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Trying to break 85 club

40/43 and kept it in front of me. Still in the mindset of 2-3 double bogeys per round I can still break 85, and one of the doubles was an epic 3 putt double on a Par 5, nothing like writing down 7 on a scorecard.

I keep this mindset because it eases me up instead of blowing up if that makes sense. If I tell myself I can afford to have 2-3 bad holes per round then it lessens the angst of trying to make up for it or whatever. I actually started my Back 9 with that Double followed by a Bogey. I'm not really a birdie machine, 2 max in a given round, so just par and bogey golf I'm a happy camper.
 
Managed it this morning. I have absolutely no idea what happened out there, I just hope some of it is repeatable.

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garethw said:
Managed it this morning. I have absolutely no idea what happened out there, I just hope some of it is repeatable.

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Wow! Good job. That sure makes golf fun! A birdie and no three-putts. Keep it up

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43 for 9 last night, with 19 putts. Hit 4 greens, and bounced off the back of two more.

The really good news is that I put my driver back in the bag and I think I MIGHT be on the way out of the funk with that club since last fall. During the round, it was inconsistent, but hopeful. I hit a bucket on the range afterwards, and I can't remember ever hitting the driver that long and straight consistently. But I've been hopeful before. We'll have to see how that translates to the course.
 
I played a different course today. A Resort course with very fast greens, we played from 6500 yards in about 20 mile an hour winds. It kicked my ass! I shot a 95 50 / 45. I think I had five triple bogeys. The wind really killed me, I had some really solid shots that were just a little off track. Bad bounces got me into trouble. I honestly feel like I played better than I scored, even though I only hit 3 greens. At least three times I would Club down and still blow it over the green heading down wind. Two of these were lost balls and one when in a bunker.

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Trying to break 85 club

Broke through for the first time in a while with an 82 this afternoon. Front nine was below average with a +8 44. That included two doubles. Things smoothed out after that and I was just +2 on the back for a 38. No birdies, just sold iron play and driving.
 
87 (40/47) this morning. Game was on for the first 9 and then fell apart on back 9. With only playing once every week or two it’s tough to be consistent for a full 18. I’m like Jekyll and Hyde out there, just need to find a few hours a week to hit the range to get comfortable with my swing.


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I shot a 47 / 42 on a course other than my home course. I played the back tees, about 6500 yards . I missed a 6-foot birdie putt, and about a 3-foot par putt on the last hole

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Had a split 85 this week on my home course, playing 9s after work in the triple-digit heat. Monday I shot 43 on the back, hitting the ball really well, but with a couple of three putts. Friday night I closed with a 42 on the front. Had 5 regulation pars, which is definitely a high for me. That made 9 GIR for the round, almost a high. Might have been a few strokes better, but I had a couple of doubles in the middle of the round after I got a call from my daughter to tell me she made the A team in 8th grade volleyball. A good night overall.
 
85 on the nose today. 45/40.

Had 2 birdies, but the 2 doubles didn't help. If I'd made a couple more pars instead of bogies on the front, it could have been a special round.
 
43/44=87

I should have had 82 or 83, the putter was not working today. I had five three-putts.

I actually feel like I played pretty well, I just couldn't put. I hit 10 greens today!

It's amazing how one day you are so confident with the Putter and you're making everything 20 ft or less and other days like today I couldn't sink a putt!

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Had a very weird round yesterday. I think I must have swapped putters with dthogey. Shot an 86 on a course where my previous best had been 87. But the weird part is - I one-putted 9 of the first 11 greens. 26 putts total, and I am normally pretty happy with 33 or 34.

I'm sure you are all wondering how to accomplish 11 putts on the front nine. Here is the formula that I repeated 6 or 7 times yesterday:
1) Miss the green. I hit 11 fairways, but my irons were definitely not as sharp as they had been lately.
2) Find your ball sunk down in thick, wet rough.
3) Chip it short of the green (or, occasionally just over the green for variety)
4) Re-chip it close to the hole and make the putt.

So today the strengths of my game were the driver (which I didn't even hit at all for six weeks because it was hopeless), and my putting, which has never been particularly good. The weaknesses were my irons, which have been spot-on, and my chipping, which I have practiced like a madman the last couple of months.

After the round I realized a couple of things. One was that of all the hundreds of chips I have hit in practice, exactly 0 were from thick, wet lies. I came home and read up about it. Turns out that the technique I have been refining for tight, bare lies (shallow angle of approach, picking the ball off the surface) is exactly wrong for this situation. So I read up on the proper technique and tried it out last night. I now have another tool in the box.

My other thought was that maybe I am not a terrible putter, I just play terrible greens. The greens on this course were running very true, and I made several 8-20 foot putts, which rarely happens.
 
I've been in the 'breaking 90' thread for a while, but 4 of my last 12 rounds have been sub-85 and 2 of the others were 85s. Breaking 85 seems to be a good goal to have now.
 
Ugh! I just got done playing an Away course at 7,000 yards. I shot a 91! The putter was not working great, my Approach shots were quite a bit off. I was happy with how I got off the tee how ever

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I had a breakthrough on Wednesday night after work. Went to my usual course thinking I might practice, but the tees were empty and the threatening rain meant that it was a little "cooler" than usual. So I decided to play a quick 9 while my wife and daughter were at swim team.

Since I was alone out there, I played two balls, red Vice vs. a white TP5 that I found somewhere. Even though I wasn't pushed, I was a little hurried on the front and screwed up a little, mainly with the red ball. When I finished the front and added up the scores, I had 46 with the red ball and 41 with the white ball, my best ever for that 9.

It was still early, and I was started to fell pretty good, so I decided to keep going and see how many holes I could get in before it was time to go. On the back 9 I got into a groove, not missing any shots and even making a couple of birdies. Played the difficult 17th in par with the red and birdie with the white. Killed both of my drives downwind on the 18th and hit two really nice approach shots. Both balls were within 20 feet. I hadn't been keeping track of where I was, but I knew that the white ball round was pretty good, and it did cross my mind that I might have a shot at 79 with a birdie-birdie finish. Which didn't happen of course. I had a couple of tap in pars and headed to the cart to add it up.

Red ball round was a decent, considering the slow start - 46,41 for 87.
White ball round was 41, 39 for an 80, and a new personal best round. Nine pars, seven bogies, one birdie, one double.

I'm a long way from switching to the Breaking 80 thread, but I can see that it might be possible. Of course, 95 is always a possibility also.
 
That didn't take long. Playing a course for the first time, I shot 40 + 40 = 80, though with more than my fair share of fortunate breaks. It's a short course (only ~6150 from the tips), but there are huge live oaks and tall pines looming everywhere if you get off the short grass and small ponds protecting a handful of landing areas. It's an old course, with fairly boring greens, except that most of them have severe back-to-front slopes. Being hole-high for birdie was no picnic.

My driver finally showed up again, helped in part that this course wasn't soggy like the last few we've played. But, the carry was back enough to be confident to cut some corners again. Wedge game from 50-75 yards was really poor, but green-side wedges were strong again. Putting was adequate, which is better than usual lately.

Starting 4-over thru 5 didn't bode well. I left a SW from 75 yards short of the green on a par 5, leading to a 4th straight bogey. A weak 7-iron off the par-3 6th tee was short of the green, but I ran in the chip-and-run (21 yards with a PW) for birdie. This is when the breaks started going my way.

My driver on par-5 #7 was fading towards a small pond, but bounced off the trunk of the only small tree in front of it and stayed dry; made par.

After cutting the corner off the par-5 9th tee, I had 180 left but with a live oak in the way. A 4-iron went through a small opening, but clipped a few leaves and came up just short of the green; got up-and-down for birdie.

My drive on #10 was way short and way right (40 yds right) into the 11th fairway; a 4-iron recovery clipped a branch in the top of a pine tree, but still made it near the front edge; got up-and-down for par.

On the par-3 13th, I came way over the top and pulled a 5-iron way left, but it hit a tree and kicked back right into a green-side grass bunker; salvaged bogey.

Finally, on the par-4 15th, my drive was fading too far right again, but I got another good kick left back inside the cart path instead bouncing OB into someone's backyard. That's a month's worth of good bounces in 12 holes. Without them, this could've easily been a 90 instead.

I also lost a hybrid headcover on 1 or 2, but someone had already turned it in by the time I finished.
 
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Sub-85 seems to be right there for me, I just have 2-3 holes that completely ruin my score. 45/41 for an 86, which I’ll happily take as my driver was all over the place today (usually the strongest part of my game). Feel like I’m only a couple adjustments away from breaking 85 and doing it consistently, but I need to increase the amount I play a bit if I want to get to that point.


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Just missed last night on my home course. 44 on the front nine with a couple of sloppy doubles. Got it going on the back again, though. Should have been even par for 10-13, but three-putted from 20 feet when I got in a hurry. Then on 14 the group ahead let me play through, so naturally I duffed my tee shot while they were watching. Got out of it with a bogey and parred 15, so I was two over through 6 on the back. 16 is the hardest hole on the back, and I had to wait on the tee for a while. Which might have something to do with hitting my only really bad shot of the round and taking a triple. Recovered with a par on 17 and a bogey on 18 for 42 on the back and 86 overall. 8 pars, including a chip-in and two up-and-downs. My short game continues to keep me under 90, but I am still smarting from that tee shot on 16.
 
TwoStepsUp said:
Just missed last night on my home course. 44 on the front nine with a couple of sloppy doubles. Got it going on the back again, though. Should have been even par for 10-13, but three-putted from 20 feet when I got in a hurry. Then on 14 the group ahead let me play through, so naturally I duffed my tee shot while they were watching. Got out of it with a bogey and parred 15, so I was two over through 6 on the back. 16 is the hardest hole on the back, and I had to wait on the tee for a while. Which might have something to do with hitting my only really bad shot of the round and taking a triple. Recovered with a par on 17 and a bogey on 18 for 42 on the back and 86 overall. 8 pars, including a chip-in and two up-and-downs. My short game continues to keep me under 90, but I am still smarting from that tee shot on 16.
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I feel the pain. Usually just a couple of bad blow ups that keep me over 85!

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Ugghhh!

I shot an 86 tonight. 42 / 44

The good news is I felt like I played pretty good. I hit eight Fairways and 10 greens. The bad news is I could not putt. I had five three putts! I had 21 putts on the back, 19 putts on the front. OMG 40 putts? I think three of those putts where aggressive birdie attempts that went by four or five feet, then I missed the par putt coming back. One of the putts would have normally been a gimme, about a 2 footer! I missed the SOB!

I had one penalty where I lost a ball from the tee into the woods in a lateral hazard. I went ahead and made a bogey with that penalty.

Regardless, I should have broke 85!

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Yuck! An 87. 43/44.

I had four doubles and one triple. Throw several bogeys in there as well. No birdies. I couldn't get off the T to save my butt. Again I had five three putts. Ridiculous!

I had left the course feeling upset tonight. I'm feeling like I just can't get it right. Practice does not make perfect!

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dthogey said:
Yuck! An 87. 43/44.

I had four doubles and one triple. Throw several bogeys in there as well. No birdies. I couldn't get off the T to save my butt. Again I had five three putts. Ridiculous!

I had left the course feeling upset tonight. I'm feeling like I just can't get it right. Practice does not make perfect!

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Keep your heads up pards, you got this man. Just stay relaxed and hit the shots in front of you, don’t press and leave the bad shots behind. Everybody hits bad shots...we’ll hit some next weekend and still have a hell of a good time!
 
so-illhacker said:
Keep your heads up pards, you got this man. Just stay relaxed and hit the shots in front of you, don’t press and leave the bad shots behind. Everybody hits bad shots...we’ll hit some next weekend and still have a hell of a good time!
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This is good advice. I tend to focus on the negative beating myself up for bad shots. I need to focus more on the positive and think about the good shots.

Despite not scoring well in my last few rounds I really have had some good shots, this includes good tee shots, good recovery shots, good approach shots, and some good putts!

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43 + 47 = 90. It was ugly, especially with the irons -- only 1 GIR. I don't recall a single solid iron shot yesterday. The contact that felt good and went the expected distances all sent the ball dead left. The ones that went straight were terribly short or fat. I'd been seeing gradual improvement over the summer with these irons, but this was a huge step (or two) backwards.

Driver swings just didn't feel right, but all were playable; 7/10 fairways hit with driver. They were shorter than usual, but it's rained a lot recently and there was a heavy t-storm that dropped a lot of rain about 2 hrs before I played. It was soggy with standing water in places.
 
My problem right now is being able to execute my swing consistently on the course. What I mean is I can go to the range and hit shots from my wedge to my driver very consistently. For some reason when I try to take my swing to the golf course there is some sort of Disconnect in my brain! I will take a good smooth rhythmic practice swing but when I go to hit the ball I get the mechanics wrong. This usually happens four or five times a round. It's usually only a couple of blow up holes that keep me above 85. In my mind I should be shooting in the upper 70s to lower 80s. It seems that when I think about getting my weight thru I slide forward, if I concentrate on not sliding I fail to transition my weight hitting the shot with my weight on my right foot.

It's really pretty simple, I just need to make a good turn, don't slide, make a good rotation, stay in posture while transitioning my weight to my left foot, make a good follow through with a good high finish, and do this all with good timing and good rhythm! LOL

Oh yeah, I think about swing mechanics too much during play!

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