I was feeling very good about my chances at capturing a 2nd club championship at my home course, River Oaks. Monday evening I had a 3 hour practice session and worked on almost all aspects of my game. I came into the Tuesday first round feeling good, but due to the club’s formatting of the tournament I left early to help the committee resolve something I thought was very dumb. They actually had players competing for the club championship from two different sets of tees? WTF? So I skipped breakfast and skipped picking up any Gatorade or energy bars to go give them some advice, having been the former club president.
My advice finally ended up sinking in, and they changed the format to one set of tees. Disaster avoided. Could you imagine if someone won the thing, from a set of tees shorter than some of the other players played from?
So I started my round with only water to drink and no breakfast. I played very solid and consistent golf for the first 2/3 of the round (started on the back nine first) but the heat and lack of nourishment got to me and I ran out of mental and physical gas. Unfortunately I carded a 76 with a four consecutive bogey finish. My score was 10 shots worse than a club member I played with, who shot a 66 despite having a double and two bogeys. Wow.
Stats Tell The Story
I’ve punched my round into my Golf Stats system at The Golf Space, my other golf web site. That free system tracks all the vital stats of player rounds like ball striking, putting and scoring info. The same blaring weaknesses I’ve had for a while caused me problems, and my normal great putting was not that great. I didn’t have any three putts, but I didn’t make ANYTHING. I missed 9 birdie putts, and on those I missed many by fractions of an inch. Had the putter even been marginally warm, I could have shot several shots better. But let’s look at the stats because I want to get better and I think they’ll tell me what I need to do.
Click the image to see the full stats
Fairway Percentage: 69% – Not bad. Way better than Tiger Woods.
Driving Distance: 260.67 yards – Bad. I’ve lost serious distance over last year, when I averaged 290 with the driver. Why?
Greens In Regulation: 9/18 for 50% – Not good. In fact, having hit roughly 70% of the fairways, I’d say this stat is awful.
Total Putts: 31 – Not great
Putts Per Hole: 1.72 – Pretty good
Putts Per Green In Regulation: 2.0 – Not good. That’s why I had NO birdies.
Pars: 12 – Not bad
Birdies: ZERO – Lame
Eagles: 0
Bogeys: 6 – BOO
Doubles Or Worse: 0 – Good
Saves (meaning the player makes par when missing the green in regulation): 2/9 for 22%. This stat is HORRIBLE.
Diagnosis
I only hit 50% of my greens in regulation, and only saved par 2 out of 9 times for an appalling 22%. My normal good putting can sometimes help that save percentage, but didn’t this time. The big problem is the GIR and save percentages combined. I need to hit more greens and my short game needs to be good enough for me to get up and down if I don’t.
My irons have not been good the last couple of years. My swing speed may be a little two slow now for my Hogans. Perhaps that separated shoulder I suffered skiing this winter is the cause. Regardless of the cause, it may be time to revamp the iron selection in my bag, and it is definitely time to get some lessons to improve my swing technique and short game. Now that the club champ is half over (and I don’t see myself making up 10 shots next Tuesday), I may dedicate the rest of this season to a swing and gear makeover. I need to match my gear better with my current swing speed and abilities.
HOGWire – Golf Industry News
It may not be,… but sounds familiar. I found that I wasn’t getting to my left side as well as I used to. Was losing yardarge off the tee, had little control of iron direction….Finally went for help.
I opened up my stance, concentrated on clearing my hips then dropping the club inside. A tour striker would have re-taught me the same if I had been able to diagnose myself. I had been hanging back with my body, spending too much time on my right side and decreasing the decending path through the ball.
Hope this makes sense to more than just me.