This week I’m down in Florida for Thanksgiving, and thankfully, that means it’s time for golf.
I’ve played 54 holes since I got down here.
I started off playing the back nine of the course near our family house. I played the day I flew in, and there was definitely some rust to my game. I shot 51. After the round, sun setting, I went to the range to try to work out the kinks.
The next day I played the front. I shot 47 with no warmup. Progress.
Finally, the day after, I played a full eighteen from the greens. I shot 96.
Yesterday, Thanksgiving I played in a four-man scramble (“The Turkey Trot”). I warmed up with 45 balls on the range. Our team struggled mightily. My ironplay was attrocious, and my putts were decent but didn’t generally go in (I did sink our team’s only two birdie putts).
Today, I played 18 again. On the range, I focused on hitting irons and wedges. I hit 82 balls. I didn’t hit a single wood. I also consulted the wedge section of Tiger Woods’s “My Game” prior to the range session, just to get some good thoughts to work on. I also hit about a dozen practice putts.
My irons were far from perfect, but the extra focus on them did help. I shot 91 from the greens (the “back” tees for me on this course), 5 better than two days earlier. Neglecting my drive definitely hurt. My average drive was 15 yards shorter than a few days earlier and I hit three fairways instead of 7.
My short game was great. My sand shots were excellent, reliably going the yardage and direction I wanted. I drained 3-5 putts from outside of 15 feet and made a number of great putts inside that range.
Other highlights: I only double-bogied two par-4s, and I avoided any triple bogeys (That’s good for me). On the challenging 11th, a long par 3 over water, I nearly holed my tee shot, a hybrid. It ran by the pin by about two feet. I made two. On the 16th, I hit my drive short and right, but hit a beautiful 3-wood towards the center of the green to get back into the hole. I hit another good three wood after a smoked driver on the 4th hole, the #1 handicap and a par-5, getting me to about 60-70 yards in two. I made a disappointing six after hitting a mediocre 60-degree wedge short, and a pitching wedge chip past the flag.
My game( My irons especially) definitely still needs a ton of work, but I’m happy with the progress I made.
Random thoughts: I played most of today with Taylormade TP5x balls and I really liked the feel of them (especially when putting).
Michael Golfs 