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#643

Tournament round today at the Iowa Golf Association Club Team Championship. We didn’t have a whole lot of handicap so our team was shooting to compete in the gross division. In the gross division, the top 3 of 4 total scores count.

As the highest handicap player, I went in with the mindset to avoid doubles and play conservatively. I started out +2 thru 3, but then rattled off 4 straight pars. I wasn’t hitting it well but I was grinding and making some 6-10 footers.

I the went bogey-par-bogey-par-bogey-bogey to be +6 with 5 to play. I checked the live leaderboard and knew my score was going to count, so I really tried to avoid the big mistake.

I parred the last 5 holes to shoot 78 (+6). Twelve pars and 6 bogeys is boring, but it was so encouraging for me. I’ve rarely played well in tournaments. To grind out a respectable score when I didn’t have my best stuff is a great confidence builder!

The outcome wasn’t what we wanted. We finished 6th out of 14 teams.

Side note: I love team golf. Love getting to play for other people.

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#644

Equalled my best ever round today with my second ball. 78 or 8 over. 11 pars 6 bogies and 1 double. 8 one putts for 28 putts. My first ball shot 84 with 7 pars 8 bogies and 3 doubles. A chip in, 3 one putts and a three putt at the last for 32 putts. The 17th is an uphill 328m par 4. The fairway slopes severely right to left down to the trees and a gully. I set up for a slice to find the high side but didn’t see it in the air. I found it 128m out below the fairway sitting on the dirt with tufts of grass around it. Hit a fat shot. Had 84m to the back and hit a 3/4 sand iron that finished in a grass bunker on the right front of the green. Had a downhill breaking to the left chip and I popped a little chip about a foot to the right of the pin. It rolled down the hill getting closer and closer and then dropped for a streaky par. So lucky.

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#645

Well done! Successful golfers playing extremely boring rounds.

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#646

Haha, I need to come back and read this stuff more often… same issues keep cropping up… I’m finding that my biggest enemy is FOCUS… which isn’t much of a surprise… I get derailed easily (both in golf and in life).

Shot my 3rd 35 on the front in as many rounds… our club is trying to get our tee boxes back to playable, so we are on the forward tees… Played the front nine well and was focused the whole time… kindof lost my edge on the back and made 2 dumb doubles and lost 3 balls… Just wasn’t focused on what I was trying to do (score) and instead focused on SHINY things (hit a draw, carry those trees, drive that green) lots of little dumb mistakes.

It’s a pretty consistent theme… if I’m focused on making good pars, I tend to score well… the second I start focusing on other things, I tend to get into trouble. Need to make sure my first thought is putting the ball in play.

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#647

Had a great golf run as my season winds down, 4 rounds in 4 states over 5 days. Let’s break it down:

Friday: Played 18 holes at the Mount Snow course in Vermont. Opened with a birdie, then played aggressively average the rest of the way, some driver struggles prevented solid scoring. Fun mountain course, ton of elevation changes up and down. One par 4 380 yards, hit a solid drive and still had to hit 5 wood to get it up on the green because of the severe uphill slope. Front nine 43, then scrambled the back to try and beat the sunset.

Saturday: 18 holes at Crumpin Fox in Massachusetts, playing with 3 college buddies for our Broken Driver Trophy. Immediately jumps up among my favorite courses I’ve ever played. Challenging but fair course. Started to hit the driver well for the first time in MONTHS, absolutely ripped a few. Sadly I couldn’t buy a putt, and I lost the trophy for the first time in 3 years after my buddy chipped in for birdie on 15 to pull away. Finished with a 91, which is real solid for me the first time around this track. Will definitely return.

Sunday: Drove up the Hooper Golf Course in NH, one of the top ranked 9 holers in the world. It was a blast, two different tee boxes to mix it up when playing 18. Played steady on the front for a 42, then became a Fairways and Greens machine on the back. Two sloppy 3 putt bogeys brought me in for a 38, but an 80 overall for my best 18 holes in awhile. Really cool course if you’re ever on the VT/NH border.

Monday: OFF (from golf, work was open)

Tuesday: Back in NY at my home course for fall league. Rode the bogey train most of the night, putting is a bit of a mess. Struck the ball good enough, came in with a 44 which is my best Tuesday night score since August.

Takeaways: Golf is just a little more fun when you can trust your driver. I’ve missed that feeling all year, but got some good visuals and feels to try and lock away for next season. Putting broke down, need to get some more reps in at home during the season. Now, I rest till next Tuesday when my season officially ends.

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#648

Where was everyone? Turned up for my 0748 tee time and there was only 1 car in the carpark. It was constant light rain and the rest of my group cancelled. Only 8 other people arrived. (Tee open since 0700) I teed off on my own hitting a pink ball and a white ball side by side. I shot 84 79 with 18 pars. 14 one putts and 2 three putts only hitting 8gir. Chipped really well. Rain stopped on the 9th and I got around in 3 hours. The white ball had 10 pars and only 1 double. A really really good round.

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#649

And just like that my season has ended. Finished the year with an incredibly “eh” round, 45 with 7 bogeys a par and a double. Just largely uninspired golf, didn’t play great in league after being at work all day. Something to try and fix next year.

I’ll go back and do a breakdown of my season in a few days. Everyone else, please keep posting about your rounds so I can live through you while in a boot for the next month. Please!

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#650

My last rounds have all been about 86. I always seem to have about 4 horrible holes where I just lose focus and make a double or triple. I am also still the king of lipouts. I haven’t actually kept this stat, but I feel like I am making 36 ft of putts in a round at most. I burn a lot of edges, but nothing much drops.

I won a big club tournament a few weeks ago and I do feel like I’ve just taken my foot off the gas since. I know the end of golf season is almost here and I don’t really have the motivation to practice and can’t seem to stay focused for a whole round.

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#651

Last Monday I had 11 pars and a birdie for the first time ever with 7 gir. Chipped in twice for 25 putts. Finished with 78(8 over) equaling my best ever round. My first chip in was a downhill chip over a sprinkler head with a ball already on the green just off my line and my second one was slightly uphill and breaking left to right. I chipped and it looked like it was missing on the high side and fell in the back of the hole. Again so lucky.

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#652

Last Saturday, we made our annual way to Twisted Dune https://www.twisteddune.com/ . What a fun course. No trees! But lots of gorse and 2ft high fescue. Got matched up with another 2some (young bucks) Real score didn’t reflect my play overall. First, because of road issues we didn’t arrive until 10 minutes before our tee time. “Got time for a small bucket” LOLOL? So teed off cold. Proceeded to hit 6inches behind the ball on the opener, then hit a 6i fat, 9i fat, W fat, W fat, LW fat, putted short…in for 8! #2 toed a driver, 5i fat, W fat, W on 2 putt in for 6. #3 made a standard Bogey! +7 after 3…Shot +1 rest of 9 with a 1 putt birdie on 8 from 3ft, a 126yd par3 for a smooth 44. Second 9 shot +3 with 2 more birdies for an 83. Needed that bucket! Best part for me…the 1 young man that was paired with us was hammering an EPIC Driver and his Swing Speed using my PRGR was 101-103…I out drove him on 4 holes by 5-10yds I avg 238 off the tee in 60* weather. So, not bad to close out our regular season here! Looking forward to dropping some weight and getting a bit more fit over the next few months and play when we can…If it isn’t windy we play in 40* weather!

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#653

Isn’t that always the case? “Yes, the score’s garbage, but I really played well!” Sounds like you recovered nicely though. “Gritty Golf”, as our host has mentioned.

And you now have additional info that you need about 15-20 full swings to warm up, LOL. Guess that’s what off to the side of the first tee is for…

The launch monitor stuff is funny. As again, Adam Young and Ping and Trackman have shown, it’s one thing to drive it hard and straight—and those are all great things; it’s another thing entirely to do it efficiently. Hitting with positive AoA, hitting on the part of the face that minimizes backspin (if you spin it too much for your ballspeed): all of those kinds of things have tremendous effects on your carry. So you out driving someone who might actually have more ball speed, isn’t terribly surprising. Nice job!

#654

Piling onto funny launch monitor stuff, it was pretty funny trying to use it in the wind today. Constant 20-25, with gusts to 35-40, and it was still more pleasant in that regard than yesterday… Quartering headwinds with L-R, on the day my high driver slice decided to drop in and say, “Hi!”

All you can do is laugh. Neat, watching a PW go up, and up, then go another 20 degrees to the right. It was a trifle blustery.

I did see the pro at the range giving lessons though, and I was wondering what the etiquette was on that? When weather is just making the whole thing ridiculous—standing bags were blowing over if they weren’t pointed into the wind—be it wind like this, or downpours.

#655

The last 2 weeks I got out first before the masses and played in under 2.5 hours with 5 clubs both rounds. Clubs were D, 5i, 8i, 54°, and putter. The 5 iron is approximately right for 2 par 3s, and the 8i is approximately right for the other 2.

Last week I had a fantastic ball striking day, hit 17 of 18 GIR(sandy on the 1 missed), and 35 putts to shoot E 72.

Today my ball striking wasn’t as good, and was in between clubs a lot more, only hit 8 GIR, but my chips/pitches were solid and I putted great.

yd44lf
yd44lf2273×1072 261 KB

Some takeaways:

  1. Carrying 5 clubs is a lot easier than carrying or pushing 14 (used a Sunday bag)

  2. I use my 58° on too many short game shots. Limited to my 54° it seemed to perform better than my 58° normally does, so I need to use it more when I have a full bag.

  3. I tried heads up putting today and was impressed. I had a few bad lags including a couple from the fringe where I should probably keep my head down, but in the 0-15 ft range it was great. Didn’t miss anything under 12 ft. This was 1 round but will definitely try it again

  4. Taking off first is awesome. I missed my group today but the early morning views are spectacular https://www.instagram.com/p/CVqEDFZLg6Y/?utm_medium=copy_link

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#656

Played yesterday with two of my good buddies. There was a frost delay that nothing so our 130 tee time turned into 150ish (why don’t they cancel tee times before frost delays??).

We decided to play a little game of 9 point to make things interesting.

Started off on 10 and hit a shaky tee shot that ended up ok. Proceeded to feel like I was “hanging on” for the first 6 holes. After 6 holes I was +7 and behind quite a bit in our game. At that point I made the realization that I was searching for a swing vs picking a target and process and just letting it go from there.

I proceeded to go 1-under for the last 12 holes to shoot a 78 and just miss out on winning our side game when my buddy stuffed his 3rd shot to on the par 5 9th (our final hole) to birdie.

It’s amazing when I think about it. My best golf is always played when I fully commit to a process and let it go. Picking a VERY specific target, envisioning the ball flight including the apex, and pre accepting the shot just works and I forget that so often.

It’ll be a winter of continued mental game building for me but hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze one more round here in MN.

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#657

Got out yesterday and it was cool and a bit windy, but some sun. Shot 84 and it was my typical lack of focus for a few holes each 9. It was a decent round for me, but not the first time I felt like I turned a 78 into an 84. I feel like I’m close to figuring it out, but it’s November and my chase to start breaking 80 again will probably have to wait for Spring.

#658

First tee was blocked so had to tee off on 4. A par 3 with a lake front right and a very long 3 club difference green. Last time I had to start there I hit a ball in the lake and took a big number. Hit a 5i to the back and sunk a long putt for birdie. Next hole a dogleg par 4 I hit 3i 7i to back fringe and chipped in for birdie. Then on the 440m par 5 18th a I hit a 220m 3i then a 200m 3i to the front fringe then chipped to 2ft and another birdie. Finished with 77(7 over) 6 pars, 3birdies and only one double. 10 one putts and a chip in for 25 putts. My 10th 70’s round this year and equaled my best ever round. My one double was on a par 3 and I hooked into a bunker and had to hit out away from the green then couldn’t pitch it close enough and missed the putt. 2 reasonable chips but couldn’t get the putt. Otherwise a near perfect round.

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#659

I have been working on a change in my entire putting routine. Honestly, I have been completely out of sorts for several years on the greens. I watched a vid by “The Mechanic “ about a 2 months ago. I have been working and implementing some major swing changes, so I didn’t think it would behoove me to do more than one thing at a time. I have worked on the putting changes on the practice green, but not during a round. I partially implemented the change last week on the back 9, Today was full implementation. I made 4 birdies, 1 eagle, and had 3 sand saves. I went under for the first time in 10 years. I couldn’t be more pleased. I only had 1 very bad missed putt BUT made the 14 ft comeback for par. We are expecting decent weather next Saturday too. So is it a 1 shot deal OR did I finally find something that works reasonably well? Stay Tuned! BTW -1/69…I did have 1 dbl and 3 bogeys.

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#660

Back 9 practice today. Still trying to make sense of a new swing concept I introduced in October.

If I ignore the duff off the tee for my first shot (ahem) I went birdie, quad, triple, triple, par, double, birdie, double, bogey. Really happy with some of my shots. Never, ever had 2 birdies within 9 holes before.

Beautiful autumnal scenes with the trees in various shades of brown, orange, yellow and red. I found it help me stay present, just admiring the beauty of nature. Then I got angry watching kids sliding their cart around on the damp turf like they were in Jackass :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

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#661

That is good stuff! Get rid of what probably was mismanaged mistakes with the “others”. You are down into something to really work with Congrats

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#662

Another interesting back 9 on Sunday afternoon. Scoring was terrible for various reasons but I found myself hitting terrible drives followed by amazing (by my standards) ‘provisional’ shots on 13, 14, 15,16. I need to tap into the difference in mental state to unlock the perfectly good driver performance!

On the 15th, par 5 I lost my first drive, smoked a provisional then smoked a 4hy to 12’ from the hole. Missed my par putt but gotta be happy with a bogey after 3 off the tee! Ignoring the lost tee shot … I have never, ever hit a par 5 in 2 shots before. And it was cold, damp and muddy.

Love it :heart_eyes: I want to remain in the present as much as possible but it hard not to be optimistic for 2022 season already.

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