Two golf tournaments and some tee shot thoughts

In the three days of practice/playing since crossing the half-way point of the 10,000 hours of deliberate practice I have already played two tournament rounds. In both of them I shot in the 70s (pretty easily, although the second round was a bit more of a scramble) but managed to hit just one or two good tee shots over the 36 holes.

As I mentioned in the last post, the mental game is going to be a crucial stepping stone over the next 5,000 hours. The first way I see that playing a role is through the ability to reflect on tournaments in order to analyze what went right and what I can do to improve upon the other areas.

Over both tourney days my game from 100 yards and in was solid. At worst I knocked it on and two-putted so I never made any big mistakes from close to the pin and very often got an up-and-down saving me from potentially large numbers. I putted extremely well on the first round and pretty good on the second. And, my short to mid irons were roughly average for where I currently stand.

What I can improve upon the most was tee shots. This is a common theme with me and one that I intend to consistently improve over the next four years. Starting today.

I had a good mindset going into the rounds and felt relatively relaxed. I also had decided to have an external focus and to visualize each shot before hitting them. I executed this well, but still managed to miss almost every single fairway.

Here is a list of how my tee shots faired:

DAY ONE: (this is at Riverside, but I started on the 13th hole for a shotgun)
1. driver high draw but right rough
2. driver push cut deep left
3. driver fairway hit
4. 3-wood push left trees
5. par 3 hit green
6. driver short snap-hook right trees
7. driver short low right rough
8. driver high push left rough
9. 3-wood straight through fairway left in trees
10. par 3 barely over green on fringe
11. driver topped about 150 yards out
12. 3-wood well hit but just through dogleg in rough
13. par 3 short in bunker
14. 3-wood hit fairway
15. driver push left in trees
16. driver barely left in rough
17. par 3 just right of green on fringe
18. driver short right in deep rough

I shot a 75 on the round despite having to punch out on about 6 holes. It was a scrambling day and one that could have easily been in the middle 80s had I not been having a good wedge and putter day. This is stressful golf and although it’s fun to be tested at times it’s also nice to have an easy ball striking day where the main concern is making putts.

The next round was at Langdon, which is pretty wide open except for a few holes where OB plays a role on one side of the fairway, and I actually managed to hit my tee shots worse. I didn’t really think that would be possible, but here is how tourney two went from the tees:

DAY TWO (I started on the 10th hole)
1. 3-wood right rough
2. 3-wood left hit cart path ended up in deepish rough
3. driver middle fairway but not well struck and only about 230 yards out
4. par 3 pulled right of green
5. 3-wood topped about 50 yards from tee
6. hybrid down the middle of the fairway
7. 3-wood topped about 100 yards
8. par 3 pulled hard right
9. driver hit deep but left rough
10. 3-wood left rough
11. driver down the middle in the fairway
12. par 3 hit green
13. driver left almost OB
14. driver topped about 50 yards from tee
15. par 3 slight pull right
16. driver pulled right in rough
17. driver hard pull right in 18 fairway
18. driver pulled right into bunker

I shot a 78 despite my tee shots wanting me to score in the high 80s and could have even been lower if I was putting well. I had a couple of 3-putts on the day, but technically they started from the fringe so are counted as 2-putts.

The point is that I need to hit more fairways. Over 36 tournament holes I hit the fairway with the driver 3 times (not counting when the ball was topped and barely past the red tees) and hit it once with the 3-wood. I had actively decided to hit the 3-wood more often as I thought I could be more consistent with it and neither course is overly long, but that did not prove to be the case. Both of those sticks continue to be a mystery to me and outside of the random round where I hit the driver well (maybe one out of 6 or 7 rounds) they consistently keep me from reaching my true golfing ability.

I recognize that this is where my time needs to be focussed right now, although admit that I am unsure exactly what I need to be doing. What I do know is that my tee-shot accuracy to date has not been improving at an acceptable rate so it’s time to start thinking outside the box on this one. Anything and everything will be considered. In the past year my iron striking and short game have gotten significantly better, but I have not improved out of the box.

Time to change this.

I decided to go to RedTail golf course in Beaverton today to get on the TrackMan and try out some different big sticks. I’m not necessarily saying that my gamer Titleist isn’t going to stay in the bag, but I haven’t specifically gone to hit a variety of drivers since before my Titleist days began about a year ago and I was curious what everything out there felt like.

After I warmed up we turned TrackMan on and I was very pleasantly surprised with my swing speed numbers. I haven’t been on a ball flight monitor since late 2013 and in the past I always struggled with getting my driver over about 102mph. To be honest, not being able to increase my swing speed has been one of my biggest golf fears. But, today I wasn’t trying to kill it and was getting this type of result:

driver numbers

That was a hugely pleasant surprise. With different drivers/shafts my swing was consistently between 108mph and 114mph. That has been my swing speed goal since day one and I think my mechanics work has been paying off as I felt like I was swinging with the same, if not less, effort as when I was topping out at 103mph.

Now I just need to start hitting up some on the ball and connecting solidly and we’ll be playing some good golf.

I tried out a number of drivers and found a few I liked, but before I go into all of that I’m going to demo them on the course for a couple rounds.

The interesting thing is that when I put the same shaft as my current driver in other heads I got the same result I get now: too much spin leading to a short drive. The guy there said my gamer shaft is for higher launch and higher spin, two things that I don’t tend to struggle with.

For now it’s back to work, this is a long exploration piece that involves a lot of work with both the swing and fine tuning the right club to match that swing. Will be posting as I figure things out.

“To improve is to change. To be perfect is to change often.”

9 Responses to "Two golf tournaments and some tee shot thoughts"

David says:

April 15, 2014 at 4:36 pm

Wow, Dan! I’ve followed you for over two years now and I have to say I am super stoked to see your swing speed numbers up that high. To me that was the Plan’s most obvious and potentially insurmountable obstacle. Now, the monitor does say Keegan Bradley on the screen so I hope you’re sure those aren’t his numbers by mistake

Also, you mentioned that was your first time using Trackman since 2013. Was that your Trackman? I thought maybe you sold yours since you haven’t mentioned it for a while.

Last thought…I like the shot breakdowns, but sometimes I’m left wondering about the shot’s intent. Like when you say “driver high draw but right rough” I don’t know if you meant to play a fade to the left side of the fairway. However, It’d be overkill to specify the intent and outcome of each shot, like “Topped it 50 yards. Meant 250 down the middle oops.”

Keep up the good work!
Dave Petersen says:

April 15, 2014 at 8:15 pm

I would not be surprised if as your long swing is rapidly evolving, with more degrees of freedom, the shaft fit isn’t changing rapidly also. However, I would also suspect that you’re in a creative tension, between finding a shaft to fit your swing, and learning to swing the shaft you are using. I suspect the club head fit is fairly stable. Fun stuff, thanks for taking us on the ride.
Chris says:

April 15, 2014 at 11:16 pm

Why does it say “Keegan Bradley Driver” at the bottom of the screen on the Trackman?
Richard Chen says:

April 16, 2014 at 6:34 am

Being that there have not been any real slow motion videos of the driver swing for quite a while, and that there is nil real live observations of the driver swing during actual play, only generality can be addressed.

The standard priority is to place the grip first. The starting point is to analyze the grip before proceeding to other aspects of the swing. While the grip is a somewhat individualistic thing, as hands differ between people, there are standard approaches to the grip. The grip is on the light side so as to swing the club fully during the final release. The fingers hold the club fairly lightly, as if to throw a baseball, or to pass a basketball. To increase control the last one to two fingers of the leading hand hold with a little more firmer pressure, which will tend to “lock” the bottom side ( the pinky side) of the leading wrist to being “flat” during the final release. The leading wrist is flat going through the release when the leading wrist does not form a cup with the forearm. With the pinky of leading hand being firmer and in control, the base (bottom pinky side) of the leading wrist and hand forms a pivot for the release turn. A flat leading wrist makes the leading hand, wrist, forarm, elbow, upper arm, and shoulder into a single firm unit in striking the ball with increased clubface angle, and clubhead path control during impact.

Many power drivers like Sam Snead, and Bubba Watson use a stronger grip position than the neutral grip position. When the clubhead travels at high speeds, there is less time to close the clubface during the release. A stronger grip position needs less rotation of the leading arm, elbow, wrist, and hand during the final release to square the clubface of the driver. Less “working” of the hands during the final release promotes control, accuracy and consistency.
thedanplan says:

April 16, 2014 at 8:04 am

Hi Chris,
I don’t know. I think he (the guy who set it up) just put that name in there to be funny. I don’t think that affects the results in any way. I noticed that, too. I’ll be going back to try out more and make sure there are no strange settings or anything.
thedanplan says:

April 16, 2014 at 8:05 am

Dave,
I agree. I definitely have a different swing/speed now than when I went down for my last fitting in January. Makes it a fun evolving game to make sure my driver shaft is keeping up with my swing.
thedanplan says:

April 16, 2014 at 8:08 am

David,
Good point about the shot breakdowns, I should add what I was trying to do or what the course was “asking” for to them in the future. Perhaps next time I will shoot video and say what I am aiming to accomplish before making the swing.
Re the TrackMan: The unit I had was a loaner and after about 15 months they needed it back so I sent it to them. The last time I had a TrackMan at my disposal was December 2013. Now I head to a local course to use one when I want to see some swing numbers.

Thanks!
Dan
thedanplan says:

April 16, 2014 at 8:09 am

I agree with that Ryan. Definitely not blaming the gear, but sometimes it’s nice to see what all is out there and swing some other stuff. If for nothing else than to affirm what’s currently in the bag.
Richard Chen says:

April 17, 2014 at 11:02 am

Part 2:

What is the primary purpose and goal of the grip? In project management, it is vital to set the primary goal (ie. purpose) to aim for. Accordingly, the grip has to fulfill some primary goal. The goal of returning the clubface back to square at impact can be considered to be the primary goal of the grip. A strong grip position makes it easier to return the clubface back to square at impact, while a weak grip position makes it harder to return the clubface back to square at impact. Obviously, these can be over done, as overly strong grip position can make it easier to overly close the clubface at impact, while overly weak grip position can make it easier to overly leave the clubface opened at impact.

Waggling can be considered as part of the gipping process. The waggle can considered a trial out of the grip in serving the primary function of squaring the clubface at impact. Most of today’s top players do not waggle, as Nicklaus do not waggle (although in his video, he did perform a few waggles before setting up.) During the development and learning phases, waggling can be of use.

Wagging is very good at the development of the ability to get the clubface back to square at impact consistently. When waggling, the golfer’s primary focus is to return the clubface back to square at the back of the ball. Squaring the clubface is the primary focus of the waggle. Do enough waggling, it becomes fairly instinctive to be able to return the clubface back to square at the back of the ball by impact. Waggling also provides many times extra practice of the wrist action to square the clubface. For example, if a player waggles twice before making the driving backswing, three times more practicing of the final release is being made, which can more quickly imprint the final release action needed to square the clubface at impact.

Obviously, if a player is already good at returning the clubface back to square by impact very consistently, waggling is no longer needed. If a player never (or almost never) pushes, pull, push-slice, pull-hook, nor duck hook the ball, the clubface is pretty square at impact almost all of the time, and waggling is unnecessary. When there are straight-pushes, and straight-pulls, and duck-hooks, the clubface is not squared at impact. (The “straight” in straight-pushes and in straight-pulls means the ball flies without curvature.)

A push (straight-push) shot is when the clubhead swing path is inside-out with the clubface opened at impact, and the clubface pointing in the direction of the push.

A pull (straight-pull) shot is when the clubhead swing path is outside-in with the clubface closed at impact, and the clubface poining in the direction of the pull.

A duck-hook is when the driver clubface is drastically closed at impact, producing a low diving hook that does go far as the ball dives down to the ground and into the rough a short distance from the tee. Additionally, since the clubface angle, and the clubface loft is linked, a severely close clubface at impact also mean the clubface loft is severely reduced, adding to the low diving trajectory of the ball.

Anytime, there are these pushing, pulling, and duck-hooks, it means that the clubface is deviating far from squared at impact (with the clubhead path being off as well with the push and pull, and most probably with the duck-hooks.)

Waggle is a good means to develop the instinctive ability to square the clubface by impact, no matter what the clubhead path is. It is instinctive to have the clubface pointing in the same direction as the clubhead swing path. For example, an inside-out swing is coupled with an opened clubface pointing in the same direction as the inside-out path, resulting in a pushed shot. Waggling can decouple that link, so that a squared face at impact can be produced from an inside-out clubhead swing path.

Waggling has the danger of promoting a consistent slice if done wrong. Most people will waggle back and forth along the target line. Instead the waggle should be fairly inside-out. This is because, at setup, both the hips and shoulders are fairly square and parallel to the target line, while at impact, the hips are fairly opened, and the shoulders may be slightly opened. Thus, waggling along the target line, rather than well inside the target line to out, will promote an outside-in clubhead swing path during the actual downswing, when the hips, as well as the shoulders, are opened from their square positions at setup. This effect had been explained in detail in a prior comment a while ago.

Having the clubface squared at impact consistently will eliminate pushes, pulls, and duck-hooks. Only when intentional hooking, slicing, drawing, and fading are called for, will the clubface be not squared at impact. Having a goal to square square the clubface at impact will decrease none squared face impacts. Waggling can be used to develop the instinct to square the clubface at impact consistently. Strong, weak, and in between grip positioning will help consistently squaring the clubface. Eliminating late and early hits promotes squared faces. Not swinging up (nor down but level with the ground) with the driver promotes square faces at impact.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply