Yes, I cheated. Instead of hitting balls today, snuck out onto the course. That's the third tee at the Raven, on a perfect late Saturday afternoon with nobody on the course (do the dalai lama and give up playing the 18 holes you are entitled to, late afternoons on the weekend are awesome times to play). Did assert a little moral compensation by promising to myself: "just nine holes". Learned a lot today playing hookie from the range.
Didn't play from the back. That's probably not fun yet. So played the silver tees one notch down. Addressing the ball on the first tee, the first thing I noticed was my feet noticing how bumpy the ground was. Sweet. I'm getting feet sense and connected to earth :-)
Today, I was lucky, like being rewarded for the thousand swats of discipline and the long days of patience waiting for Mr. Ping. The course is easy on you on the right, as there's usually a another fairway there. So spraying the driver, usually right, wasn't disaster. Played a lot off the neighboring fairways today.
The range work with the short irons paid off. The 9 through lob all hit the green (which seemed huge compared to the range targets) and made up for the other not so good shots. Was really happy. Only one fattie today. When I had to hit a 4 or 5 iron, things weren't so wonderful. So the work with short irons isn't helping much on the longer irons, or on the driver. The utility clubs, however, flew the distance but aim was kinda random.
What I learned:
- Can't hit a driver
- Short iron practice doesn't transfer much to long irons or driver
- I hate my putter (old Ping Anser from Ebay)
- I feel the ground under my feet. Bumps on tees, gradients on greens.
- Can't hit bunker shots
- The heads on tees are now very small. Ball kept falling off. Maybe age.
- Suck at longer irons
- Hybrids fly good, so need directional work there next
- For now, 220 for my 19 degree and 200 for my 22 deg
- Short game around green: contact is ok, distances bad
- Non-full swing short iron distances are hard
- Mental screw ups are unbelievably unconscious and appear stupid
A little digression into the destructive power of the subconscious heroic ego. On the ninth hole, the driver flew good, but into the right rough. Standing at the ball, I had a clear line to the whole green and could make it with the 19 degree hybrid. Lie was good. No wind issues. Pin way back left and easy to dribble in on a right to left. Crack. Then crack, again. I literally didn't see nor think about the tree near me that would come into play if the shot started beyond the right edge of the green. Now I'm in the trees, punch out with a 7, have a long iron to the green, and three putt from about as far as I could be. The brain spirals into the Woulda-Couldas. Smart sister Shoulda, however, says shoulda hit whatever confident to get into short iron range (which I'm striking good all day). What shoulda been a 5, now is a 7. Didn't hit the green in two. Didn't get an eagle. Just stuck my head up my backside on this one. In reflection, however, I never saw the tree nor even thought I'd hit it. It's fascinating. It's not stupid. It's worse. It's unconscious.
On the bright side, as a bonus, with nobody in front or behind me, worked on way to record audit data for the round in real time. The score is just the symptom. I'm interested in drilling down to the root cause, for which you need data. With root cause, you can then shape the daily practice routine and surf time on the Tube. Hmmm. Maybe an app...
So, I've some pondering to do and weave that into this week's work.
BTW, it's funny that I found a few balls on the course today. All good almost new if not new Callaways. Hmmm. A sweet way to PR a ball.
(via Jiro on iPhone)