Regular foursome not available to play today, so decided it would be a good day to play the blue tees. Probably should not have, as hernia discomfort was made worse by doing so. Started out playing well, but we had a storm delay right after I dropped a 30-foot put for birdie on the 5th. I was 1 over after 5, but lost the nice rhythm I had going before the delay. My driver got sketchy and the blue tees made it worse. Actually hit a very good drive on 6th, but with the blues all the way back, I caught the lip of the left fairway bunker and rolled back in, right up against the lip with little chance to do much other than blast it out 10 yards, 15 at best. So bogeyed it after pitchipping with 9i onto green 10 yards short of hole. Things went downhill from there. Doubled the 9th and 10th. Saved a bogey on 12th with excellent flop to 5 feet from left side rough, after pulling 52* approach.
Hit my irons a bit better than I have been by using new swing element. Made better contact using this more mechanical backswing, but still need to work on a comfortable tempo with the new dynamic. Have better power with it, for sure. Also, hit 4W a few times off fairway with good results, something I have been shying away from most of the time. With a bit more practice off the deck, may be able to gain some confidence in 4W, resulting in 15-20 yards over 3H.
Chipping very good. Putting okay. Three 3-putts, both after GIRs. GIRs were tough for me (and my hernia) with the blue tees all the way back (near the blacks in many cases).
Definitely experiencing some issues from hernia lately, particularly on driver swing. Not sure what to do about it. Only played twice this week and yet, it still feels bad. I am probably making it worse just by playing at all. I'm not ready to have it fixed for a few months, Just hope my game doesn't continue to deteriorate too much in the meantime. It is definitely limiting my ability to drive the ball well, and is most likely why my distances in general are down by 5-10 yards.
