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Rock's Quest for a Three-peat of the City Championship

I put in some practice with the driver this morning. Did a few drills to straighten it out. First, I put two rows of 7 tees, two driver heads in width, in the ground. Then you just put a tee in the middle of it all. Swing through that without a ball and see if your club is going through the path. Also used an iron for an alignment aid. Heres what that looks like.
pesuga9u.jpg


uzu9u3ah.jpg


I also choked up on the club. I made sure about 3/4 to 1 inch of the butt end was showing.

Drill seemed to work well. I was hitting beautiful shots. I hit 7 balls at a time, then I would go and pick them up. I was 6/7 the first round, then 5/7, them 3/7, and 3/7 to end it, in finding fairways. Im not discouraged by the decline though. It is very hot and humid today. I was getting tired fast, and could even feel my legs shake a bit at address. So overall, im very pleased with the session.

On a side note. If you struggle hitting your driver, choke up a bit. I thought when I choked up so my hands werent clear at the end of the club, that I might lose 5 yards in distance, but would hopefully increase accuracy. But that isnt the case. I hit the sweet spot in my driver so many times, I actually picked up 15 yards, because I was striking the ball so much better. AND I got the increase in accuracy.

There were some other drills related to setup, but theres no reason to post them here.

Now to take this to my Saturday afternoon rounds today.

~Rock
 
Its amazing what even a little bit of practice will do. Today I had worked on the driver. First drive of my afternoon rounds, crushed, right center. I only pulled driver 4 times today. And half were fantastic.

One was ok, one was just flat out topped. If you include the two times I pulled 3 wood, its still only half great. I tee off with a lot of irons on my course, and the work I did with the driver drastically improved my iron tee shots. I struck the ball well all day.

I played 18 holes, but only 9 were played In order (restarted a couple times due to new people in the group). Shot 35 (+4). It had one birdie, 2 bogeys, and a triple bogey. Felt good. I also putted better, thanks to my work with putting thursday morning.

Im exactly where I want to be at this point before the tourney. Going to stick with my practice regimen and try to dominate the competition.

~Rock
 
McRock said:
No disrespect taken. That's a solid question, and I'm surprised no one has asked it earlier over the past couple of years. You are partially correct, part of the reason +10 makes the championship flight is due to a limited field. Last year, we had around 18 play in the city tournament. The year before was around 24. The championship flight cut is usually around +14 - +16. But the top score after the first day hasn't been better than +8. Cut lines aren't based on the number of people in the flight, they are based on "can the last place guy have a chance to get into the money in his flight?"

But the second reason is this, our course has very small greens. In fact, I can walk across most of our greens in about 20 steps, and those steps aren't a yard long. Many of the greens are probably 45 feet maybe? at most? I've always said I would measure them, but never have. Anyways, I've digressed. When you combine very small greens on par 3s with yardages of 225, 195, 210, 220, and 224, it becomes very difficult to hit those greens in one shot. And if you miss by more than 10 yards, you often times end up with very delicate pitch shots due to the very small size of the greens. The bogeys don't come on the par 4s, they come on the par 3s.

Case in point. We recently had an event here in Southern Iowa, and I 'treated' some THPers to my home course on Friday. We played somewhere in the range of 30 holes, maybe more. Plenty in the group are better golfers than me. There were two greenies all day, and I'm not sure, but I think they were both on a 95 yard par 3 (our first hole on the course is either 225 yard par 3, or 95 yards, depending which tee you play). The greens are hard to hit.

That's not to say better players haven't shot par. We used to have a guy who consistently shot 3 under par out there. But he was a rarity for this area. Often times, he would have 10 strokes over the third place guy (there was another who would consistently shoot par, but not under par, he has also left the area). I've shot under par twice, both last year, and I've parred several times in the past few years. But it's hard, it takes a bit of luck, and an excellent ball striking day with irons off the tee.

So I hope that answers your question. It is just something unique about our course, and the limited field that plays in it.

~Rock
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I assumed there were some reasons, just wanted to confirm. Again, good luck in your quest to 3-peat!
 
I had a dream last night that I got 2nd at the city tournament. I know, what an awful nightmare, right? It was one of those dreams that didn't make any sense. I didn't actually play any golf, my Uncle just came and delivered the winnings to me, and I asked him what spot I got. He told me second. And then I remember asking who won and what score? I don't think he told me who won, but he said 151 won it. 151 would be 27 over par, and isn't even a feasible score to ever win it. Still, I remember being disappointed in the dream, but telling myself "hey, be proud, you got 2nd, you beat everyone but one."

So, I woke up this morning, feeling even more motivated than usual.

Today is chipping practice. Actually, it's pitching practice, but a book of drills I have believes that shots with 20-25 yards of carry is somehow a chip rather than a pitch. I would call it a pitch.

~Rock
 
McRock said:
I had a dream last night that I got 2nd at the city tournament. I know, what an awful nightmare, right? It was one of those dreams that didn't make any sense. I didn't actually play any golf, my Uncle just came and delivered the winnings to me, and I asked him what spot I got. He told me second. And then I remember asking who won and what score? I don't think he told me who won, but he said 151 won it. 151 would be 27 over par, and isn't even a feasible score to ever win it. Still, I remember being disappointed in the dream, but telling myself "hey, be proud, you got 2nd, you beat everyone but one."

So, I woke up this morning, feeling even more motivated than usual.

Today is chipping practice. Actually, it's pitching practice, but a book of drills I have believes that shots with 20-25 yards of carry is somehow a chip rather than a pitch. I would call it a pitch.

~Rock
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Pitch away buddy.
 
stevie-a said:
I assumed there were some reasons, just wanted to confirm. Again, good luck in your quest to 3-peat!
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I was part of that Iowa event...I wasn't playing great but my best nine was +3. Those greens are tiny and undulated. If they sped up, I could see some big scores....especially with big trees in some fairways and goats/roosters getting at you from nearby. It's the most unique and awesome place I've ever played.

From The HTC One Blue!
 
dhartmann34 said:
I was part of that Iowa event...I wasn't playing great but my best nine was +3. Those greens are tiny and undulated. If they sped up, I could see some big scores....especially with big trees in some fairways and goats/roosters getting at you from nearby. It's the most unique and awesome place I've ever played.

From The HTC One Blue!
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That goat was not having fun, and cost me a stroke.

I never followed up on pitching practice from yesterday. It wasn't that great. My greenside chipping improved, but I'm just not pitching the ball very consistently. I had my pitching game in fine form until a few weeks ago, and I 'lost the feel.' I reverted back to a pitch shot/form I used last year, but I'm not a fan of it, and find it unreliable, but it is currently more reliable than whatever I'm doing now.

I will be putting in lots of pitching practice over the next 2.5 weeks.

~Rock
 
For 13 holes during league, I had it going. Maybe I lost focus, or my cool. I was +1 after 13. Ive since gone double, triple, double. It's good that im testing my ability to stay focused.

~Rock
 
Well, I'm going to rehash yesterdays rounds, because this thread is as much about working on my mental game as it is discussing how i'm practicing.

Yesterday we had league. I started last week with trying to step up my focus, get a little more into what I shoot versus just my usual, relax and drink, rounds for league. Last week didn't pan out so well, I've practiced quite a bit since then. This week was a solid start.

My league round was great. League is only 9 holes. I shot 33 (+2). I pulled my driver a touch on number 2, which kept it low, but our fairways are finally starting to dry out, and it left me with a pretty simple pitch shot. I proceeded to miss to the right, but was only 6 feet from the pin, with a straight chip. Lipped the chip, tapped in for par. Felt good. Hole 3, the tee blocks were moved way up, no wind to speak of. With the firmer ground, I decided to try a 7 iron, and set up for a draw. SUCCESS! Hit the draw, but managed to roll just off the back edge of the green. The ball was sitting in a position where both my feet were above the ball (it was sitting in a mini valley). I was between chip shots. Pop it up and land on the plateau, or hit 3 wood and run it up the bank and towards the hole. I went for the pop shot, and bladed it. Had 8 feet left for par with about 6 inches of break, which I missed. Tapped in for bogey. I told myself "it's ok, bogey isn't bad on this hole, you're still sitting where you like to be at this point, just remember to practice that chip shot because you'll be there a lot for the city tournament probably." So I goto driveable par 4, hit 3 wood, runs to front edge of green. Hit a putt, perfect line, 2 inches short. Tap in birdie. On perfect pace. Hole 5 I did not hit a decent tee shot all day. I kept trying to play draw with a 6 iron, and I rarely got the ball in the air. One of those mental blocks. After chunking around in the trees, I manage to make a 15 footer to save bogey. Next hole, I hit hybrid off the tee, which I duck hook. Duck hooked it all day actually. Hit a great pitch shot, probably 45 yards, to a tough pin location, left myself 5 feet and made the par putt. Next hole, duck hooked driver. Hit great approach, but was short. Ended up with par after a nice 10 foot putt. 8th hole, duck hooked hybrid, hit great 60 yard pitch shot, made 5 footer for par. 9th hole, duck hooked driver, was blocked out by trees, didn't see any way to fade it 90 yards or hook it 40 from where I was (those aren't my goto shots either). So I just took a 6 iron, pitched it to a good yardage in a flat spot in the fairway. Hung the wedge just right but left myself a very straight uphill chip. Missed the chip, tapped in for bogey. So for that 9, I had 3 bogeys and one birdie.

For the next 9, which was more casual, I wanted to keep the focus going. And I did, starting off birdie, par, bogey, birdie. Then the wheels fell off the bus. I just couldn't keep my mental focus anymore, or at least my cool when facing adversity. Then went double, triple, double, bogey, bogey. It was a 39. Combined, that 72 (+10). That would be ok for a Saturday round, but I'm working to do better than that. I'm working to shoot around +6 on Saturday to take a lead of hopefully 3-4 strokes going into Sunday.

So here are the strengths from yesterday. I'm still hitting the 3wood great. I'm hitting the majority of my irons off the tee better than I have all year. I'm able to hit a draw with irons off the tee on command, which will be nice on quite a few holes. My pitching game is showing signs of improvement. My green-side chipping game is at a point I would consider flawless. My putting is near flawless. I can tell that some putting drills last week drastically improved my putting stroke and my putting confidence. Going back in my head, I had 12 putts for my first 9 holes.

My driving with the driver was ok, but not where it was Saturday. Saturday it was pretty good after doing a few drills. I'm going to go back and work on those drills, and get the comfort back. My pitching game is better, but still needs work. In particular, there is a yardage, let's call it 10 yards from the edge of any green, where I consistently find myself wondering if I want to chip it high, or run a 3 wood up to the green. I lose confidence when I don't know which shot will have the best chance of success, and I will work on that. And the way I'm going to work on it is go back to my trouble spots from yesterday, and just practice those shots from there. That should give me a goto shot and the confidence when I'm facing it.

Finally, there were just a few times yesterday that I found myself getting a bit too aggressive rather than trying to prevent the high number. All in the second round though. My gameplan the last two years has been to avoid the high number, meaning ZERO double bogeys. I accomplished that through 13 holes yesterday. Then I got frustrated and tried to 'make up' some strokes I had lost. A lot of times, I have an option to take a shot, give myself a long shot at par, but a safe bogey, or I can go for the gold, which if executed well, would lead to an easier par, but if missed, has a high likelihood of double or worse. I have to get back into the mindset of 'no high numbers.' Often times, the go for the gold shot has I'd say a 10% chance of success for only a one shot gain over bogey. Those just aren't good odds.

That's all for now. Going to continue my practice sessions over the next several days.

~Rock
 
Havent really done any practice sessions. Parents are in town and I just haven't had time. I did get 9 in yesterday. My long iron striking was ok, driver was acceptable. Pitching was great as was putting.

Just need to tighten up my ball striking and Ill be in good shape.

~Rock
 
So i got some more practice in tonight. After a long day at work, my wife tells me my kid is already in bed and to just head to the course. So i took my first shot at 730 and my last shot at 910.

Started off with just hitting 6 iron shots down our widest fairway. Was a little rough to start, but worked it out to something very manageable and consistent.

Then moved to pitching. Something that has been a bit weak for me recently. Hit 16 balls from 20 yards, with 10 yards of carry to the front edge of the green. Then backed it up to 45 yards and hit another 16. Then i put a line of balls out, starting at 20 yards out, then another ball every 10 yards, ending at 60 yards. Im pleased to say that put of the 37 total pitch shots, i hit approximately 1/2 within 15 feet, and i would estimate about 10 within 5 feet. Significant improvement for sure.

I ended with putting. Simple ladder drill. 3 balls in a line, 18 inches, 3 feet, and 4.5 feet out. Make all three, move to another side of the hole.

Again, it was just a nice practice session. It was nice to keep my mind off work.

Oh, and having the PUMA Soundchuck going (thank you thp and puma!) honestly ensured that i never got bored, or lonely, and it helped keep my mind clear of other things.

Still feeling like im in a great spot 2 weeks before the tournament.

~Rock
 
Yesterday was league, and it was awful. Probably the worst I've played all year (at least the worst I've played in a 27 hole stretch). I just never got anything going. Bogey was an achievement yesterday. And it's primarily all mental. I found myself more agitated than normal. And when my golf game goes to crap, I have a hard time not thinking about all the things that bother me. Quite frankly, those thoughts in my head aren't about my golf game, they are about my job. My job just makes me mad, a lot. So yesterday, after chunking, slicing, putting awful, and everything else, in between shots, I wasn't thinking about how golf makes me mad, I was thinking about how my job makes me mad. I was tense the entire time. I shot +12 in 9 holes for my league round, and that was only because I was trying to force myself to stay in the game, learn how to recover, just in case I have the same awful start during the city tournament. I played another 18 after that, and it didn't get any better.

Unfortunately, there's not much I can do about my job at this time. I just have to find a way to go into the tournament relaxed and in a good frame of mind. I'm headed to the ozarks for the weekend, with one round of golf scheduled for Friday. I think the time off from golf (granted, not that much time off) might be good for me. I may have been trying to put too much pressure on myself yesterday. It's just a tournament, and it's just a game. Golf for me is much more enjoyable when I just play it, rather than work at it. I need to just remember that I've been playing quite well recently, with the exception of yesterday.

~Rock
 
Played 18 today at a different course with some family. Started off the same way i finished on Wednesday. Awful, +11 through the first 8 holes. No swing. Then it clicked, one swing thought, +2 for the last 10 holes. Struck the ball well for and played well for the rest of the round.

Feel good, ball striking is back. Going to take the rest of the weekend off and then hit 3 days of short game work, one day of league, and the day before the city tourney ill take off again.

~Rock
 
McRock said:
Played 18 today at a different course with some family. Started off the same way i finished on Wednesday. Awful, +11 through the first 8 holes. No swing. Then it clicked, one swing thought, +2 for the last 10 holes. Struck the ball well for and played well for the rest of the round.

Feel good, ball striking is back. Going to take the rest of the weekend off and then hit 3 days of short game work, one day of league, and the day before the city tourney ill take off again.

~Rock
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Harness that swing thought and keep it top of mind buddy!
 
How's this going?

From The HTC One Blue!
 
dhartmann34 said:
How's this going?

From The HTC One Blue!
Click to expand...
Im less than a week away now. After fridays round at the ozarks where i found my swing again, I took the rest of the weekend off. I did some visualization which is part of my mental game prep, and i spent some time remembering my good shots from fridays round. But other than that, no physical golf saturday or sunday.

My wife today reminded me that even if i dont win, or dont even make the championship flight, she and my son still love me, are still proud of my prior two wins, and will be proud of however i play. Shes a keeper. She always seems to know when im feeling a little pressure and she always knows how to put things in perspective. Play like a winner, even if I dont win. Remember, i have a family at home that loves me.

Starting tomorrow, its all short game work. Putting, chipping, and pitching. Putting will include simple ladder and around the world drills, as well as putting around all the greens to usual tourney pin positions. Pitching work is just going around the course and pitching from my usual miss spots. I have kept track of some problem spots on a couple of greens for greenside chipping to work on.

We have no chance of rain at all in the next 7 days, so the course is going to play firm compared to the rest of the year. That should give me an advantage, it gives me 2 par 4s i can reach, plus shorter, and more precise irons on all of those long par 3s.

~Rock
 
Another late night of chipping and putting.

ybu9ese2.jpg


~Rock
 
Keep it up sir!
 
Ok, so in my last week of practice, I focus almost exclusively on short game. I have always figured that there's no point trying to fix my swing or change it. I should just play what I have so that I have something consistent.

So last night, I started off with some simple ladder drill on the putting green, combined with the 'no looking' drill. Basically, two alignment rods so I can keep track of the putter head path, and 4 balls spaced out at intervals. Just putt down the line, don't look anywhere but straight down at the ball. When you hit the ball, I'm just looking at where the ball used to be and listening to see if the ball went into the cup. Just helps me putt a straight path and improves my striking the sweet spot of the putter. Then I went and hit a dozen balls with the 7 iron, just to loosen up a bit, and went straight into pitching. Every hole, I have my usual miss areas, and I practice my pitching and chipping from those areas. There are also a couple of holes where I have misses that are just in awkward spots. Like where I have to chip over a hump and over the fringe to a downhill slope, or where my ball is sitting in something taller than fairway but next to the green, in a little valley. I worked on those as well. I also teed off on a couple of holes just to determine if my 3 iron was going to reach the green. Plus I'm hitting a draw right now, which is nice. Our course has really firmed up, and a 3 iron is going to work on each of the 3 220-225 yard par 3s.

Anyways, after pitching, I would hit around a dozen putts to typical tourney pin locations, from all areas of the green. Just making sure I still have a feels for all of the breaks and nuances. I managed to get all of the holes practiced on, except number 8. By 915, it's simply too dark to judge distance for pitching and too dark to read greens for break.

The greens were shaggy yesterday. He's letting them spruce up. Not sure why. But he'll undoubtedly mow them to as fast as they've been all year the night before the city tourney.

I will probably take today off since I got so much practice in yesterday (about 4 hours). Might wash the golf cart, maybe wash all the golf balls in my bag and mark them. I will also do some visualization for my mental game prep. League on Wednesday. Thursday, I'll do some limited pitching practice, but mostly it'll be putting and greenside chipping. Friday I have off to clear my head and not get burnt out, spend some time with my wife and kid. I usually wash my clubs on Friday nights, maybe change the spikes in my shoes. Then Saturday morning, it begins.

Thanks for following along everyone, and for the well wishes.

~Rock
 
You've got this Mayor, go get 'em!!! Just remember 3 clubs is all you need, just turn it backwards and putt left handed!
 
IceyShanks said:
You've got this Mayor, go get 'em!!! Just remember 3 clubs is all you need, just turn it backwards and putt left handed!
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Hmmmmmm, I should give that a try on hole 7 again.....

~Rock
 
For kicks, I'll post some weird quirks I have in preparation for the City Tournament. Call them superstitions or whatever, but I always feel I have to do them. I always want everything taken care of and to be as comfortable as possible. So in no particular order.

1) Have to get my haircut the week of the tourney. Not that I care how my hair looks, but long hair in hot weather would bother me. It won't be hot, but just the same.
2) Clean the grips the night before. Love gripes. They've really taken a lot of time off this task.
3) Change spikes. Whether I need to or not. I change spikes once a year and I always do it just prior to the city tourney.
4) Clean the golf cart. Again, not one of those things that's necessary, but I don't want distracted by the thought of "man, my cart has a lot of water marks and dirt on it, and look at all that grass on the foot board."
5) Wash every ball in my bag, even though 60 of them are shag balls that I will never hit. Then mark them all. This has to be done by hand and by allowing them to soak in a soapy bucket for 20 minutes or so to ensure the dirt stains really come off.
6) Hand wash my clubs the night before. It's not that I don't have a club washer on my golf cart, its just that I think hand washing them gives them that extra shine. Can't be a player if you don't look the part (with my 13 year old irons!)
7) I have to eat spaghetti the night before. My wife makes it, I eat it. For some reason, I think carb loading is the thing to do.
8) There will probably be a kings size (now called 'share size' or snickers for 2) snickers mixed in with my cooler of beverages. That's in addition to the completely unhealthy pop tart I will eat that morning
9) I have to wear a brand new golf glove, even if my current golf glove is in fine condition.
10) I will cut my finger nails and toe nails 2 nights before the tourney. I don't want to look at them and think they need cut. But I don't want them freshly cut from the previous night either.
11) I wear the same outfit every Sunday, which is a dark blue Nike golf shirt with appropriately matching shorts and white belt. It just fits me well, and makes me feel invincible. That is probably the most superstitious one I have.
12) I have to watch golf movies Friday night and Saturday night. Friday night is usually up in the air, but Saturday night is always the Legend of Bagger Vance.

Those are the ones I can think of. I'm sure I have others.

~Rock
 
You know what's not cool? Swimmers ear the week of the city tourney. Should not have gotten in that pool I guess. Not sure I could have predicted it would happen since I used to basically live at a pool as a kid and have never had this my entire life.

Oh well. I'm tired of trying to deal with it on my own as I have the past few days, so I get to see a doctor this afternoon to clean my ears out. I'm sure the doctor will charge some astronomical fee, and then I'll get some stupid piddly bill in the mail for my coinsurance.

Better that than an ear I can barely hear out of I suppose. But I want it taken care of now rather than seeing if it's gone prior to my quest to threepeat.

~Rock
 
Honestly, I'm completely uninspired. played league tonight. It was a flag tourney, and the "old guys" decided to change the rules 3 holes i to my round. Made me mad, but i played just fine

Also, ive won the city tourney twice already. I did something few have done, and ive won two times more than i thought i ever would. but, truthfully, it was more special to me when i played well with texashacker and prince hartmann a month ago in southern iowa than the thought of a 3peat right now. The power of playing with thpers i suppose.

I want to win, dont get me wrong, but id rather be playing with thpers at the iowa fall outing. Im tired of putting pressure on myself, in golf and my career. I want to get back to just enjoying golf and the people i play with.

And so i go back to a paraphrased quote from a rotella book. Play like a winner, even if you dont win.

For those wondering, i shot about a stroke better than my handicap. Just never was able to turn on that jet engine scoring machine ive had in past years.

~Rock
 
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