Pretty cold out there (44*), but a bit of snow and colder temps forecast for tomorrow, so wanted to squeeze in one more round before FL trip with the hope I could straighten out my driver problems. No such luck. It was better than last week, but not by much. Maybe it's the heavy clothes or something, but my great driver swing is gone. I thought I had found something last night at the range. Then I got to the first tee and hit the ball pretty straight and in the fairway. Then hit a 5W to 12 feet for a GIR and look at birdie. Missed the putt by an inch or so, but still walked off with a nice par to start the round and confidence in my back pocket. Then I proceeded to stab a 3W into the ground on the second tee, sending the ball about 90 yards. Things went downhill fast on that hole. Carded an 8. Came back on the third, but missed a putt to save par by a couple inches. Sliced badly off the 4th tee, leaving me behind trees. On par 5 5th, hit a pretty good drive, then a long straight 5W, but came up short of the green with my approach. Man that cold air really plays havoc on the distances. Chipped long and two-putted. The next three drives on 7, 8 and 9 were okay, though each had some fade. The drive on 9 had a little more than I would have liked. In fact, other than one or two drives all day, they all had more fade than I like, but less than I was getting before my attempt at the range to fix it last night. It's a tempo issue I think, combined with bulky clothes, sore rotator cuff and elbow tendonitis. I'm hoping Florida will alleviate some of those issues.
Putting is not really putting considering the shape of the greens in February so I am not going to worry too much about that until I get on some that are in mid-season form in FL. Iron play was acceptable. Chipping was okay from a contact perspective, but I couldn't get the distances right, so had a bunch of two-putts that should have been one-putts and ultimately, par saves.
Came away from the round quite sore. Mostly left elbow, but right shoulder as well. This will probably be my last time swinging a driver until my Florida trip late next week. That should be good for my shoulders and elbows.
