Day Three: Assessment of Game

So today I played Penmar with my pals to see where my game is at and how far I have to go.

It turns out that I have a long way to go.

I played pretty much bogey golf - which is where I normally am.

I made par on the Par 4 #9 hole which was probably the best hole I played all day.

I pushed my drive right (mind you I did not slice the ball which was big for me) and left me about 125 away in the rough with a side hill lie (the ball above my feet). I hit my PW to the front 1/3 of the green with the pin in back. I had about a 30 foot uphill putt for birdie and left it about 5 feet short, so I was left with a little bit of a knee-knocker. I struck my second putt well and on my line, but it was breaking left faster than I thought and just slid in the side door for my Par. I needed every inch of that cup to save Par.

I really need the most work on my short game. I chipped poorly today and realized that I need to get every chip close enough to one putt. I was only on in regulation once (Hole #9) and ended up bogeying a lot of holes because I would proceed to 2-putt most of the holes. I had 2 doubles, 6 bogeys and 1 Par - a long way to go.

Nonetheless, I look forward to practicing my chipping this week. I have to take the weakest part of my game and make it my strongest. But that is the beautiful thing about golf: you can always assess your game and identify the weakest part and work on it to make it stronger.

Basically, there are 5 facets of the game and below I have graded myself:

1) Driving - B - I still had a little bend to my drives, but found the fairway or first cut that did not kill my approach on 5 tee boxes

2) Iron Play - C - barely on in regulation and had a couple bad tee shots on the Par 3's - one with a 4 iron and one with an 8 iron

3) Chipping - D - left myself too many long putts after my chips. I did have a good soft floater on Hole #3, but was very inconsistent with my chipping. Needs that most improvement.

4) Sand - N/A - did not hit into the sand

5) Putting - C+ - did not make any putts over 5 feet, but had good speed on 75% of my putts today, left a couple putts short. One thing I noticed was that my aim is improving - I hit a couple putts over the edge of the cup where I was lined up, I just mis-read the break.

So tomorrow I will go to the driving range - maybe not even buy a bucket of balls - rather, chip for an hour or so. 77 days to go...