39* Cloudy. Wasn't planning to play today, but knew I could get around quickly and get back to work by 4. Went out about 1:30.
Even though distance has been a big problem in the cold temps and soft conditions, I have been striking the ball fairly well over the last month. Made a change to swing to start this good run of ball striking, but that change seems to be hurting my sport-hernia. Today was the worst discomfort since mid summer. As a result was having trouble getting all the way through the swing off the tee which left a few drive right. I noticed some twinges in the area of the hernia during my round on Saturday, and even a bit on Sunday, but today kind of made me nervous. It's very prevalent now, 6 hours after the round. Supposed to play tomorrow. Hoping it calms down overnight.
The good news is I put the new Ping G25 4W into play today. All I can say is, wow! I purposely used it a lot and felt really confident with it. Hit it extremely well, considering I could barely hit my Titleist 4W from anything other than off the tee. I hit it from the fairway, the rough and off the tee today. Hit only one somewhat thin shot, from which I still got very good distance. My first shot off the fairway I hit as good as I ever have hit a fairway wood. In these cold conditions, the distance wasn't as good as it would have been a couple months ago, but clearly longer than my 3H has been in these same conditions. I love the shallow face for tight lies, but for tee shots, will have to learn to tee it lower. With the weight set way back and low on the G25, its easy to get too much height out of it. Off the fairway, I had no problem getting it well up into the air. I'm almost thinking I could have gone with a 3W instead of the 16.5 4W. I'm hopeful I'll be able to dial this one in enough to take much of the long yardage duty off the 3H.
Had trouble reaching greens with the clubs I thought I should be using on approaches which were all at least an extra club over what I would play in summer. Seems like I needed to play more than one extra club more often than not. I would hit a great shot that looked like it might even be long, only to have it fall short of the green by a couple yards. It was frustrating, particularly when hitting flush shots. I just could not wrap my head around hitting 2-3 clubs stronger on some uphill approaches.
Normally I play the blues at this course, but after having so much trouble getting good distance on Saturday here, decided the whites were in order today. Score was better, but still came up too short. Putted well and got up and down enough to do okay, but wasn't happy about the lack of GIRs again. At least I had enough fire power to get to most today, I just used the wrong club to try and do it. Although on the 12th, I had too much club and went all the way to the back fringe. For some reason, I hit that shot the same as so many others today (really well), yet it somehow had more distance than expected. Distance is a real bummer this time of year.
Hope the hernia feels better tomorrow. Not feeling very good right now.
This new 4W gives me hope for better scoring next season if the hernia doesn't get in the way. Not ready for another surgery on it just yet.
