I haven’t spent too much time lately talking about the process I’ve been going through as I work through this swing change, mainly because I didn’t want to bore everyone to death with the same verbiage over and over again.  So I took a little time off and have given every one a rest as far as my progress. That makes today a perfect time to give you an update on how things have gone since I last spoke about it.

Things are going great.

Ha! You wish I was that direct and to the point. That previous statement, in a nutshell, pretty much sums it up. It’s taken me a while to get acclimated to the new swing, 6 months to be exact, but the hard work is finally starting to show and lately I’ve been playing some really good golf.

The kind of golf you want to write about. Get it?

You may recall my best round to date a few weeks ago when I shot 84 out at Wildhorse. This past weekend I followed that up with an 85 at a nemesis of mine the Concord course at The Revere.

The Concord track is a course that if you don’t hit the fairways or at least close to the fairways your toast, hence my 45 on the front. Two tee shots that went left of the fairway, not a pull or a hook, just left enough to get me in trouble led to a couple double bogeys. The back nine was a different story; I drove the ball fantastic and got into a rhythmic groove going Par, Bogey, Par and Par to finish the round.

The only downside of the day was my putting. I could hardly blame my stroke though. This was the second consecutive round that I played late in the day. You’d be surprised what damage a hot Vegas sun can do to a green when it has 8-10 hours to beat its rays down on them. The greens were unbelievably slow, I mean SSSSSLLLLLLLOOOOOOOWWWWWW, and bumpy would be an exaggerated understatement. I had three 3-putts on the first five holes! One was for Eagle, one for Birdie and the other for Par. Those 3-Jacks along with 3 penalties prevented me from breaking my low score of 84 obviously, but I had a real chance at 79.

Two things I think have sent me on this good streak if you also include my 91 at LV National and my 44 at the 9-hole links course out at Sand Hollow.  The first is I’m much more relaxed on the tee box. I had what can only be described as a schizophrenic pre-shot routine where literally 30 thoughts were going through my head. I’ve condensed that down to just a few. I think about the best drive I’ve hit recently and I also think about where and how the ball is going to get to where I want it to go. That is it.

Bill was crucial in getting me to realize how bad I was with my pre-shot. It only took him 3 years!! HA! Wade on the other hand was instrumental the other day in a drill that has incredibly helped me in getting the face square at impact. That session alone was worth all the time I’ve put in. I had arguably the best driving day of my life. The ball was blistering down the fairway (minus the two I hit left on the front) and with the club square and my swing relaxed and free flowing I saw the return of my length off the tee, which has been pretty much absent since December.

I averaged 258 on the 14 holes I hit driver. Hitting 260 straight sure as hell beats hitting 220 with a wicked banana slice. Most rewarding though was not one tee shot went right. Not even a little. It was all straight or a little left/right of center.

With all the time I’ve put into this overhaul I let the course on Monday feeling totally relived. Wade assure me it would take some time and I’ve been lucky that my patience has remained in tack and that I’ve been able to work through the really bad days like the 119  I shot at The Chase just six months ago. I’ll take 85 of that mess any day.