A bad round, and the greenside lob wedge pitch

     As I said in the last post, I played Windsor Parke a few days back with my cousin and two of his friends. Oddly enough, I'd played with one of the guys before. About two years ago, Ten Beers Over Par and I went for a round at Windsor and were asked to join another twosome. One of the guys had broken his jaw and had it wired shut. He was from Gainesville, Fl, 20 minutes from my hometown of Williston, and knew my old best friend's ex through her new fiance. Well, at the turn, we're having sandwiches and beers and talking about the course, and we realize who each other are. So, small world.
     Anyway, not a good round for me on a challenging course. Windsor is one of the top courses in the state-and Florida is a state known for its golf. Hit a few pretty good layup shots with the irons but the approaches left a bit to be desired. I only stuck three on the green, all with wedges. Putting was a different story; I had my second straight round with less than two putts per green and no three-putts. Drove the ball well too; although I only hit six of 14 fairways, everything was long and only once was I in serious trouble-when I drove through a fairway and into a lake. Really misjudged my tailwind and it JUST rolled in. I dropped, hit an easy sand wedge to about 12 feet, and nearly had a coronary when my par putt looped the cup before it dropped in.
     So, after my gut-wrenching 44 on the front, we played best-ball on the back, me and my cousin vs. our other two. We ended up starting off par-birdie-birdie en route to a two-stroke win. I did some of my best driving on the back nine, driving one green and hitting three over 300 yards.
     After the round, I went to the UNF Golfplex, just a few miles from home. I hit a small bucket with my short irons and wedges, then went to the short game area and spent about 90 minutes pitching and chipping. I found a shot I never knew I had: the lob wedge pitch. Works best for me out of the rough, obviously because there's a little fluff under the ball, but by opening the clubface up it's a perfectly useful shot from the fairway if you need to get over a bunker. Just lay the face open a bit, then turn until the face is perpendicular to the target line again. Take your usual pitch swing-try to resist the urge to cut across the ball or take a shallow swing, unless you really want to see a shank-and hit down through the ball as you usually would. The result will be a beautiful, high, soft pitch shot with a little backspin that'll check up a bit and is very easy to get close to the pin.