Erin has given me the green light to sign up for the World Am tournament in Myrtle Beach, SC. It's the largest amateur golf tournament in the country with nearly 4,000 golfers. It's 4 days of net handicap play all leading to a 5th day championship for all flight winners. There is also an International Pairs contest that pairs you up with another player and allows you to compete against other pairs to win the right to represent the U.S. in a world competition in St. Andrews, Scotland.
More info about the event can be seen here:
http://www.worldamgolf.com/
I put in some net time this evening in the back yard to see if I could figure out why I've been topping/thinning shots lately. Turns out, it's all in the right leg.
First off, I'm really focusing on a good shoulder swing so I don't get too "arms-y". Second, I'm working on getting a good weight transfer and hip turn. The final piece of the puzzle is my right leg. I took some super slow motion swings and found that I was actually straightening my right leg on the down swing which pulls me up out of the shot. What I really need to work on is getting my right knee moving toward the target when I start my hip turn. I can best accomplish this by feeling like my hips are directly attached to my right knee and pulling it with them. This gets me down into the shot.
If I overcook this idea I start hitting fat, but at least I'm staying down.
Well, I've hit a bit of a plateau with my game. My HCP stayed at a 16.8 for the end of the season. I'm still having too many rounds in the high 90's due to my being inconsistent. I have some things to work on, so rest assured, I'll be practicing all winter long and see if I can't get a few things ironed out for the next year.
My goal for spring of 2009 is to get enrolled in a mini tour like The Golf Channel Amateur Tour. I want to get into competing regularly so I can get accustomed to playing under some pressure.
More updates as progress warrants...
I had a lesson with JR Ables Tuesday at Ables Golf. He took some video of me and we found that I am chicken-winging my left arm and flipping my hands. My setup and rotation were great so we didn't need to work on "basics".
Things to work on are getting may arms extended in my swing. He showed me this move by having me hit little chips/pitches at first. Just getting a feel for getting my hands out toward the target. Then we coupled this with rotating my hands throughout the swing.
Putting these two ideas together worked awesome. After my lesson, I hit a lot of shots with my PW just to help ingrain the feel of this new swing. Usually, I can get my PW into the upper 120's when I really air it out. With the new swing mechanics, I ended up around 135-140 with about 3/4 of the effort. Naturally, I couldn't wait to get my driver out and see how that worked. I could not pick up my distance very well (it was getting dark), but they were flying straight as an arrow. Accuracy will serve me better than distance and I'll take the trade off...for now. Once I get things cemented in a little bit, I'll start putting some ass behind it and see what I can do.
On a side note: My HCP is now down to 16.8 which is about 12 strokes lower than when I started tracking it in May. I'll get two more scores in before the season ends on October 31.
I got eliminated this past Sunday from the match play tourney. I shot an 86 and took it to a 2-hole playoff. My opponent duffed his tee shot and I figured I had it in the bag. Then I sliced my drive OB which hurt bad. Then my approach shot was less than ideal and my chip over the green put the nail in the coffin.
I had a good ride and was not at all nervous during any of the match play. This little bit of competition has helped my mental game a ton.
Based on the way I've been hitting the ball, I think I'm going to start playing from the blue tees. I'm also looking into some longer courses. I need to start playing some tracks that are closer to 7,000 yards.
I just got my latest handicap (the revision was today). I'm down to a 17.5 after starting out at a 27.9 in May.
Well, my 7th place finish last week got me into the match play tourney at Mill Creek and I played the first round yesterday.
I played the 2nd seed guy from the first tourney and pulled off an upset and scored an 83. We went all 18 holes and the score was either "all-square" or me being 1-up the whole time. He never got to move into the lead. I was 1-up going into the 18th and he drained a 10 footer for par to beat me on that hole and tie things up. So, they set us up on hole 9 for a playoff.
Neither of us hit a good drive. He pulled his left into the adjoining hole's rough and I sliced mine and landed behind a small pine tree. We both managed to escape and get on the green in 3. We both had about a 9-10 foot putt for par and we both missed (him by 2 feet, me by 18 inches). He stopped before putting and wanted to know if we could concede each others putt and move to another hole. I told him let's putt out and see what happens. He proceeded to miss his putt on the low side by about 1/2". Then I put mine in and won the match. Good times.
So, now I play his brother this Sunday to see if I can move on to the finals.
Saturday was the first day of the Mill Creek Championship. I was in the second flight which is 15+ HCP. I played a record round (for me) of 82. This was enough to put me in the lead of our flight by one stroke. Then I cracked...
I got to the course today for the second round and was shaking like a dog shitting glass. I couldn't put two shots back to back and I shot a wondrous 97. This included a, get this, FIVE PUTT on a par 3. A freaking 5-putt. That kind of set the tone for the rest of the day.
On the bright side, in my first tournament during my first year of golf, I tied for 7th in my flight which consisted of 11-15 players. That is good enough to get me into the match play event next month.
Needless to say I was extremely disappointed and by the time I teed off on 13, my spirit was broken. I just did the best I could do to hit the ball and realize that the damage was already done. All I could do was try to stop the hemorrhage.
I went out last Saturday with my cousin and uncle. It was definitely a rough looking course (tree roots exposed on one green for example), but it's golf. Things went really well all day. My short game was on, my approach shots were good, but what really stuck out was my driving.
I had been hitting well all day, but the real bomb came on one of the late holes. It was marked as a 304 yard par 4 and the tees were all the way back. I turned one loose and over the hill it went (blind, slightly uphill tee shot). We went up looking for it and it was laying on the back fringe of the green at an estimated 308 yards. I ended up finishing the day with an 85.
My next foray into the exclusive 300 Club came at Mill Creek just this past weekend. We were on 15 which is a 310 yard par 4. There was a guy and his son on the green that were just putting out. I figured I had some room to spare and I went ahead a let it go. I saw it hit the ground and bounce a couple of times. I figured I was near the front edge of the green. Carl and I went on up and Carl hit his approach. As we walked up the guy on the green (still there putting and chipping around) said, "Nice drive, Tiger." It was laying about 15 yards left of the green and even with the back edge. Then I hit I nice one about 290-300 on 16 just down the right side.
Now let's see if I can put it all together for this weekend at the Mill Creek Championship tournament.
All the stars were aligned and all was right with the world Saturday. I've been putting in many hours at the driving range the last couple of weeks or so and it finally paid off.
I went to Mill Creek early Saturday morning. We started on the back 9 and things started awful. I shot an 8 on the very first hole. Fortunately, I recovered pretty well and started shooting pars and bogeys. I wrapped up the back 9 with an average 45. We moved on to the front 9 and I started out by shooting par on the first hole. I have only parred that hole one time ever. It pretty much set the tone for the rest of the round. I bagged 1 birdie and 9 pars during the round and shot 3 over on the front 9 to end the round with an 84. That breaks the elusive 90 barrier and beats my previous personal best by 7 strokes.
