Over Christmas I birdied 2 holes at PGA West TPC Stadium, including the island green. A couple of days later I got another birdie at the Classic Club. So I bought a Garfield "Born 2 Birdie" head cover for my driver. Then I went 54 days, maybe 15 rounds, without a birdie. So last night I got so piss I changed birdie to bogey with some masking tape and a permanent marker:
That must have done the trick, broke my birdie dry spell today at Half Moon Bay's Ocean Course on the 16th hole. The 16th hole is a great hole, slight dog leg right with the ocean to the left. Decent drive but the wind took it right and short. Thanks to the soft greens from the rain my 19* hybrid shot actually held. Got the 15 footer to drop for birdie.
Actually had a pretty good overall round. Didn't keep score, but think I had 5 pars and of course that 1 birdie. Driver wasn't on fire, but I found the fairway most of the day. Irons were okay, needed to be a few yards more accurate but no crazy, out of control shots today. But I'm most happy with my chipping. Been chipping horrible lately. So I put in some time this week to practice chipping and it seems to have paid off. Still need to work on better distance control but no ridiculously bad chips today.
I attribute my better play to a few adjustments/changes I made this week.
- A flatter wrist at address from a weaker grip position. I'm trying to get as close to impact position at address as possible.
- A firmer grip pressure after reading this post.
- Less wrist cock. The increased distance from cocking my wrist isn't worth the increased margin of error.
- Less vertical head movement. I try to achieve this by rocking my shoulders during my pre-shot routine. When putting I keep my head still and try to use my arms/shoulders like a pendulum. So I try to get this shoulders rocking feeling during my pre-shot routine with the hopes that like putting I can avoid excessive head movement resulting from the body getting all out of position.
- Shortening my back swing to increase balance. I think naturally I just don't have good balance, so when combined with trying to make a really big shoulder turn and swinging fast I get really out of balance. I hated that I was falling all over the place after hitting good drives. I think my balance was much better today from shortening my back swing. Don't really any shots were I was falling all over the practice.
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