Skyline Pro-Member: Skyline CC, Tucson, AZ

• Posted on Grant
• in My Journey, Tournament Recap
• on March 31, 2015
• Comments Off on Skyline Pro-Member: Skyline CC, Tucson, AZ

Overview: I’m very glad for the tournament and traveling experience this week! I learned a lot from each round of this tournament that will help me in my future tournaments.

Skyline Country Club is a short, narrow course with small greens that have lots of slope. It’s built on the side of a mountain and almost every hole has out of bounds on each side of the fairway that can come into play. On most of the par 4’s and 5’s the best club to use off of the tee is about a 5-iron. During the first round, I only hit 4 fairways and had 3 balls out of bounds which led to my high score. I’m thankful that I haven’t had to deal with shooting that high of a score in a long time, but I did end up learning a lot from it and was able to come back stronger the last two days.

Round One Highlites:

#5 Driver off of the tee to the right rough, and then 7-iron from 175 yards into the greenside bunker. from there I hit a sand shot to 4 feet and made the putt.

# 16 Driver off the tee into the left rough. From there, I sliced a 5-iron from 190 yards to just in front of the green. I hit a flop shot to 4 feet and made the putt for birdie.

What I learned: When I looked back at my round, I realized I hadn’t been planning a draw or a fade off of every tee and I had been thinking too much about the out-of-bounds. Also, I forgot to restock on water for the back nine. I righted the ship on the last six holes, but I ran out of water on hole number 15 and got really thirsty. On number 18 I made a very bad decision probably due to dehydration. I tried an impossible shot to go for the green in two. I hit that shot out of bounds which led to a double bogey instead of finishing off the round with a par or birdie.

One other thing that I noticed is that I tightened up after starting off with so many bad holes. I realized on hole 12 that I wasn’t turning enough on the backswing; instead I was just taking the club back with my arms. Once I became aware of this problem, I started hitting the ball much better.

Round Two Highlites:

#1 Five-iron off the tee to the center of the fairway. Then pitching wedge up the hill from 130 yards to two feet for an easy birdie.

#3 Five-iron off the tee to the center of the fairway. From there I hit a 60 degree wedge from 92 yards to 2 feet for an easy birdie.

#4 is the tightest tee shot on the course. It is a straight par 4 with out of bounds lining both sides of the fairway that is about thirty or forty yards wide. I wasn’t committed to my tee shot and pulled my 3-iron left just a few feet out of bounds. However, I recovered and hit the best iron tee shot down the middle of the fairway. From 145 yards, I hit 9-iron to 30 feet and two-putted for double.

#5 Draw 3-wood off of the tee around the corner of the dog-leg. I had 175 yards into the green and hit a 7-iron on the the left side of the green and two-putted for birdie.

#6 Five-iron off the tee to the center of the fairway. From 125 yards I hit pitching wedge to 20 feet and made the putt for birdie.

#7 I hit a 9-iron onto the left side of the green and spun it back down the hill to 5 feet. From there I two-putted for par.

#8 I hit driver barely out of bounds to the right, but recovered with a perfect second drive down the middle of the fairway. From 223 yards I hit 3 iron into the greenside bunker and got up and down to save bogey.

#12 is a really tricky blind tee shot to a severe dogleg right fairway. I pulled my first tee shot with a 5-iron just left out of bounds. However, I responded by hitting my next tee shot in the middle of the fairway. From 130 yards, I hit a pitching wedge that almost hit the flag and ended up 12 feet behind the hole. From there I two putted for double.

#17 I hit pitching wedge to 7 feet and made the putt for birdie.

What I learned: After my bad score the first day, I took about an hour the night before the 2nd round to go to a quiet place and visualize and write down my exact plan for every shot for the next day. During this time, I also focused on what I learned from the previous round. I believe this time of planning really helped me remain calm, even when I hit a few shots out of bounds.

Round 3 Highlites:

#1 Five-iron off the tee to the center of the fairway. From 140 yards uphill, I hit 9-iron to two feet and made the putt for birdie.

#5 I hit a draw 3-wood off the tee to the center of the fairway. From 165 yards, I hit 8-iron just over the flag to 15 feet. From there I two-putted for birdie

#10 I hit my 3-hybrid to 35 feet just left of the green. From there I hit a flop shot to 10 feet and made the putt for birdie.

#11 I hit driver in the left rough. From there I caught a flyer with my gap wedge and my ball went over the flag to 60 feet above the hole but still on the green. I faced an impossible downhill putt from the top tier to the bottom tier with no way to stop it from rolling off the front of the green. So, instead of putting it, I took out my 60 degree lob wedge and hit a spinning chip down the hill that stopped 3 feet past the hole. This chip from on the green was my best par-saving shot of the tournament.

What I learned: My plan on this day was to hit the center of every green. I hit 17 out of 18 greens. However, on number 13, I forgot my plan and went for the flag that was tucked on the left side of the green. My ball hit the lip of the greenside bunker and rolled back into an impossible lie. From there I had to just aim away from the flag and hit it to 30 feet. This led to a two-putt bogey.

On that 13th green, I accidentally left my 60 degree wedge. When I got to number 16, I was facing a pitch shot for eagle and realized I didn’t have my wedge. I drove the golf cart back two holes and a group behind me had picked up my club.

However, when I drove back and finished hole number 16, I didn’t get myself to slow down enough and I missed an easy birdie putt. Then on #17 I had a 15 foot birdie putt that I ended up four-putting for double bogey. On 18 I missed another easy birdie putt and lost confidence with the putter. After the round, I realized I was just decelerating through impact, so I practiced my putting acceleration drill and my stroke came back quickly. In the future, if I ever lose confidence with the putter again, I will do my acceleration drill without a ball when I am waiting to putt.

Positives: I feel this tournament showed me a quite a few areas that I needed to address in my game. The best part of my game over the three days was my greenside bunker shots and my shots with pitching wedge from 120 to 130 yards. Also, the third day, I visualized that I was hitting to a flag when hitting my tee shots with my five-iron. This worked really well and helped me forget about the out of bounds; the whole day I didn’t have any balls that even came close to going out of bounds.

Areas to Improve:

– Acceleration drill for my putting stroke.

– Commit to a little draw or a little fade on every tee shot and set up accordingly: I am best at cutting the driver and drawing the 3-wood.

– Keep in mind that my tendency is to not rotate my shoulders enough on the backswing when I am playing a tight golf course and hitting shots offline.

– If I slow the group down for one hole for any reason: Don’t worry about it. Just take as much time as I need to recover and regroup on that hole, so that it doesn’t carry over to the remainder of my round.

-When traveling with my family, take an hour every night before the next round to sit by myself in the hotel lobby to focus and write down on my plans for the next day. Also, take an extra hour or two at the course after the round to sort through and work on any issues that I had with my game that day.

GB