Ravenous Bugblatter Beast
Deep in thought
- Sep 6, 2005
- 1,189
- 0
84 days after the last time I had gone golfing, I rented a cart to take me and my recovering leg around the course. Nice weather at around 11:30 AM, temps climbing towards 60, sunshine and a bit of wind. A challenge was immediately presented to me as 3 gentlemen had already teed off, and the starter asked me to join them.
In front of 4 onlookers, I would have to take my first real rip and full swing at a tiny ball perched atop a tee. So much could go wrong, but I tried to keep my thoughts simple -- put the ball on the tee, stand back, take a couple of short practice swings with feet together, move forward a bit, adjust feet to the position as suggested by Hogan for a driver, check the feel of my grip, waggle a couple of times, and go.
Bam, not my hardest hit ever, a little bit conservative being mindful of the ankle, but a solid strike with a light fade and down the middle of the fairway. I looked at it go, smiled and bent down to grab my tee.
It didn't end up being my best day out on the course, or even what I would have considered solid play from tee to green. Shot 95, due some to the wind that began blowing later on over the last 12 holes. But mostly because my short game was absent of any feel I had developed for it over the course of last year. I estimate that due to putting and short game difficulties that I dropped at least 10 strokes that could have been saved.
Still, I was rather amazed that the full swing had survived so well over the time of no play or practice whatsoever. I only had 3 bad ones where I chewed up more turf than ball. By and large I hit the ball straight, if not as far as I would like, but again mostly due to be cautious about really driving through the rotation around the spine and turning hard on the left ankle.
So hopefully I'll be able to work on getting back into the swing of things, and work on putting the 5 lessons of Hogan into breaking 80 sometime this year.
Things that need to get done:
-- get back to doing some stretching for some more flexibility.
-- as ankle improves, work on getting fuller rotation and some more distance
-- short game, short game, short game. Need to practice it and restore feel I had been developing
-- putting, especially on the ones 10 feet and in. Practice and get confidence with those again
In front of 4 onlookers, I would have to take my first real rip and full swing at a tiny ball perched atop a tee. So much could go wrong, but I tried to keep my thoughts simple -- put the ball on the tee, stand back, take a couple of short practice swings with feet together, move forward a bit, adjust feet to the position as suggested by Hogan for a driver, check the feel of my grip, waggle a couple of times, and go.
Bam, not my hardest hit ever, a little bit conservative being mindful of the ankle, but a solid strike with a light fade and down the middle of the fairway. I looked at it go, smiled and bent down to grab my tee.
It didn't end up being my best day out on the course, or even what I would have considered solid play from tee to green. Shot 95, due some to the wind that began blowing later on over the last 12 holes. But mostly because my short game was absent of any feel I had developed for it over the course of last year. I estimate that due to putting and short game difficulties that I dropped at least 10 strokes that could have been saved.
Still, I was rather amazed that the full swing had survived so well over the time of no play or practice whatsoever. I only had 3 bad ones where I chewed up more turf than ball. By and large I hit the ball straight, if not as far as I would like, but again mostly due to be cautious about really driving through the rotation around the spine and turning hard on the left ankle.
So hopefully I'll be able to work on getting back into the swing of things, and work on putting the 5 lessons of Hogan into breaking 80 sometime this year.
Things that need to get done:
-- get back to doing some stretching for some more flexibility.
-- as ankle improves, work on getting fuller rotation and some more distance
-- short game, short game, short game. Need to practice it and restore feel I had been developing
-- putting, especially on the ones 10 feet and in. Practice and get confidence with those again
