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I decided to stick with my original plan from last week and not play this week. I've been good and taken it easy on the elbow and it does feel much better. I know its still not perfect but it has been holding up to any stress I put on it. The weather is a little better than originally expected and I could play and I admit I'm still tempted to as I type this. However, its a tad cooler out that I'd really like and I really need to practice instead.
So this afternoon I'll head out to the local range and give it a go. The initial couple of shots will be sore, they always are. I'll be more interested in how I feel as I proceed through the bucket and what its like in the morning afterwards. I'm cautiously optimistic that it'll be just fine.
Most likely taking this week to simply practice should be best in the long run for more than just the health of my elbow. I'm not sure playing is all that good of an idea since I'm not too confident I can hit a driver in the fairway at the moment anyway. On all of my shots I feel like I'm hanging too far back or just not getting enough weight to my left side. I can't really explain it here. All I know is that I've suddenly been missing to the right and it tends to get worse the longer the club is.
So, this is what I plan to do in the next couple of weeks, assuming no physical setbacks. I'll practice this afternoon. On Tuesday, either during lunch or in the evening, I'll try it again. We'll follow that up on Thursday as well. Then Saturday I'll find a place to play, this time I'll look to the south toward San Diego or toward the coast around Oceanside or something.
If that goes well, we'll do it again with the Tuesday/Thursday thing before running up to Las Vegas for the weekend. My hope is that I'll discover that my elbow is being managed properly and I'll be able to handle playing on consecutive days. I'm hoping to play 36 holes on that Saturday but I'm wondering if I should play it safe. The more important round is on Sunday and I want to be sure I can handle that without any issues.
Sunday, March 26, 2017
Monday, March 20, 2017
The Country Club at Soboba Springs : Regresssion to the mean?
This past Saturday I ventured a little further from home and took on The Country Club at Soboba Springs. On the land of an indian reservation, this course was in pretty nice shape and probably the best I've seen to date. I found out later that one main reason that was the case was the fact that qualifying for the Mackenzie Tour was going to be held in just a few days. As luck would have it I got to play with two aspiring pros out to get in some practice.
Too bad I left my game on the range, pretty much literally. I hit the ball really well as I warmed up and I had some high hopes for the day, though the driver wasn't near as comfortable as the irons had been. Ends up the driver is really what did me in as I just couldn't get the ball in play off the tee most of the day. Even one of the best drives I hit on the day wasn't good enough due to some unfamiliarity of the course. What I though was a nice drive down the right-center of the third fairway ended up finding a extended finger of the water hazard that jutted into said fairway. My ball landed, took a huge hop to the right and vanished into the murky depths. That was discouraging to say the least.
I ended up shooting 87 on the day, with four penalty shots hurting the cause (two in the drink, one hitting a cart path and rocketing out of bounds). Like last week I only hit five fairways and five greens but with the penalty shots and a more demanding course the score suffered quite a bit. I did hit a number of good iron shots along the way, even a couple of fairway metals did decently enough. The driver was poor and I never made a putt of any real length either. However, the scenery was nice :
As far as those two pros, no, I don't remember any names. I suck at names. I'm sure I didn't hear their last names anyway, though I did see one guy was likely on the University of Idaho golf team at one time or another. And yes, they just mashed drives from the tips without much of a thought, though one of them was struggling with a bit of a hook it seemed. Hopefully he'll work that out by Tuesday. They only hung around for the front nine, leaving me and the fourth in our group in order to hit the range and grab dinner.
As for the elbow, it held up pretty well and gave me no problems so I guess whatever I've been doing this last week helped. The weather here is turning cooler and wetter this week so I might be forced to skip out on playing this weekend, which could be a blessing in disguise. Maybe with the extra time I'll give the elbow more of a chance to heal up for good and not be an issue, especially since I plan on playing 54 holes while in Vegas in a couple of weekends. In fact, I *almost* looked into playing more on Saturday (despite how bad I performed) but I decided to be cautious simply vowed to return at a later date.
So, my plan is to resist swinging a club around for a few days. Later in the week I might go hit some balls and see how it does. If it feels good and the weather gives me a window I might give in and find a round somewhere but I almost hope it doesn't happen. In the meantime I'll continue with the ice and the rest and go from there.
Too bad I left my game on the range, pretty much literally. I hit the ball really well as I warmed up and I had some high hopes for the day, though the driver wasn't near as comfortable as the irons had been. Ends up the driver is really what did me in as I just couldn't get the ball in play off the tee most of the day. Even one of the best drives I hit on the day wasn't good enough due to some unfamiliarity of the course. What I though was a nice drive down the right-center of the third fairway ended up finding a extended finger of the water hazard that jutted into said fairway. My ball landed, took a huge hop to the right and vanished into the murky depths. That was discouraging to say the least.
I ended up shooting 87 on the day, with four penalty shots hurting the cause (two in the drink, one hitting a cart path and rocketing out of bounds). Like last week I only hit five fairways and five greens but with the penalty shots and a more demanding course the score suffered quite a bit. I did hit a number of good iron shots along the way, even a couple of fairway metals did decently enough. The driver was poor and I never made a putt of any real length either. However, the scenery was nice :
As far as those two pros, no, I don't remember any names. I suck at names. I'm sure I didn't hear their last names anyway, though I did see one guy was likely on the University of Idaho golf team at one time or another. And yes, they just mashed drives from the tips without much of a thought, though one of them was struggling with a bit of a hook it seemed. Hopefully he'll work that out by Tuesday. They only hung around for the front nine, leaving me and the fourth in our group in order to hit the range and grab dinner.
As for the elbow, it held up pretty well and gave me no problems so I guess whatever I've been doing this last week helped. The weather here is turning cooler and wetter this week so I might be forced to skip out on playing this weekend, which could be a blessing in disguise. Maybe with the extra time I'll give the elbow more of a chance to heal up for good and not be an issue, especially since I plan on playing 54 holes while in Vegas in a couple of weekends. In fact, I *almost* looked into playing more on Saturday (despite how bad I performed) but I decided to be cautious simply vowed to return at a later date.
So, my plan is to resist swinging a club around for a few days. Later in the week I might go hit some balls and see how it does. If it feels good and the weather gives me a window I might give in and find a round somewhere but I almost hope it doesn't happen. In the meantime I'll continue with the ice and the rest and go from there.
Monday, March 13, 2017
The Legends Golf Club at Temeka Hills.
Between waiting for decent weather and trying to allow some time for my elbow to potentially heal a little I was looking forward to finally playing my new "home course", The Legends Golf Club at Temeka Hills. Its about a twenty minute drive from where I live in Temecula and it looks like a pretty nice place overall. The course is in a development of some sort but I never felt the houses were crowding the course much at all.
My elbow seemed fine after hitting a few balls on the range while wearing this brace thingy I bought a while ago, however by the end of the round it was fairly sore. I suspect that might be to the fact that once I ran into all the foursomes in front of me my body cooled down between shots. I had to wait 10-15 minutes at times, even while the people were letting me play through. Today it doesn't feel bad at all but I'm going to try to leave it alone until I hit the range on Tuesday.
As far as the round itself, well, it was kinda strange to me, especially the back nine. I started off well with a good par on the 1st and a nice birdie on the 2nd, but I doubled the par-3 third after hitting over the green and leaving myself pretty much dead above the hole. I should have salvaged a bogey but a 3-putt killed that idea. In fact, outside the short birdie putt on the 2nd I was pretty horrid with the putter. I couldn't find the right speed all day.
This is where some of the good luck/bad luck started. The fourth hole was an uphill par five that had a strange cement access structure right in the middle of the fairway. I wish I took a picture of it, though it was "guarded" by a big mound designed to deflect shots around it I guess. Anyway, I was close to the green in two and hit what I though was a nice pitch to a front hole location but I landed the ball right on the edge of the fringe and it stopped dead in its tracks instead of bouncing and releasing to the hole. No real loss as it was a simple up and down from there. The fifth was another par five, my tee shot was left and in the trees. Fortunately I had a shot out and laid up for a wedge to the green, which was over water. That next shot didn't look like it was going to make it but it just caught the green and I was lucky I didn't back it off the green. Two shaky putts for par there and a par on the par-3 sixth led me the the first of many foursomes I'd have to get through the rest of the day.
The eighth was another bad break/good break hole. Its a short par-4 with the green protected by water short and right. I hit 3-wood, but a little left, certainly in play. However, the ball was hanging on a check of grass to the point that I thought if I put my club near it it was roll away. It was sitting below my feet as well so the stance was awkward also. I only had sand wedge in so I had that going for me. However, I didn't play enough to the left to account for the lie and the ball hit the very right side of the green, then spun to the right and down a hill toward the water. Luckily, I found another little chunk of grass that was strong enough to keep the ball from going any further. I took par and ran.
A bogey on nine finished off a front side 39, not too bad with all things considered since I had to work through another foursome on that hole. I roll up on the tenth where yet another group was teeing off. However, they didn't offer to let me play on so I had to wait about fifteen minutes for them to clear out. Right about there it seemed that I first really felt my elbow getting sore. I hit two really nice shots there though, the second was right over the flag but a bit long. I missed the par putt by about 600 yards though and got took bogey there.
I got through that group on the eleventh (bogey) and headed to the par-4 12th. My drive was decent enough but I hit the next into the greenside bunker. I found the hard pan portion of the trap though and worried that I wouldn't be able to get through it enough without bouncing off and skulling it to parts unknown. Instead I holed out for birdie! I hadn't done that in, shit I don't know, fifteen years maybe? I've holed out a bunch of chips and pitches from grass but I never seem to get any luck from the sand, until now.
On 13, I caught a shitty lie again but was lucky on the second shot that it didn't roll into the water. The shot I hit was just fine, I thought, but it took a hard kick right and kept rolling. I had thought the water was near the green, not the layup shot on this par-5. The ball managed to stop about a foot short of the hazard and was actually in a good spot. I still took a bogey as the putter failed again.
After a par on 14, I had to play through another group on the par-3 15th. Like on the 3rd, I was in between clubs and had to hit a choke-down 5-wood since I do not have a 3-iron in the bag. I probably backed off the swing a bit also and hooked it left, pin-high but on a hill short-sided to the hole. Nothing that a lob wedge can't fix! I hit what I thought was a perfect shot, just landing on the fringe and taking a soft hop, however when that first hop landed it just stopped dead, finding a little bare spot between the fringe and the green and rolling halfway out of it. I thought there would be almost no way to keep that ball short and yet I found a way to do it. The good news? I only had about a 12-foot chip so I simply knocked that in for par. Easy game.
On to 16, a shortish dogleg left par four. I hit driver since it was playing uphill and into a breeze, however the dogleg was a bit shorter than I thought it was and my ball went through the fairway into the bunker. The trap looked like it was recently worked on as the edges were about a foot or so lower than it would normally be if it actually had some sand in it. My ball decided to roll up against said lip so I had no choice but to blast out to the fairway, where I hit an awful wedge into a greenside version of the same thing. So what might have been my most solid drive of the day lead me to laying three in this dirt hole. No worries, I nearly holed that one out too! It hit the pin and instead of going in the ball decided to hang on the lip. Simple bogey, really.
However, all of these shots in the sand wasn't good for the elbow, I could feel it aching now. All the start/stop play while waiting for people and eventually playing through didn't help either. On the 17th I hit another dirt hole with my tee shot and promptly chunked that out, that one really hurt. But, even with a pretty severe downhill/ball above my feet lie I was able to coax a wedge onto the green and actually had a decent look at par, which I raked horribly toward some unknown destination.
Right then is when I got a call. Seems that while my phone was in my pocket it decided to call 911 for me. It took me a bit to explain that I was using an app on the phone as a GPS while playing golf and it most likely left the phone open to bounce around other stuff and call by mistake, but that merely killed a little time while yet another foursome managed to tee off on 18. I still had to wait what seemed like an hour for these guys to finally clear out of the way. Despite that delay, I managed to make one last solid swing with the driver. I couldn't see it land but the line looked perfect so I jumped into the cart and chased it. Instead of the middle of the fairway, my ball somehow decided to bounce/roll/skip left and found another dirt hole. I was fairly stunned, I had to double check to make sure it was my ball. I didn't think I was even close to the trap when I hit it. Anyway, after another lengthy wait I tried to hit 5-iron out so I could wedge up to the green since this was a par-5. Instead, I caught the lip and left it in the trap/dirt hole. The second time got out though, where I managed to hit on and somehow 2-putted for bogey to shoot 80 on the day.
So, if I could have figured out the greens a little I could have shot something like 76. Without some of the hole-outs and stuff, I could have shot 85. After thinking about it all, 80 does seem about right. I only hit five fairways and five greens but it sure seemed like I hit more than that. I did catch the fringe on a few approach shots, from which I then did a horrible job trying to get down in two. Technically I had 29 putts but it felt like I had 40, I just couldn't do anything on the greens at all. I actually spent about 30 minutes on their practice green trying to figure out what the hell was going on, which I think I have. Maybe.
So, the swing still doesn't feel right. I still feel like I have to do it with mirrors or something. There is too much "effort" to get the ball going where I want it to go. Even when I hit a solid shot, it feels forced. My gut feeling is telling me to try to get the ball back further in my stance, or at least feel like it is. I still have this scooping feeling at the bottom of the swing, like I'm coming up at the ball. So, assuming I have no trouble with the elbow this week I'll give it another go on the range and then end up playing somewhere else on Saturday. I'm not sure where I'll go but I have plenty of options to choose from around here. Maybe by then I'll have a better idea of what I'm doing. We'll see.
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| The par five 13th hole at Legends |
As far as the round itself, well, it was kinda strange to me, especially the back nine. I started off well with a good par on the 1st and a nice birdie on the 2nd, but I doubled the par-3 third after hitting over the green and leaving myself pretty much dead above the hole. I should have salvaged a bogey but a 3-putt killed that idea. In fact, outside the short birdie putt on the 2nd I was pretty horrid with the putter. I couldn't find the right speed all day.
This is where some of the good luck/bad luck started. The fourth hole was an uphill par five that had a strange cement access structure right in the middle of the fairway. I wish I took a picture of it, though it was "guarded" by a big mound designed to deflect shots around it I guess. Anyway, I was close to the green in two and hit what I though was a nice pitch to a front hole location but I landed the ball right on the edge of the fringe and it stopped dead in its tracks instead of bouncing and releasing to the hole. No real loss as it was a simple up and down from there. The fifth was another par five, my tee shot was left and in the trees. Fortunately I had a shot out and laid up for a wedge to the green, which was over water. That next shot didn't look like it was going to make it but it just caught the green and I was lucky I didn't back it off the green. Two shaky putts for par there and a par on the par-3 sixth led me the the first of many foursomes I'd have to get through the rest of the day.
The eighth was another bad break/good break hole. Its a short par-4 with the green protected by water short and right. I hit 3-wood, but a little left, certainly in play. However, the ball was hanging on a check of grass to the point that I thought if I put my club near it it was roll away. It was sitting below my feet as well so the stance was awkward also. I only had sand wedge in so I had that going for me. However, I didn't play enough to the left to account for the lie and the ball hit the very right side of the green, then spun to the right and down a hill toward the water. Luckily, I found another little chunk of grass that was strong enough to keep the ball from going any further. I took par and ran.
A bogey on nine finished off a front side 39, not too bad with all things considered since I had to work through another foursome on that hole. I roll up on the tenth where yet another group was teeing off. However, they didn't offer to let me play on so I had to wait about fifteen minutes for them to clear out. Right about there it seemed that I first really felt my elbow getting sore. I hit two really nice shots there though, the second was right over the flag but a bit long. I missed the par putt by about 600 yards though and got took bogey there.
I got through that group on the eleventh (bogey) and headed to the par-4 12th. My drive was decent enough but I hit the next into the greenside bunker. I found the hard pan portion of the trap though and worried that I wouldn't be able to get through it enough without bouncing off and skulling it to parts unknown. Instead I holed out for birdie! I hadn't done that in, shit I don't know, fifteen years maybe? I've holed out a bunch of chips and pitches from grass but I never seem to get any luck from the sand, until now.
On 13, I caught a shitty lie again but was lucky on the second shot that it didn't roll into the water. The shot I hit was just fine, I thought, but it took a hard kick right and kept rolling. I had thought the water was near the green, not the layup shot on this par-5. The ball managed to stop about a foot short of the hazard and was actually in a good spot. I still took a bogey as the putter failed again.
After a par on 14, I had to play through another group on the par-3 15th. Like on the 3rd, I was in between clubs and had to hit a choke-down 5-wood since I do not have a 3-iron in the bag. I probably backed off the swing a bit also and hooked it left, pin-high but on a hill short-sided to the hole. Nothing that a lob wedge can't fix! I hit what I thought was a perfect shot, just landing on the fringe and taking a soft hop, however when that first hop landed it just stopped dead, finding a little bare spot between the fringe and the green and rolling halfway out of it. I thought there would be almost no way to keep that ball short and yet I found a way to do it. The good news? I only had about a 12-foot chip so I simply knocked that in for par. Easy game.
On to 16, a shortish dogleg left par four. I hit driver since it was playing uphill and into a breeze, however the dogleg was a bit shorter than I thought it was and my ball went through the fairway into the bunker. The trap looked like it was recently worked on as the edges were about a foot or so lower than it would normally be if it actually had some sand in it. My ball decided to roll up against said lip so I had no choice but to blast out to the fairway, where I hit an awful wedge into a greenside version of the same thing. So what might have been my most solid drive of the day lead me to laying three in this dirt hole. No worries, I nearly holed that one out too! It hit the pin and instead of going in the ball decided to hang on the lip. Simple bogey, really.
However, all of these shots in the sand wasn't good for the elbow, I could feel it aching now. All the start/stop play while waiting for people and eventually playing through didn't help either. On the 17th I hit another dirt hole with my tee shot and promptly chunked that out, that one really hurt. But, even with a pretty severe downhill/ball above my feet lie I was able to coax a wedge onto the green and actually had a decent look at par, which I raked horribly toward some unknown destination.
Right then is when I got a call. Seems that while my phone was in my pocket it decided to call 911 for me. It took me a bit to explain that I was using an app on the phone as a GPS while playing golf and it most likely left the phone open to bounce around other stuff and call by mistake, but that merely killed a little time while yet another foursome managed to tee off on 18. I still had to wait what seemed like an hour for these guys to finally clear out of the way. Despite that delay, I managed to make one last solid swing with the driver. I couldn't see it land but the line looked perfect so I jumped into the cart and chased it. Instead of the middle of the fairway, my ball somehow decided to bounce/roll/skip left and found another dirt hole. I was fairly stunned, I had to double check to make sure it was my ball. I didn't think I was even close to the trap when I hit it. Anyway, after another lengthy wait I tried to hit 5-iron out so I could wedge up to the green since this was a par-5. Instead, I caught the lip and left it in the trap/dirt hole. The second time got out though, where I managed to hit on and somehow 2-putted for bogey to shoot 80 on the day.
So, if I could have figured out the greens a little I could have shot something like 76. Without some of the hole-outs and stuff, I could have shot 85. After thinking about it all, 80 does seem about right. I only hit five fairways and five greens but it sure seemed like I hit more than that. I did catch the fringe on a few approach shots, from which I then did a horrible job trying to get down in two. Technically I had 29 putts but it felt like I had 40, I just couldn't do anything on the greens at all. I actually spent about 30 minutes on their practice green trying to figure out what the hell was going on, which I think I have. Maybe.
So, the swing still doesn't feel right. I still feel like I have to do it with mirrors or something. There is too much "effort" to get the ball going where I want it to go. Even when I hit a solid shot, it feels forced. My gut feeling is telling me to try to get the ball back further in my stance, or at least feel like it is. I still have this scooping feeling at the bottom of the swing, like I'm coming up at the ball. So, assuming I have no trouble with the elbow this week I'll give it another go on the range and then end up playing somewhere else on Saturday. I'm not sure where I'll go but I have plenty of options to choose from around here. Maybe by then I'll have a better idea of what I'm doing. We'll see.
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