What'd You Shoot Today? (Golf BBV Thread)

Thanks, was a lot of fun! Also rewarding, have been putting in a good amount of work and felt like a day like this was becoming more and more possible.

Nothing really to report here. Had some good bad and ugly today.

1 hole though, Par 5 bushes off the tee that are in play so decided to try and lay up and find the fairway with my 4 iron (it's the stealth 4 iron so it's more like a 2 Iron). I don't think I've ever struck something so pure in my life. I get to my ball and its gone as far as my driver would of gone.

Other than that I had 4 doubles 3 down to 3 putts 1 down to OB.

Annual spring weekend golf trip to kick off the season. First time a few years at least where I had not taken a single swing before hitting the first tee. Last time I touched a club (other than to clean them) was in November.

Thursday: 46-41-87. 3 birdies, 4 double bogeys.
Friday: 47-42-89. 1 birdie, 5 double bogeys. 45 on the bonus nine, 1 birdie, 2 doubles, 1 triple.
Saturday: 44-45-89. No birdies, 5 double bogeys. 42 on the bonus nine, no birdies, 1 double bogey.
Sunday: 45. No birdies, 2 double bogeys, 1 triple bogey.

It was freezing on Thursday, but was feeling no pain with the three birdies on the back nine. Rest of the weekend was nice, weather-wise. I took way too many penalties, which lead to most of the doubles and triples. For March golf, it was not bad.

i would take that in the middle of summer...nice work

Was all going quite well today 11 straight pars. Short game got a bit of a work out. Then on the 12th Par 5 end up with a quad. two Pars on back to back par 3's then get to another Par 5 super easy one, I just made it difficult by continually hitting it into dead spots ended up with a triple. Then went Bogey Bogey Double (OB) for the last 3 holes.

Game is coming back slowly. Just need to put a full round together just simple errors.

13 pars is nothing to bark at
please share your leaks and ways you find to patch them
not to be harsh but also wondering if you mentally quit as the round finished

Normally I get better on the back. Once we got to the 11th tee we were waiting on every shot basically for the group in front and I think they were waiting for the group in front of them, So it got really slow, I feel I'm used to that though but could be a thing of getting out of the natural flow of things.

My main leak is always worrying about missing left. i have a pretty big tendency to pull my shots left or overdraw them. Funny enough though they are normally great strikes. I don't have a way of patching them through a round, I just normally aim to start the ball right.

I have very low expectations since my Achilles injury. Honestly if the ball goes forward and in the air I'm happy 😃 ... I don't really over analyse my game or swing I just tend to figure it out. The left miss is something I need to address though.

1st miss left but not to bad slight overdraw (Driver)
3rd was a miss left (4 iron smothered)
12th was a miss left (4 iron smothered)
13th was a miss left (7 iron great strike but overdrawn and basically dead to where the pin was thankfully got up and down)
15th was a miss left (Driver overdraw just off the fairway but not in a good spot)
18th was a miss left (If I was on a good score though I wouldn't of tried to drive the green) (Driver)

16th was a terrible wedge shot into a par 3. Something recently has become quite common is I've been hitting wedge quite far out the toe, Which is weird cause normally this is the best part of my game.

17th hole is a very demanding tee shot. OB left so cannot miss left. Fairway quite tight but you can miss it a long way right and be fine. I was actually really happy when my ball started right and stayed right.

Some of these holes were also compounded with errors.

always best to have a single misses
both in golf and life
now you know where to apply the focus

It’s hard to have a right misses and hookers too

LOL

Played Sunday at a municipal course (read: non-punitive) and carded 47-42 for an 89 (GHIN adjusted 88) on a par 70, course handicap 21 from the 6000 yard tees we played. Handicap dropped .7 from this to 21.7.

No birdies on the day, one 7 triple and one 8 quad on the card on the front 9. Back 9 had one double and five single bogies. Progress for me.

Struggling with hitting the five wood and the hybrid I bought this year. Just can't seem to hit either one clean. I could live with a wide-ish horizontal dispersion but total mis-hits with a 2 way miss on these longer clubs makes it harder to get around the course when I need shots longer than 200 yards.

Driver worked very well on 7/14 holes, had some hosel/heel hooks that hurt on the others, but I didn't follow those up with boneheaded decisions so it worked out for the most part. Chipping and putting was very acceptable, hit some useful 8i and hybrid bump and runs instead of trying to air it out.

Favorite shot of the day was on a downhill par 3 playing 140 yards, with a 1 club wind into the face. I hit a choked down chippy 7i to pin high about 10 feet from the hole. Burned the edge.

how did the triple and quad happen? penalty strokes or other?

I went back to the scorecard, actually didn't have a 7 on the front, but had a double and an extra bogie, I thought it was a 7 and a par on those two holes.

The 8 was:

Tee shot left of trees on adjacent hole. 9 iron trying to get over the trees, clipped the top and dropped straight down. Tried to punch under canopy, pulled shot and hit tree trunk. Wedge to left/long of green. Chip. 3 putts.

Did some work on the hybrid and 5w on the home sim yesterday. I think it is mostly a setup issue for both, had feet too wide and ball too forward. Playing ball back and taking a narrower stance with a wider swing seemed to help immensely. Feet together drill for the practice swings to feel the full turn and staying balanced helped too.

Hit the ball solid today.

All the holes that had a right to left wind which is about 6 every single drive had a little fade was so nice to see. Don't think I was just doing anything different in terms of swing just how I set up was more focused. I couldn't tell you what I did but it felt so good not to see the ball go left.

Once I'm able to trust the driver again I can start hitting it on this Par 5 that has been causing me nightmares off the tee. Bushes align the fairway right and left. Me hitting it so far left just makes the carry so much further. They are only about 200 away. Today was into the wind on this hole, I just took 5 iron and was playing for a little draw but hit it dead straight and went on the edge of the bush, Had to chip out sideways. Hit a good 3rd left me about 80 in and left the wedge out right. Made a really good up and down for a 6 though.

I did hit 2 bad left shots and that was both with a 7 iron into par 3's, do you know you have them holes you just always end up in the same place I have that for these 2 holes.

Felt like a step in the right direction today and the weather is getting good and the course is in good shape.

appreciate you rounding out the info
thank you Jack

curious if you had any doubts about the strategy of those not-so-good shot decisions at the time
and if so, what the alternative plan might have been

also hope you leave thoughts of swing mechanics on the range where they belong
so much benefit learning to playing with the move you woke up with each day

focus on the success of your fairway partner and not on the misses

9i over the trees was a risk but I don’t have a shot back to the fairway otherwise. Punch out was a greedy line trying to get to green although I do have a smother hook in the bag and it’s fun to pull it off. It just turns into a pull easily which is what happened.

Best option would’ve been to play down the adjacent hole past the trees and up to green from there.

simple as that, but wouldn't erase the compounded taste of triple jack eaten on the green

your unlicensed ad hoc thought doctor humbly recommends considering cutting back on decisions that may result in a stroke

Have been continuing a rapid improvement path, was 20.9 in December, 20.5 in January. Just got under 15 for the first time in my life, a 14.9. Three weeks ago my career low cap was 17.5 and now I'm capped from going above a 17.9 haha.

In the last 8 weeks I have, in addition to the 80 I posted about in this thread, an 86 from a further back box than I usually play, an 86 that was notable for 1) having nothing worse than bogey, and 2) being in 40 degrees and 20mph wind gusting 30, an 83 on a tough course where I had 9 GIR (and played 36 that day with 17 total GIR), and an 85 yesterday where I was +5 on the final 11 holes, including a near-ace.

My biggest deficit had been in approach game, and the biggest error was low point control. Two feels have significantly helped clean up my contact, which has also added a decent amount of distance. One is to feel like I'm turning my back pocket on the trail side to the target. This has significantly reduced me swaying off of the ball, and instead staying centered but loading into the trail side.

The other is to feel like I'm pushing into the outside of my lead heel from the top of the downswing. I was getting way onto my toes on the downswing, and coming steep. This gets my weight to the lead side and helps me complete the swing, previously I would be finishing the swing with my trail foot not fully onto my toe and still carrying some pressure. I also begin this transfer to the lead side much sooner, actually before the backswing is totally complete.

To help these, I also now flare both of my feet at address.

I also have tried cleaning up short game, I follow the guidance of Dan Grieve, he has lots of great YouTube videos if you are in need.

Good luck!!

I'll also add that I've been working on mental game, using the basic tenets outlined in Jon Sherman's Four Foundations of Golf, the book Golf Beneath the Surface, and the Mental Golf Podcast with Josh Nichols.

I've got Grieve's book and Sherman's book, both really good.

so fun witnessing the BA golf epiphany

look forward to reading future stories of glory

+19 Par 72(36/36) (49/42) for 91 at (70.3/124 6200 yards). Played once here last year and shot 99. Trees are naked, so you can hit it almost anywhere and not be in awful shape.

Hit 4/14 fairways, 7/18 greens. 41 putts, although some were from the fringe. (Was on the back fringe of a par 5 in 2 and made par. Ugh.) Hit 2 toe-slice shank-like iron shots. Putting wasn't good. Zero 1-putts. On the back 9 I got the driver going and hit a few good approaches. Played the last 7 holes +3, first 12 +16. 5 Pars, 8 bogeys, 4 doubles and a triple. Cannot complain about the score for the first round of the year. Surgically repaired toe held up well. Less pain now than pre-surgery. Goal is sub-10 handicap by the end of the season. If I stay healthy that seems attainable.