Budget Beater: Plan Your Winter Rounds Using The Extended Forecast

The only thing worse than playing a wet course during the winter is playing a wet round during the winter, and paying for it. To make it worse, most courses are booking out their prime tee times a week or two in advanced, which means you either call early or you miss out on being done before dark. Fortunately, the internet can help you to some degree in this mess as you can access the extended forecast on weather.com to help you along the way. By hitting up the extended forecast for the area in the course you want to play, you can stretch that golfing dollar a bit further – or at least have a decent time playing when you do spend the money – and possibly get away with sneaking in a round when the weather should be great.

Above is the two week forecast for my area. Even though 10/8 only shows a “bit of rain”, this is the type of day we try to skip out on here. First off, when there is a bit of rain in the Seattle area, it can mean 10 minutes of downpours or 6 hours of cold, wet drizzle. It’s the sort of forecast you just plan on cleaning out your garage with, not hitting the golf course. The following Saturday would be the opportune time to play a round if you were looking to land a weekend round during this stretch. Mostly cloudy after a nice dry week is about as good as you can hope for this time of year. That is, unless you can sneak away from work for those sunny Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday times that would be even better. Weekday rates and sun can’t be beat this time of year.

The bonuses don’t stop with better rates and a round that is more fun. Checking out the extended forecast also helps you plan your round a bit better. If you see rain for the 4 days leading up to your round, you may want to bump the loft on your driver a 1/2 degree to get a bit extra carry out of it. If it shows cold, you might want to pack an extra layer or possibly make some room in the bag to take a layer off when the sun does break through and start to warm things up. Most of all, just having the weather information for the week surrounding your round will let you plan out your round even better. With rain soaked courses, you can’t expect to shoot a three under round, but if it’s been dry all week, you might have a go of it. If you plan out when to play based on the best weather conditions, you’ll save yourself the frustration of paying for rounds in bad weather, as well as stretching your golfing dollar to the max during the off season.

PS – If you live somewhere warm and sunny, this may not apply to you quite as much, but you can still keep track of that extended forecast to help you plan better.

Blog Babble: Is The Ryder Cup Really A Babble Topic?

Ah, the Ryder Cup has finally arrived. The biennial struggle between the world’s best golfers and the best golfers from the United States. Since 1995, it’s been a virtual domination by the world team, much like the PGA Tour has become an international slugfest of epic proportions. Since that fateful day in 1995 at Oak Hill, the US team has been eclipsed 8 out of 10 times in this battle for bragging rights. Honestly, it could have been 9 out of 10 if it weren’t for the heroics of Justin Leonard on the backside at Brookline. With the Ryder Cup teams chosen for this year, the big question becomes, why is it such a big deal anymore? When the tours were ‘separate’ and it was the US vs. Europe, this was a grudge match for the ages. Today, the lineups feature the same players that are on the course together every weekend, so why does it even matter any more?

That’s a tough question to answer, but ultimately, it still comes down to the fact that everyone wants to beat the Americans. It doesn’t seem to matter if you are German, English, Irish or Japanese, everyone loves to knock the US down a peg. Even on that crazy day back in 1999, when Leonard drained that 40 foot birdie putt on 17, the world was shocked by the behavior of the American team and their fans. Storming the green after the putt drops before his competitor putted out was almost unforgiveable. Still the best golfers in the world slowly moved on and came back to take their cup back 2 years later.

This year has a different theme to it. This year, pretty much the entire planet is saying that the American team is the more talented team, the better team. I, for one, do not see what they are all talking about. Sure, the US team is strong with players like Dustin Johnson, Jimmy Walker, Jordan Spieth and the amazing Phil Mickelson, but so were the teams with Tiger, Phil, Furyk, DiMarco and Love III. Those teams looked better on paper as well. That’s the funny thing about paper, it doesn’t play out the way you draw it up most of the time. Instead that 2004 team was slaughtered by Bernhard Langer’s group that included Paul Casey, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Colin Montgomerie. For the record, they dismantled the US team with a final score of 18 1/2 to 9 1/2.

Before I jump on the US bandwagon, which I am more looking forward to seeing some amazing golf this weekend rather than either side winning, keep in mind that the World team this year features an Olympic Gold and Silver medalist, the FedEx Cup Champion, the Master’s Champion and The Open Champion. This is not a push over team here and the US will have their hands full to say the least. Most importantly, this group of international champions have a common goal of beating the US and keeping their Ryder Cup at home for another two years. It’s going to be a long weekend for US fans and these high expectations, but they definitely have the talent to do it, if they can only find that one goal that will bring them together and push them over the top as a team.

Equipment Review: Voice Caddie - Swing Caddie 200

Call me a skeptic… Call me crazy… Call me normal, but I didn’t even begin to believe the hype behind the Voice Caddie – Swing Caddie 200. The thought that this crazy little cellphone sized contraption would work as well as the $15k-20k swing monitors was completely nuts. I read the reviews online about the accuracy issues and how it sort of worked, but I was still intrigued. Luckily, I was fortunate enough for someone to lend me one of the units to take out to the range for a test drive. I wasn’t expecting much, and let’s just leave it right there for the moment.

For those of you that don’t know what the heck a Swing Caddie even is, well, to put it in a nutshell for you, it’s a portable launch monitor. It measures your club head speed, ball speed, “smash factor”, and uses pre-entered lofts to determine the distance your shot would go. Again, it’s not quite those $20,000 launch stations you find in overpriced retailers, but it gives you a good assortment of data. This data can be used for various things, like fitting shafts, learning club gaps, playing games and a few other fun tricks. Most of all, it gives you consistent data that you can use to measure progress as you work through swing changes and your clubs. It’s supposed to just be one of those tools that helps you build consistency. The question is, does the Swing Caddy 200 work?

First things first, getting the Swing Caddy 200 set up takes a few minutes. You enter in your clubs and lofts and you are ready to go. Literally, just a few seconds a club and you are up and running. I found it was best to set the Swing Caddy 200 about a meter behind the ball (or about the length of a range mat) to get the best readings. If you are using the front rubber tee on the mat, just set it at the back edge like the image above shows. Also, make sure you put something under it to elevate it to a ‘flat’ point with where the ball is sitting for best results.



From there, the Swing Caddy 200 has 3 different modes you can use: Practice, Target and Approach. Practice mode allows you to freely swing the iron that you select using the handy remote that is included with the Swing Caddy 200. If you start with your 7 iron, press the 7 iron button on the remote, check the lower left hand corner of the display to make sure it says 7 iron and swing away. To change clubs, simply use the remote, check the screen and swing away again. Target mode lets you specify what distance you want to hit and lets you keep trying to do it. Approach mode automatically changes distances that are commonly found into the green. I’m not sure if it basis these off your driving averages, but mine were mostly in the 40-80 yard range. I have to admit to having the most fun with this mode as it really started making me dial in my sand wedge.

So, just how well does the Swing Caddy 200 do in the real world? In a throw down between the 200 and the distances that I plucked from my GolfPad GPS data, the results were a bit surprising. Taking my pitching wedge for example, my data from GolfPad showed my average shot was 139 yards. The Swing Caddy 200 pinned me at 137.4 over the 5 test shots I hit. The 9 iron was 147 in GolfPad and 148.2 in the Swing Caddy 200. In other words, the ‘carry’ prediction of the Swing Caddy 200 is scary accurate. This makes me want one to use off a mat in the garage during the winter like you wouldn’t believe. The fun continued as I worked up and down through my bag. Pitching wedge down to 3 iron and back. My 5 ball drill just let me see it all, from start to finish. the one “mystery club” in my test was my 6 iron. My predicted yardage on that club was 190 yards, but the 203 yard average that I got was blowing my mind. I’m going to keep in locked at 190 in my head until I blow over a few greens though. I’m hopeful that it just was either 5 of the best swings I’ve ever had, or something was wrong with the unit on all 5 swings.

That brings me to my final thoughts, who is the Swing Caddy 200 made for? Well, if you are a 15 handicap and working on consistency to get to the next level, this is just the sort of device that can help with that. If you are a 5 handicap that is trying to shave off that last few strokes, I think this one is a pass. I would also skip this one if you are above a 15 and looking for a magical solution to get better. The Swing Caddy 200 definitely has the data to help you analyze your game, but it won’t help you swing better. I would say that the Swing Caddy 200 is the right training aid for those really working their swing, both in tempo and trying to build that consistency. It’s also a heck of a lot of fun to see how hard you can swing, but that’s a different thing all together. For the majority of you, I would recommend passing on the Swing Caddy 200, but for those looking to build that consistency, it could be just the right item for you. If the price of the Swing Caddy 200 has you a bit scared, and the $300 price point is a bit tough,  the $100 drop to the Swing Caddie 100 could be a great option for you.

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The Journey To Scratch: Goals For The Next Round–The Recap

As I try and take my own game to the next level, I have been creating goals prior to each round of golf that I play that are tailored to the courses that I am playing them on. Back on the 14th of September, I set some lofty goals for my September 25th round at Snohomish Golf Course and this past weekend, I played there. So, the bad was my 81 that I posted from the 72.5 rated back tees. More bad news was also just about every trackable stat that I had from the round. In fact, it’s almost embarrassing how  bad the stats looked. From there we get to the completely ridiculous fact that I didn’t even fulfill one of my three goals for the round. Very quickly, here’s what the goals were for the round and how I faired at accomplishing them.

GOALS FOR THE SEPTEMBER 25TH ROUND

Hit 70% of the fairways – 7/14 – 50%
Hit 10 shots inside 25 feet – 4/10 – 40%
Dial in club distances – did not happen…

To make a very long round short, I wasn’t completely disgruntled with my round, but it was no where near where I thought it should be. In the 7 fairways that I was able to hit, my average distance from the tee was only 248.15 yards. This left me with only 2 wedges into greens where I hit the fairway. This is a far cry from the 280 yard drives that I was experiencing at Riverbend with 10-14 wedges into holes there. Even the par 3’s at Snohomish out played me severely. To the 4 par 3 holes, I had a 3 iron, 6 iron, 7 iron and one pitching wedge. The wedge hole was the only birdie on my card and one of the 4 shots I hit inside 25 feet.

One of the two decisions that haunt me from this round was playing the black tees on a course that I wasn’t familiar with at all. The second was following the advice of another player – a local that knew the course – about how to play the course.  By following his ‘play it safe’ advice instead of going with power and aggressive lines, I may have lost a few strokes in there. The par 4 second hole was the perfect example of that. I had planned on cutting the corner and drawing a driver – which may or may not have worked out for me – but instead, given his advising, I pulled a 3 iron from the bag and still hit it through the fairway into the trees at the dogleg. I was no better off, in fact, I was probably worse off, than if I had hit the trees on the left trying to cut it tighter. That is a learning experience though, and I will learn from it. Make your plan and stick to it.

I haven’t had a chance to being planning my next outing yet, but I think I’d like to play a bit flatter course for my next round. Perhaps a trip back to Riverbend or maybe somewhere else with fairways that don’t swing 75 feet in elevation. Snohomish is a great course with some fantastically fast, sloping greens, but it’s just not the sort of course that you need to attempt with brand new sticks in the bag. I’m sure I’ll be back there soon enough to take my revenge on the course, but not this week.

Stroke Saver: Understanding What Strokes Gained Means To Your Game

It’s the hot new stat on tour, strokes gained. Gone are things like, “How many putts did you have?” and, “What’s your driving distance?” It’s now all about those microscopic numbers in four easy to break down categories. The cool part, the strokes gained system is the perfect tool for breaking down what went wrong with your round and how to fix it for the next time. The implementation of ShotLink, the real-time scoring system that the PGA is using to track player’s progress has made the SG data very easy capture and process. The results are bundled in to one neat little package that consists of 4 microscopic numbers.

First on the list is tee shots. The tee shot category is measured by taking the player’s performance off the tee on all par 4’s and 5’s on the course. The better the drive’s position, the higher the score will be. Averaging these out, you get a number for the round. As you can see, my strokes gained for my last two rounds is basically even, or one drive was equal to one stroke. My drives weren’t good enough to help me gain momentum, but they weren’t poor enough to cost me much. Next up was the approach shot data. The data for this category includes any shots that are not from the tee on par 4 and par 5 holes, as well as any par 3 tee shots. Again, even though I’m in the positive numbers here, it hasn’t been good enough to drive me up in to the positive numbers.

Moving right along to the final two stats, we have the short game shots, which are any shots inside 30 yards, and putting, which is obviously shots taken on the green. The short game shots, or officially the “around-the-green” shots, are a measure of short wedge play and chipping/pitching to the hole. The goal with this stat is to bring the old addage of “up and down” back into play. The more chip and one putts you get, the higher your short game stats will be.  Finally, there’s the most measurable stat, and the oldest, putting. Putting is measured based on a sliding scale of distance. If you are one to three feet  away, the goal is 100% one putts. AS yo move out to 5 feet, you want to be better than 75% accurate with your one putts. 7 feet takes you down to half your putts being one putts. At 10 feet, only 40% of your putts will drop in one shot. From there, you start drifting into the lucky range and start measuring two putts as the norm.

As far as my performance goes, I’m pretty much shooting around a flat line in all the categories. My short game is the farthest off of zero, but for the most part, my game has been sound, just not good. Looking at the averages over 18 holes, my last round was 5 strokes higher than the one before it. The 5 strokes look easy to account for when you compare the numbers.

8/21 - Stats
Driving SG: - 0.09
Approach SG: + 0.05
Short Game SG: - 0.14
Putting SG: - 0.10
9/11 - Stats
Driving SG: - 0.08
Approach SG: - 0.04
Short Game SG: - 0.27
Putting SG: - 0.19

With a basic breakdown, driving was flat, approaches were .09 lower, short game was .13 lower and putting was .09 lower. That equals 1.62 strokes in my approach shots, 2.34 strokes in my short game and 1.62 strokes in my putting. Add that up it’s 5.58 strokes or – drum roll please – the difference between a 74 and a 79… I’m not sure how they put together this formula to work so well, but I believe this is how I will be measuring my progress from now on. The GolfPad Premium Service includes the full breakdown of stats and my Golf Tags make it easy to track all the way around the course.  Here is an image of how GolfPad presents the data and what it means.

The par 5 fourteenth hole during my great 74 on August 21st was a rough one for me. The “gold” shots above were shots that were below average. As you can see, I only managed to hit my drive 248 yards, which was one of my shorter drives of the day. On top of the short distance, I also found the fairway bunker. This makes the shot go from “white” which is ok, to “orange” which is below average. If the distance was shorter or I had found the trees or water, the shot would get labeled red, or very poor. The 3 wood from the bunker wasn’t a great shot, but it didn’t penalize me to the point of being a poor shot either. The bright orange wedge, that one that flew 162 yards and blew the green by 30 yards? Well that’s a borderline “very poor” shot given the location I was hitting from. I followed that up with the 30 yard pitch that just didn’t get me close enough to sink the putt. Overall, it was a hole that I lost 1.48 strokes on.

On a happier note, we had the par 3 eighth hole. My dark green tee shot helps me see that this was a really strong shot into the hole. that was followed by a one putt for birdie and a pickup of 1.15 shots on this hole. That makes the playing average of this hole 3.15, or just over par. That means for every 1 birdie, there are 18 pars and 5 bogeys. Therefore the green score on this hole is a very solid score.
By having more post round data – note: this is not something to worry about while you are playing, remember too much information can be deadly during a round – you can analyze your playing tendencies and work on those between rounds. Right now, my play is pretty much, for lack of a better term, average. I need to brush up on my short game a touch and maybe my driving accuracy, but honestly, shooting a flat zero against the PGA Tour average isn’t doing all that bad in my book.
For more information on the Strokes Gained System, visit the PGA Tour website.
For additional information on the GolfPad system, read my review here.

The Journey To Scratch: Am I Already A Scratch Golfer?

I had a funny conversation this week about my desire to play down to a zero handicap. I was up hitting balls at the range when a gentleman approached me and began a conversation. Eventually, he turned the conversation to my handicap, So when I told him I was a 4, he replied with, so you’re scratch from the men’s tee? That statement confused me, which got me thinking… Is that right? Could I already be a scratch golfer from the white tees? That made me do a bit of looking at what tees I’ve played from and what my scores were from those tees. The results were quite humorous, but very strange to boot.

First off, from those pesky back tees, you know, the ones most people laugh at. I have played 5 rounds this year from them. A low of 74 at Gearhart Golf Links and a high of 81 at Snohomish. If I based my handicap off the two best rounds I’ve had, it would be a 3.4. Or right where I’m sitting currently.The average rating from those black tee courses was right around 72 to 72.5. In a nutshell, that means a 76 to 77 score nets me that 4 handicap. From the blues, my better scores come in right around 71-75. With a rating of 70, this pins that handicap once again at 4. But moving up to the white tees, all the way up to that shorter course drops the rating to a 67 to 68 at most courses. From there, my average is, get this, 73 – or a 5-6 handicap.

How on earth is that possible? How did my handicap go up as the course got shorter? There are a couple of good reasons for this, but most importantly, you drive for show and putt for dough. If I pull up to a par 4 that measures 350 yards, and I hit a 280 yard drive, I have a three quarters lob wedge into that green. If I stick it at 15 feet and two putt, it’s a par. If I play the same hole from the forward tees and take off 20 yards, I only have a half lob wedge into the green, which I still stick at 15 feet and two putt. That 20 yards further up the hole that I start out does have some punishments though. From bringing bunkers into play and maybe that water hazard that the 250 yard driver can’t reach, to the long rough where the fairway narrows right in front of the green, sometimes, playing a course short gets longer hitters into more trouble. This is what I’ve found with my scores, the shorter holes don’t necessarily score better than the longer ones. Even though Golf Digest ran an article about driving it as close as you can, I’m still a firm believe in the old, “Find your approach club and land the ball at that distance,” school of thought. It just makes playing easier.

So, to this nice gentleman that talked with me at the range, thanks for thought about being a scratch golfer from the forward tees, but I’m sorry to tell you that I am not. In fact, I think I’m a bit worse from the front tees. My next round at Snohomish will be played from the gold tees, not those huge differences that the blacks make. I’ll also be sticking to the blue tees at Riverbend (if not a round or two from the white tees this winter) and probably the same at Echo Falls. I think I need to tune up that wedge game and get my driving a bit more under control before I do too much more thinking about where my game is at. It’s only a matter of time before I get everything on track for next spring and some actual tournament golf.

Playing A Round: Snohomish Golf Course, Snohomish, WA

Sometimes, things don’t go as planned. That’s fine, laugh a little. I know I did. Starting from the beginning of this tale takes me back a few weeks to when we thought it would be a good idea to play Snohomish after our last round at Riverbend. I had heard that Snohomish is a challenging course with some length and some target shooting. That was mostly correct, but what nobody covered was the hills… Oh the hills that I would face on that course. It seemed as if every hole on the course was cut to either head up 50 to 100 feet or down 50 to 100 feet. Some holes even did both on the same fairway. I had to admit that I was hopeful as we teed off just before first light, but that hope all but ended after the first tee shot. But enough doom and gloom, let’s talk about layout at Snohomish and a bit more about the course.



Snohomish Golf Course is located about 35 minutes from Everett, or about 20 minutes from Monroe, high in the hills above Highway 2. The course features 4 different tees that come in the form of copper tees that measure 5325 yards (65.5/114), silver tees that come in at 5691 (67.2/118), the gold tees that push out further to 6325 (70.0/123) and finally the somewhat insane black layout that just destroys you at 6813 (72.5/125). While these yardages don’t seem to extreme, when you combine them with the doglegs

Starting out, I fired a dead left pull on into the trees on the first hole. The 524 yard par 5 shoot uphill about 50 feet from the tee boxes and has enough length to make it a very difficult hole when you only it 135 yards off the tee. Seeing the remaining yardage going in, I hit a solid 5 iron up the hill leaving me about 210 into the green. My 3 iron came off nicely, but landed just left of the green where I pitched it on to the green and two putted for a bogey. The second hole was a hard dogleg left, where instead of following my original plan, I laid back like our playing partner suggested – which laid me back into the trees at the end of the dogleg. A 222 yard 3 iron found the trees at the end of the corner, but another punch out 3 iron saved me by landing in the greenside bunker, A decent sand shot left me about 25 feet for par, which I just missed and tapped in for another bogey. The par 4 third the crest in the middle of the fairway made this 433 yard hole play much more like 470. It wasn’t a big hill, but it was just enough to make the ball not want to roll up it. Still, a solid drive, a good 6 iron in and a short chip shot left me an easy 1 putt for par. After three holes, I was sitting at 2 over.

Moving on around the front side, the 377 yard par 4 fourth hole was another uphill monster that climbed 50+ feet from the tee box. A solid drive up the right side left me a 9 iron in to the green. Somehow, it decided to jump off the face and fly the green by 30 yards. A pitch back and a two putt left me with another bogey. Next up was the 192 yard par 3 fifth. Again another 50 feet in elevation change that made this difficult par 3 even tougher. My 6 iron into this green faded slightly and left me a bit of a pitch on, which again left me a tough two putt bogey, but it was a bogey on a tough hole so I was happy to escape with it. The 6th hole is where we gained back some of the climb, with a 50 foot drop from the tee boxes to the fairway. a 298 yard booming drive left me a nice 125 yard sand wedge to the green for an easy 2 putt par. That left me at 4 over after 6 holes.


So that leads to the behemoth 7th hole. This 527 yard par 5 plays 50 feet uphill, and 25 feet uphill from the drive to the landing area. It was so uphill, my ‘crushed’ drive only made it 235 yards out into the fairway. A solid 3 wood left me 80 yards in where a lob wedge flew the green. A pitch back on, followed by  a lucky two putt for a bogey. From there the front nine settled back down for me. with a great 3 iron and chip on the 244 yard par 3 eighth and a 3 iron, sand wedge, 2 putt par on the 9th. The front side saw me bring in a 5 over 41, or about 3 shots off of where I should have been. The stats weren’t pretty on the front side as I only hit 4 fairways and 2 greens.



The par 5 tenth hole was another prime driving hole, but unfortunately, my tee shot started left and stayed there. The pulls were definitely an issue today and the tenth was no exception. Fortunately, a punch out, to the middle left me a solid 5 iron into the green. A pitch across the green, and another chip back on left me a single putt for bogey. Not a great start to the back on a hole that should have been in my wheel house. All feelings of terrible-round-itus were removed on the par 3 eleventh. A solid 7 iron found the right side of this uphill par 3 right before a two putt par fell into the hole. The twelfth hole was a simple par 4 that set up for a perfect 260 yard drive down the middle and a solid pitching wedge into the green. From there, a two putt from 50 feet was all I needed. That took me to 6 over after 12.


 
My lone birdie of the day came at the par 3 thirteenth. a beautiful, fading pitching wedge landed about 5 feet from the hole for a tap in birdie. It was the first hole of the day that actually played like I had written it up, but that was ok. On the par 4 fourteenth, tragedy struck my new FG 100’s. My drive was pulled left on to the cart path. I took relief on to a side hill lie and proceeded to hit a layup shot on the long par 4. As I contacted the ball, I saw a spark and felt a jolt. My 8 iron had be gouged on the bottom. It’s bound to happen, but I was hoping to make it more than a month and a few rounds before it did. Maybe if someone from Wilson reads this, they can do me a solid and find me a new 8 iron head to swap out – doesn’t hurt to ask, right? After recovering from that, and a perfect lob wedge to the green, I drained the 1 putt par to somehow save that hole from being a disaster. That took me to 15, where I proceeded to play ping pong down the hole. My 3 iron went right off the tee, then my punch went back through the fairway to the left. A gap wedge caught the tree back to the green leaving me a lob wedge pitch from 20 yards away. A 2 putt left me with a double bogey on the hole and let me escape at 7 over after 15.



The 16th was the last of the highlight reel of the round. A perfect drive found the center of the fairway. A nice 6 iron settled on to the green where a 2 putt par finished the hole. From there, the 17th featured a pull off the tee, a 6 iron through the trees that was knocked down by a tree limb and a lob wedge pitch to the green. 2 putts later, I carded a bogey and made my way to the long 18th hole. The 541 yard 18th again should have played right into my wheel house. My 254 yard drive found the middle of the fairway, though it should have been farther based on the strike. Again, another uphill hole left me with 270 yards in. I pushed a three wood to the right and it came up about 115 yards short and on the green of the hole next to it. I pushed forward with a sand wedge that just caught the trees and fell 40 yards short of the green. A pitch out of the trees left me with one last two putt to finish the round at 9 over par. The 81 was far from a good score, but to be honest, the way I played, it should have (and probably was) much worse.



Overall, Snohomish was a great course to get out on. It was much more hilly than expected and I would have opted for the Gold tees if I were to play there again. The black tees were a great challenge, but without knowing the layout, the hills made up for the distance increase. For example, Riverbend clocks in at 6300 yards for their blue tees that I usually shoot 75 from. The 6700 yard black layout has netted me an 80 and an 81 so far this year. I was right on pace with that this round, so I should consider it a success. I guess next time I play a course for the first time, I should probably take a look at the elevation changes along with the yardages. This one was definitely a course that I should have moved up a set of boxes for on the first go round.

Budget Beater: Buy Your Range Balls In Bulk For Big Bonuses

 

Practicing for this game gets really expensive really quick if you aren’t careful with your money. I found myself plunking down almost $20 a the local driving range the other day just to take my new irons for a spin. Of course that was for the 164 ball bucket, but still, that works out to a crap ton of money per ball, like almost a dime a piece. The bad part, or should I say worst part, is that you really do have to have some range time to get better at this game and there’s not a ton of ways to save on range time. There are a few great tips though, and if your range has any of them available, take advantage of them as quickly as you can.

 

Buy A Punch Card: If your range has a multi-bucket discount available, take it. Most of the time, the savings are about 10% over buying individual buckets. Since winter is quickly approaching, you may skip a round or two in favor of the range anyways, so that makes a 10 or 20 bucket punch card about the same cost as those rounds plus a few extra buckets. Punch cards save you money and will encourage you to practice regularly during the ‘off-season’. For an example on this deal, a large bucket at my local range is $8. The 10 bucket punch card is $68 and the 40 bucket punch card is only $230. That’s a $90 savings, or almost 30% off!

 

Look For Big Bucket Deals And Share: There’s nothing more fun that hitting balls with a buddy at the range. Fortunately, many ranges offer a deal where you buy a large and you get a small for free, or buy one get one free on their largest sizes. Of course, you can’t expect to hit 200-300 balls on your own, but with a bud in tow, you certainly can make an effort of it.

 

Take Lessons At Your Range: Quite often, during and after lessons, the range pros will offer you extra balls as a bonus feature. If your range does this, you can end up getting that swing fix and a bulk amount of balls for a very reasonable amount of money.

 

Shop Around For Your Range: Many courses offer range balls cheaper than stand-alone range facilities. Courses use greens fees to cover the cost of the range and usually sell more balls to people that are warming up than they do to people that are practicing. Stand-alone ranges have to deal with paying staff, rent and facility costs that aren’t covered by anything else but the range balls you hit. The price per ball should be close to double at a stand-alone facility. If you have a good course with a good range near by, look to pay substantially less per bucket than if you go to that double decker, in city range. For example, that bucket at The Golf Club At Echo Falls is $8 but a similar bucket at the stand alone range near me is $12. The other nice part about heading to the course to hit balls is that you can putt or chip for free at most of them as well.

 

Hopefully you can find some of the savings that I have around you as well. By shopping the price per ball at the range instead of the price per bucket, you can really make your practice time much less of a strain on your pocket book. Remember to watch for coupons and sign up at your local range for their email list and follow them on their social media pages to keep up on the latest deals. If you can save enough when you practice, you will probably be more inclined to do more of it, which will only make your game better.

The Journey To Scratch: The Gap Frustration…

I’m going to start out this post by saying I LOVE my new irons. The FG Tour 100 blades by Wilson are one of the finest clubs I have ever swung. The seem to be a bit forgiving for a blade, but still have all the workability and power of them as well. They look clean at setup and feel like butter when you hit them. The FG Tour 100’s are great clubs. What has been troubling me with them is this strange yardage difference that I am seeing throughout the set. It’s not giving me a standard “gap” like my previous sets. For those that are a bit new to the game or just have never heard the term gap before, it’s the yardage difference between two different clubs. For example, my standard yardage gap on the FG 49’s was 12 yards. So my 9 iron went 12 yards further than my pitching wedge. They were pretty well programmed at that.

My issue with the 100’s is that I am having some real issues figuring out the gap on them. My round from Riverbend on the 11th gave me some starting numbers, like my pitching wedge travelling 139, 9 iron 147, 7 iron at 165 and so on… They were a bit wonky, which I could try and place a bit of blame on the weather and some ball testing, but honestly, I just don’t know it I had any solid data off that round at all. This led me to borrow a Voice Caddie SC-200 unit and take it to the range for some measurements. The results were quite stunning, but they didn’t really help me with my issue. The table below charts how far I thought the clubs should go, how far the Swing Caddie estimated they went on average (followed by a min and max yardage) and how it measured my 5 shots. The last column is my GolfPad GPS data from Riverbend last weekend.

Club	Estimate	SC-200 Avg	SC - Min/Max	SC 5 Shots	GolfPad
3i - 21°	235	232 – 234.5	219/240	231,233,234,240,n/r
4i - 24°	220	215 – 225.2	216/228	228.228,221,228,216	215
5i - 27°	205	205 – 207.6	192/212	208,205,208,205,212
6i - 31°	190	195 – 200.6	176/203	200,200,200,200,203
7i - 35°	178	171 – 171.2	165/177	177,170,170,170,169	165
8i - 39°	166	158 – 158.4	156/161	156,161,158,158,159
9i - 43°	154	142 – 148.2	136/150	150,145,151,150,145	147
PW - 47°	142	135 – 137.4	129/142	134.140,137,139,137	139

For the most part, I’m pretty close to where I want to be. I believe the slower club heads may have reacted differently to the “limited flight” range balls that were being used at the range where I was testing, but I’m still trying to confirm that. When I look at the yardages, my PW is about where it needs to be, maybe a touch shorter than I wanted, but not far off. The 9 iron continues the shorter trend, but actually falls in pretty close to a 12 yard gap with the wedge. If I use the 137 average for the pitching wedge, the 148 for the 9 is 11 yards off. That should work out close enough in the real world. Moving up to the 8 iron, the 158.4 average with the Swing Caddie is a perfect 10 yard gap, or almost ideal for most players. The 171 average on the 7 iron continues the gap with a 12 yard space. Between my lower clubs, I have a beautiful 10, 11, 11, 12 spacing. It’s very close to perfect. Then I get into trouble.

The 6 iron decided to mess everything up for me and become a 200 yard club. In all honesty, 185 would have been about perfect for this one, but it’s playing a solid 10-15 yards longer than that. This is creating a huge hole in the center of my approach shots. Now, maybe the SC-200 unit isn’t 100% accurate, or maybe it was just one of those days where I was crushing my 6 iron. The bottom line is when you have two clubs that are gapped so close together, it’s not a good sign. In my case, it was the 5 and 6 irons. The 7 yard average gap it a bit tight on two irons, but the 26 yard gap between the 6 and 7 iron is far too much. That is definitely one I am going to have to dial in before competition season begins next year.



Other than the strange gap in the 5-6-7 irons, I’m pretty content with my bag. I’m happy to say that my iron swing is in the mid to upper 90 MPH range and my driver speed is right around 110 MPH. As my fitness level increases, I plan on seeing those numbers come up just a touch, but I’m very happy with the initial results. I learned about a new term while I was demoing the Swing Caddie as well, the Smash Factor… I’ll get more into this one later, but with a Smash of 1.25 on my irons, I felt pretty good about things and even better when I saw the 1.44 on my driver. Apparently I want to try and increase that to a true 1.5 SF, but for now, I’ll take the 303 yards that this one generated for me and run with it.

Equipment Deals: Final Day Of The Golfsmith BOGO Shoe Deal

 

If you are in the market for a new pair of shoes for the wet winter ahead, make sure to hit the Golfsmith BOGO deal right now. This deal runs through the end of the day today and features deals on top brands like Nike, Ecco, Skechers, Puma, Adidas and more! Whether your looking for a new Nike hat for the season or a new thermal full-zip jacket, this sale will have you covered. Hit the link below to grab these deals before they are gone.

Buy One, Get One 50% Off When You Use Code BOGO16 at Golfsmith.com! Hurry, This Sale Ends 9/22.

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Equipment Review: Maxfli U/6 Tour Soft Ball–Do 6 Pieces Make A Better Ball?

 

I remember a time when picking a golf ball was simple. You had virtually three choices: Distance, Wound and Tour balls. The distance balls were a two piece construction with a rock hard cover – Top Flite, Nitro and Dunlop ruled the market with these guys. Wound balls were what we might call a spin ball today – Titleist’s DT’s were tops in the market here, even though many others tried, they were the brand. Then you had the tour ball. A softer cover, wound ball that would spin on the hardest greens on the planet. Of course, you could also hit the softer balls out of round after a few holes, so that was an issue. Companies like Titleist and their Tour Balata and Maxfli with their HT100’s were the ball of choice of anyone that played them back in the day, I played the HT100’s back in the day and that’s when I got excited to see the new Maxfli U/6 Tour Soft ball.

 

The design behind the U/6 Tour Soft was amazing to me, the fact that you could cram 6 different layers into a golf ball blew my mind. At the center of the U/6 is a ultra low compression core that will get you faster ball flight speeds and keep spin low. Surrounding that, you have 4 different mantle layers for creating a more powerful ball flight and controlling spin better than ever before. The mantles are covered by a cast urethane cover, which is pretty much the standard in ball covers today. While the design sounds impressive on paper, the true test of whether or not the $45 a dozen ball is worth it will come on the course. Now, a quick note about that price – pretty much everyone on the planet has them for less than $45 a box, in fact, Amazon has sellers moving them for as low as $18.99 a box, so keep that in mind when pricing them out per ball.

 

 

The performance of the ball left me feeling very mixed. I didn’t experience any longer distance off the tee than I did with my Wilson Zips. I also failed to see any better performance on approach shots or while trying to spin the ball on the green. While the performance wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t anything to write home about either. The U/6 Tour Soft was definitely a playable ball, but it lacked anything that really set it apart and made me think I had to have this ball in my bag. Driving with the U/6 Tour Soft left me feeling a bit squishy. The soft urethane cover compressed nicely off the club head, but it didn’t have the same snap as the ionomer cover of the Zip and it didn’t have the same core feel like the Vice Pro Plus. IT sort of fell into a strange spot of being a good ball, but not a great ball. The mid-range price point just put it in this strange “$2 ball” that just was area.

 

I expected the U/6 Tour Soft and it’s urethane cover to perform well around the green, and it was fine. That’s probably the most painful thing I can say about a ball, it was fine. It didn’t feel great coming off the putter face, nor did it feel bad, it just felt, “ehhh?” During both chipping and putting with the U/6 Tour Soft, I didn’t feel anything that set the ball apart from anything else, but maybe that’s a good thing. I mean honestly, I was throwing this up against balls that cost nearly $4 a piece and it held it’s own just fine. Again, it wasn’t a poor performing ball or something that made me decide that it was a bad move to play it, but it just didn’t do much for me in the feel or distance department. It does make me want to find a sleeve of the Tour X ball to take for a spin as I think this ball would be a closer match to my game.

 

The Maxfli U/6 Tour Soft ball is available from various retailers including Dicks and Amazon, though the latter has a better price per dozen. While the U/6 Tour Soft didn’t do much for me personally, I think it could be a good fit for those looking to add a urethane covered ball to their game. The $2 a ball price point is getting crowded with a ton of performance balls, but I think the U/6 Tour Soft is somewhere near the top of the heap right now. When you look at direct sellers like Vice, Snell and Nicklaus, the market gets much blurrier, but if you prefer to run down to a local store to get your balls, there’s a good chance that you can find the U/6 Tour Soft around. That’s always one of my big worries is having to find balls for a tournament weekend and not having anyone carry them locally. I’m sure that the U/6 Tour Soft would be one of those balls that should be around somewhere near you. While the U/6 Tour Soft won’t be going in my bag right now, if you are looking for a cost effective, urethane ball that will perform well, the U/6 Tour Soft might just be for you.

 

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Equipment Deals: Save $20 On Orders Of $125 Or More At Golfsmith

It’s always hard to get a deal on that new piece of gear when you need it, but Golfsmith is sure trying to help you out. From now until September 30th, you can use coupon code 43PUB012 at golfsmith.com to save $20 on any purchase of $125 or more. This is a great time to stock up on those gloves or balls and perhaps even find yourself a new pair of waterproof shoes for the winter months ahead. Again, this deal is valid through the 30th of this month, so make sure you grab it while you can. Get the details by clicking the link below.

Exclusive Offer! Save $20 On Orders Of $125 Or More With Code 43PUB012 at Golfsmith.com! Hurry, Sale Ends 9/30.

Stroke Saver: Go Lower By Taking Doubles Out Of Play

A few weeks back, I covered the fact that you want to prepare for your blow up hole. You know that hole where nothing goes right and you end up walking off the green questioning why you even play golf anymore? This Stroke Saver is coming from the same general thought process, but at a bit different angle. You see, normally a blow up hole features something that doesn’t fit your game just right. There’s the long par 4, the par 3 with the smaller green or maybe that par 5 with so much trouble on it that you feel like you just can’t wait to get into some of it. Any way you look at it, you’re doomed, unless you really think hard about it before hand and maybe plan out to beat that blow up hole that always gets you. Taking that a step further, there’s the easy way to play a course and the hard way. The easy way is to have a bogey plan. A bogey plan is how you would virtually eliminate a double bogey from happening on any given hole. Once you plan that out, the worst case scenario you’d see on your card is a simple 5 instead of that dreaded 6. Here’s how you can play for taking doubles off your card.

Begin by looking at the hole. One of my personal favorites for this is the par 4 second at Riverbend. It plays 423 yards from the back tees and has more trouble that ‘doesn’t come in to play’ on it than any other hole I’ve seen. Looking at the hole from the air, you have trouble in the big tree to the right, which is situated in a 20 foot gully to the right, the trouble the other direction with the other big tree that is in another 20 foot hole to the left.  As you approach the green, there’s a bunker to the right and yet another giant tree blocking your line to the right. For a wide open hole, this one pack quite the protective punch. From driving into either one of the gully’s on the hole to catching the tree on the right and kicking the wrong way, there’s plenty of room on this hole to bring 6 or worse into play. Instead of playing the risky ball and going for the green in 2, what about laying back off the tee slightly and playing a controlled 200 yard shot short of the trouble on both sides. From there, you have a nice landing area about 175 yards from your ball that will leave you an easy 30-50 yard wedge to an open hole location. If your short game is sharp, you have a par opportunity, but if not, you have 3 shots to get down from 50 yards for a bogey. You’ve removed that chance of destroying that round by just playing  the hole a touch different.

Those long par 5’s with lot of trouble off the tee are another issue for many people. As you can see on the hole above, There’s trouble found in the bunkers if you play this one safe, but there’s also trouble deeper if you decide to pound away with your driver. A well designed course will have defenses that protect it from the daily player, but also have some challenges that protect it from the longer hitters as well. For this particular par 5, the best play is either a fade over the left bunker – mainly due to the openness of the left side of the tee boxes, or a draw from the right tree line back into the fairway. You want to hit a fade at least 200 yards to clear the left trap, and you want to keep your draw from starting too far right and clipping the trees. The final option is to play this hole a bit differently. Off the tee, this 504 yard par 5 opens up about 175 yards off the tee. You then have a pretty wide landing area for about 30-40 yards if you keep it between the bunkers. Pulling a 180 yard club and placing the ball in the middle of the fairway will leave you 320 yards in to the green. A simple 160 yard shot done twice should part you near the flag. If you aren’t “that accurate” with your 160 yard club, then hit an additional 180 and a 140. Use the yardages you know the best to set up this hole, just plan on taking three good shots to get there rather than two magnificent ones. If you don’t have the distance to get there if you short your tee ball like this, don’t panic, just hit your 180 yard tee shot, then follow that with three good wedges to land comfortably on the green in four for an easy 2 putt bogey. That should keep those doubles from beating you up on these long par 5 holes with trouble everywhere you look.
If you can eliminate the double bogeys from your card on just those long par 4’s and challenging par 5’s, you will quickly win the battle to breaking 90 and even get closer to taking down that 80 mark. It’s easy to forget that the average golfer can regularly post double bogeys during a round, but getting those off your card may be your first step to dropping your handicap and beating your buddies during your next weekend round.

Equipment Deals: Gear Up Week Starts Now

 

In an effort to help you improve you game over the winter, I’ll be featuring some great training aids and equipment deals on the Golf On A Budget Twitter page all week long. Most of these deals will be from Amazon and will be Prime delivery or add-on items that will ship at no additional charge. Stay tuned to the @golfing4less twitter account throughout the week for these great ideas on what might sharpen up your game. If you aren’t on twitter, you can still view the links online or visit my Amazon Page to help support this blog. Make sure if you are on Twitter that you follow @golfing4less for the latest and greatest in devices and tips that I’ve found to save and play more!

 

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Blog Babble: Too Many Clubs… Too Many Choices…

 

Many of you know that I recently scored an update to my bag, getting my first new set of irons in 10 years. Something that occurred to me while I was looking around was the craziness of how many choices there are in today’s club market. Now, Wilson didn’t seem to have this issue as they basically have three lines: the D200 for those that need forgiveness, the V4 for those that want a bit more playability, and the F5 for those looking for a tour style club and a bit more workability. I left off the FG Tour 100’s due to the fact that these are really a specialty nostalgic club that not many folks even consider playing today, but even still, that’s four choices for four different styles of players. That seems about right to me, and then I look at manufacturers like Ping, Callaway and Mizuno.

 

Ping has managed to march out 5 irons that really blend into a big blur. The GMAX for those that need the ultimate in forgiveness, the G30 which is next in line, the G which offers a bit more playability, the I continues the progression and then the iBlade which is the tour style club in the bunch. The issue here is that there are so many options, the average golfer may become confused on what club will fit them best. For example, if you are a hacker looking for help with your irons, do you go with the GMAX or G30 or do you go a step further and see if the more compact G gives you more confidence? From there, heads start to spin and things get lost quickly.

 

It’s not much better over in the Mizuno camp. From the easy to hit JPX-EZ to the MP-4 ultra blade, there are a whopping 8 different iron sets to choose from in their camp. While some may see choice as a great option here, the bottom line is that flooding the market with club choices and crossover models is just confusing to the consumer. Taking the same guy as above, going into the store, does he choose the JPX-EZ, the JPX-900 Hot Metal or the JPX-900 Forged? Does he even look at the JPX-900 Tour or the MP-54? Then there’s the tempting beauty of those three MP models and some hybrids… Oh there’s just so much to see!

 

Finally, after hitting three different Ping models and 5 different Mizuno models, the poor guy steps up to the Callaway display. With 6 options to choose from, three of which fall directly into the game improvement section, the experience of choosing a new club becomes more like having a root canal or getting a home loan. Instead of being a fun time where he gets to hit a few different manufacturer’s clubs and enjoy himself, he finds out that he is more confused by the ‘feel’ and ‘fit’ of clubs than hey could possibly imagine. Buying his clubs just became a pain in the…

 

Everyone has been talking about the decline of the golfing market. With Nike pulling out of the industry, Taylor Made being put on the selling block and everyone else struggling to maintain their business, it baffles me why they would release so many models instead of just aiming at the big three. Make the best game improvement club, the best mid-range club and the best tour player club you can and call it good. It’s obvious who controls what markets at this point, but honestly, who is going to play the Ping iBlade during their weekend rounds that wouldn’t have been happy playing the I irons? A small handful maybe? Who’s going to play the Mizuno JPX-900 Tour that wouldn’t have played the MP-54’s? Who is going to play the Big Bertha OS that wouldn’t have played the Steelhead XRs?

 

There’s just too much information out there and the market is saturated with confusing terms and too many choices for the average golfer. Think back to a time where Ping Eye 2 irons came in one style, but could be fit to anyone. A time when most manufacturers made 2-3 lines and sold them through shops that knew them well. While choice is a great thing, sometimes too many choices create more problems than not enough choices. What do you think, do we have too many choices out there right now and would the club manufacturers be doing better if they had fewer lines to deal with?

Budget Beater: Why Pay More For A Ball During The Winter Months?

Sure, during the summer months those high spin, high cost balls may be pretty amazing to play with, but what about when it’s so wet that you worry more about losing a ball when it plugs in the fairway? Most people aren’t going to line up to pay $3.75 a ball for a Pro V1x or even $1.67 a ball for used Pro V1x’s, it just doesn’t make sense when they just go missing. Now, what if you could get a very strong performing golf ball for under $1 each? What if it was only $.86 each? Welcome back to the Wilson Zip. This little beauty performs well and a dozen costs you less than a sleeve of Pro V’s… Welcome indeed.

The Wilson Zip is one of those weird balls. It’s not a high spin ball. It’s not a high compression ball. It’s not a billion dimpled model that is designed to orbit the sun. It’s just a ionomer cover that is wrapped around a core that registered at zero compression. That would scare most people off right there, but when you see the Wilson Zip in action, you’ll understand what they mean by compression is just a number. The Wilson Zip flies far off the driver and spins well off the lower irons and wedges. It also has amazing touch around the green. The Wilson Zip is the perfect winter ball for most areas. Of course, there’s no stopping the love when the winter ends. You might just find this little $.86 gem becoming your gamer ball.

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The Journey To Scratch: Update To The Next Round

 

Just as I had laid plans for my next round at Snohomish Golf Course, I managed to sneak in and get a tee time for September 18th at Maplewood Golf Course in Renton, WA. Since Maplewood is quite a bit different than Snohomish, I thought I should adjust a few of my goals for the week and possibly alter my practice as well. Measuring just 6102 from the blue tees, Maplewood sets up much more as a shot makers course than it does a distance challenger. It appears that Maplewood should be more of a target shooter with good layup distances style, which will mean dialing in my 3 iron this week as well as trying to nail the 100 yard wedge shot with my 56 degree wedge. In an effort to explain my process a bit better, I’m charting out the round before I play it, just like I do every week, but this week, I’m giving you my preview.

 

 

The Front Nine

 

The first hole is relatively straight forward with a slight dog leg right going up the hill to a green that is 320 yards away. A simple 5 or 6 iron off the tee should place me at the bottom of the hill where a soft pitching wedge or hard gap wedge should fit nicely. The par 3 second hole plays out to a perfect 8 iron for me (if my distances are on.) The 163 yard hole should be easy enough with a relaxed 8 iron in. Coming back down the hill on the par 4 third, the 381 yard hole doesn’t have much going on with it until you get to the green. Bunkers short right and back are the hole’s biggest defenders, while the green features some slopes on the left half to keep you honest. A driver off the tee here should leave me a solid 105 in, which should be a full 56 degree wedge to get home. The par 4 fourth is another hole that lays out very simply. A drive down the right center of the fairway should leave an easy 60 degree wedge into the green. This brings me to the challenging par 5 fifth hole. At 491 yards, this is a tempting beast to go after in two. When you realize that if you can cut the corner, you can shave about 100 yards off the hole, it becomes a must have in two. I’ll start my drive over the trees on the left and let it fade back over into the fairway on a straight line. This should leave a very short 150 yard shot into the green. A solid 9 iron should do the job here and I should be putting for eagle. Things shorten up on the par 3 sixth. The 142 yard hole also sets up nicely for a good pitching wedge. The 131 yard carry over the water shouldn’t even come into play. Just don’t go too far left with that tee shot and everything should be aces. Moving on to the seventh hole, a par 5 that measures 562 yards, a solid drive will be needed to bring par into play on this one. If I can land one right center of the fairway and hit a solid 6 iron approach, that should leave me an easy 56 degree wedge into the green for a two putt par. The par 4 eighth hole is a real pain since there are two ways to play it. If I’m feeling solid about driving, I can place a driver out in the fairway on the up hill slope to the green and have a half wedge in. If the driver isn’t going so well, I can mid iron it to the bottom of the hill and have more of a full shot in. Either way, this hole should be a tough one to get nailed. Finishing up the front side, the par 4 ninth has plenty of trouble on board to the left, but if I am driving the ball on a fade, I can continue that and try to aim just down the fairway at the edge of the water line and bring the ball back into the fairway. With only 346 yards to cover off a downhill tee shot, it should be easy enough to get close for a half wedge into the green.

 

 

The Back Nine

 

The backside starts off with a doozy of a hole, the 511 yard par 5 tenth. This hole plays as straight as they come with almost no trouble to be found. There is a small drainage creek that runs in front of the hole, as well as down the left side, but nothing major to contend with. A simple drive down the right center, a 9 iron for the layup and lob wedge to the green should bring a great score here. From there, the par 4 eleventh brings a dogleg right with a creek guarding the short side of the hole. A two tiered green protects the flag on this hole, so nailing a good drive and a solid 51 degree wedge will be key to scoring well on this one. A long par 3 follows up 11. The par 3 twelfth measures 177 yards and has enough trouble around it to be very scary. My estimated yardages pin this one at a 7 iron, but the miss is short left on this hole, so I’ll have to do a yardage check when I get there to make sure that works. The par 4 thirteenth is another dogleg right. It’s about 250 yards from the tee box to the edge of the fairway in the corner. This means I’ll either have to curve a driver or lay up with a 3 iron or possibly my 4 wood if it’s ready to go by then. After the tee shot, the 13th is left going very straight forward and should be sand wedge in. Moving to the fourteenth hole, a par 3 that measures 139 yards, I should have a nice easy pitching wedge between the bunkers short and long into the green. The fifteenth is another long one at 451 yards, but a solid driver and a 6 to 7 iron should have me putting for an eagle. Closing out the round with the last three holes are the 324 yard par 4 sixteenth, which should just play driver and a half 60 degree wedge. The 373 yard par 4 seventeenth, which also should play with a driver to the right center and a soft 56 degree wedge to the green. Finally the 309 yard par 4 eighteenth, which may be drivable from the hill down to the green. The aim mark is the bunker on the left of the green here with a slight fade. If I can hit that shot, it may be eagle time to finish.

 

So, now you can see how I prepare for a new course when I am going to go out to play it. I try and take my tendencies that are the norm and apply them to the round to come. If my normal swing is around, I should play Maplewood like a text book as most of the holes are ones that turn to the right. I’ve reset my goals for more of a target style course as I will have 12 holes that feature wedges into the greens instead of the handful that Snohomish was going to give me. Instead of focusing on the 70% mark for fairways and setting my target mark at 25 feet, I am going to dial it up a notch and go for 75% of the fairways, 5 shots inside 12 feet and 32 putts or less. I’ll keep working on dialing in my distances as well.

 

GOALS FOR THE SEPTEMBER 18TH ROUND

Hit 75% of the fairways -
Hit 5 shots inside 12 feet -
Hit only 32 putts or less -
Dial in club distances -

 

I’ll get the recap posted on this one as quickly as I can after the round, but I’m still trying to get a bout 2-3 more rounds in with the 100’s before the fall weather arrives, so I might not be able to post them all back to back to back like this. In the meantime, go out and play while the weather is still good. Most of all, have fun playing, because if you don’t enjoy the ride, there’s not much point in taking it!

Equipment Deals: TaylorMade AeroBurner Driver For $120?

Rockbottomgolf.com has a serious deal on a great piece of golf gear today. In their limited time Wednesday Deal, Scratch at Rock Bottom is dealing out TaylorMade AeroBurner Drivers for an unbelievable $119.99. This is a solid $30-80 less than everyone else has these drivers and fairway woods featured for. There’s also some deals to be had on the irons and hybrids in the AeroBurner line. Now these drivers are a few years old and don’t have the adjustable settings that some of the newer $500 models do, but these clubs are course ready and will definitely hit the ball quite a ways for you. If you’re in the market for a deal, make sure you hit the link below before midnight when these prices expire!

Rock Bottom Golf - https://www.rockbottomgolf.com/search.php?search_query=Taylormade+Aeroburner

The Journey To Scratch: Goals For The Next Round

So here I am again, after breaking down my round recap and looking back at my goals for this round. I had a few simple ones this time, but apparently they aren’t so simple when I’m not striking the ball quite as well as I could be. The 79 that I posted on September 11th was not only a crazy good round for how I was playing, but also one that featured about 7 more putts that I was aiming for. At first, I thought my putting was the issue, but after a bit more homework, I discovered a much bigger hole in my game.

My approach shots were very inconsistent throughout the day. In fact, when all was said and done, I had 13 approach shots that fell outside of 30 feet. Most of them still hit the green, but leaving yourself 30+ foot putts on every hole is not going to help you score well. Even worse, was the distances in that these shots were left from. When you see yardages like 134, 133, 62, 129, 160, 165, 54 and 137, you would expect to see about 1/2 of those shots in the first or second ring. Unfortunately, those were my outside 30 feet distances.

Enough of that, let’s take a quick look at the goals for this round and see where I ended up. First up, for the last round, I was hoping to hit 70% of my fairways, 70% of the greens and have a 75% chipping up and down percentage. Fortunately, I hit two out of three of those in the GIR’s and chipping percentage. Fairways lagged behind at 57% though. I also had 35 putts in route to a beautiful 74. It was a great round. For my September 11th round, I was hoping to up the ante a bit and pull off the following:

GOALS FOR THE SEPTEMBER 11TH ROUND

Hit 70% of the fairways – 9/14 (64%)
Hit 80% of the greens – 15/18 (83%)
Hit 32 putts or less –  39

That was darn close to plan, but it just didn’t work out for me. In hind sight, had I known that I was so close to making my fairway goal, I probably would have played 17 a bit different than I did, but I had thought the round was too far gone to even think about any of the ‘stats’ that I was posting at that point in time. My putting had me so frustrated I didn’t know what to do with myself. What I hadn’t considered at that point was how long of putts I was leaving myself. This round, I left myself 5 shots inside 25 feet. In the previous round, I had 9 inside 25 feet with 4 of those being inside 12 feet. When you look at the difference between a 74 and a 79, 4 putts makes a huge difference.

It’s also worth noting that this was my first round out with my new FG Tour 100 irons in the bag and I was playing a new ball this round, which definitely had an impact on my play. The other factor, at least it seemed to be, was the weather. The air seemed heavier than normal, which made figuring out distances very difficult. When you think you have an idea in your head, then you get a mix-match of feedback from live play, it gets difficult to plan out the next shot. For example, my 9 iron had shots ranging from a 134 yard fade to a 163 yard draw. That is a two club difference though I’m thinking that the 145 mark is about where it is supposed to be. As I get the rest of the yardages dialed in, it should be easier to plan out rounds.

Moving onward to the next round, I’ll be playing Snohomish Golf Course on September 25th and maybe squeaking in a round or two before then somewhere else. Snohomish is a 6813 yard par 72 layout with some beastly long par 5’s and a 244 yard par 3. From the tips, it looks to play similar to Gearhart, but with more trees lining the fairways. My goals for Snohomish are going to be tailored a bit differently than my past rounds with generic goals, and being my first loop around there, it should be important to nail these for a good score.

GOALS FOR THE SEPTEMBER 25TH ROUND

Hit 70% of the fairways -
Hit 10 shots inside 25 feet -
Dial in club distances -

I’m not going to worry as much about how many greens and how many putts I take this round as I am more worried about getting the 100’s dialed in and ready for the winter. This will probably be one of the last dry rounds I get for 2016, so I want to make the most of it. I am also going to start putting a premium on my fitness goals. Winter is a good time to stay in and ride the exercise bike or maybe do a sit up/push up workout every morning or evening. Light things to get going, but getting things moving none the less. I think a crucial part of scoring going forward will be dialing in the irons and getting my approach shots close. Eventually, my plan is to get everything inside 25 feet and shoot for at least 9 shots inside 12 feet.

Stroke Saver: When Good Putting Goes Bad

We’ve all been there. That round where everything goes just right. The perfect drive followed by that pitching wedge that settles 10 feet from the flag. You mark your ball as everyone that is outside of you takes their first putts. You take your time and get a good read on the break, you visualize the line and line up the putter head and stroke that perfect putt towards the hole. You watch it roll along the line, breaking perfectly towards the hole, only to have it stop breaking in the last few feet and roll 3 feet past. You confidently walk to the cup to tap in your par putt knowing you gave it a great run. You line up again, and tap in the 3 foot putt only to have it break below the hole and lip out again. You tap the ball in from the two inches away that it settled and walk off the green frustrated at a ‘horrible’ three putt. And so it begins.

There is nothing, and  I mean nothing worse than holes like this for a golfer’s confidence. To cover 400 yards in two gorgeous shots only to take 3 to finish the last 10 feet will kill a game faster than you can believe. Overcoming the first 3 putt is always tough, but when a string starts going, it’s even harder. In my last round, I netted a monstrous 39 putts. That’s about 7 strokes worse than usual, and they weren’t even that hard of putts to start with. I had a long 40 footer on the 4th hole that should have been an easy par, but I tried to just “lag it close” and ended up leaving it about 10 feet short. I told myself to, “Be aggressive next time and that won’t happen again.” So I was. I pushed on through the next 6 holes before I did it again on the 11th. Long first putt, over 50 feet, which I again, left short by over 10 feet. “Gotta get the next one to the hole.” So on the 12th, I left myself a manageable 30 footer for birdie, which ended up going 10 feet past the hole, because I “had to get it there.” I then went into salvage mode and started aiming at a larger target to prevent another 3 putt and my chances of score well were done.

As I covered last week, putting is made up of three parts. You need to have all three parts working well to be successful. You need to read it, roll it and hole it. When you fail to do any of the three, your game is going to suffer. In my case, I had the read, I had the roll – most of the time, but I wasn’t able to hole it. By the end of that 4th hole, with 2 lip outs and that horrible three putt, I had all but given up on my putter for the day. Keep in mind, I had a solid 2 putt on 1, another on 2 and another on three. It wasn’t a bad putting round yet, it just wasn’t spectacular. That three putt on the 4th hole completely changed my mindset about my putter and it was all moving downhill from there. The question is, how do you stay positive about your putter when it starts costing you strokes.

First, go back to your routine, no matter what. Practice how you putt, and how you set up to putt. If you are a ball marker, ALWAYS mark your ball, even on practice putts. If you are a 2 practice stroke person, take two practice strokes. If you like to read the putt from both sides of the hole, do it quickly, but do it. You paid for the round, play your round. Never break your routine once you have it established. If you have a bad hole, your routine may snap you right back on track on the next one. It’s just like a bad drive or a chunked wedge – you don’t just stop practice swinging all your clubs when a full swing goes wrong – so don’t do that with your putter either.

Next, keep everything the same until you see a pattern in the results. Don’t let one bumpy green or misread on a putt destroy your game. We all misread or mishit something at some point, so there’s no point in killing yourself over it. If you leave one short, that’s ok, just go back to normal on the next putt. If you start to leave everything short, you’re probably on a slow set of greens and you need to pick up the pace a bit. Give yourself 3 or 4 greens to make up for that, especially if you are playing a morning round where they may still be damp. Also, never depend on someone else’s line for your putt. If your balls are right next to each other and there’s no break on their putt, but you see it, play the break as you read it, not as their putt that didn’t go in rolled. At least you can blame your read for the miss rather than it, “Not doing what their putt did.”

Lastly, one shot does not ruin a round. Everyone, even the tour professionals hit crappy shots during a round. Realistically, if we didn’t, we would shoot an 18 under par score and that’s never happened before. The issue with putting is that is seems so close, you we need to remember that the target gets so much smaller. For example, on a drive, we have a 100 foot target to hit at. On approach, we have about 65 feet to shoot at. Putting, we have about 3 inches. The margin for error is much smaller with putting, so even if we hit a great shot and miss it by an inch, it’s a tap in at that point. Don’t start going back to a lag putt mentality and make the target bigger because that will just lead to larger misses. If anything, tighten up your target to a half of the hole and push to make it. The smaller the target, the smaller the area you have to miss it.

Bad putting doesn’t have to ruin your game, but it certainly can if you let it get into your head. Some days it just doesn’t matter what you do, the ball just won’t find the bottom of the cup. Other days, you’ll find the opposite where you just can’t miss from inside 10 feet. That’s where golf is won and lost, inside 10 feet. So, put down the, “Need to buy a new putter talk,” and go work those 10 foot putts. Your confidence will be back in no time and so will those lower scores.