The Scratch Dad Project

A holiday week, and a busy one — court most of the days, the Fourth in the middle. The kind of week that tests whether a routine is actually built or just borrowed from calmer times. Mine got tested, and the answer was mixed.

The Numbers

HANDICAP INDEX: 17.6  (low H.I. 17.3 on 06/22)
SCORING AVG (5-round): 86.3, slipping

STROKES GAINED (5-round trend, vs scratch)
  Driving   -3.0
  Approach  -4.1   (FOCUS - but improving)
  Short     -2.4   (best category)
  Putting   -4.1   (slipping)

The index ticked up from its 17.3 low after a rough tournament round entered the record — variance cutting the other way, the same mechanic that pulled it down after a good round a few weeks back. The trend is the signal, not any one round.

What Worked: The Wedges and the Feel

The simulator work carried the week. I mapped the 80-to-100-yard gap that had felt like guesswork — my gap wedge covers most of it through swing-length variations, and the real hole is narrower than I thought. I calibrated a new lob wedge and confirmed the carries match my old numbers.

But the best thing was a feel. Working two drills for a fault — weight hanging back, the body stalling, the hands flipping to rescue the club — I landed on one swing thought that ties them together: cover with the back shin, lead with the hips. My distance-wedge swing has felt uncomfortable for weeks. This is the first time it has felt like it has a home. The honest caveat: a feel improving is a leading indicator, not proof. A later session with a proper sample did not confirm the launch fix I hoped for. Feels better and root cause fixed are not the same thing.

What Didn’t: The Habits Slipped

My daily habits fell apart this week. The putting mat — the habit that two weeks ago turned putting from my worst category into my best — got done twice in seven days. Mental reps, twice. The pattern is instructive: meditation held all week because it is anchored to something I already do, five minutes after my shower. The habits that slipped were floating loose in the day. When the week compressed, sometime today became not today.

The Trend: Where the Strokes Are

Approach is flagged the focus — the biggest opportunity — but the arrow is pointing up. The 100-150 yard work I have ground on for two months is showing as improving, even as the category still carries a deficit. Short game is now my best category. And putting is slipping. Two weeks ago putting was my best; now it is tied for the biggest leak. I cannot prove the putting slip and the putting-mat habit slipping in the same week are cause and effect — a rough tournament round is still weighting the sample — but the two facts next to each other is the whole lesson.

The Fix Isn’t the Plan. It’s the Anchors.

The plan is right. What broke was not the strategy — it was the daily habits, because they are not anchored the way meditation is. The next move is not to try harder. It is to remap the habits: anchor each to an existing daily event, shrink the busy-day version so it still counts. The putting mat lives on my desk, so it now goes right at five o’clock when I log off — close the laptop, turn to the mat. Not more discipline, better design.

Measure the week. This one: the wedges and the swing feel moved forward, and the habits showed me they are not built yet — they are borrowed. Time to build them properly.