Trying to Break 100

Played an easy course today and shot a 102 from 6,000 yards. Could not hit a decent hybrid or iron shot to save my life. At least the short game was a bit better than the last round - especially pitching. Chipping wasn't great. It wasn't contact today as much as poor judgement on where to land the chip. Still, it was an improvement and that's something that will improve with more rounds.

What really killed my score though was the poor full swing. After all the early season practices and the last round with consistently better contact, today was terrible. Think I hit one GIR.:facepalm:. Driver was playable after the first few holes.

Oh well. Even bad golf beats the heck out of watching it snow. It was nice to get out.
 
Got my range day in before winter reclaims the club.
Mostly 9i. Hit a bucket of just 8i last time, expected to hit 9i well today and i did. Not clean, reproducible laser accuracy and distance, but few really bad swings. That is where I'm trying to get the bag for now: just back to a semi-consistent swing that won't have me digging trenches down the fairways on my first round come May.

Somebody left me a gift of 15 balls, and i got another half bucket of my own to have some fun after. 4h, 5w, driver. I have no business hitting a driver again at this stage, but at least i was able to rediscover The Slice with it - woohoo! Almost made it into the fairway, got some trees on the opposite side of the range. Bubba would've loved that one, except he'd hit it twice as far. Not a single good hit. But one of the straight bad ones still rolled out to the fence at the end of the range 💩
Was able to wrestle the 4h into a relatively usable state after some back and forth with the misses.

More importantly: the flags are in for the practice greens! They're freshly aerated and not much use for putting, but i got some chipping work in before and after hitting long.
Started out with the humble goal that an innocent bystander should be able to figure out which flag on the green i had been aiming at, and it was so. Surprisingly well, actually. Almost half the balls stopped in an area around the flag where you could conceivably nail the putt from, had you actually practiced putting.

Additional Pro:
* took a different route to the club. Little longer, less traffic, bit earlier to the first patch of grass outside town. Adds 1km to the rountrip (or 3.5 on the first try if you're a dumba** who struggles with maps), but well worth it

Cons:
* Found out whats been rubbing my knuckle. My Mizuno glove has stitching over the place where my overlapping grip wants to have the pinky meet the middle finger. Didn't get too bad before i took the glove off, but I'll have to interlock or 10-finger or get different gloves
* Started feeling my elbow on the last few swings. One week of freezing temps for some resistance work to counteract before it gets bad :)
 
Well, evidently magic helps. We were in Orlando last week. The details for ending up there would be a post in itself, but my daughter and I played Disney's beautiful Magnolia golf course. First tee shot was into the edge of the woods for a penalty (not about to go in and punch out on a course where we'd seen a snake and an alligator). After that my usual golf, but my approach shots were short on the first several holes. My distance has been down the last couple months and I couldn't accept it so I'd been trying to swing harder. (I think this is due to some joint pain in my right hip and left shoulder.) I decided to give up on making the golf ball go further. I played the rest of the around from the reds and clubbed up on every approach shot. Also realized there was no rush because the course was full and nobody was playing through because all that would do was advance one place and wait again. My brain said, "slow and easy, enjoy the environs." I got more used to this as I played. And Shazam! I ended up finishing with a 49/46 for a 95! Second best round ever and on an unfamiliar course, though Disney makes it pretty easy from the reds, shortcutting most of the forced caries and such. I got three pars, two on par 4 holes and one on a par 3. I'm going to try and carry this attitude forward not that I'm home - and stick with the red tees for a while - maybe forever, or until I get new irons (maybe time to look at graphite, senior flex, etc.) I'll be sixty next year and my 100 yard club seems to be my 9i for now. But once I started taking it easy most of my shots started going really straight, which is worth a lot if your goal is just to break 100.
 
Only played once this holiday weekend. A 6200 yard desert course. I borrowed my pop-in-laws second-string set for the round. (Callaway Xr Pro irons, and X415 driver. No sand wedge, and we had to share a putter.
Well, I was killing that driver for most of the round, nice small draw, decent distance. Hit a lot of fairways.
Had to use the 4-iron for second shots, and was absolutely blistering it. Actually, I was pretty much hitting all the irons really well. The putter was about 5” too long for me, but what the hell, it felt good to play.

Edit: it might have cure my constant wondering if my clubs are too long for me. The irons are all standard length and I was hitting them well. Now, my chronic paranoia about gear goes to “Are these clubs too light for me?” Since mine are graphite, and his are steel.

second edit: shot a 109
 
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Broke 100 on an unfamiliar course this morning with a 49/48 97 (Hndp Diff of 26). Hit 2 water balls but was able to keep everything to a few triple-bogeys and offset those with the same amount of pars.

It'll be a struggle to get to mid 90's golf again, but today felt pretty good even though I didn't hit irons and hybrids well. Better than yesterday though when I simply couldn't make good contact at all. There were at least some decent shots today.

Driver was under control - start along the left side and have it fade/slice to the middle or right side of the fairway on every par 4 and par 5. It's not the ball flight I want, but the last two rounds showed the best control I've had with that club in a long time. Distance was fine for an old fart with a poor swing. Short game and putting were good today with a couple good pitches saving my butt. Fun round!

(*Note to self... do not expect this on the next round. It's going to take some time and I have a looong way to go.)
 
Played 9 today. Once again stumbled to the finish line.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Played 9 today. Once again stumbled to the finish line.


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Cut down to 6 Bloody Mary’s? Might help.
 
Cut down to 6 Bloody Mary’s? Might help.

Maybe I should START drinking Bloody Marys before I play.


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Maybe I should START drinking Bloody Marys before I play.


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My name is Hamfist and I endorse this message.
(Paid for by the Hamfist Endorses Boozin’ Foundation.)
 
Only played once this holiday weekend. A 6200 yard desert course. I borrowed my pop-in-laws second-string set for the round. (Callaway Xr Pro irons, and X415 driver. No sand wedge, and we had to share a putter.
Well, I was killing that driver for most of the round, nice small draw, decent distance. Hit a lot of fairways.
Had to use the 4-iron for second shots, and was absolutely blistering it. Actually, I was pretty much hitting all the irons really well. The putter was about 5” too long for me, but what the hell, it felt good to play.

Edit: it might have cure my constant wondering if my clubs are too long for me. The irons are all standard length and I was hitting them well. Now, my chronic paranoia about gear goes to “Are these clubs too light for me?” Since mine are graphite, and his are steel.

second edit: shot a 109

A few years ago I thought since I'm getting older I need graphite. Used them for a couple years with not a lot of success. My iron game was up and down. I switched to steel shaft about a year ago and with some extra range time I'm much better with the irons now. I'll have some mishits but they aren't total shanks like they used to be. Maybe I'm 20-30 yards off the green instead of 100.
 
A few years ago I thought since I'm getting older I need graphite. Used them for a couple years with not a lot of success. My iron game was up and down. I switched to steel shaft about a year ago and with some extra range time I'm much better with the irons now. I'll have some mishits but they aren't total shanks like they used to be. Maybe I'm 20-30 yards off the green instead of 100.
We’ll see how the Mizzies feel. I’m hoping it was just me putting a good swing on that day.
 
Hmmm....do I want to re-bag my 7-wood? My current "5-iron" is a 22 degree hybrid, but I am not too good with it. The 7-wood is 21 degrees, and I hit it alright from fuzzy memories. I'm also stealing my brother's 5-wood for the season, to see if I can hit it better than my current FW.
 
Hmmm....do I want to re-bag my 7-wood? My current "5-iron" is a 22 degree hybrid, but I am not too good with it. The 7-wood is 21 degrees, and I hit it alright from fuzzy memories. I'm also stealing my brother's 5-wood for the season, to see if I can hit it better than my current FW.
I'd keep the 7w in the bag
 
I'd keep the 7w in the bag
I'll be taking it out this weekend to see if I can indeed still hit the thing. So, bag will go driver, 5W, 7w, 5 & 6 hybrids, 7-SW.
 
I had a real stinker of a round today. No golf for over a month, rental clubs, an unfamiliar course, and the highest winds I’ve ever played in was not the recipe for success. It was good in Hawaii, though, so I’ve got no complaints.
 
I’d listen to snickerdog- he’s pre-med. You can trust him
Well, I couldn't ask for a more glowing endorsement than that!

Also, and this is just for Grins, Group Golfer has a coupon for Sleepy Hollow in Alliance! Lol. (facepalm.)
 
I had a real stinker of a round today. No golf for over a month, rental clubs, an unfamiliar course, and the highest winds I’ve ever played in was not the recipe for success. It was good in Hawaii, though, so I’ve got no complaints.
Yeah, the Hawaii part kinda trumps all the bad stuff.
 
Well, I couldn't ask for a more glowing endorsement than that!

Also, and this is just for Grins, Group Golfer has a coupon for Sleepy Hollow in Alliance! Lol. (facepalm.)
I saw that & was gonna send you a warning lol!
 
I walked 18 holes 3 consecutive days & didn't hurt myself. I'm gonna count this as a big win.
Mon: my home course(Fox Den: par 71; 6029 from the whites) is not super-tough, but narrow in places: 47/47 for a 94.
Tue & Wed: Nearby course (Kent State golf team's home course) - Windmill Lakes (par 70; 6141 yards from the whites) is significantly harder. Par 4's average 15 yards longer, but the course just plays a lot longer than the score card indicates.
50/55 for 105 on Tue, and 46/56 for a 102 Wed.

The stupid thing is Fox Den has a slope rating of 119 vs 118 for Windmill Lakes. No effing way is Fox Den harder! For one thing, when I hit a good drive at Fox Den, I'm 8 iron or closer. When I hit my best drives at Windmill, I'm lucky to reach the 150 marker.

Anyway, other than no injuries & a lot of calories burned, I had some good things to build on:
1) I'm driving the ball farther & straighter than ever. Maybe 20-30 yards longer than last year. Weight loss & weight training is helping I guess.
2) I'm starting to get partial shots with wedges dialed in, distance-wise. I've already holed out from off the green 3 times this year (I don't think I did it at all last year. Most years past I haven't). And I hit several other shots from the 50-75 yard range to tap-in distance.

I just gotta figure out how to consistently hit at least mediocre mid irons & hybrids: the 130-180 yard range is killing my scores.
 
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Anyway, other than no injuries & a lot of calories burned, I had some good things to build on:
1) I'm driving the ball farther & straighter than ever. Maybe 20-30 yards longer than last year. Weight loss & weight training is helping I guess.
2) I'm starting to get partial shots with wedges dialed in, distance-wise. I've already holed out from off the green 3 times this year (I don't think I did it at all last year. Most years past I haven't). And I hit several other shots from the 50-75 yard range to tap-in distance.
Getting things fired up early this year!!! Great to hear!!!
 
Getting things fired up early this year!!! Great to hear!!!
I signed up to play in a competitive Saturday traveling league, so I'm working on improving and getting consistent. I'm hoping this improvement will drop the HC & gain some early season points.
 
I signed up to play in a competitive Saturday traveling league, so I'm working on improving and getting consistent. I'm hoping this improvement will drop the HC & gain some early season points.
That sounds like a good time. I hope you do well and I will be on the lookout for updates.
 
Went out for my first round of 2021 today, and I was definitely nervous. On the one hand, my recent lessons have gone really well and that has carried over to my range sessions. On the other hand, I last played a round five months ago, and my 2020 golf season ended horribly, leaving me with little confidence.

Happy to say that I played pretty well (for me) and shot a 96! Really need to work on chipping, as that part of my game cost me at least five strokes, but overall I couldn’t be happier with my first round of 2021. Last year I couldn’t hit my irons at all, often hitting 3-4 inches behind the ball. Today, not a single shot hit behind the ball!!! Granted my shots didn’t go where I wanted all the time, but still - definite progress was made. Even made five pars, and I had some great putts too.

Super stoked to keep taking lessons, practicing more, and having fun this year!
 
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