Played golf for the third time since the neck injury. Felt pretty good. Took me about 7 holes to warm-up (avoiding the driving range to limit number of swings). Then went on a good stretch including a couple of pars before fatigue got me and all I could think about was food.
Was really happy with my short game. A handful of chips got within a few feet for easy putt. And my putting was pretty good too. Before heading to the golf course I saw a highlight on the Golf Channel of Phil Mickelson putting. I noticed his putting stance is very behind the ball and he gets rather low, kind of like Jack Nicklaus.
I tend to stand dead center and fairly upright during putting. Decided to see if being behind the ball and low would do anything for my putting. It did. Think I sank my first putt, a 12 footer. And I had a few 20+ footers that were within a foot or two of the hole.
Beside my new putting stance I think I found another "secret" to a good golf swing. Previously I was trying to generate speed from the top. That is, as soon as I start the downswing I was trying to generate as much club speed as possible. But the problem is I'm not able to maintain this speed at the bottom of the swing, when it's most important--when the club makes contact with the ball. Because of my neck injury I'm trying to make slower, smoother swings. At the start of the downswing I'm pretty slow compare to before, but now I try to smoothly accelerate through at the bottom.
