Jamo's Blog on TheSandTrap

[jamo]

Not being able to find a round of 18 holes for under $50 near me, I decided to take the nearly 1 hour drive into Hyde Park, Boston to George Wright Golf Course, easily one of my favorite courses, if not the favorite. It is an old Donald Ross design, built in the 1930's by FDR's WPA, it is owned by the city of Boston under a weird relationship. Boston does not give them any money, nor do they take any from them, so George Wright is free to use their profits to improve the course, which they are currently doing. After the first public US Open in 2002 at Bethpage, there was some talk of trying to make George Wright nice enough to host their own open, but due to traffic, space, and money, it was shot down. I have heard that there was vote to knock down a protected wooded area adjacent to the course to make room to host the open, but it was shot down. In the end, the course just does not have enough space to do it, not to mention how it would grind traffic to a halt. It is classic Ross design, several dome shaped greens, tight and undulating fairways, not overly long but a strategical course. I love it for the thought that has to go in to working your way around the course. In short, there are just a lot of good golf holes.
Anyway, my game was pretty good. My swing was OK at the beginning, poor in the middle, then in the end I really found out what I was doing. I was simply moving my head away from the ball (perpendicular to the target line) on the backswing, which was causing a lot of inconsistency. Fortunately, my short game was pretty good. I got up and down on 5, 7, 8, 14, and 17. I did have a problem of hitting my irons way to long, but my driver distance wasn't too long. I ended up shooting a 1 over par 71, with a differential of 1.3. Here is my Scorecard.
Some memorable holes:

Hole #1: I hit my driver way off the toe on this 377 yard par 4. With a 5 iron from the rough I was able to curve a fade around some trees, hitting it to 10 feet. I made the putt.

Hole #3: A solid drive down the middle and a perfect 6 iron on this 515 yard par 5 left me with a 95 yard SW to an elevated green. I totally came out of this shot, and thinned it right along the ground. Luckily, it ran up to the green and left me with just 17 yards to the pin. I 2 putted for a par.

Hole #5: a long 412 yard par 4, way downhill and dogleg to the left. I hit it nearly through the fairway, but right on the edge. I was looking to hit a soft draw, but ended up just pushing it right, into some long grass. I hit a very very good chip to 5 feet and saved par.

Hole #6: This is one of those perfectly designed golf holes. Woods down the left lined with bunkers, and on the right the farther towards the hole you go the tighter you get. The more right you bail out the more bunkers come into play and the more trees impede your next shot. I hit a perfect driver, then a solid 8 iron on this 395 yard par 4. I got a good bounce on the green, and finished 19 feet away. I made par.

Hole #7: This 400 yard par 4 is way downhill and both shots are blind. I hit a poor driver short and just into the right rough. I was left with a 4 iron which I hit way over the green, nearly into the woods. With a downhill chip, I hit it to 2 feet an made a solid par.

Hole #8: This 185 yard par 3 is a tough hole, and way uphill. I ended up hitting my 4 iron long and a little right, into some deep rough. I punched it out to 7 feet and made another par.

Hole #9: The hardest hole on the scorecard, this par 4 is 453 yard. The tee shot is blind and the second shot is downhill with the ball above your feet. Planning on the ball drawing, I aimed my 5 iron to the right. It was hung out to dry, and I finished nestled up against a tree right of the green. I hit a very good chip but could not make a 7 foot for par.

Hole #14: This par 3 is a long 191 yards. I though a 4 would be perfect, but once again I hit it way long, albeit right over the pin. I just had to pop my ball over a bump on the back of the green, and it trickled down to the hole, finishing at 1 foot. I tapped in for par.

Hole #16: This 340 yard par 4 is downhill on the first shot and then way uphill on the second. I hit a solid drive, but the wind took my near perfect 8 iron and deposited it into a bunker. Short sided, but sand shot went 21 feet past the hole, and I was unable to get up and down.

Hole #18: A solid 380 yard par 4 finishing hole, with one of this Donald Ross dome greens that has made Pinehurst #2 famous. It always plays long, a decent drive left me with a 5 iron to the hole. I was on an uphill lie which made me take more club, but I executed it perfectly, leaving myself with 13 feet. I made the birdie to finish the day.

[jamo]

After a pretty good day yesterday (well, good scoring, poor swinging) I decided to work on what I remembered on the 18th hole yesterday: keep the head still. It was moving left on a DTL view, and when I fixed it it was much better. Today was much of the same. The head staying still made all the difference. Just goes to show that even the basics need to be checked for even good players. I took some videos and i have to say: I really really really really like my swing DTL. I don't know if there is anything that I should touch. As for the face on view, a couple of things:

• My driver swing was a tad long. Just a tad.
• Left left arm and wrist at impact.
• My footwork could use a little work. The left foot moves a little on the backswing, then turns a little on the downswing. Keeping it more stable would help with consistency.

Other than that, really there is nothing to complain about. Here are some videos, including some I took with a SW for contrast.

SW back


SW face on


6 iron back


6 iron face on


Driver back


Driver face on

[sean_miller]

That's one solid round there Jamo - nice work!

[jamo]

Thanks. It was a little frustrating not to find my swing until the 18th hole, but I'll take 1 over any day.

[sean_miller]

The thing is you did find it, and scored really well without it. +1 with your B (C?) game is awesome!

[jamo]

Make the Golf team at whatever college I go to-

It's been a while (5-6 months) since I made up these goals, I figured that I'll update on how well I have been progressing.

Make the Golf team at whatever college I go to- Well I have decided to go to the University of Delaware, and they have a club team that I will surely check out. I looked into the varsity team, but they recruit and give scholarships and only took 1 new player this year. I just wasn't good enough I guess. Win a tournament- At this point I'm not sure if I will even enter any tournaments. I just don't feel like I need it right now. I think if I did play I would have absolutely no problem competing, and even winning, but I don't really need the reinforcement right now. It's a good place I'm at, and I don't want to ruin that. Lower handicap, record all rounds in SCORECARD- I have put all 10 of my scores into Scorecard, and have also blogged about them all. It is really helping me find weak spots and things that I am doing wrong, as well as what I am doing well. I don't have enough scores in there for my handicap to be accurate though. Lose some poundage- I have lost a little weight, yes. Get a membership at a golf course- Sadly this is not going to happen. I still have not found a job (and it's not for a lack of trying, believe you me) and umpiring and caddying (2 things I do do) are not enough money to pay for all of the gas needed to drive to the specific course I wanted to be a member at. Oh well. My only hope is that my parents give me tons of money for graduation......(unlikely) Get fitted for a driver- Also not going to happen. The Superquad still spins to much, but nothing is cheap enough to warrant a replacement. Some great drivers might be very cheap for $300, but $300 is still $300. Gain some putting confidence- Currently I am averaging 31 putts per round, or 1.72 putts per green. Not terrible, but not fantasitc. Still though, it's an improvement. And I have a new custom made putter coming soon (it was free, and out of respect for TST I am withholding how I got it(but it wasn't stolen )). Hit more greens So far I have 56.48% of greens, a solid percentage. Could it be higher? Of course. But it's still pretty good. I am also hitting 70.67% of fairways, a very very good number. Have fun! I have been having a lot of fun. A lot of it is because I have been improving a lot, but I am very satisfied with how my game is going. Some more thoughts: I think what has helped me the most this year is this blog feature. It has let me organize all of my thoughts so when i go to the range I have a specific thing to work on, and uploading video has allowed me to see just how much I have been changing. I can't say how much this has helped, and I would recommend it to anyone else who has the time and will to. As for the state of my game: My driver has been my strongest club for a couple of years. Ever since a few years ago when I got rid of my baseball swing and starting swinging like a golfer, I have had a lot of confidence with the d-stick. My 3 wood is my nemesis, it hates me and I hate it. My hybrid has been solid, but I still don't like the thing. My long irons have been sort of poor, but I have seen a lot of improvement recently. The mid and short irons have been a little short of what I expected, but I have very high expectations for them, so they really are still another strong point of my game. My chipping has been better than expected, especially since I have only spent about 3 hours all year practicing it. My scrambling percentage is 51.06%, which is not overly impressive, but it would be much better if my putting was better. As for my putting, I mentioned it above, but it has been solid, by my lowly standards. I want to improve it, and that new putter should help me some. It is going to be 33 inches. Yup, I swallowed my pride and went for the better fitting short putter, and I recommend you do to. Soooo many people use putter that are too long. But, I digress. And the swing: I have tackled a lot of things this year: my right elbow, the hip turn, hip push, straight left arm at the top, swing length, steady head, follow through position, shoulder angle, arm place, and the one that still kicks my butt: straight left arm at impact. I haven't perfected the shoulder plane yet either, but the steady head made the shoulder plane a little better. I still have not figured out the straight left arm at impact, though when I do that I think my ball striking will really take off, as well as the consistency of my swing.

[enis750]

good write up bro
I like ur idea of not entering tournaments, but probably for different reasons that you
I started the year playing two and man, it really shook me down
Although u are younger and will have to play in some if ur going to play in School
im a old 30yr old guy, just tryin to be the best I can - and really, tournaments dont do anything for me anymore
nothing to proove to anyone but me

i have been reading a lot of your blogs and it seems ur making some good headway

keep up the good write ups bro

[jamo]

I went to Natick to hit some balls today, and it was sort of an inconclusive day. They are the only place around with grass open, but the grass was terrible, I repeat TERRIBLE, so I really couldn't tell how it was going. I decided to use a tee for my irons, and I was focusing on keeping the left arm straight, not with any specific feel or something, just trying to feel it stay straight. I was hitting my irons well, but my driver was not so good. Either way, I took no video so I have no real evidence, but I'll chalk up this lackluster day to my piercing headache that persisted all day. Also, I traded in my Nike Dymo 3W and some more old clubs and got a Titleist 906F4 15.5* 3W with a stiff Aldila VS Proto ByYou shaft, which I really like, so I'm waiting to be able to hit that out on the course soon. Maybe monday....

[jamo]

Thanks! You are right, and "nothing to prove" is really the phrase I was looking for. I just really don't feel like competing.

[jamo]

I went to Juniper Hills and played the Lakeside course. The greens had just been aerated in the morning, so putting was basically a joke. I set a sort of 2 putt limit, except when I was putting from 60 feet, though I never actually went over the limit. Today was one of those days where my swing was just not quite there. I couldn't warm up, and I was searching throughout the round for that one feeling that would get me there. Unfortunately, towards the end of the round I realized that I needed to put all of those feelings together. Specifically wight forwards, full hip rotation, head still, shorter backswing, and left arm extension. For the left arm I was not doing anything funky, I just tried to feel like my arm was locked. I was working on this the last time out at the range, and it worked very well for my irons but not for my driver. Before I pulled it together at the end, I was just flaring the ball, but biggest "fear" with my swing (or any swing for that matter). When I am going bad I hit these crazy high, fading/slicing balls. It sucks. But, like I said, later in the rounds I seemed to put it all together, though the greens weren't nice enough for me to have a chance at any birdies.

So, I ended up shooting a 74, 3 over par for a differential of 2.7. Not terrible, but it was a lot of grinding. Here is my Scorecard . A few memorable holes:

Hole #4: A really good driver on this 392 yard par 4 left me with a SW, which I put to 7 feet and made the birdie putt.

Hole #8: Hitting into the sun on this 146 yard par 3, I couldn't see the ball land, but I could see it starting to flare at the beginning. It did, and when I found my ball it was in a greenside bunker, and I was short sided. I played the best possible bunker shot (short of canning it) and it settled on the edge. It wasn't one of those lucky ones that hits the flagstick and stops and would have gone 30 feet by otherwise, it was perfect.

Hole #12: I hit my first draw of the day on this 336 yard par 4, a beauty that finished just in the left rough, mostly because I was aimed a little left. Sitting dead red, I aimed right at the flagstick but the ball bled a little right and hit a tree. Luckily, it bounced to 7 feet, but I missed the sloping birdie putt.

Hole #13: Possibly the hardest hole on the course, this beast is all of a 420 yard par 4 with water short and left, a mound on the right that feeds into the water, and a steep slope short of the green that leads into the pond. I popped up my driver badly, and had about 210 to the green. i hit my hybrid, hoping to stay a little right but have the slope knock it onto the green, or at least close. I ended up airmailing the green totally, hitting the cartpath and going to an adjacent hole. My pitch shot was over one branch, under another, and around a bunker, and when I hit it I knew it would be short. I hit a branch, fell down and hit the cartpath, and finished on the edge of the green. A 2 putt got me a bogey. Solid.

Hole #16: An even longer par 4, at 441, I hit my best driver of the day. I had a 5 iron to the green, and I put it just to the front of the green. A solid 2 putt got me a par.

Hole #17: A long par 5, at 602 yards, this is for sure a 3-shotter. Another good driver and a good hybrid left me with a PW. I was mad after I flew my wedge way to far, but a chip shot to 1 foot got me my par.

Hole #18: A 179 yard par 3, and I took out the 5 iron. I mis hit is slightly, but it got over the bunker that guards the front, and I was left with 39 feet. My birdie putt finished on the lip (stuck in an aerated hole) and I tapped in for par.

[jamo]

I went again to Highfields Golf and Country club to play 18. Today I wasn't fighting that flare out to the right like I was at Juniper Hills, but I was very wildly inconsistent. My putting was atrocious, but I made a lot of 5-7 footers to save pars. I wasn't very close to too many pins, but my ballstriking was better than that would suggest: I played the entire round with Top Flite D2 Feel balls. They really suck for spin, but the durability was good, and they were cheap. I hit some of the longest drives that I've ever hit, but I also hit some poor ones. My irons were all pretty good, but I had too much club a few times and flew a couple greens. They say that most amateurs usually underclub a lot, but I have always been the opposite. Today was one of those days where I felt like with a GPS unit my score would have been much better. Oh well. I think that with a little more range time I will see some major improvements in my swing. And maybe a new case of Pentas.

Here is my Scorecard , and here are some noteworthy holes:

Hole #3: I absolutely drilllllled a driver down this 364 yard par 4, to about 20 yards. I'm not going to say the downhill slope and my ball landing on a downslope didn't help though. I planned to land my approach just on the front of this sloping green, and let it roll back, but it landed on the fringe about a foot from being perfect. I 2 putted for par.

Hole #4: I hit my 3W a little off the heel on this 348 yard par 4, but it ended up straight and long. A SW to the front of the green left me a long putt, and I got down in 2.

Hole #6: Another ridiculously far tee shot on this 339 yard par 4. I ended up almost going into a greenside bunker, and I had a nice and short 10 yard pitch shot. I almost made the birdie putt, but took my par.

Hole #7: This is a tough hole: par 4, 347, water right of the green, lateral hazard right of the fairway, and a bunker guarding the left of the landing area. I hit a perfect cut with my 3W off the bunker, and ended up with a 70 yard LW shot to the green. A solid shot left me 13 feet to the hole, but I couldn't make it.

Hole #8: A 313 yard par 4, and last time I ended up pin high with a hybrid. I must have had a ton of tailwind (or, less likely, I remember wrong) so this time I went with a 3W, thinking the driver would put me in someone's backyard. I struck the 3W perfectly, but I landed in a bunker, about 50 yards away. It was the most awkward yardage, so I took my SW and made a normal swing but short and making sure not to skull the ball. It landed just short of the front, but settle on the back fringe (darn D2's). 2 putts got me my par.

Hole #9: Another blasted driver on this 550 yard par 5, this one hit a big rock in the middle of the fairway and bounced straight left, into the rough and nearly OB. The 250 marker was just behind me, and because I had some big trees about 100 yards in front of me, I decided to lay up. Thinking a 7 iron would put me with a SW for the next shot (I realize now the 7 was wayyyy to much for what I was trying to do), I hit the 7 right over those trees. The ball landed on a downslope and rolled and rolled and rolled, almost reaching the green. I had a short little LW pitch that I played decently well from the awkward lie it was from. I made the birdie putt.

Hole #10: My tee shot on this 388 yard par 4 could not be described as a flare, but more of a super-ultra-extreme-flare. I actually did find my ball in an adjacent fairway, but the lie gave me a really strange shot. It too started moving right, but because I was so far to the right the ball was just going towards the back of the green. With the pin only about 3 steps off the front, and my ball about a foot on the back, my 96 foot putt was far from routine. It took me 3 to get down, but can you blame me?

Hole #17: A short par 3 at only 105 yards, this hole plays trickier than the scorecard would imply. It is a narrow but long green, and I found the very front of it with the pin in the back. Another terrible lag putt left me with a knee knocking par putt, which I made.

Hole #18: A 491 yard par 5, and the flare came back. Playing from the adjacent fairway, I used a 6 iron to get back to the fairway. Then with the ball way above my feet I hit a really good hooking PW to a downhill green. I made my 36 foot par putt to finish my round with a birdie.

What this round really taught me was that I have a ways to go before I could win upper tier tournaments. It could just be the greens, but my lag putting needs to be better, and my chips need to get closer, especially those for my 2nd shots into par 4s. It taught me that I need to just ingrain my swing, and make it second nature, because I have made a lot of adjustments lately. But it really taught me that there is no good substitute for $40 golf balls. (Except for the TP Reds/Blacks. Last year's tout level ball discounted to $30)

[jamo]

Just a note to myself: I think my swing got a lot longer at the end, when I started hitting the ball sideways. The beginning I was pounding the ball with a shorter swing.

[jamo]

I went to the 9 hole par 3 course at Cyprian Keyes with my father and sister today. My swing was decent, I was a little quick at the beginning of the rounds, but at the end I remembered the less wrist hinge during the takeaway thing and my swing just got so much better. For whatever reason that is the easiest way for me to have effortless power. For instance, on the 8th hole, which is 140 yards, I used my PW, and hit it past the hole! It was a nice, high, baby draw that landed on the back of the green and sucked back a good 5 feet. My putting, on the other hand, was terrible. No 1 putts and 2 3 putts. These were the fastest (yet most inconsistent) greens that I have played on all year, and I was just not able to correctly gauge speed. Luckily I hit 8 of 9 greens and made a lot of 5-7 footers for par, but I could have done so much better. I was a little disappointed that I was not getting the ball a little closer to the hole, but it has been a struggle of mine for a couple of weeks (amid all of the swing changes that I have undertaken this year so far) that I still don't really know my yardages. The one green I did miss was short (a mildly chunked SW), but the rest were all past the hole. I ended up shooting a 3 over par 30, for a differential of 3. My Scorecard , and some memorable holes:

Hole #1: My father nearly holed his tee shot after not having played a single shot for 11 months, and it settled about 10 feet. I thinned my 7 iron on this 155 yarder uphill to the back of the green. 3 ugly putt later, I had a bogey.

Hole #2: A LW on this 85 yarder left me another long putt, but it only took me 2 this time.

Hole #3: A tough 165 yarder, I hit a soft 6 iron way to the back of the green, resting up against the rough, as far away from the hole as possible. 3 putts again.

Hole #4: Like I said, I mildly chunked this one, and was unable to get up and down.

Hole #5: A solid 9 iron on this uphill 135 yarder left me with a sizable 2 putt.

Hole #6: I hit SW on this 120 yarder (playing 111) to the back of the green. The ball sucked way back to the middle, but with the pin in front my 2 putt was not a given.

Hole #7: A really well struck 8 iron on this 155 yarder left me with another 2 putt.

Hole #8: 145 yards, and a PW left me at the back of the green. 2 gut wrenching putts gave me a par.

Hole #9: 165 yards, and my 7 iron put me just past the hole. Another 2 putt got me in in 30.

[jamo]

I went to Southborough golf to hit some balls and finally got to use the grass. It was better than the grass at Natick, but the entire range was a little sloped such that the ball was a little above my feet. Also, the grass hadn't been cut in a while, and every shot was like hitting out of the second cut.

Anyway, my game was decent. I hit my short irons great, and my long ones decent, but I never really got in a groove. I was working on trying to slow down my wrist hinge on the backswing (that is, not picking the club up as quickly), and shortening the swing, both of which I did well, but it never really clicked totally. I was also struggling with my right elbow, and my right armpit was separating. With my driver I started flaring the ball and could not figure out why.

But then with about 5 balls left, it fell into place. My timing had been off the whole day, and I started feeling like I was pushing and turning my hips before I got to the top with my arms. You would think this would make a slice worse, because it increases lag, but it actually is the best way for me to keep my club on plane, because it just forces the club to whip and stay on the correct plane coming down. I started booming the ball, and if it wasn't so hot and sticky and sweaty, I might have hit another bucket. But, unfortunately, I had already sweated through 4 gloves, so I was not about to keep going.

[jamo]

I went to Southborough again but because it right right after a huge storm, i was forced to stay inside. I was working on the feel that I had developed the last time, and putting everything together, and when I did it all I hit the ball perfectly. (Sorry my sentences are a little run-on, I am trying to type and watch the Celtics/Lakers) I was able to hit the ball very well when I kept my head steady, made a short backswing, kept the wrist quiet in the backswing, used the lag feeling, used the feeling from the last time, and swung to a full finish. That's a lot of stuff to think of, but when I was able to do all of it my swing was great. I did take some video. 6 iron back and some drivers where I was just focusing on the left arm the whole time. There were a few times where I got my left arm straight, and I have a few theories why, but I am going to have to post that all tomorrow, the NBA (and the worst refs in the world) is/are calling.

Here are the videos. The first is a normal 6 iron back view. There wasn't much space, so you can't see my feet. One thing I have been doing is flaring my left foot a little, but you can't really see it well. The second is another 6 iron back view, but I was making a swing where I kept me arms straight (or as straight as I could) through the backswing. The third is a driver face on but because space was tight I just focused on my left arm. This was the best swing, results wise and looks wise. Maybe a little too much wrist action, but the left arm is pretty straight, and I followed the video with a screenshot of impact.

[jamo]

I wanted to play Cyprian Keyes (or Shining Rock, or Sandy Burr), but they were all either too expensive or they were booked up, so I went back to Bungay Brook Golf Club. As I said in an earlier post, I know the place because I played there against another high school, and i really like the course because it is in good shape for an inexpensive course and it has a multitude of different holes. There are short par 4's (and a couple of them) on long one (444 yard dogleg left), a longer par 3 (172) and a short one (listed at 123, but it always plays shorter than that. Today it was at about 86). My only gripe being that the par 5's are nearly identical. Seriously, they tee off about 10 yards apart, and the actually share a green. Well, sort of. The greens are pretty separated, but they are connected (my guess is to make mowing them easier). The bunkered area in front of them is also shared. All in all, it's in good condition and it's just a fun track.

As for my play, my driver was terrible. My first 3 tee shots were all hooks, then one flare, then another hook before I finally figured it out on the last two holes. The four hooks were actually not bad swings, just a little off. The flare was a total lack of execution, so I'll chalk that up to a bad swing. My irons, on the other hand, were perfect all day. I missed 3 greens: the first was perfectly struck just underclubbed, the second drifted just a touch right and got a bad bounce and went into a bunker, and the third was a perfect LW that got hot forward from a gust of wind. So I thought my swing was good. The first time I hit a fairway was #8, and it was maybe the best feeling swing that I have made ever. The ball just took off, high and deep, and even uphill and into the wind flew over 300 yards. In my write up last time I alluded to the fact that I was working on my left arm and that I made a few decent swings where it all worked. This was another one of those, and I am so encouraged by the fact that if I can make this swing fix, that kind of drive will be the norm.

As for my short game, I was in the bunker on #2 and #8 and both time hit a decent shot, but both times I was left well short. On #9 I had a tough downhill pitch but hit it perfectly, albeit a little too far left.

Oh, and I ended up shooting 37, 1 over par and differential of 1.9. Here is my Scorecard.
And some memorable holes:

Hole #1: On this tee shot, it is measured at 309 but is definitely reachable from the tee. To get the extra distance it would be best to hit a soft draw, but the driving range on the right makes you want to hit a soft fade. With my mind and my eye sort of mixed up, I made a slight double cross and it went well left. I was about even with the pin though, and put my LW to 12 feet. 2 putts for a par.

Hole #2: I always come up short on this longish par 3, and today was not different. I came up short and in a bunker and although I put it onto the green with my second, I could not save par.

Hole #3: This hole is measured at 343, but it is reachable and I have made the green a few times. I once again went way left, and I was about 20 yards short. Another LW, this one to 23 feet, and another 2 putt par.

Hole #4: A 475 yard par 5, downhill and all. I hit another hook into the 7th fairway. The group in front of me was still on the green, so I decided to lay up. Luckily for me, my 6 iron flew a little longer than expected, and I wound up about 5 feet off the front of the green. I was disappointed with my chip up the hill (it was one of those where I really expected to see it go close) but I managed to make par.

Hole #5: I hit a very soft SW on this short par 3 and from the tee it looked like it was to about 4 feet. When I got there it was actually at about 12. A lipped out birdie got me a par.

Hole #6: Since I had been hooking my driver and this 444 yard par 4 had woods left, it did not fit my eye. I ended up totally coming out of the shot and it went well right. A very very good hybrid put me to 18 feet. An disappointing 2 putt gave me a par.

Hole #7: The other of those two par 5's, and another shot well left. Luckily I only had a 7 iron, which I hit a little long, over the green. Should have hit the 8 or even the 9. But, my chip went to about 4 inches, so I'll take it. Birdie!

Hole #8: This par 4 is 417, and like I said earlier I totally cranked it. I had a SW to the green, but it leaked a touch right into a bunker. My bunker shot got on the green but it was short and I had to go over a big mound. I two putted for my second bogey.

Hole #9: This hole is listed at 392, but it was playing much shorter and if you cut the corner you can actually drive the green. But, there is water left of the green and through the fairway so I decided to hit a hybrid. Ideally, the shot called for a soft fade. I wasn't really trying to hit one, but I ended up doing just that, so let's say that's what I was going for. I had a LW to the green, but right at this time a storm rolled it, it started pouring rain and the wind really picked up. I was way downwind and it just pulled my shot striaght over the green. A good up and down got me a par. And then I sprinted to my car because it was wet and i didn't bring a jacket.

Also, I edited my last blog post to include a few videos: http://thesandtrap.com/forum/entries...essions-6-6-10

[jamo]

Well, I just typed up a long recap of today's round, but I hit a wrong button and it all got deleted. Anyway, I'll keep it short, but I played Cyprian Keyes where I have a tournament next week, and I shot a 2 over par 74, for a differential of .6. My swing was good, and my putting was really good. I am pretty satisfied with my round, but I know I can get better. Here is my Scorecard.

[jamo]

I'm really pissed right now. I keep typing these long analyses of today's session and I keep pressing a wrong button or hitting the trackpad with my thumb. I'm going to try to get it on camera, it seems like my position at the top of my type might be a little off (I'm guessing I'm a tad laid off), and it might be breaking down on the downswing, the dreaded chicken wing seems to be posing a problem as far as typing is concerned.

Anyway, I went to Southborough and hit a quick small bucket. I was pleased with the results. My short and mid irons were very good, and my long irons were acceptable. My driver was also pretty good too. The best of all was that my timing was good. When I say timing I mean from the top what moves first. It is best that my hips push and turn to start the downswing, because my shoulders and my swing plane fall into place. I really timed it well, and it is starting to become second nature. Well, that's it. Best I finish before I delete this all again...