Short Game Fun Practice at Home and at the Course

Written on 4-11-21.

        It’s a Sunday at the Masters and the Swope house, and I have just come back from church at Holy Trinity.  Danielle is leaving today for Boise, so I wanted to be here when she drives away for her fourth fire season.  Seems like it was just a few days ago that she had arrived home after staying at James’s house first.  

On to golf…

I’ve really enjoyed our new putting green.  I made my first hole-in-one immediately after the crew drove away.  It was my eighth pitch, and it rolled back into the hole after landing past it by a few feet.  Of course, I had no witnesses, but I did take a picture of the golf ball in the hole to send to C.J., because he wanted to know when...

I had my first one.

Eric made the second hole-in-one when we played short game games a couple of days later.  His pitch stopped at a point past that hole, and when we walked down to putt, the ball disappeared.  We were a little bewildered at first, but then we figured out that it must have rolled backwards into the hole like mine did on the first day.  

Then I got the third one yesterday.  Eric, Amanda, and Jess came over to have one last dinner with Danielle before she starts her next adventure, and Eric and I played some more games together, of course.  Jim and Sylvia came by to check out the new landscaping and to wish Danielle their best, and Jim noticed that my shot rolled back into the hole, so I had my witness for that one.  

It’s been great to have Eric make a return to golf.  He has had his first lesson with Luke, we got our handicaps started up again, and we played our first full round at Pinon Hills, too.  

We have battled each other since his return, but we have struggled to figure out our fledgling golf games.  It’s like we are beginning again.  We played our first round together on the last day of March, and we also played the front nine last Thursday.  Eric and I have played many short game games, too, both here at home and at the golf course.  I have bested him on the course, but he is just getting things figured out after his lesson.

Eric surprised me by setting up a game at the small practice green near the driving range at the golf course.  He lined up 18 “holes” with two balls each, and we played a “closer to the pin” game from every “hole.”  I managed to get that win by earning nine holes to his seven.  We both chunked our chips on the other two holes.  Some of them were quite difficult, but we managed to at least get our balls on the green on those.

We’ve been very competitive on the new green as well.  The first time we played he won two, and then I won the next two.  Last night, I won the two, and then he evened it up before it got dark.  All of those years Eric has taken his break from golf, and here we are…right back to taking turns beating each other.

Of course, I want to beat him more often than he beats me, so I am continuing my single plane journey.  I decided to end my Gold Membership and focus on working on my swing and improving it myself again by matching the model.  After I sent in my second to last video of my full swing, Paul Tessler told me multiple times that I was getting closer.  I just need to rotate more than I am, and I will mostly have it.  Before I ended my membership, I quickly recorded the videos where I felt I would get the most help.  I recorded chipping, pitching, address position (with proper grip), and full swing videos.  Now, the work continues without the personal feedback.  The feedback and the drills I have gotten so far have been invaluable, and they have expedited my single plane education.  I have everything I need to refine what I have learned and continue my improvement on my own for a while.  

The last video I sent in was of me preloading my right side.  That video showed the best matching of the model with my follow-through that I have seen so far.  My head stays in the same general area until impact, my trail foot stays down, and I almost lock in my lead knee in the right position.  Trent White gave me feedback on that one, and he wasn’t sure if that was what I was doing (preloading), but he gave me feedback for both possibilities.  He agreed, too, that if I was preloading my swing, it was looking very close to the single plane model.  

B and I go to Phoenix this week after I work at Twin Lakes, and I plan on bringing my clubs.  Kyle wants to go play golf, but I don’t know if we will have the time.  I will bring all of my training equipment, and I will do my best to get the use out of all of it.  I am just looking forward to seeing his house.

After stopping at his house, we will take him (and Pawz) to go see Char and Ed in Ajo.  It’s been eleven years (according to Shutterfly) that I have been there, so it will be cool to go see all of the changes and the properties that they have been working on.