Golf Central I

This will serve as a quick way to both let you know the state of my golf game, which I have set out to improve tremendously over past years (see my post "Go to a Happy Place"), as well as be something of a personal journal for me to see if I've indeed made the desired improvements in my game. I'll most likely post updates monthly so I can have enough rounds of driving range and time on courses to assess my progress.

Driving/Fairway Woods: Like many golfers, it seems to depend on the day as to whether I'm having a good day with the big sticks. If I just recently worked out primarily my arms/upper body, it will make my shots look a little different than hitting balls not following a recent workout; thus, I might have to adjust mid-round. As they are a couple years past their prime, I am certainly looking to upgrade my clubs. Nevertheless, this does not excuse any poor execution of the golf swing. More practice sessions are certainly a must if I want to develop long shots that are at least somewhat consistently finding fairways.

Irons: My iron play has been relatively solid, aside from a few mishits once in a while. Like my longer clubs, working out and other factors on my physical condition will affect the shape of my particular shot when I'm just trying to hit straight toward a target. Aside from possibly my hybrids, I have no need to upgrade my irons just yet, as I don't believe the money I would have to spend to purchase a new set of irons is not yet at the point of giving my iron play a sizeable advantage in yardage over my current set. In addition, regripping my irons has greatly helped me get my club to where it needs to be in the full swing; it is a very noticeable difference compared with the clubs I did not have gripped (putter, woods, hybrids). All in all, I would evaluate my iron game as serviceable, but always in need of renovation so I can more routinely hit the areas of fairways and greens that I am swinging for.

Short Game: For the most part, I have developed a decent touch from about 70 yards in toward the green; more practice will assist me further in gauging the requisite club length for varying shot distances. What would also vastly help my game is the acquisition of one or two higher-degreed irons than my pitching wedge (at least a sand wedge) that could decrease the roll on these shorter shots and thereby hopefully increase my accuracy. My chipping game has been pretty solid as well. Being able to roll the ball close enough to the hole where I at least have makeable up-and-down putts has been a part of my game I have practiced the most, and I think I am seeing some good results on the course. Even still, this does not give me a reason to lay off working on this part of my game.
The most glaring current weakness in my game is my putting stroke. Star basketball players like Kobe Bryant and Ray Allen shoot essentially an infinite amount of shots to prepare themselves for showtime; I feel this is the best way to not only develop a consistent putting stroke from a variety of distances, but also determine what kind of grip, stance, etc., is perfect for me. Since my last time on a course, I spent some time on the putting surface and reworked my grip and my putting stroke. We'll see by the next Golf Central update whether it's boosted my game to the level of difference-maker!

Overall: Each of these elements of my game has contributed to what overall has been a somewhat inconsistent start to my summer goal of making myself what I believe is a good golfer. As far as I can remember, I am scoring better and losing fewer balls (added bonus!) than I have at this point in previous years. Despite this, plenty of work needs to be done if I want to get to levels I never thought I would fully reach before. As they say in the Department of Redundancy Department, repetition, repetition, repetition.