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Finally back in the 70s

Played in a work-related golf tourament this weekend at the Legacy, and shot a 79. I haven't shot in the 70s for well over a year now, the closest I've come being an 80 at Francisco Grande earlier this year. Still, the 79 included a triple bogey and a quadruple bogey on the card, so really I played a bit better than the score indicates. The triple was a combination of several mistakes - it was a short 330yd par 4, with a trap that I can usually carry with my driver that's about 270 out. The wind was in my face when I was up, I didn't consider it, and I landed in the trap. Hit a poor shot out, a poor approach, and a 3-putt from 12 feet that gave me a 7 on the hole.

The quad was almost funny it was so bad. I don't know what happened on my drive exactly, but despite hitting my driver really well all day up to that point, I stuffed it into the desert 30 yards off the tee box on a par 5. At this point I should have just taken a drop, but for some reason I thought I could hit it out. I ended up hitting the tire on our golf cart, then the ball came back and lodged itself in a bush. So I got the penalty stroke for hitting the cart and the stroke for having to take an unplayable lie, meaning I was barely off the tee hitting 5, great. Hit my next shot solid but pulled, found it in the desert and had a good lie but was behind a tree, so I had to pitch out. Finally made it on in 7, and two-putted for a 9. >:-o. Ugh.

Other than that though, I played pretty well. I hit a lot of solid drives, and hit 10 greens in regulation (last few rounds for me have been more like 4-6). I even made some putts of decent length! Up until now, I've never really felt like I had a shot at making anything longer than 6-8 feet. Yesterday I made a few putts in that range for birdie or par, and a couple in the 10-20 foot range as well.

I feel like I learned a lot from a book I picked up at another golfer's suggestion, Golf is a Game of Confidence. I was able to apply quite a few of the points in the book to my game, and they seemed to help me. Here are some of them, paraphrased.

• Pick out a small specific target, rather than a broad general target. Visualize the ball going there. I especially made a point of doing this on the tee, and I hit a lot more shots right where I wanted to than usual. It also helped me displace other potentially bad thoughts, related to the next point.
• Forget about swing mechanics while actually swinging. I was surprised that I was able to do this for almost the entire round, except for a couple shots (and those shots didn't turn out too well). Visualizing the shot, watching myself hit it in my mind, and knowing I could hit it didn't leave room for thoughts like "swing from the inside" or "turn the club over." Unfortunately, I think there are still a couple instances where thinking about mechanics can help me, namely the unique shots that I rarely encounter, such as hitting out of a fairway bunker. It's different enough from a normal shot that I have to remind myself how to do it. In general though, I liked his analogy in the book to a driver learning to use a manual transmission. Someone that's new thinks about the process and generally isn't smooth, but somebody that has been doing it a while doesn't think about it at all, just does it. In the same way, I already know how to swing, and I shouldn't mess with stuff by thinking about it. :-P
• Swing "freely" with your putter, don't try to guide the ball. The first couple holes, my swing thought while putting was simply "swing free," but after the 3-putt from 12 feet on the 3rd hole, it because "free, not careless." For the most part, I was getting a large number of my first putts within tap-in range, which is a good improvement for me. I made more longer putts as well. I stopped thinking about the line I want the putter to take, I just picked out a specific spot on the green where I wanted the ball to start, had the "free, not careless" though, and hit the putt.

There were a few more, but that was most of it. Whenever I missed the green, I told myself that I know I can get up and down in two, because I have a good short game (as untrue as that may be some times!). Somehow that worked! I got up and down quite a few times, including twice out of the sand. The second time was on the 18th hole, a 490-yard par 5. I hit a great tee shot, the kind where you hit it and just pick up the tee, because you know it's long and down the middle. I was left with 165 to the center, but pushed my iron right into the sand. Hit my sand shot to 4 feet, and made my birdie putt for the 79, which I didn't know at the time thankfully.

Finally, I managed to win one of the closest to the pin contests with a shot that was maybe 8 feet from the hole. I can only imagine that nobody hit it closer because it was a bit windy in the morning, because I figured there was no way it would stand up. ;-)