Oakley has come on board to help Bill and I with the Death Valley Challenge!!

More details to follow but this is some really exciting news!

A BIG shout out to Jim over at J Crimi Eyewear Boutique and Paul Hymas for helping make this happen! You guys rock!

With all the work I’ve been doing trying to promote the Death Valley event and a change to my work schedule, I had to put the blog off for little bit just to get settled into my new routine. Hopefully I’ve gotten this new schedule down and I can return to making more frequent posts the way I like to.

That being said there wasn’t really a lot going on this week as far as my golf goes. I did get to spend some time at the range last weekend. Bill and I also made our way around the 9 holes that Callaway has at the Golf Center. That was fun. I needed the short game workout, it’s all par 3′s, but it’s a fun little track. I didn’t even keep score, I just wanted to go out, with no pressure to perform and get in some “on the course” practice time.

Speaking of the Callaway Golf Center. They surprised me with a very nice gesture to help out with the Death Valley Challenge. They have donated four rounds of golf at the Callaway Golf Center and four all day passes for the practice range. I plan on giving those passes away as a thank you to someone who donates to the event and as soon as I have the details about how I’m going to do that I let everyone know.

I’m really looking forward to this weekend! The weather has been outstanding the past 10 days and Sunday we’re all headed out to the mighty Conestoga Golf Club in Mesquite for what I’m expecting to be an amazing round of golf. We’re going to have a special guest with us, Mr. Ganey, who just so happened to play Bethpage Black on this past Wednesday. Lucky S.O.B.! This will be his first trip out to Conestoga so I know he’s looking forward to it as much as I am. I absolutely love that place and I have a score to settle with that bastard of a hole the Par 5 6th, if there is such a thing as a nemesis hole, it’s the one for me!

 I’m going to be testing out two different products this weekend.  The first one is the new Frogger Golf – Green Monster Bamboo Tee’s.  This will be my first product review and as many tee’s as I break during a round this is going to be a great challenge for the Frogger product. The other item I’ll be testing is the Men’s Tour Profile Sock from Kentwool. Being a fan of many of the golf blogs on the web it’s very easy to come across a review of the Kentwool sock, click here for my favorite one, and with every one I find and read the end results pretty much are the same and just as Kentwool proclaims, The Worlds Best Golf Sock! So after reading so many outstanding product reviews of the Kentwool sock I have to give them a try, as a blogger and golfer I feel obligated to do so. A 100° day in May on a Desert Course should be a legitimate testing ground for a wool sock, don’t you think!

• Honesty - the quality or state of being truthful; not deceptive
  Golf is unique from other sports in that players regularly call penalties on themselves and report their own score.

• Integrity - strict adherence to a standard of value or conduct; personal honesty and independence
  Golf is a game of etiquette and composure.  Players are responsible for their actions and personal conduct on the golf course even at times when others may not be looking.

• Sportsmanship - observing the rules of play and winning or losing with grace
  Players must know and abide by the rules of golf and be able to conduct themselves in a kind and respectful manner towards others even in a competitive game.

• Respect - to feel or show deferential regard for; esteem
  In golf it is important to show respect for oneself, playing partners, fellow competitors, the golf course, and for the honor and traditions of the game.

• Confidence - reliance or trust. A feeling of self-assurance
  Confidence plays a key role in the level of play that one achieves.  Players can increase confidence in their abilities by being positive and focusing on something they are doing well regardless of the outcome.

• Responsibility - accounting for one’s actions; dependable
  Players are responsible for their actions on the golf course.  It is up to them to keep score, repair divots, rake bunkers, repair ball marks on the green, and keep up with the pace of play.

• Perseverance - to persist in an idea, purpose or task despite obstacles
  To succeed in golf, players must continue through bad breaks and their own mistakes, while learning from past experiences.

• Courtesy - considerate behavior toward others;a polite remark or gesture
  A round of golf should begin and end with a handshake between fellow competitors. Players also should be still and quiet while others are preparing and performing a shot.
  
  
• Judgment - the ability to make a decision or form an opinion; a decision reached after consideration
  Using good judgment is very important in golf. It comes into play when deciding on strategy, club selection, when to play safe and when to take a chance, the type of shot players consider executing, as well as making healthy choices on and off the golf course.

I was curious the other night and I decided to break down my putting stats over the past couple of years.  The information didn’t change much which was a little depressing. In 2010 my number was 2.0 putts per hole (36 putts per round) and in 2011 it was 1.9 putts per hole (34.2 putts per round) and so far this year I’m at the all too familiar number of 1.9 putts per hole. Consistent yes, but not even close to where I need to be to put up better scores. In perspective Bill is averaging (since May 2011) 1.76 putts per hole which comes out at 31.68 per round. I’m giving up 4 strokes before we even step up on the first tee.

Taking all this in (with a lot of help from Bill) I’ve made some changes that I’m hoping will start a path towards better putting numbers. I talked about it in my last post, the “Left Hand Low” grip is now a thing of the past. A little stat comparison for ya. During 2011 I averaged 35.8 putts per round at a 2.00 per hole with the traditional style grip. Since switching to the Left Hand Low grip I’ve played a total of 8 rounds and the numbers are as follows; 35.0 putts per round at 1.95 per hole. It has shown some improvement over the traditional grip but nothing so dramatic that would compel me to stay with it. The stat that jumps off the page at me is my 3 putts. In 2011 before switching to Left Hand Low I averaged 3.27 three putts per round from an average first putt distance of 20.4′ and since the change (again 8 rounds) I’m averaging 3.50 three putts per round but from a closer distance of 18.8′. That was alarming. I’m closer to the flag on average by two feet but I’m three putting more.

 Going over ALL the rounds I’ve played the three putt stat really brings it into perspective. Check out these figures. With 3 or more three putts in a round my putts per round total  is 37.5 and then if you  look at the numbers when I have 1 or fewer three putts (haven’t actually had a round without a three putt, but I have had six rounds with only one) the putts per round drops to 32.2 That’s a 5.3 strokes per round difference!

 So after assessing all of that statistical information I’m back to putting in my more traditional stance, more upright, grip back to standard and nowhere near as tense as I used to be. The forward press has been a nice addition to the changes. Being more upright and loose the forward press just kinda gets everything moving, much like an igniter.

I’m real eager to get out on the course and see what happens. I can honestly say I haven’t dedicated nearly as much time on putting as I should have been and hopefully with my next round I show some signs of improvement, enough so I at least get it into my think skull that PUTTING IS IMPORTANT!!!!

My goal for the session was to just simply practice better. I wanted to take all the good that happened on Sunday at Angel Park and add to it with a great workout while incorporating some of the changes to how I practice that Dustin I had discussed.

I don’t think I have ever pulled out of the parking lot at Callaway on such a high before! The entire session was fantastic. From the first ball to the last ball I struck. It would be hard to argue that this wasn’t my best practice session ever.  

Here’s why I think things are starting to change for the better.  First off, I’ve dedicated myself to slowing down my swing and it’s starting to pay off. The problem hasn’t really been on the backswing but it’s been more or less a “Quick Transition” from the back to the downswing, or what Dustin likes to call, and I quote, “A Quick Tranny“. By slowing down my speed on the takeaway I’ve been able to keep myself in a better, more fluid tempo.  The more balanced and fluid tempo has helped me focus more on some of the issues I’ve been working on like swaying and also getting my hips to rotate the correct way. Bill has been telling me for over a year now that I swing way too fast and I need to slow it down, call me hard-headed because I never believed for one second that he was right, sorry Bill! You were right!! I wonder how much anguish I caused myself for not believing him!

The other change that I implemented Wednesday was something that Harvey Penick preached and that’s to ”Take dead aim!” I think I’ve read that little statement 1,000 times by now and it has never resonated with more than it did in this last session. Another one of my many faults is I have a tendency to stay over the ball too long at address. Well that’s not true a tendency would mean it happens every now and then, I do it damn near every time. To ombat that little fault I’ve listened to what Dustin & Bill have both said in regards to a prolonged address leading to tention and also worked in Mr. Penicks ideology of taking dead aim. When I feel like I’ve been over the ball too long a just look up at my target and Take Dead Aim. Doing that during this last session I could actually feel the tension go away.  The time spent over the ball may not have decreased that much but the time spent over the ball in ONE  position is nowhere near where it was. I use this expression probably too much on here but it was an eye-opener. This whole entire time I’ve been practicing thinking that I wasn’t tense, and then to feel the tension go away and execute a swing without it, wow! It was very rewarding.

What stood out to me the most was my misses were not nearly as bad as previous sessions. Locking in on a target actually shrunk the range, I didn’t have this massive area before me to hit at, I eliminated all that extra area and had a decent but narrow size fairway work with. I also liked the fact that when I missed a shot it was easy to assess. When you have this incredibly large range to hit into and you’re not picking out a specific targets, misses are virtually unnoticeable. Now take that huge range and make it small and the misses smack you in the face! Prior to this session I would have taken a pulled shot as just that, a pulled shot and went on to the next swing, but not anymore. I was pretending to  play a Par 3 from Tuscany GC  and I pulled the ball on the tee shot, not much, but enough to know that it wouldn’t have hit the green. I then checked my alignment, addressed, took dead aim and hit the shot that would have made the green. Such a huge difference.  I’ve been thinking back to all the times I’ve spent at the range just whacking away at ball after ball without pin-pointing a specific target and  it’s easy to see why I haven’t shown better improvement over the past couple of years.  

We ended the night on the putting green. I was desperate to pick Bills brain on putting, he’s hands down the best putter I know. More than once we’ve discussed that my good rounds could have been a lot better with more solid putting numbers and my bad rounds wouldn’t have been so bad. Anytime you have to opportunity to talk to someone who excels at a certain point of the game DO IT! I’m fortunate that Bill is just as excited about me improving as I am so he’s more than willing to spend some time with me working on putting if it’s going to help me log some lower scores down the road.  We hit some putts for a little bit then spent some time looking at my swing seeing if we could find something to help.

Little back story on my putting of late. In one of my early lessons with Dustin I learned that putter designs are configured based on a players swings path; straight back straight through, slight arc or strong arc. After seeing the figures pop up on the Ping putting app I, for the first time, found out that I have a strong arc. The bad new is I’m using a TaylorMade Corza Ghost Mallet putter which is designed for a straight back and straight through stroke. I basically had two choices, get a new putter to match my stroke or change my stroke and since the later was free I went down that road. Changing my stroke wasn’t easy and I spent many a nights in the garage trying to get a consistent stroke down before settling in on the “Left Hand Low” grip. The numbers didn’t lie it was the most repeatable stroke I was able to make consistently over and over again. The Ping app nu,ber may be solid but the golf course numbers are less than desirable. Prior to switching to the Left Hand Low grip I was averaging 36.03 putts per round, the last seven rounds that number is 34.85. It’s gone down but not enough. The bad number is my three putts per round. Old grip 3.41, new grip 3.71 and that’s bad.

All that being said Bill first comment was something I’ve heard before, but not with the putter. Tension. He said to me “You look so compact and tight. We have to loosen you up, you’re way to tense.” and he was right. I was way too tense but I’ve had a reason for it. Without that tension the putter goes all over the place on the backswing like a roller coaster, but with it I can maintain a pretty straight stroke. Bill made a suggestion that maybe I should try using a little forward press just to get things put into motion. I was so against that when he mentioned it. It’s something had tried it in the past and hated. But, after continuing to make bad stroke after bad stroke I gave it a shot. Much to my surprise it felt great. Setting the wheels in motion took a lot of the tension out of my hands and the backswing of the stroke was very smooth. I played around with it for a little while and what I started to notice was I wasn’t nearly as crouched over as I used to be, I felt free. What I did next was a gamble but I said what the heck and gave it a whirl. I switched back to the standard or conventional grip. Then I proceeded to stroke some of the best putts I’ve made in a long, long time. The rest of the time on the putting green I stayed with it and by the time we were done I was feeling like a new person. My range session went very, very well and with thanks to Bill I have a new plan in effect for making my putting game more reliable.

It was a good night!

Since it is such a nice day out I’m going to try to walk around Callaway after I’m done and get some pictures of the place. Anyone that’s not familiar with it or has never seen the place will be able to see where we practice most of the time. Check back later on tonight, or the morning for you east coast folks, in the photo galleries for some pics.

Don’t forget to DONATE to the Death Valley Challenge! Click on this link if you haven’t already done so!

www.thebreakfastball.com/dvc

I was pretty much set on the fact that I was having a swing plane issue that was causing my tee shots to be so erratic. I had gone over in my head almost ever shot I hit with the driver that day and while visualizing it and making some swings in the garage I was positive that I wasn’t coming through the ball properly and that was the problem. Bill set me straight though.

He told me his theory which was this. I have two swings, the first one being a Driving Range swing that is smooth, tempo’d and a very nice swing. The ball flies well of the club and the crazy shots are nowhere near what takes place on the course. Then there’s my “on the course” swing which is the complete opposite of the range swing. Hurried, fast, bad tempo, uncontrolled and full of tension. Bill said to me “If we can get your range game onto the course, you’re going to be a much better player.”  

Now I have a lot of respect for Bill, not only is he a stand up guy but he’s a hell of a golfer and he is the one person who has practiced and played with me the most in the last year. That being said my first thought on his assessment was “yeah, whatever.” but I did listen and I did heard what he was saying. After we were done chatting I started to think about what he said more and more. Maybe he was right, I mean the day did start off really, REALLY good on the range and went really, REALLY bad on the course. After that little discussion with myself I did the next best thing I could think of, I emailed Dustin.

Lucky for me I got to play a round with Dustin so when I asked him if there was any substance to Bill’s theory and he knew exactly what he was talking about and agreed with Bill’s thoughts. This brought a whole new challenge to my game. I’ve always thought I was a decent “mental” player but apparently some of my mental abilities have fallen by the wayside and are in need of some improvement. It’s one thing to be told your coming over the top and this is why and this is how were going to fix it. It’s so different to basically be told your mental game is weak. Wait, that’s not really a fair account of what was said, that’s more or less my take on it. So how do you make your mental game stronger? Dustin gave me these tips:

1. The reason players don’t hit the ball well on the course compared to the range is because the lies are flat and you can hit it anywhere and it doesn’t really matter where it goes so start narrowing the range and play the course at the range, hit Driver, second shot and so on, give some meaning to the range shots.
2. Work on your pre-shot routine, this is something you should  practice at the range too. PRACTICE LIKE YOU PLAY
3. Visualize the shot you want to hit. Where does it start, finish. Is it high or low? See the shot and trust the shot
4. Don’t take too long over the ball before pulling the trigger, this can cause tension. Step up, stare down the target and then swing.
5. If the shot didn’t go so well figure out why right after the shot and maybe take a practice swing that feels good. Once the club goes back in the bag you have to start to think about your next shot. A short-term memory is mandatory in golf.

So a couple of good things are going on for me. First off it’s awesome that Dustin is still communicating with me and helping me even though he’s up in Idaho doing his new gig running Osprey Meadows (plug),  and second, Dustin agreeing with Bill let’s me know that I can trust him even more on his evaluations of my swing. Not bad having to reliable folks on your side!

Taking the information that Dustin gave me and using Bill analysis I went out yesterday to Angel Park and played one of my better rounds in a while! The score didn’t do a very good job representing that fact but I allowed myself to get into some trouble that there was just no getting out of, all my fault. I did have a great ball striking day though and that’s something new. We did play from a very short distance of 5856 yards, but that gave me some opportunities to go for some greens that I normally wouldn’t have had the opportunity to go for, and it showed with my best GIR% to date. It could have been even better, I hit several greens and had the ball roll through to the fringe. My putting stunk, but honestly the greens were really crappy and it was hard to judge. One green would be incredibly fast and the next slow, real inconsistent.

Even today as I think about the round I’m very pleased with the way I played and I think the most contributing factor to it was #4 from Dustin’s list. Step up, Stare Down and Swing. I never found myself lurking over the ball for too long and if I did take too long I could feel the tension building so I would perform a little Dufner waggle, set the club down and swing.

Progress is being made, that I’m happy about.

We have a round scheduled for May 20th, I know it’s a long way from now, but in attendance will be a special guest. Mr. Andrew Ganey from Missouri, a reader of the blog and twitter follower, will be in town and is going to join us for a trip around the mighty Conestoga. Not sure if I’ll be able to squeeze in a round between now and then, but there will be a lot of practice taking place I can guarantee you that! I don’t want to disappoint a reader of the blog with some bad golf!!

 Lastly, please stop by the Death Valley Challenge page and make a donation to the event if you haven’t done so already! Thanks to everyone that has already contributed and I thank you in advance if you’re headed over there right now! www.thebreakfastball.com/dvc

This is a big day for me, not just me though it’s a big day for the blog, Bill, and hopefully all the kids that can benefit from the money raised!   This just makes it that much more real! Now the fun part starts with promoting the event and training! Yeah I said training. This past Sunday I was out at Callaway with my Daughter around noonish and let me tell you it was HOT! Maybe I’m just not used to the heat yet, since we really haven’t had any, but I was spent after hitting a large bucket. The cotton shorts and black polo didn’t help things that’s for sure! I was thinking to myself “Tack on another 25° to this and that might be the temp in July.” Crazy!

Expect to see this a lot more on the blog:

I have 12 months to get my act together! 12 months to prepare for one of the most highly regarded golf courses in the world. It’s going to be a hell of a way to celebrate my 40th!!