A shot by shot walking tour of CECC

Recently, I received an on-course camera to test out called a Swingshot and I was thinking of different ways to utilize the device and a shot by shot walking tour of Columbia Edgewater Country Club seemed like a grand idea. It was just over freezing temperatures today and there was nobody on the course so it was easy to talk to the camera along the way without bothering anyone. I had a lot of fun shooting the round and while watching it afterwords I discovered a few swing aspects that I need to work on. What does everyone think about my game? The course? The weather? Despite the fact that today was quite possible the worst weather day of the year (high of 34 degrees with freezing rain and frozen greens) the course was still in awesome shape. I need to give a shout out to Gordon and the whole greens crew for keeping CECC in great shape through the Portland winter.

The plan is to do more of these to show off some of the better courses around town/state/country/world. I started with the front of CECC and will do the back one day soon. Let me know if there are any suggestions for making these better.

35 Responses to "A shot by shot walking tour of CECC"

Fred Yates says:

January 23, 2013 at 10:24 pm

Hey Dan,
Super impressed with this video, of all the things I’ve seen posted from you (and I think I’ve seen nearly everything) this is by far my favorite and in my opinion the most informative thing you’ve shown. I commented a few weeks ago saying it would be great to see more videos and this is definitely what I had in mind.

I think for people interested in your journey, what we’re most interested in is current progress and how you’re doing. In my opinion, video coverage of your actual game on course is the best way to convey this information to us, the interested follower.

Technically, I think the video was shot in great fashion, down the line shots, consistently showing every shot from the same angle. Great explanation of the shots you’re trying to play and great description of the course, it’s great to see where you play. My only advice technically, is to try and face the camera when speaking, it’s definitely clearest and most audible then. It’s also slightly disorienting when part of your sentence is spoken with you facing the camera and then you shift away and become harder to hear mid sentence.

Other than that, great stuff man, really enjoyed it and really looking forward to the back 9. The game looks great and I think in good conditions this could have been around even par or better. Some really clutch putts were the most impressive thing for me. If the course was ever empty enough to film it would be fun to see a match against Country Club or anyone else in this shot by shot fashion.
JoshD says:

January 24, 2013 at 12:40 am

Hey Dan

What an enjoyable video to watch! I personally don’t think you need to change anything with the way you shoot the video, being a 1 man production means it cannot ever be perfect. I didn’t have any problems understanding your talking, and besides, your head should be on the shot at hand and not overly thinking about the audience. Keep on keeping on!!

Do you think it was a coincidence that on the hole you said right before hand “Let’s go get a bird” you just happened to drill one down the fairway? The power of positive thinking!

To think that you had never hit a golf ball a few years ago is amazing. keep up the journey, I love it!
Blocking driver says:

January 24, 2013 at 1:14 am

Nice video. Your stock miss seems to be hooking the ball. Could you get a bit handsy on those?
JF says:

January 24, 2013 at 4:08 am

Great idea to do a video of this! I really enjoyed watching it!^^
It probably creates that little bit extra motivation for you as well…
Brian Kuehn says:

January 24, 2013 at 5:00 am

Very enjoyable. I second the other comments that this is something you should do again.
Definitely try to do it on a day when the turf and greens are not frozen.
CECC never seems to give one a bad lie. Even with all the shots missing the fairway or bounding over the green, the ball was always perched up nice and clean. We could use some of that greenskeeping magic here in Michigan!
phil fur says:

January 24, 2013 at 5:40 am

asd
davidshiking says:

January 24, 2013 at 9:33 am

Great video Dan, as others have said it was very enjoyable and you should do it again. I like how you were landing it in front of the greens but the ball would still hop over and then you decided to play that low punch, landed the ball where you wanted to
Toby says:

January 24, 2013 at 1:25 pm

Consider yourself lucky, if that is one of the nastiest days of the year. Had to play a couple of rounds in the snow the past few weeks with temperatures ~20° F

I think your swing looks much better than in the last videos you posted, very relaxed. Looking forward to seeing how you will do when the sun comes out.
Woody Nash says:

January 24, 2013 at 5:10 pm

Dan, You should adopt (and tweak) the United States Post Office’s creed . . . “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays this golfers from the swift completion of his appointed rounds.” You’re work ethic is awesome and it is fun to watch you share your road to success.
William Evan says:

January 24, 2013 at 6:29 pm

I’m pretty impressed with your short game, really seems to save you when you hit bad shots, those little pitches and chip and runs look really well executed (putting as well). Your full shots look like you set up to hook everything. The behind the line always looks like you are pointing everything 20 degrees left of target and trying to hook it back.
thedanplan says:

January 24, 2013 at 7:06 pm

Brian, It is pretty amazing that the course is in this condition despite being late January. Not sure what they do, but they do it well. At my house the grass has been dormant since June.. I’ll definitely do more of these. Thanks!
Dan
thedanplan says:

January 24, 2013 at 7:08 pm

Thanks William,
I appreciate it and had the same thought about my full shots when I watched this. Guess that’s the beauty of shooting on course, you get to see what you really swing like. I had no idea I was setting up so closed. Worked on it today and it felt like I was making some progress.
Have a great one,
Dan
thedanplan says:

January 24, 2013 at 7:08 pm

Thanks Woody. Glad I could put your camera to use
thedanplan says:

January 24, 2013 at 7:09 pm

Toby,
It gets colder, but when that happens it snows. We are pretty lucky here in the Pacific Northwest in that it doesn’t snow often, just hovers in the 30s with spitting rain for about 4 months. The best part, though, is that the courses never close!
Dan
thedanplan says:

January 24, 2013 at 7:10 pm

Cheers David. Can’t wait to tee it with you one day.
thedanplan says:

January 24, 2013 at 7:11 pm

It definitely does. Thank you for watching!
thedanplan says:

January 24, 2013 at 7:13 pm

I think that a mix of handsy and setting up closed is producing that. I had a stock blocked fade with the driver for the entire summer and am now changing my swing to get the club face through the ball better and the result is the over-cooked draw or hook. The good news is that it means progress is happening. I don’t want to hit the same block fade my entire career so these periods are just part of the game. The driver will be better come this summer. Working on it.
thedanplan says:

January 24, 2013 at 7:14 pm

Hi Josh,

Thanks! I appreciate you all understanding that these aren’t a high budget production right now.

Definitely need to keep that birdie mentality on every hole, great point!
Dan
thedanplan says:

January 24, 2013 at 7:16 pm

Hi Fred,

Glad you liked it. In all honesty it wasn’t difficult to capture all of the swings and editing did not take too long so I do hope to make these a regular aspect of The Dan Plan. Hopefully at all types of courses, too.
I’ll make sure to get a mic or talk at the camera next time and hopefully play some matches with them soon. Thanks for the suggestions,

Dan
Donnie says:

January 24, 2013 at 11:38 pm

Hi Dan!

Great blog/video post !!
I look forward to watching more of these.
It truly made me feel as though I was a part of TheDanPlan today. You’re not only making excellent progress in your game, you very well may be changing the ways of bloggers worldwide.
BTW, if you can get to Las Vegas. I would love to take you for a round at Rio Secco. I can also get you some comped hotel rooms here.
Neil says:

January 25, 2013 at 7:50 am

Like the others, I enjoyed watching the footage. In terms of your game, I thought your play around the greens was very tidy, all of your work putting is particularly apparent. I can definitely see you scoring well if you can get the ball on the fairway off the tee with more regularity.
Travis Scudder says:

January 26, 2013 at 1:52 am

Dan,

This was so great to watch. Inspired me to go out and do this for my game. It was great to see the course that you play at. Do you find you practice a lot on putting still? Remember when you started and all you could do was putt? I find putting to be a poor part of my game, and I am wondering if some sort of a set amount of months spent just putting. I think I would go crazy knowing there are so many other shots out there to play besides putting, yet it is so important. Keep up the great work, this was awesome to watch. Even though it’s frozen out there, you play. Its good to see another die hard fan.
Richard Chen says:

January 26, 2013 at 12:25 pm

The 3-wood tee shot can have the ball teed high, medium, or low. Each has its characteristics, and each has its uses.

When the ball is tee up low, the swing is like hitting the ball off of a good fairway lie with a slight descending blow with the hands slightly ahead of the ball at impact. It can be a more accurate shot, as there is only a single descending action sequence before impact like for an iron shot off of the fairway.

When the ball is teed up high, the ball tends to be hit on the upswing like for a driver shot. The shot may become less accurate, as the clubhead has to go through the three phases of descending, bottoming out, and ascending before impact, while there is only one descending phase of hitting a ball teed low.

A ball teed very high can change the “lie” of the club, so that the shot becomes somewhat like an uphill-side-hill shot with the ball above the feet. When the clubhead is set higher than the feet, the loft of the clubface starts to point slightly inward promoting draws and slight pulls. This may be used to hit high draws, although balls with side spin tend to more often fly and roll off the fairway into trouble.

Some promote set routines for shots, while others don’t. Since short game shots come in almost infinite variations of distance, lies and breaks once landed on the green, a set routine incorporating a fix number of practice swings may be adopted to advantage.

The setup position of the last drive is the one to study, and to repeat, as it resulted in the best drive.
philip furlong says:

January 27, 2013 at 1:50 am

hey Dan insightful entertaining video all the way from australia nice commentary to would make a good coach one day, awesome video gives a great insight to how you play during a round.would like to see you on shorter holes bomb the driver give u more chances of a .doing it on a day when not many people around seems the way to go did u have someone filming with you or on a stand? .Swing looks great compared to when you started longer arch and tighter swing . . better finish and looks like more inside out swing guessing u draw it more? keep up the good work looking forward the back nine video :). hows the new buggy? finding having more energy on the back 9
Branden says:

January 27, 2013 at 10:18 pm

Just a slight suggestion. When you’re doing video of your swing from DTL, it’s best to put the camera along your toe line at hand height rather than behind the ball. This makes it much easier to see what’s happening with your body throughout the swing. Check out this link for more info on recording your swing properly. Cheers. http://thesandtrap.com/b/playing_tips/filming_your_swing
Martin Scott says:

January 28, 2013 at 3:53 am

Dan, you’re looking very good. Keep doing what you’re doing, it’s working.
Your course looks very nice as well.
thedanplan says:

February 2, 2013 at 9:04 pm

Thanks martin!
thedanplan says:

February 2, 2013 at 9:05 pm

Branden,

Point taken. It’s a wide angle and I didn’t know what it was going to look like as there isn’t really a good screen on it. Next time I’m going down the line.. cheers
thedanplan says:

February 2, 2013 at 9:06 pm

Philip,
Bombs away on the driver next time. Hope all is well down in Australia and that heat wave is finally breaking! I’ll have that back 9 video up and running soon. The new buggy is great! Love me a ClickGear
Dan
thedanplan says:

February 2, 2013 at 9:07 pm

Thank you Richard.
Great advice and I love hearing from you,
Dan
thedanplan says:

February 2, 2013 at 9:08 pm

Hi Travis,
I’m not sure I could spend 5 months only putting now that I know what it’s like to actually play the game full on, but I do spend entire days occasionally just putting. I’d play in a blizzard if they let me!
Keep it up!
Dan
thedanplan says:

February 2, 2013 at 9:11 pm

also. I would recommend you seriously spend hard hours putting. the confidence you gain from knowing you can putt well will flow through your entire game.
thedanplan says:

February 2, 2013 at 9:12 pm

Thanks Neil,
I definitely feel more comfortable the closer I get to the hole. It will pay off down the road, especially once I start hitting more fairways.
Thanks for watching!
Dan
thedanplan says:

February 2, 2013 at 9:13 pm

Hi Donnie,
Thanks for watching!
I would seriously love to make it out to Vegas one of these days/weeks. If you could get some hotel rooms comped and want to tee it up count me in!
Email me if you are serious and thank you in advance,
Dan
DanPlan’s Video Tour of Columbia Edgewater C.C. : SwingShot says:

May 24, 2013 at 2:55 am

[...] Check out Dan McGlauglin as he uses the SwingShot camera to do a hole by hole tour of Portland’s Columbia Edgewater Country Club. We are huge fans of Dan and his goal to make the PGA Tour after 10,000 hours of practice. (Please support him anyway you can.) http://thedanplan.com/blog/?p=2051 [...]

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