Phoenix City Amateur 2009 - Round 1

Round 1 of the even is played at Encanto, arguably the worst course in the rotation. Par 70 and one of those city courses that is showing it's age. Didn't like it last year, definitely don't like it this year. Here we go!

My man Rob Brauer looped it for me this day, very much appreciated. My first tournament back, so it's nice to have someone along with me to keep me from getting too frustrated. First hole is a dogleg left reachable par 5, hit a horrendous weak heeled cut into the left rough, in an open spot between some palm trees. I was going to hit hybrid but Rob talked me into a 5 iron which I pured to 73 yards. Hit a nifty little one hop, zip pitch to about 6 inches for an opening birdie. I pulled 3 wood on the 322 yard 2nd, left me 80 yards over the greenside bunker, thinned it like a bitch and put it deep over the green under a tree. Fantastic pitch to about 5 feet but missed the putt and made bogey. 195 yard 3rd, a hair downwind and hit a terrible 5 iron into the bunker, poor bunker shot to about 15 feet and missed that putt for 2 bogeys in a row. Driver down the right side on 4, still left me 160 yards, pin cut over the bunker. I hit a good 7 iron dead into the heart of the green, should have been fine, instead it hits the back edge and hops nearly up onto the 5th tee, yikes. About 15 yards farther in the air than we were counting on, bad hop on the pitch left me about 6 feet for par, which I pulled, 3 bogeys in a row. Yay.

Fatted a 4 iron to nearly pin high on the 195 yard fifth hole, chipped it to about 2 feet and made the putt for my first par of the day. Perfect driver on 6, left me 117 yards, GW is at home so I hit a soft PW, chunked and pulled pin high left, aggressive chip shot past the hole, miss the putt, bogey. 9 iron on the 132 yard 7th, but it got hung up in the wind, left me about 30 feet, great putt that nearly went in but made par. Hit a good tee shot on 8, 569 yard par 5, solid 3 wood about 60 yards short of the green, time for a nice tight little pitch. Yeah, ahem. 35 feet past the hole, like a surgeon! Cozied the birdie putt to a foot and made par. Hit a good tee shot up the right side of 9, OB left, OB right. I said "the hell with it" and just swung hard. Ended up in the right rough in some casual water, got an iffy lie from the drop and fatted 7 iron to the fringe, pin in front. Rob and I surveyed it and he confirmed it will bounce right on the first hop, had him remove the stick and promptly dunked it, just made the putting surface. Wow. Solid 2 putt bogey from there for a front nine 39, 4 over.

10 is a 304 yard par 4, pin just over the bunker so I hit it down the left side, nearly pin high, about 30 yards left of the green. Hit another wonderful pitch to the center of the green, a mere 25 feet away. Rob says "ok, good shot, center of the green, let's go make the putt". "Fuck you Rob" I replied, there wasn't an ounce of sincerity in that comment. Smartass. Oh yeah, 2 putt par. Time to make something happen, 161 yard par 3 eleventh, pin is back left, we pull a full 7. Ummm, I nearly got "el hosel" dead right, clanked off the fence that lines OB and settled it in between 2 palm trees. Couldn't have asked for a better lie. Pitch to about 15 feet and missed the putt, bogey. 541 yard par five 12th hole, hit a good tee shot up the right side, Rob calls for the 3 wood at the left side of the green, if it fades then awesome. Oh it faded, and hopped and skipped and rode the cart path around nearly pin high. Took a drop into a shitty lie, came out soft and short, too aggressive with the chip shot about 6 feet by and missed it and made another bogey.

Hit a beautiful cut driver off of 13, playing for a hook of course. Actually had an open shot, 9 iron out of the rough and stabbed it, ended up short of pin high left, chipped that to about an inch and finally made another par. 14 is a great hole, 219 yard par 3, playing a bit back into the wind, and I hit a gorgeous cut hybrid, Rob yells "I love it!" as it's in the air. Ballooned a bit and landed short of the green, oh man did that look good for a minute. Pitched to about 4 feet with the lob wedge, Rob and I decided on a read and it never broke. Bogey. Hit what I thought was a very solid tee shot on 15, of course on of the guys in my group hit it FIFTY yards past me. 4 iron to the front left corner about 20 feet away and made an uneventful up and down par. Another good tee shot on 16, solid 6 iron to about 20 feet below the hole. Knew I had this read right, and I was rewarded with a 3 foot par putt remaining. Nice read jackass. Solid tee shot on 17, left me a bit more than a comfortable 8 iron, but when in doubt, hit it hard. Dunked it into the left bunker, short sided, out to 8 feet and missed the putt. 18 is a dogleg left par 4 with OB right, hit a smoked driver over the trees and around the corner to 88 yards. Then put my SW over the back left corner of the green. Up and down for par, which kept me from shooting everyone in sight. Another 39 for a 78 on a par 70 city course, who's the man now? Not me. God I hate this golf course...

Phoenix City Amateur event

I played in the Phoenix City Amateur over the past 2 weekends, just now getting around to posting the details of the rounds. They probably won't all be posted at once, but they are coming...

Posted a new video

I have a new video here on the page and on the YouTube/paperhogan page. Jeff and I were working on 3/4 shots focused on swing path at the ball to fight the pull. Wow is that on plane! Very happy with how that's turned out.

Another overdue update

Been a long time again, main reason I haven't posted is I've been fighting it really bad. I haven't played very well for a while, really poor contact, and I've been struggling mightily to score well. I've also been fighting an over the top pull move, been really hard to shake it. I've been having weekly lessons with Jeff and I am finally starting to see some improvement. Here's an update from just today. Here we go!

Played Las Colinas again, ended up playing the front twice so we could get it all in. Started on #1, 555 from the way back tee, but they were up about 20 yards today. Great tee shot down the middle, left me with 205 in, pin was way up front and I hit a dead straight 4 iron, no cut, just short of pin high left, pitch shot died in the fringe and I missed the 8 footer but made an easy par. Bombed it on #2, 373 yard par 4, probably playing 350 or so today. Had about 30 yards in (tee shot landed on a downslope, so not all me unfortunately). Pin is in between 2 swales, ended up about 8 feet behind the hole, chickened out and left it short, easy 4. 403 yard par 4 third, hit a bit of a hook and got a good hard bounce, in the left rough but only about 80 yards to the back left pin, I actually hit a 6 yard cut with a 3/4 SW (that's pretty tough to do, and no, it wasn't intentional), hit and spun right, about 15 feet away. Missed that putt for another easy 4. 444 yard par four 4th (that's a lot of fours). Blocked the tee shot a bit, had 155 left to the front right pin, into a breeze so I hit 6 iron, pulled it and hit the backside of a hump on the left side of the green, bounced over the path, ended up about 15 yards left and long. Hit a GREAT pitch to about 4 feet and missed it. I guess there really were too many fours on that hole.

Number 5 is a 532 yard par 5, hit what felt like a whimpy tee shot, but ended up 212 yards to the center. Hit my new 19 degree hybrid a bit heavy, landed middle left of the green and bounced into the fringe. Chipped that to about 2 feet and made birdie to get back to even. Sixth is a 186 yard par 3, playing only 167 to the hole, hit a hard 7 and pulled it, pin high left in the fringe. Hit the first putt up the hill and left it about five feet short, and missed the par putt. Gave it right back. Number 7 is a 339 yard driveable par 4 that I have never driven. Why I hit driver here I'll never understand, but I hit driver, about 15 yards short of the green, pin is right in front, slopes severely away from you, of course I end up 20 feet past. Missed the putt low but made par. Eighth is playing 181 yards, hit a pulled 5 iron pin high left, great pitch shot to 3 feet and made it for par. Number 9 is a 380 yard par 4, huge fairway, just licking my chops, and hit it dead in the heel. Stopped just short of the left fairway bunker, 120 yards left to the back left pin, took about 14 pounds of dirt with the fattest wedge ever, somehow made it into the middle of the green, two putt par.

We teed off on 10 back into the first fairway, had about exactly the same yardage in as before, so I hit 4 iron again. Not real solid, ended up just short in the fringe. Very bold with the chip shot and ran it past the hole into the fringe about 6 feet away, but made the putt for birdie to get back to even. Back on #2 again, wanted to hit this one extra hard, pull hooked it, got a really good bounce and ended up 80 yards away. If I'd have been 3" left of where I ended up I wouldn't have had a backswing due to the tree there, but as luck would have it, I was fine. I hit it 81 yards in the air, and got zero spin, ball kept running to the back part of the green. Hit the first putt and it immediately started hopping, you could hear it hitting the rocks and dirt on the green that I didn't see previously, about 5 feet short. To say my par putt was a pathetic attempt would be too kind, 3 putt bogey, gave it right back again.

Hit the middle of the fairway on #3 this time, and ended up in a 2" deep divot (you know, they give you sand to fill in your divots right?). 121 yards to the back left pin, pulled a 9 iron knowing I'd have to just punch it, but got a little too steep with it and ended up short. Hit a great pitch to about 2 feet and made it for par. Here's #4 again 444 yards, I decide I'm going to cut the corner, and I did, left myself 105 yards to the middle. Now, when I say "cut the corner" I didn't picture hitting a smothered hook that somehow missed all the trees and left me in the middle of the fairway, but I'll take it. A bit uphill and a little breeze, so I chose GW, and hit it like shit. But all is not lost folks, somehow that horrible feeling GW ended up 6 feet left of the hole, will wonders never cease. Downhill left to right, hit it just outside the left edge and it never moved. Amazing. No matter, par 5 coming up...

Hit another of basically the same tee shots on the par 5 fifth again, didn't feel all that good, but my ball ended up within 2 feet of where it was the first time around. This time I hit my hybrid perfectly on line, even though there was a good chance it would go over. As it turns out, the ball landed 8" right of the cup, on a downslope, and I end up in this barren, dirt patch over the green. Somehow I got that heavy and left it about 12 feet short. I really wanted this putt and had a muscle spasm (not good timing) and blew it 8 feet by the hole. I was too busy laughing at that poor attempt and never even really tried to make this ridiculous downhill right to left par putt. I of course immediately started to care after I made bogey to go 2 over now. Yay me. Ass. Hit 7 iron again on six, big sweeping hook this time instead of a pull, ended up in nearly the identical spot. Only came up 3 feet short this time (ass), but made the putt for par. Ok, back to #7, remember when I said I can't remember why I hit driver here? Well fool me once...you know the drill. I'm no dummy. So I hit driver again...no, I can't explain why, and put it about 10 yards short this time. Guess where my pitch shot ended up? Yep, 20 feet past the hole, missed it low, tap in par. This is getting repetitive.

I should have mentioned that by now the two of us had caught up to a single (yep, that's right) on #7. He took his sweet time filling in his divot, putting, putting the flagstick away. Ok, he's not used to seeing other people out here this late, he'll get it in gear. So we get to the 8th tee (17 for the day) and Mr. PGA (who had just gone off the tips mind you) was about 60 yards short of the green (par 3, 181 yards). He's plumb bobbing from 60 yards short, behind a tree. Surely this can't be real. After what seems like an eternity, he puts it 20 yards right of the green. From 60 yards. After plumb bobbing it. Ahem. Ok, well we're waiting now, so he'll kick it in gear. Yeah, not so much. Same drill, plumb bob, practice swing, step back to make sure he's lined up, plumb bob it again, then he goes back to the cart to get a different club. There is a twosome behind you, and you are switching clubs after a 90 second pre-shot routine and you are lying 3 on a par 3. Move it dude. So, new club, pre-shot routine again, he misses the green. From 20 yards. After missing it from 60. So he pulls the cart to his ball (about 15 yards from where he was) and goes through the whole damn routine again. Chip shot from 5 yards off the back of the green, survey says...short. So let's see, missed the green from 181, 60, 20 and 5. You have a twosome waiting for no bullshit, 5 minutes for you to play this hole, and it's getting dark. Time to pick up? No. Ben Crenshaw himself has never gathered as much information on a putt that this man is gathering. I'll spare you the details of this pre-shot routine, and the two additional ones that accompanied his 3 putt, and just tell you that he made, let me count...7 on the par 3, with no water, no bunkers, no penalty shots, just raw talent, from the tips, with a group waiting behind him the entire time. Bitter, party of 1, your table is ready...

Ok, so after waiting for at least 8 minutes on a single, I hit a fat 5 iron (yay me again!) that somehow, inexplicably ends up 8 feet left of the hole. Mmmmkay. Left it dead in the heart short, totally my fault. You see, just before I was going to pull the putter back, I thought I should step back and plumb bob it just to piss off my friend, but I kept it inside and laughed and smiled and forgot to hit it. 8 footer for birdie short? Yeah, a little pathetic. Get to #9, last hole, I'm going to bomb it. Nope, hit it in the heel again, this time into the right rough. 125 yards to the back right hole, over a bunker, no problem, I'll hit it fatter than I did from the left side and leave it just short of the bunker. Words cannot describe...so the pin is back right, I've got 8 feet of green to work with and a bunker between me and the hole. As I walk up I notice a small hump to the right of the hole, and figure that's a good spot to land it into to stop it. Hit a nifty little pitch right into that hump, one hop and stop, then just trickles out to the hole, ends up 8" away for a tidy closing par.

2 over 74 on the day, nothing exciting but no big numbers either. Finally hitting the ball out of my own shadow, which felt really good. I've got some impact position and swing path issues to work on in order to get the ball started on line properly and finally get rid of this pull. I'm going to practice for 4 hours or so tomorrow, no playing tomorrow at all. I'll see if I can get out Sunday. Not pleased with the score overall as I just give every damn birdie right back, but it's a hell of a lot better than I've been playing. One other note, the last couple of days I've actually gotten the slightest bit of soreness in my right shoulder, which for anyone who missed it, I just had surgery on back in September. We'll see how that goes, especially after a good practice session tomorrow. I have an appointment with my surgeon in April for a follow up, so I'll be able to get an x-ray and some face time with him to discuss. Until next time!

Breakthrough day with Jeff Ritter

I've been fighting a very pronounced upright swing tendency that I developed over the years after never having seen an instructor. For a glimpse of how bad it was, check this out...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Pwp3a0Z4hg. Jeff and I had gotten it fairly manageable, but I was always fighting it. I'd come back after a few weeks away and the first thing he'd say is "a little flatter, more laid off". God I'm sick of hearing that. But I work my ass off to keep it under control, it needs to happen to get us down the path.

Well today I come in for a lesson, after just butchering what progress I'd made over the past few weeks in a single practice session yesterday. The wind was blowing from the left, I was on the right side of the range, and I grooved an outside of the ball path like nobody's business. Figures, I can't groove anything Jeff teaches me but give me an hour unsupervised and I can chisel bad technique in stone. After warming up and hitting a few, Jeff immediately takes me inside, which was odd because we usually don't go capture video all the time, and certainly not right at the beginning of the session. I know better than to question him so I went along for the ride.

First thing out of his mouth was a change to my takeaway. Now if you saw in the first video, I used to take it WAY outside, a self taught method of what I thought would be a way to keep the club from coming across the line at the top. For those who didn't watch the video, let's just say it didn't help. Well it turns out I might have been on the right track. Jeff changed my takeaway from pushing back with the hands and arms (one piece takeaway ring a bell?) to "almost" kind of cocking my wrists in order to get the club more on plane as the club goes back. I was starting to get a bit inside, causing the next move to be up, which causes the across the line move. So by taking it outside (it's not really outside, it looks like it a hair, but camera angles can fool you a bit) just a shade the next move is a flattening motion. I go through a few takeaways to get down what he's saying and hit a ball. Jeff says "hmmm, that's interesting", which typically doesn't mean anything good.

Turns out, I was laid off at the top, a lot. Holy shit, I laid it off and got it on video? No way! So we take a few more, I must have hit I don't know, 20-30 balls, every single one of them was spot on at the top of the swing. Flat, behind me, not across the line, and not laid off, just, I mean absolutely where we've been wanting it. Here's the kicker, before I was always concentrating on laying it off, now I'm not even thinking about it. I went outside after we were done and hit a ball, threw my club in the air and walked back inside. I said "Jeff, I don't normally do this, but I just wanted to tell you that I fucking nutted it, I mean perfect."

I hit 15 -20 more outside before heading out, and they weren't all perfect from a ball flight perspective, but a change like this doesn't exactly take in 30 minutes. I can say that the swing plane has nearly "stuck" with me. I shot some video in my basement this evening just to see if I was still on track, and 6 out of 6 swings were again, perfect at the top of the swing. I'm beside myself right now. I've been working at this for well over a year, and now it's almost automatic, I'm not even thinking about it. A very small change made a dramatic difference today.

Here's the video from today's session. No audio, just a repeat of the swing about 10,000 times so I can just sit here and stare at it. Today is a good day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r87162WKO8M

Played 9 holes, where did this come from?

So as I said last time, I'm done waiting. Hell, I'm only 8 days away from my follow up visit to the surgeon again (should be the last one). He stated that by this visit I should be back 100%. I've been practicing pretty hard and have had several lessons with Jeff in the past few weeks. Met up with a friend of mine and his son this past Sunday and played the back nine in the cold ass rain, here we go! (Been waiting a looooong time to say that again!)

Started out on #10, 426 yard dogleg right par 4 and SNAP HOOK, hit the downslope and made it into the lake at the corner. Crapola, welcome back. Took a drop and hit fat 4 iron about 10 yards short. Pitched it into the bank and instead of a one hop and stop it took 3, left me about 6 feet left to right down the hill for bogey, which I made. Nice bogey dude, wow. #11 is a 188 yard par 3, pin all the way back, hit 4 iron to the middle left of the green, hit the first putt down the hill, down down down down, about 8 feet by. Nice read, canned that for par. Interesting.

#12 is a 541 yard par 5, tee was up a bit though, hit a great tee shot down the right side into what is normally a chute that runs down the hill but with the wet conditions, it went nowhere. I'm right at 245 to the middle stick and promptly fatted a 3 wood about 25 yards short, on fire. There's a big backstop behind the stick as it's on the bottom of the 2 tiers, so I think "I should skid this in there and run it back down the slope" and I'll be damned if I didn't pull it off. Made the 3 footer for birdie, back to even after 3 holes. Thirteen is a 396 yard par 4 that never plays that far, and I just got a 19 degree Titleist hybrid for Christmas, pured that thing to the left side of the fairway, leaving myself 117 yards to the front pin. Since I just got the hybrid, I had to pull a club out, which of course was my gap wedge, which would have been perfect here. I decide on a little punch wedge but pulled it up on top of the slope left of the green. Now I've got a ridiculous downhiller through 4 feet of fringe to a pin cut what looks like 6 inches on, on a slope that is tilted about 20 degrees, crazy pin. Hit that 8 feet by, couldn't really expect any better for short siding myself, canned that one for par too.

14 is playing 151 yards to the stick, just over the bunker. I nearly whiffed a fatted 8 iron (in the cold too, that HURT), ended up pin high left, about 12 feet below the surface of the green, about 5 feet of green to work with. Hit a nifty pitch that landed in the fringe and ran out to 2 inches short, dead in the heart. I thought for sure that was in. Wow. 15 is a 535 yard par 5, again the tee is up a bit, good tee shot down the left side, but ended up in the left rough on a downslope. I have 210 in with a nasty lie, hey that's what they make hybrids for right? Didn't hit it all that well, but you really can't hit a bad shot with a hybrid, it hooked back into the fairway and when I got to the green I see I made it on the front, about 30 feet short. Missed the eagle putt (on the high side mind you) by no more than 3 inches, birdie to get to 1 under.

Blocked my tee shot on the 390 yard 16th into some trees and rough, but plenty of room to get out. I'm left with 110 yards (hey, great shot for a GW no? dammit...), it's a bit downwind so I pull SW, but no, leave it about 30 feet short. How this putt missed I have no idea, just turned right at the last possible second, tap in par. 17 is playing 151 yards (just like 14) so I decide to hit a better 8 iron. Well, it wasn't fat. Way out on the toe, comes up about 8 yards short left, hit what I thought was a too soft pitch but it bounced hard out of the fringe somehow and ended up about 8 feet past the hole. I surveyed the putt over and over and played it left edge, ended up 18 inches right of the hole, great read jackass, back to even.

18 is a 420 yard par 4, HUGE tree in the middle of the fairway, pin is left so I take the right alley and busted it good. Left me with 114 yards to the pin (anyone seen my GW? Oh yeah, it's in the trunk of my car...) so I decide on another little cutesie wedge, which I fatted to about 5 yards short of the green. Well, I've been chipping and pitching good during my practice sessions, so let's make good use of it. Pretty straightforward shot and hit it clean, viola, chipped it in for birdie, back to 1 under. Will wonders never cease?

We turn to go back down the front but there's quite a few players out and it's backed up so we call it a day. It's sort of official from a USGA standpoint as the 9 hole score counts, but most of all it was me back out on a golf course again. Pretty damn happy about getting the first tee shot wet and still keeping it all together. Just a friendly round but I was surprisingly calm throughout the day, never worried about making a put, hitting it offline, not scared of trouble / OB, just "played" and it felt great. It's great to be back!

Sick of waiting, done waiting...

I practiced for about an hour today, absolutely no pain. I have lessons scheduled the 6th, 13th, 20th and 29th. I think I have pretty much abandoned Dr’s orders and I’m 100% back into it. Here’s my reasoning, he says I can hit wedge through 7 iron off a tee starting 12/19. Ok, well doc you do realize that wedge through 7 iron are the clubs most likely to dig down into the dirt, transferring that impact energy back up into my shoulder right? And as far as off a tee doc, since you don’t play golf I’ll explain this one to you, you see after striking the ball perched on said tee, the club head continues down into the ground, taking said divot, regardless of where the ball happened to be when the swing started. So off a tee really doesn’t minimize any impact stress at all. Besides, when in Physical Therapy and I’m curling 25lb dumbbells, going through full upward rowing motions with 50lbs on the cable and doing ball walks and pushups supporting my full weight, I think I’m throwing more stress on the shoulder than in a frickin wedge shot. So doc, I’ll see you on the range.

Range of motion is great, basically 100%. Pretty much all of the tightness is gone except for in the most extreme of stretching positions. My last day at the PT was today! I go to their other facility 2 times a week for 2 weeks starting Monday to work with a guy who specializes in golf programs, but supervised PT for the shoulder is complete. I won't be able to practice at all until my lesson Saturday, but the way I hit the ball today, that's a blessing. It's amazing how much I can forget in 13 weeks, it's like I've never held a club before. Nothing crazy, just no ooomph. No compression of the ball at contact, and everything is really high. Now that I know what the golf swing is supposed to feel like, just swatting it out there like I did today is not acceptable. The comeback is on...