MPR: The Single Digit Project

[cnosil]

17 minutes ago, mpatrickriley said:

 

(one with two duffed chips, and the second with a slightly unlikely shot that I compounded with frustration and stupidity);

I know you have done a lot to improve the full swing aspect of your game.   With the small greens and misses, are you and how are you working on shortgame?  

[mpatrickriley]

3 minutes ago, cnosil said:

I know you have done a lot to improve the full swing aspect of your game.   With the small greens and misses, are you and how are you working on shortgame?  

Because I miss so many greens, my short game has had to be decent. It has been for a while—and remains—the strongest part of my game statistically:

Putting remains OK. My weakness on the greens is still within 5'. I almost always putt out everything (my only exception are our league matches, where putts are given).

I'm a very comfortable lag putter, but still struggle to make putts that I really should be making.

Frankly, I need to get back to using my PuttOut on short putts. But on the green during rounds, it's likely mental. I struggle mightily to get to the right amount of caring on short putts: I veer between trying to be incredibly precise, realizing that that doesn't work, then trying to be (falsely) confident.

[Jim Shaw]

58 minutes ago, mpatrickriley said:

It's funny: I was just thinking I hadn't updated this thread in a long time. I went to go find it, and noticed that @edingc had an update to his golf journey thread, and it looks like we're on similar update schedules

My breakdown won't be as impressive as his, nor as statistically detailed. I began this season with an Arccos handicap of 9.8. That number was slightly misleading, though: at the very end of the year, I got the chance to play Threetops, one of the great par 3 courses in the country. Because it's a par 3 course, though, it doesn't ask questions of the weakest part of my game, and I shot a nice 3-over 30.

My season got off to a meh-to-rough start. By mid-summer, my Arccos handicap was back up in the mid-14s.

About a month ago, though, I had a live online lesson with my coach, Jayson Nickol. It was kinda amazing: we were on a call for close to an hour, and I think I hit something like 4 shots. What he wanted me to do is change my setup; I had a decent amount of knee flex at address, so that my rear end was quite a bit behind my heels. He wanted me to get my legs a little taller and bend more at my waist, and then focus on making a deeper trail hip turn on my backswing.

Apparently, he knew what he was talking about. My ball striking immediately took a jump: since my lesson, Arccos tells me that my approach game is roughly on the level of 7 handicap. My proximity on approach shots is better than scratch at most distances, which highlights two things, one of which is something I need to work on. The first is that, as I've often noted, the greens at my course are really small: for that reason, I can have a great proximity number while still having a mediocre strokes gained number, because I'm still going to miss a ton of greens.

But under my control: I still miss way too many greens short. There are contact, clubbing, and target things I can certainly improve.

Anyway, since my lesson, I have been playing much better. Had a rough two holes in a 9-hole round last night (one with two duffed chips, and the second with a slightly unlikely shot that I compounded with frustration and stupidity); that round slightly increased my Arccos number back to 11.3.

All of which to say: I believe I absolutely should be able to get my handicap number back under 10 before the season closes. Our greens have already been punched and sanded, and winter can come suddenly and with little warning. But I'm just a couple of solid rounds away from getting back where I need to be.

great post and I love the topic. It is great to have a goal, however to go from a 14-9 is a big move in one year, possibly a more achievable goal, say 14-11 then 11-9 something like that, I see you are almost at 11 already however consistency and at least 6 months at that goal then move to the next..

[cnosil]

25 minutes ago, mpatrickriley said:

Because I miss so many greens, my short game has had to be decent. It has been for a while—and remains—the strongest part of my game statistically:

Putting remains OK. My weakness on the greens is still within 5'. I almost always putt out everything (my only exception are our league matches, where putts are given).

 

I'm a very comfortable lag putter, but still struggle to make putts that I really should be making.

Frankly, I need to get back to using my PuttOut on short putts. But on the green during rounds, it's likely mental. I struggle mightily to get to the right amount of caring on short putts: I veer between trying to be incredibly precise, realizing that that doesn't work, then trying to be (falsely) confident.

I looked at my SG numbers and they are roughly the same except for driving where I at -0.56.  I’m using shotscope but I would think they would be close.   Is distance why you are losing so many strokes there? 

[mpatrickriley]

1 hour ago, cnosil said:

I looked at my SG numbers and they are roughly the same except for driving where I at -0.56.  I’m using shotscope but I would think they would be close.   Is distance why you are losing so many strokes there? 

So it's a combo pack.

Arccos is always going to hate my distances, because (dead horse beating warning) of my course. Take (as the most extreme example) our second hole:

If the photo isn't clear, all the places that aren't fairway or rough are heavily wooded; they are lateral hazards. Every so often, you have a shot to get out of the woods, but practically speaking, they could be water. Except that they are water hazards that are dozens of feet tall. So although the green is only 150 yards from the tee on this par 4, there is no realistic shot to go for it from the tee. Instead, you have to play a 130ish yard shot into the center of the dogleg, leaving another wedge into the green.

That means that every single time I play this hole, Arccos degrades my driving SG.

This is the most extreme example, but driver on our course is only a realistic play for me on holes 1, 6, 8, 9, 16, 17, and 18. The other par 4s and 5s (holes 2, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14) do not allow me to hit driver.

For that reason, even if I were awesome at hitting driver a long way, my Arccos SG:Driving will always be very poor. (And for those screaming, "Play somewhere else!", there really aren't other options. Our course is weird and quirky, and I've made peace with that.)

So that's point one. Two more points, more quickly.

Recently, I have been driving the ball much further. As a case in point, I hit driver four times last night, and they went 258, 285, 296, and 255 yards, all in the fairway. The longer two were on downhill holes; Arccos adjusted those two down to 278 and 281, which I still won't complain about.

But I've also recently be beset by a number of tee shots, not with driver, in which I'm still not keeping the ball in play. One of the reasons: my new setup has changed my predominant shot shape to a fade, but I'm not settled in to it all the way. So I've had multiple holes when I expect one shot shape but get another, and then I'm in the woods, and then I'm dropping. So for my most recent rounds, it's actually been penalties off the tee costing me the most strokes:

[mpatrickriley]

1 hour ago, Jim Shaw said:

great post and I love the topic. It is great to have a goal, however to go from a 14-9 is a big move in one year, possibly a more achievable goal, say 14-11 then 11-9 something like that, I see you are almost at 11 already however consistency and at least 6 months at that goal then move to the next..

I appreciate the counsel, and I don't mean to be sharp: in my post, I mentioned that I was at 9.8 less than a year ago. If I hadn't ever been that low, I think it would certainly be a very audacious, likely unrealistic goal. But a round ago, I shot a 1-over 37, which would be a crazy outlier for a 14 index. My point is that the 14 was a ballooning that I can get under control and just get back to where I started the season, rather than breaking new ground to a new low handicap.

[cnosil]

14 minutes ago, mpatrickriley said:

 

But I've also recently be beset by a number of tee shots, not with driver, in which I'm still not keeping the ball in play. One of the reasons: my new setup has changed my predominant shot shape to a fade, but I'm not settled in to it all the way. So I've had multiple holes when I expect one shot shape but get another, and then I'm in the woods, and then I'm dropping. So for my most recent rounds, it's actually been penalties off the tee costing me the most strokes:

 

In my opinion that is why you aren’t a single digit.  My point wasn’t about your course or that you couldnt hit driver but that I am a 7 with roughly the same sg numbers.

[mpatrickriley]

4 minutes ago, cnosil said:

In my opinion that is why you aren’t a single digit.  My point wasn’t about your course or that you couldnt hit driver but that I am a 7 with roughly the same sg numbers.

Right now, you are absolutely correct. Up until recently, it would also have been that I couldn't hit driver on the holes that needed it. But as that has improved, if I keep the ball in play for the next couple of rounds, I will be putting up scores that get me under 10 for the end of the season.

Yesterday, I was in the garage working on a reliable 5-iron off the tee (I play a chunky, driving iron-style 5 iron). I want that to be my nearly fail-safe club to hit on tighter holes where penalties off the tee are a problem.

[edingc]

On 9/25/2024 at 12:05 PM, mpatrickriley said:

It's funny: I was just thinking I hadn't updated this thread in a long time. I went to go find it, and noticed that @edingc had an update to his golf journey thread, and it looks like we're on similar update schedules

Few and far between still better than nothing! Glad to see an update.

I think we're quite similar, my best golf this year has been when the driver as cooperated, but ultimately my scores are the best when my short game is solid and I hit lots of putts 6 feet and in. I have larger greens than you, but I have some of the same "weird" holes that demand incredible amounts of accuracy (and a lot of times a good amount of luck). Take #4, where you have next to no where to hit a tee shot that leads to a "stock" wedge into the green. Right trees are too tall to clear, left immediate trees are a ravine, go too far, too short, too left and you're blocked up by trees that over hang the fairway. C'est la vie!

It sounds like you're still making progress. A big part of my improvement this year has been limiting penalties as well, so if you can do that you are golden!

(Side note, jealous of Threetops trip.)

[mpatrickriley]

Took the opportunity to play 18 today, which is something I very, very rarely do. But as I noted above, I'm hitting the ball really well right now, and for us, we're getting some unusually pleasant weather for this time of year. I have a great chance to post some good scores to get my index back under (and hopefully indisputably under) 10 before the snow flies.

Made good progress toward that goal today: shot a 79. That drops my Arccos number again:

Altogether, it was a very good round. Overhooked a hybrid on a hole on the back and it found a ditch that runs parallel to the hole. That was my only penalty, and resulted in my only double:

Greens were punched and sanded about a week ago, and so putting—especially short putts—were an issue. This was one of my worst putting rounds in a while.

But gaining strokes on a scratch golfer in approach play?! Over 18 holes! That's what I'm talking about!

My approach numbers were as solid as I can remember:

Pardon me for second being a bit proud of these numbers. Not only hitting 10 GIR, which is really great for me, but I'm most pleased not to have a ton of missed greens short (my typical tendency). To have 3 short, 3 misses to the sides, and 2 long: that is so encouraging to me! And then the dispersion numbers: about 10 feet closer to the hole than a scratch golfer both for GIRs and on all approaches.

I continued to hit my driver fine. I have some very definite swing thoughts/keys for my iron play, but on driver, my intent is just to hit a fade. I'm going to have to reign that in a bit shortly: some of these were turning a little too much right. At least one put me directly behind a tree, leading to the bogey on the ninth hole.

A final important graphic:

There are still rounds to be played this season. Just a few more good nines, and I'll be back under 10, hopefully under 9.5 to erase that asterisk.

[mpatrickriley]

A reflection on this thread: as I just posted above, I'm hitting the ball better now than I ever had at any point prior in my golf life. When I started this thread, I did so with the premise that it was to see how good I could get using gadgets and training devices, but without access to coaching.

In the years since this thread began, access to coaching online has become much more robust. I've been working with Jayson Nickol for a couple of seasons now. But it was our most recent lesson (live, online) a month ago that set fire to my recent approach play.

I recognize that golf progress is vaporous: you can seem to have it all figured out, until suddenly you don't again. I don't want to presume that I've turned a corner for good.

But at this point, I would say: if you don't have a coach, it probably is worth exploring the online coaching space.

[Jim Shaw]

5 minutes ago, mpatrickriley said:

A reflection on this thread: as I just posted above, I'm hitting the ball better now than I ever had at any point prior in my golf life. When I started this thread, I did so with the premise that it was to see how good I could get using gadgets and training devices, but without access to coaching.

In the years since this thread began, access to coaching online has become much more robust. I've been working with Jayson Nickol for a couple of seasons now. But it was our most recent lesson (live, online) a month ago that set fire to my recent approach play.

I recognize that golf progress is vaporous: you can seem to have it all figured out, until suddenly you don't again. I don't want to presume that I've turned a corner for good.

But at this point, I would say: if you don't have a coach, it probably is worth exploring the online coaching space.

great post, happy that is working for you, I hear more and more golfers refer to online support they have received. 

I also am happy that it is more accessible to many players that would like some help or answers, good for the game I believe.

Edited September 27 by Jim Shaw