My Journey 2 Scratch

Oaks North Executive Course

Quick update about the last couple days for me….On Wednesday, my buddy and I decided not to go play a full regulation 18 hole course, but rather go to an nice executive course in my area called Oaks North to practice our iron and short game.  When I first started playing golf at 13 or 14, I used to go here almost every day after school.  My mom would drop my friends and I off and we’d play a 9 or just practice for a few hours, coming back here brought back a lot of good memories.  I haven’t been up here in probably 12 years and it’s funny how much smaller the holes feel.  I remember playing the junior tournaments here every week and have a lot of first and 2^nd place trophy’s and ribbons from them still.  There are three 9 holes courses at Oaks North; (North, South and East) each contains three par 4’s and the rest par 3’s.  This is not a course where the par 3’s are only 100 yards, each is anywhere from 100-190, it really does test your wedge/mid iron game and the par 4’s are all about 250-300.  As a kid I remember playing these par 4’s and thinking they were so long, now I can reach them all with 3 and 5 woods or less.  Anyway, we walked the course and it was not too busy, so we hit multiple balls from different locations just to get some nice course practice in.  I putted horrible, missed 4 putts from inside of 6 ft, feels like my putting is starting to get away from me now, where as before, these past 4 weeks, I have been putting lights out from that distance.  I’ll get it back though, still getting the feel of the smaller, new putting grip I put on last week.  I’ll definitely be back to this executive course more often than I thought, because it really is a good test of your wedge/short iron and up and down  game, something that I need to perfect, as it is probably the most important factor in getting down to a scratch.  Later that night, I went to the range to work on a few things and hit the ball alright. I still feel like I’m not doing a great job of implementing the changes my coach wants me to make; I’m working really hard to get it however.

On Thursday, I did a lot of work in front a full length mirror in my house, working on getting into the positions my teacher wants me to get into.  It’s nice to be able to see yourself, like you would with a video and it gives you exponentially more feedback than just going off of feel.  I’m still struggling with what the correct flat, layed off position is supposed to look or feel like, and so I’m going to need to get another lesson to make sure I’m doing it correctly. Thursday night, after working in the mirror for a couple hours, I went to the range to see how the ball flight and contact would be.  I really worked on flattening my swing and it seemed to help a lot with the longer irons and woods.  Was hitting a lot of solid, straight shots.  Worked on the driver near the end and was hitting it a lot better than I have been in the past week.  My last ball, I really concentrated and focused as if I was on the first tee, going through my entire pre shot routine, and crushed it down my target line.  An older man, hitting next to me, who had been watching me for a bit, looked up and said “Well that’s about as perfect as you can hit it, you really took you’re time on that one, great looking swing.”  It’s always a good feeling when you get complements on your swing at the driving range, gives you a nice boost of confidence.

I’m hoping to be able to play this weekend, but if not then hopefully we will make it 3 weeks in a row on Monday with my buddy.  Will probably be playing on July 4^th also, I did that a few years back and nobody was on the course.  For my international viewers who do not know, July 4^th is the holiday here in the United States to celebrate the day of our nations independence from the British in 1776, basically Americas birthday. (Sorry my many U.K viewers) It’s a great day to play some golf, BBQ and enjoy fireworks!  Speaking of the U.K. I would love to go to the U.K. one day, the last name Tyson is English and I like watching the BBC and I think Karl Pilkington is a genius and one of the funniest men on earth, haha!  The rich history of the British intrigues me and it would be a great place to visit one day.