The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer

When we last left the goofy game of golf yours truly was brimming with confidence after a 2 over par 75 at Rolling Acre, where I felt I was getting some momentum to my game. Last Wednesday dawned bright and beautiful and after some morning obligations, I headed out to Indian Run for a noon tee off. Just to prove how goofy this game is, as if I don’t already know, the day was a disaster. I thrashed and 3 putted my way to a nice big 84. Pulled drive, wrong club selection, chunked pitch, 3 putt, and wrong club and 3 putt, led to a 7 over start after 5 holes. I righted ship ball striking after that, but the putter kept the score soaring. The road to and from Indian Run is very winding, and its a good thing I had a passenger in the car because it would have been real tempting just to drive in a straight line and see what would have happened. The next day I went back to the scene of the crime and with some improved ball striking all day and slightly improved putting I managed a 78. Today at Village Green, a tougher track I shot 77, with the putter not my friend again. The big impovement the last 2 rounds has been in driving the golf ball. I started to hit down on the ball with the driver. Because the ball is teed up high I do not take a divot but hitting the ball on a slightly descending blow with the driver really seemed to help. You will hear commentators on TV talk about this some, when you hear them talk about hitting the trap draw with the driver. The old school way of hitting the ball with the driver is to feel you are hitting ball at the bottom of the arc or slightly on the upswing. I still do this if I want the drive to be fairly high when the wind is at your back. Trying to hit the ball on a slighly descending blow with the driver, I had two things happen that seemed to help my accuracy off the tee. I had a much lower ball flight and I rarely went left with the shot. I saw no decline in distance, in fact I think a gain 5 or 10 yards at times. I will see how this works in future weeks. The other thing that was of interest this week is that it seems the chip yips are gradually going away. I know, this sounds goofy but check out the title of the blog. The last 12 holes today the putting was at least mediocre and I played the last 12 holes 2 over. What will next week bring, God only knows. I do know the goofiness will continue.