RFKFREAK's Journal About Golf Past, Present, and Future

[RFKFREAK]

So, I haven't posted in this thread in a while because I've been busy with work and school mostly and I did virtually nothing golf related during the off-season except admire my AP2's.

However, I did want to note that I used my net to hit some balls and I thought I'd likely make better contact and have better results if I swung at 80% of my normal speed and for the first time that I can think of, I regularly hit the sweet spot of the irons.  So, I think I'm going to adopt that strategy when playing with @colin007 tomorrow and see how it goes.  My swing speed with the driver is 105 so if I hit the irons it in the sweet spot more often at 80% speed, I think any loss in distance will be negligible.  

 

Here's hoping! 

[colin007]

49 minutes ago, RFKFREAK said:

So, I haven't posted in this thread in a while because I've been busy with work and school mostly and I did virtually nothing golf related during the off-season except admire my AP2's.

However, I did want to note that I used my net to hit some balls and I thought I'd likely make better contact and have better results if I swung at 80% of my normal speed and for the first time that I can think of, I regularly hit the sweet spot of the irons.  So, I think I'm going to adopt that strategy when playing with @colin007 tomorrow and see how it goes.  My swing speed with the driver is 105 so if I hit the irons it in the sweet spot more often at 80% speed, I think any loss in distance will be negligible.  

 

Here's hoping! 

First round of the year, can't wait!!!

[RFKFREAK]

So, for the first time in my golfing life, I played 4 rounds in 4 consecutive days and would put some of the stats here.  The first course I've played about 10 times, the second once before, and the third and fourth, never.  I was quite erratic with the driver, felt really comfortable with my hybrids, don't think I pulled my 3W at all, determined that my short game is horrible but I don't really have a method to quantify it that I know of, and thought overall my putting wasn't bad and was particular good on Saturday.  Anyway, here are some relevant stats.

Course (Course Rating/Slope)	Par	Score	Avg. Par 3 Score	Avg. Par 4 Score	Avg. Par 5 Score
Fairways of Halfmoon  (70.4/124)	72	106	5.00	5.80	7.00
Burden Lake Country Club  (71.6/132)	72	108	4.25	6.00	7.75
Mt. Anthony Country Club  (71.9/123)	71	103	5.75	5.55	6.33
Stratton Mountain/Lake  (71.9/125)	72	107	4.50	6.20	6.75
	71.75	106.00	4.88	5.89	6.96
Course (Course Rating/Slope)	Birdie	Par	Bogey	Double Bogey	More than DB
Fairways of Halfmoon  (70.4/124)	0	1	6	5	6
Burden Lake Country Club  (71.6/132)	0	3	6	1	8
Mt. Anthony Country Club  (71.9/123)	1	1	7	3	6
Stratton Mountain/Lake  (71.9/125)	0	3	3	7	5
	0.25	2.00	5.50	4.00	6.25
Course (Course Rating/Slope)	Total GIR	Par 3 GIR	Par 4 GIR	Par 5 GIR	Penalty Strokes	Total Putts
Fairways of Halfmoon  (70.4/124)	1	1	0	0	6	33
Burden Lake Country Club  (71.6/132)	4	1	2	1	11	35
Mt. Anthony Country Club  (71.9/123)	2	0	2	0	4	33
Stratton Mountain/Lake  (71.9/125)	3	0	2	1	4	38
	2.50	0.50	1.50	0.50	6.25	34.75

 

[Effington]

Congrats on the birdie and keep at it, only a little of good weather left in NY!

[RFKFREAK]

5 hours ago, Effington said:

Congrats on the birdie and keep at it, only a little of good weather left in NY!

Thanks!

Yeah, even though the scores weren't there, and the driver wasn't cooperating, I really feel like I'll be turning a corner soon and finally shoot in the 90's regularly!

[RFKFREAK]

So, re-upping this thread because I have something to say about the state of my game.

COVID-19 has obviously affected us all and for me, I got a lot busier with work and really didn't have much time or inclination to do much golf related back in March/April when courses open up here in NY.  Indeed, my first round was on April 25th and whereas I played 6 rounds in May, 1 in June, and 5-7 a month since then.  Practice was, predictably, also went in spurts, with minimal indoor practice and my averaging 2 range sessions a week in May and only 2 in June and July.  However, in the 3 weeks I've committed myself to trying to improve and have gone to the range roughly 5x a week.  With the weather getting cold early I'll have to double commit myself because I really don't like the cold. 

I've played 25 rounds this year and I thought I'd see where I'm at.  I carry an unofficial handicap and at the end of last season I had been playing my best golf ever and I calculated my HC at 20.9 which was encouraging because beginning in 2019 it was 26.3.  However, like much of 2020, my golf game has been a disappointment.

I don't know if you can combine this or not to give an accurate estimate but the average CR/SR of the courses I've played so far this year has been 70.4/124.  My average score is 103.4 with the average par being 71.7 and my unofficial HC has risen from 20.9 to 23.3.  I've had 6 rounds in the 90's (the lowest a 90 on my birthday 🥳), 14 between 100 and 109, and 5 where I score 110 or more.  I have a spreadsheet where I keep my stats which also calculates a target score which is based on my unofficial HC.  I have beaten that target score only twice this year, hit it on the nose once, and 22 times gone over, with 10 of those instances by double digits.  I average 2.52 GIRs per round, about 14%.  I also average 5.8 penalty strokes per round.  As I see it, by every metric, I am a bad golfer.

Given that much of my practice has happened in the last three weeks, I thought i'd take a look at how I've performed in that time period relative to the rest of the year.  I've played 6 rounds, putting up a score of 100 or more in all of them with an average score of 102.5 on courses with an average CR/SR of 71.2/125 and shooting about 6 strokes over my target score and not actually reaching it.  My unofficial HC has gone up from 22.6 to 23.3.  The sad part is that I feel like I'm improving, I just can't keep it consistent.  Sometimes it's taken me a bit to get in the groove with my driver and other times my irons have been crap.  This isn't anything I'm sure you all have or are currently experiencing yourselves. 

In any case, my real nemesis, IMO, is my penalty strokes.  I feel like my technique is improving to a certain degree and that I'm making better contact and hitting the ball further so, when it goes bad, it goes really bad.  As I mentioned I'm averaging 5.8 penalty strokes a round this year but in the last 6 rounds, that number has ballooned to 8.2 with my pulling the feat of not only having 11 in a round two weeks ago but having 6 holes in a row with a penalty yesterday.

In any case, yesterday was a bit deflating but I remain optimistic and convinced I'm headed in the right direction and that at some point, it'll all click and I'll shoot under my target score with (hopefully), a minimum amount of penalty strokes.  Only time will tell. 

[iacas]

I think that you would shoot under your target score fairly often if you could do a few things:

• Play for misses by wider margins. If there's a pond left, aim at the edge of the right rough. Don't aim at the center of the fairway and "try" to swing right or something (the ball will hook). Aim up toward and TRY to hit the right rough line.
• Commit, for a full round, to doing two things for every full swing shot:
  • Align properly, and have one swing thought (a feeling).
  • Swing at what feels like a smooth 75%.
• Commit, for a full round, to doing two things for every short game shot/putt:
  • Figure out what the safest play is and execute that. If that's 20 feet past the hole on a chip shot over the corner of a bunker to a tight hole location, chip it 20 feet past the flag.
  • Be "lazy" at the bottom of the arc, and let the big muscles and gravity do the work.

I think if I was able to caddie for you, we'd have you in the 90s in no time. The work you're doing on your swing is good. It will pay off… if you let it.

P.S. On practice, you seem to record some of your last swings and say "I was doing this the whole session, so I focused on this for the last 10 balls, and here's video of that." Why not determine what you're doing to work on before your last 10 balls? (Note: this is just my perception. I could have it wrong. That just seems like a lot of what I've read/skimmed.)

[RFKFREAK]

1 hour ago, iacas said:

I think that you would shoot under your target score fairly often if you could do a few things:

• Play for misses by wider margins. If there's a pond left, aim at the edge of the right rough. Don't aim at the center of the fairway and "try" to swing right or something (the ball will hook). Aim up toward and TRY to hit the right rough line.

Now that you mention it, I think subconsciously I think my shot zones are narrower than they truly are and I suffer from selective remembrance.  Yesterday I played a hole where I smacked a mid-iron on a downhill lie left into the woods twice when I played it two weeks or so ago.  I did the same yesterday and opened the clubface a fair amount of whereas it still went left of the green, it didn't go OB.  Definitely need to do more hole analysis of where the better miss is when determining a shot.

1 hour ago, iacas said:

• Commit, for a full round, to doing two things for every full swing shot:
  • Align properly, and have one swing thought (a feeling).
  • Swing at what feels like a smooth 75%.

I did that with the driver and I feel I'm in better control of it.  Makes sense to do it with the irons.  I've found that when I tense up with my woods, that's when I hit really errant shots.  Makes sense I probably do the same with my irons.  I need to step away when I feel undue pressure and relax. 

1 hour ago, iacas said:

• Commit, for a full round, to doing two things for every short game shot/putt:
  • Figure out what the safest play is and execute that. If that's 20 feet past the hole on a chip shot over the corner of a bunker to a tight hole location, chip it 20 feet past the flag.
  • Be "lazy" at the bottom of the arc, and let the big muscles and gravity do the work.

I think if I was able to caddie for you, we'd have you in the 90s in no time. The work you're doing on your swing is good. It will pay off… if you let it.

 

Go where the least amount of damage can happen.  Ok.  

Thanks - and I will.  I try and keep in mind that the work I do in the gym really does pay off it I let it.  I know I keep going back to the driver but when I swing free and loose without trying to kill the ball, I get drives that go 270+ which may not be that big of a feat for some but I find very few ppl who I get paired up with can do.

 

1 hour ago, iacas said:

P.S. On practice, you seem to record some of your last swings and say "I was doing this the whole session, so I focused on this for the last 10 balls, and here's video of that." Why not determine what you're doing to work on before your last 10 balls? (Note: this is just my perception. I could have it wrong. That just seems like a lot of what I've read/skimmed.)

My practice is, at best, uneven.  I typically record the first few swings and try to analyze what I'm doing and what I need to do to get to the position I want to be at.  I record each swing until I get a few where I'm satisfied with it.  I then do some swings without the camera and then go back, record the swings for the last few balls to see if I'm still doing what I think I should be.

I'm fairly certain I'm guilty of moving too quickly onto something else because I get it in my head that I've got something when I may have it but it may not be ingrained.  Patience us a virtue that I wish I had more of.    

[DrvFrShow]

I've been playing since 2012. I don't practice very often (bad on me) - I play and practice once a week (smoke permitting during fire season). My home course is par 72.1 slope 124. 

I'll leave the technical part out because this isn't my thread. Just some advice on the course. On my home course there are some holes that I know are par opportunities. I go for them. There are also more than a couple par 4s that are very difficult to make in regulation. I can hit them in regulation if I execute them perfectly. But I found over time that if I go for it on them, that I tend to have blow up holes more often than not. Sure I can reach the green with a 190 yd shot with my 4H, but if I'm offline, I could be in a deep bunker, I could be off the green and down a steep hill in the bushes, or I could be off to the right having a difficult pitch onto the green that if I skull it, I could end up down that steep hill and in those same bushes. That's one example. There are others. So, this year I decided to play this hole as a par 5. I hit my tee shot, then hit a PW instead of a 4H. Then hit another wedge shot onto the green. Two putt for bogey and move on. Strokes gained 2 to 3. Wash rinse and repeat on another similar hole and there's 4 to 6 strokes.

With your FW.... you say you tense up and get errant shots.... A lot of people do that... or get the dreaded top. Do you use hybrids? I find them extremely forgiving. I use a 24 and 21 degree. I tried an 18 degree but I was too inconsistent with it. You may not hit them as far as your 3W but if you're in play you'll minimize the damage.

So on par 5s, for your second shot, if you're hitting errant 3Ws, just play the longest club you can control and don't try to kill it. Say it's a long par 5.... So what if you get on in 4? One putt for par. Two putt for bogey. If it's a 540 par 5, you hit your driver 260? That leaves 280. You do not need to hit a 3W. A 170 yd shot will leave you a 110 yd wedge shot onto the green.

This is essentially going over playing it safe on the course. I tend to get aggressive on the course and have had to play things this way. And no hero shots on the 18th unless you have a lousy round going because at that point, who cares? Because there is no feeling like being 205 yds out on a short par 5 for your second shot with water and a huge bunker guarding the green, and just going for it and hearing your foursome shout "go! go! go!" while the ball is in the air and then have it strike paydirt. That was the worst 53 I shot for 9 holes (back 9). That birdie made it worthwhile. 

[RFKFREAK]

2 hours ago, DrvFrShow said:

I've been playing since 2012. I don't practice very often (bad on me) - I play and practice once a week (smoke permitting during fire season). My home course is par 72.1 slope 124. 

I'll leave the technical part out because this isn't my thread. Just some advice on the course. On my home course there are some holes that I know are par opportunities. I go for them. There are also more than a couple par 4s that are very difficult to make in regulation. I can hit them in regulation if I execute them perfectly. But I found over time that if I go for it on them, that I tend to have blow up holes more often than not. Sure I can reach the green with a 190 yd shot with my 4H, but if I'm offline, I could be in a deep bunker, I could be off the green and down a steep hill in the bushes, or I could be off to the right having a difficult pitch onto the green that if I skull it, I could end up down that steep hill and in those same bushes. That's one example. There are others. So, this year I decided to play this hole as a par 5. I hit my tee shot, then hit a PW instead of a 4H. Then hit another wedge shot onto the green. Two putt for bogey and move on. Strokes gained 2 to 3. Wash rinse and repeat on another similar hole and there's 4 to 6 strokes.

With your FW.... you say you tense up and get errant shots.... A lot of people do that... or get the dreaded top. Do you use hybrids? I find them extremely forgiving. I use a 24 and 21 degree. I tried an 18 degree but I was too inconsistent with it. You may not hit them as far as your 3W but if you're in play you'll minimize the damage.

So on par 5s, for your second shot, if you're hitting errant 3Ws, just play the longest club you can control and don't try to kill it. Say it's a long par 5.... So what if you get on in 4? One putt for par. Two putt for bogey. If it's a 540 par 5, you hit your driver 260? That leaves 280. You do not need to hit a 3W. A 170 yd shot will leave you a 110 yd wedge shot onto the green.

This is essentially going over playing it safe on the course. I tend to get aggressive on the course and have had to play things this way. And no hero shots on the 18th unless you have a lousy round going because at that point, who cares? Because there is no feeling like being 205 yds out on a short par 5 for your second shot with water and a huge bunker guarding the green, and just going for it and hearing your foursome shout "go! go! go!" while the ball is in the air and then have it strike paydirt. That was the worst 53 I shot for 9 holes (back 9). That birdie made it worthwhile. 

I actually rarely hit a 3W and usually in the situations you describe I pull my 3H even though it goes about 20 yard less than my 3W provided I hit both on the button, however, I'm more likely to mishit my 3W than my 3H so the likely result is that the 3H will go further.  That said, yesterday and today's 3H was no bueno.

[RFKFREAK]

Today's round was interesting.  Shot a 103 which, ofc, could have been better.

So, the good:

1. Incorporating the new swing led to my hitting more GIRs than normal.  
2. Holed a 40 foot putt (for double bogey).  Even thought I had three 3-putts, I felt that my putting overall was solid as besides the 40 footer, I made 3 other putts that were longer than 3 feet.
3. Only 2 penalty shots off the tee (unfortunately, they came on holes 17 with a 6 iron and 18 with the driver).

The bad

1. The other penalty strokes happened with irons, twice off the hosel, once on a shot I hit pure on a hole that 3 times now on a downhill lie with a 9 iron in the last month I've pulled left.  What made it more frustrating was that this time I aimed to the right side of the green and it still found a way to get into the woods left of the green (which, as you can presume, there isn't much room to miss on).   The last one was on 15 because I tensed up trying to hit what was supposed to be an easy 6 iron onto the green and just sprayed it right.  
2. Instead of trusting my body and that I can get things where they need to be distances-wise, I tensed up a few times and tried to destroy the ball.  That somewhat happened on 18 and with a few iron shots.  On 18 I was so disgusted with myself, I threw myself a pity party of one and gave into the feeling of defeat that began on the 15th hole.

Overall, I think I need to do the drills more so that mentally I can trust it more because although there was good, I also hit a fair amount of balls fat and short because of terrible contact.  So, I figure get reps in and I'll start improving there.  Also am going to incorporate the woods and driver into this practice.  I think next round will be on Wednesday and then (hopefully) I'll be able to play a lot the following 7 days as I should have some down time from work.

One last thing I'll take as a positive from today was my strokes gained against a 20HC was good in 3 of the 4 criteria.

 

Edited September 27, 2020 by RFKFREAK

[DrvFrShow]

Erik already told you what you need to do from a technical standpoint. 

I think you're trying too hard and you're getting emotional while you're playing. I can tell from your post. Emotions can help you focus in some sports, but in golf they will absolutely punish you. If you let your emotions get the better of you, they will reinforce the negative and ignore the positive while you are playing. And once that starts you might as well pack it in for the round.

You and I have been playing about the same length of time. I'm a 90s golfer. I don't know if I'll ever break into the 80s consistently. It's a goal, but the world won't end if I don't. You've put more time and effort into this than I have. The biggest lesson I learned was to play the game one shot at a time. Forget the last shot that you hit. It's gone. It's not there anymore. You have an entirely new situation in front of you. Look it over, figure out how to best play it, pull the club, go through your pre-shot routine, relax, visualize the successful shot, trust yourself, and swing the club.

"What happens if I hit a bad shot?" you say. Laugh if you have to. You're not playing for a $ millions. The shot is gone. You have a new shot. It's the only way to deal with it without getting negative thoughts. Play within your game. Don't try to do what your game doesn't allow you too do. 

You also said "an easy 6i shot". Now I don't know if you meant to take an easy swing with the 6i or it was a simple 6i shot. English is vague. If you meant the latter, you assigned a value to the shot. It's just a 6i shot. You either make it or you don't. Saying it's 'easy' and missing it means failure. Having it just be a shot and missing the green means you just missed the green. You have to chip or pitch on. No value to the shot. A former tour pro gave me this advice. And I'll mention, this is one of the most difficult things to do, but it can keep your head clear of negative thoughts through a round. That's all I have to say about this. YMMV.

[RFKFREAK]

17 hours ago, DrvFrShow said:

Erik already told you what you need to do from a technical standpoint. 

 

Yup, and unfortunately, it's not a switch for me and I need to re-inforce it when on the course.

17 hours ago, DrvFrShow said:

I think you're trying too hard and you're getting emotional while you're playing. I can tell from your post. Emotions can help you focus in some sports, but in golf they will absolutely punish you. If you let your emotions get the better of you, they will reinforce the negative and ignore the positive while you are playing. And once that starts you might as well pack it in for the round.

 

You are absolutely correct.  When I care or strive to do something, I feel invested in multiple ways and, with golf, that includes emotionally.  Like others I presume, if we're able to manage that emotion, it can be a really good thing but if it overpowers a person, it can lead to outcomes we don't want.  In my case, with golf, it's a battle when I put unnecessary pressure on myself and I tense up and lose all sense of coordination.  I think it's partly because it's one of the few areas where I'm invested emotionally and I lose control because, generally, I can manage my emotions well, and also because, and I don't mean to sound egotistical, but it's one of the few things I've cared about that I've struggled to get to a level where I'm not unsatisfied.  I mean, I always want to improve, but with other sports or games, given how much effort I put in, I would not be unhappy at my skill level.  Things, in general, just came more naturally or easy to me. 

17 hours ago, DrvFrShow said:

You and I have been playing about the same length of time. I'm a 90s golfer. I don't know if I'll ever break into the 80s consistently. It's a goal, but the world won't end if I don't. You've put more time and effort into this than I have. The biggest lesson I learned was to play the game one shot at a time. Forget the last shot that you hit. It's gone. It's not there anymore. You have an entirely new situation in front of you. Look it over, figure out how to best play it, pull the club, go through your pre-shot routine, relax, visualize the successful shot, trust yourself, and swing the club.

Yeah, I don't generally get over it unless I consciously tell myself to.  And going back to the previous paragraph, mentally, at times I'm not strong enough to get it immediately and it takes some time.  It's funny, in other aspects of my life, I've dealt with adversity quite well, am able to categorize it, rationalize it, but I think with golf, because I've invested quite a fair amount into it and I'm not where I'd like to be in skill level, and because it's something of leisure rather than "important," I somewhat oddly, treat it differently than other situations.

17 hours ago, DrvFrShow said:

"What happens if I hit a bad shot?" you say. Laugh if you have to. You're not playing for a $ millions. The shot is gone. You have a new shot. It's the only way to deal with it without getting negative thoughts. Play within your game. Don't try to do what your game doesn't allow you too do. 

Yeah, that's just not my nature.  I don't laugh it off.  I might get over it quickly and not dwell on it but unless it's bordering on absurd, I don't laugh it off.

17 hours ago, DrvFrShow said:

You also said "an easy 6i shot". Now I don't know if you meant to take an easy swing with the 6i or it was a simple 6i shot. English is vague. If you meant the latter, you assigned a value to the shot. It's just a 6i shot. You either make it or you don't. Saying it's 'easy' and missing it means failure. Having it just be a shot and missing the green means you just missed the green. You have to chip or pitch on. No value to the shot. A former tour pro gave me this advice. And I'll mention, this is one of the most difficult things to do, but it can keep your head clear of negative thoughts through a round. That's all I have to say about this. YMMV.

I meant an easy swing 6I.  I purposely chose a longer club because I could have reached with a 7I but in front of the green there was a steep hill that had bunkers at the bottom of it.  So, an easy swing 6I with good contact would likely put me in the back of the green or just off which wouldn't have been an issue.  But, this is a hole I've had multiple issues with before, so I tensed up, swung hard, got uncoordinated, hit a terrible 6I which I presume I hit off the hose.  I found the ball in the woods but had to take an unplayable, and then, because I was still unhappy with what I had done, hit an 8I fat, which hit the hill, and rolled down into the bunker.  I then hit the bunker shot almost to the top of the hill but didn't quite make it and had the ball roll back into the bunker which required another bunker shot which I got onto the green and two-putted.

After that, because I had shot a 50 on the front and put up an 8 on the 10th hole, I realized I wasn't going to hit my target score, and pretty much packed it finishing with a bogey on a par 4, DB on a par 3, and 10 on the closing par 5 with penalty strokes off the tee on 17 and 18 as I believe I described above.

I don't delude myself into thinking anything is easy for me in golf except for tap in putts.

[saevel25]

If you can't do what you want to do at slower speed consistently then it will be very hard to have it consistent at your normal swing speed on the course. There are major growing pains when changing the golf swing. Keep practicing correctly and you'll see improvement. 

[RFKFREAK]

4 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

If you can't do what you want to do at slower speed consistently then it will be very hard to have it consistent at your normal swing speed on the course. There are major growing pains when changing the golf swing. Keep practicing correctly and you'll see improvement. 

Yeah, for the most part I'm incorporate the changes through drills.  I haven't done practice at slow speeds rather than drills which is next on my itinerary. 

[DrvFrShow]

It's one reason I swing normally at about 85%. My carry distances are all at 85% swing. That way if I need that little extra it's there. I can go to 95%. I don't ever want to go to 100% - this is where bad things happen.

I don't know if you can learn by watching Ernie Els swing 1000 times on youtube.... but it's worth a shot.

 

[Double Mocha Man]

1 hour ago, RFKFREAK said:

You are absolutely correct.  When I care or strive to do something, I feel invested in multiple ways and, with golf, that includes emotionally.  Like others I presume, if we're able to manage that emotion, it can be a really good thing but if it overpowers a person, it can lead to outcomes we don't want.  In my case, with golf, it's a battle when I put unnecessary pressure on myself and I tense up and lose all sense of coordination.  I think it's partly because it's one of the few areas where I'm invested emotionally and I lose control because, generally, I can manage my emotions well, and also because, and I don't mean to sound egotistical, but it's one of the few things I've cared about that I've struggled to get to a level where I'm not unsatisfied.  I mean, I always want to improve, but with other sports or games, given how much effort I put in, I would not be unhappy at my skill level.  Things, in general, just came more naturally or easy to me. 

Be a robot!  An unemotional robot... but just when you swing.  Between swings have fun, smile, laugh it up.  

[RFKFREAK]

So, the last two weeks I've been able to play more and have played 7 rounds.  This, I feel, has provided a good sample size on how my 2020 golfing year is likely go close.  My results were as follows:

Date - CR/SR - Target Score - Actual Score (based on my unofficial HC) - Score HC (the HC of a person who would shoot that score on that course)

1. 09/25 - 70.6/125 - 97 - 109 - 35
2. 09/26 - 71.5/121 - 98 - 103 - 29
3. 09/30 - 72.4/130 - 100 - 103 - 27
4. 10/02 - 70.3/123 - 96 - 99 - 26
5. 10/03 - 72.8/137 - 102 - 99 - 22
6. 10/05 - 70.3/127 - 96 - 109 - 34
7. 10/06 - 71.6/132 - 99 - 104 - 28

So, yeah, I'm just really bad at golf.  My unofficial HC started at 23.3, jumped into the 24 range for a few rounds before ending at 23.3 again.  I was planning on playing tomorrow but the second half of yesterday's round and today's were just not fun.  I can accept a few things happening but my ball-striking the last two days have been worse than usual which I attribute to the swing changes I've been working on, my driver which had been working well has become uneven recently,, and my short game and putting have just been rather blah.  

At this point, overall, I'm pretty dispirited with my golf "game."  Towards the end of today's round I started thinking about how ever since I began to track my scores in 2013 how my progress has been minimal and, looking at my excel spreadsheet, since the beginning of 2015 the improvements have been incremental.  Obviously this all falls upon me because my practice is subpar and maybe my expectations were unrealistic as to how quickly my golf game would develop but a few years ago I figured I'd be regularly shooting in the 90's by 2019 and at the end of last year, over a stretch of 17 rounds I actually shot in the 90's 10 times, with back to back rounds where I shot 90 on the nose.  However, this year over the course of 32 rounds, I've shot just 8 rounds in the 90's.  

So, I think I'll lay off golfing for a while and just keep going to the range and trying to improve my full swing until I get inspired to play (although I might play a round with a friend from out of town this weekend).  Realistically, though, I'll probably get in a few more rounds before the years out.  I'm certain I'm not the only one who has questioned their golfing abilities and feeling the way we do about our game but hey, golf is hard and, as I've mentioned before, most things don't come this difficult for me so it's just not fun when it pretty much all goes to hell.

Anyway, plan is to get some full swings in tomorrow and just keep working on my priority piece for now because the last couple of rounds have demonstrated to me that it has not taken hold yet.