Tag: me

Roundup: Beaver Meadows GC – Part 2

Yesterday, I sped to the golf course as soon as my Evidence class ended at 2:30pm. I grabbed my phone and wallet off the car dashboard, slipped on my golf shoes without even a thought of tying them, and hurried into the clubhouse to pay my twilight fee – twenty-two bucks for all the golf I want and ten bucks for a cart. I don’t usually take a cart, but rain was imminent and I didn’t want to get stranded on the outer-reaches of the course without my umbrella, which was thoughtfully left in the closet at home.

Expecting the rain to shorten my round to nine holes or less and wanting to play the back nine for the fist time ever, I started on the tenth hole. The tenth hole was a par-5 with a slight dogleg right. I striped a driver down the center of the fairway with a slight fade. For not warming up on the range, it was a fluke shot. I laughed, and ran back to the gas cart and sped off.

Beaver Meadows is at best a mediocre golf course. It’s draw, for me, is its availability. On fall weekday afternoons there may be ten other people on the entire course besides me. It allows me to play one, two or as many as eight balls on each hole.

The front nine is boring, relatively unimaginative and open. Open is OK, if there is some definition to the holes. The only hole that catches my eye is the eighth hole, which is a par four with a right-to-left sloping fairway. The green is relatively large and has a closely mowed collection area to the front right. It’s bunkered on the left and back.

Playing the back nine was refreshing after having made several semi-loops around the front nine. The back nine was more wooded, which doesn’t make a golf course unless, like me, you grew up in Northern Lower Michigan and you’re used to courses cut through forests. The trees provided some definition, and gave me an idea of what type of shot to hit. More importantly, they challenged me to not hit certain types of shots, lest I wish my speeding golf ball meet a heavily wooded peril accentuated with that distinctive Titleist on bark click.

I birdied the fourteenth hole, an uphill dogleg right par-4 that measured 430 yards, by hitting a fade driver and an eight iron to ten feet. The putt, a slippery left-to-right breaker, made more difficult by the recently punched greens, poured in the front left of the cup. That was the best execution of three consecutive shots I’ve hit all year.

After fighting the wind, avoiding the rain, and trudging through thousands of fallen leaves, I completed sixteen holes. I skipped six and seven on the front to get around a slow walking couple. I flushed two two-irons of the tee on the ninth hole (my 18th). It was a strong finish to a fun round on a late fall day.

Roundup: Beaver Meadows GC

I played the front nine of Beaver Meadows Golf Club for the second time this past Wednesday. Like last time, I played about five balls on each hole – usually into the green. The weather was nice – 60* – and I was striking the ball better than a week ago. My biggest complaint is that I seem to be pushing a lot of my tee shots, especially with my driver.

“Getting stuck,” they call it.

Range Notes: To the Course!

I played for the first time in months today. I’ve been hitting range balls every few days for weeks now, savoring the final golfable days of the fall season in New England. The course was beautiful, empty and quiet. The foliage was in full swing. For nine holes, I walked through a corridor of color. The brick red and muted yellow leaves reminded me of high school golf. Back then, the leaves were distractions. They coved up my ball in the fairway and littered my putting line. This afternoon, though, the leaves were a perfect backdrop.

Saying I played nine holes is a little misleading. I basically took the range onto the course and got my $22 worth by playing five to eight balls per hole. It was much more enjoyable than hitting balls on the range, although my weaknesses were highlighted. I drove the ball well. I hit my irons well. I hit some miraculous flop-shots. Putting it all together, however, is something that I’m saving for my next late-fall round.

Range Tips: Practice Nine Holes

The reality of being a law student is that I don’t play as much golf as I used to. I’ve been hitting a lot of range balls lately, though. And to combat the rather monotonous activity of hitting ball after ball into a wide open field, I visualize holes that I’ve played many times and hit shots accordingly.

E.g., The country club in my home town starts with a par four with a large Oak Tree overhanging the left landing area of the fairway. So, on the range I would be looking to hit a draw with my driver, which would leave me a wedge in.

It is best to be specific when doing this. Take note of the wind, where the pin is on your “imaginary” green, and what type of shot you want to hit. You’ll be switching clubs a lot, but see this is a great approach to hitting range balls that makes your practice count.

High School Golf Practice

Yesterday was sixty-five degrees, calm, and sunny so I went to the golf range to practice. I bought my seven dollar large bucket of balls, laced up my golf shoes, and started hitting easy sand wedges to the red flag on the right of the range about 85 yards away. I was trying to keep the trajectory of my shots down so I could control my distance better. About thirty minutes into my session high school golfers began setting up shop on the range. Then what looked to be the junior varsity team hopefuls came over. These kids didn’t look a day over pre-adolescence, but they talked a big game. They talked it loudly, as if they were addressing a elderly foreigner. Naturally, they started their warm-up by trying to smash drivers to the edge of the woods. I felt compelled to get my driver out and hit the ball well into the woods. I did, easily. Having satisfied my ego, I returned to hitting easy eight irons to the yellow flag 160 yards away. But, the range was filling up too fast for all of us to hit. These kids were moving in on my nice patch of grass. A runt of a boy directly in front of me swung a driver equal to his own height. A lanky youngster was joyously topping, slicing and shanking balls behind me. I feared for my life. Instead of visualizing the shot I wanted to hit, I began imagining what it would feel like when cold steel met my skull. Not good. It was like I was standing it the middle of a chinook helicopter. Clubs were spinning, balls were flying. The kid in front of me actually lost his grip and his club flew over my head. The kid said woops then blindly walked in front of me. I decided it was best for me to leave at that point, so I hit my last ball, tucked in my clubs and shook my head. This was chaos – unlike any golf practice I had ever participated in, but it still made me miss high school golf.

Range Notes: Practicing in the Wind

The range I use only has one end, which means sometimes I have to hit into a headwind. This is undesirable because it exaggerates the spin on the ball and it can upset your swing tempo.

If I was practicing on a range that was two ended, I would simply go to the far end so that I was hitting downwind. That wasn’t an option today, so I chose to dedicate most of my range time to hitting controlled half-swing draw shots, a.k.a. punch shots.

I had two goals in mind while practicing:

1. Keep a smooth tempo, which will preserve my full swing for a calm day.
2. Take half swings to keep the ball low and in control.

There is a tendency to swing hard when the wind blows. This only exaggerates the effect of the wind on the ball. Swinging hard translates into more spin, which leads to more ball movement. What would be a slight fade or draw on a calm day turns into a slice or hook on a windy day if you swing hard. You also risk up-shooting into the wind and coming up well short of your target.

Instead, practice making half-swings to control your ball flight. A draw will penetrate the wind best and offer the most control. If you are able to take easy half-swings I think you’ll be surprised at how much distance you attain with minimal effort.

(Even on calm days this half-swing can be a valuable tool to have to escape from the tree trouble or to run the ball to a back hole location.)