Mansfield National with Soks

 MUCH BETTER.  It's amazing how for beginners like me, the right playing conditions can make such a huge difference.  I didn't get to warm up so I pushed my 6 iron off the first tee way out left and almost out of play, but it stayed up in the rough at the bottom of a hill.  I hit a short iron towards the green and missed it slightly right, chipped on and got an easy two putt for a bogey.  I was in a good mood and felt happy with how I played the hole.  My mood stayed pretty consistent throughout the round and it showed on my score card.  

Most important factor: It wasn't crazy hot or humid, and I was wearing shorts!  Not making excuses for how poorly I played at Coyote Ridge, but I was dying that round because I wore pants in 100 degree heat with maximum level humidity.  My glove was drenched with sweat and sliding all over the place too.  

Mansfield National is easily one of my favorite courses.  It's fair and fun to play as long as you're conservative off the tees.  I only felt comfortable hitting driver two or three times, and two of them went out of bounds lol.  I probably could've shot lower if I continued to keep my tee shots between 190 and 220 with my hybrid and long irons.  That's not what it's about tho.  I'm not competing, I'm trying to improve my game.  I always play off the front tees with my friends and hitting driver doesn't really make sense on most holes, especially if I'm looking at fairway bunkers about 20 yards short of my best-case-scenario carry distance with driver.

Soks played really well too.  He's blasting it dead straight down the fairway with his new Ping G400 SFT driver and we're all really happy for him.  Like me, Soks' tee box game was a source of frustration at times, but this new club has given him so much confidence.  I'm sure he'll be breaking 100 in no time.

View this post on Instagram

Played a really solid round of golf with Soks last week. Definitely my best round out of the three I’ve played in 2020. Not just because of the score but with how I felt over every shot. Soks played really well too! It was nice seeing him kicking ass and feeling good about his game. . . 🦖 . . (Blog link in bio) #golf #golflife #lordsofthelinks #juno #soks #golfswing #mansfield #texas #mansfieldnational #hot #summer #outdoors

A post shared by The Fellowship of the Swing (@lordsofthelinks) on Sep 12, 2020 at 6:25pm PDT

As for me, I'm not really too worried about my score right now.  I spend a lot of time thinking about my game and what I can do to build the kind of golfer I want to become.  Looking over my three rounds this year (without taking Coyote Ridge into account because I wasn't playing like myself that day), there are a few things I know I do well and lots of things I know I need to work on:

• If I'm playing a hybrid or long iron off the tee, I know I'm going to hit my distance and will hit the fairway more often than not. 
• My miss is usually a push to the left or I over-correct and hook the ball right.
• I miss too many fairways and I miss them equally to the left and right. 
• More often than not I strike my irons really well, but my accuracy is questionable.
• I miss too many greens in regulation, and it's the only reason why my putting numbers are so low.  I'm always chipping from around the greens.
• My chipping and pitching is pretty solid.
• But it's not solid enough to where I'm in one-putt range consistently.
• I two-putt from distances where I should be one-putting. 
• I can't hit driver to save my life.
• I can't hit 3 wood consistently enough to trust it off the tee.

That's my game in a nutshell right now.  It's easier said than done, but I think if I can get my driver under control and start using it more on the golf course, along with my 3 wood, I could give myself easier shots into the green.  I'd rather hit a 135 easy pitching wedge into a green than a hairy 8 iron.  So fairways in regulation with my longer clubs is going to be my primary focus for the next few rounds.