What Have I Found?

This morning I awoke to the sun shining through the window, and the sounds of my family preparing to take on the day. I rubbed my eyes and heard my wife yell to our son, who is all of 11 years old, to get up it's time for school. He answered back in his usual "I'm dead to this world" tone letting M know he was awake. At that point my 14 year old daughter strolled through on her way to the master bath for I was assuming one more look at her face and hair before she ate breakfast. She asked me if I would take her to the movies this evening, and I said maybe I would like to go to a movie. She told me, with a sort of scowl on her face, that I could see a different movie than the one she and her friends wanted to see.

She may not understand that i do not wish to see a movie about teenage vampires. So, there was no problem. Myah wandered off and M brought me a cup of coffee. Man, life feels good today. My son caught me at the perfect time because I agreed to deal Deangelo Williams to him in our fantasy football league. He almost came to tears when I at first said no. I have a soft heart, what can I say?

M took the kids to school, and then ran off to work herself. I perused facebook and felt the sudden urge to try this putter I recently borrowed from my buddy, Mike. Now, I have to explain that I have used this putter in my distant past. I originally putted with it while I was in high school and college. I don't really remember why, it could be that I needed $30, or it could be I had three putted one too many times during my previous round, but for whtever reason i sold mike this putter. He and I had been talking about it since this past summer, and he mentioned I could give it another try since my putting was clearly awful. He was right too. I have not putted well in many, many years. Like twenty years...seriously.

So, now I have this putter, and the sun is shining, and life is grand cause i won a pretty good amount at the poker tables yesterday, and there is surely more of that to come today. The weekend is here, Myah has soccer tomorrow, Sam is doing better in school, M looks really great, and well, I am in a damn good mood. What else to do but head to the golf course?

Unfortunately, I'm unable to play golf at this moment. I am playing Sunday, and quite frankly that is enough. I have been hacking at it like a rank amateur, and generally unhappy with my play on the course. I have been dealing with it by staying inebriated during these enjoyable rounds with friends. But, I do have the time to go to the practice green. This is perfect.

I arrive at the course, and get permission to use the practice green. This is done as a courtesy to the guys on the pro shop. I play there quite often, and they recognize me, so there isn't ever a problem. I walk towards the practice green and I have with me my old new putter, a pitching wedge, and two Titleist Pro V 1's.

Normally I would carry my sand wedge with me instead of the pitching wedge. But, I always used to chip and pitch with my pitching wedge. In fact I didn't even own a sand wedge until I was about 18. We had little sand on out home course, and I learned to use the pitching wedge for a variety of shots both low and high. I could lay that club wide open and hit a flop shot of a tight lie. I shit you not. Now? Please. I can barely get up and down to save my life. The only thing that aids in my mental health is that the people I play golf with have worse short games than I. I think that MAY be the key to golf, always find worse golfers to hang with.

So, today I was going to learn to hit all the shots with my pitching wedge, just like way back when. I was also going to see if this old new putter could help in any way. I knew it couldn't hurt, that much was definite.

I looked at the greens and realized they were quite slow. That's ok though, it'll help with my chipping. Slower greens aren't as penal and therefore actually help build confidence. Confidence is a good thing.

I throw down the two balls and set my pitching wedge aside. There is another guy chipping on the other side of the green. I watch him hit one shot. Ugh, don't look like that guy I tell myself. His arms were all stiff and his sort of swayed backwards when he took the club away. he then had to sway back towards the ball while sweeping the club along the grass. Needless to say he hit a lot of fat and thin shots. It was not pretty.

So, I started putting, just getting the feel of the putter. It's ok, but I'm missing the sweetspot every time. I make some adjustments and start to hit the putts solid at least. It feels ok, but not really any better than usual. I start to get the speed right and roll some closer. But, I keep missing my mark, and the line is off on most putts. The putter looks like it is lining up right of my target line as I stand over it. I don't understand and decide to shelve it for a minute while I go hit some chip shots. Maybe I'm too impatient, but I just wasn't feeling it. Something's not right, maybe the grip is off center a bit, I don't know. I picked up my pitching wedge.

I start to hit some chips shots. The ball is rolling nicely. I'm chiiping well, and the ball is going close to the hole once in a while. Suddenly, I start hitting some fat, meaning I'm hitting the ground behind the ball. Gross, the ball hoes half the distance to the hole. The next one is thin, dear lord, it goes screming by the hole making the guy on the other side of the green look up at me. His eyes are saying "WTF", I smile and yell "head's up!". Screw him anyway. Now what?

I mix in some good chips, but every once in a while I hit one fat or thin. This is no good as it is clear something is definitely wrong with my technique. I can't figure it out. For some reason my bottom hand on the club is taking over at the impact time of the swing. It is the bane of all bad chippers. But, there is a cause, and therefore can be fixed. I just had to find it.

I'm tired for now so I'm going to finish this later. I do find the key, and it has to do with right angles, lines on the putter, and Robert Allenby approaching me in a dream telling me to be more like Albert Pujols. I know....but it's true, and it works. I think.