"Play the Golf Digest Way: Hone Your Game- From Green to Tee" by Golf Digest

Day 126 (18 Apr 24) - Trail arm only drill with the LW…focused on letting the club drop, engaging the bounce and letting the club pop the ball up….wrapped up by repeating drill with both hands on the club…

OPPs, I guess I have been doing the drill incorrectly, just ignore this.  But as they say, mistakes are learning opportunities. Let’s hope I can learn from mine.

Some thoughts after the 1st 9 holes of the year. The driver was pretty good, nothing crazy. My miss seems to be just a push. The start line is a bit too far right for my taste, but they are drawing back at least. Hitting middle-ish of the face to slightly toe. Part of the right miss is a bit of open face and off the toe slightly.  Irons, some really good strikes, others were not so good. I am feeling a few things, when I am being mindful of the swing I made.  1) Got to get the pause down again, and keep things shorter (as usual). One of the best iron shots was when I tried to mimic Rahm's swing length, lol. I caught a flier and hit an 8-iron like 190 yards into an area of no return for that golf ball. The swing felt great 😉  2) I got to stay taller in transition, feel like I gain tons of space between my hands and my chest. The bad swing is the old swing, bad right elbow, tilt to lower the club. This was too much shallowing, and hitting the ball fat. I just think of it this way, you are bent over, and you can reach the ball at address. So, you can reach the ball at impact by getting your hands down.  3) The final thing is the timing. It might take some time to get some flow into the swing. Timing up hands down and the turn is a bit off. Focusing on the hands down kind of stalls everything for me, at least it feels like my hips do not turn. I end up hitting a decent strike, just feels meh athletically, lol.  Short game was Ok, which means pretty good for not practicing it. Not short, but not round destroying.  Putting, doing much better now that I quickened up my routine. Line up, looking at my target. Glance down at the ball to get into my stance. Glance up at my target spot again, then hit the ball with in like 1-2 seconds after looking back down at the ball. Trying not to get to static over the ball while putting.   

Oh I'm dumb, I just noticed I did the MyStrategy from the wrong tee box. I don't think it changes anything, though. I'll play it as a three shot hole and I still don't really want to miss right (guy I played with on Sunday never found his ball he hit just over the trees right). I think the trees left are considered part of the environmentally sensitive area because it's part of the drainage area for the course. I actually like this hole a lot. I'll try to remember to take a picture next time. I probably overestimated the wind speed. We had sustained winds of like 12-15mph with gusts up to 25mph. The wind is actually forecast to be WNW on Saturday instead of WSW like was when I played on Sunday so if I play this hole again the wind will be pushing towards that bunker. Similar speeds, though. Wind is always a factor at this course because there's really nothing blocking it. I'm definitely going to have to pay attention to it, especially with the wind. I hit a handful of short iron approaches a lot farther than I thought I would on Sunday. As of right now the only thing I know for sure is I'm starting on Ridge. I don't know if the back 9 will be played on Meadow or Lake.

Day 113: 4/18/24 Stack training progress check after finishing my 6th program, and 4th Full Speed Spectrum Training session, which is recommended for my next program.     Gained 1 mph with driver, 195 g, 95g. Maintained with 280 g , and gained 2 with 145 g. Lost 1 mph on both lead and trail arm. Felt like I lost distance in my last round…