Feeling inspired

Well, I was watching the tournament today. The 18th hole, Tiger plays "conservative" and hits 3 wood, 318 yards down the middle. That distance is incredible. There is no shot under 240 yards I've ever seen Tiger hit that I don't think I could replicate (surely, not as consistently, nor even often on some of his better)- but the point is that the distance and accuracy from the tee made me feel inspired.

I spent 3 hours on the range today, grooving a swing with my short irons. I was knocking down the flag. My 9-iron went from a consistent 155 to a consistent 162 over the course of 3 hours by improving swing dynamics. I hit 30 greens in a row wit the 9 iron at 160 (the practice green was only about 18 yards wide) and hit about 30 56* wedges at 105 yards - two of them clanked off the bottom of pin. I putted for a few hours and then played 9 holes with 8/9 GIR at 34 (-2) and I mis-read and lipped out a few short putts or it would have been a 30-31. I hit it in the trees on both Par 5s and had to chip out to the fairway. On several other holes, I had to bend it around the trees because of mediocre drives, but still got it to stick on the correct quadrant of the green. The course was on the "short and tight" scale, but it was still very frustrating.


Looking at my stats, I lack in overall driving (length and accuracy) but my GIR percentage is around 70% (some months around 80%), which is better than most tour players (I play easier courses - definitely not claiming to be better). I know my putting can be great when I put in the time, but it's something that requires constant maintenance. When I spent several hours per week just working on putting technique, like i have in the past, I can get my putting a hair short of tour-level, but I've never managed to get my driving to that level and really tough, long courses totally eat me alive.

Averaging 290 (at sea level) is out of my league. I would be amongst the shortest hitters on tour (sea level average about 260), but my accuracy is often under 50% unless I'm playing huge fairways, which kills me. If I wasn't so short, I could hit irons and play fairways and greens, but I just can't reach the long par 4s with anything but a driver. A 3-wood flies 250-ish at altitude (that's about 235 at sea level?). I've absolutely roped a 3 wood a few times in my life out to about 275 at altitude (maybe 250 sea level), but I felt like I shattered the ball swinging about as hard as I could and hitting it right on the screws.

I couldn't reach but 1 or 2 of the par 5s played by the PGA tour the entire season and those 500 yard par 4s would require absolutely nutting two shots just to reach it (not accounting for soft fairways)... even when I was playing my best.

I've played as low as +2.5 on the handicap and honestly, I feel like after the swing change this week and the practice sessions today and yesterday, I'm playing hitting my irons better than that right now. But where is my driver? Maybe it's a strength thing? I'm a pretty skinny guy.

Anyway, watching Tiger smooth a 3 wood out 320 yards today, I felt inspired to go out and do some strength training as well as swing exercises to gain some more length off the Tee. In order to play 7600 yard courses, I'm often swinging out of my shoes just to reach the fairway and though my tempo feels pretty good, I think I'm leaving some distance out there. My iron distances are within about 5% of tour players and I swing my irons with about 80% effort. But my driver is a full 10-20% shorter, even with a 95% swing.

Anyway. I wanted to write this all down so I have some incentive to pursue it.

Work is going to keep me off the golf course during the next few weeks, so I think I might hit the health-club at the hotel while I'm traveling the next few weeks.

Thanks for listening to my ramble!