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Played Wolf Creek – Atlanta, Ga (85)

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The Course

I really like Wolf Creek. This is the second time I’ve played there this year and the course has been in excellent condition. Its an interesting layout, too, with many holes forcing you to be strategic off the tee. You can’t just step up and hit driver all the time. You have to think about your landing areas, you have to think about your aim points as well because there are a lot of blind tee shots. But its a fun course and one I’ll play many more times.

My Round

Played another round with my brother, which I always enjoy. We were the first off the tee, which has never happened. It was great to be out there before everyone else. The picture above is the view on #1 tee. A month ago we played here and I shot 39 on the back, my driving was one and my irons were spot on. This round started out with more of the same. I had 5 GIRs through the first 6 holes and would’ve been level par if my putting hadn’t let me down. I had some loose shots on the front, bad decisions with certain clubs, but overall I was swinging great.

I had 2 doubles on the back and 1 on the front. Only 1 of those doubles included a penalty and none of them included a 3 putt, so they were simply bad holes. On two of the three, I hit a poor drive, way short of the fairway which set me up for doubles from the start. I recovered nicely, like on 18 where I duffed a drive then hit a beautiful 205 yard 5i with a slight draw from out of the rough. It put me back into position where I should’ve been with my drive.

If I can get my driver to come around (and I don’t practice it enough so its my fault) then I would;ve had a chance to shoot lower here.

My Scorecard

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Played River Pines – Johns Creek, GA (98)

The Course

This is the first time I’ve played River Pines. I was really impressed with the quality. For being early spring, I expected the course to still be a bit brown, but they took great care to overseed and the course looked fantastic. Fairways and rough were lush and well maintained as were the tee boxes. For some reason, I always look at the tee boxes first as a way to gauge the course. The tee box is where you start every hole, and if they are marked up, patchy, and dead, it sets the tone for the hole. These boxes were excellent, especially the Par 3’s where a lot of irons are played off the tee. The greens had just been aerated the week prior, but they were still rolling pretty true.

The course itself was interesting. This is a course where you really need to think your way around. Many holes present opportunities to take or leave driver in the bag. Par 5s are reachable with good drives, but they are definitely risk-reward. The course is mostly in the woods with very few homes around so its nice and secluded. I’m looking forward to playing again when the course is in perfect late spring/early summer condition.

My Round

It was an interesting round. This is the first time i’ve played since taking time off to rehab my back. 3 months without playing so my expectations were low. The round didn’t start off great, on the range, I snapped the head of my 7i clean off. That’s never happened to me before so it took me about 3 holes to settle down. I managed to ricochet a shot off the trees (from the trees) and land it in the cart trapped between my bag and the bag stand. I couldn’t do that again with a thousands balls.

My driver wasn’t great. No surprise, I practice it the least. I had some decent drives, but mostly it was off. I even managed to top two tee shots in a row, I haven’t done that in probably a year. I need to spend time with the driver and my fairway woods.

My iron game was pretty good. I hit a knockdown 6i (cause I didn’t have a 7) from 169 on a sidehill lie to about 15 feet on the first hole. Hit an 8i about 160 downhill from pinestraw to 10 feet on #10, and had other iron shots that were flushed as well. There is nothing like the feel of a flushed iron shot flying at the flag. I have confidence with my any iron > 6i, and I need to continue to work on my 4 and 5. Nice shots with the 5i today, but not as pure. Errant shots, penalties and putts were an issue.

My putting was terrible. I put a new putter in the bag, which I really like, but haven’t used and that resulted in zero confidence. 39 putts. I 3-putted the first 4 holes. I was going for the record. Need to keep working here.

I gave up on a couple holes. I had a chance to turn around my round on the back and I did with 4 pars. But there were a couple holes where I gave up. All in all, it was a good first round back. The most important thing is that my back felt great the next day, felt great during the round, and all the work I’ve been doing is paying off.

Scorecard

Other Photos
7i snapped right off

7i snapped right off my shaft on the range

Thanks to a tree my ball ended up here

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Played City Club – Marietta, GA (83)

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The Course

City Club is my home course. It’s close, tee times are usually available and it’s generally a good course. Lots of terrain changes and some interesting holes make this short course fun to play. If you’re on, you can score well, if not, it will punish you. It’s winter here now, so the fairways are dead, but well maintained, the rough is dead, but still thick challenging and well maintained. And unlike last year, the greens are in excellent shape. They over seeded with rye grass and it took this year. They were smooth and lush. But they were soft with the rain and that caused me a few issues. Definitely will play it again this winter.

The day started out foggy and cold, but ended up sunny and warm.

My Round

I went into this round with expectations. At the beginning of this year I set a goal to break 80. I was a lofty goal, but one I thought I could do. City Club was my best last chance. I wanted to play blue tees, but the group wanted white. It would’ve only added about 100 yards total, so it doesn’t matter. I knew what I needed to do and went out to do it.

It started great on the range. I was confident and striking my irons pure. My drive down #1 was long. I had 100 yards up hill for my approach, hit it flush with a sand wedge, landed 10 year on the green. I saw it spin back but thought it was still on. I got to the green and realized it spun completely off the green. That would happen numerous times today and it’s one of those things that I can’t be upset about. I’m playing E5 golf balls usually, which have a lot of green side control. But today I was playing B330-S which have a ton of control. The fact I’m spinning the ball means I’m making better contact, that’s exciting. There were a couple holes where I could actually watch it stop and back up, pretty cool.

I had some great drives and some poor drives. I got lucky on two drives where I hooked it into the trees and the trees spit it out on the fairway. But I couldn’t putt. My usually decent short game around the greens, was not so great. I had 6 3 putts including 3 where I hit the green in regulation. That right there takes me to 80. You can’t 3 putt 6 times and have 3 double bogeys on the card and break 80.

But I was striking the ball better and that’s what matters. I managed to have a legit chance to reach my goal right up until 16, that’s fun.

I need to remember my swing keys but I also need to stop being lazy. In an effort to be smooth and have a nice tempo, I get lazy and that means I keep the face open and push or fade/slice it. Once I get to the top, I need to let it go, drop those hands and get through it. On the range, it’s not problem, I end up twisted around like a pretzel, but on the course I get tight. Tat comes from a lack of confidence and from not playing enough. That needs to change in 2012.

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This is how the day ended up… pretty perfect.

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Off the tee on one of my favorite holes on this course, the par 5 8th. Took the drive over the far right tree into the fairway 185 yards out with a 165 yard carry over water. Ball was above my feet, slightly downhill and of course, I hit it fat, ending up in the water barely missing the bank by a foot. Made a double by 3 putting.

Scorecard

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Played 9 Holes at River Strand with Corey Pion

If you are on the west side of Florida in the Sarasota area – or will be traveling to the west side – you should make a point of playing River Strand. Its one of my favorite courses – 27 holes of challenging, fun, and unique holes that are always in the best possible condition.

If you’re looking to play better, consider taking some lessons from Corey Pion, River Strand’s Head Pro. I’ve had a chance to work with him on a few trips to Florida and he’s a excellent instructor. He takes the time to analyze your swing, and put together a program for improvement that is tailored to you, not just a bunch of generic drills and fixes. He’s an excellent player himself, so going out and playing 9 with him allows him to see what i do on the course (trust me its different than on the range!) but I can also see how he plays, watch his ball flight, see how he works around the course and learn from that. Playing 9 today with him was a lot of fun and I learned quite a bit.

I’m great on the range as most people are. But being on the course and having a pro like Corey verify my on course routine, alignment, swing tempo, is invaluable as I continue to try to improve.

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This was a 7 iron shot from the top of a ridge on #2. Hit this shot to within 12 feet, right at the pin.


Corey’s approach shot with a wedge on #1 Sanctuary


Hopped over the bank to snap a picture of this girl. Turns out the much larger male sitting 50 feet away wasn’t very happy and splashed into the water to scare us away.

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Played River Strand – Bradenton, FL (84)

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My Round

I took a lot of momentum and confidence from the back nine into this round. I had fixed some things with my swing and remembered swing keys like the full turn and releasing the club.

My irons came back a little during this round and I hit more GIRs. I also didn’t 3-putt and eliminated 7 penalty smokes from the card. Minimizing mistakes, especially at River Strand, is critical to scoring well. I didn’t it a lot of fairways, but my driver wasn’t hooking as much. I wasn’t as quick with the transition which is critical. I recovered well from mishits and managed to shoot an 84. But even though it was my best score, it wasn’t my best round.

I feel like my swing is much simpler now. Take it back smooth until my shoulder hits my chin, bump the left hip forward while pulling my arms and hands down. Hold onto the lag and release it after hands pass the ball. Keep turning and finish balanced.

Just remember:
Full turn, light grip pressure, natural hinge, pump the arms, release after the ball and turn on thru.

Scorecard

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Played River Strand – Bradenton, FL (97)

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My Round

Andrea came out on the course with me which was a lot of fun. I know during the round it didn’t seem like I was having much fun, but I really enjoyed having her ride around with me. I’ve spent so much time this year thinking about golf, practicing golf, playing golf, that I really wanted her to see me hit some great shots and play good golf.

It didn’t go well. Maybe I put too much pressure on myself to play well because Andrea was out there or because I had just shot the greatest round of my life two days earlier. I was tense and I let myself get frustrated early and easily. My driver wasn’t working and my irons weren’t either. I went from having complete confidence in my driver and a confidence that I could hit more greens with my irons to not believing I could hit anything. But Andrea turned me back to being positive and the back nine was better. It doesn’t look better on the card, it it was.

What I need to focus on: stay positive. Im not making money playing golf so getting as frustrated as I got isn’t useful. Slow down! Stay grounded and make a full turn touching shoulder to chin before starting the downswing, and keep your hands light on the club. The swing is smooth and fluid not tight and rigid.

Scorecard

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Played River Strand – Bradenton, FL (85)

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The Course

River Strand is always one the most well maintained courses I’ve ever played and its impressive right now. Greens are perfect and running super fast, 11. Great course.

My Round

The best round I have ever played. I mean that. I hit more greens and fairways than I ever have and from a pure swing perspective, the most fun as well. A few things stuck out for me. I really slowed down my routine and stuck to it. I took the club back smooth, focused on softer hands, really made sure I finished my backswing and did dropped the arms and and hands down a couple times then finished the practice swing. Really felt smooth and connected. My contact with irons and flush, center, good divot and there were some shots with a perfect trajectory and good distance and accuracy. I had confidence, driver was one (and longer), and my irons were accurate. Playing the par 5 on Estuary with driver, 8 iron layup, and a wedge to 10 feet was fun, getting a birdie was even better. Watching a smooth 6i fly with a perfect trajectory, feeling balance and hearing it hit the green and check up was a great feeling.

I was feeling like I had control out there. Even when bad shots happened, i could determine why and fix it on the next. That course management mattered and that I had a chance to par every hole. We started on 8 Estuary, but when we got back to 1, I went par,par,birdie, 3-putt bogey, par, basically even through 5 holes with 5 straight GIRs. That was fun. Hopefully I can keep this up and continue to work on my swing and get better. Really fun round today.

Scorecard

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Played Sarasota National – Venice, Fl (97)

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The Course

I’ve never played SN. It’s a fun course, wide open with some interesting holes, blind shots, water and Florida wasteland. Because the development never took off, this is one of the rare Florida courses where you feel as if you’re playing in the middle of nowhere. If you are on your game, you can score well here as the fairways are wide open and the greens are pretty fair. But as you can see from my score, you can also get into trouble. It was well maintained, but nothing spectacular by Florida standards. Greens were in great shape as were the tee boxes but the fairways were a bit spotty in places. I’d play it again, but only after playing other Sarasota courses.

My Round

Got in 18 with Chris which is always a good thing. My round was mixed. On the one hand, I was hitting some great irons and drives, but on the other was inconsistency and a bad short game. My 97 didn’t feel like a 97, but it was.

I had a 45 min lesson with Corey Pion before my round. I was hoping he could confirm I was on the right path. Setup was good, tempo was good, but we noticed I rushed the transition and hit fat shots. So he had me really focus on my backswing key of hitting my chin, then really bring the hands and arms down and focus on a low release. Watching him do it was key to my being able to see and feel the right move. That move was critical in my round at SN and my round at RS the next day. We also pushed my hands forward with my driver, dropped them slightly and focused on a square driver club face.

I hit some long and straight drives on the course, one tracked 275. I also flushed some irons with a really nice flight and subtle draw. It was fun to hit some good shots. But around the greens I was really poor. Chipping was spotty, putting the same. Had some unfortunate breaks out of the sand, but basically I need to work on chipping. I’ve been focusing on the full swing so much, it’s been neglected. Good to see some great progress with my game, I’ve put a lot of time into it,

Scorecard

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Played Legacy Fox Creek – Annual Thanksgiving Golf

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Played this little par 3 course with my brother Casey. I think this now qualifies as a tradition. Can’t beat playing golf the day before Thanksgiving.

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Played River Strand – Bradenton, FL (101)

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This 101 didn’t feel or look like a 101. I can say i successfully took the new, inside bumped and pumped swing to the course. The wind was howling, which honestly made it easier to not worry about the score and just focus on contact.

It was a blast to hit some shots today that I did. Hitting 6i with a little draw, 5i with a nice flight and long. 7i with great contact. I looked at a spot 160 yards out into the 20mph wind and knocked it exactly where I was aiming.

There were a couple fat and thin shots, but honestly, I’m completely happy with my round. Rally focused on staying grounded, new more upright posture, bumping the hip left to start the downswing and attacking from the inside. The contact, flight and distance was much better.

I took a Titleist 910D2 driver on the course to try out. What a club. We adjusted it in the pro shop back to neutral, with a slight draw, and took the loft from 8.5 to 9.25. That is quite a bit less loft and a stiffer shaft than my current driver. I hit some of the best drives ive ever hit on the back nine. Tracked shots were 20-25 yards longer.

Gotta keep hitting balls. Need more chipping and pitching practice and I just need time to build up distance and accuracy with the irons. Same with the driver. But wow, some amazing progress on the course today

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