Notes from The PGA Championship

[Richie3Jack]

I agree wholeheartedly with Kevin. If you take time off, all you are going to do is comeback...try again...get frustrated and quit. You either put your heart into and be determined to work thru it...or you quit for good...or you determine that all you want to do is play for fun (I've yet to see the latter be done by competitive players unless they have a family and can't get out much).

This quit...get back and try for a little while and get frustrated and quit again...is for the birds.

I think if one wants to get better, they need to practice. How much is on a case-by-case basis. I remember quitting practicing and just playing as well...shot a few good scores, but slowly went back to crap and then knowing I needed to practice again.

There is no perfect swing. Just a bunch of compensations and moves. Find out what compensations cause your bad shots and that you can't repeat. Fix them...there's always a reason for them.




3JACK

 

[otto6457]

Yeah Ritchie.......you and Kevin are right. I gave the game up for over a year and couldn't stay away.

I get EXTREMELY frustrated when I can't do the things I used to do. It's not a matter of distance or old age creeping in. (at least I don't think so). A lot of it is that after I see Brian my ball striking comes back to what I feel like is pretty close to my best. But then it slowly fades away (pardon the pun) back to where I have two way misses and can't keep it on the golf course. The "get a lesson...hit it great...then lose it all" became the pattern before I quit last year, and it has been a problem for a long time. My retention of a new move or feeling seems to be rather short term. My old swing always seems to overpower the new no matter how much I practice. I don't know enough to fix it so I seem to always be fixing "something" and hoping it makes a difference. I shoot more video and work harder than just about anyone I know. Which is even more annoying since I've played for a LONG time and should be able to solve this sort of problem on my own. I have a vision of what my golf swing should look like and when it doesn't match that vision.......I start trying to change it till it does. Not a formula for success when I don't know if the vision in my head is even a good one.

After losing 6 balls in 5 holes Friday night, I sort of snapped. It's a poor, poor me syndrome. I expect that hard work will fix anything, and in golf....hard work is just hard work. Working hard doesn't equate to success. Especially if you're not working on the right things or even know enough to identify the right things. And standing there after I hit another rope hook into the water for my 6th lost ball Friday evening....I was angry. VERY angry. Very angry because I had NO idea what was happening or how to fix it. After hitting it as well as I can a few weeks earlier in New Orleans to not being able to find a swing that worked at all was all I could stomach Friday evening.

So, I played today and just let it go. No swing thoughts...as blank a mind as I can muster. Didn't score very well...but for the most part, kept it on the course. Made a minor adjustment that Jim suggested (might have overdone it) and my misses were predominantly right....which is a better miss for me. But I'm far from being where I used to be, or want to be.

But, I'll keep muddling along. I don't have any other addiction or vice so there's no reason to not keep at it. My pride will take a beating but pride is over rated anyway. The old saying, "Even a blind squirrel finds a nut occasionally" come to mind. LOL!!

 

[Lindsey Newman]

Hey Otto,

What you're talking about is completely normal, at least to me.

I have played across the line since working with a very well known and thought of instructor 15 years ago. His prize PGA pupil also played across, so no need to teach something else right? Well, not long after being taught that way, I realized that it (across the line) may not be optimal. I started to take an extremely deep dive into mechanics and fell in love for what I deemed "optimal". I spent a decade practicing every day in front of video trying to create the "mythical perfect swing". Man, I looked sick good on video, but the ball flight said different. I was getting beat by dudes with shut faces, across the line, cupped wrists, missed aligned set ups, flippy impact and 10 mph less clubhead speed. If we had a line drawing competition on video, I would beat those dudes all day long.

I could not understand why I could not have more success. I thought I was going about the process of improvement correctly. I was wrong. What I am as a player now would have disgusted me back then, but I am having more success on the scorecard. I am not as long and my swing does not look as good. I still get pissed at hitting steep shots, but I can, more times than not, predict what my ball will do in the air. I have given up on the thought that I have to look good to hit good shots and being competitive is a hell of a lot more fun.

It all comes down to what makes you tick. For me, now, I like posting good scores more than being a great looking swinger of the club. I want good ball flight that I can aim and hit the right distance. Nobody's swing looks good in the heather or OB.

So come on bro, get your mind right, figure out what makes you happy in golf and carve out a swing you can repeat. Even if it's not perfect, get a ball flight you can pull off. Grind on pitching/putting and get out there and smack those fools!

 

[Bigwill]

I think this is a great post, Lindsey. If I had a choice between Jim Thorpe's swing and shooting in the 60's regularly, or Adam Scott's swing struggling to shoot par, I'd take Thorpe quickly. I even think it would be a bit of a mental advantage to play lights out with a butt-ugly swing. Can you imagine how quickly you could get into a competitor's head when you start beating them with what looks like a 25 handicapper's swing? It wouldn't take long before some guys start to beat themselves in that situation...

 

[bcoak]

really loved some of the shots Keegan played. The 1st playoff hole iron was a golf shot.

 

[Richie3Jack]

otto, i'm a 9 to 5'er (well 8 to 5'er), so I don't have time to play a lot. But, I can practice because I can do it in 30 minutes to 2 hours and get better. My #1 goal when I practice is to make the most out of each time I hit the range or putting green or whatever.

I used to run into the same issues. Get a lesson, start hitting it well and watch it slowly erode. I really got sick of that. Furthermore, I wanted to get to the point where I could actually be hitting it pretty well and *still* get another lesson in order to go from 'good' to 'really good' and to pick out some things to look out for.

But, I never got the latter. It was always 'hit it well, then slowly watch it fade away and then get another lesson because I"m desperately seeking help.'

Eventually I started to practice with a video camera every time I went onto the driving range. My feeling is, I'd rather spot the things that are getting out of whack immediately so I can correct them instead of letting them get out of whack and get ingrained into my swing. Having to fix that ingrained stuff that is giving you problems...that takes far more time and is far more frustrating than if I just fixed it when it was first starting to act up.

It's amazing because I'll fight against that. Sometimes I just don't have the desire to fix some old habits that I see on tape. And I'll let them go and sooner or later they'll become a major problem.

I just got sick of it and got bound and determined to really stay on top of that stuff.

But...it does work.

And personally, I'd own a Trackman if I could afford to. Another tremendous practice tool that helps me get the most out of it. But instead I have to rent it for $75/hour. Still worth it in my mind, but I just can't feasibly do it all of the time.

I think you combine a good camera and Trackman and you are determined to stay on top of the stuff you worked on in the lesson...you'll get your game figured out sooner than later.






3JACK

 

[Lindsey Newman]

And that's what is great about trackman. You can see why something that looks good goes bad and vice versa. Camera use is definitely invaluable if your focused on the right things as opposed to whether or not you look good aesthetically.

 

[mgranato]

This general idea is why I have a problem with golf being called a sport. Sure it can be, but too often guys treat it more like a series of intellectual positions based on a 3rd parties view (someone who’s watching or the video camera). A sport, IMO, needs a level of reactionary movement about it. Kobe doesn’t get to take countless practice jumpers before taking the real one. Roethlisberger doesn’t get to practice incompletions before missing his target. They have to react to the game as it unfolds. Golf is much slower (physically), but it should still be played as a reactionary sport. React to the lie, the situation, the pressure rather than trying to reproduce your best sequence of positions from your last lesson. It’s a game to played. Shoot the best score with the move you brought to the course that day. If that’s an 85, try to “smoke and mirror” it to an 83. But don’t try to fake it with a swing you didn’t bring.

I fully expect to break par every time I drive to the course even though I know it won’t happen every time. I also know I’m gonna miss greens and fairways with bad swings. And I’m gonna get plenty of chances to prove my short game. That’s fun. The course doesn’t care how well I’ve been practicing, or how bad/good I feel. The defense it provides will win more times than the offense I provide, but man I love taking swings at it. When I don't like those lopsided odds, golf sucks. When I feel like I’m owed something because of how much or how well I’ve been practicing, golf sucks. But when I don’t care about anything other than fighting for every shot, the game is fun - win, lose, or draw.

The odds are always with the house, no point in being upset when it wins, it’s supposed to. However, it does make it that much more enjoyable when you do beat it.

 

[conkanen]

"Roethlisberger doesn’t get to practice incompletions before missing his target. "

ok sunshine...you are a Patriots fan or Ravens fan? Which is it. Don't be attackin my boy!

 

[Richie3Jack]

And that's what is great about trackman. You can see why something that looks good goes bad and vice versa. Camera use is definitely invaluable if your focused on the right things as opposed to whether or not you look good aesthetically.

I haven't used Trackman in over a year until a week ago. What I found I loved about it is that you get a reading after each shot. That's tough to do with the camera because of battery life. Plus, you have to hit a shot, stop, go to the camera and look at it, stop the camera at certain points to see what you are working...then go back and hit another shot.

Also, there are times when I'm working on something and experimenting with some things and I'll hit a great shot that feels good, then look on camera and see crap. That happens all of the time in golf. Mechanics can be poor, but you have enough timing and hand-eye coordination to flush one.

The difference is Trackman tells us right away what happens so we don't have to go back to the camera.

Last week I was working on my VSP #'s and I was trying a bunch of different things. Some things had no affect on the VSP #'s. Some had a worse affect, but I still hit it well. And then I finally searched and searched and got some things that dramatically improved those #'s. Then I looked at it on camera and the swing was much improved.

Now I would like to get on Trackman much more often, probably about once a month until I feel my swing is where I want it and then go to it once every other month unless I'm reverting back to some old habits.






3JACK

 

[Richie3Jack]

From doing my statistical research, I find that 'going low', even for Tour pros is more about luck than people think. I honestly believe that many times, even Tour pros, will hit the ball and putt it just as well one day that they shoot 63 than the other day they shoot 70. But sometimes things trip them up. And from talking to a few of them, they generally understand it and don't worry about not 'going low' that often.

If it's windy out...your chances of going low decrease. Just too hard to control shots on a windy day. Doesn't mean you didn't hit it well and putt it well, but the wind that just happend to pop up that day hurt your chances of going low.

Having shots in between clubs is usually troublesome. And there are days where you get more of those than you usually do. And you can still make good passes at the ball, but struggle to get it close and leave yourself with 30 footers instead of 15 footers had you not been in between clubs. There's really nothing a golfer can do about that, but it affects their chances of going low.

Get some ridiculous pin posiitions...going low becomes tougher. Tougher to get it closer to the hole and tougher putts mean less chance of them going in. Doesn't mean you hit it or putt it bad...you just happen to catch a day where going low is tough.

I think about that because my lowest score ever was a 64, which I've shot twice. One time I hit it and putt it great. The other time, I really didn't do either, but had some things working for me. That time I remember having a lot of uphill putts and never being in between clubs. I remember the pins not being that tough, but on one hole that was tough, I aimed for the middle of the green...accidentally pushed it to 2-feet and made birdie. Wasn't really a good swing, just got a bit lucky. I also had a ridiculous flop shot that was mostly a 'hit and pray' shot that went in the cup for birdie.

Certainly, there is skill involved in going low. But the circumstances tend to have to be good as well.





3JACK