Make a Golf Improvement Map

Been getting a few questions lately about methods for improving one’s golf game and overcoming frustrations along the way.  Both are tough nuts to crack, but let’s first address the frustrations.  Recognize that golf is an activity that requires continual learning.  It takes time, effort, persistence, and must be treated as a journey and not a result.  Frustration and satisfaction are companions on the ride.  Players and students of the game come to this realization slowly if they don’t set expectations up front.  The expectations should be documented in an improvement map and include a goal and specific how-to’s.  You’ll find it’s difficult to pursue a general plan like “become a better golfer, “ because the words connote a moving target.

Your improvement map needs specifics.  For example, say you are a player who regularly shoots between 100 and 110.  There’s room for improvement in almost every aspect of your game but not getting focused on where to work can hurt.  Your map should have a goal like:  “Break 100 for seven of 10 rounds by the end of September.”  Then add in the how-to.  This could be:  “Sign up for a series of six lessons on ball striking.  Take one lesson every two weeks.  Practice the lessons twice per week.  Include one round of golf per week.”  Over the course of this journey, you will hit snags and setbacks, but with persistence should expect the balance of instruction, practice, and play to yield benefits.  You may also begin to notice shortcomings in other areas of your game, like chipping or putting.  But remain on task and focused because there will be plenty of time to work on other things.  At this level, you’ll gain a higher level of satisfaction from improved ball striking and eliminating those severely wayward full swing misses. 

Now, say you are a player that shoots in the low 80s.  Totally different map because your swing is more refined.  The more competence you demonstrate, the harder incremental improvement becomes and at this level, a higher degree of dedication is required to improve.  Again, your map should be specific with a goal like:  “Break 80 in five of 10 rounds by the end of September.”  The how-to:   “Take a lesson in chipping and putting.  Practice your learned technique two times per week and play two times per week.  After one month, take another lesson in pitching and bunker play.  Repeat the practice/play cadence.” The focus on short game along with the increased frequency of practice and play should pay dividends.

At any level, increasing frequency is the key because the techniques you learn become second nature.  When you can rely on technique, you think more about making shots. This is where the improvement happens.  The instruction is important because practicing the wrong technique can set you back.  Most golfers struggle with these two areas because they need to find an instructor they can trust and need to make the required time commitment.  Solve for those two, add in an improvement map, and you’re on your way.

Play well.            

Wholesale Putting Change!

Putting can make or break your golf game.  Roughly 40 % of your strokes are with your putter, so what drives putting performance?  Four things:

1: Technique.

2: Nerves.

3: The quality of your short game.

4: Proximity – i.e., how close you are to the hole for your first putt.

After some deep thinking on these areas, I’m going to make a significant change, but before discussing, let’s take a sanity check on my putting data.  I’ve captured putts per round statistics from 2007 through 2020.

The statistics tell a story of recent improvement, but when I ask myself, “Do I believe I’m truly a good putter?”  Unfortunately, the answer is “no”.  I get that everyone’s performance is relative and my improvement from 2018 to 2019 was nice.  It was the result of a March 2018 short game lesson, and a July 2018 putting lesson, and a lot of hard work to cement those changes in.  But it’s not enough.

Right now, I’d consider myself a good lag putter but when I get to the 5-10 foot range, where you should make your share of birdies and par saves, I’m terrible because I can’t start the putt on my intended line.   Missing a little off-line on a 30-40 footer won’t usually cost you a two-putt but nothing is more deflating than stuffing an iron shot and yanking the birdie putt way left.  I’ve solved an alignment problem by putting over a spot, and have tried numerous top of the line putters but to no avail.

There has got to be a better way and perhaps I’m getting greedy, but I’m thinking even if I don’t improve my ball striking one bit, if I can reduce my putts to less than 30 per round, I’d get a free handicap drop from 4 to 2.  Tempting, and I’m going for it!

The change is a switch to the claw grip with my right hand.  I’ve been using a traditional reverse overlap grip for years and have tested this change inside on the rug, and outside on the putting green.  The difference on the shorties is exceptional, but it’s not without concern.

Phil using the claw. Photo courtesy of golfmagic.com

Pros like Sergio, Phil, and Adam Scott have all gone to a variation of the low hand claw with great success, but they are putting extremely fast greens.  Indeed, this change works best on fast surfaces and one may be susceptible to inconsistencies with longer putts on slower greens.  My home course has fast greens, but I only play about 25-30% of my rounds there.  So, I may rack up a few extra three putts but hopefully make up for it in the scoring range.  Maybe I’ll alternate grips for long putts???  I’m willing to give it a try.  Has anyone had any success trying this method over a protracted time period?  Please share if you have a story.

Thanks, and play well!

Does It Take 10,000 Reps To Form A Habit?

Graphic from scaleo.io

I was only eight or nine years old when I first picked up a golf club.  At 16, my parents got me my first set of lessons.  It was a series of six full swing sessions with the local pro.  After the third lesson, I started making pretty good contact.  After the fifth lesson, my instructor asked me if I had broken 80 yet.  What?  I was incredibly confused because I was starting to play regularly and was shooting in the 90s and remember thinking, “I can’t even hit a bunker shot because nobody has shown me how.  How does he think I can break 80?”   He was building in expectations of excellence, but I didn’t know it at the time that he was also teaching me to strike the ball the old fashion way.  On the lesson tee, he was rolling my hands over time and again through the hitting zone and ingraining a reliance on the hand-eye coordination I had developed as a young man.  This worked pretty well, through my 20s and 30s, but I’ve since come to learn that the method he taught has left me with a serious swing flaw (early release) and led me down a path that I need to exit from.

The modern-day player is taught to make the swing from the ground up and initiate the downswing with the big muscles of the legs and butt.  This generates an inside to outside swing path and a powerful strike due to the kinetic energy built up from properly releasing the club late.  You lead with your body, and the hands are along for the ride.  I was given none of that and 44 years later, I’ve come to the conclusion, that to take the next step in game improvement, I need to unlearn this bad habit.

Sounds like a tall task for a weekend jockey, but I’ve got a plan.  Step one has already been accomplished because I’ve identified the problem through video and lesson tee analysis from multiple swing instructors.  All my bad shots stem from this core dysfunction.  I’m still carrying a 4-handicap and you may be thinking, “What’s the problem, that’s pretty good shooting.”  Well, I have been scraping by on short game improvements, and to get more fulfillment, I’ve got to gain more consistency in my ball striking.

Step two is underway.  Deactivate my right hand – the main culprit in the early release.  I’ve removed it from my swing and taken to hitting left hand only shots in my back yard off my range mat. These are little 20 yard pitch shots, but if I release the club too early instead of letting my body pull my hand through the shot, I hit it incredibly fat.  If I do it right, I finish in balance over my left foot with my left arm tucked neatly into my left side (no chicken wing).  Two weekends ago, I hit 100 balls like this.  Last weekend another 100.  Today, I hit 50 one-handed, and mixed in two-handed shots with the last 50. I love this drill because of the pronounced positive and negative feedback.  Right now, about one in four left-handed shots are mishit, but when I put both hands on, the contact is very good so I’m directionally pleased.

Someone said it takes 10,000 repetitions to build a habit.  At this rate, it’ll take 1.5 years to build that in.  I hope it goes quicker than that – wish me luck!  Are you working on any swing changes this winter?

Play well!

2020: What’s Next For My Golf Journey?

In these difficult times, we need to focus on our circle of influence more than our circle of concern.  For golf, it would be easy to let my game go to shambles considering the emergency and it’s effect on the industry and play-ability of our local courses.  I can’t manage that, so I will zero in on three Covid-proof strategies where I’m in control:  Improved fitness, Building and refining skills, and a badly needed equipment update.

FITNESS

Since January, I’ve been working out with weights three times per week and playing tennis on the weekends (in addition to golf).  Yesterday was my second round since our Covid-19 reopening and one thing has become clear, I need to incorporate stretching into my routine.  Before January, I had been doing a daily stretch and floor exercise routine but abandoned when I started working with weights.  That was a mistake and yesterday’s round reinforced.  My lower back tightened on the back nine and caused some loose swings that cost me strokes.  It’s odd that doing dead lifts and sit to stands helps to build strength for loading and unloading 40 lb. bags of mulch, but is not great for your golf swing.  Now, on the non-workout days, it’s back to the stretch.  Gotta get the lumbar area loose and the glutes firing!

SKILL DEVELOPMENT

This requires focus on taking more professional instruction, capturing performance data and doing analytics, increasing practice, and bolstering frequency of play.   On Saturday, I took swing video of myself and did some analytics.  In general, I liked what I saw but detected two areas for correction.  I was standing too far from the ball with the driver, and my shoulders were slightly open with the 7-iron.  Yesterday, I corrected for both and was piping the ball, especially with my 3wd off the turf.  But alas, while hyper-focused on these adjustments, my short game suffered.  That’s why golf is a journey, not a result.  You ALWAYS have something to work on.  Putting it all together will require I dedicate a mid-week afternoon to nine holes because when you up the frequency of play, more of your game becomes automatic.

EQUIPMENT

I’ve been using the same putter (Ping Answer) for many years.  Time for an update because the last few seasons have been a struggle with alignment.  Last year I averaged 31.26 putts per round.  In 2020 the sample size is smaller but I’m at 31.00, through six starts.  I’d love to get under 30, and here’s where a new tool is going to help the carpenter.  Many putts I think are aimed straight come off the blade going left, and the Answer doesn’t have an alignment aid.

Ping Answer

I love the weight and feel of the club but am sure a professional fitting can get me straightened out.  As soon as local businesses are allowed to open, I’ll schedule an appointment with Wade Heintzelman at the Golf Care Center.  Wade fit me for my last set of irons and has worked with PGA Tour players as well as many top amateurs.  He has my full confidence.

More updates are coming with future developments.  Let’s hear from you, are you in control of your golf journey?

Play well!

Help With My Swing!

Yesterday I took four shots of swing video.  There are two down-the-line and two face on segments with a 7-iron and driver.   I picked out a couple things to work on before and during today’s round and will let you know how I fared, but would love to have your feedback.  Please send in any and all suggestions and observations!

Thanks!

Driver Face On

Driver Down The Line

7-iron Face on

7-iron Down The Line

 

2018 – Season Wrap and Lessons Learned

Tee shot on the par-3 17th hole at Eagle’s Landing

We like to think the golf season never ends in the Mid-Atlantic.  2016 was so mild we played straight through the winter.  Three days ago, I was wrapping up an excellent 54-hole trip to the Delmarva, but three inches of the white stuff today slammed the lid on my year.  It’s time to hang ’em up and reflect on one of the best seasons in recent memory.

Commitment

2018 started off with a renewed commitment on my part to improvement through additional instruction and by challenging myself on harder courses.  Over the course of the year, I took four lessons (two on full swing, one on short game, and one on putting).  The attention to all facets was incredibly beneficial.  I had never had a professional putting lesson and the last time I received any short game instruction was in college.  Both were eye-opening experiences and left me more confident on and around the greens, and a bit  regretful that I hadn’t invested in either earlier.  The results from the last ball striking lesson in August were profound and left me with a bit of a dilemma for next year.  More on that shortly.

Challenge

In April, I joined Blue Mash Golf Club and spent my first four rounds trying to figure out how to play the first three holes.  Blue Mash hits you straight upside the head with par-4s of 424, 428, and 453 yards.  There is no easing into your round, and the 4th hole is a 190 yard par-3.  Even if I was hitting the ball well, I would often require a 3-iron or more into the first four greens.  There are opportunities to score later in the round, but coming out of the blocks playing bogey golf is not uncommon and figuring out how to play for par was critical to my improvement.  Eventually I got comfortable with the layout and was able to game plan for the brutal start.

A key takeaway is that you need to challenge the weakest parts of your game.  Mine is long iron play, and is where I tend to hit my big miss (pull hook).  There were several afternoons that I wondered what the hell I had done by joining this course, and would I ever get my round off to a good start.  But through lessons, practice, and constantly challenging my weakness with the long irons, I began to improve.  There’s an old saying in software development that says if you are faced with a difficult task or process, repeat it as often as possible and it will become easier.  I learned the same is true in golf.  Out of necessity, I worked those long irons and slowly built confidence.  Later in the season, I was able to play some initial rounds on new difficult courses with significant success because of the challenges overcome at the opening holes at Blue Mash.  Now, I am not a great long iron player, but I don’t fear them or the big miss any more.

Adjustments

During my last lesson, my pro had me make two adjustments.  I moved closer to the ball for all shots and that solved an alignment and balance issue that had been plaguing me for a long time.  It allowed me to flush my irons with more regularity.  Next he had me pause a bit more than normal at the top of my back swing which allowed me to start the swing with my lower body and not cast the club, as so many amateurs are prone to do.  Late in October and again on my recent trip to the shore, we played several rounds in heavy wind.  I had been practicing for this by playing all my iron shots on the range 3/4 back and knocking them down, and was able to leverage that during play.  It’s an incredible feeling to strike it solid and straight in heavy wind.  This was so much the case, that I’m considering playing ALL my iron shots in this fashion next season.  In essence, I would reinvent my golf persona ala Paul Azinger, who played these low knock down style shots all over the course.  The dilemma is, of course, what do I do when I need to hit it high?  I’m thinking the success of this low ball flight was so encouraging, that I may just play it and deal with the high shots as they come up.  I just dropped a note to my pro mentioning the same and asked for his thoughts.  What do you think?

So here they are, staring at me from behind my living room couch.  Should I bag it for the season and put them away, or have the stare-down for another month?

Play well!

 

The Grind of a Swing Change

I logged into my handicap service today and was reminded it’s been 41 days without golf.  Have I missed it?  Not in the least.  I actually practiced short game about two weeks ago, and practiced quite well, but had no desire to play.  In most years, I get antsy after not playing for a month but 2017 is different.  The grind of playing “golf swing” all year is still working its way out of my system.

2017 was tremendously successful, as I experienced a high level of satisfaction with my ball striking improvements, but it’s clear how taxing it was to continuously work on your swing and not be able to turn off mechanical mode for a whole year.  The struggle was an exercise in concentration and focus, and coming down from it is like draining the adrenaline rush you get after studying for final exams.  Remember that?  You’ve crammed all night and taken that last exam, and even though you’re totally exhausted mentally and physically, you can’t fall asleep.

Golf should be fun not painful.  But improving at any sport requires sacrifice.  The world champion Houston Astros had to suffer through consecutive 100-loss seasons as they rebuilt their organization.  Was that fun?  No, but the payoff was sweet.  I’m thinking the same thing.  To get where I want to be, I’ll need another year in 2018 like the previous.  The commitment has been made.

Nice weekends like this in the DMV are suitable for playing, but I’m not.  Maybe a little more short game practice is in order and will get the juices flowing.  Stay tuned.

Play well.

2017 Season Wrap-Lessons Learned, Truths Revealed.

2017 was an awesome year of resurrection for my golf game.  Going into the season, my index had crept up over 6.0, my ball striking was in the crapper, and I had turned 56.  I was beginning to ask questions like, “Will I ever play good again?”  It hadn’t escaped me that on the senior tour, guys traditionally hit the wall at 56 and fail to seriously compete because of their advancing age.  Was this happening to me?

To find out, I bit the bullet and signed up for a series of golf lessons with an instructor who had given me some hope with a single lesson in the summer of 2016.  I liked his teaching style, he got results, and I had tried to DIY for the last few years without success.  The one metric I focused on was improving greens in regulation from eight to 10 per round.  I found that a single goal helped improve my focus and dedication.  After all, I was trying to break 40 years of bad habits, build some good habits, and enjoy myself during the process.  Trying to focus on too many things would confuse my pea brain.

I started lessons in April and found the first couple difficult.  Breaking the bad habits was very hard.  Playing right after lessons is even more difficult but I had committed to playing more “golf swing” than “golf” for the entire season, which helped me be patient.  In mid-series, I took my annual golf trip to Myrtle Beach.  We typically play long difficult courses and you’d better strike it well to have a chance.  With my mind still in mechanical mode, I managed to average 8.3 GIR on the trip and only had four rough rounds out of 10.  I noticed I was enjoying a significant distance add with my driver, but was still experiencing too many big misses (pull hook) with mid and long irons.  My last round was an 88 at TPC of Myrtle Beach.  TPC is a course where big misses punish you.  The course was also in my head and I never have played well there.  A funny thing happened though.  After the round, we had a quick bite and went out for a replay.  We got in nine holes before lightning terminated the round, but I started to play better and left the course filled with hope.

After the trip, the lessons started to take hold and I experienced a great stretch from July 9 through mid-October where I averaged 10.75 GIR and played better than I have in years.  On November 3, after a great 1-over round on a tough golf course (Hog Neck), my index dropped to 3.9 which was all the validation I needed that my approach had been correct.  I finished the season with a 4.0 index and while not having hit my goal of 10 GIR (actual was 9.03), couldn’t have been more satisfied.

The big takeaway:  I am not finished because of age 🙂  The guys on the senior tour slip at 56 because they’ve been playing close to the top of their ability when age hits.  In my case, I had (and still have) loads of room for improvement, and even as I age, should be able to better my technique.

We never put our clubs away here for winter in the DMV and last year we had no snow and played right through to spring, but I’m considering this season a wrap.  The year was mentally exhausting and I need a break.  In 2018, I’m signing up for another series of lessons and hope to continue the journey wherever it takes me.

Hope you had a good season too.  Play well.

Good Practice Makes Great Play

Great news!  In most years, as soon as the pigskin starts to fly, my interest in golf wanes, but not this season. Maybe it’s because my college and pro football teams are supposed to suck, but I am super psyched for 2017 fall golf.  It probably has nothing to do with football and is mostly due to the success I’m experiencing during practice, and how it’s translating into better play.

Starting in April, I took four lessons with my instructor. We focused entirely on full swing for the first three and a playing lesson on the fourth. My goals were simple, average 10 greens per round for the year, try to lower my handicap which had crept up from a 5 to 6.3 over the last couple of seasons, and just have more fun.

Here are some keys; maybe you can grab a few.   The way I’ve been practicing has made a huge difference. I have re-dedicated myself to a mid-week session, and focus on ball striking and short game every Wednesday after work. Sure it’s inconvenient to get from downtown Washington to my home course in Rockville, MD, but I’ve found the following is true: You get out of this game what you put into it. I’ll do an additional practice on Saturday and play on Sunday. The three days per week provide enough reps that make the game more second nature than when I was only engaging on the weekends. Second, I’ve been able to focus on the same improvements over and over rather than searching for a swing key every time out. When you know your miss tendencies, and you understand why you miss, and you have the tools to make the fix, it’s so much easier to concentrate. Practice does not feel like a chore.  Pounding range balls and changing swing thoughts on every shot is exhausting and is like walking through the desert.

With any quest for improvement, to keep yourself honest, you should measure. The data look pretty good. After a very rough start to the year and many growing pains during the lessons, my GIR average has pulled up to 9. I’ve hit double digit GIR in my last four rounds and have been under par for a good portion of three of those. I’ve also noticed that I’ve picked up considerable distance with the driver and am more accurate with the wedges. In the past, I never put much stock in driving distance simply because I couldn’t hit it that long. But I’m finding the added distance makes a huge difference provided you are accurate with your wedges. For instance, last time out I only hit three fairways and two of them were with irons on layups, yet I still managed 13 GIR and a round of even-par because my drives were long enough to get a wedge in my hands.

Lastly, my index has dropped to 4.1 which is super encouraging, and of course, lots of fun because of the lower scores.  It’s cool to feel like you’re not trying as hard, but are playing closer to your ability.

Hope your game is coming around too.  Play well!

Can You Handle Success?

 

Readers of this blog know that I’ve committed this season to improving my ball striking through a series of lessons and concentrated practice.  I’m giving it all year to see improvement, but sometimes I get inpatient trying to get results that don’t happen when I think they should.  But a thought came up after my last round:  When things DO break right for you, can you manage success properly?  In yesterday’s round, I did not.

The day before, I played nine holes in the morning and then went to the range to practice and gather some swings on film.  I wanted to make sure that I was correctly implementing the positions my instructor wanted me in.  After lunch, I reviewed the film and spotted a couple areas to work on and headed back out to the range.

Yesterday’s outing at Clustered Spires in Frederick, MD started off well.  I warmed up on the range and felt loose and comfortable.  At 6,200 yards, Clustered Spires is not terribly long and my game plan was to get as many sand wedge, gap wedge, and pitching wedge approach shots as possible, since I’d been practicing those the most.  That would require a good day with the driver and it started out great as I was busting it long and straight.  The changes I worked on the day before were clicking.

To make a long story short, the true measure of ball striking success is greens in regulation (GIR), and I hit the first 15.  While I didn’t see this ball striking bonanza coming, I was thrilled that the changes I had worked on were taking hold, but at the same time, I was at 3-under par and was  STARTING TO EXIT MY COMFORT ZONE!

What happened next was where you figure out how good you are at handling success (or adversity).  On the par-3 16th, I missed the green right into a bunker with a 3-iron.  The streak was over and it threw my equilibrium off – I had been thinking about it the whole day as the round progressed.  I played a nice bunker shot but misjudged the amount of fringe I had to carry and played a poor approach putt from the first cut.  I struggled to make bogey.  I knew I was choking because I hadn’t hit a short shot in 16 holes and wasn’t sure I could.  Still, it was just a bogey and I figured a physical error was bound to happen.  It was deflating, as my 18 GIR fantasy bubble was busted.

#17 is a medium length par-4 that I usually hit with a driver/8-iron, and I caught a huge break.  My drive hit the cart path on the right and catapulted forward another 50 yards shortening the hole considerably.   I was between a sand wedge and a gap wedge but got greedy and went with the gap and tried to fly it all the way to a back left sucker pin.  I went long and short-sided myself into a bad lie.  Again I choked on the chip trying to be too perfect, left it short, and made double.

#18 is a longer par-4 and my drive was solid but trickled just into the left rough, but the lie was deep in three-inch grass.  I pulled an 8-iron left into a bunker and short sided myself again.  With no green to work with, I blasted out 30 feet past the flag and three-putted for another double.  Wow!  Now that’s handling success.  Went from 3-under to 2-over in the bat of an eyelash.

I learned a hard lesson here and sometimes you need to learn it more than once.  Even when it feels like you’re on cruise control, you MUST take it one shot at a time.  Forget your score, forget your streaks, forget your fantasies, and focus on your routine.  I’m not disappointed about #16 and #18 because they were physical errors.  That happens.  But the greedy play on #17 could have been avoided by dropping a sand wedge on the middle of the green and two-putting for a routine par.

Despite the mental breakdown, I’m very excited to see the hard work starting to pay off, and for the first time in a while it felt like I was playing golf instead of golf swing.

How’s your game coming?  Handling success and adversity equally as well?

Avoiding Rookie Mistakes During A Swing Change

Have you ever gone on a crash diet 10 days before your annual physical so you’ll have good “results” to report to your doctor?  Or do you start brushing and flossing fastidiously three days in advance of a dental check-up?  Or do you ever clean your house before the cleaning lady arrives?  I don’t know the name for this behavior, but I’ve been engaging in it in advance of my professional swing instruction to start the 2017 golf season.  For some reason, I feel the need to have my game in the best possible shape before instruction starts.

Readers of this blog know that I have always been a swing tinkerer and this winter has been unusually mild in the DMV – irresistibly perfect for swing tinkering.  Recently, I’ve taken a lot of film of myself on the range and have been comparing my swing to various PGA and LPGA professionals side-by-side, and looking to combine the advice I last received from my instructor with some better swing positions.  As part of this exercise, one of the moves I made was a rookie mistake, but before I detail, I’ll repeat the most important advice I’ve ever received (or given),  “The best swing instruction is provided under the watchful eye of a trained PGA professional.”  A seasoned pro has seen it all and probably has a fix for what ails your game.  Go see him or her.

That being said, Saturday morning, I decided on a change I wanted to make and headed off to my school field with a bag shag and pitching wedge.  20 swings later, I was thrilled and excited as shots were flying true and straight and my optimism was overflowing.   Armed with a tee time for the next day, I figured I’d hit the range after lunch to practice this change with all my clubs.   Normally the day before a round, I’ll play a simulated game on the range at the upcoming venue.  I tried this with my swing change and shots were flying all over the lot.  There were big pulls and huge banana push slices; nothing was solid or straight.  I was crushed and bewildered.  How could this happen when only a couple hours prior, I was nutting everything in the field?  With five balls left, I had the wherewithal to lay down an alignment stick and saw that I was very closed on my setup.  I finished up and headed to the putting green.

The rookie mistake I made was losing focus on the swing change.  I got distracted by trying to prepare for a round that didn’t matter.  Fortunately, I was able to course correct, with the alignment stick being the clue.  Yesterday, I arrived at the golf course and went immediately to the range, where I laid down two alignment sticks and just hit my warm up balls at a single distinct target.  I had made up my mind to not focus on short game, score, or putting, and just concentrate on the swing change.  Aligned correctly, all the goodness from the session in the field returned and I was thrilled to hit 10 GIR on a long tough golf course.

Key takeaways for rookies and veterans alike:

• Stay focused on the change.
• Be patient.  Be resilient.  Understand there will be ups and downs.
• Look for a positive; any positive.  That’s why I went to the putting green after my disastrous range session.  It helps to leave the session with even the smallest bit of encouragement.  You don’t want negative thoughts about your game dwelling in your head.

Good luck with any changes you are making and play well!

 

The Joy of Hard Work And Improvement

Today I had a great day on the golf course.  It was my first 18 hole round since I took a golf lesson on July 2 and only the second round I’ve played in the last five weeks.  To reiterate, I took a full swing lesson and am trying to break some bad habits that I’ve been playing with for the last 40 years, and the change has been a challenge.  I’ve been practicing full swing for the past few weeks and all but ignoring my short game except while playing my executive nine and during a round at a short course down at the beach.  Today, it was time to start playing real golf again.

In the past, I’ve found the first round after a lesson hard, and today was no different. To make the change from playing golf swing to playing golf, I tried to allow myself only one swing thought per shot, even though there were several positions I had been trying to reach during my practice sessions.  To compound things, it was sweltering in the DMV today, and I had a noon tee time and decided not to hit balls before I played, which was probably a mistake.  I tried not to worry about what I was shooting, but kept score because you have to resume playing sometime.  It was a good idea not to be hard on myself because with my head flush with swing thoughts and positions, I couldn’t square up a shot on the first two holes and started out bogey, double bogey.  I started to wonder when the golf gods were going to show me some love and it didn’t take long.  A well struck six iron on the par-3 third hole brought my first GIR and a routine par. It’s funny how one good shot can relax you, and that’s exactly what happened.    After another routine par on #4, I hit a 3-wood onto the par-5 fifth hole in two.  Finally!  One of the major issues I hoped to address was to eliminate the squirrely smother hooks I’d been hitting with the 3-wood off the turf.

To shorten the tale, our threesome cruised around in only 3 hours and 45 minutes and I carded a nice little 75.  Before we started, I told myself I didn’t care what I shot, but I did.  I also saw enough of the new good shots to acknowledge my hard work and to counter some of the old bad ones that occasionally crept in.  This change has been pretty seamless with the short irons, but has been difficult with the driver.  It’s going to take time to eradicate the bad habits because they’ve persisted for so long, but the positive feedback on the good shots will keep me going.  The short iron progress is important because I think I can hit what I’m aiming at inside 150 yards, which was not the case one month ago.

I hope you are as excited about your game as I am mine.  Play well!

Golf’s West Coast Offense!

This is a strange tale of improvement that I need to pass on.  It was spawned a couple weeks ago when I responded to a post by The Grateful Golfer in which Jim wrote about fighting off bouts of poor play.  In line with that, I mentioned the technique I had tried of writing your score down hole by hole for the entire round, before you play, and how it had started to work.

As readers of this space know, I’m a huge fan of mental game improvements and a big proponent of all of Dr. Bob Rotella’s books.  I’ve never seen this technique written about by Dr. Bob or anyone else, but got the idea thinking about the success Bill Walsh had with scripting the first 20 plays of a football game.  Walsh was helping his teams prepare and visualize good starts.  His teams always seemed to execute well in the first quarter and my golf game was in need of some first quarter magic.  I was getting killed by poor starts.

The specifics:  In addition to the scores, I was predicting GIRs and putts per hole.  My approach was optimistic but reasonable.  I didn’t chart any career rounds but felt it was a good idea to plan for the best ball striking possible, at least to a level that I was capable of.  In addition to plenty of GIRs, I threw in a few bogeys to keep it real, but no three-putts!  I realized that this technique might be deviating from the stay in the moment mindset associated with good mental approaches, but I had seen enough bad starts that I didn’t care.  I just wanted to try something new that might help.  After all, it was a different kind of visualization.  You write a goal down on paper to cement it in your mind’s eye, right?  Same idea.

The results:  As I mentioned, my early season ball striking was terrible, but boy has it been working after the change.  My first round out, I scripted 16 GIRs and hit 14.  The second round was in a four-man scramble and we finished 4th out of 33 teams.  I performed well in pressure situations (hitting last) which felt like a positive.  And last weekend I played in very heavy wind and managed to hit six of nine greens on the front nine on my way to a two-over 74.  I had scripted 72 strokes, 13 greens, and 31 putts even knowing that I’d be playing in difficult conditions.  I finished with 74-9-29 which was probably the best wind game I’ve ever played.

I am not sure what is going on with this technique, but I suspect it allows you to visualize success based on playing to your full potential, but turning your full potential into your comfort zone.  Is 16 greens in my comfort zone?  Heck no, but if I can fool my mind into thinking that it is, maybe I’ll get closer more often.

Admittedly, there was a physical element as well.  I haven’t been playing or practicing much, but have been working out daily and doing a lot of rotational work to rebuild flexibility in my torso.  Also, on Saturday, during The Players, I rug putted for five hours during the telecast.  Call me crazy, but I was very comfortable the next day on the greens, wind or no wind.  So there’s probably a combination of mental and physical preparation at play.

So there you have it.  Try scripting your next round down to the finest detail and see if Golf’s West Coast Offense will work for you!

Play well.

Yesterday I Chipped In!

In the long road back from the chip yips, I hit an important milestone yesterday; I chipped in.  I’m not sure if the chip yips afflict you at 50, but I’ve been struggling around the green since I turned 51 in 2012, and yesterday’s lob wedge from a gnarly lie came as a huge relief.  It’s been so long since I chipped in (years) I can’t remember the last time.  In fact, it’s felt like years since I hit a good chip.

Late in 2015, I had been contemplating taking short game lessons but then during a December practice session, I made a mental change to my pre-shot routine and a technique change.  The mechanics are weird and a little unconventional, but were born from a tip I read by Seve Ballesteros on controlling the shots with your right hand.  I do believe the closer you get to the green, the more individualized your game can become, as long as you get the ball in the hole.  So I will continue with this method and hopefully eradicate whatever had infected my short game.

Can I pronounce myself cured?  Heck no, but I can feel the confidence returning.  Yesterday, we played at Little Bennett.  The greens were fast and the pins placed in diabolical positions with several bordering on unfair.  Getting close to the hole with any club, including the putter was extremely difficult.  In short, this was an awesome test for short game.  Because of the pin placements, up-and-down stats were not a true reflection of performance so I rated my performance on chips/pitches that I hit like I wanted to.  I was 5 for 9, but more importantly, I was able to rehearse the shots and execute without angst or feeling defensive.

It’s a rare day that you shoot a bad score and come away from the golf course feeling inspired.  The rebuild is starting to work!

Play well and Happy Easter to all!

Formula for Improvement in 2016

Before we start, let’s try a quick mental exercise: You are playing a par-4 hole under benign conditions, and your drive has left you 130 yards to a pin cut just four paces on the front of the green with no hazards to clear. What is your approach? Do you pick your 130-yard club and go right for the pin, knowing if you may stiff it, but if you mishit it you may be 10-15 feet short of the green and have to chip to recover, or do you take your 140-yard club and hit for the center of the green, knowing you may have a downhill 30 foot putt but probably won’t be close to the flag for a realistic birdie chance? Hold that answer for later.

In my ongoing effort to improve, I just completed a full game analysis which included a statistical review of over 200 rounds played since 2010 and a subjective self-evaluation. Combining the two, I think I’ve landed on a reasonable strategy to take a couple strokes off my game in 2016.

The subjective component was derived from assessing my strengths and weaknesses as a player, and being as honest as possible. If you try it, this will vary by your skill level.  I realize I do not have the game of a scratch player, so I rated the various components of my game in relation to what an average 5-handicap might look like. If I could calculate strokes gained or lost for various categories, that would be great but you can’t so what I came up with was letter grades. My rank against the class: Driving: B, Irons: C-minus, Putting: B, Short Game: D, Mental game: A-minus.

Next the objective component was using data for scoring average, GIR, and putts per round. It’s well known that the most highly regarded statistic on the PGA Tour as an indicator of good play is GIR but we amateurs are not playing the PGA Tour so how relevant is GIR? Let’s see. I divided up my rounds into good ball striking days (10 or more GIR), poor ball striking days (less than 10 GIR), and good putting days (30 or less putts). What I found was there was a much higher correlation to good scoring from good ball striking than good putting. The data:

Category	Average GIR	Average Putts	Average Score
Good ball striking rounds	11.21	32.97	76.46
Poor ball striking rounds	6.78	31.62	81.34
Good putting rounds	7.27	28.97	78.32

The difference in good ball striking rounds and poor ball striking rounds is clear.  Essentially, with each additional green hit, I lowered my score by one shot.  However, notice that during the good ball striking rounds, I averaged four more putts per round than during good putting rounds.  This is because the more greens you hit, the farther you are from the hole and you will naturally take more putts, but my stroke average was nearly two shots lower per round than the good putting rounds! What does this mean? Back to our initial example: I would probably benefit from hitting the 140-yard club and playing more conservatively on my approach shots to allow me to HIT MORE GREENS. It also speaks volumes that my short game is very poor 😦 and needs to improve to get me closer to the hole when I do miss.

Conclusion: I’m convinced, the main part of this plan is better course management.  During rounds, I need to discipline myself to aim for the fat part of the greens and assume that there’s nothing wrong with settling for two-putt pars. The occasional birdie is fine but I can’t force it.  I also need to focus most if not all of my practice time to improving short game and putting.  In essence, don’t be a hero, just lower my stroke average using the law of averages and common sense. Given the data, what do you think of this approach? Silly? Too conservative? About right? Please let me know!

2015 Mid-Season Golf Report Card

July 4th weekend is almost upon us and it is the traditional half-way point for my golf season and is an excellent opportunity for some game analysis.  Actually, it’s a little past half-way; I lose a bit of steam right about the time Tom Brady’s deflated footballs start to fly, but will play through mid-November.

To date, I have carded 21 rounds.  I enjoy tracking a couple key metrics and always measure my performance against the previous year’s stats.  The KPIs for 2014 full season vs 2015 halfway point:

2014	Avg Score:   79.97	To Par:   +8.47	GIR:   8.47	Putts:   32.25
2015	Avg Score: 79.41	To Par: +7.91	GIR: 7.68	Putts: 30.73

Analysis:

The one number that immediately jumps out is putts.  A reduction of 1.5 putts per round is huge.  To put it in perspective, 1.5 putts per round separates the 1st and 140th ranked putters on tour.  The improvement is due to a change in pre-shot routine I implemented late last year.  Not everything is going in, but I can usually count on having a good day on the greens even when I’m striking it poorly, and that makes the game more enjoyable.  In 2014 I played 31 times and had five rounds with less than 30 putts.  This year I already have seven.  Man, would I love to sniff a sub 30 average.  Anyway, a separate post is coming on how the putting change was implemented.

Second issue and equally important, is that I did not overhaul some part of my game in the off-season or early spring.  How many of you do this?  I always used to, and last year I fell in love with the Tour Tempo book, and later was taking hundreds of swings per day in the back yard in an attempt to make my swing better.  The reality of this was a jumble of swing thoughts and a sore body from over-analysis and overwork.  I’ve only practiced 14 times to-date this year and at the same point in 2014 was at 33.  I was advised that when you’ve played golf for over 40 years, it’s very difficult to change your fundamental golf swing, as Brant Kasbohm from FixYourGame.com so indicated during a video lesson in 2011.  I appreciate his candor and now, just attempt minor tweaks and adjustments between rounds and during play.  So there is nothing to overhaul and I’m enjoying the game more.  My handicap index continues to hover in the 4.5 to 4.9 range, and I don’t expect it to change much.

The third difference is I am finally feeling like myself again after struggling with health issues from October through May.  I am filled with gratitude every time I tee it up after confronting the prospect of not being able to play the game I love.

So, I’m very much looking forward to summer and fall because the hard courses (Myrtle Beach) on my schedule are behind me.  Who knows, maybe I can slice a shot off the old index?  While the total metrics grade out in the B to C range, it’s feeling like straight A’s!

How’s the mid-point state of your season coming?  Ready for the big July 4th weekend on the golf course?  I am!

 

Hot Start To 2015 Golf Season

Not sure what is going on with my golf game but I’m enjoying some early speed in the race for improvement in 2015.  I started the year with a modest goal of being able to walk 18 holes by the end of April and not experience any physical symptoms from my HCM.  Today I walked my second 18-hole round without difficulty and managed to back up last week’s 2-over 74 at Myrtle Beach National with a 1-over 71 on my home course.  I can’t recall coming out of the blocks this fast in the last 10 years and am trying not to over-analyze the reasons and just enjoy the ride.  But over-analyze is what I do, so here goes.  Maybe you can find a nugget or two that might help you.

The first key is a lesson I learned from last year’s dreadful start (92 on opening day) and some excellent advice I received from The Grateful Golfer.  Jim reminded me not to take the early season results too seriously and to ease into my game after the long winter layoff.  In 2015 I did this by walking 9-holes on my executive course on consecutive weekends and playing several balls without keeping score.  As a result, I relaxed for the start of the 18-hole rounds and played with less sense of urgency.  Jim, thanks for the reality check!

Second, I’ve sometimes found that if you are physically ill, or worrying about your health, it takes your mind off your golf game and you play better.  Has this ever happened to you?  I recall playing a round one year in my mid-20s when I was sick to my stomach and shot lights out.  Weird but true.  To be honest, my disorder is always on my mind and when I’m on the golf course I am filled with gratitude that I’m just able to play the game I love, and am not worrying about results.

Third, I’m beginning to wonder if this Rx I’m on isn’t having a positive effect.  Beta blockers are illegal on the PGA Tour for a reason.  They lower your heart rate and theoretically help you deal with pressure and nerves to an unfair advantage.  In my first 54 holes, I have yet to three-putt and feel very confident, calm, and trusting on the greens.

Finally, and most importantly, I heeded the advice of The Birdie Hunt and committed to returning to basics and not overhauling any part of my game over the winter, as I had done to disastrous results in previous years.  My only thoughts during practice and play are to check alignment, make a full shoulder turn, and clear my hips on the downswing.  Contact with my irons was solid last week and again today with 14 GIR.

So I’m going to continue to try hard not to try too hard and just let the game come to me.  Hope you can do the same.  How’s the opening of your season going?

2015 Golf Goals

One of the great artifacts from this off season has been the awesome dialog from the blogging community regarding lessons learned from the previous year, and the ideas being shared for improvement in 2015.  A special thanks to  Vet4golfing51, The Grateful Golfer, and TheBirdieHunt for their thoughtful feedback and willingness to dialog new thoughts and observations.  I feel like a kid at Christmas with all these goodies to immerse in, and then step back and choose a favorite or two to work with.

A few overarching themes are taking the lead when formulating an improvement plan for 2015.

1. Get back to fundamentals
2. Keep it simple
3. Be willing to let your golf swing come to you rather than trying to force one.

All worthy endeavors, but I need to get a little more specific to implement.  As most of you know, I’m a stickler for measurement, statistics, and planning.  I’m almost embarrassed to admit that in my anal retentiveness, I’ve charted every practice session I’ve had since 2007 with notes and a letter grade.  That’s 320 individual events with feedback on full swing, short game, and putting.  I’ve also got playing notes from every one of my 35+ rounds per year for the last eight years.  With all this great data, I decided to mine it and look for what consistently worked in the past.  I would then leverage just a few ideas for 2015  and keep it as simple as possible.

Method:  The approach was to filter on only practice sessions with a grade of A or A-minus and ignore everything else.  That left 40 of the 320 to work with.  Then I filtered on playing notes for only rounds considered excellent (3-over par or better), and tried to observe some commonality.  Three themes kept repeating themselves (two full swing and one short game).  On the full swing, I need to shorten my back swing.  This makes sense because it’s easier to maintain my spine angle with a shorter back swing and some of my best ball striking days were using this swing thought.  I know from film study that losing my spine angle is the root of all evil.  Second, I need to take the club back on more of an outside path.  Getting it too far inside and setting it promotes an over the top move and the dreaded dead pull.  On the short game, I simply need to focus on making more of a turn and pivot on all shots.  Treat it like the mini-swing that it is and not just an arm action.  That’s it.  I will focus on those three during practice and hopefully think “target” on the course and trust that my preparation will transition.

Metrics:  No plan is complete without the ability to measure yourself.  You need achievable goals but targets that are not easy to reach.  Hitting a goal should illicit a feeling of accomplishment.  Such was the case in 2014 when I missed on all my KPIs but not by much.  As with most golfers, the GIR is the top performance indicator.  If I can stick to my practice plan, I expect to average 10 GIR per round ( up from 8.47).  If my ball striking improves to 10 greens per round, my secondary goals of lowering stroke average to 78.5 from 79.97 should be achievable.  I’m not setting a putts per round target this year because an increase in GIRs may be accompanied by a higher number of total putts because of fewer up and down opportunities.  Putts per green in regulation would feel like a better KPI, but I’m not interested in going that deep so I’ll keep it at GIR and scoring average.

There you have it.  What are your thoughts about this approach?  Would you do anything different?  Do you have targets for 2015?

Trying To Golf Like a Professional Stock Picker

Ever wonder why your golf scores look like the monthly trend charts for the Dow Jones Industrial?  Why can’t you build any consistency into your game?

Admittedly, it’s early in the 2014 season and my scores to date (92, 77, 78, 83) are a small sample size, but the inconsistency has me concerned.  I thought to stabilize and hopefully see steady improvement from week-to-week, I’d rethink my approach to work more like a professional trader on Wall Street.  In an attempt to remove the impact of market fluctuations on my portfolio, I will employ some technical analysis, which simply defined is using the examination of critical pieces of past performance data in an attempt to predict future behavior.  In my case, I’m going to attempt to drive performance instead of predict it.  Good luck to me.

Tomorrow, I play at Poolesville, the site of the ugly opening day debacle.  I reviewed performance notes I’ve kept on all the rounds played at Poolesville since 2010 and picked up three trends.

1. Ball striking was inconsistent especially off the tee which repeatedly had me playing out of trouble, and didn’t improve until mid to late round when I benched my driver.  Last week I wrote about the great experiment I was considering with driver benching on par-5 holes, and it starts tomorrow.  Driver is out of the bag and replaced with a 5WD.
2. On good ball striking days, I noticed a tight connection between arms and torso and my pre-round full swing practice usually included focus on making a shorter back swing.  When I try to make too full of a turn, my arms continue back after my shoulder turn is complete causing me to come up and out of my spine angle and hit loose shots.  Today’s practice will be a bucket full of 3/4 pitching wedges to get the feel of a tight connection.
3. Poolesville’s greens are undulating and fast.  When I opened my stance with the putter somehow my feel for distance greatly improved and I putted well.  Not sure why this was the case but an open stance is in the game plan.

After reviewing data from Poolesville, what irks me is that I usually found solutions (adjustments) late in my rounds after my mistakes had impacted my score.  Hopefully by adding in what’s worked during past practice and play, before I start, I’ll have a more enjoyable experience.  Maybe tomorrow is the start of a long bull run and a look at more opportunities from the fairway!  Anyone ever tried this approach out there?

 

10,000 Hours Of Practice?

In Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, he postulates that to achieve mastery in any field requires 10,000 hours of practice.  If I were to take up golf at the age of 15, and practice for two hours, three times a week for nine months of the year, I would be an expert at the age of 61.  For sure, I have not practiced 10,000 hours of golf in my life but right now I play to a five handicap and would guess that my skill level is higher than 95% of the world’s playing public.  But do I feel like an expert?  Certainly not, and more like a bumbling malcontent on my bad days.  Golf is truly humbling and regardless of how I define “expert”, I’d still like to improve my game and am wondering if my approach to practice is correct.  Conventional thinking is that given limited time, dedicate 75% to your short game.  I’ve taken that approach and it paid dividends, but I’m in a routine where I spend most of my practice on short game and feel the strategy is second nature.  Last year, on a suggestion from Vet4golfing51, I spent more time playing than practicing which also helped.  But I’d like to think more about efficient practice which requires answering a key question:

Given limited practice time, do you work to further develop your strengths, or improve your weaknesses?

We all like to practice our strengths because it’s easier.  Oddly enough, I can say with certainty that to become a better individual in the work place, I’ve tried both approaches and learned that focusing on developing your strengths is the superior strategy.  If you continually build on what you’re good at, job satisfaction, attitude, and drive are peaked.  You focus on weaknesses and you’ll generally max out at mediocre.

Conversely, on the PGA Tour, players have thousands of hours of time to practice and you hear countless stories of their dedicating time to fix weaknesses.  The best players address their deficiencies head on and solve because if they don’t, they pay a dear price.   It seems the two strategies are at loggerheads.

For us guys with a desk job, what do you think the right strategy is for practice; focusing on developing strengths or fixing weaknesses?