First Round Score: 78
The first round was a whole lot of the same thing I've been experiencing lately. I hit the ball pretty well throughout the round. My driver was working well for me off the tee, my irons weren't really helping or hurting, but my short game was horrific. Because I was hitting the ball well off the tee, I set myself up for a lot of wedges into the greens. Unfortunately, it was one of the worst displays of a wedge game you've ever seen. I repeatedly missed the green from 60, 70, 80 yards out. It's not that I wasn't hitting them solid, it was just my distance control. I felt like I was back in high-school when I couldn't hit the green with a wedge to save my life. It was extremely frustrating to say the least and consequently the reason why I scored so poorly. Instead of taking advantage of the short yardage situations by giving myself good chances for birdies, I was actually making bogies.......from 70 yards out!!! Then on top of that, my chipping and pitching as well as my putting were just as bad. You put all that together and a 78 is about what I deserved.
Second Round Score: 73
Today was so aggravating, I'm surprised I haven't thrown my putter in the lake by now. I hit the ball better again, my wedge game was more under control than the day before, but I continued to miss putt after putt after putt. If it wasn't a tap in, it wasn't going in. I was even par with two holes to play and I finished with a 3-putt bogey on #17 and a missed par putt from 4ft on #18. I bet everybody that reads this blog (all 5 of you) probably thinks by now that I enjoy putting bad. I mean, it's been a year and a half now and nothings changed. Trust me when I tell you, I practice my putting all the time and actually putt decently when I'm at home. But once I tee it up in a tournament, the ball just doesn't go in the hole. Period.
If there is anything positive that I can take away from this event, it's that I drove the ball well for both rounds. I put myself in scoring position many times, but my short game really let me down. I'm not surprised that my putting was as bad as it was, I'm just fed up with the fact that all the practice that I'm doing isn't paying off. It's all lead to a point in my career where it's time to start thinking about a plan B. Sometimes, things just aren't meant to be.
I've ordered a new set of clubs to help correct the problems I'm having with my old ones. I think I made a post about how far off my clubs are now for my swing so hopefully these new ones will give me a better chance at hitting the ball with the center of the club face. I plan on working with them for the rest of the month, as well as trying any and every last thing I can think of to improve my putting, before playing in what could be my last tournament for......I don't know how long. There's another Adam's Tour event in Monroe, LA at the beginning of July that I will prepare for and if I'm still writing posts like this one after that tournaments over, it might be the last post overall. Erika and I will be heading back to New Orleans tomorrow, so I'll have some updates throughout the rest of the month and let yall know how things are going. Thanks to everyone who's kept up with me through this site for all this time now. I know I sound like a broken record, but I really do hope this is the last blog with bad news and nothing but positive news from here on out.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Adam's Tour - Beaumont Open - Preview
This week I'm back in Texas again for another Adam's Tour event. This time I'm in Beaumont playing the Beaumont Country Club. I played in this tournament last year, so I'm pretty familiar with the course. We drove back over from Baton Rouge on Monday and I was able to get in 9 holes of a practice round. There was a really bad storm which came through about mid-afternoon that basically wiped out the rest of the day. Today, I was back out there finishing up my practice round by playing the back nine.
After two days and a year under my belt, I feel like I've got a good idea about how to play this golf course. I've changed my game plan from last year a little bit by hitting driver on a few holes where I hit 3-wood before and deciding to lay up on one of the par-5's I would of attacked in the past. This is one of those old style golf courses where the holes run parallel to each other, so there are many instances where it's better to take driver and get it as close to the green as possible. I'd say every hole has it's trouble spots, but it's usually just on one side of the hole. If I can make my mistakes on the right sides where there's room to miss, then I should be able to set myself up for a lot of wedges.
The rough is up in spots (like last week) which will make it tougher to control distances on approach shots and spin the ball around the greens. Let's just say I'm going to try and avoid those areas as much as possible. Overall, I feel better than I did at this time last week the night before the first round, so I'm hoping with a little fortune I'll be able to put together a solid performance. Then again, putting is always a major factor in how I score, so hopefully we'll see some improvement this week.
My tee time tomorrow is 9:10 off #10.
After two days and a year under my belt, I feel like I've got a good idea about how to play this golf course. I've changed my game plan from last year a little bit by hitting driver on a few holes where I hit 3-wood before and deciding to lay up on one of the par-5's I would of attacked in the past. This is one of those old style golf courses where the holes run parallel to each other, so there are many instances where it's better to take driver and get it as close to the green as possible. I'd say every hole has it's trouble spots, but it's usually just on one side of the hole. If I can make my mistakes on the right sides where there's room to miss, then I should be able to set myself up for a lot of wedges.
The rough is up in spots (like last week) which will make it tougher to control distances on approach shots and spin the ball around the greens. Let's just say I'm going to try and avoid those areas as much as possible. Overall, I feel better than I did at this time last week the night before the first round, so I'm hoping with a little fortune I'll be able to put together a solid performance. Then again, putting is always a major factor in how I score, so hopefully we'll see some improvement this week.
My tee time tomorrow is 9:10 off #10.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Adam's Tour - Bay Oaks Championship - Rounds 1 & 2
Scores: 82-78
The first round began like a nightmare. I had gone through a good warm-up session before the round started, and proceeded to hit my first tee shot off #1 in the woods. It was basically like hitting it out-of-bounds because we never found that ball and eventually lead to a triple-bogey (7). I don't care who you are, you can not start rounds with triple bogey's and play well. It seems like some of these last few rounds I've played, I've started out just shooting myself in both feet on the first hole. It makes it nearly impossible to get anything going after that happens. I followed that up with a double-bogey on the second hole and a bogey on the third, so I was +6 over par through 3 holes.
There were some solid shots periodically throughout the rest of the day, but I never felt like I had control of the round. On days like that, it seems like nothing ever goes your way. Even when I felt like I hit a good shot, it didn't end up that way. I finished with a double-bogey on #18, after hitting a good second into the green, which pretty much summed up how the day went.
During round two, I had one goal in mind. I wanted to execute every shot with as little thought as possible. Meaning, after I had calculated my yardage and planned my shot, I was going to just walk up to the ball and hit it. And that was exactly what I did on every shot from tee to green...even my putts. On the front nine, I actually played pretty well. I had one 3-putt that lead to a bogey and one poor iron shot that lead to a triple-bogey. I know that's still unacceptable, but overall I felt better than I did during round one.
The second nine holes were much of the same. I executed a lot of shots like I wanted, gave myself multiple good looks at birdie, but nothing seemed to be falling. I did make a couple good putts to save par, but I missed three putts inside of 3ft. So, I don't really know what to think about my new strategy on the greens. I can't afford to miss any putts that close, let alone three in one round. Again, on my final hole of the day, it was another bad break that lead to a double-bogey. Just wasn't meant to be.
Erika and I came back to Baton Rouge last night to save some money on hotels and give me a place to practice over the weekend. I've got another Adam's Tour event next week in Beaumont, TX so we'll probably head over that way on Monday to get ready. Hopefully, I'll have a little better luck on this next one.
The first round began like a nightmare. I had gone through a good warm-up session before the round started, and proceeded to hit my first tee shot off #1 in the woods. It was basically like hitting it out-of-bounds because we never found that ball and eventually lead to a triple-bogey (7). I don't care who you are, you can not start rounds with triple bogey's and play well. It seems like some of these last few rounds I've played, I've started out just shooting myself in both feet on the first hole. It makes it nearly impossible to get anything going after that happens. I followed that up with a double-bogey on the second hole and a bogey on the third, so I was +6 over par through 3 holes.
There were some solid shots periodically throughout the rest of the day, but I never felt like I had control of the round. On days like that, it seems like nothing ever goes your way. Even when I felt like I hit a good shot, it didn't end up that way. I finished with a double-bogey on #18, after hitting a good second into the green, which pretty much summed up how the day went.
During round two, I had one goal in mind. I wanted to execute every shot with as little thought as possible. Meaning, after I had calculated my yardage and planned my shot, I was going to just walk up to the ball and hit it. And that was exactly what I did on every shot from tee to green...even my putts. On the front nine, I actually played pretty well. I had one 3-putt that lead to a bogey and one poor iron shot that lead to a triple-bogey. I know that's still unacceptable, but overall I felt better than I did during round one.
The second nine holes were much of the same. I executed a lot of shots like I wanted, gave myself multiple good looks at birdie, but nothing seemed to be falling. I did make a couple good putts to save par, but I missed three putts inside of 3ft. So, I don't really know what to think about my new strategy on the greens. I can't afford to miss any putts that close, let alone three in one round. Again, on my final hole of the day, it was another bad break that lead to a double-bogey. Just wasn't meant to be.
Erika and I came back to Baton Rouge last night to save some money on hotels and give me a place to practice over the weekend. I've got another Adam's Tour event next week in Beaumont, TX so we'll probably head over that way on Monday to get ready. Hopefully, I'll have a little better luck on this next one.
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