Fourth tourney season about to begin

My internet has been down this week which has been somewhat annoying and also kind of quietly nice. It’s amazing how much revolves around such a system. One thing in particular: it’s a lot harder to write a blog post on a phone than a laptop. That said, here is this week’s update via the marvel of modern cell phone technology.

Riverside had its golf season kick-off tourney two weekends ago. It’s called the iceberg and is a hit-and-giggle type event although we all take it serious enough as everyone still wants to win. The format was a 2-day 3-man scramble and my team was pretty solid with a 1-ish and 6-ish handicap player and me. These things all come down to who is putting best that day and my team only made one putt on the entire first 9 holes turning at 1 under. On the back we started to heat up and were 5 under to come in at 6 under for the day. Solidly putting out team at 66, or 4 over the leading team.

The weather turned drastically for the worse over night and we all showed up for the 8am shotgun but the tourney was cancelled due to lakes forming in the fairways. It was a shame as my team was looking forward to making a push and trying to catch the leaders.

Despite the weather, 8 of us went out and ended up playing 36 holes in some crazy conditions. The first 18 were not too bad with just some rain, but the winds picked up in the afternoon to 30-40mph and it made for one of the most fun rounds I have had out there. On one hole, for example, it was a par 4 into the wind playing 410 yards. To get to the green I hit a good low driver a driver off the deck nice and low and well struck 5 iron from 120 yards the landed pin high. It was a blast and helped remind me of why I love this game. 8 guys out there despite the weather putting a little money on the line and enjoying a stormy competitive game together. Truly fun.

There’s another two-day tourney this coming weekend also called the Iceberg. It’s an individual event and essentially the start of the season here in Oregon. I’m planning on playing it for the second time and am curious to see how my game holds up after a winter of tweaks and changes. There’s really no better way to see where your game is than playing a tourney, especially one that is longer than a day as anything can happen on any given day, so it’s important to play two or three day events to get a concrete view of where your strengths and weaknesses lie.

Speaking of that, I have been reading Lowest Score Wins lately and appreciate the knowledge in the book as well as how they break down the game into where you can gain the most strokes. They call it separation value (SV) and have the game broken down into 4 categories of where the most SV occurs. They use some of the data from Mark Brodie’s Every Shot Counts book and then apply ways in which to improve those areas.

They break down these SVs in four categories. Catagory 4 is where you can gain the most strokes and catagory 1 is where the least amount, on average during a round, of strokes can be gained. So they suggest focussing mostly on the cat 4 and 3 and then getting down to the 2 and 1. There’s much more to this, but here are the catagories:

Catagory 4:

Driving; Approach shots; GamePlanning

Catagory 3:

Green Reading; Greenside shots (from about 20 yards and in)

Catagory 2:

3-15 foot putts; 25+ foot putts; Greenside bunker shots; 20-60 yard shots; 220+ yard shots; Trouble shots

Catagory 1:

Under 3-foot putts; 15-25 foot putts; long bunker shots; fairway bunker shots

They have it all mapped out as to why these things have different value both to a tour pro and to a 30 handicapper and it makes sense. For me, I yet again am seeing the importance of driving the ball from an instructional source. It’s definitely a weakness in my game and something I am constantly working on.

Just today I got FlightScope out and was working on hitting up on the ball as well as squaring up my path and face. I found some things in the swing both with tee shots and irons and after a couple of hours on the range I took it out to the course. Also, I worked on a new chipping and pitching technique for about an hour.

The good news: I was finally hitting a nice little draw again with the irons and realized why I had been struggling with a held-off fade. Also, the new chips and pitches were money and I almost holed out a few of them.

Bad news: I hit 2 fairways and my misses were huge pushes or big hooks, neither of which will play.

It’s a work in progress and I will keep at it. I know a little bit more about exactly why drives are so important and plan on continuing the push.

Will dance with the one that brought me this weekend and keep stats on the round to help visualize where I am losing and gaining strokes. Looking forward to some competition.

17 Responses to "Fourth tourney season about to begin"

Richard Chen says:

March 26, 2015 at 6:31 am

It is said that golf is played between the ears. It means golf is a mental game in many ways. Almost a year ago, you started to hit many fairways, or close enough to the fairways to have clear approaches to the green.

There are players who can consistently hit perfectly straight drives right down the middle of the fairway. It is not hard, but everything have to be precisely correct for the perfectly straight drive down the middle: squared clubface at impact, clubhead straight into the ball at impact, contact at or very near the sweet spot of the clubface, and hands precisely even with the exact back of the ball at the precise moment of impact for neither late nor early hit on the ball so that the clubhead is level or very slightly swing up on the ball at the moment of impact. Mentally to able to visualize the positions of the clubhead and the clubface at the moment of impact that precisely is easy for the straight drivers, while it is not mentally easy for others. If the mental capabilities of hitting straight drives are not naturally there, great golf can still be achieved, as there are many mental approaches available.

Nicklaus said that it is (for him) the most difficult thing to hit a perfectly straight drive (right down the middle.) He mentally adopted to hit none straight drives as a result. He adopted to hit faded-drives as the basic driver shot. Hogan also in his later and greatest part of his career adopted the fade-drive shot.

While the faded-drive is considered to get less distance than the drawed-drive, top modern players can hit the power-fade-drive, which can still get great distances. The advantage of the faded driver is that it can be a more consistently accurate drive, as compared to the draw/hooked drive (when the perfectly straight drive is not naturally available to the given player.) This is because, the wrists and hands, specially the leading wrist, and hand, are firmer, more flat, quieter, and less active during the release, which makes the release simpler and easier to repeat in a consistent manner to produce consistently accurate faded drives.

In the power-fade drive, the foot work is faster during the initial part of the downswing to make up for decreased hand and wrist action during the release. In his first book, a photo is shown of a young Nicklaus playing on his high school basketball team. Basketball develops fast foot work in its players.

Nicklaus adopts a very upright backswing to reduce clubface angle change during the swing, which reduces timing needs to control clubface angle. A flat swing will involve more clubface angle changes during the swing, and greater timing needs to get the clubface into the proper position at impact. Faded drives makes timing easier, as there are less hand and wrist actions, as the hands and wrists are being “held off” essentially for all faded drives.
Richard Chen says:

March 26, 2015 at 8:55 am

The swing actions of the power-faded-drive and the power-drawn-drive can be compared by the following. Nicklaus in his video said that once he replanted his leading heel back to the ground at the beginning of the downswing, he swings all out right from the very top of the backswing. Woods in his book said that slow from the top of the backswing to the start of the release point, and then pour on the power.

In the power-fade-drive, fast foot work can be used to produce fast body downswing early in the downswing. In the power-fade-drive, the physics Law of the Conservation of Angular Momentum can additionally be used to speed up the body turn during the initial first part of the downswing without using any extra effort nor energy to speed up the body turn. Free body turning speed can be provided for free according to this physics law, which can be seen on many Youtube video clips by searching on Youtube “Conservation of Angular Momentum.”

In the power-drawn-drive, pouring on the power during the release means more of pouring on the hand, wrist, arm, and shoulder speed than exerting muscular power of the release. For fast release speed, the hands holds the club lightly so as to not overly tighten the arm muscles, which overly tight arm muscles can restrict hand release speed.

In the power-fade, it is still important for the release to generate good acceleration of the clubhead during the release phase by having the hands release fully with speed and power. The 3D formula can be used to ensure that the release is done fully while in control.

While Nicklaus swings his arms far away from his body during the backswing, he has his arms close to the body during the final release. This is analogous to figure skaters starting the spin with the arms stretched out at the start, and then pulling in the arms to the body to speed up the spin at amazing rates.

Some tour players post up their leading leg to gain speed, but some said this can cause severe knee injury over time like for some older players.

The ball will fly a surprising long ways when hit precisely on the sweet spot with good squared faces, and with decent clubhead swing paths.
Nickos says:

March 26, 2015 at 3:56 pm

Richard Chen, could you expand on that?
normand says:

March 27, 2015 at 5:08 am

Hi, Mister Richard Chen.

I got only two things to say.

First,

’’While the faded-drive is considered to get less distance than the drawed-drive’’

Wrong, a righthand player who hit a draw the rotation on the ball is going to be the same as a lefthand player who hit a fade. The ball does not know if your a righthand or lefthand player.

Second,

The tempo of a long iron is the same as a short iron. There are no difference between a tempo of a driver and a wedge. there are a difference in the feeling, the sensation is not the same.
Richard Chen says:

March 27, 2015 at 9:19 am

Normand,

Interesting. Kind of like some kind of Special Theory of Relativity of golf ball striking, but I tend to not agree. A fade (whether hit by right or left handed golfers) is struck with a slightly outside-in clubhead swing path with often a slightly opened clubface in addition, while the draw is struck with a slightly inside-out clubhead swing path coupled with often a slightly closed clubface in addition. Faders like Nicklaus tends to hit the ball very high, while drawers like Jones tends to hit the ball on a lower trajectory. A left-handed Nicklaus would still hit a high fade, which will not be like Jone’s lower flying draw. Bobby Jones in his video said he preferred to hit draws to get the ball to fly on a lower trajectory, so as to gain more control.

Even if the clubface is kept squared at impact, and not slightly opened for the fade, and slightly closed for the draw, in the fade the clubface is usually “held” squared through the hitting zone, while in the draw, the clubface is closing through the hitting zone. The clubface not closing through the hitting zone in the fade tends to result in a higher flying trajectory. The usually higher flying fade is not a mirror image of the usually lower flying draw. While low flying fades, and a high flying draws can be made, they are usually considered to be specialized and none standard fades and draws. The standard fade would be expected to fly higher than the standard draw.

I guess you are right about tempo, but I did not discussed tempo. Right or wrong, I think it is different between the driver and the wedge, although it can be made very close for players who have good sense of tempo. In the driver during the downswing from the top of the backswing, the clubhead travels downwards to less-downwards to slightly-downwards to level to slightly upwards before contacting the ball, while in the wedge the clubhead travels downwards to less downwards before hitting “down” on the ball. Weight shifting is not exactly the same between the driver and the wedge, and usually the ball positions at setup are different too. I would think the swing of the driver takes more time than the wedge being the driver clubhead travels a much longer distance than the wedge clubhead.

I agree that if someone naturally has a good sense of tempo, good tempo can be of great help. Players without good tempo should try to improve their tempo, although an alternate approach of using the 3D, 2D, and 1D formulas will accomplish the same thing as tempo for those not naturally good at tempo.

In my formula system, the driver clubhead is swung to one-third the ball distance, mid-iron clubhead is swung half way to the ball distance, and the short-iron clubhead is swung all the way to the target (1 divided by 3, 1 divided by 2, and 1 divided by 1 respectively.)

The formaulas will automatically take care of hitting an all out long drive versus hitting a safe and shorter regular drive. The tempo has to be slightly faster for the longer drive to get the utmost distance (for example to set up for reaching a long par five in two) as if the clubhead speed is increased, the swing will necessarily last a shorter time. D=vt. Clubhead distance equals velocity times time. For the same clubhead distance traveled during the downswing in the long and short driver shots, the greater the v, the smaller is t, while the slower v means longer t (v is velocity of the clubhead, and t is time of the downswing from the top of the backswing to ball impact.)
normand says:

March 27, 2015 at 9:39 am

hi again Mr Chen

If you take a high fade of Nicklaus you can’t compare with a low draw of Boby Jones but if you try to compare Nicklaus with a high draw of Phil Mickelson your going to have the same result. If you think I am wrong just take a trackman session.
DanPlancan says:

March 28, 2015 at 4:54 am

After a LOT of looking around I have found ‘Stroke Average’ to be the most efficient way of tracking shots / weaknesses and indeed knowing when to play to your strengths… Play the percentages of you will?

Another option is Game Golf, pretty amazing but like most tech products… There’s more stuffing around than is obvious from the outset (blogging on your phone anyone?).

There is something valuable about recording the details of each shot on a card (using Stroke Average) and I have found that it makes me take more interest in the finer details of whichever course I am playing.
Don’t be put off by the lo-fi website / pdf’s. You can print a scorecard / stat sheet and give it a go.

Also, slightly unrelated but I have been reading for about 1 year and it’s fascinating to see the progress. As a low marker, you’ve done what most will never do. Congratulations for taking the plunge and your achievements so far!

At the risk of putting Richard Chen out of a job, here’s some thoughts of mine…

Over the past year there have been a few things I wanted to comment on but never got around to it. So here they are… with a view of this critique being beneficial of course! I am a fan after all !

Your swing. You seem very stiff at setup. Your grip seems excessively strong and your right arm is in line with shaft which is unique these days. Your tempo also seems really fast (but you seem like a relaxed guy on TV). It looks like you can’t wait to see what the result is We all know Pro’s have had and still have some pretty crazy swings so I’m not sure it matters?

I don’t get a great deal from the fluff that appears in golf mag’s but once I saw an article showing ricki fowlers method of driving. He has 2 shots in the bag with that club. I have adopted this and it’s brilliant.

The standard shot is choking down 2 inches and moving the ball back a bit.. It’s basically a 3wood setup. Swings nice and easy of course… Something you don’t seem to do.

The other is a high tee, ball forward, strong grip, wide stance, lets himself sway a bit. It’s fun to do and I personally feel like the sway helps my rhythm on this shot, albeit proven not to be nearly as accurate. The distance sacrifice is negligible because I’m always hitting the sweet spot and getting the roll from the fairway. I have also started flexibility, strength and coordination exercises. I figure you must be doing these too? This might all seem a bit basic but if you can’t hit the fairway, basic is a great place to return to.

Also, when you changed your clubs and wedges I thought it was all too much change at once. You said your wedges were a strength of your game and then you completely changed grinds and shafts (!!!) and then spent weeks questioning them. As you are a low marker already I feel as though every change you make to get to acheiving 4 birdies, 12 pars each round should be subtle.

Surely changing the grind on your single most used wedge would have been the most valuable experiment? I know the tools make a lot of difference but I feel the guy that recommended these changes to you was wrong to do so. The results prove this.
It’s a two-way street with technique and equipment. One affects the other. I get the feeling you blamed your driver for not being the right combination of numbers. Like learning to drive different cars, I’m sure you could have adapted. All of the tech hasn’t helped yet either. As fascinating as it all is, you seem bogged down. If perhaps you didn’t have all this at your fingertips you could be more focussed? Although a special individual, Greg Norman was a scratch player in 18 months of starting (according to legend). I’m pretty sure he wasn’t worrying about hitting up on the ball using his flight scope. His focus was on becoming great. Consistently great. Reliably great.

Also, you should check your lofts etc every 6 months considering how much you play / practice… For piece of mind if nothing else…

Lastly, I agree with a bunch of posters that commented on just playing more comps around late last year. I don’t get a great sense of how much you play comps from your posts but surely it’s worthwhile constantly being exposed to the pressure at your level? Especially considering the goal. Perhaps you should employ a periodization table into your season (or maybe you do)?

All the best
Richard Chen says:

April 1, 2015 at 11:02 am

In general, the leading shoulder stays behind (or even) with the ball at impact for the Driver shot. The leading shoulder stays (significantly) in front of the ball at impact for iron and fairway wood shot. The leading shoulder forms the pivot for the leading arm to swing like a pendulum during the final release just before impact.

Leading shoulder in front of the ball, allows the irons to hit down on the ball. Leading shoulder behind, or even with the ball, allows the Driver to hit up or level with the ball. It is like a pendulum.

A closed or opened stance at Driver setup tends to more easily make keeping the leading shoulder back (or not in front of the ball) during driver impact.

There are variation between players, of course, in the position of the leading shoulder position at impact for the Driver. At the start of the final release, some may have the leading shoulder slightly in front of the ball, and then pulling the leading shoulder up and back so that by impact, the leading shoulder is back or at most even with the ball.

Too much weight shifting that cause the upper body to sway to the leading foot can result in the leading shoulder to be too in front of the ball for the teed up driver shot. This can increase the likelihood of pushing the driver.

In general, the ball is setup even with the leading heel, or with the leading insole for the driver setup.

According to Tour Tempo, there is a three to one ratio between the backswing and the downswing for the Driver swing, and there is a two to one ratio between the backswing and the downswing for the short irons.

For the driver shot of tour players, there are mainly the 21/7, 24/8, and 27/9 driver swing tempos. In the 21 to 7 ratio, the backswing takes 21 video frames, and the downswing takes 7 video frames for a total of 28 frames to perform both the backswing and the downswing for a video camera running at 30 frames per second. The complete backswing, and the downswing to impact take slightly less than one second (28/30 second.) The 27/9 swing is 36/30 second, which is slightly over a second.
Aaron says:

April 2, 2015 at 8:53 am

This comment was just left on The Sand Trap Forum by the co-author of Lowest Score Wins:
“If Dan McLaughlin wants to move to Chautauqua, NY for the summer, I will work with him – free – for four to eight hours per week.

He would be responsible for everything else (including any fees to play the courses there), but he’d have access to me, high-speed video, a SAM PuttLab, a FlightScope, a SwingCatalyst force plate system, and a great practice facility either at Chautauqua and at Golf Evolution in Erie, PA.

Dan cannot afford instruction, seemingly, and this would help him quite a bit with that when he arguably needs it most. I don’t want promotion on his blog or site (or in interviews, etc.). I would require that I can use photos and video to discuss what we’re working on here on TST.”

I think this is an amazing deal to consider…
Doug says:

April 2, 2015 at 9:55 am

^ provided he can afford to golf there?

LMAO@ Nikos

Mr Chen, what do you think about the offer for Dan to go to NY?

(prepares for the internet to break down…)
Vincent Rosenbalm says:

April 2, 2015 at 11:15 am

Yes winter and spring golf in Oregon is crazy with all kinds of bizarre weather and often bad greens but still fun. Competition is what really counts and your idea of doing more is very important if you want to reach playing at the top level. It takes sacrifice and hard work to take the game from the range to the course and most of all setbacks and troublesome rounds happen. Success is largely a matter of holding on and keep trying when everyone else gives up? I think you would love all the skins games and competition in Arizona in winter often many of the PGA tour pros, Web.com players are in the mix a good chance to compete. Very hard to win a skin, many times I would birdie the #1 or #2 handicap hole thinking I might win and someone else would birdie it , and then the next week when I did not play someone would win all the skins on the same hole Crazy I played about 6 or 7 events and did win a skin with a eagle, next winter I want to hit about 25 of these events and see if I can do better. I had someone call me yesterday for lessons in Arizona and if the weather gets crazy I may head back for another spell to escape this crazy spring in Oregon, so nice in February but we are paying now in April, but summer is just around the corner and Oregon has great courses. I got that competition bug too Dan and I need to step on the gas and get the engine running full speed. Keep up the pursuit and never back down to a challenge.
Geoff Dening says:

April 2, 2015 at 4:40 pm

“It was a blast and helped remind me of why I love this game. 8 guys out there despite the weather putting a little money on the line and enjoying a stormy competitive game together. Truly fun.”

That is what matters most Dan, congratulations. From your initial beginnings and the journey so far you have now became a golfer.
Rick says:

April 4, 2015 at 2:53 am

Mr Chen, How do I get a copy of your work? Your comments are amazing. newtonrick@hotmail.com
Erik J. Barzeski says:

April 8, 2015 at 4:53 am

I made the offer, and I stand by it. Dan, you need to work on your swing. Your short game. Your putting. Your approach to scoring. Most importantly, I think you need to understand how to practice. Maybe you do, but if I were a betting man, I’d bet you could improve mightily in that area.

You’re not going to get anywhere listening to Richard Chen.

A full membership to the Chautauqua Golf Club is ~ $1k, and I get nothing from that (so the offer wasn’t made with the idea that I’d get a kickback or anything). The membership to our indoor facility would be free.

Good luck. I hope you can find a way to re-charge the batteries a bit.
Blake says:

April 8, 2015 at 8:42 am

If Dan is really serious about achieving his goals, then the offer from Erik Barzeski is a no brainer. It will be hard to continue to take the 10,000 hour experiment seriously if he doesn’t take chances/opportunities like that one.
normand says:

April 10, 2015 at 3:00 am

HI Mr Rick.

I just want to know if your last name is Chen ???
Richard Chen says:

April 10, 2015 at 9:47 am

Hi Rick,

My eBook “Golf Slow Motion Picture Swing Secret of Effortless Long Shots” is being emailed to you for free under the email id of “aa f1040sche”.

Thank you for your interest.

This is a nine years old book, which covered only a single objective of controlling distance, long and short, for the Driver down to the short irons. It does not cover putting, chipping, nor much of directional control. The eBook version does not have the cover nor the back cover, which can be grabbed or printed from the “Look Inside” feature on the soft cover version listed on Amazon by searching with the book title there.

There are many other discussions on new aspects of the golf swing that are spread in many comments on the DanPlan blog website. These may be consolidated into another eBook with additional proprietary techniques, if there is time and interest for this, as I am currently tied down working on some smart phone software app.

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