--Nothing Breeds Confidence Like Success--
Hole number one is a nasty booger of a 405 yard par4. The false angles off this highly elevated tee box do not suffer slicers gladly. A miscue leads to the woods on the right, and your ball is lost forever to the squirrels. I stepped up, "Set The K", and gave her a firm yet relaxed rip. I landed her 260 down the fairway, with a slightly strong baby draw. 145yards in from the left w/a back center pin is a lot easier than 165 in from the right. Especially since this fairway tends to have a little less hardpan on the left hand side. I was so confident that I stepped up to my second shot w/a short iron and still blew it past the green. I quickly chipped up and two putted for bogey. --Didn't mind bogey after seeing the distance potential of the new driver stance.
Hole 2 is another par 4 but plays out to 377 yards. Once again, the false angles from the tee-box come into play, and literally aim you to the right, where a slice sends you off the grounds and out of bounds. Once again I crushed one 260 + with a baby draw leaving me a 1/2 wedge to the green. I remembered over shooting the approach on the last hole, relaxed a bit, and bagged a par.--This built up my confidence for numero 3 which is 160 yard par 3 w/nothing but water between the tee box and the green. I took out my 150 stick, thanks the the tail wind, and popped her right next to the pin which was set front left. A quick 1 putt, and I had just bagged my first birdie of the season.
Number 4 represents a driver opportunity for those who are certain of their ability to work the ball left. At roughly 235 yards, dead center in front of the geen, there is a gigantic "hazardous waste" bunker so full of gourse that a Scotsman would be proud. It is as deep as they get. None the less there is a narrow strip of fairway that runs left of this hazard and up towards the left hand side of the green. Miss this narrow strip and you land in the water on the left. --This "K" stance had me running it up the narrow strip for one of only 1/2 dozen times I've ever pulled that shot off in my life. The ball went left of green and a simple chip seemed to be the order of the day. I went up--got a little too excited, and fluffed the chip to the fringe. One Texas wedge and a one putt later I was marking another par on my card. "This is unfreakin' beleieveable." I'm telling myself as I stride to the longest par 4 on the course.
Number 5 is 467 yards of pure meanness for those lacking a baby draw in the arsenal. On the right runs a nice long body of water--hidden behind a tree line--for the entire length of the hole. On the left is a line of bunkers and trees that warn you that--"A draw is welcome--but a hook ensures a bogey at best." Worse yet--for the first 180 yards on the left hand side runs the same water hazard that was on your right on the previous hole.---"OUCH!" The drive went my way. Baby draw to the left--in the fairway, and well ahead of the first two "sucker bunkers." Too much excitement eventually led to a bogey but it was obvious that this was the new way for me to swing. Hole 6 was a par as were 7 and 8, but all that excitement led to a bogey on number 9. Still--I bagged my best nine ever----37 on a nine w/a par of 35. I was so excited going into the turn that I almost had to go change my underwear.
--And Then--The Meltdown--
With the absolute gut cinch promise of the best round of my life now in front of me--I wanted to make sure I repeated everything about that driver swing that I had on the front nine. Talk about your rookie mistakes! Thus began the meltdown from hell. While I was busy making sure that I had enough back tilt in my right shoulder, and "just enough" forward knee bend, in my right knee--I neglected to recall the fact that trusting all my previous practice rounds and letting the new swing go on auto-pilot is what got me there in the first place.
It started innocently enough w/a strong fade (hidden slice) off the 10th tee box. "Well," says I after a two putt for bogey, "I started the front nine with a bogey, and look how it turned out. "
The next hole was a par 3 which I managed to somehow manage a miracle chip in for par after a lousy tee shot long, and a fluffed first chip. --Sadly,--that was to be the last par of the day.
The next hole was a short par 4 where my mental micro-management led to a blocked shot and a bogey. "Too much knee bend," says Captain Idiot while torpedoing his own game. Next up--a 560 yard par 5. "Oh I better get that knee bend just so, and watch that shoulder tilt. I'm going to need a little more boring trajectory to get that type of yardage." Please don't even remind me of the drive into the woods, the mediocre recovery, yet another fluffed chip, and the resultant triple bogey. Eventually I limped back to the club house from the 18th w/a 45. That gave me an"82" for the round which the unobservant might not think too badly of for a guy who usually cards 85-91. The fact of the matter is that the front nine tells us differently.
Not even the eternal optimist inside of me believes that I could have bagged another 37 on the back nine, yet I am absolutely positive that bagging a 42 was more than within my reach that day. That would have allowed me to card a 77 and resulted in me beating my currently very best round of 78 by a stroke. Once I got back out to the range it was easy to see that the micro-management led to a very exaggerated and unnatural "Inverted K"--which made starting the club head back square or inside, a shaky possibility at best. Lesson learned---once the swing has been grooved--you have to trust it. I had to learn to trust my line on putts to overcome a bad case of the yips--and this is a similar mental process. Trust--it ain't easy--but that's golf.
Till Later,
Bernie
No comments:
Post a Comment