Finding out things in my swing.
One of the things i have discovered is that even though i have good tempo i have a tendency to slow down through the impact zone. There fore causing me to hit the ball on the tow of the club and this show up mostly on short wedge shots around the green. I take the club back and slow down my body and the hands and arms take over and i scoop the ball and hit it on the toe causing me to not hit the ball square and not the right distance. This usually leaves me 5-8 feet to save par and as we all know the more of those you have the less likely you are to make them. Even the best utters only make 50% of these so the odds are not in my favor. When i do score well i am making those putts to save par and save my score.
Over the weekend tournament i didn’t hit any shots what i feel are really close. I did hit it inside 10 feet and with good greens you should be able to make a few which i did during the tournament. But in the previous rounds i was able to hit the ball to gimme range 2 feet or less a few times during the round. Not sure it that was i happen to have the right yardage or the green gave me a favorable bounce to the hole. The greens this weekend didn’t bounce much but instead the ball back up most often when i was hitting a shot into the green. Several times i ball plugged into the green or back up in it’s own pitch mark. I did struggle with the short game because i have worked hard on getting the ball to roll and taking a less lofted club to roll the ball to the hole. The greens were sticky in spots and when my ball landed it would grab and not roll out. I should have asked more about the grain and made sure i was hitting the right shot for the circumstances.
As all players i can think of many shots for each rough that i could have played differently and maybe had. Better outcome. But all in all it was a better ball striking tournament than in Mesquite and a better putting performance as well. The tee shots were much more demanding and the greens were actually just a rolling as mesquite. The speed was also about the same.
I struggled with the back nine of this course every day. Unlike Mesquite were we played a different course everyday we played the same course all 4 days. I shot 40 everyday on the back nine regardless if i started on the front or back. Prime example was yesterday i shot 40 with a double on the first hole. Hit 8 greens in regulation had 3 three putts and a birdie. And then shot even on the front. I could go into the reasons I shot those scores but it was course a Mangement mainly on the back nine because the fairways were so much tighter and the angles were more severe than the front. There wasn’t much room to miss your tee shot where i was trying to hit it most of the time. So each day i would look back at the tee and the fairway and decide where the widest point was and tried to hit the club that would put me in that place. Then of course there was the wind factor as well and this made things a bit more interesting in the calculations. I prefer to see the bottom of the flagstick and the hole when i am shooting for the green. There were many approaches that i was not able to see the green surface much less the bottom of the flag. For some reason this poses a problem for me and my distance control. Strangely enough i also have a complex when my shadow is in front of me and i can see myself swing with my shadow. It has always bothered me so when i get the chance i usually practice with my shadow that way so i can get used to it. It would be just like if you were playing in front of a camera for the first time. I used to get a video camera and film my practice seasons so i would be used to a camera on me while i swing. So when the time came i would be used to it and not get nervous. It did work.
Well i will conclude as I always do
It is course management, and putting that make the difference in a good score and a great score. You didn’t always have to hit the ball great to shoot a good score. Through course management and a few good putts you can make a average round turn into to a good one. So go practice those putts and short game shots so you can recover from a few missed shots.