Just returned from my annual trip to Maine.  Got in three rounds at Jato Highlands in Lincoln, Maine and nine holes at the Penobscot Valley Country Club in Orono, Maine.  I played OK… Enjoyed Penobscot - hadn’t played there before.  It had rained for about eight weeks before I got there so everything was soft.  Drives got no roll and the greens were slow as molasses.  I’ll post pics of the round shortly.

I’ve been alternating between my Taylormade R7/460 and a Ping G-10 Draw. and they are in the same ball park, although the Ping might be a little longer.  I think I’ve solved the issue I’ve been having with pushing my drives - As I would address the ball, I would take a 1-2 inchstep with my left foot and then take my right out to about shoulder width.  My boss was watching me and made some helpful suggestions. Now I don’t take the little step with my left, leaving the ball further forward and the push is gone.  Also gone is the occasional hook from overcompensating with a stronger grip.

At Jato I had a couple times that I just gripped it and ripped it and it still came out OK - I’ll try a couple times in Costa Mesa in the coming weeks to see how it goes.

- John

For my last few outings my driving has been great - 275-300 with a draw (don’t really know where the draw came from), and I’ve been averaging about 1.8 putts per hole - definitely working for me. 

The thing is my irons.  I got Callaway X-20’s a couple months ago and I’m really happy with them.  I’m confident in my distances, but I normally plink it beside the green - then I usually have a chip and two-putt for a bogey.  I hit 50-60% of fairways, but suffer in my greens in regulation.

I need to find a way to gain control.

You know… you drive for show and putt for dough….  Normally stated by someone with a 190 yard drive.  Even so, it feels good to see your ball fly the length of three football fields down the fairway! 

I read an article in Golf magazine called  “The Quest for 300” and it was a lot of help - little bits and pieces to squeeze 5 yards here and 10 yards there.  The key for me was the beginning of the down-swing - start it a s if someone is pulling your belt buckle toward the hole.  After playing with it for awhile and figuring out what they were taliking about - it added a solid 20 yards! 

The main things that I’ve done to my swing in th elast few months are: 

                     (1)  Don’t lead with the hands - the hands should not be in front of the ball at impact.
                     (2)  Start the downswing with the hips - start as if someone yanked your buckle toward the hole.
                     (3)  Use a low spin ball - currently using Titleist NXT Extreme, Bridgestone E6 or Callaway War Birds.

Now, instead of ranging from 240 - 280, I’m ranging from 280 to 320 using a Taylormade R7/460 driver.

Well, it has been quite awhile since I last posted.  Since the last installment, unbeknownst to me, my SCGA membership expired, so I had to re-up.  My index was 20.8 – just below the 21 required to be able to hit St. Andrews on my next trip to Scotland.

I went to Roger Dunn in Santa Ana, Ca. to demo clubs.  I hit a few different Adams, Mizuno, Callaway, Taylor Made, and a few others.  I settled on the X-20’s over the X-22’s – they just seemed to feel better to me.

I got them (3-PW) on the Callaway Outlet website along with a 55 degree X-20 sand wedge and a 64 degree X-Forged lobbing wedge.  I am very wedge-full now.

How the clubs have changed my game

Compared to my Adams A2 OS irons, the X-20’s are about ¾ of a club longer but less forgiving.  From my perspective it seems like I gained distance, but lost control.  Upon analysis though, but gained more of an ability to control the ball that maybe I didn’t have with the hybrids.

I found that I was being plagued by slices and pushes. I played with my grip a little and it turned to a draw by strengthening my grip.  When I line up with the ball further back in my stance as I used to for straightening my normal fade, it turns into a hook.  So I have to tee it further forward.

I am hitting the difficult shots from the rough better.  I’ve been nailing my chipping and pitching – I just need to straighten out the slalom down the fairway.

- John

Hey!  As promised, I played another round at Jato and brought the camera this time.  Here is the link:

http://www.seejohngolf.com/jato2008/

– John

On vacation in Maine, I shot a round today at JaTo Highlands in Lincoln, Maine.  When my slice flares up on most courses I’m on, the ball ricochets off of someone’s barbeque - That ain’t gonna’ happen at JaTo.  I will give you $100 for each back yard you can put a ball into.  My guess is that the ball would have to carry about a half mile in the air.  I played from th ewhites, so the front nine rating is 32.9 with a 111 slope, and th eback nine have a 34.1 rating with a 121 slope.

I played Callaway Warbirds and, like my last round, was consistent.  The only difference is that I had a 49 on the front nine and a 48 on the back, for a total of 97 on a 72 par course.  Not fabulous, but a lot better than 108! 

I had three pars, eight bogies, four doubles, three triples.   Only three greens in regulation and four fairways, but my putting was working well - only three 3-putts, fourteen 2-putts, and two single putts, both of which were greater than 20 feet.

I’m going to play here again in the coming week and will post pics.

- John

I played a round at Tustin Ranch on Friday and OUCH!!  Shot a 108.  It was consistently bad at 54 on the front nine and 54 on the back.  I used Callaway Warbird balls and lost an entire sleeve on one hole.  Just bad.

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We can’t wait for you to join us again this year!  REGISTER NOW and help support Biola Students in the coming year!

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Play, play, play.  The law of averages will catch up to you.  If you put a monkey at a typewriter for a million years, you’ll eventually see Shakespeare.

I broke 90.  Believe it or not, what has been killing me lately are the three-pars.  Normally I par or bogey the four & five par holes and then triple, or at least double, the three-pars.  We played the Mesa Linda Course at the Costa Mesa Country Club with the intention of knocking out nine, but I got sucked into the golf vortex and was unable to leave due to the gravitationl effects (or at least that’s what I told my wife).  The major difference today was that I was hitting the three-pars.  The round started out double, bogey, bogey,bogey, bogey,so I wasn’t expecting a whole lot, then I went par, bogey, par, bogey for the last four holes.  This brought me to one under a bogey average for the nine holes (43 on a 35 par).

I was hopeful at the turn.  On the back nine I did six bogies, two pars and a birdie!  This gave me a 40 on the back nine (35 par) for a total of 83!  I’m actually kind of impressed with the last couple holes which pretty much got played in the dark (that derned vortex) and came out bogies.  Overall I hit five fairways and got five greens in regulation.  I had 3 three-putts, 13 two-putts, and 2 one-putts.

How were the Nike One Black balls?  Distance was OK - in the ball park of my usual drives.  Driver spin?  I did have ocassional slices, by not rampant.  I found the ball went straighter when I was trying to hit a draw or fade.  Iron spin?  I had a couple hits today that were perfect from a good distance away and stopped on the green with greater spin than I normally have.  I will play one more round with the Nike One Black balls to gauge the flukiness of the 83 score, then I will go back to Warbirds to compare in that direction.

– John

Played a round of golf in La Mirada On Saturday.  Did pretty good - second best score I’ve gotten, a 94 (70 par).  I thought I had a shot at breaking 90 because I had a 45 on the front nine, but then I started out the back nine with double, double, double, double and my slice began acting up.  I hit 47% of fairways, but only had 2 greens in regulation.  Came away with 1 triple, 6 doubles, 9 bogies, and 2 pars.

Continuing to test the Nike One Black balls.  Distance?  I don’t notice much difference.  Driver spin?  ’spose it’s OK until I get tired and sloppy at the end of a round.  Iron spin?  Haven’t noticed a lot of difference from my regular Warbirds.  We’ll see.  I will continue to use these for another week or so and then switch back to see if my game suffers because of the switch.

– John