You Can benefit from hard practice

If you can break 90 with regularity, you are an advanced player.  One of the hardest things advanced players struggle with is transitioning from practice to play.  If you can steel yourself during preparation the game will come so much easier to you.   If you are in this group, your fundamentals are sound and you have good control of your golf ball around the green.  Follow these practice techniques and you will find transitioning to play is much easier.  Those who don’t usually break 90 should focus their practice on mechanics and not attempt these techniques until achieving a higher level of consistency.  The last thing we want to do is try something that will breed uncertainty and frustration. 

As an advanced player you can pitch, chip, hit bunker shots, and putt with reasonably solid technique.  You’ll need them all in this exercise.  To start, find a short game practice area that allows you to land shots on a green and putt.  Ideally, your practice green has some slope around the edges or is built on a small hill.  My home course has a putting green and chipping/pitching green, but you cannot putt on the chipping green so, I’ve located an alternate facility that satisfies the requirement.  For those in Montgomery County, MD, the venue is Poolesville Golf Course.

This session should take about an hour.  First, warm up your short game.  Take some pitches, chips, and putts from various distances.  Use a variety of clubs.  Next grab two mobile targets.  A lot of courses are using the practice pins that stick in the ground and can be moved.  These are best.  If not available, use two colored golf balls.  Next, place these targets at the top and bottom of sloped areas on the green, so getting a short shot close to either will be extremely difficult and there are no straight putts in close unless you manage to be directly above or below the targets.  The faster the surface the better.  For a visual, think of #15 green at Augusta National at The Masters.  The more difficult the better.

Green Markers; photo courtesy of paraide.com

The drill:

Now play 18 holes of up-and-down.  Throw a golf ball into a greenside lie and don’t improve the lie.  Hit the appropriate short shot to the chosen target and putt your approach until holed.  Use a variety of uphill, downhill, long and short-sided situations.  If you have an old scorecard it often helps to record your score on each hole.  Par is two strokes for each hole.  You will find even your good short shots end up considerably outside of gimme range.  As a reference point, when I play this game at my local muni with flat lies, I usually shoot 42-44 or between 6 and 8-over par for 18 holes.  Today’s session on my difficult setup left me at 50 strokes or 14-over par and I felt I played well. 

Why involve yourself in this masochistic activity?  You’ll find the difficult shots will force creativity into your mind.  It will help you focus on your landing point, the trajectory, spin, and club selection.  Everything but mechanics!  Training your mind to “paint a picture” of the shot is the key to becoming a good feel player around the greens.  This drill is more like playing real golf than dumping a bag shag of 50 balls and chipping each with the same club to a flat target. 

Let’s level set expectations:  You may get frustrated, you may get a little angry, but you will get very satisfied when you hit a great shot, and as you transition to the real course, you’ll notice very few short shots are as challenging at the drill.  Making practice harder than the real game is the secret sauce.  Give this drill a try, then play a real round of golf the next day and let me know how you made out.

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!

Are You a Good Putter?

How do you measure putting success?  Do you track putts per round?  I do but am rethinking that approach.  A conventional rule is that putting takes up 43% of the strokes in a round of golf.  Is that a good measurement?  If a pro shoots 70 with 30 putts, does he have a better day than me if I shoot 77 with 33 putts?  They are both 43%.  Hard to tell because the input for putting stats hinges on many factors not related to putting.  The most valid metric is Strokes Gained Putting, which is hard to capture.  SG measures the distance and result of all your putts plus the performance of your opponents on the same course.  Rather complicated and only available to tour pros.  So, as amateurs, what to measure?

Let’s first look at the seven inputs to good putting:

Line

Speed

Weather

Difficulty of the green (grass surface and undulations)

Nerves

Quality of short game

Course management

Line and speed are the traditional factors players work on because they are most easily controlled.  Those of us who play in different weather conditions and on several different courses can have wider variances of putting performance.  Players who loop the same course get comfortable with the speed and reads and often “know” where the putts are going.  They appear to be very good putters on their track but can struggle during away rounds.  Nerves are hard to control and very problematic for folks who exhibit the yips (choking under pressure).  Course management is essential.  On fast greens, it’s much easier to putt uphill and critical to leave the ball in good positions.  Lastly is short game.  If you can chip and pitch to within three feet, you’ll one-putt far more often no matter how good your stroke is.  So, what to measure?

The answer is to measure what you can use or don’t measure anything.  Approach your improvement on and around the greens holistically and attempt to address what you feel is off for a round or set of rounds.  For example, I had been struggling with controlling my line.  Putts were starting left of my intended target.  So, I started to spot putt (align the putter with a point six inches in front of the ball) and my alignment problem was solved.  Last time out, I struggled with controlling the speed because my course had let the greens grow out a bit to preserve them in the hot weather.  I don’t think I need to make any adjustments here because the weather could change at any moment along with their mowing patterns.  You get the point.  If you play enough golf, you’ll become familiar with your shortcomings and can use these anecdotal observations as the genesis of your practice plan.

If you’re a beginning golfer, invest in a putting lesson.  A pro will show you how to grip your putter, execute the basics of a good stroke, and read the greens.  For the intermediate and advanced players, make sure to mix your technical practice with game simulation exercises.  Try putting practice with one ball and play 18 holes of different length putts.  If you have room on your practice green, a 9-hole game of up and down is a great tool to teach yourself how to perform under pressure.  Throw a ball off the green and play it as it lies.  Use the short game shot of your choice and play the ball until holed.  Count your strokes.  This type of practice works very well for players who struggle to take their practice games to the course.  If you’re having trouble on and around the greens, give these a try.

How do you measure your success on the greens?

Play well.

 

 

Learning From My Putting Overhaul

This is the story of how I am working a significant change in my putting and how you may be able to leverage some of my changes to help yourself.  While I generally try to improve every aspect of my game, rarely do I attempt a component overhaul as I have done with my putting in 2019.  The decision was driven by my frustration with poor distance control, and inability to hit short putts with confidence.  The timing of the change was ideal in 2019 because every year I travel to Myrtle Beach to play a week of golf and the transition to the southern putting surfaces (mostly Bermuda) drives me nuts.  To grapple with the slower green speeds and grainy surfaces, I found myself altering my grip pressure, changing the pace of my stroke, and struggling to get the ball to the hole.  But this year, we are not going to Myrtle Beach and have opted for a week at the Boyne Highlands resort in Michigan.  At Boyne, all the surfaces are Bentgrass and are consistent with what we play on in the mid-Atlantic.  I figured with that parameter controlled, what better time to go for a putting overhaul.

To frame the problem, you first need an honest assessment of yourself.  Here’s mine:  In the past, the closer I got to the green, the worse I’ve played.  My strength has always been my driving and course management and my Achilles heel; my putting and short game.  For the past three seasons I had averaged 32.5 putts per round which was unacceptable.  Prior to the overhaul, this season I was averaging 33.6.

My struggles have been twofold:  distance control on the lags and confidence on the shorties.  Last year I paced off my putts and tried to groove a stroke for different distances.  This worked for a while until I found myself on greens with different speeds.  I couldn’t adjust, and the system fell apart.  In accordance, I had a reluctance to hit the ball hard enough on the shorties.  I could not make myself do it, and putts not hit with pace are affected too much by break and usually miss low. It was truly an endless source of frustration.  After a particularly costly miss of a short putt in a round on May 25 of this year, I decided to launch the overhaul.   I wanted to ram in my short putts and develop a great feel for distance on the long ones.  A simple metric to prove success or failure would be an average of sub 30 putts per round after the changes.

Conventional thinking says you shouldn’t get too mechanical when you practice golf because you’ll never be able to transition from practice to the course and there’s a lot of truth to that.  But I felt my primary problem was one of consistency borne from a lack of confidence.  So, I designed a practice routine blending fundamentals with feel.  Here it is.

Enhanced Putting Drill Station

To improve my short putting, I started by committing to taking 50 4-foot putts every time I practiced.  Whether I was at the range or putting green or doing some chipping, some part of the practice had to include these 50, and since I started, that’s amounted to at least 150 per week.  I began by putting into a hole framed by two alignment sticks but found that two tees spaced 4 inches apart worked better and were slightly smaller than a regulation cup (at 4 ¼ inches).  Additionally, I could set up this station anywhere on a putting green and not interfere with other players.  I’ve recently enhanced the drill by placing a couple irons behind the tees (see photo) to catch my golf balls. IMPORTANT:  The key in using this configuration is to always have enough pace to have the ball roll through the tees, hit the front club, pop up, and settle between the two clubs.  Seriously, it works!  Use this feedback to teach yourself what a firm well struck short putt feels like.  If you don’t make that ball pop over the first club, you are putting too tentatively.  To measure success, I will count how many passed through my tees without touching one.   On good days, I make all 50.  My worst has been 43, and I’ve learned to use this drill to focus on making a good rhythmical swing.  I’ll use a mantra of “Tick-Tock” to get the ball rolling with enough oomph to pop over that first club.   I borrowed the thought from Paige Spiranac who uses “One Potato – Two Potato” in her video.

Use whatever works that helps you build rhythm, because rhythm is the best yip fighter on the planet and you will trust yourself to bang those shorties in the back of the cup.

To build feel for distance, I’ve experimented a lot and have settled on a very simple method.  During your setup for any length putt, set your putter behind the ball and align it at your target.  Sight your target next to or in the hole and stare at it for a couple seconds.  Burn the vision of the target into your mind’s eye.  Then look down and immediately begin your stroke.  The more time you spend looking at your target and the less spent looking at the ball helps associate your brain with the force required to cover the distance.  Do not sit there locked up over your putt staring at the ball.  That builds tension.  Inevitably you will get more balls to or past the hole using this method.  It’s analogous to shooting free throws with a basketball.  You toe the line, bounce the ball, maybe spin it a little, regrip it, but the whole time you have your eyes on the back of the rim, your target.  You never look at the basketball right before you shoot, do you?  Watch any professional baseball pitcher.  They have all kinds of different windups but are always looking at where they wish to locate the pitch, not at the baseball in their hands.  Same concept.

It’s been a month and a half since I started the overhaul and my putts per round average has fallen to 30.17 so I’m encouraged.  This is difficult and what I learned about improvement on this scale is that there is no magic bullet.  It’s about consistent practice and small tweaks to your approach.  If you keep working the fundamentals over time, the odds will rebalance in your favor.

Give this a try if you want to improve your putting and let me know how it goes.  I’m off to bang another 50 free throws.  Play well.

Putting With The Flagstick In???

Bryson DeChambeau. Photo by Andrew Snook / Icon Sportswire

Have you putted with the flagstick in yet?  Under rule 13.2a(2), you may now putt on the green without having the flagstick attended or removed.  Some players on tour such as Adam Scott, are taking every putt with it in.  The mad scientist, Bryson DeChambeau, has identified a COR (coefficient of restitution), whatever that is, and declared he’ll putt with it in to take advantage of this calculation (other than in US Opens where the flagstick is made of some different material).  Others are keeping it in or having it removed to suit situations.

Anecdotally, I’ve observed that most shots that strike the pin from off the green end up closer to the hole than if the pin hadn’t been in and this is in the forefront of my mind.  I have not played in 2019 (still rehabbing elbow tendonitis) so I have plenty of time to think about how this will play out.

My initial thoughts:

• On long putts where I’d normally have the flagstick tended, I’ll leave it in as a backstop. This is definitely beneficial if I am coming in too fast.  The one exception is if the wind is blowing and the flapping of the flag creates a distraction.  Then I’ll ask for a tend.
• On downhill putts of any length, I’ll leave it in as a guard against too much speed.
• On short straight putts, I’ll leave it in and use it as a small target to try and bang the ball against. This will help me get more aggressive, which I badly need to do.
• On short to medium breaking putts where I’m trying to feel the speed, I’ll take it out unless the hole is on a severe slope and I can guard against a runaway.

I have a system I use for putts of 15 feet and longer to judge the distance.  Will this need to change?  I was also planning on getting a professional putter fitting and replacing my 1980s model Ping Answer with something customized to my game, but this may have to wait.  Changing putter and approach at the same time may not be a wise choice.

The most important aspect will be to practice all putts with real flagsticks and not just those skinny little three-foot high metal pins used on most practice greens.  A round on my 9-hole executive course will be just the ticket.

Have you putted with the flagstick in yet?  Please share any thoughts or strategies you have.

Play well!

Leading Indicators Of Good Play

Can you correctly anticipate when you will play well or poorly?  What are the leading indicators?  My poor rounds are easier to predict and are usually preceded by a poor ball striking warm up.  Also, if I’ve practiced poorly the day before, it’s usually a bad omen.  If I find myself tired or disinterested, the hacks are usually coming.  Finally, if I’ve over-prepared, sometimes I’ll crash and burn.  Accordingly, it’s much harder to predict a good round.  I’ve been in awful slumps before and played great the following day with no rhyme or reason.  But this is the exception.  The one consistent leading indicator for a good round is that it’s preceded by good practice.

This was the case over the last couple of weeks.  Two Saturdays ago, I took a full swing lesson, which was excellent, and the following day  I tee’d it up and played poorly because I was thinking mechanically.  Last Thursday, I went to the range to try and fix things.  I laid my alignment sticks down and proceeded to strike it very poorly while trying to ingrain my lesson feedback.  What was wrong?  I couldn’t hit the ground if I fell from a tree.

I went out to the course on Saturday to try something new, which I will share because it worked.  My goal was to remove all vestiges of mechanics from my game and zero in on playing golf, not golf swing.  I’d use drills exclusively to improve my focus.  I had a round scheduled for The Links at Gettysburg the following day and I didn’t want to chop it up, but all leading indicators were pointing in that direction.

First, I went to the practice green and played nine holes of up and down.  The rules are simple; you throw a ball into a green-side lie and don’t improve your lie.  You chip or pitch to a cup, then putt until the ball is holed.  Even par is two strokes per hole.  The game is great for building focus because you are forced to use your vision.  An average day of playing this game yields a score of four or five over par, but previously I’ve played after chipping or pitching for an hour.  Here, I went right into it – from car trunk to game.  No warm up shots.  Final score; one-over par.

Next, I played nine holes on the putting green with one ball.  I varied the length of initial putts anywhere from 15 to 50 feet.  Again, par was two strokes per hole.  In this game, you mark your ball and go through your full on course pre-shot routine, really getting into game mode.  Again, there were no practice putts, just the game.  Final score; two under par.

Finally, I went to the driving range with a basket of about 50 balls.  I took six or seven warm-up shots with some wedges, a five-iron and driver.  Then played a full simulated 18 holes on a course of my choice.  During simulated rounds, you play a tee shot, any lay-ups, and all approaches.  Obviously there is no chipping or putting, and if you’re honest with yourself, your score usually approximates what you shoot during real rounds.  The drill is awesome for building focus especially when you start hitting recovery shots after wayward drives.  My course of choice was a local muni and previous simulated rounds usually yield about 75 to 80 strokes, which is close to what I usually shoot there.  On this day, I fashioned a 1-under 69.  I finished with about six balls remaining and just left them there.

The entire session lasted a bit under two hours and I drove home fully satisfied and thinking I had not practiced that well in two or three years.  Sure enough, the following day at Gettysburg, I played great and noticed I was focused like a laser, especially on my tee shots.

You get very excited in this game when you think you’re on to something.  Am I?  I know the key was that every drill and every shot was geared to help me play golf, not golf swing.   Tomorrow, the challenge will be if I can repeat the practice success using the exact same approach, but after a long day of work.  I hope it doesn’t rain 🙂

Do you have any leading indicators for good play?  Good luck if you do and please share. Play well!

 

 

Playing After A Lesson – Smart?

Have you ever played a round where you were bombing your driver and leaving yourself with some awesome looks at approach shots, but you subsequently bungled every one of them?  Last weekend I had my best driving day of the year but the 80 I shot at Poolesville was the absolute worst score I could have recorded for that very reason. The carnage included seven unforced errors from the “A-position”.   So yesterday I took my final lesson of the 2018 seasonal package in hopes that I could correct my awful iron play.  As usual, my instructor corrected something small just as we started (I was standing too far from the ball) and then we got to work on my major issues.  Of course, they were the same issues I’ve been dealing with my entire career, which is why they’re still issues.  We made great progress on the lesson tee and I booked a time at my club to play today.

What is your experience playing after a lesson?  Smart, not smart?  I think it depends on the lesson and where you are playing.  Last time I tried it the day after my putting lesson.  There was no adjustment period and was if someone else had possessed my body with the putter.  I made everything I looked at and the game was very easy.

Today was different.  Perhaps my club is not the best venue if you are working on swing mechanics because the first four holes at Blue Mash are very demanding and often require long iron approaches.  Last time out I hit four 3-irons on the first four holes.  It’s one of those stretches that if you start 3-over after four holes, you are playing fine.  Today it was 3-iron, 7-iron (downwind) from heavy rough, 3-iron, and another 3-iron.  Before my round I warmed up poorly with my 3-iron, but my approach on number one was pure and settled eight feet from the flag.  The second on #3 was good but went into a green-side bunker and I saved par.  The third was an awful pull hook (my big miss) and I made a lucky par out of some gnarly green-side rough.  On holes 5 and 6, I hit two stunning short iron shots that yielded a par and a birdie.  I was thrilled and it seemed I had it solved, but the problem was that I was playing golf swing and not golf.  The roof finally caved in on #8 after I laid the sod over a pitching wedge from the middle of the fairway.

This has happened before after taking a lesson; it’s always been a full swing lesson, and I’m always thinking too much.  I guess I was encouraged after the easy success of the putting lesson.

My favorite thing in golf is to play.  Next favorite is to take lessons, and least favorite is to practice.  But I know I need practice on this one and will get out to the range a couple times before next weekend’s round.  What has been your experience playing after a lesson?

Stay tuned: course review is coming from next weekend’s venue:  The Links at Gettysburg!

Play well!

First Professional Putting Lesson

Tom Watson once said, “Mechanics are about 10 percent of putting. . .feel is 90 percent, but good mechanics lead to good feel.”  Today, I got straightened out on both.  If you’ve never had a professional putting lesson, it will be well worth your hard earned dollars to get one.  The trained set of eyes a pro can provide is invaluable.  Here’s how my first ever putting lesson played out.

My instructor is great because there are no preconceived notions of what a lesson will look like.  He always asks what I am working on and trying to solve for and tailors the instruction accordingly.  Today, I told him I thought I wasn’t a bad putter but wanted to be a great putter.  I average between 31 and 32 putts per round and have a good feel for distance since I’ve been using a system of pacing off putts that I learned from Ian Hardie.  My problem for the last two years has been direction.  Basically, I don’t trust my ability to aim the putter.  If I can’t trust my aim, I lack confidence.  Recently I’ve had some success on longer putts using the line on the golf ball as an alignment aid, but have struggled with this on putts I should make.

As we got going, he asked me to start with a few flat 20 footers and to verbally take him through my routine as I read the green, rehearsed the stroke, and executed.  I hit these well but he noticed I was lining the putt up more towards the toe of my Ping Answer.  The trouble manifested itself when we changed to a small right to left four foot putt.  We agreed the line I wanted was on the right edge of the cup.  I used the line on the ball to aim the shot but when each of us viewed the line from behind the ball, we saw different aiming points.  I thought I had lined it up on the right edge, but he saw it aimed right at the middle of the cup.  Jeez-o-flip!  It was there that we agreed I should not be using the line on the ball because I couldn’t trust that I could aim it straight.  Visions of Fast Eddie Felson in The Color of Money were coming to mind.  Was my vision hosed?  Did I need corrective glasses?  Turns out, no.  I learned the issue was my failure to line the putt up on the center of the club face.  In addition, I was making a little too much forward press and fanning the blade open a bit.  I made the mechanical corrections and started banging them straight on my chosen line – confidence back!  It is a tremendous relief knowing I can stand over a putt, see nothing but white on the golf ball, and aim it straight at my target.

Paul Newman as Fast Eddie Felson in The Color of Money. Photo by agefotostock.com

It’s hard to believe but PGA professionals sink only 50% of their putts from eight feet.  They are putting on greens that are faster and more difficult than you or I will ever putt on but even so, I’d love to make 50% of my 8-footers.  My failures hit hard last week when I missed an easy 4-foot birdie putt, and didn’t even hit the hole because I wasn’t sure where I was aiming it.  It was then that I knew I needed a lesson.

The final takeaway was to put an alignment aid on my 40 year old Ping Answer.  As it was, there were no markings and my pro felt I should have a dot over the sweet spot so I don’t have any more toe spanks.  The paint is drying as I’m finishing this post.

Hope you are rolling it pure and playing well.

Crack The Egg On The 2018 Golf Season!

As luck would have it, we’ve hit a stretch of warm weather in the DMV and I broke out the sticks yesterday and opened my season.  I hate to use the word “breakthrough” on the first day because my intention was just banging rust off the various components, but I did make a welcome discovery and was so inspired, that I reserved a tee time for next Sunday.

The day started at the range with a small bucket and some crisp pitching wedge shots.  Tell me if you’ve ever done this:  you start working on your swing in January after about five swings.  This was followed by a roulette wheel of pulls, snap hooks, and push cuts with the longer clubs.  No worries; there were no expectations other than to stretch the golf muscles and not endure any pain in my left elbow.  I’m not sure what compelled me to start swing analysis, but there were only 25 balls left.  No harm – no foul.

The excitement started when I got to the short game area.  After chipping and pitching for 15 minutes, I brought out the flat stick.  Recall at the end of last season I was in a dilemma with trying to line a putt up straight.  Nothing was working.  Change of stance, ball position, a bunch of new putters – nothing.  After a suggestion from Catherine Baker, I made the simple change of lining up my putts using the straight line on the side of my Titleist golf ball.  Bingo!  The benefit of this change is that I have confidence in my aim, and it forces me to commit to a line and not change it while I’m over the ball.  If I seriously need to change lines, I’ll need to re-mark and start my pre-shot routine all over again – at the risk of putting slower than Jim Furyk.  Thank you Catherine!

So there you have it.  Simple change, crisis averted, confidence built, new outlook on life, on the tee next weekend.  Stay tuned and play well!

 

 

 

Troubling Epiphany – Need Help!

This game is often made easier when we simplify.  Purge mechanical swing thoughts.  Just “think target”.  Use only one swing key if you must think about something.  Stop worrying about your score.  Just follow your pre-shot routine and let the shot happen.  Don’t confuse results with effort.

My brain is in a mental pretzel after putter shopping yesterday.

I was in my golf retailer trying different models.  Blades, mallets, Ping, Scotty Cameron, Taylor Made, Odyssey, Ray Cook, you name it.  Everything was rolling to the right with cut spin.  The problem I’m solving for is an aiming one and this was getting discouraging.  I have no markings on my 30-year old Ping Answer and it’s awfully hard to putt consistently if you can’t line up your target.  After an hour of futility, I grabbed a Ping Sigma G Doon and lined up a 30-foot putt but decided to try my on-course pre-shot routine.  This involves lining the putt up from behind and identifying a spot 6-12″ in front of the ball to roll the putt over.  I recently started spot putting to help with my aiming problems.  So I started banging 30-footers into the cup but noticed the aiming mark on the top of the putter was lined up 8″ left.  Here was a moment of clarity.  Like Paul Newman in The Color of Money, I learned that my vision sucked.  With the putter aimed 8″ left, I tried a few more just swinging at the hole and they continued to roll straight at the target.  The cost of the putter was a little above my price point so I left the store empty handed and confused.

At home, I grabbed some masking tape and penned an alignment aid on the back of my Ping Answer and did some rug putting.  The sweet spot on my Answer is a little towards the heel but I like to hit my putts on the center of the club face.  I started to line putts up with just my dominant eye.  Needless to say, my experimentation didn’t go well.  I was NOT simplifying anything, and was adding twists to the pretzel.

What should I do before I come unglued?  I have half a mind to hit the reset button and just go buy the Doon.  Thoughts?

Instruction Without Practice Is Like Reading the Comics

Whether it’s golf, computer programming, or learning to drive a car, anytime you try to acquire a new skill, you’ll need to practice.  Instruction without practice is like reading the comics.  You enjoy it at the time, but don’t retain much in the form of long term benefit.  If you’re a dedicated player, one of the great things about taking a series of golf lessons is that it forces you into beneficial regular practice.  As I re-engage in regular practice, I’m reminded of a few pointers to make the best use of your time.

1. Find a quiet isolated spot; it improves concentration.  Approach like Vijay Singh.  He has it right when he sets up alone down at the end of the driving range.  Unless you’re the type who could do your homework with the TV blaring, you’re better off in solitary.  Hitting balls at Top Golf with your friends or on the simulator at Dave and Busters is fun but is not practice.  Nor is working one stall over from the dad trying to give his young son well-meaning but awful swing advice.  Focus on your task at hand.
2.  Move slowly through your basket of balls.  Ever see the range rat raking ball after ball, never changing clubs, and hitting one every 15 seconds – usually with the driver?  Don’t be that guy.  If you want a cardio workout, go to the gym.  Warm up slowly and start with a wedge, making small swings.  Resist the temptation to quickly hit another ball after a bad shot.  Think through your miss and attempted correction.  Rushing will only get you tired and frustrated.
3. Bring your rangefinder and use it.  Hit at specific targets and change them often; it will help you to concentrate and stay fresh.  This one is difficult because you’re most likely working on swing mechanics, but never forget golf is a target-oriented game.  Often, if your swing is somewhat grooved, just focusing on the target will free your body from your mind and allow you to perform your best.
4. When you finish full swing practice, go putt for 20-30 minutes.  Putting is a simple repeated stroke that doesn’t require much physical effort.  It’s a wonderful way to cool down and is also 40% of the shots you’ll take during a normal round.  Draining putts is always beneficial to your game.  If your range session was less than satisfactory, it can take the edge off and remind you that getting the ball in the hole is the objective of all your hard work.  Don’t confuse putting after full swing with short game practice.  This putting is just about seeing the ball go in the hole.  Short game practice (chipping, pitching, putting, and bunker play) should have a completely different time block allocated, and is often more time consuming than full swing.
5. Keep playing golf – it’s important to stay engaged with the objectives of the game.  Shooting at targets, getting rewarded for good shots and penalized for bad, and working on your course management.  While you’re trying to make swing changes, this can be very difficult.  You need to persevere and not beat yourself up over some bad scores.  Know that the more you play AND practice together, it will elevate your overall performance.  Plus, when you pull off those shots you’ve been working on during practice, it’s a great feeling.

There you have it.  These tips are working for me and I hope they do for you.  Right now, I’m off to the practice tee.

Play well!

Putt Looking At The Hole

Jordan Spieth. Photo from Golf.com

In the many years I’ve been playing golf, I have never looked at the hole while putting, until today.  The objective was to test whether my distance control would improve and I could specifically eliminate the short miss on medium and long range lag putts.  My pre-round commitment was to try this out on every single putt, regardless of the results.  I had read up on the technique before trying, and the theory is that you let your binocular vision kick in while you make your stroke.  This will free up your body to perform its best and release any tension associated with mechanical thinking.

I have tinkered with various putting methods and pre-shot routines largely to gain a measure of improved feel, but have always stroked the putt with my eyes over the ball.  In today’s round, the change was pronounced right from the start.  Playing #1, I had a 20-footer uphill for birdie and rifled it eight feet past the cup – but I made the down hill comeback and could feel that I more easily kept the putt on line by looking at a spot on the cup.  It felt like my back swing was shorter and I was accelerating through the putt more than usual.  The rest of the round was characterized by excellent distance control with medium and long range straight putts, but I started to falter trying to judge breaking putts.  I couldn’t figure out whether to look at the hole and feel the apex of the putt, or focus on the amount of break and pick a target directly to the right or left of the hole.   On short putts, I was completely lost and had no feel for pace, especially on putts that required any break.  I left the course encouraged because I smacked in a few long ones and felt I just needed to settle on how to play the shorties and the breaking putts.

Some of you may recall that Jordan Spieth (the world’s best putter) won The Masters two years back by looking at the hole on his short putts.  He’s since gone back to sighting the ball rather than the hole, but it obviously worked for him.  I’m a little perplexed that he used the method only on short putts while I was completely lost.

Most games of skill that involve aiming at a target require you to focus on the target rather than the projectile or body mechanics.  Think of a basketball player shooting a free throw.  They sight a spot on the rim and just let it go, feeling how much force and arc to supply.  I was aiming for that feeling.

I just finished reading Charles Henderson’s Marine Sniper, an excellent book and true story about Carlos Hathcock (world’s greatest combat sniper and competitive marksmen).  In it, Hathcock would adjust his rifle scope several clicks to adjust for wind, terrain, and distance, and while the rifle would be realinged, his scope remained sighted on his target.  Does this imply that I should adjust my body for the break of the putt but always look at the hole when I make the stroke?  Still trying to work through this.

Anyone with experience looking at the hole while they putt?  Please share if you do.  Thanks!

How To Measure Success in Golf

What are Phil’s standards for success?

In Putting Out of Your Mind, Dr. Bob Rotella says that to judge yourself a success on the putting green, you should measure by how often you were mentally prepared when you struck your putts, and not whether the ball went in the hole.  He adds that once you’ve struck a putt, everything else is out of your control.  Makes sense, and I love this process oriented approach, but let’s face it, most amateurs and probably most professionals are more results oriented than we’d like to admit.

While reading the aforementioned book, I tried out the methods during a round at a local muni.  It was if someone else had possession of my body while I was putting.  It worked great, but the total process oriented approach was very hard to maintain.  For a short period, I even managed to not think about my score during a few rounds, but couldn’t keep it up.

Getting immersed in the process works.  It’s a good idea and is worth the effort.  So, how do you measure success or failure?  Can a 30-handicap player stand on a tee box with a 200 yard carry over water, and hit three straight into the drink, but feel if they put a good swing on each, and think nothing is wrong?  That’s a “Tin Cup” moment and should feel wrong because the player failed to know their limitations and move up a set of tees.  I try to follow Rotella’s mantra and think one shot at a time, but ultimately golf is a game where we keep score.  We win or lose against opponents, or post some number in a stroke play event or round.  As a 5-handicap for the last umpteenth years, when I’m not thinking in process mode, I’m measuring myself by score.  Typically:

Good day – 74 strokes or below

Average day – 75-77

Substandard – 78 and above

The 30-handicap may look at their round differently:

Good day – broke 100

Average day – broke 110

Substandard – lost all their golf balls

We do measure ourselves largely by score and that’s okay.  Recently I overcame this tendency – albeit briefly.  I played a round in the dead of February while working on a swing change.  I told myself I didn’t care what I shot and I was just going to focus on the swing change.  I shot 83 and took like 39 putts, but I left the course very satisfied because I hit 10 greens in regulation and saw good progress with the swing change.  I don’t think this model can sustain over time, but it was nice as I was able to treat the round like a NFL team approaches a pre-season game – totally about the process.  Ultimately, it will come back to score.

So what would success look like for Phil Mickelson?

Good day – Won The Masters

Average day – Finished 2nd

Substandard – Out of the top 10

I know Phil has been working on a swing change and is keen to battle test this at Augusta, (more on that coming in our Masters preview), but at the end of the day does that really matter to him?  Nope; it’s about winning.

How do you measure success?  Process or results, and BE HONEST!

Play well.

 

My 2017 Golf Improvement Plan

Image from gameimprovementgolf.com

2017 will be about simplification.  What I’m very good at is taking a metrics based approach towards past performance and identifying shortcomings.  My downfall comes when I implement solutions that are overly complex and require unrealistic time and effort.  So let’s use a simplified three-goal approach.

Goal 1:  Play a minimum of 40 rounds.  29 in 2016 were too few and left me disconnected from the game.  In addition, I’m going to focus the bulk of these rounds before August, when my interest wanes.  I will still play through the fall and winter, but need to focus on improvement while I’m motivated.  This is very achievable.

Goal 2:  Improve putts per round to 31.  Last year (32.67) was a disaster compared to 2015 (31.26) and was characterized by trying too many new things too often.  I putt my best when getting plenty of reps but need regular reps and not reps smushed into a single practice session.  I’ve been rug putting over the winter, and taking three dozen 10-foot putts after every indoor workout.  Yesterday I think I found something 🙂 and am excited to leverage this approach throughout the year.  This goal has a medium level of difficulty because there are dependencies on short game effectiveness and ball striking.

Goal 3:  Hit ten greens in regulation per round.  Since I’ve been measuring (2007 to present) I’ve averaged between 8 and 9 GIR every year.  Other than shooting lower scores, good ball striking gives me the most satisfaction.  Admittedly, I am a tinkerer and love to make subtle changes to my move in hopes that I’ll find something to permanently implement.  Yet, while reviewing swing videos over several years, I look strikingly similar in each video.  Despite all that tinkering, nothing changes.  So here’s what’s going to change.  Starting in March, I’m taking a lesson once per month through July.  Last summer, while mirrored in a particularly bad ball striking slump, I took a lesson from my instructor and saw the light that professional help can provide.  It had been years since I took a lesson and I realized that all that self medication didn’t work.  This is going to be the most difficult goal to hit, but I’m starting today.  This afternoon, I’m heading out to the range to film myself to see if I have retained any of the swing changes we worked on last July.  It’ll function as my baseline video and I’ll repeat the process before each lesson.  Next month is Lesson One and we get to work.

So three goals, one easy, one medium, one hard.  I’d say that’s a fair but reasonable approach.  I know some of my fellow bloggers have published your 2017 improvement plans and wonder if you’ve started to implement?  I wish you all a great 2017.  Play well!

 

Tips for Handling Different Green Speeds

Image from Neverthreeputt.com

Saturday at THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP, we saw just how difficult changing green speeds can be for the world’s best professionals.  The sudden switch from an aggressive birdie-fest mindset to a total defensive posture drove the field nuts.  Average putts per round jumped to 32!  We often see similar condition fluctuations at The Masters and the U.S. Open, when the courses typically firm up through the championships, but not as radically as what happened today.

Professionals will adjust from fast to slow greens more easily than slow to fast.  They’ve gotten to where they are by making birdies.  On the other hand, amateurs typically struggle more with fast to slow adjustments.  This happens because the amateur is more concerned about three-putt avoidance (blowing it past) than the professional who is thinking, “Make it.”

Handling change is difficult for touring professionals, so how are weekend desk jockeys supposed to cope?  When my group goes to Myrtle Beach, we often play on nine or ten different courses over six days, and are constantly presented with different green speeds.  The typical adjustment required is fast to slow, as we’re faced with slower Bermuda or Tiff Dwarf surfaces that are prevalent in South Carolina, and have been grown out a bit to handle the hot summer weather.  In the mid-Atlantic, we are used to the quicker Bentgrass surfaces.  The adjustment can be difficult and nothing frustrates my group more than knocking an iron shot stiff only to leave a well-struck birdie putt one foot short “right in the jaws.”

Here are three simple keys I use to adjust:

1. Warm up with 10-footers before you play.  This is the length of putt that will give you the best feedback for the day’s green speeds.  Also, if you hole out your practice putts, starting with the 10-footer will get you close enough to the hole that you don’t three putt.  You never want to three putt while warming up because it’s a confidence drain right before you tee off.  Concern yourself with feeling the pace of the putt and don’t worry too much about the line.
2. Adjust grip pressure.  Ideally, on fast surfaces, hold the putter as lightly as possible.  You may even allow for a smidgen of wrist break on the back swing so as to not get too robotic.  For slow surfaces, hold the putter a little tighter which will produce more of a pop stroke.  Picture Brandt Snedeker or Tom Watson.  Try not to alter the pace of your stroke based on the green speed.  Keep it consistent and smooth.  The grip pressure will give you more or less distance.
3. It’s obvious, but on fast surfaces try to keep your approach shots below the hole.  It makes the game easier because putting downhill and scared are a lethal combination.

Those are my keys; I hope they work for you.  Do you have any you’d like to share?

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 Season Wrap Up

Alas, it’s supposed to be 72 degrees the day after Christmas in the DMV and no doubt the season could be extended another week, but I’ll be in New England for the holidays.  Let’s call it a wrap on the 2015 golf season and analyze performance.

Usually, not much changes with my game from year to year but 2015 had a notable exception.  This was the year where I made great strides on the greens.  Late in 2014 I had made a change to my pre-shot putting routine that allowed for better speed judgment.  I leveraged that into nearly a full stroke less in putts per round.  The benefit was fully reflected in a lower scoring average and better relation to par stats.  The discovery was exciting and I’ll continue with this in 2016.

My ball striking with the driver also improved as I worked to simplify my mechanics by focusing on making a full shoulder turn.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t parlay better driving into more GIRs and the stats were virtually identical to the previous year.  In fact, every year I’m somewhere between eight and nine greens per round and can’t seem to get over that hump.  No doubt ingrained swing habits and my reluctance to try wholesale changes are playing a part, and while I’d like to ultimately get to an average of 10 GIRs, that’s a stretch goal.

The bad news was short game.  I wasn’t a basket case like Tiger before The Masters, but struggled mentally all year, and played defensively from the fringe and primary rough.  Oddly, my sand game was good since I made a technique change early in the season, but I’ve committed to taking short game lessons in the spring to refresh my approach.

On a positive note, last Saturday I spent a couple of hours at the short game area trying to work the problem and think I may have stumbled into an “ah-ha” moment.  It’s been my hypothesis all along that I have the shots but just cannot decide what to execute and then cannot perform them for whatever reason.  In addition to playing defensively, I feel defensive when thinking of what shot to play.  So I stopped and thought about the problem and realized for the first time that my short game pre-shot routine was different from my full swing pre-shot routine.  I can’t believe that it had not occurred to me in all this time, but I started to use my full swing routine around the green and the simplicity and clarity provided immediate positive feedback.  Then I made a minor mechanical change and stood a little closer to the ball for all shots (picture Raymond Floyd) and voila!  Contact and confidence were back.

I was excited to battle test these changes the next day and went out for my final round of the year in a great mental state.  As is sometimes the case, the confidence yielded a very good ball striking day and a round of 3-over par.  I drove the ball better than I had all year and hit 12 greens.  Five of the six misses were on the fringe and every one was close enough to putt, so I never got to try out my new technique, but the change has left me with a positive mindset going into the off season.  I will set up my driving mat on the patio in the winter and will work on some light chipping technique as well as the pre-shot routine to get ready for 2016.

How did you evaluate your performance this year?  Here’s my final metrics from this year vs. last.

Year	Score	To Par	GIR	Putts
2015	78.83	7.40	8.54	31.26
2014	79.97	8.47	8.47	32.25

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your Second Set of Eyes Should Be a Trusted Set

First, Happy Veterans Day to all.  A heartfelt thank you to everyone that has served.

Today I golfed with my friend, Jim Rush who is a retired U.S. Marine and is a trusted second set of eyes.  Last month, Jim and I were on our annual eastern shore golf trip and we were warming up for our round at Eagles Landing and I was struggling with my putting.  Everything was going right, even on the shortest of shorties and I had Jim take a look at me.  He immediately noticed that I was lining the putts up about an inch out on the toe of my Ping Answer (with the “CORP” in KARSTEN MFG. CORP).  The Answer has no markings on the top and I thought I was completely square on the blade.  I tried to change but moving your putting alignment an inch right before the start of a round is a significant change and I struggled to get comfortable and putted poorly that day.

In the month between then and today’s round, I had the opportunity to reflect on my putting over the years and definitely recalled many times when I would make a good stroke, but hit the putt on the toe.  It’s quite possible that this fault has been with me in perpetuity, and I have been working to correct the oversight in the last month.  Today I’m happy to report that I was banging my shorties and mid-range putts with confidence.  What a relief.

The lesson learned is not about putting alignment, but that when you solicit advice from someone (other than a professional) you had better trust that their observations will be sound and their recommendations useful.  I recall when I used to teach a long time ago, we had a saying that went, “Amateurs teach amateurs to play like amateurs.”  You may have heard it and we certainly had our work cut out for us undoing the damage that friendly advice had done to our student’s golf games.  If you seek friendly advice, it helps if your adviser has played with you, is familiar with your game and some of the faults and fixes you have worked on, and is a good player themselves.  Jim knows my swing well and sometimes I will also ask him to take a quick look at me before a round if I’m striking it poorly.  Usually all he has to mention is a little key that registers and I’m on my way.

Do you have a trusted second set of eyes?

Short Game Shore Up

Is any part of your golf game creating a blocker for full enjoyment?  The short game has been my nemesis for years; so much to the point that it was totally inside my head and rendering me incompetent when I got within 30 yards of a putting green.  Up until today, I knew my problem was mental.  The main symptom was coming up short with chips and pitches.  For some reason, I could not get the ball to the hole and my continual failures were beginning to affect other areas of my game.  These were not exclusively in-game failures, as I experienced the symptoms during practice too.  I knew it was not technique related because I had the shots, I just could not execute.  Has this ever happened to you?

My method of playing and practicing short game has evolved over the years in an effort to combat the failures.  I used to practice with a bag shag and drop about 60 balls in a spot and hit different shots with the same club over and over in an attempt to perfect technique.  This single club method is advocated by some short game gurus most notably Stan Utley, in The Art of the Short Game.   After reading his book, I used to try and feel the distance to the hole with a practice swing but would come up short on the shot.  Then I tried chipping to an intermediate landing spot, but would miss my spot short.  Recently, I tried to adjust by making a concerted effort to play approach shots to the correct side of the hole and leave myself an uphill chip or pitch, and this strategy worked well from a game management perspective, except I couldn’t even execute the simplest uphill chip and get the ball to the hole.  What to do?

I have been rightly accused in the past of over-tinkering with parts of my game, but when a subsystem was as broken as my short game, I felt justified in trashing the whole approach and starting fresh.  First I changed where I practiced.  I got away from one local muni where I had practiced for years.  It was often too crowded and was utilized by beginner clinics and folks with poor practice etiquette.  I moved to a course that was harder and was patronized by higher caliber players.  This was important because I could disassociate all ties to my previous short game, get some more space to work, and practice uninterrupted.

Next, I got away from the Utley methodology and started altering clubs on every shot.  For example, I took three balls and hit for the same flag with a sand wedge, pitching wedge, and 7-iron.  I would try to feel the distance to the hole with each club and not hit towards a landing spot.  I immediately noticed an improvement in concentration and confidence and view this as a critical breakthrough.  Clearly the solve was mental and I’m not sure why it worked but am guessing it had something to do with improved visualization, minimizing air time on the shots and maximizing roll, and ignoring mechanics.  Essentially, I transformed myself into a feel player.

Today, before my round, I warmed up on the practice green alternating clubs on every shot and using three balls.  I actually chipped / pitched with every club in my bag from the 6-iron on up and my concentration was razor sharp.  Out on the course, I was faced with a mix of easy and difficult shots and executed quite well on each.  What a pleasant surprise.

Going forward, I have a little trepidation because the sample size has been small and the methodology is so new, but am filled with hope and excitement about the possibilities.

The benefit of playing golf for over 40 years is that you have the opportunity to screw things up and keep trying new fixes until one works.  I overhauled my putting routine over a year ago and have been enjoying excellent results.  If I’m half as successful with this short game change, golf is going to become a lot more enjoyable real soon!