Dinged By The Donkey

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Do you ever play golf at a course and know before you tee off you’re going to play bad?  Does this happen at a course that is a repeat offender?  It does for me and happened again yesterday.  Why do these nemesis courses hold a spell over us and what can we do about it?  Do you have any strategies?

The Plan:  I ventured out to Poolesville, a seemingly innocuous municipal track in western Montgomery County, where I never play well.  My approach would be to play it while in the midst of a hot streak and hope my good play would carry over for the day.  The game plan was to warm up exactly as I had for my two previous rounds: chip, putt, hit range balls, and go.

I knew I was in trouble after my first chip on the practice green rolled 30 feet past the flag and off the surface.  The greens were lightning fast, and the first three rounds of the season I had played on slow to medium speed greens.  So the entire time I was warming up on the range, I was thinking, “How am I going to handle these fast greens?”  Coincidentally, I didn’t strike it well while warming up.  See anything wrong with this picture?

So off I went and I immediately short-sided myself with my approach on #1.  I flubbed a pitch shot which led to a double.  It seems I double this first hole every time out, which is a source of frustration and is always in the back of my mind.  Fast forward after six holes and I was 8-over with three doubles on the card, and I got downright mad because this meaningless muni was beating me down like a rented mule.  The course was totally in my head.

The adjustment:  When your game goes to crap you can either give up or change something.  Never give up.  Usually, I’ll make one of two types of adjustments depending on how bad the garbage smells.  If my head is full of swing thoughts, I’ll dump them all and just fire at the target, but this wasn’t a swing pretzel day.  I wasn’t hitting it well, but the culprit was poor course management.  The second type of adjustment is to mentally start over.  I quickly recalled a comment a reader once made about a round they had played with Mike Weir.  They said that Mike was playing this particular course for the first time and didn’t make a putt all day, but shot 67 because he never missed a green in the wrong spot.  Exactly the reminder I needed.  So I drew a line on the scorecard after the sixth hole to represent a restart on #7, and scribbled out three words:  “BELOW THE HOLE” on the card.  I find that if you place a visual reminder somewhere, it often works to solidify and reinforce a commitment you need to make and I needed to stop shooting at the flags and ensure that when I missed my targets, they missed in the right spots.

There’s a lot to be said for good course management even if it means playing more defensively.  After the adjustment, I went into stability mode and played the last 12 holes in 3-over par (2-over on the back nine while only hitting one green in regulation).  At the end of the day, the carnage wasn’t too bad but the course had won again.  Next time out, I’ll be armed with some better course management strategies and hopefully will be able to clear all remaining mental baggage.  I’m gonna get you Poolesville!

 

Solving the Poolesville Puzzle

Ever run up against a course that has your number?  What are your strategies for conquering?  I am playing mine tomorrow.  Poolesville  is a local muni in the western reaches of Montgomery County, and has my number for the last six years.  At par-71 and at a nondescript 6,405 yards, in my last 15 rounds I have never played well, with 76 being my best score (achieved twice) and I’m struggling to a stroke average of 80.31.  Ball striking always seems to be an issue as are slow starts.  It has been impossible to get on a roll, much less threaten to go low.  I did notice that on one of those rounds of 76, I was very comfortable mentally because I had finished reading Putting Out of Your Mind by Bob Rotella the day before and was implementing his techniques.  My ball striking wasn’t great, but I was a peace with myself and not worried about my score or missing any putts.  This leads me to think this is purely psychological.  How do I get past this mental blocker?

I wrote earlier on how I got past a mental blocker hole at Rattlewood by totally changing the way I played it and I’m thinking of taking a similar approach. Normally, at Poolesville, I’m always playing defensive and trying to keep the ball in play with a 3WD off the tee, but that has left me with longer approaches into the smallish crowned greens.  GIR stats plummet and I inevitably leave myself short-sided too often and can’t score well.  Perhaps a total reversal is required, with an attempt to bring the course to its knees by busting driver on every hole,  which should leave shorter irons into the par-4s.  I’m getting inspiration watching Rory McIlroy destroy the field at The Open Championship with the same strategy.

It’s often that when NFL teams go into the prevent defense in an attempt to protect a lead, the lead inevitably vanishes.  Perhaps this is my prevent and I need to get aggressive.  Anyone have some experience handling problem courses?  I’d like to be a horse for this course and I’m all ears.  Thanks!

 

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?

 

Poolesville – Course Review

Par-3, #8 green at Poolesville

Summary

Poolesville is the western most golf course in Montgomery County, Maryland and is one of nine public courses operated by Montgomery County Golf.  This track is nothing more than bare bones basic municipal golf and seems to be the primary course of choice for residents of the town, as the balance of county golfers enjoying the more upscale courses in the center and west of the county.  I usually play here once or twice per season and just for a bit of variety, because the overall experience is lacking.

During my round on March 18, I found the course in decent shape through the green with the putting surfaces mowed fairly close but unable to hold a shot from any distance.  Approaches were bouncing off these greens like super balls on a concrete parking lot.  Even up close, the most crisp of chips and pitches failed to hold or bite, making for a frustrating afternoon.  Tee boxes were in good condition but the grounds crew didn’t clean up before or after mowing and there were a litany of broken tees littering all 18 holes.

Playing tips:

The front nine is rather ho-hum and the holes are very straight forward.  The back has more variety and challenge.  General rule of thumb; play your approach shots below the hole because most greens are fairly sloped from back to front and shortsiding yourself to tight pins is a recipe for high scores.  Some specifics:  #2 is a long par-5 and you should avoid the fairway bunker on the left at about 150 yards out because the carry from it is over two greenside bunkers.  A third shot is much more easily played from the right side of the fairway or even the right rough.  If you are on the back of the green on #2, the break on putts back to the front is very severe from right to left; much more than it looks.  #10 is a medium length par-4.  Tee shots on the left part of the fairway bounce hard left into the rough and shots in the left rough bounce down the hill, so favor the right side.  Also there is a small greenside bunker protecting the front left that you cannot see from back in the fairway.  #11 is a dogleg right par-5 that longer hitters can reach in two.  From the white tees, aim your shot straight over the last tree in the right rough.  If you hit it 230-250 you’ll be in the left side of the fairway looking at about 190 yards in.  If you hit it shorter off the tee, play for the aiming flag in the fairway.  #12 is the toughest hole at Poolesville and is a long dogleg left par-4.  If the flag is in the back DO NOT GO OVER THE GREEN!  The chip or pitch is impossible to get close.  Same thing on #15 which is a shorter par-4.  If the pin is back, over is dead.  The green on #16 is tiny.  If the pin is in the front, play below it or leave it just short, as the chip is quite easy.  Putting from behind a front pin here is very difficult and for back or side pins, just play for the middle of the green.  On the par-3 17th, take 1 1/2 more clubs than you normally would, as the uphill shot is all carry.  Finally, on the par-4 18th, if the pin is back center, all putts from the front/middle will break much more right than they look.

Value (2.5 out of 5.0)

Greens fees are $42 to walk and you don’t need a cart to play here.  All you get for your money is the golf with the low greens fee in-line with the entire golf experience.

Facilities (1.5 out of 5.0)

Poolesville’s original clubhouse and grill are closed, shuttered, still standing, and unsightly.  They’ve been replaced with a very basic structure hosting a small pro-shop and restrooms.

Clubhouse at Poolesville

The shop sells a few shoes, shirts, balls, and snacks, but no equipment and there is no grill or sit-down food service.  The driving range has mats and rubber tees; some of which are broken.  The best part of the facility is a large practice putting green that has several mowed approaches and a bunker with good sand.

Customer Experience (2.0 out of 5.0)

I played as a single and had called the day before for a starting time.  The shop attendant reserved a spot for me with a threesome but when I showed up at the course I was mildly annoyed that they had no record of my reservation.  Indeed, it appeared that the person I spoke with had rushed me through the phone call.  When I explained the situation to the shop attendant, he booked me over the existing single’s name in the same time slot.  He indicated he thought they might have used an alias as the name in the original booking.  Needless to say but I viewed this as very unprofessional.  I presented myself to the starter when I was ready to go and he pared me up with a single on the tee and we had no issues getting off but I sensed the operation was not being professionally run.  One of the criticisms of Montgomery County Golf in the past is that they use general managers at some of their clubs in-lieu of head professionals with PGA certification.  A check of the MCG website staff listing indicates this is the case at Poolesville, so apparently the practice continues.

I would only recommend Poolesville as a stop gap or if you get shut out from tee times at all the other MCG courses.  For the record, I played from the white tees measuring 6,405 yards and carded an 82.

Overall Rating (2.0 out of 5.0)