On this cold, soon to be really stinking not, Monday morning, I’m forced to look back on the summer of 2018 and think, “What could have been?” This year started off with such promise, such expectation, yet it turned out to be just another summer of nothing going as planned. This weekend was probably the biggest eye opener of the bunch as I missed out on the last two big shots of tournament play for the year. My first gaff was missing the deadline (maybe subconsciously on purpose?) for the WSGA Mid-Amateur (have to work as someone else rescheduled their vacation on me) and I missed the Riverbend Open (my home away from home course.) I have to admit that while this didn’t go as planned, I’m not horribly devastated by it. My game is not ready to compete with the big boys at a scratch level, nor is my conditioning. Sure, I’m making strides in both right now, but both are still quite a ways off from being ready to roll. Anyways, that’s more of a story for another day. This post is far more about the entire season and why I’m not really disappointed in my game at this time. Without much more gabbing, let’s talk about my game and where it’s at…
Over the weekend I finally took in a full range session. I was hoping to get on the Trackman, but it was in use, so no luck there. What I can say though is that my wedges were pretty sharp, though I did have a bit of a pull left on a few of them. Inside 50 yards, I was pretty well locked in. That is a huge plus for not having worked them properly over the last few months. Moving out of the shorter clubs into my FG 100’s, the wedge, 9 and 8 iron all seemed spot on. Good distance and control. The 7, 6 and 5 irons also behaved very well, though the range didn’t have great targets set up for those distances, so it was a bit of a guess. Still, they felt good and the ball travelled very well. Moving up to the longer irons, I actually took the 3 and 4 with me this time and I am happy I did. I was rifling off some of the best 3 irons that I have hit in quite some time at this session. Moving on to the hybrids, this had to be my best session ever with them. Smooth shots from all three, though the 17 degree didn’t behave quite as well as normal. I’ll chalk that one up to fatigue since it was so late in the session before I got to it.
Finally, I made out out to the driver end. This is where things got really exciting. Friday, my new Wilson Staff Triton arrived. Equipped with the Aldila Rogue Black 95msi 60 shaft in an extra stiff flex, I quickly plopped it into the bag for a few hits that evening. I started off with the obvious fit of the titanium plate and a 3g (shaft side), 6g (middle) and 6g (toe) weighting to help open the club up a bit to make up for the slightly closed alignment. The Triton was obviously designed to help most players with that light fade to slice shot, so making ta change over to open it up a bit was very helpful right out of the box. The Triton is louder than most driver’s I’ve ever swung, but the pop off the face was pretty solid. What’s funny is many of the reviews of the club kept pointing to the “ping” that it makes verse the “thwack” that some other drivers do. I was in a stall next to a guy with the Mizuno GT-180 driver that I supposed to be all the rage and it was just as loud, with almost the same “ping” sound as the Triton. I sort of like the satisfying “bing!” every time I strike the ball well, but I could see how some would get annoyed by it. That’s a story for another day as well. For now, it looks like the almost dialed in Triton got me about 15 yards. I’ll try and get numbers on it soon as the Trackman at the range was in use, so I couldn’t get much out of line of sight measuring except that it was longer, by quite a bit.
That probably will signal a change in my WITB for September, but there’s a few other pretty major changes possibly coming on the horizon as well. After the session that I had Friday night, I’m strongly considering plopping the 3 and 4 irons back in the bag as well. I was hitting pure 3 after pure 3 with full control throughout my session. This hasn’t been the case in over the last year or so, but it makes it sound tempting to plop it back in the bag. For now, I’ll keep the hybrids in, mainly due to their consistency, and keep the 3/4 irons in the garage. Maybe by next year they will have proven their worth again, but in reality, I still think the hybrids are a better fit for what my game needs at the moment.
To wrap this all up, 2018 isn’t what I expected or wanted out of this season at all. I planned on hitting so many tournaments and range sessions that I would be back into golf almost full time this year. Unfortunately, getting sidelined early with my leg surgery, then missing a few deadlines and not polishing up my game soon enough has left this to be a lost summer. Perhaps I’ll get lucky and get into a few winter tournaments and sneak in a few more rounds of dry golf this summer. If not, then it’s just going to be a nice break before the next season starts. Stay tuned as I get my post season wrap up completed and get some goals set for the 2019 Competition Season! It’s definitely going to be a good year.
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