A new ballstriking combine based on the Whitworth Course at Trophy Club CC. You will need a maximum of 40 balls.
**CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD COMBINE**
Scoring System:
Drives:
Acceptable: Par
Unacceptable: Bogey
Approach Shots:
Lands within 4 paces of target: Birdie
Lands within 10 paces of target: Par
Lands outside of 10 paces: Bogey
Layup Shots:
Acceptable: Par
Unacceptable: Bogey
Wednesday, December 6, 2017
Tuesday, December 5, 2017
12/5/17 - Ball Striking Combine Beta - Trophy Club CC - Hogan Course
Hello, below is a link to a project I've been working on to give golfers something productive to do on the range. The concept is basically a guided audio tour of a course broken down into all the shots you will need to hit hole by hole. Over 17 minutes the golfer will hit 40 balls and score himself based on the proximity of where the ball lands relative to described targets. All feedback appreciated.
**CLICK HERE FOR BALL STRIKING COMBINE**
**CLICK HERE FOR BALL STRIKING COMBINE**
Friday, December 1, 2017
12/1/17 - How to “play” golf - FMF
More thoughts inspired by Steven Yellin’s Fluid Motion Factor program:
Since you can only hit one shot at a time, “playing” golf requires you to ask yourself two questions repeatedly, what and why. The first question to ask yourself is what do you want? We know we ultimately cannot control where the ball will stop, so the best we can do is give ourselves an honest plan for the shot based on our abilities and experience. I want to hit this 7 iron low into the wind and keep it a little right of the pin. Once you feel that what you want is reasonable, you can then release control and allow your body to try and do the plan on autopilot. After the swing, it is important to then ask why the shot was ok or not ok.
More often than not, if the result was ok, the “why” was because you had a good plan and you allowed your body to carry it out within a reasonable margin of error. Sometimes you get an ok result without a reasonable plan, this is called luck. Congratulations, weird stuff happens, you just experienced an anomaly! It is fun to get away with a shot, but we all know this to be inconsistent at best.
If the shot was nothing like the plan, then it is critical to go down the rabbit hole for the true why. This to me is the thesis of Steven Yellin’s Fluid Motion Factor program. A golf industry challenging thesis, but one based in reality. If you intended for a low 7 iron right of the pin but received a low snap hook into the left bunker, most people will immediately say, “Dang, didn’t clear my hips” or “I just can’t keep that face open”. From a Trackman, physics based perspective they are correct. If you set Iron Byron up to hit balls with a dead shut face and a super in-to-out path, you would be illogical not to simply reposition the robot to create the desired straight shot. But since we are maleable, imperfect meat and bones based entities controlled by chemicals and electrical impulses, the answer for why we snap hooked the ball is more complicated than mere physics assuming one is capable of hitting the desired shot most of the time on the driving range.
Steven argues the real why has to do with noise from the logical part of our brain getting in the way of the part of your brain which allows you to walk without telling the legs how to move. Our plan for the shot may have been reasonable, we felt comfortable over the ball, but when we pulled the trigger and the boat was leaving harbor, all of the sudden we think to ourselves, “oh wow I sure hope I don’t look stupid and pull it in that bunker”, or “man if can just hit this one close, then I can re-hammer these pidgeons and really make some money”. At that moment, a traffic jam is created in the electrical signal highway going to your muscles. Just enough of a disruption is created to cause the muscles to act erratically and produce a result contrary to the plan.
So in one sense, you really have no control over where the ball will ultimately stop, but you absolutely have control over the ability to not create the traffic jam. Take the time to prepare an honest proposition to what you want before every shot, enjoy the moments you allow the body to attempt the plan without further instructions, and take note of the times you sabotage the plan while it is underway.
Since you can only hit one shot at a time, “playing” golf requires you to ask yourself two questions repeatedly, what and why. The first question to ask yourself is what do you want? We know we ultimately cannot control where the ball will stop, so the best we can do is give ourselves an honest plan for the shot based on our abilities and experience. I want to hit this 7 iron low into the wind and keep it a little right of the pin. Once you feel that what you want is reasonable, you can then release control and allow your body to try and do the plan on autopilot. After the swing, it is important to then ask why the shot was ok or not ok.
More often than not, if the result was ok, the “why” was because you had a good plan and you allowed your body to carry it out within a reasonable margin of error. Sometimes you get an ok result without a reasonable plan, this is called luck. Congratulations, weird stuff happens, you just experienced an anomaly! It is fun to get away with a shot, but we all know this to be inconsistent at best.
If the shot was nothing like the plan, then it is critical to go down the rabbit hole for the true why. This to me is the thesis of Steven Yellin’s Fluid Motion Factor program. A golf industry challenging thesis, but one based in reality. If you intended for a low 7 iron right of the pin but received a low snap hook into the left bunker, most people will immediately say, “Dang, didn’t clear my hips” or “I just can’t keep that face open”. From a Trackman, physics based perspective they are correct. If you set Iron Byron up to hit balls with a dead shut face and a super in-to-out path, you would be illogical not to simply reposition the robot to create the desired straight shot. But since we are maleable, imperfect meat and bones based entities controlled by chemicals and electrical impulses, the answer for why we snap hooked the ball is more complicated than mere physics assuming one is capable of hitting the desired shot most of the time on the driving range.
Steven argues the real why has to do with noise from the logical part of our brain getting in the way of the part of your brain which allows you to walk without telling the legs how to move. Our plan for the shot may have been reasonable, we felt comfortable over the ball, but when we pulled the trigger and the boat was leaving harbor, all of the sudden we think to ourselves, “oh wow I sure hope I don’t look stupid and pull it in that bunker”, or “man if can just hit this one close, then I can re-hammer these pidgeons and really make some money”. At that moment, a traffic jam is created in the electrical signal highway going to your muscles. Just enough of a disruption is created to cause the muscles to act erratically and produce a result contrary to the plan.
So in one sense, you really have no control over where the ball will ultimately stop, but you absolutely have control over the ability to not create the traffic jam. Take the time to prepare an honest proposition to what you want before every shot, enjoy the moments you allow the body to attempt the plan without further instructions, and take note of the times you sabotage the plan while it is underway.
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
11/29/17 - Thoughts on confidence in golf from FMF perspective
What is confidence? Confidence is an irrational, delicate ember based on a delusion of control. You can’t create it so enjoy it when it arises.
The way to foster confidence is to see repeated examples of correlation between silence and quality of shot.
The bellows to the ember of confidence is seeing repeated examples of the correlation between silence and quality. There are no masters of fire, all you can do is foster the flame.
Sunday, November 26, 2017
11/27/17 - Let go.
I haven't written a post in a while because quite frankly I haven't had much to say. I've been spinning my tires searching for that one magic swing thought or training aide to catapult my playing career to the next level. Following a recent layover in Orlando, I am thrilled to report my golf journey and overall understanding of the sport has undergone a paradigm shift. I never could have imagined how important a 6" veggie sandwich from Jersey Mikes would be to my future as someone trying to control physics for a living.
No matter your faith, it certainly is interesting how every so often it seems the universe presents an opportunity to cross paths with someone at the exact right time and place. Luckily for me, I was recently afforded such an opportunity to meet with Steven Yellin at a chain sub restaurant in Orlando. Upon recommendation from a friend, I read Steven's book, Fluid Motion Factor, for the first time about a year ago when trying to quiet my mind during competition. At the time I found the book fascinating from a biomechanical and neurological standpoint, but I unfortunately filed it away in my mind as an over complication of an already complicated game. I returned to relentlessly beating balls on the range, watching every available YouTube lesson online, and trying out every swing instructor in the DFW area. I am thankful my desperation from poor performance lead me to re-read the book and schedule a lunch meeting with Steven.
At the restaurant, Steven and I briefly discussed my inability to consistently play to my capability and he recommended I take part in his online Fluid Motion Factor program. He was not pushy about the salesmanship aspect of it, but told me I would become much more consistent. After lunch, Steven invited me to shadow a lesson with one of his mini tour players. It was unlike any lesson I had ever witnessed, with a dejected student morphing into a supremely confident ball striking machine in about 15 minutes. The student reminded me a lot of myself, coming to the range tight, mechanical, and basically one more bad round away from abandoning the dream altogether. Steven worked with the student on a series of what he calls "Fluid Cues" to unleash the effortlessly powerful, smooth swing lurking within all players of a certain level. After the apparent complexity of the book, I was amazed by the simplicity of instruction. I saw the student's body language change almost immediately as he was reminded of his potential by the abstract exercises. I didn't know exactly what was taking place in the student's mind, but I knew enough to see this was no placebo effect. I went home, signed up for the program, and it has been the most liberating decision I've ever made for myself in golf.
Here's the jist of the program without giving away any of the secret sauce:
- If you are happy with how you hit the ball on the range most of the time, your swing is good enough, and it is time to work on learning to access your potential more consistently on the course
- Every shot requires a plan created by the logical part of your brain followed by infused silence to allow the mechanical part of your brain to do its thing on autopilot
- The exercises in the program teach you on an incrementally powerful level to let go of control over the swing as the crispest, most fluid, powerful, accurate shots will come when the realization is made that logic or consciousness is not the captain of the ship
- Intentions not Directions consistently guide your golf ball to its target in a spooky, almost spiritual way
If you are frustrated by your inability to consistently do what you know you are capable of on the course, I can't speak highly enough of the Fluid Motion Factor system. This is not woo-woo hippie stuff, this is a seriously powerful bridge between the mind and body that is tragically not taught to all golfers from a young age. In just a few weeks, I have already had several "zone" experiences on the course and in practice. Steven's drills allow you to learn the core elements of the program in an interval system. Each set of "Fluid Cues" help the golfer gain a deeper and stronger understanding of the mindset required to play your best. The most liberating aspect of the program to me is seeing the correlation between quality of shots and the quality of silence in the mind. This correlation has shown me that my current swing, short game technique, and putting stroke are good enough to shoot great scores. What's even better is that my best shots and putts come when I'm in the passenger seat, letting the mind control the muscles without any input from yours truly. I know it sounds too good to be true but please give it a try, I am so thankful I did.
No matter your faith, it certainly is interesting how every so often it seems the universe presents an opportunity to cross paths with someone at the exact right time and place. Luckily for me, I was recently afforded such an opportunity to meet with Steven Yellin at a chain sub restaurant in Orlando. Upon recommendation from a friend, I read Steven's book, Fluid Motion Factor, for the first time about a year ago when trying to quiet my mind during competition. At the time I found the book fascinating from a biomechanical and neurological standpoint, but I unfortunately filed it away in my mind as an over complication of an already complicated game. I returned to relentlessly beating balls on the range, watching every available YouTube lesson online, and trying out every swing instructor in the DFW area. I am thankful my desperation from poor performance lead me to re-read the book and schedule a lunch meeting with Steven.
At the restaurant, Steven and I briefly discussed my inability to consistently play to my capability and he recommended I take part in his online Fluid Motion Factor program. He was not pushy about the salesmanship aspect of it, but told me I would become much more consistent. After lunch, Steven invited me to shadow a lesson with one of his mini tour players. It was unlike any lesson I had ever witnessed, with a dejected student morphing into a supremely confident ball striking machine in about 15 minutes. The student reminded me a lot of myself, coming to the range tight, mechanical, and basically one more bad round away from abandoning the dream altogether. Steven worked with the student on a series of what he calls "Fluid Cues" to unleash the effortlessly powerful, smooth swing lurking within all players of a certain level. After the apparent complexity of the book, I was amazed by the simplicity of instruction. I saw the student's body language change almost immediately as he was reminded of his potential by the abstract exercises. I didn't know exactly what was taking place in the student's mind, but I knew enough to see this was no placebo effect. I went home, signed up for the program, and it has been the most liberating decision I've ever made for myself in golf.
Here's the jist of the program without giving away any of the secret sauce:
- If you are happy with how you hit the ball on the range most of the time, your swing is good enough, and it is time to work on learning to access your potential more consistently on the course
- Every shot requires a plan created by the logical part of your brain followed by infused silence to allow the mechanical part of your brain to do its thing on autopilot
- The exercises in the program teach you on an incrementally powerful level to let go of control over the swing as the crispest, most fluid, powerful, accurate shots will come when the realization is made that logic or consciousness is not the captain of the ship
- Intentions not Directions consistently guide your golf ball to its target in a spooky, almost spiritual way
If you are frustrated by your inability to consistently do what you know you are capable of on the course, I can't speak highly enough of the Fluid Motion Factor system. This is not woo-woo hippie stuff, this is a seriously powerful bridge between the mind and body that is tragically not taught to all golfers from a young age. In just a few weeks, I have already had several "zone" experiences on the course and in practice. Steven's drills allow you to learn the core elements of the program in an interval system. Each set of "Fluid Cues" help the golfer gain a deeper and stronger understanding of the mindset required to play your best. The most liberating aspect of the program to me is seeing the correlation between quality of shots and the quality of silence in the mind. This correlation has shown me that my current swing, short game technique, and putting stroke are good enough to shoot great scores. What's even better is that my best shots and putts come when I'm in the passenger seat, letting the mind control the muscles without any input from yours truly. I know it sounds too good to be true but please give it a try, I am so thankful I did.
Monday, July 31, 2017
7/31/17 - Year One Review Video
Click Here for Year 1 Review Video (img_5355.mov)
Not sure how to make this more seamless. For now if you'd like to see the year 1 Review video, click the link above and click on the img_5355.mov option at the page you are routed to.
Not sure how to make this more seamless. For now if you'd like to see the year 1 Review video, click the link above and click on the img_5355.mov option at the page you are routed to.
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
6/27/17 - Practice Round - Bridlewood Golf Club
An audio tour of the back tees at Bridlewood Golf Club in Flowermound, TX.
Friday, May 26, 2017
5/26/17 - Finding my "Deal"
Hello from Roanoke, TX, hope this finds everyone doing well and enjoying life. When I quit my job last August in pursuit of my dream of playing golf professionally, I knew I had a long way to go to be competitive on the Mini Tours, let alone the PGA Tour. Five consecutive missed cuts later, I feel as though I have traversed the parking lot and reached the information kiosk at the base of the mountain I intend to climb. It took me a bit to get here as I parked the car in the back row to keep people from dinging the door. Now that I've reached the information kiosk with a nice illustration of the birds and snakes I might encounter along my hike, I feel slightly more worthy to make a judgment of the scale of the mountain before me. And from here it looks a bit more daunting than it did from the parking lot, and I'm not sure I've got the proper footwear. No I'm not quitting, I just need to run back to the car for a few things.
In order to start gaining any kind of ground, I need to find my "deal". While crossing the parking lot, I was able to do a bit of people watching on my fellow dreamers. It is immediately evident which guys know their "deal" and which ones are still finding it. The guys that know their "deal" have their rations portioned, boots strapped, and avalanche shovel shined up and ready to go while others arrive at the base of the mountain in gym shorts and flip flops. The guys that know their "deal" have a chance to reach the summit, unfortunately there is no gondola for the other goobers.
Moving away from the trite mountain analogy, the bottom line is guys that know their "deal" are consistently able to "play the game" in competition. They may not always play well, but they are always playing while others are dodging bullets while herding cats. I've not yet been able to consistently and tangibly describe what it means in my own game to just "play golf", but I've been able to observe plenty of examples of others doing it. To non-golfers, it probably sounds horkus dorkus and redundant for a golfer to learn how to "play golf" but I assure you, the game is hard enough when played with a confident approach, let alone with any kind of doubt. The best description I can give of the on-course demeanor of those "playing golf" is a perfectly calm, balanced mental teeter totter between care and don't care. People who are able to operate in this emotionless, logical balance are only able to do so because they've worked out a set of truths about their game through productive practice, effectively eliminating a barrier of doubt others face on each shot. It is as though they are operating at a deeper level of consciousness and playing a much easier version of the game. They already know how far they will carry their clubs within a couple yards, they know where their miss is going to go, and more importantly where it's not going to go, they know their general trajectory with each club, and they know where to place the ball on each hole for the best probability of success given their style. People that know their "deal" have built such a solid operating system that they are able to almost conjure each shot from their body as if pushing a button. This "base note" or "stock shot" occurs purely from muscle memory at at low level of conscious thought, freeing the rest of their brain to create the artistry required to counteract variables such as wind and terrain. It is a hard-wired piece of software that a club will put a ball through a certain window at a certain yardage, and there are redundant surge protection systems in place that free the player up even more knowing they will get the ball up and down in the unlikely event of a missed green. Operating with true belief in this level of mastery of physics, it is much easier to find that balanced teeter totter between care and don't care. People in this zone have done the homework, and are rationally pointing and clicking on the screen where they want the ball to go. They realize they are human and the ball might only go exactly where they click once or twice per round, but the mentality is the same every time no matter the outcome, even if terrible. These folks have figured out how to turn 3-D chess into checkers. It's like a Broadway star that takes his show on the road. He's already committed the choreography and lines to memory, he just has to unfurl them in Toledo instead of New York, no big deal. Meanwhile his equally talented, less experienced understudy's stomach is churning and mind is racing at the thought of having to fill in at the last minute.
So what do I need to do to find my "deal"? I'm working on it....
In order to start gaining any kind of ground, I need to find my "deal". While crossing the parking lot, I was able to do a bit of people watching on my fellow dreamers. It is immediately evident which guys know their "deal" and which ones are still finding it. The guys that know their "deal" have their rations portioned, boots strapped, and avalanche shovel shined up and ready to go while others arrive at the base of the mountain in gym shorts and flip flops. The guys that know their "deal" have a chance to reach the summit, unfortunately there is no gondola for the other goobers.
Moving away from the trite mountain analogy, the bottom line is guys that know their "deal" are consistently able to "play the game" in competition. They may not always play well, but they are always playing while others are dodging bullets while herding cats. I've not yet been able to consistently and tangibly describe what it means in my own game to just "play golf", but I've been able to observe plenty of examples of others doing it. To non-golfers, it probably sounds horkus dorkus and redundant for a golfer to learn how to "play golf" but I assure you, the game is hard enough when played with a confident approach, let alone with any kind of doubt. The best description I can give of the on-course demeanor of those "playing golf" is a perfectly calm, balanced mental teeter totter between care and don't care. People who are able to operate in this emotionless, logical balance are only able to do so because they've worked out a set of truths about their game through productive practice, effectively eliminating a barrier of doubt others face on each shot. It is as though they are operating at a deeper level of consciousness and playing a much easier version of the game. They already know how far they will carry their clubs within a couple yards, they know where their miss is going to go, and more importantly where it's not going to go, they know their general trajectory with each club, and they know where to place the ball on each hole for the best probability of success given their style. People that know their "deal" have built such a solid operating system that they are able to almost conjure each shot from their body as if pushing a button. This "base note" or "stock shot" occurs purely from muscle memory at at low level of conscious thought, freeing the rest of their brain to create the artistry required to counteract variables such as wind and terrain. It is a hard-wired piece of software that a club will put a ball through a certain window at a certain yardage, and there are redundant surge protection systems in place that free the player up even more knowing they will get the ball up and down in the unlikely event of a missed green. Operating with true belief in this level of mastery of physics, it is much easier to find that balanced teeter totter between care and don't care. People in this zone have done the homework, and are rationally pointing and clicking on the screen where they want the ball to go. They realize they are human and the ball might only go exactly where they click once or twice per round, but the mentality is the same every time no matter the outcome, even if terrible. These folks have figured out how to turn 3-D chess into checkers. It's like a Broadway star that takes his show on the road. He's already committed the choreography and lines to memory, he just has to unfurl them in Toledo instead of New York, no big deal. Meanwhile his equally talented, less experienced understudy's stomach is churning and mind is racing at the thought of having to fill in at the last minute.
So what do I need to do to find my "deal"? I'm working on it....
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
3/14/17 - Adams Event #1 Wrap Up
Hello future me and interested readers. Here's what happened at The National Golf Club of Louisiana in Westlake, LA for Adams Event #1 3/6/17-3/11/17.
Drove from Dallas to Westlake on Monday before event for practice round. Made notes on pre-made yardage book (primarily green contours and where various clubs/shots traveled). Ate dinner with Neal Ajubita at Luna Grille in downtown Lake Charles where I learned there is apparently a crab moratorium in LA due to overfishing. Regardless of the lack of crab, I achieved a burger and fries much to Neal's chagrin (he called me a northerner). After dinner we briefly visited with our host who was a friend of a friend. Our host showed us to our domecile which was quite choice with a full kitchen, beds, and lakefront access including fishing gear and fishing lights (attract fish at night). I caught a 14" speckled trout with a spoon and Neal caught a similarly sized Redfish on the same lure.
Tuesday was rainy so we worked out in the AM and got a 9 hole practice round in the afternoon. We got lunch at a restaurant where I was laughed at by the server for asking for a side salad. Afterward we went to the grocery store to acquire pb&j essentials and other salty treats. Upon returning to the lake house, we packed lunches for the week and watched the rain.
Wednesday, I arrived at the course 1 hour before my 8:40 tee time in order to prepare myself for the day. It was cold and windy. It took longer than I thought to get all my stuff together for the day (mark your golf balls with a sharpie, gather appropriate layering clothing from the hang bar in the RAV4, assemble your push cart, heed nature's call) so I need to prepare for these things going forward. After slashing some balls on the range and rolling some putts I walked over and met my playing partners Eric and Mike. I hit the ball nicely for the majority of the first round, sticking to the game plan and the yardage book. I hit a couple of big misses out to the right early into our back nine which caused some unfortunate scores. Overall the ballstriking was solid, short game was medium, and mental game was medium on the way to a 76. I tried to show off with driver on one hole which was illogical and lead to a double bogey which was the most glaring mental mistake.
Thursday, I hit it on the green on all par 5's in 2 shots, playing them in -5. I made a total of 5 birdies and 1 eagle en route to a 73. This means that I had a feast or famine round where I was either doing cool stuff or bad stuff. I need to learn how to turn the bad stuff into medium stuff then I'll be rocking. I shot +5 for the event and missed the cut by 9 shots. I was on the wrong end of the tee time draw (playing early day 1/ late day 2), but the guy who ended up winning was in the same wave. I did however hear an unsubstantiated claim that 90% of those making the cut played late/early. Who knows, I don't like excuses. I made a couple of overly aggressive decisions in moments of turmoil, did not take advantage of some situations, and showed hubris in another. These are moments I will remember and avoid in the future.
My ballstriking as a whole was solid thinking about the racketball move and clearly visualizing the target moments before pulling the trigger, in some instances even muttering the intended target to myself before the shot. The rule of 12 produced some great chip shots including a chip in, and overall pitching/putting left something to be desired. Putting with the right hand only was surprisingly accurate and I think I'll pursue it on left to right putts to make sure the toe beats the heel of the putter to the ball to avoid missing these putts low.
After the event, I drove to New Orleans to stay at Neal's apartment until this week's event. I plan to apply the lessons learned from last week to this week's event. Looking forward to it.
Drove from Dallas to Westlake on Monday before event for practice round. Made notes on pre-made yardage book (primarily green contours and where various clubs/shots traveled). Ate dinner with Neal Ajubita at Luna Grille in downtown Lake Charles where I learned there is apparently a crab moratorium in LA due to overfishing. Regardless of the lack of crab, I achieved a burger and fries much to Neal's chagrin (he called me a northerner). After dinner we briefly visited with our host who was a friend of a friend. Our host showed us to our domecile which was quite choice with a full kitchen, beds, and lakefront access including fishing gear and fishing lights (attract fish at night). I caught a 14" speckled trout with a spoon and Neal caught a similarly sized Redfish on the same lure.
Tuesday was rainy so we worked out in the AM and got a 9 hole practice round in the afternoon. We got lunch at a restaurant where I was laughed at by the server for asking for a side salad. Afterward we went to the grocery store to acquire pb&j essentials and other salty treats. Upon returning to the lake house, we packed lunches for the week and watched the rain.
Wednesday, I arrived at the course 1 hour before my 8:40 tee time in order to prepare myself for the day. It was cold and windy. It took longer than I thought to get all my stuff together for the day (mark your golf balls with a sharpie, gather appropriate layering clothing from the hang bar in the RAV4, assemble your push cart, heed nature's call) so I need to prepare for these things going forward. After slashing some balls on the range and rolling some putts I walked over and met my playing partners Eric and Mike. I hit the ball nicely for the majority of the first round, sticking to the game plan and the yardage book. I hit a couple of big misses out to the right early into our back nine which caused some unfortunate scores. Overall the ballstriking was solid, short game was medium, and mental game was medium on the way to a 76. I tried to show off with driver on one hole which was illogical and lead to a double bogey which was the most glaring mental mistake.
Thursday, I hit it on the green on all par 5's in 2 shots, playing them in -5. I made a total of 5 birdies and 1 eagle en route to a 73. This means that I had a feast or famine round where I was either doing cool stuff or bad stuff. I need to learn how to turn the bad stuff into medium stuff then I'll be rocking. I shot +5 for the event and missed the cut by 9 shots. I was on the wrong end of the tee time draw (playing early day 1/ late day 2), but the guy who ended up winning was in the same wave. I did however hear an unsubstantiated claim that 90% of those making the cut played late/early. Who knows, I don't like excuses. I made a couple of overly aggressive decisions in moments of turmoil, did not take advantage of some situations, and showed hubris in another. These are moments I will remember and avoid in the future.
My ballstriking as a whole was solid thinking about the racketball move and clearly visualizing the target moments before pulling the trigger, in some instances even muttering the intended target to myself before the shot. The rule of 12 produced some great chip shots including a chip in, and overall pitching/putting left something to be desired. Putting with the right hand only was surprisingly accurate and I think I'll pursue it on left to right putts to make sure the toe beats the heel of the putter to the ball to avoid missing these putts low.
After the event, I drove to New Orleans to stay at Neal's apartment until this week's event. I plan to apply the lessons learned from last week to this week's event. Looking forward to it.
Sunday, March 5, 2017
3/5/17 On the road again
Hello! I'm sitting here on the back patio of Trophy Club CC watching a deluge, so I thought I'd record some recent memories and observations from my trip to Florida as well as my preparations for the Adams Tour season beginning tomorrow in Westlake, LA.
FLORIDA
I spent a significant chunk of last month staying with friends and family while competing in Florida. I played the PGA Winter Series Stroke Play Event in Port St. Lucie, and some cash games/ 2 Moonlight Tour Events in Orlando. Cathy and Jack O'Neill, (my sister in law's grandmother's cousin- how awesome is that!) graciously hosted me in Port St. Lucie for the 4 day stroke play event with 36 hole cut. I played a stress free first round bogeying 2 of my last 3 holes to shoot -3 69. I was committed to my targets all day long and putted well after randomly deciding to set everything up on the toe of the club (seems to counteract my natural slash motion across the ball when under pressure). The second round started smoothly until the evil little man in my head decided to remind me of the 36 hole cut. Approaching the 9th tee still 3 under par for the tournament, I crushed my 3 wood on the straight away 430 yard downwind 9th hole. The ball traveled nearly 300 yards and I was left with one foot on the cart path bisecting the split fairways. The ball was sitting up nicely and I probably could have hit the ball, but I decided to take free relief from the path to avoid injury. The nearest point of relief was behind the path in a sliver of rough on a severe downslope. I dropped the ball in a divot and proceeded to skull the shot into a pond right of the green and made double bogey. My flaw here was that I felt entitled to a better position in the fairway after a great drive and I allowed my frustration to manifested itself in a poor thought process which proved a costly error. I should have taken more time to see if I could have hit the ball as it lied without hurting myself or taken more time to understand what to do to give myself the best odds out of the divot on the downslope. Hooray learning experiences!
The wheels continued to wobble as I made the turn to the back nine. Hole 10 is a straight away 390 yard par four with a lateral hazard down the left side of the fairway and trees/bunkers on the right side. The fairway is relatively wide but narrows significantly about 300 yards off the tee. Still reeling from making double bogey from 130 yards on 9, I decided to play ultra conservatively on 10 to make sure I didn't get any more bad breaks by hitting the ball too far. This conservatism while well intentioned resulted in a tentative swing and a borderline shank 3 hybrid. I couldn't believe this was happening again. I was cruising along playing so well and had now allowed one bad break on 9 to carry over to 10. My disaster of a drive left me in the fairway bunker on 18 roughly 180 yards from the pin. With a perfect 6 iron I theoretically could have covered a grove of tall palm trees with brush underneath in line with the pin but any slight mishit could have been a lost or unplayable ball. I was furious and decided to chip out sideways back to the proper fairway. I was so mad I randomly chose a 52 degree wedge without much commitment to a target for the routine chip out and I bladed the ball directly toward the hazard on the left side of the fairway. The ball miraculously hit the 1 inch lip of the cart path bordering the hazard which rebounded the ball back in the fairway. I laughed, shrugged, and tried to re commit to my targets for the rest of the round. I limped in with a 78 but ended up making the cut by several shots. It was amazing the change of mentality between the free wheeling first round and the hold on for dear life second round. Looking back I learned a lot about staying in the moment and not getting emotional about bad breaks. After making the cut, I returned to a relaxed style of play and finished the remainder of the event 1 under par. This was my first 72 hole event and I am very thankful for the experience.
I crashed with a high school friend in Orlando for a week or so following the Port St. Lucie event. Orlando is like Mecca for mini tour players. Many aspiring professionals hone their skills on one of Florida's developmental mini tours. Between The moonlight tour, west florida golf tour, swing thought tour, florida professional golf tour, and a few others, you can basically play a competitive event every day. Florida golf is considered to be some of the most difficult anywhere in the world because the wind often blows pretty hard, the courses have lots of water hazards, you get a lot of mud balls in the fairway, many of the chip shots around the greens are from wet surfaces into severe grain, and the ball doesn't travel as far due to the humidity. Coming off a relative success in Port St. Lucie, I decided to tee it up in a couple Moonlight tour events. The field and I shot a million in the first event as the wind blew a constant 35 with gusts to 45. The winning scores was 75 in a field of 30 legitimate plus handicaps where the winning score on a calm day would have been 65. I played with a great guy from Korea with a beautiful golf swing but after 9 holes in the hurricane winds, he said to me in broken English and a wry smile that he would like to end the game. I would have ended the game too but I'm cheap and wanted to at least see the back nine. It was brutal and would have been unplayable if the greens were any faster. I'm not sure what I learned from the event other than a bit more patience could have gone a long way.
The weather for the second event was a bit more reasonable and I was able to cash a check with a score of -2 70. I learned the value of a good green reader thanks to the help of "Tee Time" a buddy of a buddy with one of those cool young kid short on the sides long on top comb over style Justin Beiber haircuts. Tee Time calmly pointed to a spot where I needed to roll the ball, and I made way more putts than I usually would on a new-to-me course. You never know who you will be paired with in these Florida mini tour events, as big names like Kevin Na, Sean O'Hair, and Ty Tryon will routinely play on off weeks to keep their game sharp. In the second event, I was paired with Emanuele Sesia, an Italian who played on the Palmer Cup and caddied for Matteo Mannasero at the Masters. He had a powerful high draw motion and a super rad wool sweater that I imagined was from a 19th century Italian loom although it could have been from TJ Max. He was a cool guy with a great golf swing and I remember thinking that he sounded a lot cooler cussing his ball in Italian than I do in English. He also said, "AHHHHHH BAGGIE!!!" when he made a "bogey" which made me chuckle.
BACK TO TEXAS
For the past couple weeks I've been doing all I can do to get ready for the Adams Tour Season. The Adams Tour is a 14 event regional mini tour played in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Missouri. Playing well on the Adams Tour doesn't qualify you for bigger and better things, but if you are cashing checks, you are playing some good golf and getting ready for the next level. If you can win on the Adams Tour, you can win on PGA Tour Canada or PGA Tour Latinamerica which is the next rung up on the way to the big dog tour. The Adams tour events are scheduled with Web.com and PGA Tour qualifiers in mind so players can kill two birds with one stone while in a region of the country. For instance, I will be attempting to qualify for the Web.com event in Alexandria, LA following the Adams Tour event there earlier that week. And by attempting to qualify I mean making it rain birdies. My first goal for 2017 is to make a cut on the Adams Tour which requires 2 solid rounds. Depending on the difficulty of the course and playing conditions, the 36 hole cut is usually anywhere from even par to 6 under par. Here's the full Adams Tour schedule in case you want to check it out and send me and my boy Neal Ajubita some positive mojo.
https://agpts.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/agpt17/schedule/index.htm
Golf swing wise, I've been working hard to find a comfortable swing thought to allow me to make a repeatable, technically sound swing which eliminates the left side of the course. After searching for a while and listening to some advice from some great friends and fellow PGA pros, I finally melted everything together into what feels like a figure 8 motion to me. Lee Trevino's golf swing is my favorite and after watching lots of youtube on him, I was inspired to try a figure 8 style motion which feels like a side-armed baseball pitcher or what you'd need to do with your right hand to go down and smash a low tennis or racketball. Initial signs are good as the positions in the swing are improving dramatically with a motion that feels very natural, repeatable, fluid, and powerful. I finally understand how to consistently shallow out the shaft on the downswing which is critical when playing in the wind. Additionally, this figure 8 motion keeps me "on top of the plane" which helps to eliminate the left side of the course. I've been doing yoga daily which seems to have helped strengthen and loosen my hips, core, and hamstrings which helps maintain your posture during the swing. Yoga revolution with adriene on youtube is my jam, namus day. Additionally, I've found that hitting balls while listening to Chopin or Ed Sheeran helps me stay loose, almost like I'm dancing on the range, it's fun. When I am hitting the ball my best on the range, I am visualizing my hands tracing a figure 8 in space in front of my body and also thinking about returning a tennis forehand as an overall inspiration for the move.
I happened upon some more great Trevino videos on youtube which have helped my putting and short game tremendously. Lee described never "manufacturing a shot" when pitching or chipping. To him, this meant that you dictate the path of your swing with your feet. Whatever line your feet are on, you need to follow with your path thru the hit. In pitching and standard bunker play, he describes keeping whatever loft you start out with at address for the duration of the swing. This is a little different to what I've been doing prior as I tried to add loft during the backswing by rolling the forearms. To achieve the feel of keeping the loft you start with until impact, you really need to feel like you are picking the club straight out and away with a very open stance. After taking the club straight out and away with very little if any wrist hinge, you simply hold the angle with no release of the hands as you aggressively swing left on line with your feet. This thought process has completely opened up a new "hold" or "chop shot" which is amazing around the greens on pitches and mid to long range bunker shots. The ball comes consistently low with tons of spin without much effort. I'm now hitting bunker shots with this method with lob wedge all the way thru 9 iron for long 30-40 yard bunker shots.
Putting wise Trevino provided some insight I haven't heard in the modern teaching manuals. For left to right putts he basically is trying to get you to pull the ball by putting the ball position further forward than usual in your stance with a significant forward press. Forward pressing the putter allows you to feel the toe of the putter to beat the heel to the ball which will keep the ball left on those left to right putts most righties leave low under pressure. For right to left putts, he wants you to push the ball by setting the ball position back and keeping a firm left hand so there is no cupping of the wrists. It's old school but I dig it.
LOUISIANA TOMORROW
Time for bed, I'm headed to Westlake, LA first thing tomorrow for the first Adams Tour event of the season. I'm going to bring some old podcast equipment along to possibly document the journey. Hope everyone is doing well.
Love, Clay.
FLORIDA
I spent a significant chunk of last month staying with friends and family while competing in Florida. I played the PGA Winter Series Stroke Play Event in Port St. Lucie, and some cash games/ 2 Moonlight Tour Events in Orlando. Cathy and Jack O'Neill, (my sister in law's grandmother's cousin- how awesome is that!) graciously hosted me in Port St. Lucie for the 4 day stroke play event with 36 hole cut. I played a stress free first round bogeying 2 of my last 3 holes to shoot -3 69. I was committed to my targets all day long and putted well after randomly deciding to set everything up on the toe of the club (seems to counteract my natural slash motion across the ball when under pressure). The second round started smoothly until the evil little man in my head decided to remind me of the 36 hole cut. Approaching the 9th tee still 3 under par for the tournament, I crushed my 3 wood on the straight away 430 yard downwind 9th hole. The ball traveled nearly 300 yards and I was left with one foot on the cart path bisecting the split fairways. The ball was sitting up nicely and I probably could have hit the ball, but I decided to take free relief from the path to avoid injury. The nearest point of relief was behind the path in a sliver of rough on a severe downslope. I dropped the ball in a divot and proceeded to skull the shot into a pond right of the green and made double bogey. My flaw here was that I felt entitled to a better position in the fairway after a great drive and I allowed my frustration to manifested itself in a poor thought process which proved a costly error. I should have taken more time to see if I could have hit the ball as it lied without hurting myself or taken more time to understand what to do to give myself the best odds out of the divot on the downslope. Hooray learning experiences!
The wheels continued to wobble as I made the turn to the back nine. Hole 10 is a straight away 390 yard par four with a lateral hazard down the left side of the fairway and trees/bunkers on the right side. The fairway is relatively wide but narrows significantly about 300 yards off the tee. Still reeling from making double bogey from 130 yards on 9, I decided to play ultra conservatively on 10 to make sure I didn't get any more bad breaks by hitting the ball too far. This conservatism while well intentioned resulted in a tentative swing and a borderline shank 3 hybrid. I couldn't believe this was happening again. I was cruising along playing so well and had now allowed one bad break on 9 to carry over to 10. My disaster of a drive left me in the fairway bunker on 18 roughly 180 yards from the pin. With a perfect 6 iron I theoretically could have covered a grove of tall palm trees with brush underneath in line with the pin but any slight mishit could have been a lost or unplayable ball. I was furious and decided to chip out sideways back to the proper fairway. I was so mad I randomly chose a 52 degree wedge without much commitment to a target for the routine chip out and I bladed the ball directly toward the hazard on the left side of the fairway. The ball miraculously hit the 1 inch lip of the cart path bordering the hazard which rebounded the ball back in the fairway. I laughed, shrugged, and tried to re commit to my targets for the rest of the round. I limped in with a 78 but ended up making the cut by several shots. It was amazing the change of mentality between the free wheeling first round and the hold on for dear life second round. Looking back I learned a lot about staying in the moment and not getting emotional about bad breaks. After making the cut, I returned to a relaxed style of play and finished the remainder of the event 1 under par. This was my first 72 hole event and I am very thankful for the experience.
I crashed with a high school friend in Orlando for a week or so following the Port St. Lucie event. Orlando is like Mecca for mini tour players. Many aspiring professionals hone their skills on one of Florida's developmental mini tours. Between The moonlight tour, west florida golf tour, swing thought tour, florida professional golf tour, and a few others, you can basically play a competitive event every day. Florida golf is considered to be some of the most difficult anywhere in the world because the wind often blows pretty hard, the courses have lots of water hazards, you get a lot of mud balls in the fairway, many of the chip shots around the greens are from wet surfaces into severe grain, and the ball doesn't travel as far due to the humidity. Coming off a relative success in Port St. Lucie, I decided to tee it up in a couple Moonlight tour events. The field and I shot a million in the first event as the wind blew a constant 35 with gusts to 45. The winning scores was 75 in a field of 30 legitimate plus handicaps where the winning score on a calm day would have been 65. I played with a great guy from Korea with a beautiful golf swing but after 9 holes in the hurricane winds, he said to me in broken English and a wry smile that he would like to end the game. I would have ended the game too but I'm cheap and wanted to at least see the back nine. It was brutal and would have been unplayable if the greens were any faster. I'm not sure what I learned from the event other than a bit more patience could have gone a long way.
The weather for the second event was a bit more reasonable and I was able to cash a check with a score of -2 70. I learned the value of a good green reader thanks to the help of "Tee Time" a buddy of a buddy with one of those cool young kid short on the sides long on top comb over style Justin Beiber haircuts. Tee Time calmly pointed to a spot where I needed to roll the ball, and I made way more putts than I usually would on a new-to-me course. You never know who you will be paired with in these Florida mini tour events, as big names like Kevin Na, Sean O'Hair, and Ty Tryon will routinely play on off weeks to keep their game sharp. In the second event, I was paired with Emanuele Sesia, an Italian who played on the Palmer Cup and caddied for Matteo Mannasero at the Masters. He had a powerful high draw motion and a super rad wool sweater that I imagined was from a 19th century Italian loom although it could have been from TJ Max. He was a cool guy with a great golf swing and I remember thinking that he sounded a lot cooler cussing his ball in Italian than I do in English. He also said, "AHHHHHH BAGGIE!!!" when he made a "bogey" which made me chuckle.
BACK TO TEXAS
For the past couple weeks I've been doing all I can do to get ready for the Adams Tour Season. The Adams Tour is a 14 event regional mini tour played in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Missouri. Playing well on the Adams Tour doesn't qualify you for bigger and better things, but if you are cashing checks, you are playing some good golf and getting ready for the next level. If you can win on the Adams Tour, you can win on PGA Tour Canada or PGA Tour Latinamerica which is the next rung up on the way to the big dog tour. The Adams tour events are scheduled with Web.com and PGA Tour qualifiers in mind so players can kill two birds with one stone while in a region of the country. For instance, I will be attempting to qualify for the Web.com event in Alexandria, LA following the Adams Tour event there earlier that week. And by attempting to qualify I mean making it rain birdies. My first goal for 2017 is to make a cut on the Adams Tour which requires 2 solid rounds. Depending on the difficulty of the course and playing conditions, the 36 hole cut is usually anywhere from even par to 6 under par. Here's the full Adams Tour schedule in case you want to check it out and send me and my boy Neal Ajubita some positive mojo.
https://agpts.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/agpt17/schedule/index.htm
Golf swing wise, I've been working hard to find a comfortable swing thought to allow me to make a repeatable, technically sound swing which eliminates the left side of the course. After searching for a while and listening to some advice from some great friends and fellow PGA pros, I finally melted everything together into what feels like a figure 8 motion to me. Lee Trevino's golf swing is my favorite and after watching lots of youtube on him, I was inspired to try a figure 8 style motion which feels like a side-armed baseball pitcher or what you'd need to do with your right hand to go down and smash a low tennis or racketball. Initial signs are good as the positions in the swing are improving dramatically with a motion that feels very natural, repeatable, fluid, and powerful. I finally understand how to consistently shallow out the shaft on the downswing which is critical when playing in the wind. Additionally, this figure 8 motion keeps me "on top of the plane" which helps to eliminate the left side of the course. I've been doing yoga daily which seems to have helped strengthen and loosen my hips, core, and hamstrings which helps maintain your posture during the swing. Yoga revolution with adriene on youtube is my jam, namus day. Additionally, I've found that hitting balls while listening to Chopin or Ed Sheeran helps me stay loose, almost like I'm dancing on the range, it's fun. When I am hitting the ball my best on the range, I am visualizing my hands tracing a figure 8 in space in front of my body and also thinking about returning a tennis forehand as an overall inspiration for the move.
I happened upon some more great Trevino videos on youtube which have helped my putting and short game tremendously. Lee described never "manufacturing a shot" when pitching or chipping. To him, this meant that you dictate the path of your swing with your feet. Whatever line your feet are on, you need to follow with your path thru the hit. In pitching and standard bunker play, he describes keeping whatever loft you start out with at address for the duration of the swing. This is a little different to what I've been doing prior as I tried to add loft during the backswing by rolling the forearms. To achieve the feel of keeping the loft you start with until impact, you really need to feel like you are picking the club straight out and away with a very open stance. After taking the club straight out and away with very little if any wrist hinge, you simply hold the angle with no release of the hands as you aggressively swing left on line with your feet. This thought process has completely opened up a new "hold" or "chop shot" which is amazing around the greens on pitches and mid to long range bunker shots. The ball comes consistently low with tons of spin without much effort. I'm now hitting bunker shots with this method with lob wedge all the way thru 9 iron for long 30-40 yard bunker shots.
Putting wise Trevino provided some insight I haven't heard in the modern teaching manuals. For left to right putts he basically is trying to get you to pull the ball by putting the ball position further forward than usual in your stance with a significant forward press. Forward pressing the putter allows you to feel the toe of the putter to beat the heel to the ball which will keep the ball left on those left to right putts most righties leave low under pressure. For right to left putts, he wants you to push the ball by setting the ball position back and keeping a firm left hand so there is no cupping of the wrists. It's old school but I dig it.
LOUISIANA TOMORROW
Time for bed, I'm headed to Westlake, LA first thing tomorrow for the first Adams Tour event of the season. I'm going to bring some old podcast equipment along to possibly document the journey. Hope everyone is doing well.
Love, Clay.
Sunday, January 22, 2017
1/22/17 - Steps for Building Your Own Yardage Book
FIND AND PRINT GOLF COURSE SCORECARD AND MAP
OVERVIEW ONLINE
·
OPEN GOOGLE EARTH TO COURSE OVERHEAD VIEW,
DESELECT AUTO TILT WHEN ZOOMING
·
MARK AND MEASURE YARDAGES FOR POINTS OF INTEREST
(#’S FROM BACKS OF TEE BOXES AND #’S TO FRONT OF GREENS)
·
MAKE NOTE OF SIGNIFICANT SLOPES FROM TEE TO
GREEN
·
PRINTSCREEN POI’S AND MAP INTO INKSCAPE ON 4.5”
X 11” DOCUMENT SIZE
·
USE SOFT LINE BEZIER PEN TO TRACE TEE BOXES, BUNKERS,
FAIRWAYS, HAZARDS, GREENS, AND COMPASS HEADING TO MAKE THEM INTO VECTOR SHAPES
SO THEY CAN BE RESIZED WITHOUT LOSS OF QUALITY
·
USE SMALL CIRCLES OR SYMBOLS TO MARK POI’S
·
USE TREE VECTOR IMAGE TO MARK IMPORTANT TREES
·
DELETE GOOGLE EARTH IMAGE LEAVING ONLY VECTOR
IMAGES AND SCALE OBJECTS INTO 4.5” X 11” DOCUMENT SIZE. (HOLD CNTRL + SHIFT TO
MAINTAIN ASPECT WHILE SCALING)
·
REMEMBER TO MOVE OVER COMPASS HEADING NEAR TEE
BOXES OR WHERE DESIRED
·
SELECT WATER HAZARDS, FILL AND STROKE MESH
GRADIENT TO 20.6 OPACITY FOR NICE EFFECT
·
ADD HOLE DESCRIPTION TEXT AND INPUT YARDAGES TO POI’S
·
RETURN TO GOOGLE EARTH, ZOOM INTO GREEN VIEW AND
MAKE A STRAIGHT 5 YARD LINE WITH RULER TOOL FROM FRONT EDGE OF GREEN
·
PRINTSCREEN GREEN VIEW TO INKSCAPE AND MAKE 5
YARD X 5 YARD GRID OVER ENTIRE GREEN
·
ADD GREEN VIEW TO SEPARATE PAGE WITH HOLE
DESCRIPTION FOR REFERENCE
·
SAVE
VECTOR IMAGES AS .SVG AND .PDF
·
USE PDF MERGE SOFTWARE TO COMBINE 18 HOLES INTO
ONE PDF
·
PRINT AND STAPLE AS DESIRED
·
WALK THE COURSE TO FIND OTHER POTENTIAL POI’S OR
NOTES TO INCLUDE
·
MAP GREEN BY HAND AND INPUT POI’S INTO GREEN
VIEW VECTOR TO SHOW SIGNIFICANT SLOPES AND NOTES
·
COMPLETE FINAL BOOK
1/22/17 - Build Your Own Yardage Book - Lantana GC
Over the past couple days, I've been trying to make my own yardage book for an upcoming event at Lantana Golf Club. Here's the finished product available for download. Hope to get more detailed on these as I do more including green contours.
Lantana Yardage Book
Lantana Yardage Book
Sunday, January 15, 2017
1/15/17 - Don't Wait to Taste Your Putts
When I was in Florida for the PGA Tournament Series in December, one of the marshals gave me the best putting lesson ever. Our group was lagging nearly two holes behind pace as we were taking turns riding the struggle bus. One of the guys in our group couldn't keep a ball in bounds, the other was having a career run on Tinder, and I was confusing trying hard with playing good golf. The marshal pulled me aside after a particularly lethargic group effort on the Par 3 13th and asked if I knew how long it took to hit my putt. I have a tendency to go into a bit of an alternate dimension while putting where time is essentially imperceptible. I think I may have minor synesthesia as occasionally I will be overcome by a metallic taste when I know a putt is going to drop or will see a physical manifestation of a faint yellow ring around the cup if I focus in the right way about the line. Yes, I am a freak. Anyways, I figured that I had taken longer than acceptable given the marsh's inquiry so I politely guessed 40 seconds or something. He showed me the stopwatch app on his phone and it had taken me nearly 2 minutes to hit a simple 8 foot putt. I was shocked, sincerely apologized as I hate slow play, and vowed to him and myself to pick up the pace. For the last 5 holes, I did not wait around to see if the magic yellow ring would materialize and I did not taste any putts. I did however 1 putt 4 of the remaining 5 holes simply by quickly reading the putt from below the hole, taking two quick practice strokes, and letting it go. In reality, the process probably still took 20 seconds or so but to me it felt like a sprint. I've carried this method over full time now and have been putting nicely.
1/15/17 - Call Your Shots Drill
Upon recommendation of "Every Shot Must Have a Purpose", a friend and I recently played nine holes where we verbalized our intentions for each shot from tee to green. The book recommends the drill as a practice of truly committing to each shot. Something about telling your playing competitor exactly what you are visualizing for each shot without hesitation seems to lead to a higher percentage of self fulfilling prophecies. There seems to be a trend of significantly better shots occurring when you call your shot in a very specific, matter of fact way as if it is a foregone conclusion(ie. I have 149 yards so I'm going to hit this 9 iron directly at the overhanging limb and cut it to the flag). Conversely It was fascinating to see my friend's and my poor shots occur in instances where we said things like, "I'm going to try and hit this 9 iron just left of the flag with a little cut". I'm excited to go further down the rabbit hole with this drill and see if I can have such conversations with myself or caddie in competition without holding up pace of play. The phenomenon reminded me of Yoda's famous, "There is no try, either do or do not". Next time you have a chance, call your shots out loud, truly believe that what you said is true, and I think you will be impressed by the results.
1/15/17 - 2 to 1 Chipping Ratio
Just wanted to share some interesting data from practice today.
Assuming you are just off the green chipping to a relatively flat target with minimal grain, it appears one can expect the following ratios of carry yards to roll yards.
LW 4 to 4.5
SW 4 to 5
GW 4 to 6
PW 4 to 8
9i 4 to 10
8i 4 to 12
7i 4 to 14
I've heard people talk about this but never tried for myself. Excited to break down more shots on course to pick better clubs and better spots to chip at. For me the PW seems to provide the most consistent contact and the 2 to 1 ratio allows for a quick breakdown. On a 10 yard flat chip if I carry a PW a little over 3 yards it should roll a little over 6 yards and in da cup. I did not come up with this but you should try it. Downhill shots and uphill shots will stretch the ratios.
Assuming you are just off the green chipping to a relatively flat target with minimal grain, it appears one can expect the following ratios of carry yards to roll yards.
LW 4 to 4.5
SW 4 to 5
GW 4 to 6
PW 4 to 8
9i 4 to 10
8i 4 to 12
7i 4 to 14
I've heard people talk about this but never tried for myself. Excited to break down more shots on course to pick better clubs and better spots to chip at. For me the PW seems to provide the most consistent contact and the 2 to 1 ratio allows for a quick breakdown. On a 10 yard flat chip if I carry a PW a little over 3 yards it should roll a little over 6 yards and in da cup. I did not come up with this but you should try it. Downhill shots and uphill shots will stretch the ratios.
Saturday, January 14, 2017
1/14/17 - Gotta Start Somewhere
My name is Clay Wonnell, I'm a big dreamer with the rare opportunity to do what I love for a living. In August 2016, I began my journey from a PGA Club Professional to a PGA Tour Professional. For non-golfers this is essentially the same as your Local City Council Member seeking a seat in Congress. I draw this parallel in the most respectful way to all parties involved as my intention is not to belittle the position of a Club Professional. Club Pro's work their asses off in a staggering variety of roles for relatively little money just about every day with the exception of some Mondays or Tuesdays when the Country Club is closed and isn't hosting any outside events to supplement the bottom line. Great Club Pro's ultimately do what they do because they love the game and they want to help others find the same enthusiasm. Having worked in the industry for nearly ten years as an intern to a second assistant to a first assistant, I have nothing but respect for the PGA Club Professional, all I'm saying is your City Council Member has a long fuckin way to go to get to Congress.
Your City Council Member probably possesses a lot of the same qualities of a seasoned Senator; articulate, benevolent, charismatic, ambitious. The difference between the Senator and the Councilman is ultimately taking advantage of opportunities to employ these skills toward the desired goal. Competitive golf is similar as most seeking greatness will hit the ball about the same, with a few exceptions of freakish talent. Ultimately what an aspiring pro needs to do to be successful is use his skills at the right opportunity to achieve the end goal. Obviously a lot of hard work goes into honing the skills of a competitive golfer, but essentially all one one needs to do is take advantage of an opportunity at the right time and the dream can pretty quickly become a reality. As far as I'm aware golf is unique among professional sports when it comes to the accessibility to the highest level of competition for mere mortals via Qualifiers. Many PGA Tour Events across the world host open qualifying events on the Mondays before the actual big boy event in which the lowest two or three scores will earn a chance to literally play for millions of dollars later that week. Granted you have to put on a godlike performance in one of these qualifiers to earn this opportunity, but it's a hell of a lot better chance than you've got of showing up at Wrigley Field, hitting a beast mode home run in front of the coaching staff, and them handing you a jersey for the next game.
Thanks to some personal savings and help from friends and family, I am so grateful to have the opportunity to completely dedicate myself to the game and hopefully take advantage of the right opportunity at the right time to earn a PGA Tour Card. I am well aware of the fact that I am still the Local City Councilman with a wrinkled suit, but fuck it, you've gotta start somewhere.
I plan to write here from time to time as a sort of a journal of my odyssey. I hope to see you along the way.
Love
Clay
Your City Council Member probably possesses a lot of the same qualities of a seasoned Senator; articulate, benevolent, charismatic, ambitious. The difference between the Senator and the Councilman is ultimately taking advantage of opportunities to employ these skills toward the desired goal. Competitive golf is similar as most seeking greatness will hit the ball about the same, with a few exceptions of freakish talent. Ultimately what an aspiring pro needs to do to be successful is use his skills at the right opportunity to achieve the end goal. Obviously a lot of hard work goes into honing the skills of a competitive golfer, but essentially all one one needs to do is take advantage of an opportunity at the right time and the dream can pretty quickly become a reality. As far as I'm aware golf is unique among professional sports when it comes to the accessibility to the highest level of competition for mere mortals via Qualifiers. Many PGA Tour Events across the world host open qualifying events on the Mondays before the actual big boy event in which the lowest two or three scores will earn a chance to literally play for millions of dollars later that week. Granted you have to put on a godlike performance in one of these qualifiers to earn this opportunity, but it's a hell of a lot better chance than you've got of showing up at Wrigley Field, hitting a beast mode home run in front of the coaching staff, and them handing you a jersey for the next game.
Thanks to some personal savings and help from friends and family, I am so grateful to have the opportunity to completely dedicate myself to the game and hopefully take advantage of the right opportunity at the right time to earn a PGA Tour Card. I am well aware of the fact that I am still the Local City Councilman with a wrinkled suit, but fuck it, you've gotta start somewhere.
I plan to write here from time to time as a sort of a journal of my odyssey. I hope to see you along the way.
Love
Clay
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)