2015 Tournament Prep and Updates

[GHIN0011458]

Quick update tonight, still have a round to play tomorrow in the St. Louis Publinx Championship but I had a 36 hole event today. The rough was extremely rough. like punch out to the front of the green and hopefully it holds. I was landing wedges on the firm fairway in front of the green just to have it bounce up to the center of the green. 3-4 inches and very healthy. The greens were extremely firm, meaning they wouldn't even hold a full wedge shot. That being said, the course itself isn't too hard if you play from the fairway.(Something to be said about accuracy vs distance here?) Getting up and down from rough that thick and greens that firm was EXTREMELY DIFFICULT. Anyways here is a quick breakdown of today:

Course was a Par 70: I shot 75-73- 148

- 22/36 GIR; Or 11 per round.

- Too many holes today.. I will count them up on Monday. all I know is I only had 2 three putts.. so that is good, for me.

75-73 was good for 25th place. First off, this was basically a pro event. There were some amateurs, but most guys were pros. Chris Brant, yeah he won it at -5 for two days plays a little on Web.com I believe. Bob Gaus, one of the best PGA Teaching Pro players in the US, you can google him. So needless to say the field was pretty stacked. Not to mention I had never played the course before. All in all, I played good for most holes, but ended up as follows on scoring:

- 1 triple bogey (par 5, aggressive...)

- 1 Double Bogey (double dipped in the sand)

- 9 Bogeys

- 6 birdies

http://odlegolf.com/index.htm

I will say this, I tried to take the more aggressive approach and it really ended up hurting me more than helping me when I went for a par 5 in two. In fact, it cost me basically 4 strokes and possibly more with a wedge in my hand. I didn't play all that great, that is my fault, but there is a premium on accuracy and playing out of the fairway in these situations vs trying to hit it as far as possible. A gap wedge with spin was going to put you closer to the hole than a sand wedge out of the rough 9/10 times where I played I guarantee it.

All in all I was able to sharpen my wedges and think I may be onto something with the putter.. we shall see tomorrow. Here are the final results from today (right now it is only total score on the main page, Rounds will be put in later. ) Shooting mid-low 70s isn't crap.. I felt like I sucked today, made me want to just give it a breather for a few months on tourney golf. 2nd week in a row where decent scores mean nothing. Either you're a guy who can shoot under par or your not. I am not, obviously. 73.5 scoring average = 20-25th place.

[iacas]

I will say this, I tried to take the more aggressive approach and it really ended up hurting me more than helping me when I went for a par 5 in two. In fact, it cost me basically 4 strokes and possibly more with a wedge in my hand. I didn't play all that great, that is my fault, but there is a premium on accuracy and playing out of the fairway in these situations vs trying to hit it as far as possible. A gap wedge with spin was going to put you closer to the hole than a sand wedge out of the rough 9/10 times where I played I guarantee it.

That's all covered in LSW. Shade the rough darker than usual if it's bad, and the distance gradient begins to not look so bad in the 100-yard range.

Except when forced (i.e. "need birdie to win on the last hole"), there shouldn't really be too much "aggressive" vs. "conservative." Just smart.

[RFKFREAK]

Considering the field was stacked, finishing 25th seems good and certainly something you can build on.

Good job and good luck today!

[GHIN0011458]

That's all covered in LSW. Shade the rough darker than usual if it's bad, and the distance gradient begins to not look so bad in the 100-yard range.

Except when forced (i.e. "need birdie to win on the last hole"), there shouldn't really be too much "aggressive" vs. "conservative." Just smart.

I know.. I was frustrated and I need to re-read the book to get back on track with the plan. I started off -2 thru 6 holes, then had my first 3 putt and tried to force getting that stroke back. Snap hooked a 3 wood trying to swing out of my shoes. Hitting 4, got on the green and 2 putted for bogey which put me back to Even. Then I hit a tee shot right into some knarly rough and tried to max out my lay up and I just shut the face down and pulled it into a hazard. The problem there is that the hazard was on the left and there was a huge tree in front of me and I couldn't even see the green. I tried to hit a hard gap wedge over the tree and ended up hitting it too hard went into some native grass.. etc.. bad hole. Other than that I played the rest of the round at even par, but it is the little things. Let's say I lay up on that first par 5, and I hit a PW to lay up to 140 ish on the other par 5 with a much better angle, and even make bogey. Everytime I try to put my foot on the gas I lose control.

When you say forced, it almost was. I was really trying to go after a subpar round because I was in after the first round at 5 over. To be "in the money" I needed a good round. I was thinking if I could get back to +3 or +4 for the tourney it would get me my entry back at least... anyways that was the reasoning on going after it. The rough was just so thick it was insane.

[GHIN0011458]

Extension of the previous update-

Driver - Hitting my driver longer, way longer than I was at the beginning of the season. On drives hit in the fairway this weekend I averaged 294, On Drives in the rough, 276. So that was one of the main goals for the season and I think I have exceeded what I was looking for.

Putting- I had 3 three putts over my last 54 holes. Not good, but not bad for me either. I ended up averaging 31.3 Putts per round over the course of the 54 holes, which even I was surprised by. I missed a ton of chances inside 12 feet.

Irons - Didn't practice long game but one time last week since I was going to play a practice round on Friday and then follow that up with 54 holes on the weekend. I hit balls Wednesday night and overall, I really don't feel like I am hitting the irons as good as I usually do, so back to the drawing board and will grind it out to get those taken care of over the next couple of weeks. I want to edit what I said up there- I was exhausted and threw in the ones that were on the fringe I actually only hit 20 GIR for the 36 hole event, not 22.

Overall right now I am averaging 11.6 GIR for the year and averaging 3 birdies per round. My scoring average is 73.4 .. but I feel like it is 80. Maybe I am just playing some really good players but I obviously have a lot of work to do. I haven't had a round where I felt like I was hitting great shots yet this year competitively. I hope that round comes around, but for now I need to work on my game more.

[GHIN0011458]

I took some time off from practice the last month and half- up to about two weeks ago- Wife lost a baby. I had already committed to some tourney's so I followed through on them. Haven't been on here in awhile. But I will follow thru on these updates. I started practicing two weeks ago and picked up the pieces rather quickly here are my results over the last few tourneys:

http://odlegolf.com/Indian%20Springs%202015%20Detailed.pdf

http://www.forestparkgc.com/files/2014/11/2015-Publinx-scores-Am.pdf (quit right after this)

http://ghintpp.com/maga/TPPOnlineScoring/ResultsStroke.aspx?id=207 (I actually withdrew but they didn't get the information so it shows me for a NS- would have rather spent the day with the family so I decided not to tee it up- wasn't enjoying golf at this point)

http://odlegolf.com/Governors%20Run%202015%20Final.pdf

http://ghintpp.com/maga/TPPOnlineScoring/ResultsStroke.aspx?id=228 (started practicing after this event again)

http://odlegolf.com/z.pdf (just this past weekend after the break; was able to start hitting the ball pretty well. Only made 3 bogies all weekend and I made zero birdies on the second day)

One of the two big tourney's I am playing in is coming up July 10-12. Hoping to make the cut but it is a great event no matter what. I played the smartest golf I have played with a ton of discipline this past weekend so I am hoping that is a turning point for me this season. Hasn't been the best results but has been a tough summer for the wife.

Anyways that is all for now. Putting really well- knock on wood. Haven't had a 3 putt in 3 rounds which isn't crazy but it is good for me. last tourney was 6900 par 72 and I hit 28 GIR so I am happy with that for now. Putting isn't costing me too many strokes and I am not going after back pin locations because that is what was killing me in these other tourneys. I actually wasn't hitting the ball well, just made some really poor decisions and made some big numbers. The only bad round was the 81 at the Normandie but other than that I just didn't score well.

75.8 Scoring Average - Playing some harder courses this year too so not too bad with 3 rounds in the 80's and taking some time off I guess.

[CSStriper]

Thanks for posting your updates.

[PapaMatt]

Just found your thread today and will be following. Sorry to hear about your lost baby. We have had several friends go through that in the last couple of years. It's never easy but I hope she was not very far along as my best friend lost one at 19 weeks which was rather traumatic.