Baby Steps at Carlisle

My previous golf round started poorly, as I adjusted to playing without contact lenses. My latest round started almost as poorly, as I barely made it to the golf course for my scheduled tee time. I had played at Carlisle many times before, and always took the same route to reach the club. I decided to take a different route this time, allowing plenty of time to arrive, stretch and do some practice putting. Very near the club, I took a wrong turn and ended up scrambling to make my tee time. I was forced to tee off on the first hole without taking a single practice swing or putt.

Not surprisingly, I topped my first shot and plunked it in the water in front of the teeing ground. After re-teeing, I hit a big push-slice (cue the video above). A series of topped balls and duffs ended up producing a score of nine on the opening par-4. A 4-iron off the tee on hole #2 was also pushed to the right of this par-3. My 60-degree wedge shot clipped the uppermost branches of some high trees and dropped short of the green. A duff into a greenside bunker, along with a poor out resulted in a quadruple bogey. What a way to start!

At this stage I settled down, but any hope of a good score was already gone. I tried to focus on each hole and each shot, just to start making some progress on the season. The biggest difference from the first round of the year was my thought process. I did not think about dropping my right shoulder or allowing the club to lag during my actual swings. I thought about these things when I took a practice swing, but during my actual swing, I simply cleared my mind. My hope was that my body would remember what it had practiced a few seconds earlier and that the adjustments would be less exaggerated.

This approach seemed to work, though you wouldn't be able to tell just by looking at my score. I hit a lot of push-slicing drives, but also hit a couple of good ones, mostly on the back nine. My best came on East #1, a par-5 that offers a good scoring opportunity. A straight drive of 275 yards split the fairway, leaving 235 yards to the green. I had a go with the 3-wood, but topped it badly, leaving a 140-yard approach on my third shot. Of course, I pulled the 9-iron into a bunker, then took two to get out. I finished with double-bogey.

My irons were somewhat better than they were during my first round. I didn't flare the ball nearly as much, and some of my iron shots were actually very crisp. I found the fairway off the tee on North #5 with a good 4-iron. A solid pitching wedge from the right rough surprised me on the approach to East #5. I missed the green right, but chipped on and made a putt for par. The best iron of the day was a 4-iron off the tee on East #9. This is a short par-4 at just 300 yards. It's best to leave the driver in the bag, as water comes into play on the right side. I pummeled the 4-iron very deep and straight, leaving just 80 yards to the green. I actually came up short of the green, but chipped on and made a putt for another par.

My chipping was suspect at times, just as it was in my previous round. This accounted for some lost strokes, for sure. On the other hand, my putting was excellent. I blew a couple of putts well past the hole, but made the intermediate length comebackers every time. I had zero 3-putts and four 1-putts over eighteen holes. Any time I can keep 3-putts off my scorecard, I'm pretty happy. I missed a short par putt on North #5, which was really the only bad putt I made. I lipped out a couple of longer putts, or else my putting numbers would have been even better.

In summary, I made progress by eliminating technical thoughts during my actual swings. I took baby steps toward improving my drives and slightly more significant steps toward improving my irons. I have to close my club face up a little bit, while making sure that my swing path doesn't come outside-in. My chipping needs work, as do my fairway woods and bunker shots. Don't get me started on those last two – they've plagued me for far too long now. My putting took a huge step forward, which is good. My overall score was still very poor, but at least I moved in the right direction. My goal for the next round is to keep it up!

Score: 108
Putts: 32
Fairways: 5
Greens: 0
Penalties: 3