I'm in Miami (pronounced My - am - muh), Oklahoma and my tournament begins Thursday morning at 8:42. The town on Miami isn't much to talk about, but the fact that 9 casinos are within 15 minutes is. You can drive in any direction and you'll eventually run into a casino. Every other billboard is for one of the casinos and the only thing open up after 9pm are the casinos; the rest of the town shuts down.
Peoria Ridge Golf Club: Considering what the rest of the town has to offer, I was happy that the golf course has 18 holes and that none of the greens are shaped like hearts, diamonds, clubs, or spades. First thing that blew me away about the course was the wind. Both Tuesday and Wednesday had breezes near 25 mph, which should make it tougher to score if it stays windy. The second thing to note about the course is how thick the rough is. During my practice round on Tuesday I hit my first drive into the rough and only found it because I nearly stepped on it. Some guys are going to lose their balls in the rough this week (I lost 2 during my practice round). Watch this video to see how deep the rough is:
The course design isn't anything too exciting, but what do you expect when the designers first name is Bland.....Check it out, I'm not joking.
My preparation this week has been very profitable and I believe it will carry over to Thursday and beyond. I've spent nearly 2 1/2 hours putting and about 2 hours hitting balls the past two days. I also spent about 45 hitting sand shots and chipping. On Tuesday, after practicing for 2 hours I played the front nine. Before leaving for lunch, I spent another hour putting and hitting balls. Later on Tuesday evening, when the temperature had cooled off, I went back out to the course to play the back nine. Wednesday is Pro-Am day and since I wasn't scheduled to play I would only be able to practice. I showed up at the course around 8:30 to find only two other guys out there. That's great though, because often times you have to wait for a spot on the range or fight for an open hole on the putting green.
My practice routing on Wednesday consisted on putting and hitting balls. On the putting green, I'm really working on keeping my backstroke shorter. When it gets long my stroke will often decelerate into the ball and that is one of the worst things, especially for short putts. To work on those putts I played a game on "pull-back" with myself. Any putt that I don't make, I have to pull back away from the hole the length of my putter. It guarantees that you will have to make at least a three-footer.
On the driving range I worked on my knockdown shots; this was a necessity because the wind was directly in my face on the range. I like that because hitting downwind gives you a false sense of your ball striking. Hitting into the wind your bad shots will be accentuated. While on the range, I figured out how to hit my knockdown the way I like it. Most of the year I've been struggling with the consistency of that shot. I hit balls for another 20 minutes AFTER I figured it out and then came back to the range once more before I left.
I'm sorry for all the specific golf talk. Some of you are probably bored after reading that, but this is a golf blog after all.
Neil
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