Golf 7-21

Score: 109

I'm not going to go through a description of each hole this week because I'm a) lazy enough that going out to the car to get the scorecard seems like rather a lot of bother, and b) I'm more interested in developing a writing style that isn't quite so rigid in its execution.

I went into today's round with a plan. A plan that I knew resembeled Bush's strategery and planning-ness for leaving Iraq in a timely manner. Thankfully I'm only in charge of where I send little white balls, not people. The plan was to try to hit a fade as often as possible, potentially on every shot. This was born from a desire to start elevating my game by requiring more thought on the range, more thought on the course, and, hopefully, a more repeatable swing.

I started developing this plan last night at the driving range. It worked better than I really ought to have expected, given that I was trying to do this with no coaching, no one watching my swing, and just a vague idea of how I could try to mold my approach into something that didn't flit and dart around like a 13 year old boy trying to look at as many boobies as possible. In retrospect, I probably should have stopped sooner than I did last night; the last 10 to 15 balls that I hit were more slices than fades, and I didn't feel all that secure in the rhythym of the shot, a (lack of) feeling that caused me some uncertainty today, along with the end result of slicing all but two of my drives on the back nine.

The current crowning glory of the change came on the third hole today. The drive was a tad bit further right than I'd really want, ending up just off the fairway in the first cut of rough. The second shot, also a fade, was hit from ~250 with my 5-wood and stopped about 20 yards short of the green. The other times, pre-plan, that I've hit good drives, I usually take a 4-iron into my hand and proceed to repeatedly slam the clubface into my foot. At least that's what it feels like. Anyway. I hit the chip to within about 15 feet (not good) and two putted for par.

On the fifth hole, I managed to place a bit of a gemstone in that crowning glory, where I made a par on the hole rated as the second hardest on the course. The tee shot went right and nestled itself just to the left of and behind a little sapling. The green on this hole is guarded by a tree short and right, so I figured I was pretty well up-creek-sans-paddle. Instead of wallowing around in self pity like I'd normally do, I grabbed my 9-iron and implemented the Plan. I managed to work the ball around the tree in front of me and didn't get caught up in the tree in front of the green. A very nice chip stopped a couple feet from the hole and I knocked in the par putt. Take that hole!