I was playing as well as I’ve ever played in mid-August.  By late August my scores were back up into the mid-80’s with some periodic shanks with my 58 degree wedge.  I believe I’ve worked through those issues by working on two things:

1. I started taking the club away with more of a shoulder turn.  My contact has improved greatly and my long irons are as good as I think they’ve ever been.
2. I renewed my focus on keeping my left arm close to my chest at the top of my backswing.

Hopefully this will continue for the rest of the season as I’ve played very well for the past week.

Yesterday was another great day, but it was definitely challenging. We played 36 holes at Muirfield. When we arrived, our bus had to drop us off about 200 yards away from the gate because they won’t allow buses to get any closer than that. So we had to carry our golf clubs and our jackets/shirts/ties a couple hundred yards and stand there in front of a gate until someone came to let us into the grounds. There were no signs for Muifield anywhere…you just have to know where it is. Even the gate into the club didn’t say Muirfield. It said “Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers” in smallish letters on the right side. They don’t want riff raff figuring out where their club is. They asked us the name of our group and then the second thing he said is that cell phones are not tolerated anywhere inside the gates. As I said in my first email…they take themselves pretty seriously. Jim’s caddie told him that Princess Ann was at Muirfield recently and she needed to use the restroom. I’m not sure why she was there because they don’t allow women on the course or in the clubhouse. Anyway, they wouldn’t let her go to the restroom in the clubhouse…she had to exit the gates and go use the restroom at the caddie shack 200 yards away by where the buses dropped us off.

The morning round was a beautiful 50 degrees with 20mph winds…I sincerely mean that was beautiful. Although I can’t putt to save my life, I was able to turn in an 84 in the morning round (par 70 so the 84 is slightly deceiving). I had two birdies and didn’t card anything higher than a double…which I had maybe 2. I had a young guy named Ross as my caddie…he is graduating from Edinburgh University in a few weeks and is the captain of their golf team. I wish I would have trusted his reads on the greens more because he was always right and I was always wrong. At least 6 times in the morning round he told me a putt was uphill and I didn’t believe him…it looked way down hill. I left each of those putts 6 to 15 feet short. We had to play the back 9 first because only members can play the front nine first. Our last hole of the morning round was a little taste of things to come…the wind picked up to about 30mph and it started raining. The 9th hole (our last hole) was 465 dead into that wind…a par 4. I hit a solid driver and a great 3 wood and was 45 yards short of the green. I was very happy with my bogey.

After our round was completed, we changed into our jackets and ties and went into this cafeteria type room for lunch. We had a couple pints and a fantastic meal. I hope the couple pictures I got do this little room justice because it was a strange setting to see all these guys dressed up eating lunch in between rounds of golf.

We got back out to the course at about 2:30 to start our afternoon round. Muirfield only lets each group play 2 golf balls in the afternoon…so you have to play alternate shot. We have 6 guys in our group so the first four went off and played alternate shot. I volunteered to be in the 2-ball (they don’t have twosomes, threesomes, or foursomes…they have 2-balls, 3-balls, or 4-balls). Since you can play two balls in a group, I was able to play my own ball…hence the reason I volunteered to be in the second group. Anyway, it rained for most of this round and the wind was probably 40+ mph…it was windier than I’ve ever played in my life…even windier than our first day. These conditions were unbelievable and fortunately we played pretty fast. I think it took us 3:15 or so to finish our afternoon 2-ball. The guys in front of us finished in less than 3 hours. I played match play against the guy I played with and we had an enjoyable match. I ended up winning 2-up. I would have closed him out on our 17th hole if I could have two putted from 5 feet straight up hill. I was working on something in my putting stroke and must have thought it was a good idea to hit it six feet past the hole…now I was facing a 6 footer down the hill and I missed that one too. I won the last hole though so it didn’t really matter. It was quite an experience playing in that weather…I don’t know if you guys remember Tiger shooting 84 a few years ago at the British Open at Muirfield…I think these were similar conditions. I ended up shooting 93 in the afternoon with only 2 pars.

We don’t play until 1 today so we drank a few too many pints last night. We had a fantastic meal at this little Italian place in the village and then went to the pub. Fortunately they close the pubs at 11:30pm…except for our hotel bar so we had a few more beers when we got there last night. We talked with some guys from Lawrence KS for a while. Decent guys…a little full of BS. They were pretty drunk from their trip into Edinburgh last night. There are 12 in their group and they flew over here on the private jet of one of the guys in their group. I learned today that Bill Self is one of their 12 guys when I was talking to them in the Lobby this morning and he walked by.

This morning was bright and sunny outside so hopefully that will stay for our afternoon round. I don’t have high hopes though because it is getting a little bit cloudier. I’m off to the course now. More updates will come from St Andrews, which we leave for tomorrow.

Cheers,

Rob

The following posts are emails I sent to friends and family during my trip to Scotland in May 2009!

We arrived today an hour early into London, which cut an 8 hour flight into 7 hours. Also, we each got our own rows because the flights were pretty empty. Unexpected surprise!!! Our flight into Edinburgh (pronounced Edin-burrow) was uneventful and only an hour long. We got a decent amount of sleep on both flights. I ordered 2 beers as soon as our Chicago to London flight took off and then I watched James Bond and then slept for a few hours. It went amazingly fast.

In the words of our captain, Scotland’s weather was “blustery” today…very very windy. We played the North Berwick (pronounced North Berrick) West Links and it was a fantastic course. Lots of undulations and mounds in the fairway…lots of “I wonder where I should hit it” shots…lots of shots where you need to land the ball 15 yards before the green. Dad, you would love it here…so many options. Our course had 3 holes with a stone wall running through the middle of them. One of them literally had a wall 5 feet from from the green on the right side.

You have to hit it in the fairway on the right and then the green is very narrow with a 3 foot stone wall on the right side. Dad…it is like that crazy hole at Long Cove except there is a 200 year old stone wall instead of a 20 foot mound. I took an 8. We had to fly that stupid wall 3 times and on those three holes I took a 7, 9, 7 (all par 4’s). I’m no numbers guy, but that is 10 over on 3 holes. I was 8 over on the other 15 holes for an 89. Not a bad score considering the wind was 30-40 mph most of the round.

We had a fantastic dinner tonight in our hotel…the Marine Hotel in North Berwick. They gave me the wine list and I ordered a Gevrey Chembertin Red Burgandy (pinot Noir) and a Chateneuf Du Pape. People loved both and I was happy that they didn’t complain! It is hard to order wine for a group who won’t tell me what they like or how much they want to spend. The CDP was great with my Scotland Lamb Chops and some fish appetizer.

Our trip organizer’s name is Donncha (pronounced Donika)…he’s a GREAT dude…37 years old (closer to my age than anyone else on our trip by 18 years!)…he shot 81 today. It turns out he is a member at Loch Lomond…go read about how tough it is to get on that course if you have spare time…if you need to get in I can hook that up now. After dinner, Jim, Donncha, and I went out for a few pints at a local pub with some great beers on tap. It was very tough for me to leave at 10:45pm, but we play 36 at Muirfield tomorrow so I need some rest. We have 2 more nights in North Berwick so I’m sure we will have plenty of pints. As I said, we have Muirfield tomorrow…The Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. The first private golf club in the world. These guys take themselves way too seriously so it should be fun to see that. In between rounds we have to change into a coat and tie for lunch. I only lost 1 ball today…I expect to lose a dozen tomorrow.

Cheers,

Rob

After taking a few weeks off for vacation with my wife, I got back into the swing of things last weekend with a long practice session and four rounds of golf.  It was the best weekend of golf I’ve ever played.

My practice session started off very poor, but what I finally realized after about an hour of practice was that my trial-and-error method of practice is NOT effective.  For the last 45 minutes of practice I got back to fundamentals doing some impact drills and hitting some half shots.  I worked on tightening my swing up and taking some sway out of it.  I think my body was moving around way too much so I focused on a turn back and a turn through.

I also tried to keep some width in my swing as my backswing was a little too close to my body…a problem I’ve had in the past.

I shot an 84 the previous Thursday, a 47 last Tuesday night.  After my Wednesday practice I shot 81, 79, 77, 75 last weekend (my wife was out of town with our girls so I had freedom to play!).  That 75 could have been an even par 73 and was the best round of golf I’ve ever played.  My second shot on 18 slammed into the flagstick on its way down and bounced about 8 feet away, but I missed the slippery downhill putt for 74.  My index will go down from 6.0 to the low 5’s, which is as low as its ever been.  Great improvement from when I started this blog a year ago!!!  Hopefully I can keep it up!

One of the best things about golf is the variety of golf courses throughout the world.  I’ve been fortunate to play at some pretty amazing places.  Yet…there are so many others that I would love to play.  My top ten courses that I want to play are coming soon, along with my top golf “experiences.”

It is odd that Whistling Straits remains the course against which I measure all others because I tend to favor less modern courses (i.e. Pebble Beach, Bethpage, Medinah, Pasatiempo) for their huge bunkers, elevated greens, and natural look.  Although some would argue that there aren’t any “true links” courses in the US, I think I would rather play at Whistling Straits than almost any other course I’ve played.  Kiawah Island was pretty special and the first 5 holes at Spyglass hill were amazing. 

Lastly, the Scottish Links courses speak for themselves.  North Berwick is as fun of a game of golf as you can have.  I’m terrible at holes with walls on them…and there are a lot of randomly place walls at North Berwick!  Muirfield was one of the most unique golfing experiences I’ve ever had.  We played 18 in the morning, changed into a coat and tie for a huge lunch, and then changed back into golf clothes for an afternoon round of alternate shot.  Lastly, the back 9 at St Andrews was one of my favorite sides of golf…helped by my 2nd shot on the Road Hole, which was probably the best shot I’ve ever hit.  Even though I missed the birdie putt, at least I got it to the hole and gave it a chance.

Without further adieu, here is my current top 15:

1. Whistling Straits – Straits
2. Pebble Beach
3. The Old Course at St Andrews
4. Harbour Town
5. Bethpage – Black
6. Kapalua – Plantation
7. Muirfield (Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers)
8. Kiawah Island  – Ocean Course
9. Cog Hill #4
10. Medinah #3
11. Pinehurst #2
12. Pasatiempo
13. Spyglass Hill
14. North Berwick West Links
15. Torrey Pines – South

In the spirit of college football…here are my others receiving votes (in no particular order):

Finkbine Golf Course (Iowa City), Troon North – Pinnacle, Troon North – Monument, Blackwolf Run – River, Rancho Santa Fe Farms, Rancho Santa Fe Country Club, The Bridges at Rancho Santa Fe, The Challenge at Manele, Weaver Ridge, The Dunes Golf & Beach Club, TPC Myrtle Beach, Long Cove Club, World Woods – Pine Barrens, Kingsbarns, The Castle Course at St Andrews, Wolf Creek

Historically, I’ve been a pretty good putter…recently, not so much.  These three thoughts helped me start putting much better over the week or so:

1. Slow down the takeaway.  Especially on shorter putts, when I slow down my takeaway and focus on accelerating through the putt I hole a lot more putts.  I think about keeping the coin on the back of my putter (I may have posted about that drill already…I can’t remember if it was a Stan Utley thing or a Sean Clement drill).
2. Shorten the backstroke.  Fundamentally this may not always be the best idea as it is possible to have too short of a backstroke, but when I find myself missing a lot of putts, this thought usually helps me putt the ball on (or closer to) my intended line.
3. Work on my alignment.  Scott Howe helped me with this drill.  I like to put a stick down directly behind the ball and another one parallel with it in front of my feet.  The stick behind the ball is aimed at my intended line and the one in front of my feet helps me align my entire body with the line.  I really started noticing that a lot of people (including myself) don’t have their body lined up with their line…it is tough to do!  You can optionally use a third stick lined up between your feet perpendicular to the alignment sticks that helps you to be sure the putterhead is square.

Good luck!  Leave some comments!

As I’ve been playing in 2009, these are the swing thoughts I’ve had when I’ve made solid improvements in my game.

• MY SECRET TO NOT SHANKING: Don’t pivot left foot during swing — this is the  most important thing I’ve worked on in a long time.  I do this thing where I pick up my left heel and fan my left foot out as I make a transition from backswing to front swing.  It causes terrible inconsistency and causes me to lead with the heel of the club…not good!  By focusing on posting up on my left leg, turning my hips through, and most importantly keeping that foot stable I do a much better job of getting my hips through and hitting the ball on the center of the clubface.  Sean Clement helped me practice that in this video (start watching at about 4:30 when he does the stone throwing demonstration):

Another good one:

These are some swing thoughts that have helped me improve over the past month or two:

• Start putterhead back first and don’t move handle back as much…this is from Stan Utley’s putting book.
• Make slower/shorter backswing and accelerate through the ball
• Put a coin on the back of the putter (the part where you can pick up the ball) and make smooth strokes so that the coin doesn’t fall off.

After going to GolfTec all winter, here are the lesson notes we recorded after each lesson.  I would highly recommend GolfTec to anyone who wants to improve their golf game.  I learned more about the golf swing in 6 months than I had in probably 30 lessons over the past 7 or 8 years.  If you’ve never seen your golf swing on video, you would be amazed at how much different it looks than it feels.  It was a little uncomfortable at first to watch, but it is VERY valuable.  These notes may not apply to everyone, but it helps me to read them regularly.

• Mar 15, 200912:06 PM Turn the right knee in towards the left knee through impact to keep the right hip back… this helps with posture and hip turn

• Mar 7, 200910:02 AM With the longer clubs keep an athletic setup much like short irons…. keep working on the correct shoulder turn through impact and the clearing of the lower body
• Mar 7, 200909:34 AM Use putting rod to help with proper arc and clubface… try and maintain arm position in front of ribs thorughout the stroke
• Feb 21, 200910:10 AM Wedge and driver feel like your are turning away from the ball through impact as if you are going to hit the ball on the toe
• Feb 12, 200904:08 PM Driver: watch the slide with the lower body and practice good posture (shoulder tilt) through impact

• Feb 6, 200903:33 PM Keep the left shoulder down so you dont tilt too soon into impact… let the shoulders turn as you lean the shaft foward
• Jan 31, 200912:36 PM Feel the right shoulder drive through impact over your left foot while keeping your right heel planted on the ground
• Jan 31, 200912:08 PM Putting: in your setup make sure your elbows are in front of your ribs not to the sides… then practice a TRUE pendulum equal back and through….. keep shaft forward through impact
• Jan 3, 200908:05 AM Keep the grip handle pointing at your body on the backswing… keep the connection with your belt, hip turn and grip through impact…. clubhead should get “on the plane” below around the thigh or slightly below
• Dec 9, 200804:09 PM Utilize lines on front left toe and left ear to help with a firm left side through impact and a stable tilting upperbody
• Dec 2, 200804:46 PM We will recheck lie angle in irons in one month
• Nov 20, 200812:29 PM Hit half shots feeling like your upperbody is lunging forward as the hips turn out of the way
• Oct 29, 200812:36 PM Continue with the practice of getting the club set correctly off the ball, then work on the proper hip turn through impact

• Oct 3, 200801:36 PM Use 2 o’clock drill with a shaft on the ground between your feet to help keep the club in front of your body to the top of the backswing
• Sep 23, 200808:58 AM Set Up: Get a little closer to the ball, keep the arms hanging straight down. Try not to stretch.

             In Swing: Keep the hands in front on the chest or in line with the buttons of your shirt, use the shoulders to take the club away.

             Practice: Use a swing plane line and a straight line from your chin to the ground.

• Sep 2, 200805:06 PM Practice getting off the ball correctly with the club in front of your body
• Aug 23, 200809:08 AM Practice a stable lower body by: ball between the knees at address to help align knees with your hips… then holding that ball to the top with a firm left leg and turn into your right hip
• Aug 18, 200804:47 PM I want to see a consistant set up routine.

            Set Up: Keep the butt of the club below the belt buckle. Push the rear back, make sure the weight in the feet are equal ( center of the feet and 60% on the back foot.)

It has been 10 months since I’ve posted, but I’ve made some definite improvements in my game.  I spent all winter working on my game at GolfTec and it was fantastic.  I learned a lot about the golf swing and I’m still trying to incorporate many of the things I’ve learned.  My intention going forward is to post swing thoughts, but I also have a few other interesting posts to make (interesting to me, anyway!)…especially on my trip to Scotland and the home of golf!  There are some very cool golf blogs out there that I’ve found and enjoy reading…I’ll comment on those as well.

My handicap index is currently 8.0, but I attribute a decent amount of that to playing 6 days in 30-50mph winds in Scotland.  Those scores are starting to filter out so it will likely be close to 7.0.  Improvement! I might have found the secret to not shanking the ball in the past few weeks, which is a great feeling.  I still make my share of bogeys, but I feel so much better about my game that I’m having a lot of fun playing.  Sean Clement on YouTube has been an amazing source of swing thoughts, swing knowledge, and swing fixes.  Check that out when you can.  http://www.youtube.com/user/clemshaw

I have a new goal in the world of golf and it has little to do with my golf swing.  I will post on that.

Look for more posts over the remainder of the golf season and hopefully beyond!

Cheers