Looking back now over all my years of playing golf, I wish I would have taken it a bit more serious. Although there’s nothing I can do to control the past, I certainly can control the future and I can look forward to working on and improving my golf game in the years to come.
For this reason, I’ve started to track my golf game. What this means is after every round, I take a few minutes and go through every golf shot and jot each shot down. (Actually, since we’re in 2014, I create a spreadsheet.) From there, I identify strokes the strokes that I lost on the course due to mental errors, poor concentration or just bad golf swings. After I’ve identified problem areas on my golf game, I can then formulate practice around these specific areas and work towards improving them.
I’ve set a goal to cut my handicap in half by the end of 2015. Currently, I am sitting at a 12.3 based on the September 1 GHIN update. That actually increased from the 10.8 handicap I help before entering 5 golf rounds after the mid-August handicap update. So, I had set an original goal of cutting it in half from 10.8, which I still have a goal to get it to 5.4. Also, along with cutting my overall handicap in half, I want to break 80 in the more short-term. I think if I can constantly start to shoot in the high-70’s to low-80’s then cutting the handicap in half will come naturally. But in order to do this, I have to work on improving my golf game. Not only these specific identifying factors, but really my overall entire game.
On Sunday, we teed it up at La Cantera Resort Course again. I played well. I hit the ball solid but ended up falling short of breaking 80 due to putting and chipping. These were the two glaring weak spots in my previous two #ProjectBreak80 posts. I ended up shooting 81, with four three-putts.
What Needs Improving
- Putting, Putting, Putting – I had a total of four 3-putts. In total, I had 36 putts. For now, while I am trying to improve gradually, I do not want to see more than one 3-putt per round. (Yes I know, I should have a goal of ZERO, but I will get there eventually.) Strokes Lost: 3
- Once again, I lost two golf balls resulting in two 1-stoke penalties. These were lost drives. Since beginning to track my game, I have lost 4, 2, 2 balls respectively. I need to continue working on straightening out my driver. I feel it getting better though. I am swining much easier and have tried to cut my backswing down. This feels to be working. Strokes Lost: 2
- I had two bad short shots; one in the bunker and another chunk chip. These two bad shots were all on the same hole. And on this hole, I ended up with a triple bogey seven. This is another one of the big numbers I talked about taking on a hole last week at TPC San Antonio. I have a goal of not making more than one double bogey per round. (Yes I know again, I should have no big numbers. But again, I am gradually working this down.) Strokes Lost: 2
What I Did Well
- As I did last week, I tried to slow down my swing and shorten my backswing. This felt good again and I feel it’s coming along. I hit some good drives, but I still lost those two shots. I hit my irons pretty crisp and ended up hitting 9/18 greens, which is a good feeling.
- The second thing I did well was play to my plan. I had a plan to come out and swing easy and not try to hit shots I knew I couldn’t hit. I was really trying to eliminate my big misses, which I felt good about.
Practice Goals
- Putting, Chipping, Putting, Chipping – Once again, this is what needs the most improvement. Sure, my driver needs help but I think I can straighten this out. My chipping and putting is what I need help with the most.
Final Stats for the Day
Score: 81
# Putts: 36
Greens in Regulation: 9/18 or 50%
Fairways Hit: 5/14 or 35.7%
I figure I lost 7-strokes on Sunday, which would have put me at an 74 on the scorecard. That would be my lowest score ever. Would have saved all 7-strokes, of course not. But it is possible and even if I would have saved three shots I break 80. While this round really makes me feel confident, I need 3-5 in a row shooting low 80’s to make me feel extra-confident. Because with rounds of 89, 92, 81 over the last three rounds, that is highly inconsistent.
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