Jump to content
  • entries
    3
  • comments
    28
  • views
    4,512

Taking my practice more seriously

kpaulhus

Entry posted by kpaulhus

3,694 views

 Share

There is a course here locally in Northwest Arkansas called The Blessings. I dearly want to be "blessed".

Super exclusive club that only has 100 or so members, but is where the University of Arkansas golf teams practice. I saw on the ASGA website that the 2016 US Mid Am qualifying is being held at The Blessings. I instantly thought, "I'm in! I can finally play that awesome but super, super hard golf course" 7500 from the tips 77.7/148 rating/slope.

Unfortunately I am an 8 index, and in order to even be eligible to qualify for the US Mid Am you have to have a max handicap of 3.7.

I've been between a 7-9 index that last 2 years and quite frankly, have been complacent. I'm better than most guys I play against, but I want to play in more serious state and regional tournaments. Win my club championship. Excel at the game I love. 

I signed back up for Evolvr (awesome) and have been working on getting better at practicing. If I practice correctly, I will eventually play better. I have a pretty good attitude when it comes to the ups and downs of golf. Triple? Oh well. Move on. Need to make 2 birdies so its only really a bogey. I've been with Evolvr about 4-6 weeks now and at first I was confused. My mind and body were not connected because my practice sucked. I thought I could make a swing change by simply doing a few drills and then getting right back to full swings. Shoot....how hard can it be to change a swing that has been engraved for 7 years and thousands of swings? Hard. Very damn hard.

I became very frustrated. I was spending 5-6 days a week with a club in my hands and making minimal progress. Then @iacas reminded me of the 5 S of practice. I wasn't doing the Slow part... This last week I put in time, worked hard. Even went to the range for 30 minutes only to hit 10-15 balls. It showed. Since the 5/1 revision my handicap shot up from a 7.3 to an 8.6. Then Wednesday I shot an 81 from the blended tees. (6.7 differential) Lower than my current handicap, so if I kept this pace up I would eventually have a lower index. Then Saturday I shot a 78 from the men's tees. Came out 41 on the front and a 2 over 37 on the back with a bogey bogey finish. Things are clicking. 5.9 differential. Handicap was estimated to come back down to an 8. Today, from the blended tees I shot 77 with a 40 on the front and another 2 over back 9. 3.4 differential. Index is projected to be a 7.5 if I dont play again before the 15th. Things are going in the right direction.

I dont care if I come out in the US Mid Am qualifier and shoot 90. The course, after all, is going to be extremely hard. My goal for 2016 is to be good enough to just get there. Play that awesome golf course by earning it, and compete. 

Lets see how this goes. 

  • Upvote 8
 Share

11 Comments

Recommended Comments

RandallT

I found myself nodding yes to a lot of this. Newly revived drive to work on things seriously this year here too. Let's do this.

Link to comment
saevel25

Keep it up! I'm hoping to play in a few tournaments this year. It would be awesome to try out for something like the US Mid Am in the future. :beer:

Link to comment
Jeremie Boop

Seems like this year is the year for several of us to re-evaluate our practice. I am changing my mindset as well, I was much like you in doing a few drills and then jumping right back to full swings thinking I "had it". This year it's time to become focused and consistent. I don't expect miracles, but as long as I see actual and sustained improvement I will be happy. Look forward to hearing how it was for you to play that course.

Link to comment
bkuehn1952

Admiral goal.  I hope you stick with it and get a chance to tee it up.

Some time ago one of my goals was to be able to play in a USGA Senior Amateur Qualifier. Requires a 7.4 index or lower, which I have had off and on over the past decade.  When it came time to sign up, I chickened out.  There is a very large difference between my 7.4 and the guys with an actual chance of qualifying.  I just could not accept the idea of my floundering around while the real qualifiers were posting 69's.

Show us the way!

 

Link to comment
kpaulhus

Went out and played today from the tips at my country club. 7000 yards, 74.4/142 rating/slope.

Shot an 86 with 5 doubles. Mainly on the par 3's. Either hit the ball unexpectedly long (all were 200 yards + with 5 iron) or just made a bad decision on the shot choice. I tried to flight a pitching wedge down a bit for a 125 yard shot to a front pin and I should have hit a full shot. Ended up spinning back into the lake. Or chipped too hard with an 8 iron and the ball ran 40ft past the flag. The good news is I know what I did wrong, and know how to correct it.

86 from those tees isn't great, but not terrible (9.3 diff). It knocked off a bad score so my handicap is trending back to a 7.3. 

Link to comment
  • Administrator
iacas
  • Administrator
On May 9, 2016 at 11:49 AM, bkuehn1952 said:

When it came time to sign up, I chickened out.  There is a very large difference between my 7.4 and the guys with an actual chance of qualifying.  I just could not accept the idea of my floundering around while the real qualifiers were posting 69's.

You wouldn't have qualified, but you should have entered.

There's nothing like tournament golf.

Link to comment
kpaulhus
On 5/14/2016 at 4:03 PM, iacas said:

You wouldn't have qualified, but you should have entered.

There's nothing like tournament golf.

This is my exact feeling about this whole ordeal. 

If I get to the point where I'm good enough to qualify, and dont, then I reached my goal. If I qualify, well that would be icing on the cake and will probably have been a round in the low 70's on a super tough golf course. Since Arkansas had a small field of only about 25 guys, only one spot made it to the 2015 US Mid AM. The guy shot a 3 under 69. 

I've never shot even par, but who knows. Anything can happen. 

Link to comment
RFKFREAK

This is a great post, @kpaulhus, thanks for making it.

I've never taken or done practice in a way I should.  It's why my improvement has been as slow as it has been.  I need to adopt the attitude that @Jeremie Boop expressed and change my mindset if I'm ever going to really reach my potential. 

Link to comment
kpaulhus

So a friend of mine that left my current country club was able to join The Blessings. Looks like I will get a first hand look at the course prior to the August qualifying round. Weather permitting I'll be putting in some putting practice and continuing to work on my swing this week. 

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
kpaulhus

I just wanted to provide an update on how things are going. Its been about a month since my last post, and I was able to play in the Member/Guest Tournament at The Blessings golf course.

Ive been playing the best golf of my life, and if the US Mid Am qualifier deadline was the 1st I would officially be low enough of a handicap to participate. My swing is in good shape and I'm making putts. 

Yard ideas.jpg

What started off as a joke and really unattainable, has become reality. I cant imagine walking The Blessings due to the elevation, so I am going to see if a friend will caddy for me during the qualifying round. My first real USGA tournament and I've put in a lot of work. Dropping from a 6.7 to a 3.4 index in a little over a month has just been mind boggling. The whole mental part of my game has changed. When I make a bogey or double, I battle back and make birdies (or even eagle) to get those strokes back. 

  • Upvote 3
Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Want to join this community?

    We'd love to have you!

    Sign Up

  • Popular Now

  • Blog Entries

  • Posts

    • retoid
      A Novice Journey to Building a Bag. (Help Appreciated)

      By retoid ·

      First off please forgive me if this is not a proper post or not in the proper location, still learning the ropes around here. Second, it's important that I mention I am very new to the game with only about 10 rounds of golf under my belt, most being 9 holes. Only this year have I started playing 18. That being said, I am hooked, love the game and am very eager to learn and improve. To give you an idea of my skill, the last 2 18 rounds I played were 110 and 105. Not great at all, however I am slowly improving as I learn. Had been having bad slicing issues with the driver and hybrids but after playing some more and hitting the range, I've been able to improve on that quite a bit and have been hitting more straight on average. Irons have always come easier to me as far as hitting straight for some reason. Wedges have needed a lot of improvement, but I practice chipping about 20-30 mins about 3-5 times a week and that's helped a lot. Today I went to the range and started to note down some distance data, mind you I am averaging the distances based off my best guess compared to the distance markers on the range. I do not currently own a range finder or tracker. From reading some similar posts I do understand that filling gaps is ideal, but I am having a some issues figuring out those gaps and understanding which clubs to keep and remove as some gaps are minimal between clubs. Below is an image of the chart I put together showing the clubs and average distances I've been hitting and power applied. For some reason I am hitting my hybrids around the same distances and I am not sure why. Wondering if one of them should be removed. I didn't notice a huge loft difference either. The irons I have are hand me downs from my grandfather and after playing with them a bit, I feel like they're just not giving me what could potentially be there. The feel is a bit hard/harsh and underwhelming if that makes sense and I can't seem to get decent distances from them. Wondering if I should be looking to invest in some more updated irons and if those should be muscle backs or cavity backs? My knowledge here is minimal. I have never played with modern fairway woods, only the classic clubs that are actually wood and much smaller than modern clubs. I recently removed the 4 and 5 woods from my bag as I was never using them and I don't hit them very well or very far. Wondering if I should look into some more modern fairway wood options? I appreciate any feedback or advice anyone is willing to give, please forgive my lack of knowledge. I am eager to learn! Thank you.  
    • snapfade
      Is This Club Blatantly Sandbagging?

      By snapfade ·

      I would think that 3 in a row with the same players might get some behind the scenes examination from the SCGA if they were suspect.  Are there any clubs questioning the results?
    • iacas
      Is This Club Blatantly Sandbagging?

      By iacas ·

      What simple fact? A golf match is not a coin flip — there is a fact for you. I'm trying to help you, and you're throwing out what could easily be called sour grapes. Come with FACTS, not weak analogies. Then you've got nothing. Hopefully they've done a better job of making their case. 😛 
    • Big C
      Is This Club Blatantly Sandbagging?

      By Big C ·

      It's pretty close. The odds of a 50/50 shot going your way 21 times are greater than 1 in a million!  I guess your point is, that simple fact is not enough to declare these guys dirty rotten sandbaggers. I disagree, but fair enough. I posted it here on the message board to get different perspectives, after all.  I probably won't be digging further into specific scores. I have no dog in this fight beyond a generalized contempt for sandbagging. With that said, it would not surprise if a lot of clubs shared my concern and were grousing about it to the SCGA.
    • snapfade
      The Pro Tours Random Thoughts and Musings Thread

      By snapfade ·

      I had an article on Cam Smith pop up along with this..... Current major eligibility list for all LIV Golf players Here's a look at which majors, if any, all LIV Golf players are eligible.  
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Welcome to TST! Signing up is free, and you'll see fewer ads and can talk with fellow golf enthusiasts! By using TST, you agree to our Terms of Use, our Privacy Policy, and our Guidelines.

  I accept
The popup will be closed in 10 seconds...