[innercityteacher]

Ya know, that 39 you shot is a "milestone". It may only seem like one stroke better to you but it sounds to me like you're getting ready for a big breakthrough.

I have a theory. I think that to lower your score from 95 to 85 you have to be twice as good but to go from 85 to 78 you have to be 10 times better. I think that that's where you're headed. But that's just general "Golf Stroke" improvement. Once you break the 80 mark, you're going to be a lot more specific about swing changes and the way you approach each hole on the course.

I think that this is where the "journey" gets fun. Unfortunately, Winter is approaching.

Let me know when you start shooting 78 consistently so I only need to give you 5 strokes.................per side.

The Greater Area Pennsylvania Stableford at Cedarbrook Country Club, was held today at 1pm. We played from the white tees, par 69.5, slope 124. I had 4 dbl bogies and shot a gross 84, 42/42 or, a net 34/36 for 70 on a par 71!!!!!



Gross/Net Dbl Bogies = 4/0
Gross/Net Bogies = 7/6
Gross/Net Pars = 5/5
Gross/Net Birdies = 2/4
Gross/Net Eagles = 0/2


I got a little frisky on the par 5's and tried to do too much, too fast, snap hooking the drives and failing to get any real points on them. Each par 5 had water in unexpected spots which my drives and 2nd shots found often. I lost 2 NXT's!!!!

I tied for 2nd in the event out of a field of 20 amateurs. The other fella's back nine was stronger (he started on the front side and I started on the back) than mine so he won the tie-breaker.

Our club champ shot a gross 78/net 75 (he's a 3 hcp). The 1 hcp we played with (who had played the course before) shot a gross 81/ net 80.

My hcp. index is 13.8 so I was a bit better than that on a new course for the first time.

How? I had been working on keeping my back heel down and Extensor Action. I started watching my Jeff Hull videos last night and was comparing them to Moe Norman's strokes on YouTube.com

DOWN, DOWN, DOWN Vertically Un-cocking Left Wrist, Impact Fix, Extensor Action, stable base, stable head, Flying wedges throughout the stroke, it was all there.

In one of Moe's tapes he said that the repeatability of his swing came from his knees going back and forth and his hands never moving or "changing their grip."

This morning, I tried his stroke, (zeroed out # 3 accumulator) but I forgot the EA on the range. The stretch of the left arm though, provided good tension.

I spread my stance out, slowly rotated around my right knee up until the vertically cocked left wrist was at shoulder level, and then spun around my back knee and shot that left wrist straight down, down, down.

Moe said he never made a divot. Hmmmmm. Even on that densely packed Bermuda range, I made half dollar bill sized divots more perfectly than ever! The balls climbed mountains! Woods and hybrids, 4 irons, everything climbed high, straight on line and landed softly.


I also forgot EA on the front side!! I screwed up two par 5's! Then I remembered EA after the last hole on the front! MUch crisper with direction and much better carry. I got away with it though because I had so much control of the DOWN with the "rotate around my back knee" swing thought. My heel stayed down on every shot except my driver.

As soon as I realized I still needed the EA, the course got much easier, though I struggled with the driver the rest of the day. I started hitting my 2 hybrid and 2 wood off some tees with 200 yards + of carry for both clubs. I gross birdied the #1 and 3 hcp holes.

I'm really not sure about the reason for driving problems but I bet I'm not tracing as far away from my body as I need to and tomorrow, last day before school starts with orientation, I'll really lift my RFT away from body as I rotate.

It was so cool using my lower body to fire my left wrist right on top of the ball and see it climb!!!! Several guys gave me guff about my 13.8 hcp index.

Just wait, fellas!!!

Patrick