where my game is trendingā¦
Highlight of the good, the bad and the ugly:
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Looks like you worked your ass off for 14 holes. In my mind, that a lot of holes of ācompetitiveā golf. Good for you.
Last two rounds were 44-41. I start with uninspired bogey-train golf and canāt get off for a couple of hours. In each round, I had a birdie. Back when I was playing my best, Iād do no better than one birdie per round. Not a lot of birdies, but comparatively, not bad. In 47 years, my game has never been built around āgoing lowā; itās been built around ānot fācking upā. So, thatās encouraging.
Iāve also been striking the ball a LOT better, but only intermittently, a couple of shots here, a couple there, no sustainability. Still, the ball striking and putting are positives, I just need to light the fuse earlier than the back nine.
I played in the first round of our summer match play comp. I won 6&5 and that was after being 6 up at the turn. I hit the ball well - hit 11/13 greens in the match and 15/18 overall and shot 73 - but I think I need to rethink my aiming strategy. Or, maybe I need to actually do the Decade approach instead of just eyeballing it. I end up with a lot of 35 ft putts and, thankfully, Iām a good lag putter (after practicing it a ton this spring) but Iām just not getting many birdie looks. I think Iām taking too many middle of the green targets and, using Decade properly, could actually get more aggressive.
We played another 9 after lunch and I hit 7/9 greens and shot 36 but only one birdie and I only had one other good look. All and all, 22/27 GIR and only two birdies is not good enough.
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It was a slow round constantly waiting as we were only a 2 in between groups of 4. Lucky I had a good partner. We chatted and we get on well and that helped to fill in the gaps while we waited. My chip in on 10 for par was a wormburner drive left, a hook into the trees, a sideways punch because I couldnāt see the pin then the chip in from 3m. Lucky golf rather than hard work. My pitch in on 9 was a driver slice that hit trees and dropped into a fairway bunker, a low wedge and the pitch in from about 10m. Hardly stellar golf.
So historically iāve always struggled with a massive slice off the tee but through work with my coach Iāve more or less been able to erradicate this (though i still tend to squeeze my irons right of target on occasion), my problem now is that I have started to pull my driver left. Last night I managed to squeeze 13 holes in on my home course and out of 9 that i took driver on i found the trees/heather 6 times. I donāt think it helped being stuck behind slow groups.
The positives i can take are that on the whole my putting was good, i drove the 245 par 4 3rd with a 3 wood and birdied it narrowly missing a 30ft eagle opportunity and i scored 20 points on the front 9 (44).
Iām just frustrated as my plans to get my hcp down from 20 into the mid teens is severely being hampered by my inability to stay out of trouble off the tee.
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First round of our club championship. Started off in a steady rain and was +4 thru 5. Righted the ship a little bit and played the last 13 holes in 3 over, but Iām sitting in last place in Championship Flight.
Iām very disappointed in lots of aspects of today.
- I didnāt handle the rain well. I used to be a good rain player but somewhere along the line I got soft. Forecast for tomorrow is rain all day.
- they double cut our greens today. This was the first time in 11 years of membership. We normally have slow greens and I never adjusted to the new pace. I have mixed feelings on this. Iām glad they were faster, but, if you can make the greens this good for the club championship, why not do it more often? I hate the idea of changing how the course plays for 2 days per year.
- I walk when I play, and the other 3 guys in my group rode. So I spent most of the day alone with my thoughts, and I did a poor job managing that.
We play 27 holes tomorrow. Hopefully I can make up some ground. I didnāt enjoy todayās round at all. As I get older, I definitely struggle more to play good golf when Iām not playing with friends who will chat with me in between shots.
End whining fest.
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I can spend the day heckling you on Twitter if that helps.
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I may live tweet my round tomorrow to entertain myself.
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Played my third round on a non par 3 course. This was my second time playing 18 holes and I was spent a little more than halfway through.
A couple highlights:
- I hit my 5i well. Itās my longest club at the moment. Many of my shots were 170+.
I went to the driving range Fri to practice it. It took me a bucket of balls to figure out how to stop driving my tees/balls into the ground like nails. Itās nice to see that it paid off.
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I hit my longest green at about 180 yards. I did take a mulligan on the tee shot, but the next one I hit off the floor and hit the green. This was with my 5i.
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I made my longest putt (approx. 45 feet). This was my worst hole of the round where I couldnāt hit the ball and took multiple shots (5-7) just to get to the green.
A couple things to work on/note:
- It was on that hole where the round started to go downhill. I donāt know why. We were a little more than halfway done, so maybe fatigue, loss of focus, etc. But I couldnāt hit ANY club well. Itās like I forgot everything I worked on.
I started to focus a little better towards the last couple of holes, and the better shots parlayed into more confidence/comfortableness. I ended up one putting and paring the 18th.
This is something to pay attention to the more I play. Maybe develop a couple cues to help me focus, stay relaxed, and stick to the things Iāve been working on even as I get tired or make mistakes later in a round.
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27 holes today for the final day of my Club Championship. Ended up finishing 7th of 9 in the Championship Flight, shooting +18 for the weekend.
Pretty disappointed in my showing, but did play the last 11 at +1, after being +17 through the first 34 holes.
As an aside, I left a ball in a tree today. Luckily one of my playing partners was able to see it and we could identify it. That has never happened to me in 35 years of golf.
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Shot a solid forty that included a lost ball that was probably imbedded within one or two paces of the fairway!
I had four looks at birdie in the 7-12 ft range and could not convert. Very easily could have put a much better score on the card but was pretty pleased w my play after a decent layoff
Yesterday on the 8th my drive was about 2m behind a tree. If I went to the right I would have to aim at a lake and hope for a hook. Too risky so for the first time ever I opened the face on a 3 iron and swung at a big tree further up on the left and hit a slice leaving myself a pitch to a high up green. My stock shot is a draw. Half bladed my pitch to 3ft but missed the putt. 15th I was about 10m right of the fairway 150m from the pin. If I wanted to shoot at the pin I would have to hit over the trees lining the right side of the hole. Again too risky so I opened the face on 6i and hit a fade to 1ft. Birdie. Up until now I have only opened the face on my woods.
Played in my first member/guest last week and had an absolute blast. 18 holes practice round on Thursday, then (3) 9 holes matches Friday and (2) on Saturday. Thats a TON of golf, especially for my dad whoās usually lucky to play 9 holes a week and has a torn meniscus heās waiting till the offseason to get repaired. So we knew we werenāt gonna be competitive, and had a great time.
Really happy with the state of my game mostly. Off the tee I made a few tweaks in setup and have been driving it better than I have in some time. My iron game stayed relatively decent, just started clubbing up more. My short game was solid early in the week, and got progressively worse as I got more tired. I need a sand refresher ASAP, because it used to be average for my level and its become a huge weakness.
I havenāt been able to take a longer golf trip yet, so this is the most golf Iāve played in a week. A little worn down, but canāt wait to get back out there for medal night tomorrow in league
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Sounds like weāre on a similar path. I was handicap index 19.6 two weeks ago. Now 17.4. Been working hard this year with a new coach to get down to 15/16 by the autumn. So far so good, but could be better if I was more consistent off the tee. My driver is so erratic and I have to leave my hybrids at home during comps for the sake of my scorecard.
Was this the Swinging Bridge at Cedar Rapids CC? They have the exact same format. A buddy of mine played in it.
Ah nope this was the Edison Club, up near Albany, NY. Been there for about 3 years now
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I get to the capitol reigion a few times a year. Amsterdam muni is the only place Iāve played. Kinda pedestrian, but Robert Trent Jones, Sr. design. Last round there chipped in on 18 for a mediocre 95. 
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