Between golf course closures and Covid, the whole business of hitting a golf ball solidly has suffered.

Really any spring is a bit of starting over for me. In past years, I'd be grinding things out at Kittyhawk in late April and early May to put together some sort of workable swing by the time the summer started. Obviously, that's simply wasn't possible. The sporadic rounds I was able to play were chock full of miss hits and improvement has been slow to come. 

At about the same time that Dayton pulled the plug on Kittyhawk, Miami Shores opened their driving range. That has helped. The only alternative was a mat range on the other side of town. Hitting off mats is a lousy idea for me because they result in wrist-shattering fat shots on turf. The Shores range has nice, well maintained turf and is often the fallback on days where getting on the course is impossible. I've had some productive sessions out there, but getting any result on the course didn't happen until yesterday.

The front nine was more of the same old garbage, but things sort of came together on the back. The weight finally got forward on time. The head stayed steady and I remained on balance throughout the swing. I parred five of the last nine holes and hit some of the best shots I have all year.

Coming up 18, a par-5, for the first time in a long time I actually swung with some confidence. After a so-so drive, I smashed a 5W 210 yards straight down the middle, made a quality 8I shot to the green and only missed my birdie putt by inches.

I'll take my positives where I can find them.