Back from vacation and back to the golf grind. Five rounds of golf played with one of those a scramble, and little progress to report. The four individual rounds ranged from a low of 75 to a high of 82. Again trying to make this game 100 % Mental is turning out to be way harder than expected. When you are trying to improve, which we are all trying to do, it is just about impossible to not try and tinker with some part of the swing. I even brought back the old shoulder control swing for about 33 holes but abandoned that again. The address position thing I was doing is gone. Despite by being unhappy at times with my ball striking, my lack of scoring comes down to one big work this year.
PUTTING. Despite my problems on the greens, which there are many, I am still able to keep my index in the low 4’s, with the latest on the 15th 4.2. I am just not getting the ball into the hole. The first thing I am going to change is what I do with the flagstick. I have left it in for all putts this year. Overall I think it helps you more than hurts but after doing it all year, I think there are two points that all the flagstick testers are missing. All flagsticks are not created equal. I play a variety of courses and I feel there is a difference on how some flagsticks receive a ball. I do not think there is a standard diameter for flagsticks, but even if I am wrong, I am not sure golf courses follow it totally anyway. There is no question the hole looks bigger with the flagstick out. 100% Mental just kicked in. It goes back to that old Ken Venturi saying that I have quoted before. If the flagstick is out he trying to make the chip, and if he leaves the flagstick in the hole, then he is just trying to get it close. So, on any putt under 30 feet, I am taking the flag out the rest of the season. Longer putts I will decide on a case by case basis. Sounds pretty serious doesn’t it. The second thing I am going to do is try to make the most natural stroke for me that I can, and not use any particular method. The thing that got me out of my slump in 2017, and improved my putting immensely, was when I started to let my body move on putts. Since then, I have gone back and forth on this method over this 2 year period. The problem is trying to make your body move on putts, is as bad as trying to keep it still on putts. It distracts you from keeping your focus on making the putt. We will see how this all goes in the coming weeks.
By now you see that the blog has a little different look and a slight change in the title of the site. Since I am beginning to see that I am not going to find the answer after 9 years, I have decided to write about other subjects, that are near and dear to my heart. They are Meditation, Food, Sports, and I will continue to write about Golf and the quest to find the answer. Even though I feel I won’t find the answer I am not giving up either. I will be playing about 4 times this week and we will see how it goes.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 