Rounds 7/17 and 7/18

[chilly]

Played match on 7/17 at a tougher local course, 71.5/134 at 6170. Been working on my swing for Driver/fwy and this was the first round with it. Pretty good results, definitely reduced the bad push/fades that I'd been hitting. Hit a few little draws. Shot 90 which was pretty crappy, but had three instances where not knowing the course bit me in the ass and I lost balls by pushing through the fairway or hitting into lateral hazard. These were all good swings, just didn't know the yardages. Lots of mistakes around greens, just cannot keep my head planted on chip shots and it's killing me...basics are lacking. Had some bad luck on greens, they're heavily undulating with nasty shelves and hit on the wrong side several times, I need to get better at putting tough greens but really don't have many on my home course to practice on.

Played the home course today, walked in 98* weather so it was a little challenging to keep in it mentally. Started off decent enough, hit first 5 fairways with a new (to me) driver (Callaway Hyper X Tour with 83Xstiff Blueboard). Three putted the first hole from 15ft, just terrible...at times I'll just hammer a putt for no good reason because I grip the hell out of the putter. Second hole, par three, absolutely topped the tee ball with 6iron and hit it maybe 60yds. I have a tendency to sway forward when I'm trying to "smooth" an iron shot and this causes the top. Won't walk through the hole round, but a few three putts, some tough pins, and some very bad short game shots killed me. Driver went away when I got tired in the heat and I started getting flippy with the hands and pulling everything left. Still, I was happy to grind out an 87, not a good score but decent on a hot/windy day.

Need to keep working on, and trusting, the longer backswing with driver/fwy. Need to keep working on lag putting, and definitely need to work on basic chipping again.