Statistics

Saw this and thought it was somewhat interesting.
There definitely seems to be an increased awareness in professional sports as to the benefits to be reaped from more detailed statistical analysis ('Money Ball' is a good read!).

The technology that would need to be available for amateurs/recreational golfers to enjoy the same stats is not going to be available anytime soon (although I can picture some buddies carrying around their own launch monitor). Nonetheless, I think there is a lot we can consume from the detailed stats now available via Shotlink on pgatour.com.
Consider the percentage of 10 footers made versus 6 footers made by the pros.

The large majority of players are making less than 50% from 10 feet but that figure increases dramatically from 6 feet. Tells me I should be spending most of my time practicing from 6 feet and in. (If the best of the best aren't making them from 10 feet then I certainly won't)

Latest greatest

Well the weather is finally starting to co-operate here in Georgia. Considering the winter we have had, my elbow issues have not really resulted in me missing a lot of golf to this point.
I see Dr. Weil on Feb 22 and I'm guessing he will give me the ok to get back out on the course. (I actually hit the range last weekend and worked on 20-30 yard pitches).

Next step is to get fitted for that set of irons. T Weinhart is going to do the fitting for me. (Incidentally, his operation Nuclear Golf has now moved to the Standard Club which is great news - its a fantastic track and a little closer to home than St. Marlo was)

I'm very excited about the coming season - after taking stock of last year my focus is going to be from 100 yards and in, even more so from 50 yards inwards. As long as I can eliminate the couple of high blocks with the driver per round, I'm am convinced if I can pitch, chip and putt a little better then scratch is an attainable goal. I have taken pitching and putting lessons over the winter from TW so I feel I have the tools I need at my disposal - just need to adopt and ingrain it all now.

I need to set some goals for the year and while the overriding goal is obvious (scratch), I have set myself some intermediate goals a long the way:

- qualify for the Georgia State mid am
- qualify for the Georgia State amateur at Cherokee
- get handicap under 2.4 in time to meet cutoff to enter US amateur qualifier

Finally for now, I just got finished reading Dream On by John Richardson (from Northern Ireland). Essentially as a 17 handicap he took on a challenge of having to shoot one round of par within one year from the start of the challenge. Interesting read. There are some parallels to my own goal.

Bizarre

In all sport, there is a major stigma attached to any accusation of the 'c' word but I can't imagine any sport where that stigma is more damaging than in golf. (C for cheating in case there is any confusion).
This case leaves me dumbfounded.

I can't understand why anyone with discredit themselves in such a manner.

Not Good

I had my follow up with Dr Weil yesterday and while he thinks there is some slight improvement, he feels the elbow needs more time - another 4 to 6 weeks to be precise. This winter has me going stir crazy as it is so another 6 weeks is going to hurt.
However, on a more positive note, he did say that I should be able to play through it for the year without further aggravating it any more than I already had - in other words, surgery can wait til winter if I need to have it.
Also, I can pitch, chip and putt to my hearts content. No excuses for having a crappy short game again this summer!!

Ben Crane has lost the plot

This might be funny if it was Sasha Baron Cohen but Ben Crane, I am not so sure?
(For anyone not familiar with Crane, he is THE slowest golfer on the PGA Tour by a country mile.   Admittedly he acknowledges it and is trying to speed it up while staying competitive.   Have I mentioned that slow play is my pet hate??)

I guess he is trying to drive site traffic or something.

New Irons

I don't currently possess a set of irons.  I sold both sets I had before Christmas.  I wanted to raise a little cash :) but primarily I wanted to make sure the temptation wasn't there to go hitting balls before I got the all clear from the orthopedic specialist.
I'm hoping to get this all clear on Jan 18th in which case I need to get a new set of irons promptly.
If I've learned one thing over the last year  its that you must play the right equipment for you.   Its crazy to buy something new off the rack without getting fitted.
Therefore I probably  want to get fitted for a set of the Taylormade R9's.   Although they are last years, I don't much like the look of this years offerings from Taylormade.   Also, I have messed around with some of the R9s last year and liked them.   In fact, I swung one of TWs R9s at one point and loved them.  Perhaps I can persuade him to sell me his if he is upgrading.  I know that they are the right swing weight (D2) :)
I had thought of going to The Kingdom at Reynolds Plantation again to get fitted but the price has gone up and I just can't justify spending $1500 to get fit for a set of $900 at best irons.
I guess first things first, I need to get the all clear to start hitting balls - its driving me crazy not being able to work on my game!!

Hiatus

Well as you can probably tell from the lack of posts, there has not been a lot of golf played over the last two months.   I had planned to scale back a little to revitalize the appetite for the game a little and generally there is no better time to do it than the winter (even here in Georgia).  Another reason for  taking a break is the nagging pains I have been having in my right elbow.   There have been some developments here.   I assumed it to be golfers elbow aka tendinitis and just fairly normal wear and tear.   To be sure I went to see orthopedic specialist Dr Craig Weil (a physio of the Atlanta Falcons).   Unfortunately, it is worse than I thought.  A tendon has ripped off the bone, tearing with it a bone fragment.   In addition there is some arthritis in the elbow.
The upshot of it all is that I can't swing a club for a couple of months, am having physio twice a week, icing twice a day and  taking an anti-inflammatory.   The goal is that it will heal naturally however he has said I may need to have surgery to remove the bone fragment and clean up the scar tissue.  
I can't point to a single moment where it tore.  I gradually noticed the pain building up over last summer.

This leaves me in a position where:
a) I am not going to be able to hit any balls until Feb at best
b) When I do get to hit balls again, I am going to have to hit a lot less balls.  Essentially I am going to have to make my swing a little lower maintenance.  (No clue how to do that)
c) In the meantime, I am going to be focusing on putting and short chips.

Towards the end of last year, I started to come to a realization of what/where my weaknesses lie.
My putting is way subpar as is my chipping.   My long game is solid with the exception of my propensity to block the driver high and right at least a couple of times a round.

Those three things are going to be my focus for 2011.

I have already taken a putting lesson from TW.    I had so many mechanical issues I don't know where to start describing them.   Most importantly I was adding loft to the putter face by virtue of my setup.   This means I had no shaft lean.  A couple of other changes:

• Ball position needs to be one putter head (Odyssey 2 ball I use) back from front toe.
• Elbow alignment has me starting way right.  Left elbow needs to tuck in.
• Head position should be slightly behind the ball ( I will go into this a little more in one second)
• Ball needs to have an alignment line/semi-circle.
• Putter head needs to have an alignment line.

Perhaps most interestingly though is what I look at when putting.   Subconsciously over the years, I have come to watch the putter head while making a putting stroke.   I guess I like to establish that the putter goes back on forth on a good line.  TW illustrated with an example that this is not a good idea.   (When throwing a ball to someone, I don't look at my arm go back and through.  Rather, I look at the target or some intermediate point I want to hit).   The predominant change in my putting thus will be that I will be looking at the ball and the line I want to trace when putting.   (If its a short putt I will probably be looking at the hole)

Finally for this post, an interesting exercise is to analyze your next/last round of golf.  Compare your actual score with your score if you made all putts inside 6 feet and no 3 putts.  You might be shocked!!   My last round before this break was by no means a ball striking classic.  I shot 78.   However, if I had made all putts inside 6 feet and no 3 putts, I calculated I would instead have shot 69!!  If ever I needed validation of where I should be focusing my practice, there it is!!

Q-School

No I haven't become totally deluded and lost consciousness of what universe I belong in.  However, Q-School has been on my radar for the last week or two for a few reasons.  Firstly, since joining GCoG I have gotten to know some of the tour pros up there and even had the privilege of playing a few rounds with them.   This week is first stage of Q-School and the guys I have met are getting started on what hopefully will be the long road to the PGA Tour or at least a Nationwide Tour card.  Secondly, someone introduced me to a book written a while back by a scratch golfer who decides to pursue his ultimate dream and totally devote himself to a year doing whatever he could to to try earn a tour card.  I just started it but it already looks like a fun read.  Its called "The Fine Green Line" by John Newport.
It gives me some perspective as to how good these guys are that they can perform to such a level under extreme pressure.  I find myself playing in a friendly game with buddies getting nervous over chips off a tight lie when I am playing for nothing.   These guys are playing for their livelihoods and have to somehow manage the nerves.

Review

I'm told that I should every now and then reflect on my recent play so I figured I would look back at this weekends club championship and decide what I need to take away from it.
Over the three days, I had 31/36/36 putts.  31 is acceptable but 36 is not for an aspiring scratch golfer.  (In truth it depends on how many greens you are hitting in regulation - more greens should be more putts).   I missed 4 three footers!! That has to change.
I was surprisingly very happy with my driving.   I feel I have finally overcome the driving woes that plagued me for the last 6 months.   I averaged 8 of 14  fairways for the 3 days but I only had two big misses both of which cost me a bogey.
Greens in regulation were ok but I am not yet fully committed to my technique.   I feel only time and practice can help me here.   It all goes back  to starting the downswing with an unhinge rather than a lunge!!   I get it right about 70% of the time but I still have a tendency to go back to old habits under pressure.
My chipping/pitching technique is vastly improved, however again I tend to not trust it under pressure.  Need to get some advice from TW on how to improve in this area.

Interestingly I saw this definition from the USGA:

A "scratch golfer" is a player who can play to a Course Handicap of zero on any and all rated golf courses. A male scratch golfer, for rating purposes, can hit tee shots an average of 250 yards and can reach a 470-yard hole in two shots at sea level. A female scratch golfer, for rating purposes, can hit tee shots an average of 210 yards and can reach a 400-yard hole in two shots at sea level. 

Alas it takes much more than being able to hit a 470 yarder in two to be a scratch golfer.   I have a long way to go!

Club Championship

We had our club championship this past 3 days.
It was a blast.  I have never experienced such pacy greens.  I believe the greens were running at 13!!  Surprisingly, playing from the tips was not such an issue.  Weather was superb.
This is going to sound funny but given what I shot today but I have never been happier with my ball striking.  I have finally eliminated that horrible big high block to the right with the driver.  It was being caused by a slide towards the target with the left hip on the downswing.   THE DOWNSWING HAS TO BE INITIATED BY LETTING THE CLUB FALL/THE RIGHT ELBOW UNHINGE WHILE REMAINING COILED.
Anyhow, I shot 81/81/87.  I was in 9th place as of this morning but probably finished in the high teens.
In general I'm very happy with my ball striking tee to green.  I had maybe 3 bad swings all weekend.  Alas two of them cost me a 9 on the 11th hole (that's a par 5).
Was disappointed with how I chipped and putted.  In truth I was tentative and a little chicken on the fast greens.  I missed about five 3-footers or less.
Season is winding down.   Only one event of note left - final round of the Green Tour on Nov 6th.   Will take a week off to freshen up and get a few good weeks practice in before that!!

Spoke too soon!

Seems I spoke to soon about it cooling down - today was close to a record high for this date - well above 90. 
That hasn't stopped me from getting a little more practice in thankfully.  
As I keep mentioning, Tim has told me that once I stopped initiating the downswing with my entire body and instead started by letting the club fall first, that I would stop missing those drives with high blocks to the right.   I have been struggling though to ingrain this move until a playing partner gave me a wonderful tip this weekend.   I need to think about swinging the club downwards while keeping my back/butt to the target for as long as possible.  (i.e.   keep my back to the target while unhinging my right elbow)   I had one session at the range working on this thought and the initial signs were very encouraging.  The high block to the right is gone and I seem to have gained some distance.   Hopefully it will stick.
The club championship is on two weeks time and that is my number one focus now.   A top 10 finish would be very sweet!!

Cooling down

Its been a month since my last post and for good reason.  Its been sweltering here in Atlanta.   I think that I read somewhere, that there were fifty something days in a row with 90 + temperatures.  I'd hate to be a golf course superintendent at a time like this.  In actual fact, ours has seemingly done a very good job making sure our greens survived the heat.  I played Sunday and was pleasantly surprised at how well they rolled.   Many other courses round here have not been as lucky.
But I digress - so I came back from Ireland and for better or worse, decided that because of the quality of my driving I wanted to rebuild the swing again whatever  it took.  I told Tim this and he gave me some caveats - it may take a LONG time and I may have to swallow my pride along the way as I am likely to get much worse before I get better.   So far he has not been wrong :)
I have a couple of major swing flaws (probably mentioned this a few times before) that need to be resolved before I will reach the level of ball striking to which I aspire.   First, is the fact that I get the club too much to the inside on the backswing and second is the lateral sway during the swing.   For that reason, I have to work on 3 major things - keeping the right elbow closer to the side and not sliding back behind me, getting the left arm along my toe line in the backswing (and not inside/behind me) and finally preventing the right hip from sliding away from the target in the backswing. 

The net result so far is the I am really struggling.  It may take quite some time and effectively  I can't play any competitive golf at the moment - even little club events.   Every second shot seems to be either very good or terrible.  All I can do is continue to hit as many balls as possible and hope that the changes become ingrained to the point that I can execute correctly repeatedly.
Maybe I am crazy for taking this on?  I'm going to have to stick with it either way as I can't seem to get back to where I was 2 months ago anyhow.

Back to HOTLANTA

Just got back from Ireland and it's absolutely steaming.  I don't think there will be a lot of golf played in August.  First of all, its just too hot.  Then there is a matter of the condition of greens seemingly everywhere.  Anywhere with bentgrass greens is really struggling with this heat.   Played 4 times in Ireland.

Status Update

About to head off to Ireland for a couple of weeks so I think its probably a good time to take stock of where things are with my game.
Handicap is 2.3 but strangely I don't feel like I'm playing great golf.

No more left side

When I first started my lessons with Tim, my ball flight was what you might describe as a controlled hook at best.  That was my good shot and my miss was either a big block to the right or a quick snap hook.