September Update...

Recap of Wilderness…
Robert, Martin, Dad, and I played The Wilderness at Lake Jackson on August ninth. Luckily, this was in the middle of a 10-day dry spell and it was HOT! The Wilderness is a very nice course – maybe the nicest course I have played. Dad and Martin played the Green Tees (6151 yds 68.4/115) and Robert and I played the Maroon tees (6720 yds 71.0/122). The tips were a little much for me (7106 yds 72.9/126), at least for my first time playing the course. The greens were big (some 4 clubs deep) and very undulating. They move the pins every day and have a pin placement chart in all the carts, which was great. The plaques on the course at 100, 150, 200, and 250 gave front, center, and back distances, which was also great. I played pretty solid and carded a 92 after losing three balls and suffering four three-putts. I hit my 3W until the fifteenth hole where I decided to try the driver. When I started my transition from back to downswing the shaft came apart. Earlier in the day, my bag fell off the cart onto the cart path and the driver was obviously damaged as a result. Dad had a few bad holes and ended up with a 99. Robert was on his game and posted an 87. Martin sat out the last four holes because his knees were giving him a hard time climbing up the mostly elevated green complexes.

Last Ten Rounds…

Here are some snapshots right out of my spreadsheet:

(click for larger image)

(click for larger image)

The rounds that have the score highlighted in gold are rounds played from the tips. As you can see, my scoring is about the same (or worse) as it was before I started playing from the tips, but my handicap has gone down due to the higher slope and rating. While my scoring doesn’t show it, I feel my game is as good as it’s ever been right now. I had a short spell of crappy play there for a few weeks, but I ‘m over it and all cylinders are firing. A month or more away from Green Caye has allowed my short game to deteriorate a bit so I’ve signed up for my fourteenth month to work it out. I will summarize my golfing experience at this point by saying that I hit the ball better, my hot streaks last longer and my cold streaks are overcome faster. When I started playing from the tips I threw out a goal of getting down to a 12 handicap and I feel that should be easily attainable if I can keep playing once a week or so (plus whatever I play at Green Caye).

Re-Shafted Driver…

I mentioned my driver shaft broke and while I was hitting it semi-ok, I had resolved to make the 3W more consistent and so, the driver was not getting used much. I began researching shafts and settled on the Graphite Design Purple Ice in 65 gram stiff. I chose this shaft hoping that it would provide a lower trajectory than the previous shaft. This shaft is a little stiffer than the ProForce V2 57gram and a little heavier as well. The shaft retails for $114.00 and I got a new one on ebay for $32.00. With the money saved, I took it to the shop to have it pured and installed which cost $48.00. So far it seems to have been worth it because I’m hitting it great and it feels extremely solid at contact.

Last night at Beacon Lakes I hit Driver on eight holes and got the fairway six times. I missed the first two where the first one I got under the ball and popped it up and the second one I ended up about two yards out on the left. The last six were right down the middle and I felt so confident that I wanted to use it on more risky holes where I normally hit 3W or 3 iron (of course I made the safe play).

Updates...

While I'm not posting as much (I just seem to be repeating myself), I update my stats sidebar with some regularity. It currently shows my new all-time low handicap of 14.62!!

Lookin’ for Twelve,
-Greg