Written on 7-13-14.
It’s a lazy Sunday at the Swope house. Belinda just left to complete our weekly grocery shopping. James and Amanda are hanging out in his bedroom. Danielle left to go for a short hike and be alone with her thoughts. I am watching the U.S. Senior Open. Pika has joined me here on the bed. She’s curled herself into the letter “C,” and her right front paw is also curled, covering her face. Lazy and adorable.
Back to my latest lesson, Dana also showed me a different type of chip, an unorthodox style that was more upright. He showed me that heels dig in, but toes don’t. It’s a Tom Kite chipping style. I put the chipping club’s grip in the lifeline of my left hand, similar to putting, stand closer to the ball, and make a putting stroke.
As I mentioned before, we didn’t get much time for...
pitching. He watched me pitch a few, though. He said a couple of times to have the left shoulder begin the takeaway by pushing the club away in a low and slow motion, something I feel I do well already. For all the short game shots, he agreed with me that the goal is to attempt to make them all. He then said that all of my putts, chips and pitches (if I do not make them) should be missing on the high side and past the hole, to always give my ball a chance of going in.
He told me he carries four wedges in his bag, and he has different distances with each of those according to three different swings. Those swings are hands hip-high, chest-high and shoulder-high. Our next lesson will focus on the full swing, so I look forward to having that analyzed and to learning some more from Dana.
I played with C.J. this past Wednesday. We played all eighteen at Hidden Valley and we played in the heat. C.J. was getting ready for a scramble with some of his Eastern New Mexico college buddies after taking a year off. He skipped the same tournament last year, but this year they said he had to play. It was at Santa Ana. He messaged me soon after it was over to let me know the top three team scores (56, 59, and 60) and their score (a 68). They played respectably.
We did not play well together. We decided to take on the Bogey Man, but he embarrassed us and laughed at us on the front nine. We set a goal to be +2, but we ended up eight over. Yuck.
On the back, we readjusted our goal to a more realistic +4, and we played a better match against our competitor, but he still won by one stroke. He didn’t laugh as much on the back nine. I earned two birdies to help our cause, but other higher scores kept us from winning.
Hidden Valley Golf Course-Hole #11-Birdie #16 of 2014
I used my driver. It’s the only way I tee off on this hole anymore. My ball went up and to the right, a fade/slice, but I was confident it would make it over the ditch, and I also knew it wasn’t so far right as to go out of bounds.
I found it. It was behind the old lady’s teeing ground from hole #10, the one that was used when it was a par four, and I was facing a downhill, sidehill lie for my pitch. The tree to the right of the temporary green was in my way, but it wasn’t too bad. I did my new open stance pitch, and my ball was slightly pulled, which was good to avoid the tree even more. It bounced a few times before it stopped in the taller clover.
They had mowed the temporary green a little bigger, I could tell, but I was still just off the green in the thick stuff. I chose to putt from there, and I remembered that I really needed to putt through the ball since the green is not really a green at all, more like a fairway with a hole cut into it. My ball bumped and then rolled, curving from right to left until the stick got in the way. It clacked against it and fell in. That’s twice I’ve scored birdies on this temporary green.
Hidden Valley Golf Course-Hole #18-Birdie #17 of 2014
My drive was similar to the one on #11, but it felt even longer. I made solid contact. It faded/sliced towards the left side of the fairway, but it got hung up in the taller grass. For my approach, I had to swing down and through the ball again since it was also a downhill lie. I chose my 8-iron, which was not enough to make it, but I had to get it over the right side of the cottonwood over there and just do my best to get it close.
The hole was near the front of the green and in the middle. My ball made it over the cottonwood, but it was well short of the green. I had a pitch of about thirty yards or so. I made another smooth pitch, and my ball landed just short of the green and bounced up and on, stopping below the hole only four feet away. I made sure to get it to the hole since it was an uphill putt, and I listened to it fall in. These two birdies helped the poor play during the rest of the round, but not by much. I still would always rather have a consistent round with a lower score than a couple of birdies and a higher score.
It’s a lazy Sunday at the Swope house. Belinda just left to complete our weekly grocery shopping. James and Amanda are hanging out in his bedroom. Danielle left to go for a short hike and be alone with her thoughts. I am watching the U.S. Senior Open. Pika has joined me here on the bed. She’s curled herself into the letter “C,” and her right front paw is also curled, covering her face. Lazy and adorable.
Back to my latest lesson, Dana also showed me a different type of chip, an unorthodox style that was more upright. He showed me that heels dig in, but toes don’t. It’s a Tom Kite chipping style. I put the chipping club’s grip in the lifeline of my left hand, similar to putting, stand closer to the ball, and make a putting stroke.
As I mentioned before, we didn’t get much time for...
pitching. He watched me pitch a few, though. He said a couple of times to have the left shoulder begin the takeaway by pushing the club away in a low and slow motion, something I feel I do well already. For all the short game shots, he agreed with me that the goal is to attempt to make them all. He then said that all of my putts, chips and pitches (if I do not make them) should be missing on the high side and past the hole, to always give my ball a chance of going in.
He told me he carries four wedges in his bag, and he has different distances with each of those according to three different swings. Those swings are hands hip-high, chest-high and shoulder-high. Our next lesson will focus on the full swing, so I look forward to having that analyzed and to learning some more from Dana.
I played with C.J. this past Wednesday. We played all eighteen at Hidden Valley and we played in the heat. C.J. was getting ready for a scramble with some of his Eastern New Mexico college buddies after taking a year off. He skipped the same tournament last year, but this year they said he had to play. It was at Santa Ana. He messaged me soon after it was over to let me know the top three team scores (56, 59, and 60) and their score (a 68). They played respectably.
We did not play well together. We decided to take on the Bogey Man, but he embarrassed us and laughed at us on the front nine. We set a goal to be +2, but we ended up eight over. Yuck.
On the back, we readjusted our goal to a more realistic +4, and we played a better match against our competitor, but he still won by one stroke. He didn’t laugh as much on the back nine. I earned two birdies to help our cause, but other higher scores kept us from winning.
Hidden Valley Golf Course-Hole #11-Birdie #16 of 2014
I used my driver. It’s the only way I tee off on this hole anymore. My ball went up and to the right, a fade/slice, but I was confident it would make it over the ditch, and I also knew it wasn’t so far right as to go out of bounds.
I found it. It was behind the old lady’s teeing ground from hole #10, the one that was used when it was a par four, and I was facing a downhill, sidehill lie for my pitch. The tree to the right of the temporary green was in my way, but it wasn’t too bad. I did my new open stance pitch, and my ball was slightly pulled, which was good to avoid the tree even more. It bounced a few times before it stopped in the taller clover.
They had mowed the temporary green a little bigger, I could tell, but I was still just off the green in the thick stuff. I chose to putt from there, and I remembered that I really needed to putt through the ball since the green is not really a green at all, more like a fairway with a hole cut into it. My ball bumped and then rolled, curving from right to left until the stick got in the way. It clacked against it and fell in. That’s twice I’ve scored birdies on this temporary green.
Hidden Valley Golf Course-Hole #18-Birdie #17 of 2014
My drive was similar to the one on #11, but it felt even longer. I made solid contact. It faded/sliced towards the left side of the fairway, but it got hung up in the taller grass. For my approach, I had to swing down and through the ball again since it was also a downhill lie. I chose my 8-iron, which was not enough to make it, but I had to get it over the right side of the cottonwood over there and just do my best to get it close.
The hole was near the front of the green and in the middle. My ball made it over the cottonwood, but it was well short of the green. I had a pitch of about thirty yards or so. I made another smooth pitch, and my ball landed just short of the green and bounced up and on, stopping below the hole only four feet away. I made sure to get it to the hole since it was an uphill putt, and I listened to it fall in. These two birdies helped the poor play during the rest of the round, but not by much. I still would always rather have a consistent round with a lower score than a couple of birdies and a higher score.
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