August 14th, 2010 / 1 Comment » / by Patrick
Big tournament tomorrow.
I will take my time.
I will not follow up a bad shot with a worse one.
I will play to my strengths.
I will not waste shots.
I will remember my form.
And I will do well.
June 6th, 2010 / No Comments » / by Patrick
I played in my second tournament of the season on June 5th. My play has been up and down over the past couple of weeks. I’d have one good round followed by a lousy round, or a good 9 with a bad 9. I’ve been working on my driver with mixed results. On the range I’ve been seeing some real improvement, but on the course I have been falling into bad habits. The Tuesday before the tournament I played one of my worst rounds in my league so far. I couldn’t make good contact with the ball and I struggled all night long. So I didn’t have much confidence going into the tournament.
The tournament was held at Patricia Island in Grove, OK. I drove down the day before to play a practice round as I had never played the course before. I had studied the scorecard and layout to familiarize myself with the course. The practice round was OK, but I played the back poorly. I had trouble with my full wedge shots, spraying them right. The course is fairly short, so I was using a lot of full wedge shots.
My tee time was the last of the tournament so I had plenty of time to warm up and practice. I was hitting the ball fairly well and felt pretty calm. My first tee shot found the fairway and we were off. I played the front very well. I didn’t putt very well, but my score was an improvement over the practice round with a 44. The back nine started with a tee shot into a lateral hazard. I took my drop and pushed my second shot into the same hazard near the green. I was able to find that ball and punched out of the deep grass (native grasses were considered a lateral hazard) and flew the green. I flubbed my chip barely on the green and three putted for a snowman. This setup my back nine. I could never get it going and had far too many penalty shots, posting my worst 9 hole score in a long time with a 61. My 105 was enough to tie for third in the flight. I was very disappointed with how I did on the back 9. Usually I am pretty good at shaking off a bad hole. My biggest problem was hitting it straight. I sprayed too many balls, usually right, and took too many fat shots.
My next tournament is in three weeks and I plan on doing much better. My handicap has been going up instead of down. I need to work on fixing that.
April 21st, 2010 / No Comments » / by Patrick
The day I had marked on my calendar finally arrived on Sunday the 11th, the first Golf Channel Amateur Tour tournament in Kansas City. I was looking forward to this since I decided to join the tour last fall. The first tournament took place at one of my favorite courses, Prairie Highlands. I found time to play two practice rounds here in the past five weeks. I had struggled with my driver all spring but in my practice rounds I put up respectable scores of 94 each time.
I’ll admit to being nervous leading up to the tournament. I hit the range the day before the tournament and my driver was terrible. I sprayed it all over and never got any distance. Not exactly a confidence building practice.
Sunday morning arrived and I headed out to the course. I checked in and got a warm up bucket. I hit 2 or 3 balls with a variety of clubs. My swing seemed to be on target with my shorter clubs. I tried the driver. I had a bit of a push, but it is fairly straight. If this was my swing for the day, I could aim for the left side of the fairway and I should be okay.
My threesome’s tee time arrived and I was first to tee off. I hit a soft fade into the middle of the fairway. I was very pleased that the first tee jitters didn’t get to me. My biggest fear was whiffing or topping a dribbler on the first tee in front of everyone. I missed the green with my approach, chipped it close and one putted for a par. I was the only one in the threesome to par the hole.
I played the rest of the front nine very well. I had a stretch of four pars in a row, with a total of five pars on the front. The best part was my putting. I had only 14 putts and a lot of up and downs. I wasn’t hitting many greens, but chipping it very close. I shot a 43 for the front. My driver did well. I hit only 3 fairways but my misses were just off the fairway on the right.
The back nine didn’t go as well as the front. I shot a 51 and had a couple of blow up holes. On 15 I put my tee shot into a creek. I took my drop and managed to hit into another lateral hazard. Two penalty shots and then a couple of bad pitches/chips to end up with a 10. I bounced back with pars on the next two holes, so it was good that I didn’t get too frustrated.
The round finished (four and a half hours, not bad for a tournament). We checked our scorecards and turned them in. My flight, the Snead for the high handicappers, had five competitors. My friend Chad is in the same flight and our scores were posted first. Chad had a rough round. The rest of the Snead flight was in the threesome after us. Chad and I grabbed a couple of beers and talked to the other guys as we waited for the rounds to end. The rest of the Sneads show up and my 94 was the low score. The next lowest was 106 so I won by 12 strokes! I won a $125 Golf Galaxy gift card, plus $10 from my friend Chad. Sweet.
I had no expectations coming into the tournament. My main goal was to not embarrass myself and break 100. It was awesome to win. It helped that we played on a course I liked. I can’t wait for the next tournament.
March 31st, 2010 / No Comments » / by Patrick
The offseason ended up being more “off” than I had hoped. Around Xmas we received some significant snowfall, which lingered on the ground until late February. It reminded me of the winters we had growing up in Iowa. Kansas winters are quite different from Iowa winters.
I managed to have weekly visits to the range until the snow arrived. After that I couldn’t hit any balls until mid February. A six week layoff caused some regression in my progress with my driver. My inconsistency with the big dog returned and a few new problems came with them. The new problem is popups to the left. The cause was coming over the top and some flipping with the hands as I tried to direct the club. I had a lesson a while back and my instructor gave me a couple of things to work on. I need to keep my shoulders level on the takeaway, staying off my toes in the downswing, and swinging to the 2nd baseman. I practiced these indoors without hitting any balls for a week. Last weekend I hit the range. My pulled popups were gone but replaced with a push slice, which is about the opposite of what I had been doing. A pulled popup is when the swing path is too outside to in and I ended up hitting the heel of the club. The push slice is when the path is inside out (the push) and the club face is left open, causing the slice. In spite of how ugly the push slice is, the fix is easier than the pulled popup. I want an in to out path. I needed to work on closing the face and releasing the club. I went back to the range the next day and my push slice was now a push with a slight fade.
Since I was stuck indoors for my practice I worked on what I could — putting and chipping. I putted on my fake putting green and on the carpet. I was working on a few changes over the winter. I read Ruthless Putting and one of the suggestions was changing my grip. I changed to a split grip and this seems to work better for me. It keeps me from getting too flippy/wristy. I also practiced chipping with my fake putting green. I would chip 9′ shots and then I figured out I could position it so I could chip from dining room into my living room and have about 20′ chips. There wasn’t anything I was working on, just trying to keep the feel.
I have managed to play three rounds in the past month. My first tournament is in a week and a half at Prairie Highlands and I’ve had a couple practice rounds on the course. It is one of my favorite courses so I am glad it is the first tournament site. My driver hasn’t been too bad at PH. My putter has shown some improvement and I sunk some longer putts that I usually would miss. I had a 12′ and 15′ in my first round. I didn’t improve the number of putts but it seemed I was rolling the ball as I intended. If I had read the break better I would have holed more putts.
I played another round at Overland Park Golf Club. My driver was completely off and that hurt my score. I would have been better off teeing off with my 6 iron on most holes. The one thing working for me was my short irons and wedges. My approach shots were great. I was throwing darts at the pin. My score ended up worse than I usually would shot on this course, but better than I would have expected with my poor driving.
League starts next week and the first tournament is the weekend after that. My swing may not be ready but I can’t wait. I’ll post a wrap up of my first tournament.
November 29th, 2009 / 2 Comments » / by Patrick
At the end of the season last year I was feeling pretty good about my game. My index had fallen to 19. I beat my goals I set for the year. I knew I still had a lot of work to do. My goals going into 2009 were to learn to hit my driver, break 100 regularly, and get my index down to a 16.
One goal affected the rest of my goals. Previously I used a 3 hybrid off the tee. I was fairly consistent with it but the problem was it left me with a long approach shot on the longer par 4s. Learning to hit my driver would shorten those longer holes. I worked on my driver and my weight shift with my instructor since April. Early on it really hurt my game and for the first few months I had trouble breaking 100. I stuck with my driver for the most part as I was dedicate to fixing this. If I kept my driver in the bag, I’d never get better. My higher scores made my index go up, rising to a 24 at its peak. A couple of months ago my instruction finally clicked with me and my driver started working well. I wasn’t getting as much distance as I’d like, but I was hitting it straight. My scores have been coming down considerably over the past 2-3 months. In my last 12 rounds I had three scores in the 80s and only one over 100. This includes some good scores on tough courses. Recently I had a 94 on Sycamore Ridge and a 91 on Prairie Highlands, both of which were the first times I broke 100 on those courses. My index is about 21 now and if I had a couple more months, I’d get it below 20. So while I didn’t meet my goals, I made significant progress.
Positives
1. I’m very happy with my improvement with my driver. I’m not getting the full distance yet, but I will be working on that over the winter. With carry I usually get 220-240 and if I make good contact I get 270 yards. My goal is to consistently get at least 240.
2. Consistency: I feel like my game is much more consistent this year thanks to my swing improving. This allows me to play with more confidence.
Negatives
1. Putting: I am pretty good at lag putting and in general I can get the ball close to the hole. I seem have to issues getting it in the hole (twss). I miss too many putts I should make. In the past few weeks I’ve been working on a firmer stroke on the short putts to take out the break. This is helping so far.
Courses
I didn’t take any golf trips this year so all my play was in Kansas City courses. I tried to get out and play some courses that are new to me and found some I really likes. Winterstone, Swope Memorial, Dub’s Dread and Adams Pointe are now among my favorites.
Memorable rounds/shots
My best shot of the year came in a scramble at Sycamore Ridge. On no. 17, a 175 yard par 3, they had a closest to the hole competition. The group ahead of us had already put a ball about 6-7′ from the pin. I hit my 5 hybrid in a high draw and ended up 3′ from the pin. I’ve been closer on par 3s before, but never one that long. The shot was enough to win the competition which was extra cool.
I had two very memorable rounds. The first was in my 9 hole league at St. Andrews. My partner was very good and could break 40 for 9 often. We were playing a team that ended up winning the league. Normally this would have been intimidating as I’d be the worst golfer of the 4. This time I managed to not make mistakes. I don’t keep my total score through a round, but I realized I was making a lot of pars. Later when I totaled my score I found I was +2 through 6 and ended up with a 42 due to a pair of doubles. This was my best league score by 4 shots at the time (later in the season I put up a 44 and 45). It was one off my best 9 hole score of 41.
My other memorable round was in October. My friend Steve and I played Prairie Highlands. This is an excellent course and forces you play smart. We started on the back and my round was pretty average, carding a 49 for the back. The front has always given me trouble, so I didn’t hold out a lot of hope on breaking 100 for the first time there. My driver was better than ever and I missed only one fairway. I made the mistake of adding my score before the final hole and found I was sitting on a 35. The 9th is a par 5 with some trouble. I thought if I parred this, I’d break my 9 hole score records with a 40. My third shot was 120 yards from the pin with a pond on the front right of the green. I am pretty confident with that distance as it is a full PW for me. I hit it a little fat and landed just short of the green and rolled into the pond. I ended up with a 7 for that hole, a 42 for the front and 91 for the round.
Goals for 2010
Continue to improve my driver and overall consistency.
Sink the putts I should make.
Get my index down to a 16.
Break 80.
I think they are all attainable goals, except maybe the putting. I’ll measure it by lowering my putt total per round. Right now I average about 37 putts per round.
Next year I am planning on joining the Golf Channel Amateur Tour in KC. I doubt I will win anything but it should be a lot of fun. And I am hoping to take one golf trip.
July 12th, 2009 / No Comments » / by Patrick
This summer I am trying to play a lot of the local courses I have never played before. This weekend I played Swope Memorial Golf Course for the first time. This is one of the KC metro’s oldest courses, opened 75 years ago in 1934. It was designed by the famous designer AW Tillinghast. Being an older course it is a little shorter, 6274 from the tips and 5770 from the white tees. That being said, it was not easy. There was a lot of elevation changes and a strategic layout. On the first hole, a 344/372 yard par 4 uphill. If you land on the right side of the fairway, your ball will roll down the hill to a collection area, leaving you a 250 yard 2nd shot instead of 170 yards. There is very little water but a lot of bunkers.
There were a couple of things that were surprising. One, on a Saturday afternoon in the middle of July, the course wasn’t busy. They space their tee times by 10 minutes which helps reduce the congestion. There were groups ahead and behind us, but it often felt like we had the course to ourselves (except for the pair that teed off into us on the 7th hole, but that is the only time). Second, I saw a marshall on the greens fixing ball marks. I thought the greens were in great condition and this is probably why.
We walked the course and didn’t feel too worn out at the end. I shot a 102, which is about what I expected. I’ll do better the next time I play. I had a great time and I really liked the course.
Here is a shot from the 17th fairway. In the distance you can see the KC skyline.
July 5th, 2009 / No Comments » / by Patrick
I had the day off on Thursday and decided to play two courses I had not played before.
My morning tee time was at Dub’s Dread Golf Club in Kansas City, KS. I was playing as a single as none of my partners were willing to get out that morning. The first thing I noticed was the clubhouse, which was much nicer than most of the clubhouses around here. I paid my green fee and the starter told me to go ahead and head to the first tee. There were a couple of groups ahead of me and they’d probably let me play through. The course is tree lined, lush and green with gently rolling hills. There are some elevation changes, but nothing too drastic. I had to club up on several holes. There isn’t much water on the course, a couple of ponds on about 4 or 5 holes. The greens were very fast. The course website even lists a daily stimpmeter reading. The course was in good shape. There were a few patches where the zoysia still hadn’t recovered from the winter damage. The greeens were in excellent shape.
I had a great time playing Dub’s Dread. The course is a little longer than I usually play, 7230 yards from the black tees, 6277 from the white tees. Probably my favorite shot was when I caught up to the group ahead of me off the third tee. They were hitting their second shots as I got to the tee box. They moved back and waved for me to play through. So I have four guys waiting and watching me tee off with my driver, which hasn’t been very dependable. I ripped my tee shot down the middle and ended up close to where they were waiting.
At the end of the round I felt like I had played well and was surprised my score wasn’t lower (99). I really enjoyed the course and will be back.
One other note about the course, they have a very nice bar and grill attached to the clubhouse. I could definitely see taking a foursome here and getting lunch after the round.
My afternoon round was at Winterstone in Independence, MO. I played with a friend from work. The first thing I noticed was the elevation changes on the course. It looked like every hole I could see was hilly. The clubhouse was pretty standard. There is a nice pavilion were you could get food and drinks. We teed off from the back nine, as they were having leagues that night. It felt like every hole needed me to club up to reach the green. We started off walking but by the turn we were gassed and got a cart. I would recommend riding instead of walking. Some of the hills are very steep. If you do walk, you’ll get a good workout.
The course is a little shorter than my usual courses, 6752 from back tees and 5611 from the white tees. There are some holes with some interesting features. I believe no. 17 has an elevated green with the rock wall surrounding the green and a creek running around it. I think we both lost a ball in that creek in spite of having about 50 yard pitch shots. No. 12 was a very short par 3, only 77 yards from the whites. It would seem like it was an easy shot, but there were bunkers in front and the pin was close to the front. Neither of got a GIR on that hole. That hole felt a little gimmicky, but to each his own.
There was some lingering winter damage on the fairways. The greens were in very good shape.
I struggled with my game much more here than in the morning round and my score was actually better than I expected (105). My driver which had worked so well in the morning, turned into a slice. I ended up switching to my 3 iron and that helped my score. I will play Winterstone again.
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