Week 29 Update
Welcome Players! I played a practice round that would have scored a 94 and a real-round that did score a 104. It’s not what I’d like to see at this point in my journey but golf is a game of many rounds, not just one, so I’ve got the memory of a goldfish and am already looking forward.
Contents:
Training Week in Review
Habit Tracker
Training Log
Skill Practice
Golf Performance
Wrap-Up
Training Week in Review
This was an unorthodox week. Got 2 rounds of golf and 2 training sessions in all before the weekend hit.
Then I strayed from my gameplan and enjoyed the weekend with my friends and a few alcoholic beverages which de-railed my training for the weekend.
No ride or workout on sunday but did manage to take a 2 hour walk on the beach which counts as zone 2 cardio.
Overall not a bad week, but definitely could have been much better had I not thrown two training days away because of drinking.
I’d do it again though. I had a great time hanging out with my friends and like I’ve said before, I don’t get paid to do this so I have to find a balance I’m comfortable with and if having a fun day on Saturday means no training for a weekend, so be it.
Habit Tracker
Playing a practice round on Wednesday was nice, but am a little slow on home-practice the days after I play a round. I don’t even think that’s a bad thing necessarily.
All in all happy with the week in habits as well, two rounds more than makes up for two days of not rolling putts at home.
Training Log
Resistance Train (Gym): 1
Conditioning (Road Bike): 1
Good thing I got my training in during the week cause the weekend was a wash.
It happens.
Skill Practice
I kept score during my practice round but was playing with a different mentality.
I was focused a lot on course management, hitting the ball to my spot, and having good tempo.
In terms of the things I set out to do in the practice round it went great. But a few notes:
I definitely played too fast. Because I was by myself I got in a rhythm of quick play and it led me to make some poor shot selections that I shouldn’t have.
It also made me putt and chip rather absent-mindedly. I need to really focus on the shot when I’m hitting “easy” shots because I have a tendency to blank out and then chunk it.
Golf Performance
On Friday I played at Normandy Shores with a friend of mine who was in town for the weekend.
We were both pretty set on playing well. That didn’t turn out so great…
All in all I didn’t strike the ball all that poorly, but I couldn’t hit the fairway and putted atrociously. On top of that my penalty shots were back in full force and when those three things happen I shoot over 100.
Some mental mistakes I made:
continuing to hit driver when the right play should have been to lay up with a fairway wood
not taking the high-percentage wedge shot and instead trying to flight the ball off of bad-lies
not taking more time to get a good read for shorter putts
Selecting my shots based on the chance of success rather than limiting the downside risk of a bad shot: ie, picking a shot selection that doesn’t get me into a penalty shot if I hit a typical miss. This one is harder to do because if I’m hitting the driver well I can pick more aggressive lines, but need to be able to recognize if things aren’t going smoothly need to pick safer lines
There were certainly some environmental things that played a part in this scoring as well.
I had clients all morning, didn’t get the best night’s sleep, and was on the tail-end of a busy work week. These are all things that are uncontrollable, but I think it’s important to recognize the context that the round was played under.
Overall in these conditions I should have really focused on slowing down and playing a more relaxed game, especially on the heels of my practice round two days prior where I hit close to 9 or 10 fairways.
Wrap-Up
I’ve finally decided to tailor my spendable hours more in favor of golf practice instead of training.
It took a bit of lowering my ego where I really enjoy riding the bike and improving my conditioning on the bike, but there’s plenty more time for that in life and for now I need to spend those valuable hours on the golf course practicing if I’m going to expect improvement.
I’m dissatisfied with myself and the inability to break 90, but I also recognize that at the rate I’m practicing I can’t expect to be any better.
So I’m going to shot for 1-2 lifting sessions a week, 1-2 range sessions a week, 1-2 rounds a week, and any time left over I’ll take the bike out for a conditioning session if I can.
There’s also a possibility I can maintain all the same volume if I ride the bike in the morning and practice/play in the afternoon, but I don’t want to commit to that schedule just yet with my work and personal life that might not be sustainable.
We’ll see.
Overall summer is still going and the good news is that even when I play poorly it’s still a learning experience, so on we go to next week!