July 5, 2013: New Club OMG!

A standard work day today getting all the ducks in a row so the operation runs smoothly while I am gone.  I am very grateful of the very supportive staff I have who go the extra mile for Connor and me to be gone.

The big excitement is the arrival of the three clubs I ordered for the event: an 11.5 degree driving club, and 2 and 3 hybrid.

Out on the range, the 3 hybrid flies about 200 yards with good trajectory and the 2 hybrid I can hit down on it like an iron to get some trajectory and spin for about a 210 carry or sweep into the ball more to generate a little more carry and more run.  Both these hybrids look like old Taylor Made Tour Cleeks.

But it is the 11.5 degree “3-wood” that excites me the most.  ON the range the trajectory looks good and it appears to carry further than my 15 degree three wood.  Now I can carry the 15 degree about 230 and get 20 yards of roll.  If I can get 20 more yards from this 11.5 and keep the ball in the fairway I will be very happy.  Now to test it on course.

Head to GMGC’s first tee and hit a push/cut downwind 260 yards – ok but nothing earth shattering.  Make a birdie.  Pull the 11.5 for the 2^nd tee and hit a great solid baby cut past the bunkers down the middle to about 20 yards short of the green. This was a very confident swing with results that have me smiling.  Miss an 8 footer for birdie

After being interrupted to take care of a new employee so he can get paid next week.  The tee shot off #3 is average as it is uphill and into a crossing breeze to the 150 marker.  A 7-iron to six feet and birdie.

Hit the 11.5 again off #6 and the push instead of a cut takes the ball 240 yards off the tee into the wind.  A 2 hybrid short of the green sets up another birdie.

A drawing tee shot off the right bunker on #7 takes the ball down the slope to where I expect to hit my 10.5 degree high profile driver.  Now I am convinced this is what I have been looking for in a driver: low profile, modern face technology, and at 44” much easier to control, swing freely and swing with confidence instead of hope.

A SW to 10 feet and another birdie.  Four under through seven and I am thinking about tying Brian Humphries’ 31.  But pars on the final two leave me with a 32. I post the score on the handicap computer and it tells me the score is lower than normal and asks if I am sure  I want to post it.  So my final 18 at GMGC before I leave totals 66, one shot lower than the course record I tied in August 2001.

Being able to stand up on the tee next week confident that my driving club, now nicknamed 3-D, will find the fairway is going to be so helpful in my chances to play well by my standards.

Out to dinner with Minda at Nuestra Mesa in downtown Camas to celebrate a friend’s birthday.  After dinner the crew heads to Caps and Taps and I head home to get some rest before the long travel day.

I have a tendency to catch cold in airplanes and hotels, so I have been taking a dose of Airborne each day over the past couple of days.