Verdict is in

I put my fitted driver, 3-wood and 3-hybrid back in my bag today after a three week break from them where I was trying out other clubs and I couldn’t have been happier with the results they brought in. Playing a revenge round out at Columbia Edgewater (CECC, where the tournament was earlier this week) I shot an easy 79. Sure, the course wasn’t set up nearly as hard as it was in the tournament and the wind wasn’t blowing quite like Tuesday and Wednesday, but the difference was very eye-opening. I hit 50 percent of fairways (that’s 7-14 as there are 4 par 3s) and three of my misses were just a foot off the fairway where I still had a shot at the green. Compared to my tourney rounds where I hit just 4-28 fairways and had only two misses that left me a line on the green, it is a no-brainer which clubs are right for me.

In retrospect, it could have been seen as a mistake to go with gear that was not professionally fit for me during the tournament round, but this was an experiment and in the long run it will both build confidence in my clubs as well as calm a potentially wondering mind when gear is being considered. I am not the kind of person who blindly follows the crowd in any aspect of life, and seeing as I had only ever swung one brand of club I needed to know what other options were out there.

My coach told me, via text, that this was a bad idea if I ever wanted anything from Nike again. I think it should be seen as a positive for them and potentially a good marketing tool. By going out there and trying a handful of the other top manufacturers’ woods and ending up sticking with the Nikes it shows that they are both high-quality clubs and the best fit for me. They are the clubs that have been fit for my swing and have proven to provide the best results after a lengthy test of some other sticks. To be completely forthcoming, Nike has provided the majority of my gear to date including clubs, balls, shoes and other apparel. I deeply appreciate this relationship and love playing with all of my Nike gear, but have not signed any contract or been officially sponsored by anyone so I am allowed to play/practice with whatever I would like to try. Until the day arrives where someone offers me a contract to play their gear, I think it makes perfect sense to keep an open mind and weigh all of my options while pushing myself to become the best golfer I can possibly be. I’m naturally a curious person. It is curiosity that spurred me to take on this quest and if testing my options has caused me to lose a ticket to free gear then I guess that is the price that I will have to pay. I do, however, think that good things can come from this.

Today’s round was just icing on the cake. My irons were a bit off so I had a lot of long lag putts and ended up three-putting three holes and then made a double on 16 because an aggressive (and awry) approach on the 450 yard par 4 left me stymied, but the rest of the round was just about hitting fairways and greens in regulation. I know that it’s not the same playing a casual round with a group of guys for a small wager as it is playing in a regional amateur tournament, but I couldn’t buy a straight drive earlier in the week. My swing, I promise, was the exact same during the tournament; the results just were not what they could have been. Granted, if I had had the X driver fit for me it probably would have worked better, but my Nike fits my swing and works when I do what I am suppose to do with it.

I’m more confident in my clubs now. I needed to see what else was out there to quiet the inquisitive mind inside my head. In the end, though,the swing is what controls the driver. I’m not blaming my results from the tournament on the gear and there is no way to know what would have happened with my fitted clubs, but confidence is key and that just went up a notch. I’m playing in the Forest Hills amateur on September 22-23, guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens then. It’s on a similar course to CECC (so I hear, I have never played it) and I will be doing my best to do my best.

19 Responses to "Verdict is in"

williamevanl says:

September 15, 2012 at 7:32 am

I’m not sure why you are scapegoating the equipment so much in the first round of +20 you might have lost 4 strokes due to your driver (and maybe 2 to your 3 wood)… but the clear majority was irons and short game.

hole one: hit driver fine
hole two: hit three wood fine
hole three: hit driver (made par)
hole four (hit hybrid) took first bogey
hole 5 (hit hybrid) took par
hole 6 (hit 3 wood) took double bogey
hole 7 (hit hybrid) took a double
hole 8 Driver left rough (one stroke due to driver)
hole 9 Driver left (2 strokes due to driver)
hole 10 (3 wood ) one stroke
hole 11 (5 iron) (4 over!)
hole 12 (hit driver had par)
hole 13 (missed left driver ) (3 strokes due to driver)
hole 14 (driver cost a stroke here but irons are what killed you 7 iron long, 5 iron then hit ob, next iron short
hole 15 Hit driver made par
hole 16 hit driver made par
hole 17 par (par three)
hole 18 hit driver made par

Driver maybe cost you 4 strokes (out of 20)
3 wood (2 strokes)
williamevanl says:

September 15, 2012 at 7:43 am

Round two seemed to have any less to do with your driver. It’s primarily your iron shots but a lot!

First dropped shot, couldn’t hit iron in from 138
second dropped shot (3 wood off the deck)
third dropped shot failed to get nine iron on from 140
fourth dropped shot, couldn’t get up and down from 65 yards
fifth dropped shot (Clearly from driver had to punch out sideways)
sixth dropped shot bunker shot hit too short
seventh dropped shot was unablet to ge up and down from 75 yards
eight dropped shot (Again driver in water)
9, 10, 11, dropped shots (failure to get on green from 210 yards)
12th, failed to get up and down from 65 yards
13th and 14th shot (had 180 in, iron in hand and took 5 shots from there)
15 and 16th (140 yard par three 9 iron in hand took 5 shots!)
18th (failed to get up and down from 80 yards)
dan says:

September 15, 2012 at 7:56 am

William,
Irons cost me a good bit on those rounds, too. Everything was off and I don’t wish to blame the gear.
C Poe says:

September 15, 2012 at 8:01 pm

No offense William, but I’m not sure you understand how dropped shots work. If I hook a drive and am stymied, punch out to 80 yards and make a bogey, that’s a dropped shot from the drive not from the irons. Not getting up and down from 80 yards isn’t a problem with the irons (look at tour numbers from that distance). And claiming that holes where he used a hybrid aren’t shots lost to the woods is just as incorrect: if the woods were staying in play he wouldn’t be using a hybrid.

Getting balls in the fairway will make a huge difference. Keep working on your long game Dan. Looks like your putting and scrambling are decent, but you’ve got to be consistently in the fairway. Someone with your length isn’t going to overpower a course, accuracy is the name of the game.

Keep working hard, your progress is great to watch.
dan says:

September 15, 2012 at 8:35 pm

Hi C Poe,

Thanks for the encouragement. Definitely will be working on fairways and accuracy over the remaining 2/3 of the project as well as always fine tuning it around the green.

Have a great one,

Dan
Donnie O says:

September 15, 2012 at 10:17 pm

Nice round Dan!

Glad to hear you have the proper tools back in the bag

I’m a successful poker pro today, but I got beat down when I first came to town (Las Vegas). It took countless hours of studying the game to get really good at raking in the chips. My first couple of years, I really struggled. I almost gave up. Luckily I didn’t, and along came a guy named Chris Moneymaker, (he won the World Series in 2004), and set off the biggest poker boom in history. The financial boon that followed for me was incredible!

The lows, are fantastic learning experiences. As your mastery of the game culminates, you will look back and see just how valuable the “hard-knock” lessons are.

Good luck next week! , I can hardly wait to read about your rounds!
dan says:

September 15, 2012 at 10:41 pm

Hi Donnie,

Thanks for the comment! Your story is inspiring. I am definitely keeping it up and plan on breaking through these low-level struggles via experience and a bit of sweat. Nothing teaches you like falling flat on your face, as long as we are willing to pay attention and learn from the experience.

Glad you got to ride the poker wave during the crazy past 8 years, I’m sure the competitions are completely different than they used to be.

Take care and keep in touch,

Dan
williamevanl says:

September 15, 2012 at 11:51 pm

C poe, no offense taken but I don’t think you followed my post at all, when Dan hit a shot and ended up stymied I counted that as a stroke lost to the driver. I do believe though that there should be a different mindset around not being able to get up and down from ~75 yards out.

And I was looking at the tour average for just that earlier today.
Richard Chen says:

September 16, 2012 at 10:06 am

Tour average are averages of players with much more over ten years of hard playing experiences, so it is expected that players with much over ten years of hard playing to have a better short game than a player with no more than two years of playing. Even Jones, who started playing at ten, went through seven lean years before hitting the seven fat years. There are some new geometry principles to develop a super short game and putting quicker, but time is needed to develop the instinctive touch, which some people have more off like it is said that Jones had a great ability to judge distance.

It was playing under fairly windy conditions (which may have dried out the greens to really harden the greens) which may have made pitching with the wind hard to hold the greens to getting down in two from 75 yards in.

Tour greens are usually super well kept and roll true, which is not always the case on regular courses, specially at some poorly kept public courses. Bumpy greens make putting to save par from any thing more than a tap in distance not that easy.

Still, with less time to perfect the short game, more pressure is placed on getting good tee shots to avoid having to depend on the short game. It is said that Nicklaus does not have a super short game, because he doesn’t get enough opportunities to having the need to play them. In the early and prime years, he used a slightly shortened driver of half inch less, and he often used less than a driver such as a long iron off the tee to gain accuracy and consistency.

It is easier and faster to develop a great tee shot than a great short game at this stage, IMO.

(1) The tee shot is always from played from “perfect” lies, as it is allowed to hand place the ball up on a tee anywhere between the tee markers and within two club lengths behind the line between the two tee markers to get “perfect” lies. In the short game, the ball has to be played as it lies almost all of the time, and those lies are usually not perfect, and often very bad.

(2) The tee shot is almost always played from a flat lie, excepting on some public courses with poorly kept teeing areas, or that use temporary none flat teeing areas. The short game often has to played from sloping lies.

(3) The tee shot is played with a single distance objective, which is long. The tee shot can be usually somewhat shorter or longer without causing any stroke lost. The short game has a great variation of distances to be hit to, and an overly long or short shot usually results in the lost of stroke(s).

Using a 4-wood over a 3-wood may be of advantage both off the tee, off the fairway (for getting to shorter par-fives in two,) and from the rough. While the 3-wood is “safer” than the Driver off the tee, the 4-wood is even “safer” than the 3-wood (except where there are tall trees with high branches hanging over the fairway.) The 4-wood with more loft can be hit down more on somewhat poor lies off the fairway. The 4-wood can be pressed and delofted with enough hand lead to get a lot of distance up to around 260 fairly easily without much side curvature.
jack says:

September 16, 2012 at 6:40 pm

Richard,
Who is the Jones you are referring to? Bobby Jones? Also, what are these geometry principles that can lead to a super short game?
phil says:

September 16, 2012 at 7:33 pm

hi Dan in the modern day now more than ever EQUIpMENT IS EVERYTHING.the pros spend HOURS AMONG HOURS Trialing new stuff all the time. even the pros say just changing a shaft, not the brand, head shape,grip or length. just the stiffness can totally change your flight reaction and bounce so much it feels like a different club.which can totally change your mentality during a round. BEFORE your club change or experimenting u will always have a WHAT IF mentality,WHAT IF i used this driver i could get 10 more yards or WHAT IF i use this i can get more height to clear those trees. know you’ve tried different clubs and reliased your nikes are the best clubs for u. The WHAT IF we all have about our equipment can be put out of your mind. Now u can play at ease knowing u can totally rely on these clubs i see good things on the horizion for u keep it up dan your an inspiration to us all. well at least to the non haters anyways
dan says:

September 16, 2012 at 7:40 pm

William,

I blocked your comment about Richard. I don’t mind what you say about me, but this isn’t an open forum to attack others and if you post other negative comments concerning fellow posters I will have to block your comments from the site.

The 3-hybrid was a demo club, too.

Thank you and sorry for having to block the comment, I just don’t want nastiness towards others on here, that’s not the point of the project and I don’t see a need for it. Say what you will about me, but leave others be.

Dan
dan says:

September 16, 2012 at 7:52 pm

Hi Phil,

It’s all about confidence in your gear. You are right on about the “what ifs” and now that I know I can move forward with even more confidence in everything I do.

Hit them straight,

Dan
Richard Chen says:

September 16, 2012 at 8:15 pm

It’s him. One of the geometric principles for the putter, wedge, and the short irons is that a perfectly squared club face at impact establish parallel lines that “brings” mathematically a distance hole to the equivalent of being a few feet away.

Complementing this parallel lines bring a hole mathematically close with a square impact, is that a square impact with a putter is more important than the stoke direction of the putter. This can be demonstrated with the following test with short puts of three to four feet. First put the ball about one to two hole widths to the right of the hole with a stroke path and the putter face pointing to the right of the hole. Setup with another ball with the putter face pointing to the actual hole, while still aiming the stroke path to the right of the hole as before. Since the ball will go in the direction of the putter face rather than in the direction of the putter stroke path, the put can be made even the path of the putter is towards the right of the hole. Thus, the line of the stroke can be fairly off, the put can still be made if the face is squared to the target. This test shows that squareness of the club face at impact is more important than the accuracy of the stroke direction.

Most people spend time trying to perfect the stroke path of the put, and not much time on the perfection of the squareness of the putter face at the moment of impact. Obviously, both should be as perfect as possible, but the squareness of the face at impact to the initial line is more significant as demonstrated in the above test. The reason is not only the ball will be influenced more by the face angle at impact than the stroke direction (which do have some less influence, as the small friction during contact of the face with the ball can drag the ball off line from an offline stroke path and impart some small spinning force,) but that the parallel lines established from a perfectly square impact mathematically makes a lone put the equivalent to a short put (assuming a perfectly flat and perfectly smooth surface.)

The parallel lines of a very squared contact applies to chips, and short to medium pitches also to mathematically bring the hole virtually closer with perfectly squared contacts.

As the shots get longer, the ball is compressed more and more by the club face during impact, which adds more friction between the clubface and the ball, that can seriously effect the direction due to dragging, and the curvature of ball flight due to side spin, if the stroke path (club head swing path) is off. As the shot gets longer, the stroke path become more important.

The next key factor of the short game is distance control. It was mentioned in literature that Bobby Jones had exceptional ability in this regard. In his video made from a film he made in Hollywood, he was demonstrating various ways of hitting to the green from 150 yards away of high shots, low shots, punched shots, and even running up shots that stopped fairly close to the pin of various five to twenty feet away. He was supposed to be very good at long lag puts.

There are geometric principles that can be used for distance control from wedge length shots to full drives, but it is a long story and will not be discussed here.
williamevanl says:

September 17, 2012 at 7:54 pm

Jeezi Dan, joking that someone can’t break 80 isn’t really nastiness or an ‘attack’. Just a joke.
David says:

September 18, 2012 at 1:36 pm

Hey Dan, you’re a very gracious site host. Its admirable that you take the time to respond to as many comments as you do. Do you think at some point you will either stop reading/responding to them or shut the comments down altogether? I ask because potentially it seems to be an additional obstacle in the mental warfare that is golf. Not to discredit any aspect of your mental game either… but in my opinion, I would hate to have a negative thought (swing thought, criticism etc.) that I read the night before creep in during a multi-round tourney and cloud things any further than necessary. Just my 2 cents.

Either way, I’m pulling for you out here in Philadelphia. Glad your swing is recovering well with the fitted clubs. I’m certain the high scores from the tournament will be indicative of squat as your journey continues to unfold.

blessings,
dave
Lee says:

September 19, 2012 at 5:04 am

Hi Dan,

As you probably know, several popular golf sites have threads dedicated to your pursuit. As with everything, you have supporters and detractors, and there is a comment in this thread from someone who has been ‘anti-DanPlan’ for quite some time, with the writer going as far as to say that your HC is not legitimate, etc. Of course, anyone willing to do just a tiny bit of looking around knows your HC is totally legit, but some people find it necessary to tear others down for whatever reason. I know that won’t affect you mentally, but just know that there are tons of people that are firmly in your corner.

As for the poor tournament results, it happens. If I remember correctly, prior to Sergio challenging Tiger in the PGA championship years ago, Sergio had gone out and posted a pair of mid 80′s scores in some big event. If one were to attempt to deduce Sergio’s skill level from that showing, they’d reach the conclusion that Sergio would never be a competent weekend golfer, much less an accomplished professional. The point should be obvious.

Arriving at a legitimate six handicap in two years is quite an accomplishment. Some will point to the number of hours you’ve put into golf, but there is a certain element to the game that takes some calendar time, regardless of hours, to reach a personal comfort level. Looks to me like your getting there, and I wish you the very best of luck in achieving your goals.
Will says:

September 21, 2012 at 6:24 am

Hi Dan,
I noticed that you haven’t updated your “Gear” section of the website. Could you update it with the specs of your clubs?
Also, I do agree with you that trying out new clubs and going back to the Nike’s is a great endorsement for them.
I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you, but don’t be discouraged by the negative feedback. Of course golf is hard, everyone knows it and I feel like people are trying to break you down. Keep up the good work!
Marcus Valdes says:

October 2, 2012 at 3:23 am

Hey Dan,

I’ve taken up archery and read that the Korean coaches (world’s best arguably) have a saying: “Teach them to shoot 1300 (minimum score for most elite archers) and then tune the bow.” I think this may apply here as well. You are on track to make terrific progress. I think you need to focus on the basics ONLY until you are a scratch golfer before you start worrying too much about equipment. Along the same lines, I’ve heard some incredible guitar players make beautiful music on a “garbage” guitar. It’s all about the basics for you at this point in my opinion. Keep at it, you are doing great. I believe in the 10,000 hours!

My $.02,
Marcus

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