Club Season - Week 5 Preview

[Fairway_CY]

As I posted in the last club post... I got my rear end handed to me in Week 4. The guy I played had an awesome start to his round (playing with 31 strokes - me giving him 10 overall) and I couldn't recover after I fell apart on the 9th hole. To add to the struggles, I couldn't hit my driver anywhere NEAR the fairway and it would take me an extra shot or two to even get NEAR the green each hole. I shot my worst round of the year and lost my first matches as well.

In Week 5, I play one of the most consistant guys in the club, a 9.1 handicap who is rarely (if ever) above an 85 and is usually closer to 79. We're both sitting with identical 3-1 singles records and our teams are also tied with 3-1 records. It's very likely that the only undefeated team left will drop their match this week... so being able to keep ourselves within a half a win (there are 2 teams with 3-0-1 records who are both likely to win this week) will be huge. I'm 1 win behind 3 guys tied with 4-0 records... so, just as with doubles... a win here keeps me within striking distance while a loss knocks me pretty deep in to the middle of the pack.

Over the course of the last 2 weeks... I've worked on my game at the range quite a bit. I really struggled with a bad hook off the tee in Week 4, and I absolutely HAD to correct it if I was going to have any shot at all this week. Through my range sessions and a pretty good day on the course last Thursday... I've been able to pretty much correct that issue and I'm back to hitting fairly nice shots that will put me in position to compete this week.

It's a shotgun start this week and I get a real easy hole to start from... a VERY short, reachable par 4 hole. Being as it's my first shot of the day, however... I think that pretty much takes the driver and 3 wood out of my hands. Instead... I'll likely tee off with my 5 iron and then hit a nice sand wedge in to the green. Unfortunately, the course we're playing is an upper level course out here... and on top of their ridiculous fees... they're mandating that we play from the white tees which really makes this more of a miniature golf tournament than anything. Total, the course is under 5900 yards and features 7 holes (par 4's) at 350 yards or less... 2 of them are under 300 yards!

This really brings a lot of guys back in to the mix as the 500 or so yard difference is on a lot of the (what were) longer par 4's on the course. For me, it means a lot of 3 woods and hybrids off the tee and likely 8 irons, 9 irons and wedges in to the greens. For other guys... it takes the 5 and 6 irons out of their hands and gives them 7 irons and 8 irons. For my opponent, it gives him a MUCH larger advantage as he's M-O-N-E-Y with his short irons and my distance advantage off the tee is negated.

With all that in mind... there is a LOT riding on my performance this week.

Week 5 Predictions:

Gross Score = 87
Net Score = 66
Final Position (Net) = 2nd
Match Result (Singles - Match Play) = Win 1 Up
Match Result (Doubles - Team Net Stroke Total Match Play) = Win 3 & 2

I'm really confident heading in to this week. I scored really well (for me) after not being able to get off the tee very well in my practice round last week, and since then... I've worked out (I hope) my driver issues. With the course being shortened SO much... I really feel like I can play better than bogey-golf. If I can get AROUND the greens in regulation... I should be able to easily make bogey. If I can HIT a few greens (which I should be able to with short irons in my hands)... pars should land on my scorecard on a fairly regular basis on Sunday.

I think the next few weeks will be my best opportunities to win an event this season because one more handicap revision, and my high differentials are going to be wiped off my GHIN handicap calculation... and that's going to mean a handicap of about 17.5, which is just about where I've been playing at all season. Once that happens... it's going to take a low-to-mid 80's gross score to produce a net score low enough to win. Considering I've only broken 90 ONCE... that's not exactly a gimme.

Anyway... 2-plus days 'til I tee off. I'll be back Sunday night with a recap.

'Til then...

CY