dagolfer18

Hey guys! I’m gonna start posting here again, and I’ll update in my blog as well soon. Here are my most recent five rounds: 5/23: Teed it up with a few buddies at Umstead. 40-42-82. A 9.5 differential from the blues. Doubled the fifth hole but apart from that limited the damage to just bogeys. 5/29: Played Croasdaile after work, from the blues as per usual. 45-40-85 and a 10.9 differential. I was -1 for the back going into 15 but choked the last four holes. An ugly three-putt double and three bogeys. 5/30: Played Wildwood Green with a few guys from work. 44-40-84 from the blues (70.3/131) and an 11.8 differential. Highlight of the day was hitting my second shot on the par-5 13th to 15 feet. I was a little timid on the eagle putt but cleaned up for birdie without much trouble. 6/4: Another round after opening. 44-48-92 from the gold/blue hybrid at Croasdaile (6744 yds, 72.9/139) so a 15.5 differential. I was putting myself out of position off the tee a lot this day, but I made a few good putts that kept that 92 from being even worse. 6/5: Yesterday was another trek, to Forest Oaks in Greensboro. I shot 44-41-85 there from the blues (definitely on the longer side at close to 6900) for a 9.9 differential. I butchered the first three par 3s, all with awful tee shots leading to doubles, before parring 17. The day prior, the driver was inconsistent and the putter was solid. This day it was the opposite. I had five three-putts en route to a total of 37 putts on the day. As for the driver, I was hitting it well, and even when I wasn’t in the fairway (I hit 9/14 fairways) I was still in good position to hit the green except for one hole. Tomorrow I’m going to update in my blog, going through some highlights of the last part of the semester and the first few weeks of my internship, and some things I’m working on with my game. I’m looking forward to getting back to posting regularly here.

Alright, let’s see… 1. Reduce handicap to 8.0 (from 11.6). Ouch. This one stings a bit. I got down as low as 9.4 at the beginning of August but I didn’t practice or play near as much as I should have last semester and it ballooned right back up pretty much to where I started at the beginning of the year. It stands at 11.8 now. 2. Average putts down to 33.0 (from 34.9). Definitely an improvement, but not quite. I averaged 33.9 putts all year, and 33.5 in my last 20 rounds. I’m a lot more confident in the 3- to 5-foot range, which is what I believe I said I was struggling with. 3. Average fairways up to 65% (from 61%). I’m at 50% right now. Again, I went backward from where I started. Probably won’t include an FIR percentage in this year’s goals. 4a. Make All Conference again. I did make All Conference. I think I was on the outside looking in going into the conference tournament, but a low 80s round did the job. 4b. Make it to regionals as an individual. Proud of this one. Started the season 49-47 and had a lot of ground to make up, but some low 40s rounds and a 38 meant I was so far inside the cut line for regionals going into the conference tournament that I could shoot near 100 and still be okay. 4c. Make it to states as an individual. Bit of a stretch goal here, and I don’t think I was anywhere close to the cut line at regionals. But, as I said in my goals last year, I’d consider goal 4 an overall success if I made it to regionals, which I did. 5. Play in Umstead’s club championship. My parents dropped our Umstead membership mid-summer to pay for tuition. And because that particular tournament was members only, my chances were zero. I’ll count this as neither a win nor a loss. 6. Play in at least three junior tournaments (including at least one multi day tournament). I played in exactly zero junior tournaments. Didn’t sign up for a single one. Not sure why, because I had a few in mind that I wanted to play in but I never signed up. Oh well. So I guess you could say I had varying levels of success with each of my six goals for 2022. Still working on my goals for 2023, but I’ll have those posted hopefully this weekend.

Just put myself in! I’ll be playing Downback (the course at Methodist) for a lot of the next year so I put that as my home course. There are a few holes that are gonna be pretty tough to snag a birdie on (9 and 16 in particular come to mind) but I’m excited to see how far I can get!

FINALLY! I’m finally posting this entry to catch up on what has happened since my last post (November 7 I believe it was). And honestly, not a lot has happened. The rest of the semester was a blur as far as golf goes, and I haven’t played or practiced a ton this winter either. Here are a few highlights: 11/12: My second lowest round on Downback. Wasn’t the greatest start: +6 through five holes. I parred six through eight then bogeyed the ninth to make the turn in 43. My only bad hole on the back nine was a double on the 16th after blocking my drive right, and I shot 40 on the back for 83 total. 11/23: My brother and I finally got to Bryan Park (the Players course). I made the turn in 40, helped tremendously by a birdie on the 420-yard 18th. Then we made the turn to the front. I birdied the second hole after my brother and I hit our drives so far we both had 8 irons to the par 5. Unfortunately, two very unnecessary doubles in the next three holes derailed me a bit, and I finished with a 42 on the front for 82 total. A solid number but no doubt a bit disappointing. 12/23: This isn’t a round of golf, but it IS something I can add to my resume. The few days prior to the 23rd, we prepped the old carts for departure because on this day, we would have a new fleet arriving. I got to work at 7AM and we began immediately. The new fleet was parked in a nearby lot and for about three hours that morning, we moved the old fleet out and the new fleet in, and we began to get those carts ready for play. They were first taken onto the golf course on December 28. I do have a few more rounds than the ones I’ve listed, but none of them are really worth talking about. Here is my plan for the next semester: MONDAY/FRIDAY: I have a huge gap between classes these two days (4hrs on Mon and 5hrs Fri), so that gap is when I will be practicing. TUESDAY/THURSDAY: I have three classes Tues and Thurs but they are back to back to back and I’m done at 12:15. So, depending on how much schoolwork I have, I will plan to practice for about an hour and a half. WEDNESDAY: Since I didn’t play in many Monarch Tour events last semester (only played in three), I will make it a goal to play in at least five or six this semester. On the days I’m not playing Monarch Tour, I’ll dedicate that time gap (3-5) to any schoolwork that needs to be done. Obviously I’ll be working throughout the week as well, but that is one specific time gap that I’ll be devoting strictly to schoolwork. WEEKENDS: Giving myself two options with weekends as well: a. Play 18 holes one day, hour and a half to two hour practice session the other day, OR b. Play nine holes both Saturday and Sunday, with a one hour practice session. So for the most part, my play days will be limited to weekends and practice days will be during the week. This schedule means playing just once a week and practicing five of the other six days. This is also a tentative schedule. I’m taking a private voice lessons class (don’t think I’ve ever mentioned this but I’m a music minor) that only meets once a week for half an hour, and I’m also going to try and work in the golf shop there one or two days a week, just for an hour or two at a time to get myself a little bit of extra cash. So once I figure out when both those things happen and how they will impact my tentative schedule, I will create a final schedule that I’ll put in that week’s post. Starting next week I’m going to begin again with posting once a week on Sundays. It feels good to be posting again!

I’ll be honest, the couple of weeks before break were just really stressful for me, and I never got around to posting on Sunday nights like I’ve been doing. Haven’t been able to practice or play as much as I would like either (two to three times a week MAX over the span of those two to three weeks) and I think the stress was a big part of that. My plan as of right now is to get through finals, and when I get home next Monday or Tuesday I’ll post again, and that post will briefly recap the rest of the semester. It won’t be a super long post because those couple of weeks were a blur but I definitely owe y’all an update. Happy late Thanksgiving to you too!

Four weeks left. It’s hard to believe that my first semester of college is only a month away from being over. Anyway, here’s what happened this week: Tuesday and Sunday: Stayed at the range for about an hour both days and focused primarily on strengthening my grip as recommended by @iacas. Thursday: After seeing me play last weekend and talking a bit, my dad suggested I hit more 4- and 5-irons on the range so I could become more comfortable with them. And on this day, that’s exactly what I did. I dedicated about two-thirds of the balls I hit on Thursday to getting more comfortable with the longer irons. And I can say that coming away from that range session I was definitely more confident. Friday: Walked a total of 13 holes: The Loop (1, 16-18), then the back nine. The Loop didn’t go too well (bombed the 1st then bogey-bogey-par) but then here’s what happened with my nine hole outing: PAR: 4-4-4-4-3-4-4-5-3—35 SCORE: 5-4-6-7-3-6-4-5-4—44 So a little bit of everything here. I had two completely unnecessary misses with chip shots (12 and 15 in particular) and a wayward drive on 13. I played three holes at +7 and the other six at +2. Blowup holes are a common theme with me and it often leads to a messy scorecard that isn’t pretty to look at. I also read over the GEARS post several times in the past few days, and I feel like I understand it to some extent. The Monarch Cup was also this weekend, but I was unable to play. Spots filled up super fast and I just wasn’t quick enough to sign up. That still ticks me off. As for this week, I have a plan. Mon: Walk 18 holes. I haven’t done much of this at all apart from the PAT, and that could come back to bite me at the next PAT in the spring. And going forward, I would like to be able to walk 18 at least once a week, ideally early in the morning on weekends before the course gets too crowded. Tues.-Thurs.: Spend at least an hour on the range each of these days and work on grip and the info in the GEARS post. Fri.: Not looking good weather-wise, so not sure whether I will be able to get to the course. Might also be going home for Veterans Day weekend. Weekend: It’s supposed to be considerably cooler this weekend, but I would like to get out at least one day on the weekend and do some range work. First step: 18 holes tomorrow!

Thank you for you willingness to help. I appreciate that. And please don’t think I don’t want to put in the work, because I do. I would love the help of you and many others on this forum. I remember you and a few others recommended I purchase a tripod to help film my swing. The one and only reason I have not done that yet is because I misplaced my wallet and lost my debit card. It took forever but the card finally came and I can now order a tripod. I know that reason may sound crazy, but I promise if I hadn’t lost the card I would have a tripod now or at the very least have ordered it. To answer @Phil McGleno, I have been putting in work to improve posture and grip in the past week. I may have forgotten it on a few swings (the ones in the video may or may not have been bad), but I promise I have been putting in the work. This has been one of the tougher weeks on and off the course but I’m working through it. Again, thank y’all for your feedback. I will continue working.

Got the videos. Both these swings, like last week, were 7 irons.

I’m proud of how much work I was able to put in this week. I went for at least an hour every day Tuesday through Saturday. I won’t go day-by-day this week because all of my range days I worked on solidifying the grip @iacas talked about in the video, but I will go through some highlights. Wednesday: I went to the course after my 1:00 class and warmed up for my 3:20 Monarch Tour tee time. The format was a Tombstone, where we all got 33 shots and we put a flag where our 33rd shot ended up. For me, that was on the 7th hole. I was +5 going in and needed a birdie to finish the seventh hole at 33 shots even. Unfortunately I made double instead, and finished the nine bogey-double for 46. I was holding my ground until the seventh but three-putted for the double then made a mess of the last two holes. The highlight of the nine was almost driving the second hole, which was playing 260 uphill. I put it on the fringe and turned that into an easy two-putt for the birdie. Thursday: Thursday afternoon was my lesson. Alex looked at my swing and noticed two things: 1. I was starting to lose my posture in the backswing. 2. I was standing too close to the ball with the longer irons. He told me to move my chin up slightly right before I hit each shot, which took some adjustment but it definitely helped. Both problems noted above will take a good number of reps to clean up but neither should present much of a challenge for me. I won’t be able to get a lesson this week because it’s super busy for everyone but in my next lesson I’d love to start touching on my swing. Saturday: Yesterday my dad and brother came down and we played King’s Grant. I was stiff as a board on the first tee because we didn’t hit any balls and it was 55 and misting so that meant it took a couple of holes to warm up. I won’t get into detail with this round, but I’ll sum it up by saying this: The front nine wasn’t great but I was optimistic and thought I could at least keep it in the 80s with a good back nine. But then I started spraying it off the tee, which resulted in a lot of reteeing. Needless to say, the final number was horrible. It would be embarrassing to put it here but if y’all want me to I can. I wasn’t able to get out there today because I had a bunch of laundry I needed to do and some schoolwork to finish up but I will be back out there tomorrow. Some upcoming things to note: •On Wednesday I’m planning on posting a video my swing again in my Member Swing topic, with the new grip change. •This weekend is the second Major of the year, the Monarch Cup. It’s a Ryder Cup format with 10 players per team. I’m still trying to find a team to play with, hopefully I get that sorted out tomorrow or Tuesday. As always, if you have any questions let me know!

Too far into the palm as in, the grip needs to be closer to the fingers?

I've been Playing Golf for: About 9 years. I’ve only been serious about it the last four years or so. My current handicap index or average score is: 11.5. Was in single digits two months ago, would like to get back down there. My typical ball flight is: Usually a fade, but my swing is starting to produce some draws which can turn into a bad two-way miss on a bad day. The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: Fat shots. I know it’ll never go away completely but I’very been hitting a number of these lately and I would like to fix it. Videos:

Quick question: how do I convert the video’s URL to a non-shorts URL? I got as far as uploading the two videos to YouTube but they uploaded as shorts and not regular videos.

3rd: Fat with an iron out of the rough, left me 230 out uphill. 4th: Actually a pretty solid shot but it hopped into a greenside bunker 5th: Off a downhill lie, I caught all ball and it flew over the green 6th: Out of fluffy rough I got almost directly under the ball and it didn’t make it to the green. The second chip was better, but still not great. It left me about eight feet, and that one lipped out. Honestly after the drop I should’ve made no worse than a double but it just turned into a blowup hole that got under my skin.

I saw in the article it said a tripod is pretty much a must, but I unfortunately don’t have one. Would I do ok if I just had someone film my swing at the angles described?

Thank you for this @iacas. I’ll be honest, my lesson Thursday will be only my third lesson this semester, and my second full swing lesson. That is on me for not going after more instruction, whether from one of the instructors there or here on the forum. I am completely willing to own that. I think a large part of the reason I don’t have a specific practice schedule is because I don’t have anything specific to practice. That is partly why I have a lesson Thursday. And here’s what else I’ll do: •I am planning on going to the range tomorrow. I’ll have someone take a video of my swing at whatever angles needed. •I will post those videos to a My Swing thread.

I do not keep strokes gained data, but I honestly I should probably start doing that. I do keep stats on GHIN though. I do typically play a lot, but I’m starting to lean more towards practice. At least, I would like to start to lean more toward practice. In my practice plan (still in progress) I currently have a “practice on weekdays, play on weekends” sort of setup; but that could change. As for what I’ve accomplished this week, I seem to have stabilized my lag putting.

I am still trying to come up with a practice schedule that I can commit to.

Another week down, and we’re nearing the end of the semester. Here’s what happened this week: Wed. (10/19): Wednesday afternoon I had a putting lesson, specifically lag putts, in response to poor putting at The Cardinal. Here are two key points that I took away: •Match the follow through with the backswing. I never realized that my backswing and follow through on my putts didn’t match, so this one was big. •Look at the hole during the practice strokes. This, he said, was to train my brain on how long the putt was, and soon I was lagging it really well. After the lesson I worked another 15-20 minutes on lag putting, then went to the clock drill. That took about 30 minutes, and to finish I decided I would not leave until I two-putted six times in a row from at least 20 feet. Honestly that was a productive day for my golf game. Thurs. (10/20): I went out and played a practice round, bouncing back and forth between playing out the hole and holes where I was often hitting the same shot multiple times and trying different shots. For example, the sixth hole is a par 3 with a heavily sloping green. I spent probably 20 minutes on and around that green hitting multiple putts and chips. It was another productive practice session. Fri. (10/21): This was the whole reason why I named this week “Titleist”. Friday afternoon my new irons arrived! So out with the irons and hybrids and in with the T200s. I immediately went to the range with them. I think I hit every iron in the bag, and I spent a solid hour on the range hitting my new irons. It was great. Sun. (10/23): Today I went and played Gates Four, about a 30-minute drive from the university. The front nine was nothing special, a 43 with a double-bogey finish. The bogey on 9 threatened to turn into a big number but I managed to chip one close and save the bogey. Then, after a bogey-double start to the back, I went on a run, going +1 in the next five holes, including a two-putt from 70 feet. Then I got to the par-5 17th where two pars would give me an 83 on the day. But then I pulled my drive into the creek on the left, and it all went downhill from there. I limped off the green with a quad, then made a bogey on 18. A 45 on the back added up to an 88. And, while the 88 doesn’t look great on the card, I look at it this way: Change the quad on 17 to just a bogey, and I shoot 85. In hindsight, that was a short and narrow par 5 and not really a driver hole. As well as I was hitting the long irons today, I think I would’ve done just fine hitting a 4 iron off the tee and playing it as a three-shot hole. So there’s that week! I’ve got a few things lined up for this week. Thurs. (10/27): I have a lesson at 3:00. Unless something changes between now and Thursday afternoon I will likely work on the driver. I had a couple of sketchy swings with the driver today that threatened to turn into hooks, so I’d like to get that straightened out. Fri. (10/28): Part two of my equipment upgrade: the driver and woods. While I’m not exactly hitting my dad’s woods poorly, I want to be able to stand over a shot with a wood in my hand and know it’s fit for my game. After trying out some woods at Golf Galaxy last week, I’ve decided I’m going to be fit for the Titleist Tsi3 driver and woods. The plan is to either have driver/3w/5w or driver/3w then probably an 18 degree hybrid. Sat. (10/29): My brother wants to come down to Fayetteville and play, so Saturday morning we’re playing King’s Grant. Stay tuned!

Thank you all for the advice and being real with me. It was an eye-opener to how far away I really am, and how much I need to change about my practice habits. I will definitely be starting a Member Swing thread in the next couple of days. What I would like to do to start is create a weekly practice plan around my schedule that stays consistent week to week and hold myself to that, which I know is going to be hard sometimes. I feel like if I don’t have a specific practice schedule to stick to I won’t have much motivation to practice at all. For example, here are the blocks of time I would have to practice: Mon.: 11:00-12:45 and after 2:00 Tues.: 12:30-3:15 Wed.: Same as Monday apart from Player Development, but that would actually be helping. Thurs.: 12:30-4:45 Fri.: 10:00-12:45 and after 2:00 I will also mention that I am a part of the university’s choir as well, so that’s what the second part of the afternoon on Tuesday and Thursday is dedicated to. My next lesson will focus primarily on short game. Short game has seemed to be the weakest part of my game lately, and it cost me at least five shots in my last round, likely more.

Yes please. I would like that.

Hey guys! I unfortunately forgot to post here for week 8 but I’m back to report on my last two weeks to catch up! WEEK 8 (Oct 3-9) Tues. (10/4): I turned Tuesday of this week into a practice session. I decided to hone my short game, and I essentially did everything I did in the previous week’s short game session, except I hit shots from multiple spots around the green. I came away from the practice session very confident about the Monarch Tour event that I was playing in the next day. Wed. (10/5): Wednesday evening I played only my second Monarch Tour of the semester. The format was a two-player best ball. I went to the range before we played, and it was a stripe show. Right before we headed for the 10th tee I told my partner that we’re about to take it low. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Early on, the putter was hot. I made a five-footer for bogey on 10 and about a seven-footer for par on 11. Then after a wayward drive on 12 I clawed out a bogey. Despite being +2 through 3 I was confident. But it went severely downhill from here. I’ll spare the details of the last six holes but I will end by saying I shot a 53. My worst nine in probably a year and a half. The only good thing I could take away from the round was that the three people I paired with were awesome and definitely helped to make the nine holes more fun. Thurs. (10/6): On October 6, as I briefly mentioned at the beginning of the blog, I had my Q Level test. 65 questions, 40 minutes, and a 70% is needed to pass. After I had quite a bit of trouble logging into the test, I flew through it in just over 20 minutes and my final score was an 88% (57/65 right). I walked out of the room feeling like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. That afternoon I had an appointment to pay for my irons. Unfortunately Titleist didn’t pick up when we called, so he just said he’d let me know when he had an answer. I will say they have since been ordered, so it’s only a matter of time before they are in my bag. Sat. (10/8): My brother and I played Umstead. Not good. I shot a 46 after somehow walking off the ninth with a triple, and I wasn’t feeling great about the back. Then we got to the 10th tee at around 5:00, and there was a group in the fairway and another group waiting. We decided that our best chance to finish 18 holes was to play the front again, so off we went. This nine was slightly better. It was a 43, nothing awful but just a lot of bogeys. I was happy to play a better second nine but it did little to help my confidence. WEEK 9 (Oct 10-16) Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get out and practice much last week but I did play twice. Tues. (10/11): My brother and I got out for a quick nine to wrap up my fall break, and my goal was to to break 40. It did not start well. We played through a group on the first hole and it rattled both of us: I started with a triple and my brother started with a quad. I then three-putted the second hole for bogey to go +4 and thought my chances were zero. Key word: Thought. I made a great up and down for par on the third, then went birdie-par-birdie on holes 4-6. Two over going into 7. Then I hit a beautiful fade to seven feet and left a dead straight putt to go back to one over after being four over just four holes prior. Left it half a roll short, in the heart. Still, two pars would’ve given me a 38, plenty good enough after the rough start. But then I bogeyed eight and, after having a 15-footer for birdie on the ninth, three-jacked. Bogey-bogey finish and a 40. Despite a rough finish, I can’t really be disappointed after how I started. Sat. (10/15): You may remember last year we played The Cardinal on my birthday weekend, and after twisting my ankle on 7 I was lucky to finish. This year I decided to go back for another try at the course. Yet again, I hit it really well on the range and was feeling good heading to the first tee. I was +3 through 5 which included a chip in for birdie, but then it unraveled. I doubled three of the last four holes on the side and made the turn in 46. I will explain the back nine like this: I parred 12 and 15, two difficult holes, but nothing else came through. The final number on the back was a 50 for a 96 total. Here are a couple of takeaways: •I was hitting the ball really well, particularly with irons. My misses were small for the most part, but small misses at that course hurt the scorecard. •Short game sucked. I three-putted five times on this day, and my chipping wasn’t on point at all. Most of my chips finished in the 15-to-20-foot range, which is something I need to work on. So there you have it, my last two weeks. Unfortunately after some poor golf, my index has ballooned to an 11.1. My goal? Get back under a 10.5 by the end of the semester, and that essentially gives me 7 weeks, which I know will fly by.

Another week in the books, and almost halfway through the semester! Unfortunately I was only able to get out to the course once this week due to weather and just a load of schoolwork I had to catch up on, so this is going to be one of the shortest posts I’ve made so far. The one day I was able to get to the course was Wednesday, but I made the most of it. I spent over two hours at the course Wednesday afternoon. The first hour and a half or so was spent watching guest and MU PGM graduate Michael Manavian teach on the range. He packed a lot of information into each lesson, and to wrap up he filmed a one-minute video of himself recapping the lesson that the golfer could access anywhere and any time: on the range, on the course, or on the way to/from the course. Watching him teach was intriguing for sure, and it’s making me consider whether I want to be a teaching pro. After that, I went over to the chipping green near the first tee and worked on chips and pitches for about 45 minutes. I went back and forth between clubs (primarily the 50, 54 and 60) and between pins, allowing me to practice dozens of different shots. Wednesday was one of those rare perfect afternoons: about 70 degrees with a little bit of cloud cover. The only reason I left the course was because I was hungry, otherwise I would’ve stayed at least another hour. It was great. As for this coming week, it’s supposed to be nice, but a bit cool the first half of the week. My goal is to get to the course at least four days this week, even if it’s only for 30 mins for a quick range session or short game work, and form a practice plan that I will implement starting the week after my birthday (two weeks from today). I haven’t been doing a great job holding myself accountable for my golf game so far this semester, but all that changes this week!

I currently carry four wedges, all Callaway Jaws: •46 degree that functions as my PW. Will probably end up bending it to 47 or 48 when I get my new irons. •50 degree gap wedge. This is probably the least used of the four. •54 degree sand wedge. My go to wedge for anything 85 yards and in. •60 degree lob wedge. This is what I typically use when I’m shortsided or when I have to hit a pitch shot over a bunker. My PW I typically hit 120 and the gap wedge I hit 105. Not completely sure on the 54 and 60 because I rarely full swing either one.

Here are my top three, not really in any particular order. 1. Good Good. Love the energy and vibes this group gives off. I’d been subscribed to GM Golf for a while prior to Good Good forming and am really enjoying the variety in their challenges. 2. Not A Scratch Golfer. Although he’s for sure a better golfer than me (I think he’s a 7 hcp), we’re similar in that neither of us have the prettiest of swings but we can get around the course fairly well. My favorite part about his channel is that he goes in depth about his rounds and talks over his shots, and apart from him I haven’t come across many guys on YouTube that do that. 3. Mark Crossfield. Love his instruction videos and just his personality.

Hey guys! Week six is in the books, and this week was action-packed in terms of golf. Tuesday and Friday I didn’t do anything but here’s what happened the other days: Mon. 9/19: Finally, I was fit for new irons! I was fit for Titleist T200s with stiff S300 shafts. The iron set will include 4-PW, with the PW at 43 degrees. I still have the 46/50/54/60 setup, so I have two options as to how I want to handle that: 1. Take out a slot in the top end of the bag. This would be the most complicated of the two options because I would have to figure out what the club below driver would be. It could be a stronger 18 degree hybrid or a weaker 3 wood but I would make sure the gap between whatever that is and the 4 iron isn’t excessive. In this scenario I would probably bend the 46 degree to 47 so that I’d have 43/47/50/54/60. Not sure how I feel about that. 2. Take out a wedge. What I’d probably do is take out the 50 degree and bend the 46 to 48 so that I would have a 43/48/54/60 setup. This would free up space for a hybrid between my 3 wood and 4 iron. I most likely won’t decide this until I find out how far I hit my irons. I’ll probably go ahead and get the driver and 3 wood now and then decide on one of the two options after I see how far I hit the 4 iron. If y’all have any suggestions feel free to let me know! Wed. 9/21: This week in Player Development we worked on bunker game, both greenside and fairway bunkers. Still a little rusty, but I’m hoping to improve that soon! Thurs. 9/22: Two things happened Thursday. 1. The first round of the club championship. My opponent was a 0.9 handicap and since no strokes were given I knew it was gonna be a tough day. I lost the first hole but halved the next two with pars, the latter being after a botched tee shot. That one upped my confidence significantly. So one down through three. I lost four and five but six was gift-wrapped for me after my opponent blocked his tee shot right (he wouldn’t find it and would make double. Two down, three to play. On seven we both struggled but at the end of it I faced a five-footer for bogey to tie the hole and extend the match. Knowing what was at stake, I knocked it home for the save. Now I had to win the last two holes, but I was still alive. Not for long though. I blocked my tee shot on eight and he threw a dart to ten feet, and I knew it was over. I hit a decent chip and almost made the par putt, and he two putted easily to win 3&1. I was a little disappointed about the loss for sure, but I’m happy that I kept fighting. We finished up the nine and I parred to shoot 46. 2. Seminar week three. We had one of the representatives of Augusta National come and talk to us about the retail opportunities there. We would apparently be working during Masters week in either sales or operations, and it would be a 12- to 14-hour workday (with breaks of course) nine straight days. I’m sure I would be exhausted after all this, but I’m definitely giving it serious thought. He told us about how awesome it is to see the golf shops full of people and how all the cash registers (64 of em) have super long lines. To sum up everything he talked about, it sounds like an awesome opportunity that I’m for sure considering! Sat. 9/24: Yesterday was supposed to be 18 at Baywood in the morning, but as I neared the end of the round I was playing well, and it was such a nice day so I decided to play 36. In the first round I played super consistent golf, and shot 42-44 from the tips (73.1/131). I wasn’t making many putts so it definitely could’ve been lower. The second round could’ve been better. I caught all sorts of breaks on the front nine, which led to a lot of doubles and few pars. A 48 on the front there hurt a lot, as I had already figured out the front nine is where a lot of the scoring is done. On the back I got some of my game back. The trend of nothing dropping continued though, and it led to me making eight bogeys and a lone par for a 44 on the back and 92 for the round. So 86-92 from the tips on an unfamiliar course. At just over 6700 yards it was a bit longer than I’m used to as well, so I’m happy to have played well for the most part. I really enjoyed the course as well. As I would put it, there are no ‘boring’ holes on that course. I’ll definitely be playing there again! Sun. 9/25: Today I played King’s Grant. Struggle City. I started +2 through four but after a quad on the 5th it went downhill. I finished with a 46 on the front and had a really rough four hole stretch on the back that turned what should’ve been mid-40s into a 49. So 46-49 for a 95. That will balloon my index up to a 10.6 apparently, which sucks. But I’ll definitely be getting to the range this week!