Rounds 7/2 and 7/5

[chilly]

Hadn't played in almost three weeks so hit the course a few times to get back in the groove. Lots of rust.

First round, shot 86 but putting and short game was very poor. Driving poor as well, hit my MX23s and iron play was pretty sharp. Lag putting for anything over thirty feet is worse then bad, it's getting to the point where I'm afraid to pull the trigger on longer putts.

Second round, shot 89 and everything was a mess. Hit driver all over the place, irons were especially bad, shots around the green and "rescue" shots were terrible. Putting, again, a mess. I need to stop playing and go hit balls this week.

Couple things I found:
1) I'm rarely hitting driver flush, balls hit in the fairway just aren't getting out there where I was hitting them earlier this year. I've also started slicing the ball again, push/slice is terrible...I've put two balls in a pond on our 18th hole where I hadn't gone in the last several months. The pond is basically not in play if you put any kind of halfass decent swing on the ball.
2) I did pound my 3wd today, beautiful little draws and long. Can't understand where the swing breaks down between 3wd and Driver but it seems a bit more then the 2" of length difference. Either way, I need to hit the 3wd off the tee until I get driver sorted out.
3) Dead pulling irons all over the place, need to drill with a glove under my arm to make sure I'm not pulling the right elbow up and coming over the top.
4) My putting just plain sucks. I can't lag a long putt, and I haven't gotten shorter putts to drop for awhile now. I'm going to work putting Tues and Thurs this week with specific drills, short putts one day, long the next. I guess I'm just not a good "natural" putter, but lately it's been ridiculous.

This is my second year of playing, goal was to hit a solid 12hcp, index is right at 13.0 after several solid rounds and it's frustrating to be playing so badly right now with no confidence in the game. Guess this is part of the process though, need to keep working on parts of the game that are lagging and move forward.