Joey's Golf Bag

Since I’m on vacation, I’ve practiced every day, mostly at Golden Bear, but also at Hank Haney Golf Ranch, for a little variety. Last Tuesday, I finally was able to get some good lag in my swing, but aside from one or two swings, I haven’t had any lag since. Woe is me. 🙁

Desperate to get my lag back, on Thursday, I got out my iPod, put on Tour Tempo at 27/9 and my swing improved, but no lag. Where did my lag go? Heck if I know.

On the other hand, Bobby Clampett’s sand drill has made my bunker play immensely improve to where I now get 90% of the balls out of the bunker and about 50% close to the pin. I’m guessing that my lag will eventually return as I continue to do the sand drill. I’m working hard on it.

In other news, over the last couple of weeks, my setup point for my clubs had to move out to the toe of the clubs. I’d been hitting a lot of hosel rockets, so I had to move my setup. Gradually, my swing has improved such that I’m now mostly hitting the center of the clubface, so I’ve moved my setup back to centering the clubface on the ball. I guess that means my swing is improving.

I hope.

My short game continues to improve. I’ve already discussed how my bunker work is much better. My short and medium pitches are going well, as is my chipping. My longer pitches are still inconsistent, but I continue to work hard on it. I’ve not been putting as much time into putting, but putting remains the best part of my game, ever since I had that putting lesson with the “Yes” man. I need to thank him next time he shows up at Golden Bear.

Michelle,

It was a really tough year, huh? Here’s what you need to do to get your mojo back and start winning:

• Send the parents back to Hawaii. ‘Nuff said.
• Decline all invitations to men’s events. Oh, you already did! Great!
• Defer school until after your playing career is done. After all, you banked $19M this year.
• Announce your intention to play your way onto the LPGA tour.
• Just do it!

That’s what you need to do. Do it now.

Love,

Joey (your biggest fan)

I’ve been remiss in not updating my blog lately, as I’ve been extremely busy at work.

I started taking golf lessons with Alan Niederlitz at Golden Bear Golf Center about two months ago and just finished up this week. Along the way, we did some video analysis and it showed that my main fault was a backswing that is a bit too flat, and a downswing that is a bit over the top. So, those two things are what I’ve been working on. I also bought a book by Bobby Clampett called The Impact Zone that has been extremely helpful with my understanding of the golf swing. I’ve been doing the sand drill for a few weeks along with some of the other drills he describes in the book.

Finally, this afternoon, things came together. I’d been in the bunker running the sand drill and also practicing sand shots. I then went to the range, warmed up in my usual manner, and again was disappointed with my inconsistency. I’d hit some balls beautifully, and other balls like I’d never seen a golf club before. It was very frustrating. I decided to work on impact, so I pulled out the pitching wedge, set up for chipping and concentrated on getting my hands in front of the ball before impact. I started striking the ball well, so I continued the drill with longer clubs until I got down to the 6-iron. I then decided to hit some longer swings, but the results weren’t good — my hands weren’t leading the clubhead at the ball. I went back to the pitching wedge and concentrated on getting my hands in front of the ball at impact. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I started feeling lag in my swing and a nice, crisp strike on the ball with a divot that points directly at the target. I hit a few more with the pitching wedge, and then went down through the clubs to the 6-iron, and found I could keep the lag as long as I made a nice, smooth swing. I then ran out of balls…

This isn’t the first time I’ve felt lag, but the last time I didn’t realize what I had and I wasn’t able to reproduce that feeling until today.

It’ll be interesting to see if I can feel the lag again tomorrow…

On Tuesday evening, I went to a corporate outing at Top Golf in Dallas. Margaritas and golf! 🙂

This morning, I practiced at the Hank Haney Golf Ranch in Lewisville. The day was sunny and warm, but the wind was howling at about 20-30 mph from the west. I started out with my usual warmup: 5 sand wedge shots to warm up, followed by 3 balls each (with full routine) of the pitching wedge, 8-iron, 6-iron, 4-iron (yes, had one today), 3-wood and 5 drives. My ball-striking was a bit suspect early, though finally got some good swings on the ball once I got out the driver.

After the warm-up, I did a number of drills, trying to strike down more on the ball and get the ball flight down a little. It took a while to get used to the new irons; I found that I had to address the new irons (and all the other clubs as well) off the toe. I wasn’t particularly happy with my ball-striking today, but I was pleased that if I put a good swing on the ball, the new 550c irons felt as good as any I’ve ever hit. Even though I’m using a stiffer shaft than I’ve been using, the shaft felt perfect, no boardy feeling at all. The new irons do reduce my tendency to get quick on the downswing, but I’m still hitting the ball too high. I believe I’ll be happy with the new irons once I get my swing better. I’ve been very busy at work and have been unable to practice as much as I want to.

Next, I went to the putting green and ran speed drills. Again, lack of practice has hindered my progress here, but my putting is still better than the rest of my game.

I was happy to get out and practice. I hope I’ll be able to get in some more practice in the coming weeks, if the weather holds up.

I’ve been having the problem of late of hitting the ball too high, and thus losing distance. Additionally, I tend to get quick with my downswing, which often causes a push or a hook, depending on how I release. To combat these problems, I’ve built some new irons using the Tom Wishon Golf Technology 550c forged irons. Chiefly, I selected these clubheads because they have less offset compared to my current 770CFE irons. For the shafts, I put in True Temper Black Gold stiff shafts, soft-stepped one club (in other words, 3-iron shaft into the 4-iron, 4-iron shaft into the 5-iron, etc.). These shafts are heavier than my current TT GS75 shafts, to help reduce getting quick on the downswing. I put on Wishon Golf V-Series oversize grips with 4 wraps of tape. I swingweighted the clubs to D-6.

My specs:

Other notes: I made the clubs 0.25" longer. It turns out I mis-measured my wrist-to-floor measurement, so the clubs needed to be a bit longer than my last set of irons. The lie angles shown are before I use I lie board to determine what the specs really need to be. As shown, they are 2° upright.

Some photos below: the full 4 to AW set; back of the 5-iron; back of the 9-iron.

This afternoon, Jarvis and I played 18 at the Indian Creek Golf Club on the Creek Course. We went off at 12:30PM on a sunny, but blustery, day.

My score:

Themes:

• Tee shots. I hit 6 fairways today. My driving was pretty good, being just off the fairway on most of the others. I had only two poor tee shots, both hooks: a 7-iron on the 8th hole into the water, and a 4-wood into the water on the 18th hole. I hit only one of the par-3 holes in regulation, the short par-3 14th hole, where I hit a pitching wedge. The 9th hole was playing as a par-3 today due to water damage on the fairway; I hit that hole in regulation as well.
• Approach shots. My approach shots were pretty good today, although I didn’t hit many greens in regulation. I had one penalty on an approach shot on the 13th hole, where I had hit a 4-hybrid into the right rough. My only shot was a punch shot between two trees; unfortunately, the shot didn’t “punch”, instead it hit a branch and went straight right into the water.
• Wedges. My wedges let me down today; I shanked two lob wedge shots, and left others short.
• Chipping. My chipping was decent, getting up and down four times.
• Bunker shots. I was in two bunkers today. One was a fairway bunker, and I was so close to the lip that the only shot I had was with a pitching wedge. The other one took two tries, but I did get up and down on the second one.
• Putting. I had 31 putts today (no 3-putts), so I was pretty happy with my putting. I didn’t miss any putts inside of about 6 feet. My best putt was from 15 ft for birdie on the first hole.

My front nine score of 40 was by far my best ever. Unfortunately, I followed up that excellent front nine with a poor back nine. Still, 90 is my best score ever, so I’m pretty happy.

OK, not really, it was a YouTube video.

Over the last two weeks, I’ve practice several times. Though my short game continues to improve, my ball-striking has not. I ran into Alan Niederlitz at the Golden Bear Golf Center and he diagnosed my swing: casting. That dreaded casting move had gotten back into my swing. That afternoon, I came home and read some articles I’d bookmarked, and found again the Hogan video. Finally, I understood how I’m supposed to swing. I went back to the range that night and tried to incorporate Ben’s downswing into mine. It’ll be a long grind to get it imbedded in my swing, but now, for the first time, I can feel what the swing is supposed to be.

This afternoon, we played a scramble tournament on the Creek Course at Indian Creek Golf Club. The afternoon was warm and sunny with a soft breeze. We went off at just after 1PM and finished just after 5PM. We went off the 5th hole with a shotgun start. Our score (the winning score was 58!):

My contributions to our score:

• Sixth hole. My drive was the best.
• Eight hole. Hit a 7-iron closest to the pin.
• Ninth hole. My drive was the best.
• Tenth hole. Hit a perfect drive down the middle, then hit a gap wedge to 18 feet from the pin.
• Twelfth hole. Hit a 7-iron to 30 feet from the pin.
• Thirteenth hole. Hit a perfect drive over the tree on the right edge of hazard into the middle of the fairway.
• Fifteenth hole. Hit a sand wedge approach shot to 25 feet from the pin.
• Seventeenth hole. Hit an 8-iron approach to 21 feet from the pin.
• Eighteenth hole. Hit a cut lob from deep rough to 20 feet and nailed the par putt.
• First hole. Hit a 20 foot birdie putt.
• Second hole. Hit an 8 foot birdie putt.

This tournament was perhaps the most fun day of golf I’ve had. The driver went straight most of the day, though my drives were only occasionally used as my playing partners were longer than me on most holes. My approach shots weren’t great, but I did manage to hit nearly half the holes in regulation, though my playing partners were closer on some of those holes. My putting was atrocious until the 18th hole, where I hit a 20 footer to save par. On the next hole, the first, I hit another 20 footer for birdie, and followed that up with an 8 footer for birdie on the second.

Yesterday, I practiced at the Golden Bear Golf Center on a hot, muggy morning. I started off, as usual, in the short game area, working on chipping, especially long chips, using the pitching wedge. My chipping was pretty respectable, so I moved on to short and medium pitches using the lob wedge. My pitching was quite good, although not my best effort. I then spent some time in the bunker working on sand shots, both with the sand and lob wedges. I never really got it going, taking an inconsistent amount of sand.

I got a large bucket of balls and went to the range. I warmed up as usual, and it was clear from the start that my ball-striking on this day was not going to be good. I ran through the bag and maybe hit one or two good shots out of 20 or so balls. I then got out the iPod, put on Tour Tempo, but that seemed to make things worse. This was probably my worst practice in months, so I’ll spare you the details.

This morning, I practiced and played nine at North Texas Golf. The day was warm, humid and heavily overcast. There was a breeze from the east. I warmed up by hitting medium and long pitches with the lob wedge at the target rings, even nailing one on the third pitch. My distance control was a little spotty, though my direction control was pretty good. I then went to the range, where I ran through the bag hitting every other club (I’d left the driver in the club). I hit a least one good shot with every club, so I was quite happy with my ball-striking. I finished up the small bucket by hitting a couple of shots with the sand wedge through 8-iron off a tee, simulating the holes I’d be playing. I then went to the putting green, where I found the greens very slow and bumpy. That would be the same on the course.

My score:

* Hit green in regulation.

My round:

• First hole. Hit a 9-iron from 113 yds pin-high left of the green into some heavy rough. Chipped poorly to about 10 ft and missed the putt for par and tapped in for bogey.
• Second hole. Pulled a 7-iron left into the hazard, took a drop in the rough, chipped poorly again to about 15 ft, and three-putted for triple, lipping out a 2 foot putt.
• Third hole. Hit a pitching wedge from 108 yards high and short, hit a perfect chip to a foot and tapped in for par.
• Fourth hole. Hit a gap wedge from 94 yards left of the green into a grass bunker. Hit a chip thin and over the green, putted from the fringe to a foot and tapped in for bogey.
• Fifth hole. Hit a gap wedge from 84 yards very high and short into a bowl around a drain. Hit a poor chip to 12 ft and two-putted for bogey.
• Sixth hole. Hit a pitching wedge from 101 yards 6 feet above the hole. Missed a tricky birdie putt and tapped in for par.
• Seventh hole. Hit a gap wedge from 94 yards to 21 feet. Blew the birdie putt 6 feet past the hole, but drained the par putt.
• Eighth hole. Hit a pitching wedge from 105 yards left of the green, where it hit a down-slope and bounced 2″ over the green. Putted from the fringe 8 feet past the hole, but nailed the par putt.
• Ninth hole. Hit a 9-iron very high and 36 feet below the hole, leaving a nasty double-breaking putt up hill. Missed the putt 2 ft wide, and missed the 2 footer again, tapping in for bogey. Yeech!!!!!!!

I was pretty disappointed with my game today, as the two of the three things I’ve been working hardest at (putting, chipping, pitching) were done poorly today. Aside from a near perfect chip on the third hole, my chipping was pathetic, and I also three-putted twice, missing from 2 feet. How the heck can I miss from two feet when I usually start my putting practice by hitting 10 in a row from 4 feet? WTF??? To top that off, I was hitting the ball short all day, de-lofting the clubs and hitting the ball very high. None of that was evident during warmup.

Sometimes, this game drives me crazy.