In assessing my game prior to coming over to Carnoustie, I knew that I had a couple of things I needed to improve – neither of which I was sure I could improve prior to the event. One was my time on the course. I know that sounds like a simple thing, but finding time to play a lot of golf when you have a “real job” is quite challenging. Kathy and the boys have been great about encouraging me to get out and play more, but 36 holes a week has been about max. I told Jeff Sluman on Wednesday that “it’s official – today marks the most consecutive days of golf I have played all year – 3!” I have a few aches and pains from both practicing and walking – nothing major, though and I feel pretty good in general.
My swing is not where I want it to be. I am way too far to the inside on the backswing and “out and over” the plane coming down. Long story short, I am hitting the ball rather weakly with either a low pull or pull-cut. I have worked hard with Mike Hott at Salisbury CC in Richmond to try to work this out of my swing, but the reality is that I have always had a little “lift” in my backswing, even when I won the Buick Open. Over the years of playing little golf and becoming a “desk jockey”, the lift has become more pronounced. At this point, as Sam Snead used to say, “you gotta dance with who ya brung”. In other words, it isn’t going to get any better, so I just have to manage what I do have really well and get competitive. My short game is reasonably good – it is just that my execution with my long game is nowhere near “tour caliber”. Mark and I will need to do an exceptional job of managing yardages, swing thoughts, routines and emotions today to carve out a reasonable score.
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