1/9/2023 - 1/15/2023
Coming off the best round I’ve played in 6 months, I penciled in breaking Par by March. I knew what strokes I left out there and I’ve got the practice schedule to address each one. I’m ready.
My main focus for this week was to address these shots that keep tailing right.
According to Jon Sherman’s Four Foundations of Golf book, 75% of the ball’s starting line is due to club face and 25% is due to swing path. So if my ball is starting right and continuing to fade right, that means I have an open club face at impact and swinging out to in. Got it, let’s work on that.
3 of my practice sessions this week were specifically designed to give me a more closed face at impact; the Lead Wrist Drill and the Later Release Drill (which also helps with Fat Shots). Both of these I talked about in last week’s recap.
The more and more I do the Lead Wrist Drill, the easier it’s becoming and it’s giving me a more closed club face at impact. This is making me very happy.
Schedule Change
I woke up Wednesday morning, checked the weather and saw how beautiful it was going to be for a Winter day here in North Carolina. I then checked the number of vacation days I have left to burn for the Fiscal year (I had 3) so I grabbed a tee time, got the kids off to school and headed to the course, ready to break 80 for the first time ever.
I was playing as a single with a group of nice guys which gave me some breathing room not having any wagers on every hole like I do with my normal playing group. My opening tee shot on the 1st hold Par 5 was an absolute beauty and left me only 230 into the green.
The smart play would have been to use 2 shots to get to the green since the course was verrrrrry wet, but I was over confident in my ball-striking ability after having some effective and productive practice sessions on my very dry and very level hitting mat in my garage. My 4 iron put me in some nasty rough on the wrong side of a hill, but somehow I chipped the ball onto the backside of the green and left me an easy 2 putt 10 footer for Par. No harm, no foul.
The second hole is short Par 4 from the White tees, but I wasn’t exactly warmed up just yet so my ball sat down 70 yards short of the green in a little Rough patch that was more rough than I wanted.
This is the area of my game where I HAVE to be better if I’m going to get to single digits or even 0.0. The self talk I gave myself wouldn’t have even motivated a starving guy to get off a park bench to grab a free cheeseburger.
As you can imagine, my pitch only went about 30 yards and the lug nuts holding the wheels on, started to loosen just a hair.
I escaped with a bogey thanks to a 28 foot lag put that finished with in 2 feet. I’m +1 through 2 and I should be happy about that at this point, but I can already feel the pressure of breaking 80. That hole I had penciled in as a birdie hole.
The 3rd hole Par 3 is a simple 135 yard, smooth Pitching Wedge. But somehow, I four putted for a Double Bogey. Yes, four swings with a putter on a flat green surface.
80 was not looking good.
I made a good recovery with a Par on the 4th, but then I stepped up to the 5th tee box and put 2 balls OB right. Disgust. Pain. Denial. Anger. I felt all those things. Especially when I put another ball OB right on the 6th hole tee box. My dream was crushed just like my golfball when it got ran over by a semi.
I’ll spare you the rest, but it wasn’t pretty for the majority of the round. I did manage 3 birdies throughout the grind, but it was hardly enough to combat the 4 triples and slew of doubles and bogeys. At the end of the round, the card read 94 and I sat 10 strokes worse than I did after having put in more dedicated practice sessions since my last round.
Back to the Laboratory
Even after all the work I’d done on stopping balls flying right, it still wasn’t enough. So I continued working on my Lead Wrist Drill as well as experimented with a stronger grip.
I figured that if I need a more closed club face at impact, why not just start with a more closed club face at address. That was fun to play around with, especially with some of the extreme grips and near misses into the walls of my garage. I think I literally hit the toe of my 7 iron with one strike (not recommended).
I finally settled a grip that was definitely stronger than my normal one and has taken me a little bit to get used to it. But it’s leading to balls starting more left and finishing within my target area.
Attempt #2
Without having it on the schedule, I managed to get out on Sunday for another round this week. This is very rare for me to be able to play twice in a week so I’ll take it!
This time, I was armed with a better feel for my grip and awareness on keeping my lead wrist more flexed during the downswing. So how’d I fare?
While it wasn’t an 80, it was right in the middle of my last 2 rounds at a 90.
My driving was much more on fire and at times, I felt almost invincible with that club in my hand. With my stronger grip and better setup, I was able to swing freely and had front row seats to rocket launch after rocket launch down the middle of the fairway.
This game me so much confidence that I ordered The Stake System while driving home. I’ve heard tremendous things about doing this Speed training and how it can add an additional 20-30 yards, so if I’m already hitting putting it out there to an average of 275, I might as well push it and bring it up to 300 yards.
Putting Woes
So maybe I’ve neglected my putting practice because I’ve been so focused on improving my strike, but I didn’t think I would have fallen off the wagon like I did that day. Let’s just use it as a lesson and say it was a good wake up call.
In the charts above from my last round, you’ll see that I didn’t make a single putt from 3-5 feet (versus the average of 60%) and failed to reach the avg of 33% makes in the 6-9 foot range. But what’s worse is the number of 3 putts I had compared to a 7 cap. I just had no feel for the speed that day.
Where to Go from Here?
It’s simple. Stick to the process and add some time on the Putting Green. I also need to drastically improve my accuracy and strike when sitting 50-120 yards out. I’m being realistic and keeping my expectations in line with the numbers from Lou Stagner and Jon Sherman about how many greens I should hit from those distances, but I can tell you that it’s a lot more than I’m doing right now. Too many poor ground strikes and a lot of chunking is taking place.
The Stake System doesn’t get here until the end of the week so most likely I’ll but sticking to my original schedule for the week but of course, I’ll be hoping I can get another round in to keep honing my game.
Be sure to check out next week’s write-up as I’ll have my baseline numbers from The Stack System as well as a reveal of my upgraded $0 putter I’ve been using.
Hit em with intention!
Great data! Keep pushing.
Great data! Keep pushing.