Sedona Open: Oak Creek CC, Sedona, AZ

• Posted on Grant
• in Tournament Recap
• on June 13, 2015
• Comments Off on Sedona Open: Oak Creek CC, Sedona, AZ

Overview: Oak Creek Country Club is a great course in beautiful Sedona! The views of the red rocks around the course are great, and the bent grass greens are smooth and really nice. Even though my scores weren’t great, I’m happy with how my game is progressing and when I was focused, I played well enough to win.

Round One Highlites:

#3: 3-wood through the fairway into the rough behind some trees. From there I had 185 yards to the pin. I hit a cut 7-iron to 20 feet over the flag and made the putt for birdie!

#7: I hit a cut 7-iron from 185 yards to 2 feet and made the putt for birdie.

#12: Cut 3-wood off of the tee and then a hybrid into the greenside bunker from 230 yards. From there I blasted out of the bunker to 7 feet left of the flag and made that putt for birdie.

Round 2 Highlites:

#9: On the tee I did not picture my ball flight and exact target before I swung, and I pulled my drive left out of bounds. My provisional ball went into the right trees and I was left with 185 yards to the flag. I chose to punch a 5-iron through the trees, but lost focus while I was swinging and pulled the ball into a tree and the ball ricocheted out of bounds. So, I dropped and had the opportunity to hit the shot again. I maintained my focus this time and hit a perfect shot between two tree trunks and under the branches of the trees. I used a 5-iron and hit a punch shot that landed 30 yards short of the green and then rolled onto the green and finished 7 feet from the flag. I made that putt to save a score of 7! Some sevens are better than others, and that was a pretty good one. :)

#10: Driver into the right rough. From 268 yards I hit my 3-wood just short of the green and then pitched to 6 inches for an easy birdie.

#12: Perfect high driver over the trees on the right and cut off a lot of yardage on the dog-leg right par 5. After the good drive, I had 218 yards and I hit a 5-iron to the fringe in front of the green. From there I chipped to 4 inches for another easy birdie.

#13-16 and 18: I had putts within 10 feet for birdie because I found a key in my backswing that I had been neglecting on the front 9 (Rotating the toe of the club at the start of the backswing.)

Positives: Each day, I had trouble focusing at the beginning, but then did a much better job maintaining my focus toward the end of each round. When I made the turn on the second day after shooting 44, I told myself that I was going to not lose focus on the back 9 like I had on the front 9. I was successful at holding my focus on every shot that back 9 except for my tee shot on #17. And number 17 I had something out of the ordinary happen right before I swung.

Areas to improve: Carry out my routine of Plan, Commit and Evaluate every shot in every round of tournament golf in every situation no matter how uncomfortable I feel. I will put myself in more situations where I am uncomfortable and then focus on carrying out my mental routine in those uncomfortable situations. I will get to where nothing out of the ordinary affects me: It won’t matter what course I am on, who my playing partners are, how much money I’m playing for, or what I did on the last shot. I will stick to my process and picture my exact target and ball flight before every single shot I hit the rest of my tournament career. On my putts, I will picture the exact line and speed before I hit every putt as well.

Also, I will improve my putting. I made the mistake of not practicing my putting much over the last two weeks because I have been putting so well. Lesson re-learned: Practice every part of the game all of the time even if I’m doing great at it.

Wrap-up: Thanks everyone for your support and for following my progress! Golf is such an amazing game, I’m so thankful to have the opportunity to learn and get better every day I play and practice! I had a great practice today because of what I learned in my tournament and am looking forward to practicing and teaching lessons tomorrow!

GB