Yesterday I wrapped up the weekend with 36 holes, playing both of my home courses at LPGA International. I shot a 75 in the morning round with the members group. Again, tee shots were hurting me as I struggled with my control. Also again, I took a few unnecessary risks and paid for them. There's a bit of a recurring theme there. By the end of the round I realized that throughout the round I heard a lot of comments from the others in the group along the lines of "great save" - meaning I made a putt to save par after being in some kind of trouble on my 3rd shot.
But that was one of the positives of the day - this putting visualization thing I've started doing is flat out amazing. It's like I went to Target and got a new mental game. It's not that I'm perfect every putt, but my confidence went from zero to hero in a matter of days, and it's showing on the greens.
In the afternoon I played the Legends course and shot a 76. The round was a little messy, the greens were still bumpy from the aerification, and as the round progressed I was definitely showing signs of fatigue. Either way I was relatively happy with my play. My drives started to straighten out as I realized my grip was getting too strong and I was letting my swing get a little too flat and around my body, ultimately leading me to spinning out a bit on the downswing instead of shifting my weight left... all of which ultimately led to a big inside-out angle with a closed clubface to produce a big draw and/or hook depending on timing.
This evening after work I hit some balls at the range to work the hooks out my system. I worked on three things for it:
- Better posture - straightened the upper back a bit between the shoulder blades to promote a better and more stable shoulder turn, stood up a little more in my legs, and made sure I was bending at my hips instead of rounding my back. I didn't notice anything specific with regards to better ballstriking, but the swing felt much more efficient.
- More down-the-line with the backswing - This is more of a feel I try to get, but basically in addition to the feeling of my shoulders and arms staying in their position for the first 18" of my backswing, I try to get the feeling that my hands are moving down a straight line and up into my shoulders in the backswing. I worked on this feeling some to get away from coming too inside on the backswing, which leads to me coming back over the top on the downswing or getting stuck with my hands behind my body.
- Weight shift - I worked on getting my weight to my left side as I start my downswing. The feel here is that I'm not turning my body as I start to bring the club down. In reality I am, but I'm allowing my arms and hands to get down on-plane from my left weight shift for the turn really kicks in.
Afterwards I worked on chipping and bunker shots. I was a little off with chipping today, but I think it was because I was getting worn out mentally between the work day and the practice.
I finished with putting. I didn't have a single mechanical thought today while putting, which was great. I only spent 15 minutes on the putting green but felt like I got better in those 15 minutes than I did in an hour with the kind of practice I used to do (more mechanical). I did a lot of the same types of putting drills I typically do - work from all kinds of angles anywhere from 3' to 10' away - but instead of thinking about how I was putting, I practiced my visualization and ability to maintain that focus every putt. By this point I knew I was mentally worn out from the day and that it would be a challenge, but I saw that as good practice for maintaining concentration throughout the round. While I made mistakes, I was very pleased with my putting practice today.
Overall it was a good, short practice (about 1.5 hours). Tomorrow if I can get out of work on time I'm going to try to get 9 holes in since Wednesday I'll be limited in what I can do to prep for the weekend tournament since we're driving down to West Palm that evening.
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