12/13/2020 0 Comments December 13th, 2020In this final week of my road to bogey golf I found time to play one last round. Unfortunately, I was not able to reach my goal, but I came very close. Moving from where I started back in September, to now, I am very happy with the progress I have made. Without pressure from this project to reach my goals I don't think I would have ever came this far in my game. Being within two strokes of my goal became very frustrating, and a little discouraging. I will not settle for defeat, and moving on into the following weeks I will continue to strive for my goal. ,Mason- My last round of golf for this project was probably the most enjoyable. All aspects of my game had finally come together to work as one. I started the round off very strong, and Hayden will agree with me when I say I was on track to reach my goal. I started having trouble around the green with my chipping and putting, adding a lot of extra strokes to my score. Coming around on my last two holes, I needed two pars to reach my goal. Hole eight I putted in a 15 footer, for a par. All I had to do was par the last hole and I would have succeeded. Off the tee box on nine, I sliced the ball into the woods causing me to drop for three. My shot for three landed right on the fringe; forcing me to chip the ball in to achieve my goal. I missed the shot and two putted out of frustration causing me to score a 46 when my goal was to score a 44. Here is Hayden on how his perspective of the round went. Hayden- In conclusion to this project, I am very pleased with how much I have improved. I will continue to play and set goals for myself for the future. I have really enjoyed having a driving force to better myself in my golf game, as this project has done that for me. I have learned to love this sport and gained an appreciation for the process it takes to become successful.
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12/6/2020 0 Comments December 6th, 2020This week was hard for me to find time on the course for many reasons. I have recently been hired by Zaxbys, and the days are getting shorter giving me little time to get out on the course. Moving though the week my goal was to better my short game on the green. Lots of rain came in throughout the week preventing the greens at the range to be closed. I found time to play two rounds that were closer to my goal than any other two games I've played. The first game i played this week was a struggle in the beginning. I had trouble with my drives slicing and going out of play forcing me to take drop points that always hurt my score. It took a couple holes for me to fix the problem which happened to be an open club face. to fix this I tightened my grip and tried to have a straighter swing path. Around hole four I had my slice fixed and finished the round strong a few stroke above bogey golf. My last round I played this week was the best i've played throughout my whole project. I had one bad tee shot on hole one leading to drop points and a triple bogey for that hole. Throughout the rest of the round almost all of my shots were on point helping me get the closest to my goal that I've ever been. One problem i'm still seeing is my putting and chipping around the green. Moving into the last week I feel that I can reach my goal if all of my game comes together for a whole round along with my putting. This last week I would like to play as much as I can giving me the best change of reaching my goal. I feel very confident that I will be successful in reaching it as long as my putting doesn't fall through.
Hayden- Mason has been improving a good bit each week we have played together. It is getting harder to play golf because of how early it gets dark. Mason still hits a slice every now and then and also hits a hook every now and then. I try to tell him to slow down because getting sped up and not focusing can cause these things to occur, which can really affect his game. I've also been helping Mason pick his clubs, which has helped with course management and making sure he doesn't end up too short or too long. Helping with course management can shave off many strokes from his game. Also Mason struggles with putting and I go with him on the putting green and help him with aim and tempo when putting. Mason will either leave a putt really short or blow it by the hole. Him being focused affects these things, so I try to take out all the factors that could cause him to lose focus. 11/29/2020 0 Comments November 29th, 2020This week I played golf with three of my friends Jackson Sink, Zeb Pilcher , and Hunter Davis. Zeb and Hunter had never played golf before making this gave very enjoyable to attend. Playing with two first timers made me look like a pro increasing my confidence on the corse. Hayden was not able to attend this round so he decided to do some research on how he can help benefit my game for the future weeks. Hayden- I wasn't able to go with Mason this week to play a round of golf. Although I wasn't able to go I still researched and thought of new ways to help Mason improve his game. I researched strategies pro caddies do to help their golfers win and I am going to implement these things next time I go with Mason. Also I should be out on the course soon playing, so I can use these tips and tricks for myself also. Mason- Playing with different people was fun, but I found it difficult to concentrate as the round went on. Teaching myself and two other people at the same time was difficult but fun to watch as they improve. My shots all around have improve, and my distance control is getting better each time I play helping me get closer to the pin. getting better at taking good shots at the green helps me prevent difficult putts that end up hurting my scores. Moving into that last two weeks I will move back to mastering my drives in an attempt to pull all the aspects of my game together. If I can manage to get tee box shots under control in the next week I feel that i can reach my goal of bogey golf.
11/19/2020 0 Comments November 15th, 2020This week I played two rounds of golf with Hayden riding in the cart helping me along the way. This week our focus was to not rush and relax while we play. Having people pushing behind you makes this hard and can cause me to get very frustrated. Moving in closer to the final week finding time on the course is getting harder, but I think the next few weekends will allow us to wrap things up. This is Hayden on what he does to help improve my game mentally and physically. Hayden- I help Mason with different aspects of his game. One major thing with golf is course management and helping Mason with this will improve his game a lot. I also helped him pick out clubs because he tends to hit too much club when he's around 150 yards out. Mason struggles with hitting the ball way too far right or way too far left. I try to help him prevent this problem by explaining what he could do to fix it. Mason also struggles with getting distracted on the golf course and I make him keep his phone in the car, which prevents many distractions. Moving on into the future weeks I will find other ways to improve his game. There are many things I can learn from this by the time I get back on the course myself. Mason- This week was a struggle for me with hitting the ball straight. An open club face became my enemy, and cause every shot to be sent to the right of me resulting in many drop points. Another big struggle of mine is putting. Lots of the time I can get to the green setting myself up for par, and then three putting it. Lots of my high score games are caused mainly by poor putting. In order to fix this I worked indoors on my personal Mini green. Going into next week i'm aiming to eliminate all three putts and not rushing a shot taking all breaks on a green into account. Coming into the final week my goal is looking out of reach with my scores seeming to go up as we move closer to the deadline. Taking this into account i will not get discouraged and am still striving to reach the bogey golf game I had set out to obtain.
11/8/2020 0 Comments November 8th, 2020This week one of my closest friends Hayden, asked to join me on my road to bogey golf. Hayden suffered an injury to his left knee prohibiting him from getting work done with his previous group. Hayden's role will be a little different from mine as we move forward to reaching our goal. He as my partner will help me with yardages and suggest me clubs as a catty would do in a golf tournament for a pro. Hayden and I have played together since I started and he does a very good job of keeping me calm not letting me get frustrated as easily. Moving closer towards the end of the 12 weeks Hayden will be able to hopefully lead me to my goal. The one and only round of golf we played this week went half and half being good and bad. Losing an hour of daylight everyday really put us on a time crunch. The round we played was very rushed and that added onto the stress of the game. Through the first 5 holes I played possibly the worst golf I have ever played. Most of my shots were thinned and hit nowhere near the intended target. These few holes made me very frustrated to the point where I almost gave up for the day. Hayden wouldn't let me quit and helped me to finish out the round strong. On the final four holes I played half decent with a lot of help from my partner with club selection. Ending the round on a better note kept me from getting discouraged. Moving forward into next week I will strive to give myself more time to play causing less stress. Giving myself more time hopefully will help me to not rush through a game, helping me play better. Adding Hayden into my project will hopefully allow me have an extra set of eyes in correcting me when i'm doing something wrong. Having Hayden there to help will hopefully speed up the process
11/1/2020 1 Comment October 25th, 2020This week I played four rounds of golf in order to make up for the week I missed due to the reason talked about in my last post. Finally getting to relax and take my time on the course really seemed to help improve my game. Each round got better throughout the week allowing me to really see an improvement in my game. My first round of nine this week started on Monday. Throughout the whole round I struggled being patient with myself causing me to play uncontrollably. This round really showed me how hard it can be to relax and that I need to let loose from things outside of golf to help focus on the game. The second round of the week started off very strong with a couple bogeys. Around the middle of the round I had a bad hole that ruined the rest of the round. Moving on I realized I cant let a bad hole ruin the rest of my round. Playing the third round of golf for the week felt amazing. I played one of the best rounds since I started playing. All of my shots were straight for the most part with possibly one or two bad holes. I feel that not letting a bad hole ruin my game helped me to relax and keep my scores low. For my fourth and final round for the week I found myself getting sucked into frustration with my shots off the tee box. I was topping the ball on my drives calling for a drop in the fairway. Dropping on at least half of the holes, kept my score very high leading to a bad round. In conclusion, to this week I learned that staying calm is a needed factor in success on the course. Going into next week I will have to find the problem with my drives, and continue to stay calm blocking out all surrounding things that are in my head.
10/24/2020 1 Comment October 18th, 2020This week I was not able to get on the course or even leave the house due to me coming into contact with someone that tested positive for COVID 19. This setback held me to my indoor green and researching about different types of gold balls. The Corona virus in 2020 has setback almost everything. When I was able to freely play the virus was still affecting my game. On the course you have pins over the holes to tell you where the hole is located on the green. When you get to the green you remove the pin so you don't hit it when your putting. Since the virus can be spread through touch you are not allowed to move the pin from the hole. This restriction makes it difficult to putt at times. While I was stuck at home I did a little research on different golf balls. In this search I found that there are two types of balls, hard and soft. Hard golf balls cut the air better and have lower spin rates allowing the ball to go further. With the ball going farther it isn't as controllable causing a slice or hook. With a softer ball you have higher spin rates and more forgiveness allowing you to be more accurate with your shots. I have great distances on my drives making me think a softer ball will benefit me more than a harder one will. A softer covered ball will help me be more accurate and precise with shot placement to the green. After being at home for a week I am ready to get back on the course picking up where I left off with trying to focus on what i'm doing and just slow down for each shot.
10/18/2020 0 Comments October 11th, 2020This weeks goal was to loosen up and just hit the ball. To test this theory I got in some practice at the TangleWood driving range. I chose to go to the range instead of playing on the coarse because things can go really good or really bad when you just relax. Starting off my range session I got in some work on my irons. Starting with my 5 iron I worked my way all the way to my 9. Letting loose and just playing seemed to be pretty effective with this group of clubs. I hit the ball slightly with a open face causing most of my shots to go off to the right. To fix this I strengthened my grip a little closing the face as my club came in contact with the ball. This slight change helped me hit the ball smooth and straight down the middle. Moving from my irons to my wedges I ran into the same problem. Hitting little 100 yard shots were great when I relaxed. The only problem I faced was thinning my shots which is when the club strikes the middle of the ball not getting the loft needed for spin. In order, to fix this problem I bent my knees and swung lower on the ball. Ending with my last few balls in the bucket, I got some practice in with my driver. This is where I started seeing a problem. I encountered my first problem with the tee height. The day before it had rained a lot restricting practice to be only from the mats. When you hit from the mats you only get two set tee heights, one being too low and one being too high. With the high tee I send the ball straight up in the air, and with the low one I top the ball into the ground. In conclusion, at the range all my shots were able to be corrected with a slight change. Relaxing and just playing the game allowed me to play the best I have in a while. Taking what I did at the range and applying it to the corse should help me lower my scores, and enjoy myself while I play.
10/4/2020 0 Comments October 4th, 2020This week I was only able to play one round of golf. Getting on the course recently has felt harder and harder to do with my work load for school steadily increasing. Since, I wasn't able to practice as much as I would have liked, I did a little research on ways I can change my swing to hit the ball straighter. During my one and only round of golf this week I played one of the worst rounds I have ever played. Every aspect of my game was off. This was very frustrating and really got to my head. Every shot I took was fundamentally correct but nothing seemed to work. I went from slowly reaching my goal to moving backwards away from it. Finding myself lost after falling back on all my progress forced me to search the Internet for answers. In this search I learned that golf is 50% mental and 50% technique. Focusing on every little thing in my swing was bringing me away from just playing the game. Going into this next week, I want to relax and just swing the club as I was doing when I played my best. My goal is to let loose and taking time to enjoy the game. This should help me hit better shots and become more consistent with my game.
9/27/2020 0 Comments September 27th, 2020This week I played two rounds of golf focusing in on my iron shots and my short game around the green. The rainy weather has made it very difficult to get on the coarse but i took advantage of every chance I got. Two things that have really helped me work on my game indoors is a chipping net and putting green I received for my birthday. The chipping net allows me to Pinpoint loft height and distance around the green, while the putting green helps me work on distance control to the pin. Working inside with these two tools has allowed me to see improvement in my short game. The first round of golf I played this week started off great. All aspects of my game were good. I drove the ball good, played my irons straight, and my chipping wasn't bad. When i got to the green I started seeing problems with my putting. This would soon become the least of my worries. Later in this round my swings were colliding. My drives were slicing, and i started shanking my iron shots. This is one of the reasons I feel golf is one of the hardest sports. My second and final round of golf this week was pretty consistent throughout the back portion of the round. I Scored a 53 through nine Making me nine strokes away from my goal for a half of a round. The first two holes I played great with a bogey and a par. Starting the third hole I hit my drive off to the right and shanked an iron shot towards the green. To finish up this hole i made a great recovery shot out of the rough for double bogey. From this hole on my drives were hit with an open face sending most of them right, and my putting was rough. I still have a long way to go but I am making slow progress with every round. Looking back at this week I have realized that golf is the hardest sport I have ever played. Just a slight change of the wind can affect if your ball is playable or out of bounds. Just now picking up the sport has been very difficult, but I looking forward to bettering myself on the course. My scores for the second round this week.
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