The Golf Swing

Hold Your Finish

Well, the weekend of golf went mostly well. An 84 at Warrenbrook on Saturday, playing with nothing greater than a 3 iron. My putting was pretty awful, and I carded an 8 on an easy par 5. Quite unfortunate, my swing felt great, I was striking the ball quite well, and my short game work earlier in the week definitely seemed to help. But it just goes to show you, you need all parts of your game working to score well. The best part of the day was the 15th hole, a 510 (though the tee seemed to be more at 475) yard dogleg right par 5. I hit a high fade with a 4 iron out to about 10 yards inside the 250 marker. The approach shot is blind downhill shot. I decided to hit a 5 iron, thinking I might end up around 50 yards. I walk over the hill, and see my ball on the back fringe of the green. Just about on in two with two iron shots! Of course, I had my only three putt of the day, and begrudgingly settled for a par.

Sunday was less stellar, as I ended with an 87 at Warrenbrook again. I had a great stretch on 8->12 of par-birdie-par-par-par. But it was down hill from there. It was quite humid out, and Warrenbrook is definitely a tough walk. Doing it back to back, in the heat, definitely took something out of me. I stunk up the last several holes and gave up what should have been a low 80 round. Aside from the nice stretch in the middle holes, I had hit the 3 iron off the tee quite well all day. On Saturday my confidence with the 3 iron wasn’t so great so I stuck with the 4 iron most of the day. On Sunday I pulled it out on just about every par 4 and 5. I’m really starting to like playing this way. Keeping the ball in the fairway, and not really losing a huge amount of distance, is quite exciting. One of our playing partners actually said to me, “Doesn’t this get boring for you?” I had to laugh.

On another note, I’ve been reading Dave Pelz’s Short Game Bible (Excellent Book, you can get a copy from Amazon for around $20) lately, and read something very interesting last night. He stressed how critical it was to hold your finish after a shot until the has landed and stopped. He discusses how critical it is to have feedback to associate with the feel of your shot. So, while you’re still in your finishing position, you are still feeling your shot. Subconciously your mind can work to associate that feel with the result of your shot. Hit a great shot from the 150 marker within a few feet of the pin, and your mind can work behind the scenes to try and help you subconciously remember what you did. I know I generally abandon my finish position rather quickly. But watch any professional tournament and you’ll always see the pro’s holding that finishing position for what seems like forever.

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