Breakthrough

It's the end of the golf season and I am happy to report that I am playing the best golf of my life. I am -5 for my last four rounds, shooting 69, 71, 71 and 68 most recently. I also have a day job that doesn't permit nearly enough time off to justify these scores.

I last shot 68 earlier this year (blogged about it here) - which included a double bogey. Bogeys are blemishes, but double bogeys, as my friend Charles put it, are "moral mistakes" indicating a major flub (or flubs) in preparation, concentration, execution, what have you.

Last Sunday I teed it up and had (at least from a scorecard perspective) a blemish free round: no bogeys. I hit every green. In all, I wound up with 16 pars, a birdie and an eagle for a (-3) 68. The 68 included 34 putts, which, any golfer will tell you, is a remarkable round from a ball striking perspective. The only real blemish was a missed 3 footer on the 2nd hole after an accurate "chip" PW from 105 in the light rough.

I took the miss in stride and began a progression of good swings that didn't stop all day long. Front nine: 9 greens hit, leading to 8 pars and a birdie. My birdie came on 9 where I stiffed my 8i from 155 to inside a foot. I always joke with the caddie that those are the birdie putts I'm comfortable with.

On the back nine, I continued swinging well and hitting accurate, though not quite "lights-out" approaches, and continued, as usual, rolling the putter with profound mediocrity. While not every putt goes in, at my level, putts should nearly always be started on the right line, with appropriate speed, leaving your green reading ability and rub of the green to determine a miss or make. Too many of my putts nestle within or close to gimmie range but never really had a chance to go in. This is unacceptable.

I was still -1 through 15, as I approached the 16th hole, the 480 yard par-5. I struck my drive solidly into the headwind and was left with 215, playing more like 235 to the front left, accessible pin position. Usually this is a full 3w, but both my general strategy which I'll describe below and lack of confidence in my 3w led to a non-standard choice: the 3/4 full driver off the deck. As it turned out, I hit the ball a tad thin, but resultingly unaffected by the wind, the ball settled to about 15 feet above the hole, a putt which I drilled in the center and parred out for the 68.

On strategy, too often I see golfers, good and even very good players having one shot in their bag: the 100% full shot. If the wind is up, swing harder. If the wind is down, take one less club. If the wind is from the corner, just aim at the edge of the green and let the wind bring it in. I know this isn't the best strategy. More exertion means more can go wrong. Hit the ball harder and you get more spin, and the wind affects the ball more. Swing imperfections are magnified when you swing your fullest, and hell, you might even get tired at the end of the day after all that hard swinging.

Over time, I've learned the distance of shots, whether drivers, irons, chips or bunker shots, depends primarily on the length of the backswing, assuming you're swinging through the ball with the same amount of force. Longer backswing means longer for the club to pick up pace on the way to smacking the ball. I've figured out that in grooving a 60-80% (depends on the day) backswing, and consistently taking one or two extra clubs, for me, leads to better shots. It feels like I'm just chipping around the golf course when it's working well for me. Of course, the weakness in this strategy is that the ball spins less and has a lower trajectory, so to the extent that a green is firm or has to be approached from a high strike, alternatives need to be considered. In any event, this strategy advantages me over most competitors, I believe. Although I'm not immune to ribbing when I'm hitting a 6i 160 and my 10 handicap playing competitor is nuking an 8i.

But its not just a way of getting around the golf course, from a physical standpoint. The mental aspect is as, if not more important, and I feel as though I've made important breakthroughs in this department as well. My job, which requires toughness and stamina (among other things), allows me to train these muscles on a daily basis, which I view as positively impacting my golf game.

So the question is this: after fulfilling my golf related goals this year, winning the club championship and shooting in the 60's 3 times (so far...my goal was two), what for next year? Well, I'm still thinking about it, but preliminarily:

-Shoot a 66
-Win the club championship again
-Get to the quarterfinals of the Westchester Amateur
-Become a great putter

These are lofty goals for a working stiff like me, but I am completely capable and ready to kill it next year. Stay tuned. Time for ski season!