Saving you time and money by experimenting and reflecting! An update on the weeks progress and activities.... and a Big Question!
Big Question?
When and how do you reflect on your golf?
Feels
My feeling this week is one of frustration and excitement. My frustration is still coming from my poor approach play. The lesson I have booked, cannot come soon enough. I worry that I am unprepared for the inevitable backward step the lesson may cause. I am committed to improving and have so much data backing up the need for improvement in my iron play. We will see how that plays out, next week.
Technical
My round his week was another frustrating one but also one that left a positive feeling. The greens had been hollow tyned (picture below) so my expectations were very low for putting. On checking my strokes gained, it wasn't the putting that was the issue. Tee shots, short game and putting, were all within 2 shots lost against scratch. My approach play cost me over 6 shots. 6 hole shots over 18 holes. I hit 3 huge hosel rocket SHANKS in the first few holes, which wont have helped the strokes gained data. They came after a good week of practice (more on that later) and 15 minutes of warm up balls before I played, that I was striking great. My learning here, is that golf has a way of kicking you when you least expect it. I must be prepared for everything and be meticulous in my set up and basics, to get a more repeatable action, on the course.
Scorecard
Strokes gained
Practice
I had 2 productive practice sessions this week. One focused on driving and in particular, club head speed and strike. The other on iron play.
Reflection point - I notice myself questioning my practices and my application to them. I notice myself feeling a little frustrated. I recall my commitment to improving. I know I have a lesson booked in. I notice lots.... and that is key to wading through the negative thoughts and continuing to push.
Session 1
I enjoyed the physical challenge of the session. It was quite tough. I noted when I try to swing faster with the driver, I have a tendency to have a more heel biased strike (as seen above in the tweet). The ball flight is always a fade. This information is useful when playing. For example, if there was some danger on the left, I can call on that information, trusting it, to set up and rip a fade down there while avoiding the danger. The session has made me consider purchasing a portable launch monitor too, to monitor my club head speed and distance. I have thirst for this objective data. But I also have a budget.....
Session 2
I have made a decision to work on my iron play on grass, rather than on a mat. I have done this for two reasons;
1) To replicate the bounce and compression felt on grass
2) To include variability* in my practice that includes lie (above/below feet, thicker grass, tight lie)
*variability - the inclusion of naturally occurring variation in an attempt to increase how the practice transfers to the course.
I sprayed a line on the grass and set 3 balls along it. the aim of the session is to have 'ball first, ground second' contact, making a divot after the line. I hit 6 balls with my 6 iron, 6 balls with my 8 irons and 6 balls with my PW. My results were ok but one thing it highlighted to me was that on a couple of shots, I have a feeling of 'hanging back'. When this feeling occurs, I tend to hit it heavy. It made me more aware of my set-up, my backswing and follow-through. The intention of this drill is not to have a perfect ball flight or to worry about the result of the shot. The task is to make ball first contact.
Week 3 - Decade Tee Shot Experiment Update
I started an experiment using the Decade yardage book for my home course, to plot the widest point of the fairway and match it to my club at that distance. The experiment has made me curious about the value I currently place on finding the fairway. To explore this further I checked out the data on my last 5 rounds. The aim was to see if there were any patterns or tendencies with the fairway versus rough.
You can see for yourself in the image below, that I make a very comparable amount of birdies, pars and bogeys, whether I find the fairway or not.
I make more pars when my tee shot is up towards the top end of my average distance.
To conclude - my tee shot strategy will be to hit the ball as far as possible that leaves me a shot for the green. I will use the strokes gained for tee shots, average driving distance and revisit this graph, in 4 weeks, to see what insights that provides me (and you).
Cleveland Smart Sole Chipper Experiment
Wow!
I did not see this coming but for my skill level around the greens, it has been an excellent purchase. Since it has been in the bag, I have had zero 2 chips, zero duffs and zero thins around the greens. I will continue collecting data with for 4 more weeks, in case I am in a honeymoon period. My data will show a direct comparison between my shorter clubs for proximity to the flag, GIR and 'up and down' percentage, when pitted against the Cleveland. We can draw conclusions, once we have a more reasonable sample size.
Reflective questions
Are you conducting any experiments on your game?
What data are you using to draw conclusions?
Where could you optimise your game, with a simple change?
Next week
The Lesson....
Thanks for reading!
To continue the conversation, ask questions or comment on my journey, follow me on Twitter @scratch_journey