Keller

We played Keller Saturday afternoon.
Keller is a well known St Paul course that has hosted two PGA championships (as in the 4th Major), the Western Open (which at one time was considered to be practically a major) and was a regular stop on the PGA tour until 1968. Rather that paraphrasing, here's what's on the Keller website:

Keller Golf Course is a classic-style championship-quality golf course with a rich history and tradition for the public golfer. Built in 1929, each of the holes has its own character and challenge. The gently rolling tree-lined fairways are contoured to provide you with a pleasurable scenic golf experience. The greens are relatively small and round, indicative of 1920s-style golf course architecture. The course is well bunkered and water comes into play on five holes. The multiple tee system enhances the fairness and playability of the course. Keller is a mature and challenging course and requires you to play a variety of shots. Keller is recognized as the best public golf course in the St. Paul area.

Keller Golf Course has been the home of several PGA and LPGA golf tournaments and was a regular stop on both professional tours. Keller was the host of the St. Paul Open 1930-1968; the National PGA Championship 1932 and 1954; the Western Open 1949; the Patty Berg Golf Classic 1970-1980; and the National Amateur Publinks Championship was held at Keller in 1931. The displays in the clubhouse showcase Keller’s proud heritage. Photos of golf’s historic champions grace its walls as they once roamed the hallowed fairways of Keller Golf Course.

The historic clubhouse can accommodate your tournament, holiday party, business meeting or wedding reception. The banquet room overlooks Keller Lake while the lounge views the players finishing the 9th, 11th and 18th holes. Each year, Golf Digest Magazine lists Keller Golf Course as a premiere public golf course to play when visiting Minnesota. The Wall Street Journal has named Keller Golf Course as one of ten public golf courses in the United States that has “earned a local hero status similar to that achieved by Pebble Beach Golf Course.”

So how did I play?

I was at even par after the first 3 holes.

Does that put me on par with past winners of the PGA?

Modesty prevents me from saying yes - but - I'm sure there have been plenty of PGA champions that would have been happy with a par-par-par start to their round on Saturday.

I will say that I have a much better understanding of what the pressure to win that first major must feel like.


After driving the ball about 260, but a little right, it took two more shots to get on, but I made
a 45 ft putt for par on the first hole. On number 2, a 454 yard par 5, I hit two of the best consecutive shots I've probably ever hit; a long straight drive and then a long 3-iron that left me about 30 yards off the green. A decent pitch, a long birdie putt, and then a tap-in for a routine par. The next hole was pretty much the same story: on in two, a long putt that just missed and a tap-in for par. The 4th hole is a short par 3, but there is a full sized tree in the middle of the fairway just in front of the green. I took a bogey 4 on that hole. There were a couple of double bogeys after that, but I ended the font nine with a par after I decided to hit my driver off the deck on my second shot to about 30 yards of the green where I was able to get up and down thanks to a good finishing putt.

I have to say that I really putted well. I didn't miss a single putt inside 5 feet and was lagging my long putts close to the hole. Yes, putting is mainly confidence.

I was pretty happy to end up with a 43, but if my short game hadn't been better that normal it could have easily been a 48.

Now, about my swing...
I spent the week after my last range session worrying that I would loose the swing I had just discovered.

The planned mid-week visit to Chalet to reinforce my new swing never materialized so I was anxious to get to the links early enough to hit some practice balls before we teed off on Saturday. I felt like I was crushing the ball at the practice range and was eager to get to the tee at number one.
And I felt like I was crushing the ball off the tee. And the ball was carrying about 30 yards farther then what I had been hitting as I as hitting them a lot higher. Problem was I didn't seem to be getting any roll. Balls that I thought were going about 240 ended up about 200. On the last tee I hit a second ball with my old easy swing, and with the roll it ended up about 30 yards longer than my "hard swing" first ball.

So what have I learned?
1. It's all in the release. At least for me, the way I swing the club, a good release is what gives my drives length and gets them going straight.
2. Concentrating on the release must force my driver to travel on an inside-out path - which makes sense if you think of taking the club back by rotating your torso and the delivering the clubhead to the ball by rolling your wrists.
3. If you are able to master the release it doesn't matter how hard you swing the club, you're going to end up with a decent drive.
4. Low trajectory balls roll farther than high trajectory balls, and, from my experience this summer, the low ball yields better results.

I'm looking forward to Mt. Frontenac next Saturday.

Evolution

Had a productive session at the range yesterday.

After a disastrous round at Breamar last week I had been pondering what had gone wrong with my swing. How did I go from shooting a fairly legit 41 at Dwan, driving the ball 230yds and straight off the tee to the short fades I was hitting last Saturday?

I thought I had found a swing whose simplicity guaranteed that it would be repeatable - what happened?

I decided to re-trace my steps and thought back to the range session where I had first discovered the swing. That day my plan was to warm up with some easy swings where I just concentrated on my release - turning my hands over - and the ball just flew off the club face. As I remembered, it didn't even seem like I was taking the club back, and barely swinging it forward and I was hitting straight shots about 170 yds in the air (on a range that went uphill).

Reliving this experience in my mind, I realized that as my swing had gone downhill over the last several weeks I had been concentrating on the easy swing instead of the release.

Losing my swing could be a good thing, I thought - for if I could find it a second time surely I would have it forever!

So I went to the range yesterday with the intention of repeating exactly what I had done at the Highland range back in June.

I concentrated on the release.

The balls went straight.

With all my concentration on my release, really making sure I turned my hands over, I found I was swinging the club faster trying to insure a deliberate, powerful release. This faster swing seemed to be increasing my distance quite a bit. I say "seemed" because while it looked like I was carrying about 210 yds, I later noticed how far the tees had been moved forward (Chalet Golf) and realized that I was 25 yds closer to the yardage markers than I thought.
However, even taking that into account, I was still hitting the ball about 185 in the air.

And I was hitting them straight.

Not a single slice.

A few fades, but even those rolled forward instead of the usual sharp detour to the right.
All in all I was pretty pleased.

I'm anxious to see if it will carry over to my next round.

Regression to the mean

Played Hidden Greens in Hastings on Saturday.
I was really looking forward to playing one of my favorite tracks - and I was really hoping to see and improvement from my last round.
We had fun, but I did not play well.
Started out 6,6,8,7 - and then stopped keeping score.
Hit 4/9 fairways on the front 9, but was only driving the ball about 180.
Hit 4/9 on the back 9 averaging about 205.
Irons off the fairway - terrible.
Did make a couple of long putts, which allowed me to par 3/4 of the par 3's.
I hate to see my drive slipping away.
Part (most) of my problem is that I can't stop thinking about the mechanics of my drive between rounds & I have a constant fear that it's going to desert me.
I'm not going to think about golf during the week, maybe things will work out better next Saturday.

Francis Gross Golf Course

Steven and I played Gross on Saturday.

Scott was on call, so it was just the two of us.

Or just the two of us out of our normal threesome - we did get paired up with two other guys, Andy and Jack, both Ameriprise financial advisers.

They were good guys and we were enjoying our round until a a-hole in the group behind us got a little belligerent. He thought we were playing too slow, which we weren't, but I'm not going to get into that whole deal here - except to mention that he was a real a-hole.

Anyway, I ended up hitting them pretty well off the tee for the first nine holes. Even with all the rain we've had, the fairways felt pretty hard and I got a lot of roll, so even though I was probably only getting 170 yards in the air I was ending up at about 230.

I was not hitting the ball well off the fairway, but still ended up with a fairly legitimate 96.

BTW, Steven was one over par for the round; I'm sure he would be consistently in the red if he improved his short game just a little. Actually, if he improved either his putting or his chipping he could probably get under par.

My drives started going south on the back nine.
Actually, my drive on 10 was 230 straight down the fairway, but after that they started fading to the right and my distance diminished to around 200 yds.

Why? I don't know.

I wasn't relaxed, I know that. And I was thinking about what I needed to do to hit the ball farther and straighter, which is never a productive mind set for me.

All of which makes me think I haven't really mastered the drive yet.
I'm getting closer.

I know there are bound to be good days, when everything just clicks, and bad days when it's just not happening - but I thought I was to the point where I could figure out what I'd just done wrong and immediately make the required correction on my next drive.

Also, went to the driving range with Scott yesterday, and that was not particularly productive.

Makes me wonder how much practice, how many hours will be required before I really have mastered the drive, or at least my simplified version of it.

Keeping Score

This has been the summer of hitting off the tee.

I made the decision to devote the entire summer to hitting drives in the fairway.

Last year I was lucky to end up in the fairway once every nine holes, so a goal of hitting half the fairways seemed pretty optimistic.

This goal has also changed the way I've played golf this summer.

I've been hitting multiple balls off the tee. I've gotten to the point where I can re-load and hit 3 balls faster than most people can hit one.

Look, no one hates slow play more than me. I don't like waiting to hit, especially if I've just hit a bad shot, so I only hit multiple tee shots if:
a. there's no one behind us, or
b. the group in front of us is still too close for my boys to hit.

This strategy allows me to hit twice as many tee shots and work on my game while we're playing.

I've also changed the way I keep score.

Using the empty rows of the score card I put an "F" under each hole where I end up in the fairway along with the distance. Once I get on the green I write either "PFP" (Putting for Par) or "PFB" (Putting for birdie) or just "P" or "B". If I'm putting for bogey or worse I just leave the box blank.

I still write down the score, and I still get pissed off if I miss a par or birdie putt - but, I'm not working on my short game this summer so I don't get too worked up about it.

Now when I'm having a beer after the round I can see:
a. how many fairways I hit,
b. calculate the average length of my drives,
c. note my long and short drives.

I feel this method gives me a better indication of my progress.

Some catching up

I've been thinking about golf a lot recently and recording my thoughts and insights, but not always on this blog.
After numerous dead ends I finally think I'm heading down the right path.
My intention from the beginning was to record everything I tried, good or bad, in this blog, so today I'm going to copy a bunch of stuff I had written elsewhere so that this will be a more complete record of my progress.

Here it is....
7-27-11:
Played twice last weekend, once at Prestwick Saturday morning and 9 holes at Dwan around noon on Sunday.
Only got in 13 holes at Prestwick because of the weather, but it was free because of Scott's connection to the Van Duesen guy (Matt Anderson?).
I have been hitting the ball well. My average drive at Dwan was 230. I hit it 250 twice and at least 200 every time. Only had 2 drives that didn't hit the fairway & immediately reloaded after those. Irons are also going straight - but not getting good distance.
All-in-all, my best summer of golf.

7-11-11:
Played twice over the holidays, once at Moss Ridge in Mich, and yesterday at Dawn - just nine holes as it was so god-dammed hot we about expired on the course.

I have been hitting the ball pretty straight, both off the tee and from the fairway.

Actually, now that I think of it, I should be pretty happy with the way I'm playing.

Most of my balls are going straight and landing in the fairway - playing very few from the right rough any more. I am now hitting multiple balls off the tee. If the first drive isn't to my liking I'll immediately re-load and hit another - so I usually have at least two shots to choose from.

I'd guess that 80% of my drives fall into the 190 to 210 range. If I can get the ball to draw just the tiniest bit I can get closer to 230.

Although I'm hitting my irons pretty straight off the fairway, they just don't seem to be going very far. I've gone up 2 clubs from what I used to hit, I'm hitting a 9-iron from 125 yds now, and can't seem to hit anything longer that about 150.

I've also adapted a new, improved chipping method. If I could eliminate the complete miss-hits, ie: chips that only go 2 yds, topped balls, etc, and putt better, I'd probably be pretty close to bogey golf.

My drives seem to work if I concentrate on keeping my arms relaxed, and I hit my irons straight if I rotate my hips. When I'm hitting my irons I don't try to snap my hips like I used to, but just try to start the swing with a smooth rotation - and I don't think I hit a single slice off the fairway yesterday.

There are a couple of things I want to try at my next range session:
1. working on just the release - letting my wrists turn over.
2. starting my drive with the same smooth turn that I'm using on the fairway. In fact, I want to just try and get my hips out of the way before I swing and see what happens.


6-27-11:
Played Bluff Creek w/ the boys on Sat.
First drive went about 200yds straight down the middle. Mixed results after that. Lots of drives fading to the right and short. Last drive of the day went about 250 and straight. Still trying to nail it down.
Scott & I went to the range yesterday afternoon. I hit some good drives when I stayed totally relaxed - sometimes I feel like I mastered the technique on my very first drive but I need to hit a bucket of balls to convince myself that it really works.

I'm still optimistic, hopefully I'm at a plateau that will eventually give way to more progress.
I'm still confident that I will be able to consistently drive the ball 230-250 and straight.
Right now I have the sense that I need to concentrate on a longer, down the line, follow through.
Also, at the range, I need to concentrate on hitting a target.

6-20-11:
Played Summit in Cannon Falls yesterday with Scott & Steven; Mary came along for the ride (literally). Two trips to the driving range had me convinced that I had grooved in the 220yd loose arm drive. I did hit just about every fairway - although I took many mulligans - but I was only hitting it about 185 yds. Got a new driver for Father's Day and immediately took it to the range to try it out. At the end of the bucket, after the boys kind of egged me on, I really tried to crank the last 4 balls. The first 2 sliced, but the last 2 went straight as an arrow - and long. So now I don't know. I would have been happy with 220 and straight, but not 185. I'm not sure if I can master the 260yd crank.
I am convinced of two things:
a. passive arms,
b. torso rotation.
Maybe I should add a third thing: stop thinking. As soon as I stand above the ball and start thinking about the process, all the gears in the machine start to grind to a halt. I need to keep loose and just hit the ball. The problem is that right now I'm kind of going back and forth between working on the mechanics and trying not to think about the process.


6-06-11:
Steven & I played 9 holes at hidden greens Saturday morning (Scott on call). Usual problems hitting the ball - however - I did hit a couple of 220 yd drives using Scott's driver. I reverted to my loose arm, relaxed wrists, abbreviated back swing method. I think that I end up getting at least 80% of the distance I might get on a full swing and am able to hit the ball pretty much dead straight. This method is worth perfecting at the driving range - both with the driver and my irons, kind of like a 2nd server in tennis, you want to have the confidence that it will always go in - or in this case, always land in the fairway.

5-23-11:
let me also write something about golf here.
Golf ball anxiety.
My swing is starting to feel natural, relaxed.

Put a golf ball in front of me and now all my attention is focused on hitting the golf ball.

Now I don't have a relaxed swing because I'm worried about whether I'm going to hit the ball.

I need to learn to set-up to the ball and then forget about the ball and let my swing happen.

I'm also starting to focus on letting my right arm relax and straighten during the downswing - this is what causes the wrists to un-hinge and release.

The Road to Sucess

The road to success is long and fraught with peril - but for the first time in my golfing life I think I'm on it.

I've had three pretty decent rounds in a row, going back to Moss Ridge in Mich. over the 4th.

After playing nine at Emerald Green two weeks ago I realized that I'd played 27 holes without losing a ball.

Thirteen holes at Prestwick and nine at Dwan bring that total up to 49.

Last summer I would have lost at least 12 balls during that stretch, guaranteed.

In short, things are going well on the golf front.

Some details from yesterdays round at Dwan:
7/7 fairways hit - although I had to reload twice.
Average drive: 230 yds.
Long drive: 250 yds (twice, although one was downhill).
Short drive: 215
Pars: 3 (I parred both par 3's and one of the 4's)
I was putting for either par or birdie on all the other holes except one, the par 5 number 12, where it took three six foot chips to get on the green from 25 yards out.

Dwan is not a tought track, but, my goal this summer has been long and straight off the tee.

Well, straight off the tee anyway. By long I mean 240+, but I'm pretty happy with 230.

After 41 years of crappy golf, I think I might have it figured out.

Rotary golf

Played last night as part of a foursome from my Rotary club, and I have to say that I was pretty pleased. I hit 4 or 5 fairways (I think) and 4 or 5 that sliced out of play. The remaining 8 to 10 shots were at least playable or par 3's.

My goal this summer has been to hit it straight off the tee. After playing a few rounds and 3 or 4 driving range sessions, I'm going to refine my goal to consistently drive the ball 220yds and land in the fairway 50% of the time.

The rest of my game has not improved, I should probably work on either my long irons or approach.

But, for probably the first time in my life, I think I'm going to end the summer playing better golf than when I started.

Cure your slice

Good news, bad news.

Played Gross Saturday w/ Steven and was not hitting fairways - that's the bad news.

Went to the driving range Sunday afternoon and hit the ball pretty well - that's the good news.

The first ball I hit at the range, I'm thinking just make this a loose-arm, easy release practice swing. Don't hardly even take the club back. Ball went straight and about 80% of my max drive distance.

That set the tone and I hit the rest of the bucket pretty well.

When I lined up my ball with the yardage markers I did a pretty good job of keeping them on target, but most of time I was just trying to not slice or even fade.

I'm sure that some of the balls that seemed OK on the range would have ended up in the rough.

I really feel like I'm only a couple of buckets of balls away from a stroke that will produce a straight, 220yd drive.

And, once I'm hitting it 220 and straight I think I'll be able to add some distance and maybe get closer to 240.

Swing Machine Progress

I've continued to work on my swing and I think it's getting better. Due to our crappy weather I haven't been able to get to the driving range for over 2 weeks. But just doing some of the drills, I feel like I'm slowly starting to get the feel for different parts of the swing.

There is a big difference between reading instructions and watching video instructions. Although sometimes a picture is worth 1000 words, sometimes the written description of what you're supposed to do is more informative that watching a video demenstration.

Of course, nothing takes the place of actually doing it yourself. The instructions talk about taking the club back by rotating your shoulders with completely powerless arms. I probably did that over 100 times before I finally experienced what taking it back with "powerless arms" felt like. The ultimate would be to get feedback from a pro that understood the swing, but I'm hoping I can come close by video-taping myself.

Rebuilding my swing

I'm working on a new swing this spring and have run into a bit of a catch-22.

The instructions I'm following have me going through all sorts of swing drills, with and without a club in my hands, to ingrain certain movements. The author is adamant that once you introduce a golf ball into the equation, human nature takes over and you forget what you're working on and just try to hit the ball as hard as you can.

I know from my own experience that this is exactly what happens.

I also know from my own experience that the flight of the ball is ultimately the best feedback as to the effectiveness of your swing.

So, without the golf ball you're not really sure the swing you're developing is going to "work" (as I found out last year). But, on the plus side, you can "practice" in your backyard.

Actually hitting a ball involves a trip to the driving range, where you have to pay to practice and overcome the urge to swing hard while working on the swing drills.

Is it any wonder it's so hard to improve your golf swing?

Something new

It's been a while, but that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about golf.

Because I have been thinking about golf quite a bit lately.

And what I've been thinking about it how my golf swing is dominated by my right hand (and arm).

This is not as it should be. As I'm sure you're well aware, the golf swing should be dominated by the left hand.

I've been toying with three possible solutions to this delema:
1. Change my swing so the left arm dominates.
While this might seem like the most obvious solution it's not likely to be the one I'll adopt.

2. Buy a left-handed driver an drive the ball left handed so that my right hand is now supposed to be the dominate hand.
Most people would consider this an extreme solution, but the more I've thought about it the better I like it.

3. Re-build my golf swing (from the ground up) around my dominate right hand.
This will be my initial focus. In fact, mentally, I'm already about 80% there.

You may be thinking: "Holy Crap!! - If this works you may be changing the way golf is taught and played".

And you're right, teaching pro's will probably hate me.

Also, I intend to keep this a secret long enough so that when I reveal it I can honestly say that it's a "Golf Secret".

More to follow as winter transitions into spring.