The Road to 40: Week 5 update

Yet another eventful week on the road to 40. I managed to sneak in 9 holes last Friday and, surprisingly, it wasn’t a total disaster. My tee shots were an adventure—tops, chunks, pulls, slices… if there was a wrong way to hit it, I found it.

The rest of my game held up better than expected. My chipping wasn’t too bad, and I was able to rely on my putting to keep things together. Despite the chaos off the tee, I still hit 3 of 4 fairways, though only 2 of 9 greens in regulation.

The highlight of the round was definitely the putter: just 14 putts total, and it felt like I couldn't miss. That’s always a great feeling.

All in all, I finished 5 over par. Not amazing, but considering the tee shots, I’ll take it.

I spent a couple of hours over the weekend working on those 50–100 yard shots. I’m still fighting to keep the clubface from staying open, even on the shorter swings, which was a little frustrating. But after enough reps, I started to work through it.

Then Monday rolled around and I found myself talking to AI again about my swing—specifically how to pick up a little speed and finally get that clubface to close. The suggestion was to start my downswing with my lower body to help square things up at impact. I wasn’t convinced it would make much difference… but it actually did. Stupid AI (kidding). That small adjustment gave me a few extra yards of carry right away.

I also had AI put together a wedge practice plan for me, and it actually came back with some solid drills—mainly focused on clean contact and rotating through impact. It felt great to start striking my wedges well, and I was really looking forward to taking that progress onto the course.

Tuesday was my weekly golf league, and the round was definitely a roller coaster. I opened with two bogeys, one of them courtesy of a truly awful chunked wedge. I settled down with a par on the next hole and then headed to one of my favorite holes on the course—a straight, short par 4.

That’s where things went sideways. I flared the tee shot right, chunked the wedge, chunked the next wedge into the bunker, and after two bunker shots and two putts, I walked off with a 7 on a par 4. Not ideal.

On the next hole, a par 3, I hit another rough tee shot but followed it with a great chip… that bounced off the flagstick and rolled out five feet. Missed the putt for yet another bogey. At that point, I decided the ball was cursed and tossed it in the trash.

Apparently, that was the reset I needed. I made back-to-back birdies and then finished with a par on the ninth. I still ended up 4 over, but after carding a 7 on a par 4, I’ll take it.

Wednesday’s practice actually went pretty well. I focused on starting my downswing with my lower body and really trying to compress the ball, and things felt solid. Thursday, on the other hand, was rough. My practice inside 140 yards felt smooth and confident, but everything beyond that completely fell apart.

From my 7‑iron up to the driver, I couldn’t find the center of the clubface to save my life. It felt like all the work I’d been doing on my shorter shots was throwing off my longer clubs. I had been hitting my driver better than ever before the swing change, and suddenly I couldn’t hit it straight. The spin numbers were wild—upwards of 5000 rpm—which was discouraging to say the least.

I ended up feeling so frustrated that I told my wife I didn’t even want to hit balls on Friday. I just needed a break.

Needless to say, I woke up yesterday feeling a lot better and was genuinely looking forward to getting some swings in after work. I tried to reset my mindset and not be so hard on myself. Once I settled in, I was able to figure out what went wrong yesterday, and yesterday’s practice was a big improvement.

It’s definitely been an up‑and‑down week, but I feel much better about my game now than I did earlier on. I’m excited to get back out on the course and see whether these changes actually move things in the right direction.

Until next time, 

Fairways and greens y’all