DrMJG

I must be doing something right. 20 dutiful driver events were such that , I almost dare say, I may know what I a doing; at least, for thisweek I do. It is amazing how much not forcing a club and not over-swinging often gets me far better results. My speeds today were some f the best in terms of consisItency. Distance was solid, 200+ yards with god following role. I had only one push right. I was a but upset at first, but then came to understand, if that were a drive at the course scheduled next, it would have probably ended up in the second cut of rough at worst! Heck, I have seen many a pro do that as well. Except for that miscreant whack, I somehow got, primarily, a nice draw. Now, I cannot state all was glorious today. While my 6i was good with only one rather than shot, my 3h was lacking both loft and distance. I need to spend either time mastering my 3h, or seriously take a look the value of this particular club. (My coach had suggested that the Karsten 3hdesign might be the reason as it does not, in most respects, match design of my other bride. When we next meet, I will try out a 3h at the G400 line)

The day I hoped for yesterday. Early AM to get in 25 driver drives. Average speed was some of my best, 110 Without adding extra yardage for the stiff range balls, I was about 205. No arm of hand tension, good turning of hips and follow through. No fat or thin shots, a few pushes, but nothing gawd awful. Now to figure out how to take all this off the range so I can win friends and influence people.

Anyone else ever have a day like this? I had a limited time to work as I was on my way to an appointment. Plan was to hit 15, or, even a few more, whacks with the mighty driver before meeting my doctor for a fairly short bit of follow-up. My range allows you to use a pre-purchased card to activate the ball set up about 90 minutes before they open. So it was time to go. I felt forced to leave, as I could not put up with a loud, irreverent and even profoundly profane group of young gentlemen (using the term quite loosely) of, I surmised, high school age, who decided to utilize far too much foul language and invectives. I was fairly sure of their age, as I taught HS for 47 years. They actually were screwing around in the parking lot and did not even pretend to practice; I suspect they did not have the card which allows the machines to work in the hour and a half before the range opens. Total time they were driving through the lot was perhaps 10 minutes tops. After I think I hit 7 or 8 shots or so, it became clear it was time to leave, as I could not concentrate at all. I was not even sure they fully saw me. So it was a morning dealing with "those types". Ok, I am an old geezer, but it was not fun. I do not blame the course as it was the actions of some, shall we say, idiots. As I was packing up and changing my shoes, they left. By then time was a factor for me. I am just venting as I have been substituting for 6th grade classes this week and the behavior level I saw this week was about the same level. Perhaps the golf gods found a off the wall way to tell me that I need to take a deep breath, relax, and have a focused practice tomorrow. Thus ends the sermon from your favorite curmudgeon!

I took the day to work slowly with the three wedges. After physical warm-ups, I got ready by some short gentle swings using my 50º with my feet together. This allowed me to concentrate a bit more on the rest of the swing motion. When the time came to begin the smacking of the spheres, I was nice and loose. All the wedges performed well. I may not have gotten all the distance expected, but they were close. Direction was better, even though I still tend to finish a bit to the right. For the longer wedge shots, using my 50º, I was keeping it well into the 100 yard target areas. I made sure to keep my swing active yet not over powering as to loose a lot in total. I then tried a few gentler partial swing for shots between 50 and75 yards. Mostly good though I did hit a very ugly thin shot. 54º was good, though I still "over ran" a few beyond where I hoped they would have stopped. 60º was the best overall as to what I tried to do. I am saving the sand trap shots for this weekend when slightly cooler weather will be upon us.

After 10 or so minutes with driver, 3h. and 6i, I was off to a quick 9 hole before Satan arrived to heat things up. Hit a fair 45, with 4 strokes due to penalty (OB and a splasher) and a rather comical sand trap event. My true amateur nature came through on that one! 16 putts, 5 FIR, 3 GIR. Average with the driver was 200+, hybrids played well. Big take away is that I rushed myself the last few holes to finish before the furnace kicked in. Last time I played this 9 I shot a 52, so I went to obtain more coffee with a smile

Again, up early to avoid the full on heat. I went to a course today which has a great practice green and a practice sand trap. I started out with 15 putts toward the same hole from 2', 5', and 10' 2' were good even with a very slight right handed break. All 5 were well dropped into the gopher hole. 5' were a little more iffy as the break from the right side came a bit more into play. Despite getting the five in, the first two were iffy when it came to finding the proper speed. One slowly rolled around while the second one was hit a tad too hard and dropped in a bit by luck, Adjustments were made and the other three were fine. Only 2 of the 10' dropped in. Again, speed messed up the approach to the break and the first two were way hit too fast. Third was good and I was happy as speed seemed solid throughout. #4 stopped 2" short, which I would have felt good about in a round, but in this game was a miss. The last one was what I would like all longer putts to be. I took 10 shots out of the trap, only working with the 54º to get some mastery of both lofting and aim. While this is still a real work in progress, my use of vulgarities in the many languages I know was not toobad.

Based on yesterday's finding every sand trap I could, today I spent a quick 40 minutes at the sand trap works with both my 54º and 60º wedges. I played from soft shallow sand to up tight with deep sand near a lip that guards the tree. Took about 25 sand shots. I mainly wanted to see which wedge when. Got a lot of good data. Tomorrow will be more of the same to improve my knowledge for traps. I think I could have readily saved quite a few shots yesterday. I will be playing that course again soon. I have to be honest, I have not spent enough tie on this aspect of my game!.

Time to get away from the range! Early to rise round today, I hit the first tee at 6:19 AM. I did consume large amounts of coffee first! This was my first full round in over three weeks. I overcame a fairly. strong muscle pull that took weeks to settle down and, in terms of my golf, a fully new approach to my 6i, as I bored many of you with too much detail! Course is rated 65/105, 5300 yards played from the senior tees. Par is 72 My HCP remains a 18. This course has a bit of lack of forgiveness due to the fairly narrow width of its fairways. 25% were FIR but I hit 3 OB off of drives. I should have add this to make it clear. OBs are tight on this course and none was out by more than 1 foot. So OB. but not lost, only lost shots on the card. I play a red ball so readily seen in the primarily dirt OB. Damned "lucky" I know. One hit a tree and almost came back in. I readily could have been dishonest and played the OB with am sneaky foot wedge and pretended they were not OB; but I play too damned honest of a game. All 3 were significantly longer than "hitting 3". All 3 went out left and were the result of my poorly aimed feet. I landed in sand on 6 holes, mainly from not playing the course well in terms of planning. I could have gone for a lay up on 4 of them by playing a different club. The remaining shots did well and made for easy carry to green or near green. I thought I chose a correct lay up approach on the "lay it up" shots, only to have a different carry than I expected. Putting made up for less than wonderful results getting to the green. 32 total with 6 one putts, 2 three putts (with both including a rim out), and the rest 2 Putts. 32 putts in total and this included a high for me in 1 putts. I tried my best not to force my play by over hitting the clubs. In that area, it felt good. But I did not "play" the course very well, especially on the two most pronounced dog legs, and there was a bit of marching in my round ("left, right, left, right"). All in all my 94 fit good after my lay off. I finished the round before the temp hit 90º and, I played the round using the same ball, first time this year. I did hit a ball into the water by about 1/4" but I played it out of the wet and almost greened it from 160 yards out! That was my best, or best unexpected shot, of the day.

Tonight a nice light amber home brewed Weißbier, ABV 5%. Consuming a full liter.

Early morning rise to simply go through the bag, 6 shots each club. It is now time to put it all together. With the exception of the 3h and 50º, I was quite happy. Most were fairly on line, with more than acceptable loft and acceptable distance. The 3h was the major exception in that 2 of the 6 were hit thin. I did have really nice shots for the last 3, so I finished on a happy note. The 50º was great in distance and loft, but I still tend to hit it too much to the left. Even allowing for this was not really what I wanted. Perhaps I need to spend 5 days isolating this club as I did with the 6i. Lined up a round for tomorrow, will see how much I am ready to go at my 6:20 AM tee time!.

16 points as noting major changed I hold 12 clubs in the bag for playing at this time Irons, only change was replacing an iron that somehow went disappearing from the bag, replaced with same club. No changes on driver, 3 wood, wedges or putter. (will replace Driver for a Ping 410 as son as budget allows) Ball, same company but a newer version, Bridgestone e6 soft to e12 soft Glove, went through a replacement of same gloves two times this year. Shoes, will replace end of the year with same brand.

Still on the 5h, 6i, 7i focus Today I played a bit of a game: shot with 5h followed by a shot with either the 7i or 6i. Goal was to hit a total yard score and in the direction I was aimed at. For example, I aimed at a green 275 yards out. Depending on how well the 5h shot went, I would choose either of the irons to finish up. Intent was to be on the green OR leave myself a very playable chip. Sometimes I was really happy and a few times invectives may have passed my lips. Even the heat did not bother me.

Now that I have moved forward with my 6i, it was time to expand beyond it. In today's practice I moved up to 21 strokes to allow 7 each with my 5h, 6i, and 7i in order to begin to solidify the mid section of my bag. First the 6i, and it felt very good, with a bit more loft than yesterday but no loss in range or direction. I next moved down to the 5h, which has been OK of late, but without the loft I would like. Loft was acceptable at best but at least direction and distance, for the most part, were what I expected. The aspect I noticed on first review of the video was that I was closing down the angle of attack. I will focus on that over the next few days. 7i was good. I was only 8-10 yards off of what I am now getting with the 6i, but the loft was what I liked today. It allows me to keep the ball from overly long rolls after the landing. I want someroll, but need to work on controlling it as much as I can to avoid hitting too far beyond the target. As this was the first day on this next phase of my playing my bag of weapons, I will mark the direction of my work after more study of the film.

Day 399 As with yesterday, 20 shots with the 6i. When I try not to blast the shot, my results are really better. I have had good ball speeds, for me, consistently in the upper 90's. Distances today were averaging 160 and direction was fairly good, with one not too bad hook. By saying "not blasting", I mean not trying to add more raw force and sheer muscle to my actions. I also accept that the numbers above as what will be my normal full shot for the club. Yes, many get greater distances but for me, an older duffer, having a very consistent result allows me plan for when and how I am using the club. Tomorrow will be the end of the "make the 6i usable" and this weekend, I will be having the club joined by one in each direction: my 5h and 7i. And, if I can find a cooler morning, I will take it to the course. To my readers, thanks for putting up with this project!

Day 6 of the 6i Rebuild! Today was a learning day. After my usual pattern of physical warm-ups, it was on to fuller and fuller shots. I decided today's target was my usual "fairway" at the range. A 20 yard wide area that goes from my hitting area directly back 285 to the fence. I know anything I hit there will be an acceptable shot. As well, I can adjust my target either left or right and shoot towards a free, 140 to the left and 160 to the right. But today I was working on finally adding some distance to the 6i. I did not start off hitting for distance. It was for direction and loft. Started off fine, but I ended up will a pull when I started adding for more distance. Ok, I went back to a slower swing, and direction got better. I now know I was so focused on how far, I ended up over hitting the ball by trying to gain too much speed. SO... tomorrow I need to take a step or two back to regain control.

And, on it goes... Day 5 of the focus on the 6i Today, after warm-up, I took all of the shots as somewhat gentle yet full swings, mainly to keep comfortable with all of the aspects the swing, from address and aim through follow-through. None were topped and for the most part they went in the direction aimed. I hit two worm burners with no loft. Sat down and went through the process, good loft after that. It did feel far more comfortable and, for lack of another word, normal. Tomorrow, I will speed up the down swing and go for more distances.

Day 4 for My 6i Redux I took all of the shots today as "full swing" but much slower tempo. The first 10 were slower that the last 10. I wanted to make sure all went well through all of the positions of the swing. Seemed a bit awkward at times; but, I sped up the actions to about 50% of what I usually take, I felt how it was all coming together. Topped 2 badly today in the first 5 but corrected. It was great seeing the ball loft well and take off rather straight. I am working hard at not jumping the gun on this slow build of the club. While I am chomping at the bit, I am working towards a long term ability to hit this club as needed.

Day 3 of The 6i Quest! As I was planning tohlit some "longer" shots this morning, I began with a full set of physical warmups including 10 swings with the Orange Whip®. Arms and shoulders felt really good with no tension. As with the other days, I started with 5 shots going only to a 4 O'clock position on the back swing. I do this to make sure the address points of good ligning up, face position, natural angles, and the like are all accounted for. In this respect, what pleased me the most, other than the good feel, was the nice sound I got as feed back indicating a nice connect at impact. Loft was looking better and all the shots were very well placed on line. Moved up for the next 15 to a 3/4 swing. The goal here was to keep everything as it "should" be with a slightly fuller swing. I was concentrating mostly with club face position and head and shoulder activity. I was OK with this grouping. I did top one primarily as I had the ball a bit back in my stance, oops! Again, good sound for most of them and with the exception of one fairly bad pull left, I was able to see some very nice alignment results. I will spend some time this evening looking at the video to study my head and shoulders. While they felt good, I want to make sure my mechanics were as good as they felt.

Day 2 of my "learn to play a 6i" project A repeat of yesterday to continue to to gain a good control of my most inconsistent club. I started off with a number less than full swing thoughts. Today began with 5 left arm only to make sure I was not some how flipping at contact and to make sure I am not simply losing control. All were good fine and on to 1/2 swings. I was happy with the line of flight after the contact. No shots were so far off line as to have even been a small concern. I felt good with the face of the club through the back swing and follow through. I finished with fuller swings. Loft was good and distance was fine, though I was not trying to hit the ball very hard. Ball speed on the last 5 averaged about 90 and all finished with a slight draw. Tomorrow I will extend the number of full swings to 8.

Day 1 of 20 days and 20 shots/day with the 6i only. It is my most inconsistent club; I need to get much better as it is my lowest numbered iron. Got started with 15 studied 1/2 shots to make sure all was lining up well, from address through all positions up to and including the follow through. Actually, those shots felt good, even when inconsistencies were noted, mainly in terms of where the face of the club needed to be at every point. When all was good, the basic loft and direction was more than simply solid. It was a brain difficult day. I had not spent over an hour with just one club before as I did today. I kept my video running, stopping to review when something went bad or when something went really well, making both mental and physical notes. Final 5 were attempts at fuller shots. Of those, four I was almost thrilled about, but one was pulled too much. Tomorrow will be a repeat of this day, especially if I get up a bit early to beat the heat.

30 shots with the 6i. I am going to learn to hit this club well, plain and simple. Started out rough and inconsistent: Poor loft, out of line and mediocre distance. So I accepted them as warm-ups that simply moved the body. Next group was better, but only 60% or so were shots I would accept as fairly fine in a game. Coffee consumption was next. Decided to really think things through: No out to in swing path, good ball position at the address, setting a point of aim about 10 feet in front of ball, good hand position on the grip, take a few waggles before striking, head down, good hip rotation, if uncomfortable at address, step back and reload. Last 15 shots were more in the "WOW, that was nice" territory. All the normal things that I need to get back towards "automatic", I have decided to take the next 10 days to take 20 shots with ONLY my 6i. No other weapon in the arsenal is as rough. Other clubs I can hit with a 85-90% "not too shabby" rate!

I still am nursing a somewhat sore right knee so focused on half swings with the 56º and 60º. Nice easy swings from the 4:00 and 5:00 position with a focus on hitting as close to the target as possible. Had the best on target shots from the 56º that I have had in quite some time. Perhaps the knee pull was a blessing in disguise. I was working as well on creating the loft needed to get to the target. I have found a comfort today with that club that has alluded me for this past year. My 60º is now a solidly predictable club off of the turf. I can get nice chips from 70+ yards and closer to both be on line with the target and stop and/or roll as hoped for. My Phil Flops are good with nigh high lofts and a fairly dead stop once it hits the green. Fun day to help me ignore the knee.

Simple fact for me: course length does affect my scores and my mood! I usually to play from forward tees as a product of my age, my physical condition, and my skill set. The latter being the most dominant consideration. The layout of the course and my response to it come into play on every round, especially the first or second time I play a course. The more U know the course, length becomes just one consideration. I have had top tracer results for all my clubs and re-check them almost every month or so. So I am able to make a good club selection fairly often. Now hitting it well is sometimes another matter. My son plays from the tips, as he should given his skill set. And, in the end, or scores are not too far apart. He thinks it is best for both our games; I no longer care to to try match my scratch game from the 1970's tips as, simply put I can't and I no longer have a need to prove how manly I am and take away the fun I have playing golf! My bottom line is play the length best for your game. Yes, longer courses often don't give a ton of benefit from the fonts.

If there is a chance to hits 20-25 whacks before a round, I will. If time is limited, minimum stretches and 10 swings with my Orange Whip®

New day at a new course. 68.50/113 Par 71, 5297 yards, played from forward tees. My score 90: 44 Out 46 In 17% GIR, 50% FIR, Handicap difference 21.5 0 Birdies, 4 Pars, 9 Bogies, 5 double Penalties 4 Out of Bounds (all to the left) 4 swimming. Conditions: 83º at tee off and humid (for AZ). There was no significant winds to fight. At the start, course was damp from storms last night. seemed much drier as the round went on. No standing water. Many of my problems were due to not knowing the course. I went for what I though would be good for the next shot, only to pay too far left or placed myself near a tree or pond (and in a few). I will be playing this again soon. Seems like a course that fits my game well.