Adventures from the blue tees. (8/18/10)

[Dad-2-3]

Moving back a set of tees is going fine (6816 yards 71.9/127). I shot my usual score and had my usually crap game. Actually, I hit the ball much better than I scored. The stats...94 48/46 6 FW, 5 GIR 33 putts. As I have mentioned in the post previous to this one I have been attempting to immitate the S&T; swing, and as a result have just about taken the fat shot out of my arsenal. I have been battling a straight draw (read NASTY HOOK) though. I discovered on the practice range I was moving my head, bobbing and weaving during my swing like Roy Jones Jr in his heyday, which is not at all stack and tiltish. Keeping my head "on the ball" lead to my usual push draw ball flight on the range. This round was a concerted effort to keep my head on the ball or be damned. The results were I hit the ball better than I have in weeks.....for the most part. I don't know when I started moving my head but it isn't a good thing. Now for the not so good part of this is that during my round I was so concentrating on keeping my head still that the weight forward part wasn't there and I hit 4 balls fat and into water. First let me say that my home course has water on 11 holes, but really only 5 times should it possibly come into play for a decent player. I hit into water I never had before and twice on par 3's where the water ends some 50-80 yards in front of the green. We are talking major fat here. In future range sessions I will be attempting to keep my head still AND weight forward.

In my last post I was whining about my putting, so I had a buddy take a look at my stroke on the practice green. First thing out of his mouth after watching one putt was "Where is your usual forward press?" UHHHHH I have no idea......essentially my total analness has been concentrating on my full swing and letting the short game slip. One hour with the forward press has me rolling it better than ever. This particular round I did 3 jack it three times, but I made five 4-5 footers to save par or bogey which had been and issue.

Another thing I have been noticing is that from the blue tees I'm hitting 5-7 iron into greens rather than 8i-sw. As a result I'm having trouble sticking it on the greens. For example I hit the middle of the green on the par 3 2nd hole from 180 yards with a 6 iron and it rolled off the back some 15 yards. I'm playing low spin 2 piece balls which may have something to do with it, but I think I may need to go do a different shaft some time down the road to heighten my ball flight. For the rest of this year though I'm going to switch to some prov1x's I have laying around and see what that does. The crazy adventure continues................