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.