My posts have been getting a tad lengthy, so I'll try to keep them short and sweet from this point forward. The weather last Thursday was remarkably warm, so I decided to play some golf. After shopping around, I settled on an afternoon round at The Royal Ashburn Golf Club. In my only previous visit to the club, a chilly affair late in the 2010 season, I registered a very poor score. Having gained some knowledge of the course and with better weather this time around, I was hoping for better.
I regret to report that my drives off the tee were not ideal. I hit about four that were nice; most notable was a high draw on hole #12 that travelled about 260 yards to the right edge of the fairway. This hole bends to the left, so a drawing tee shot is perfect. All of my misses with the driver were straight pulls. Clearly, I am having difficulty neutralizing my outside-in club path. With each practice swing, I tried to get the feel of the club head coming from the inside. Obviously, I have to practice more.
Despite the fact that I pulled many balls off the tee, it didn't hurt me that much. Some of these balls ended up just slightly in the left rough. Whenever I hit trees, I was in a position where I could at least chip back to the fairway. I did not pull any balls out of bounds or into water hazards. On a couple of occasions, I wisely left the driver in the bag, in favour of an iron off the tee. One of these was hole #3, a 486-yard par-5 with OB on the left and a creek that pinches in on the right. I hit a controlled 3-iron straight down the middle.
That was one of the few iron shots I hit well. Rather surprisingly, I hit a lot of irons very thin, sending the ball rolling along the fairway, instead of flying through the air. Mid-way through the round, I put the ball a little further back in my stance and reminded myself to swing down with the club, or to compress the ball between the club face and ground. This helped me get the ball airborne, but then I hit a couple of hook shots. My grip may have been a little strong, which leads to the club face closing up as the arms turn over. Just as I have a tendency to swing outside-in, I am inclined to set up with a strong grip.
My short game was hit and miss. On a couple of occasions, I hit very serviceable shots from the 30-100 yard range. These can be difficult because they are less than a full swing. However, there were some occasions where I came up way short of the green. Usually, these involved some sort of intimidation, such as a pond fronting the green on hole #8. A disastrous chip on hole #7, a par-3, lead to a terrible triple-bogey. The duffed chip attempt put the ball in a greenside bunker, where my sand woes continued. The best part of my short game was putting. I had a respectable 34 putts, with only two 3-putts.
In the final analysis, the imprecise driver and iron shots did not hurt me; what really cost me strokes were the miscues with the wedges and a complete inability to get out of bunkers. As a result, my score inched up to the century mark. As was the case with Tangle Creek earlier this year, my sophomore visit to a course produced a round that was not horrific, but just bad enough to reach the dreaded triple digits.
Score: 100
Putts: 34
Fairways: 4
Greens: 2
Penalties: 1
April 20, 2012
April 14, 2012
Bungled Bunkers and a Shaky Flat Stick
After a week and a half of balmy weather in mid March, temperatures
returned to seasonal, making GTA golf outings the exclusive purview
of hardcore players. With daily temperatures topping out in the
single digits, I opted to brush up on some golf theory, instead of
testing the weather gods.
My study was focused primarily on golf ball flight laws. I was interested in this particular field because of the ball flight tendencies I had observed recently when hitting my driver. The big stick seemed to produce two different ball flights; one was a pull-fade that started left, before curving back slightly to the target line, while the other was a straight pull that started left and carried straight as an arrow. I would try to execute the first shot every time, but every once in a while, the second flight path would result. As you can imagine, a straight pull like that can leave you in a very poor position.
Both flight paths are caused partly by an outside to inside swing path. No surprise there, I've known for a long time that my tendency is to swing the long clubs outside-in, or over the top, as some people refer to it. When the club face is square to this path, the result is the straight pull. When the club face is slightly open to this path, the result is the pull-fade.
One way to cure the straight pull is to keep the club face slightly open to the path, while leaving the swing path unaltered. This is fine, except when there is an obstacle left of the target line that prevents you from starting the ball in that direction. You also lose yardage on the pull-fade, or cut shot, as other people call it. If your swing comes really from the outside, the fade can also turn into a big old slice. A better cure is just to stop swinging from the outside-in. Ideally, one should be able to swing inside-outside-inside. In other words, the swing path is parallel to the target line at the moment of impact. This is easier said than done, but I simply must do it if I am to improve.
With these thoughts sunning through my head and the weather getting a bit better, I headed out to Granite Ridge Golf Club. I played the Cobalt course, which is the site of my best golf round ever, a 10 over par 82. If memory serves me correctly, that was from the white tees (5,962 yards), while this time I played from the blues (6,480 yards). It's funny, because at just under 6,500 yards, the course does not feel long at all to me. Length is not a major factor to me; shot quality is much more important. After all, a bad shot is a bad shot; if it's made from the white tees, it's still going to hurt you.
I got off to a pretty good start with a par and three bogeys on the first four holes. I popped up my drive on the first hole as a result of teeing the ball up too high, but followed up with good drives on hole #2 and #4. Hole #3 is a par-3, so obviously the driver stayed in the bag. The drive on hole #2 felt particularly good. The entire left side is out of bounds, so the straight pull would be disastrous. I practiced an inside-out swing path and visualized the club being square to the path at impact. Sure enough, the ball started slightly to the right and stayed straight, coming to rest about a yard into the right rough. It was encouraging to see that I could actually make that swing.
Hole #5, a par-3 measuring 151 yards resulted in a triple-bogey, but I played it mostly well. The tee shot must carry the edge of a pond to a green that is surrounded by water front, right and back. Adding to the danger, the entire left side is out of bounds. I hit an 8-iron the perfect distance, but perhaps two yards left of the green. The problem is that space is occupied by a paved cart path. My ball took two big bounces on the path, propelling it near the out of bounds fence back and left. The only way to get a swing on the ball was to put my back to the green, close the club face severely and chip the ball to where I could get a clear swing. My third shot was a Mickelson-esque flopper that came to rest on the green, but well left of the flag. A speedy putt went past the hole, leaving a testy comebacker, which I missed.
The remainder of the front nine produced a couple of pars and a couple of double bogeys. On hole #6, a beautiful 4-iron off the tee travelled 215 yards to the centre of the fairway, leading to par. On hole #7, the straight pull off the tee reared its ugly head, but that is the place to miss on that particular hole. I sliced a 5-wood into a pond on my second shot, hence a double-bogey. Another 3-putt was the cause of the double-bogey on hole #8, after my driving got back on track. A chip and a putt saved par on the final hole.
After a bogey to start the back nine, I hit 4-iron from the tee on hole #11. Again, I hit a pure beauty. The ball travelled 222 yards to the centre of the fairway. Oh baby! Too bad I hit my 52 degree wedge thin and pulled it into a bunker. From that moment on, bunkers absolutely killed me. I hit my first bunker shot fat, failing to get out. I hit the lip on my next attempt, but fortunately the ball travelled near the hole, enabling me to save double-bogey with a 2-putt.
On hole #12, I was in the greenside bunker after two shots. I shanked one across the green, forcing a chip and two putts for another double-bogey. Following a par on hole #13, I was once again in a greenside bunker after two shots on hole #14. Two shots were required to get out, leading to yet another double-bogey.
On hole #15, a par-5 that I consider the toughest hole on the course, I was yet again in the greenside bunker, this time after three shots. I overshot the green, then chipped on. A 3-putt finished things off for a triple-bogey. This was so disappointing, because my two first shots on the hole were spectacular. With out of bounds on the right side, I played the patented pull-fade to perfection, sending the ball to the middle of the fairway. Then, I hit a super controlled 5-iron to the middle, leaving just 130 yards to the green. Why I pulled my pitching wedge into the bunker from there is beyond me.
I had one more bad hole before the day was over, a triple-bogey on hole #17. My approach from the middle of the fairway was a push-slice that found water. I also 3-putt the hole. On a positive note, I made par on the final hole, a par-4. In fact that hole featured the only good bunker shot I made all day. The reason? It was a fairway bunker! From 130 yards out, I went straight at the flag at the front of the green. The ball just carried a bunker fronting the green and left a 12 foot uphill putt for birdie. I missed it, but the hole was well played nevertheless.
So at the end of the day, I shot 96. I calculate that I lost 4 strokes due to poor bunker shots, and another 4 shots due to poor lag putts. Had I been able to control those, this would have been a round of 88, which is where I really think I should be. The ball flight theory seemed to help me out. Now I need to practice bunker shots and focus a little bit more on putting.
Score: 96
Putts: 37
Fairways: 5
Greens: 4
Penalties: 2
My study was focused primarily on golf ball flight laws. I was interested in this particular field because of the ball flight tendencies I had observed recently when hitting my driver. The big stick seemed to produce two different ball flights; one was a pull-fade that started left, before curving back slightly to the target line, while the other was a straight pull that started left and carried straight as an arrow. I would try to execute the first shot every time, but every once in a while, the second flight path would result. As you can imagine, a straight pull like that can leave you in a very poor position.
Both flight paths are caused partly by an outside to inside swing path. No surprise there, I've known for a long time that my tendency is to swing the long clubs outside-in, or over the top, as some people refer to it. When the club face is square to this path, the result is the straight pull. When the club face is slightly open to this path, the result is the pull-fade.
One way to cure the straight pull is to keep the club face slightly open to the path, while leaving the swing path unaltered. This is fine, except when there is an obstacle left of the target line that prevents you from starting the ball in that direction. You also lose yardage on the pull-fade, or cut shot, as other people call it. If your swing comes really from the outside, the fade can also turn into a big old slice. A better cure is just to stop swinging from the outside-in. Ideally, one should be able to swing inside-outside-inside. In other words, the swing path is parallel to the target line at the moment of impact. This is easier said than done, but I simply must do it if I am to improve.
With these thoughts sunning through my head and the weather getting a bit better, I headed out to Granite Ridge Golf Club. I played the Cobalt course, which is the site of my best golf round ever, a 10 over par 82. If memory serves me correctly, that was from the white tees (5,962 yards), while this time I played from the blues (6,480 yards). It's funny, because at just under 6,500 yards, the course does not feel long at all to me. Length is not a major factor to me; shot quality is much more important. After all, a bad shot is a bad shot; if it's made from the white tees, it's still going to hurt you.
I got off to a pretty good start with a par and three bogeys on the first four holes. I popped up my drive on the first hole as a result of teeing the ball up too high, but followed up with good drives on hole #2 and #4. Hole #3 is a par-3, so obviously the driver stayed in the bag. The drive on hole #2 felt particularly good. The entire left side is out of bounds, so the straight pull would be disastrous. I practiced an inside-out swing path and visualized the club being square to the path at impact. Sure enough, the ball started slightly to the right and stayed straight, coming to rest about a yard into the right rough. It was encouraging to see that I could actually make that swing.
Hole #5, a par-3 measuring 151 yards resulted in a triple-bogey, but I played it mostly well. The tee shot must carry the edge of a pond to a green that is surrounded by water front, right and back. Adding to the danger, the entire left side is out of bounds. I hit an 8-iron the perfect distance, but perhaps two yards left of the green. The problem is that space is occupied by a paved cart path. My ball took two big bounces on the path, propelling it near the out of bounds fence back and left. The only way to get a swing on the ball was to put my back to the green, close the club face severely and chip the ball to where I could get a clear swing. My third shot was a Mickelson-esque flopper that came to rest on the green, but well left of the flag. A speedy putt went past the hole, leaving a testy comebacker, which I missed.
The remainder of the front nine produced a couple of pars and a couple of double bogeys. On hole #6, a beautiful 4-iron off the tee travelled 215 yards to the centre of the fairway, leading to par. On hole #7, the straight pull off the tee reared its ugly head, but that is the place to miss on that particular hole. I sliced a 5-wood into a pond on my second shot, hence a double-bogey. Another 3-putt was the cause of the double-bogey on hole #8, after my driving got back on track. A chip and a putt saved par on the final hole.
After a bogey to start the back nine, I hit 4-iron from the tee on hole #11. Again, I hit a pure beauty. The ball travelled 222 yards to the centre of the fairway. Oh baby! Too bad I hit my 52 degree wedge thin and pulled it into a bunker. From that moment on, bunkers absolutely killed me. I hit my first bunker shot fat, failing to get out. I hit the lip on my next attempt, but fortunately the ball travelled near the hole, enabling me to save double-bogey with a 2-putt.
On hole #12, I was in the greenside bunker after two shots. I shanked one across the green, forcing a chip and two putts for another double-bogey. Following a par on hole #13, I was once again in a greenside bunker after two shots on hole #14. Two shots were required to get out, leading to yet another double-bogey.
On hole #15, a par-5 that I consider the toughest hole on the course, I was yet again in the greenside bunker, this time after three shots. I overshot the green, then chipped on. A 3-putt finished things off for a triple-bogey. This was so disappointing, because my two first shots on the hole were spectacular. With out of bounds on the right side, I played the patented pull-fade to perfection, sending the ball to the middle of the fairway. Then, I hit a super controlled 5-iron to the middle, leaving just 130 yards to the green. Why I pulled my pitching wedge into the bunker from there is beyond me.
I had one more bad hole before the day was over, a triple-bogey on hole #17. My approach from the middle of the fairway was a push-slice that found water. I also 3-putt the hole. On a positive note, I made par on the final hole, a par-4. In fact that hole featured the only good bunker shot I made all day. The reason? It was a fairway bunker! From 130 yards out, I went straight at the flag at the front of the green. The ball just carried a bunker fronting the green and left a 12 foot uphill putt for birdie. I missed it, but the hole was well played nevertheless.
So at the end of the day, I shot 96. I calculate that I lost 4 strokes due to poor bunker shots, and another 4 shots due to poor lag putts. Had I been able to control those, this would have been a round of 88, which is where I really think I should be. The ball flight theory seemed to help me out. Now I need to practice bunker shots and focus a little bit more on putting.
Score: 96
Putts: 37
Fairways: 5
Greens: 4
Penalties: 2
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