Things are "almost" coming together. My notes on today's round.

[Topper]

Hope you enjoy the read and maybe some can relate.

Played a tough course this morning (Slope 130) that has a fair number of long par 4s which are a PITA for those of us who don't bomb it off the tee.  I knew that I was going to use a lot of hybrids on approaches for any hope of a GIR on many of the par 4s.   The par 3s are all 170-205 yards so they don't offer any easy GIRs either.   It's longer than I normally like to play at almost 6400 yards.  Anyway, I managed 5 GIRs despite having a lot of long approaches to many of the greens.  That was a positive.

My primary goal was consistency and to not have any "blow up" holes.  I failed on that.  I took a 9 on a Par 4.  It was hard (4 handicap) but was a bogey or double bogey hole at worst.  It started by hooking my drive left with little real distance and landed 3 feet inside the OOB stakes.  I was lucky a heavily sloped fairway killed the speed.  Now comes a stupid course management decision to try a long, blind approach with a hybrid with the ball below my feet to a down hill green hoping for a GIR.  Stupid.  I ended up hooking it OOB.  Take a drop and penalty stroke.  So now I think why not try the same shot with a hybrid but not take as aggressive of a line and hope for an up-and-down with a LW.  Stupid. Hit the hybrid solid but it went a little right...as you might expect on a downhill lie.  It landed under a bush on the opposite side of the fairway.   Just beautiful.  I'm pissed cause I know I have (had) a decent round going.  I punch it down the fairway with a 6i to LW distance.  Not bad given the lie.  Now I normally use a LW and I have confidence with it....but (here comes another stupid course management decision) this shot ideal for a bump and run.  Theoretically.  Except I am not real proficient with a bump and run.  But everyone says these are a safe shot.  So I bump and run it with too much backspin and the ball checks up on the fringe in front of the green.  I have a long putt....but I've been lagging really well all day.  No problem.......except the sun is out and the wind has picked up.  This green is fast as hell and my chip (with the putter) doesn't stop until it's near the back side of the green.  Now I have a long uphill putt.  Anyway, I two-putt for a 9 on a par 4.  Such is the anatomy of a blow-up and the compounding stupid decisions that help create them.

Adding to my 9 are three triple bogies and an additional two holes where I 3-putt where I missed par by missing putts inside 3 feet.  By the time I reached 16, the heat and hills had really wore me out.  I finished with a 96.  Not stellar but not terrible either.  And the reason is that I feel things are almost coming together are.....

1.  If I only double bogied my 9 and triples, I'm at a 90 on a very difficult course that's a little longer than I should be playing.

2.  If I didn't miss a couple of really short putts, I'm at an 88.

3.  Driver wasn't fantastic but didn't severely hurt me either.  Need some more work here to improve my ball flight but at least I'm more consistent.  My long-game work is paying off.

4.  My hybrids were effective.  I like to fade them and the fade was consistent and predictable and held greens.  I need to work on my swing mechanics to get my wait forward and better extension on the follow through to improve the quality of my ball contact and elevate my ball flight.  More work here but the I can see progress due to my long-game practice.

5.  Chipping was OK but I lost a number of shots here.  I can accept that for now but I will focus on this once my long game is more under control.

I was only able to play once this week due to work and family, but I'm glad that I had the round I had.  I know I will be shooting in the 80's before the end of this season!  And the advice I get on this forum helps.