touch wood, i think my game may finally be ready for takeoff....

pure practice round so no score.

anyway, somehow i had got to the point where i played almost every shot under 100 yards as a finesse shot with not much clubhead speed. perhaps because i play alot of winter wet golf where i think it helps to go down a few clubs and make solid contact.

but now it's the summer..... anyway, i really got back to hitting wedges hard, like i would hit a 7 or 8 iron. and the results are fantastic.

also, having higher clubhead speed and flattening out the swing (releasing the stomach so to speak) means it's pretty hard to have a bad misshhitt. i should add probably firm fairways too.

i also figured out how to hit a draw i think.... seems like there are 100 different ways suggested for a draw (not so true for a fade).... anyway, what worked for me: hit from inside (not sure how far to stand from ball still), strengthen grip, ZERO CONSCIOUS HAND ACTION through impact.

i hope i am getting to the point where putting is the thing that needs to be addressed. i think that'll be a less frustrating fix.

as per clubs, i think i am getting back much closer to playing all R-flex. already there with irons and driver. not playing hybrids. so all that i have to decide upon is 3w, 5w, 7w (which i think i'll play)

as per shorter drives and hitting fairways.....

i have started hitting 3 wood off the tee alot more and a few times when it's ballooned and not gone that far i have been very happy with my approach shots. so alot less distance and in fairway seems to be ok. i would caution this is 6200 yards, hard summer ground etc.

39-49-88. No birdies, 2 doubles, 1 triple, 1 quad.

Day two of event, best ball today. We finished DFL.

Can't seem to fix the ball striking. I hit as many as five or six good shots, the rest were miserable. Chipping and pitching were mediocre to okay, putting was actually pretty decent else I would have shot 98.

74 today w a triple to finish bah. 35 39. Played 8 holes thunderstorm went back out about 1 hr later. Missed too many short birdie putts. Started to use that swing by swing app on my iphone. Anybody else use it

45-46-91 yesterday.
6,654 yards. 72.3/135
6/14 FIR, 8/18 GIR.
40 putts.

Went +8 on the par 3's. Not upset about shooting this poorly because there's a lot of strokes that are easily shaved off here.

48-42-90 today.
6,070 yards. 68.4/120
4/14 FIR, 6/18 GIR. 35 putts.

Pretty easy course but managed to put 4 or 5 in the drink. Need more reps and it'll come back together.

Last round, I shot an 85 (+13) on a course I hadn't played in 5 years. I played with an older guy for 9, then teamed up with the 2 college kids behind us for the back. When we walked off 10 green, the 4 old guys I'm front of us were still teeing off. One guy suggested they let us young guys play through. Another replied, "Tommy, what the **** are you doing?"

Played the back in 2.5 hours. Ugh.

/rant

On another note, I got new Vokey wedges (52, 58) & regripped them plus my 3 & 4 woods with Winns. We'll see this week how I fare.

If you'd told me last year that I would shoot 39-35 and be unhappy at any point in my life, I would have called you a liar. But that's what happened today. My driver, which has been my saving grace until this year, has sucked for the past couple months. But the rest of my game has never been better, and it's not even close. Putts inside of ten feet feel easy. Chipping to two feet feels easy.

This is fun, but of course I'm just contemplating: "what if I had last year's driver and this year's everything else"? Still, I've made a big breakthrough this year and am really excited about the game right now.

I played today on a really easy par 33 municipal course, by the way, but those are still very good scores for me. I played on the very challenging Brown Deer in Milwaukee yesterday and shot 39-43 for comparison.

One year -- to the day -- later, I shot a 79 on the same course while on vacation last week. Highlights included a 40-foot birdie putt on the back nine and a par on 18 after my buddy told me I needed it to break 80.

47-41-88
6,516 yds. 70.6/126.
3/14 FIR, 3/18 GIR.
30 putts.

Hadn't played this course in a couple years but I love it, need to play here more. Probably best greens in the city, very fast. Fairways were so wide and open and I couldn't hit them. Missed like 8 GIR by running through the green.

37-41 (+1-+7) for a 78 (+8) from the blues of a relatively easy course (hence the blues). Parred the first 7 holes, bogeyed 8, Parred 9. Then had 2 doubles on the back.

5 Fairways
6 Greens
30 putts

0 birdies
12 pars
4 bogeys
2 doubles

90 degrees in CT plus sick humidity. Played 10 holes strong and faded.

Been having a below expectation season so far this year but managed to find something on the range Saturday and take it to the course to shoot 78. Didn't miss a fairway until 13.

better than cart path only

Played 9 between rain showers at TPC Tampa Bay today. Cart paths only on 3 of the 7 non-par 3's. Considering how soft the fairways were it should have been cart paths only throughout.

+9 44

First time playing since injuring my back a bit under a week ago but it didn't hurt the game any.

Highlight was a 218y 5I to 20 feet on #9 (#1 handicap hole). Left it short (and offline), made par.

41-39 = 80
5/14 FIR
7/18 GIR
32 putts
1 birdie 1 double

After walking in the 90 degree heat with humidity, I decided to ride with the retirees I paired up with. Best round in several years (better than last week's round).

74 (+2)
35-39

3 birdies
5 bogeys
5/14 Fairways
10/18 Greens
28 putts

Was -1 after 14. 15 is a PW of a par 3. Hit it short and 3-jacked. Bogey-bogey-Par-Bogey finish.

46 (par 37). No birdies, 3 doubles. Not good.

Played 7 terrible holes before a storm. Then played 18 at another course later. Pulling everything. I hit maybe 4 greens for a 83. Luckily I was getting up and down from a lot of places.

Random question... played a couple of weekends ago and had my best score/ball-striking round ever.

Went to the range a few nights ago, first time out since, and shanked 3/4 of the bucket. I literally couldn't hit a ball off the center of the club face. Every swing was a hosel rocket shooting off to the right. The worst part is, I couldn't correct it. I tried slowing things down, focusing on posture, takeaway, etc. Nothing helped. I just completely lost the feel of how to properly swing a golf club.

Haven't played a real round yet... but how the heck is it possible to lose the swing feel so quickly? Every time I think I've "found it", the next time out can be like I never played before. Very disheartening!

If it is any consolation I can find range sessions when I'm playing alright to be detrimental. Sometimes the range makes me over think things and leaves me more confused than before. Makes me think about minor swing things and fixes when I was just getting out on the course and hitting the damn ball hard or compressing it well.

Give it some time. If on the range again, maybe take an 8-PW type club and make 1/4 and 1/2 swings and work on compressing it with a nice square club face.

Just for enjoyment purposes.

Tin Cup Shanks: https://youtu.be/LaSmKQvJZNc

Happens to me all the time. I'll be going along well, playing good golf and then it can take 1 range session to completely unravel me. The only thing I can suggest is that if it happens again, stop your range session immediately and consider it a write-off. If you keep trying to fix it, you'll likely make it worse. Just head over to the practice green and work on short-game or something so that you still leave with good memories.

what's the best website/app to get an official handicap for free? If free isn't possible then what sites are generally preferred?

If you're shanking at the range hit some chips then when you find good contact build up to some pitches and some half swing irons etc

I don't believe your handicap can be considered official until you are registering your rounds with your local body. You can use something like leaderboard.com if you just want to know your cap, but you can't take the index from there and use it in tournaments etc.