Swing has much room to improve
I kind of know how Padraig Harrington has felt this year.
Things are coming along with his swing change, but just not as fast as everyone expects them to.
From about the midway point of our summer tour of South Coast golf courses, I’ve been trying to find a way to be more consistent off the tee with better distance.
It’s coming along slowly. Painfully slowly.
I’ve tried the 5-wood, my 2-iron and even a driving iron I purchased about five years ago. All with limited success.
Very limited.
I even tried the driver on one hole at Ocean Dunes and decided that its rightful place was back in my bag for the sake of our forests and wildlife alike.
Two or three times a round I mangle a tee shot – usually on the longest of par 5s – and then have to get out the machete to hack my way into the shrubbery to find my golf ball. This makes for some very long and very ugly second and third shots.
To try and correct this problem, John and I have spent a little more time at the driving ranges recently before our rounds, but I can only get so much out of hitting 20 balls with each club.
I just wish I’d started earlier, because I’ve been waiting all summer to play Bandon Crossings.
I had played Crossings twice before and it was my favorite course before the summer started – and it still is. It’s a very challenging, but fair course. I love the layout, and at this time of year each hole is a sea of emerald green surrounded by drying fescues. And because it’s on the east side of U.S. Highway 101, you don’t have the same wind that you can get up at the Resort.
I just wish I had played a little better. My problems off the tee were only part of the reason I shot 113 on Wednesday afternoon. My chipping was off line (normally a stronger part of my game) and I don’t think I made a putt of more than five feet until the 16th hole.
And let’s not talk about the par 3s. OK, let’s. Scoring 5, 6, 6, 7 and 5 doesn’t help the scorecard any. I understand not hitting the green on No. 6, which measures 210 yards, but I couldn’t even find the green on that cute little 130-yarder over the ravine on No. 17.
It was that kind of day. I didn’t have anything below a 5 on my scorecard, but I only had one hole over 7 – a 9 I took on No. 13, a 495-yarder that I butchered the tee shot on.
While overall I still feel like my game is improving, I know that finding the fairway off the tee consistently is crucial to lowering my scores.
Now I’ve just got to find some more practice time … I wonder if Hank Haney is done with Charles Barkley yet?
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