iPutt

(6/26/14) It may have taken two whole years to set another career best, but I finally broke down the wall and shot 77 today! It's funny to look back on my previous posts in this thread and realize just how much better I've gotten over the past few years. I may not have scored so well over this stretch, but my 77 today is miles better than the 80 I shot two years ago, even if it's only a 3 shot difference. In retrospect, I was probably somewhat lucky to shoot that 80 with how I was hitting, but today's score definitely could have been much lower. Today was a clinic of how to play golf and just get the ball in the hole. Even though I probably didn't hit the ball as well as I could have (my ball striking is still night and day better than it's ever been), my short game was a clinic. 28 putts and 6/8 on up and downs. I had a moment of clarity today on the 15th hole where I missed the green, but I truly didn't feel worried because I was confident enough that I could make an easy up and down for par, which I did. Combine this with 8 greens in regulation and you have a recipe for a very good score. The funny thing about today's round was that there were very few outstanding shots. I had a couple close-ish looks at birdie on some par 3's and was able to birdie the 18th, which was huge, but overall, if it wasn't for my nerves, it would have been a relatively boring round of golf. I just kept putting the ball in play somewhere, getting close to the hole, and then making some putts. But man was I nervous. I probably could have choked this round away after drawing an unplayable lie on the 13th hole where I would go on to make triple, or on the 16th hole where I made a mess from within 70 yards and ended up with a double, but both times I rebounded on the next hole with a par, and was even able to drive the point home with that nice birdie on 18. In total, it comes to 1 triple, 1 double, 2 bogeys, 13 pars, and 1 birdie. I hope that this is a sign of things to come, and if anything this gets the 70's monkey off my back and will give me confidence to go low again soon.

This ESPN coverage is absolutely awful. Tons of commercials, Chris Berman, lots of cutaways, little knowledge, and when they do start actually showing golf, it's 75% putts from guys under par. I want tee and approach shots!! I want course descriptions!!

Anything becomes funnier when you add goofy music to it...

For those that didn't see today, Sergio put his second shot on the par 5 2nd into the trees and ended up making bogey to Tiger's birdie. He looked over after the shot and seemed upset about a sound that came from somewhere else on the course. During the delay he seemed to accuse Tiger of a little bit of gamesmanship. http://espn.go.com/golf/story/_/id/9265485/2013-players-championship-sergio-garcia-says-tiger-woods-distracted-shot So, fair or foul?

Well that lasted all of one round..... The Nike people must be going crazy (haven't seen this in this thread yet, apologies if it's somewhere further up).

I don't think so. Not, however, because I don't think I have the mindset. I love practicing and have a very obsessive nature which I think may have really benefitted me if I could have spent all that time on the game. I think I could have truly committed myself to the practice and taken a lot away from it. I play better under pressure and do not mind being watched by others. In my short time that I've spent playing this game seriously, I've improved a great deal. However, I do not think I could have made it because of my size. I'm only 5'7" and around 135 lbs, and although I hit it far for my size, I don't think I could ever hit it long enough to compete on tour. Sure there are guys that are smaller on tour and that do hit it "short," but they have a gift and I don't think I would be able to cut it distance wise.

I actually joined the Golf Channel AmTour and with the membership they give you a handicap tracker thing that you can enter all of your rounds into along with the scores for each hole, fairway hit, green in reg, and putts. I love it because I keep those exact same stats on my card anyway, so it just makes things easier for me. I'm sure that there are other apps that could do the same thing though, I think scorecard might and I know that's promoted through this site.

Those stats wouldn't surprise me too much, most all par 5's now are really par 4.5's and the pros play them as such. I feel like around half of the par 3's they play are extremely tough for anybody, even them, and the par 4's are going to be tough because you have to put two good shots together to make a par (obviously the same logic goes for most par 5's, but in that case, two good shots will reflect on your score relative to par better). In my case, this was the first season where I actually tracked every hole of every round, and I ended up coming up with some pretty interesting stats. My best average (and keep in mind, I'm a 12 handicap) was 5.7 on par 5's. This surprised me because I felt as if par 5's were my worst hole, but I think I'm getting to the point where I can mess up one shot on a par 5 and still salvage par. My par 3 average came out to a 3.8, about what I would expect (would really like to lower this one), but my par 4 average was a whopping 5.1!! I'm losing over a stroke a hole on average to par 4's! Obviously this is something I'm going to try and work on next year (maybe less driver off the tee and better course management?), but it was great to have some of these stats as a baseline, and I really do believe that there's a lot of truth in numbers.

Recently I went for a driver fitting, and one thing that they measured was the load/bend in the shaft at different points in the swing (I forgot the exact name for this). What they found was that I was releasing the load built up in the shaft too close to the top, right as I was starting the downswing, and therefore I was not transferring as much energy into the ball. He said I wasn't "casting," but this is one of the only ways that I can think of explaining this right now. I think that the best way to explain this is that I am accelerating too early, and not accelerating through the ball like I should be doing. So my question is, are there any drills or swing thoughts that I can practice to help this? I'm sorry if I'm not explaining this well, and if it's still unclear, I'll do my best to try and clarify things further. It's just killing me that I'm leaving club head speed and distance out there. Thanks for any help! Edit: Just read the thread below this (Accelerating Through Impact) and I think the key thing that I took away is that my maximum speed* (speed is all that matters at impact, not acceleration) is reached too early in the swing, and that means that I'm decelerating into the ball. Hope this helps.

Yeah sure! Today was a surprising day. As you guys may have heard it was extremely soft out there today and guys were shooting really low scores, especially in the morning. When I looked up at a leader board to see Paddy 7 under through 17 I was really surprised. But the greens were receptive and really made play a lot easier. However, in the afternoon the winds started up a bit (as opposed to dead still air in the morning) and the course firmed up some, explaining why the top 6 or so on the leader board went out in the morning. All three par 5's on the course (there are three now because they're playing 7 as a par 5 instead of a par 4 like they did in the last open, causing it to go from the hardest hole on the course to the easiest) are playing extremely easy and reachable, especially 4 and 7 on the front side. The 13th played 608 today, but there were still many guys who could reach in two and even those who didn't only had a wedge in to a benign green complex (the green slopes are not too severe, if they were, they would be borderline unfair when they get as fast as they most likely will later in the week. Bethpage's main defenses are long, thick rough, a tough course design, and it's length). However, outside of the par 5's, there are very few "easy" holes. The par 3's are all extremely tough (besides maybe the 14th) and the long par 4's like the 5th, 10th, 12th, 15th, and 16th playing well over par, mostly because if the fairway is missed then it makes it 10x harder to get that GIR. I really didn't follow that many groups today besides Tiger and Rory's, but I felt that out of those two Rory was hitting the ball better but Tiger did what he did to put in a good score. Zack Johnson also put together a sneaky 3 under round, most likely because his putting was some of the best that I've ever seen. I would say, however, to beware of scores like Fowler's where it may look like a good 4 under, but when you miss a lot of greens like he did (he chipped in for birdie twice) and your ball striking isn't on, this course will run you down pretty quick. So I'll report back tomorrow, hope you guys enjoy!

Yeah definitely, I have tickets for the week and I plan to go each day. What would you like to see from a review?

I was there today and followed Tiger and Rory's group from 16-9 (started on 10) and thought the crowd was huge. Now granted, this is only my second PGA Tour event and I've never followed Tiger before, but in a post round interview Tiger called the group "small and quieter than expected" but he thinks that it will get bigger tomorrow. I'm pumped to go back! Also, it's so cool seeing these guys play on a course that I've played before and just watching the spots they can put the ball from the tips, amazing.

Besides Tiger's change in the last 13 years or so (which may or may not be so obvious), how about the big change in Sergio? I mean when I was watching this, all I could see was this fun loving, outgoing kid who was simply enjoying the battle down the stretch. He didn't even look too upset when he lost, just disappointed but knew he gave it everything he had. Now, Sergio just seems kind of bitter and closed up to everyone. I miss the old Sergio, and I think he would be much more popular if was more like who he was in 1999.

I have to say though, it does look as if Tiger is improving dramatically with each and every major. I think that just like with regular tour events, he will eventually get back to winning and being a solid favorite every time. Just my two cents.

I just think that in these conditions, Tiger had to be more aggressive and he really wasn't at all today. I know it's his game plan and all, and he is playing better than most, but it's gonna leave him well back of the leaders. Even though as I'm typing this now, Scott seems to look like he's gonna drop another shot, Tiger had some good opportunities to be aggressive and gain some ground but he didn't take them. *Never mind about Scott dropping a shot, only reinforces my point

One thing, Snedeker has zero three-putts, zero bogeys, and zero bunkers hit into. I just wonder if he can keep this up. You don't see play like this that often as the British. If he does, than he absolutely deserves the title if he takes it.

Tiger working with the driver on the range, I wonder if he's planning on being a little more aggressive tomorrow. I would bet it depends on what the weather is like, because if the conditions stay like this, it's gonna be tough to catch the leaders playing conservatively. Also, I love Rick Reilly's narrated pieces for ESPN. The narrative he just did about Snedeker was extremely well done.

Some great names on the top of the leaderboard after the first day, I easily believe that any one of them could win. However, I will say that Tiger does have that "gameface" that he usually has when he's playing well. I would definitely keep an eye on him. Also, I have to say that I'm really enjoying ESPN's coverage of this this year. Very few commercials it seems, many different players being highlighted, and the commentary has been very good. They should get Peter Alliss on more often, and the guys they brought in after him were good as well. Much better than this years Master's coverage in my opinion.

Just Bethpage Black, but I'm looking to get back on it right before they close it for the Barclays this year, and possibly after. I think it will be cool playing with some of the grandstands already set up.

I think about whatever pops into my head in between shot, whether it's golf related or not. However, for whatever reason my weirdest thoughts occur as I'm standing over a putt. Just totally random things like "You know who would be good on Feherty's show, Ian Poulter," "I wonder what I'm going to do for dinner tonight," or even "I really should text that girl back..." I don't know if these are good thoughts to have or not because my mind is generally clear and I can focus on the putt, but maybe I should be focusing even more.

Nothing worse than hitting a nice shot from over 180 yards and sticking the green only to walk up and not being able to find your mark, even though you know there's one there. I'll still repair some others to pay my dues, but it just doesn't quite feel the same when it's not your own .

Are tom and stephanie (those are the commentators, right?) dating/married? There was that weird umbrella moment a few episodes ago, didn't know what to make of it. Either way, the whole show has a weird vibe and the contestants love each other too much. And also none of them seem like they have the game at all to play on the LPGA tour.

If I'm not hitting my driver well, then I'm not going to hit my 3-wood well. That's a given. My 3-hybrid however will probably be working, but my best shot with a 3-hybrid is around 60 yards shorter than a pretty good drive with a driver. That's a lot of distance lost. I just try to work through the trouble when the driver isn't working and sometimes it works out well and sometimes it doesn't. But I know that I shoot my best scores when my driver is working well and I'm hitting around 7 fairways while minimizing my misses.

Quite frankly, if I'm playing with someone in a non-competitive round, I could care less what rules they play by. Take 20 extra strokes, move your ball wherever you want. Hell, even if it's a friend that may brag to me about beating me, I don't care, I know what you were actually doing. That being said, I shot my personal best 80 last week by playing by every single rule in the book. One defining hole for me is when I hit a bad tee shot on the par 5 13th, declared my next ball as a provisional, couldn't find the first ball so I played my 4th shot from the fairway with the provisional ball, and then went on to drive the green in two and two-putt for a bogey. It felt so satisfying to know that my score was 100% legitimate. Was I pissed that a lost ball cost me my first 70's round? Hell yea I was. But I know that the potential is there and I'm just gonna go out and keep working.