First round of the year. Rust abound including shanked chips, poor drives, awful punches out of the woods, and pretty much every putt left short:


82.

First sub-80 round of the new season. Still wasn't enough to stop my handicap slipping ever closer to 6

Dude with these ball striking stats you could easily be a mid single digit handicap (don't know if they are typical or not). Work on that putting!

On the front 9, I was putting for birdie 7 times despite the fact I hit 0 greens. Stats are dumb. Also on #18, there is a dumbass tree right off the tee box that I absolutely murder every time. I hit a perfect drive that ended up 60 yards in front of me, smoked a 5 wood into the left rough with tree trouble, hit a best possible result pitch from 50 yards to 15 feet, and left the putt on the edge.

Heh. I'm an 8.7 and I can't make a 2 foot putt with any kind of consistency, let alone lag the long ones into the make zone. And it's not all putting, my chipping has really really sucked lately too. When the ball striking goes I post LARGE numbers.

Thanks for the encouragement though.

Played Brechtel yesterday. Terrible, terrible short game. One of the few good things I can say is that I managed one tee shot where my driver actually got up in the air and went about 220--it had a big right-to-left hook, but at least I had planned on it and it ended in the fairway. Then I topped an 8-iron and hit it about twenty yards.

Played Stonebridge today because I'd gotten a gift certificate for a free round for Christmas. I split it with a friend so we got to play a fairly nice course for $22.50 each. But I'm not used to the whole residential country club thing and having to avoid people's backyards. Also had to get used to the idea of fairway bunkers after playing at cheap munis with no fairway bunkers whatsoever. Drove the ball horribly on the front but decently on the back. Short game was horrible again. But a nice course, and met some nice middleaged guys on the back nine who were drinking a ton and bought us a few beers at the 19th hole. Definitely worth another trip once I improve a bit--although, my score was fairly decent for not knowing the course at all.

Shot a 90 at the Arroyo course of Red Rock CC. Ugh. I was wearing new contacts that stung my eyes and drinking Captain Morgans and Cokes non-stop, yet I still managed to shoot par the last 3 holes.

I did hit a beautiful 4 iron 210 yds to a blind green to about 10 feet. I missed the put, of course.

Flying home to Amelia Island, Fla for a week where I expect to play better and finally break 80 on my home course. Or, I'll barely break 90, as my swing is all wonky. I think I'll get a lesson or two while I'm there.

Much better result today. I have been playing from the "back tees"(6400 yds 71.7/120 on a par 70) and not the "tips" (6840, 73.2/127) which makes me feel like a bitch. I made a pact with myself that I was not allowed to play the tips again until I broke 80. It freaking took me long enough.

Most birdies (four) I have had in a long time and I still left a number of them out there. I'm getting happier about my game and wish I could bottle hitting the ball close a few times a round. It is so easy to shoot good scores when you pile up birdies. It is so frustrating going along playing pretty well and making a ton of pars and then throwing it all away with one bad hole.

Recap:

#2: par 3. straight into the wind ~150 hit a baby 7 iron that almost went in the hole. Maybe a foot short. Birdie.

#5: Par 5. Drive to 275. 3 wood to 30. chip to 8 feet. Nice aggressive putt. Birdie.

#6: Par 3: 170, 7 iron downwind. Thought it was going in the hole, it was tracking, maybe 8 feet short. Nice aggressive putt didn't go in and went like 4 feet by. Par.

#7: Short par 4: Nice wedge from trees to 15 feet and burned the edge for birdie. Par.

#8: Another short par 4, lost my drive right, and hit a nice gap wedge over a giant tree to maybe 8 feet. Another nice agressive putt burned the edge for birdie. Par.

#9: Great rescue club from 190 in left rough under tree found the front of the green. Left a 50 footer dead in the heart of the hole about a foot short Par.

#10: (Started on back 9). Toughest hole on the course and it was dewey and wet to add some more length. Perfect drive only went 240 leaving me 190 into a slight breeze. Hit a hybrid that might have lipped out and went 8 feet past. Drained putt. Easy bird, lol.

#12: Long par 3. Hit a real nice looking hybrid that I thought was all over the pin, ended up short of the protecting bunker. Crappy tentative chip chunk into the bunker. Terrible caught too much ball sand shot well over. Wind held up chip back onto green. 2 putted from 20 feet for a triple. Awesome!!

#13: Hit a 7 iron from 170 (!) downwind to a foot past the hole. It might have 360d for eagle. It definitely hit the hole. Birdie!

#14: Missed a 2.5 footer for par after a good lag from 45 feet.

#16: Blasted out of the bunker to a foot, needed it bad.

#18: probably my favorite hole of the day. I was trying to salvage a manageable score to break 80 with on my first 9. There is this stupid tree that I hit the ball into every time. (I hit a pretty big draw and it is basically unavoidable for me.) Yesterday, my drive went 100 yards. So I decided to try and hit a cut around the tree (lol). I completely double crossed it and hooked it into a different tree right off the tee, leaving myself in the 17th fringe, 275 yards away from the hole and a good 90 yards from getting back to my own fairway (with thick rough and trees in my way). I threaded a hook hybrid that missed a tree by a foot and it was absolute perfect and got to 80 yards. I then hit a perfect 3/4s 58 degree wedge that landed 2 feet from the hole for a tap in par.

LOL. Every time I shoot a score 70-74 on a Thursday-Sunday I go to pgatour.com and see who I am better than. I think one time I shot a 71 on a day where Tiger shot something worse than that and it was a very fake happy moment for me.

Brag: actually hit a few decent approach shots and hit some greens from 100-150 yards out.

Beat: putted horribly. 20 putts on the front, 20 on the back.

Variance: had two of the most ridiculous bounces I could imagine. Hole #11, I hit a bad short tee shot onto the fairway. I grab my 8-iron--one of the few clubs I was hitting pretty well--and aim for the 150-yard marker (which is a piece of PVC pipe sticking up about 18 inches out of the ground). I catch it pretty well, and start it to the right of the stake; then it hooks back, bounces onto the stake and rolls 15 yards to the left, leaving me behind a tree. If the stake isn't there, I probably get another 20-30 yards of roll. Instead I'm 160 out behind a tree. I get mad and end up 4-putting for a 9.

Then, hole #17. A couple of groundskeepers are hanging out in their trucks and tractors under some trees to the left of the fairway about 90-100 yards from the tee. All I can think as I'm setting up is that I'm going to have to scream "fore." All I can think as I'm swinging is that I'm going to have to scream "fore." Sure enough, I shoot a low hooking 8-iron and I scream "Fore!"; the ball hits the back of one of the carts they were in and bounces up in the air behind them. I know it went past them; I see what may be my ball a ways down in a clearing by the tee box of another hole, and sure enough, I somehow managed to hit my tee shot about 160 yards after that insane bounce. I have to hit a lob wedge over some trees to get back near the green; I get the ball up, it bounces off a few high tree branches, and ends up short of the green. I end up with a double bogey.

Played 9 holes today. Black Tees 73.3 / 131

Shot a 38 (par 36)

86% FIR
44% GIR
14 Putts

45-48-93. I'd figure out the the other stats but what's the point?

Another brutal weekend day - 40 degrees, windy, a little drizzle. Lovely.

On the plus side, I hit the ball less crooked than usual. That didn't, however, really lead to better shots. And I really need to come up with a stat to track how many times a bad chip or pitch ends up being a hard 2 putt or 3 putt, that seemed to happen a lot today.

43-43-86. Today was all about chipping decently and then missing the putt. It only happened about eight times. 5/13 fairways, 6/18 greens, 35 putts

87 with 2 birdies

Better but not where I was....would like to break 80 before the seasons over.

Played 18 holes like crap at Brechtel and wanted a shot at the front nine again. So I played even worse. It was total feast or famine; I had way more good holes than usual (for me, anything double bogey or better is good), but way more terrible, huge numbers. Lots of double-digit numbers on the scorecard. Good day if I used some sort of stableford scoring, nightmare for stroke play.

I don't know why my putting has to get worse as my ball striking starts to get better. Another day of absolutely terrible putting. I can blame some of it on the lousy greens. Some are more sand than grass, but for $8 a round, you get what you pay for. But it was dreadful. I was missing so many putts from inside three feet I wanted to vomit. And the longer putts weren't getting me into a good range to make a two-putt. I realize that sometimes the stats are misleading--I'm definitely hitting more greens from farther out and chipping less, so that explains some rise in the scores--but the last three and a half rounds I've played my putting has just been miserable.

Since I haven't been hitting my woods or longer irons well, I decided to pretty much hit 8-iron off every tee. I think it worked pretty well. In my first round, out of 11 par 4s or par 5s where I hit 8-iron, I hit it 130 yards or more 8 times, and I think 7 of those were either in the fairway or close to it. If I try to hit my driver I can usually hit it straight somewhere in that same 130-160 range, but that's only if I get a good roll. My 3-wood and 5-wood are the clubs I hit the longest and highest (barring the one time I actually hit my driver 220 or so), but I never know whether I'll hit a groundball duck hook or sky a push. So I've only been using them when I have forced carries.

The one legit brag I have today is that I hit my first ever par-4 green in regulation. 340 yard hole #3, hooked an 8-iron that barely stayed out of the bushes and canal on the left; then, from probably about 175 out I somehow hit an 8-iron that bounced and rolled onto the green. Had about a 30-footer for birdie and I put a lot of steam on it, but had it dead on-line; it hits the cup and bounces out and leaves me with a 7-footer for par. I hit it on-line, but it dies three inches short. Three-putt bogey.

42 (par 35). 4/6 fairways, 5/9 greens (plus 3 on the fringe), 20 putts (plus 3 from the fringe).

Near complete putting FAIL. I mean how sad is it that I never had to hit a single chip - the only green where I wasn't at least putting from the fringe in regulation involved a wayward tee shot which I wedged on once I got it back in play - and I effectively had 23 putts. WTF.

Went to the range yesterday and some guy saw me hacking the ball and gave me a lesson. He was talking about how he caddied for some woman on the tour. Seemed like he knew what he was talking about.

Definitely a brag since I just started golfing like 2 weeks ago and my swing was awful. He ended up only hitting 2 of his balls in the 45 minutes he explained the swing to me. He had to go and ended up giving me his bucket to practice with, in addition to my own.

Beat: I was hitting the ball worse after he left, but I did nail one good shot that felt so good. The ball went so far.

Brag: 17 putts on the front nine. Rolled in two 15-footers. At least twice I putted from the fringe and got within four inches of the cup. Short game still problematic, but getting better. Had a chip on 18 which lipped out and ended up eight feet from the hole (unfortunately, I two-putted).

Beat: Couldn't hit an iron from the fairway to save my life. On the first hole I hit the ball from the fairway and did something bad to my back, and for the next ten holes any iron shot hurt from the point of impact through my follow through and afterwards.

Variance: hit my 3-wood and driver more than I usually do. I was really inconsistent and hit a lot of horrendous slices, but I'm getting the ball up in the air way more than I have been, which leads me to believe that I could be getting close to actually hitting the ball decently off the tee instead of settling for ground balls or short irons.

went to range today and got set up on trackman. As someone said its bruatilly honest. If swingins right to left across the line of flight was good I would destroy you all. Crash Davis has some good advice, "Be humble"

41 (par 37). Scored better than I played, greens were slow so I actually made a couple putts. It's going to be a long summer if I can't get off the tee better.

4/7 fairways (2 were chunked irons), 4/9 greens, 16 putts

43 - 39 - 82 for the best round of my life.

Shot an 87 last week for one of the best rounds of my life. In the last two rounds my index has gone from 16.8 to 15.9 to 14.7.

nice going!

39-40-79. That's more like it. 1 birdie, 2 doubles. 7/13 fairways, 12/18 greens, 35 putts.

Nice one.


Played Copper Creek today, one of the top 3 courses in the Greater Toronto Area. Pretty sick place, but I didn't play very well.

Shot 91

77 today @ paiute sun.

shot even on the front, not so good on the back. at any rate best round in a few months for me...just need to start finding the fairway!