Hooters Winter Series – Southern Dunes
Kind of a disappointing week. I shot 75-73–148 (+4) and will miss the cut by 5 or 6 shots. I felt like I was swinging it decently coming in, but I just never seemed to be very precise out there this week. I missed a few too many greens, but never seemed to be far off when I missed and hit a lot of really good shots as well. On the whole I tended to miss in really difficult spots to save par from, and in the end my short game just couldn’t bail me out every time.
After numerous first round delays, we started the tournament three hours behind schedule which really threw off the tee times, especially for my side of the field. After making up some time during the day, I teed off for my first round at 3:50 yesterday and only finished six holes before play was suspended for darkness. I got off to a slow start yesterday making a dumb double bogey on my second hole after hitting the wrong club off the tee but managed to get a birdie in before we stopped play and went to bed last night +1 through 6 holes. We restarted this morning at 9 am and finished the first round at about noon. After the restart I was playing okay and had a chance to salvage my round, but I 3-putted my 17th hole and missed the green with a pitching wedge on my last hole of the day to close with two bogeys and shoot 75. We had 10 minutes to regroup and then head back out for the second round.
Early on in the second round I got off to a good start making two birdies and just missing a few other mid-range birdie tries, but I 3-putted the same hole I did in the first round and turned at -1 on the afternoon. I had been hitting some pretty good shots, and I thought that if I could get a few putts to fall I’d have a chance to make a charge up to the cut line. I hit it to 15 feet on #’s 10 and 11, but missed both putts. I then hit it green-side in two shots on the par 5 12th and made birdie, but that’s where my steam ran out. I missed the next few greens in bad spots and just couldn’t find ways to save pars. Three straight bogeys did me in and I parred my last few to end the round and my tournament.
Going into yesterday I talked about how I was looking at this in some ways as the start of my process to set up next year, and in a lot of ways my feelings about my goals and plans are confirmed by this week. I am starting to feel a lot of the changes in my golf swing that I made this year take hold under pressure and yield some very exciting results. The biggest change I’ve been trying to make this year was to sync my arms and body more fluidly, and this week for the first time I could sense the improved transition feel natural as opposed to forced. That is an enormous step in the right direction. If I can keep making it more and more natural, I won’t have to think so much about it, and it won’t be nearly as difficult to execute. At times this year I’ve executed the transition the way I want to and have played well, but for consistent results in any aspect of your golf swing a move must be natural. That’s why this week is exciting and feels like another big step forward. Unfortunately, I feel like I’m currently fighting my swing plane, which causes me to hit shots off line, and therefore the work that I’ve put in and the changes I feel aren’t really rewarded all that much in my score. Going forward, I think I’ve laid a great foundation for success in 2010. I’ve got a practice plan that focuses on building on the base I’ve put in by emphasizing work on my short game and scoring while continuing to refine my golf swing. I’ve also got some great mental exercises to do that will help me stay sharp and focused. I think it’s gonna be a fun year ahead.
Obviously shooting 75-73 and missing a cut is not where I want to be with my game, but there was too much good going on this week to get too down on myself heading back home. I’ll be posting again sometime in the next week or so as a wrap up of 2009, and will probably post again shortly after that to do a 2010 preview. A lot of the mini-tour schedules were just recently released so I’m still in the thick of planning exactly what I’m going to do next year. I may pick up a few small events in Jan/Feb, but for sure I’ll be playing in the first eGolf Tour event of the year at Palmetto Hall in Hilton Head Island, SC February 17th-20th. Check back in over the next few weeks to get my thoughts on the past year and plans for the coming year. Thanks for watching and happy holidays.
Tim
The Mini-Tour Life - Tim Schaetzel's Golf Blog 