I am a very occasional golfer. At a work deal it was 190 to carry this water feature. If you couldn’t then you were hitting 3 from the tees on the other side.
I am like 50/50 to get the ball truly airborne. Then 50/50 to go that far and 50/50 to have it straight enough. But that day I hit a line drive I don’t think was more than 10’ off the ground. It hit the concrete edge on the far side, took a huge hop over a hill. Probably plus 250 with about 100 to go. Iirc, only took me 6 more strokes…
But I guarantee my celebration off the tee rivaled Dechambeau.
Yea I’ve been working a lot on my driver. It feels great to really rip one in a round like that. I feel very confident with the club now and a lot of it was just getting my wrists involved in the swing. My miss is more of a pulled hook than a banana slice now.
These are the moments that keep you coming back for sure. On #18 yesterday i was tied with my partner and whiffed my tee shot on a 170 yard par 3 about 100 yards and landed in some non-bunker sand underneath some tree branches. Managed to bump and run one to 15 feet and drained the putt to win (partner bogeyed).
Shit feels awesome! I love this game now. I was not having fun at all a few months back when I quit. I’ve played every single day since wednesday.
For decades conventional wisdom held that it’s always better to be in the fairway than the rough. But there are mountains of data showing that statistically, you’re more likely to stick it close with a wedge out of the rough than, say, a 5-iron from a pristine lie in the fairway.
Bryson has never had an elite wedge game, so he’s just embracing the distance advantage for all it’s worth and it’s paying off. Even from the positions he drove it into, while the lies and angles didn’t lend themselves to reasonable eagle tries, they did lead to easy birdies, which I’m sure he’s fine with.
Yea he’s definitely a player to watch. 8 wins including a major is extremely impressive for his age. Look at poor Tony “top 10” Finau. Easily one of the best players on tour and he hasn’t won since like 2016.
I’m adding distance to my game right now and it’s incredible the effect it has on your score. Being able to hit a 7 iron on an approach when I used to have to go 2-3 clubs up is such an easier game to play.
Bryson isn’t playing the same game as the rest of them and good for him. There’s a lot of other aspects to his game that shine as well - he’s also a very good putter. If he gets scary good at the 50-100 yard pitch shot, watch the fuck out.
I do think Tony will eventually break through and begin to pile up some wins. As for Bryson, yeah he’s breaking the game, just like Tiger did, and unless course setups change, the next generation of golfers will basically all be long-drive competitors with game through the bag and touch around the greens.
Wish I knew what it was like to have elite distance but never have and likely never will. But my best golf did come during a stretch where I improved my driving, which had always been by far the weakest part of my game.
It really seems like narrow fairways, thick rough is a fantastic setup for Bryson. His wedges being way longer allows him to generate more swing speed out of the rough and launch it higher than everyone else. Winged Foot and Bay Hill both had much thicker rough than a lot of PGA Tour setups.
Seriously they need to make 300-350 landing zone punitive if not accurate. Miss the fairway and have something -water, sand, tree, OOB, to make approach next to impossible or a penalty stroke.
Shot a pretty disappointing +12 on a par 62, 4000 yarder. I was under par through the first 7 holes, lol. Never had such a hot streak starting out before. That was with a bogey in there too. Then I played about bogey-ish golf the last remaining holes, with a few doubles in there. Nothing worse than double today though.
I hit every single green in regulation through those holes, and one of the birdies was a 165ish yard shot that I stuck to about 6 inches. It was pretty wild because it followed one of my only cold shanks the entire round - whiffed a driver about 120 yards, barely in front of the forward tees. Then I made a ~12 footer a few holes later for another birdie.
Had a weird amount of distance today too. My misses were all long by 20-30 yards. Didn’t know wtf was happening other than I was hitting them really really pure. Almost drove the green on one of the shorter par 4’s. One of the long misses, I was hitting to a lower tier about 145 out which is about a stock 6 iron for me. I went over the lower tier, over the upper tier behind it, and about 15 yards behind the green. Probably 170 total and it was all carry. I was just scratching my head and actually looked at the club to make sure it wasn’t my 5 iron. Don’t really know what I was doing differently today.
Overall I hit 10/18 GIR lol which was pretty disgusting especially for me, I never hit greens. Greens were punched and sanded so I easily lost 3-4 strokes to just abysmal putting, couldn’t read the greens to save my life and my stroke felt as typically bad as it usually does. I might take a putting-only lesson soon. If I was making putts today that round woulda been a lot lower.
Overall my last several rounds have all been threatening in the low +teens, finally got one.
Golf is back in New England. Went to the range on Saturday to swing it out after not hitting a ball since before the first December snow storm. When I was there I was talking with the pro about joining their men’s club league. Their events are usually early Saturday morning. I normally try to play during that time anyway so I think I’ll sign up and then just play whatever suits my schedule. Should be fun to play a little competitively against people I don’t know.
Also on Saturday tested out the two new putters I got this winter. One a mallet and one a mid-mallet. I’d previously used a very old bullseyes style blade. I’m looking for something to help with the confidence so I can really go after those 8-20 footers and not be afraid if I blow it like 3 feet by. Time will tell which one stays in the bag and if it works out.
And to cap it off, walked 9 with a cousin and uncle today. My cousin was home and we were able to go out and play at his old club for free since he’s still friends with the pro there. After straight cold topping my first drive about 20 yards I then hit the remaining 6 fairways and 7/8 greens. Excited to get back to it.
First round in NY for me yesterday. Tougher course than I usually play but no tee markers yet so that shaved probably 10 yards off a hole. Hadn’t swung a club since October but managed a 43 on the front. Ran out of gas after like 14 holes and ended double triple double for a 91. Not bad tbh and won’t be my worst round of the year.
Played a par 3 nine hole yesterday for my first golf experience of the year in MN. First swing I hit a beautiful high drawing 9 iron to 10 feet, and missed the putt. Had a couple other nice tee shots which lead to pars but chunked and skulled a few chips which resulted in a triple and a quad, shot 37. Felt good to be out again, pumped to play a lot of golf this year I’m shooting for at least 40 rounds by winter.
Also really need to look for some new irons, I’m playing 15ish year old technology at this point and I get penalized a lot on misshits, figure some newer game improvement irons might help with that.
Played 15 yesterday and 15 today here. Only kept one true score, rest was practice and a 4 man scramble for funsies. The 37 ties my 2nd highest score, which I’ve done several times before. But this one was the weirdest. Other then driver, which I only used on hole 1, I could not get my tee shots off the ground. Some were tops but some were hit decent, just didn’t get the ball above my knees, lol. No clue why but it’s happening.
Feel like I’m doing nothing different from last season, other then trying to swing easier. But I may not even be doing that!! It’s a mystery!
So, how did I shoot a 37? Short game. My partial wedges, chips and putting were insane!! Knocked a bunch within 8ft from 30-60yds. Nailed a bunch of 10-20ft putts over the last 2 days, too many to count. If I can figure out my tee game and keep the short stuff I may have some potential!
I wish I could say the same about my putting. My strat right now is to hit everything to gimme distance and even then they arent really gimmes. I’ve got the worst yips of my life.
I just grab it like it’s a baseball bat and point my thumbs straight down. Never been able to grip it any other way. Changing to a fat (Lamkin) pistol grip and keeping my right arm tucked tight has mostly solved my biggest problem…wuss putting it halfway to the hole. Hardly ever do it now. My Dad (an excellent putter) says it’s all feel and confidence. I’m slowly becoming a believer.
