Joey's Golf Bag

The scorecard was burned ritually. This day will never be spoken of again.

After work today, I went to hit a few balls at the Golden Bear Golf Center. The weather was fabulously warm, calm winds, blue skies. I’m starting to appreciate global warming… 😉

Today, I concentrated on getting my ball flight back to a draw and had a hard time of it at first. I started out hitting half swings with a 7-iron to get my rhythm, but wasn’t making good contact with the ball. The problem seems to be inadequate rotation of my forearms, too much tension, and an outside-to-in path. So, I used some drills to work on each. After getting thoroughly warmed up, I started to hit some balls well, and went through my bag, hitting each club. Mostly, I did manage to correct the three faults listed and was able to get the ball to draw, and once, to hook. I even got the 3-metal working again, not without some difficulty.

Time ran short and I wasn’t able to putt, chip or hit wedges.

Today, I practice and played nine at Hank Haney Golf Ranch in Lewisville. The weather was mid-50s and sunny, with a slight breeze from the east.

I started off hitting 7-iron shots to warm up. I was concentrating on three things today: a slower start to my downswing, an inside path, and a full turn during the backswing. I did well on everything but the inside path; I had a hard time getting into the groove today.

I hit the short irons well, although I had a tendency to pull the short irons, indicating a slightly over the top swing. The mid-irons were not very good, mostly fades or worse, slices. The long irons were bad during practice, and not much better during play.

I hit some short wedge shots during practice, and with the exception of some hit slightly fat, did pretty well. Again, many were slightly pulled.

I spent a few minutes putting to get the speed of the greens and then played nine.

My score:

* Hit green in regulation.

Themes:

• Tee shots. Hit only one fairway and two greens in regulation. I hit 4-irons on all the par-4 holes, except for the sixth hole. Even so, hit one in the hazard on the second and another into the hazard on fourth. I did manage to hit the fairway on the eighth hole with a 4-iron fade. The tee shot with the 3-metal on the sixth hole was launched very high and ended up in the right rough, where I had to lay-up into the fairway.
• Short irons. Hit two greens in regulation. Hit a nice 9-iron to 30 ft on the first hole and a pitching wedge onto the green on the third. My 9-iron after a drop on the second was hit the green but rolled off into the rough just over the green. Hit a perfect lay-up 9-iron on the sixth hole from the rough. My 7-iron from the fairway was pin-high on the eighth hole, but pushed into the rough just off the green. My 7-iron tee shot was also pushed, this time into the right hand bunker.
• Wedges. Mostly short today. Had one disastrous wedge from the rough on the eighth hole that flew the green; the return sand wedge ended up in the bunker.
• Chipping. Good chip on the fifth to save par. Otherwise, none were closer than 5 ft.
• Bunker shots. Had two balls in bunkers, got out onto the green to about 8-10 ft on both.
• Putting. Nothing good to say about putting today, as I hit none over 6 ft and managed to three-putt the third hole from 15 ft.

Despite the perfect weather, had a pretty poor golf outing today.

I built a new hybrid around the Snake Eyes 653T-H Hybrid, 21 degree loft, using a Aldila Gamer Fairway graphite shaft, and a Golf Pride Dual Duromatic midsize grip. The club has a length of 40-3/4″. The hybrid head features screw weights, which allows optimization of the ball flight with my swing. I want to replace the 3-iron with this club.

I’ll try out the club tomorrow, and do some testing with various weight combinations.

I hit a medium bucket of balls and played nine at Hank Haney Golf Ranch in Lewisville today. The weather was mid-60s, almost no breeze, partly cloudy.

I warmed up with my 6-iron, and then began to compare hitting the Big Bertha 6-iron to the Viper Ti-4 6-iron I built this week. It’s clear from hitting the club that it needs to be bent upright 3 degrees to match the Big Bertha club, as I hit the Viper with a fade nearly every shot, whereas I hit mostly straight or slight draws with the Big Bertha 6-iron. I decided to delay any further testing until I get the club bent upright.

I spent almost the whole practice session hitting the longer irons, even getting the 3-iron out for a few shots. I hit mostly straight shots today, some draws and some fades when I wasn’t concentrating. I hit the ball well when I made sure not to start my downswing too quickly. I also hit about a dozen balls with the SasQuatch 3-metal, generally fades; never got the draw working at all. I hit a few balls with the short irons, mostly straight or slight pulls. I hit a couple of full swings with the pitching wedge as well, and pulled it as well.

I then hit a few putts to get the speed of the greens (fast) and played nine holes with Dan, who I met on the range. He played very well today, scoring maybe 2 or 3 over par. Very impressive on this course, as the fairways are very narrow and the greens very small.

My score:

* Hit green in regulation.

Themes:

• Driving. Not very good driving today, as I didn’t hit any fairways in regulation. On the 2nd, hit the 3-metal just into the hazard and had to take an unplayable as the ball was under a bush. On the fourth, hit a 4-iron just into the hazard and took a penalty drop. On the sixth, hit a 4-iron off the tee, fading it into the rough next to a tree. I had to pitch out from there into the fairway. On the eighth hole, hit a 4-iron just into the left rough.
• Short irons. Hit a fade on the first hole into the fringe of the green, leaving a 60 ft chip. On the 3rd, hit a pitching wedge just short of the green. On the fifth, hit a perfect 10-iron into the center of the green for my only green in regulation. I also hit a very nice 7-iron onto the green on the 6th hole to leave a 10-ft putt for par, which lipped out. My 9-iron from the rough on the 8th hole was hit a bit fat and was short of the green although perfectly in line with the flag. Hit a poor 5-iron off the tee on the 7th hole and a poor 7-iron off the tee on the 9th hole.
• Wedges. Hit poor sand wedge shots on the 2nd and 4th hole, which led to the triple bogeys on both. Hit a decent shot out of the sand on the 4th hole, though.
• Chipping. Hit a very good chip on the 3rd hole to 2 ft, the rest were not very close.
• Putting. No three-putts today. Lipped out putts for par on the 1st, 6th, and 9th holes. My only bad putt was on the 4th hole, on which I hit a downhill putt right off the green.

A very pleasant day of golf.

On Tuesday, I went to the Golden Bear Golf Center after work to hit some balls. The weather was nice, mid-60s and a soft breeze in my face. I primarily worked on the longer irons. I also spent some time doing an impact assessment, hitting 3 or 4 balls each using the 9-iron, 7-iron, 5-iron and 3-metal, with impact tape. The impact tape pretty much tells the tale of my golf abilities (such as they are). I’m pretty consistent with the 9-iron, probably hitting 8 of 10 shots well with that club. With the 7-iron, I probably hit 7 of 10 shots well, and with the 5-iron, 5 of 10 shots well. With the 3-metal, on the other hand, I didn’t hit any of the shots well on this day, which is unusual for me, I usually hit about 6 of 10 shots well with that club. See image below for the impacts.

I also hit a few balls with my 3- and 6-iron blades, and hit them very poorly today. With my Big Bertha irons, I had much less difficulty hitting the long irons. Not really a surprise, but I usually am able to hit the 6-iron blade pretty well, only rarely hitting the 3-iron blade well. The 3-metal today was a complete disaster, never hit even a single ball well today, either hitting snap hooks, slices or worm burners. Yeech!

I ran out of time (and daylight), so I didn’t have time to putt, chip or hit short wedges.

I’ve build yet another club, this one a Snake Eyes Viper Ti-4 club from Golfsmith, which features a titanium face and adjustable screw weights. I built this club with a 6-iron head, 38.5″ long, with a mid-trajectory graphite Grafalloy Prolite iron shaft, and a Golf Pride Dual Durometer midsize grip. I want to experiment with the weights and see what combination of weights will give me the best performance.

My main issue with my Callaway Big Bertha 2004 irons is that I hit the ball very high, and I would like to have a set of clubs that I hit a little lower and with a bit more distance.

I will try out the club today when I practice and play at Hank Haney Golf Ranch.

I practiced and played nine at Hank Haney Golf Ranch in Lewisville today. The weather was warm and sunny, although clouds moved in while I played. The wind was soft and from the west.

I started out hitting a small bucket with my practice 6-iron, hitting mostly draws into the green on the left. I also hit a bunch of 8- and 9-irons into the center green just beyond the pond. I spent much of the time shaping shots, putting the ball back in my stance to hit draws, a little more forward for straight shots, and a little more forward than that for fades. From my practice today, it looks like the primary reason I tend to fade is the ball is too far forward. I hit many shots with the SasQuatch 3-metal, mostly straight or draws, only one or two fades, and even those were soft fades.

I was also able to finally hit the practice 3-iron I made. I hit mostly draws with it, but the distance wasn’t very long. In fact, I hit it good enough to try it on the course.

My score:

* Hit green in regulation.

Trends:

• Driving. The 3-metal, which worked well in practice, was poor on the course. I hit a fade into the hazard on the second hole and a draw on the fourth that hit a tree on the left and ended up in the rough on the right side of the fairway. Only the shot on the sixth hole was down the middle. I used the 3-iron on the eighth hole, setting up for a fade, but hit a hard draw into the hazard on the left.
• Long irons. I hit a fine 5-iron on the seventh hole into the fringe of the green, exactly where I was aiming. My 3-iron off the tee drew instead of faded, however.
• Short irons. Short irons were mixed. I hit a good 9-iron to 30 ft on the first hole, hit a perfect layup 10-iron on the sixth hole, and a good 7-iron off the tee on the ninth hole to 18 ft. My 9-iron in the rough from the drop from the hazard on the eighth hole was very poor, hit fat and right into the right rough. My 10-iron on the fifth tee was way right as well.
• Wedges. I had a very poor day with the wedges, mostly well short. I had difficulty with the hard packed ground mainly, mostly hitting the ground before the ball which left the shots short. On the third tee, hit the pitching wedge thin and into the hazard.
• Chipping. I used the pitching wedge to chip, only twice. The first chip, from the fringe on the seventh hole, was nearly perfect, just 2 ft from the hole. The second chip, from the fringe on the eighth hole, was well short.
• Putting. Mixed results, mostly hit every putt about 4 ft past the hole. Fortunately, I hit all the recovery putts, except the one on the first hole, where I had my only three-putt.

A very nice day for golf. I need to work on hitting wedges off hardpacked ground, as that gave me trouble all day and led to the poor scoring.

Today was a beautiful, warm day, with a strong breeze from the south. Chinh and I practiced and played nine at North Texas Golf Center this afternoon.

It’s been more than two weeks since I last had a golf club in my hand, due to a trip north for Christmas, followed by the flu. I was unable to eat anything for 3 days during that period and it was the better part of a week before I felt strong enough to get out on a golf course.

I started out hitting balls with my newly constructed 6-iron. Hitting balls with the blade was little different than hitting balls with my Big Bertha 6-iron. On the other hand, I was completely unable to hit the blade 3-iron, and I was able to hit the Big Bertha 3-iron, at least respectably.

I went through my bag and hit most of my clubs, except for the driver, which I’d left at home. I’m not planning to hit the driver any more until I replace it with a SasQuatch driver, probably with the 13-degree loft. I did hit the SasQuatch 3-metal, with varying results. Most of my clubs were a little short today and I didn’t hit any irons longer than a 5-iron with any consistency.

I spent quite a bit of time hitting short wedge shots. My feel was a little off today, but I did have good success with the sand wedge, and limited success with the lob wedge. The pitching wedge, on the other hand, didn’t want to work today, so it spent the day in the bag.

My score:

* Hit green in regulation.

Themes:

• Short irons. I had a pretty good day off the tee with the short irons. My only real difficulty was all my distances were a bit short, especially when hitting into the wind. I had a perfect 9-iron on the fourth hole to 5 feet, which I promptly knocked in for a birdie. On the other hand, I hit a 10-iron long into a ball eating bush, and had to take an unplayable on the fifth hole.
• Wedges. I hit pretty good wedge shots all day, when I missed the greens. I didn’t do any chipping today, since I didn’t spend any practice time on chipping. My only really poor wedge shot was on the ninth hole, left it well short, but the recovery wedge was perfect, to 3 inches.
• Putting. Mixed results today. I three-putted the third hole, hitting all the putts long. I also missed a short putt for par on 7, caused by a wind gust.

Chinh had a fine day today, shooting a 31.

I build two practice clubs, a 3-iron and a 6-iron, using Snake Eyes 600B forged heads, True Temper Dynamic Gold R300 shafts and Golf Pride Dual Durometer grips. I made the 3-iron 40″ long to match my Big Bertha 3-iron, and the 6-iron 38.5″ long to match may Big Bertha 6-iron. Other than a slightly higher swing weight, the clubs are otherwise identical. I made these clubs so I could train myself to hit the sweet spot on the clubs. With the Big Bertha irons, there is little difference in feel when the sweet spot is hit vs. when it is not.

I will try these clubs out today at the North Texas Golf Center.