AMA Thread (@jamo)

[jamo]

I liked the idea of @iacas's AMA thread, I decided to steal it (shhhhhh, no one tell him).

I keep my rules the same as his, for similarity.

17 hours ago, iacas said:

This is an AMA type of thread, and you can ask me anything. I'd imagine most of the questions will be about golf, but, really, ask me anything.

Some basic rules…

• One question at a time. I'll quote and answer it. Then the first person to post next can ask the next question, so long as they didn't ask the previous question. If you post a question after someone else posted a question, your post will be deleted. The sequence will be Question, Answer, Question, Answer, etc.
• Ask anything. But you don't get to ask multiple questions in a row.
• One question per post. It can be a few parts, but be reasonable.
• Ask anything. I'll be as honest as possible. But, again, be reasonable, too. If you ask a personal question I don't want to answer, I'm just going to respond briefly to get to the next question.
• I'll edit this first post if I need to add any more rules.

So… the first question… go for it.

A little background on me: I joined TST as a member in early 2009, after lurking for quite a while. I found the site originally while looking for reviews of the Mizuno MP-57 irons and Scotty Cameron Studio Select putter, and found the reviews on TST particularly exemplary. I lurked for a while, just reading the blog portion of the site. There was little "hot forum topics" box on the right side of the screen that I used to peruse, telling myself that I knew if I clicked on them, I'd become hooked. I avoided them for a while, but finally gave in. Then I lurked on the forum for a while, telling myself that if I made an account, I'd become hooked. Eventually I gave in to that too. (Shocker!) I joined the TST staff in late 2010, when I was a freshman in college.

Ask away!

 

[boogielicious]

How did you become such a good golfer at such a young age?

[No Mulligans]

Have you played on any school teams?

[jamo]

28 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

How did you become such a good golfer at such a young age?

That's a loaded question! Haha. Based on the scores below, you'll see that I wasn't all that good (though, I was a year young for my grade in high school). My dad used to take me putting as a really little kid, but I didn't start playing on a par-three course until I was about 8, and I didn't really get serious about golf until I was 12. After I couldn't make the 8th grade soccer and baseball teams, I decided to put all my effort on golf. I was probably the last person to make the JV team as a freshman, but ended up starting almost every match and finishing in the middle of the team in scoring. I was the JV team captain as a sophomore, and had the best scoring average (I also got in one or two varsity matches). I was the #5 player on varsity as a junior, and then played mostly in the #3 spot as a senior. I wasn't a captain, but I had the best scoring average on the team, and as the only four-year player, the coach basically gave me a de jure captaincy role.

From year to year, I played in a lot of local tournaments, some of which you can actually still find floating around online if you google my name. Those really helped me get used to competition, and gave me something to work for during the summers. I took one lesson with an instructor, but looking back, he really did about as good a job at destroying my swing as possible. My high school match scores from freshman to senior years went 51, 45, 41, 38, so I made pretty steady progress.

Mainly, to get better I just practiced and practiced and practiced. I got a driving range membership, and hit balls year-round. I did a lot of short game work. I've always had a bit of a knack for match play.

But really, it was all practice practice practice.

12 minutes ago, No Mulligans said:

Have you played on any school teams?

For high school, see above.

I played club golf in college my freshman and the first half of my sophomore years, but after that I just couldn't find the time during the school year. I didn't actually play in any competitions, just casual rounds.

[mchepp]

You're a really good writer, why don't you write as much anymore? Time, lack of motivation? Give us some more insight.

[No Mulligans]

I asked about your team experience as the majority of single digit HI players that I know played high school golf (most of the golfers I play with are 40 years old and older).  I've speculated that for most people, to get to single digits you probably needed to be pretty good in your teens.  It would be interesting to see stats on the general golf population HI's when they were 19 and HI now, including current age.

Me, at 19 no handicap but probably a 36+ and had played only a handful of times, now 58 years old 16.3. I've worked on my game over the last couple of years and I've dropped to 16.3 from a 27.

On a similar vein; I wonder if I worked on my game with a great instructor, putting in 20 hours a week, how low could I get my HI.  I feel I've hit a plateau and maybe there is not a whole lot of unrealized potential... maybe I could get to around a 13?  Single digit, maybe not possible/practical.

[iacas]

Look at @jamo not enforcing the rules with the first two questions he got! Ha!

[jamo]

42 minutes ago, iacas said:

Look at @jamo not enforcing the rules with the first two questions he got! Ha!

Hahaha yeah, well, I don't think I'll get as many questions as you, so I don't want to have someone think of something but not post it because I haven't replied to the previous one. 

2 hours ago, mchepp said:

You're a really good writer, why don't you write as much anymore? Time, lack of motivation? Give us some more insight.

First, thanks! That means a lot. A few times I've gone back and read some of my earlier columns (and posts on the forum), and they are very, very awful. Stoic writing, and a complete and utter inability to marshall my own comma use. But I think I've grown a lot as a writer, and I give all the credit for TST giving me the space to grow. Erik gave me a great before and after editing of one of my early columns, and that helped a lot. Even just learning to self-edit myself has given me a lot of valuable experience. I work as an engineer, and get a lot of the writing tasks in my group because I'm usually the best writer. 

As for why I haven't been writing as much, part of that is just because I've been so busy at work. I get home at the end of the day and my creativity feels wiped. I was thinking about it recently, I think the fact that my hours are so early (I wake up at 5:30), which goes against my body's natural preferences (ideally I'd go to sleep at 12AM-1AM, but I have to force myself asleep around 10PM-11PM). I've always thought my creative ability and ambition peaks around 10PM, as that's when I've always gotten the most writing done, but I have to go to bed at that time now. 

This is going to sound like a weird complaint, but a lot of the golf media has also soured my outlook. I hate how Golf.com and Golf Digest have transformed into Buzzed Golf, with clickbait headlines and so much tabloid content. It's not all like that, but a substantial portion of it is. I also don't like how golf sites and magazines like to take something that happens and golf-ify it, as if everything has to have a golf angle or be related to golf. I don't need to know how every internet meme can be applied to golf. So I tend to avoid those sites now, while I used to read them religiously. 

I think I've also gotten away from following the day-to-day of PGA Tour golf a bit. A not-insignificant portion of that is that fact that Tiger has completely fallen off, and I wrote last year how I've realized that a lot of my fandom is owed to him. In general, I've simply had less time for golf, which is very unfortunate, and I hope temporary. 

But I've got a few ideas upcoming, so hopefully I'll get those fleshed out soon.

52 minutes ago, No Mulligans said:

I asked about your team experience as the majority of single digit HI players that I know played high school golf (most of the golfers I play with are 40 years old and older).  I've speculated that for most people, to get to single digits you probably needed to be pretty good in your teens.  It would be interesting to see stats on the general golf population HI's when they were 19 and HI now, including current age.

Me, at 19 no handicap but probably a 36+ and had played only a handful of times, now 58 years old 16.3. I've worked on my game over the last couple of years and I've dropped to 16.3 from a 27.

On a similar vein; I wonder if I worked on my game with a great instructor, putting in 20 hours a week, how low could I get my HI.  I feel I've hit a plateau and maybe there is not a whole lot of unrealized potential... maybe I could get to around a 13?  Single digit, maybe not possible/practical.

I think a lot of that is just the fact that, athletically, you're going to peak in your late-20s. If you want to be the absolute best you can be at golf, as with any sport, you want to hit your late-20s with as much practice and experience in the bank as you can. If Mike Trout hadn't picked up a baseball glove until he was 25, there's no way he'd still be a world-class player. 

Playing in your teens, with the existing golf infrastructure, also instills competition in you. There's something to work on because junior and high school tournaments are so easy to find these days. That's harder for adults. 

@iacas has written a few times about how just about anyone can be a single-digits handicap, with the right instruction and practice, and I completely believe that. Obviously it's much tougher at 58, depending on your health, but I definitely think it's possible. 

[iacas]

What's long, round, hard, and full of seamen?

This joke works better if spoken.

Okay, but seriously… how many hours have you gotten to spend on a submarine in the last 10 months?

[jamo]

3 minutes ago, iacas said:

What's long, round, hard, and full of seamen?

This joke works better if spoken.

Okay, but seriously… how many hours have you gotten to spend on a submarine in the last 10 months?

Within the last 10 months ... I haven't actually been in a fully assembled one, come to think of it. I've visited three vendors and our manufacturing facility in Rhode Island, so I've been in a bunch of submarines in various states of assembly, but I haven't been in a fully built one in about a year. The most recent one that was christened, SSN-786 Illinois, I have been on, about a year ago.

[Club Rat]

How long is the golf season in Connecticut?

[jamo]

10 hours ago, Club Rat said:

How long is the golf season in Connecticut?

I'm not a huge fan of playing in cold weather (I just don't enjoy it, so I save my money), so for me it's April-October.

[MacDutch]

You told us you found TST because you were looking for mp-57 reviews. Did you buy them? What kind of clubs did you regularly play through the years and why?

[jamo]

4 hours ago, MacDutch said:

You told us you found TST because you were looking for mp-57 reviews. Did you buy them? What kind of clubs did you regularly play through the years and why?

I did, and that TST review was a major reason why.

A few months after I started writing for the site, I got to review the Nike Vr Pro Combos, and have had those in my bag ever since. I liked the MP-57s a lot, but the combo set really fit my game well, so I gave the Mizunos to my dad. (More accurately, he strongly hinted that his 1980s Mizuno Altrons were showing their age...).

When I started with the site, I used a TaylorMade r7 SuperQuad. I reviewed the Nike Covert Tour, and switched to that for a while. Then I reviewed the Cobra Bio Cell+, and switched to that. Last year I did the same with the Nike Vapor Flex. I used to think I'd never find something I loved to replace the SuperQuad, but I've had some pretty good luck the last few years.

I've gone between fairway woods and hybrids, because I don't have very strong preferences. I've used the same sand wedge, a Titleist Vokey Spin Milled, but I've switched out lob wedges because they're all pretty similar. I think I have a Callaway LW in there now? I'm hoping to maybe get some Edels next year.

I used that Scotty Cameron Studio Select for a few years, but eventually ended up going back to the Nike Unitized Tiempo I had in my bag before it, and I've been using that ever since. Nothing against the Studio Select, I just came to like the look of the Unitized a little more.

I've reviewed a few sets of irons over the years since the Nikes, and I keep the Callaway Apexes and TaylorMade Rocketbladez Pros as backup sets. I've given a few away. I ended up giving the Nike Covert driver to my old high school golf coach and telling him to give it to someone on the team who was in need of a new one. I've got a big staff bag in my apartment where I keep my backup clubs (definitely not the setup @iacas has!).

I used to be more into equipment. Nowadays I'm a lot more likely to say just use whatever looks and feels and plays best for you, even if it's not the newest and shiniest. But I do still love the innovation and engineering aspect of it, even if a lot of it is marketing bullshit. Our visit to PING, particularly the Q&A, was one of my favorite parts of the Newport Cup. It's cool now that I have a job in engineering, being able to better pick out what is bullshit and what isn't.

I just went on about five tangents, so I hope that answered the original question.

[GolfLug]

Hi @jamo, this is great stuff! So, here's my question. Tell us about something that has truly stuck with you from anything; an event or something you read, or something somebody said, etc.,. This could be something great, something terrible or if you wish tell us both.

Also, something from the wish list: 3 courses you would like to play that you can actually plan to play in the next five years. I know you have played BP Black (I liked your write up), which is one of my bucket list courses. 

[jamo]

3 hours ago, GolfLug said:

Hi @jamo, this is great stuff! So, here's my question. Tell us about something that has truly stuck with you from anything; an event or something you read, or something somebody said, etc.,. This could be something great, something terrible or if you wish tell us both.

This is going to sound very corny, but it's something I really learned over the last year: you've got to just be yourself. There are some things you can adjust (attitude, outlook, the way you treat people), but in terms of your interests, your life, and your personality, the only way to know if people like you is if you're just yourself. There's no one inciting event, but it's something I've come to really realize. So I half answered the question.

3 hours ago, GolfLug said:

Also, something from the wish list: 3 courses you would like to play that you can actually plan to play in the next five years. I know you have played BP Black (I liked your write up), which is one of my bucket list courses. 

Torrey Pines (I've got to recreate Tiger's 72nd hole), Pinehurst (huge Donald Ross fan), TPC Sawgrass (for some reason I've just always loved it and The Players). If I can make it a top 5, I'll add The Old Course (obviously) and Carnoustie (so much drama on those last few holes in majors). Top seven, I'm adding Kapalua and Harbour Town. I might have stretched that a little. 

[chris3putt]

Ok, I'll bite. What does jamo stand for, and why The Goon?

[jamo]

25 minutes ago, chris3putt said:

Ok, I'll bite. What does jamo stand for, and why The Goon?

Jamo is just a nickname I've had since I was a kid. My first name is Jamieson, and my parents started calling me "Jamo." A few friends heard it and started calling me that. Pretty much everyone I went to high school with calls me Jamo. And, I was in high school when I made this account...

I don't really go by it much anymore as an actual nickname (at least with new people I meet), but I do love the way it looks without the capital - "jamo."

"The Goon" nickname is a few years old. I don't remember the specific user, but they went on a big flameout, and directed his comments towards "Erik and his goons." Hence, "The Goon."

He obviously didn't mean it as a compliment, but I actually kind of like it. I'm a big guy. Goon-ish.