moving pictures
This last week brought an Atlanta producer into town for some filming. The long-short of it is that I’ve teamed up with a production company in Atlanta that is interested in creating webisodes (is this a word?) on The Dan Plan’s website starting some time in October. These will be 3-5 minute weekly updates about everything related to The Dan Plan and golf. I’m not sure exactly how they will be structured at this point or the specific date that we will start posting them, but stay tuned for some fun shows in the next few weeks.
With Peter in town (producer) for the heart of the week, practice was somewhat truncated. They followed along while I played holes on the par 3 course, the big course and while practicing around town. All of this was another good way for me to practice staying focussed through distractions. While they followed, I shot a 90 out at Heron Lakes and even par for the Mason par 3 course. Both scores are not my best, but considering the extra baggage I think that I did okay.
Having people follow along at these early stages is a huge benefit down the road when I enter competitions. If I can get used to playing on camera and in front of spectators then I will have at least one thing going for me, one potential advantage.
I’ve officially recorded 5 rounds towards my GHIN score to date. Not exactly sure, but I think that this means I will have a tentative handicap when the system refreshes next. By then there should be a few more scores to add to the books, too. Since adding the 3-hybrid to the game, my scores have just about stayed the same as when I was only playing with the 6-iron. My average for a round both before and after the new club was about an 88, but there is so much more potential with the longer stick.
It is very obvious that if you can hit your tee shot 210 carry you can put yourself in a better layup position on those par 4s than if you hit a club 160. And, it’s pretty obvious that if you are in the fairway you almost always have a better second shot than if you are digging the ball out of the woods or dropping just outside of a hazard. I don’t think I need to mention this, but the longer the club the harder it is (in theory at least, we’re all different) to hit it exactly where you want to. Right now, the 3-hybrid has a couple unwanted tendencies. If I catch it a fraction late in my swing it squirts left and if I come around on it early I can hook it far right with ease.
It’s the 1/3 rule at this point. I’ve gone through this with every club to date and know more or less where I am and what I need to do to get this number where it needs to be. The 1/3 rule means that one out of every three shots is doing what I want on the course. With the 3 then: one shot goes 210 down fairway, one squirts 30 yards left and ends up in the trees 180 yards from tees, and one hooks hard right potentially OB or in a hazard and travels about 170 before making landfall. When I first brought out the 6-iron this was the same scenario, albeit the club topped out at 165-175 so my misses were not nearly as detrimental. It’s going to be more accentuated with the driver, but we will tackle that when the day is right.
All it takes to get the 1/3 rule to the 1/2, 2/3 and eventually 9/10 rule (9 of 10 in fairway) is practice and time. For the 6 it took about a month to get a more respectable accuracy going, and I think it will be just a bit longer with this new club. For the time being, my scores are the same with the six because often I end up in the trees and am punching out to get to where my “drive” should have been. Also, putting is where you score and I’ve had a bit of a mental lapse on how to putt.
This happens from time to time, you just simply lose the feel for something that has previously been so natural. Often, as in this case, it is because I have been over thinking my mechanics. I hit a few unacceptable putts and then spent too much time analyzing why this happened and eventually I thought so much about how I stand over the ball that I basically forgot how I stood over the ball. Playing like this produced three rounds in a row with 36 putts, not where I should or care to be. My goal is always to have less than 30 putts. During a lesson last week I had Christopher look at my putting and he noticed that my backswing had gotten short and my followthrough was huge. Basically, I had gotten out of a smooth pendulum and this was what was making me think that my stance was out of whack. there’s cause and there’s affect and they are related somehow, the trick is to find out where that relation is. Now that I have a sense of what was “off” I can work on something tangible and get my putt back.
Everything feels like it’s on the verge of a breakthrough right now. I feel very close on a lot of fronts and am more excited than ever about getting out there to practice. Every day brings minor breakthroughs and keeping an open mind is what keeps them coming. If you pay attention enough, you’re bound to learn something and that is my goal.
One last note: it’s been about 95 here, which is awfully hot for Portland, so they have been watering the greens so much that they are plugging as if it was winter. Here’s an approach shot from 90 yards, it just landed without any roll. I played it as it was, putting from a crater:
