Joey's Golf Bag

Yesterday, Ron Sirak edged out Sal Johnson and Alan Shipnuck on picking the winners of the first round of the Accenture Match Play. Let’s take a look at their second round results. Note: Of the three, only Sal Johnson didn’t pick the later rounds in advance, so he’s got a clear advantage because his picks get reset every day. But, what the heck.

Sal kicked ass, but then, he had the advantage of resetting after the first round. Ron edged out Alan again.

Tiger Woods is back in action at the Accenture Match Play. Let’s take a look at picks from Ron Sirak of Golf World, Sal Johnson of Golf Observer and Alan Shipnuck of Sports Illustrated and see how they performed.

Ron Sirak edges out Sal Johnson and Alan Shipnuck, despite not picking the Ogilvy v Stricker match (website said Stenson! — if Golf World corrects the pick, I’ll fix it here). The big surprises were Els getting knocked out by Bradley Dredge, Davis Love III losing to Ben Crane and Tim Clark defeating Robert Allenby.

This afternoon after work, I practiced at the Golden Bear Golf Center, on a wonderfully warm and breezy afternoon. I’d planned to have a full practice session, and I did manage to practice my full swing and short game, but no time for putting or chipping. The bunker is closed for renovation, so no sand shots possible.

I warmed up by hitting a few balls with the 7-iron. I was a bit rusty at first but soon started to hit the ball straight, but very high and short. Since I’ve been hitting the driver and the fairway woods pretty well, I decided to trot out the Toski driver, 3- and 5-woods that I built a while back with stiff shafts. I alternated the Nike SasQuatch driver with the Toski T-6 driver, and then alternated the Nike SasQuatch 3-wood and the Toski T-6 3-wood. Verdict: I still can’t hit a stiff shaft, so these clubs go back in the closet.

Next, I went through the irons, and I was pleased that I hit all the irons well except for the 4-iron (kept hitting low hooks) and the 5-iron was a bit mixed; otherwise, struck the ball quite well, though distance was shorter than usual. I then got out the wedges and worked on a variety of short wedge shots, including low bump and run shots with the pitching wedge. I definitely will need a lot more work before I use that shot on the course. I also had a pretty rough day with the wedges, hitting a lot of balls fat. I still have to get that worked out. I’m pleased with the new wedges when I do manage to put a good swing on the ball, but my wedge swing is really crappy at the moment and the concrete-hard ground on the range didn’t help.

I had a few balls left, so I got out the SasQuatch driver and really whaled on the ball. I hit the ball high and far (for me 😎 ), but had some difficulty getting properly aligned, which led to my main fault being a push.

I was pleased to see my iron swing pretty much back to normal today, I just wish I could get my wedge swing back in order. A good day of practice on a fine afternoon!

Yesterday afternoon, on a blustery sunny day, I practiced at the Golden Bear Golf Center. I’d planned to make a full practice, but I ran out of time and worked mainly on wedges and the long clubs.

I started off hitting wedges (my new Tom Wishon CX Micro wedges), but despite spending significant time with the clubs, never really got the wedges working. Nothing to do with the clubs, my swing just stank from lack of practice. About half the shots were fine, the rest were hit fat. Some only slightly, but there were some digging-to-China fat shots that were really frustrating.

One thing I’ve been doing lately, if my wedges or short irons aren’t being well-struck, I’ll get my driver out and really pound the ball. That seems to get my rhythm back more quickly. This time, it worked again. After a stinky shot to start, I started pounding the driver pretty well, about half right down the middle and the rest a mix of fades or draws. I had only one high monster slice, but otherwise, the really bad shots were not present. I also got out the 3-wood and 5-wood and pounded some balls off tees. My first shots were topped, but I concentrated on taking the same swing as with my driver, and then I hit some beauties, even with the 3-wood. I also got out the 3-hybrid and managed some pretty respectable shots.

Despite really poor practice with the wedges (no reflection on the clubs themselves) and short irons, I was pleased that my long game continues to improve. Now, I’ll need to figure out my short clubs, again.

Range note: Golden Bear is renovating their large practice bunker. One new section is going to be especially deep, with Pete Dye-style railroad ties. Can’t wait to give it a try…

I built three new wedges using Tom Wishon CX Micro Wedge clubheads with Platinum-Nickel finish. I used Tom Wishon’s High Flight Wedge Shaft and Tom Wishon’s TacTrac oversize grips. Specs are as follows:

Below is a picture of the full set of wedges.

Closeup of the three wedge clubheads.

Closeup of the face of the 60° wedge.

Closeup of the back of the 60° wedge.

I’m heading out to the range this afternoon to give them a workout, and plan to play a round with them tomorrow. I’ll have a review then.

OK, Tiger says his streak was over when he lost at the HSBC World Match Play Championship. But that’s not a PGA Tour event, and neither is the Ryder Cup. So, as far as the PGA Tour is concerned, he just won his seventh consecutive event at the Buick Invitational. Let’s keep the count going…

1. British Open
2. Buick Open
3. PGA Championship
4. Bridgestone World Championship
5. Deutsche Bank Championship
6. American Express Championship
7. Buick Invitational

Tiger’s website says his next PGA tournament is TBD (he is playing on the European Tour’s Dubai Desert Classic this week), but will probably be the Nissan Open or the Accenture Match Play Championship. Tiger has never won the Nissan Open, despite playing eight times.

Can he run the streak to eight PGA tournaments?

I had a few minutes today, so I went to the Golden Bear Golf Center and hit a few balls and putted. The day was warm and sunny, but that dreaded sign was up: “Mats Only”.

I really hate hitting off mats.

I got a small bucket and proceeded to stink up the place. I really couldn’t get any club going today, until the end. I started off pretty well, hitting a pitching wedge at the red flagged green, and a 7-iron at the blue-flagged green. My tempo was just off today, I guess. I only finally got it going again once I had about 5 balls left and my driver out. I concentrated on taking a wide, full turn and, finally, hit a decent couple of shots down the fairway, nice little draws.

After I ran out of balls, I went to the putting green and ran my speed drill. I had a good drill going and hit some pretty long putts in the 18-24 ft range. My speed from long distance wasn’t perfect, but better than usual. My new putting grip and style has improved my putting quite a bit.

Ran out of time and wasn’t able to visit the short game area.

This afternoon after work, I practiced at the Hank Haney Golf Ranch in Lewisville. The day was nearly perfect, temperatures in the high 50s, sunny, trace of a breeze.

I started off hitting full pitching wedges to warm up, hitting them a bit sporadically. Someone had placed three flags in front of the pond, so I also hit some lob wedges, mostly pretty good shots, at those flags. I then got out the 9-, 7- and 5-irons and alternated those clubs. I hit the 9-iron pretty solidly, but the 7- and 5-irons I hit nasty hooks at first. I gradually got the longer clubs straightened out, but still tended to draw them instead of hitting them straight.

Next, I got out the long clubs (driver, 3- and 5-woods, and 3-hybrid) and hit those clubs. I hit the driver pretty well, but had difficulty at first with the others. I soon worked them out, though, and even hit a decent 3-wood. The 5-wood I struck pretty respectably today, even off the deck.

Next, I ran the pin-hunting drill. I had a shaky start, but finished strong, hitting 10 of 20 shots with a score of 4 or 5 (on a 1 to 5 scale), so I was pretty happy.

I ended practice hitting lob- and x-wedge shots at the flags in front of the hazard. I also tried a few cut lobs with the x-wedge, but only managed one good cut lob. I finished practice hitting a couple of shots with the 5-wood and 3-hybrid off the deck and a couple of drives. My final set of shots were pretty good and I finished practice with a grin on my face.

I then went to the putting green. My distance control sucked on longer putts, but my short putting was pretty good.

A fine day for practice. I managed to get in a pretty good practice today, lacking only chipping and bunker work.

Tiger’s last event on the PGA Tour seems like ages ago, but now Tiger tees it up at Torrey Pines. Let’s see if he can make it seven PGA Tour events in a row, or if someone step up and end the streak.

OK, Tiger says his streak was over when he lost at the HSBC World Match Play Championship. But that’s not a PGA Tour event, and neither is the Ryder Cup. So, as far as the PGA Tour is concerned, he just won his sixth consecutive event at the American Express Championship. Let’s keep the count going…

1. British Open
2. Buick Open
3. PGA Championship
4. Bridgestone World Championship
5. Deutsche Bank Championship
6. American Express Championship

Tiger’s website says his next tournament is TBD, but will probably be the Tour Championship. Can he make it seven?

Yesterday afternoon was a near-perfect day, temperature in the mid-50s with little wind, so, in between car washes, I practiced at Hank Haney Golf Ranch in Lewisville. The weather here in Dallas was especially bad last week, alternating freezing rain with torrential downpours.

I started out hitting pitching wedges to get warmed up. I had problems initially hitting the ball fat, but soon worked it out and proceeded to get out the 8- and 6-irons to alternate shots. I hit the 8-iron pretty well, tending to slightly pull the ball left of target. Next, I got out the longer clubs. I hit the driver pretty respectably, finding the imaginary fairway in about 80% of drives. The other long clubs, the 3- and 5-woods, and the 3-hybrid, were never really hit consistently, tending to hit low hooks. Next up, I got out the wedges and practiced hitting less than full shots with the sand and lob wedges, starting with shorter shots and working my way up to longer ones. I still had some difficulty hitting fat shots, mostly when I tried to get a little more distance, so I’m probably back to rushing the down-swing again. I’ll get the iPod out with Tour Tempo (if the weather ever warms up again) and work on tempo. That always seems to help.

My final drill was to run through the bag hitting all the clubs. I hit them all pretty well except for the 3-hybrid and fairway woods, which were not hit very well. All the iron shots were hit well, and the final driver was a nearly perfect draw right down the middle.

I didn’t have time to putt or chip, so I’ll start with that next time the weather warms up enough to practice.