Don’t Fall In Or Out Of Love Too Early

Been reading Buzz Bissinger’s Three Nights In August and picked up some valuable perspective about golf even though the subject is baseball.  The book is about how manager Tony LaRussa handled his Saint Louis Cardinals in a critical three-game series against the Chicago Cubs in 2003.  Included are excellent insights about his management style and life’s philosophies.  Regarding his observation of new player performances in spring training, he advises on a patient approach and to not “fall in or out of love too early, “  because the 162-game major league season is a grind where players experience and expect ups and downs, but at season’s end you need to review the full body of work and not be too judgmental of short run performance.

In golf, we’ve all been guilty of experiencing the “ah ha” moment and thinking we have a problem permanently solved when in effect, we’ve experienced a brief euphoria and made a mistaken rush to judgement.  Golf is more about slow and steady improvement, as I have come to realize while working my way out of an eight-month slump.

Practical insights:

During my round yesterday, I mentioned to a playing partner that I thought my road to recovery was helped by more frequent play and he advised that when you only play once per week or once every other week, as I had been doing, you put too much pressure on yourself to play well.  I thought back to the day before during my emergency nine after work where I had played poorly and felt off on every aspect of my game, but was able to easily let it go because I had a game scheduled the next day.  And he was right.  I played beautiful golf yesterday.  The added benefit of more frequent play is that you pick up little tweaks during each round that are easier to add and recall than if you try to bank them and summon on a less frequent basis.

Another observation:  Always take the opportunity to play with players better than you.  Yesterday, I was paired with two pros from my local club and watching them murder tee shots 50 to 60 yards past my best tested my ability to play within myself.  I’ve found the best approach is to acknowledge better players are in a different league and enjoy their company and the experience, rather than try to keep up.  I recall doing the opposite way back when I was young and in my first tournament as an assistant club professional.  We had a business meeting followed by a local competition for the 25 pros in attendance.  Rather than acknowledge my newbie status, I tried to think of myself as a peer and was so intimated trying to keep up, I embarrassed myself.  I’ll bet young players who are paired with Tiger Woods play better when they view him with awe rather than trying to match him shot for shot.  Again, I found this to be the case yesterday on our par-5 fourth hole which measured 525 yards.  Pro #1 just hit one about 320 down the middle and it was my turn, but I picked a target and put an 80% swing on the ball and piped one about 250.  Completely segregating Pro sitting 70 yards in front of me, I smoothed a 3-wood about 225 into the fairway and only had a flip with the 58 left for a good birdie opportunity.  I was very proud of my ability to seperate instead of be intimated, and cruised my way around to a 1-under 34 on the front.

So remember to stay patient, play often, and don’t fall in and out of love too early!

Darth Vader – The Skinny Chip Shot

The Force is not with me and I’ve been trying to clear my head lately on an area of my game I used to consider a strength (chipping) but the proverbial stew of techniques, approaches, new wedges, and adjustments for Myrtle Beach is staring to take on Death Star proportions.  I am tumbling head over heels around the greens, like a big ball of matter through outer space, with giant chunks of confidence falling off at inopportune moments.   Looking for some stability fast.  Here’s how the mess started.

I’ve chipped my best when I work with one technique and can laser focus my attention on a specific landing spot.  For some reason, this method has left me coming up short on all chips and I don’t know why.  Late last season, a skinny chip started creeping in to my repertoire, mostly with my old 56 and now with my new 58 and the root cause is a mystery as well.  I’m working with three new Cleveland wedges, which I use very successfully in practice, but can’t seem to transition to game conditions.  Third, I’m trying to relearn a low spinning shot I need off the tight Bermuda surfaces around the greens in Myrtle Beach.  I used to hit this great with my old 56 and even when I clipped it skinny, it would fly very low and have a tremendous amount of spin, and would bite hard and sit down instantly.    There is no deep rough in MB but that’s all I’m playing out of in our plush courses around the DC area.  I can’t find a comfortable technique on this play.

Finally, I’ve got two techniques in my head and cannot reconcile.  The first is the Stan Utley approach of squaring everything up and making a concentrated pivot on every chip.  The second is the Michael Breed drill of identifying a percentage of distance you want to fly your chips to the hole (say 40%) and then identifying different clubs that will take you different distances.  I did have some success blending the two in my post round practice session, but during play, was dreadfully inconsistent.

Anyone with some surefire chipping techniques from good greenside lies, or on tight Bermuda surfaces, please pass them along.  KISS please, thanks!

The Hard Work Of Breaking A Golf Slump

First, many thanks to all those who provided advice on how to break out, especially Vet.  The address position analysis (grip change) continues to help immensely and the slump is almost over.  Technically, I’m still in the slump because my 81 today is the 10th straight round at 80 or above (my Mendoza Line), but I can feel the wind in my sails.

Today’s round had some very critical data points.  First, I got off to a good start parring my first four holes.  The slump has been punctuated by horrible starts with double or triple bogey as a a frequent and unwelcome lead-off visitor.  Yes, I did make a triple on my 7th hole, but used that as motivation.  Sure I was down on myself, and the root cause was again a lateral hit from a downhill lie in a bunker but I told myself, I could either accept the fact that I was destined to remain in this horrid slump or double down to concentrate harder. I bogeyed 8 and 9 and turned in 7-over 43.  Normally, I don’t add up my score until the round is complete, but I was mad as hell for blowing a good start and felt like checking.

For some reason that score check improved my focus on the 10th tee and I hammered a drive down the middle and made birdie on the par-5.  God, that birdie felt good because it’s been so long since I made a birdie that I couldn’t remember the last one.  Then I enjoyed a first in my 40 years of playing golf.  I drove a legitimate par-4 and sunk an 8-foot putt for eagle.  I have made eagle on par-4s before but always from the fairway and never after driving the green.  My tee shot measured 323 yards and was down hill and slightly down wind, and yes, I had hit into the group in front.  At first, I couldn’t find my ball but noticed one on the surface as they were leaving the green.  I apologized, sank the putt, and was 3-under after two holes on the back.  I gradually gave away my gains with some shoddy iron play but drove it well all the way around and finished with a 2-over 38.

My reason for hope is twofold.  A very simple change (grip) has made a huge difference and I’m playing my best shots without any swing thoughts.  When the mind is clear and your fundamentals are in order, this game can be played well.

Next up is a tournament at Queenstown on Thursday.  Hoping to leverage these gains and help the team win.

How Do You Break A McWT210 Golf Slump?

Readers of this space know I’m always seeking ways to improve my game and am willing to share tips to assist you in your play, but I have a new request.  I need some help breaking out of a slump.  How do I know I’m in a slump and not just experiencing a momentary downturn?  Check out this page from Golf Link detailing why players slump.  I am the poster-child for the top three reasons and feel like I’m tied to the pole, blindfolded, and on my last cigarette.

The evidence:  Carrying a five handicap, my last two rounds have been 88-88.  I haven’t broken 80 in nine rounds and haven’t played a good round since August 2012.  Essentially, I’m averaging about 10 strokes higher than my normal game.

The three main culprits from the GolfLink list:

1. Injury.  The right elbow tendonitis has prevented me from practicing the way I would like.  Oddly, it doesn’t hurt during play, just practice.  I’ll call this the Mike Weir component.
2. Swing Changes.  The attempt to get to a more on-plane move over the winter was ill-advised without the opportunity to hit balls and validate results.  Henceforth known as the Tiger 2010 component.
3. New Equipment.  The new irons and hybrids are working great but my Cleveland three wedge system has been ghastly.  I’m a mess in greenside bunkers trying to hit the new 58, and miss my old 56 terribly.  Even suffered through a couple lateral hits with the wedges two weekends ago and you know how that messes with your head, but I refuse to give up on the new equipment.  The problem is that I practice well with these clubs so I know it’s the “carpenter, not the tools.”  Of course, this is the McIlroy component.

So we have the birth of the “McWT210″ slump.  How to break this thing, any ideas?  I’ve researched and web and scoured the annals of my swing fix library and come up with a possible two-pronged approach.  I know I need to simplify as much as possible and taking on more swing instruction at this time is probably not the right thing to do, especially with my Myrtle Beach trip bearing down in less than a month.  So in the interest of K.I.S.S., I’m going to try just thinking “Target” on all full swings and hitting everything with 3/4 speed in an attempt to get some rhythm and timing.  In my round yesterday, after shooting nine-over on the front, I started my inward half with a triple and a bogey, and with my head so screwed up with swing thoughts, decided to just chuck everything and think “Target” the rest of the way around and managed to play the last seven holes in 3-over, which wasn’t great, but got me to the clubhouse without killing anyone.

If anyone has some surefire slump-busting remedies, please share.  I’m a mess and need to stabilize fast, thanks!

Do Tips in Golf Magazines Work?

Ever benefit from a tip in a golf magazine?  Usually you can find so many tips and instructional articles, your brain will explode if you try them all.  Normally I consume for the human interest stories, interviews, and full swing sequence pictures, as well as the “Get Fit”articles but on a recent flight home I found a tip from Graeme McDowell in this month’s Golf Magazine that really helped.

I’ve been in the worst slump in recent memory and have not played even decent since last September.  No doubt the inactivity associated with my large remodeling project put the kibosh on any regular cadence, and it had the doubling effect of forcing the feeling of relearning the game every time out.  My ball striking had become a spaghetti plate of swing thoughts and the downstream artifacts were ugly.  At that point, you’ll take any help you can get, so magazine tips at 31,000 feet were not out of order.

The fix was quite simple and made a ton of sense after I analyzed, but was probably just stupid luck that I found it.  G-Mac had you keep your left upper arm tight to your chest throughout the back swing and downswing – that’s it.  My off-season back swing drills were attempting to get the club more out in front of me and had clearly disconnected my arms from my torso.  While I thought I looked good in my positions, I had in effect taken the club back with all hands; hence the awful ball striking.  I went out Saturday on my local par-3 course for a quick nine to test this theory and was nutting it all the way around.  Really solid strikes in a stiff breeze with cold temps and I was sky high at the finish.

Been around long enough to understand that momentum in golf is fleeting.  But what’s wrong with thinking, “I finally got it!”  Have you ever “got it” from a golf magazine tip?

Hey, Golf Needs Villains Too

From open.salon.com

The Masters is over but the dust has nary settled from “Dropgate,” as the blogosphere continues to explode with arguments for and against the Tiger non-DQ/WD.  I find myself disinterested in taking a position but glad Tiger played the weekend because I love to root against him when he gets in the hunt.

The purists in our game are outraged that the letter of the law wasn’t upheld but golf needs its villains too.  I love the human element in golf and put in a similar situation, would have probably withdrawn and done the right thing.  But Tiger is WAY PAST doing the right thing and actually adds interest to every telecast for fans looking for an antagonist.  This is why we turn on the TV when players or teams we hate are on.  The watch is compelling and pulling for the mighty to fall is American as apple pie.  Who doesn’t enjoy a Yankees drubbing or a Cowboys implosion (outside of the Evil Empire and Big-D respectively.)

Golf and sports are played by humans and should be officiated by humans, not fans calling into TV production rooms or by machines evaluating every camera angle of every play to ensure perfection and complete fairness.  Humans make mistakes and to remove the human element from all sports is ill-advised.  So bring on the villains, blown calls, and controversy.  It makes for excellent TV viewing and better conversation at the water cooler.

The Magical Healing Power of The Masters

Was wondering last weekend what had motivated me to spread 30 bags of mulch with a bad elbow – yep, Masters Week.  Ever notice when commercials come on for “The Masters” how you get a strange sense of well-being, and then while watching actual tournament play an endorphin rush takes over your body?  It hit me yesterday after enjoying three hours of tournament coverage and I’m super pumped to go work on my game today.  I’ve also experienced the same feeling from attending professional tournaments in person and in both cases I seem to be able to leverage the euphoria into short bursts of excellent play.

Some more good news.  I made great progress with new practice and warm-up routines that I’m going to test today and again tomorrow and will report back on.  Early sneak peak:  I’ve been able to identify a way to prepare myself for play without overtaxing myself physically, and to simulate enough game conditions to get into the flow on the first tee instead of slogging through four holes.

Also finalized the line-up for next month’s Myrtle Beach golfapalooza.  Two new courses are on the docket.  Kings North at Myrtle Beach National and Rivers Edge.  Anyone with playing tips on either of these, please share.  We’re also scheduled for return trips to The Legends (Heathland, Moorland, Parkland) and to one of my all time favorites, True Blue.  Full course reviews are coming on Kings North, Rivers Edge, and True Blue.

Looking forward to a great Masters weekend.  Who are your predictions to win with this star-studded leader board?  The 50+ year old in me is pulling hard for Freddy, but I’m still liking Tiger’s form.

2013 Masters Picks

The 2013 Masters has a ton of intrigue and is ground zero in the battle to settle the question of who the greatest player of all time is.  Add in a wrinkle in the scheduling process and the winning picture becomes  clear.

Like it or not, this year’s tournament is about Tiger Woods and if he can he light the flame under the second stage of his career and rocket himself to the all time top.  Trailing Jack Nicklaus by four in the majors race, Woods’ three wins in six starts this year is scary good and he is primed for a run.  His main competition on the world stage is Rory McIlroy, who’s game is in shambles due to the recent equipment change and some questionable (lack of) good practice habits.  Rory is not a serious contender this year.

Three time champion Phil Mickelson seems to have the next best shot and usually prepares himself to peak at Augusta.  But this year, a scheduling anomaly will hurt Phil, who likes to play the week ahead of a major.  The Shell Houston Open would be an excellent tune up for Augusta, as the PGA Tour attempts to duplicate Augusta like conditions at the Redstone GC, but an additional tour stop has been inserted between Shell and Augusta.  The Valero Texas Open at the J.W. Marriott TPC course is a poor tune-up venue with it’s high winds and tight tee shots.  Phil is playing Shell but skipping Valero.

Next best opportunity comes from the duo of Louis Oosthuizen and Keegan Bradley.  Louis finished 2012 very strong with four top-five finishes in his last seven events.  He’s got the stones to win another major and performed beautifully last year in his runner-up finish to Bubba Watson.  With only two cuts made in four starts this season, I would like to see a little more momentum heading into Augusta.  Bradley hits a long high ball and is well suited for the venue.  He’s won a major, seems to have the desire, and doesn’t get intimated by anyone.  He’s got a chance.

Defending champion, Bubba Watson has been in decent form lately but feels like more of a one-and-done guy on the major circuit.  Can he rekindle the emotional flame?  I doubt it.

On Tiger’s chances, the only thing holding him back is an occasionally balky putter.  He is clearly hitting on all cylinders and likes to skip the week before a major, so the scheduling quirk plays to his advantage.  He is not, and will never be as dominant as he once was because of his age and his propensity to sustain injury.  I’m not convinced his mental foibles are 100% behind him but he seems to be more comfortable being himself again.

So here are your 2013 Masters Picks:

Champion:  Tiger Woods.  Yes he gets it done this year as all the stars are aligned, but Jack Nicklaus’ all time record of 18 majors is safe.  I know, doesn’t take much courage to make this pick

Runner-Up:  Louis Oosthuizen, for the second straight year.

Third:  Keegan Bradley.  Needs a little more seasoning but could be a threat.

Dark Horse:  Matt Kuchar.  Winner already at WGC Accenture and would be a great feel good story.

Who do you like?

The carnage of improvement

Sometimes trying to improve my golf feels like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.  Today was one of those days.

I started off by filming my latest training drill (swinging a weighted club with my backside touching a lawn chair on the backswing and downswing to ensure proper spine angle retention.)  All positions looked good – check.  I then headed out to the driving range to film some live contact.  The bad news is that every shot was a push cut.  The good news is that the same miss indicates consistency and the repeatability should be easy to fix, right?  Wrong.  The film review showed the mistake was the same loss of spine angle I’ve been working all winter to fix.  How frustrating.   Throw in a throbbing right elbow (tendonitis) and you begin to see the ugliness of this picture.

Next, I moved to the short game area for some work on chipping and pitching technique.  Oddly enough, the pain in the elbow was actually worse on these short shots as I tried to keep my hands soft and feel the weight of the club head on the back swing.  It even hurt to putt. 

So, I’m not giving up by any stretch, but am starting to question what is reasonable with regard to improvement.  How much can a guy with a bad elbow and only enough time to hit balls and play on the weekend expect to improve?  Any thoughts on this or remedies for golfer’s elbow (I haven’t tried drinking baking soda dissolved in water yet but am close to trying anything), please send them along.  Thanks!

What can you learn from one round of golf?

Opened the 2013 golf season yesterday at the local muni and was reminded of several truths:

• Don’t play on a sunny weekend day after 12:00 noon with hundreds of other cabin fever stricken hacks in the same vicinity.
• Don’t expect miracles after working all winter indoors on your golf swing.  Nothing like real ball contact on a real golf course under game conditions.
• In order to train it on the range and trust it on the course, you must first build the trust.
• Don’t worry about your hands of stone on the greens.  Short game is the last thing to come around after a layoff.
• Yes you can learn more about your golfing partner’s personality in one round than in ten years of socializing at dinner parties.
• And finally, a bad day on the golf course is still better than a good day at work.

How was your opening round this year?

Rory McIlroy = Lack of Character!

Very disappointed in Rory’s withdrawal shenanigans at The Honda Classic yesterday.  I’m not buying this toothache excuse one bit and this is looking more like someone with amazing talent and a poor work ethic, who is struggling mentally because of a bad decision to change equipment.  He’s exhibiting a lack of character more on the lines of what we would expect from a John Daly.

Being seven over-par after eight holes, Rory was clearly on his way to posting a round in the mid-80s.  Last year, Rory won the treasured Vardon Trophy over Tiger Woods by .03 strokes per round.  Posting a total hack-a-thon number could cripple an attempted repeat.  The embarrassment of the defending champ totally chopping and the unwillingness to admit he’s struggling with his new equipment forced the withdrawal.  Throw in last season’s run of bad play (attributed to an unwillingness to practice) and we’re getting a very unpleasant picture forming of our world’s number one player.

So breaking news Rory:  This is golf and we all hack once in a while.  Man up and post your score.  What do you think he should have done?

Is your warm-up a coffee and a doughnut?

Ever go to a PGA tournament and watch the best players in the world warm-up?  I will park myself at the range for hours and marvel at the machine-like ball striking consistency of a Vijay Singh

Vijay warming up

or the effortless rhythm of a Fred Couples.  Vijay typically warms up with alignment sticks laid out all over the ground, umbrellas stuck in the turf to guide his swing plane, head covers under his armpits, and training aids sprinkled around his station at the ready.  You wonder how the guy gets ready to play with all the mechanical input.  We weekend players love to emulate our heroes on tour but you need to be very careful when it comes to copying their warm-ups.  These guys typically get to the course two hours before their round and condition their bodies and every aspect of their game before play.  We don’t have that luxury.  Usually we grab a coffee and a doughnut and do nothing, or throw on our shoes in the parking lot and rush to the first tee, or buy a bucket of range balls, pound 30 drivers and roll a few putts before heading out.  I’ve tried ‘em all and none of them work.

Last year I thought I had this whipped when I tried a new warm-up routine and followed it up with a great round, but soon discovered the routine wasn’t extensible enough to support different practice facilities and different amounts of time.  I can’t count the number of times that I’ve either played with no warm-up or tried to warm-up sensibly and still stumbled out of the blocks.  How frustrating is it when you always need to play three holes to fully engage the golf circuits?

In 2013 I’m determined to find the perfect warm-up routine that will:

1)  put me in the best frame of mind

2)  put me in the best physical condition

3)  have me looking good doing it (got to avoid the Miguel Angel Jimenez  10-200 scenario.)

So coming soon are two warm-up routines constructed from a combination of exercises out of my workout regimen, and from trial and error at the golf course.  Look for the:

A)  Economy warm-up (10 minutes)

B)  Business Class warm-up (30-60 minutes)

Send me your ideas to help move this along and I’ll try the good ones.  Thanks!

What are the Do’s and Don’ts of golf practice?

Lately, I’ve been getting quite a few inquiries on what to do and not do while practicing golf.  Here we go:

• Do find a PGA professional for lessons.  Make sure you trust him/her and that their teaching style melds with the way you learn.
• Do work on your short game.    Dedicate 75% of your practice time to see the quickest improvement.
• Do simulate game conditions.  This will help you transition your practice to the course.  
• Do develop a pre-shot routine for every club in the bag and repeat it for each practice shot you hit.
• Do use alignment sticks as an aid for correct setup and for dialing your mind into the target on short game shots (and putts).
• Do film your swing and review it regularly.  What you think you are doing often is not what you are doing.
• Don’t become a range robot and rake ball after ball into the same position shooting at the same target.  
• Don’t confuse practice with warm-up before a round.  Never work on swing mechanics right before you play; it will screw your head up on the course.  Just get loose and relax.
• Don’t practice extraordinarily long putts.  You want to see your lags get close and expunge any visions of three-putting.  30-40 footers should be the max.
• Don’t accept swing instruction from well-meaning friends.  Amateurs teach amateurs to play like amateurs.  (See #1 Do above.)
• Don’t work on more than one mechanical change at a time.  You’ll become a swing pretzel if you do.

There you have them, now Do get to work.  Good luck!

2013 Top Five Lists!

Here we go with my top five’s for 2013.  What are yours?

Top Five Players of All Time:

1. Jack Nicklaus
2. Tiger Woods
3. Byron Nelson
4. Ben Hogan
5. Sam Snead

Top Five Tournaments to watch:

1. The Ryder Cup
2. The Masters
3. The U.S. Open
4. THE PLAYERS Championship
5. The Open Championship

Five most popular players of all time:

1. Arnold Palmer
2. Tiger Woods
3. Jack Nicklaus
4. Fred Couples
5. Phil Mickelson

Five least popular players of all time:

1. Colin Montgomerie
2. Tiger Woods
3. Vijay Singh
4. Tom Weiskopf
5. Scott Hoch

Five greatest golf courses in the world:

1. Augusta National
2. Old Course St. Andrews
3. Pebble Beach
4. Oakmont
5. Pine Valley

Top five legendary tempers:

1. Tommy Bolt
2. Tom Weiskopf
3. Steve Pate
4. Pat Perez
5. Woody Austin

Five purest swings to watch:

1. Ben Hogan
2. Ernie Els
3. Fred Couples
4. Rory McIlroy
5. Sam Snead

Five ugliest swings to watch (but not emulate):

1. Jim Thorpe
2. Jim Furyk
3. Moe Norman
4. Calvin Peete
5. John Daly

Honorable mention:  Charles Barkley

There you have them.  What have I missed if anything?  Please weigh in!

One Bourbon, One Shot, One Beer in 2013?

One GIR, one chip, and one less putt per round.  Is that the recipe for improvement in my golf game this year?  I must be suffering from cabin fever or the general malaise of winter, but this new mantra was starting to click in my brain to the tune to the old Thorogood rendition.

George Thorogood

After reviewing my performance stats for the past few years, it would seem that making just minor improvements in these key areas would allow me to shave two strokes off my scoring average, which would be huge.  But it’s been incredibly tough to make any measurable improvement and my propensity to plateau has got me concerned.  Two things seem constant:  I have a continual desire to make significant changes in different areas of my game and the work I put in hardly yields any downstream positive effects.  Does this happen to you as well?

Then I read the “3 – 8 – 13″ theory in a recent golf publication and decided to put it to the test.  The assumption:  If you hit 3 greens, you should break 90.  Hit 8 and you’ll crack 80.  Hit 13 and you break 70.  Since I averaged 8.74 GIR last year and 78.85 strokes per round, I figured the correlation was close and set out to measure it.  I had 23 rounds with 8 or more GIR and broke 80 19 times; pretty darned accurate.  In the last three years, I hit or exceeded 13 GIRs 11 times and shot 70 once and broke it twice.  However, my worst score of those 11 rounds was 76, so that proved there is a huge correlation between GIR and score.  Funny how it keeps coming back to ball striking.  So what now?

From various lessons and film analysis, I know my ball striking inconsistency stems from a loss of spine angle on the downswing and a bit of an early release.  It’s hard to work on swing in the winter, so I’ve been focusing on eliminating bad habits in my backswing and putting myself in the best positions possible.  This work is possible with just a mirror and a club in your basement, and as I work the various positions, the guy looking back in the mirror seems to be in pretty good shape but what’s going to happen with that first live contact in a couple of weeks?  Also, in one of those sub 70 rounds, I noted my playing strategy was to shoot for the center of every green on any iron shot longer than a pitching wedge; interesting.  Perhaps some conservative course management would be in order as well.

Anyone with some good drills for maintaining spine angle, increasing lag on the downswing, and overall course management improvement tips, please send them along.  Thanks!

2013 Travel – Anyone golfed in Alabama?

Need some advice on a new golf destination.  I want to book a fall trip on the Robert Trent Jones (RTJ Golf Trail) in Alabama and have read lots of good things about excellent value, great courses, top notch playing conditions, but I’ve never been to Alabama much less considered how to play the trail.

It seems the trail is spread out over the entire state and there is some serious mileage between courses.  I’m looking for a reasonable itinerary for a week of golf in the October time frame with about 18 holes per day and was wondering if this was even doable considering how spread out the RTJ Trail is.  Does it make sense to identify a center-state spot as my headquarters and venture out for day trips, or travel along the trail to different sites?

I’m also a huge fan of SEC football and would LOVE to turn this adventure into a bucket list event and couple it with a home game at the University of Alabama on either Oct 19 vs Arkansas or Oct 26 vs Tennessee!

Anyone with tips on golfing the RTJ or how to get Alabama football tickets, please send.  Thanks!

Great start to the 2013 golf season!

I’ve been struggling with my confidence since the poor finish to the 2012 season and decided to pick up Bob Rotella’s Golf Is a Game of Confidence.  Halfway through the read the message was clear:  I needed to re-dedicate to my short game and regain some structure with my pre-shot routine, which admittedly I had slacked off on.  I recalled the last few good rounds I had played and the common thread was an excellent short game practice session the day before.  When I come away from a great session on the green I get an invincible feeling that transitions into confidence and relaxation in every aspect of my game.

Out at the short game area yesterday, I worked on a very methodical pre-shot routine for chipping, pitching, and putting and enjoyed some excellent feedback.  90% of the routine was my old routine, but I concentrated hard to repeat before every shot.  The slight adjustment was to take a final look at the target, on all shots, and immediately pull the trigger.  On my putts, I literally stared down my spot, moved my eyes back to the ball, and started the stroke in one motion.  By not hesitating, I was trusting my feel, which was akin to a basketball player eying the basket, firing off a jumper, and letting his natural sense for calculating distance, arc, and force sink the shot.  And it worked great.

I also used the landing point drill with three alignment sticks to frame a small box (open end towards the hole) where I wanted my chip or pitch to land.  This got me focused exclusively on the target and freed up my sense of touch.  At no time did I think any mechanical thoughts because I was totally focused on my landing spot and feeling the shot during my practice swings.  The results were awesome, with plenty of crisp contact and dialed-in distance on the pitches and chips, and putts that were banged into the back of the cup.  It’s funny how one small mental change can yield so much physical benefit.

So it’s the start of the work week, the weather has turned sour, and I’m all dressed up with nowhere to go.    Has your season gotten off to a good start as well?

2012 Performance Analysis

With the 2012 golf season concluded it’s time to examine my performance against plan and compare this season’s playing stats against 2011.  The KPIs:

Year	Total rounds	Scoring Avg.	GIR Avg.	Total Putts Avg.
2012	33	78.85	8.74	31.88
2011	34	79.60	8.74	32.86

The primary objective in 2012 was better ball striking which should have translated into a higher GIR average.  It’s quite remarkable that the GIR is exactly the same across the two seasons, but no improvement is considered a miss.  My early season conditioning work left me feeling good, hitting it longer, but not necessarily straighter.  In the fall, I didn’t have enough time to practice or play and my ball striking went in the crapper.  I failed to reach double digit GIR in any of my last five rounds, and failed to break 80 as well.  It’s a no-brainer, but the key takeaway is that I need the reps and more importantly, reps from the right positions.  Interestingly, my scoring average dropped by 3/4 of a stroke, which can directly be attributed to better putting.  I’m not sure why because I practiced my putting less, but I suspect it was a mid-season change to a right hand dominated stroke that led to better distance control on my lag putts.  I’ve since abandoned that method and adopted one that helps me judge pace better on greens of varying speed.  Only five of my 33 rounds were sub 30-putt rounds and I’d love to get more of those, but the big picture shows a very consistent year with the putter, and I never took more than 35 in a round.

The great thing about the off-season is that you can battle test ideas for improvement and not feel pressured to abandon them because of one or two bad rounds since you aren’t playing regularly.  I’m very excited to work with my new custom fitted irons and have been doing a lot of reading and film study of myself, specifically in the down-the-line position with my driver and noticed some glaring flaws.

In this video you’ll see my swing plane is way too far inside on the takeaway and too flat throughout the back and downswing.  My position at the top is open with a cupped wrist and it’s no wonder I’m struggling to control my driver and am only slightly better with the irons.  It’s also clear that hoping a year of pure conditioning would improve my ball striking was a mistake.  The numbers don’t lie and neither does the film.  So I am humbled yet determined to improve in 2013 by making changes over the winter to key swing positions.  I’ll specifically focus on my position halfway back, at the top, and on the downswing.  I came across an excellent video I’d like to share at MySmartGolf.com of the one-plane swing.  Have any of you seen this one?

New equipment debut: The Good, Bad, and Ugly

Christmas came early this year as I put my new set of irons and wedges through a full game practice yesterday and battle tested with a round at Poolsville this morning.  Let’s look at the Good, Bad, and Ugly.

The Good:

Most noticeable change with the JPX 825 Pro irons and the H4 hybrid irons is the ability to attack the ball with confidence.  I was able to swing hard and not have to worry about hitting the big push.  I love hitting knock down shots into the wind and pulled off a beauty with the 6-iron from light rough on my third hole today.  Then I played an awesome 3/4 recovery swing from under a tree with the 3-hybrid from about 175 yards on #4.  These clubs hit the ball where you aim them and that is huge for me.

Big plus on the new 50, 54, and 58 degree Cleveland wedges especially around the green.  I hit the 54 and 58 from the practice bunker yesterday and both proved more than capable.  I’m looking forward to controlling distance out of the bunkers by having two go-to clubs.  Today I tried a lower running pitch with the 54 and got plenty of check on the ball.  Previously I would have played that shot with my old 56 and tried to carry it farther which is harder to judge because of the added air time.  Another plus is the crisp contact and straight direction chipping with the JPX 8-iron.  The low leading edge and classic look builds confidence and promotes crisp contact.  I’m absolutely giddy about building a new short shot repertoire with the Cleveland trio.

The bad:

Absolutely no complaints with any of the new equipment.  I will need to get used to the Cleveland 50 on full swings.  I reliably hit my old Cleveland 49 gap wedge 100 yards and the new 50 seemed a little hard to control trajectory and distance reliably.  Again, the sample size was limited to 15 swings on the range and one shot in play today so no worries other than the obvious lack of available practice time with winter fast approaching.

The ugly:

The dirty little secret about good scoring is that it’s set up by good driving and mine is a mess.  Over Thanksgiving and again yesterday, I spent time on the range trying to straighten out my driver and couldn’t.  I was all over the place today and finally pulled three wood on my last five tee shots to keep the ball in play.  The iron club fitting has opened my eyes about playing with properly fit equipment.  Everyone has got swing deficiencies but mine cannot be as bad as the results I was getting with the driver.  To capitalize on these new irons I need to be straighter off the tee and am going to get fit for a driver during the winter and make the purchase before the 2013 season starts.

Final verdict:

The jury is still out on full swing distances and yardage adjustments as one round in moderately cold weather is not enough time to make a judgement.  But playing any golf in December is a big plus

Game improvement. Next step: Big Step.

Earlier this week I finally addressed an issue that has been bothering me for quite some time; my equipment.  Since moving to Titleist DCI 822 OS irons around 10 years ago, my ball striking and GIR stats have been a continual source of frustration.  Everyone has bad ball striking days, but experienced players can feel a good swing born of balance, power, speed, and agility, and on too many occasions, I’ve felt the good swing and dealt with a substandard result.

On Tuesday, I laid down on the proverbial swing couch of master club builder Wade Heintzelman, of the Golf Care Center, and presented all my issues.  Wade has been building clubs for 28 years and has many excellent players as customers including several from the PGA Tour.  I figured I’d go to the best to finally get my issues addressed.  Over the course of my nearly two hour fitting, I learned that the 822s are designed for a lower caliber player that has an outside to in swing.  The clubs were one inch too long, had shafts that were too light, and the heads had too much offset and bounce.  Wade informed that often players adapt their swings to their equipment, and after receiving this information the pieces of my swing puzzle fell into place.  I had been coming up and out of my spine angle to account for the misfitted length, and the poor swings coupled with the added bounce on the iron heads were causing all the thin pushes that have plagued me inside 130 yards, as well as the thinned chips around the green.

During the fitting, Wade identified my proper loft, lie, length, total weight, shaft flexibility, grip size, and swing weight.  We discussed my set make up, what ball I played, and how I liked to approach the game and what shots I relied upon under pressure.  Then we discussed my wedge game and developed a plan to cover the yardage umbrella between 80 and 100 that I was previously covering with swing modifications.  I did not have any preconceived notions about manufactures or options and told Wade to make a recommendation solely based on his experience and what would be best for me.

I left the shop feeling very positive and taken care of and I realize I’m going to need to hit the delete button on all the frustrations of playing with misfit equipment over the last 10 years.  You’re probably thinking, “the carpenter is blaming his hammer for the bad house he just constructed,” and you may be right because I’m a big advocate of spending scarce resources on swing instruction over equipment changes, but this one feels like the right thing to do.

My new set should arrive within a week and I’m eager to game test it.  After making such a significant change, I’ll need to adjust to the new feel, change in distances, and hopefully regain some confidence in my natural ability.  I think a good read will require about 10 rounds, and I plan to have these played, as well as plenty of range sessions logged, before the 2013 trip to Myrtle Beach in May.  What do you think of this approach?

The old vs. new set makeup and specs:

Old:

• Irons: 3 – PW, Titleist DCI 822 OS, Titleist NS Pro 650 (stiff)
• Gap Wedge: Cleveland Tour Action 533, 49 degrees, Dynamic Gold S-300
• Sand Wedge: Cleveland Tour Action 533, 56 degrees, Dynamic Gold S-300
• Lob Wedge:  Taylormade Rac Tumble, 60 degrees, Uniflex shaft

New:

• Hybrid Irons: 3, 4.  Mizuno H4, Dynamic Gold S-300 shafts, Tourwrap 580 grips, swing weight D2
• Irons: 5 – PW, Mizuno JPX 825 Pro, Dynamic Gold S-300 shafts, Tourwrap 580, swing weight D2.
• Wedges:  Cleveland CG 16, lofts 50, 54, 58 with specs commensurate to the irons.