GregB135

Here we go again! It's The Tampa Tour 2023 season. For all whove followed along the last couple of years in the 'middle of the pack' threads, last season was a bit of a disappointment. I didn't have any REALLY bad rounds, but I didn't manage to finish in the money either. This season, I'm hoping to rejoin Top 20 so I can qualify for the post season events. Between taking lessons, lots of practice time, and playing once a week or so, I haven't seen much improvement in my scoring. Which is more than a little frustrating. I'm playing decently enough from tee to green. I am not seeing as many penalties or wild misses as past years which is good. The extremely frustrating bit is in short game. I dedicate more practice time than most to putting, chipping, and pitching. Most days I walk away from the short game practice area generally pleased. But when I get out on the course, I can only describe my short game performance as 'good enough but not good'. I'm hoping that will strat to trend toward better as the season rolls on. We had a family event interfere with the season opener, so I've already missed one event on the calendar. I'm expecting to miss at lease one more, so I'll need to show well for most of my events. We've got some really good sites on the calendar this year with a couple of new venues that I'm really looking forward to. We will be at Champions Gate on the International course, as well as the Ritz Carlton Orlando. Some regular favorites are back in the rotation, like Juliette Falls and Southern Hills Plantation. Yes, I know, those are all quite a bit of a drive from Tampa, so the name "Tampa Tour" is more descriptive of where everyone lives rather than where we play most of our events. This season has two planned excursions up to the Jaxonville area, but I'm not sure a full field of 36-44 players will make that drive twice. My opening event will be next weekend at Lake Jovita's South course. It's a course we play almost every year, so I know the layout and game plan. It should be a comfortable place for me to get started and hopefully post a good score so I'm not playing catch up for the remainder of the season. Cheers Spies and wish me luck. Hope you enjoy reading along.

Chiming in late here, but many have made comments that fall into this thought trail. The RTJ RECOMMENDED tees are based on statistical averages. The statistical majority of golfers with handicaps of 5 or lower, tend to have longer average driving distance and it would be fair to suggest they play the longer tees. (Relax statisticians, were talking generics here so hold off on your means, averages, standard deviations and slopes and such). But, realistically, if you are a 5 handicap with an average drive of 230, you are living under the flat part of the 5 handicap bell curve. Likewise, a 20 handicap golfer with a driving average of 260+ is under the flat part of their driving bell curve. I also think too many golfers have yet to break the mental paradigm of asigning labels to the tee boxes like Men's, Ladies, Seniors, Juniors or whatever. We all have a total yardage that suits our game. Select the tee box that fits your game best and discard the labels and who cares about color?. For me, I'm really comfortable in the 6200 to 6500 total yardage range. Shorter than that takes the long clubs out of play too often and reduces the challenge factor that I (claim to) enjoy. Longer than that and it's too many long approach shots to realistically expect to score.

Thanks!

Thank you!! Thanks!

Spent a good amount of time in the Trackman sim bay with my coach this afternoon. Working on a lot of the same thoughts as the last session. After two long days of practice, I'm whooped....

Been working on staying extended in the follow through to reduce my hook tendency. Coach has me trying to keep my legs longer/straighter at setup focusing more on hinging at the hips with only a slight bend in the knees. Yesterday's practice started with a bit of putting. Not drills, just making putts. I scattered six balls around the practice green from 9 to about 25 feet. Did that a couple of times with about a 33% make rate and no three putts so I moved on to chipping and pitching. Again, more making shots that drill work. Chipped to a 20 yard target for a while, with most finishing within 9 feet. Then I hit some random pitch shots working out to about 40 yards. I ended that on a 35 yard hole out. Moved on to full swing after that. Only had about 10 minutes to use before they closed the range. Focus was on the setup key and keeping legs straighter/longer. In the swing, I was focusing on really feeling the pressure of the handle on the middle and ring fingers of my trail hand through the ball. End result was positive. I was seeing a nice 6-8 yard draw with the miss being a mostly straight push using 7 iron. Also got in a few really well struck drivers that had similar flight - high with a bit of draw and a straight push miss. Now if that would just follow me to the course next time....

Last round was a very average 43/43-86. Only 3 GIR but still managed 8 pars with decent putting.

Nope... White pants are for the tour pros and those who can afford the cleaning bill Besides, my league has an unwritten rule that you can't wear a white belt unless your cap is lower than 3

Enjoy the round and the weekend fellas!

The club path of 1 degree in to out is good (if that's the average). Same with the club speed/ball speed. With 108 and 155, an avg smash factor (ball speed divided by club speed) above 1.4 means you're making good strikes. The descending attack angle is killing distance and magnifying spin. Working to get at least a shallower and eventually upward attack angle with the dirver will improve launch angle and should reduce spin.

I still have my set of PTx Pros. Loved the feel of them, then I just couldn't swing the shafts any more with consistency. Maybe I'll get them re-shafted and see what I get.

I chose the ForgedTex X to keep it in the same performance range as my current set. The lofts of the 5-GW are similar to my current 4-PW set, and fill a gap I see now between PW and my lowest loft wedge (50/GW). I have played forged irons in the past, Mizuno JPX 850 and Ben Hogan PTX, and really loved the feel of those irons. Combining that with the forgiveness factor of the hollow body design of the ForgedTec X seems like the sweet spot for what I need from irons. I'm confident enough to occaisionally try to work the ball so I want to stay out of the full on GI category, but I'm not so consistent with my swing I can go all the way to a players iron or MB kind of setup. Greg in Tampa Florida Currently playing Titleist T200 - Side note. Another reason I entered this contest was the recent negative experience dealing with Titleist. Origial set was blended T300 4I/5I, with T200 6I-PW. Played that set for about a year, and never developed comfort with the 4/5 like I had the rest of the set. Ordered T200 4/5 iron through my fitter (a Titleist affiliated rep) last September. Lots of delays attributed to shafts, so realizing I had the proper shafts, changed the order to just the club heads. Three months ago they said that would be about two weeks. The club heads finally arrived this week (only 10 1/2 months after the initial order). Here's a chance for Cobra to step up to the customer service window and beat the competition. 12 Handicap Always willing to participate in the discussion forums. The increased interaction in my last test oppurtunity was great. It made me feel more involved communicating with the other testers and forum members as we progressed toward final reviews.

After the 2-day, and some frustrating practice, I went to the swing coach. He put me through a nice little sequencing drill to get my hip turn, shoulder turn synched up, and it was like taking the red pill. We finished the lesson session, and there was time to play som sim golf. I chose the Innisbrook Copperhead course since it is simlar to the course we would play next. Staying focused on the drill work, I went around 18 holes at a net -1. Things felt dialed in on the second nine, so I queued the course up again, and made it around the front nine at net -4. And I left feeling really comfortable with the change, and confident for Saturday. Saturday at Southern Hills Plantation was the great round that could have been. I played 12 holes of really great golf. Made the turn at 40, and parred the first two holes on the back nine. Sometimes it's funny (not really) how one shot can affect a round. I hit a perfect tee shot off the par 5 13th. Then hit a good layup just off the fairway at about 110 yards. I thought I made a decent swing, but didn't really commit to the new move... AAAND.. shanked my wedge across the fariway and gave myself an awkward stance at the edge of a bunker. Put what felt like a good 75 yard swing, on a 78 yard shot but pulled it a little, it carried a little long, hit the back slope of the green and bounced into a penalty area. Chip and two putts, and I had my big number for the day, a triple bogey. That got in my head and had me rattled for the next two holes and I had another two big misses. Throw in one bad luck bounce, and one bunker with extra firm sand, and I had a string of double bogeys on the back nine to card 87 for another middle of the pack finish. Lots of positives to take from this round though. 10/14 fairways with both driver and 3 wood and only 1 big tee shot miss. A bunch of quality iron shots - one for a par 3 CTP and another two or three really good birdie looks (none converted sadly) It was really difficult to get back in the groove after that run, but at least I got a big order of simple reminders from Vice (we discussed this earlier)

SO, the two-day event was last weekend at Bay Hill. We had a great time, but golf-wise for me, it was a whole weekend of, meh. Saturday's round was okay, but it took me a while to get going. Blew up on the 6th hole with two penalty balls off the tee. From there, every time I got something going, I'd throw in a penalty stroke (5 total of those during the round). Then I got on a run early in the back nine, played my best tee-to-green hole of the day, and with a 7 foot birdie putt on the 15th green, the thunderstorms hit and we had to leave the course. (Bay HIll takes that seriously and sends rangers out to retrieve everyone). Sunday wasn't much better. I never really got the swing back in the same groove, though I did birdie the first hole (our tenth). Another round with 5 penalties, and another double penalty day on the 6th meant I wasn't destined for great things for the weekend. We did go back and complete the Saturday round after finishing in the morning. Replaying the 15th to bogey made me reconsider not finishing the hole in the downpour on Saturday when we had the chance. Totals for the weekend 91 and 95. Not great scores, but apparently I wasn't the only one to struggle, as that finished me middle of the pack (T11 of 38).

Four years (four winters according to SWMBO) at Grand Forks AFB. Still refer to North Dakota as 'the only state with a middle name'.