Hi all,
I thought I'd better update the blog. Its been a couple of weeks so here we go;
In summary, my game has not been great of late. My short game has been decent and I have shown signs of positive play but overall my ball striking has been way off the mark in the last 3 weeks.
1. I made an error with the course selection for my US Open local qualifier. I didn't play my best golf, but I just couldn't get the greens, after a while the bumpy but quick surfaces got the better of my putting stroke which filtered into my long game. I started well and was dealing with it alright.... -2 through 8 holes.... but faded and played some poor stuff on the back 9. I didn't qualify unfortunately.
2. Next was the Web.com Monday qualifier in Rocky Mount, NC - a Donald Ross designed golf course. I was starting on the 10th hole, hit my tee shot to the right, chipped out to the fairway and then pulled a 4 iron, onto the cart path next to the green and out of bounds... A re-load after that, ended up with a triple bogey on my first hole. With these qualifiers requiring such a low score to qualify, I was already snookered. I hit my second shot over the back of the next and all of a sudden +4 through 2 holes :/ I actually played pretty good golf after that, level par for the remaining 16 but constantly fighting my swing..6/9 up and down saves helped but I wasn't going to qualify putting for par all day after that start.
3. Third update to report: Willow Creek Open. Nice course, got some good notes from my pal Tommy Everest who has played the course several times in his time in High Point, NC. If my swing would have accompanied me, I could well have challenged for the title. Unfortunately, a serious case of the lefts replaced my normal swing. I have been working on thinking less about the swing and more externally but was struggling with that. I bogeyed my last 2 holes in round 1 to shoot +5. In the second round I was just trying to find something on the range before hand and go with it. Luckily I did find something, I birdied all the par 5's and ground out a 70 (-2) to remind myself that I can still play this game. I holed some putts which was nice including a 40-foot par saver on the 5th.
I am going to take a day off from golf tomorrow and possibly on Saturday. I have played nearly 300 holes this month so far and feel a break would help. I am going to speak with my swing coach soon and see if we can iron out a few of these swing issues.
I have an E-golf tournament in Greensboro next week. I am planning a more positive blog post after that! I will get to spend some time with my girlfriend starting next week...maybe she'll give me the kick up the arse I need!!! It'll come soon.
Cheers for following.
Lee
