jaxbeachpackerfan

Played today in another breezy, but low 80's sunny, day on the Valley at Sawgrass. Shot a 91, but a nasty one triple, four double bogey 6 hole stretch right in the middle derailed an otherwise decent round. A brief two hole appearance of my old bugaboo, hard left off the tee, caused the triple and one double, two consecutive holes where I inexplicably chunked mid-irons out of the fairway caused two doubles and the last was just a bad break where my layup ran off the fairway and buried deep in the rough in a swale just off the fairway. Righted myself and had two pars over the last four holes. Almost birdied the last hole, but pulled the come backer just ever so slightly for a three-putt bogey (it was a very tough pin position). One over par on the par 3's today. That makes 9 out of my last 10 rounds have been between 86 and 91. Never have been that consistent in my scoring before, now just have to move the scores lower a notch.

Also played in high, gusty winds today, but other than that it was beautiful! Shot an 88, meaning that 5 of my last 6 rounds have been between 87 and 89! Guess I'm playing to my 17 handicap, huh?, although with the percentage adjustment, it should start inching down soon I would imagine. Short game was better today than last round (the 49/38 I wrote about above), but still had 3 three putts (two of the 3 putts, however, were from 'hammer the 1st putt' distance from the hole). Long game was a bit inconsistent. Had one birdie and four double's. No triples for a change. Tried something today after I ballooned the driver on the first of several holes heading direct into the wind. Since I can hit a low trajectory shot with my Rblz 3+ Tour spoon a lot easier than with my driver, on the next hole (Valley #17, a par 5 for the members), I teed the 3+ low and pounded a low draw down the right side of the fairway. Into a strong wind, it just bored through and then rolled and rolled, ending up left side fairway, 235 from the pin, well beyond the drives of two of the other guys who hit drivers and are about the same length or a bit longer than me normally off the tee. Ended up 3 putt bogeying the hole, but the tee shot was a whole lot better than I was expecting into that wind (particularly after the banana ball I hit on the prior hole trying to compensate for the wind (e.g., change my swing (I know, a no-no)). So I tried the 3+ on the next two hole with pretty good results into the wind. When the course reversed (we started on #10 today), however, it sure was a pleasure just launching the driver into the jet stream and watching the ball head toward previously virgin fairway turf from off the tee (Driver, 3/4 pitching wedge instead of the usual 6 or 7 iron on the last hole!). Did get in a little short game practice (and read a couple of tips in golf digest), so the chipping and putting was much more acceptable. Fun day and when all the games and skins were totaled up, won $4.

Had quite a round yesterday on Dye's Valley course at TPC Sawgrass. Shot a 49-38! Short game was absolutely horrible. Looking at chipping and putting alone, if I had hit only average chips and putts on several holes, my score would have been 44-35. I only hit 4 full shots all day that weren't at least average +, and none after the 6th hole. But three 3-putts, three chunked chips and two other up and down in three from the fringe cost me a very nice round. The 38 included two of the three putts and two of the chunked chips. Haven't practiced the short game in over two months and its starting to catch up to me. I'm off to the excellent practice facilities at Sawgrass tomorrow to work on this. I kick myself all the time for not taking advantage of the Sawgrass facilities, but the bad back saps my motivation many days. BTW, absolutely loving the RBZ Driver--way, way longer than my old R-7! I used to be about as long as Ross, about 10 yards shorter than John and a significant cart ride shorter than Art. Now I'm way longer than Ross, about 5-10 yards longer than John and now in the same general area as Art, and actually outdrive him 2-4 times a round.