90 Holes in Three Days!

After really not touching my clubs much at all in 2011 (or December 2010, for that matter), I have been making up for lost time the last three days. I am at Callaway Gardens and have been taking full advantage of the snow-less turf and tolerable temperatures. My good friend, Charlie Schorgl, flew down from Kansas City for the weekend as well, and we played 36 holes each day on Saturday and Sunday and added 18 more this morning before Charlie headed for the airport. I will be down here at least through the end of this week and will continue to work my way back into good form on the course.

My plan for these first three days of practice was to play as much as possible. I know that I am not the best player on the driving range, so I figured that trying to beat off some winter rust on the range or around the practice facilities might be a little frustrating. Getting onto the course and just using my feel and instincts to hit shots really gave me a good idea as to the state of my game, and I have been really impressed the last three days. I've driven the ball pretty well, hit a lot of good iron shots, looked fairly sharp with my wedges, and had a few highlights on and around the greens. There has been some inconsistency, too, of course, particularly in my chipping and putting, but all in all I feel pretty darn good about everything.

In the coming days I will continue to spend a lot of time on the course practicing that oh-so-important skill of getting the ball in the hole, but I also think that I am ready to spend some time on the driving range and around the short game area and putting green. I do not feel like I need to have any dramatic changes in form; I simply need to regain my comfort over a variety of types of shots, and I think the repetitive nature of practice on a driving range and the short game facilities will allow me to do just that. I already feel good about my game in its first few days after coming out of hibernation, but I know that some solid practice sessions in the coming week can have me on the brink of achieving a goal about which I have talked for a while: playing the best golf of my life when February rolls around.

I'm excited to be practicing again. I love what I do and learning ways to do it better. My competitive juices are flowing, and I want to start my tournament schedule right now, but I know that I need some time to get my game where I want it to be. I'll have it there, though, and 2011 will be a fun year! Check back here for a practice report in the next couple days, and I'll also give some more info about what to expect this year!