Going For Par

I haven’t updated the blog because I’ve been too busy practicing. Seriously.

In the last two months I’ve focused a lot on improving my game with some serious practice time. I’ve realized how difficult it can be to improve your golf game as an amateur, particularly when you work 9 or more hours per day. But, that’s exactly what I’ve done.

As my swing has improved and become more solid, albeit inconsistent, I’ve put more focus on my short game around the green and putting. I’m slowly migrating toward an 80/20 plan of 80% short game and putting, and 20% full swing. Since I can’t practice all day everyday, the 2-4 hour practices per day I’ve had instead have been intense. Every swing, every putt, every chip matters. I can only make so many per day.

Around early November I started seeing massive improvement in my game, including a +3 performance that included a GIR of 89%. Obiously, ball striking was top notch that day. The only reason I didn’t make par was putting – I missed at least five 5-foot putts that I should have made. If I had made them I would have easily broken par. This is when I realized I need to start focusing more on putting.

Unfortunately, shortly after this particular round work kicked in, and I went through a stretch where I couldn’t touch a club for about 3 weeks – a long time for someone who hadn’t gone more than 2 days without touching a club in the previous 5 months. Needless to say, once I was able to touch a club again, I felt like I had regressed about 2 months.

So, I went back to my intense practice sessions and set a new goal – par by end of the year. It’s been an intense several weeks since, but I’m happy to report that as of yesterday I shot under par for the first time ever. Of course, the goal was par, but I exceeded that goal with a 2-under performance.

Everything clicked this round. I actually had a poor fairway percentage as my driver was all over the place, but I was never in a position where I couldn’t recover. I made putts I haven’t made in months, nailed all my putts less than 6 feet, and my short game was excellent, nearly always giving me putts within 3′. Basically, I made the shots when I had to make them.

One of the key differences this round compared to all my rounds prior was the amount of concentration and mental focus I had to have every shot of the round. I made sure I went through the same pre-shot routine every shot, I made sure I had a plan and committed to the plan every shot, and I made sure that as I executed the shot I focused on every detail of my body’s movement. This intense level of concentration is required for someone like myself whose body movements are not yet second nature, and obviously, it works.

Scoring -2 is a pretty big accomplishment for the year, especially when I was scoring +30 just 6 months ago. I don’t know when I’ll score that low again, but this one lesson taught me so much more about the game of golf than the previous 20 rounds have taught me. I’m expecting to see my scores continue to improve over the coming months as certain elements of my game become more consistent.

So what now? This blog was started to chronicle my journey to par. I did a decent job of that for a while, but obviously I haven’t documented the last two months very well. I want to continue the blog into the future, as I continue to learn more about the game and start entering tournaments. Perhaps I’ll expand the blog’s purpose to include other aspects of the game as well.

Speaking of tournaments, I recently joined the Golf Channel Amateur Tour. I’m looking forward to the competition and believe it will make me a better player.

2009 was an amazing year for me in the golf realm. In 6 months I went from your below-average weekend amateur to a low single digit handicapper. I can’t wait to see what I can do in another 6 months. Here’s to 2010!

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

I have two scramble tournaments this weekend that I’m looking forward to. They should be a good time.

I had to tone it down on practice this week due to a left rib cage strain. I think the lessons and three rounds of golf this past weekend kind of did me in physically. While it’s fun to play the rounds, sometimes I need to just say “no” so I can either get some physical rest or focus on practicing, which I know will make me better faster.

My practice this week has focused more on the short game than the swing. The swing is starting to get pretty solid, and while there’s still plenty of room for improvement, I’m starting to believe it’s the short game that’s preventing me from reaching par.

I’m also working on my mental game while I’m practicing, which I’m finding is making it more difficult to practice for extended periods of time as I start to lose concentration. This is a good thing though, since it means my mental game practice is working out my mind and wearing it out.

To practice the mental game I concentrate on going through a pre-shot routine for every shot I make, whether it’s on the range, chipping, putting, or any other movement of the club striking a ball. I’m also starting to challenge myself more with small games, such as how well I can hit my targets, how close I can chip the ball to the hole, and how well I can execute the pre-shot routine. I’m even considering starting a notebook I can take with me to the course to keep my “practice score” for things like this.

I know I’ve said it before, but I feel like achieving Par is very close and is becoming a matter of strengthening the weak areas of my game, especially as my swing continues to become much more consistent. I’ll get to test my practice this week during the two scramble tournaments, and while I won’t have my own score, I’ll be able to gauge any improvement by how well I personally play. Looking forward to it!

Filed under: Practice, Progress, The Mental Game, Tournaments | No Comments »

After 6 days without touching a golf club – a long time for me these days – I went to the range, grabbed my 9-iron, and took an awkward-feeling warmup swing.

My body hadn’t felt as loose as it did during that swing in months. The awkward feeling seemed to come more from the fact that I didn’t feel any stretching or pulling or sore and tight muscles than because it was really an awkward swing. In fact, the swing felt pretty solid from a mechanics standpoint.

So I grabbed the first ball, went through my pre-shot routine and setup, and took a 3/4 swing. Perfection.

I’ve gone through two range practice sessions since then, and both sessions have been great practice. Despite taking the last week off I’m executing my swing mechanics better than I was before the time off. Granted, things aren’t perfect all the time, but most of the time I’m executing very well. That’s exciting.

My next lesson is this Friday morning, so I’m working hard to make sure the great swing mechanics are for real. It’ll be about a month since my last lesson, so I want to show that I’ve made some good progress in that time.

Oh, and vacation was good!

Filed under: Practice | No Comments »

It’s been about two weeks since my last post, but a lot has been going on. For starters, I was part of the 1st place team at a scramble tournament. We finished with a 12-under 60, which included 2 eagles, 7 birdies, and 9 pars. We did pretty well considering we had myself (5 handicap), a 10-handicapper, and two 25-handicappers. Here’s the trophy:

 The next day I participated in another scramble tournament, and while tournament rules had us winning 1st place there with a tiebreaker, we decided to play a sudden death playoff and ended up losing on the 2nd hole. So, that was sort of a win, but not with satisfaction.

When practicing the last two weeks I’ve been focusing on a number of complicated things during my swing:

1. Keep the clubhead outside my hands during the takeaway
2. While doing #1, keep my hands moving straight back until it’s time to start the shoulder turn
3. Hinge my wrists in a manner that keeps my left wrist straight such that my left forearm and top of my left hand are in sync
4. Turn my shoulders and bring my arms up such that my left wrist stays flat through the back swing
5. Downswing with the feeling of the shaft moving through my right bicep and right forearm before coming through to impact
6. At impact, keeping my hands in the proper position in front of the ball
7. Releasing the clubhead out and allowing my hands to rotate freely through the end of the swing

It’s a lot to think about, and while many would advise to not think about these things when you swing, I’ve learned that if I focus on keeping my backswing slow and smooth, then I can not only think about these steps but also execute them and get awesome results.

I still have a lot of work to do, but my swing is starting to pick up some good consistency with results. For example, today I played a full 18, shot a 75, and my GIR percentage was the highest yet – 61.1%. This is the type of stat I need in order to score low. I could have had a great day if I didn’t mess up some putts, but getting on the green in regulation is a great way to have the opportunity for lower scores. See the full stats on the scorecard at oobgolf. I’ve already setup a tee time for tomorrow at my nemesis course – LPGA Legends – it will be my last round of play for at least two weeks..

This week we’re travelling to NYC for my sister’s wedding, so I’ll have about 5 days of physical rest from golf. That can only be a good thing as I’ve been going pretty much full speed ahead the last month. Hopefully the weekend after we get back I’ll have another lesson, and then the following week I have another two scramble tournaments to participate in.

Filed under: Golf Swing, Progress, Tournaments | No Comments »

Saturday was a busy golf day. I started the day off with a drive to St. Augustine for a one hour lesson at the Tour Academy, followed by a drive back home, followed by a drive out to Deland to play at Victoria Hills with some friends.

The lesson was awesome, again. After adjusting to a grip change and learning the importance of various rotations through the takeaway, this lesson focused on shortening the backswing – not with less power, but with less arm movement. It’s going to take some work, but I’m excited about the improvements I was already seeing during the lesson.

It turns out that Victoria Hills has just been ranked in the Top 50 courses in the country by readers of Golf Digest (41st overall). I was certainly impressed. Rolling greens, strategic holes, and a lot of elevation change – especially for Florida. It’s the first time I’ve looked down on a green from the tee box.

Given that I had a lesson in the morning, I didn’t play bad, but I didn’t play well. I started to score for the first few holes, but after a while I realized that my swing just didn’t feel right, mainly because I kept trying to work on the things I learned in the morning. So, I stopped keeping score and settled with focusing on good shots and putts the rest of the day.

It was fun, though. The course can be tough if you make stupid choices or try to get too aggressive. The greens were very receptive to ball spin – sometimes too receptive – but they left challenging putts for anything more than 10 feet away.

This week I’ll be working on the new swing tweaks from the lesson. I have to get better by the weekend. Both Friday and Saturday I’m participating in two separate best-ball tournaments. I think this means I’ll have some sort of swing practice every day this week.

Filed under: Golf Round Update, Golf Swing, Instruction | No Comments »

Tuesday was 9-hole day again, and this time even though I was practicing I decided to keep score and some stats to better mark my progress. I haven’t been keeping score much lately as I work through my swing changes, but I think in order to better assess my game it’s more beneficial to keep some kind of score.

For this update I’ll try things a little different and go hole-by-hole following a format I’ve seen on other blogs:

Hole 1 – Par 4, 355 yards

Good drive down the middle of the fairway. Aimed slightly left of fairway because I have a slight fade with my driver right now (I know why, and that’s part of what I’m trying to correct). Drive measured about 290, leaving me about 60 yards to the pin. Decided to use a 1/2 Lob Wedge (58′) swing, but it was more like a 90% swing as the ball flew to the back of the green. Used 9-iron to chip, but was left with a 15 foot putt as I didn’t take into account a ridge in the middle of the green and the overall chip distance – should have used an 8-iron. Downhill putt from 15 feet rolled past the cup about 4 feet. Made the uphill 4 foot putt, slight left to right. Bogey 5

Hole 2 – Par 4, 414 yards

Again played for the fade, but ended up slicing to the right rough because of a poor takeaway on the swing. Played a 3/4 swing 9-iron from about 150 yards to the pin from the rough, landing about a foot short of the green in the fairway/fringe. The 3/4 swing wasn’t necessarily intentional – I was just focusing on my swing mechanics. Outside of the poor distance, the shot was on target and had good ball flight. After the chipping experience on the first hole, learned my lesson and better gauged the green and distance to the pin for the chip on this hole. Used a 9-iron to chip up to about 2 feet left of the pin. Didn’t see the severe right-to-left break around the pin. Made the 2 foot putt. Par 4

Hole 3 – Par 4, 336 yards

Again played the fade on the drive, landing on the fairway about 50 yards away from the pin. Used 58′ Lob Wedge with a 1/2 swing to pitch it up to the elevated green about a foot to the right of the pin. Made the putt. Birdie 3

Hole 4- Par 3, 155 yards

This par 3 is over water with a forward sloping green. Pin location back left of the green, which was around 9-iron distance, but decided to use the PW since solid contact would put me around the middle of the green. Sure enough, solid contact, landing in the middle of the green. Lag putt to 6 inches, tap in. Par 3

Hole 5 – Par 4, 328 yards

Again played the fade, landing middle of the fairway with the driver. Left about 55 yards to the pin, which is located middle right with a bunker in the middle. Used 58′ LW at 1/2 swing. Made solid contact, resulting in massive backspin. Landed on the green about 3 feet from the pin, but backspin kicked in and combined with the green slope the ball rolled off the green, off the severe fringe slope, and into the rough. Still had a good lie though and used 58′ LW to pitch it up to be 2 feet from the pin. Made the putt. Par 4

Hole 6 – Par 5, 525 yards

Severe dogleg left around a tree line and water, almost like a half circle. Decided to attempt a draw with the Driver. Had success, but not enough hook. Hit the ball over the fairway and into the right rough, but near the apex of the half circle, leaving me about 245 yards from the center of the green. Had a very good lie in the rough, but a tough slope. Decided to gamble and go for the green with the 3-wood. Mishit it and landed left of the green and short in the rough about 40 yards from the pin. Used 58′ LW to pitch it up, but used too much swing and hit it to the back of the green on the fringe. Used 9-iron to chip it to within 3 feet. Made the putt. Par 5

Hole 7 – Par 3, 175 yards

Used 8-iron since the pin was in the front of the green. Severely pushed the ball to the right of the green in the rough. Had a tough, deep lie. Used 58′ LW, but didn’t hit it cleanly. Watched the ball land in the bunker next to the green. Sand shot barely made it on the green leaving about a 6 foot putt. Made the uphill, fairly straightforward putt for an up-and-down. Bogey 4

Hole 8 – Par 5, 476 yards

Again played the Driver fade, landing right in the middle of the fairway at the turn of this dogleg right leaving a perfect approach view to the green from about 220 yards away. Used 5-wood, but did not play the fade that came out of the swing (all my woods and longer irons have a fade right now, but that’s not the case for shorter irons). Ball landed just to the right of the green and about 2 feet to the left of a bunker. Had a good lie and used 8-iron to chip across the green to 6 inches of the hole. Tapped in putt. Birdie 4

Hole 9 – Par 4, 393 yards

Went into this hole knowing I was even par. Probably shouldn’t have thought about it. Played the fade for the Driver but ended up hitting it straight to the left side of the fairway, which is actually the perfect place to be for a clear shot to the green, leaving about 135 yards to the pin. Decided to use 3/4 swing PW for approach shot but instead of playing it safe to get on the green, played aggressively to try to get close enough for a solid birdie putt. Mechanics broke down on the swing a bit and I pushed it and hit it a little fat into the right bunker in front of the green (ball landed about 18 feet from the hole). Sand shot was pretty poor, again barely making it onto the green, leaving a 12 foot putt. Ball rolled past the hole about 3 feet, but I made the 3 footer. Bogey 5

Next Steps

Not bad. +1 for 9 holes, and I’m not even playing that well yet. Chipping in particular really saved me, minus that first hole.

My sand game needs some serious work. I’m having a lot of trouble getting out of the sand with my new wedges. In general my swing was pretty decent, but as you can tell most of the round was a driver-partial wedge style of play since we were playing from shorter tees. When I did have to use my full irons I tended to have bad results – just means I need to keep working on the swing changes. As I work on the changes and get better at the short irons I’ll need to work my way up to longer irons and woods to help get rid of the fade. My main problem there is that I’m holding off the club face instead of letting it come through, but that’s what I’ll be working on.

I have a lesson this Saturday, so maybe I’ll ask for help with the short game and sand shots while I continue to work on the swing.

Filed under: 9-Hole Round Update, Progress | No Comments »

I played two rounds this past weekend, but I only kept score for one. I recorded a 76 for that one, and you can view the scorecard at my oobgolf page.

My GIR was better this round. I was able to hit my approach shots on target to get on the green. And when I didn’t do well to get on the green my short game was mostly strong. Overall a pretty good day, but I know I’m just a few strokes away from making par.

Filed under: Golf Round Update | No Comments »

Pretty amazing – http://msn.foxsports.com/golf/story/10089352?GT1=39002

It’s one thing to have a hole-in-one. It’s another to have two. The thing about hole-in-one’s is that they really come down to luck. So many factors beyond our control have the line up for the ball to go into the hole from 100+ yards away. Granted, there’s a bit of skill involved in getting it close to the hole in the first place, but beyond getting it close we don’t have much control over where the ball goes.

So, congratulations to Ruth Day, the retired 64-year-old 36-handicap who shot two hole-in-one’s in the same round. We won’t see something like that again for a long time.

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

I had my first private lesson this past Friday. We focused on my swing since my accuracy for approach shots has been pretty poor (as is evident by my less than 40% GIR rate).

We started on the range for a few shots before heading into the bay for video analysis. I think video analysis is one of the best ways to improve body motion for any sport. For one, video doesn’t lie, so what you see is what you did. Also, with the right software it’s possible to draw lines to better understand angles and the geometry of body movements. And probably most important, if you have the right setup it’s a quick feedback loop, meaning you can see what you did and make adjustments in a matter of minutes.

My lesson is a good example of the adjustment benefits of video analysis. The picture below is a capture from my video where we were looking at my takeaway. On the right side is what I was doing when I arrived at my lesson (the before), and on the left side is what I need to be doing on my takeaway (the after). The red line is the swing plane my clubhead should be on during the takeaway and downswing.

As you can see, in the before (right) it’s well above and outside of the swing plane, which my body translates into an above and outside-to-inside downswing. But in the after (left) you can see that the clubhead is pretty much on the swing plane, with the clubhead nearly perpendicular to the plane, which is how it should be at this stage of the swing.

When I execute the takeaway as I’m supposed to, I get near-perfect, straight shots. It’s really pretty amazing. I do have a few other small problems in my swing, but right now if I can get the takeaway down I should see a lot more accuracy in my shots.

In fact, even though I haven’t had a lot of chances to practice the takeaway, during today’s 9-hole round I started to notice more accuracy with my shots. For the most part I was hitting the ball where I wanted to, and if I didn’t, then I knew it was my takeaway and more often than not I could feel my arms separate from my body as you can see on the right side of the picture.

The instruction continues to be awesome, and I’m glad I signed up for more lessons. I won’t share my instructors name on here for privacy reasons, but he’s good at what he does and I’m thankful he’s willing to share as much technical information about the swing as he does. I feel like I’m learning all about golf swing mechanics to the point where I can understand the how’s and why’s behind the swing. I even caught myself analyzing other golfers during the 9-hole round today.

Speaking of the 9-holes, I scored a 41, which I’m somewhat happy with considering I’m going through swing changes. My main problem today was putting and short pitch/chip shots around the green with my sand wedge, but I can’t complain too much because I really haven’t been practicing any of my short game in favor of solidifying my swing.

I also played on both Saturday and Sunday over the weekend. Saturday turned into more of a practice round as I tried to learn how to do the new takeaway. Sunday was a little less of a practice round, and I scored an 80 at LPGA International’s Champions course – my best score at that course so far. As of today my handicap has dropped to a 6.2, but as I work through these swing changes and such I expect it to level off for a little bit until I get some consistency in my swing and start working on my short game again.

Filed under: Golf Round Update, Golf Swing, Instruction | No Comments »

Last weekend I played 18 holes and noticed something started to seem a little off with my “new” swing. Until this particular round, most of my shots were feeling pure with good compression on the ball, but on this particular day I was hitting a lot of thin shots and rarely on target. Thinking it was fatigue, I took a day off before playing the 9-hole Tuesday round (in the rain), only to find that my swing still felt a little off. Very few good impact shots and rarely on target.

Wednesday and Thursday it rained all day, so I couldn’t make it to the range to try to figure out what was going wrong before my Friday morning tee time. So I arrived at the course about an hour and a half early so I could get some time to figure out where my swing was going wrong. While I had my quality shots at the range, I had very few solid shots during the round – something just wasn’t right with my swing.

Since that round I’ve spent a good number of hours on the range following a disciplined process of taking a shot, analyzing the shot and the feeling of the swing, taking a few moments to feel the adjustment I wanted to make, and repeating the next shot. Read more »

Filed under: Golf Swing, Practice | No Comments »