I won’t break 40 very often and my scores will straddle bogey golf (45) most of the time. But the adjustments I made will keep me from shooting consistently in the 50s.
Courtesy: Moe Norman Golf
I love golf, but I’m not a student of the game. I studied for a living as a college professor and the last thing I want to do in retirement–and for pleasure–is study golf.
It’s obvious there’s more to golf than just picking up clubs and playing. But that’s exactly what I was doing. My handicap proved it — ballooning to 18 … sometimes beyond.
Part of the reason I struggled is talent. Another is age. A third is a chronic back condition. But, still, today is a far cry from a decade ago when I routinely shot in the mid-80s to low-90s.
Fun was going out of the game. But ‘stubborn me’ wasn’t committed to doing anything to improve my game. Playing less and less I was thinking seriously about giving up my club membership.
Then things changed … unexpectedly.
In August my son, Frank, and I traveled to play my favorite course—a spectacular venue in County Cork, Ireland, called Old Head. It’s a first-rate course that’s worth every penny (make that lots and lots of Euros). I’ve played Old Head many times, always plodding along, scoring in the mid-to-high 90s.
Two things were different this day. Difference #1 was the clubs. The rented clubs (given to me without choice) were TaylorMade M2’s. I could tell—almost immediately—that M2’s were much better than the clubs I had in my bag back home. It only took about 10 minutes on the practice tee to figure out how to hit them.
Then, when I got to the tee…. My drives and long irons were generally high and true. I was hitting greens with the mid-irons. And with the able assistance of Colin, a fabulous caddie (he was difference #2 that day), I shot an 85. The round included a birdie and holing four mid-to-long range putts.
At day’s end, I took a picture of the putter head—a TaylorMade Soto–so that I wouldn’t forget the name. I also reinspected my bag, taking note of the clubs contained therein.
Courtesy: Zent
Technology makes a difference, obviously, and that difference was evident a few days later. We played another club in Ireland, this time with a grab bag of golf clubs, none of which was very good. My score hugged 100.
Upon returning to the States, I was in for a surprise. A Soto putter arrived in the mail, courtesy of Frank Jr. I then decided to replace several of my clubs with M2’s–6-iron, 4-iron, and 5-wood.
But, hey! This story would be unremarkable if it was only about technology. It’s not.
Technology helps in combination with a number of other things, including good course management. My course management was fundamentally poor … and for good reason. Here’s why.
My drives were getting shorter as my years got longer. My drives used to average 220-230 yards, but now they weren’t cracking 200 – even with a boost from Callaway’s ‘Big Bertha.’
I chalked it up to age … a fact of life. It never dawned on me to ask a parallel question.
“Gee, Frank, if your drives are shorter, aren’t your other shots shorter, too?”
Well, yes, they were. I’d swing harder to get more distance, but balls would fly left and right–often no longer than before–and frequently off-target. It was hardly a solution.
What was my problem? It was my mindset. I had always used a 7-iron from 150 yards. I had always used a pitching wedge from 100 yards. Da-tee-dah … club after club that’s how I thought. But I was always short … and it was killing my game. With regularity, I was carding around 50 for 9 holes and 100 for 18.
It finally dawned on me that I should experiment with using different clubs from different yardage points. While that seems like an obvious choice, another mindset issue was in my way. For a very long time, I believed that club selection wasn’t the problem. My address and swing were culprits.
I was wrong. I found that a 4-iron was the best club choice for me from 150 yards. And–in disbelief–I started using an 8-iron from 85 yards. A decade earlier my 8-iron flew 135-140 yards.
Courtesy: Golfcity.com
In the end, I moved up three clubs, on average, on each shot.
Today I’m rarely short. Even more amazing, I’m rarely long. And I’ve started hitting greens again … regularly.
During a 9-hole round at my home course this week I ended up putting for par on every hole – hitting 4 – and shot a 41. About a week earlier, I made 6 pars in a row and finished with a score of 38.
I won’t score like that all the time–hardly. I shot a 49 on the same track the day after shooting 38. But, overall, the difference in my game has been amazing.
There’s one more thing. I steer clear of the Black tees and avoid the White’s, too. I tee off from the Gold tees. That adjustment makes just about every par 4 and 5 reachable in regulation. Even if I don’t make a green in regulation, I’ll be putting for par more often than not.
My handicap has come down. But more importantly, I’m enjoying golf a lot more than I did just a few months ago. The three adjustments–technology, club choice, and tee selection–have gotten me back to scoring the way I did 15 years ago.
I know I won’t break 40 regularly and I’ll probably hug either side of 45 (bogey golf) most of the time. But what I want to avoid is hacking my way to a 51 or more.
Yes, everything I’ve described here could have been know–more easily and much sooner–had I consulted my pro or read a good golf book. But the bottom line is that I’m a better golfer now.
It’s all because of what I’ll call “Old Head, M-2, and the Three-Club Adjustment.”
Pete on the right (photo, H.E. Turner and Co.)
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Dedicated to my long-time golfing partner, Peter Corbelli, Sr.
Even with these adjustments, he’d still beat me.
Pete, I miss you.
Don’t play the game, but enjoyed the article very much!