Painted Mountain in Mesa, AZ - February 2007

So I thought I'd start with my last outing. I played a course named Painted Mountain in Mesa, AZ (which is just south of Scottsdale if you're not familiar with the area). www.PaintedMountainGolf.com We played while all of the wives were at my fiance's Bridal Shower. It was a nice time with all of the guys. My foursome included my friend Brent, my future brother-in-law Erik and some dude named Frank. Frank was really nice and he pointed out some thing I could do to improve.

Erik is pretty bad. Worse than me and that's saying something. But Brent has been playing for a long time and is quite a bit better than me. I've played with Brent before and we always have a good time.

This time out I shot a personal best - 107. My previous best was the last time I was out which was a 108. The course was a little short at around 6,000 yards. My long game wasn't horrible - I tried to stay away from my driver and I didn't quite hook the ball as much as I normally do. I tee'd the ball a little higher than normal and got a couple quite nice shots off the tee. My short game was my usual hot and cold. One shot will look great, the next will be a horror show. I was good as always out of the bunkers.

What kind of shocked me on this round was my putting. I missed quite a few relatively easy putts. That 107 could have been a 104 or even a 102 really easily if I had sunk a few more putts on the first try. If I miss a fairly easy putt, I almost always get mad and miss the next putt too. Its infuriating! I actually missed a 6 foot putt that would have given me my first ever birdie. It was a relatively short Par 4. I made it on in 2 and then I missed the putt. I finished the hole with a bogey (as is my way). Argh!

In the last couple weeks, I've been watching those videos from www.PurePointGolf.com and their pro Bobby Eldridge has pointed out a few things that I'm going to try right away in my short game and my putting.

For the short game, he advocates a shorter swing with more of a chopping motion at the ball with a short follow-through. I've always kind of used one club inside 100 yards and tried to vary my back swing to accomodate the different distances. Bobby's got a simple little pitching method that I found really useful. I could explain it, but its easier to just suggest you watch the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1YV-8ThI4M I'm definitely going to try this out next time.

Alright, I'm going to play again this weekend. I'll put up another post after I've played. Thanks for reading!