Does this 5i make me look FAT?

So I found out today that Randy got us booked out at a new course that just opened up last month in Mesquite. It’s called Conestoga Golf Club. Those of you, who aren’t familiar with Mesquite, think Las Vegas circa 1940. Very small little town between Las Vegas and St George, Utah that has become quite the little Golf Mecca out here in the southwest. I think there are six or seven courses out there now, one of them being Wolf Creek, CAN NOT WAIT TO PLAY WOLF CREEK!

I definitely looking forward to playing there, I’ve been hitting the range at least once a week and feeling more confident, it seems, every time I go. I did have a change in golf strategy that didn’t quite plan out the way I wanted it too. I decided about two week ago that I was going to forego my weekly range time and instead play a round at Desert Willow (the executive course I‘ve talked about before) twice a month and still play my full 18 par 70/72 round too. My rationale was that getting on course time would help me work on the problems that happen when I’m on the course. Can’t practice on the course if you’re not playing on the course right? So I played Willow on April 4^th. I decided to play on the Saturdays that I have to work (which is every 3^rd) the course is on the way home and its light out for so long now there shouldn’t be any issues with getting all 18 holes in. Joining me was Shay, a friend of mine since High School. Shays a good player, he has one of the fastest swings I think I have ever seen. If you blink, he’s hit it already.

We were paired up with a guy from Korea, I think, he didn’t talk at all. The one thing I remember about him was that he had to have what was at least a 6” tee. That ball was so high off the ground when he teed it up I don’t know how he hit it! The other player had a friend with him that didn’t play was just along for the ride (sorta). I played ok, had some good shots, and of course had some really bad ones too. Shay made, I think, three 40 foot plus putts. Ass hole. I had a really nice Par on 18 which made the round for me. It’s a par 60 course I think I shot 90, don’t remember I have to find the scorecard. I’m not keeping my stats when I play Willow, it’s too short of a course to compare with a par 70/72 course.

It turns out that the friend that was just tagging along, was a, or is a nationwide player that had been injured and was in the process of rehab. He had just started swinging again. He took some swings on a couple of the holes, some of the Par 3’s. Was he a pro? Maybe, I’ve never played along side a pro to tell the difference. He very well could have been. I googled his name when I got home, but never really found anything credible.

The problem I was having that day was getting my irons up in the air. I asked him to check my grip and let me know what he thought. He suggested a couple of things and to tell the truth it felt good what he recommended, we’ll have to see how that pans out. He did mention to me that my weight shift was non existent and that is what was leading to me hitting the ball fat so much. All of my weight shifts to the rear on my backswing and stays there on my downswing. That’s bad! I asked him what he thought I could do to work on it. His suggestion was to get my left shoulder to drop down (towards the ball) on my downswing by rotating my shoulders more. Keeping the majority of my weight on my front foot and not allowing my weight to transfer to the rear and therefore not have to worry about getting it back in place at impact.

Needless to say I “googled” the shit out of “stop hitting it fat”. I had always assumed that hitting it fat meant that you just got too much of the ground when you hit the ball. Which I guess it is, but now I have a better definition of what it is and with that I have something to work on, and that means more range time. So my small little theory of more on course time vs. range time lasted all of one round. HA, at least I learned something that might help my game.

There is one more thing that I learned from that round of golf that was a true life lesson. Check the rules of the course before you start your round! I have to remember this. After I got home I was looking over the scorecard and saw on the back the rules of the course. The one rule that caught my eye and immediately pissed me off was this one:

3. Free drop out of desert landscape and planters, no nearer to the hole. No stroke penalty.

That little bastard of a rule cost me about 5 strokes. My dumb ass played three shots out of the desert landscaping that went absolutely nowhere! So another lesson added to the memory banks! Check the course rules.