It has been a good weekend of golf. On Wednesday I played in the midweek stableford at Sandford and scored 33 points. It was another day of hitting great drives, being unsure about how far my irons would go, and inconsistent pitching and chipping. I had a 2 hour lesson on Friday with Neal Granville over at Sandford Springs. As I’m striking the ball much better now we came the conclusion I’m hitting 10 yards further with each club so need to recalibrate all my distances. I’m loving the fact that I’m hitting the ball further and making better contact with my irons.
I’m working on having four good swings/shots – full shot, pitching, chipping and putting. The full shot is working well now. I've been working through Dave Pelz Short Game Bible to figure out 3 different distances for my PW, 50, 55 and 60 degree wedges. Trying to use the ‘finesse swing’ that Dave Pelz talks through in his book was giving me mixed results with very inconsistent contact. I was trying to keep my weight and balance 50/50, but Neal suggested keeping 10% more weight on my left foot throughout the shot. Doing this I could immediately make a better and more consistent strike on the ball. Because my weight was a little more on my left side the ball flies a little lower but the distance is consistent which is what I am looking for. We worked out the distances for all my wedges based on a 7:30 and 9:30 swing.
With chipping I was hitting shots short, long – all kinds of things. After hitting a few chips Neal asked where I was aiming and I answered “I’m trying to get the ball in the hole”. I realized as soon as I said this I’d forgotten things we had gone over before around picking where you want the ball to land, roll and finish up – and from then on just focus on that landing spot during the practice swings and actual shot. From each chip you make, whether you are short, spot on, or past the landing point, you will learn something from each chip. As soon as I started implementing this in practice my chipping improved amazingly. Not only was I thinking more about the shot before hand, but keeping my mind on the landing spot stopped me worrying about the contact which in itself led to a better shot.
With my irons distances recalibrated, my pitches flying at the green and my chipping much improved I was really looking forward to playing. Unfortunately it is the time of year for green dressing to get ready for the summer and so the greens at Theale had sand and fertilizer dressing all over them and the greens were slow as they hadn’t been cut while the dressing bedded in. This meant it was hard to score well as putting was a lottery, but I was really pleased with how I played. I was much more confident with my irons, pitching was good and my chips were getting close. I ended up with 34 points on Saturday but this was with three 3 putts and quite a few that I feel would have rolled with more chance of going in if the greens were cut properly. We all know the dressing of the greens is important to get them ready for the summer so we can’t grumble too much.
Fairways : 62%
Greens in reg : 33%
Putts : 33
Stableford score : 34
Today’s round was a Texas scramble again at Theale Golf Club so I didn’t keep any stats. I was paired with Kevin and Pete, and we had a great time which is always the idea with Texas Scrambles. I felt really cold and stiff to begin with so it took me about 6 holes to finally get going, but once I did I hit some great drives, good iron shots and great pitches and chips. The greens were in the same condition as yesterday so putting was again a lottery but we ended up coming in 1 under gross, around 5 under nett. 2 or 3 shots behind the winner, but we had fun which was the main thing and it gave me a non-pressure chance to try practice the pitching and chipping.
I’m really looking forward to Tuesday as Neal has organized Jamie Edwards from Trained Brain to give a seminar at Sandford Springs. I read his book Mental Ketchup, and really enjoyed it so I am looking forward to the evening and 18 holes of golf before hand. I’m sure there are some tickets left so drop Neal an email if you are interested in going.