Collarbone Surgery Progress and Monday's Purposeful Practice Session

This week marks the 8th week since my “man of steel” collarbone repair surgery. Last week saw only one practice day as I had to deal with finding a new tenant for a rental property. This week (and next) I have a schedule that has me taking someone in to work by 6:40 a.m. every morning and I decided to head directly to the golf course to practice.

Yesterday, I started with my nine hole up & down game with my Cleveland Smartsole 3C (CCW) from various mostly long and difficult locations around the green. On two very long 30+ yard chips I ended up leaving the ball a long way from the hole (one short, one long) and three putted for 4’s. I made up for those with 3 Up & Down 2’s with a final score of 26.

After putting a few more and noticing I had lost focus, I decided to score some range hits. I hit the 7-iron 7 of 10 off the tee into a 35 yard wide fairway. I’m still hitting 1/2 to 3/4 swings which travels about 125 yards. Then I tried my 3-hybrid into a 40 yard wide fairway but only hit 4 of 10 because I was trying too hard and using idiotic arm initiated swings.

I also brought and hit Pitching Wedge tests. I hit 9/10 with the pitching wedge into a 20 yard “green” and the swing felt really solid and effective. However, when I hit a few balls with the 7-iron off the mat (not teed up) I started arm swinging and hitting really bad shots – sadly my last shot was a toe shank. I hate leaving the range on a bad shot!

Because I am so short normally, and even more so after my injury I feel like I really need to develop the 3-hybrid into a solid 8/10 go-to club. For all the upcoming practices I will continue to work with but only play it if there is at least 45 yard wide fairway to hit into.

Tuesday's Purposeful Practice - a lot more relaxed

I arrive at the range before they even open so I started again on the chipping and putting green. Because I had some bad results with really long chips Monday, I decided to do a 10 shot test from 32 yards. The first trial I shot 6 of 10 into 30 ft. I decided to have another go-around and the second time I hit 10 of 10 within 18 ft of the pin. That was worth a fist pump after the last (tense) ball came in closer than the rest. I decided to putt all 10 and two-putted all but one 1-putt.

I decided the long Up & Down misses yesterday required some lag work so I hit 10 putts from 45 feet to the pin. My focus and stroke were really on today and I hit 9 of 10 within 4 feet with 8 of 10 inside putter length. I made all 10 of the follow-up putts. The first putt was the “miss” at just over 5 foot. When I made that it was like, “I’ve got this!” and sank the rest, bang, bang, bang!

I then headed over to the range and hit 7/10 7-irons off the tee. I was incredibly relaxed and remembered to pay attention to my shoulders just before the swing. If I remember to relax my shoulders just before swinging, I tend to not to initiate the swing with my arms.

I pulled out the 3-hybrid again but because I was relaxed, I ended up hitting 8 of 10 into my 40 yard wide fairway to distances between 150 and 170 yards into a one club south wind. I’ve been working on developing a go-to fade shape with the 3-hybrid and it is becoming more and more consistent when I remember to swing relaxed.

I hit my pitching wedge target “green” 10 of 10 times. The swing felt so compact and the contact was so pure that I decided to alternate hitting PW and 7-iron off the mat to see if I could hit both clubs with the same great feeling I had with the PW. Sadly, I kept arm swinging with the 7-iron and hitting the PW pure – go figure! I did hit a few pure with the 7-iron, including one that travelled 135 yards, but ended the session with another toe shank. Once again it sucks to end on a bad shot!

Overall, I feel ready to play again. I hope to play this coming Sunday with my regular group of friends. I will play from the forward tees for at least a couple of rounds and I will also give myself favorable lies because I can’t take a chance of re-injury hitting a rock or tree root. For the same reason, I will also move the ball out of bunkers if I end up on the beach. Today I will evaluate the round on google earth with 125 yard 7-iron distance. There are at least three holes with fairways wide enough to give the 3-hybrid a shot. I will make the decision to use the 3-hybrid depending if I can hit at least 8 of 10 fairways in the remaining practices before I play the first post-surgery round.