Wow Did I Need This

After a week in Tampa, it was back home last night and hoping for good weather for a round of golf. Well, it was a few degrees cooler today with a nice breeze so it didn’t take any convincing to head to the course. I’m a little nervous about my putting since I’ve been writing putting tips, but it was solid, especially my lag putting. I played the south course with John from Wisconsin and Jeff from Connecticut. I started of well and finished well, but had a string of bogeys in the middle of the round. Still I shot 78 on a par 71 course, so I’m happy.

Now, let’s talk about putting. I hit a lot of greens in regulation and with no birdies on the card, that means a lot of putts. I hit 10 GIR for par, so that was 20 putts. I had 5 one putts, and 3 two putts for bogey for a total of 31 putts. My goal is to be under 30 putts, but as I’ve described before, many times putts will be lower because of landing on the fringe close to the hole. That didn’t happen too much today. I was hitting the greens, but not close to the pin and I made no long putts.

The good thing about the round is that while my driving was off, bumping my score up, I was still able to score pretty low because of good putting. I had no three putts and my lag putting was very good. I was usually within 18 inches on the lag. My putting was solid. My chipping was good, but cost me a couple of stroke and my iron striking was great. All in all a good round on a beautiful, but hot day.

University of South Florida Golf Course

I play The Claw yesterday. The Claw is the University of South Florida (USF) golf course in Tampa, FL. The course gets it nickname from the signature 14th hole. The top of a tree that creeps out into the fairway on the left side is the claw. It’s know to snag the ball of many golfers as they try to cut the dogleg.

I played late in the day with a client. We started about 5:00 pm, but it was still super hot and humid. That was the bad news. The good news is that the course was in great shape and by going out so late, green fees with a cart were $20 plus tax.

There quite a few water hazards on the course and the fairways are mostly narrow. The greens, fringe and rough are in great shape, so the short game bailed me out from a round of lousy driving. My back went from tight to sore as the round progressed and my driving was erratic all day. My short game was solid and I was up and down on quite a few holes, including a sand save.

When I go back to this course, I’ll focus on keeping drives in the fairway. I could play this course without a driver and still score pretty well.

We didn’t get a full 18 holes in, but we made it to 16.

I would recommend this course to anyone who is in the Tampa area. The course was very nice with lots of wildlife. I saw a racoon, lots of wild turkeys, herons and other birds. The staff was friendly and it was a nice place to play.

My putting was solid, but not spectacular.  I made a 30 footer to save bogey after getting into trouble twice on the 13th hole. The soft hands I taked about in my last putting tips post, made a huge difference on a course where I’ve never played before. I am still consciously forcing soft hands, but I can feel the habit building.

The video link didn’t work, so I put it up on YouTube.

Here’s hoping for success.

Great Round and Then The Turkeys

It was a great round at the Grand Reserve Golf Club in Palm Coast, Florida. I had just finished my round and when I went to drive the cart to my Jeep, these turkeys ran on to the path.

I had only played this course once before. I wanted to test how well I was reading greens so a course where I don’t know the greens well was in order. My putting was tremendous. I didn’t have a bad putt all round and had only 23 putts for the round. Now, I had a lot of one putts. Many of these resulted from good chipping and pitching. It was one of those days where I had confidence that I would get up and down from 30 yards in. I had four chips that were just a few feet off the green and several more that were less than 30 feet. I stayed out of traps and was in the fairway on 11 of 13 drives. I hit a 12 foot putt on the last hole for birdie and a round of 70, 1-under. This is my best round in a long time.

The only part of the game that wasn’t right was my short irons. I was striking the 4-5-6 irons better than the 8-9 irons and the pitching wedge. If my short irons were working, it would have been one of those killer rounds. Unfortunately, it’s rare for all parts of my game to be working well - very rare. Most rounds, my driving is about 50% in the fairway and my iron play will get me 9-10 greens in regulation. My pitching and chipping will be about 70% up and down effective and I’ll have 29-30 putts.

Since I been writing tips on putting, my putting has been much better. The biggest change I’ve made is in achieving a more relaxed grips. I am holding the putter just firm enough to keep control, but my putting grip is much, much more relaxed; much lighter.

My lastest post on my blog is Putting Tips – The Line and The Square Head. I was working on square contact with the ball. My experience yesterday proves to me that keeping a light relaxed grip helf square the ball as well. I won’t be playing again until next week because I’m off to Tampa on an assignment. I taking my clubs along in case my client wants to play a round. Let’s hope so.

I was all set to play golf this week on Monday or Tuesday, but it’s not going to happen. The hurricane in Puerto Rico has me in Tampa filling in for a colleague who couldn’t leave. He is reporting a lot of wind and a lot of rain. In San Juan, the power was out at his home from 7 am this morning until about 7:30 tonight.

I was thinking about my abrupt change in plans and how it affects the golf game on the course. I’ve had consecutive rounds where I’ve hit 13 greens in regulation and then 3 GIRs. The amazing thing is that my score was only a few strokes different. One day putting will be working great. Another day driving will be fantastic. And yet another day, by iron play will be great. Every once in a while all will be on at the same time and I’ll score really low.

For the most part though, I will grind through some part of my game during every round. It’s not just me. Every player will go through. I see the pros lose some part of their game for a round or a few holes, but continue to score low.

One thing to keep in mind is solid course management and leveraging what working during your round. Before I got older and smarter, I would compound one bad shot with another by trying to get that stroke back. More often than not, it only made matters worse. Now, I choose the shot that will limit the damage. One bad shot on a hole will generally get me a bogey. Sometimes, I can save par. To score low, I’ve must keep double-bogeys off my card. Course management and staying within myself are key to that.

I wrote and article on my putting tips blog about the mental aspects of putting. Check it out for more.

I’ll be home on Friday and hoping for some nice weather to play in the afternoon.

A Great Round of Golf

The weather cleared after morning storms and I headed out to Daytona Beach Golf Club for a round. I decided to play the more difficult North Course today. It’s a great deal right now with $15.00 greens fees after 3:00 PM. The course wasn’t crowded, but that doesn’t mean it was fast either. I played in just under 3 hours. If there’s no one on the course, I play in well under two hours if I riding and just at two hours when walking.

I warmed up using my pre-round putting drills and the two ball putting drill. My putter head was not square and I was hitting the right side ball much further. I worked on a few tweaks with ball position and then had it right on.

The photo above is the 3rd tee box of the North Course. There’s a lot of trouble on the right side, so I played down the left side and found the second cut of rough. That was about my round - in the rough to the fringe of the green and then a chip and a putt. I only had 24 putts today, but I had a hole-out and only hit 5 greens in regulation. I had lots of up and downs. It was the chipping that was working today and I didn’t need to make any long putts. I had a birdie on the par 3 14th hole when I sank a left-to-right 12 footer. That was my best hole of the day.

Since I’ve been writing so much about putting tips, I’ve found that I need to be careful on the greens. The danger is that I’m going to over-think the putts and tense up. To prevent that, I’m stepping to the putt and putting faster than I normally do. It kept me from thinking over the ball. It worked today.

I’m only playing golf about once every 7-10 days right now and my impending trip to Puerto Rico will cut into my rounds, but today was a beautiful, slightly cooler day on the golf course.

No Golf Today

There will be no golf for me today. A blanket of rain is covering central Florida from coast to coast. I just looked at the NOAA radar and it looks ugly. That doesn’t mean I can’t take a few minutes a improve my game.

Chipping is a big part of the golf game and very important to putting well. I first started doing this drill when I was living in Mid-Town in New York City in a small apartment. I got a cheap golf mat at the sporting goods store and some plastic wiffle golf balls. I cleared out a area to give me a 20 foot range to chip. I took a pot from the kitchen and set it up as a target and got to work.

So today, I pulled out my lob wedge and 64 degree wedge and practiced from different distances until I made 3 in a row. Of course, a real golf ball would travel differently than a wiffle ball, but I’m working on perfecting a smooth consistent chipping stroke. Does it help? It helps me. Why not give it try!

Check out some putting drills you can do if you have access to a practice green.