And how's that workin' out for ya?

[RoverRick]

While I do not watch Dr. Phil, I love that line.  "And how's that workin' out for ya?"  He uses this line to call attention to some point he is about to make, but it is important to ask yourself this from time to time about your equipment, your course management, and your overall game.

 

I recently did this in regards to my hybrid and actually all my irons also.  When I was honest with myself I found that while I was hitting the hybrid with a prettier ball flight than the Mizzy Fli Hi, I was also hitting it into trouble more. So I swapped it out. 

 

I noticed that many golfers simply do not ask themselves this and pay for it in strokes. 

 

I have a friend who hits driver off the deck every time he is 200 yards from the green.  Unfortunately, this often happens not only on par 5's but also on several par 4's per round when he hits a poor drive.  His 3 wood has a bent face and is unusable but instead of replacing it he hits his driver. 

 

Today, I asked him why he did this.  He said that he hit it as well as he did his 3 wood and most of the time he hit it better than his 3 wood.  I asked him if he actually tracked this or just thought that.  He said that he probably averaged 200 yards with it off the deck.  I told him that for the past three weeks every time we were paired together and he hit driver off the deck I noted his distance and the outcome of the shot.  He was mistaken in his perception of that shots performance.  Out of the 23 times I saw him try this shot over the last week, he averaged 135 yards and 6 times had incurred a penalty stroke on top of the fact that he was still nearly 100 yards from the green.  Needless to say he was shocked when I told him this in the bar before the last 9 holes.  He said that he just has not hit it well the last couple of times.  I told him he was wrong and that I had not seen him hit a decent shot in a couple of months. He has never hit a shot that was better than I can hit a 6 iron and most of the time I can out drive him with a pitching wedge. 

 

So here is my point.  Do you look at all the things you do to see if they are costing you shots?   Do you ask yourself, "How's that workin' out for ya?"

 

 

[dru_]

 

So here is my point.  Do you look at all the things you do to see if they are costing you shots?   Do you ask yourself, "How's that workin' out for ya?"

 

In my case, yes, yes a hundred times yes, perhaps too much, yes

 

I think I go the other extremes and over analyze.  As you already know, I recently pulled my hybrid from my bag entirely and swapped it for another wood, and that is working out well, but based upon that same conversation, and more analysis, I am seriously considering removing my driver from the bag for all but 1 course I play regularly, and filling that slot with a 64degree for the short wedge shots I struggle with on partial swings.

 

Statisitically speaking, I am losing the most shots in two places.  Off the tee trying to hit driver, when that extra 25 yards of carry simply doesn't buy me enough to warrant the risk of a penalty for a bad shot ( I call this the ego penalty ), and the errant wedge trying to hit a 60 degree with a partial swing, or open face for a flop. ( these are the ones that I either blade, or push well right of the target ). In the case of the driver, I have about a 19% percent chance off the tee of taking a penalty for a ball out of play at my home course ( narrow with a lot of turning holes that place a premium on precision ).  That percentage goes down to 14% at our primary alternate course, as it is both longer and wider with a rough that is mowed a good bit shorter.   

 

As for the other 3 courses we play fairly regularly, I don't have as good a pool of historical data, particularly from this summer where my accuracy has gone WAY up, but even pre-swing coach, I see an 18% chance of taking a penalty off driver, on courses that are much more driver friendly than my home course.

 

In looking at the data, what I see is that of all of the courses I have played more than once in the last 3 years, there are 4 holes where an additional 25 yards off the tee would mathematically improve my chances at saving a stroke (leaving a second shot of 225 or less).  If that is the case, why should I ever hit that driver?  Considering that I have a

 

Now, at the other end, though I see the number 63yards as the average for my 60degree, I think it is misleading, because is the club for pretty much everything inside of 80 yards, and a lot of the inside of 15 yards don't get distances recorded, just right/left/hit/short/long/blade/duff.  What I know is that from 60-80yards, I'm about 83% of hitting the green, close enough that I can putt out at an average of 1.8 putts.  Inside of 60 yards, that drops to about 40% and my putt average balloons to 2.2, and my misses here tend to bladed or pushed right at about a 50/50 split.  I am on target for the distance less than 20% of the time, left just 2%, and right or long just under 70%.  

 

The funny part is, that if you asked me, without the numbers, I would say I hit the driver alright, most days, and that my wedge play is decent, but the numbers say otherwise.  

 

I will give you the other two numbers that really bugs me though, and this is NOT an equipment thing.  Mistakes breed mistakes.  I am 80% more likely to have  bad swing AFTER a bad swing.  And the one that really irks me, and it is related to the one before this. I don't make many bogeys. I tend to make a lot of pars mixed in with double or triples when. When I screw up, up comes in bunches.  An example from the last week: 9 holes, par, double, par, par, triple, double, par, birdie, *quad* for a +10 9 holes.  Very frustrating, ( that quad on 9th hole played, #18 was truly frustrating, crushed a 4i that bounced into the trap I was laying up in front of, a trap to trap missed swing, chip out of the trap, long 170 uphill to the front edge of the green followed by an annoying 3 putt including a 3in tap in after a lip out that rounded the cup almost 360 degrees ).

 

( on a side note, because I hate slow play, I actually use voice notes about each hole on my phone and transcribe the data later into a PostgreSQL database that I use for broad analytics on the data, yes I am a nerd! )

[BK in TEXAS]

 I see an 18% chance of taking a penalty off driver, on courses that are much more driver friendly than my home course. 

There is no way I'd hit a club that gave me a 1 in 5 chance of taking a penalty stroke with!!!!

[BK in TEXAS]

So here is my point.  Do you look at all the things you do to see if they are costing you shots?   Do you ask yourself, "How's that workin' out for ya?"

I do, yes.  I just recently pulled my 4 wood from the bag and put it in time-out 'cause it was misbehaving. I think a good number of others do too.  I'm also sure that many many many times that number do not.  Just look at the number of people pulling driver on short holes or 3 woods to approach a green from long range with trouble all around.

[RoverRick]

Dru 18% chance of a penalty stroke? That means you are almost -3 when you lock the car with the driver inside.

 

And aren't most penalties ego penalties. Yes some are the result of a bad shot but most are because we think we can the ball farther or straighter than reality.

[dru_]

Dru 18% chance of a penalty stroke? That means you are almost -3 when you lock the car with the driver inside.

 

And aren't most penalties ego penalties. Yes some are the result of a bad shot but most are because we think we can the ball farther or straighter than reality.

 

I agree, but the marketing machine, and the social aspects of the game of golf almost dictate that you carry a driver, and swing it at every opportunity.  It is hard to overcome that sometimes.  I personally still have it in the bag, but have played it on one hole in the last 4 rounds.  At this point, I'm almost sold on simply removing it until I get that swing sorted out on the range.  Even on the range, I'm probably hitting a driver that doesn't go where it is targeted at only about 90% of the time.  We are working on it, but it is a question of reps.  I don't like hitting driver for an hour on the range .  

 

But I've never claimed that the driver didn't cost me dearly on a regular basis.  The problem is that I *can* kill it, it's  just a low percentage shot that unless you look at the real data, you block out the garbage and focus on the good.  Looking at the data, I *know* I shouldn't even take it out there, but it has still taken me a month of playing without it to convince myself that I can live without it.

 

I'd bet that I am not unusually in the mid to high cap spectrum either, where getting off the tee is a score killer (though watching many of them on the course, I am fairly certain a large number of them are not taking penalty strokes for those monster hooks and slices into the woods when I look at the number of guys that are recording scores that give them 12-13 handicaps while consistently wasting time hunting balls that are deep in hazards or OB.   *shrug* that is a different subject though.