49ers’ future to be shaped by the present

The draft means different things to different teams, however. Winning teams may be looking to upgrade a position or two, or start positioning a younger player to take over for an older, established vet.

And then there are teams like the San Francisco 49ers, who are kind of going through a rebuild this year. If the 49ers front office can nail this draft, the team can be right back challenging for a title again in a couple years.

This year’s draft is the most important for the 49ers since ... well, I don’t really remember because the 2025 49ers have a boatload of holes to fill after an offseason purge. The good news is the team has 11 draft picks — the No. 11 overall pick, one in the second round and one in the sixth round.

They have two each in the third, fourth, fifth and seventh rounds and general manager John Lynch has already put it out there that he would not be opposed to trading back from No. 11 to acquire even more draft assets.

The bad news is, this not a plug-and-play, right-back-into-Super Bowl-contention situation. Even a great draft class will need a couple of years to mature into title contenders. NFL teams simply can’t ask for a ton of rookies to step right into starting roles and lead a deep playoff run. If the 49ers play their cards right, they could be back in the mix for a title sooner rather than later.

Can the 49ers vie for a playoff spot in 2025? Sure. They’ll be playing a fourth-place schedule this season and they are not so far away from the playoffs that it would be a surprise to make the postseason.

But any Super Bowl run is still a ways off — especially considering the team has yet to even settle on a starting quarterback. It was good to see Brock Purdy report to voluntary workouts this week because it usually means that the player and team are not too far apart on a new contract.

But until that does get worked out, there is still a question at quarterback.

And if the 49ers can’t figure that out, then this team is lost — 11 draft picks or not.

***

I know you’re all just dying to hear about my golf game, so let me give you an update. While I don’t play nearly as much as did during the COVID era, when I was playing 18 on Mondays and nine on Fridays, I still try to get out a couple times a month.

Earlier this week, I put together probably my best round since I really started playing, coming up two strokes shy of breaking 90 for the first time. I put together my best-ever front 9 before stumbling a bit on the back.

It was continuation of a breakthrough I’ve been working on at the range and during rounds that have have improved my game.

The biggest thing? As Aaron Rodgers once said, “R-E-L-A-X.” There are so many swing thoughts that could, conceivably, be going through my head, but my No. 1 thought now is to just relax. Don’t try to kill the ball; just put a nice, easy swing on it and let the club do the work. The last thing I now do before I start my swing is to try to just let my whole body relax.

I was even complimented recently on how smooth my swing is. I don’t know, I’m not one to video my swing, but I’ll take the compliment.

Second, I have definitely improved my aiming — both with long clubs and my putter. I noticed with my putter I would push putts left and right and now make a conscious effort to make sure my putter follow through is in line with where I was aiming. I think I 3-putted only twice during my last round, which makes a huge difference on the scorecard.

And lastly my biggest change has been leaving my driver in the bag. I didn’t know what I was doing when I bought my driver five, six years ago and I have never really been able to dial it in. Maybe the shaft is too soft. Or too stiff. Or — I don’t really know.

What I do know is that for every drive that I get ahold of, there are nine that banana hook right, costing me gobs of distance.

Instead, I’ve gotten pretty proficient using my 30-plus year old TaylorMade 3 wood. I’ve found that I hit it much straighter than when I use my driver and when you factor in the curve of the ball off my driver face, I hit my 3 wood nearly as far — and in some cases farther — than my driver.

More importantly, I’m finding the fairway a lot more consistently which, in turn, has led to another revelation — the game of golf is much easier when you’re hitting your second and approach shots from the short grass.

Nathan Mollat is in his 24th year covering high school sports in San Mateo County for the San Mateo Daily Journal. He can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com.