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Wade's golf improvement world

I wanted to create a new thread for this since it's such a big deal to me, but since I already have this personal thread I thought I should use it.

Yesterday I won my flight in my Amateur Player's Tour event. That was awesome and I always enjoy winning, but hey, it's the crappy players division, just ahead of the really crappy player's division, so it's not exactly earth shattering. Besides, it only took an 87 to win.

However, the weather was far too perfect today to let it go to waste, so I headed back out to the course.

I shot an absolutely 100% legit Personal Best, 76 (40/36)!


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I consider this my first time ever breaking 80. I do remember thinking I had shot a 79 many years ago, but I'm positive I was not as diligent in scoring that round so I'm sure there was a "give me a double" or "that's good" on a 4-footer. Not today. By the books.

Obviously the next round is not likely to be the same, but I felt like I definitely took it to some personal demons today. Coming down the home stretch I wasn't sure exactly what my score was, but I knew I was flirting with the 70s at a minimum. I kept my composure and executed shots. When I hit a bad shot, I got up and down or made the long two-putt I needed.

The other big thing was just sticking with it. As you can see I was four-over after four. It would have been very easy to have said, "Welp, I don't have it today, this round is going to suck," but I just kept my head down and kept hitting the best shots I could.
 
Wade! That's so cool man. Congratulations. I know you've worked and invested a ton of time and effort into this. Has to feel amazing.
 
Been a while since I've updated this thread, but since I was selected for the SkyTrak experience, I thought I'd start doing it more often to report on my prep.

I don't expect to do anything majorly different to prepare. I will likely spend more time focusing on short game than anything else, because while I've got some decent fundamentals, I think that's there area where I stand to make the largest jump.

I played 6 rounds in Florida last week. I started off very unremarkable and in fact a bit of a regression with lots of high 80's and low 90's and even an (ugh) 97 on a tough course with water everywhere in tough conditions. But towards the end of the week things started really improving. I sorted out improvements with my takeaway and got into a better pressure shift. I started having lots of solid ball striking and the confidence soared. I was going on long runs of pars on tough courses and started going deep into the round on-target to break 80. However what stopped me was short game. A chunked wedge here or a chip to 15 feet instead of 5 feet was the difference.

I'll split time with my instructor monitoring my ball-striking and my short-game at my monthly lessons. Hopefully I can come into the SkyTrak experience much sharper on the wedges and around the green and help propel team JB to victory.
 
wadesworld said:
Been a while since I've updated this thread, but since I was selected for the SkyTrak experience, I thought I'd start doing it more often to report on my prep.

I don't expect to do anything majorly different to prepare. I will likely spend more time focusing on short game than anything else, because while I've got some decent fundamentals, I think that's there area where I stand to make the largest jump.

I played 6 rounds in Florida last week. I started off very unremarkable and in fact a bit of a regression with lots of high 80's and low 90's and even an (ugh) 97 on a tough course with water everywhere in tough conditions. But towards the end of the week things started really improving. I sorted out improvements with my takeaway and got into a better pressure shift. I started having lots of solid ball striking and the confidence soared. I was going on long runs of pars on tough courses and started going deep into the round on-target to break 80. However what stopped me was short game. A chunked wedge here or a chip to 15 feet instead of 5 feet was the difference.

I'll split time with my instructor monitoring my ball-striking and my short-game at my monthly lessons. Hopefully I can come into the SkyTrak experience much sharper on the wedges and around the green and help propel team JB to victory.
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Those Vic National fairways should make for some crispy wedge shots. The rough though 🥶
 
Had an interesting range session tonight. I think a bit of a breakthrough.

I've always had a problem (one of many) of getting the club too vertical in the backswing and then tipping it across the line. Tonight I went to the range determined not to just relax by hitting balls, but rather to work drills no matter where the ball went. I started using my Tour Striker ball to work on keeping the forearms better together and I stumbled upon a feel that really helped me lay the club down a bit more behind me at the top. Really began feeling the arms get out in front of me during the swing and really was striping a bunch, if I do say so myself. I have a lesson next week and hopefully my pro will be excited and will validate.
 
Instructor loved the work I'd been doing. To make a long story short (big pun incoming), we spent most of the lesson working on stopping the arms when the body stops rotating in effort to get rid of the extra lift in my arms. In other words, shortening my long backswing. The problem, as I'm sure many of you have experienced, is stopping the arms when the body stops turning feels literally like a 1/4 backswing. It's going to be so tough to re-program my brain to feel like I can get any power from that position, but the Trackman numbers proved not only that I could, but often that my power was increased due to more compression and more efficiency.

Golf is such an incredible mind-you-know-what. It honestly feels like I haven't gotten the club above my waist, but video proves I'm still going to parallel, which blows my mind. It's even more difficult with the driver.

This is going to take a lot of disciplined work, but I'm down.
 
Had my first league tournament of the year yesterday.

Started off very well and carded a 40 on the front. I know about saying "should have been" but it really should have been a 39 because the only hole I made double on was because of a 3-putt where I accidentally hit the ground on my putting stroke. The back however, was another story. I went 48 with a triple and two doubles. I finished in a tie for 4th, 3 strokes back.

The lessons I'm taking from the round are:
- I think on the back the problem with my ball-striking was that I began to forget to focus on keeping my shoulders back - the "keep your back to the target longer." That's been a focus from my lessons as my tendency is to spin the upper-body from the top (i.e. high-handicapper move) and that results in weak high-right.

- My doubles came from a few duffed chips. It was all dormant Bermuda and not much of that, so the lies were very thin. Everybody had to play the same course though so I'm not trying to make an excuse. I feel I have the knowledge and technique to overcome that lie, but just like in the long game, I think I began to forget to apply it. I was just setting up without paying sufficient to where my hands were, and I'm pretty sure I inadvertently got too much shaft lean. Although I do think with proper focus I can hit a good chip, next time I'm going to put more thought into alternative safety shots, such as putting with my 3-wood (I don't have a hybrid).

- The triple came after a long bunker shot which I bladed 30 yards over the green into trouble. I have got to get through my head that on such shots, too much sand is better than no sand. Swing hard and make sure you take plenty of sand. Even in the worst disaster of taking so much sand that you leave it in the bunker, that's still preferable to blading it into the next county. But most of the time, even with too much sand, you'll still end up somewhere on the green.

Those three holes were the difference between third and victory. Make just bogey on those holes and I'm holding the trophy. Just a little more thought and execution next time.
 
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So I've had two league tournaments in recent weeks. Both were tough lessons in competitive golf.

In the first tournament I was comfortably in the lead at the turn, shooting a solid 40, but blew up on the back with 48. In this weekend's tournament I was in contention all day long, but a terrible triple on the last and some other triples along the way did me in.

I ended up tied for 4th in both events (about 15 players in the flight), so not bad, but I felt like I should be able to win both events. In both cases, most of my play was really solid. Lots of bogies, a good number of pars and a birdie or two. But both times some triples did me in. So I need to think about what I can do better to avoid such situations.

First observation: I had several putts coming down the stretch that were just not good reads. I consider myself an above average green reader. In this case I had several putts which confused me. They looked downhill from one side, and uphill from the other. My observation here is that my reads got a bit too casual. While I did check the low side halfway between, I think the right move would have been to say "Wait. This putt is confusing me. Let's take a step back." I should have literally taken some steps back and done a better job of looking at the dominant features of the green. In short, in trying to keep in rhythm, I failed to take in all the information I needed to hit a good putt. Lesson learned. Back off and be sure of your read.

Second observation: I need to quit counting on shaping a shot. On a particularly tight par 5, I opted for the safe play and went with a 4-iron off the tee. I made sure my setup was correct to hit a slight draw. I picked a target on the right side of the fairway to give me plenty of room left. And then what'd I do? I blocked it down the fence line on the right, it hit a tree and went OB. The lesson here is one I already know, but apparently need to beat into my head more. Don't count on a fade or a draw. Pick the safest target you can, and hit at it. Your dispersion is a shotgun pattern and the exact opposite of what you're trying to hit can come out at any time. Pick a target that gives you the most room for either. When you're a plus handicap and have proven over and over again you can count on executing your shot shape, THEN maybe you can pick a target which is incumbent on that shape. But until then, pick the target with the most room for error, fire at it, and hope the desired shape comes out.

Third observation: Commit to the 8/10 rule. When you're in a tournament, an extra shot keeps you in contention. An extra 2 shots or more does not. I had a situation where I hit a ball into a penalty area. I felt like there was a chance I could get it out and on or near the green, but the lie was difficult and there was a lot of danger around the green. It wasn't threading a needle through the trees or anything massively crazy, just a tough lie and a lot of bad places to end up. In the back of my mind I thought, "should I be chipping this out down in front of the green to a flat spot?" I went ahead with the shot and hit it poorly into another penalty area right of the green, and ended up with another unnecessary triple. Normally I pride myself on my course management, but this was a situation I let the pressure of the tournament affect my decision. I do think there was a 4/10 chance of pulling it off, but given the lie and the distance, not even close to 8/10. Don't follow a bad shot with a stupid shot. Chip it out somewhere that gives you a better chance of an amazing shot.

Fourth observation: I need more time to ingrain swing changes. By that I mean I've got some swing keys that have been really helpful, but in the heat of the moment, I get too focused on something else and revert to old patterns, not doing the things which are making me swing better. Time and reps is the ultimate answer, but perhaps I need a pneumonic or some other trigger which will make remember to do my new swing keys without getting wound up in the technical. I don't have a solution to this one but will be discussing with my coach.
 
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Big night on the range tonight.

I have always struggled with an inside takeaway and a flying right elbow as a result. Obviously there's been a lot of instruction over the years about keeping that elbow tucked and getting it out in front of me on the downswing.

Finally tonight I realized something I should have realized 30 years ago. If you don't get your hands high at the top, the elbow cannot stay tucked in. If you suck the club low and inside it's almost impossible to rectify the elbow without massive re-routing.

Now before anyone freaks out about the things that can go wrong with high hands or lifting the hands, I'm talking about in relation to where they used to be. It feels a mile high to me, but they're just more in the correct position. Doing so I was really able to feel the elbow staying down and getting out in front of my body with lots of space.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think I'm fixed or have figured out golf, but it definitely was a positive step towards improving a life-long swing fault.
 
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