7 Minute Miles

Theodore Wirth Golf Course


Today’s round started at 7:30am on the 18-hole course at Theodore Wirth Park outside of Minneapolis. The first four greens were horrible and should not have been open for play. The rest of the greens were better, but all played very slow. A storm front moved through when we were on the sixth hole, so we waited until it passed over. The back nine did not drain well, though, so it was a soggy round.

When I was at the Open, I spent a lot of time watching Ernie Els hit irons on the practice range and noticed a few things that I decided to try today. First, he really arches his left wrist outward and keeps his hands only slightly ahead of the ball at address (I have always had my club angle much farther forward). Second, his tempo was excellent–slow takeaway, slow start to the downswing, acceleration through the ball, then slow follow-through to the same slot every time. I had a lot of success with this today and I hope to learn more during my first lesson at the U of M this week.

Score today: out in 43, back in 47. Lots of shots left on the course due to poor short game chips, but that was to be expected after no rounds for more than two weeks. Nothing firm planned, either…DK

Originally published by DK on June 24, 2006 at 5:26 pm in Golf


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