Tyk

Played my last match of the year in our final event. Played a worthy opponent who had to give me 1 stroke. I made some very big putts to keep myself in the match but still found myself 4 down on 14's tee box. Proceeded to win the next four to be 1 up going into 18, which he birdied to 1/2 the match. I'm at the same time disappointed that I wasn't able to steal the W, but happy that I didn't give up and was able to dig myself out of a pretty deep hole!

Had our two day club championship last weekend. I gutted out a 79 on the first day after starting out 5 over on the first 3 holes, was 7 back on the scratch side, but in the hunt on the handicap side. Then proceeded to absolutely blow up and play my worst round of golf of the year on Sunday. 4 putted the first hole, tripled the second, then lost 3 balls on the back nine! WTF, I HATE THIS GAME!

Very interested Boz! If I win (or even if I don't) I need to get some balls and gloves from you. Your gloves are the best hot weather gloves I've ever had, and I have yet to wear one out completely!

Balevenie is my favorite, their port barrel aged 12 year is exquisite! A friend brought me an unchill filtered caol isla from the distillery in scotland that was incredible!

Well, the wheels fell off in a most horrible fashion yesterday. Was playing in a 4-ball cup match on a course I know well and have scored on before. Played TERRIBLE. I went through my first sleeve of balls in 6 holes and didn't find my first par until 8. My partner was playing well and our opponents were playing badly so we were bouncing around between 1 and 2 up, I was just trying to stay out of my partners way and find SOMETHING. I parred 10 and birdied 11, I figured things were turning around. My partner was faltering a bit, probably from all the weight on his back from carrying around a guy with a 4 stroke better handicap than himself. We go into 17 1 up, a long par 4 uphill and into the wind. I hit a decent tee ball, just off the fairway. Hit a bad 2nd to just short of the green, chip to about 12 feet and hit a terrible put to about 2' short. Amazingly, I have a bogey putt to tie. Which I promptly yank and miss the hole by 2" left. So, we're even going into 18 and they have the box. First guy yanks his left into heavy gunch, 2nd guy hits his wide right, possibly out of bounds. My partner and I hit ours within 15' of each other just off the fairway in the right rough. We spot our balls and go over to help them find the guy on the left, they found him before we got there, we pull back to our balls and my partner gets out and looks at the shorter ball and checks the distance declares that we're 215 to center, says "I know what I've gotta hit", pulls his hybrid and then goes over to the right to search for our opponent's ball, which he finds about 25 yards up. In the meantime, guy on the left has skanked one leaving it in the gunch, then chopped another one out into the fairway. My partner is standing by the ball on the right to show them where it is and I decide that since we are both out, I might as well hit. So I got to the deeper ball and hit it (poorly, but was near the green). My partner walks back and as he's addressing his ball stops, looks down and says the worst words I've ever heard on a golf course. "This is a Taylor Made!" It was MY BALL!! I felt like I'd been punched in the gut and a day later STILL can't believe it. Play like ass all damn day, somehow my partner manages to carry me around the course and I not only miss a two footer to lose the lead but then hit the wrong ball to lose the match! I freaking hate this game right now.

I'm so off right now, just can't get things to flow at all! Only silver lining is that my best rounds of the year have happened in competition and I have another competitive round Thurs. I can find my swing on the range, just can't get it to the course!

Played in a KC Cup match yesterday and felt good to win again. My game was pretty sketchy, especially early but my partner carried me for the first 6 holes and then I decided to play a bit and helped close them out, had them dormy on 14 and finished them on 15. I had some very odd severe blocks to the right with the driver, it happened 3 times yesterday, it was almost like a driver shank but with really good contact, one of them was WAY right, the others stayed in play, not sure what all that is about but I wouldn't be upset if it just goes away without further investigation!

Thanks for stopping in Boz! I keep thinking I need to get some new Visions!

I was actually trying to pull the grip off the club in the middle of the round, having decided that I would rather putt with no grip! That is after hitting the green in two on two par 5's and walking away with a double bogey and a bogey, inside of 30 feet on both! While direction with the SS was poor, distance control was the worst thing. I'd run a 10' putt past the hole 15', or leave it 3' short. Never had a clue what it was going to do! I'm not a huge club thrower, but that thing flat out broke me mentally. I don't know what I was thinking putting it on there to begin with. I have never really had big putting issues. I just thought I might like it. I knew I didn't like the fat ones, but I do like the super slim (that is what is on my SeeMore). Figured the Mid Slim might be even better. I guess my tinkering got me in trouble this time! Congrats again on your good round! Doesn't matter what the length is, 66 is good playing!

WOW Rick! That is PHENOMENAL! Congratulations! Gave up on the SuperStroke 2.0 grip after last Sunday's round. That thing was going to drive me to violence or at least alcoholism! Never had a clue what direction that thing was going and the distance was worse! I got the point where I was pissed off about missing the putt BEFORE I even hit the putt! Absolutely terrible. So while I wait to get the STX Envision putter fixed from a bounce off a cart path that was about 40 yards away (so I dropped it, oops) I put the SeeMore back in the bag. Me and it have had a bit of a hot and cold relationship, but compared to the psychosis of the SuperStroke 2.0, it was heaven! Three putted once yesterday, unfortunately at a poor time for the bets, but isn't it always? Hit the driver really well, but the irons weren't quite there, had to bail after 16 holes but was probably heading for an 83 or so. Still some work to do but it's coming!

FINALLY saw some things fall into place yesterday! Been struggling quite a bit of late, posted an 87 in our first tournament of the year last week, then followed that up with an 88! As horrible as that seems (relatively, of course), it wasn't like things were a total wreck. Nothing was great, but nothing was terrible either. I'd hit some really good shots, then butcher them with a bad one, or finally hit fairway and green, then 3 jack! But I kept hitting enough good shots that I knew the swing was percolating somewhere in there! Anyhow, yesterday was our first team Cup Match of the year, an away match on a tough private club I'd only played once before. I typically play handicap 4 ball and I was pretty leery about even being on the roster given how I'd been playing. I just kept telling myself the swing was in there trying to get out! At any rate, I played and it pretty much all came together yesterday! Other than a couple big misses with the driver I drove the ball beautifully, and the iron game was really, really good! I was even through 13 then took a couple doubles coming down the home stretch that I might or might not have ended up with had it not been for where the match was at. Sometimes in match play you just have to try something stupid! Anyhow, carded a 77 and left an easy 3-4 strokes on the course. We ended up losing the match 1-down but it was a tight match, 4 lead changes through the round and no one was ever more than 1 up or down. It's just so great to finally feel it coming together after a slump that goes back to last fall!

Well, I played again Friday, started out great, was one over through the front 9 and just playing a very steady game, little trouble, an eagle putt that didn't fall, and a couple nice saves from the trouble I did find. Was feeling pretty damn good about things going into 10. Proceeded to pull my tee ball way left right on the tree line, went double, double, triple . . .and shot a 51 on the back!!! WTF?! All I can come up with is I used a red tee on the 10th tee box. I have no idea how it even got into my pocket! I noticed it as I teed the ball up and almost switched it out but thought "oh don't be stupid, just hit it!". I hope the golf gods forgive me!

I got out yesterday, first round with the new Fuji MCI shafts! Was really, REALLY happy with them. I'd been playing Rifle 6.0's in new (to me) Mizzy MP-58 heads. It was a massive struggle but I was never sure if it was the heads, the shafts, recovering from being sick last winter, or just winter golf. Shot a 77 yesterday with nothing worse than bogey. My ball flight is back, I hadn't seen my little baby draw in MONTHS! Fired several mid iron straight at the pin, still have a bit of distancing to figure out but that will come. The Mizzys seem a bit shorter than my Clevelands, moreso even than the 1* of loft difference should account for. I think I'm still a bit rusty. As the round went on I started to feel myself loosen up a bit and some feeling was coming back into the swing. DON'T THINK, JUST SWING! The short game was really good though. Had several challenging chips and pitches that I pulled of very well. Didn't make many putts but only 3 jacked once. Really looking forward to the season. 77 for my first postable round is a good sign!