[weaddercaps]

So that lesson was last Thursday.

Friday, I happened to get home early and decided to practice in my backyard. After some trial and error, decided even my lob wedge cannot do the 1-11 shot safely inside my backyard, so limited myself to my 3-9 and 5-7 shots with my sand wedge and some 5-7 with the gap wedge. Had some mis-hits, and one particular sculled shot that narrowly missed the top of the fence. So I decided it is not safe to continue doing this in the backyard. I was afraid to hit a proper shot that would take even a shallow divot and ruin the lawn.

Saturday, too busy with back-to-school shopping. No practice.

Sunday afternoons, normally I play a round. This time, my buddy couldn't make it, so I decided to go the course and practice on the pitching green instead. It was a truly horrible session that shook my confidence a lot. I couldn't make proper contact with 3-9 or 1-11. Lots of shanks and sculls. Even the 5-7 shot, I was hitting fat a lot of the time. Eventually I decided to just use one club, my PW, and do a drill were I only 5-7 for three shots, then move up to 3-9 for three shots, then up to 1-11. If I mishit any, I have to restart from 3-9. Eventually, after struggling for two hours, and trying to find the right tempo, I was able to close out the session with a couple of good 1-11 shots. Still went home a little disappointed.

Monday, I only got a half hour to practice, but I was doing much better and had a better success rate at hitting all three shots. It was a different practice area, so maybe the lie made a difference. In any case, I am not feeling so bad about the practice any more.

Looking forward to today's practice session.

P.S. Thanks DawgDaddy, JohnEB, Canio and TexasHacker34 for the kind words!