Professional golf coaching is a good thing...

28/3/12 Wednesday. One advantage of having a plan of sorts with golf coaching and the resulting practice is the ability to isolate problems and target them in training. Instead of discovering new faults and fixes for faults through conversations with playing partners, a golfer must find a coach and listen to advice given. Then get to the range or backyard and practice what has been passed on. As with all advice given by other golfers no matter how well meaning it has been intentioned all that has been done is to store it away in my knowledge. What this advice has done is make it possible for me to understand what is being described and taught during coaching. I have always been a astounded to hear golfers critique professional coaches and using advice given by Billy Club-Golfer as the counter point. 

It has been apparent to me over the past three years that there is no problem with receiving coaching from more than one professional. In my instance this has never had any major differences. An effective golf swing, which is the core of anyone's game, is what is required to be established from coaching. What I do now is not perfect, yet it is 90% better than the one I began with. In 2009 my game did not include using Drivers when playing competition as there was no possibility of knowing where the ball would go off the tee. Putting and chipping was equally erratic yet I was practicing and getting better. Dropping 9-10 strokes from the 36 handicap when I began playing that first year.

That was improvement of course, but now I play of 13 having halved the handicap from then. Now playing with all clubs available and working on a consistent game to go the next level towards a single figure handicap. Still play with golfers who when I started were on the same  level as I and are playing off significantly higher handicaps still. The difference is that my planning and coaching has followed a designated path.  

Establishing and maintaining the practice schedule this week has been the focus. Beginning on Monday the short game faults which had been so destructive of late were concentrated on, with chipping and putting drills. Being satisfied with the results on the day is one thing, getting out and playing holes to see if the practice had a lasting effect would be the proving ground.

Added a little extra pressure during the practice rounds played by using the #2 hybrid off the tee on the par4 and 5 holes. This club needs some game time to get accurate and consistent off the fairway and tee block. With winter beginning to loom in coming months using long irons is a preference that has to be rationalized. I will lose a lot of game effectiveness in the winds that howl around the course sticking with irons. In tandem with using the hybrid this put my long to mid iron play into effect for approach shots and going for the green. Which meant that the need to chip onto the green was needed throughout the practice rounds.Still a long way to go in hitting greens in regulation. 

The practice so far this week has delivered improved chipping and there were no problems at all. The decision to extend the use of the 56 degree wedge to 50m in practice was a good choice. Not once did I even come close to playing the stabbing swing with no follow through, which caused so much damage to the weekend rounds. 

Putting always needs work, still messed up a couple of putts that went short or wide of the hole. Given that I do no pre-round warm up before playing that was acceptable. In the main it was all good confident putting with only one that was significantly short. Dropped some good long putts as well as consistent confident putting strokes on 9 out of the 10 holes played.
Thankyou for your time and attention, “Hit ‘em straight all.”

 Geoff

Bordertown Spring Open this weekend...

26/3/12 Monday. Two days of competition golf this weekend again and the result is more improvement. Whilst the coaching and range practise has been very beneficial since January the game time has been the clincher in getting better at the game. Have been getting very close, playing to handicap and in to the zone of breaking it. What is stopping this is poor putting and chipping.

The Kingston round on Saturday returned 35 points. With two holes, that following good drives fell apart after the second shot, both three putt greens as well as too many chips. There was another three putt hole that was the only wipe on the scorecard as well. Scoring 1 point out of these two holes, from the 4 that should have been the result. Then at Beachport on Sunday a three hole run of bladed chip shots resulted in a double bogie, bogie, double bogie and 3 points out of the possible 6 expected were gone. No three putt greens at Beachport although the bouncy greens did result in a couple of putts jumping aside from the hole and missing. As was proved by a playing partner who putted hard at the hole every time and off a 12 handicap scored 43 points, that method is the way to get the ball in the hole.

There were some stroke playing reasons for the poor chipping and putting results, the cause though is what has to be fixed. Lack of confidence is corrupting my short game and improving the mindset is going to take some specific effort. In practice my short game and putting is not excellent but much better than the return in competition rounds. The problem is that accepting my current level of ability and not surprised when the chip or putt played is not the best, I am accepting failure. Looking at my figures in an 18 hole round there is two or three holes being destroyed by the poor short game. Approximately 85% of the holes are fine but the 15% of failure holes are all a result of the same errors.

I will not accept the failures and am working on correcting the faults. A lot of progress has been made in 2012. To sit here and know that the problem areas in my game are identified as chipping and putting. There is not much needed to improve them, hitting through the ball when chipping, and believing in my putting ability. The latter is going to come from more practice as always and continued improvement in competition results. Fairways hit is now at 50 % GIR is still low at 11%. At Kingston, 6 GIR and Beachport, 8 GIR was a significant improvement on the 2 year average percentage. The important statistic is the hole results with 47% bogies, 28% par and 20% double bogies the biggest numbers.

The chipping is going to be rectified with adding to my existing practice routine over 10 and 20 metre shots. This will be setting up on the practice fairway and hitting out to 50m distances with the 56 degree wedge. I feel that working on better accuracy is the simple key to better chipping. The putting does suffer from this failing, too many putts from 10m away from the hole end up with 3 putt results. On top of that is the realisation that with improving GIR I am going to have to keep on getting better accuracy with the mid to longer irons as well.

Talk is not what gets the improvement and today on the range this was put into effect. In the main it was all good, the error percentage was 15% from each series of balls when using the Wedge to 50m. Interesting was that the #8 iron had the same 15% error margin at 110-120m as well as the #6 iron in the 140-150m distance. The error was the same in each instance also, instead of hitting through the ball I play a short swing pulling the club across the ball and slicing to the right. Doing this on the range though in an environment with no pressure gave me the identity and cure for the fault. The putting will get a work out later in the week.

Practise is in preparation is for the two day Spring tournament at Bordertown this weekend. Having played the winter open at Bordertown the past two seasons the coming event is something that I feel will be benefited from the recent two round weekends. Playing both in the one competition again and at a course that is suited to my golfing limitations. Adding the advantage of not getting up to work at 5.30am before a 130km drive to play I should be a little fresher for the second days play. Thankyou for your time and attention, “Hit ‘em straight all”

 Geoff

Would you go for the green or lay up on this par4?

13th Hole at Kingston SE. 

This hole is a par 4, 324m off the back marker, on the day this was shot, played of another tee block taking 20-30m off the distance. The hole info board does not show how sharp the fairway doglegs to the left. I hit 220m consistently and straight off the tee these days and this is one of the holes that has became a shot saver. By cutting the corner it is very possible to hit the green if you have a 250m drive in your regular shot selection.

Even with my 220m drive, on a day like today I actually went 5m too long off the fairway. My fault I was filming and it did not register that we were playing a shorter fairway.
Not my best film work I was trying to play well in a competition round, and a little distracted by the game. As you can see the 150m peg is on the far side of the fairway just before the dogleg. The 100m marker is around the dogleg. The drive shown was shorter than mine but was almost off the fairway going too long and still cut 20-30 m off leaving a second shot of 70m approx. This also barely cut the corner.

No sand bunkers a few deep grass potholes have been created. Again on the left side of the fairway, facing the green and closest to the tee block. 

No matter, the point is would you play the lay up shot to the turn or take the punt and hit over the native bush, cutting the corner and go for the green/fairway?

Thankyou for your time and attention, Geoff

Better concentration assists better scores

23/3/12. Friday. It has been a busy week off and on the golf course for me, fact of life for us golfers who do not play the game for a living. If I did play the game for a job my main sponsors would have to be assorted charities, so I had food to eat and a roof over my head, considering my level of ability. Would probably have the practical experience to write a book on “1000 recipes for two minute noodles” in quick time as a professional golfer.

This week has been one of physical recovery again, no complaints from me in this, another flare up of existing chronic injuries. Sure not having the pain and discomfort would be a great, reality dictates that this is something that can be managed not removed. This was not too bad and a half hour Bowen Therapy treatment soon had me up and moving freely again. Following the heavy training load began in January the physical reaction of discomfort is moderating. Like any good training program once it has been done the benefits are a standard feature of your game. This preseason was significantly more in preparation for working towards being competitive in A Grade competition. First goal for the season is to win my first A Grade Open handicap section. No real potential to do any better than that on my current handicap. The “off the stick” section is the domain of the single figure golfers.

Out practising all week though even before the treatment playing nine hole and eighteen hole rounds, continuing the commitment to getting more game time on top of range practice. The effect of the injuries is most noticeable after treatment, my swing returns to a consistent smooth rythym. My body is so uncomfortable when out of sync that the pyhsical pain undermines my focus and concentration too often. This does have a benefit, I can see it as being a very effective tool in the future. Although it still is a distraction the impact is gradually being over come as I strengthen my resolve. This has always been a driving force in my golfing, ever since beginning to use the game 20 plus years ago as rehabilitation therapy. My experience is nothing compared to other golfers who have far worse disabilities and play at professional and amateur levels.

The past weekend was one of playing two 18 hole competitions. On Saturday travelled to Kingston SE for 18 holes in their stroke round. Started with a 51 strokes and 18 putts on the front nine followed with 40 strokes and 13 putts for the back nine. 91 for a nett 78. Double bogies on the first five holes cracked the front nine apart. Came back well, putting got into the groove. Short game was the hole wrecker in those first 5 holes. The improved short game is very noticeable after having therapy on the injuries. Yesterday I hit 100 balls in chipping practice with no bladed or fat shots. In this round with the restricted body movement chips were short from being hit fat or bladed too often, including iron fairway shots. Frustrating to say the least but as the score shows I got on top of the distraction.

Bugga! Home club Monthly Medal on Sunday and was in the hunt all day. Just ran out of steam on the last 3 holes. Not disappointed more so a little surprised to tell the truth. This was a benefit from playing at Kingston the day before. Was cruising along well enough missed a few birdie putts but was covering all the bogies with pars and keeping the card on track for a playing to par finish. Then on the 16th. a par 3, bladed a 9 iron through the back of the green under trees and ended up with a 6 (with 3 putts). Still did not give up but could not pick up birdie or par finishes on the last two holes. Had nothing left in the tank, the mental effort of the day took everything I had to stop the physical restrictions from affecting the game as it did at Kingston. Yet the experience from the day before was a definite advantage, the only blemishes were two double bogies on the front nine and the triple bogie on the 16th hole.

My score at the finish, a pair of 44’s with 15 putts on the front nine and 16 on the back. Gross 88, nett 75 with 31 putts.Winning score for the day was a nett 72 and 4th place for myself. Following the recent weekends of playing Saturday and Sundays it has been beneficial to me golf form.

The tiredness in the legs and feet and general back stiffness caused the concentration wavering on the greens too often. Yet I do not see that as the problem as opposed to a result of the one. Not fit enough and not enough playing/practice time. It is improvement on recent results as I have stepped up playing since the Southern Ports Tournament. Obviously my game is still a work in progress. Next is a two day Open at Bordertown on the 31st of March and 1st of April, usually play in their October event but going to continue the two day golf weekends while possible. Thankyou for your time and attention. “Hit ‘em straight all”

Geoff