What a weekend.
An absolute failure and a triumph of golf and short putting all in one.
I got so amped up for a long weekend with a good good friend coming in to town from the Colorado area. Took a vacation day just to golf on Friday. Over the course of the past few weeks I've had a really nice go of it keeping my game sharp, picking up some forehand distance I had thought I'd lost a decade ago by re-implementing a longer arm swing, and generally feeling very comfortable with my hazer-flip power on the Destroyer.
The plans were big and fun...
Friday - Two rounds at Kensington. Kensington Green and Toboggan.
Saturday - Bark at the Moon. Our big community party event.
Sunday - The Sanctuary. A private championship caliber layout near home.
Unfortunately, after a strong start on Kensington Green on Friday morning I just plain lost my timing. I don't know if it was footwork, fatigue, or what. I just progressively shot worse-and-worse. I started out 3 under par through 5 holes on Kensington Green and then.... just lost it. Wound up that round 3 over par. When we got to the Toboggan I should have started the round throwing some extra shots, but chose to plow forward and just golf and hope I'd catch my timing somewhere during the round. And I didn't. I wound up +5 (70). We played the OB as close to DGLO as possible (tall grass as OB lines) and I think +5 was pretty favorable given how often and how badly I was off the fairway. But even the shots that wound up good didn't have the flight paths I wanted.
Normally I can get through stretches like this, they don't tend to last more than a day - but I really impaired myself by not taking practice shots. And that continued the next day. On one of my home courses I, a relatively simple one without any elevation or anything tricky, I just could not get off the fairway. I saved a cash in Open with a great putting day from 20-30 feet. But I still didn't get a chance to throw through my struggles and get warmed up. Annually its a good fundraiser for the collegiate team I advise, but all the boys were at a regional qualifier in Pennsylvania - so I spent all of pre-tournament and mid-round sitting in a camping chair running the basket toss. So I never had a chance to find the timing. Saved a clean 5th place finish out of 16 by simply making a lot of 25 footers for par and grabbing a few birdies on the easier holes.
The cool thing about Bark at the Moon was that I got to see two guys that I have absolutely harassed for months to play shoot the hot rounds on the event. My buddy Nolan came out, after I literally bugged him until days before the tournament to get out there and play, and played Open for the first time. Tied Geoff Bennett in round 1, and then hung on for a 2 shot win. And my long time friend Evan Hughes came out and shot the hot round during round 2 to come around for a t3 finish - he was 3 behind me round 1 and wound up ahead of me by 4. (I was all alone in a bubble - 4 behind the guys in t3 and 7 ahead of 6th)
But yeah, so the next day - it just got worse for me. I got out to the private Sanctuary course in NW Ohio. A course that has had tens of thousands of dollars poured into it. Designed by Avery Jenkins and the son-in-law of the property owners it would have every bit the crazy installations that Eagles Crossing has - if the owner wasn't going for more of a classic look. The property is over an area with a high underground water level, and the property owners can simply "dig and wait" to get streams and ponds for the layout. And it is spectacular. And I just was a disaster. Just, again, didn't do any warmup because I wanted to just enjoy myself with friends... and it never came around. I couldn't get anywhere. Just continued to either release early or overthrow.
The end takeaway of my weekend was that, really, you gotta take time to throw through your issues. Most of the time you can't just play competitive holes and expect a slump to go away. If you're not establishing your footwork and timing through repeated throws to identify your proper swing - it is going to be much much harder to find your shot. Obviously sometimes you can, but its just so much harder.
This was probably the worst cumulative set of days of golf I've played in a row in... I don't even know how long. Years. I don't think I've played this bad 3 days in a row since I tried to play GBO on an ankle the size of a softball half a decade ago. Just whew.
I'm ready to get out in the field.
