My journey to breaking 80.

[Finley]

Randy, yes the new driver has helped me tremendously. I went from a regular flex 9.5 to a stiff 10.5. Good luck with your new swing! Masterhacker, congrats!! Tefunk, that's a good way to start the year. Maybe we will be shooting sub 80s on a regular basis soon. I read that book you recommended. Excellent book. I finished that book right before I shot a 78 on March 6th. I went into that round with a good feeling and a mind for scoring, thanks! I've played 5 rounds so far this year. First two came on two new courses, 89 and 87. 85, 82, and a 78 on a course I played a lot last year. (70.4/120) 6,453. Feels good to get that sub 80 round out of the way! Its crazy how much "knowing" a golf course matters when it comes to scoring. I can't wait to get back to the two new courses now that I've seen them once.

[RandallT]

Holy crap, I think I'm the only one left on the journey! I took most of the late fall and winter off of this forum, but I totally missed your post that you had achieved the goal, Finley! Congrats. And then you did it again this month. Outstanding!

Tefunk and masterhacker did it too. Now it's feeling lonely in the club. Haha. Seriously congrats, all. Helps give me motivation. I'll use the weather as my excuse for now, as I've only made time for one range session so far. But on Thursday, we hit 50, and the 10-day forecast shows the rest of days ahead as being low to mid-60s. The ground is wet, and plenty of rain ahead, so that'll be my next excuse.

You guys playing white tees or blues? My thought has been to play whites until I can consistently get in the 70s. Then move to blues. Every once in a while, I play with a group that plays blue tees, but has no business back there, and I'll play with them back there. My sense is that it costs me several strokes per round, putting a sub-80 round that much further from reach.  The sub-80 journey for me will be two journeys. One from the white tees, and then from the next tees back, I think.

[Finley]

Randy, I play mostly from the whites. The course that I've broke 80 on I play it from the blues now. You guys been playing any? Shot an 80 last week. I should be able to play at least once this week. Nice weather here in TN.

[RandallT]

My first round of the season is April 6 at a TST outing for guys in PA, MD, VA: http://thesandtrap.com/t/72657/tst-mid-atlantic-outing/60#post_969393 Will be interesting! My goal will be 90, but even that might be optimistic. First round, new course, swing changes via Evolvr the past 5 weeks, pick any of my excuses. Will let u know how it goes. An 80 huh? Which stroke did you want back ?! Your handicap coming down? My goal is to get under. 10 this year.

[Finley]

That's going to be tough man! First round of the year on a new course. Sounds like a fun day though. Good Luck! Yeaaa 80.. Started off with 3 straight bogeys. Got a birdie on #4 and from there I started playing pretty good. My chipping/pitching is what's keeping my score down. 1 double, OB from the Tee. Grr.

[Finley]

Randy, how did the round go? Hopefully good!

[tefunk]

Shot an 81 two Sundays ago, and blew up this past Sunday with a 92. I was just awful off the tee!!! Couldn't find a rhythm Sounds like you're still flirting quite a bit Finley, I'm sure you'll be putting down another sub-80 round any day now. Randy, how was your first outing of the season?

[RandallT]

Randy, how did the round go? Hopefully good!

[quote name="tefunk" url="/t/69585/my-journey-to-breaking-80/90#post_973802"] ...Randy, how was your first outing of the season?[/quote] Well, let's just say we had a fun time as a group. I've never played so badly, but still had a great time. It was fun to meet up with guys and laugh at our first round golf frustrations together. I still need to post the score once I go back and calculate the ESC. I think it was a raw 104, with an ESC of mid 90s. I started out fairly solid. I teed off with 4-iron until about the 15th hole. On the opening tee, I hit a 4-iron about 200 yards to the fairway. Then I hit a 6-iron the distance I wanted, just a tad right. Decent chip to a makeable putt but just missed. The front none went like that mostly- 3 pars and lots of safe bogeys. One blowup hole got me 46. I felt pretty good about how I was swinging overall! I was feeling that I could get into an even better groove and maybe get it mid 80s. Hahaha. Then wheels came off. Standing over the 10th tee, my posture vanished. I knew it, but I felt crouched with weight on my heels. Getting my posture forward is a big change I have been working on. Rather than obsess over it, I just tried to get around the course with whatever natural swing I could muster without thinking too much. In retrospect, I need to do a few simple reminder moves to remember my key improvements I've made recently. I can't let it vanish and not be able to know I can get the feel back. I hit the wrong fairway over the trees with my 4-iron on 10. Chipped back through the trees to the correct fairway but was still 190 out (400+ yard uphill hole). Came up 40 yards short on my approach and stuck my pitch to a few feet so I still bogeyed. I was still thinking "ok, maybe I can get the swing going... Upper 80s is easily in reach..." Nope, from there I lost 3 or 4 balls, and ended with 58 on the back. Ouch :) I never felt rattled actually, as we were all in good spirits fighting off some swing demons. But the results were ugly with critical shots heading OB too often. The group was supportive and relaxed so it was one of the more entertaining rounds I've had in a long time. I'm actually encouraged because I have gotten that first round out of the way with a lot of new elements from my lessons. Things are coming together and my good shots were very good. I had one blind uphill 170-yard 5-iron that I hit exactly like I wanted and it nestled up pin-high. I pulled out the driver on the final holes, and hit those reasonably well, without having done any practice at all with that this year. Just too many flubs leading to lost balls. Bring on the next round!

[Finley]

Tefunk, 81 is a great score. I'd take that everyday with a smile. Randy, sounds like you'll have a good year once you get some golf under your belt. I played yesterday(85), and today(86). Yesterday I had a solid 40 on the front. I had 4-5 putts that could've just as easily went in. The back side I became sloppy as play became extremely slow. Today was a head scratching day. I had 4 birdies, which is the most in a round for me. But I also couldn't pitch/chip to save my life. That's usually my strong point. Before the round I practiced pitching to 30, 50, and 75. It went excellent. 5 shots to each and hit all 5. Off to the tee box. Par 5 first hole. 500 yards. Not difficult at all. Birdie. After that I hit several fat pitch shots and the ones that weren't fat went long which resulted in 6 doubles! :-O I did come extremely close to a hole in one. Par 3, 173 to the flag. 6 iron for me. It hit 3 foot short, hit the flag stick and stopped right by the hole. Maybe one of these days I'll get one of those to fall.

[Finley]

Any good scores out there? 91 today, 90 last week. My driver has been going right and it's driving me crazy. Same course for both weeks. 70.2/128. 6405. Pretty tough. Same hole both weeks I hit OB twice off the tee. Besides that, not too bad. Just can't get my driver to go straight these days unless I'm on the range. Bought two new wedges, SM5 56.10 and 60.08. Both M grind. Raw black. They are fantastic.

[RandallT]

Nothing great here yet. Round in 100s, 80s, then 90s. Think I'll try to play Monday. I've been doing my drills diligently at home but I need to get out and get more comfortable using the new form on the course. Gonna be a good spring!

[Finley]

Went out for 18 today. Decided to see if I could shoot par by doing a one man scramble. The course was pretty dead. Ended up with a 74. It was a lot of fun. I only used the second shot when needed. Got my driver straightened back out so that's good.

[tefunk]

It's funny mention a one man scramble... I saw something recently with Greg Norman, and he was saying he used to practice sometimes by playing a one man scramble. The difference was, he took the worst shot every time, and his goal was to break par. My game has gone back to crap lately. I've been lucky to even break 90. Life has been busy, so I haven't had the time to practice at all this past month... It's showing. But I'll get back to it in a few months. One thing I'm excited about is the little Par 3 I bought a yearly pass to just opened, so that will be some good practice for the short game... And my daughter seems excited to get out and play this year. I'm looking forward to having her as my new golf buddy!

[Finley]

How's the golf going fellas? My last few rounds have been low 80's, handicap is currently at 10.2. I recently did a golf ball fitting with Bridgestone. Swing speed was averaging 111. They recommended the e5 or 330s. They gave me a few of each so I'll see how I perform with them. Tefunk have you taken your daughter out yet? Sounds fun! Enjoy it

[EZPZ]

I'm on the same path right now. Just started playing again after a couple year lay-off. Last 3 rounds were 85s. On 3 different courses. I feel like those 5 strokes are not as giant a leap as as it seems because i had a triple in each of those rounds and a double or two because of poor management. Threw away 4 pars in a row on the last round due to missed greens and easy 4-5 foot putts missed. My hope is that when i start hitting the ball halfway decent i 'll be putting for more birdies. At this point its more like just hit it in the general direction of the green and clean up with the short game.

[tefunk]

Got another one yesterday... 78. Pretty solid ball striking, stayed out of trouble except one hole that I shot a tripple. My chipping was probably the best it's ever been, probably had 8 up and downs. It was actually on the same course I got it last time. Par 71, 6,745 yards, 72.2 rating/129 slope. The thing that irks me... I've played easier courses since the last time I broke 80. Maybe this is just my lucky course! How has everyone else been playing?

[BallMarker]

As far as I'm concerned, if you can break 80 on any given course from the advanced/blue tees, your in a select "few" group. :-D

[Finley]

Congrats Tefunk!! That sounds like a pretty tough course you are playing. Chipping/pitching is what does it for me also. Your confidence level at that course should through the roof! Next up, 75! My best of the year is a 77. Handicap is currently 9. I need to put my last round in, 84, and see what that does to it. Walked 9 today, 39.