Week 3

PuttOut, Frustration and the Cleveland Smart Sole 4

Saving you time and money by experimenting and reflecting! An update on the weeks progress and activities.... and a Big Question! 

Big Question?

What are your on-course strategies when you hit a bad shot?

Technical 

More frustration and an opportunity to learn! 

I got a round in on Sunday which provided an opportunity to get practising and put into play the practice from the previous week. if you recall, I had a practice session to establish my strike location, using the foot spray and identified the location as having a heel bias. Sticking by Adam Young, I went about trying to move the strike location, using his 'dot method'. If you haven't seen this before, you basically imagine a 'new' target next to the ball, in the direction you would like to move the strike. The image below shows this concept. I was aiming to hit the middle red dot, to get a more centred strike on average.

The theory was great, even on the range at the side of the course, I was hitting some nice shots, rarely hitting any out of the heel of the club. IT DID NOT TRANSFER TO THE COURSE. I had my worst ball-striking day in around 1 year, missing 15 greens over the round. I had no feel for the ground, low point, strike location or starting line. It felt like a mid 90's round but some ok chipping and putting saved it slightly to record a 12 over, 83.  

My stroke gained stats below, show how bad the approach play was. Now at this point, it could go one of two ways. I could panic and give up on the practice and drills, or I could continue to challenge myself and keep persevering. I am obviously going with the latter. I am two chapters into Jon Sherman's The Four Foundations of Golf and have a round booked tomorrow (24th of August).

Practice

This week's practice continued to focus on my approach play but I found time to fit in a chipping and putting session. I reached out on Twitter for some putting ideas/games for me to try out. Mike Carroll (@Fit_for_Golf) shared a great game, which took around 1 hour to complete and is shown below.

I also got the PuttOut mat and mirror, to check in with my putting stroke and set up. The mat is now under my kitchen table to encourage me to get it out and work on some 2-6 feet putts and starting the putts on my start line.

Decade

The first trial of trying to use Decade to hit my tee shot at the widest point of the fairways was an interesting one. My strokes gained improved very slightly but it is very tough to say after one round, what an impact that has had. I had zero penalty shots which is an obvious advantage, however, I didn't quite have the rhythm I usually find with the driver, as I was hitting it less, and missed a few fairways by quite a fair distance. More to come on this! I will give it a month and report with the totals for strokes gained over that time and see what conclusions I can draw.

Social 

This is why we love golf - THE CHALLENGE. Having put this out on Twitter this week, I wasn't surprised to see the results. Many comments suggested that they were a mix of all of the options but the majority picking 'The Challenge' of golf as the main reason why they played the game. This helped me reflect on the week in a positive light and reminded me that other people enjoy and embrace the challenge, as I should. This led me to some reflective questions to share with you.....

Do you ever let yourself get down about your golf?

How do you keep your mind on the challenge?

How do you make sure golf is FUN and enjoyable for you?

Purchase Alert 

The final update of the week is a trial purchase of a Cleveland Smart Sole 4 Chipper Wedge. I will do as I am doing with the Tee Shot selection and give myself a window of rounds, probably 6 weeks, and check in with the strokes gained comparison across that time. Looking forward to getting started with it!!! Mark Crossfield has a video on it (although he is sponsored by Srixon/Cleveland, so make your own mind up on the conclusions, he is drawing!) Link below;

Thanks for reading!

To continue the conversation, ask questions or comment on my journey, follow me on Twitter @scratch_journey