Friday, July 4, 2008

Golf

I've been playing lots of golf this summer, and besides enjoying every minute I spend out there whether with my dad, friends, or practicing alone, I'm actually getting somewhere with my game. My swing is producing solid strikes, and the flat stick has started to heat up.

A few weeks ago I took a lesson and realized a few important things about my game. At the top of my swing, my left wrist was bent backwards making it much too difficult to time my swing. Most swing fixes in golf involve hours of painstaking repetition, but this particular fix involved just not manipulating my wrist on the backswing. I was surprised how easy it was to feel the right and wrong positions on the takeaway, and how quickly the small fix produced the desired results: consistent golf shots.

The second half of the lesson was on the putting green, and we changed everything. My grip, alignment, posture, ball position, hand position, tempo, and stroke are all completely different than before, an Isao Aoki-esque stroke with the toe of the putter off the ground. It took about three or four rounds before I began to feel confident with the new way of putting, but things have finally started to click.

Yesterday, a friend of mine from High School and I made a date to play 18 holes in the morning at GBCC on SI, NY followed by another 18 after lunch at NGC in WM, NY. My friend and I play match play, and I gave him 3 each side in the morning, and 4 a side in the afternoon, for $5 / hole, with $10 eagles and -$5 3 putts. I don't remember exactly how it turned out, but I only had one three putt in the 36 holes which for me at least is legendary.

I wound up shooting 72 in the morning on the 70.1 rated course, and 75 in the afternoon on the 74.1 rated course, and went around without a double bogey, making some solid par and bogey saves. The final nine, holes 28-36 I went around in -1 with three birdies.

The golf schedule for the rest of the summer looks like this:

1) Met Amateur Qualifying @ Bonnie Briar
2) Maccabi Qualifying for Israel '09 in WPB, Florida
3) Westchester Tournament of Club Champions @ Tamarack GC
4) Metropolis Country Club Club Championship @ MCC

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Congrats on everything clicking!!

I hope it all works out in Maccabi for the both of us, because I would really like to see you there...and who knows, I might be in NY this summer, so we could catch up sometime!!!

Yay Doug!