Jamo's Blog on TheSandTrap

[jamo]

Went to East Coast golf today. It was about 40* out and very breezy, from where I was it was going right to left. And, coincidentally, that is where my shots were going. I was working on 2 things. The first was keeping my right elbow down, and I was very happy with that progress. Every shot that I can remember I had it in a good position. The other thing was my left leg at impact, and keeping it straight. When I was doing it correctly I was hitting baby draws, which would be perfectly straight without the wind. When I didn't however, I was letting it stay bent and I was loosing all of my lag, and the club close down, causing pulls. Occasionally I was swinging too much in to out, and that was making me draw the ball also. Overall I was fairly happy with today because most of the shots that looked bad were due to the wind, but I was upset with a couple of duck hooks. I felt like occasionally I was falling backwards, and that made me close the clubface. No video today, it was much too busy. I have been hoping to play a round for the last couple of week, but it was been rainy and colder since my last one. Next weekend it supposed to be beautiful though, so I'm going to try to get out then.

It was a good week on the college front, I got into Lehigh, Lafayette, University of Delawer (those are my top 3), Boston University, UMASS Amherst, and the aforementioned Northeastern. I also got waitlisted from Villanova and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, but I don't think I will accept those waitlists because I got into my top ones, and I wouldn't here back on the waitlists until june, which is past the date for the other schools to guarantee admission. At Delaware I would not be able to play varsity golf, but they do have club golf, and at Lehigh and Lafayette there is a good chance I could make varsity, but they don't have a club option to fall back on. If anyone has any opinions on those 3 schools, feel free to comment. I'm not asking you to make my decision for me, that will revolve around financial aid mostly, but any insight would be appreciated.

[jamo]

I went nowhere today, but I spent about an hour practicing my putting, the (by far and away) worst part of my game. My lack of putting skills is a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy (I know I'm bad at putting, so I stay bad at putting), and part of it is that I don't practice it as much as chips/pitches and the full swing. Part of the problem has to be my putter. I had it bent flat a couple of degrees flat, but the videos make it obvious that I need it bent a little more. I have a couple of additional putters coming my way soon, so I'll make those are flatter.



So that is the video. Anyone have any putting stoke advice?

[PiustheDrGolf]

Do not lift the putter. Better performing putting stroke would be low coming in prior to impact and low going out after.

[Leftygolfer]

It is hard to tell without seeing your set up, where your eyes are, etc. To me I think being a good putter is all about having a very simple stroke where the blade doesn't rotate too much. I used to get caught up in the SBST and arc argument, but I really don't care that much. Being a good putter is about starting the ball consistantly on the line you want and at the right speed. Do you have any training aids? I use a putting tutor and with that I KNOW if i am starting the ball online and exactly how much putts truely break. It is amazing how much putts truely break. Do you use the line when you are putting to help with aim? I've been doing it for years and I love it.

[jamo]

I don't use any training aids because I don't have any. When you say you use a line to help with aim do you mean on the ball? I actually place my line on the ball perpendicular to the starting line because I find that you don't have to be as perfect. When I make the line parallel to the starting line I tend to try to make it too perfect and I never actually make it line up well, but with it perpendicular I don't have to be as exact.

[Leftygolfer]

I use it as the line I want to start the ball on. If it isn't exact I'd rather not be looking at anything, you know what I mean? That is alot to think about when putting. I think you'd be better off just having the plain ball than having a haphazard alignment maybe right line.

I just varify after I pull my mark away, if it isn't exactly the line I want to start it on, I remark and realign. It doesn't take long but I've been doing it forever. Maybe an extra 5 seconds or so. For me it makes it so the only thing I am thinking about is speed. Not to say I am not thinking or visualizing how I want to make the putt before I line it up but once I figure out if I want to be firm or soft I line it up and try to match my speed with the line I picked. If I were you I'd check out the putting tutor. It isn't very expensive and is great feedback. Kind of frustrating at first but after awhile it becomes easier. Now I use the pro setting and hardly hit the marbles, maybe 1 every 8 putts.

[jamo]

Good advice with the putter tutor, I basically already do this with tees in the round, but I'll check this out for use inside. Either that or I'll make one myself. As for the line I like some semblance of a path towards the hole, but I am too exacting to always be using the line directed straight at my line, so I make it perpendicular.

[jamo]

I went again to East Coast golf to hit some balls today, and quite simply it was the best range session of the season. My right elbow stayed in and I worked a lot on my extension, keeping my left arm straight at impact and straightening my left leg too. They all seemed to come together at once, and I hit the ball phenominally well. They were all right down the middle, high and straight, all through the bag. I'm going to play a round either tomorrow or saturday, so I will see then if it carries over to the course. Fingers crossed....

[jamo]

I was going to play Highfields Golf and Country Club in Grafton with a friend, but they were full for several hours so we instead went to Westborough Country Club. It is not as nice of a course as the name implies (the first hole is a 412 yard par 5, but more to come on that hole soon), but it is a decent course. I shot a +1 37 (1.4 differential) for 9 holes, but I did not play as well as I would have liked. Here is my Scorecard for the day. My swing was good, I was bombing it off the tees and hitting all of my irons crisp, but my short game was non-existent. The greens were slow and bumpy, and the rough was wet from all the rain lately. I haven't been able to practice my short game at all over the winter, so it is to be expected, but I would have liked to do a little better. Here are some of the more memorable holes:

Hole #1: 412 yard par 5 that I have done really well on the times that I have played there. It was very uphill, and I hit a poor tee shot way off the heel of the club that left me with 200 to the hole. I hit hybrid that came up just short and a little right. I was right on the path where people walk to the next hole, and I managed to chunk it badly. My next was none better, and it went over the green. Ughhh. I then put it on and 2 putted to wrap up an ugly 7.

Hole #2: Nothing special, I just drove the green on a 262 yard par 4. I opened my stance and hit a nice and high soft cut with my driver that left me on the back of the green. Putting to a front pin location, I lipped out the eagle put and tapped in the birdie.

Hole #4: A 325 yard par 4 that I didn't quite take advantage of. I hit a poor drive to the right between the fairway and the woods, but I was stuck between to tree. I hit a punch SW to the green, but what I didn't realize was that there was a tree root a few inches beyond my ball. The club stuck under the root after contact, yet my hands followed through. Because my club didn't break, it was a pretty funny moment when I was holding my finish with the SW lying on the ground. My putt was a long bender to the left, and though I lipped out the birdie I was left with a 10 foot putt when the ball just kept going downhill.

Hole #8: Perfect baby draw with the driver to the left side of the fairway, perfect baby cut to about 17 feet, lipped out the birdie. Sense a pattern?

All in all, a decent day, and I hope to play another tomorrow or sunday.

[jamo]

I played the par 3 course at the golf course in my signature, Cyprian Keyes. I've never played there before, but if all goes well I am hoping to be able to play there more. I went with my sister, who was playing golf for the second time in her life, and the first time in about 4 years. She is about 5'9" so I let her use my old Orlimar Irons, an old driver made by the company AMF, who also has bowling alleys, a Cleveland woman's wedge, and a Juli Inkster series putter that she bought a while ago. She has an unorthodox swing, that comes from many years of not playing golf, but she is strong and can hit it a long way. She turns he hips wayyyy to much, and lifts her left heel off the ground, but somehow manages to keep her weight fairly forward, that is, her hips don't move backwards. She comes over the top though, and that leads to a slice when she hits it solidly. She had a couple of really good chips, and even lipped out a birdie on the last hole after hitting it to 10 feet. She isn't that bad of a player, and her scorecard read "36" but her putting is suspect. She tended to overcook the ball, and wasn't too keen on alignment.

As for me, I shot an even par 27, with a differential of 0. Here is my Scorecard for the day. It was kind of annoying, I parred every hole. I hit 7 greens, including every one after hole 3. I just never made any putts, and I never really stuck any shots close from the tee. I was making very very good contact, but I always seemed to be on the opposite side of the green from where the hole was, and I hit a lot of shots to the back of the green, which comes with hitting only full shots all winter. The greens at this place were nice and fast, just the way I like it.

A couple of holes:

Hole #4: A big downhill 105 yard hole, I hit a nice soft SW to the back left of the green with the pin right in the middle. With a big sloping putt, I was very glad to hit it to a foot and make the par.

Hole #6: A 120 yard par 3, I didn't realize how deep the green was, and I was lucky to catch the back of the green with my PW, only a couple feet from the fringe. Waiting for my sister to get ready, I hit a few more balls, and knocked a few soft PWs and hard SWs absolutely stiff. Too bad. I was forced to baby a downhill 10 footer that barely went passed the hole. A welcome tap-in par.

Hole #8: a 145 yard uphill hole, I hit a soft 8 iron, just not soft enough. It flew over a center of the green flag to the back of the green, and it embedded in it's own pitch mark, thanks to the torrential down pours of the past week. Another tough breaking putt, I hit the first one to about 5 feet, and knocked in the comebacker.

[jamo]

I went to work on my short game today and it was an alright day. I hit a lot of balls to far, which is better than too short because it means that I made good contact, but I was still a little mad about how poor my distance control was. My wrist has been hurting the past few days, so I know it wasn't a great representative sample. So I was happy about the contact, frustrated with the control. I chipped in 3 out of 100, so make of that what you will, and my sand shots were fantastic, which is nice. I was working on just trying to rock my shoulders back and forth, but I found my wrist compensating for the pain, so I occasionally would hood the face to take some pain away. it will likely be a couple days until I play again, to rest it up. I did hit a few drivers, and I got a few videos, which showed me that a few old habits were coming back, namely the swing was much too long, there was too much lifting, and my head was moving away from the ball as I started the swing. So some things to mull over as I hit the range soon.

[jamo]

I went to Natick outside today to hit some balls at the range and I was working on a multitude of things: shorter swing, straight left arm at impact, lower right elbow, and keeping my head still on the backswing (along with not keeping my chin up). I really think I have been making some leeway on the left arm. In the below videos the frame just before impact is perfect as far as the arm is concerned, but at impact it bends. The head was the best, as I was able to keep it fairly still, and I think that it also had a good trickle down effect with the rest of the swing. The swing was shorter than the past few times I have played, but it is still much too long, which leads me to the right elbow. I was wearing a sweatshirt today because of the wind and it was very restricting. You can see this in the video where I get halfway back adn my shoulders just stopped turning. I think it was a result of he sweatshirt. I also noticed from the video that my stance was wayyy to wide, and I think that is a major factor is keeping the swing short. The long swing also hurt my long irons, where my swing was terrible. So some few goals:

• Keep making small improvements to the things listed in the first sentance
• Narrow the stance.

I also almost traded my Nike DYMO 3 wood for a Titleist 906f2, but I ended up not doing it because the DYMO is worth next to nothing, and I didn't want to spend the money. The club also had a sizable pop up mark, and looked like the previous owner didn't take good care of it.

FWIW, I am more than likely going to be attending the University of Delaware in the fall, which is located in Newark, DE. If anyone know of good golf courses or driving ranges, comment below. I have basically decided to go there because it is $20,000 a year cheaper than my other two top choices, and I wont be able to play on the varsity (or whatever it is called) golf team, but from what I have read on their website, they have a club team that I will look into.

Masters thoughts: For the past few months I have been assuming that I would not be rooting for Tiger, even though he has always been one of my favorite players. I thought that I would like to see him win, and that I wouldn't root against him, but I didn't think I would be rooting for him. Well I am rooting for him, so too bad, though I would rather see Tom Watson or Fred Couple win. And all of Phil's good shots have just made me dislike him more. Seriously, does the guy own a mirror? His shirts are always too tight, as opposed to years ago when they were way too big. He needs to find the middle ground.

Here are my videos for the day:
6 iron face on:


6 iron back:


Driver face on:


Driver back:

[jamo]

Once note: I don't really like that Mickelson-esque finish where I whip the club back in front of me, but I find that it does help a lot with keeping me accelerating my hands through the ball.

[sean_miller]

Could you add a few more seconds and include the preshot routine? Purely from a curiosity standpoint: I'm interested in how good players practice, including what they do between shots.

[jamo]

I would, but I don't really have a pre-shot routine. I just stand behind the ball, walk up, waggle, and hit it. Nothing special, sorry.

[jamo]

I've been working on something the last few days, and It is something that I have very little of: lag. Normally I would agree that it is usually an effect of other good things happening in the swing, but I must have found that thing, because I've gained a lot of lag pretty quickly. Here are some pictures for an example. The first one (blue shirt) is from October/November when I first posted my swing. The second on is the first swing I took yesterday, and the next one is the last swing I took. I drew in some lines to help see the club.


I know the last two are without a ball, but I was making a full swing, full speed and everything, and trying to hit a pebble on the ground, and I did ground the club because I was using an old one that I use just for on the driveway.

The best way to look at those is to open them up in their own tabs or windows and to quickly switch between them, it really shows the difference in the angles.

The other thing that I have been working on the most is my left arm at and just beyond impact. Seeing the pic of Lee Westwood that iacas posted during the final round chat thing, made me think about this. The first on is again from October/November, and the second one is from Saturday. I focused more on the after contact view, but it is more of the same at contact.



The sweatshirt in the 2nd pic obstructs it a tiny bit, but you can still see the difference. Maybe a little too much turning over of the hands for my liking, but it is improvement. Also my left foot looks a little better in the second one. I don't know if that is an isolated incident or if I really have been improving that. I'll have to see next time I hit the range.

[jamo]

I went to the range (ECG) to hit the short game area. Started off hitting flop shots over a sand trap. Then I moved back a little and hit some from the rough, from downhill lies, and from divots. I then hit some sand shots and finished off with shorter bump and runs. My miss today was long and I realized that i was hitting it a tad to the right. From the sand I was good at the beginning, but then sort of fell off as I got bored. The bump and runs were better than normal, and I was focused on making clean contact, which seemed to help.

[jamo]

I decided to go to Indian Meadows Golf Course this afternoon. Once again, not as nice of a course as the name would seem to imply, but it was in decent shape and provides a variety of different holes. I shot 2 over par 38, with a differential of 1.0. My swing was good all day, but I had a few mental hiccups that prevented me from going low. My putting was very very good over the first few holes, but sort of tapered off at the end. After realizing that there is no way that someone who is 5'11" should have a putter that should be 10* flat, I decided to make my hands a little higher and move my head out farther so it was above the ball. It was good at the beginning, but my speed was off at the end of the round. Some interesting holes:

Hole #1: I busted a huge drive with a tiny fade down the left of this dogleg left par 5 which played at 471 yards. I was left with about 160 yards to the hole, but having never played there before, I mistook the 150 stake for the 200 stake (of which there was none). Luckily for me I mishit my hybrid approach pretty badly (way off the heel), and I managed to stop on the back bank of a bunker just beyond the green. I hit a nice mini flop shot from a downhill lie to 7 feet and drained the birdie.

Hole #2: Hitting 3 wood, I once again hit it off the heel, and hit a pull slice that managed to stay in the fairway, and still a good distance out there. on this 365 yard hole I had about 105 to the green, but I was in a divot. I was left with 2 options: hit a very very soft PW, or bust a SW. I went with what I thought was the safer, and easier, option by using the PW. I divot made it hard to keep the clubface online, and the ball came out low, hot, and a little to the right. It hit the right of the green and skipped past. I had to hit another flop shot that I hit a little too far, and rolled to about 12 feel. The par putt lipped out.

Hole #3: The hardest hole on the course, this one was a 443 yard par 4. I hit a decent driver to the right side of the fairway, then hit a decent 4 iron to the green. At first it seemed like I might have gone way over, but I found the ball about 36 feet away. 2 putts for my par left me at even for the round.

Hole #4: A great drive left me at about 50 yards from the hole on this 346 yard par 4. I was in the fairway but a big pine tree was in my way. I tried to hit a little to the right of the tree, and the right side of the green, with a little hook spin, but I got a little too cute with it and chunked it badly. About 10 feet off the front of the green I decided to try and putt my way to the hole. Bad idea. The green had a sort of dome shape, and when I got on the green my ball was going way too slow and rolled way to the left. This left my with a 33 foot putt, which I proceeded to drain.

Hole #5: This is where my long drives caught up to me I had 153 to the hole so I decided to go with a soft 7, which I hit wayyyy far, nearly into some water beyond the green. Hitting from a cart path because there was no where to drop, I hit a nice soft pitch over some trees to 17 feet. I made that putt too. After my first tee shot I hit an 8 iron just to see, and I hit that over too. Go figure.

Hole # 6: A 480 yard par 5, I hit a driver off the heel, but it ended up going plenty far, and left me 175 out on this slight dogleg right. With water short and woods right, I decided to make sure my miss was left, which it was with my 5 iron. I was left with a pretty easy pitch for my third, that I managed to land right where I wanted, but refused to roll out. Odd, because the 13 footer I was left with was very fast, and I managed to blow it past. A solid 6 footer saved my par.

Hole #7: An uphill 435 yard par 4, I was left with 150ish after a perfect driver that just got batted down by the wind, which was straight into me. I was left with a 7 iron with the ball below my feet to an uphill green. I hit it perfectly, but the combination of the ball being below my feet and the wind now a little from left to right pushed my ball to the right of the green. I was not able to get up and down, and made a bogey.

Hole #8: A 203 yard par 3, my 4 iron was a perfect shot but I misjudged the wind again and it drifted right and a little long. I tried to flog one close, and got the right distance, but it too drifted right. A two putt gave me another bogey.

Hole #9: A nice finishing hole, this 348 yard dogleg left made my hit my 3 wood off the tee. I hit it nice and relaxed right down the middle, and the slope of the fairway brought it a little to the left. With 95 yards, and the ball above my feet, and a downhill lie, I hit a nice cut down SW that put me in the heart of the green. It didn't check up the way I wanted, but that can be attributed to my slower swing and the downhill lie. A slick 2 putt got me a solid par.

So there it is: 7/7 fairways, 4/9 green, and 15 putts.

I guess all the holes were memorable...