Back on the practice range...

16/4/12 Monday. First round of the John Leake Trophy was played in fine weather yesterday and scoring 37 stableford points was good enough to have me in 7th place. Trailing three pairs of golfers with 41, 39 and 38 points respectively. It was particularly enjoyable playing a round of golf that required me to draw on every bit of my ability to get a good score on the board. By the end of the day I was struggling physically to play my best, the last three holes were played with very little energy left in the body and mind for golf. Finishing with two bogies and a double bogie on the 18th hole, (there I missed a 10cm putt for bogie) just nothing left to drop an un-missable putt.

Started the round with a wipe on the 1st hole and finished with a wipe on the 18th, end result was scoring 18 points on the front nine and 19 points on the back nine. In a week of experimenting with drivers my practise on the range was maintained. The specific routine on the range was using a 6 and 9 irons alone, establishing a consistent swing and accurate pattern with the balls. The confirmation of this effective practice was five GIRs and birdie chances, only got one and that was satisfying. There was several near misses in shooting for the green and this was given further support with much improved chipping. Unfortunately the putting let me down, the frustrating regularity of the putting failure was the ball being online and stopping short of the hole. This is a combined execution/mental fault with the stroke and I have worked on it in practice. When I say the ball is short of the hole this is 5 cm or less, whilst a miss is the same result be it a metre or one centimetre, the fault in my case is very small.

Sitting here now I can visualise the putting on the day and the balls trickling into the hole or stopping short during the game. This is never the case when on the practice green which I put down to; as it is practice I putt aggressively at the hole without any fear. In the putting routine of ten ball sets 2-3 will be slightly short and the rest in the hole or past it. Yet on game day short putts are nearer the 60 % mark. There is no excuse for not improving this and more practise is the key to drop 3-4 shots off my scores. Two of the Birdie attempts were short and that was really irritating.

Today it was back on to the range the added challenge was taking the Titleist AP2, 6 and 9 irons, using them in rotation with the Bridgestone 6 and 9 irons that are in the bag. What was satisfying is that there is no real difference between the distance that the irons get no matter what the brand name. The Bridgestones are the better choice for my game at the minute. Especially as they have thicker grips and this is a very noticeable variation that affect my control on the balls flight. After hitting 50 balls it was enough for the session, still feeling a few stiff spots in my body at the time. Went out 4 hours later and hit 20 balls with the Mdd 380 cc Tour and the Dynacast 400cc Fastrax, drivers. I was a little erratic off the tee yesterday and while feeling okay decided a little session would be fine.

Had a mixture of shots off the tee on Sunday and while it was nothing too bad made the smart choice of using the #2 iron off the 11th, 12th and 13th tees, were missing the fairway is a disaster. All three shots were in the centre of the fairway with enough distance to make the holes winners for my score. The #2 iron was very handy on the day on several holes and the mid size cavity back is definitely assisting my game. In the range session the 400cc driver was the better consistently with accurate shots, distance was the same with either length wise. The Dynacast driver performed a lot better than it did with the original shaft. I am tending towards removing the shorter Taylor Made 370 driver shaft and getting a new stiff flex shaft for it. Nothing urgent but if there is another 10m available for me with a change to this driver it will be a bonus that cannot be ignored.

The coming weekend if the weather is fine with no rain, a carload of us are heading off at 6.30am to play in the Heywood 27 hole event on Sunday. It is also a qualifying round for the Handicap Championship at my home club on the same day. There is a second qualifying round the following weekend so there is no need to play both. Unless I dont make the cut, that would be my own fault for playing crap though.

Thankyou for your time and attention. “Hit ‘em straight all.”

 Geoff

Footyheads Review Carlton bury Collingwood rd 3

Thankyou for your time and attention, Geoff

A little closer to breaking 80...

11/4/12 Wednesday. The reshafting has been a success. After a try out on the range hitting into the wind, alternating between the 380 cc and 400cc drivers the distances are now consistently the same. The stiff flex shaft replacing the ultra flex in the 400cc driver has improved it’s performance in my hands. The two clubs have very different ball flights with the 380cc an 8.5 degree loft and the 400cc at 10 degree loft. The two 'feel' very different on striking the ball as well but that is no matter it did not cause any confusion for me when using them. Which is something that I am a little proud of, with a swing that is not affected with using unfamiliar equipment.

After the range session I went out yesterday and played 9 holes hitting two balls off the tee using both drivers. The results were excellent, again accurate with both and the 400cc nosing out the smaller driver for distance off the tee. The different ball flights are a facet that is going to be interesting to explore in practice over coming months. The 8.5 loft is a lower flight as would be expected and a very satisfying straight reaching drive with the addition of run. The run will not be as influential with the heavier ground conditions in winter. This has been the main reason for those 250m drives that have been a noted influence on my game. These unusual long drives have been part of the inspiration behind the current shaft replacement.

Reading recently that the standard shafts in drivers are not the best available off the shop floor has further peaked my interest in the practical experiment of changing shafts. Initially the 400cc dfriver was purchased as a back up for when a chronic back injury restricts my swing. The reason being that the extra flex shaft would compensate for the impaired swing. Since the coaching changes to my swing in January the injury no longer has a major influence on my golf. A Taylor Made 370cc driver stiff shaft was available so in it went. No cost to me and the result has shown that it was worth the effort. I have now reshafted the 420cc Infinity Driver 10.5 degree loft. This time I have shortened the shaft (regular flex) by about 7cm which has significantly reduced the flexiblity, it is about 3cm shorter than the 380cc driver shaft now. Whilst this is not a technically precise change it will be very noticable when having a hit tomorrow.

The 400cc driver at 10 degrees has a expected rising flight to an apex then falling, with a negligible run effect. When having the trial on the range it was initially a relaxed session and I enjoyed just letting loose and exploring the drivers limits. In the final two 10 ball sessions it was all about the accuracy of the shots. Once on the course the tee shots where all comfortable easy swings and the distances were at the 210-220m accuracy was a little poorer than usual though and 5 bogies and four pars for nine holes all included GIR on the par holes. The bogie holes all included poor second shots with three limited to just returning to the fairway from the rough. Short game though was very good hitting the greens easily from 50-100m.

The reshafted Drivers will not be going into the bag for competition play at the minute. I am doing this with a specific purpose that is all about getting an additional 10-15m off the tee. Not straight away, this is an equipment exercise. The rest of this season I am continuing the swing development to a better level of consistency. That alone has increased distance for all shots. To begin breaking 80 regularly it is apparent to me that getting 230-250m drives as a standard feature off the tee is needed. Back in 2010 when I had the Cobra S9.1 Driver the 250m drive was possible, it was just not possible for me to be able to regularly produce the shot with any reliability. Most of problem was caused by the ‘frog in a blender’ swing I had then. It has taken two years of practise and coaching to now be able to begin the final stages of adding a driver shot to my game that is the correct combination of the golfer and equipment.

When having coaching sessions it is not just the practical that has my attention, it is what the professional says. To take a cliche’ I will call it “cause and effect”, each stance, swing, club drill has a purpose that is IE about cutting 3-4 strokes off a rounds score. Accurate drives off the tee on to fairways will save those short shots from the rough or behind trees just to get on the fairway. More GIR’s mean more par in regulation holes and birdie opportunities. Better chipping within 1m of the hole means more par holes and birdie chances same with better putting. Having reached 13-14 handicap the next few seasons I am pulling all the stops out to see how low I can get and play winning tournament golf. Thankyou for your time and attention. “Hit ‘em straight all.”

 Geoff

A time for golfing reflection...

9/4/12 Monday This weekend of golfing reflection has revealed a few interesting insights into my game. The best one being the realisation that my ability with shots played has significantly improved. Whilst playing the game the nuances of improvement get overlooked in the concentration that is required to play the shots.

Whilst reviewing the past three months of golfing, the last round played at Bordertown was the one that revealed the most. I used a 5 iron off the tee on the No 11, 157m hole (started on the back nine). Where I had an 8 (par 3 into the bunker off the tee) and finished with an 87 Gross. The point was that in playing the shot I was actually going for the green and was only 2-3m off target, to the right with a slight fade. Coming from a course that has two bunkers in total I did not even consider the threat of them in playing this shot. In fact every par three at Bordertown I approached the same way and this was the only one which came to grief in the two days of play.

This past week I have been out 3 times and hit 20-30 balls at the range each time, just keeping my hand in with the 6 and 9 irons. Again not playing competition this week I was relaxed and just enjoying the ease of the shots played and the accurate results. Did not even think about anything to do with my game at the time. On Saturday after getting out and being a little more serious when using a reshafted driver the golf brain switched on. It was then I realised that I am hitting the ball so much better and finally hitting greens in regulation. My Average for the year to date is still 13%, my last 5 rounds have been 22% three times, then 11% and 44% at Bordertown.

That is the confirmation that the improvement, whilst not excessive it has definitely established a better strike rate. This is a combination of two factors, accurate use of my irons and the increase off the tee by 10-15m with the driver and using #8 iron to Wedges in shooting for the green. To use a phrase from Steve Bowditch “I carry 4 wedges because I worked out along time ago that I’m around the 100m mark a lot more then the 220 mark and that I would be more affective if I carried more wedges to give myself more options with the scoring clubs rather then the 3 iron…”  Obviously I do not hit the ball that close to the green on par 4’s which are the majority of holes on a course. The ‘scoring clubs’ are still higher lofted ones, which are now coming into play for me more often. The confidence is a pleasant feeling to have when an iron is in my hands lining up to hit the green. It is still the actions that have to be maintained in set up etc. that gets the result.

Today after lunch and watching the final round of the 2012 Masters, if the weather holds out and does not pour rain to go with the blustery winds, I will get on the range and test out the drivers again. This time taking the first choice (in the bag)380cc driver and see how the now stiff flex shafted 400cc driver compares. Thankyou for your time and attention. “Hit ‘em straight all”

 Geoff