This week’s event was a fantastic building block for future events. Having never made the cut in prior years, that was clearly goal number one. Thankfully, due to a hot putter and some new equipment, this year I finally smashed through that roadblock.  This was also the first 72 hole event I’ve participated in.
Two weeks ago the Ping i25’s found their way into my bag, in lieu of the Nike Pro Combos. The ball flight they provide is higher, slightly farther, and has much more spin. All that was on display this week and allowed me to attack more pins than usual.

The Good

Confidence is a funny thing in golf. It comes and goes like the wind. This week I made an adjustment to my pre-round routine and found myself playing much better golf. Finishing with a final round 74 was a solid accomplishment but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t shooting for a finishing score in the red.
I don’t usually make a lot of birdies. To have nine of them over the course of three days, is a great improvement. Proximity to the hole was better than its ever been, and I capitalized on that by making putts when needed.

The Bad

There were a few shots where the increased distance of the Ping i25’s really hurt the scorecard. That distance control will come with increased usage of the irons, but the distance variance was far outweighed by the performance increase.
I don’t usually make doubles, so to rack one up on three out of four rounds was discouraging. Two were caused from indecision which resulted in poor swings.

The Ugly

Indecision on in-between yardages was the source of a LOT of bogeys. Trying to hit half shots didn’t work out in a lot of instances. I was uncomfortable over the ball and the resulting swing was nothing short of horrible.

The Scorecards